USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 6
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Mr. Logan is a democrat in politics. In 1910, he permitted his name to be used as the candidate of his party for the office of sheriff, but he was defeated at the polls. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
On May 20, 1886, Mr. Logan was married to Miss Alice Vandergrift, of LaFountaine, and they are the parents of three children-Lawrence E., Nellie May and Lucile. Mrs. Logan is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
CAPTAIN ALEXANDER HESS. The lawyers of the first several decades of the life of Wabash have passed away. Of those who came to the bar during the sixties, most of them have long since laid down their briefs. Some survive in retirement, enjoying the ease and dignity which lives of intellectual activity have earned, while fewer still continue to partici- pate in the struggles which competition of younger and more vigorous men make more severe and exacting. Not only the honors of seniority but of varied and distinguished service belong to Captain Alexander Hess, who is the dean of the Wabash bar.
Since January, 1866, nearly fifty years, he has been in active practice, and still keeps an open office. He was admitted to the bar in April, 1865, but did not begin active practice until 1866. In the first military com- pany organized in this section of Indiana, and which went away to par- ticipate in the first campaign of the Union, Alexander Hess was a mem- ber, and after re-enlistment continued to fight for his flag until the clos- ing months of the great conflict. Captain Hess has a splendid military record, and his title was well earned on many a hard-fought field of battle. Equally as good was his record as a public official and as a private citizen. If any one in Wabash county has earned the privilege of otium cum dignitate, it is Captain Alexander Hess.
A resident of Wabash for the past sixty-four years, Alexander Hess is a native of Richland county, Ohio, born September 10, 1839. He is the second of three children born to Christian and Maria E. (Mozer)
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CAPTAIN ALEXANDER HESS
MRS. ALEXANDER HESS
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៛ tered out. Captain Hess received his honorable discharge at Indian- apolis, on October 9, 1864. Few Indiana soldiers saw more of the actual fighting of the long civil conflict than Captain Hess, and few came back from the south with better earned laurels.
On returning to Wabash, the young veteran began the study of law in the office of Hon. J. D. Conner, and was admitted to the bar in April, 1865. In the month of January, in 1866, Captain Hess began his career as a lawyer, and in a short time had risen to distinction as a member of the bar and in public affairs, just as he had won his official commission in the sphere of military life. From the first Captain Hess has been a loyal republican. His first important public office came in 1870 with his election as prosecuting attorney of the eleventh judicial circuit, com- posed of the counties of Wabash, Carroll, Cass and Miami, and he was re-elected in 1872. In 1878 he was sent to the lower house of the state legislature, and ten years later in 1888 was again elected a representative and re-elected in 1890. During the session of 1891, he was the Republi- can caucus nominee for speaker of the house. In 1894, he began a four- year service as clerk of the supreme and appellate courts of the State of Indiana. Since 1898 Captain Hess has quietly practiced his profession in Wabash, where he is now the oldest active member of the bar.
Captain Hess keeps up his old association as a member of the Grand Army post, and also belongs to the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. He is a prominent Mason, having the Royal Arch and Council degrees, and is now thrice illustrious master of the local council. He is past worshipful master of the Blue Lodge and past high priest of the chapter.
On July 17, 1873, Captain Hess married Miss Laura McGuire. Mrs. Hess is the oldest daughter of Sidney and Harriet McGuire, of Wabash, both deceased. She was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, February 15, 1849, and in the summer of 1855, with her parents, came to Wabash along the old Wabash and Erie canal. Her father became a citizen of local prominence, serving several years as township trustee of Noble township, and though he had been an ironworker at Pittsburg was engaged chiefly in merchandising in Wabash. Sidney McGuire served as Regimental Quartermaster in the 75th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer In- fantry during the Civil War. Mr. and Mrs. Hess are the parents of five children : Clara L., now Mrs. George W. Wormoth of Indianapolis ; Grace E., who died in January, 1903, the wife of Louis F. Smith; Annie L., the wife of Dr. C. J. Snideman of Wabash; Florence M., now Mrs. Charles C. Colbert of Elkhart, Indiana; and Lawrence E., a resident of Indian- apolis.
Captain Hess and wife worship in the Presbyterian church, of which Mrs. Hess has been a member since May, 1865, and Captain Hess since 1868. Mrs. Hess is very prominent in the Wabash Woman's Relief Corps, being past department president of the W. R. C. of Indiana and now president of the local corps. She has also taken a prominent part in literary and social clubs at Wabash. She served as president of the Clio Club, a prominent literary club of the city, and was the first matron of the order of Eastern Star at the time of its organization in Wabash.
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HARMON WOLF. At the time of his arrival in Wabash, in 1866, Harmon Wolf was possessed of little capital save brains, energy and a strong determination, and was glad to accept employment as a clerk at a salary of eight dollars per month. Today he is living retired with a fair competency and an assured position in his community. This change in his resources has been brought about by a lifetime of earnest and well-directed effort, in which luck has played no part. Mr. Wolf was at one time known as one of the largest importers of Belgian horses in the United States, and the industry that he founded is still being per- petuated in an able manner by his sons. He is a native of Germany, having been born March 14, 1845, at Hochstatten, Rhine, Bavaria, and there reared to manhood and educated in the common schools. He had long decided upon coming to America, and when twenty-one years of age he made the trip to this country, and, after landing at New York City, made his way to Wabash, Indiana.
Mr. Wolf was industrious and ambitious and was almost at the end of his finances, so that he was ready to accept whatever honorable em- ployment presented itself and when he was offered a position as a grocer's clerk, at a salary of eight dollars per month, he readily accepted. He was earnest in his efforts and soon won promotion, later becoming employed in a butcher shop. While thus engaged, he began buying stock, and after about ten years spent in the butchering business, dis- posed of his enterprise, in order to concentrate his energies entirely upon dealing in livestock. In 1884, he became a partner with Nathan Meyer and Abe Straus, in importing Belgian draft horses, and continued thus until 1891, when he started business alone. From 1897 until 1900 he was associated with W. O. Talbert in exporting horses to the Euro- pean markets, and in 1901, Mr. Wolf again started importing, being associated with his son, Henry, who became his partner in 1906. From this period to the present Mr. Wolf and his sons have probably arranged fifty sales annually in this country of full-blooded Belgian draft horses, these sales extending throughout the United States. No man has done more for the stock interests of Wabash county than has Mr. Wolf. He organized the company that now publishes the only authentic Belgian stud book in America, of which he was the first president, the present executive (1913), being his son Henry. In 1910, Mr. Wolf retired from the firm, turned the business over to his sons, and has since lived somewhat retired from business activities, although his wise advise and counsel are frequently sought and freely given on matters of impor- tance. While of foreign birth, Mr. Wolf is an American in all else that the name applies. He has shown himself public-spirited in the affairs of his community, and has ever been ready to assist worthy move- ments. His high reputation in the business world was gained through a lifetime of integrity and straightforward dealing, and he is remem- bered by his old associates as a man in whom the most implicit trust and confidence could be placed.
In 1876, Mr. Wolf was married at Wabash to Miss Carrie Rosenthal, and to this union there have come two sons: Henry and Louis, both
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born, reared, educated and married in Wabash, where they have always made their home. These two sons are now ably carrying on the extensive business founded and developed by their father.
ALVAH S. TILMAN is one of the successful and prominent business men of Wabash, whose achievements have been such as to render him worthy of mention among the citizenship of his community in a historical and biographical work of the nature of this publication. He was born near Mansfield, at Lucas, in Richland county, Ohio, on January 18, 1864. His father, David B. Tilman, was a native of Preble county, Ohio, born there on January 15, 1842, and was reared on a farm in Wabash county, Indiana.
David Tilman was the son of Jacob Tillman, as the name was ren- dered up to his generation, the latter having moved to Wabash county when his son was a mere infant. David B. Tilman was the youngest of twelve children of his parents. He had only a limited education, such advantages as the pioneer schools of his days offered being all that came his way in early education, and as he grew up he devoted himself to farm life. He sawed a great part of the lumber that went into the construction of the early plank and corduroy roads of those days of primitive road building in Wabash county, and he later operated a flouring mill at North Manchester, and also at Laketon and at Akron, Indiana. He married Susan McFarland on March 9, 1861, and when his eldest son was but a mere infant, he decided to enlist in the army. He accordingly sent his wife and babe home to her parents in Rich- land county, Ohio, and he enlisted in Company D, Forty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He served until peace was restored, and was hon- orably discharged at the cessation of hostilities. After the war he took up his residence in Wabash county, here continuing a resident until March, 1884, when he moved to Ozark county, Missouri, and there he has ever since resided. He is the only surviving member of his father's family of twelve children. Mr. Tilman has for half a century been actively identified with the work of the Methodist Episcopal church, and of his six sons, two are ordained ministers of that denomination. As a man, Mr. Tilman has lived a clean, upright, moral and religious life, honest in all his relations with his fellow men, with his family and honest with himself. He has all his life been a worthy example of right living to his family and to all who knew him, and is a type of the finest of American citizenship. His wife died in 1905.
Alvah S. Tilman was born while his father was still in the service of the Union army. He was reared, however, in Wabash county, whither the family removed after the return of the father to the pursuits of peace, and this county has always been his home since then. When a boy he worked with his father in the milling business, but in early man- hood he began to clerk in a grocery and bakery at North Manchester. After four years of that work he established himself in business, open- ing the doors of a restaurant to the public in March, 1891, in North Manchester. He continued in this for some years, eventually adding
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a bakery to the restaurant, and in 1900 he sold out, in December, 1901, coming to Wabash, and here embarking in a small way in the bakery and restaurant business. In 1908, he sold the restaurant end of the business, and has since that time devoted himself wholly to the business of building up a first class bakery establishment. In that ambition he has been singularly successful, and his place today is one of the thriving spots in the community.
Mr. Tilman began his business activities with a cash capital of $200. Fortunately, he possessed excellent health, plenty of business courage and ambition, but best of all, he had a wife who was willing to work with him, shoulder to shoulder, and who helped in every way to make whatever has come to them of business prosperity.
A republican in his politics, Mr. Tilman served two terms as coun- cilman at North Manchester and one term in the same office in Wabash. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Knights of Pythias, while both he and his wife are members of the Metho- dist Episcopal church.
On March 7, 1886, Mr. Tilman was married to Miss Cora M. Holder- man, and who was born and reared within the corporate limits of North Manchester, a daughter of Henry and Isabelle Holderman. To them were born six children; one of whom died in infancy, Harry Tilman. The others are Marie, Grear, Iva, Della, and Luther.
JUDGE HARVEY B. SHIVELY. The passing of Judge Harvey B. Shively at Wabash on September 10, 1909, concluded a career of large public usefulness on the part of one of Wabash's most loyal and best loved citizens. For upwards of forty years the late Judge Shively was eminent in his profession as a lawyer, and his two terms on the circuit bench gave him a record for the highest standards of judicial administration. As a leader in public affairs he served his county and state not only with the disinterested zeal which every public servant should possess, but also with an exceptional ability and integrity of per- formance which left a lasting impress on the state's legislative and economic record. His character was one of singular purity of purpose, of a fine integrity, and which well deserves the memoriam of the written pages.
Judge Shively was born in Preble county, Ohio, August 4, 1844, and was sixty-five years of age at the time of his death. His parents were Henry and Mary (Brower) Shively, and the grandfather was a native of Germany. Henry Shively was born and reared near Canton, Ohio, moved to Preble county, Ohio, about 1828, and in 1861 located on the Eel river in Miami county, Indiana, where he was a successful farmer and had a reputation for the raising of fine stock. About 1870 he moved to Wayne county, and from there to Wabash county, where his death occurred at Roann in 1894 at the age of eighty-seven. His wife passed away in her seventy-eighth year.
While in Preble county Harvey B. Shively lived on a farm and at- tended district school, and was seventeen years old when his parents Vol. 11-4
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moved to Miami county. By his industry both on the farm and in school he laid the foundation for his career, and early looked beyond the horizon of country life to more important service in broader fields. The war broke out about the time the family settled in Miami county, and he soon afterwards volunteered as a boy soldier and enlisted in Company B of the Fortieth Indiana Infantry under Colonel William L. Wilson. His regiment crossed the Ohio, and it was his fortune to receive his baptism of fire in one of the bloodiest battles of the war, at Shiloh in April, 1862. He was at Corinth and with the army of the Cumberland in the many campaigns backward and forward over Kentucky and Ten- nessee, fighting at Perryville, at Stone River, receiving a gunshot wound at Missionary Ridge, but continued in the army until 1864, when he was discharged on account of his wounds after an active service of thirty months, during which time he was always with his command and never off duty.
On his return to Wabash he continued his education a time in the city schools and spent two years in the old Methodist College at Fort Wayne. In the meantime he had pursued a course of private reading in the law, and in 1870 entered the law department of the University of Michigan, completed the course and was admitted to the bar and began practice at Wabash in 1871. His first public position was as prosecutor in the common pleas court, and he was the last to hold that office in Wabash county, the court being subsequently abolished. In 1874 he entered the firm of Cowgill, Shively & Cowgill, which during its existence was one of the foremost law firms of Wabash county with a reputation extending through several adjacent counties of the state. In 1882 Mr. Shively was elected to represent Wabash county in the legislature, and there became the recognized leader of the minority. His leadership and influence in shaping legislation was such that the impress of his work is still found in the statute books of Indiana. In 1890 he was called from the private practice of law to the office of judge of the twenty-seventh judicial dis- trict, and in November, 1891, succeeded the late Judge J. D. Conner. At the conclusion of his first term he was re-elected in 1896 without oppo- sition, and in 1902 he retired from the bench, being succeeded by Judge A. A. Plummer. In 1902 Judge Shively was elected president of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank of Wabash, and his strong integ- rity and the confidence of the people enabled him to administer the affairs of that institution with singular success until his death. After leaving the bench in 1903, Judge Shively practiced in partnership with Frank O. Switzer, and the firm of Shively & Switzer continued until the death of its senior member. Judge Shively was in active practice almost to the day of his death, and though the suddenness of his end was a profound shock to the community, it is a matter of satisfaction that such a man was able to perform his duties almost to the last.
In June, 1875, Judge Shively married Miss Catherine Cowgill, daugh- ter of Hon. Calvin Cowgill, another prominent Wabash lawyer and one time congressman, whose sketch is found elsewhere in this publication. With no children of their own, Mr. and Mrs. Shively took into their home
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a niece, Mrs. Clarence Dufton, who remained a member of their house- hold until her marriage. The late Judge Shively was prominent both in the Masonic Order and in the Grand Army of the Republic, and in 1895 was elected department commander of the Grand Army. He was a delegate to all the national encampments thereafter, and had a wide acquaintance among the leading men of the order throughout the United States.
While the above brief outline suggests the important points of a career notable for its attainments and usefulness, it is necessary that some more intimate and detailed estimate of his life should be added. From an editorial sketch published at the time of his death are selected the following sentences :
"He came to the Bench with a mind well disciplined by intellectual and professional training, fortified by nearly twenty years' successful practice, and with such experience to sustain him he entered upon his judicial duties under most favorable auspices, and his course soon demon- strated the wisdom of his party in elevating him to such an honorable and important position. Few judges in the state have acquired so high a reputation for the soundness in the knowledge of the law and for careful application of its principles in the investigation and determina- tion of questions submitted for his discrimination and disposal. Strength- ened by his convictions of right, he has seldom committed errors of suffi- cient import to justify reversal at the hands of the supreme court; one such case constituting the record during the incumbency of the first nine years. He gave every matter the most careful and critical con- sideration, and, being thoroughly conscientious in his desire to administer justice impartially, refused to be hurried in or any way prompted to pre- mature decisions.
"In point of intellectuality, scholarship and profound knowledge of the law, Judge Shively stood in the front rank with the most successful attorneys at the Wabash bar since the beginning of his professional career. He exhibited a high order of talent in that his aim has always been to acquire a critical knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence, coupled with the ability to present and successfully maintain the sound- ness of his opinion. His practice as a consequence was more than ordin- arily successful, and his name appeared in connection with nearly every important case in the Wabash courts for a number of years prior to his election to the judgeship. While on the bench he won the esteem and regard of lawyers and litigants by his uniformly courteous and dignified conduct, being in this respect the equal of any of his predecessors.
"He was a delegate to all the national encampments since his election as department commander. As a political leader his abilities brought him prominently to the front; and in every local, state and national cam- paign since the war his services have been in great demand. He was a popular and effective speaker and by logical presentation of issues and by forcible and eloquent discussion commanded the closest attention of large audiences and seldom failed in his efforts to gain votes. Public spirited in all the term implies, he has stood for everything calculated to
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advance the material prosperity of his city and county, and as former president of the Board of Trade, contributed greatly to the commercial interests of Wabash.
"Aside from his profession the Judge was a man of wide learning and general culture. Like the majority of successful professional men, he was well acquainted with the world's standard fiction, finding in such reading rest and recreation for a mind weighed down at times with heavy burdens of official and professional duties. The social side of his nature had not been neglected, being a fine and entertaining conver- sationalist, popular with a large circle of friends, among whom his presence was a valuable addition. He was highly esteemed by all classes and much beloved by his family and intimates. His character was open and transparent; his faults, if any, were unconcealed, and his sense of honor was so strong and decided that his life, like an open book, has been read and known by the people among whom he has so long lived and prospered."
At his death both the Wabash County Bar Association and the Grant County Bar Association passed resolutions as a tribute to this eminent lawyer and jurist, and a few paragraphs from the resolutions which ap- pear on the records of the Wabash Circuit Court are quoted herewith :
"Judge Shively's career as a soldier, lawyer, legislator, judge and citi- zen was inspiring and worthy of the highest commendation. That he was a brave and gallant soldier was evidenced, rot only by service in more than a half score of desperate battles, but by wounds received in action ; the wounds were cruel ones, in that, to the day of his death, forty-five years later, he continually suffered therefrom.
"That his love of country was predominant in his character is evi- denced by not only his services and sufferings as a private in battle, but by his unflagging zeal in the interests of the surviving soldiers and com- rades of the Union army and the widows and orphans of those who freely gave their lives as sacrifices upon the altar of their country's liber- ties that this government might live, and although without rank in the army the high honor came to him from his comrades and copatriots of his election as department commander.
"Without being fulsome it can be truly said that Judge Shively was a lawyer in all that the term implies, he having a clear, logical and ana- lytical mind and called to its assistance remarkable industry and appli- cation, which made in him a most formidable opponent and adversary. He thoroughly mastered the facts and law relative to any case in which he was interested and none served a client with more zeal and fidelity. His sense of right and justice was predominant and this allied to his industry and capacity gave to his decisions as a judge almost the finality of the decisions of courts of last resort.
"That he was a good lawyer and an ornament to the profession is evidenced by the fact that for twenty years his practice was so varied and successful that he was chosen to preside in the court where his prac- tice had been so forceful, and after twelve years of service on the bench by retiring to the practice and at once resuming his former place as one
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