USA > Indiana > Shelby County > History of Shelby County, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present, with biographical sketches, notes, etc., together with a short history of the Northwest, the Indiana Territory, and the State of Indiana > Part 49
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ficiency. He accompanied his parents to the United States in IS52, and a short time after landing began working at the bar- ber's trade, which he followed in the City of Shelbyville for a period of nineteen years. In 1874, he was elected a Justice of the Peace, re-elected in 1878, and in the meantime ( 1875) was appointed joint agent for the American and Adams Ex- press Companies in this city. In ISSI, he took charge of the Adams Express office in Shelbyville, and three years later was elected on the Democratic ticket, Treasurer of Shelby County, his majority being 521, a fact which attests his great personal pop- ularity and superior business ability. His management of the office was such that in 1886, he was renominated, and after a spirited con- test was again elected by an overwhelming majority. Mr. Posz may be regarded as a true type of the successful self-made man of his town and county. He is a good financier and careful business man, his judgment being seldom wrong in matters of business policy. Beginning life's battle in a field of adversity, with the aid of little or no capital, and a meagre experience wholly dependent upon personal effort, his good sense and sound judgment have forced success out of what to many others would have been certain defeat, and at the same time secured a prominent position among the repre- sentative men of Shelby County. He is an uncompromising Demo- crat in politics, zealous in the advancement of party measures, and is recognized as one of the standard bearers of Democracy in this part of the State. He married in the year 1857, Mary Maholm, who was born in Shelby County in the year 1839. Mr. Posz is an Odd Fellow of high standing, holding at this time an important offi- cial position in Shelby Lodge No. 39. He and wife are active members of the Presbyterian Church.
ERASMUS S. POWELL, was born near the city of Shelbyville, February 8, 1838, and is the son of Erasmus and Mary ( Allen ) Powell. He is of Scotch-Irish and Welsh extraction. His father was born in Washington County, Pa., December 25, 1788, and died at La Porte, Ind., February 25, 1843. The mother of Mr. Powell was born in North Carolina, January 25, 1796, and died December 31, 1872. The family came to what is now Dearborn County, Ind., in ISI0, and moved to Shelby County in 1826. Thus his father was one of this county's pioneers. The subject of this sketch is the youngest of a family of eleven children, five of whom are vet living. He received a common school education. Since his school days he has been somewhat unstable in the occupations he has chosen. He served quite a while as Justice of the Peace. He then began the business of a merchant, dealing in hats and caps. Later he was appointed to a positton in the United States Internal
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Revenue Department and spent the whole of President Arthur's term in that place. In 1885, he was made President and Superin- tendent of the Shelby County Creamery Association and now fills both positions. Mr. Powell was a soldier. He enlisted in Com- pany ".C," Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, served in this company three months, then enlisted in the Forty-second Regiment and did not come out until the close of the war. He was the sec- ond man in Shelby County to enlist. He was married in 1865, to Mrs. Triffie Smithers who was born in Delaware. In politics he is a Republican. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Powell is a straight-forward, honorable gentleman and stands high in our community.
LEONARD C. POWELL, one of the successful business men of Shelbyville, is a native of Shelby County, born at the village of Waldron. August 11, 1844. His father, Micajah Powell, was born in Boone County, Ky .. in 1820, and at the age of eleven years ac- companied his parents to this county, where he has since resided. Phebe Ann (Van Pelt) Powell, wife of Micajah Powell, was born in Shelby County, and is the mother of ten children, the sub- ject of this sketch being the first in number. Leonard C. Powell was educated in the common schools, and until his twenty-second year remained under the parental roof, assisting his father on the farm in the meantime. In 1866, he came to Shelbyville and accepted a clerkship in a grocery house, in which capacity he continued until 1871. In that year he engaged in busi- ness for himself, and is at this time one of the leading merchants of the city, being in the enjoyment of a large and constantly increas- ing trade. Politically he is a Republican, and in religion belongs to the Presbyterian Church, being at this time an official in the Shelbyville congregation. April 21, 1868. he married Miss Emme- line Dickison, of Decatur County. Ind. Mrs. Powell was born Jan- uary 14, 1845, and departed this life on the Sth day of August, 1886. Mr. and Mrs. Powell were the parents of three children, all now deceased.
JOSEPH B. RANDALL was born at Red Line, Louden Co., Ohio, November 27, 1841, and is the son of James M. and Sarah ( Pettit ) Randall. The father of our subject was born in Loudoun County, Virginia, September 13, 1813. and died in Shelbyville, Indiana, Janu- ary IS, 1883. The mother was born in the same county and State as the father, May 9. 1809, and is still living. The subject of our sketch was married May 21, 1868, to Miss Cornelia C. Jen- nings, a native of Michigan, born May 8, 1844, and a daughter of Rev. C. P. Jennings, a native of New Jersey. This union has brought forth six children, Vernon, Burnet S., Walter S., Charles
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M., Gertrude and Bertha. While his father was vet living, Mr. Randall became his partner in the wholesale and retail grocery and produce business, under the firm name of J. M. Randall & Son. Since the death of the senior member, the same firm name has been retained. This firm, under the able and energetic management of the subject of this biography is doing an immense business. They ship annually, a great amount of butter, eggs and poultry to the large cities of the east. Mr. Randall is a faithful Republican. He and his wife are leading members of the First Presbyterian Church of this city. Mr. Randall is also a member of the Masonic fraternity. There is no man more thoroughly identified with the interests of this city and county. He is, indeed, one of our best men, and al- ways ready to favor public enterprises.
MARTIN M. RAY ( deceased ) . - Martin M. Ray was the son of John Ray. He was born in Butler County, Ohio, and has left us little or no account of his early childhood and youth. We know nothing of his career until we find him in the Clerk's office of Wayne County, earning a livelihood in the capacity of Deputy Clerk and laying up means for the foundation of that legal knowl- edge and the distinction which made him one of the brightest orna- ments of the bar of Indiana, a thorough lawyer, and an urbane, courteous and accomplished gentleman. He subsequently read law for awhile with Governor Ray, who was his father's brother, and then went to the law school of Harvard University, where he heard lectures and pursued his studies for about eighteen months. Upon his return to Indianapolis, he resumed his studies under the direc- tion of his uncle, and in 1843, having been licensed to practice law, opened an office in Shelbyville. After the usual trials and difficul- ties incident to the beginning of a professional career in a country town, he finally obtained solid footing as a lawyer: and in the spring of 1845, married Miss Susan Cross, and thus gave society his pledges of fidelity to its welfare and happiness. No marriage could have been more wisely chosen, or the source of greater blessings. He and his good wife have been blessed with children, several of whom have been carefully educated and prepared to enter upon the greater theater of life with honor to themselves and advantage to society, and all of whom would have been, had death not deprived three younger children of his labors and his care, for never was father more entirely devoted to his family.
It was his good fortune in settling at Shelbyville, to be brought early into association and contact with the Hon. T. A. Hendricks, whose excellent manners, careful habits and sound learning afforded him a constant measure for his own. As lawyers, they were planted and grew up together, and, although we have never heard their
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mutual influence upon each other's habits and modes of thought, speech and professional discussion, we think we run no risk of mis- take in saying that both were better lawyers and more accomplished men than either would have been but for the other. They were for the first ten or twelve years, of different politics. Mr. Ray being a Whig and Mr. Hendricks a Democrat. It is needless to say that, while thus opposed, they naturally led their parties in the county.
In 1854, when the Whig party died, like its other members, he looked about him for some political organization where a man of his principle and patriotism might go. He was induced by persuasions of a friend to enter a Know-Nothing Lodge, but im- mediately and openly discarded and denounced it as unworthy of the support of an American citizen, and always afterward spoke with feeling of the trick which had induced him to go into it. His mind rested on principles too broad and generous for its narrow creed. He united with the Democratic party then led by the Little Giant, and ever afterward maintained his connection with it. He was not, however, servile in his adherence to the party platform, but held and fearlessly uttered his own opinions whenever occasion led him to differ with his brethren.
In 1858, the convention of his party in his district honored him with his nomination for Congress. and he made the race, being op- posed by the Hon. A. G. Porter, by whom he was defeated. This was the result of the defection of the Douglas wing of the party, and not from any failure of Mr. Ray to carry on the canvass with great zeal and ability. Nor was any contest conducted with greater energy and consistency on both sides: and it is scarcely saving too much to say that, if the entire Democracy of the district had stood by Mr. Ray, he would have been elected. But it was not to be. He was destined never to adorn our National Congress, in which he was well fitted both by nature and culture to shine. In 1860, Mr. M. M. Ray voted the Democratic Union ticket, with the fol- lowing written protest over his signature attached thereto, which was returned to his son, W. S. Ray. on September 27, 1887, by W. P. Fishback, Master of Chancery in the United States Court, in Indianapolis, into whose possession it had come. The protest reads as follows: " Knowing the men on this ticket, and believing them loyal and patriotic, I vote it; but protesting at the same time against a portion of the speeches, resolutions and proceedings of the Sth of January convention; protesting also against the spirit and tone which the Breckenridge element has sought to infuse into the Democratic party; protesting also against every word and deed by which ambitious men have sought to commit the party to a po-
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litical alliance with the rebellion; and glad of the great change that has taken place in Democratic sentiment within six or twelve months, and believing that I can do more good in than out of the. party, I vote the ticket." In 1860, he was chosen by the Democ- racy of Shelby County to represent it in the Senate of the State. He felt deeply the situation on the country when he entered that body in January, 1861, and, like many other leaders of the party, said many things to induce it, if possible, to compromise between the North and South, until it became perfectly clear that no such compromise could be effected. One would have believed that he sympathized profoundly with the South, but, when the war began and it became perfectly clear that the questions must be fought out, he, like Mr. Douglas, took bold ground for the Government against the seceders, and made some of the ablest speeches of his life in support of the war. He was a true and devoted patriot, and re- gretted with all his heart whatever tended to the injury of the cause . of the country. He felt the defeat of our armies as sorely as any man in the Union, and rejoiced in their triumphs as sincerely, if not as noisily. On the other hand, he regretted with sincere grief the unnecessary harshness of martial law and military arrests, which he justly regarded as illegal, because unnecessary. As a lawyer, he profoundly respected the methods of peace, and hated to see them departed from by those intrusted with the conduct of our affairs. In 1864, his profoundest convictions brought him square affront of the military arrests and trials of Dodd, Bowles, Milligan and others, and when called upon, he did not hesitate a moment to engage in their defense. In his arguments before the military commission which tried them, he performed great labor and displayed great learning and eloquence; and although his speeches were devoted to the dis- cussion of the facts of their cases, he missed no opportunity to place his opinion upon the record against the assumed jurisdiction of the commission. Throughout these trials he displayed great patience, great learning and courage in maintaining the rights of his clients, and must have established himself in the confidence of all who witnessed his efforts. as a man of fortitude and ability, de- voted to his cause. Never shall we forget the rare beauty of the closing paragraph of his speech in defense of H. H. Dodd, Esq., who had escaped from his prison, and was tried in his absence. He closed thus: "With much solicitude and anxiety, we commit the cause of the defendant, in his absence, to the learning, to the patriotism, to the honor and to the justice of this court. To the learning, because the great legal question of jurisdiction lying at the threshold of your inquiries is still open; to you patriotism, be- cause the highest interests of public liberty and the victory of
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reason over passion are in you hands; to your honor, because the graces of magnanimity and mercy which should follow the weak, the unfortunate, and even the guilty, and plead against the calami- ties of conviction: to your justice, because she sits blind to the scenes of our national drama, unseduced by the blandishments of power, and deaf to the cries of resentment and passion."
HARRY C. RAY, Deputy Auditor, is a native of Shelby County, Indiana, born July 11, IS46, the eldest son of Hon. Martin M. and Susan (Cross ) Ray. He received his early educational training in the schools of Shelbyville, and subsequently entered the North Western Christian University at Indianapolis, in which institution he took a thorough literary course, graduating in 1868. Soon after completing his education, he accepted a position in the Treas- ury Department at Washington, and was thus engaged until the following year. when he returned to Indiana. In 1870, he began reading law in Danville, and, in connection with his legal studies, wrote for the press until 1873, at which time he came to Shelby- ville and engaged in the practice of his profession. He abandoned the legal business in 1875, and for four years thereafter was Deputy Treasurer, retiring from that position in 1879, and accepting his present place as Deputy County Auditor. Mr. Ray is a corteous gentleman, an accomplished business man, and enjoys the confi- dence and esteem of a large number of friends in the city and county. Ile is a member of the I. O. O. F., and has represented Shelby Lodge No. 39, in the Grand Lodge of Indiana. In 1883, he was elected as a member of City Council for a term of two years. In IS87, he was again honored, this time with an election to the position of City Clerk. He is also a member of the K. of P., having joined that order February, ISS7. Politically, he is iden- tified with the Democratic party, and cast his first presidential vote for Horace Greely. February 22, 1872, was solemnized his mar- riage with Sarah E., daughter of William H. and Mary Blake, of Danville, Hendricks County, Ind. Mrs. Ray was born on the 6th day of January, 1852. In the spring of ISS6, he was a prominent candidate for the office of County Auditor, but unfortunately, owing to a division of his party, he was defeated by a small majority in the primary.
W. S. RAY, editor of the Shelby Democrat, stands prominent among the successful men of Shelby County. He was born in Shelbyville on the 11th of February, IS48, and is the son of Martin M. Ray, one of the most prominent men of his time in Indiana. The subject of this sketch completed a good common school edu- cation, with a collegiate course at the Northwestern Christian Uni- versity of Indianapolis, where he graduated in 1869; he then entered
Lid longer
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upon the study of law and continued in it until 1873, when he formed a partnership with his brother, Harry Ray, and they commenced the practice of law in Shelbyville. After this, Mr. Ray devoted himself to his profession so successfully, that in 1874, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney, and re-elected in 1876; the same vear, 1876, he received the Congressional nomination for the Sixth Congressional District of Indiana, in a convention held at Anderson. This was an honor which rarely falls to the lot of one so young, he being at that time but twenty-eight years of age, but it was an honor which he saw fit to decline, as he refused to accept the nomination and continued in his law business, fulfilling the duties of Prosecutor, until 1878. On the 13th of June, 1878, Mr. Ray started a new Democratic paper in Shelbyville, in capacity of editor and part proprietor, his partner being B. S. Sutton, of Shelbyville. The name of the paper was the Shelby Democrat, and from the first it was a success: it was a first-class county paper, and its circulation increased in an unprecedented manner; the intention of its editor was to make it as good a paper as there could be found in Indiana; to this end the Democrat was enlarged in September, 1878, to its present dimensions. In October, 1878. Mr. Sutton sold his interest in the paper to A. McCorkle, and until the death of the latter, was published under the firm name of Ray & McCorkle. Mr. Ray became sole proprietor in 1878, and in 1880, established the Daily Democrat, which has been sustained, as perhaps but few papers have, in a city of but 5,000 people. As a politician, Mr. Ray is bold and zealous: as a newspaper writer, is able and aggressive, and his influence has been an important factor in moulding the character and actions of the Democratic party in Indiana. Although universally regarded as a strong partisan, he has always freely criticised what he believed to be wrong in either the principles or policy of his party. In his denunciation of civil service reform, under the operations of the present law, and in his advocacy of Governor Hill of New York for President, he has made himself a reputation that is co-extensive with the boundaries of the Nation. Mr. Ray is, in personal appearance, prepossessing, in manners pleasing, popular among his associates, and withal a most elegant gentleman.
MILTON ROBBINS, M. D., one of the oldest living pioneers of Shelby County, is a native of Ohio, born in the town of Hillsboro, November 16, 1810. His paternal ancesters were natives of Wales, and among the early settlers of New Jersey, his grand- father, John Robbins, having been born in that State about the year 1760. The Doctor's father Philip Robbins, was born in Washing- ton County, Pennsylvania, in 1785, emigrated to Shelby County, 18
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Ind., in 1821, and died here about fourteen years later. His wife, Nancy (Boyd) Robbins. was born in Paris, Ky., in 1791, and de- parted this life in Shelby County, Ind., in the year 1856. Philip and Nancy Robbins, were the parents of ten children. the subject of this sketch being the eldest. Dr. Robbins was eleven years of age when his parents came to Shelby County, and from that time until the present he has been justly classed among its most intelli- gent and trustworthy citizens. He was reared on a farm. and hay- ing early decided upon the medical profession for a life work, began his preliminary study of the same in 1831, under the efficient instruction of Dr. Sylvan B. Morris. Actuated by a laudable de- sire to increase his knowledge of the profession. he subsequently entered the Ohio Medical College, of Cincinnati, from which insti- tution he graduated in 1844. In 1835, he was elected to the office of County Recorder, the duties of which position he discharged in an eminently satisfactory manner until 1842. At the expiration of his term as Recorder he resumed the practice of his profession, which he continued with success and financial profit for a period of about forty years. being at this time one of the oldest and best known medical men in southern Indiana. Dr. Robbins ranks high professionally, and as an energetic citizen. fully alive to all that in- terests and benefits the general public: few in the county possess the esteem and confidence of the people in as marked a degree. He is a Republican in politics, and in religion holds to the creed of the Methodist Church. In March, 1836, he was united in marriage with Miss Frances Powell, daughter of Judge Powell, of Dearborn County. Ind., a union blessed with the birth of four children, viz .: Alfred V., Dr. James P., Milton B., and Francis. Mrs. Robbins was born in the year 1816, and departed this life in 1884.
JOHN W. ROBERTSON, one ot the pioneers of Shelby County, was born in Madison County. Ky .. November 13, IS21. He is the son of James and Nancy ( Wheeler) Robertson, and is of Scotch- Irish ancestry. The father of Mr. Robertson was born in Madi- son County. Ky., November 10. 1791, and died on his eighty- seventh birthday. The mother of the subject of this sketch was born also in Madison County, Ky., in the year 1796, died in Sep- tember of 1841. The paternal grandfather of Mr. Robertson was Samuel Robertson, a native of North Carolina, who emigrated to Kentucky and died in that State in 1827. The Robertson family came to Shelby County, when John W. was about five years of age, and settled on Lewis Creek, five miles east of Shelbyville. Our subject is the third of a family of seven children now living. He was raised in the woods of this county, and acquired all the educa- tion he could from the subscription schools, then common. At
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twenty-six years of age, he began farming for himself, and lived on one farm, which he still owns, from IS28 to 1886, or for fifty-eight years. He now owns Soo acres of land in this county. Mr. Robertson removed to Shelbyville in August, 1886. In poli- tics, a Republican - formerly a Whig - and a leading member of the Baptist Church. He is one of the most successful and highly re- spected men of this county.
DIx W. SAYLER is a native of Montgomery County, Ohio, where he was born July 4, 1864. He is a son of Solomon J. and Mary (Weaver) Sayler, and is of German descent. His father was born in Frederick County, Md., July 14, 1833, and died August 16, 1872. He was a distiller by occupation, and from the time of his coming to this city to the day of his death, he was connected with the Shelby Distillery. He was a leading Republican and al- ways took an active part in the affairs of his party. By his death the county lost one of its representative men. The mother of the immediate subject of this sketch was born January 27, 1840. The Sayler family came to Shelby County in 1867, and located at Shelbyville. Our subject is the second of three children and was educated at the Public Schools of Shelbyville and at Asbury Uni- versity (now Depauw). In February, 1883, he engeged in the grocery business in this city, taking charge of a grocery store for his step-father John W. Vannoy. In the fall of 1886, he engaged in the gents' furnishing business in this city with Mr. Philip J. Shaw, the firm being known as Shaw & Sayler. This firm keeps a full line of hats, caps, and everything usually to be found in a gents' furnishing store. They have a splendid trade and are very popu- lar with the young men of the city, Mr. Sayler is a Democrat and a member of Shelby Lodge No. 39, 1. O. O. F.
MATHIAS SCHELCH, is a native of Germany born in Hesse Darmstadt on the 20th of October, 1831, son of Peter and Barbara (Braun) Schælch. The father was born in the year 1805, married in his native country and died on the Atlantic Ocean in 1854, while on a voyage to the United States. Mrs. Schælch was born in 1804, and died in Germany in 1843. The subject of this biography is the eldest of five children born to the above parents, only two of whom are at this time living. He enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education in his native country, and in 1852 came to the United States landing in New York, from which city he made his way direct to Shelbyville, where he has since resided. For a period of fourteen years he worked as a day laborer, and at the end of that time in 1867, engaged in his present business, the manufac- ture of brick, which he has conducted with success and financial profit to the present date. He is a Democrat in politics, and a
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