USA > Indiana > Daviess County > Living leaders, an encyclopedia of biography : special edition for Daviess and Martin counties, Indiana > Part 4
USA > Indiana > Martin County > Living leaders, an encyclopedia of biography : special edition for Daviess and Martin counties, Indiana > Part 4
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
1887. Colonel Morrison was the father of the tariff reform measure known as the "horizontal" bill, and did good work on many impor- tant committees. In March, 1887, President Cleveland appointed him a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission for five years. At the end of that period he was reappointed, and upon the retirement of Judge Thomas M. Cooley he became chairman of the commission, a post which he has since filled most acceptably. Colonel Morrison's reputation is that of a good lawyer, a brave soldier, a shrewd politi- cian, and an earnest, aggressive legislator. He is a man of rugged constitution, and is as active and vigorous as when he first entered public life.
88
-
WILLIAM RALLS MORRISON.
89
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.
P RACTICALLY alone in his occupation of a most interesting field of literature, James Whitcomb Riley has become justly famous as the "Hoosier Poet of America." His incomparable dialect verse pre- sents to us many vivid character studies and pen-pictures of western farm life, permeated with the perfume of old-fashioned roses, the bab- bling of brooks, the whistle of the "Bob White" and robin, and all the objects, sounds and expressions familiar to those who have lived in the country. Mr. Riley was born in Greenfield, Ind., in 1852. As a boy he traveled much with his father, who was an attorney, and at an early age he left school to adopt the calling of a wandering sign writer. For some time he performed in a theatrical troupe, and became proficient in recasting plays and improvising songs. About 1875 he began to contribute to the Indianapolis papers verses in the Hoosier dialect, using the pen-name, "Benjamin F. Johnson of Boone." He exhibited his imitative powers by writing a piece called "Leonainie," which many literary critics were deluded into accepting as a poem of Edgar Allen Poe. He finally accepted an engagement with the Indian- apolis "Journal," and in that paper, and latterly in the magazines, published numerous dialect and serious poems. He has issued a num- ber of volumes, including "The Old Swimmin' Hole," "Afterwhiles," "Neighborly Poems," "Pipes o' Pan," "Green Fields and Running Brooks," "Rhymes of Childhood," "The Flying Islands of the Night," and others. As a public reader from his own works, Mr. Riley has been very successful. Indeed, if he were not a writer he might win as brilliant a reputation as an actor as he now enjoys in a literary capacity.
90
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.
16
MARY ASHTON RICE LIVERMORE.
M
ARY ASHTON RICE LIVERMORE is a woman of very ear- nest purpose, of wide information, and of decided force of char-
acter. She was born in Boston, Mass., December 19, 1821. She is of Welsh descent, and her father was an active fighter in the navy in the war of 1812. Her mother was a descendant of a well-known English fam- ily. The girl received a thorough education in the Boston public schools, then graduated at a female seminary at Charleston, Mass., and acquired, in addition to what an ordinary girl would get, a thorough classical education. She was then engaged as a teacher to go to Virginia, and among her duties was the teaching of a lot of slaves attached to a plantation. She came back a pronounced abolitionist. She taught in a private school near Boston on her return, but had acquired the gift of talking in public and utilized that power for talking against slavery and the slave trade. In 1845 she had become the wife of the Rev. E. P. Livermore, a Universalist minister, and, their tastes and aims being similar, they worked together happily and effectively. In 1857 the couple removed to Chicago, where Mrs. Livermore assisted her husband in the publication of the Universalist organ for the Mississippi valley. She was earnest in all that pertained to assisting the Union troops during the war, and made a most creditable record, which was widely recognized. Since the war Mrs. Livermore has been best known as associated with the woman suffrage movement in the United States. She is the author of a number of works, among which may be men- tioned "What Shall We Do With Our Daughters?" and a number of articles in the "Arena," the "Chautauquan," the "Christian Advocate," and "Women's Journal."
92
1
MARY ASHTON RICE LIVERMORE.
93
CHARLES FREDERICK CRISP.
P OSSESSING in an unusual degree the quick mental grasp, the accurate judgment, the confident self-control, the promptness and firmness of decision, and the practical training which are among the essential qualifications of the successful parliamentarian, Mr. Crisp, as Speaker, became a power in the National House of Representatives. Mr. Crisp was born in Sheffield, England, where his parents were on a visit, January 29, 1845. He received a common-school education in Savannah and Macon, Ga., and in 1861 entered the Confederate Army as a lieutenant. He was a prisoner of war from May, 1864, until June, 1865. After his release he studied law, and practiced first at Ellaville and afterward at Americus, Ga., which is now his home. In 1872 he was appointed solicitor-general of the Southwestern Judicial Circuit, and held that office until the middle of 1877, when he became judge of the Superior Court of the same circuit. He resigned from the bench in September, 1882, to accept the Democratic nomination for Congress. He was permanent president of the Democratic Convention which assembled in Atlanta in April, 1883, to nominate a candidate for governor. Mr. Crisp was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and is now serving his sixth successive term in that body. He was elected Speaker of the House for the Fifty-second Congress, and was re-elected for the Fifty-third. In that position he added greatly to his popu- larity and influence in the House, and even his political opponents agree that his rulings and decisions have at all times shown careful consideration, unbiased by prejudice. He was succeeded in office by Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, who was elected Speaker of the House, for the Fifty-fourth Congress, in 1895.
94
CHARLES FREDERICK CRISP.
95
MARY MAPES DODGE.
F 'EW authors have possessed so happy a knack of combining enter- tainment with instruction in writing for the young, or of making the present moment both enjoyable and profitable for readers of any age, as Mary Mapes Dodge, the talented editor of "St. Nicholas." Mrs. Dodge is a native of New York City, where she was born Jan- uary 26, 1838, and is the daughter of Prof. James J. Mapes, the dis- tinguished promoter of scientific farming in the United States. She was educated by private tutors, and early evinced a talent for literary composition, as well as for music, drawing and modeling. At an early age she was married to William Dodge, a lawyer of New York, and it was after his death that she turned to literature as a means to earn the money to educate her two sons. She wrote principally short sketches for children, a volume of which was published in 1864 under the name of "Irvington Stories." During the following year she pub- lished "Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates." With Donald G. Mitchell and Harriet Beecher Stowe, she was one of the earliest editors of "Hearth and Home," conducting for several years the household and children's department of that journal. In 1873, when the children's magazine, "St. Nicholas," was started, she became its editor, and still holds that position. Mrs. Dodge's story, "Hans Brinker," has been translated into Dutch, French, German, Russian and Italian, and was awarded a prize of fifteen hundred francs by the French Academy. She has published a number of other volumes, both of prose and poetry, and contributes to the "Atlantic Monthly," "Harper's Maga- zine," "Century," and other periodicals. She has a pleasant home in New York, which is a literary center.
96
MARY MAPES DODGE.
97
WADE HAMPTON.
P HYSICAL and mental vigor, unflinching courage in the face of opposition and love for truth and justice are dominant character- istics of that great southern leader, Senator Wade Hampton, of South Carolina. Born in Columbia, S. C., March 28, 1818, Mr. Hampton was graduated at the University of South Carolina and afterward studied law, but with no intention of practicing. In early life he served in the legislature of his state, as a national Democrat, and, although a slave-holder, he had little affiliation with secession sentiments. His speech against the reopening of the slave trade was pronounced by the New York "Tribune" "a masterpiece of logic directed by the noblest sentiments of the Christian and patriot." At the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted in the Confederate service as a private, but soon raised a command which was known as "Hampton's Legion," and won dis- tinction in many engagements. He was several times wounded, and attained the rank of lieutenant-general in 1864. After the war he at once engaged in cotton planting, but was not successful. In 1876 he was nominated for governor of South Carolina against Daniel H. Chamberlain. Each claimed to be elected and two governments were organized, but Chamberlain finally yielded his claims, and General Hampton served two years as governor. In 1878 he met with an accident by which he lost a leg, but, while his recovery was in doubt, he was elected to the United States Senate, in which body he served until 1891. In the Senate his course was that of a conservative Democrat. He advocated a sound currency, resisting all inflation, and generally acted in concert with Thomas A. Bayard, whose aspirations for the presidency he supported.
98
WADE HAMPTON.
99
7
BRONSON HOWARD.
S TRONGLY equipped in the possession of a keen dramatic sense and a full knowledge of the art of the playwright, it is not to be wondered at that Bronson Howard's success has been greater than that of almost any other American dramatist now living. Indeed, it may be said that at the present time he is easily the leading exponent of that particular school of dramatic literature in which he has been engaged for nearly twenty-five years. Mr. Howard was born in Detroit, Mich., October 7, 1842. His education was begun in the public schools and finished in the New Haven Collegiate and Commer- cial Institute, after which, having developed a taste for writing, he adopted the profession of journalism. During his newspaper experience, which extended over a number of years, the work of the dramatic critic was especially attractive to him, and he finally decided to write a play. His first successful drama was "Saratoga," which was pro- duced in New York in 1870, and was so well received that it was brought out in London in 1874. His next was "Diamonds," produced in 1872, and this was followed by "Hurricanes" in 1878. In the latter year also appeared "The Banker's Daughter," one of the best and most successful of Mr. Howard's plays. His other dramas have all been given a cordial reception by the theater-going public, among the most popular of them being "Wives," "Young Mrs. Winthrop," "One of Our Girls," "Met by Chance," "The Henrietta," "Shenan- doah," and "Aristocracy." Mr. Howard is particularly happy in the invention of plots and dramatic situations, and his judgment is never at fault in the devising of scenes intended to work upon the emotions of an audience.
100
BRONSON HOWARD
101
STANLEY WATERLOO.
TT 4 seems to have been the lot of Stanley Waterloo to first thor- oughly arouse in Great Britain an interest in the literature of the region west of the Alleghanies in the United States. His books have become as popular abroad as at home. Mr. Waterloo's early life was spent on his father's farm, in St. Clair County, Michigan, where he was born May 21, 1846. He chose a military career, and was appointed to West Point, but the accidental injury of one of his eyes debarred him from admission to the academy. After a course at the University of Michigan he went to Chicago and studied law, but instead of practicing that profession, drifted into journalism. He was connected at different times with the Chicago "Tribune" and the Chi- cago "Times," and afterward went to St. Louis, where he did edito- rial work on several of the daily newspapers, and became prominent in politics. Subsequently he returned to the Chicago "Tribune," and still later took charge of the Chicago "Mail," the circulation of which he largely increased. He was also editor of the Washington "Critic" for a time, but of late he has devoted himself principally to literary work. In addition to many magazine articles and poems, he has pub- lished two novels, "A Man and a Woman," now in its ninth edi- tion, and "An Odd Situation," a deeply interesting study of reciproc- ity between Canada and the United States. Both books are remark- able for their originality and power, and display the author's familiarity with woodcraft, farm life, natural history, and the political and economic questions of the day. Mr. Waterloo has been twice president of the Press Club, of Chicago, and is an active figure in the journalistic and political affairs of his city.
102
STANLEY WATERLOO.
103
MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY.
TT is generally admitted that the manager of the National Republican campaign in the year when Harrison was elected to the Presidency is quite capable of taking care of himself in the world. Very few shrewder politicians exist, even in a nation of politicians, than Matthew Stanley Quay, of Pennsylvania. He was born in Dillsburgh, York County, Pa., September 30, 1833. He graduated from Jefferson Col- lege in Pennsylvania in 1850, and began the study of law and was admitted to the bar in Pittsburg in 1854. In 1856 he was elected prothonotary of Beaver County and was re-elected in 1859. In 1861 he resigned his office to become a lieutenant in the Tenth Pennsyl- vania reserves, then became assistant commissary of the state, later pri- vate secretary of Governor Curtin, and, in 1862, colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Pennsylvania volunteers. He was compelled by impaired health to leave the army, but participated as a volunteer in the assault made on Mary's Heights after he resigned his command. In 1865 Mr. Quay was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature and served until 1867, when he established and edited the Beaver "Radi- cal." He served as secretary of the commonwealth, which office he resigned to accept the appointment of recorder of Philadelphia, but returned to the former position, retaining it until 1882. He became chairman of the Republican National committee in 1888, and conducted the campaign which resulted in the election of Harrison and Morton. In 1885 occurred his election as state treasurer of Pennsylvania by the largest vote ever given a candidate for that office. In 1887 he was elected United States senator for the term ending in 1893 and was re-elected at the expiration of that time.
101
-
MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY.
105
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH.
A S the nattily clever, as the graceful, the thorough, the adaptable and capable dealer with words and imaginations, and with an absolute genius, Thomas Bailey Aldrich stands, admittedly, at the head of American writers who presume to be ranked in the class thus des- ignated. He was born in Portsmouth, N. H., November 11, 1836, and prepared for college, but the death of his father changed family plans, and he engaged in the mercantile business in New York City. He acquired a good education of his own impulse, and in the early fifties began contributions to the magazines. He did charming work for "Putnam's Magazine," the "New York Evening Mirror," and for the "Home Journal," in days when those wonderful men, N. P. Willis and William Morris, gave to the publication a national reputation. From 1870 to 1874 he was editor of "Every Saturday" in Boston, and since that date has devoted himself to the writing and publication of his works and to editorial duties. His poetry includes "Babie Bell," "The Dells," "The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth," "Pampinea and Other Poems," "Flower and Thorn;" later poems, "Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book," and an edition de luxe of "Lyrics and Sonnets." Among his prose works are "Story of a Bad Boy," "Marjory Daw and Other People," "Prudence Palfry," "The Queen of Sheba," "The Stillwater Tragedy," "From Ponkapog to Pesth," "Mercedes," and very many translations of magazine articles and sto- ries. He is one of the most knowing, the most thoughtful, delicate, and daintiest of writers. To have written "Marjory Daw" alone, that quaint, sweet and adroit piece of work, would stamp a man as a genius.
106
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH.
107
LYMAN ABBOTT.
D ISTINGUISHED as a clergyman, and as a successor of Henry Ward Beecher in the pulpit of the famous Plymouth Church, Rev. Lyman Abbott is also well known as an author, literary critic and journalist. The third son of Jacob Abbott; he was born in Rox- bury, Mass., December 18, 1835, and graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1853. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1856, but soon abandoned law for theology, which he stud- ied with his uncle, Rev. John S. C. Abbott, the author. He entered the ministry in 1860, his first pastoral charge being a Congregational church in Terre Haute, Ind., where he remained until 1865. He then became secretary of the American Union (Freedmen's ) Com.mission, which office called him to New York and occupied him until 1868. In the meantime he was also pastor of the New England Church of that city, but resigned in 1869 to devote himself to literature and journalism. In conjunction with his brothers he wrote two novels, and for several years edited the "Literary Record" of "Harper's Magazine," at the same time conducting the "Illustrated Christian Weekly." He was afterward associated with Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in the editorship of the "Christian Union," and upon Mr. Beecher's retirement became editor-in-chief. Mr. Abbott has written a number of books of devotion and Biblical history, a "Life of Henry Ward Beecher," and has edited Mr. Beecher's sermons and lectures, in addition to his many contribu- tions to periodical literature. In January, 1889, he received a call to the pastorate of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, so many years identified with Mr. Beecher's labors, and has continued to fill that post to the present time.
108
LYMAN ABBOTT.
109
CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS.
A MONG the great educators of the present day Charles Kendall Adams, late president of Cornell University and now president of the University of Wisconsin, occupies a high rank. He was born at Derby, Vt., January 24, 1835. In the fall of 1855 he moved to Iowa, where he prepared for college in the Denmark Academy, Iowa. He entered the University of Michigan in the fall of 1857, where, after graduation course of study, he took the Master's degree in 1862, and immediately thereafter was appointed instructor in Latin and history, in 1863 assistant professor, and in 1867 professor with the privilege of spending a year and a half in Europe. After hard study abroad he returned and soon became a prominent figure in university affairs. In 1885 he was called to the presidency of Cornell University, a position which he occupied until the summer of 1892. During the seven years of his incumbency of that position the number of students was increased from five hundred and sixty to more than fifteen hundred, and the endowment of the university was increased by nearly two million dol- lars. In 1892 President Adams resigned the presidency of Cornell Uni- versity, with the purpose of devoting his life henceforth to the writing of history, but in 1893 accepted the call to the presidency of the Uni- versity of Wisconsin. He is the author of many important works. The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon President Adams by Harvard University in 1886. He is a member of many learned societies, and in 1890 was president of the American Historical Associ- ation, and has earned a high place among the great thinkers, educators and historians as a scholar of rare attainments and a writer of won- derful power and depth.
110
CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS.
JAMES BURRILL ANGELL.
T O the performance of the duties connected with his responsible office, the president of the University of Michigan brings a vig- orous and impressive personality, distinguished alike for moral and intel- lectual parts. James Burrill Angell was born in Scituate, R. I., Janu- ary 7, 1829, and is a lineal descendant from Thomas Angell, who was one of the original settlers with Roger Williams of the Providence plantations. Mr. Angell was graduated at Brown University in 1849, and, after a period of travel and study in Europe, was appointed, in 1853, professor of modern languages and literature in that college. In 1860 he accepted the editorship of the Providence "Daily Journal," which place he occupied until 1866, when he was called to the presi- dency of the University of Vermont. In 1871 he became president of the University of Michigan, an office he has since continued to fill, except during the years 1880 and 1881, which he spent in China as United States Minister, appointed by President Hayes, and also as chairman of a special commission appointed to negotiate a treaty with China. This commission procured a treaty on commercial matters, and also one on Chinese immigration. In 1887 Mr. Angell was appointed by President Cleveland a member of the commission, with Hon. Thomas F. Bayard and Hon. W. L. Putnam, to settle by treaty with the British commissioners the fisheries difficulties on the Atlantic coast of Canada. President Angell is a frequent contributor to reviews and magazines, is a member of various educational societies, and in 1893 was elected president of the American Historical Association. He received from Brown University the degree of LL. D. President Angell ranks high as an educator.
112
JAMES BURRILL ANGELL.
113
RUSSELL SAGE.
W T HATEVER genius a man may have in certain directions could not be developed in some countries as in the United States. A great astronomer or great inventor might make himself heard of in the Republic of Andorra, or in Guatemala, but such distinction could scarcely come to the man in either country whose gift might be only the faculty of doing well on a stock exchange. But Russell Sage, those who know him best say, would have become prominent as a financier wherever he might have been placed. In Patagonia he would have done well in hides. He is almost the representative man of a large and potent class of business men in this country, not the daring speculator-though on occasion bold enough-not the great administrator of huge enterprises, nor the originator of ventures in new fields, but a man of the old New England stock who lives long and builds shrewdly. Born in Oneida County, New York, August 4, 1816. Mr. Sage has been all his life a business man and for a very long time a prominent figure in Wall street. He is unique in his methods. It is not known that he ever manipulated a "corner," and, though he was once famous for his "puts and calls," it is said that he has cur- tailed even that branch of his business since one notable day in June, 1884, when he was reported to have lost $7,000,000. He is a man who realizes the present value of money. He loans money to banks and corporations and is a director in many things. He has strong friendships, and cried like a child when Jay Gould died. Nearly eighty years of age, he is active almost as a boy and constant at business. Though he dresses plainly he is a gallant of the old school, a court- eous man, and has a keen appreciation of what is clever.
114
RUSSELL SAGE.
115
8
WILLIAM VINCENT ALLEN.
T HE junior senator from Nebraska has become widely known of late as one not afraid to assert himself at any time, since he did not hesitate in the Upper House of Congress to support, in a degree, the unpopular cause of the Coxeyites nor to assist in the defense of the leaders in that movement when they were arrested. William Vincent Allen was born in Midway, Madison County, Ohio, January 28, 1847, and removed with his step-father's family to Iowa
in 1857. He was educated in the common schools of Iowa, and later attended for a time the Upper Iowa University at Fayette. He enlisted as a private in the Thirty-second Iowa volunteers, and at the close of his service in the army was on the staff of Gen. J. T. Gil- bert. He then began the study of law and was admitted to practice in 1869. In 1884 he removed from Iowa to Nebraska, where he engaged in the work of his profession most successfully, and in the fall of 1891 was elected judge of the district court of the Ninth judi- cial circuit of Nebraska. In 1893 he was elected United States sena- tor to succeed Algernon S. Paddock. His term of service will expire in 1899, so that there still remain some years for further advocacy of what Senator Allen holds to be the people's cause. He is resolute in his course when it is once decided upon, and is earnest and vigorous in debate. His attitude in favor of the various reform movements has made him popular, and he is looked upon as a political possibility of more than ordinary dimensions. He is recognized as having at least the courage of his convictions, a quality the American elector seems to recognize more and more of late as a necessary quality in one sent either to make laws, to interpret them, or to execute them.
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.