USA > Indiana > Jay County > Historical hand-atlas, illustrated : containing twelve farm maps, and History of Jay County, Indiana > Part 64
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Few persons have lived a more active or more varied life, or had their efforts crowned with more generous success.
In 1848 he was actively interested in aiding the establishment of a school near Portland, Jay county, Indiana, for the higher education of all classes of persons irrespective of race, and known as "Liher College," to which be gave his earnest support as an officer of the institution, in means and counsel, and it was instrumental in effecting much good, and reflected credit on the county.
In 1851, in co-operation with others, be spent the property he then had in an unsuccessful endeavor to have constructed a railroad through the county of bis residence, and at a later date, by his greater experience and larger acquaintance, he has been able materially to aid in securing the location and construction of two important lines of railroad through Jay county, and in the completion of which he gave liberally, both in means and in time.
He lias also aided in originating and making much needed improvements in the public highways of travel leading into Portland, giving freely of material assistance and active co-operation, and he has caused a survey of Salamoni river to be made, with the view to sinking the channel of that stream at Portland.
He is a member of the Masonic order, to which he is much attached, and before which he has delivered addresses showing familiar acquaintance with his subject, and much research.
He has spent much time among the various tribes of Indians in the United States, including, in official visits, all those from New Mexico and Texas to British Columbia, bothi civilized and uncivilized, and embracing also all the savage tribes within the United States Government. His successful efforts in securing to them their bomes, moneys and supplies, and in protecting them from the depredations of designing men, have secured for the General the unreserved confidence of the Indians. A natural hatred of oppression and a warm sympathy for the wronged, have awakened in him a lively interest in the welfare of the Indian people, and as chairman of the committee of Indian affans during the Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses, and as inember of that committee in the Fortieth and Forty-third Congresses -his contest for liis seat having lost him the chairmanship of the committee in the Forty-third Congress -as special commissioner, and heing on the committee of the House, charged with the duty of investigating Indian frauds, he bas had peculiar facilities for thorough personal information touching Indian matters. Having traveled among, and mingled freely with them at their camps, on the plains, and in their mountain fastnesses, he has seen and learned every phase of Indian life, familiarized himself with their wants, necessities, wrongs, sufferings and sorrows, and he has given his whole energy and ability to better their condition, and so far as possible to save them from robbery, depredation, and annihilation.
The abolition of the treaty systeni, tbe enactment of laws to protect them against swindling private contracts with dishonest attorneys ; statutes for the hetter administration of their affairs ; the very full and comprehensive report of the committee on Indian frands ; additional safeguards thrown around the purchases and distribution of their annuity goods; the appointment of inspectors, the more prompt aud safe payment to them of moneys due from the Government for lands sold ; inducing some of the more savage tribes to
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engage in agriculture. All these agencies, tending to the protection and amelioration of the condition of a poor, down-trodden and much wronged peopie, are largely due to the active efforts of General Shanks ; and the prac- tical good effected by him in bringing to light, exposing and correcting the various devices for defrauding and otherwise despoiling the Indians, display, in clear light, his well directed lahors iu their behalf, and prove that his solic- itude for their welfare has been productive of much good.
In nearly all his journeyiugs among the Indians, he had with him either his wife or one of his sons; never asked for or needed a military guard, often had no other company than his family or his associate officers, and he never feared or suffered any violence or depredation, hut, on the contrary, the Indians themselves were his hest protectors. In his anxiety to improve the condition of these wild people, he taught them and assisted them in applying his instruction in agricultural methods, and remained with themu while they cultivated hundreds of acres of corn.
While in Congress, on the 13th of April, 1872, he made a speech in defence of the rights of the Indians of the Indian Territory, against the attempt made, as he charged, to seize their lands, under what he believed a false pretense of establishing, for the welfare of the Indians, a territorial government for the Indian Territory; and in his speech he demanded equal justice for those people, and a compliance with the nation's contract with them, and he pre- sented record proofs of their title hy purchase and patent from the United States, of their lands. This speech, in the facts presented, and in its exposure of devices to defrsud the Indians under a special plea of hefriending them, is recognized as an authoritative and truthful showing on that questiou. In the course of his remarks he showed that there had heen three hundred and forty- three different treaties made with the Indians, and that every one of them had heen broken by the Government, and that, at the time of the first settlement in Virginia, in 1607, and of Massachusetts, iu 1620, there were, within the present limits of the United States, two millions and a half of Indians; that at the time of his speaking, from his own personal investigation, the total num- her of Indians did not exceed two hundred and fifty thousand-a total decrease, embracing all those born and two and a quarter millions of the original num- her at the time named, a decrease equal to all the hirths and nine thousand a year for two hundred and fifty years; that the Indians owned and had pos- session of all the lands within the limits of the United States, and now are confined to a few reservations, and even of these soulless corporations and unscrupulous speculators sought to deprive them, and that if the past ratio of decrease in their numhers continues, the ahoriginal owners of the soil iu the United States would soou he extinct. In all this time little real effort has heen made for their improvement; they dress generally much as primitively; their hahits are hut little changed; and only within recent times has their condition heen ameliorated. The more humane peace policy inaugurated hy President Grant has had the approval and ahle support of General Shanks, as well as of many other enlightened philanthropists, and the General has lahored manfully to secure a permanent home and asylum in the Indian Territory, to the rem- nants of this persecuted, defrauded, and unfortunate race. He has rendered efficient service in removing raiders from their Territory, hoth in persou and hy legal enactments, having for their ohject the more efficient protection of their treaty rights.
The General was married Octoher 31, 1852, to his second and present wife, whose maiden name was Huldah Hearn, daughter of John Hearn, a farmer residing near Portland. She is the mother of five sons, three of whom died in infancy. Mrs. Shanks is remarkable for soundness of judgment and firmness of purpose; her home is the home of all who call there. She has spent much time in Washington with her hushand during his Congressional career, and traveled extensively with him among Indian trihes in the States and Ter- ritories, and also among the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains, and whether at the tahle of the President of the United States, or in the tent of the wild Indian, she is the same cheerful, calm, resolute, kind and dignified woman.
She has long heen an earnest advocate of the cause of total abstinence from all alcoholic preparations of whatever kind as a heverage, and she takes a leading part iu all measures tending to its success, hoth in her own neighhor- hood and elsewhere.
She also favors the enfranchisement of her sex, not only as a matter of right and of justice, but as a much needed agency for advancing more effectively the abstinence reform, as well as for redressing woman's suhjection in other respects. She holds that true companionship hetween man and woman necessitates the possession and the exercise hy both of equal rights, privileges and franchises, helieving, as she does, that in nothing else is the civilization of any people apparent as in the closer and ever closer approxima- tion of woman's conceded rights with man's.
Her devotion to her children has led her to hrave dangers and hear up under trials at which rugged men hesitated.
In 1874, their eldest living son, John C. M. Shanks, then in his seventeenth year, entered the service under Dr. Hayden, in charge of the United States geological and geographical explorations and surveyings, then going on duty in the Rocky and Elk mountains in western and south-western Colorado. Young Shanks went in the capacity of assistant topographer. The General, his wife and younger son, July 14, 1874, at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, parted company with this elder son, who, with Dr. Hayden's party, proceeded to their field of operations, and the General with his remaining family, as stated, after having visited Indian trihes in California, Nevada, Utah and Idaho, returned to Denver, Colorado, reaching that place August 13, 1874, at which time Dr. Hayden with his men were supposed to he at Granite, a small mining town on the upper Arkansas river, nearly two hundred miles south- west of Denver. Mrs. Shanks, while at Denver, hecame so impressed that her
sou was sick in the mountains, that she insisted on going to see him, hut her husband attributed her fears to her solicitude for her son, and they returned to their home in Indiaua, where they had been but a week when a dispatch from Dr. Hayden, sent hy way of Denver from a point three hundred miles west from that place, informed them of the serious illness of their son in camp, ninety miles from any dwelling, the nearest one heing at Twin Lakes east of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, the camp of the invalid heing on the hank of Capital creek, west of the main and Elk ranges and on the headwaters of the Colorado, far from any road or open track hy which to reach him, and heyond the most rugged, hrokeu and wild part of these won- derful mountain gorges, which concentrated into the celebruted canon of the Colorado, the deepest and grandest in the world, and which has heen so graphically descrihed hy those intrepid explorers, Dr. Hayden and Major Powell. The General, accompanied by his wife, hastened to the rescue of their son, and having reached Denver by rail, proceeded hy stage hy way of Fairplay and Granite to Twin Lakes, at the eastern base of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, heiug, as already stated, the last dwelling for several hundred miles, and at this point they met Major Stevenson of Dr. Hayden's party, who had returned from the camp of the sick to meet aud conduct the General, the Major not supposing for a moment that Mrs. Shanks would undertake such a trip, and he expressed amazement at the hare suggestion of such attempt on her part: Dr. Hayden and his party, except four men left as a detail for the sick, had goue forward with their work. Major Stevenson, Mrs. and General Shanks left Twin Lakes on horsehack, passing up Lake Creek to its source, and then crossed the main range, climhing over hold, steep rocks, Mrs. Shanks' pony sometimes going upon its knees to avoid falling hackward down the immense cliffs. Mrs. Shanks was often under the neces- sity of putting her arms around her pony's neck to save her from falling off hackward. The first night out from Twin Lakes they camped between the main range and Elk mountain on Taylor river, a branch of the Colorado, where they overtook Mr. Hovey, one of the detail, on his returu with supplies for his associates in attendance on the sick, aud here they also met some Ute Indian trappers who expressed much surprise at seeing a woman in that locality, as they never thought of taking with them their own women in these harely passahle mountains, and hy signs they enquired how the woman was brought there, and looked with utter astonishment when iuformed tha; she came as her male companions did, over the main range, the top of which was entirely hidden in the clouds. At this place they left a letter in the notch of a tree, informing Dr. Hayden, if perchance he should pass that way, that Mrs. Shanks and her party were on their way to her sick son, and when, on his return, the Doctor found and read the message, he refused to believe the information uutil he was assured of its truthfulness on his arrival at Twin Lakes. They were without shelter the first night out, exposed to a cold rain, accompanied with snow and a severe wind, but Mrs. Shauks assured her companions that she felt perfectly well, though in fact she suffered greatly. During the second day they crossed the Elk mountain at an altitude of four- teen thousand and twenty-five feet, the wind hlowing a perfect gale, and the snow falling in flakes, the elevation covered with hleak rocks and far ahove the timher line. The descent was tortuous, dangerous, heset with forests of fir trees that in many places were almost impassahle hy reason of fallen timher, and after a trying and hazardous ride, the party camped on Castle Creek, near its confluence with the Roaring Fork, a hranch of the Gunnison, a considerahle stream, so rapid and rough that the noise of its waters can he heard echoing through the gorges a long distance. On the third day's journey the passage along this stream was difficult and perilous, leading, as it did, on narrow cliffs and over the hoiling stream helow, and they reached the camp at 4 P. M. of this day, and found their son, for the first time in nineteen days, rational, hut so weak and emaciated that, after harely recognizing his mother, he again relapsed into a state of insensibility, and so remained for several days. His grave had heen dug, he prepared for interment, and even the appropriate passage of Scripture selected for the hurial services. The men in whose care he had heen placed, and the assiduous attentions of a skilled physician, had done for the hoy all that a hrotherly kindness could suggest, hut in a few minutes after his mother arrived, she had him resting on a softer hed of dried grass, and in the goodness of their hearts his attendants remarked, "We thought we were doing the hest we could for him, hut we see we might have done more and better," to which remark Mrs. Shanks replied, in expression of her gratitude, "Before my God I thank you for what you have done, and I only wonder that men could in this place do so well for him, hut you must not wonder that a mother thinks of all things." Dr. Hayden named the mountain, at the foot of which Charley's grave had heen prepared, " Mount Shanks," as a testimonial of the regard in which the hoy was held, and of his misfortunes there. For six days Mrs. Shanks watched at the hedside of her son with care and attention known only to mothers, hut the rapidly falling snows warned them of approaching danger, for if the snow should drift into the gorges, and thus ohliterate all traces of a safe passage, they would be cut off from the nearest dwelling eastward, ninety miles, at Twin Lakes. Westward the distance to the nearest dwelling was perhaps not less than five hundred miles, and that, too, over as rough and dangerous a route as eastward, and hesides, it would he among the wild Apaches and with only four day's short supplies on hand, their only gun hroken and useless, the physician nearly out of provisions, the sick hoy utterly helpless and alnost lifeless, the snow falling in blinding flakes on the mountains, every avenue of a safe escape seemed closed, hut under all these trials and difficulties, Mrs. Shanks was firm, hrave and hopeful, cheering the men to duty, and it was determined to move. The men constructed a travia of two long poles of fir, with cross-pieces lashed to them hy rawhides, and across those were woven
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lariats or ropes used to tie borses, and underneath them was fastened a deer skin to protect the sick one's person from rocks and brush, and over the lariats was placed a folded blanket, and on the latter was placed the almost lifeless form of the sick boy lashed to the travia, and around him were adjusted stones heated in a log fire. Over him were spread heavy hlankets, and fastened to the pole, to prevent his falling down the cliffs in the passage around and over them, were small hent saplings like wagon cover bows, covered with gummuy sacks as curtains. Between the front ends of the poles a saddled mule was placed and the ends of the poles were tightly secured in the stirrup straps. Around the mule's breast was throwu au old sack with a stone in each end, around which were tied thongs of rawhide, firmly secured to the poles to enable the mule to draw the improvised travia, the rear ends of the poles being carried by the men in relays, two men always carrying iu crossing the rapid mountain streams, which were numerous. One man led the inule the entire distance, while the others cleared the way and held up the rear end of the carriage, while Mrs. Sbanks cared for the mules and borses belonging to the party, as all the men were constantly engaged on foot in securing the safe passage of the sick one, and thus the party proceeded in a nine day's race for life, in the progress of which they had to contend with sage hrush, rocks, gulches, fallen timher, along steep cliffs and rugged hill-sides, across rapid mountain streams, through driving snow storms and drenching rains, for over ninety miles, wading through snow over fourteen thousand feet above sca level, and sometimes more than three thousand feet ahove timber or living shrub, where the hleak and driving winds swept the ice- covered rocks, and with her sick son still delirious and showing signs of life only in his suffering, Mrs. Shanks never wearied or in the least relaxed her efforts to save bin, though she sometimes almost despaired of his life.
On the first night out, on the return trip, after wading tbe Maroon, they camped ou the bank of Roaring river, when their mules stampeded, causing them a delay of all the next day, and on the morning of the fourth day, Dr. Dobins and Major Stevenson left the party to procure medicine and food at Granite, ahout seventy miles distant. Of the three men left, Mr. Seamau led the mule in the travia, as he did during the whole journey, and Hovey aud General Shauks, without relief, had to assist it down or up among the rocks and among steep crags and high banks overhanging the waters of Roaring river and its tributaries, and on the sides of canons leading to the streamns. On the fifthi night out they camped on Torrent creek, and on the succeeding evening at the foot of the Elk divide, and on the following night they reached the timber line and camped in the snow on the steep side of the Elk mountain, where the tracks of the grizzly bear were plentiful. Heated stones were placed near the sick boy, and changed every thirty minutes during the night, as usual. The following morning Mrs. Shanks informed the inen that they must eat their last meal, as suppbes were exhausted, except what was by common consent reserved for the patient. During the trip, on many occasions, if Mrs. Shanks' horse had slipped or made a misstep, she would have fallen from a hundred to a thousand feet. At one time the pack mule fell and rolled down the mountain side a long distance, causing delay and much labor to set bim to rights. From their last camping place they began the ascent of that desolate snow-capped mountain over fourteen thousand feet above sea level, making their way patiently over rocks three thousand feet above timber line. They seemed in another world, in which their louely party were tbe only occupants. Weary, without food, with several days' travel, including the ınain range, before them, with snows threatening to block their way, tbe season of snow storms baving set in, with no road to guide them forward or to admit of others reaching them, their condition seemed anything but inviting, and to aggravate the situation, the sick seemed growing worse from severe exposure and change of climate and mode of travel, in doubt whether those sent for- ward could repass the mountain with needed supplies, Mrs. Shanks, though far from heing in vigorous health, and in fact nearly an invalid herself, and buoyed up only by the excitement of awakened solicitude for her sick son, never lost her courage and hopefulness, speaking words of assurance to all.
The descent of the Elk range was as difficult and dangerous as the ascent had been. Mrs. Shanks' pony fell, throwing her among rocks, the fall hruising her severely, and breaking one of the bottles of venison tea which she carried for her son. Her precaution, however, bad led her to provide two, in anticipa- tion of some such accident. While making the descent, they were in a fair way to be missed by the Major and Doctor, who were returning with supplies and were crossing the Elk divide further south, when, as if instinctively, the mules of the separated parties set up the wildest hraying, seemingly in recog nition of their proximity to each other, and these usually inharmonious, hut now musical, souuds served to bring the two companies together. As in the out trip, they again encamped on Taylor river with plenty to eat, but the Ute trappers had left. In completing the remainder of their journey to Twin Lakes an additional mule was attached in front of the first one, and the travia was drawn along in tandem, and in nine days from Capital creek, making eigbteen days out, the parties reached Twin Lakes and ascertained that the miners were prepared with snow shoes and were watching the mountain pass on the main range, intending, if it whitened with snow, to proceed at once to rescue, if possible, Ceneral Shanks and all his party. Mrs. Major Stevenson, witb a guide, had made her way with supplies to the foot of the main range and met the party there.
What a human being could suffer more than the hoy did, and live, would be difficult to imagine. His parents did not reach their home with bim for more tban three months from the time they set out for his rescue, but bis final recovery rewarded the successful efforts in his behalf by a devoted mother.
This same son, J. C. M. Shanks, wben only eight years of age, was with his
father in the march of the latter, east of Memphis, Tennessee, and after cross- ing Wolf river. the advance engaged some of Forest's forces, and a sharp skirmish ensued. The boy was riding with the General at the bead of the column at the time, but hearing the firing in the front, he dashed off at full speed, refusing to halt, saying he was not in his father's command. He rode into the midst of the firing, cheering and dashing about regardless of danger, There were some of the enemy captured, and the boy was allowed the honor of reporting tbe prisoners to the Ceneral, much to the amusement of tbe Jobnny Rebs, who took quite a fancy to the youthful warrior, and the latter reciprocated the kindly feeling.
He is uow, January, 1881, of sound constitution, and prosecuting a lucrative business for himself, having married an estimable lady, Miss Jessie Crowell,' of Portland.
After retiring from the army, in which the General contributed effective and honoralle service in sustaining the Union cause, be was elected successively to the Fortieth Congress in 1866 ; to the Forty-first in 1868; to the Forty-second in 1870, and to the Forty-third Congress in 1872. closing bis services in that body Marcb 4, 1875, ten years in all, and during the time he occupied a seat in that body, in many respects the most memorable period in the history of the country, he took an active, and. on many subjects, a prominent and leading part, as evidenced in the printed proceedings of the national legislature, and his labors in that hody constitute a record alike honorable to his constituents, creditable to himself, and, in work done, highly serviceable to his country,
Among the many able and patriotic persons whom Indiana has honored with a seat in the national councils, whether in the House or in the Senate, without intending any disparagement to others, tbe record will sustain the assertion, tbat in amount and kind of valuable work performed, in industry, in devotion to business, and iu originating and completing measures of endur- ing and practical utility, no member from the State can exhibit a better showing,
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