USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume II > Part 18
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in which line he was energetic, progressive and resourceful. His manage- ment of his mother's estate showed business ability of a high order. For eight and a half years he served as justice of the peace and during that time tried many cases, whose decision gave him a reputation for moderation and justice. His good common sense proved valuable to litigants, whom he persuaded to settle many of their disputes out of court. He always favored arbitration, if this could be brought about, and saved contending parties much money by inducing them to compromise their differences. He was a man of integrity, of sterling character, and his word was as good as his bond to those who knew him. At one time he was a candidate for state senator and always took an interest in politics, first as a Republican, then as a Democrat. It is claimed that he suggested the ground-work for the present Indiana liquor laws, and in other ways showed constructive ability. Mr. Crouse travelled a good deal not only in the United States but through foreign countries. In 1869 he spent some time in England and Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Spain and Turkey. His sympathies were warm, his disposition kindly and his nature generous. He was long a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he filled all the chairs, and also belonged to the Encampment. He died August 13, 1908, and is buried in the Westpoint cemetery, where his widow has erected a beautiful monument to his memory. Mrs. Crouse is a lady of many charms, bespeaking the high social connections and fine families from which she sprang. Her home is noted for its hospitality and so kindly and courteously dispensed as to make all who call desire to come again. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Crouse are as follows: John Thomas, born April 26, 1895, and died in infancy ; William Alexander, born November 24, 1896; Mary Magdalene, born October 7. 1898; Mark Hermon, born August 29, 1903; Partlow Loveless, born August 14, 1905, and Armanda Eliza, born October 1I, 1908.
WILLIAM SIMPSON WALKER, M. D.
Dr. William S. Walker, one of the practicing physicians and surgeons of the city of Lafayette, was born November 16, 1846, at Morristown, Ten- nessee, a son of Lovel and Amanda Jane (Howell) Walker, both natives of Tennessee. The father was a Baptist minister and followed that and farming many years. At the time of the Rebellion, he was an ardent Union man and finally became a Republican. Lovel and Amanda J. (Howell)
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Walker had four children: Jane married Noah Alexander Williams and now resides at Asheville, North Carolina; Rebecca married a Quaker (Friend) preacher named Jonathan Mills and now lives at Seattle, Wash- ington ; Hannah married Dr. Isaac Walker, and resides at Alpha, Tennessee. The other child in the family was Dr. William S., of this sketch. The father died in 1879; the good wife and mother is still living and resides on the old homestead at Alpha, Tennessee. The land on which she lives was originally ceded to Tennessee by North Carolina and was first owned by the maternal great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Howell. A part of this tract of land has remained in the name of some of the Walkers and Howells ever since. The residence now on the place is the fourth that has been used on the premises and practically in the same place.
Dr. William S. Walker attended the Panther Springs Academy at Panther Springs, Tennessee, and subsequently entered Mossy Creek (now Newman-Carson) College, at Jefferson, Tennessee. He was still in college when the war broke in upon his course of studies. He then entered Miami Medical College, at Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating in the spring of 1869. He located at Colburn, Tippecanoe county, Indiana, arriving the same year of his graduation, and practiced there until 1876, when he removed to Lafayette, where he has been in the constant practice of medicine ever since, except a few months when he was absent taking a course of lectures at the Indiana Medical College at Indianapolis in 1887 and a post-graduate course in New York in 1901-02.
The Doctor is an active member of the Tippecanoe County Medical Society, the Mississippi Valley Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is now the president of the District Councillors Associa- tion and has been connected with St. Elizabeth's Hospital for over thirty years, and physician and surgeon at St. Joseph's Asylum, Lafayette, for twenty years. He is now consulting physician for the Home Hospital.
In his political views he of whom this sketch is written is in general harmony with the platforms of the Democratic party. He has represented his ward one term on the city council; also served as health officer and pen- sion examiner. In 1873 he was the Democratic candidate for the office of state senator against Judge La Rue. The election was a close one and was contested, notwithstanding the fact that the normal Republican majority in Tippecanoe county was at that time about eight hundred. Like many of the modern-day professional men, Mr. Walker is connected with the ancient and honorable fraternity of Masons, having been advanced to the thirty- second degree in that order. He also holds a membership with the brother-
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hood of Elks at Lafayette. For thirty years he has been a consistent men- ber of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal church of Lafayette.
Concerning his domestic affairs, let it be stated that the Doctor mar- ried, first, in July, 1868. Mary E. Gettel, by whom two children were born, Curtis L. and Elmer. The wife and mother died in 1870. In 1872 he married Emma A. Dreyer, daughter of Henry Dreyer, and by this union two children were born, Emma Estella and Roy Simpson. During his long residence in this county, Doctor Walker has always deported himself in a manner becoming a professional man and has won a wide circle of friends, both as a doctor of medicine and citizen of a public-spirited nature.
HENRY TAYLOR SAMPLE.
For more than half a century the late Henry Taylor Sample was an honored citizen of the state, esteemed and loved by all who knew him. He was born near Middletown, Butler county, Ohio, September 29, 1805, and died at Lafayette, Indiana, February 19, 1881. His parents were John Sample and Ann Taylor. His father was a manufacturer of flour and one of the pioneers in his section of Ohio in building and operating what were then known as gristmills. His first mill was near Middletown, in Butler county; his second was on the Big Miami river, in the northern part of the same county at Colerain. Subsequently he removed over the border into Randolph county, Indiana, where he erected a mill on White river and also opened up and cultivated a farm. Henry Sample, the subject of this biography, either inherited or acquired very early a commercial instinct and during his minority engaged in selling the products of his father's mills and farm to the settlers in the interior of the state. Many of the products were transported in flat- boats down White river, and sold to the settlers in what was known as the New Purchase, which included the present site of Indianapolis. He also was one of the pioneers as a boy in extending the trade along the Mississinewa river, into the country of the Miami Indians and to the settlers along the upper Wabash. To reach the Mississinewa it was necessary to carry the flour, grain, vegetables and lumber by wagon a distance of eight miles. In 1825 his journey was extended as far down the Wabash as Lafayette, the site of which had been surveyed and platted a week before he arrived.
In 1826 Mr. Sample married Sarah Sumwalt and two or three years later settled in the new town of Lafayette. He had already gained a large experience in trade and was skilled in the tanner's art. He therefore opened
Harry Taylor
Henry I Sample.
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in Lafayette a tannery which he conducted with gratifying success until 1854, in connection with the other business enterprises of great value. As early as 1833 he began the slaughter of hogs and nine years later formed a partner- ship with the late Joseph S. Hanna in the business of slaughtering and pack- ing both pork and beef on an extended scale. The firm of Sample & Hanna soon won a high reputation, which extended from the markets on the eastern seaboard to New Orleans, where many of their products were sold. Mr. Sample himself made several trips with cargoes of pork and lard on flat- boats via the Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, where the cargoes were sold at a good profit. By his integrity and the honesty of his dealings he gained the confidence of all classes of the farmers and stock growers with whom he had most of his dealings. All of them reposed such confidence in him that in times of panic they would place their surplus money in his hands and take his receipt for the same rather than risk it in the banks. He was, during all his successful business life, a friend of the poor and those who were obliged to earn their living by toil. He never forgot his own humble boyhood and was always willing to lend a hand to the worthy who were struggling to better their condition. In 1858 he purchased a large tract of land on the Grand Prairie in Benton county, which he converted into a fine stock farm. The management of this farm and the raising and market- ing of cattle was very congenial to his taste and yielded large profits on the investment. Mr. Sample's judgment appeared to be unerring and he was possessed of that peculiar foresight which is essential to success in commercial enterprises. He counted the cost and weighed the chances before embarking in a new business, and everything he undertook was managed with such ability and conservatism, with such energy and persistence, with such accurate forecasting of the results, that no enterprise managed by him ever failed. Whatever he undertook, in the way of business, whether for personal gain or public welfare, prospered. As a natural sequence to this sagacity, executive ability and careful attention, he built up a fortune which was ample for himself and family. Unfortunately, after fifty years of almost unexampled prosperity and uninterrupted success in the various industries and commercial enterprises with which he was actively connected, he was induced to largely invest in manufacturing enterprises with which he was not actively connected. These investments proved disastrous and he lived to see the accumulations of more than a half century swept away. In early life and so long as that party maintained a distinctive organization, Mr. Sample was a Whig and. with the majority of the members of that party, he entered into the Repub- lican party at its birth and remained a member of it until the close of his.
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life. He was never an aspirant for public office or even active in the manage- ment of politics, and his only official service was in the common council of Lafayette. His acquaintance with farmers generally, and their high regard for him, caused his election to the presidency of a county fair organized in 1867, which remained in existence for three years. This little pioneer organ- ization was the forerunner of the Tippecanoe County Agricultural Associa- tion, which has grown to be the largest association of its class in the state of Indiana. Much of its growth and prestige are due to the wise and efficient executive administration of Mr. Sample, who was its first president and its only one to the time of his death. For the last eight years of his life he was a member of the state board of agriculture, in which his counsel was always sought and accepted as of great value to the society.
Mr. Sample's marriage in early life was happy and for a period of fifty- five years the bonds of that wedlock held the husband and wife in loving companionship. They were similar in their tastes, their moral character and their religion, both being earnest and sincere members of the Methodist Epis- copal church, and both enjoying the work of relieving the distressed and making the world around them brighter and happier by dispensing charity with open hands. They had eight children, three of whom died in infancy. Of the remaining five, John Godfrey and Boyes Taylor died after reaching maturity; Isabella Dunbar is the widow of the late Henry Taylor; Robert William is a banker in Lafayette; and Sallie A. is a widow of the late David McBride, of the same city. Henry T. Sample was not only a man of large executive ability, but a man of unusual intellectual strength. His physical proportions were also large, his height being six feet one inch and his weight two hundred and twenty-five pounds. He possessed a kindly disposition, in- viting companionship, and his ministrations to others who needed help were the source of joy and happiness to himself. His business transactions extend- ed over a large area of country, embraced a great variety of commercial busi- nesses as well as agricultural and industrial products, and through it all he was the same honest, upright, noble-minded man. The affectionate rever- ence for his good deeds still lingering in the hearts of the people among whom he lived will not permit the memory of his life to perish from the earth.
ARTHUR BEAVER WESTFALL, M. D.
Prominent among the younger physicians is Dr. Arthur B. Westfall, of the city of Lafayette, a native of Tippecanoe county, in fact a Hoosier
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born and bred. Probably no medical practitioner in western Indiana is better known than Doctor Westfall, who was born September 17, 1860, in the county in which he now resides. He is a son of a farmer, his parents being Joel and Amelia (Beaver) Westfall, now deceased, both widely known for their sterling qualities of citizenship and home kindliness. Their son inherited the kindliness of his parents and with energy and determination has risen to the fore-front of the medical profession.
Arthur B. Westfall was educated in the district schools and entered Purdue University in 1878 and was a student there for two years. De- termined upon a career in medicine, the young man matriculated at the Ken- tucky School of Medicine, Louisville; Kentucky, and graduated there in 1890 with signal honors. He then entered the practice of his profession with fair success. In 1896 he went to New York city where he took a post- graduate course in clinical medicine and surgery at the New York Post- graduate Medical School of that city. Completing his work there, he ar- ranged to attend the Metropolitan School of Medicine in London, England, where he took further instructions and after completing his studies returned to Lafayette where he has practiced his profession ever since with a degree of success not many young men attain. His fame as a surgeon is more than local, while his clientele of patients is large. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Indiana Medical Association and also of the Tippecanoe County Medical Society. He is also examiner for the Federal and Equitable insurance companies and holds a high place among his brethren in the practice of medicine.
Dr. Arthur Westfall was married to Ada Lang, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and she has taken no small part in his success. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias order at Lafayette and also a member of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal church of the same city. He and his wife are identified with the social side of the city as well as being interested in the work of the church to which they belong. Dr. Westfall has never forgotten his love for the farm and is the owner of considerable land in the state of Colorado. His career as a physician holds out an example to other young men by showing what pluck, perseverance and hard work will do toward ultimate success.
HON. THOMAS W. FIELD.
Hon. Thomas W. Field, the present city judge of the city of Lafayette, was born in Wayne township, Tippecanoe county, Indiana, a son of Charles
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A. and Frances ( Mustard) Field. The father was a soldier during the Civil war period in the Union army. At the date of his death he was a commercial traveler, and he died when the subject of this notice was but about five years of age, leaving himself and a brother, Henry J. Field. to battle alone in the conflict of life. Indeed such men as the Judge have reason to appreciate the cost of that great war and of the hardships which its soldiery underwent for the flag of their country, for few of the men who wore the loyal blue from 1861 to 1865 returned in as good a physical condition as when they enlisted. The subject's mother is still living, a well preserved lady who did all within her power to rear and educate her father- less sons.
After attending the public schools of his native county, young Field, having graduated from the high school at West Point, this county, entered Depauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, and graduated from the law department in 1894, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the Tippecanoe county bar in 1895, opened a law office at Lafayette and began the practice of his chosen profession, in which he has made rapid progress and secured a paying business among a respectable class of clients.
In his political affiliations, the Judge is a Democrat and stands well in his party. In the month of November, 1905, he was elected to the city judgeship, his term of office beginning in September, 1906, and expires in January, 1910. This is one of the political offices within Indiana which admits of the incumbent performing the duties devolving upon such an officer and at the same time practice law. He has taken advantage of this provision and held his office practice, while serving in the capacity of judge.
The city of Lafayette is normally Republican by about four hundred majority, but Judge Field was elected as a candidate of the Democratic party by a majority of one thousand, one hundred thirty-one, carrying every precinct in the city. In 1902 he was a candidate for prosecuting at- torney, and in 1908 a candidate against Judge De Hart, the Republican and successful candidate for judge of the circuit court of Tippecanoe county. In 1898 he was deputy county clerk, serving four years. When the office of city controller was established by law, he was appointed as the first city controller, serving ten months.
The Judge is a member of the Jackson Club, a political organization, and the Lafayette Club, purely a social organization. Considering his years, just in life's prime, the subject is in possession of a fine legal education, a
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lucrative practice and the incumbent of an office where good judgment and discretion is demanded. His many friends and admirers bespeak for him a successful and long career at the bar and on the bench of his county.
JOHN P. FORESMAN.
The name Foresman has long been connected with the development and progress of Indiana and the record of the family is one which reflects credit upon the state. It is a well-attested maxim that the greatness of a country lies not in the machinery of government nor even in its institutions. but rather in the sterling qualities of the individual citizen, in his capacity for high and unselfish effort and his devotion to the public welfare. In these particulars, those who have borne the above name have conferred honor and dignity upon their county and state and as an elemental part of history we are pleased to record a sketch of the leading representative of the family with the object in view of noting his connection with the ad- vancement of one of the most flourishing and progressive parts of the com- monwealth and affording an example worthy of emulation by the young men whose life work is largely a matter of the future.
John P. Foresman, who has been a life-long resident and prominent citizen of Tippecanoe county, is the elder of the two sons of Bennett and Mary (Groce) Foresman, the former born in June, 1840, in Union town- ship, the latter in Pickaway county, Ohio, in the month of July, 1842. These parents were made husband and wife at Circleville, Ohio, in October, 1864, and later settled in Union township, where in due time Bennett Fores- man became one of the leading agriculturists and stock raisers in the county, owning at the time of his death a finely improved farm of five hun- dred acres, which, with other valuable property he had accumulated, made him one of the wealthiest men in his part of the country. With the ex- ception of the two years he served as county treasurer, he devoted his en- tire life to his chosen vocation and for many years enjoyed much more than local repute as a farmer and stock man, besides holding worthy pres- tige as an enterprising, public-spirited citizen. He died on the homestead in Union township, November 8, 1900, and was profoundly mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances who had learned to appreciate him for his sterling worth. Mrs. Foresman is still living and since the death of her husband has made her home in Lafayette. William B. Foresman, the subject's youngest brother, is engaged in the grain business and for some
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years has been a member of the firm of Crabbs, Reynolds, Taylor & Com- pany, which he represents on the road as travelling auditor. He is a man of family, has an extensive acquaintance in business circles, especially among the grain dealers of his own and other states, and stands high in the es- teem of the people of Lafayette and the county of Tippecanoe.
John P. Foresman, whose birth occurred on the 3d of October, 1866, was educated in the public schools and Purdue University and his childhood and youth were spent in close touch with nature on the farm, and had a marked influence in developing a strong and vigorous physique, a well- rounded character and fitting him for the course of action to which his life thus far has been devoted. He early became interested in agricultural pur- suits and livestock and while still a mere youth began dealing in the latter in partnership with his brother and it was not long until they had built up quite an extensive and lucrative business. He has never ceased his activity in this regard, and, though not as extensively engaged as formerly, is still in touch with all matters relating to livestock, owning a number of high- grade animals on his beautiful farm in Union township and occupying a prominent place among the leading livestock dealers throughout the country. For some time past he has been much interested in horses, making a specialty of trotting stock, and now has a number of valuable animals of high pedigree and excellent records on the turf. He is a lover of the horse, an excellent judge of the animal and to his influence as much perhaps as to that of any other man are the farmers of Union and other townships indebted for the marked improvement which has recently been brought about in their breeds of horses and other domestic stock.
Reared on a farm and, as already indicated, an enterprising and en- thusiastic agriculturist, Mr. Foresman has never been indifferent to the duties of citizenship nor neglected informing himself upon the leading stock ques- tions of the day. From his youth, he has been a reader and observer and since attaining his majority his influence in the councils of the Democratic party have had much to do in shaping its policies in local matters. Until recently he labored diligently for the success of his party and its candidates with little thought of his own advancement, but in 1907 he was nominated for county auditor and at the ensuing election defeated his rival by a de- cisive majority and in due time took charge of the office, the duties of which he has since discharged in an eminently able and satisfactory manner.
Mr. Foresman is a man of resourceful capacity and in the management of his private affairs as well as looking after the interests of the public in the position he so worthily fills, has demonstrated ability of a high order,
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also a faithfulness to trusts which has won the confidence of his fellow citizens irrespective of party affiliation. As an official he is careful and obliging, discharging the duties incumbent upon him with the same thought- ful interest which he manifests in his business affairs, and his public career thus far has been above criticism, comparing favorably with that of any of his predecessors and proving him competent for any office within the gift of the people of the county.
The married life of Mr. Foresman dates from December 26, 1894, at which time he was united in the bonds of wedlock with Clara Kurtz, daugh- ter of Charles and Mary (Ruger) Kurtz, of Lafayette, where the father still lives, the mother being deceased. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Foresman, Edward Bennett, Helen Louise, William K., and Mary Elizabeth, the last named dying at the tender age of four years. In his fraternal relations Mr. Foresman is a member of the Masonic brother- hood, belonging to Shawnee Lodge No. 129, at the town of Odell, which he has served in various official capacities, and in his daily life he aims to exemplify the beautiful and sublime principles upon which the order is founded.
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