USA > Indiana > Daviess County > Living leaders, an encyclopedia of biography : special edition for Daviess and Martin counties, Indiana > Part 14
USA > Indiana > Martin County > Living leaders, an encyclopedia of biography : special edition for Daviess and Martin counties, Indiana > Part 14
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382
WHITELAW REID.
383
GEORGE GRAHAM VEST.
A NATURAL orator, a man of intense feeling, generous impulses and marked ability, George G. Vest, United States senator from Missouri, has become well known, not alone in the state he represents, but throughout the country. He has been a conspicuous Democratic figure in the Senate for years. He was born in Frankfort, Ky., De- cember 6, 1830. He attended the high school of B. B. Sayre, in Franklin, for ten years, and in 1846 entered Centre College, at Dan- ville, in the same state, graduating in 1848. He studied law and removed to Georgetown, Mo., to engage in its practice. In 1856 he removed from Georgetown to Booneville. In 1861 he was elected to the Legislature, but soon entered the Confederate army, and later became a member of the Confederate Congress, in which body he served two years. At the close of the war he resumed the practice of the law in Sedalia, Mo., forming a partnership with Judge John F. Philips. Mr. Vest from this date incidentally took part in the political canvasses of the Democratic party, and so became widely and favorably known throughout the state. In 1877 he removed from Sedalia to Kansas City, intending to engage in his profession there, but was elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat, in place of James H. Shields, Democrat, who had been elected to fill the place made vacant by the death of Louis V. Bogy. Mr. Vest was re-elected in 1885, and again in 1890. In the Senate he has served on the important standing committees, and has shown the possession of statesmanlike qualities, while his gifts as a speaker and his qualities of personal popularity have added to his strength in that body. In his own state there has been no candidate opposed to him on the occasion of his renominations.
384
GEORGE GRAHAM VEST.
385
JOHN ROGERS.
TN elevating the artistic taste of the masses, there can be no doubt that the well known "Rogers Groups" of statuary have had a large share. John Rogers, the sculptor, was born in Salem, Mass., and educated in the Boston high school. While working in a machine shop at Manchester, N. H., his attention was first drawn to sculpture, and he began to model in clay in his leisure hours. In 1858 he visited Europe, and upon his return, in 1859, he went to Chicago, where he modeled, for a charity fair, "The Checker Players," a group in clay, which attracted much attention. He produced also some other groups, but "The Slave Auction," which was exhibited in New York in 1860, first brought him to the notice of the general public. This was the forerunner of the celebrated war series of statuettes, which included, among others, "The Picket Guard," "One More Shot," "Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations," "Union Refugees," "Wounded Scout," and "Council of War." His works on social subjects, most of which have been produced since the war, include "Coming to the Parson," "Checkers up at the Farm," "The Charity Patient," "Fetch- ing the Doctor," and "Going for the Cows." His groups in illustra- tion of passages in the poets, particularly Shakespeare, have also been very popular, but he has been most successful in illustrating every-day life in its humorous and pathetic aspects. His equestrian statue of Gen. John F. Reynolds, which stands before the city hall in Philadel- phia, was completed in 1883, and in 1887 he exhibited "Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman," a bronze group. A collection of Mr. Rogers' works was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.
386
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JOHN ROGERS.
387
ANNA KATHARINE GREEN ROHLFS.
B Y far the most astonishing thing about that widely-read novel, "The Leavenworth Case," and the later productions from the same pen, is that they were written by a woman. The book in question is now used in Yale College as a text book to show the fallacy of circumstantial evidence, and is the subject of comments by learned lawyers, to whom it appeals by its mastery of legal points. Anna Katharine Green, which is the author's maiden name, and the one by which she is known throughout the world, inherits her legal turn of mind. She is the daughter of a lawyer, and was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., November 11, 1846. While she was yet a child the family removed to Buffalo, and there her education was conducted until she was old enough to enter Ripley Female College, at Poultney, Vt. In her childhood she composed innumerable poems and stories, and soon after her graduation she wrote her first novel, "The Leav- enworth Case," which at once attracted the attention of the literary world, and was afterward dramatized. Her success brought eager invi- tations from publishers to furnish them stories, and other novels fol- lowed, including "A Strange Disappearance," "The Sword of Damo- cles," "Hand and Ring," "X. Y. Z.," "The Mill Mystery," "7 to 12," "Behind Closed Doors," "The Forsaken Inn," "A Matter of Millions," "Cynthia Wakeham's Money," and "The Old Stone House." Her poetical works are embraced in a volume entitled "The Defense of the Bride, and Other Poems," and "Risifi's Daughter," a drama. In November, 1884, she was married to Charles Rohlfs, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Her stories are all ingenious in plot and full of dramatic interest, and they have been published abroad in various languages.
388
ANNA KATHERINE GREEN ROHLFS.
389
WILLIAM STARKE ROSECRANS.
C HIEFLY as a great military leader, but in no small degree as a diplomat and as a promoter of large enterprises, Gen. William S. Rosecrans has won enduring fame. He was born in Kingston, Ohio, September 6, 1819, and was graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1842, entering the corps of engineers. In 1854, after attaining the rank of first lieutenant, he resigned to establish him- self in Cincinnati as an architect and civil engineer. In 1855 he took charge of the Cannel Coal Company, of West Virginia, becoming also, in 1856, president of the Coal River Navigation Company, and in 1857 he organized the Preston Coal Oil Company. At the beginning of the Civil war he volunteered as aide to General Mcclellan, then command- ing the Department of the Ohio, and later succeeded Mcclellan in the command of that department. In 1862 he was made commander of the Department of the Columbia, and conducted a campaign remarkable for brilliant movements and heavy fighting. After the war General Rosecrans went to California, and was offered the Democratic nomina- tion for governor of that state, but declined it. He was appointed Minister to Mexico, July 27, 1868, and held that office until June 26, 1869, when he returned to the United States and declined the Demo- cratic nomination for Governor of Ohio. He was subsequently for a number of years connected with important railway and mining projects in California and Mexico, and in 1876 he declined the Democratic nomination for Congress from Nevada. In 1881 he was elected to Congress from California, serving until March, 1885, and in June of the latter year he was appointed register of the United States Treasury by President Cleveland.
390
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WILLIAM STARKE ROSECRANS.
391
WILLIAM EUSTIS RUSSELL.
T O be governor of Massachusetts is, as it has been since the begin- ning of the republic, an honor to any man. Doubly great is it when the man who becomes governor has but lately attained man- hood. This honor came to William Eustis Russell, who was born in Cambridge, Mass., January 6, 1857. He received the ordinary com- mon-school education, but was widely popular, and when he was but twenty-five years of age was elected alderman and showed such marked ability that he was re-elected without opposition. In 1885 he became a candidate for mayor of Cambridge and was re-elected for three terms. He abandoned politics and went into business, but was called into the field again by the clamor of his party as the most available man in all Massachusetts for the Democratic party. He was made candidate for governor, but was defeated by a vote of twenty-eight thousand. He was again nominated in the succeeding year and was again defeated, but this time by only six thousand seven hundred and seventy-five votes. In 1890 he was again nominated and elected by nearly nine thousand plurality. He was re-elected at the end of his term and retained his place until the Republican upheaval in Massachusetts. He is one of the shrewdest and most careful of the young men in politics, for he is not yet forty years of age. His extraordinary success in such a state, at such an age, and under such circumstances, made him a prominent figure, and he has become, to an extent, conspicuous as a possible Democratic candidate for vice-president of the United States. He is one of the possible great factors in directing the affairs, not merely of his own state, but of the nation. It is already the political fancy to talk of him as presidential a possibility.
392
WILLIAM EUSTIS RUSSELL.
393
PATRICK JOHN RYAN.
R EMARKABLY eloquent, vigorous and impressive, with a depth of learning and force of character that make him a power in his particular sphere, Archbishop Ryan, of Philadelphia, has fairly won the ecclesiastical honors that have come to him. He was born in Cloney- harp, near Thurles, Ireland, February 20, 1831, receiving his education at Thurles and Dublin, and afterward entering Carlow College to pre- pare himself for the American mission. In 1853 he was ordained deacon, and during the same year he set out for St. Louis, Mo., where he finished his ecclesiastical studies in Carondelet Seminary, and was raised to the priesthood in 1854. Father Ryan became vicar-gen- eral February 15, 1872, was elected coadjutor archbishop of St. Louis and consecrated under the title of Bishop of Tricomia April 14. Owing to the age of Archbishop Kenrick, most of the work of governing the diocese devolved upon him, but he was equal to the emergency and his administration was energetic and successful. Bishop Ryan was one of the prelates selected in 1883 to represent the interests of the Roman Catholics of the United States in Rome. He was nominated arch- bishop of Philadelphia June 8, 1884. During that year he was pres- ent at the third plenary council of Baltimore, at which the opening discourse, "The Church in Her Councils," was pronounced by him. In 1887 he again went to Rome on business connected with the plan of establishing a Catholic university in Washington. As a pulpit ora- tor, Archbishop Ryan has few equals in the ranks of American clergy- men. Some of his lectures have been published, among the most popular of them being "What Catholics Do Not Believe," and "Some of the Causes of Modern Religious Skepticism."
394
PATRICK JOHN RYAN.
395
EDGAR SALTUS.
W FIELDING English with the precision of the finished scholar, and displaying consummate skill in the handling of every subject that he undertakes to discuss, Edgar Saltus is unquestionably a master of the art literary. Moreover, he possesses the rare faculty of com- pelling interest in his subject by the very charm of his style. Mr. Saltus was born in New York City June 8, 1858. His early educa- tion was received at St. Paul's school, Concord, N. H., after which he went abroad and studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, and in Heidelberg and Munich, Germany. After his return he entered the Columbia College Law School, where he was graduated in 1880. His earliest literary efforts were in poetry, some of which gave evidence of the talent and artistic ability then in process of development, but his philo- sophical bent led him early into prose writing and to the revelation of thoughts and theories that at once attracted attention to his work. His first book was "Balzac," a biography published in Boston in 1884. He next devoted himself to the presentation of the pessimistic philoso- phy, a history of which he published in 1885 under the title of "The Philosophy of Disenchantment." This was followed by an analytical exposition, entitled "The Anatomy of Negation," which was first pub- lished in London in 1886, and in New York in 1887. Mr. Saltus is also the author of "Mr. Incoul's Misadventure," "The Truth About Tristrem Varick," "Eden," "Imperial Purple," "Mary Magdalene," and other works. In all his writings there is evinced a rare delicacy of touch, a felicitous blending of light and shadow, that give one the impression imparted by a series of artistically-drawn pictures, and stamp the writer as a word-painter of strong individuality.
396
EDGAR SALTUS.
397
JOHN McALLISTER SCHOFIELD.
TN noting the famous military men of today-those who have contin- ued their connection with the army, whether confronted by grim- visaged war or white-winged peace-one naturally turns to John M. Schofield, the present commander of the army. General Schofield was born in Chautauqua, N. Y., September 29, 1831. He graduated at West Point in 1853, and two years later attained the rank of first lieutenant. He then became professor of natural philosophy in the West Point Academy, and later, while on leave of absence, was pro- fessor of physics, in Washington University, St. Louis. Being in St. Louis at the time of the breaking out of the war, in 1861, his first active service in the great contest was as chief of staff to General Lyon, who was killed at Springfield, Mo. He was appointed major- general of volunteers in 1862, and in 1864 commanded the Army of the Ohio, forming the left wing of Sherman's army in the Atlanta campaign, where he distinguished himself for bravery and good gener- alship. General Schofield succeeded Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of War June 2, 1868, and remained in that office until the close of Johnson's administration, and under Grant, until March 12, 1869, when he was appointed major-general in the United States army and ordered to the Department of the Missouri. He was president of the board that adopted the present tactics for the army in 1870, went on a spe- cial mission to the Hawaiian Islands in 1873, and was president of the board of inquiry on the case of Fitz-John Porter in 1878. Upon the death of General Sherman, in 1888, he was placed in command of the army, but under existing laws he was retired in 1895, being succeeded by General Miles.
398
JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD.
399
ALBERT SHAW.
A LBERT SHAW, now editor and publisher of the American "Re- view of Reviews," ranks very fairly among the great young men of the United States. He was born in Butler County, Ohio, July 23, 1857, and is, therefore, just thirty-seven years old. He was fitted for college privately, and went to Iowa in 1875, where he graduated in 1879 at Iowa College (Grinnell). His tastes were strongly for public questions and for writing, and he entered local Iowa newspaper- dom, continuing his reading in economics and political science. After- ward he went for advanced study to the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), where in 1884 he took the degree of Ph. D. on comple- tion of work in political economy, constitutional law and history, etc. Meanwhile he had accepted an editorial position on the Minneapolis " Morning Tribune." He was one of the founders of the American Economic Association ten years ago, and has contributed important monographic volumes to its publications, and also to those of the series of publications in history and politics of the Johns Hopkins University. In 1887 he went to Europe for a vacation of a year and a half, and traveled extensively, among other things making a special study of municipal government. On his return he was offered numerous uni- versity professorships, but decided to remain in journalism, but accepted lectureships at the Johns Hopkins, Cornell, University of Wisconsin, etc. After another year as editor of the Minneapolis "Tribune," he went to New York, at the opening of 1891, and established the American "Review of Reviews." He continues to edit that periodical, of which he is also the chief owner. He was married in 1893 to Mrs. Bessie Bacon, of Reading, Pa.
400 1
ALBERT SHAW.
401
GEORGE SHIRAS.
F OR a place in which to awake and find one's self famous, there s nothing to compare with the Supreme Court of the United
States. A seat upon that bench brings to the occupant, necessarily, the attention of sixty millions of people, yet it does not follow that, before his elevation, a Supreme Court justice has been more than locally known. The jurist is not advertised as is the politician, nor is a Supreme Court appointment attained as the result of a definite struggle for that great distinction. It has been the subject of much comment that not the most famous men have secured the prominent life position, but it has been the subject of comment quite as much that the appoint- ment of men comparatively unknown to the country at large has resulted well. George Shiras, Jr., was born in Pittsburg, Pa., January 26, 1832. He received a very thorough preliminary education, and later entered Yale College, graduating from that institution in 1853. He attended the Yale Law School in 1854, and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1856. He soon acquired a high standing, espe- cially for his knowledge of corporation law as well as for his general scholarship. He received the degree of LL. D. from Yale University in 1883, and in 1888 was one of the Pennsylvania presidential electors. Upon the death of the associate justice of Brooklyn, in 1892, Mr. Shiras was appointed to the vacant place on the Supreme bench, and took the oath of office October 10 of the same year. His marked ability has been still further manifested in the position he now occu- pies. He is looked upon by his countrymen at large as one of the eminently safe men upon the bench, one who will be affected by no personal inclination but be ever strictly judicial.
402
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GEORGE SHIRAS.
403
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DANIEL EDGAR SICKLES.
P ROMINENT among the men who have served their country faith- fully in times of peace and fearlessly during the more trying period of war is Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. He was born in New York City October 20, 1823, and began life as a printer, but afterward studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1844. He became a member of the State Legislature in 1847, corporation counsel of the city of New York in 1853, and the same year secretary of the Amer- ican legation in London. Two years later he was sent to the State Senate, and in 1857 was elected to Congress and re-elected in 1859. During his first Congressional term, discovering a guilty intimacy between his wife and Philip Barton Key, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, he shot Key in the street February 27, 1859. He was indicted for murder, but acquitted. In 1861 he raised the Excelsior Brigade and entered the service as colonel, soon acquiring the rank of brigadier-general and later that of major-general. He was con- spicuous for gallantry in many battles, and at Gettysburg lost a leg. In 1865 he was sent on a confidential mission to the South American republics, and in 1866 he joined the Regular army as colonel of the Forty-second Infantry. He was placed on the retired list in 1869, with the full rank of major-general, and one month later President Grant appointed him minister to Spain, a post which he filled until 1873. He became chairman of the New York Civil Service Com- mission in 1888, sheriff of Kings County in 1890, and was elected to the Fifty-third Congress as a Democrat. He is a sturdy and prominent figure in all movements, and, as some one has said, quoting the old phrase, "A man, every inch of him."
404
DANIEL EDGAR SICKLES.
405
JERRY SIMPSON.
R EADERS whose impressions of the Medicine Lodge statesman have been derived from the ridicule of his political opponents, who dubbed him "Sockless Simpson" on account of a remark made in one of his campaign speeches, will be surprised to know that he is a rather good-looking, well-dressed man, with scarcely a suggestion of rural simplicity in his appearance or manner. Congressman Simpson, of Kansas, was born in the province of New Brunswick March 31, 1842, but his parents removed to Oneida County, N. Y., when he was six years of age. At the age of fourteen he began life as a sailor, which pursuit he followed for twenty-three years on the Great Lakes. During the early part of the Civil War he served for a time in Company A, Twelfth Illinois Infantry, but failing health compelled him to leave the service. In 1878 he drifted to Kansas, and is now living six miles from Medicine Lodge, Barber County, where he is engaged in farming and stock raising. Mr. Simpson was a Republican originally, casting his first vote for the second election of Abraham Lincoln, but during the past twelve years has voted and affiliated with the Greenback and Union Labor parties. He twice ran for the Kan- sas Legislature on the Independent ticket in Barber County, but was defeated both times by a small plurality. He was nominated for the Fifty-second Congress by the People's party and elected by the aid of the Democrats, who indorsed his nomination, and was re-elected to the Fifty-third Congress as a Farmers' Alliance candidate. Mr. Simpson is an earnest advocate of reforms for the benefit of the farmer and work- ing classes, and is a member of the committees on Agriculture and Territories.
406
JERRY SIMPSON.
407
FRANCIS HOPKINSON SMITH.
F EW men can truthfully say that they have achieved success and reputation in three different professions. Yet that distinction has been gained by F. Hopkinson Smith, the artist author whose clever work is familiar to all lovers of art and readers of magazine literature. Mr. Smith was born in Baltimore, Md., October 23, 1838. He re- ceived a thorough education and became a civil engineer, which profession he followed with success for a number of years. During that time he built a large number of public works, many of them under contract with
the United States Government. These include the Race Rock, light- house of New London Harbor, in Long Island Sound, and the Block Island breakwater. Mr. Smith is well known as an artist, and has produced some very effective work in water-colors and charcoal. Among his water-colors are "In the Darkling Wood," "Peggotty on the Harlem," "Under the Towers, Brooklyn Bridge," "In the North Woods," and "A January Thaw." He has been occupied also in book and magazine illustration, and in late years has become deservedly popular as an author. In addition to numerous contributions to periodi- cals, embracing stories, sketches of travel, studies of characters and customs, and art reviews, he has published in book form "Well-worn Roads," "Old Lines in New Black and White," "A Book of the Tile Club," and "Colonel Carter of Cartersville." He is a member of various art associations, and from 1875 until 1878 was treasurer of the American Water-Color Society. Mr. Smith has traveled extensively in foreign lands and written many charming magazine articles descriptive of his tours and observations, all illustrated by himself. He is also a humorist and a delightful entertainer.
408
FRANCIS HOPKINSON SMITH.
409
AINSWORTH RAND SPOFFORD.
V ERY well known throughout the United States is the name of the present librarian of Congress, a man who has done well in the difficult post he has occupied for more than a generation. He was born in New Hampshire in 1825, but moved at a comparatively early age to Cincinnati, engaging there as a bookseller and publisher. He acquired a standing rapidly and became eventually editor of the "Daily Commercial." In 1861 he was made assistant librarian of Congress, and in 1865 was nominated to his present place. The posi- tion he occupies is in some respects the most important of its kind in the world. There is growing up under his supervision what will possibly be the greatest library the world possesses. His record for more than a quarter of a century has demonstrated him to be the man for so great a place. There is now being erected in Washing- ton a gigantic structure adapted to hold a collection of books beyond all precedent. Upon his thoughtfulness and energy and his good sense and policy must depend in the immediate future, and probably as long as he may live, the degree of success and completeness of this enor- mous library which one of the greatest of nations is establishing. He has done many good things for the country. Largely through his efforts the great collection of books in the National Library has been made what it is, a collection which will soon contain a million books. To him is to be attributed the reform in the manner of issuing copy- rights and the simple yet efficient manner under which that important branch of the business of the government is now conducted. He deserves the wide reputation he has achieved for discriminating judgment and high literary taste.
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AINSWORTH RAND SPOFFORD.
411
HOKE SMITH.
O NE of the men who have been recently placed in conspicuous positions before the public, and who have demonstrated their fit- ness for the responsible places assigned to them, is Hoke Smith, Secre- tary of the Interior in President Cleveland's cabinet. Mr. Smith is a comparatively new man in national politics. He is a lawyer and an editor from Atlanta, Ga., born in Newton, N. C., September 2, 1855. In years he is the youngest member of the cabinet, represent- ing that young element of the South that has come to the front in public affairs since the war. His father was Prof. H. H. Smith, a distinguished educator of New Hampshire, who came from Revolution- ary stock. Hoke Smith was admitted to the bar in Atlanta in 1873, before he was of age, and became a popular railroad lawyer, not by appearing in the interests of the corporations, but by opposing their
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