History of Franklin County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 54

Author: Reifel, August J
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1648

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pained as by the intelligence of the death of Marie Louisa Chitwood at Mt. Carmel, Indiana. We grieve at her loss, for she was our dear personal friend and one of the brightest among the young women of genius in the country. She had for a long time been a writer of poetry for the Louis- ville Journal, and every reader has admired the rich and tender beauty of her productions. She was young, but in her brief career she knew something of sorrow, and her heart was softened and strengthened by its discipline. Her whole nature was deeply and intensely poetical and thus her whole world was full of poetry. The deepest griefs of her young bosom were turned to music-soft, sweet and mournful music. There was a low, sad, mysterious melody in her heart, as if that young heart had wandered down from heaven and were moaning for its home as the sea shell moans for its parent sea. She never uttered a thought that was not fitted to purify and beautify and make better each heart into which it sank, and never a thought that might not be cherished and spoken by an angel in the midst of the shining hosts of heaven. She had extraordinary genius, and up to the time of her death she cultivated it with diligence and success. She was rising rapidly to fame when her fiery heart sank down into the cold damps of the grave. We loved her as dearly as we could love one whom we had never seen, and her pure, gentle, child-like, en- thusiastic and holy love for us was like a tone of music amidst rude voices, a sweet benediction amidst the turmoil and strife of politics. But we are standing beside her coffin, as it were, and here we lay our humble offering on the cold bosom upon which her cold white hands are folded. It seems such a mysterious dispensation of Providence that the little amount of breath necessary to the life of such a glorious young girl is withdrawn. And yet, though she has gone, the world has been the better for her life. and so we rejoice that we have her beautiful poems, the expression of a beautiful life."

ELIZABETH CONWELL SMITHE WILLSON.

No county in Indiana has produced two finer women poets than Frank- lin, and in the names of Elizabeth C. S. Willson and Marie Louisa Chitwood the county is honored by two of the most musical poets the state has produced. Both were born in the county, both lived here the greater portion of their lives and both were buried in the county which gave them birth.

Elizabeth C. Smith Willson was born April 26, 1842, at Laurel, Indiana, the daughter of Henry Dayton Smith and Mary (Conwell) Smith, the daugh-

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ter of James Conwell, who laid out the town of Laurel. Her father died at the early age of twenty-eight, June 28, 1843, when the little daughter was but a babe of fourteen months. Mr. Smith possessed a sensitive tempera- ment, shrinking and reticent, and even when in a crowd was much alone because he was not in sympathetic touch with those around him. He loved the fields and woods and in them he loved to wander and commune with nature.

And Elizabeth inherited to a marked degree the poetical· temperament of her father, and, like him, was prone to wander alone through the woods. There were children about her, but they could not understand her; few that could see as she did, fewer still with whom she enjoyed a close com- panionship. When she was about thirteen years old her little baby brother died and this loss caused her such poignant grief that she never fully re- covered from it. It caused her to give forth her first poem, a bit of verse so remarkable that it was difficult for her friends to realize that she had written it. From this time she wrote frequently and her mind seemed filled with poetic images which found expression in exquisite verse. In nature she found her dearest friend and in the flowers of the field and the birds in the air she saw kindred spirits. She seemed to love nature in her every form and if a poet ever fully believed as Coleridge wrote that

"He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small,"

then Elizabeth Willson could be said to be such a one. In her school days her teacher, A. W. Beighle, gave considerable attention to composi- tion among his pupils and in this field Elizabeth took particular delight. She soon began to exhibit remarkable precocity in both prose and poetic composition. On one occasion, not long after the death of her mother, she read a paper during the Friday afternoon exercises at school which filled her teacher and friends with amazed delight. Though prose in form, yet it was so gemmed with fanciful conceits that it was really an exquisite prose poem. When she was about sixteen, Elizabeth started to Brookville College, which was then under the presidency of George A. Chase, a bril- liant and popular teacher. She remained in the college only one year and two of the girls who knew her then have vivid remembrances of this beau- tiful, poetic child of nature.

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HELD IN TREASURED RECOLLECTION.

Concerning her, Mrs. Harrell says: "I belonged to a younger group of girls and so was not in any of her classes, but her sweet attentions to the younger girls caused me to love her very tenderly and fixes her image in my mind as something precious in memory." Mrs. Bracken says she was popular among her schoolmates, not particularly a remarkable student, but what was much better, a sweet-spirited girl. She adds that her favorite study was botany.

After Professor Chase left Brookville, he took charge of a school in New Albany and Elizabeth followed him there and remained until the time of her graduation. Her surroundings there were both congenial and happy and she was loved by her teachers and schoolmates alike. George D. Prentice, the noted editor of the old Louisville Journal, recognized her poetic genius and did all in his power to foster and direct it. It was here that she met her poetic husband, Forceythe Willson, and it is interesting to note what she has to say of him.

In writing to her bosom friend, Nannie Clements, she says: "Nannie, darling, I feel greatly honored. I have an invitation to attend a reading club next week made up of the literati of the city. It is said to be very exclusive and I am to be the only visitor. There is to be a very gifted man-a poet-there, and his name is Forceythe Willson." This meeting on this particular night sealed the fate of these two poetic hearts. Love sprang up between these two gifted souls and the plans for a literary career which Elizabeth had considered were now laid aside never to be taken up again. Her ambition to be a poet was lost in her desire to beconie the wife of one, and her love inspired in him whom she honored a desire to perpetuate himself in verse. Their marriage followed shortly after their first meeting and the lonely heart of the truly gifted girl found shelter in the protecting love of a devoted husband. They were married in Septem- ber, 1863, near Nulltown, four miles south of Connersville, at the Upde- graff hoine.

After marriage they spent some time at Little Genesee, New York, the childhood home of Mr. Willson. The young wife made many friends among her husband's people at his old home, but after they located at Hornellsville, New York, where he had a younger brother in school, she seemed to have not been so contented. In writing to her friend, Nannie Clements, she said: "We have no acquaintances here and were it not for my husband's blessed love and companionship I should be quite lonely."

Later the young couple located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but the

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beautiful young wife did not live long enough to enjoy the triumph of her brilliant husband. For a few fleeting months she knew that he was being honored by such men as Holmes, Emerson, Longfellow and Lowell. But their happiness was soon to come to an end; thick shadows were gathering, and in June of 1864, little Dolfie flitted into the world, but only for a few hours, and then his little soul flew away to Paradise. At the request of the broken-hearted mother, this emblem of her husband's love was buried under a rose tree at the mother's window. There it remained only a few months, when it was laid in another coffin on the breast of the mother. She lingered until October 13, 1864, when her soul joined that of her little son. Thus ended the beautiful life of one of Franklin county's most gifted daughters; she was only twenty-two when she passed away, but she left a name which will be handed down through the long years as one to be loved and held in fond remembrance.

LAID TO REST IN GOD'S ACRE.

Crowning the hill on the northern edge of the picturesque little vil- lage of Laurel, there lies a quaint little burial ground. It is a lonely and yet a lovely spot, and although the hand of man has not beautified it, yet nature has not neglected this sacred little spot. Along the northern slope of this little burial ground, on a pretty little terrace, there lie two graves, side by side. A small white marble shaft about six feet in height, includ- ing the base, marks the resting place of this gentle couple and the little son who came but to go, and yet whose coming resulted in the untimely death of both its parents. On this shaft may be seen these inscriptions :

LITTLE DOLFIE, Died June 4, 1864.

and immediately below may be read the mother's name:

ELIZABETH CONWELL WILLSON, Born in Laurel, April 26, 1842, Died October 13, 1864.

Immediately above, an oval white marble slab marks the other grave, and bears this inscription :

BYRON FORCEYTHE WILLSON, Born in Little Genesee, N. Y., April 10, 1837. Died in Alfred N. Y., Feb. 2, 1867.

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It seems fitting to say something of the career of Forceythe Willson after the death of his beloved wife. The stricken and sorrowing husband whispered words of love and comfort to his dying wife, while choking with the suppressed sighs of a breaking heart. The grief of the husband was poignant in the extreme and made him inconsolable. His pen fell from, his hand and he never wrote a line of verse after the death of his beloved Elizabeth; his song was forever hushed. Speaking to his wife's dearest friend, Nannie Clements, his eyes dripping with tears and his voice stiffled with sobs, he paused and said, "God wanted her and I wanted Him to have her."

IDA HUSTED HARPER.

Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, gifted author, journalist and lecturer, was born in Fairfield, Franklin county. When ten years of age she moved with her parents, John A. and Cassandra (Stoddard) Husted, to Muncie, and there was graduated from the high school. After graduation, she entered the University of Indiana, but married before completing her university course. Her married life was spent in Terre Haute, and it was here her love for writing asserted itself. After her daughter was graduated from the Girls' Classical School of Indianapolis both entered Leland Stanford Uni- versity, the daughter to study for her degree and Mrs. Harper to complete the course begun at the University of Indiana. Since the marriage of her daughter, Mrs. Harper has devoted herself to her literary work and has spent most of her time in the East and in travel.

For some years during her residence in Terre Haute Mrs. Harper was a regular contributor to the papers of that city and of Indianapolis. She be- came managing editor of the Terre Haute Daily News, and later joined the editorial staff of the Indianapolis News, in which capacity she did a great deal of political writing. For a number of years she was a department editor of the New York Sunday Sun, Harper's Basar, and the Locomotive Fire- men's Magasine, a leading labor organ under the editorship of Eugene V. Debs.

Her best-known books are the "Biography of Susan B. Anthony," the first two volumes of which were prepared in Miss Anthony's home at Rochester and the third after Miss Anthony's death; the fourth volume of the "History of Woman Suffrage," (the first three volumes of this history were prepared by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton about

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twenty years before) which brings the subject to the close of the nineteenth century and which was also prepared in Miss Anthony's home.

During the past sixteen years Mrs. Harper has been delegate and speaker at the European meetings of the International Council of Women and the International Suffrage Alliance, attending their congresses in London, Ber- lin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, The Hague, Paris, Geneva, Budapest, Rome and other places. She has also given many courses of lectures in eastern cities and at Chautauqua, and has often addressed committees of Congress and on several occasions the President of the United States.

Mrs. Harper is now preparing a book on "The Right of Suffrage Under the National Constitution": is a contributor to the Review of Reviews, the North American Review, Collier's, New York Independent, Harper's Weekly, and other leading magazines in this country and in Europe; and has her own syndicate of newspapers, which has included such papers as the New York Tribune, Sun and Evening Post, the Boston Herald and Transcript, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, the Washington Post, Star and Herald, the Chi- cago Daily News, the Indianapolis News, etc.

Mrs. Harper's daughter, Mrs. Winnifred Harper Cooley, for several years an editor of the National Pure Food Magasine, is also a well-known writer and speaker.

Among other women, who have courted the muses, may be mentioned Myra Goodwin Plantz, Martha H. Hussey, Emma Quick, Martha Howland Moody, Elnora Stearns Venter, Martha Test, Anna Farquhar and Jessie M. Johnson. Mrs. S. S. Harrell, who is still residing in Brookville, has been a frequent contributor to magazines and newspapers for more than a quarter of a century and her published articles would fill a large volume. She was chairman of the Indiana educational commission of the Columbian Exposi- tion and was responsible for the fine collection of Indiana literature which was a feature of the Indiana building.

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BIOGRAPHICAL

WILLIAM HOLSWORTH BRACKEN.

Indiana has been honored by the distinguished service of many of her pioneer citizens. History points with pride to the scions of those old families who established their homes on Hoosier soil in an early day. The Bracken family is one of the oldest in Indiana, Thomas Bracken, the founder of the family in this state, having come to Indiana about the time of its admission to the union and entered land in Rush county about four miles east of Rush- ville, the land being known to this day as the Bracken farm. The grandson of Thomas Bracken, William Holsworth Bracken, came to Brookville in 1860, and for over half a century until his death, in 1912, Franklin county was his home. During that long period he had the confidence and esteem of the people in a marked degree, having had an extensive acquaintance throughout Franklin and adjoining counties. He filled many positions in an entirely satisfactory manner, to all of which he gave his best efforts. No history of Franklin county would be complete without a record of the achievements of the Bracken family, and especially those of William Holsworth Bracken, the subject of this sketch.

William Holsworth Bracken, the son of Dr. William and Patience Ann (Berry) Bracken, was born September 9, 1838, in Jackson county, Indiana. Dr. William Bracken was a native of Dearborn county, Indiana, born May 26, 1817, and his wife was born January 1, 1820, in Mason county, Kentucky. Thomas Bracken, the father of Dr. William Bracken, was a native of Penn- sylvania. His wife was Matilda Cohen, also a native of Pennsylvania. Thomas Bracken and wife lived and died on the old homestead in Rush county.

William Holsworth Bracken's maternal grandfather was Holsworth Berry and his wife was a Stevenson, a cousin of Job Stevenson, ex-congress- man from the Cincinnati, Ohio, district.

The early education of William H. Bracken was acquired in the old- fashioned subscription schools. In his fourteenth year he entered Asbury, now DePauw University, where he continued for only a few months on ac-

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count of his delicate health. Some time afterward he accepted a position in a woolen mill at Big Flat Rock, his father being a partner in this concern. Subsequently, he worked in a store partly owned by his father at Milroy, the firm name being Smith & Bracken. When Mr. Smith withdrew from the business in 1855 it was carried on under the firm name of Bracken & Son until the fall of 1859.

In June, 1860, William H. Bracken went west and after looking the country over comprehensively returned, and on September 27 came to Brook- ville and took up the study of law, with Wilson Morrow as his preceptor. Admitted to the bar the following year he soon afterwards was appointed assistant prosecuting attorney, which office he filled until June, 1862. At the same time acting in the capacity of town clerk, to which position he was elected.

In June, 1862, Mr. Bracken turned over his private and official duties to others in order to enlist in the Union army. He assisted in raising Com- pany B, Fourth Indiana Cavalry, and upon its organization was made first lieutenant. During most of his three years' service in the army, he was on detached duty, performing arduous services in several important depart- ments. At Henderson, Kentucky, he was made post quartermaster and commissary and served as such from August, 1862, until the following April, when, his regiment being ordered to join the Army of the Cumberland, he was ordered to report to General Mitchell at Nashville, where he was assigned to the commissary department. Later, ordered to Murfreesboro, General Rosencrans placed him in charge of the "Courier Line," made up of some twenty-five men engaged in the transmission of dispatches from one branch of the army to the other through a very dangerous section of the country. During the advance from Murfreesboro to Chattanooga, Lieutenant Bracken was ordered to report to the department headquarters and held the very important post of the chief of secret service department in that locality, submitting all dispatches received to General Garfield, chief officer of the staff of General Rosencrans. Soon after the battle of Missionary Ridge he was ordered to assume command of a train running on the railway from Nashville to Chattanooga, his position being that of military conductor. At the end of a few months he was assigned to the office of provost marshal at Nashville and was then by order of General Sherman made assistant provost marshal under General John F. Miller, remaining in the same branch of the military service until he was mustered out in June, 1865, at Edgefield, Tennessee. From the beginning to the close of his service he was faithful, ever at his post of duty, ready to undertake any necessary work however

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perilous and his superior officers placed all confidence in his fidelity, sagacity and promptness in the performance of the arduous tasks assigned to him.

Mr. Bracken returned from the front January 15, 1863, and was married at Low Point, Illinois, to Phoebe A. Kerrick, whose father had lived for a short time in Muskingum county, Ohio, before finally locating in Indiana. To this union were born four daughters and three sons, all of whom are now living except one daughter, Mary, who died when three years of age. When Mr. Bracken died November 22, 1912, at the age of seventy-four years, two months and thirteen days, he was survived by a widow and six children, three sons and three daughters, William K., the eldest, of Bloom- ington, Illinois; Josephine M., the wife of William L. McMillen, of Fort Wayne, Indiana; Martha E. Kimble, of Fort Wayne, Indiana; Thomas E., of Toronto, Canada ; Sarah B., wife of Herbert S. Voorhees, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Leonidas L., of Muncie, Indiana. Mr. Bracken also was sur- vived by five granchildren, Miriam G. Kimble, Dwight F. Bracken, Clara B. McMillen, Mary Louise Voorhees and Alexander M. Bracken, and by one brother and sister, Dr. James B. Bracken and Martha E. Rucker, both of Greensburg, Indiana.

Immediately after the termination of the Civil War, Mr. Bracken en- gaged in law practice at Nashville, Tennesee, but finding sectional prejudice too strong at that time he returned to the north, and in 1866 resumed his long interrupted practice at Brookville. In February, 1880, he entered upon the duties of clerk of the Franklin circuit court, to which position he had been elected, and here he continued to serve the public for two terms or eight years. After an interval in which he was engaged in the regular law practice he was appointed by President Cleveland collector of internal revenue for the sixth collection district of Indiana, filling that office from November I, 1893, to October 31, 1897.

For more than twelve years Mr. Bracken was chairman of the Demo- cratic county central committee. In 1892 he was a presidential elector at large for the state of Indiana. In 1902 he was a nominee of his party as one of the judges of the appellate court of the state. From the time of the expira- tion of his term as collector of internal revenue and until the last two years of his life he was actively engaged in the practice of his profession at Brook- ville as a member of the firm of Bracken & Kidney. Prior to his appoint- ment as collector he had been associated in the practice of law for many years with the late Hon. Samuel S. Harrell.

Mr. Bracken was well and favorably known not only in Franklin county, but in all parts of the state, and it is safe to say that few of Indiana's native-

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born sons were more respected or more earnestly concerned in her pros- perity. He was a man of pleasing appearance, uniformly genial and cour- teous in manner. Always a student, his knowledge of the world's best litera- ture was wide and comprehensive. As an attorney-at-law his ability and learning were recognized by every one and for many years he enjoyed a large practice in Franklin county and adjoining judicial circuits. Some three years before his death Mr. Bracken's health began to fail and in time the ailments which proved to be fatal developed to an extent which gave the family and numerous friends occasion for alarm.

Mr. Bracken was prominent in fraternal circles. He was a past master of Harmony Lodge No. 1I, Free and Accepted Masons; was past high priest of Brookville Chapter No. 16, Royal Arch Masons; was a charter . member and the first past chancellor of Brookville Lodge No. 76, Knights of Pythias, organized in 1877, and was past commander of Hackleman Post No. 64, Grand Army of the Republic.

About ten days prior to Mr. Bracken's death he suffered a severe attack of heart trouble, from which ailment he had experienced severe distress at times for a period of three years. The last attack was more severe than any which had preceded it, and while it was realized that his condition was serious, it was not deemed to be critical until within a short time prior to his death. The passing of Mr. Bracken came as a distinct surprise and shock to the community with which his life for more than fifty years had been so closely identified, and was the occasion for sincere mourning on the part of his hosts of faithful friends.

JACOB FRITZ.

Many hundreds of the best citizens of Franklin county, Indiana, were born in Germany, or are descendants of German parents. It is noticeable almost without exception that the citizens of the county who are of German extraction are successful in whatever undertaking to which they have ad- dressed themselves. Much of the material prosperity of the county is due to the thrift and good management of the German-American citizens who have engaged in agricultural pursuits. One of the substantial and progres- sive farmers of Brookville township is Jacob Fritz, who has lived in this county since 1866.

Jacob Fritz, the son of Jacob and Katy (Wagner) Fritz, was born

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November 18, 1846, in Germany. His parents were both natives of Ger- many and came to America with their children in 1866. The family at once located in Franklin county, Indiana, on a farm and Jacob Fritz, Sr., engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred in 1906, he then having reached the green old age of eighty-seven, while his wife passed away in 1912, at the age of eighty-five. Jacob Fritz, Sr., and wife were the parents of three children, Jacob, Jr., John and Philip.

Jacob Fritz, Jr., received all of his education in the schools of his na- tive land, and was twenty years of age when his parents located in Frank- lin county, Indiana. His father bought a farm in Highland township, and on this he lived until his marriage, after which he bought the old homestead farm of eighty acres and lived on it until 1907, when he sold it and bought eighty acres in Brookville township, where he is now residing. He divides his attention between general farming and stock raising with the result that he has been able to make a very comfortable living for himself and family.

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History of Franklin County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 54

Author: Reifel, August J Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1648

Author: Reifel, August J
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1648