USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Memorial record of distinguished men of Indianapolis and Indiana > Part 22
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His value to the public welfare of the communities in which he lived cannot be estimated. In Indianapolis, in the early days, he taught the school when there was no teacher to be had, and when a teacher was at hand, but there was no place to shelter the school, he gave room in his own house for the purpose. He was a leader in endeavoring to instill culture into the rather rude state of frontier society, one of his first attempts in this direction being towards the formation of a young men's literary society, The Indianapolis Athenaeum. He delivered the first lecture to this society, on the 29th of November, 1830, in which he asserted his belief that
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women should be placed on the same intellectual plane as men. Such a statement as this would have been considered radical even in the centers of learning on the continent. He was one of the first trustees of that old institution of learning, Wa- bash College.
He helped to form agricultural and temperance societies and was determined that law and order should exist throughout the state. He was captain of the First Military Company of Indianapolis, and in this capacity was the leader in suppress- ing a band of lynchers who had sworn to exterminate the negro race. He was promi- nent in the Indiana Colonization Society, being one of its organizers as well as one of the managers. In his religion he was a prominent member of the Presbyterian church. He was an elder in the church and superintendent of the Sunday-school. He had a large amount of tact, and was thus a valuable member of the church, for narrow-mindedness was more prevalent in religious circles than it is today. He had the honor of bringing Henry Ward Beecher to the Second Presbyterian church and it was in his house that the eminent divine ate his first supper and his last breakfast during his stay in Indianapolis. From the year that Mr. Merrill was twelve he never failed to read the Bible through once a year, and in addition to this he read every book he could lay his hands upon. "Nor was it surface sweep- ing with him; he read through perpendicularly as well as horizontally. Perhaps at a single glance he could bring all the wine of the cluster into his cup; or if it was the well compacted thought of the master thinkers, his quick penetration and capacious understanding readily put him in possession of the whole. With such a mind it was a pleasure to commune."
Mr. Merrill was twice married, his first wife being Lydia Jane Anderson, the daughter of Captain Robert Anderson and Catherine Dumont. She was the mother of his children, ten in number. After her death he married Elizabeth Douglas Young, who was a daughter of General James Young and Mary Irwin. One of his friends at the time of his death made a remark which perhaps gives us a picture that is more easily remembered than any other. He said: "He was made of heroic stuff, and was more like our Revolutionary fathers than any other man I ever met." Another said of him: "He maintained in sublime combination the sternest ideas of justice with the most beautiful simplicity and childlike sweet- ness of manners."
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Catharine Merrill
NE loves to linger over the name of Catharine Merrill after becom- O ing acquainted with her life and character. The name itself brings nobler thoughts, the memory of her beautiful, helpful life, of her simple and sincere nature, helps us to strive to attain the summit upon which she stood. One thinks of her as resem- bling that brilliant woman, Margaret Fuller, who exerted such a powerful influence over the minds of some of our greatest writers. Not that they are particularly alike in character, for Catharine Merrill was not of that quick, brilliant intellectuality as was Margaret Fuller; hers was of the calmer, more restful type. But both of these women possessed to a large degree that indefinable something which someone has called the "gloss on a woman," which we call charm. They both exerted an influence which was uplifting, and both possessed the great gift of true sympathy. Had Catharine Merrill been placed in the environment of Margaret Fuller she would undoubtedly have been the center of a group of intel- lectual and brilliant men and women. Although she did not live in one of the centers of culture, for Indianapolis during her life time could not be compared with Boston during the time of Emerson, yet she acted as a magnet, drawing to her all who were interesting or interested. She is known chiefly as a teacher and lover of English literature, but she was also something of an author, and above all a noble woman. John Muir in speaking of her says: "Those who knew her best loved her best, and almost worshiped her. Everywhere she was welcomed like light-in social gatherings, clubs and camps, homes and schools, asylums, hospitals, churches and jails; for she was a natural teacher and helper, a bearer of others' burdens, brightener of others' joys. None could be near her without being better. One was lifted and strengthened simply by seeing her. The weary and troubled went to her as the thirsty to a well. Her home was a center of heart sunshine. Like a stream with deep fountains she was a friend on whom we could depend, always the same, steady as a star." Melville H. Anderson says of her, "Acquaintance with such a character tends to build up the most help- ful kind of faith. Nothing can be more reassuring. Those who had the good for- tune to know a human being so large and excellent should take pious care that her memory does not fade with the passing of the lives of those she immediately touched. Certainly none who knew her can ever forget her; but, as she chose to be a teacher rather than a writer, her influence, though intense, was comparatively restricted."
Catharine Merrill was a native of the state in which she spent her life, having been born in Corydon, Indiana, on the 24th of January, 1824. Her father, Sam- uel Merrill, was as unusual a man as his daughter was a woman. At the time of her birth he was treasurer of state, and a few months later, when the seat of government was removed to the new town of Indianapolis, he moved to the new capital, bringing with him his baby daughter. Samuel Merrill was the leader of
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Indianapolis in these early days. His strong character, his honesty and sincerity, and above all his love of books and the scholarly cast of his mind were all trans- mitted to his daughter Catharine. He, in addition to his many other duties, took upon himself the task of village school master, and his library, which was large and well selected, and about the only one in Indianapolis, was thrown open to the use of his pupils and friends. Their first home in this wilderness capital was on the southwest corner of Washington street and Capitol avenue, near the site of the present State Capitol, and later he bought an eighty-acre farm, extending from what is today Tenth street, near the City Hospital, along the Michigan road to North Indianapolis. The famous old Merrill home was built on Merrill street and here the family lived for forty years. Here Catharine Merrill became ac- customed to meeting the men who have left names famous in the history of our country, such as Henry Ward Beecher and Frederick Douglass. Now a public school, known as the Catharine Merrill school, stands on the spot.
The childhood of Catharine Merrill must have been delightful, for her father devoted all of the time that he could spare from his public duties to his family, and she was his favorite pupil and the comrade of his studies and of his pleasures. As she grew older and as her father was forced to give more time to his business affairs, she began to take his place as a teacher of the younger generation. Her regime must have been ideal. The girls were strictly on their honor, and an un- truth was the most abhorred of all misdeeds. Her pupils loved, respected and trusted her. She had their full confidence and they went to her with all their pleasures as well as troubles, confident of her understanding and sympathy. A close friend has said of her teaching, "She had a rare gift of teaching, and most of her life was devoted to it. An enthusiastic student and lover of literature, she kept inspiringly close to the minds of her scholars and easily led them to do their best, while her downright, steadfast, glowing goodness gained their hearts. Above all she was a builder of character, teaching the great art of right-living, holding up by word and example the loftiest ideals of conduct, fidelity to conscience and duty, and plain unchanging foundational righteousness as the law of life under whatever circumstances. And these noble lessons went home to the hearts of her pupils."
Before the war she taught her children in the basement of the Fourth Presby- terian church, at the southwest corner of Market and Delaware streets, but later the school was moved to a building near the present site of the Commercial Club building. Near the latter location was a hospital for Confederate prisoners, and the sight of the sick, lonesome faces drew her into the hospital, where she spent many hours nursing and reading to these men who had been fighting against her country. Her sympathy with the sorrows of others was often a great strain on her own strength. It was once said of her, "What personal griefs were to others, such vicarious griefs were to her. Wherever sorrow came to her notice, she needed no command to impel her to 'weep with them that weep.' In her sympathy there was no alloy of wordy exhortation; it was the throbbing of a bruised and bleeding heart." In one of her own letters she says, "That lacerating pity we have for others is the most grievous thing in life-'All for pity I could die.'-How many times I have said that little line of Spenser's to myself, because it seemed to express the last anguish of pity. One comes out of sorrow a changed being, with fewer small interests, and wider, deeper sympathies. So it elevates and enriches,
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or so it should. We are certainly the better for disappointment and trouble, unless we are wilful and rebellious."
Her brother and other members of the family were in the Union army, and she presently followed them to the South, where she entered the hospital service. Two years before this she had spent in study in Germany, where she learned to know and love German literature, though Goethe never appealed to her as did many of the English authors. However, this residence gave her a broad culture, her contact with German intellectuality deepened and enriched her own knowledge. On her return from Germany in 1861, she took up the school work where she had left it, her friend Ellen Cathcart, having been the able preceptress during her absence. With the active part which she took in the Civil war came an ardent interest and sympathy with the deeds and sufferings of the soldiers. She was so impressed by the sights which she saw that immediately after the war she began to write a history of the work of Indiana in the great conflict. This history was published in 1866, under the title of "The Soldier of Indiana in the War for the Union." She wrote this not as a piece of literature that was to bring her renown, but simply that the sacrifices and heroic deeds of the men of her native state might be preserved to posterity. The book is for the most part the story of individuals, and is full of stirring anecdotes, which Miss Merrill made certain were authentic before she transcribed them. The book will grow in value with time, and should be a mine of interest to historians as time passes.
After the war her school was again moved, this time to Alabama and Market streets, and it was while going to and from her work here that she noticed the women peering forth from the bars of the near-by jail. She was a busy woman and her life was apparently full to the brim, but she could not resist the appeal of their pitiful faces. It was undoubtedly hard for her to come in contact with the hardened souls and debased minds of many of these women, but she never showed it. She visited them day after day, and taught them to sew. What a ray of hope she must have been to them! Her labor was not without splendid fruit, for she succeeded in interesting others in these outcasts, and thus was started the Home for Friendless Women. For a time she taught in Cleveland, Ohio, and evidence of the strong hold she had over her pupils is seen in the fact that many of them followed her there. Here she met Miss Guilford, who was her close friend through- out the rest of her life, and here Constance Fennimore Woolson received some of the inspiration that made her adopt the literary career as a profession, for she was one of Miss Merrill's devoted pupils.
In 1869 a great honor came to her in the invitation to fill the chair of English literature in the Northwestern Christian University. This chair had been endowed by Ovid Butler, who was the chief benefactor of the above university, now Butler College, as the Demia Butler chair of English literature, and it was upon his invitation that she accepted the position. She remained on the faculty of the university and later of the college until 1885. For some time past her old pupils and many others had urged her to give up her college work and to resume her pri- vate classes, so at last she yielded, and until April, 1900, she met these classes daily. She was a splendid influence in her college life, for she placed as much importance on the training of the moral nature as upon the training of the intel- lect. Melville Anderson remarks, "In her teaching she emphasized the truth that wifehood and motherhood are the normal conditions of a woman's life. Possibly
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such a life might have narrowed her influence. It was marvelous how entirely she transcended the limitations that commonly hedge about unmarried women as they advance in years. So far from involving impairment of sympathy, the life she led made her sympathies wider, if not deeper than they could otherwise well have been. Conservative, believing in hard work, following Heaven's ever old, ever new, love-lighted ways, placing no dependence on plans for getting something for nothing, she nevertheless welcomed new ideas with hospitality, eager to dis- cover something useful in new plans however little they promised, humbly hoping and groping through life's cloudy places as best she could, holding fast the good as she was able to see it, under whatever garb, steadied by a rare sanity, and robust common sense applicable to every situation." These words from John Muir make us understand why her pupils were so devoted to her. During the later years of her life she was in great demand as a lecturer, and she often taxed herself too much in the preparation of these papers. Her last illness was short, and she died at her home on Capital avenue on the 30th of May, 1900.
Miss Merrill would not have wished to be known as a literary woman, for such was not her aim. She only desired to implant a love of good literature in the hearts of her pupils, and to live a life in which helpfulness was the dominant note. Life interested her far more than books, and perhaps this is the reason that Shakespeare appealed to her as the greatest of all writers. She was more deeply interested in English literature than in the literature of other countries, and her own liberal culture is a fine example of the breadth and educative power of the literature of the Anglo-Saxon tongue. As Mr. Anderson says, however, "One felt that she spoke of what she had seen and known rather than of what she had heard and read. Her reading was a fuel perfectly consumed ; it did not go in as coal and come out as smoke. Books were not so much the tools with which she worked as the food wherewith she satisfied her hunger. A collection of essays which she wrote from time to time has been published by the Catharine Merrill Club of Indianapolis, and these essays, while she could undoubtedly have added much to their literary merit could they have undergone revision at her hands, nevertheless give us glimpses of the beauty of her character and the nobility of her thoughts.
She passed through life serenely, far above the scramble that men know as life, yet one with all the world, for she did the thing that was nearest and was thus brought into helpful relations with every species of humanity. She was like an angel of light to John Muir when he lay in a darkened room, in great danger of losing his eyesight, and perhaps the best summary of her character may be given in his words. "I soon learned to admire her scholarship, keen, sane, kindly criti- cism, the wonderful range of her sympathies, her kindness in always calling attention to the best in the character of any one under discussion, living or dead, and her weariless, unostentatious, practical benevolence in smoothing as she was able the pathways of others and helping them up into wider, brighter, purer living."
It is with regret that this memoir must be brought to a close, for the tempta- " tion to attempt to impress the strength and beauty of the life of this woman upon the minds of those who may read this is strong. In closing, John Muir must be quoted once again: "She never grew old. To her last day her mind was clear, and her warm heart glowed with the beauty and enthusiasm of youth. In loving hearts she still lives, and loving hearts are her monument."
Edwin S. Folsom
HERE is nothing so fascinating in American history as the ro- T mance of achievement under difficulties,-the story of obscure beginnings and triumphant ends; the stories of men and women who have seized common situations and conditions and have succeeded by indomitable will and inflexible purpose. One of the honored citizens of Indianapolis who marked the passing years with large and worthy accomplishments and who was in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortunes was Edwin Slocum Folsom, who here maintained his home for over forty years, and whose entire active career was virtually one of consecutive identification with the life insurance business, in connection with which he became a recognized authority. He was a man of noble attributes of character and made his life count for good in all its relations, so that the record thereof constitutes his most worthy and enduring monument. He was summoned to the life eternal on Christmas eve of the year 1903, at the age of sixty-five years, his death resulting from an attack of pneu- monia. He had been for a long period general agent for the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Hartford, Connecticut, and at the time of his demise he was the Indiana manager of the real-estate and loan department of the Travelers' Insurance Company, of Hartford, Connecticut.
Edwin Slocum Folsom was born near the little village of Boston, Erie county, New York, on the 17th of March, 1838, a son of Daniel and Lydia (Slocum) Fol- som, who removed to New York state from Vermont, the respective families having been founded in New England in the early colonial epoch of our national history. Daniel Folsom was a carpenter by trade and he followed the same in Erie county, New York, until 1842, when he removed with his family to the west and became numbered among the pioneers of Wisconsin. He first located at Whitewater and later established his home at Waterloo, this being prior to the admission of Wisconsin as one of the sovereign states of the Union. Daniel Folsom secured from the government a large tract of wild land and instituted the reclamation work of the same,-a work largely devolving upon his sons, as he gave his attention principally to the work of his trade, in which he found much requisition for his services and erected many of the important buildings in the pioneer community. He was a man of great sternness and austerity and his children endured many vicissitudes on the farm where all were required to work in season and out, the while their educational advantages were limited to a very desultory attendance in the pioneer schools. Of the five children, the subject of this memoir was the second in order of birth, and he early assumed heavy responsibilities and labors in connection with the development of the home farm. He and other of the children were compelled to pay their father for their time when they made for themselves an opportunity to attend an academy at Albion, Wisconsin, in order to gain better education. Albion had as its early settlers prin-
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cipally those of the Seventh Day Baptist faith, and Edwin S. Folsom was thus enabled to make every day count, as he worked Sunday as well as week days. To pay for his books and certain other incidental expenses he worked as janitor at the academy, and finally he was enabled to put his acquirements to practical nse by teaching in the country schools. He also turned his attention to such other work as he could secure, and from the funds thus gained he paid the wages of a man who took his place on the home farm during the summer months. He made the best possible use of his time and of the advantages afforded him in the academy, and from his youth onward he was dependent upon his own resources, besides which he had for some time the added burden of recompensing his father for the time he was absent from the farm, his independence coming into effect only when he attained his legal majority.
After his graduation from the Academy Mr. Folsom secured a position as agent for the Milwaukee Mutual Fire Insurance Company, in the interests of which he traveled through various parts of the state of Wisconsin. He also continued to teach school at intervals, and his course was thus marked by earnest and con- secutive application, the while he was ever alert to seize opportunities for ad- vancement. In 1863 Mr. Folsom came to Indiana and established his residence at Madison, the judicial center of Jefferson county, where he became a representa- tive for the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford. In his assigned field he made a most admirable record and a year later transferred his residence to Indianapolis, where he was advanced to the responsible position of general agent for the same company. In 1867 he became general agent for the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, also of Hartford, Connecticut, with a territory covering Indiana and a portion of southern Michigan. He continued with this important insurance corporation as general agent for thirty-one years, his services terminating only with his retirement in 1898. He was a close student of insurance systems and methods and his knowledge of the business was especially comprehensive and authoritative, in support of which statement is offered evidence in the fact that he was chosen the first president of the Indiana Association of Life Underwriters. He gained high reputation and distinctive success in his chosen vocation and found it well worthy of his unqualified allegiance and best efforts. For about a decade he also had the management of the real estate and loan department of the Travelers' Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, in the Indiana field. He devoted much of his time and attention to the raising of high-grade and short-horn cattle, in which line of enterprise he was most success- ful. He kept imported and registered stock and was known as one of the pro- gressive cattle breeders of the state. He had several fine farms and found great satisfaction in the improvement and management of them. Two farms of eighty acres each were located near Bridgeport, Marion county; one of eighty acres near Augusta, Marion county; and near Greencastle, Putnam county, he had a fine landed estate of about four hundred acres. He gave his personal supervision to his farms and took great interest in the breeding of fine live stock, an industry to the advancement of which in Indiana he contributed in no small degree. He was also the owner of city property and erected several buildings in Indianapolis. When he first came to this city he established his home in a modest cottage on Broadway, and four years later he erected a fine brick residence on Park avenue, near Fifteenth street. At that time the street last mentioned had not been opened
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and the district had but few houses. He was compelled to fell the native trees in order to make room for his new dwelling, and for a number of years he found in the locality ample pasturage for his horses and cattle. He continued to reside in this home until his death, after which Mrs. Folsom disposed of the property, as the house was too large for her needs.
Mr. Folsom was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and held membership in the Commercial Club and the Country Club, two of the representative organiza- tions of his home city. Shortly before his death he was appointed chairman of the committee of stock-holders to whom was assigned the examination of the ac- counts and business of the Consumers' Gas Company, whose interests were involved by the failure of the natural gas resources. In politics Mr. Folsom accorded unfaltering allegiance to the Republican party, and while he would never con- sent to become a candidate for public office, he gave yeoman service in behalf of the principles and policies of his party and was essentially loyal and progressive as a citizen. He was a zealous member of the Second Presbyterian church, as is also his widow, and he was instant in kindly deeds and generous sympathy. Those in affliction or distress found in him a true friend, and he gave aid and counsel without any parade or ostentation. He was a man of fine intellectual attainments and tastes and found his chief pleasure in the sanctuary of his home,-the com- panionship of his wife and children and in communion with his favorite authors, his library being comprehensive and select and covering a wide range of literature. His earnest, sincere and genial personality gained to him the confidence and high regard of those with whom he came in contact in the varied relations of life and his death was deeply mourned in the city that so long represented his home and in which he made good account of himself as one of the world's workers.
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