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 25
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In the canvass of 1848, the candidates of the parties were General Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, as the Whig, General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, as the Democrat, and Martin Van Buren as the Free Soil candidate.
General Taylor was fresh from the battle field of Buena Vista, where victory had perched upon his banner, having defeated twenty- two thousand Mexican troops, under Santa Anna, with four thousand five hundred Americans, after having fought two days, 22d and 23d of February, 1847. This was thought sufficient to make his victory quite easy over another formidable opponent, which proved to be the case.
The proposition of the President and friends for adjusting the existing slavery difficulties and admitting California into the Union met with seri- ous opposition from Messrs. Clay and Webster in the Senate. Pending that bill the President died on the 9th of July, 1850. Millard Fillmore, being at that time Vice President, was inaugurated President on the 10th of that month. Another and different proposition was then made, I believe Mr. Clay being the author of the bill; it was known as the "Omnibus bill." This measure received the support of the conserva- tive southern members of both political parties .. In the meantime Mr. Webster left the Senate and became Secretary of State.
The night after the passage of the Omnibus bill Mr. Webster was
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serenaded at his residence on D street. When he appeared on the balcony he was called on for a speech. He said, " My heart is too full of gratitude to express my feelings upon this occasion. I will simply say that now the winter of my discontent is made glorious summer by the action of the United States Senate to-day." This short quotation seemed to have more significance to the vast crowd present than any- thing else he could have said, for it was well known in Washington circles that Mr. Webster felt quite a solicitude for the passage of that measure as a means of averting serious trouble, if not direct rebellion.
Never in the history of the United States Senate was there such an assemblage of talent as passed the compromise bill of 1850. "There were giants in those days." It was during the pending of that bill in the Senate that Mr. Clay said to his southern friends, in order to keep them in the traces, "When this great Whig party becomes an abolition party I am no longer a Whig."
The passage of this bill met with serious opposition by many of the Whig members from the northern states, so much so that they after- wards opposed the administration of Mr. Fillmore.
In 1852 General Scott was the Whig candidate against Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, as the Democrat. Although General Scott had the reputation of being the greatest military man living, he was doomed to defeat by comparatively an unknown man. Although Gen- eral Scott admired the "sweet German accent and rich Irish brogue," he could not secure the foreign vote. It was also charged against the administration of President Fillmore that its influence was thrown against the election of General Scott. This, to some extent, I am aware of, having felt it in a slight way myself.
During the canvass, and within a few weeks of each other, Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster both died-Mr. Clay at the National Hotel, Washing- ton, and Mr. Webster at his home in Marshfield, Massachusetts-and with them died the great Whig party, of which the whole country was justly proud.
ALEXANDER BAINBRIDGE CONDUITT
Was born in Bedford, Trimble county (then Oldham county), Kentucky, October 6, 1818. His father, Willis G. Conduitt, was a native of Ten- nessee, and removed from Greene county, in that State, to Barren county, Kentucky, soon after the close of the war of 1812, having served in the army of the southwest, which had for its field of operations the Ala-
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bama, Mississippi and Louisiana Territories. He was subsequently married to Matilda, daughter of Jesse Moreland, who had, at an early day in the settlement of Kentucky, removed to Oldham county, from the State of Virginia.
Mr. Conduitt, in the year 1826, removed with his family to Moores- ville, Morgan county, Indiana-Alexander, the subject of this sketch, being then a lad eight years old. With but slight opportunities for ob- taining instruction, by attending the usual winter schools, taught in gen- eral by persons of very humble capacity, in the primitive school houses of the period, he learned to "read, write and cipher " a little, and at the. age of fifteen years was apprenticed to the business of merchandising in a general store, at Danville, Indiana, when, after a service of two years, was engaged in the store of Samuel Moore, the pioneer and founder of Mooresville, continuing in that position until 1839.
In the year 1839 he entered into the business of merchandising on his own account, and was, in November of the same year, married to. Melissa, daughter of John Hardwick, Senior, who had emigrated from Madison county, Kentucky, many years before, and settled in the vicin- ity of Mooresville. Since 1839, without a single month's interval, has- been diligently engaged in merchandising and farming. In 1864 became. interested in the wholesale dry goods trade in this city, continuing therein for seven years; in 1871 changing to the wholesale grocery trade-in these twelve years of active mercantile life contributing not a little to the development of the wholesale trade of this city.
We thus find the mercantile experience of Mr. Conduitt reaching back more than forty years, and making him probably the oldest mer- chant at this time in business in this city ; and this experience covering the period of the infancy, development and maturity of the mercantile business of this part of the State. For many years, by reason of the scarcity of money, this business involved the necessity of handling the heavy products of the country, and there being no other mode of trans- porting such commodities in search of a market, Mr. Conduitt often- engaged in ventures by way of White river, the Wabash, etc., in the traditional flat-boat, laden with pork, flour, etc., and destined for New Orleans. This was long before the day of railroads in Indi- ana, and the only other mode of conveyance was by wagons to points on the Ohio river, or driving of live stock on foot to the same destination. There was no speculation in undertakings of this sort. The purpose was to convert such property into money, and was a neces- sary part of the business of the general merchant. It involved no little:
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personal and pecuniary risk, but if profit was made it was fully earned. Taken altogether, here was a school for the young merchant in which he could hardly fail to learn to depend on industry and economy for suc- cess. It is only by reference to such experiences that we can be able properly to appreciate the vast value of the improvements in the modes of transportation and methods of business that have come with steam, railroads and the telegraph.
While devoting himself mainly to merchandising and farming, Mr. C. found some time to give to politics. In 1844, and again in 1845, he was chosen to represent Morgan county in the lower house of the State Legislature. In 1847 he was chosen State Senator from the same district, and served as such for three sessions. In 1850 he was sent by the same district to the con- vention which formed the present State constitution. In 1856 he was again elected to the House of Representatives. In 1860 he was a candidate for district elector on the Democratic ticket, and made an ardent and careful canvass of the capital district for Stephen A. Doug- las. In 1862 was nominated by the Democrats as their candidate for Congress in the same district, then composed of the counties of Marion, Hendricks, Morgan, Hancock, Shelby and Johnson, but was beaten by General Dumont by a few hundred votes. This was his last political service, except that he was a delegate to the Democratic presidential convention, assembled in 1864 at Chicago, which nominated General McClellan for President, and George H. Pendleton for Vice-President.
There is perhaps no person now doing business in the city so famil- iar with the shifts and different ways resorted to by the early merchants of the New Purchase for converting the proceeds of their sales into money or its equivalent as Mr. Conduitt. He is now one of the lead- ing wholesale grocers on South Meridian street. Although doing a large business he retainsa great deal of the manner of the old time coun- try merchant, which is of great advantage to him. For about forty years I have known him as a thorough business man-combining as he does its requisites, industry, punctuality and integrity.
OLIVER H. P. ABBETT.
Mr. Abbett was born in Henry county, Kentucky, on the 4th of Octo- ber, 1819. His parents were Virginians, and among the early pioneers of Kentucky, and never owned or would own a slave; they were old school Baptists in religion ; Democrats in politics.
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In 1837 O. H. P. Abbett joined the Methodist church, and was licensed to preach in 1849. On the 18th of January, 1838, he was mar- ried to Miss Emeline Staten. January 8th, 1846, removed to Bartholo- mew county, Indiana, and lived on the same farm until his removal to Indianapolis, on December 15th, 1870.
He was elected to the Legislature from Bartholomew county in 1862, his competitor being Elder H. R. Pritchard, and re-elected in 1864, his opponent being Captain Baker; in 1870 was elected without opposition joint representative of the counties of Bartholomew and Shelby.
In 1865 Mr. Abbett withdrew from the Methodist church, as he says, in consequence of the bitter political persecutions he was subject to from the preachers of that denomination, as he says they said that Democrats had but two rights, i. e., first to die, second to be d-d, and he was not willing to accept either, hence the change of church.
Since his defection from the Methodist church he has been preach- ing in the interest of Christian union principles, viz : First, the one- ness of the church of Christ ; second, Christ the only head; third, the Bible our only rule of faith and practice ; fourth, good fruits the only condition of fellowship; fifth. Christian union without controversy ; sixth, each local church governs itself ; seventh, political preaching dis- countenanced.
The writer has been acquainted with Mr. Abbett several years, and must add his testimony to the fact that his practice has been in strict accord with his preaching and teachings. And if there is any error in either it is most certainly of the head and not the heart.
Mr. Abbett has two brothers resident of the city-one a leading physician, the other a local Methodist preacher.
PETER ROUTIER,
As his name would indicate, is a native of Sunny France, born in the department De la Marne, December 31, 1837, just in time to enter upon life's tempestuous sea, on January 1, 1838; as he was on time, on this occasion, has always taken it by the forelock as his success indicates. He came to this city in 1856, and in the language of the song, "a young carpenter boy just nineteen years old." Mr. Routier took his motto from the language of Richelieu to his page, "in the bright lexicon of youth there is no such word as fail." On his arrival here he lost no time prospecting to jump at once to fortune and eminence in his profession,
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but took the sure and safe way until he has reached the top round of the carpenter's ladder. Although not king of the realm, he is most assur- edly one of the autocrats among the builders and contractors of the city and State. Mr. Routier has added to the city over one thousand houses, among them some of the finest, of which all citizens are justly proud, such as the Grand Hotel, Grand Opera House, Martindale's block, Bos- ton block, Circle House, Journal printing building, Griffith's, Brandon, Ruschaupt's, Roache's, Talbott, Exchange, Claypool's, Root & Morris's, Franklin Life Insurance, Vonnegut, Howe and Thorpe blocks, four city engine houses, Ferguson's pork house, Lieber's brewery, Crown Hill Cemetery building, the fine residences of George W. Parker, Stoughton A. Fletcher, Jr., E. B. Martindale, V. Butch, G. Goepper, J. Dickson, three of our fine churches and Elevator B, and over one thousand cottages, many of which are first class. His work in the twenty years he has been a resident of Indianapolis is almost sufficient to make a city of itself.
Mr. Routier possesses a goodly share of the suavity and manners peculiar to the native French, which, coupled with his well known integrity and reputation for fair dealing, is one great cause of his success. Indianapolis would be benefited if she could number a thousand more such men. May he live to build another thousand houses.
THADDEUS M. STEVENS, M. D.
Doctor Stevens is one of the few of whom mention is made in this work who are natives of Indianapolis. He is the only male representa- tive of the family of Joshua Stevens now living. Doctor Stevens was born on outlot number 20, which is now a part of the densely settled portion of the city.
Joshua Stevens, the father of the doctor, was the brother of Thad- deus M. Stevens, one of the best known politicians of his day, and for many years represented in Congress the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, dis- trict. Thaddeus M. Stevens, Sen., in honor of whom the doctor was named, as well as Joshua Stevens, were natives of Vermont. Joshua Stevens came to Indianapolis in 1824, at which time I formed his ac- quaintance. He acted as justice of the peace for Center township for many years. He purchased donation property, which, after his death, became very valuable, so much so as to be a fortune to his heirs.
Doctor Stevens received his education in this city, and is a graduate of the Philadelphia Medical College. He has been connected with two
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medical colleges ; he has also edited the Indiana Journal of Medicine, and is now editor of the Cincinnati Lancet and Observer. He has been married twice: In 1861 to Miss Lizzie Kerlin. She having died, he was married again, in 1864, to Miss Lizzie Reese, of Philadelphia. He has two children, both boys.
The doctor now resides at 253 South New Jersey street, near where he was born, and where, he tells me, he expects to live the balance of his life.
He seems to have more of a taste for medical literature and science than for the practice of his profession, as he is more engaged in that line. Doctor Stevens' opinions on medical subjects are universally re- ferred to by the medical faculty.
He is rather below the medium size, quick and elastic in his move- ments, social and genial in manners, accommodating in disposition, with many friends and no enemies.
POWELL HOWLAND.
It is a difficult matter to find a starting point to give the reader a due appreciation of the many fine qualities and virtues of the well-known citizen whose name heads this sketch.
Powell Howland is a native of the Empire State. He was born on the 16th of October, 1799, at the old town of Saratoga, and within four miles of the scene of Burgoyne's defeat, and there remained as a farmer until the 17th of October, 1839, at which time he came to Marion county, and purchased of Benjamin Purcell the farm on which he now resides, containing then but. one hundred and sixty acres. This farm is situated four miles north of the city, on the Noblesville road and Peru railroad. He added to this farm until it aggregated three hundred and fifteen acres.
Mr. Howland was never a chronic office seeker, yet he was selected as one of the county commissioners, and also represented the county in the House of Representatives of the State Legislature, and performed his official duties well. He was the first to propose and contribute for a public school in his neighborhood, and had a school house erected on his own land, donating a half acre for the purpose, where he has edu- cated five of his children, one having been educated in New York. His daughter, Mrs. Clements, yet resides in Saratoga county, New York ; one of his daughters is the wife of Oliver Johnson, a well-known farmer of Washington township, and a son of Mr. John Johnson, a pioneer of Marion county ; another daughter is the wife of Resin R. Hammond, a
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Mahala Howland
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EDWIN A. DAT IS.
farmer in the same vicinity; the eldest son is Morris Howland, a well- known farmer of Perry township; Elisha J., the second son, and Charles · A. Howland, the youngest son, live in the immediate neighborhood of their father.
Mr. Howland has sold one hundred and twenty-one acres of his farm, fifty of which have been laid out as suburban lots of the city.
Mr. Howland has ever taken a lively interest in horticulture as well as agriculture, growing the finest varieties of fruits, making a speciality of grapes and pears. His farm and farm buildings are the pictures of thrift, industry and comfort. He was the personal friend of the late Governor Joseph A. Wright, who, with his family, for some time resided under his hospitable roof.
He was married in the county of his nativity on the 2d of September, 1823, to Miss Mahala Thurber, who is yet his helpmate ; her portrait will be seen on the right of her husband's. Although he has passed the seventy-seventh mile stone in the journey of life, he is yet quite active, retaining his mental faculties as fresh as in youth. Nor is Mrs. How- land wanting in either of the above blessings. It is seldom that two persons live together over half a century and both of them possess so much mental as well as physical vigor as they do. Their house has been a favorite place of visiting of young people, both of country and city, ever since they have resided in the country; their hospitality is proverbial. It is but a few days since that a young couple signified their desire to be united in marriage under their roof, which was granted and a sumptuous repast provided.
Mr. Howland cast his first vote for General Jackson in 1824, and has strictly adhered to the party that sprung from his administration ever since.
When Mr. and Mrs. Howland shall be called home the county will lose two of her most worthy and respected citizens, and Indianapolis her most liberal patrons. And they can truly say with Byron,
"I die-but first I have possessed, And come what may, I have been blessed."
EDWIN A. DAVIS.
Mr. Davis was born in Northboro, Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the 14th of July, 1830. He claims to have as much, if not more, of the Plymouth Colony Pilgrim Puritan blood in his veins as any man in Indiana, if not in the United States.
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Dolour Davis, a Welshman who married Margery Willard, of Kent, England, was a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1634, and, on a fair estimate by the geneologist of the family, had had in 1859 over one hundred and twenty-five thousand descendants. The subject of this sketch is of the seventh generation of Dolour, above referred to. William Eagar, another Welshman, became a resident of Plymouth Colony in 1624. Mr. Davis' paternal grandmother was of the fourth generation from William J. His mother, still living, was a Sherman.
John Sherman, one of the paternal ancesters, was of Kent, England, married a daughter of the Earl of Rivers, and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1634. He was at one time an officer of Harvard Col- lege, and from him descended what is known as the Weathersfield, Con- necticut, family of Shermans, one of whom was Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence ; General William T. Sherman and Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, are of this stock.
The descendants of Dolour Davis are well known in Massachusetts as a family of unsullied reputation, their genealogist having failed to discover a single instance in which a member of the family had been charged with a crime or misdemeanor of any kind.
An uncle of the father of Edwin A. Davis was for several years Gov- ernor of Massachusetts, and afterwards the colleague of Daniel Webster in the United States Senate. He was familiarly known and called " Honest John Davis, of Massachusetts." His oldest son, Bancroft Davis, who had much to do with negotiating the Geneva treaty, is now United States Minister at Berlin.
Edwin A. Davis, the subject of this sketch, in 1850 traveled exten- sively in Europe, and visited portions of Asia and Africa. At that time the Atlantic was not plowed by numerous lines of steamers as now, nor was Europe practically overrun with railroads, the Alps were not tunneled, and the trip from Venice to Brussels was for the most part made in the diligence. Mr. Davis spent several weeks at Athens, Greece, and visited the plains of Marathon, also Platæa, Corinth, Mis- solonghi, the Ionian Islands, and various other places of interest.
The then Grecian government representative from ancient Sparta was his friend and guide. Mr. Davis was a graduate of the Harvard law school in 1859, and immediately thereafter came to Indianapolis, where he has since resided and industriously pursued his profession. His extensive acquaintance in the east gave him a large collection business, which, for the past seventeen years, he has managed successfully, and principally from this class of business he has succeeded in accumulating
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EDWIN A. DAVIS.
considerable property. Immediately after the commencement of the late civil war Mr. Davis was appointed by Judge Swain, of the Supreme Court of the United States, a commissioner of the United States.
At that time the duties of this office were by no means clearly de- fined; a large amount of new legislation by Congress growing out of the war had to be construed, and during the four years of the rebellion nearly all the criminal cases over which the United States courts for the district of Indiana had jurisdiction were brought before Mr. Davis for examination ; and as such commissioner he issued to the United States Marshal for this district over six hundred warrants, and in none of these cases has the United States Circuit or Supreme Court overruled Mr. Davis's opinion of the law.
In March, 1870, Mr. Davis was married to Annie G. Dudley, a na- tive of Raymond, New Hampshire, by whom he had one child.
Mr. Davis is well known in Indiana, and indeed through the west as the author or editor of various law-books. In February, 1862, he re- edited the first volume of Blackford's Reports. In February, 1863, was. issued Davis's Indiana Digest. This work was pronounced by compe- tent critics as the best of the kind ever produced west of the Allegheny mountains, and at once gave him the reputation of a law writer. In 1864 he re-edited Judge David McDonald's Treatise, a work which, since its publication, has been the standard authority for justices of the peace in Indiana.
In 1870 he edited and Robert Clark & Co., of Cincinnani, published a supplement to his volume of Indiana Digest, and the same year was- edited by him and issued what is known as the Third Volume of Indiana Statutes, being a supplement to the edition of Gavin & Hord. Imme- diately after this re-edited the last six volumes of Blackford's and the first volume of Indiana Reports. In 1875, Robert Clark & Co., of Cin- cinnati, published Davis's New Indiana Digest, a work of over seventeen hundred pages (royal 8vo., brevier type, double column). This work includes not only the eight volumes of Blackford, and the first forty-six volumes of Indiana Reports, but also a digest of the Revised Statutes of the State. In 1876, Bingham & Co., of Indianapolis, published the new edition of the Revised Statutes of Indiana, in two volumes, of near two thousand pages, indexed by James K. Jones, Esq., of the Indiana- polis bar, with notes and references to judicial decisions of the State of Indiana, which work was at once adopted and cited by the Supreme Court and highly commended by Governor Hendricks and all who have examined it, and which at once met with a large sale.
From these statistics it will readily be seen that Mr. Davis has not
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been an idle man, or like many others, undertaken a work he was not competent to perform; he has certainly shown ability for anything he may undertake in a legal way. For the information of the disciples of Faust, I would say that the first volume of Davis's Digest was the first book that was ever stereotyped in Indiana, and by a careful estimate he has furnished to typos for law books alone over sixty millions ems which they have set up. The printed pages in the works referred to aggregate eleven thousand and five hundred, the composition and stere- otyping of which cost over sixty thousand dollars.
Although Mr. Davis has done such an amount of labor, he tells me he made but little if any thing on these publications ; his accummulations have been from his practice and other sources. I take pleasure in recording for posterity the labors and great legal ability of one who has done so much to assist his legal brethren in their practice, by furnishing brief and concise reports of the higher courts. That Mr. Davis's books are valuable for furnishing legal authority, I have before me testimonials of the members of the Supreme Court, lawyers of the highest legal attainments of the State, the city press, the Cincinnati and other western paper.
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