USA > Indiana > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, together with historic notes on the Wabash Valley; gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic sources > Part 52
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93
250
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
regular troops and the early regiments raised from Ohio. For services in raising the siege of Frankfort he received the thanks of Gov. Bram- lette, and fully disclosed the secret operations of the Sons of Liberty. and other treasonable orders along, and north of, the Ohio river. His personal relations were extremely intimate with Gov. Morton, and he entertained the strongest confidence in the purity, patriotism, and statesmanship of that extraordinary man. Upon muster out as gen- eral of volunteers he joined his regiment in the army of the Cumber- land, presided over the military commission at Louisville for the trial of guerrillas, and was then sent to the plains to replace volunteer troops with his own regiment. Late in 1865 he was in command, at Fort Kearney, of the east subdistrict of Nebraska, supervising Indian operations on the Republican river. In May, 1866, he commanded the expedition to open a wagon-route to Montana by the Powder River and Big Horn Mountain countries, built Fort Kearney and other posts, commanded the Rocky Mountain district, and was through the harassing Indian operations connected with the Red Cloud campaign. In 1867 he was in charge at Fort McPherson, establishing friendly re- lations with Spotted Tail and other chiefs, commanded at Fort Sedg- wick in 1868 and 1869, and was detailed, under an act of congress, as professor of military science at Wabash College, Indiana, in December of that year. In 1870, suffering on account of wounds and exposure incurred while on duty, he was retired from field service, but continued on the college detail at his pleasure. Thus is given, in rapid sumn- mary, Gen. Carrington's career as a student, lawyer, and soldier. His record as a littérateur remains to be considered. He has paid little attention to his minor works. "The Scourge of the Alps," a serial Swiss story of the days of Tell, was written in 1847, while at Tarry- town. " American Classics," or " Incidents of Revolutionary Suffer- ing," followed in 1849, as well as " Russia as a Nation." This was coincident with the visit of Kossuth, from whom he obtained a detailed map of the Russo-Hungarian war, and with whom he formed an en- during friendship. His address upon the Hungarian struggle was the last ever given in the old Ohio state-house, which was burned on the night of its delivery. "Hints to Soldiers Taking the Field " became popular, and the Christian Commission distributed more than 100,000 copies during the war. Lectures and essays have been numerous, in- cluding a pamphlet upon the " Mineral Resources of Indiana," and papers upon " Chrome Steel," the " American Railway System," etc., some of which have been read before the British Association of Science in Great Britain. At the Bristol meeting of that scientific body, in 1875, he was placed on the executive committee of the fol-
251
UNION TOWNSHIP.
lowing sections : " Mechanical Science," "Geography," and " Anthro- pology." His paper upon the "Indians of the Northwest" was published in full in the British papers; and upon the test of the eighty-one ton gun at Woolwich he was called from Paris by telegram from Gen. Campbell, British director-general of artillery, being the only foreigner present at the experiment. "Crisis Thoughts," pub- lished in 1878, includes " The Hour, the Peril, and tlie Duty," with two other orations upon the war. " Ab-sa-ra-ka, Land of Massacre," now in its fifth edition, is a book of nearly four hundred pages, with maps and engravings, giving a full description of Indian battles, mas- sacres, and treaties, from 1865 to 1879, and is carefully accurate, while full of thrilling narrative and adventure ; the first thirty chapters, em- bodying his wife's experience, were first published in 1868, upon her return from Montana and Dakota. A more important work, the result of research and study extending over a period of thirty years, and the outgrowth of early conferences with Irving, is the " Battles of the American Revolution." The labor upon this work has been im- mense. British and French authorities, and the faculties of universities, alike extended courtesies during the research ; and while personal sur- veys of many battle-fields greatly cleared the doubtful questions, the field-notes of British, Hessian, French, and other soldiers, were care- rully tested, and incorporated in the maps, which in every case were drawn by the laborious author. The indorsements of the work include not only public officials abroad, such as ex-president Thiers and Sen- ator La Fayette, of France, but English statesmen, with Bancroft and Lossing, Woolsey and Evarts, Gens. Sherman and Sheridan, and the press without exception. The work is original in design. It not only tells why and how a battle was fought, but, with the aid of the forty splendid maps that adorn the work, each battle-field assumes the char- acter of a slowly moving panorama, in which every movement is pre- sented to the eye. Historie precision blends with descriptive power of a high order to make this work at once valuable to the student of history, and intensely interesting to the general reader. Gen. Carring- ton has, however, made much progress upon another work, for which he is eminently adapted by previous study. This is none other than " The Battles of the Bible," based on the same general plan that char- acterizes liis great American history. This will involve not only a visit to the Holy Land, but research among Hebrew antiquities, with critical examination of many authors and places. He has the assurance of offi- cial aid abroad, and possesses the courage to undertake the work. He knows neither fatigue nor doubt in such labors. He has received many compliments from historical societies, and has had several literary titles
252
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
conferred upon him. He is a member of the United States supreme court bar.
General Carrington has been twice married. His first wife, Margaret Irvin Sullivant, was the eldest daughter of Joseph Sullivant, Esq., a noted scientist and scholar of Columbus, Ohio, and granddaughter of Colonel Joseph McDowell, of Danville, Kentucky. She is described in a memorial volume, published at Columbus, Ohio, in 1874, as "of commanding presence, gentle and dignified in deportment, refined and cultivated in taste, and, while quite delicate in constitution, of great courage and endurance; of a high type of womanhood, loved and respected by both relatives and friends." She accompanied her hus- band during the war, and with equal fidelity through the years of try- ing exposure on the plains, from 1865 to 1869. She died at Craw- fordsville, Indiana, May 11, 1870, just after her husband began duty at Wabash College. Of their children, Mary McDowell, born October 5, 1852, died April 7, 1854; Margaret Irvin, born November 22, 1855, died July 25, 1856 ; Joseph Sullivant, born June 9, 1859, died Septem- ber 29, 1859; Morton, born June 23, 1864, died August 23, 1864 ; Henry Sullivant, born August 5, 1857, was with his parents on the plains, and declined an appointment as engineer cadet at Annapolis, but spent two years with an expedition to the South Seas. He then entered Wabash College, and graduated June 25, 1879. James Beebee was born October 23, 1860; he was also on the plains, and after three years at Wabash College took a commercial course at Russell's Colle- giate and Military School, at New Haven, Connecticut. General Car- rington's second wife was the third daughter of Robert Courtney and Eliza Jane Haynes, of Tennessee, Mr. Courtney having removed from Richmond, Virginia, in 1825. Although a slave-holder, he was sure that the system was wrong, and that the nation would never realize its highest prosperity until freedom became general. Of peculiar gentle- ness, combined with firmness in his moral and religious views, he taught and transmitted the precepts which marked his children, when, shortly after his death, the war began. His widow and daughters were thoroughly enlisted in the Union canse. When the first federal troops, consisting of the first battalion of the 15th U. S. Inf., Major John H. King commanding, entered Franklin, Tennessee, March 16, 1862, it was greeted with an outspoken "Hurrah for the banner whose loveli- ness hallows the air," by one daughter, Florence Octie, afterward Mrs. Cochnower. With her sister Fannie she kept up communication with the federal authorities, and after the battle of Franklin, which raged near their house, the mother, two daughters, and a young brother, John-now a lawyer at Crawfordsville, Indiana-relieved the federal wounded, about two hundred in number, who had been removed to the
253
UNION TOWNSHIP.
Presbyterian church, dressed their wounds and took the sole care of them during seventeen days, until the return of the federal army from Nashville. General Thomas made official notice of the unselfish devo- tion of this family, and says of the important intelligence communi- cated by the sister Fannie of the movements of the enemy, "Her in- formation was on all occasions given from patriotic motives, as she has invariably refused any pecuniary reward." The Sanitary Commission published her detailed report of the battle of Franklin, and the trying hospital experience; but an emphatic request limits the writer's desire to give full details of an experience which was that of conscientious duty, avoiding public display. She married Colonel G. W. Grummond after the war. Being subsequently appointed a lieutenant in the 18th U. S. Inf., he was a victim of the Phil. Kearney massacre, of December 21, 1866. A single extract from Mrs. Carrington's "Experience on the Plains" is not to be omitted : " To a woman whose house and heart received the widow as a sister, and whose office it was to advise her of the facts, the recital of the scenes of that day, even at this late period, is full of pain ; but at that time the christian fortitude and holy calm- ness with which Mrs. Grummond looked up to her Heavenly Father for wisdom and strength inspired all with something of her own patience to know the worst and meet its issues." The tender associa- tion of these two women during such an ordeal, and during a winter's march, when the mercury was sometimes forty degrees below zero, was never interrupted. While one accompanied her husband's remains to Tennessee, Mrs. Carrington underwent nearly three more years of frontier exposure, and survived that exposure but a few months after her husband reached Wabash College. In April, 1871, General Car- rington married the former companion of his wife's experience on the plains. Their children are: Robert Chase, born January 28, 1872; Henrietta, born April 28, 1874; Eliza Jennie, born April 27, 1875 ; and Willie Wands, by Mrs. Carrington's first husband, born April 14, 1867, and adopted by General Carrington upon his second marriage. General Carrington retained his voluntary detail at Wabash College until June, 1878; was called to deliver the historical oration at Mon- mouth, New Jersey, when the corner-stone was laid to the battle mon- ument, June 28, and since that time has devoted himself to the com- pletion of his other works, already referred to. Thus far he has de- clined positions tendered as railroad engineer and professor of history, but has accepted an invitation to complete his paper on American and European railway systems, for future delivery in Great Britain.
James S. MeClelland, M.D. (deceased), Crawfordsville, was born in Oxford, Butler county, Ohio, September 3, 1821. Ile received
254
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
his literary education in Miami University, Oxford, and his medical education with his uncle, Dr. James McClelland, at the Ohio Medi- cal College, from which he graduated in 1850. His first place of residence after graduation was at Yountsville, Montgomery county, where he began the practice of medicine with his uncle. He soon began to develop that skill in surgery for which he was always distinguished. He subsequently lived at Pleasant Hill, in this county. From thence he moved to Jefferson, Clinton county, and afterward to Frankfort. While in Frankfort he was elected to represent Clinton county in the state legislature, and was an elector for Buchanan in the presidential election of 1856. He removed from Frankfort to Dallas, Vermilion county, Illinois, to improve some land he had in that county. In the spring of 1861 he went to Frankfort to transact some business, and while there the news came of the rebel attack upon the flag at Fort Sumter. The same week he enlisted a company of soldiers, but did not go with them to war. He returned to Dallas and enlisted in the 25th Ill. Vols., of which he was made lieutenant-colonel. He was soon ap- pointed medical director on the staff of Gen. Sigel, in Missouri. He served there a period and was then transferred to the department of the Tennessee, where he served as inspector-general of field hospitals. He remained in this capacity till the early part of Angust, 1863, when he received an injury, on account of which he was mustered out of service. From the injury then received dates the disease from which he suffered so much and which terminated his life August 29, 1875. When he left the service in the army he settled in Crawfordsville. In a short time, his health having im- proved, he again entered the army as surgeon of the 154th Ind.reg., but was soon called to other and varied duties. Finally he was ap- pointed to a position on the staff of Gen. Sherman, who was at At- lanta preparing for his march to the sea. The doctor hurried on his way. But arriving at Chattanooga he found that the last train for Atlanta had just left, and he could go no farther. He never ceased to regret that he thus lost the opportunity to share in the honors of that great military achievement. He was energetic, vigilant, and ef- ficient in the discharge of his military duties. His whole heart was in the service. His sympathy for his wounded soldiers was un- bounded. Many times did his heart sink at the rough and inefficient treatment of these poor individuals, whose life was ebbing away in defense of liberty and the union of the states. After the war his home was in this city, and he stood before his fellows as an eminent physician and surgeon. He was married in 1859, and became the
255
UNION TOWNSHIP.
father of two sons and four daughters, who survive him : Albert J., a physician of Veedersburg, Indiana ; William D., Angelon R., Mary Kate, Mable. W. and Jessie E. Prior to the war he was a democrat, but afterward joined the republican party. He was a prominent Mason and was buried by that order. He was quite a lit- erary man, contributing at various times many interesting articles and poems to different weeklies and magazines. We publish the following for the benefit of our readers as an example of his poetic writings :
LINES ON MY THIRTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY.
My years to-day are thirty-five, Life's journey half-way o'er, And as I muse the school-boys' laugh Brings back the days of yore.
Telling of careless, merry hours In the early morn of life, Before the heart had callous grown In its unequal strife.
And memory turns her leaves to see What there may be between The brown and somber hues of now, And youth's bright fields of green.
Still, as she turns her leaflets back, She comes to fading flowers, Laid there, within the folds away, Telling of sunny hours.
But the sunbeams leave a fainter trace, The clouds a darker hue, And many a once-familiar face Wears glances strange and new.
Dimly she sees a crumbling pile, Once reared in friendship's name, Its cherished stones, now many, gone To pave a path to fame.
Embalmed in flowers an altar stands, Where love's first vow was given; The cypress at its foot grows green, Its once fair cap-stone riven.
There pure white roses make their bed, Where bitter tears have flown, Æolian music round its base Gives low and plaintive moan.
The rain drops fall more gently there, The moon sheds softer light, And angel voices oft are heard To mingle there at night.
256
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
But through the gloom a vision comes, As bright and green as ever; 'Tis where I prayed at mother's knee- Long years will dim that never.
When thirty-five, through toil and strife, Has grown to full fourscore, Oh! may I have the faith to kneel, And say that prayer once more.
David F. McClure, dry-goods merchant, Crawfordsville, was born in Bath county, Kentucky, December 15, 1829. He lived on the farm until he was twenty-six years old, and only went to school four months in his life, yet by study and observation he has acquired a good practical business education. He came to Crawfordsville in 1850, and began as clerk with F. H. Tery, and continued thus for two years, when he took an interest in the store. He remained in partnership with him until Mr. Tery died, in 1860, when his son, W. S. Tery, took his father's interest in the store, the firm of McClure and Tery continuing until the death of the latter, about 1875, when Mr. McClure became the sole proprietor of what is now known as "Trade Palace." During the twenty-seven years that Mr. McClure has been in business he has not had a vacation of six weeks. His remarkable success is owing to his close application to business, energy, and strict honesty. His paper has never been protested, and he has never asked for an extension of time, and has never failed. His stone building is 40x150 feet, and he carries a stock worth about $35,000, his yearly sales amounting to from 880,000 to $100,000, and employs sixteen clerks. He began in this city with sixty-five dol- lars. He served ten months in the Mexican war, under Gen. Wil- liam O. Butler, and was in Co. D, 3d Ky. Vols. He was married in Shelby county, Kentucky, November 20, 1856, to Miss Elizabeth Carter. She is a member of the Missionary Baptist church. They have two children, Nannie F. and Walter B. In politics Mr. Mc- Clure was first a whig and since then has been a republican, and has been an elder in the Presbyterian church for twenty-nine years.
Eli Compton, justice of the peace, Crawfordsville, is a native of Dayton, Ohio, May 19, 1816, being the date of his birth. His father, Amos Compton, was born in South Carolina, and his mother in East Tennessee. Their parents brought them to Ohio, where they were married. In 1858 or 1859 they moved to Iowa, and there both died in 1864, and are resting in Marshall county. He was a prominent democrat, and served as justice of the peace several years. She was a member of the Methodist church. The Comptons were formerly Quakers, or Friends. Eli Compton's life has been somewhat varied
H. Liten. (DECEASED)
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AUTOR, LENNOX AND TILDAN FOUNDATIONS K L
257
UNION TOWNSHIP.
in the different channels of labor in which he has sought a livelihood. He spent the first twenty-three years of his life on a farm. At that age he came to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, and was engaged in superintending the construction of a plank road from La Fayette to Crawfordsville. In 1850 he came to Montgomery county, and entered the saw-mill or lumber business, and for two years superin- tended the cutting of the railroad bed through Crawfordsville and vicinity, and grading of one mile of that road, viz. the New Albany, Louisville and Chicago. During the civil war he spent two years in the quartermaster's department as an employe. He has spent one year in the hardware store of Cumberland & HIarter, also with Cumberland & Graves for a time. During the past eight years he has acted as constable in Montgomery county, and in 1880 was elected justice of the peace. His office is over Allen Brothers' store. Mr. Compton supports the republican party. Ile was married December 19, 1839, to Matilda, daughter of Levi and Betsy Mills, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. They have had nine children, but five of whom are living : Matilda J., Angelia A., Evilyn II., Ella W. and Charles H. They have also shown a kindness in taking an orphan girl. Lot- tie Martin, to care for. Mr. Compton's education utilized six months of his life in the school-room, but he looks well to his children's ac- complishments. Three of his children, Matilda, Ella and Eva, are now teachers, while Charles is employed in the printing office of the Crawfordsville "Journal." Mr. and Mrs. Compton are members of the Presbyterian church.
John L. Wilson, lawyer, Crawfordsville, was born August 7, 1850, in Montgomery county. In 1874 he graduated in the classical course of Wabash College. He spent the next two years in the pension office at Washington. Mr. Wilson was elected in October, 1880, by the republicans to represent Montgomery county in the state legis- lature. He is a Mason, and an active, energetic young man.
Horace M. Clark, farmer, Garfield, was born September 6, 1850. His father, Samuel Clark, was born in South Carolina, and in 1838 settled in Rush county, Indiana, where he resided until 1847, which time marks the date of his arrival in Montgomery county. He was a miller by trade, and ran the Clark mill, in comrection with his farm, several years with good success. He was born in 1799, and died in 1878. He was a Friend and a strong abolitionist. He was always found in the front ranks, fighting for the principles he firmly believed to be right, and made his house a station on the "underground rail- road," where the weary and persecuted refugee was fed, clothed. and cheered onward in his flight for liberty. He came from a slave state,
17
258
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
knew the horrors of the curse, and hated it. He adopted for his motto, " In matters of conscience first thoughts are the best, while in matters of judgment, the last," and acted strictly upon it. His life is the perfect embodiment of a grand lesson. teaching every young man that principle should be sacrificed for no cost, for no con- sideration. He was a man possessed of a lively sense of the right, and he loved to exercise his judgment in the cause of religion, edu- cation, and political liberty. His mother, Mary D. Clark, was born in 1809, and is a native of North Carolina, from whence they came in 1818 to Orange county, Indiana, and in 1831 arrived in Mont- gomery. She was also a Friend, and through her long, eventful life has ever exercised the same christian forbearance that characterizes that model sect. Horace M. has spent the majority of his years in teaching and farming. He entered Wabash College in 1869, and after six years of patient research graduated with honor in the clas- sical course in 1875. After his graduation he began teaching in this county, and by his thoroughness and systematic classification of prac- tical information imparted to his students, rapidly rose in the esti- mation of men capable of passing upon superior methods and men. He also studied law, but on account of poor health was compelled to abandon his desires in that direction. He then went west, and taught several months in California, Oregon, and Washington territory. He is a member of the Friends church, and of the Phi-Beta-Kappa Society of Wabash College. He is a zealous advocate of the principles of the republican party. His home consists of eighty acres, well improved, six miles from Crawfordsville.
Dr. J. S. French, Crawfordsville, is the son of Simon and Mary (Smock) French, the former of whom was born in New Jersey in 1800, moved to Kentucky in 1821, to Marion county. Indiana, in 1830, and came to Montgomery county in 1844. He was a chair- maker by trade, and an abolitionist and republican in politics. His father was compelled by the British. during the revolutionary, war to pilot them through New Jersey. Ilis wife, Mary, was born in 1805, and died in 1861. Her brother was in the war of 1812. Both Mr. and Mrs. French were members of the Presbyterian church. J. S. French, one of five children, was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, July 14, 1829. IIe spent four years in Wabash College, and at the age of twenty-one engaged in teaching, which he followed contin- uously till twenty-seven years of age. He then began the study of medicine under Dr. J. W. Straughan, of Parkersburg, with whom he stayed for two years. He then attended Rush Medical College, Chicago, and leaving this institution he settled for practice in Wave-
259
UNION TOWNSHIP.
land. Two years after he moved to Alamo, where he remained two years, and then became assistant surgeon in the 120th Ind. Vols. Returning from the army, he resumed his practice at Alamo. In February, 1880, he came to Crawfordsville, where he is fast establish- ing himself in his profession. Dr. French is a strong republican, a member of the Alamo Lodge of Odd-Fellows, and also of the Grand Army of the Republic. IIe has been twice married. First, to Jemima Mann, of Parke county, who died leaving three children : Re- becca E., David W. and Thomas A .; and second, to Mary Stubbins. who died leaving two children : Sarah J. and Frederick C. Both were members of the Presbyterian church, and their fathers were elders in that church. Mr. French is experienced in his profession, and well known in Montgomery county.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.