USA > Indiana > Daviess County > Living leaders, an encyclopedia of biography : special edition for Daviess and Martin counties, Indiana > Part 2
USA > Indiana > Martin County > Living leaders, an encyclopedia of biography : special edition for Daviess and Martin counties, Indiana > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
28
SHELBY M. CULLOM.
29
HENRY WATTERSON.
DENTIFIED with the revenue reform movement of the Democratic 1
party, as an aggressive advocate of free trade ideas, the editor of the Louisville "Courier-Journal" is a man of remarkable force and influ- ence, whose advice is sought by the leaders of his party. Henry Watterson, whose father was a native of Tennessee, was born in Washington, D. C., February 16, 1840, and was educated there by private tutors. He entered the profession of journalism in Washington in 1858, and in 1861 went to Nashville, Tenn., where he edited the "Republican Banner." During the Civil war he served on the Con- federate side, a portion of the time as staff officer, and later as chief of scouts in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army. Soon after the war he went to Louisville, Ky., to reside, and in 1867 succeeded George D. Prentice as editor of the "Journal." In the year following he united the "Courier" and the "Times" with that paper, and in connection with Walter N. Haldeman founded the "Courier-Journal," of which he has since been the editor. He was a member of Congress from August 12, 1876, until March 3, 1877, being chosen to fill a vacancy, but with this exception he has always declined public office. He is usually a delegate to the National Democratic Conventions, and presided over the one at St. Louis in 1876. At others he has served as chair- man of the platform committee. Mr. Watterson was a personal friend
and resolute follower of Samuel J. Tilden. He is prominent as an orator and political speaker; has contributed freely to periodicals, and in 1882 edited "Oddities of Southern Life and Character." As an editor he is easily the leading man in Southern journalism, and under his management the "Courier-Journal" has become a great power.
30
HENRY WATTERSON.
31
LEVI P. MORTON.
T O have been a successful business man, a legislator, a diplomat, a vice-president of the United States; to return quietly to busi- ness as an ordinary citizen, and then, at the age of seventy, to be looked upon as the probable candidate of his party for governor of his state, with a sharp struggle in prospect, is a record to be talked of, and is what Levi P. Morton has made. He was born in Shoreham, Vt., May 16, 1824, a direct descendant of George Morton, one of the Puritan fathers. He acquired the ordinary common school education, became a clerk in a store in Hanover, and showed such capability as to become a partner before he was twenty-one years of age. In 1849 he went into business in Boston, and, in 1854, went to New York, where he established the dry goods firm of Morton & Grinnell. Later he established the banking house of Morton, Rose & Co., with a branch in London, the firms becoming widely known through their connection with the settlement of the Geneva and Halifax awards. In 1878 Mr. Morton was elected to Congress, and was re-elected in 1880. He refused the chance of nomination for vice-president on the Repub- lican ticket the same year, and President Garfield gave him the choice between being Secretary of the Navy or Minister to France. He chose the latter place, and proved a most capable representative of this gov- ernment. He was defeated by Mr. Hiscock as the Republican nomi- nee for United States senator in 1887, but was nominated for vice- president in 1888 and elected with Mr. Harrison. At the end of his term he resumed attention to his business affairs, but in 1894 he became the candidate for governor of New York and was elected by a large majority.
32
LEVI P. MORTON.
33
RUSSELL ALEXANDER ALGER.
M ORE than once has the name and record of the soldier-statesman of Michigan been seriously considered by the Republican party when casting about for an available candidate for President of the United States. Gen. Russell A. Alger has been a successful man, both in political and commercial life. He was born in Lafayette, Ohio, Feb- ruary 27, 1836, and after receiving a liberal education, adopted the pro- fession of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, but two years later, at the breaking out of the war, he entered the volunteer service as captain of the Second Michigan Cavalry. He came out as a brevet major-general, having won promotion by his gallantry on many battle- fields, and especially at Gettysburg and in the Shenandoah Valley, where he greatly distinguished himself for coolness and bravery under the most trying circumstances. After the war he was engaged for a number of years in the lumber business in Detroit, where he amassed a large fortune. In 1884 the Republicans of Michigan elected him governor of the state, and he served two years. He takes an active interest in the affairs of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was chosen commander-in-chief of that organization in 1890. General Alger has rendered valuable service to his party in various state and national campaigns, and has gained a reputation as an enthusiastic worker in the political field. Only his loyalty to other candidates prevented him, on one or two occasions, from allowing his name to be urged for the presidential nomination, and, indeed, he received a handsome vote in the convention of 1888. He has many friends in both political par- ties, and is recognized as a man of unblemished character and marked ability.
34
1142757
***
RUSSELL ALEXANDER ALGER.
3
35
LYMAN J. GAGE.
was while employed as night watchman in a Chicago lumber yard that the opportunity of his life came to Lyman J. Gage. He was offered the position of bookkeeper for the Merchants' Savings, Loan and Trust Company, and accepting it, he began a career which eventually led him to the highest position in connection with any such financial institution, the presidency of the First National Bank, of Chi- cago. Born in De Ruyter, Madison County, N. Y., June 28, 1836, Mr. Gage came to Chicago in the fall of 1855, very poor but full of energy and pluck. Accepting the first employment that offered, he became a man of all work in a planing mill and lumber yard, being reduced to the station of night watchman in 1858, when the Mer- chants' Loan and Trust Company gave him a chance. He rose rap- idly to the office of cashier, and in 1868 he went to the First National Bank to occupy a similar position. He became vice-president and gen- cral manager of that institution in 1882, and was elected president in January, 1891. Mr. Gage was one of the promoters of the World's Columbian Exposition, and was one of four men to practically guaran- tee that Chicago would redeem its pledge to raise $10,000,000 for the Fair. It was his genius and tact which largely made the great enter- prise what it was. He was unanimously elected president of the World's Fair directors, but his duties as president of the bank com- pelled him to resign. Over ten years ago a high compliment was paid to Mr. Gage's genius for financiering by his election to the presi- dency of the American Bankers' Association. He is a man of genial disposition and fine personal appearance.
36
1
LYMAN J. GAGE.
37
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.
S INCE the publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" no book by an American writer, or, perhaps it may be said, by any writer in the world, has reached the standard of popularity and circulation estab- lished by it. Its author has produced better things, from a purely lit- erary point of view, but her name and fame are inseparably associated with her first story. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was the sixth child of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, was born in Litchfield, Conn., June 12, 1812, and was educated at the Litchfield Academy. At the age of twelve she wrote compositions on profound themes, and at the age of fourteen taught a class in "Butler's Analogy." In 1832 she removed with her father's family to Cincinnati, where she was married in 1836 to Professor Calvin Ellis Stowe. Subsequently she made sev- eral visits to the South, and fugitive slaves were often sheltered in her house and assisted to escape to Canada. In 1849 she published "The Mayflower, or Short Sketches of the Descendants of the Pilgrims," and in 1851, while living at Brunswick, Me., where her husband had a chair in Bowdoin College, she wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly." It was published serially in the "National Era," and in 1852 appeared in book form. Nearly five hundred thousand copies were sold in the United States alone within the five years fol- lowing its publication. It has been translated into twenty languages and dramatized in various forms. Mrs. Stowe traveled extensively in Europe for several years, and has published a number of other books, among them "The Minister's Wooing," "Dred; a Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp," "Old Town Folks," "The True Story of Lady Byron's Life," and "Lady Byron Vindicated."
38
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.
39
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
V ERY few men in the United States have made such a record at such an age as has Theodore Roosevelt. No other young man of the old New York families inheriting wealth and position has done anything to compare with him. He was born in New York City, October 27, 1858. He graduated from Harvard, and the next year was elected to the New York Assembly, on the Republican ticket. Young as he was he led the minority in 1882. He was re-elected, and, in the face of bitter opposition, carried through the state civil service reform law and other measures equally important, securing, among other things, a great improvement in the management of city affairs. He was chairman of the New York delegation to the National Republican Convention in 1884, and an unsuccessful candidate for mayor of New York in 1886. In 1889 he was appointed a member of the United States Civil Service Commission, and by his tact, fearless honesty and force of character, made civil service reform something real and tangible. As police commissioner he was instrumental in effecting the recent reconstruction of the police system of New York City. He has been advancing steadily in the literary world as in the polit- ical. He owns a ranch in the northwest, spends a portion of his time there, and his works have in many instances the flavor of that
region in them. Among his books are: "History of the Naval War of 1812," "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman," "Life of Thomas H. Ben- ton," "Life of Gouverneur Morris," "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail," "Winning of the West," "The Wilderness Hunter," and "His- tory of New York." He is a splendid young American, one whose career is being watched with interest by a host of people.
40
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
41
THEODORE THOMAS.
T HE man to whom, more than to any one else in this country, is due the present appreciation of the modern school of German music is Theodore Thomas. He occupies an exalted and unique posi- tion among the musicians of America. Mr. Thomas was born in Essen, Hanover, Germany, October 11, 1835, and received his musical education principally from his father. He first played the violin in public at the age of six. In 1845 he came with his parents to the United States, and for two years played violin solos at concerts in New York. He then traveled for a time in the South, and returning to New York, in 1851, played at concerts and at the opera, at first as one of the principal violinists and afterward as orchestral leader, until 1861. In connection with others, he began a series of chamber concerts in 1855, which were continued until 1869. His first sym- phony concerts were given in 1864, and extended until he left New York, in 1878, to take the direction of the College of Music at Cin- cinnati. He remained in Cincinnati until 1880, and then returned to New York, where he continued his work as conductor of the Brook- lyn Philharmonic Society and the New York Philharmonic Society, occasionally making concert tours, and giving a series of "summer night" concerts in various cities. He was conductor of the American Opera Company from 1885 to 1887. In 1888, after a successful season in Chicago, he disbanded his orchestra and severed his New York connections, subsequently establishing himself in Chicago, where he organized a new orchestra and where he still remains. He was conductor of the orchestral music at the World's Fair in 1893, where his wide reputation was still further extended.
42
-
THEODORE THOMAS.
43
JOHN IRELAND.
N TOTED for his world-wide liberality, and for a patriotism that embraces humanity, Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul, is as popu- lar outside his church as he is within its sacred precincts. As an orator he has gained a national reputation. He was born in Burn- church County, Kilkenny, Ireland, September 11, 1838. His parents emigrated to the United States when he was a boy, and settled in St. Paul, Minn. He went to France in September, 1853, entered the Petit Seminaire of Meximeux, and finished the course in four years, half the usual time. After studying theology in the Grand Seminaire, at Hyeres, he returned to St. Paul in 1861, and was ordained in December of that year. He served as chaplain of the Fifth Minnesota regiment during a part of the Civil war, and was afterward appointed rector of the Cathedral at St. Paul. In 1869 he organized the first total abstinence society in the state. In 1870 he went to Rome as the accredited representative of Bishop Grace at the Vatican. After his consecration as coadjutor bishop of St. Paul in 1875, he undertook the work of colonization in the Northwest. He made large purchases of land in Minnesota, which were taken up by nine hundred Roman Catholic colonists. He then bought twelve thousand acres of land with equally satisfactory results. In 1887 he visited Rome in the interest of a Roman Catholic University, and was subsequently appointed arch- bishop of St. Paul. The Catholics of that diocese are devoted to him, and he has hosts of warm friends outside the church. Archbishop Ireland was for several years president of the State Historical Society, of Minnesota, and has always taken an active interest in the develop- ment of the Northwest.
44
JOHN IRELAND.
45
CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW.
C URIOUSLY enough, one of the greatest railroad magnates in the country, and a man whose abilities and high standing have even caused him to be talked about as a presidential possibility, is best known to the general public as an after-dinner speaker. Chauncey M. Depew was born in Peekskill, N. Y., April 23, 1834. He was gradu- ated at Yale in 1856, and in a few years was admitted to practice. In 1861 and 1862 he was a member of the New York Assembly, and in 1863 was elected Secretary of State. He held other political offices at a later date, but resigned them to engage in the practice of his profession. From 1866 until 1869 Mr. Depew was attorney for the Harlem Railroad Company, after which he was counsel for the consolidated New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company until 1882, when he became second vice-president of that corporation. In the meantime, in 1872, he was defeated as a candidate for lieuten- ant-governor of New York, and in 1874 the legislature appointed him regent of the state university. He was elected president of the New York Central in 1885, and still holds that position, besides being presi- dent of the West Shore Railroad Company. Mr. Depew is a man of genial disposition, with a hearty hand-clasp for everybody. He is a delightful conversationalist, a great orator, and a statesman whose views have on more than one occasion been demonstrated as broad and sound. He has infinite tact, a quality so often lacking in public men that its possession may be almost counted an added sense and great- ness. A shrewd financier, a diplomat, a brilliant speaker, full "of infinite jest" and humor, an able business man, his versatility has made him a marked man in the affairs of the country.
46
CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW.
47
LEW WALLACE.
B LESSED with a happy combination of talents and abundant oppor- tunities for turning them to account, General Lew Wallace, of Indiana, has made his mark as a lawyer, as a soldier, as a politician, as a diplomat, and as a writer. He was born in Brookville, Ind., April 10, 1827, and, after receiving a thorough education, studied law. During the Mexican war he entered the army as first lieutenant. Thereafter he practiced his profession at Covington and Crawfordsville until the beginning of the Civil war, when he was appointed adjutant- general of Indiana, and became colonel of volunteers. Subsequently he was commissioned brigadier-general and then major-general of volunteers. He was at the capture of Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and in 1863 pre- vented the capture of Cincinnati by the Confederates. His troops were defeated at the battle of Monocracy July 9, 1864, and he was removed from his command by General Halleck, but was reinstated by General Grant. After the war General Wallace was governor of Utah by fed- eral appointment from 1878 to 1881, and United States minister to Turkey from 1881 to 1885. Since that time he has devoted himself to the practice of law and to literature at his home in Crawfordsville. His publications are very popular and have had an enormous sale. They include "The Fair God," 1873; "Ben Hur: a Tale of the Christ," 1880; "The Boyhood of Christ," 1883; and "The Prince of India," 1893. In personal appearance Lew Wallace is the rugged soldier; in social life he is the refined scholar and genial gentleman; in character he is the embodiment of those qualities which go to make the highest type of American manhood .. As a lecturer and public speaker he has gained considerable fame.
48
LEW WALLACE.
49
JOHN WANAMAKER.
E "STEEMED more as a philanthropist, as a reformer, and as an exemplary citizen than for any distinction gained by position or wealth, John Wanamaker is a man whose life furnishes a standard for the emulation of the American youth. Born near Philadelphia, July 11, 1838, he attended a country school until he was fourteen, and then obtained employment in the city as messenger boy in the publishing house of Troutman & Hayes at a small salary. Subsequently the family lived for a time in Kosciusko County, Indiana, but returned to Philadelphia in 1856, where young Wanamaker eventually obtained employment in Tower Hall, the largest clothing house in that city. In 1861 he and the young man who was destined to become his brother-in-law opened a small store, and the business of Wanamaker & Brown was established. It grew to be the largest retail clothing house in America. A second store was started in the city, and, afterward, several branch houses. After the Centennial Exposition of 1876, with the financial management of which he was prominently connected, Mr. Wanamaker opened the great general store in Philadelphia, which con- tinues to be one of the wonders of the age. He has many times declined public office, but in 1889 accepted the portfolio of Postmaster- General in President Harrison's Cabinet, and introduced into the depart- ment the most approved business methods. From early youth Mr. Wanamaker has been deeply interested in Sunday-school and temper- ance work. In 1858 he founded the Sunday-school that has since grown into the famous "Bethany." He was for eight years president of the Philadelphia Young Men's Christian Association, and his gifts to religious and charitable institutions have been numerous and liberal.
50
JOHN WANAMAKER.
51
NELSON APPLETON MILES.
F OR conspicuous daring, for brilliant displays of coolness and cour- age, and for remarkable achievements as an Indian fighter, Gen. Nelson A. Miles has made a record of which every patriotic Ameri- can should be proud. General Miles was born in Westminster, Mass., August 8, 1839. After receiving an academic education he engaged in mercantile pursuits until the beginning of the Civil war, when he entered the volunteer service as lieutenant in the Twenty-second Massachusetts infantry. In 1862 he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Sixty- first New York volunteers, and served with the Army of the Potomac until the close of the war, being steadily promoted for gallantry until he attained the rank of major-general. In 1866 he received an appoint- ment in the Regular army as colonel of the Fortieth infantry, and in 1869 was transferred to the Fifth infantry. He defeated the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche Indians, on the borders of the Staked Plains, in 1875, and in 1876 subjugated the hostile Sioux and other Indians in Montana. In the same year he captured the Nez Perces under Chief Joseph, and in 1878 captured a band of Bannocks near the Yellow- stone Park. He was commissioned brigadier-general in 1880, commanded for five years the Department of the Columbia, for one year the De- partment of the Missouri, and was transferred to Arizona in April, 1886. After a difficult campaign against the Apaches under Geronimo and Natchez, he compelled those chiefs to surrender, September 4, 1886. He was assigned to the Department of the Pacific, promoted to major- general, and later placed in command of the Division of the Missouri. In 1891 he had charge of the Indian war in the Northwest. In 1895 he was appointed commander of the army, in place of Gen. John M. Schofield, retired.
52
NELSON APPLETON MILES.
53
ADOLPHUS WASHINGTON GREELEY.
4 a taste of adventure be one of the characteristics of the present head of the United States Signal Service, then there must be one man in the world whose taste has been pretty fully gratified. Adolphus Washington Greeley was born in Newburyport, Mass., March 27, 1844, graduated from the Brown High School, and at the beginning of the war enlisted in the Nineteenth Massachusetts infantry. In 1863 he was promoted to be a lieutenant of colored infantry and arose steadily in the service, until in 1875 he was brevetted major-general of volun- teers for faithful service in the field. He received a commission as second lieutenant in the Regular army, was promoted to first lieutenant and attached to the Signal Service. In 1881 he was placed in com- mand of an expedition to the Arctic regions to assist in the establish- ment of the thirteen circumpolar stations decided upon by the Hamburg Geographical Congress. He sailed in the "Proteus," July 7, 1881, and after great hardships reached a point 81.44 degrees north and 64.45 degrees west. He made important discoveries of lakes and mountains in Grinnell's Land and added much in other ways to our knowledge of the Arctic circle, but found himself without means of returning, the relief expedition promised having failed. Awful suffering ensued. Six- teen of the party died of starvation, one was drowned and one was shot. The third expedition sent to his aid succeeded and those left of the party were rescued when, two days later, they must all have been dead. In 1887 President Cleveland appointed the intrepid explorer, the man who had so endured, to the command of the Signal Service with the rank of brigadier-general, a position he now holds.
54
1
ADOLPHUS WASHINGTON GREELEY.
55
THOMAS NELSON PAGE.
O NE of those who have brought the heart of the South nearer to the heart of the North, just as have Joel Chandler Harris and George W. Cable, is Thomas Nelson Page. His work is known throughout the United States and to a certain extent, abroad. He is a genial and gifted story writer, one who knows the very pulse of a region and has reproduced its heartbeats in his works. He was born in Oakland, Hanover County, Va., April 23, 1853, and grew to man- hood on the family plantation, a part of the original grant to his ancestor, Thomas Nelson. He was educated at Washington Lee Uni- versity and, after graduating, studied law and subsequently engaged in its practice at Richmond, Va. He succeeded in his profession, but that was not to be his chief work. He drifted into the way of writ- ing stories and poems in the negro dialect, and one of the stories, enti- tled "Marse Chan: a Tale of the Civil War," when published, in 1884, attracted national attention. It was followed by "Meh Lady" and others in the same vein, showing equally the keen perception and sympathy and remarkable gift of expression of the writer. There was but one future for the young lawyer and he has become recognized as one of the brilliant authors of the times. Among his published books are "In Ole Virginia," "Two Little Confederates," and others equally charming. He knows his region and the very heartbeat of its people. He is industrious, but the world has gone well with him, and this man who can tell such delightful and educating stories, as none other can of the country he knew in his childhood, is not working as vig- orously as he should just now. But it is in him and he cannot help writing.
56
THOMAS NELSON PAGE.
57
WILLIAM DEERING.
A SINGLE generation has worked a complete revolution in agricul- ture, a revolution that has placed America where it feeds the world. In this revolution no name is more prominent than that of William Deering, the head of the Deering Harvester Works, at Chi- cago, one of the largest manufactories of grain and grass-cutting machin- cry in the world. Since his birth at South Paris, Me., April 25, 1826, Mr. Deering's whole life has been one of untiring industry. He received a common-school and academic education, and early in life entered the South Paris woolen mills, where he was intrusted with the management of the business soon after reaching his majority. From this he naturally found his way into the wholesale dry goods business, and, later on, established one of the leading dry goods commission houses of New York and Boston, well known as Deering, Milliken & Co. As early , as 1870 Mr. Deering became interested financially in the manufacture of the Marsh harvester, invented by the Marsh broth- ers in central Illinois in the early sixties, and in 1873, in order to protect his capital invested in this business, Mr. Deering came west. He at once took active hold of the business, and by his remarkable ability gave it an impetus that brought it immediately to the forefront. He aided other inventors and increased to their present magnitude the greatness of the works established. Personally, Mr. Deering is of a tall and powerful build, and, though sixty-eight years old, is active, and seems to have lost not a whit of his youthful alertness and vigor. He has given extensively and widely to charities, and is not merely a financier, a bold and fearless manufacturer, but a broad philanthropist and a kindly Christian gentleman.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.