USA > Indiana > Memorial record of northeastern Indiana > Part 59
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Returning home, after a short visit with family and friends, Mr. Runyan again enlisted, this time "for three years or during the war," and assisted in recruiting Company A of the Seventy-fourth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was mus- tered into the service as Second Sergeant. The regiment was soon after ordered to the front and became a part of the Fourteenth Army Corps under General George H. Thomas, "The Rock of Chickamauga." The Seventy-fourth Indiana was a fighting regiment and was actively engaged from the day of its entrance into the South, partici- pating in the battles of Perryville, Stone River, the Tallahassee campaign, Chicka-
mauga, Chattanooga and many lesser en- gagements. As may be surmised our young hero was among the most active members of his regiment. Young in years he yet had the physical endurance essential in a good soldier. It was but a short time until he was appointed First Sergeant of his com- pany, and on the 25th of March, 1863, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant .. At the time he was not quite seventeen years of age and was doubtless the youngest com- missioned officer in the service.
At the battle of Chickamauga, where he was commissioned, the Captain and First Lieutenant being wounded early in the ac- tion, the command of the company devolved upon Lieutenant Runyan and he was equal to the emergency. His company -went into the fight with forty-four men, twenty-five of whom fell upon the field of battle. Lieuten- ant Runyan was struck by a spent ball but remained at his post. On the 11th of De- cember, 1863, he was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant. In the battle of Mis- sion Ridge, which shortly followed, his regi- ment was in the front and was one of the first to reach the summit of the mountain.
But more men were needed -- "three hundred thousand more " -- and Lieutenant Runyan was sent home to assist in securing recruits to fill the decimated ranks of his company. His youth and enthusiasm made themselves felt on every side and soon the required number was obtained. Rejoining his regiment he returned in time to participate in the Atlanta campaign, and in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, in June, 1864, was actively engaged. A writer in a local history thus speaks of the engagement and the man- ner in which our young Lieutenant bore his part: " Our army sent out a strong line of skirmishers to ascertain the position of the
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enemy. Lieutenant Runyan with his com- pany was ordered to double the line held by Company B of the Fourteenth Ohio, take charge of the same and dislodge the rebels from a position they had in an old log house behind a fence. After forming a line, in a voice heard by the rebels, he informed the company that he had been sent there for that purpose and that they must take the log cabin and fence. The command, 'fix bayonet, forward, double quick,' was given and the rebels were dislodged. Lieutenant Runyan had driven the rebels within their first line of breastworks at the foot of the mountain and was contemplating the rebel works when a minie ball struck him in the upper part of the right knee, passing through the bone and was buried in an oak tree some distance in the rear. This ended his career as a soldier. He was taken to the field hos- pital near Big Shanty and his leg amputated about ten o'clock the same night."
From the field hospital Lieutenant Runyan was sent to Nashville, Tennessee, where he telegraphed to his father his situ- ation, and the latter at once went to his re- lief and tenderly cared for him until he was able to return home. As soon as able he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was honorably discharged. He was now but eighteen years of age and his future life work was to be determined. Soon after he en- tered the college at Fort Wayne, where he applied himself to study for six months and was then compelled toreturn home on account of his wound. He subsequently entered Wes- leyan College, of Delaware, Ohio, where he remained one year, and then returned home, . having received the appointment of Post- master of Warsaw, which position he held for nineteen years and six months.
On the 29th of December, 1873, Lieu-
tenant Runyan was united in marriage with Miss Carrie McCorkle, of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, who died April 1, 1874. She was a lady of rare attainments, and in the short time in which she was permitted to live in Warsaw made many warm friends. In the winter of 1880 he married Minnie J. Forkner, daughter of James and Elizabeth Forkner. Two children have been born to them, James J. and Ruby.
Politically our subject is an uncompro- mising Republican. In 1888 he was elected County Treasurer, on the Republican ticket, and re-elected in 1890, serving in all for four years. In 1884 he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for the office of State Treasurer. The canvass of the vote showed Lieutenant Runyan's nomination by a majority of three. This occasioned consternation in the Marion county delega- tion and Lieutenant Runyan's opponent living in that county, the vote was challenged by him. The first vote was by secret ballot. The challenge required that each delegate should rise and vote publicly. Thus bull- dozed, twelve of the delegates were forced to change their votes, thus defeating Lieutenant Runyan by nine votes. In 1892 he was placed by his friends before the Congres- sional convention as a candidate for the nomination for Congress, but his duties as County Treasurer prevented him from giv- ing any time or attention or taking any part whatever in the canvass for the position, and in consequence he was defeated but by only seven votes. In his youth and early manhood Mr. Runyan was a member of the Good Templars and the Temple of Honor, and has ever been a consistent advocate of temperance. For years he has been a mem- ber of Kosciusko Lodge, No. 62, I. O. O. F., and of Hickleman Encampment, No. 37,
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and has passed all the chairs in both societies. He has served as delegate of his lodge and camp to the Grand Lodge and Grand En- campment of the order, and is at the present time Quartermaster General of the Knights of Pythias of the State of Indiana.
While occupying official positions, Lieu- tenant Runyan has not ignored his private affairs. He was one of the organizers of the People's Loan and Savings Bank, in 1889, and is now its secretary. He is also a stockholder and director in the Lesh Manufacturing Company, and was one of the company to erect the Warsaw opera house and Warsaw woolen mill. In every- thing tending to advance the interests of his city and county he lends a helping hand.
J OHN R. HADLEY, attorney at law, Gas City, Indiana, is one among the ablest advocates of the law in north- ern Indiana. He is a native of the State, born in Hendricks county, Decem- ber 16, 1865, and is a son of Atlas Hadley, who was born in 1835, a native of the same county. Atlas is a son of Joab and Polly (Pickett) Hadley, both of whom were born in Guilford county, North Carolina. These families were of Scotch-Irish descent, and their founders in America were contempo- rary with the time of William Penn. They first settled in Pennsylvania, and subse- quently removed to North Carolina, being among the first settlers in that region.
Joab Hadley with his family removed to Indiana, about 1828, and settled in Hen- dricks county. He was a son of Jacob Had- ley, also a native of North Carolina, where he lived and died. Many of the family set- tled in Hendricks and Wayne counties, and their descendants in these localities are quite
numerous. Miss Elizabeth Reagan became the wife of Atlas Hadley. She is a native of Hendricks county, born in 1840, and is a daughter of John Reagan, an Ohioan by birth and a pioneer of Hendricks county. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Hadley oc- curred in 1858. They still reside upon the same farm in Guilford township of their native county, where their married life began.
They are parents of eight children: Charles R., who married Della Saunders, has three children and resides in Marion county, Indiana; Levi J., who married Net- tie Spray, has one child and resides in Den- ver, Colorado; John R., attorney at law; Olma, a prominent teacher in Terre Haute; Effie H., widow of William Robbins; Elvin C., a junior at Earlham College; Jesse W., of Denver, Col., and Captain of the Den- ver Athletic Club Foot-ball Team; and Tay- lor. who is a student at Central Academy at Plainfield. All the sons are athletes, and are or have been prominent in athletic sports; being of perfect physical development, averaging 170 pounds, wear No. 9 shoes and seven-and-an-eighth hats; and all but one have been students of the renowned Earlham College, at Richmond, Indiana.
Mr. and Mrs. Hadley are birthright mem- bers of the Friends' Church, both having been Overseers and Elders in the same for many years. Their quiet, unostentatious lives have been an element for good, and both are widely known and highly esteemed for their kindness of heart and Christian virtues.
The early life of John R. Hadley was passed upon the farm. His preliminary education was received in the district and high schools, in which he was fitted for a higher education, which he obtained in the
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Earlham College. During 1885-6 he was an associate editor of the Earlhamite, a college paper, and established an enviable reputation as a college journalist. His education com- pleted, he took up teaching, becoming the principal of the Fairfield high school. Sub- sequently he learned the stone-mason's trade, at which he was employed five months on the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad during
its construction. He then became attached to the United States Government Survey of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon for five months, during which time he never slept in a house. It was in Oregon that he first exercised the right of franchise, voting for the prohibition amendment to the State constitution.
During the year 1887 he traveled exten- sively in the West, visiting every State and Territory, except Nevada, west of the Rocky mountains. Returning home he spent the summer of 1888 on the farm and the follow- ing winter taught school. In the spring of 1889 he entered the law office of Cofer & Hadley, at Danville, Indiana, under whose preceptorship he was qualified to practice; and May 6, 1889, he was admitted to the bar before Judge John V. Hadley. In the spring of 1890 he opened a law office in Danville, where he practiced until the fol- lowing year, when he was burned out. In April, 1893, he established himself in an office at Gas City, where he has since been busy in taking care of a constantly increas- ing and lucrative practice.
In political sentiment he is a Republican, and since becoming a resident of Gas City has become prominently identified with the party in its councils and representations, being a delegate to the Republican National League convention at Cleveland in 1895, the manager of the Republican League of
the Eleventh Congressional District in 1894, and member of the executive committee of the State League for 1895-6. He was the Republican candidate for Mayor in the spring election of 1895, and his defeat was encom- passed by his well known and pronounced temperance proclivities and principles. In the office of City Attorney he is serving his third term, and is Deputy Prosecuting At- torney of Grant county.
Socially he is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias, being Past Chancellor Commander of Danville Lodge, No. 48, and he is also connected with the order of K. O. T. M. of Gas City. Of the Friends' Church, the church of his ancestors, he is a birthright member. In the welfare of his adopted city he is greatly interested, being the earnest champion of its rights and priv- ileges. As a lawyer he possesses the quali- ties which are essential to the success of an advocate, being fluent of speech, logical in argument and tactful in the management of a case.
R OBERT F. CUMMINS, Clerk of the Wells Circuit Court of Wells county, Indiana, is a son of Dr. Benjamin F. and Sarah C. (Will- mot) Cummins, -the former a native of Fayette county, Kentucky, of English and Irish ancestry, and the latter of Lexington, same State, and of English ancestry. They were married in 1860, in Kentucky, from which State they removed to Illinois, and in 1865 to Bluffton, Indiana. Here Dr. Cummins resumed the practice of his pro- fession, which he continued until his death, April 29, 1887, when he had arrived at the age of fifty years. He had graduated at the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati, at
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the age of twenty years, and during life he acquired an extensive and successful practice, being a physician of undoubted skill. He was a gentleman of rare social qualities, kind and attentive to the sick, responding to the needs of the poor and rich alike. His life as a physician and as a citizen was a very busy and useful one. He represented his district in the Legislature in 1881-2, as a Democrat. He was greatly esteemed by all who knew him. His wife died July 31, 1888, when she was forty-nine years of age. They were the parents of seven children, four of whom are yet living, namely: Rob- ert F., our subject; Forest, now in the in- surance business at Bluffton; Jennie, wife of Professor C. C. Crain, of the Xenia Busi- ness College, at Xenia, Ohio; and Mollie, who is bookkeeper and stenographer for Bond & Company, of Hudson, Michigan.
The subject of this outline sketch was born in Stockton, Illinois, February 13, 1864, where his parents were residing temporarily. When an infant he was brought by his par- ents to Indiana, where he has since contin- ued to reside. His primary education was obtained in the public schools of Bluffton, which he attended until his sixteenth year. He then secured a school near that city, in Wells county, which he taught one term, after which he entered the North- ern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, where he remained until the following winter, when he returned home and taught another term of school. The fol- lowing spring he entered the Normal School at Terre Haute, this State, taking a short course. Next he went to Decatur, Indiana, where he was connected with a Democratic paper, the Decatur Democrat, as local editor and business manager, closing his connection with the paper the following
year. Returning to Bluffton, he secured employment as clerk in the drug store of L. C. Davenport, for which position he had long before qualified himself in the employment of his father. After working for Mr. Davenport for a year he formed a partnership with
George Spitzer and they opened a drug store in Bluffton, under the firm name of Spitzer & Cummins. In 1887, owing to the death of his father, he sold his interest in the drug store to his partner and took charge of the settling up of his father's affairs. From that time until 1890 he was engaged in various employments. He then entered partnership with Frank Staver, in the cloth- ing and furnishing business, under the firm name of Staver, Cummins & Company. This partnership continued until the spring of 1893, when he sold his interest to his partner and embarked in the fire and life insurance business. In 1894 he closed this business and during the ensuing fall he secured the nomination for his present office. As is well known, the first nomina- tion is a difficult one, resulting in a hard race, but he was elected, as a Jeffersonian Democrat. Being then only thirty years of age, he was one of the youngest clerks ever elected in this county.
May 21, 1890, he married Miss Bertha G. Weisell, daughter of William W. Wei- sell, ex-Sheriff of Wells county and one of the most highly respected citizens of Bluff- ton. They have one child, a son, named Weisell, now four years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Cummins are members of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church. Fraternally he is a Mason and has attained the rank of Knight Templar. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and has filled all the chairs in Bluffton Lodge. He was one of
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the organizers of the Uniform Rank of Knights of Pythias in Bluffton and for two years was its Commander.
Coming to this county when but an infant, Mr. Cummins can almost claim Bluffton as the place of his nativity. Here he grew to manhood, attended its public schools, went in and out among its people, and has ever had the respect of those who knew him. He is a man of genial nature, one easy to approach, and has always a kind word to those with whom he is brought in contact. His acquaintance throughout the county is extensive, and his popularity is not confined to that of his party asso- ciates, but prevails among his political opponents as well.
EORGE HARTER, a farmer of Ossian, Indiana, is one of the de- servedly popular men of Wells county. He is a Pennsylvanian by birth, having been born in Beaver county, January 9, 1835, son of Michael and Mary (Stone) Harter, the former a native of Wurt- emberg, Germany, who emigrated to Amer- ica in 1828. The latter is a native of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, in which their marriage was celebrated. Michael and Mary (Stone) Harter both possessed those rare attributes of character which clearly defines good principles and honest purposes. The years of their long and emi- nently respectable lives contain no tinge of intent or act that was not the embodiment of good. To do good by themselves, to their children and to all with whom they had relations in life was the motive that actuated them in the daily discharge of life's duties.
Mrs. Harter descended from an early
Colonial family which participated with the colonists in the seven-years struggle for na- tional independence and freedom from the tyranny of Britain's rule. To Michael and Mary Harter six children were born: Ann, George, Margaret, Sarah, Andrew and Thomas Stone. After their marriage they lived for a number of years' in Beaver coun- ty, and realizing that a change of location to a place where cheaper land could be had, that their children thereby might eventually be profited, they resolved upon coming to Indiana, arriving in Wells county in Octo- ber, 1852, and settling on a farm nowowned by John B. Ady.
In their new home they were prosperous, realizing quite fully all they had anticipated to achieve by a change of place. In 1876 they left the farm and located in Ossian, where they could enjoy, undisturbed by care, their remaining years of life. Both were Christians in the fullest sense of the word, being members of the Presbyterian Church. They were unassuming and retir- ing in manner, kind of heart and charitably disposed, yet firm in principles. Their happy domestic life reached into a ripe age, dying within a few months of each other, Mr. Harter at the age of eighty-two years, and the wife and mother at the age of eighty-four.
The sons seemed to have inherited the patriotism of their maternal ancestors, as all enlisted and did a soldier's duty in the late Civil war. George volunteered August 31, 1861, a private of Company A, Thirty- fourth Indiana Infantry. For meritorious conduct he was twice promoted, first on March 1, 1862, receiving a Second Lieu- tenant's commission of his old company. He was constantly with his regiment, taking part in General Grant's campaigns in open-
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ing the Mississippi river. That he saw serv- ice goes without saying, as one could not well be with Grant and not fight. The Thirty-fourth was engaged at the siege of New Madrid, battle of Champion Hill, in the many sanguinary struggles that occurred around Vicksburg, the battles of Black River Bridge, Jackson and numerous other engagements of greater or less importance. During the battle of Champion Hill, one of the hottest fights in the history of the war while it lasted, Lieutenant Harter was serv- ing as aid on the staff of General McGinnis, and carried to General Grant General Ho- vey's dispatch asking for reinforcements. General Grant refers to this incident in his memoirs (vol. 1, page 517). The exposure of army life and increasing activity of the army with which his regiment participated told upon his health, and he became so in- capacitated from sickness that on July 19, 1864, he was honorably discharged from the service for disability.
His brother, Andrew, was a member of Company K, Seventy-fifth Indiana Infantry. He was a gallant soldier, and fell, shot dead, at Chickamauga, September 19, 1863. Thomas until this time had remained at his home. He was not physically strong and yet a youth. His brother Andrew's death at Chickamauga so incited his pa- troitism that despite his condition and age, and the remonstrances of family and friends, he enlisted, joining Company D, One Hun- dred and Thirty-seventh Indiana Infantry, of the 100-day service. His delicate health soon succumbed to the ravages of the South- ern climate, and he died a few days before the expiration of his term of service, at Tullahoma, Tennessee.
Upon his return to civil life, Lieutenant Harter, in August, 1864, was married, Miss
Martha, daughter of James and Rachel (Al- len) Glass, becoming his wife. Mrs. Harter was born December 9, 1839. Together they began life upon the farm, a vocation fol- lowed until the present time.
Mrs. Harter came of an old pioneer fam- ily that settled in Jefferson township, Wells county, in the spring of 1846. They were well known among the pioneers and helped to cultivate and improve their section of the country. Her father died in the fall of 1865, aged sixty-three years, and her mother died in the fall of 1861, aged sixty years. Her father was a brother of John T. Glass, a prominent citizen of northeastern Indiana, whose sketch appears in this work.
Mr. Harter is in his political sentiments a Republican. In 1888 he was put forward by his friends before the convention to be nominated for Congress. He made no effort himself, having no personal interest in the matter, but was defeated by only a few votes. He is a member of William Swaim Post, No. 169, G. A. R., and in 1886 he was a delegate from the Eleventh District to the Grand Encampment held at San Fran- cisco. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian Church of Ossian, of which Mr. Harter has been a Ruling Elder for more than twenty years and the teacher of the adult Bible class many years.
In his early life Mr. Harter received a good education. In the schools of Wells county, he taught seven consecutive winters previous to the war, winning notable suc- cess. Among his pupils who have dis- tinguished themselves and who by their hon- orable and successful lives reflect no lit- tle credit upon their teacher, we mention Dr. A. G. Gorrell and J. J. Todd, of Bluff- ton, Dr. C. V. Gorrell, of New Haven, Hon. Joseph Ady, of Kansas, T. W. Wil-
Baren Hale.
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son, of Fort Wayne, Dr. Frederick Glock, deceased, late of Adams county. Revs. Sherman McCorkle and Charles O. Robb, besides numerous others who have become prominent in affairs.
To Mr. and Mrs. Harter have been born six children, four of whom have passed to the better world. Their eldest child, Florence R., was a beautiful young girl, winsome in manner and of great personal attractiveness. She possessed intelligence far beyond her years, and the ability she evinced in mas- tering her lessons was the surprise of her teachers, who often remarked that Florence had a phenomenal mind. So quickly and clearly did she demonstrate the problems of books that it seemed she intuitively mastered the subjects. Her promising young life yielded to Death's sickle at the age of twelve years, and was transferred to the life above, there to unfold and ripen into a higher per- fection.
Thomas S., the second child and oldest son, died at the age of five years; and Charles C., the third in order of birth, died at the age of three years, at which age John T. G. also died. Mary F. and Webner, the two spared to their parents, are the light of a home often saddened and darkened by Death's shadows. Mary F. is a graduate of the Fort Wayne Commercial College, tak- ing a general course, receiving her diploma in 1894.
OWEN HALE .- In touching the history of Wells county, Indiana, the writer has not to carry his in- vestigations far ere he finds how intimately identified therewith was the life of the honored subject of this memoir, -a man of high ability, a pioneer of the State, 28
one who impressed his individuality upon the community where he lived, and who was honored with positions of public trust and responsibility, gaining distinctive pres- tige and proving one of the prime factors in insuring the development and material prosperity of the section with whose inter- ests he was so conspicuously concerned for a long period of years. In reverting to the salient points in such a life there can not but be both satisfaction and profit, and in this connection none is more worthy of a tribute of respect and honor.
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