USA > Indiana > History of the Indiana democracy, 1816-1916 > Part 69
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The helmet of salvation is worn on the head. For 1900 years it has proven itself the best head protection known to man. Millions of people are getting all sorts of
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HISTORY INDIANA DEMOCRACY-1816-1916
crazy fads and isms in their heads nowa- days. But I have never known a really saved man to take up with any of the quack nostrums of man's devising. The power of salvation experienced in the soul is the best safeguard against false doc- trine .- Rev. Henry B. Hostetter. * *
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The block of granite which was an ob- stacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping stone in the pathway of the strong .- Carlyle. *
The rose-tinted hour invariably comes sooner or later to the man of patience and persistent action .- Willis George Emer- son. ** * *
With us law is nothing unless close be- hind it stands a warm, living, public opin- ion .- Wendell Phillips. * * *
It is prodigious the quantity of good that may be done by one man if he will make a business of it .- Benjamin Frank- lin. *
O toiling hands of mortals ! O unwearied feet, traveling ye know not whither! Lit- tle do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and true success is labor .- Ste- venson. * *
If there is anything the American peo- ple need to learn it is the value of thrift. We are the most wasteful of all nations. We have wasted almost everything on which we could lay our hands, The time to begin to reform has long since passed .- David Hough. * *
* It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjust- ment of things that while there is infec- tion in disease, and sorrow, there is noth- ing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor .- Charles Dickens.
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bring- eth men's minds about to religion .- Fran- ics Bacon.
I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more des- olation. War is hell .- General William Tecumseh Sherman.
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Just try, by taking a few minutes a day -if you cannot take more-to live upon the heights to give heed to that noble and beautiful thing within you which is the real you, which wants to grow and de- velop. Give it a chance. Dwell with in- finite things for a little while every twen- ty-four hours. And "soon the cares that infest the days will fold their tents like Arabs and silently steal away," and life will become very happy, very beautiful. Try it .- Barbara Boyd, in Chicago Post.
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To maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship, but a pastime, if only one will live simply and wisely .- Thoreau.
Man is an animal that cannot long be left in safety without occupation; the growth of his fallow nature is apt to run into weeds .- Hillard.
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The habit of viewing things cheerfully, and of thinking about life hopefully, may be made to grow up in us like any other habit .- Samuel Smiles.
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Do not be afraid because the community teems with excitement. Silence and death are dreadful. The rush of life, the vigor of earnest men, the conflict of realities, in- vigorate, cleanse and establish the truth. -Henry Ward Beecher.
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There is nothing so powerful as truth- and often nothing so strange .- Justice Story. * *
Let the farmer forevermore be honored in his calling; for they who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God .- Thomas Jefferson.
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HISTORY INDIANA DEMOCRACY-1816-1916
He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little .- Horace.
The distance between capital and labor is not a great gulf over which is swung a Niagara suspension bridge; it is only a step, and the laborers here will cross over and become capitalists and the capitalists will cross over and become laborers. Would to God they would shake hands while they are crossing, these from one side, and those from the other side .- T. DeWitt Tal- mage. *
The most infamous traitors in this coun- try are the speculators, who are plunging bayonets into the stomachs of the loyal ones at home .- Ex-Governor Gilchrist of Florida. * * *
"Friends," said he, "the taxes are very heavy, and if those laid on by the govern- ment were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them ; but we have many others, and much more griev- ous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; and from these taxes the com- missioners cannot ease or deliver us by al- lowing an abatement."-Franklin. * *
Do not quarrel, therefore, with your lot in life. Do not complain of its never ceas- ing cares, its petty environment, the vexa- tions you have to stand, the small and sor- did souls you have to live and work with. Above all, do not resent temptation, do not be perplexed because it seems to thicken 'round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort nor for agony nor prayer. That is your practice. That is the practice which God appoints you. And it is having its work in making you patient, and hum- ble, and generous, and unselfish, and kind, and courteous .- Henry Drummond. *
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This is the time for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance. Let every man and
every woman assume the duty of careful, provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a dictate of patriotism which no one can now expect ever to be excused or forgiven for ignoring .- President Wilson. *
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It is seldom that the great or the wise suspect they are despised or cheated .- Dr. Samuel Johnson.
To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; and to have a deference for others governs our manners .- Sterne.
You reap what you sow, not something else, but that. An act of love makes the soul more loving. A deed of humbleness deepens humbleness. The thing reaped is the very thing sown, multiplied a hundred fold. You have sown the seed of life, you reap life everlasting .- P. W. Robert- son.
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TO LIVE LONG LIVE SIMPLY .- From the days of Cornaro down to the present those who have experimented in prolonging life are united upon one point: Live simply and eat very moderately; if the body is choked with waste its organs can not func- tion properly. It is an almost universal cus- tom to eat more than is needed to sustain the body in health. We eat for pleasure long after the needs of the body are met. And by overeating we shorten life. Louis Cornaro was born with a weak constitution. At forty he was subject to severe illnesses and was in appear- ance and feeling an old man. At this time he took himself strictly in hand and began to eat only what he could readily assimilate. He made it a rule to rise from the table while he still felt a dis- position to eat and drink more. As he ad- vanced in years he became still more ab- stemious. As a result he reached the cen- tury mark in good health, with a mind clear and bodily organs well preserved .- John R. Matthews.
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HISTORY INDIANA DEMOCRACY-1816-1916
ODD FACTS ABOUT PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS
Possibly you have forgotten some of these incidents relating to Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the United States :
Washington was the one President to be elected unanimously.
The only Vice-President to resign was John C. Calhoun, who gave up the Vice- Presidency to become a United States Sen- ator.
William Henry Harrison served the shortest time as President, having caught a fatal cold the day he was inaugurated and died exactly one month later.
Impeachment was tried against but one President and failed by one vote, in the case of Andrew Johnson.
Johnson was a tailor and could not read until his wife taught him how.
Five Vice-Presidents became President by the death of the President-Tyler, Fill- more, Johnson, Arthur and Roosevelt.
No physician, preacher or journalist has become President.
Cleveland was the only President to have someone else sandwiched between his two terms, Benjamin Harrison being the sand- wich.
John Adams was not only the oldest of ex-Presidents when he died, being more than 90, but lived the longest after leaving office, about twenty-five years.
Relatively, Washington was the richest President, but his private income was hardly equal to that of Roosevelt.
Colonel Roosevelt was the only Vice- President to attain the presidency by an- other's death and then be honored by a re- election.
Buchanan went through his term a bachelor.
Woodrow Wilson and James A. Garfield were college presidents and Jefferson founded the University of Virginia after he retired from the White House.
The following were Master Masons: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James A. Garfield, William Mc- Kinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft.
Washington, Monroe, Jackson, the two Harrisons, Taylor, Lincoln, Grant, Gar- field, Hayes, Mckinley and Roosevelt were soldiers.
Lincoln's Gettysburg speech and Wash- ington's farewell address are quoted far more frequently than any other presiden- tial utterances.
Cleveland's "Public office is a public Trust," Grant's "Let us have peace," Jack- son's "By the eternal," and Roosevelt's "Malefactors of great wealth" became uni- versal catchwords. So did Rutherford B. Hayes's saying, "He serves his party best who serves his country best."
One President was inaugurated in New York, two in Philadelphia, and all the oth- ers in Washington.
The official salute for the President is twenty-one guns. A salute of 101 guns was fired for King Edward when the proclamation was read. When the body of Napoleon was brought back from St. Helena and arrived in the River Seine a salute of one thousand guns was fired.
At the seventeenth presidential election, 1852, thirty-one States took part with 296 electoral votes. Forty-nine ballots were necessary in the Democratic convention be- fore Franklin Pierce was nominated, a veritable "dark horse." Only three can- didates were before the Whig convention --- General Winfield Scott, Millard Fillmore and Daniel Webster. Scott was nominated on the fifty-third ballot, but obtained only forty-two electoral votes as compared with 254 for Pierce. It was the last campaign of the Whig party.
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CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON By Thomas Jefferson
His mind was great and powerful, with- out being of the very first order ; his pene- tration strong, though not so acute as that of Newton, Bacon or Locke; and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder.
It was slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion. Hence the common remark of his officers, of the advantage he derived from councils of war, where hearing all suggestions, he selected whatever was best; and certainly no General ever planned his battles more judiciously. But if deranged during the course of the action, if any member of his plan was dislocated by sud- den circumstances, he was slow in a read- justment.
The consequence was, that he often failed in the field, and rarely against an enemy in station, as at Boston and New York. He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with calm unconcern.
Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting un- til every circumstance, every consideration was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt, but when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever ob- stacles opposed. His integrity was most pure, his justice the most flexible I have ever known, no motives of interest or con- sanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man.
If ever, however, it broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath. In his expenses he was honorable, but exact; lib- eral in contributions to whatever promised utility, but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects and all unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its affections, but he exactly calculated every man's value and gave him a solid es- teem proportioned to it. His person, you
know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish ; his deportment easy, erect and noble; the best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen on horseback.
Although in the circle of his friends, where he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation, his colloquial talents were not above medi- ocrity, possessing neither copiousness of ideas nor fluency of words. In public, when called on for a sudden opinion, he was un- ready, short and embarrassed. Yet he wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This he had acquired by conversation with the world, for his edu- cation was merely reading, writing and common arithmetic, to which he added surveying at a later day. His time was employed in action chiefly, reading little, and that only in agriculture and English history. His correspondence became nec- essarily extensive, and, with journalizing his agricultural proceedings, occupied most of his leisure hours within doors.
On the whole, his character was, in its mass perfect, in nothing bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said that never did nature and fortune combine more completely to make a man great and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man and everlasting remembrance. For his was the singular destiny and merit of lead- ing the armies of his country suc- cessfully through an arduous war for the establishment of its independence; of con- ducting its country through the birth of a government, new in its forms and princi- ples, until it had settled down into a quiet and orderly train; and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the his- tory of the world furnishes no other ex- ample.
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HISTORY INDIANA DEMOCRACY-1816-1916
MEN IN HIGH OFFICE SHORT-LIVED
To be a President, Vice-President, Sena- tor, or Congressman is to die before one's time is the opinion of Professor Irving Fisher of Yale. He is the author of the following table:
Age when inaugurated
Years from inaug. to death
Expectation of life
Pct. of
exptcy five
Washington
.57
11
16
69
J. Adams
.61
29
13
223
Jefferson
58
25
15
167
Madisor
.58
27
15
180
Monroe
.59
14
15
93
J. Q. Adams
.58
23
15
153
Jackson
.62
16
13
123
Van Buren
.54
25
18
139
Harrison
.68
1-12
9
1
Tyler
57
21
20
105
Polk
49
4
22
18
Taylor
64
1
12
8
Fillmore
51
24
20
120
Pierce
48
16
22
73
Buchanan
.66
11
11
100
Lincoln
.52
4
19
21
Johnson
.56
10
17
59
Grant
47
16
23
70
Hayes
.54
10
18
89
Garfield
.49
Arthur
51
5
20
25
Cleveland
.48
23
22
105
B. Harrison
.56
12
17
71
McKinley
54
4
18
22
Roosevelt
43
Living.
Living.
Living.
Taft
.51
Living.
Living.
Living.
Wilson
.56
Living.
Living.
Living.
Omitting the President and the ex-Presi- dents now living and those that were as- sassinated, we find that Presidents only live out 93 per cent. of their "expected" lives. They started as men of unusual vitality, but the duties of the office are so strenuous that a proper regard for per-
sonal hygiene is impossible, and in conse- quence they suffer an average loss of 7 per cent. of the years to which they are entitled according to the law of averages.
The tendency to curtailment of life among the Vice-Presidents is even more marked. While they do not work so hard, worry so much, or carry so much responsi- bility, they must feast and wine and ban- quet and discharge social duties.
By contrast Professor Fisher shows that a man gains 37 per cent. over his expect- ancy of life by being a president of Yale University.
Averaging the Congressmen in thirty Congresses, it was found that the average Congressman only lives out 82 per cent. of his expectancy. Going to Congress on the average shortens a man's life 18 per cent.
While the strenuous life is responsible for some of the shortening of the lives of Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Senators and Congressmen, bad hygiene is a larger factor. The chief causes emphasized by Professor Fisher are: Indoor and seden- tary living; a crouching, cramping pos- ture ; late dinners, overeating especially of meats, eggs and rich foods; overconcen- tration, or lack of bulk in diet, hasty eat- ing, constipation, irregular hours, lack of sleep, worry and the use of drugs, espe- cially narcotics, like alcohol and tobacco. These errors in personal hygiene, Dr. Evans says, also shorten the lives of those in humbler walks of life.
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2
SHORT HISTORIES
of the
Counties of Indiana
ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY
1816-1918
HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF ADAMS COUNTY
T HE history of the Democracy of Adams county is the story of nearly eighty years of continuous and unbroken victories for the party of the people-four-score years, during which time only Democrats have filled the vari- ous places of trust in one of the best agricultural communities on God's footstool. It is the proud boast of the still "unterrified" leaders of Democ- racy in this county that a Republican has never been elected to a county office here, and the fact that this county now has more than five hundred miles of macadam roads, farms unequaled in the State, beautiful homes, splendid towns and cities, modern public buildings and no public debt, tell the story of how well and faithfully these offi- cials have performed their duties.
Here as elsewhere, no doubt, the early history is to a large extent blurred because of the lack of records and because those men who made it have long since passed to their reward, but from one source and another many facts of interest which, linked together, give a fairly good impression of work well performed have been obtained.
Adams county began its existence by an enact- ment of the Indiana General Assembly in 1836, and the first election was held on the first Monday of April in that year. At that time the Demo- cratic county chairman was James B. Simcoke and the first officials elected in the county were John S. Rhea, Samuel Smith and William Heath, commissioners, their duty being to select the county seat and to divide the county into town- ships; Samuel L. Rugg, clerk; David McKnight, sheriff and assessor, and John K. Evans, collector of state and county revenues. The first state rep- resentative was Col. William Vance, elected in 1839 by a majority of but three votes.
In 1840 the first township elections were held and many interesting stories are told by the old- timers of the fights at the ballot-box in those days. Usually, however, the trouble seemed to be in securing enough candidates. It is told that in Monroe township in 1840 the election was held at the home of Henry Martz, who was also the inspector. Seven votes were cast and every man secured an office.
A complete list of county chairmen is impos- sible, but among those who have served during the past third of a century are: J. T. France, C. J. Lutz, J. W. Tyndall, J. W. Mckean, John C. Moran, R. K. Erwin, D. N. Erwin, J. F. Snow, L. G. Ellingham, J. W. Bosse and T. J. Gallogly. The present chairman is Henry B. Heller.
The most prominent Democrat in the old days of this county was Samuel L. Rugg, who donated the ground for all the public buildings and many churches in the city of Decatur. He served as county clerk and recorder, was a state senator in 1854 and in 1858 was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, being the third man to fill that position in Indiana. He was defeated in 1860 for the same office, but again elected a year later when Mr. Miles Fletcher, who had defeated him, died and a special election was ordered.
Among the Democrats who were successful in local affairs and received considerable notice from over the state were Judge David Studabaker, who served as state senator; Judge James R. Bobo, also a state senator, and Judge D. D. Heller, all of whom served upon the circuit court bench. For many years this county, though known as a safe Democratic stronghold, did not produce any am- bitious men for state or national positions, or perhaps because of the Democratic majority here it was deemed better politics to select can- didates from other counties; at any rate, for half a century or more this county did not have a can- didate for a state position. However, during the past few years we have come in for a goodly share. Lewis G. Ellingham, who retired in 1914 after four years as Secretary of State, is a resi- dent of this county; Judge Richard K. Erwin, late chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, and J. Frederick France, now serving his second term as clerk of the Supreme Court, were natives of this county and a quarter-century ago were law partners in Decatur. Herman L. Conter, former Deputy Secretary of State, and now a candidate for Secretary of State, is also a resident here.
The first Democratic newspaper in Adams county was published in 1852 and was known as the Adams County Democrat, J. B. Simcoke being its editor, and the paper continued until 1863, when it was swallowed by the Decatur Eagle, which had been established in 1857, the first edi- tion being on February 13 of that year. In 1874 The Eagle changed its name to The Decatur Dem- ocrat and continued so until two years ago, when it ceased to live, having lost out in the rush of progress and its place was taken by The Daily Democrat, a four, six and eight-page paper with 3,000 circulation, published each evening. Editors of The Eagle were H. L. Phillips, W. G. Spencer, A. J. Hill, Charles Schirmeyer, Callen & Hudgel, J. R. Bobo, T. Addlesperger, and of The Democrat have been Joseph McGonagle, S. Ray Williams, A. J. Hill, Roth & Cummons, Norval Blackburn,
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HISTORY INDIANA DEMOCRACY-1816-1916
Lew G. Ellingham and John H. Heller. Mr. El- lingham purchased The Democrat in 1896 and was the owner of the controlling interest until 1916, when he sold his holdings to Mr. Heller. The Daily Democrat started in 1903, with Mr. Ellingham as editor and Mr. Heller as man- ager. Its growth has been remarkable, and it is now a substantial and going business institution. From time to time during the years opposition Democratic papers have been established to The Democrat, but always these have been short-lived. Among these have been The Decatur Herald, 1873-1874, Worden & Bobo; Adams County Times,
1876-1877, W. W. Timmons; The Democratic Press, 1894-1896, L. G. Ellingham.
The present officers of Adams county are: Judge, David E. Smith; prosecuting attorney, J. Fred Fruchte; clerk, Will Hammell; auditor, John Mosure; treasurer, George Kinzel; recorder, A. C. Augsburger; sheriff, Ed. Green; surveyor, Orval Harruff; coroner, D. D. Clark; commission- ers, William Reppert, David Dilling and Robert Schwartz; county superintendent, Ed. S. Christen; superintendent county farm, Martin Laughlin; road superintendent, J. A. Hendricks; representa- tive, Joseph Walker.
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HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF ALLEN COUNTY
By Louis S. C. Schroeder
ORGANIZATION.
T HE territory now comprised within the bounds of Allen county was carved, almost wholly, out of the county of Randolph, al- though the act creating the county was entitled, "An Act for the formation of a new county out of the counties of Randolph and Delaware." That act was approved on the 17th day of December, 1823, at the suggestion of General John Tipton. The new county, whose legal existence was to be- gin in April following the passage of the act, was named Allen, in memory of Colonel John Allen of Kentucky, who was killed at the battle of the River Raisin on the 22d day of January, 1813.
By the third section of the act, Lot Bloomfield and Caleb Lewis of Wayne county, William Con- ner of Hamilton county and James M. Ray of Marion county were appointed commissioners to determine and locate the seat of justice for the new county. It further provided that said com- missioners should convene at the house of Alex- ander Ewing, at Fort Wayne, on the fourth Mon- day thereafter and proceed immediately to dis- charge the duties assigned. Fort Wayne was de- termined upon and fixed as the seat of justice.
It is the largest county in the State, having an area of 650 square miles. The principal towns outside of Fort Wayne are Arcola, Grabill, Hoag- land, Monroeville, Maysville (Harlan P. O.), New Haven and Shirley City (Woodburn P. O.). Pop- ulation in 1915 estimated at 110,000. The county is divided into twenty townships, as follows: Adams, Aboite, Cedar Creek, Eel River, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, Madison, Marion, Maumee, Milan, Monroe, Perry, Pleasant, Scipio, Springfield, Saint Joe, Wayne and Washington.
Pursuant to the first section of the act "for carrying the laws into effect in the new county," William Hendricks, Governor of the State by commission dated April 2, 1824, appointed Allen Hamilton Sheriff of Allen county until the next general election and until his successor should be elected and qualified-should he so long behave well. Under that appointment, and in compli- ance with a further provision of the said section, Mr. Hamilton, as such Sheriff, gave notice to the qualified voters of Allen county authorizing and directing them to hold an election on the 22d day of May, 1824, for the purpose of electing two Associate Judges of the Circuit Court, one Clerk of the Circuit Court, one Recorder and the Com- missioners of the county. Samuel Hanna and
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