USA > Indiana > Knox County > History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present; with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. ; together with an extended history of the colonial days of Vincennes, and its progress down to the formation of the state government > Part 29
USA > Indiana > Daviess County > History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present; with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. ; together with an extended history of the colonial days of Vincennes, and its progress down to the formation of the state government > Part 29
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present time. He is a member of the K. of H. and Royal Arca- num fraternities, and is recognized as a prominent business man of this city.
THOMAS EASTHAM, partner of Stephen S. Burnet, was born in Nelson County, Ky., February 25, 1835, and is a son of Isaac N. and Eliza (Sweets) Eastham, natives of Kentucky. The Eastham family came to Vincennes in 1851, and for a number of years the father was United States mail carrier from Louisville to St. Louis by stage coach, having in use 300 horses on the route, and later carried the mails from Cairo to New Orleans by steam- boat. He died in Vincennes in 1873. Thomas was raised in Ken- tucky. At the age of eighteen years he began carrying the mails by stage from Vincennes to Orleans, Ind., and Shawneetown, Ill., and then kept a livery stable in this city for about ten years. In 1869 he became a partner with Mr. Burnet in the present business. In 1860 he married Lydia J. Burnet, a native of Cleveland, Ohio. They have had five children, four now living: Stephen S., Kate B., Alice T. and Jesse L. Mr. Eastham is a Democrat in politics and a member of the K. of H. and Royal Arcanum. The build- ing in which these gentlemen have their factory was erected about 1860 by Curry, Ackerly & Co. for a furniture manufactory, and was used as such until 1869, Mr. Burnet becoming a partner of Curry & Gardner, who succeeded Mr. Ackerly in his business ยท in 1868. In 1869 Mr. Gardner withdrew from the firm, and Thomas Eastham purchased a one-half interest in the business. They conducted a planing-mill and carried a general line of lum- ber and building material; but in April, 1882, they began the ex- clusive manufacture of tobacco boxes, taking Henry Eberwine as partner the same year. October 1, 1885, he withdrew from the firm, and since that time the other two gentlemen have carried on the business very successfully alone. They manufacture about 1,000 boxes per day and send them to St. Louis, Mo., where they have a ready sale. They employ about fifteen hands.
EDWARD P. BUSSE, M. D., was born in Vincennes, Ind., June 6, 1862, son of William and Sophia (Hella) Busse, and is of German lineage. His parents were born in Germany in 1829 and 1827 respectively. The father came to America when about sixteen years old, and he and the mother died in Vincennes. Ed-
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ward P. obtained his education in the public schools and the high school of Vincennes. He began the study of medicine in 1880, and that same year entered the Bellevue Hospital, New York, and remained there three years, graduating in September, 1883. He then located permanently in Vincennes, and has continued to make this his home ever since. He has practiced his profession very successfully and is also engaged in the drug business. He is one of the prominent young physicians of this city and is suc- ceeding well in his profession. He is a member of the German Evangelical Church.
HON. HENRY S. CAUTHORN was born in Vincennes, Feb- ruary 23, 1828. He is the son of Gabriel T. and Susan Sullivan (Stout) Cauthorn. His father was a native of Essex County, Va., and was educated at the university of that State, graduating from the literary and medical departments. He came West in 1823, lo- cating at Lawrenceville, Ill., where he practiced medicine until his death in 1834. The mother of Mr. Cauthorn was a daugh- ter of Elihu Stout, who founded the Vincennes Western Sun newspaper in 1804, and continued its publication until 1845. After the death of his father Mr. Cauthorn, with his mother, re- sided with Mr. Stout, and soon after entered the printing office of his grandfather, where he acquired the art of a practical printer. In 1840 he entered St. Gabriel College at Vincennes, and remained a student in that school until 1845, when he matriculated at As- bury University, Greencastle, Ind., which graduated him in 1848. While a student at this institution he was distinguished as an es- sayist and orator, obtaining prizes in competition with many fel- low-students who have since arisen to great distinction in the State. In 1851 he began the study of law at Vincennes, with Benjamin F. Thomas, at that time United States District Attorney for In- diana. He was admitted to the bar in 1853, and was the next year elected district attorney for the judicial district comprising the counties of Knox, Daviess, Pike and Martin. With the ex- ception of the period covered by his services as clerk of the Knox Circuit Court, Mr. C. has continued ever since his call to the bar to engage in the practice of his profession. In the preparation of causes and the execution of pleadings and other papers, pa- tience, care and exactness eminently characterize his work. As
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an advocate he is particularly distinguished. Always earnest, logical and serious in his manner, he possesses a luxuriant fancy which he uses often to emphasize skillful deductions from facts. In 1855, upon the organization of the city government, he was se- lected as its first law officer, and as city attorney, with the mayor, Judge John Moore, framed the series of ordinances. In 1859, in a spirited contest, Mr. Cauthorn was elected clerk of the circuit court of his county, and at once began to bring order out of chaos in that office. His system of keeping files and records soon made his the model office of the State, and the order into which he soon ar- ranged a mass of confused papers, accumulations of half a cen- tury, was the marvel of every one familiar with the change. He continued in the office of clerk for two terms of four years each, and in 1870 was elected a representative in the General Assem- bly of the State, and was again elected to the same position in 1872, 1878 and 1880. At the session of 1879 he was selected as speaker of the House, and discharged the duties of that office in a most creditable and acceptable manner. As a legislator,
moderation and conservatism especially marked his course and regulated his conduct. He is a Jeffersonian Democrat, not alone in the partisan sense of the term, but in that perfect confidence in the ability of the people to properly regulate their most important af- fairs without elaborate statutes to guide and control them. His liberality and fairness to political opponents has secured him warm and deserved encomiums from his party adversaries, while his unflinching devotion to the principles of the party to which he belongs, in its days of misfortune, has made him strong in its ranks and marked by its leaders for further promotion. In 1868 Mr. Cauthorn was happily married to Margaret C. Bayard, and is the father of seven children, six of whom are living-two sons and four daughters. He is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and also of the organization of the C. K. of A., of which organization, in 1883, he was Supreme President for Indiana. In his social and domestic relations Mr. Cauthorn is exceptionally genial, indulgent and obliging.
OLIVER W. CADWALLADER was born March 5, 1836, and is the youngest of nine children born to the marriage of Da- vid Cadwallader and Mary Jones. The parents were natives of
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Wales, and in 1820 came to the United States and settled in Del- aware County, Ohio, where they lived till about two or three years previous to their deaths, when they moved to Newark, Ohio. Here they died in 1855, only a month apart. The father was a Methodist Episcopal minister, and one of the prominent circuit riders. His home was in the wilderness, and was often visited by the Indians. Oliver W. was reared on an Ohio farm, and when seventeen years old, entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, which he attended until entering the sophomore year. He made his parents' house his home until they died. He worked at the car- penters' trade during the summer seasons, and taught school sev- eral years. In 1877 he came to Knox County, Ind., where he has since taught school, and ranks among the first educators of the county. He owns 200 acres of finely-cultivated farming land, and was married in 1861 to Martha Etlark, of Cardington, Ohio. They have one child, George S., now a resident of Delaware County, Ohio. Mrs. Cadwallader died in 1875, and a year later Mr. Cad- wallader was married to Elizabeth Hinchman, who died in 1878. His third marriage was to Jennie Field, of Lawrence County, Ind .. in 1880. She died in 1882, and his last marriage was to Naomi Murphy, in 1883. The present wife is a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Cadwallader is a member of the I. O. O. F., and is a Republican, but liberal in his views. His son is a telegraph op- erator and assistant railroad agent at Delaware, Ohio; is unmar- ried and a graduate of the Delaware High School.
JACOB W. CASSELL, a prominent business man of Vin- cennes, Ind., was born in Madison County, Ind., December 23, 1840, and is a son of Jacob and Eleanor (Allen) Cassell, who were natives of Tennessee. Jacob W. was reared on a farm in his native county, and secured a good literary education. He graduated from the Commercial College of Pittsburgh, Penn., and completed the two years' course at the Northwestern Christian University at Indianapolis. In 1865 he came to Knox County, Ind., followed by his parents some six years later. The father died here December 8, 1884. In May, 1875, Mr. Cassell moved from his farm in the country to the city, and engaged in the whole- sale and retail grocery business, which business he carries on at the present time. He carries a large and select stock of goods
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pertaining to his line of business, and controls a large share of the trade in the city and county. December 16, 1874, he wedded Miss Alice Turner, a native of Illinois, who has borne him four children: Elizabeth E., Ernest M., Louana Verna Pearl and William C. Mr. Cassell is a Democrat in his political views, and is one of the wide-awake and enterprising business men of the city of Vincennes.
SMILEY NEWTON CHAMBERS was born in the village of Edwardsport, Knox Co., Ind., March 18, 1845. His father's family were among the pioneers of the county; his great-grand- father, Alexander Chambers, having moved into Knox County shortly after the close of the Revolutionary war. Of his family there were a number of children who settled in Knox and adjoin- ing counties and became useful and influential citizens, one of the sons, Joseph Chambers, filling many offices of public trust. He was a strong, pure, intelligent man, whose influence is still felt in the county. Our subject's mother was of a family as strong, physically and mentally, as that of the father, and although not so early in the county, have aided largely in its development. Her name was Rachael Keith, and the family moved from Ken- tucy to this State about 1820. His parents were married in 1838 and soon after settled at Edwardsport, where the father, Alex- ander Chambers, engaged in the milling business. This venture proved disastrous, and soon after they moved upon a farm in Widner Township, which they developed and improved, and where they died in the year 1866, leaving behind these children: Nancy A., Elliott, Lottie C., Johnson and Smiley N. They re- ceived the best education afforded by the public schools of the county. Soon after the death of his parents Smiley N. entered the college at Alton, Ill., where he graduated in June, 1870. In 1863, when scarcely eighteen years of age, he volunteered his services in the One Hundred and Fifteenth Indiana Regiment for six months, and afterward in the 100 days' service in the Twenty- fifth Indiana Battery and took part in the battle of Nashville, December 15 and 16, 1864. He was discharged at Indianapolis in July, 1865, having attained the position of sergeant in the battery. Having read law one year in St. Louis, in 1871 he began the practice of that profession in Vincennes, where
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he has since continued, meeting with merited success. In 1872 he was candidate for the Legislature on the Republican ticket, and although defeated, received the full support of his party. He is a member and secretary of the board of trustees of the Vincennes University and a member of the Presbyterian Church. In 1876 he married Isadora McCord, daughter of William and Eliza (Caborn) McCord, a highly accomplished and intelligent lady. Their life has been happy and prosperous and their future promises to be exceptionally bright.
CLARENCE N. CHEEVER, union ticket agent at Vin- cennes, Ind., is a native of the eastern part of the "Green Moun- tain State," born July 13, 1849, son of Nathan and Lydia Ann Cheever. The family are of English descent, and both parents were born in Vermont and still reside there. Our subject was educated in the schools of his native State, and at the age of six- teen he obtained a situation in the office of the Metropolitan Railway Company, at Boston, Mass. In 1867 he went to Bur- lington, Iowa, and was in the employ of the Northwestern Rail- way Company. He remained there two years and there had charge of the telegraph interests until 1873, when he came to Vincennes and was given the position of assistant ticket agent, which position he retained until 1880, when he was given the position he now holds. He is the agent for the Ohio & Missis- sippi, Evansville & Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Vincennes and the Cincinnati, Vincennes & Chicago Railways. In 1871 he was married to Ida A. Woodward, born in Vermont in 1856. They are the parents of these three children: May F., Ilma and Helen. Mr. Cheever is a Republican and became a member of the I. O. O. F. in 1875. For twelve years he has been identified with the railway interests of the country and is an exceedingly popular and courteous official.
HON. THOMAS R. COBB, member of the national House of Representatives, was born near the village of Springville, Ind., July 2, 1827, and is one of the children of Dickson and Merise (Shelby) Cobb, the former a native of South Carolina, born in 1798, and the latter born near Haysville, Ky., in 1800. His paternal grandfather was also a South Carolinian by birth, and the family is of Scotch-Welsh descent, their genealogy being
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traced back about 720 years. As early as 1813 the family of which Mr. Cobb is a representative moved from South Carolina to Ohio, and one year later settled in what is now Lawrence County, Ind. They there participated in all the hardships and inconveniences of pioneer life in the backwoods. The father of Mr. Cobb held the office of county sheriff, was one of the county's best citizens and died in 1878. The mother died at Bedford, Ind., in 1866. Thomas R. Cobb passed his youth in assisting his parents, attending school, and later teaching school and attending the State University. In 1853 he began the study of law at the State University at Bloomington, and the same year was admitted to the Lawrence County Bar. He practiced his profession at Bedford until 1867, when he moved to Vincennes, which has since been his home. Mr. Cobb is one of the leading Democrats of the State, and since manhood has figured promi- nently in public affairs. The following is his record in brief: In 1852 was appointed a commissioner of Indiana militia; was a member of the Indiana Legislature from 1858 to 1866; a Demo- cratic candidate for elector in 1868; was president of the Indiana State Democratic Central Committee, in 1876; a delegate to the Democratic National Convention that nominated Tilden and Hendricks in 1876; was elected to the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh sessions of Congress, and re-elected to the Forty- eighth and Forty-ninth sessions. Mr. Cobb has justly the reputa- tion of being an economist, having faithfully worked for the sav- ing of the people's money during his entire congressional career. He served on the Committee of Elections during the Forty-fifth Congress and on the Appropriation Committee during the Forty- sixth. The Forty-seventh being a Republican Congress, he was placed on the Committee of Public Lands and the session follow- ing was made chairman of that committee. During the Forty- seventh he introduced a bill forfeiting the lands of railway cor- porations for non-fulfillment of contracts, thus saving to the people millions of money. In the Forty-fifth Congress he introduced a bill and caused it to be passed in the succeeding session, pro- viding for the sale of a tract of land beginning at the Wabash River and extending to the city limits of Vincennes, thus secur- ing to the city a most beautiful park. For many years Mr. Cobb
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has been in public life, and while perfection is one of the impos- sibilities of mortal man, his record has been sufficiently accepta- ble to his constituents that he has always been re-elected with an increased majority. In 1850 Miss Caroline Anderson became his wife and by him the father of five children: Orlando H., Alice, Catharine, George B. and Arthur T. Mrs. Cobb was born in Lawrence County, Ind., in 1830; a daughter of Archibald and Catharine Anderson.
ORLANDO H. COBB, attorney at law of Vincennes, Ind., is a native of Lawrence County, Ind., where he was born November 18, 1852. He is a son of Hon. Thomas R. and Caroline (Ander- son) Cobb, and is of Scotch-Welsh origin. His boyhood days were spent in Bedford, Lawrence Co., Ind., where he attended the public schools, and there laid the foundation of his present thorough education. In September, 1868, he entered the Indiana University at Bloomington, and graduated from that institution June 23, 1872, and the following year graduated in the law depart- ment of the same school. In 1874 he was admitted to the Knox County bar, and that same year he formed a partnership with his father in the practice of his profession, and continued thus until 1883, when John T. Goodman was taken into partnership, and the firm is now known as Cobb, Cobb & Goodman. This is one of the ablest and most sagacious law firms of southern Indi- ana, as their large and extended practice indicates. Subject was married, November 11, 1874, to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas P. and Margaret Beckes. Mrs. Cobb was born in 1853. In poli- tics Mr. Cobb is a Democrat, and cast his first presidential vote for Horace Greeley.
JAMES H. COCHRAN, proprietor of the La Plante Hotel at Vincennes, Ind., was born in Gibson County, Ind., April 12, 1819; son of William and Elizabeth (Colvin) Cochran; natives respect- ively of Tennessee and Kentucky. James H. grew to manhood in his native county, and assisted his parents on the farm, but se- cured a limited education. His father died when he was thirteen years of age, and on him devolved the duty of assisting his mother in providing for the family. He learned the carpenter's trade, at which he worked for some time in Princeton, when his health failed him and he contemplated returning home, but was offered
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a position as clerk in a hotel in that city and accepted, continuing at that work in Princeton and Evansville until he was married. He then kept hotel in Mount Carmel, Ill., fifteen months, and at the end of that period returned to Evansville and owned and managed the railroad hotel of that city a year. His wife, Mary Anderson, died about this time, and he then returned to his first employer, who had charge of a hotel in Evansville, and managed the City Hotel until his marriage to his present wife, Margaret (Mouser) Deer in 1856. He became general traveling agent for the Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad, continuing in that capac- ity seven years, when he conducted the old Parke Hotel in Rock-
ville, Ind., for six years. At the end of that time he engaged in the book and stationery business in Evansville. In 1873 he again engaged in the hotel business in Montezuma, Ind., and conducted the Cochran House of that city four or five years. He again kept hotel in Rockville, and then returned to Montezuma and remained in the hotel business there until September, 1885. Since that time he has had control of the La Plante House of Vincennes with the best of success, as his long and varied experience would insure. Mr. Cochran's last marriage was blessed with eight chil- dren, four now living: Laura B. (wife of John E. Johnson), Jen- nie (wife of George A. Smith), John W. (clerk of the hotel), and Charley F. He also has two living children by his first marriage: Alice A. (wife of Joseph Hunt) and Morris J., attorney at law in Buena Vista, Col. Mr. Cochran is a Republican and a member of the I. O. O. F., and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
WILLIAM A. CULLOP, prosecuting attorney for the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, is a native of Busseron Township, Knox Co., Ind., boru March 28, 1853, son of William and Maria J. Cullop, .who were born in Smith County, Va., and Vigo County, Ind., in 1829 and 1836 respectively. The mother, whose maiden name was Patterson, died in 1874. In 1843 the Cullop family came to Indiana and located on a farm in Knox County. Here our sub- ject spent his boyhood days. He attended the common schools of his native township, and in 1874 entered the college at Hanover, Ind., and graduated from that institution in 1878, and later be- came the principal of the Sandborn public schools. In 1879 he was
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elected to the chair of mathematics and natural science in the Vincennes University, and also began the study of law in that year. In 1880 he entered the law office of Cobb & Cobb, and there continued his studies until 1881, when he practiced for about one year, and then formed a partnership with George W. Shaw, the firm being known as Cullop & Shaw. In July, 1884, the firm admitted as a partner Clarence B. Kessinger, and since then the firm is called Cullop, Shaw & Kessinger. Politically Mr. Cullop is a thorough Democrat, and cast his first presidential vote for S. J. Tilden. In 1882 he was appointed deputy prose- cuting attorney for the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, and in 1885 was appointed prosecuting attorney of that circuit. His marriage oc- curred in 1879 to Miss Kate S. Cobb, daughter of Hon. T. R. Cobb. They have one child, named Caroline, born September 14, 1883. For quite a number of years Mr. Cullop has taken an active part in the political affairs of the State, and is one of the prominent and rising men of southern Indiana.
NATHAN F. DALTON, wholesale aud retail dealer in lum- ber and building goods in Vincennes, was born in Walworth County, Wis., March 15, 1845. Here he was raised on a farm, and received a very good academic education. At the age of nineteen he left home and accepted a position as clerk in the commission business in Chicago, where, at a later period, he en- gaged in the lumber business. In 1877 he came to this city and followed the same occupation with T. U. Lamport as partner, re- maining together until 1882, when the latter withdrew from the business. Mr. Dalton has very successfully carried on the busi- ness alone since that time. March 27, 1873, he took for his com- panion through life Mary R. Test, a daughter of Hon. C. H. Test, of Indianapolis. To their union these three children were born: Charles T., Elizabeth H. and Natalie F. In politics Mr. Dalton is a stanch Republican. He is a Mason, and has taken an active interest in all public and private enterprises in the city since his residence here, and was the first president of the Vincennes Board of Trade, and is at the present time president and stock- holder of the Spring Lake Ice Company. He is also president of the Indiana Lumber Dealers' Association. He and wife are members of the Episcopal Church, of which Mr. Dalton is war-
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den. He is one of the progressive and trustworthy business men of the city, and an upright citizen.
DR. WILLIAM H. DAVENPORT is a native of Indianapo- lis, Ind., where he was born July 20, 1850, son of Henry and Eliza Ann (Townsend) Davenport. The family is of English descent, and the father was born in Ohio in 1822, and the mother in Maryland in 1824. The paternal grandfather, Martin Daven- port, was born in Pennsylvania, and came to Indiana at a very early day, locating in Indianapolis, where our subject's father be- came a prominent contractor, and was given the building of the first theater. He died in that city July 22, 1851. The mother died ten years later. Subject first attended the public schools of his native city, and then spent one year at Notre Dame, at South Bend, and then two years in Bryant & Stratton's college at In- dianapolis, and then a short time at the Northwestern Christian University of that city. He began the study of medicine in 1872, and attended lectures at Ann Arbor, Mich., and Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, graduating March 20, 1881. He then located in Vincennes, Ind., where he is one of the prom- inent and successful physicians. In 1883-84 he was secretary of the United States Board of Examining Surgeons at Vincennes. He was married, June 12, 1884, to Mrs. Ruth O'Boyle, formerly Miss Watson, born July 26, 1845. In politics the Doctor is a Republican, and cast his first vote for U. S. Grant.
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