USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume II > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
EDWARD C. DAVIDSON, M. D.
A descendant of an old and influential family and a physician who has won the confidence and good will of a large clientele of representative people of Tippecanoe county is the gentleman whose name forms the caption of this biographical sketch, to a brief review of whose career the reader's attention is called in the following paragraphs.
Edward C. Davidson was born in Lafayette, Indiana, January 30, 1867, the son of Hon. R. P. Davidson, for many years one of the leading public men of the county, whose wife bore the maiden name of Jennie Claybough, and to this union seven children were born, of whom Edward C. Davidson was the youngest in order of birth. Two of their sons are deceased; the rest are attorneys at law, each making a record in that profession.
The subject passed through the common schools and decided to devote his life to the noble profession of medical science. With that end in view he entered Purdue University, where he took a literary course, also studied
724
PAST AND PRESENT
pharmacy, making a commendable record in both. He then entered the medical department of the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1891, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1891 he took a post-graduate course in one of the medical colleges of Chicago. In the same year he located in Lafayette and began practice, and he has since met with very marked success, having built up a large practice not only in the city of La- fayette but also throughout Tippecanoe county, and he is often called to re- mote localities in consultation with other physicians whose skill has been baffled. In 1895 Doctor Davidson was married to Lauretta Johnson, who was the representative of a fine old family, well known in this county. After a happy wedded life of about eleven years, Mrs. Davidson was called to her rest in 1906. One winsome little daughter, Dorothy, brightens the Doctor's home, and is attending the common schools.
Doctor Davidson is not a public man, although interested in whatever tends to advance the interests of his native community. In his fraternal relations he belongs to the Masonic order, and is also a member of the county. state and national medical societies, in all of which he takes an abiding inter- est. He is a member of the staff of the St. Elizabeth Hospital.
ABRAM BALENTINE.
A man of scholarly attainments, yet of practical turn of mind, who left the indelible impress of his sterling personality upon all with whom he came in contact, was Abram Balentine, for many years a prominent citizen of La- fayette, Indiana. He was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, June 7, 1835, and his parents were natives of that state where they spent their lives. Abram grew up in his native community, where he attended school and became well educated, for he was always of a studious nature and easily mastered what- ever subject he attempted. Upon reaching maturity he conceived the idea that larger opportunities awaited him in the then practically new but grow- ing country of the middle West. Coming to Indiana, he soon secured a foot- hold and made a comfortable living, having learned steam engineering and mastering every detail of this line of work. He, therefore, spent the major part of his mature years working as a stationary engineer, being considered an expert. His death occurred May 7, 1904.
Mr. Balentine was married, on September 24, 1861, to Mary M. Nalley, the wedding occurring three miles south of Lafayette at the home of Mrs. Balentine's parents, Walter and Sarah (Reed) Nalley. She was born in
WILLIAM S. POTTER
725
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, IND.
Piqua, Miami county, Ohio, May 18, 1845, where she grew to maturity and from where her parents moved to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, while she was yet a young woman. She received a fairly good education in the common schools. To Mr. and Mrs. Balentine four children, three daughters and one son, were born, namely: Luella J., born June 28, 1863, married Joseph Petitt, September 10, 1879, and after becoming the mother of two children, died August 28, 1896; Lucinda Balentine, born in White county, Indiana, May 17, 1865, married on December 17, 1884, and became the mother of one son1 ; William R. Balentine, born in White county, January 18, 1868, married September 25, 1889, and has two daughters; Mary Alice Balentine, born November 22, 1876, married April 10, 1899, and one daughter was born to her who is now deceased.
The cozy and commodious Balentine home is at No. 1512 North Thir- teenth street, in which community members of this ideal household are popular. They belong to the Methodist Episcopal church. These children all received liberal educations, having attended school at Chalmers, Battleground, Monticello and a college of music in Indianapolis. Mrs. Balentine, being a woman of an artistic turn of mind, took a delight in fostering the esthetic element in her children and in giving them every advantage to develop the higher principles of their being. She is a very industrious, though modest and home-loving woman, a thoroughly good mother and kind neighbor, and she proved to be a faithful helpmeet to her husband, who was of a decided mechanical turn of mind, a great reader and student of mechanics, practical. fatherly and kind-hearted, winning and retaining the friendship of all classes. They have reared a family of children of whom any one might be proud, the wholesome atmosphere about this home having ever been pure and uplifting.
WILLIAM S. POTTER.
The inevitable law of destiny accords to tireless energy and industry a successful and honorable career and in no field of endeavor is there greater opportunity for advancement than that of the law-a profession whose votaries, if distinguished, must be endowed with native talent, rectitude of character, singleness of purpose and broad general knowledge. William S. Potter fully meets all these requirements of his chosen profession and stands today among the leading lawyers of the city in which he lives, and is justly esteemed one of the able business lawyers of the northern Indiana bar.
William S. Potter, a native of Indiana, was born at the Potter home- stead. corner of Columbia and Tenth streets, Lafayette, in the year 1855,
726
PAST AND PRESENT
being the eldest son of William A. and Eliza ( Stiles) Potter. The father, a New Yorker by birth, came to Lafayette in 1843 and engaged in the mer- cantile business, later becoming a large manufacturer and an influential man of affairs. The mother was born in Suffield, Connecticut; came to Indiana in 1850 and settled in Lafayette, where her marriage to Mr. Potter took place soon afterwards.
William S. Potter was reared in his native city, and after attending both public and private schools entered the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- lege, Amherst, Massachusetts, from which he was graduated in 1876. Re- turning to Lafayette, he entered as a law student in the office of Wallace & Rice, where he continued until his admission to the bar about the year 1878. When the firm of Wallace & Rice was dissolved, he became associated in the practice with the former gentleman, but later being offered a full partnership with Captain Rice he accepted the same and the firm thus constituted lasted twenty years, during which time both members rose to eminence in their pro- fession. Since the dissolution of the above partnership, caused by the death of Captain Rice, in 1901, Mr. Potter has practiced alone, his legal abilities and sound judgment attracting to him a large and lucrative clientage and giving him an honorable reputation among the leading men of his profession in the northern part of the state. While well grounded in the principles of jurisprudence and successful in the general practice, for some years past he has given special attention to law relating to business and real estate. in which he is considered an authority.
In addition to his professional duties, Mr. Potter has large and important real estate interests. and in the improvement of lands and city property he has done as much and achieved as great results as any other man in his city or county, similarly engaged. He is vice-president and director of the North- ern Indiana Land Company, an organization owning twenty-five thousand acres of land between Lafayette and Chicago, which were bought for devel: opment and impro e.n nt, also has important holdings in Texas and Chicago real estate. In connection with the interests referred to he is also identified with various other enterprises, notably the banking business, in which his success has been marked and continuous, being at this time vice-president and director of the National Fowler Bank. besides having interests in various like institutions in other cities and towns.
Mr. Potter has always kept in close touch with the material progress and improvement of Lafayette, and all laudable movements to these ends have found in him a zealous advocate and liberal patron. He is a member of the directorate of the Merchants Electric Light Association, and is also similarly connected with the Lincoln Life Insurance Company. Aside from
727
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, IND.
the various public enterprises with which he is identified he has ever mani- fested a lively regard for the social and moral advancement of Lafayette, to which ends he has given liberally of his time and means and is justly esteemed as a true and tried friend of all measures and movements having for their object the welfare of his fellowmen.
As a lawyer, Mr. Potter, as already indicated, stands high among his compeers, and as a financier and broadminded business man has achieved success and wields an influence and prestige which place him in the front rank of Indiana's men of affairs. He is essentially a man of the people with the best interests of humanity at heart-in fine, a typical American whose love of country is paramount to every other consideration, and who discharges the duties of citizenship with a spirit in keeping with the genius of our in- stitutions.
In the year 1885, Mr. Potter was married to Fanny W. Peck, of Troy, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Potter is a member of the Society of Dames and Daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Potter have one son, George L. Potter, who was graduated in 1909 from Howe Military School, a preparatory school of Harvard University, and is now traveling abroad. In their religious belief they subscribe to the Presbyterian faith, and belong to the Second church of that denomination in Lafayette, Mr. Potter being a trustee of the organization. Associated with Oliver Goldsmith, he had charge of the erection of the church building, and when the edifice was destroyed by fire soon after its erection the same two gentlemen were selected to rebuild. with the result that the church has one of the most beautiful and attractive temples of worship in the city.
As indicated in a preceding paragraph, Mr. Potter has contributed mucli to the material improvement of Lafayette, not the least among which is the splendid residence fronting on State street near Ninth, which he now occupies. This sightly mansion was originally built by the state of Con- necticut to represent that state at the World's Fair at St. Louis, but when the fair closed it was purchased by Mr. Potter, who had it dismantled, packed in cars and shipped to Lafayette. In preparing a site for the structure he procured a tract of four acres on State street, from which he removed the buildings and erected the present structure thereon, making one of the most beautiful and attractive residences in the state. The edifice is a perfect type of the colonial mansion of olden times, being modeled after several historic homes of Connecticut, the main part three stories high, the wings two stories. The porch is also two stories and, extending half across the front, is semi-elliptical in shape and supported by four huge fluted columns of stone.
728
PAST AND PRESENT
An elaborate colonial doorway affords entrance to the main part of the build- ing and some of the interior woodwork, taken from the historic Hubbard- Slater home in the city of Norwich, Connecticut, adds interest as well as beauty to the apartments which it adorns. The great central hall is open through both stories, the upper rooms forming a gallery which is wainscotted to the ceiling in the fashion greatly admired by previous generations. The edifice, which is complete in all of its parts, is finished in the highest style of the builder's art, and, with its elaborate furnishing and broad, attractive lawns, walks bordered with beds of beautiful flowers and containing a number of gigantic forest trees and many other beautiful and pleasing features. combine to make a complete and luxurious home. Much has been written in the various magazines about this house and surroundings, on account of its his- toric interest, and numerous pictures of it have appeared in different illus- trated periodicals, but to be appreciated it must be seen, as but a faint con- ception of its size, beauty and attractive features can be obtained from photo- graphic reproduction.
Mr. Potter has not been sparing of his means in surrounding himself and family with the comforts and luxuries of life and, being financially inde- pendent, he takes great pleasure in his home and in travel each year and is well situated to enjoy the many blessings which have come to him as the result of his business acumen and success.
DOC I. NEWTON.
It is deemed eminently appropriate at this place to call the reader's at- tention to the life history of the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch, owing to the fact that his life has always been such as to inspire confidence and admiration on the part of his fellow citizens and he is today reckoned as one of the leading men of his township.
Doc I. Newton was born on a farm in Montgomery county near the boundary line between Montgomery and Tippecanoe counties. He is the son of Henry and Mary A. (Muir) Newton, both natives of Indiana, having been born and reared near Lawrenceburg, where they married in 1842 and settled on a farm, where their son. Doc I., of this review, was born in 1865. Shortly afterward they moved to a farm in Tippecanoe county (Randolph township) where the family remained until after the death of the father on January 27, 1884, having died shortly before his fifty-fifth birthday. His
DOC S. NEWTON AND FAMILY
729
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, IND.
widow, a woman of beautiful Christian attributes, still survives, being now seventy-four years old, and her residence is at Romney. They were the parents of eleven children, six boys and five girls, nine of whom are still living, Doc I. being the fifth in order of birth. These children reflect the wholesome home environment in which they were reared and are worthy descendants of a man whose life was exemplary in every respect and who was highly esteemed by all who knew him.
Doc I. Newton attended the schools in Romney, and having completed the prescribed course there, he spent one year in the Ford high school where he made a splendid record, having intended to remain until he graduated. but he was compelled to return home and assist with the farm work, his father having died. He remained at home with his widowed mother until 1890 when he began life for himself as a farmer. In 1893 the domestic chapter in his life began, he having espoused Mary E. M. Beach in Lafayette, Indiana, a woman of refinement and the daughter of an old and honored family. She was born in Romney on November 2, 1870, the daughter of Joshua N. and Ellen Tracy ( House) Beach, both natives of Indiana. Mrs. Beach is deceased, and Mr. Beach is living in Lafayette, having re-married. After a happy wedded life of comparatively brief duration, Mrs. Newton passed to her rest November 10, 1907. Four children were born to this union, namely: Burnys is now ( 1909) ten years old: Paul and Max ard both deceased; Howard Everett, aged two years.
Mr. Newton with his two children reside in one of the finest homes in Romney, which cost nearly eight thousand dollars. It is elegantly furnished and in the midst of beautiful surroundings. Besides this Mr. Newton is the owner of seven hundred acres of fine farming land in Tippecanoe county. which, under his able management, has produced bounteous crops from year to year and it is well kept in every respect: Grandfather House, ancestor of Mrs. Newton, was one of the oldest pioneers in Tippecanoe county. hav- ing come here when the county was yet the home of red men and wild beasts. He owned between seven hundred and eight hundred acres of land in Randolph township. During his life there was no Methodist church in Romney, and he being a good Christian and strongly devoted to the Meth- odist faith, arranged for the erection of a Methodist church building, which still serves for the local congregation, he having donated the same to the people of Romney for a place of worship. The building cost five thousand dollars. Grandfather and grandmother House are both sleeping the sleep of the just in the cemetery at Romney, as also are their two children, the only ones born to them.
730
PAST AND PRESENT
Mr. Newton is known as a very religious man and has been a member of the Methodist church practically all his life. He has been a member of the board of trustees of the church for a period of ten years, which office he still very creditably fills, always taking a delight in doing what he can in furthering the work of the church, or, indeed, any other work looking to the moral or material advancement of his county. He has always been a Re- publican, but has never been an active worker in the ranks and has never sought nor held public office. He is a pleasant man to meet, affable, genial, courteous and hospitable and he holds high rank among the representative citizens of Tippecanoe county where he is well and favorably known and where he has led a very consistent and industrious life.
HON. JAMES LINDSEY CALDWELL.
James L. Caldwell not only holds distinctive precedence in his profession. but during the more than thirty-six years that have elapsed since becoming a resident of Lafayette he has always had deeply at heart the well being and improvement of the city. On the paternal side, Mr. Caldwell is descended from sterling Revolutionary ancestry, his great-grandfather, Alexander Cald- well, a native of Pennsylvania and among the early pioneers of Kentucky, having served in the struggle for independence under General Washington. Alexander Caldwell married and, as already stated, moved to Kentucky in 1784. when it was indeed "The Dark and Bloody Ground." and there estab- lished a family, among his children being a son named for himself. Alexander, whose birth occurred in Nicholas county, in an early day, and who chose for his wife Hannah Sample, who was born and reared in that part of the state. Like his father, Alexander, Jr .. was a tiller of the soil and a man of influence in the community. He bore an active part in the material develop- ment of his county, manifested a lively interest in civic matters and for a number of years was prominent in public affairs, and in no small degree a leader among his neighbors and fellow citizens. He, too, reared a family and migrated to Boone county, Indiana, during the pioneer days of the thirties and settled on a farm about five miles from Thorntown. where he spent the remainder of his life, he and his faithful wife dying when well advanced in years.
James Harvey Caldwell, a son of the above mentioned, was born in Nicholas county, Kentucky, January 30, 1817, and was a young man when
731
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, IND.
he accompanied his parents to Indiana. He married Ellen Tiberghein, a native of Miami county, Ohio, and a granddaughter of Charles Tiberghein, a French immigrant who arrived in America in the time of the colonies and served with distinction in the Revolutionary war, making two of her mother's grandfathers who fought in the struggle, hence it will be readily inferred that the subject's descent from heroic ancestry is beyond question, and today there are few, if any, Sons of the American Revolution with as clear a title or as many bars to their credit. James Harvey and Ellen Caldwell spent the greater portion of their lives on the home farm in Boone county, and were highly respected by their neighbors and friends. They possessed many of the qualities of mind and heart that beget confidence and insure popularity, always lived according to their high conceptions of duty and exercised a wholesome moral influence in the community where they made their home for so many years. Mr. Caldwell died on the family homestead, five miles from Thorntown, July 16, 1888, his widow surviving him until November 26, 1892. The family of this estimable couple consisted of two sons, Albert WV., who was born June 18, 1845, and James Lindsey, the subject of this review, whose birth occurred on June 29, 1849.
Both of the Caldwell brothers spent their childhood and youth on the home place in Boone county, and after a preliminary educational discipline in a school at Walnut Grove, under the auspices of the society of Friends. entered the academy at Thorntown, where they made substantial progress in the higher branches of learning, the training thus received being afterwards supplemented by a full course in the Stockwell Collegiate Institute, at that time in Tippecanoe county. After Albert's graduation from the institute at Thorntown, he took up the study of law in the city of Indianapolis and was admitted to the bar in due time, and for several years thereafter practiced his profession in Boone county, achieving marked distinction as an able, judicious and remarkably successful attorney. In 1873 he formed a partner- ship with his brother at Lafayette which lasted until his death, his success in his former field of practice fitting him for the rapid advancement and distinguished achievements which characterized his professional career in this city, a career covering a period of thirty-four years, during which time he rose to a conspicuous place among the leading members of the local bar. besides becoming widely and favorably known in the legal circles of various other counties. He married Lottie White, of Lafayette, who bore him four children, Arthur G., a civil engineer ; Alberta, a young lady living with her widowed mother; Lillian and Dorothy, twins, pursuing their studies in the high school.
732
PAST AND PRESENT
Albert Caldwell always stood high in his profession and, as already indicated, met with gratifying success. For a number of years his name ap- peared in connection with much important litigation, in addition to which he built up a large and lucrative office business, being esteemed an honorable and judicious as well as a learned and able lawyer, faithful to the interests of his clients and above the suspicion of reproach as a counselor. He con- tinued in the active practice until his untimely death, December 4, 1907, im- mediately after which, at a meeting of the Tippecanoe county bar, the follow- ing appropriate resolutions relative to his life and professional standing were read and adopted :
"As the autumn of the year has passed from us touched by the icy hand of winter, so in the rich autumn of his life, touched by the inevitable finger of death, there has passed from us one whose name we bring to this meeting with a feeling akin to consecration, that we may set it in an appropriate frame- work of our own choosing, with fit expressions of truthful tribute. Albert Washington Caldwell is no more. The visible earth-form by which we have been wont to recognize his presence with us has passed away: his invisible spirit life, from which we felt the depths of his moral worth, has passed on- ward-the one in obedience to the law of its own mortality, the other by the mystic decree beyond the conceptions of the human mind. in its transit to the realms of spiritual existences, of which we can only say: 'There is no death there.'
"Our brother, whose death occurred on the 4th instant, was born in Boone county, in this state, on the 18th day of June, 1845. a few miles south of the town of Thorntown, in a community largely composed of Quakers. whose form of religious life and practice, we may well presume, had much influence in the moulding of the ruling traits of his character. His paternal ancestors some generations back emigrated from Pennsylvania to Nicholas county, Kentucky, from which, about the year 1833. Alexander Caldwell. the grandfather of our Albert W., removed to Boone county, In linn, and settled upon entered land in an unbroken forest with his family, of which was one son, James H. Caldwell, the father of our subject, and also J. L. Caldwell, a younger brother, who were his only children.
"Albert's early life was spent on the farm. He received his education in the neighboring common schools and at Thorntown Academy, then a flourishing and successful institution. His preparatory law reading was in the office of Ray & Ritter at Indianapolis. He was admitted to the bar in Boone county, where for a time he practiced, but in the year 1873 he removed to this city, where he and his brother. James L., formed the law partnership of Caldwell & Caldwell, which continued to the time of his death.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.