USA > Indiana > Wayne County > Poems and sketches: consisting of poems and local history; biography; notes of travel; a long list of Wayne County's pioneer dead, also many names of those who lost their lives in defense of their country during the late rebellion > Part 10
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
264
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
his license we have one hundred and fourteen volumes of Indiana reports alone, to say nothing of the statutes and other law-books.
At that time the Whitewater bar was Daniel J. Caswell, William R. Morris, John Test, James B. Ray, John T. Mckinney, Amos Lane, James Rariden, David Wallace and Oliver H. Smith, all eminent lawyers, statesmen and orators. Witli his meagre library, young Perry went into forensic combat. For dash and powers of eloquence in debate he was not remarkable, but philosophically and logically he soon became their peer. Later on came Caleb B. Smith, Parker, Ryman, Holland, Newman, Morton and Charles H. Test, with whom he traveled and practiced through the almost roadless regions of eastern Indiana. I11 1828 he was elected prosecuting attorney, and well were the duties of the office performed.
In 1840 Samuel Bigger, then judge of the circuit court, was elected Governor, by which his office became vacant. By an almost unanimous petition of the board, the retiring Governor appointed Judge Perry to fill the vacancy, and he occupied the bench till 1841, when he located in Wayne county and resumed prac- tice. In all these relations of life he proved himself equal to the duties of the trusts. One of his most dis- tinguished characteristics, as a public man, was his loyalty to candor and truth-he deceived no one ; his single inquiry was, "Is it right?" This determined
265
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
011, he sometimes became opinionated, but in no instance have I ever heard any one doubt his word or integrity at the bar or on the benchi.
Consumption was hereditary in the family of his father. The judge was the survivor of the family. A knowledge of this physical infirmity caused him to adopt daily sanitary rules in early life, which sometimes became amusing to his more robust but less informed professional associates. He, however, adhered to his rules and survived the whole circle enumerated.
I was often with him during his last illness. He knew better than we at his bed-side that the golden bowl was breaking at the fountain, and that the silver cord was being loosened. But his mind was an excep- tion to the general rule of physical infirmities - appar- ently unclouded to the last. A single instance to illus- trate : He was in charge of a perpetual trust fund. He had several times, within the last few years, used small amounts of the funds, but in every instance executed his note, payable to the beneficiary, drawing the highest rate of interest allowed by law. On the morning of the day he died, he directed me to make him
an abstract of principal and interest of all the notes, that he might supersede the old notes by a new one, and to do it at once. His direction was complied with. The abstract being presented, he remarked lie felt too bad to examine it, and to lay it aside till he should feel better. At 2 o'clock he called for it, examined and
266
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
approved it, and then signed the new note in a legible hand. About 10 o'clock he called his daughter-in-law to his bed-side, told her he was dying and desired her to remain with him till it was over, and in thirty minutes life faded away so gently that she was at a loss, for several moments, to know whether he had dropped asleep or was dead.
On the eightieth annual birthday of the Judge, the bar presented him with a full set of the lives of all the Chief Justices of England. Yesterday they held a meeting and adopted a memorial of respect to him, to be spread on the Order Book of Court. Not content with these demonstrations of respect, to-day they are here in a body, intending to accompany the corpse to its final resting-place and mingle their sorrow with griefs of relatives, in the loss of one so venerable and by them so highily esteemed.
APRIL 30, 1887.
O-
267
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
IRVIN REED.
Irvin Reed died at 9 : 30 o'clock this morning, from sheer exhaustion of vital forces, and when his lamp went out there was ended the long career of one of Richmond's oldest citizens, who, during her transition from a hamlet to a city, was identified with most of those enterprises that mark the strides in her prosperity.
He possessed those elements of success that gained for himself a sufficiency of this world's goods, and made him prominent as a public spirited citizen. Of later years lie has been, in a manner, retired from active business, leaving that to his sons, one after the other, until Frank is the only one at home. But he was generally found at the store, and seemingly never lost interest in either private or public affairs. Recently he had to be helped on his way to and fro, between his residence and the store, but he insisted on going until a week ago to-day. Since then he has been confined to the house, but not to his bed, entirely, until since Wednesday. Then he was up for the last time, and he said that he would rather die than make the effort again. Last night, however, he said he was feeling better, and up to within a quarter of an hour of his demise he talked to his son, Frank, of business and "mother," saying lie wanted Frank to look after her,
268
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
and lie guessed all else was all right. Then, conscious of the fact that the final hour was near, hie resigned himself to the short wait for the dark messenger's com- ing, and answered the summons without a struggle.
The deceased was eighty-one years of age, having been born at Zanesville, Ohio, January 9, 1810. While yet a very young man, in 1832, he came to Richmond, and was a charter member of the town council, as well as the pioneer druggist, he and Charley Sturgess embarking in the business that year. Within about a year, however, Sturgess left, and then his brother, the late General Hugh B. Reed, of New Jersey, came here and clerked for him, as did the late J. J. Jordan, L. H. Mccullough and William Schwartz. Two years later, December 18, 1834, he was married to Mary Evans, daughter of Edmund and Elizabeth Evans, who sur- vives him. His health failing, he sold his drug store, late in the forties, and embarked in the hardware busi- ness, while he was also in the saddlery business, tem- porarily, before he went to Cincinnati, in 1853, to engage in the wholesale drug business, the firm being Irvin Reed & Co., Nos. 16 and 18 Main street. In 1857 he returned to Richmond and embarked in the hardware business, E. H. Swayne being a partner for some time, and he has been in it ever since, in his present location, for about twenty-five years. During this latter period he lived on what had been his father- in-law's farm, which he got in a trade with Edward
269
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
Potts - where John Fihe lives, part of it being now within the city limits, the house being No. 1413 South I street - but about the close of the war he bought and removed to his late residence, southwest corner North Eighth and A streets.
No arrangements for the funeral will be made until a response is heard from the children. Of ten children, six survive him - Arthur, of Paducah, Kentucky ; Albert, of Baltimore ; Charley, of San Francisco ; Hor- ace, of Portland, Oregon ; Hugh, of Chicago, and Frank, of this city.
By request of Mrs. Reed, the friends will send no flowers.
APRIL, 25, 1891.
270
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
SENATOR JOHN YARYAN.
Special to the Cincinnati Enquirer:
RICHMOND, IND., Jan. 27, 1894 .- Senator John Yaryan died this afternoon, at his home in this city, at the advanced age of ninety-two years. Mr. Yaryan served in the last State Senate and was probably the oldest legislator in the country. He was born in Ten- nessee and came to Wayne county, Indiana, in 1859. He served many terms in the State Legislature, in the early days of the State, and was the author, in Indiana, of the law which gave the women the right to own property and to make a will. Mr. Yaryan's illness was brief.
[ From the Indianapolis Journal, Jan. 15. 1893.]
Hon. John Yaryan, Senator from the county of Wayne, in the Indiana Legislature, is, without doubt, the oldest legislator in the world. He passed his ninetieth birthday on November 27, 1892, having been born in the second year of the century. He is fourteen years older than the State and is older than its present boundary, line. At the time of his birth his parents were living in Blount county, Tennessee, of which Marysville is the seat. His ancestors were German, as
271
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
the name would indicate. Mr. Yaryan's educational opportunities were fair, for those early times. A Mr. John Bigger was the first teacher of his recollection, who taught in a school-house located on his father's farm - this was in Union county, Indiana, in the vicinity of Liberty, the county-seat, which was, at that time, not yet thought of. His second teacher was William Bennett, an uncle of General Tom Bennett. The amusements of those days were corn-huskings, singing-schools and dances.
Senator Yaryan was unusually ambitious, in his boyhood, for an education, and pursued the opportuni- ties at hand so assiduously that, at twenty-one years of age, he was able to teach in the schools of the settlement. His earnings as teacher were about ten dollars per month. The first office he ever held was that of Justice of the Peace - this was before he was admitted to the bar. Senator Yaryan began his legal studies in 1831, and was not admitted to the bar until 1839. "I was required," said he, " to pass two very rigid exam- inations, before two Circuit Judges. Our Constitution, which was formed in 1851, changed the requirements, so that they have ever since amounted, practically, to nothing - any citizen may become a member of the bar, on proof of moral character."
The bar of eastern Indiana had some noted lawyers in the forties : Caleb B. Smith - the friend of Lincoln - and his talented brother, Oliver H., both learned
272
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
and eloquent, practiced at the Union county bar. Samuel Parke - also an orator and a noted Congress- man in his day - was a compeer of the Smiths. Sen- ator Varyan was the partner of Caleb B. Smith, in Union county, during the decade from 1840 to 1850. Senator Varyan's interest in politics began at an early day. He lived to vote for eighteen Presidents - from 1824 to 1892. It has only been two years since he retired from the practice of law, but he keeps busy as the executor of estates, etc., and as the secretary of the Odd Fellows' Provident Association. He has no bad habits, and is regular in everything. His present wife is his second wife, to whom he was married in 1847. He is by no means antiquated in his ideas. His faculties serve him admirably, and he keeps posted about all that is going on. His life has been a useful and an honorable one. C. R. LANE.
[ From the Richmond Item. Jan. 30. 1894.]
During the time that the remains of the late John Yaryan lay in state, at his residence, on North Tenth street, a large number called to look upon his form once more. As he lay, surrounded by flowers, he looked more as if fallen asleep than that death had claimed him.
At the Wayne county bar meeting, following his death, there were present Judge Comstock, C. C.
273
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
Binkley, H. B. Payne, John L. Rupe, C. E. Shiveley, J. W. Henderson, Judge Abbott, F. C. Roberts, Judge Henry C. Fox, Judge Kibbey, Judge William A. Bickle, Lewis D. Stubbs, A. L. Study, Jonathan New- man, I. Ben Morris, Thomas J. Study, Charles H. Burchenal, and Judge Bundy, of New Castle. Judge Bickle said, "I never knew Mr. Yaryan, in all the forty years of my acquaintance with him, to do a mean or dishonest act, or utter a falsehood." Mr. Burchienal said, "He lived out his life well, and did his duty as he saw it." I. Ben Morris said, "For fifty years he has stood a prominent land-mark among the men of eastern Indiana. His fall was like the giant oak. I consider him one of the big Americans who constitute the bulwark of society." L. D. Stubbs said, "He was entirely iucorruptible and thoroughly moral."
The final services were held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Rev. J. E. Cathell officiating. When con- cluded, the cortege formed in line and proceeded to Earlham cemetery, where interment took place.
274
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
WILLIAM PARRY.
William Parry is dead. The news of the sad occur- rence spread with great rapidity about the city this afternoon, and people could scarcely believe that such a familiar character as William Parry had gone forever. Without a particle of exaggeration, it can be said that no citizen, either of Richmond or Wayne county, was more extensively known; and he held a friendship envi- able for its proportions. Some months ago Mr. Parry was taken ill, but he was not dangerously so, and there was no fear entertained for his recovery. He was always possessed of a robust constitution, and scarcely ever before experienced a sick day. During the last month his condition has at several times become alarm- ing, and it had been regarded by his physicians as very doubtful if he would recover. Yesterday he showed signs of being much worse, and this morning, close to noon, he died.
William Parry was born July 20, 1810, in Mont- gomery county, Pennsylvania, and was a son of Joseph and Sarah (Webster) Parry, both natives of Mont- gomery county, his father being born in 1788, and his mother in 1789. William received a country school education at his birth-place, and at the age of 17 years came west with his parents, settling in Wayne county.
.
275
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
After arriving here, William came to Richmond and devoted several years in learning the plasterers' trade, after which he became a contractor in the plastering business. In 1844 his father had become so enfeebled with age that William gave up his business labors in Richmond and took charge of the farm, located north- east of the city. His peculiar knack for operating any business successfully, showed itself after he had taken charge of the farm, and he was soon managing a pay- ing piece of property. In 1850 he purchased the farm from his father, and conducted the same with flattering success, realizing a great amount of money from the products. His great ability and decidedly honest methods in business affairs, soon placed him at the front in all movements of either city or county. In 1849, when the Williamsburg and Richmond Turnpike company was talked of, he became the chief of the project, and saw it pushed to completion in 1851. He became the heaviest stockholder, and in those times the road was a paying investment. Mr. Parry also became interested in the Wayne County Turnpike company, and from 1858 to 1871 served as president. When the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad company built a line from Ft. Wayne to Richmond, he, with other Richmond citizens, became financially interested, and in 1868 lie was elected president of the southern end of the G. R. & I., known as the Cincinnati, Richmond & Ft. Wayne road, and has served continually, as its head officer,
276
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
since that time, only last Friday he being again elected to the position. Among Mr. Parry's other offices, he has been both city councilman and township trustee, filling both positions with marked success. He was married, in 1833, to Mary Hill, daughter of Robert Hill.
The funeral will occur at 10 : 30 o'clock, Fifth-day morning, from the North A Street Friends' meeting house, and the time for meeting at the residence is S : 45. Interment will be at the Ridge cemetery.
APRIL 9, 1894.
WILLIAM L. JOHN.
On Friday, September 6, 1895, Major William L. John was ninety years old. He is the oldest man in Richmond : that of itself is enough to make him an interesting personage ; but that, taken in connection with the fact that he is still a comparatively active man, physically, and that his mind is as fresh and clear as in his youth, makes him all the more interest- ing. Then, when you find a man of that sort who, for seventy years, has been at the fore-front of all the movements for the good of the country ; who has been over the most of the United States - from Massa-
277
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
chusetts Bay to the Rocky Mountains - and who has known all the public men of his time, most of them personally, and has worked side by side with them, the mere fact of his being the oldest man in Richmond does not impress one so much as do his character and personality. It is certain that you will seldom find a man of more marked personality than Major John. His conversation is interesting because he always says something when he talks. This is so unusual with men, whether they be ninety years old or fifty, that it is all the more noticeable and refreshing. Probably no man's talk is fuller of anecdote or of keen every-day philosophy - gotten not from books but from experi- ence ; and the things he has seen, and the things he has helped to do, would go to make one of the most interesting biographies that has ever been written of the men of the Middle States.
Major John was born on the 6th day of September, 1805, in Butler county, Ohio. His parents, who were of English, Scotch and Welsh extraction, emigrated from Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in the Spring of 1802, and built a little cabin on the edge of the wilder- ness, which stretched from the Miami river to the Pacific ocean, and which was inhabited only by the wolf, the bear, the beaver and the red man. In this cabin their son was born -the third in a family of ten children - and here he grew up, in the midst of wild neighbors, with the deer pasturing in the door-yard,
.
278
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
and the smoke of the Indian's camp-fire mingling with the smoke from the cabin's chimney. When he was five years old his parents removed to Warren county, Ohio, and there he spent all of his early life, working by day on the farm, getting a little schooling in winter. but learning for himself, most, in the great school of life. When he was twenty-one he began to read law - not because he expected to be a lawyer, but from pure love of it. He traded corn, at 1212 cents a bushel, for second-hand volumes of Blackstone and for Story on the Constitution, and he used to read these on rainy days, or at night by the aid of a hickory torch or a candle. And it may be said right here, that, though Major John was never admitted to the bar and never practiced law, in the strict sense of the term, he never- theless is as thoroughly grounded on matters legal as many another man who has put out a shingle. The few other books that he had access to-among which were Goldsmith's "Animated Nature " and the poems of Robert Burns - he read with such understanding and so thoroughly that he got more from them than most boys to-day will get out of a whole library.
He lived on the home place till he was forty years old, when he settled in Liberty, Union county, this State, where he was one of the leading men till he moved to Richmond, in 1868.
All his life he has been an active politician, being first a Whig, and afterward a Republican. Since he
279
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
was twenty-one years old he has never missed voting at an election --- national, state, or municipal - and he has always been a leader in all matters pertaining to the good of eastern Indiana. His part in politics brought him in contact with most of the men who helped make the country, and he was a personal friend of John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison, Oliver P. Morton, Hayes, John Sherman, Tom Corwin, Joe Wright, besides a whole host of Governors and Senators. He was a member of the State convention which helped nominate Harrison for the Presidency in 1836. He built the first turnpike in Indiana, and he was a prime mover in first getting railroads into the State from the East.
Despite the fact that he has had such a part in public affairs, he has never held an office, preferring, rather, to see to getting other good men in than to get in himself.
During the war of the Rebellion he was sent West by the Government as a special agent, partly to look after Indian affairs and to watch Southern sympathizers in the posts of the Rockies ; partly to look out for a pass in the mountains where it would be practicable to put a railroad through. He traveled across the plains to Ft. Laramie, in the dead of winter, with six con- panions, and from there made excursions through the mountains, visiting seven different tribes of Indians,
280
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
and exploring much of what is now Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Colorado.
The honor of locating the path of the first railroad across the American continent has been claimed by many men, but there is 110 doubt that it properly belongs to Major John. Previous to his expedition, several corps of engineers had tried to find a route through the mountains, and without exception had reported that the plan was not possible. Not deterred by this, Major John made himself familiar with the country by his own observation and by gathering information from the Indians and from wandering trappers, and it was on a certain very memorable day in March that he lay down on the grass in Cheyenne Pass and wrote to the Secretary of the Interior, describing what he believed to be a practicable pass in the Rockies. Following his instructions, engineers were sent out the next year, and to-day the whistle of the locomotive wakes the echoes in that very pass, and the steel rails of the path of commerce gleam within fifty rods of the spot where he lay on the ground and wrote his dispatches to the department, seeing, per- haps, with a prophetic eye, the wonderful development of the country, at whose gates he was one of the first to knock.
It is impossible, in the limits of a newspaper article, to do justice to, or even give an idea of, the fullness of his life of activity. To know that, you must talk to
281
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
him personally. Writing a sketch of him is not like writing of some young man who is just beginning to make marks on the page of life, and of whom you can prophesy and wonder about : here is a man whose word is spoken, and it has been a very good word. To have fronted life for ninety years ; to have assumed, without shrinking, all the responsibilities of a citizen ; to have made life happier for his friends; to have aided young nien, by his advice and his example ; to have tried always to live honestly with God and man, that is to have lived well and wisely. And, in the respect and love of everybody who knows him, such a man has his reward.
NOTE. - William L. John died October 17, 1896, aged ninety-one years, one month and eleven days.
OLD LETTERS
OF PIONEER TIMES.
RICHMOND, IND., SEPT. 28, 1834.
Dear Father :
It has been some time since I wrote you last. I will now let you know, pretty generally, all that is interest- ing. John (Finley) wrote you not long since, inform- ing you that Mr. Fleming was ill. He is not yet any better, and his condition is very serious. I am now sitting up with him, and employ a part of the night in writing this letter. His condition is the result of a very bad cold, taken some three weeks since, from getting wet in a shower of rain. His recovery is indeed very doubtful. Doctor Ithamer Warner is his physician.
Fever and ague has been very prevalent here this fall, and also over a greater part of the western country. It is now, however, beginning to disappear, on the approach of cooler weather. The family with whom I live have all been very sick, and nearly all at the same time, excepting the oldest girl, who yet has a shake every other day. As for myself, I have as yet escaped, and am now very hearty, although for a month past I
283
POEMS AND SKETCHES.
was a good deal indisposed, but was still able to work. The time for which I engaged myself has just expired. I have made a little over two hundred dollars. My prospects for another year are better than they were last, at the same place. The people are pleased with me - much pleased with the leather I turn out - and desire me to stay. Where to go, I know not, that I might do better ; yet I am not wholly satisfied with my way of living. The people with whom I make my home, though very clever, do not live in accordance with my notions of life, in consequence of which I am restrained from every advantage of improving or enjoy- ing myself as I could wish. What I shall finally do, I have not determined, but will shortly. I expect to pay you a visit this fall. Just now I am very busy, and find it difficult to finish leather fast enough to meet the demand. I expect, in about two weeks, to go with a company on a hunting expedition, thirty or forty miles from here, to be gone ten or twelve days. This, and my visit to the Springs- Yellow Springs, Ohio - will be all the time I can possibly spare, much as I would like to take a tour out West, to look for a better loca- tion. John expects to start, with a few horses, to Kell- tucky, in about two weeks ; or, he may postpone till December and enlarge his drove, and go to Carolina or Virginia.
To-day has been a great day for meetings in town. The Seceders (who are now known as United Presby-
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.