USA > Indiana > Fountain County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 38
USA > Indiana > Warren County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 38
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Mary U. Shannon, wife of Henry Nave, survived her husband and at the present time lives with her daughter, Mrs. Conover, in Shawnee town- ship. Of her nine children, four only are living, namely: Margaret, widow of John Huddle; Alton P., who resides in Attica, has large farming interests in Ohio, where he spends a considerable portion of his time; Mary C., now Mrs. Conover, of Shawnee township; and Frank A., the subject of this sketch.
Reared amid rural scenes, Frank A. Nave received his early training on the family homestead and while still young became familiar with the prac- tical duties of farm life and learned to place a correct estimate upon the nobility of husbandry and to appreciate its value and the value of consecu- tive effort in all of his undertakings. During the summer months his em- ployments were such as are common to country boys and after the crops had been tended and the harvests gathered and garnered he pursued his studies in the district schools. To these early years under the tutelage of parents whose high aims were to engraft upon the minds and hearts of their children such principles as would insure lives of usefulness and honor, he is indebted for the integrity of character and laudable ambition that have since pre-eminently distinguished him as a master of his calling and as a citizen in all the walks of life. The frugalities of the farmer's home, the chaste purity of its teachings
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and influences, the broad fields, the stately forests, the orchards, the meadows, the hill and dell, the song of birds, the hum of bees, the laughing brook-all the wealth and beauty that nature spreads out with a lavish hand, were among the teachers of his youth whose lessons were never forgotten. It is not strange that amid such surroundings and under such wholesome influences at quite an early age he should have conceived a strong predilection for rural life and should have decided upon the time-honored vocation of agriculture as the pursuit best suited to his tastes and inclinations.
Mr. Nave assisted his father in the cultivation of the homestead until the latter's death, when he began tilling the soil for hiniself on the part of the estate which fell to him. His success from the start was most gratifying and from time to time he was enabled to add to his realty until, in the course of a few years, he had one of the largest and best improved farms in Logan township and occupied a commanding place among the enterprising agricul- turists of his county. Without narrating in detail the series of continuous advancements which have also made him not only the leading man of his calling in Fountain county, but also the largest and most successful in In- diana, suffice it to say that he has ever pursued an honorable, straightforward course, making a careful study of agricultural science and keeping in close touch with everything relating thereto, the practical knowledge thus acquired, backed by mature judgment, wise discretion and business ability of a high order, together with an energy and determination which never temporizes with difficulties or fosters such mental conditions as pessimism, his progress has been steady and substantial and the proud position which he today holds among his contemporaries is to be attributed solely to his own well directed efforts and rare foresight.
Some idea of the extent to which Mr. Nave has carried his agricultural interests may be obtained from the fact that his farm at this time embraces an area of eighteen hundred acres'of as fine land as the county of Fountain can boast, every acre of which has been thoroughly developed and been made to yield to its full capacity that with which planted. As previously indicated, he cultivates the soil scientifically and with the latest and most approved im- plements and machinery, studies carefully the nature of soils and to what each is best adapted, and so accurate has been the wisdom and judgment dis- played in the management of his 'splendid estate that such a condition as a crop failure has been practically unknown since he began operations for him- self. To keep the farm under the high state of tillage for which it is noted, the services of from twelve to twenty men are required throughout the year and under the watchful eye and judicious management of Mr. Nave, every-
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thing on the place moves with the systematic regularity which bespeaks thorough discipline, also a reciprocity of interest between employer and employe, which has ever made their relations mutually harmonious and prof- itable. Mr. Nave raises upon an average of one hundred thousand bushels of small grain annually, which he threshes with his own machines and in addition thereto grows corn erops sufficient to feed five hundred beef cattle and from eight hundred to one thousand hogs, all of which he ships to the larger markets where they command the highest prices. As a raiser of fine live stock. especially the higher grades of cattle, he has achieved national repute and to him at one time belonged the honor of having the champion herd of pure bred Herefords in America, over two hundred head, ninety-six of which he sold for the sum of sixty-four thousand dollars, the highest average on record for the Hereford breed, one of the animals bringing over eight thousand dollars.
Mr. Nave has every known convenience for the raising of cattle and his motto has ever been that it costs less to raise a good animal than a poor one, to say nothing of the difference between the two in value. He mani- fests commendable pride in his live stock, for which, as previously stated, there is always a great demand, and in a recent shipment consisting of seven- teen car loads of cattle he received the highest price per car load ever paid at the Union stock yards in Chicago. His reputation as a breeder and feeder is known to every raiser of live stock in the nation, and from time to time he has received some big prices for especially fine cattle for show purposes. This, with his record of having received the highest price ever paid for cattle by the car load in the leading markets of the United States, makes himn un- deniably the banner cattle raiser of the country, a fact of which not only himself, but his friends and fellow citizens throughout the country, feel justly proud.
Mr. Nave has not been sparing in the matter of improvements, as his splendid and commodious modern dwelling, ample barns and other buildings abundantly attest. It has been frequently remarked by those who have traveled extensively that his farm is without doubt the largest and most valuable in- dividual farm in Indiana, and as a beautiful country home with nothing lack- ing in the way of modern improv. ients, conveniences and attractive features, including well-kept lawns, tastefully arranged gardens, and trees yielding both fruit and shade, it is perhaps without a rival in any rural district in the state, besides ranking among the most desirable places of residence in the entire country. While primarily interested in his own affairs and making every other consideration subordinate thereto, Mr. Nave has not been un-
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mindful of the interests of others, or of the duty which as a citizen hie owes to the community. Public spirited in the broadest sense of the term and alive to every enterprise having for its object the material advancement of his township and county and the general welfare of the people, he has been influential in promoting these ends in various ways, being a natural leader whose counsel carries weight and whose opinions always command respect. He possesses in an eminent degree those qualities which elevate and adorn mankind, is firm and well grounded in his convictions, and, as an intelligent, up-to-date American, takes broad views of men and affairs and makes his influence and presence felt among all with whom he mingles or has business relations. As a farmer and stock raiser he is without a peer in his county and has no superior in Indiana, and to his efforts is largely due the revival of farming interests in his part of the state and the advanced position which Fountain county holds as a rich and progressive agricultural region. In politics he is practically independent, and with the exception of serving with marked ability as a member of the state board of agriculture, he has neither held nor aspired to office or public distinction. His financial success has been commensurate with his extensive farming and live stock interests, and since succeeding to his share of the paternal estate, he has by his own efforts in- creased his holdings by the addition of fifteen hundred acres of valuable land, which fact bears eloquent testimony to his ability as a careful business man and far-seeing financier. He is essentially a practical man with a well bal- anced mental organism and his plans, which are always carefully matured, seldom if ever fail to materialize, and on all matters within the range of his vocation his judgment is sound and his advice is pertinent and eminently worthy of acceptance by those desiring to profit by his experience.
In the year 1894, Mr. Nave was joined in marriage to Grace Crawford, daughter of John Crawford, an old settler of the county and an ex-soldier, whose sketch appears elsewhere in these pages, and who is now an honored resident of Shawnee township. Mr. and Mrs. Nave have had five children, namely : Hansel, Cyril, Arthur, Charles O. and Paul V., all'living and under the parental roof except the oldest.
WILLIAM COWGILL.
One of the most prominent and popular men of Warren county, Indiana, is William Cowgill, who has been active in the affairs of that district for a number of years. Mr. Cowgill has spent all of his life in this county, and has
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always put forth his energies in every cause of common good, whereby the community might be benefited. The esteem and regard of his friends and neighbors is evidenced by the fact that he now holds the office of .county sheriff, his offices being in the court house at Williamsport, Indiana, in which town he now resides.
William Cowgill was born at Greenhill, in Warren county, October 5, 1872. and he is the son of Joel and Jennie (Timmons) Cowgill, who also were natives of Indiana. His grandfather, Lemuel Cowgill, was a harness- maker and was born in the East, being the son of one of the Cowgill brothers who originally came to this country from England and settled in Philadel- phia. Lemuel Cowgill came West and Joel was born in Marion county, southwest of Indianapolis. He was a small farmer, more interested in things spiritual than in the temporal affairs of life. He early turned his attention to theology, and entirely through his own efforts was educated and ordained in the general conference as a minister of the United Brethren church. This left to his son William a great deal of care of the farm, as he was occupied with his local charges, and the boy early gained a very prac- tical and thorough knowledge of agriculture, its methods and results. Joel Cowgill died March 18, 1901, and his widow is making her home with her son William. They were the parents of eight children, or whom William is the fourth child.
William Cowgill was educated in the common schools of Warren county, supplemented by some schooling in Tippecanoe county. He was nat- ,urally a hustler and early learned that hard work was sure to bring results in agricultural pursuits, no matter how much seemed to be the product of chance. He worked on his father's farm until he was about thirty years of age, not only; being of great assistance to the family, but prospering on his own account. On January 9, 1905, he was married to Myrtle Brown. They never had any children, and she died August 13, 1906, and was buried in Warren county. After that her husband threw himself more entirely into public interests. He . was living in Independence when he was elected sheriff in 1911. He ran against five strong men for nomination to this office and it was because of his popularity, and the trust of his friends and neighbors in his justice and ability to execute the duties of the office that placed him in this position. Dur- ing his time in office, about a year and a half, Mr. Cowgill has appointed a new deputy sheriff.
Mr. Cowgill has not restricted his activities to his own community, either socially or in a business way, and his connections outside of the neighbor-
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hood have only assisted him in his work there. He is a member of the Odd Fellows in the first degree, he is a second-degree Mason, and has taken the third degree in the Improved Order of Red Men.
Mr. Cowgill has proved very earnest in all that he has undertaken, and has been successful in his enterprises. He is energetic, progressive and active in standing up for all that he believes to be right. It is to such men as he that Warren county owes her progress and prosperity.
STEPHEN T. RANDOLPH.
It is a well authenticated fact that success comes not as the caprice of chance, but as the legitimate result of well applied energy and unflagging determination in a course of action once decided upon by the individual. Only those who diligently seek the goddess Fortuna, find her-she never was known to smile benignly upon the idler or the indolent dreamer of dreams. The subject of this sketch clearly understood this fact early in life when he was casting about for a legitimate and promising line to follow, and in trac- ing his life history it is plainly seen that the prosperity he enjoys has been won by commendable qualities, and it is also his personal worth which has gained for him the good standing among the citizens of the eastern part of Fountain county where he is so well known and where he maintained his home.
· Stephen T. Randolph, successful groceryman at Newtown, Indiana, was born in Fulton township, Fountain county, January 15, 1869, and is a son of Harrison and Jennie (Wright) Randolph. The father was born in Fulton township, Fountain county, while the mother is a native of Montgomery county, Indiana, having spent her earliest years near the town of Linden, where her people were long well known. Aaron F. Randolph, the paternal grand father, had a family of five children, of whom three, Harrison ( father of the subject), Henry, William, were named for Gen. William Henry Har- rison, of whom the elder Randolph was a great admirer.
Stephen T. Randolph, of this sketch, grew to manhood on the home farm and there he made himself generally useful as a boy and he received a fairly good education in the common schools of his native township. He worked at various things in his earlier life and by good management and economy got a good start. For the past four years he has been engaged in the grocery business at Newtown, Fountain county, and has built up a large and growing trade, drawing his customers from a wide territory. He carries a large, fresh
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and well selected stock of staple and fancy groceries at all seasons and he is known to treat his many customers with uniform courtesy and kindness.
Mr. Randolph was married on June 11, 1902, to Lura Dell Schermer- horn, daughter of A. C. and Rhoda E. (Martin) Schermerhorn. Her mother was a daughter of John S. and Ellen Martin. Both these families have long been prominent in Fountain county, and they are given further consideration on other pages of this work. Two children have been born to the subject and wife, namely : The eldest died in infancy ; Allen F. is at home.
Politically, Mr. Randolph is a Republican, but he has never held office. Fraternally, he belongs to the Free and Accepted Masons, Lodge No. 205, Richland township.
DAVID B. FOSTER.
The king of America today is indeed the farmer. Upon him the very life of the city dweller depends. He may view his broad acres with the satis- faction that all he surveys is his own, and the produce is the result of liis own labor of thought and brawn. With the modern implements in use today, his work is not even as arduous as in the century past and, unlike the toiler in most fields of life, he may see the result of his work. His life is more peaceful and more natural. One of the royalty of Fountain county, Indiana, is David B. Foster, who has long been one of the most successful farmers in his part of the country.
Mr. Foster is the grandson of Benjamin Foster, who came from Ohio to Fountain county when the country was in a primeval state, and, selecting land in Shawnee township, cleared it and introduced agriculture where before nature unchained had run wild. He had six children: Basil was farming at home during his lifetime; then there were Sarah, Polly, Martha, James and John. The latter came to this county about the age of thirty and settled on a farm. He married Abigail Kendall, a native of Virginia, and they had seven children, namely : Martha, Milton and Nelson died in infancy, and Basil, who farmed at home for a while, is now dead; Ella married William Hughes, deceased, of Attica, Indiana; Mrs. Frances Jones, of Lafayette, is the other daughter. David B. was born March 19, 1851, on the old home place on which he now lives. His mother was a faithful member of the Methodist church, and his father a stanch Republican. He died in 1879, at the age of sixty-nine years, and she died in 1871, at the age of fifty-eight. They are tenderly remembered by many of the inhabitants of Shawnee township.
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MR. AND MRS. DAVID B. FOSTER.
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David B. Foster was educated in Shawnee township at the district school, and afterward went to school for a year in Attica, Indiana. When he was through school he went home to the farm to apply there what he had learned in theory, rather than lose himself with hundreds of others in a large city, where his life and capabilities would be warped in close offices, among nature-starved workers. He married, December 13, 1870, Ruth E. Stafford, daughter of William Stafford, who came to this state from Ohio. They have two children, namely: Evelyn M. Foster married T. Chalmer Schultz, of Newtown, Indiana, and John W. married Ione Putnam, and they have one daughter, Elizabeth.
Mr. Foster is independent in thought and independent in politics. He does not vote that his party may win, but votes for the man who will best fill the position in question for the welfare of the country. He is one of the largest land owners in Shawnee township, owning in his own name four hundred acres of land and having three hundred and sixty acres more in the names of his children. All of this, with the exception of about one hundred acres of timber land, is in a high state of cultivation and highly improved. Mr. Foster has made most of the improvements on the place, and his farm is one of the most productive in that part of the country.
Mr. Foster is now retired, living off of his well tilled acres, and merely oversees the work on his farmi, His rest has been well earned, and he may now take life easy, and lend his friendly aid and counsel to a larger circle than when his time was taken up by his more immediate interests. He is one of the most important citizens of Shawnee township.
JUDGE JAMES McCABE.
Standing out distinctly as one of the central figures of the judiciary of Indiana of the generations that are past is the name of the late Judge James McCabe, of Williamsport. Prominent in legal circles and equally so in pub- lic matters beyond the confines of Warren county, with a reputation in one of the most exacting of professions that won him a name for distinguished services second to that of none of his contemporaries, there was for many years no more prominent or honored man in western Indiana, which he long dignified with his citizenship. Achieving success in the courts at an age when most young men are just entering upon the formative period of their lives, wearing the judicial ermine with becoming dignity and bringing to (45)
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every case submitted to him a clearness of perception and ready power of analysis characteristic of the learned jurist, his name and work for decades were allied with the legal institutions, public enterprises and political inter- ests of the state in such a way as to earn him recognition as one of the dis- tinguished citizens in a community noted for the high order of its talent. A high purpose and an unconquerable will, vigorous niental powers, diligent study and devotion to duty were some of the means by which he made him- self eminently useful, and every ambitious youth who fights the battle of life with the prospect of ultimate success may pursue with profit the biography herewith presented, for therein are embodied many lessons as well as incen- tive, and, although he "serenely sleeps in the windowless palaces of rest," his influence still pervades the lives of thousands, making them better and happier; thus, truly, with Shakespeare, "The good that men do lives after them."
Judge McCabe was born in Darke county, Ohio, July 4, 1834. A char- acteristic of the subject was that he usually had things go as he wished. This may have been an inherited trait; for about the year 1830, his father, James McCabe, Sr., eloped from Middletown, south of Terre Haute, Indiana, with Jane Lee, daughter of an old Virginia family. They went to Ohio, after they were married, and there the subject of this memoir was born, being one of five sons. While an infant his parents removed to Kosciusko county, Indi- ana. From there they went to Illinois and the boy that afterward became one of the supreme judges of Indiana plowed prairie sod with an ox team on the ground where Watseka now stands. Three of the sons of the stern Whig father ran away from home, coming to Indiana. James was one of the three. He went to Crawfordsville, attracted there 'by the presence of rela- tives of his mother, the Lees. At this time he was seventeen years old, and here it was that he first went to school, having had no learning whatever up to this time. His first schooling was at a night school taught by Judge Naylor, one of the well known members of the bar. So sensitive was he to the taunts of boys, who laughed at his painful efforts to learn, that it was only the earn- est solicitations of Judge Naylor that kept him in school. He made his way in school by working on the Monon railroad as section hand. He boarded wherever handy, and at the age of eighteen married Serena, the daughter of M. M. VanCleve, with whom he boarded. The bride was only sixteen. This was March 24, 1853. Had the Judge lived one day longer he would have celebrated his fifty-eighth wedding anniversary. They began housekeeping on a farm seven miles from Crawfordsville. One day when work was slack, he went to Crawfordsville, and, impelled mainly by curiosity, attended a mur-
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der trial in which the prosecutor was the great criminal lawyer, Daniel W. Voorhees, and the defendant's attorney was Edward Hannegan. The splen- did eloquence of these two distinguished orators was enough; then and there he kindled the ambition to be a lawyer. He never gave up that ideal. Days were dark many times after that and nothing but hope remained, but he lived to become one of the great attorneys of the state and a member of the su- preme court of Indiana.
· James McCabe taught school in winters and did what he could get to do in summers, living at Oxford and Pine Village in succession and finally be- ing admitted to the bar and beoming a resident of Williamsport in 1861. Here indeed, for years, the days were dark. The young lawyer knew what it was to walk all the way to Walnut Grove to argue a cause before the squire, but his labors were lightened, usually by the success that he had ..
In politics Judge McCabe was a Democrat. His reason for being a Democrat was characteristic. He was a "Hard Shell" Baptist, and so were his wife's people. He believed absolutely in the literal interpretation of the Bible and considered that the Bible sanctioned slavery. Therefore he allied himself with the Democratic party, although his father was a Whig of uncom- promising type. Twice was he nominated for Congress, and in a strong Re- publican district defeated by only narrow margins. In 1892 he was elected to the state supreme court for a term of six years. Although nominated for a second term, he was defeated with the rest of the ticket.
Three very important. opinions were handed down by Judge McCabe while on the bench. The most noted was that of Haggart vs. Stehlin, 137 Indiana, 43. This was one of the noted supreme court decisions that for many years have been gradually cutting down the privileges of the saloon, the most infamous institution that society sanctions. He took advanced ground in this decision, going far beyond any ideas that had ever been pre- sented in any court in the world. The gist of the decision, which was ren- dered in 1898, was that a saloon may become a nuisance, may be enjoined and may have judgment for damages rendered against it. So far-reaching was this decision that it was widely commented on, not only in America but in Europe as well. The Literary Digest gave it considerable space. An in- teresting fact is that John W. Kern, the present United States senator from Indiana, was the saloon man's attorney. Another famous case was that in which the decision of the lower court sentencing Hinshaw, the preacher who murdered his wife, to the state prison for life, was confirmed. The evidence was purely circumstantial, but the opinion of Judge McCabe reads like a fascinating detective story. And one more famous opinion was that in which
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