USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Sketches of prominent citizens of 1876 : with a few of the pioneers of the city and county who have passed away > Part 24
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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.
place by General Jackson, more as a punishment for being a Clay Whig than the good-will of the old hero. This he held until the office was removed to Waverly, a new town that had sprung up within a mile of his place.
Major Pinney was a very pleasant and agreeable man, and disposed to look on the bright side of sublunary affairs, and sees more of sun- shine than shade in the lot of man generally. Although during the rebellion a strong Union man, he did nothing towards furnishing sol- diers bearing his name, neither could wives be found for them in his family. He died February 2d, 1873.
JAMES JOHNSON
Was born in Grayson county, West Virginia, on the 8th of May, 1802. With his father's family he removed to Butler county, Ohio, in the fall of 1811, about the time the battle of Tippecanoe was fought. He there worked on the farm and assisted his father at the blacksmith forge, and became proficient in the art of Vulcan. In 1822 he was married to Miss Hannah Snively, with whom he lived thirty-eight years. On the I Ith of March, 1823, he became a citizen of the then village of Indian- apolis, and built himself a cabin on the northwest corner of Washington and East streets, on a lot then owned by his father and now by him, on which he has erected a fine business block. During the spring of 1823 he cleared a field and planted corn on the donation lands west of West street and north of the park. In 1824 he removed to the farm on which he now lives, five miles west of the city on the Crawfordsville State road. After his removal to his new home he was compelled to walk to his corn field and there shell the corn for his bread, then carry it on his shoulder to the mill, thence in meal to his home. On one occasion he was detained until after nightfall. When within a short dis- tance of his house he heard cries of distress proceeding from his own house. Hurrying as fast as possible to the house he found his wife, with her infant in her arms, had clambered to the loft of the cabin for pro- tection from the Indians, who, she said, were prowling about. Whether it was imagination on her part or not Mr. Johnson never knew. It was just after the murder of the Indian family in Madison county by the whites, and the whole country was in constant fear of an outbreak by the Indians.
Mr. Johnson brought to my mind an incident that happened about that time. A Delaware Indian who delighted in the name of Captain
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JACOB B. McCHESNEY.
White Eyes, was very fond (when intoxicated) of showing by ma- neuvers with his knife "how Injun scalp white man." This, to some of the settlers who had the art practically illustrated on their relatives, was unpleasant. They gave the captain to understand that they would also give a practical illustration of how the white man scalped the Indian. This to Mr. White Eyes was sufficient. He took the hint and never troubled the settlement again.
Mr. Johnson has accumulated a large fortune, not by wild specula- tions, but by a judicious and careful investment of his accumulations from time to time. A few years since he offered some very valuable tracts of land, first to the Northwestern Christian University, then to the Hanover College, as a subsidy for locating either of those institutions on his property.
Mr. Johnson never received but nine months' schooling, and that at intervals. He has, however, received a practical education and grad- uated in the school of experience, which Goldsmith says is "the ripest school of knowledge."
In 1860 he lost by death his first wife. In 1864 he was married to Mrs. Ann M. Branham, of North Madison. She died in September, 1873. He was justice of the peace for Wayne township and served acceptably to the people for ten years. He represented the county in the Legislature in the sessions of 1838-39-40. He was deputy United States marshal two years. He was president of and instrumental in building the Indianapolis and Brownsburg and the Central gravel roads, and has contributed largely to the development of the agricultural resources of the county. In 1824 he cast his first Presidential vote for General Jackson, and has strictly adhered to the party that sprung out of that administration, although in his social relations, and with his neighbors, he knows no political distinction.
Mr. Johnson was the patron friend of the late Colonel George L. Kinnard, with whom but few of the present citizens of the city were acquainted. Although Mr. Johnson is over seventy-five years of age, he is yet assiduous to business, and may be seen on our streets nearly every day.
JACOB B. McCHESNEY.
Among the clever and unpretending gentlemen of Indianapolis is Mr. McChesney, a native of the State of New Jersey, a State that has furnished this city with many of its best citizens. He came to this place in the year 1834.
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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.
He was the first secretary of the State sinking fund, and continued as such for near thirty years, and left the office only through the work- ings of political party machinery. He was a good and efficient official, and had almost the entire charge of the business.
During his forty-three years as a citizen of the city, by his urbane and gentlemanly deportment, he has won the confidence and respect of all who know him. He is the cousin of those two worthy persons, of whom I have already written, James M. Ray and the late Joseph M. Moore. Mr. McChesney took an active part in the organization of the first Episcopal church (Christ), in 1837, and has since that time been a member and vestryman of it.
He has three children, one a daughter, who is the wife of Mr. David E. Snyder, one of the leading insurance men of the city. His two sons are yet single and reside with their father. He is now treasurer of the State Saving Bank.
JOHN W. HOLLAND.'
This worthy gentleman was one of four brothers that, with their father, came to this city at an early day-George, John, David and Johnson. £ Their father, John Holland, Senior, came about the year 1826, and for many years kept a family grocery.
John W. Holland came in the year 1830. For some years he was a clerk in the dry goods store of Conner & Harrison, and then as a part- ner of the late A. W. Russell. I suppose he has cut as much tape, measured as many six yards of calico (at that time a dress pattern), weighed as many half-dollars' worth of coffee, and taken in exchange therefor as many pounds of butter, dozens of eggs, yards of flax and tow linen, and pounds of maple sugar, as any person now living in the city.
Mr. Holland has long been one of the leading members of the Metli- odist church in this city. We remember him, near forty years since, leading the Thursday evening prayer meeting that worshipped in the first brick church built in Indianapolis, and situated where the Sentinel office now stands.
Johnson, the younger brother, died many years since ; George, the eldest, died eight years ago. Mr. Holland and his sister, Mrs. James E. Wheat, are the only members of the original family that came here over fifty years ago that are living in the city. Mr. Holland has retired from active business and resides on North Tennessee street.
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WILLIAM C. SMOCK.
WILLIAM C. SMOCK,
Former and seventh clerk of Marion county, was born in Perry town- ship, December 3, 1838 ; he has descended from the two different fami- lies of Smocks, who were among the first settlers of the county. His grandfather on his mother's side, John Smock, bought at the Brookville land sale, in 1821, the first quarter section of land south of Pleasant run, on the Madison State road, about one mile south of the donation line. This he improved and lived on until his death in 1827; this farm is now known as the Hæfgen farm.
His father, Isaac Smock, was the brother of Simon Smock, who lived about one mile south of John Smock, another brother of his father. Captain Jacob Smock lived just north of Southport. Those several fam- lies of Smocks and Brewers, that had intermarried with them, formed almost the entire population on the Madison State road for twelve or fifteen miles south. So they were called Smocks and half-Smocks. Now we not only have Smocks and half Smocks, but in the person of the former clerk we have a double-Smock.
The family on the father's side of William C. Smock were mostly Presbyterians, and their church at Greenwood was generally filled by Smocks and Brewers. On his mother's side they were Baptists, and their church on Lick creek, about four miles southeast of town, and where Abram Smock, his grandfather's brother preached, was generally filled with Smocks, Smalls, Pences, Seburns and Woodfills. The two families of Smocks were mostly from the counties of Henry and Shelby, Kentucky, and they left that State in consequence of slavery, desiring to raise their families in a free State.
The Smocks and Brewers were honest, upright and successful farmers, and did a great deal toward making the southern portion of this. county what it is to day.
But I have digressed and will return to the subject of the sketch. At the age of fifteen years William C. Smock entered the recorder's office as deputy, under the late Dr. A. G. Wallace, who was then recorder of the county. In this capacity he remained nearly two years, accumulating a small sum of money with which he designed qualifying himself for higher and more responsible duties. He then became a student of the Franklin (Johnson county) college, and there remained four collegiate terms.
In 1860 he engaged with John C. New as a deputy in the office of clerk of the Marion Circuit and Common Pleas courts.
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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.
In 1862, and at the age of twenty-three, he received the nomination of the Republican party for the office of recorder for the county, a coalition having been formed between the Republican and that portion of the Democratic party that favored a vigorous prosecution of the war, and it being desirable in order to secure harmony and unity of action that the county offices should be divided. Mr. Smock very magnani- mously declined the nomination, that the object could be effected.
In 1865 he was nominated by the same party as its candidate for clerk of the county, and was elected without opposition, equally as rare a case as the first, being the first instance of the kind in the history of the county where a candidate for a county office ran without an oppo- nent. The citizens of Marion county have been peculiarly fortunate in the selection of their clerks, from the first, the venerable James M. Ray, elected in the year 1822 ; he was succeeded by his deputy, Joseph M. Moore, by appointment; then Robert B. Duncan; he by William Stewart; then John C. New; then William Wallace-men whose capacity and integrity were not questioned, and performed their duties to the satisfaction of their many friends and the public. But we doubt if any gave more satisfaction to the public, or retired from the office with more personal friends, than William C. Smock.
In Mr. Smock's character is exemplified the influence of Christian parents in forming the morals and religion of their children ; he adheres to the church of his mother, and is a member of the First Baptist church of this city.
Since Mr. Smock left the clerk's office he has been engaged in the real estate business.
THE TWO OLD POLITICAL PARTIES.
Never in the history of this or any other country was there any political parties that could boast of such talent in their leaders as the old Whig and Democratic parties could, from the formation of the former under the leadership of Henry Clay, its candidate for the Presi- dency in 1832, until the dissolution of the party after the defeat of General Winfield Scott in 1852. From 1824 to 1828, during the Presidency of John Quincy Adams, it was known as the Administration party. After the election of General Jackson, and during his first term as President, it was called the Adams party. After the nomination of Henry Clay against General Jackson, in 1832, it was named by James Watson Webb, editor of the New York Courier and Enquirer, the Whig
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THE TIVO OLD POLITICAL PARTIES.
party. During the twenty years of its existence it numbered among its leaders men of the most profound intellect and statemanship that ever graced the halls of legislation, such as Henry Clay, John J. Critten- den, Robert P. Letcher, Thomas Metcalf (old Stone Hammer), John B. Thompson and Charles Morehead, of Kentucky; Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Rufus Choate, Robert Winthrop, and honest John Davis, of Massachusetts; Robert Toombs, Alexander Stephens and - Dawson, of Georgia ; R. M. T. Hunter, Henry A. Wise, John B. Summers and Alexander H. Stewart,of Virginia ; Thomas Corwin (Wagon Boy), Thomas Ewing, Joshua R. Giddings, Alfred Kelly and William Bebb, of Ohio; John M. Clayton and Bayard, of Delaware; Wiley P. Mangum, Waddy Thomson and Senator Badger, of North Carolina ; William H. Seward, Millard Fillmore, Horace Greeley and James Brooks, of New York; Baldwin and Smith, of Connecticut; Senator Pearce and Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland ; Jimmy Jones and John Bell, of Ten- nessee ; Prentice and McClung, of Mississippi; Thaddeus Stevens and Cooper, of Pennsylvania ; Phillips, Upham and Collamer, of Vermont ; and from our own Indiana were Joseph G. Marshall, George G. Dunn, George H. Dunn, Albert S. White, Joseph L. White, Caleb B. Smith, Oliver. H. Smith, Samuel Parker, Richard W. Thompson, James H. Cravens, David Kilgore, Henry S. Lane, David Wallace, Thomas I. Evans, Samuel Bigger, George H. Proffit, Samuel Judah, Charles H. Test, James Raridan, General Robert Hanna, John H. Bradley, Austin W. Morris, Thomas D. Walpole, George Julian, Jonathan McCarty, Lemuel Q. De Bruler, and many others who were an honor to the State and nation.
Nor were the Democrats wanting in talent and statesmanship, among whom were John C. Calhoun, Hayne and Senator Butler, of South Car- olina ; Silas Wright and Dickinson, of New York; Lynn Boyd, John C. Breckinridge, James Guthrie and Governor Powell, of Kentucky ; Lewis Cass, of Michigan ; Stephen A. Douglas and Shields, of Illinois ; Thos. H. Benton, Senator Atchison and Francis P. Blair, of Missouri ; Henry S. Foote and Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi ; Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson and James K. Polk, of Tennessee ; Samuel Houston and Sen- ator Rusk, of Texas; Levi Woodbury and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire; Soule and Downs, of Louisiana; Salmon P. Chase, John Brough (known as Auditor Brough), Charles Brough, George E. Pugh, George H. Pendleton and William Allen, of Ohio ; Tighlman A. How- ard, Joseph A. Wright, James Whitcomb, John L. Robinson, Michael 16
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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.
G. Bright, Jesse D. Bright, Andrew Kennedy, Amos Lane, John Law, William W. Wick, Judge James Morrison, Alexander F. Morrison, George Chapman, Page Chapman, William J. Brown, Rufus Lockwood, Graham N. Fitch, Ebenezer Chamberlain, Joseph Lane, Edward A. Hannagan, Robert Dale Owen, and many others, nearly all of whom were conspicuous in the ever-memorable canvass of 1840.
The first presidential campaign after the formation of the Whig party was between General Jackson, the incumbent, and Henry Clay ; the main issues being a national bank, which had just been vetoed by the Presi- dent, and a protective tariff that was warmly advocated by the friends of Mr. Clay, and opposed by the President's friends. For a while it seemed the chances of success were in favor of Mr. Clay, but the friends- of the old hero rallied toward the end of the canvass, and he was re- elected by a large electoral majority.
In the canvass of 1836 General William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, and Martin Van Buren, of New York, were the candidates. The issues were about the same as in 1832. The campaign was quite tame, Mr. Van Buren being direct from under the wing of General Jackson, and being Vice President at the time, was elected. In 1840, which was the most exciting canvass ever known in the country before or since-the same candidates as in 1836-charges of corruption in Mr. Van Buren's administration were rife. Ogle, a representative of Pennsylvania, had charged upon the President, upon the floor of Congress, a reckless ex- penditure of the public money, such as the purchase of gold spoons for the presidential mansion. This speech was printed in pamphlet form and scattered broadcast over the land. Some eastern papers had sneer- ingly spoken of General Harrison as the log cabin and hard cider candi- date for the presidency. This, every inhabitant of a cabin took as a personal insult, and their number were legions in the west. This was sufficient to insure the hero of Tippecanoe the entire west.
Mr. Van Buren and General Harrison had both been members of Congress during the passage of the Missouri compromise in 1820, Gen- eral Harrison voting with the south against the restricting ordinance, prohibiting slavery north of a certain latitude. Mr. Van Buren voted for the ordinance. This secured General Harrison every southern State except South Carolina and Alabama.
In that canvass the people seemed entirely given up to politics. Political conventions and meetings were all that were thought of by the people. All kinds of business was almost entirely suspended for the time being. The farmer left his plow, the blacksmith the forge, the
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THE TWO OLD POLITICAL PARTIES.
carpenter the bench, the tailor the board, the lawyer the courts, and even the doctor would forget the sick, all to attend a political convention.
Nor was the excitement confined to the voting population. Women and children were affected by the political contagion, and children neglected their schools to attend a barbecue where bullocks were roasted whole.
This was before we had rail or gravel roads in Indiana, and but few carriages. The only means of locomotion was the two horse wagon or on horseback. It was before we even had any great number of organized bands of music. It was a very common thing to see a procession of wagons and horsemen a half mile in length going to a political meeting some twenty miles from their starting place, log cabins and canoes mounted on wheels, preceded by the ever-memorable drum and fife, banners flying, coon skins lashed to the saddles of the horsemen, the whole shouting for
" Tippecanoe and Tyler too !"
And singing some of the many campaign songs of that year, among which was
" Come all ye log cabin boys, we're going to have a raisin', We've got a job on hand, and ye'll think it will be pleasin'; We'll turn ont and build old Tip a cabin, And fill up the cracks with chinkin' and dobbin'."
Another of which was, and sung with great enthusiasm by men, women and children,
"The latch string hangs outside the door, Hurra, hurra, hurra ! Where it has always hung before. Hurra, hurra, hurra ! And any man that's given 10 grabin' Shall never enter his log cabin, Hurra, hurra, hurra-hurra, hurra !"
The convention that assembled at the Tippecanoe battle ground in that year will be long remembered as one of the largest and most exciting that had ever taken place in the United States.
The delegation from this city was called the "Wild Oats of Indiana- polis," among which were General Thomas A. Morris, Elliott Patterson, Chas. W. Cady, John D. Morris, James R. Nowland, Andrew Bryne, Hugh O'Neal, George Drum, George Bruce, S. V. B. Noel, Dr. Stroll, and many others, most of whom have passed away.
The march of the Wild Oats was not without many interesting inci-
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dents that will be long remembered by the writer, among them the fre- quent appearance of petticoats, which were generally flaunted by women, or hoisted on poles, as a stigma upon the bravery of General Harrison at Fort Sandusky. It is hardly necessary to say that they were captured in every instance, and those who had insultingly manipulated them re- buked in a manner they could not misunderstand.
Among the prominent speakers at that meeting were several of a national reputation. Erastus Brooks, of Pittsburg, who was the origi- nal Jack Downing of that canvass (the original in Jackson's time being Holmes, of Maine), also Henry S. Lane and Joseph L. White, of Indi- ana, the latter being one of the most eloquent men of the day. I shall never forget one of his flights of fancy in his speech upon that occasion. In speaking of General Harrison as the log cabin and hard cider candi- date, he said : "Yes, fellow-citizens, who knows but while your present speaker is addressing you, the wind that is whistling through the cran- nies of some log cabin is fanning the cheek of some poor but noble infant that will some day stand at the head of this great republic." A simultaneous shout from a hundred thousand people attested the appre- ciation of the sentiment as well as the eloquence of the orator.
There were several large and enthusiastic meetings of both parties in Indianapolis during the year. At the Whig meetings barrels of hard cider were placed at the doors of nearly all the Whigs, where every one was made welcome to help himself. While writing of those times it revives many pleasant memories of long lost and departed friends, with whom I met daily in the ordinary business of life.
Although the. Whigs were successful in that election, they never realized the fruits of their labors. General Harrison lived but one month after his inauguration. He had already issued a proclamation convening Congress in July, 1841, at which was passed a bill creating a United States bank, but was vetoed by President Tyler, whom the Whigs charged with betraying and playing Judas Iscariot. From that time President Tyler acted with the Democratic party, who proved that although they "loved the treason they despised the traitor," for he never received any consideration at their hands for the succession in 1844.
It was in the canvass of 1840 that the Democratic party won the em- blem of which they have ever been proud. At least it is paraded at the head of the columns of their newspapers when they have been vic- torious in an election. George Pattison, then editor of the Democratic paper in this place, wrote to his friend Joe Chapman, of Greenfield, that the die was cast and that Mr. Van Buren would be defeated, "but,"
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THE TWO OLD POLITICAL PARTIES.
said he, "crow, Chapman, crow !" The late Thomas D. Walpole, at that time a Whig, by some means got possession of the letter and pub- lished it. The Messrs. Chapman-George and Page-in 1841 became proprietors of the paper and placed a rooster at the head of its columns, since which time it has been the emblem of the party.
In the canvass of 1844 Henry Clay was the Whig and James K. Polk the Democratic candidate, the issue being the annexation of Texas, the United States Bank, and the distribution of the surplus revenue among the several States, the Democrats favoring annexation and op- posing the other issues, the Whigs maintaining that the annexation of Texas would create a war with Mexico, and was intended as a measure for the extension of slavery, although they claimed to be conservative on that question.
Although the Whigs had their favorite candidate there was not so much enthusiasm as in 1840, yet there was sufficient to bring out the entire strength of both parties. The Whigs had calculated that Mr. Van Buren would be the Democratic candidate, and prepared many songs with his name, among which was one that ran in this wise :
" There's little Martin, never idle, A tricky horse that slips his bridle ; In forty-four we'll show him soon, The little fox can't fool the coon."
Mr. Van Buren not being nominated, a new lot of campaign songs had to be prepared, but few of which we remember. One was begun in this way :
" The moon was shining silver bright, The stars with glory crowned the night, High on a limb that same old coon Was singing to himself this tune : ' Get out of the way you're all unlucky, Polk can't come it with old Kentucky.'"
Another, the chorus of which was :
" Hurrah, hurrah, the country's rising For Harry Clay and Frelinghuysen."
Another, the chorus of which was :
" Ha, ha, ha, such a nominee, As Jimmy Polk, of Tennesse."
The songs of the Democrats were not so numerous as those of the
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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.
Whigs, the Whigs having the experience of 1840 in song singing, but the few the Democrats sung were to the point, and were sung by their glee clubs with great pathos and enthusiasm, one of which ran :
" Hurrah for Polk and annexation, Against the bank and high taxation."
A circumstance in that canvass which the Democrats took as an omen of their success : The brother of the writer, James R. Nowland, had purchased a large, heavy coon, which had by good living grown fat and lazy. My brother expected to have some fun upon the occa- sion of the next Whig meeting, and for which he did not have to wait long. In front of the store door was a Whig, or ash, pole ; about six feet from the ground, and around the pole, he built a platform, upon which he placed a coon and rooster, expecting the coon to destroy the bird while the Whig procession was passing. The bird proved game, and instead of being torn to atoms by the coon, mounted upon his coonship's back and goaded him until he squealed for an armistice or cessation of hostilities. This, to the Democrats, was glory enough for the day, and a source of chagrin and mortification to the Whigs.
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