USA > Indiana > Daviess County > Living leaders, an encyclopedia of biography : special edition for Daviess and Martin counties, Indiana > Part 13
USA > Indiana > Martin County > Living leaders, an encyclopedia of biography : special edition for Daviess and Martin counties, Indiana > Part 13
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KNUTE NELSON.
S TURDY, thrifty and loyal, with mental and physical capacities that enable them to adapt themselves to any line of useful work, the United States has no better citizens than those who come from the land of the Vikings. Knute Nelson, ex-Governor of Minnesota, is one of these. He was born in the parish of Voss, near the city of Bergen, Norway, February 2, 1843. When three years of age he lost his father, and in 1849 he came to the United States with his mother, living in Chicago until the fall of 1850, and then in the state of Wisconsin until the summer of 1871. In August of the lat- ter year he removed to Alexandria, Minn., which city has since been his home. Mr. Nelson is a graduate of the Albion, Wis., Academy. He served in the Civil war as a private and non-commissioned officer, and was wounded and taken prisoner at the siege of Port Hudson, La. After the war he studied law, and in 1867 was admitted to the bar of the Circuit court of Dane County. He was a member of the Wisconsin Legislature in 1868 and 1869; was county attorney for Doug- las County, Minnesota, from 1872 to 1874; was state senator in the Minnesota Legislature from 1875 to 1878; was presidential elector on the Republican ticket in 1880, and was a member of the board of regents of the State University from February, 1882, to January, 1893. He was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress from the Fifth district of Minnesota, and was twice re-elected, his course in that body being such as to greatly increase his popularity. In 1892 Mr. Nelson was nominated by acclamation for governor of Minnesota, and elected. He has made a reputation as a conscientious and common-sense politician, and his influence is great among his own countrymen in the Northwest.
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KNUTE NELSON.
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RICHARD JAMES OGLESBY.
P ERPETUALLY beaming with cordial good nature, and as full of humorous anecdote and apt illustration as that other son of Illi- nois, the immortal Lincoln, ex-Senator Oglesby is affectionately referred to by his political friends, as he once was by his soldiers, as "Uncle Dick." He was born in Oldham County, Kentucky, July 25, 1824. Left an orphan at the age of eight years, he removed to Decatur, Ill., in 1836, and learned the carpenter's trade, which, with farming and rope-making, occupied him until 1844. He had studied law in the mean time, and in 1845 was admitted to the bar. He partici- pated in the Mexican war as first lieutenant in the Fourth Illinois regi- ment, and in 1847 resumed the practice of law in Decatur. In 1849 he went to California and engaged in mining until 1851, when he returned to Illinois. In 1860 he was elected to the State Senate, but resigned in the following year to accept the colonelcy of the Eighth Illinois Volunteer regiment. He commanded a brigade at the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, and for gallantry was made briga- dier-general. Again distinguishing himself at Corinth, where he was severely wounded, he was promoted to the rank of major-general. He resigned in 1864, and in November of that year was elected governor of Illinois. He continued in that office until 1869, and was again elected in 1872. During the following year he was chosen United States senator, serving in that capacity until March 3, 1879. In 1884 he was again elected governor for a term of four years, and since 1888 has held no public office. General Oglesby takes a great inter- est in the affairs of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is one of the greatest sons of his great state.
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COPYRIGHT BY SILAZI
RICHARD JAMES OGLESBY.
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GEORGE WASHINGTON PECK.
G RADUATING from the printer's case to the editorial tripod, and there acquiring a national reputation as a humorist, George W. Peck found it a comparatively easy matter to make the rest of the journey to the honorable position of governor of Wisconsin. His early life was a continuous struggle for a competence. Born in Henderson, Jefferson County, N. Y., September 28. 1840, he was taken to Wis- consin in childhood by his parents. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to the printer's trade in the office of the Whitewater (Wis.) "Register," and afterward worked in various places as a journeyman printer. In 1860 he purchased on credit a half interest in the "Jeffer- son County Republican," at Jefferson, Wis., but sold out a year later. In 1863 he enlisted as a private in the Fourth Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry, and for two and a half years served with his regiment in the south, being promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In the fall of 1866 he went to Ripon, Wis., and started a newspaper called the "Representative," which he conducted for about two years, and was then engaged as a writer for the La Crosse "Democrat," published by "Brick" Pomeroy. He subsequently became half owner of that paper and changed its name to the "Liberal Democrat." In 1874 he founded the "Sun" at La Crosse, removed it to Milwaukee in 1878, called it "Peck's Sun," and made it a great success. As a vehicle for his humorous musings it became very popular. Some of his collected arti- cles have been published in book form, notably "Peck's Bad Boy." Mr. Peck was first mayor of Milwaukee and was subsequently elected governor of Wisconsin on the Democratic ticket in 1892. He enjoys the respect and confidence of the people.
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GEORGE WASHINGTON PECK.
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THOMAS WITHERELL PALMER.
O F the many hundreds who have enjoyed his hospitality, or even of the many thousands who have formed his acquaintance in a social, political, or business way, it would be difficult to find one who has anything but praise for ex-Senator Palmer, of Michigan. His genial disposition and sympathetic nature have given him a strong hold on a wide circle of friends, whose number was greatly increased dur- ing the World's Fair of 1893. Thomas W. Palmer was born in Detroit, January 25, 1830. After receiving an education he made a pedestrian tour in Spain, traveled in South America, and then engaged in mercantile life in Wisconsin. Subsequently he became a successful lumber merchant in Detroit, and interested himself in the politics of the state, serving as a member of the board of estimates and as a state senator in 1878. He was defeated for Congress in 1876, but was elected United States senator from Michigan for a term of six years from March 4, 1883. Upon the election of President Harrison, Senator Palmer was appointed Minister to Spain, but not finding the climate of that country agreeable he soon after resigned and returned to Detroit. In June, 1890, he was elected president of the National Commission having charge of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, a post which he filled most acceptably until after the close of the Exposition. Mr. Palmer impresses one as a man who thoroughly enjoys life, and is anxious that everybody about him should do the same. He is noted for his magnificent hospitality, his optimistic estimate of human character and motives, and his readiness to extend a helping hand to those who are striving to gain a foothold in the world. Naturally, he has a host of friends.
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THOMAS WITHERELL PALMER.
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ELIA WILKINSON PEATTIE.
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TOURNALISTIC ability of the highest order, and a versatility and capacity for work that are amazing, must be accorded to that brill- iant western writer, Mrs. Elia W. Peattie. She was born in Kala- mazoo, Mich., January 15, 1862, and before she was ten years old was taken by her parents to Chicago, where she grew to womanhood, and where she was married in 1883 to Robert Burns Peattie, a well- known Chicago journalist. She was an omnivorous reader from child- hood, and had written several short stories that attracted attention before she became regularly employed on the Chicago "Tribune" as a reporter. She afterward held a similar position on the "Morning News"- now the "Record"-and in 1888 removed with her husband to Omaha, since which time she has been one of the leading editorial writers of the Omaha "World-Herald." In addition to her editorial work, which has taken the widest possible range of subject, she pub- lishes every week a signed article on topics of her own choosing. Her regular literary work has included many contributions to such juvenile publications as "St. Nicholas" and "Wide-Awake," and such leading periodicals as the "Century," "Harper's Weekly," "Cosmopoli- tan" and "Lippincotts'." While in Chicago, between the rush of newspaper work and home duties, she wrote "The Story of America," a child's history, which has passed through many editions, and "With Scrip and Staff," a remarkable story of the children's cru- sade in the year 1200. She also wrote "The Judge," a novel, which was awarded a prize by the Detroit "Free Press," and afterward pub- lished in book form. She is one of the founders of the Omaha Woman's Club, and frequently lectures on literary and economical topics.
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ELIA WILKINSON PEATTIE.
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JOHN MCAULEY PALMER.
W HETHER on a battle-field or in a political campaign, in a legal contest or legislative debate, Senator John M. Palmer, of Illi- nois, is known as a man of aggressive courage. He is a native of Eagle Creek, Scott County, Ky., where he was born September 13, 1817. He removed with his father to Madison County, Illinois, in 1831, completing his education in Alton (now Shurtleff ) College, and in 1839 settled in Carlinville, where he was admitted to the bar. He was twice elected probate judge of Macoupin County; was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1847; served as county judge for forty years thereafter, and was a member of the State Senate from 1852 until 1856. In the latter year he was a delegate to the Repub- lican National Convention in Philadelphia, and in 1860 was a presiden- tial elector on the Republican ticket. He was elected a member of the Peace Conference in Washington in 1861, and in the same year he was made colonel of the Fourteenth Illinois infantry, participating in the Civil war. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general December 20, 1861, and for conspicuous gallantry at the battle of Stone River was commissioned major-general November 29, 1862. General Palmer was elected governor of Illinois in 1868, and held the office until 1873. He was afterward three times a candidate for the United
States Senate as a Democrat, but failed of election, and in 1888 entered the race for the governorship of Illinois and was defeated. In 1890 he was elected United States senator by the Democratic members of the Legislature, and has since been dealing sledge-hammer blows at the opposition in Washington. His term will expire March 3, 1897. He is a man of great force.
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JOHN MCAULEY PALMER.
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THOMAS COLLIER PLATT.
V ERY few shrewder men, very few men more earnest in following a path once entered upon, and very few more sensible and adaptable have appeared in American politics than Thomas Collier Platt, of New York. He was born in Owego, N. Y., July 15, 1833. He received a thorough education and entered Yale College, but left in 1853, at the end of his sophomore year, because of failing health. He continued his studies, however, and in 1876 received the honorary degree of M. A. He engaged in business, and eventually became president of the Tiogo, N. Y., National Bank, and later engaged in the lumber business in Michigan, becoming a business man of decided prominence and influence. In 1872 he was elected to Congress, and was re-elected in 1874, in the mean time becoming a most important factor in state politics. In January, 1881, he was chosen United States senator, to take the place of Francis Kernan. His occupancy of the seat was but a brief one. There came the famous fight over the distribution of patronage in New York, and then followed the simulta- neous resignation of Roscoe Conklin and Thomas Platt, the two sena- tors from New York. Mr. Platt became again a candidate for the seat, but was defeated. He then became secretary and director of the United States Express Company, and since 1880 has been its president. He has not, however, disappeared from politics. He became commis- sioner of quarantine of New York, when his strong hand was felt as it is felt now in the trend of New York politics. He was a mem- ber of the National Republican conventions in 1876, 1880 and 1884, and for years was a member of the Republican National Committee. Mr. Platt is recognized as a power in politics.
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TERENCE VINCENT POWDERLY.
F "OR fifteen years the guiding star, the ruling spirit, of the order of Knights of Labor, the greatest organization of workingmen ever successfully planned or held together by wise council and tactful man- agement, Terence V. Powderly has earned a place among the great men of America. Mr. Powderly was born at Carbondale, Pa., Janu- ary 22, 1849. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to learn the trade of machinist in the Delaware & Hudson railroad shops, and three years later he obtained work in the shops of the Delaware, Lack- awanna & Western Railroad Company, at Scranton. His first con- nection with a labor organization was in 1871, when he joined the Machinists' and Blacksmiths' Union, of Scranton, and since 1874, when he became a member of Assembly 88, Knights of Labor, he has been active in promoting the objects for which that organization was created. He was elected Grand Worthy Foreman of the Knights of Labor by the second general assembly, which convened at St. Louis in 1879, and at the convention held in Chicago during September of the same year he was chosen Grand Master Workman of the order. He was annually re-elected to that office and served until the latter part of 1893, when he was superseded by J. R. Sovereign, of Iowa. Mr. Powderly was one of the founders of the "Labor Advocate," a regular contributor to the "Journal of United Labor," and has been three times elected mayor of Scranton. In 1882 he was nominated for lieutenant- governor of Pennsylvania by the Greenback-Labor party, but declined the nomination. He has lately devoted himself to the study of law, and will give the remainder of his life to the practice of that profession and to the cause of labor.
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TERENCE VINCENT POWDERLY.
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JOHN WESLEY POWELL.
A VALUED contributor to the cause of science, and one whose writings are regarded as standard and exhaustive on the subjects whereof they treat, Maj. John W. Powell is well fitted for the director- ship of the United States Geological Survey, a position he has filled for a number of years. He was born in Mount Morris, N. Y., March 24, 1834, and spent much of his early life in Ohio, Wisconsin and Illinois, during which time he made collections of geological and
natural history specimens. At the beginning of hostilities in 1861, he enlisted as a private in the Twentieth Illinois Infantry, afterward becom- ing lieutenant-colonel of the Second Illinois Artillery, and although he lost an arm at the battle of Shiloh he continued in active service until the close of the war. He then became professor of geology and curator of the museum in the Illinois Wesleyan University and in the Illinois Normal University, and in 1868 organized a party for the exploration of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. The success of the expedition led the general government to sanction the establishment of a topographical and geological survey, a department that has since assumed its present form and name. Major Powell, under the direc- tion of the Smithsonian Institution, established a Bureau of Ethnology, of which he remained chief until 1881, when he was appointed director of the Geological Survey, and served for thirteen years. He has received honorary degrees from various colleges and universities, both in this country and in Europe, and is a member of many learned socie- ties. He has written extensively on his favorite themes, and is the author of a number of standard works on geology and natural history. He resigned the directorship of the Geological Survey in 1894.
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JOHN WESLEY POWELL.
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JOSEPH PULITZER.
E "NERGY, enterprise and the ability to perceive and to supply on the shortest notice the wants of the reading public, must be con- sidered as a part of the capital necessary in the building up of a great metropolitan newspaper. These requisites are possessed in an extraor- dinary degree by that successful journalist, Joseph Pulitzer, proprietor of the New York "World" and the St. Louis "Post-Dispatch." Mr. Pulitzer was born in Buda-Pesth, Hungary, April 10, 1847. He came to America in early youth, and settled in St. Louis, where he quickly acquired a knowledge of English, became interested in politics, and was elected to the Missouri Legislature in 1869, and to the state constitu- tional convention in 1874. He entered journalism at the age of twenty on the St. Louis "Westliche Post," a German Republican newspaper, at that time under the editorial control of Carl Schurz. Subsequently he became its managing editor, and obtained a proprietary interest. In 1878 he founded the St. Louis "Post-Dispatch," and still retains control of that journal. In 1883 he purchased the New York "World," which, after twenty-three years of existence under various managers, had achieved no permanent success, and at once greatly increased its circulation. He is at present its editor and sole proprietor. Mr. Pulitzer was elected to Congress in 1884, but resigned a few months after taking his seat on account of the pressure of journalistic duties. Indomitable pluck and perseverance, coupled with keen foresight and a faculty for keeping a little ahead of the times, have enabled Joseph Pulitzer, within a comparatively few years, to enroll his name among the greatest journalists of the period and to become recognized as the creator of one of the most successful newspapers in the world.
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JOSEPH PULITZER. 375
GEORGE MORTIMER PULLMAN.
F OR many years there has been no name so inseparably associated with progress in railway equipment as that of George M. Pull-
man. The sleeping cars invented by him, and bearing his name, are known all over the world. Mr. Pullman was born in Chautauqua County, New York, March 3, 1831, and began to support himself at the age of fourteen. At twenty-two he successfully undertook a contract for moving warehouses and other buildings along the line of the Erie canal, then being widened by the state. In 1859 he removed to Chicago and engaged extensively in the then novel occupation of raising entire blocks of brick and stone buildings. In the same year he began experimenting with the idea of inventing a sleeping-car for railway travel, and in 1865 the first car, built on the now well-known model, was completed, and named "Pioneer." The fleet has grown from one car to many hundred and its working force from half a dozen men to fifteen thousand. The cars are operated on nearly a hundred roads and over a mileage equivalent to five times the circum- ference of the globe. The Pullman Palace Car Company, of which Mr. Pullman is president, was organized in 1867, and from the first has regularly paid its quarterly dividends. Mr. Pullman designed and established the vestibuled trains, now so popular. In 1880 he founded, near Chicago, the industrial town of Pullman, where the numerous employes of the company reside with their families. Architecturally, the town is picturesque, and according to mortality statistics it is one of the most healthful places in the world. Mr. Pullman is addicted to no affectations; is plain in his address, thoroughly business-like in his habits and without ostentation in his liberal gifts to charity.
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GEORGE MORTIMER PULLMAN.
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JULIAN RALPH.
ULIAN RALPH, who, having made a brilliant record in journalism, J -
is now making one as striking in literature, was born in New York City, May 27, 1853, his father being an English physician who came to this country early in the century. Mr. Ralph received his schooling in public and private schools and was forced by family reverses to shift for himself at fourteen, when he became a printer's apprentice. At eighteen he was local editor of the Red Bank, N. J., "Standard," and started a newspaper of his own, the "Leader," in the same town. That failed and he became editor of the Webster, Mass., "Times" during a broken period of eighteen months. At twenty he was a reporter on the "Daily Graphic" in New York, and at twenty- one went on the New York "Sun," on the staff of which journal he has been ever since. A series of humorous dialect sketches, entitled "The German Barber," first called public attention to his work, and of late years he has written many papers of travel and adventure for "Harper's," "The Century," and "Scribner's." Fiction he did not attempt until 1894, when he began to exploit his knowledge of the swarming poor of his native city in a series of short stories. His books are "On Canada's Frontier," "Our Great West," and "Chicago and the Fair." He was married in 1876 to Miss M. Isabella Mount, of Middletown, N. J., and is the father of five children. Mr. Ralph is perhaps one of the most notable exponents of the fact that a newspaper training rather fits than unfits a writer for purely literary work. A brilliant group of newspaper men have lately graduated with deserved honors in the literary field, but among them none is more prominent than the subject of this sketch.
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Yours Sincerely
JULIAN RALPH. 379
OPIE READ.
R ANKING high among American humorists and delineators of Southern character, Opie Read has firmly established himself in the good graces of the reading public. Born in Nashville, Tenn., December 22, 1852, Mr. Read received his education in a private school and at Neophogen College, Gallatin. He learned the printer's trade, which he followed for a livelihood for some years, and in 1873 became a newspaper reporter and general writer, associated with the "Patriot," of Franklin, Ky. He afterward had charge of the city department of the Little Rock (Ark.) "Gazette," and it was during this connection that he began writing those inimitable short stories and sketches of Southern life that subsequently made him famous. In 1882 he founded the "Arkansaw Traveler," at Little Rock, and the paper became so popular that in 1887, with a view to increasing the scope of the publication, it was decided to remove the plant to Chicago, from which city the paper was thereafter issued. In 1891 he withdrew from the "Arkansaw Traveler" for the purpose of devoting his whole time to regular literary work, and has published a number of novels that have added greatly to his reputation. He is the author of "A Kentucky Colonel," "Emmett Bonlore," "The Colossus," "A Tennessee Judge," "Len Gansett," and other novels, besides innumerable short sto- ries. Recently he has achieved success on the platform by giving public readings from his own works. Like most large men, for Opie Read is a giant in stature, he is generous and warm-hearted to a degree. His conversation abounds with humorous anecdote and keen flashes of wit, and in the rooms of the Chicago Press Club, his favor- ite lounging place, he is especially popular,
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OPIE READ.
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WHITELAW REID.
T HOUGH cast in a different mold, it may be said that the pres- ent editor of the New York "Tribune" is in some respects as great a man as his eminent predecessor, the sage of Chappaqua. Whitelaw Reid was born in Xenia, Ohio, October 27, 1837. He was graduated at Miami University in 1856, and in the following year took editorial charge of the Xenia "News." When the war broke out he went to Washington as the correspondent of the Cincinnati "Gazette," subsequently accompanying the Union army on its march south, and his descriptions of battles were valuable contributions to the record of the war. In 1865 he was invited by Horace Greeley to take an edi- torial position on the staff of the New York "Tribune," and upon the death of Mr. Greeley he succeeded to the ownership and manage- ment of that paper. Extremely earnest in his political views, Mr. Reid, since he became a resident of New York, has exercised a pow- erful influence in local, state and national campaigns, and upon the accession of President Harrison in 1889 he was appointed United States Minister to Paris. In 1892, when Mr. Harrison was a candidate for re-election, Mr. Reid received the nomination for vice-president, and suf- fered the common fate of Republican candidates in that year. He is the author of a number of books relating to the history of Ohio dur- ing the war, to the condition of the South after the war, and upon subjects of a political and journalistic character. He is regent of the New York State University, and a member of many social, political and scientific organizations. Under his able management the "Tribune" has become a great power in political circles and the representative Republican organ in the East.
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