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 26
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Mr. Davis's name will go down to posterity along with that of the late Judge Blackford, as one of the most profound legal writers of the day. He is a plain, unostentatious man, frank though courteous to all. Although his mind is so well stored with legal lore there is yet room for the retention of a good anecdote or story, and no one knows how to tell them with better effect. I have heard him called "the great North American story teller," or the "Abe Lincoln of Indiana."
I hope the descendants of the Mayflower pilgrims will furnish Indi- anapolis with a few more of the same sort of citizens. It can be said of Mr. Davis, in more than one way, that he has descended from one of the best families of America or the New Continent ; his geneology runs back to 1634.
JOHN B. SULLIVAN.
Mr. Sullivan is a plain off-hand kind of a man, with a lofty resolve about him, and a quick perceptibility of the right; he is blessed with the peculiar faculty of knowing men at first sight, and reads them as they come along with an aptness and certainty that he could the bad or good points of a horse.
He was for several years superintendent of the State fairs. During his administration of its affairs it prospered and was always renumera- tive to the association.
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JOHN B. SULLIVAN.
In the strict sense of the word, and as I generally use the term, he is not an "old settler." He came to Indianapolis in 1848, when it was but a small town and he quite young. His connection with the fairs has made him well known throughout the State as well as in the city. His kind and jovial manners and disposition have won him a host of friends ; and when a person once makes the acquaintance of John B. Sullivan he will hardly ever forget him.
John B. Sullivan was born in Annapolis, Maryland, and inherits many traits of character peculiar to southern people. He is liberal in his opinions as well as with his means, and possesses the faculty of making friends for himself of those that circumstances or business brings him in contact with. Although the writer has not known him very long, yet quite long enough to learn the truth of this brief tribute to the many good qualities of his head and heart.
He was the personal friend of the late Caleb J. McNulty, of Ohio, and helped to perform the last sad rites to his mortal remains. They both belonged to Company B, Second Ohio regiment of volunteers, commanded by Colonel George W. Morgan, during the Mexican war. This regiment left Cincinnati about the 12th of July, 1846, on board the steamer Jamestown. When opposite Plumb Point, on the Mississippi, Mr. McNulty died, and was buried by his comrades at Helena, Arkansas. Mr. Sullivan there procured the services of a minister and had the burial service read at the grave.
I have digressed from my subject to speak of the eloquent and tal- ented McNulty, who was at one time a member of Congress from one of the Ohio districts, and afterwards chief clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives. Who that remembers the Presidential campaign in Ohio in 1844 can forget him?
In that lonely graveyard at Helena, Arkansas, on the banks of "the Father of Waters," sleeps all that was earthly of the eloquent speaker, the fast friend and devoted patriot, Caleb J. McNulty.
The deep respect, mingled with tenderness and admiration, Mr. Sullivan entertained for him, caused a natural despondency of feeling in his bosom when he thought of the gulf that separated him from his friend, though after the first burst of sorrow was over he turned to his companions to look in vain for one to whom he was so devotedly attached; but for a long time the blank was unfilled, as our feelings are often tardy in accommodating themselves to the inevitable decrees of Providence.
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SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS.
REV. J. C. SMITH
Was born April 17, 1809, in Madison county, Kentucky, and emigrated · to Indiana in 1820 with his father's family, and settled near Madison, in Jefferson county. The whole country was new, and the facilities for schools and churches few and far between.
The roads, if any, consisted of corduroy, Indian trails, cow paths, blazed trees, or mud roads ; of turnpikes and railroads there were none. Fish abounded in the streams and wild turkeys and deer filled the for- ests. Agues and fevers were the principal products of the soil, but those were of a much milder type than those which prevail now and yielded readily to the remedies then in use, such as calomel and jalap, Peruvian bark, snake root, sage and spice-wood teas, freely alternated with tanzy, butter and such like simple remedies of the field and garden. Young Smith was taught in early boyhood the useful arts and sciences of the farm, but not relishing the plow, hoe and sickle, he usually hur- ried through his tasks and spent the remainder of the day in fishing, hunting and shooting wild game which abounded everywhere; trapping the mink, raccoon and grey squirrel was a favorite sport and it often paid. But those sports soon began to lose their charm for the more solid and useful study of books. These he cherished from early boyhood; orthography, history, arithmetic and geography were his delights.
His first school-master in Indiana was a man by the name of John M. Foster, a lawyer by profession, but having become too intemperate to pursue that occupation, he took up the profession of a common school-teacher, and for this business, apart from his drinking habits, he- had admirable qualifications both by nature and education. Was a Yankee by birth, neat in person, scholarly in his tastes, kind in disposi- tion, loved the school room, loved children and took pleasure always in teaching them the principles of morality and religion, though given by spells to the habit of intoxication. Even to this day Mr. Smith remem- bers this extraordinary man, and attributes to him his first ideas of what is noble in learning and correct in literary taste. Alas! that such a mind should have been destroyed by the love of drink.
Having laid the elements of an English education with Mr. Foster in a country log school house, our young friend sought a higher theater of action in the pursuit of knowledge, and in the year 1827 he gained admission to Beaumont Parks' academy, in the city of Madison. Here he devoted his principal energy to the study of the Latin and Greek languages, to the lower branches of mathematics, and to moral and
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REV. J. C. SMITH.
intellectual philosophy. Between the young student and Mr. Parks there sprung up a strong mutual friendship, which has continued to the present day.
In the fall of 1834, when Mr. Smith was stationed at Bloomington, Indiana, as pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, Mr. Parks held the professorship of languages in the State University there, and kindly invited his friend and former student to resume his studies in his depart- ment, which service he offered to bestow gratis. This Mr. Smith grate- fully accepted. Here he reviewed his Latin and Greek studies, and added to them the usual studies of the senior year, and was offered the privilege of an honorary graduation at the ensuing commencement of the institution in the fall of 1835, which however was declined.
While at the academy in Madison Mr. Smith became acquainted with Rev. Edwin Ray, then in charge of the Methodist Episcopal church in that city, and through his influence was led to seek and embrace religion and join the church. Perhaps no more enduring and cordial friendship ever was formed than that which existed between this devoted, eloquent and accomplished pastor and his young disciple.
Mr. Smith has often been heard to say since those days, alas, that sweet friendship was too soon to be broken on earth by the hand of death! Inscrutable Providence, why was one so good, so devoted, so eloquent, and richly gifted by nature, and fitted by learning for exten- sive usefulness, so early cut down by disease and death.
This strong friendship was the more sanctified by the peculiar rela- tion between these men, that of father and son in the ministry. Said Mr. Ray to the young Smith, shortly after the conversion of the latter, I have a presentment that God has called you to the office of a minister of Jesus Christ, and I now charge you, my son, to be my representa- tive in that work. Though I am young, I am admonished that my ministry will soon terminate, and I desire you fully to stand in my place and represent my work when I am gone. These words seemed pro- phetic, for the noble, the generous, the beloved Ray died in less than four years after. Had he lived to old age he would, doubtless, have left a'name and fame in Indiana Methodism, which but few have at- tained. Colonel John W. Ray, of this city, is his son and only heir, and right well is he carrying out the work which his father began nearly fifty years ago. It has always been a subject of no little grati- fication to Mr. Smith, that while stationed in Greencastle, in 1847, it was his privilege to receive into the fellowship of the church this son
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of the honored father, as the father had received him to the same fel- lowship twenty years before.
Mr. Smith was licensed to preach the gospel in the fall of 1830, then being a resident of Jefferson county, Indiana, and after filling several appointments successfully, was stationed at Indianapolis, in the fall of 1835, as pastor of Wesley Chapel (since known as Meridian Street M. E. church) ; he remained in this charge till the fall of 1838. It was during the last year of his pastorate in Wesley Chapel that the great revival took place, which is vividly remembered to this day by the old citizens. During this great religious awakening nearly three hundred were converted and united with the church, embracing all ages and classes, and numbering among them many of the first and most influ- ential citizens, who gave to Methodism in the capital a status and power it had never enjoyed before. The population of the city was then about four thousand, with but three churches, Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist ; the last two named were very feeble in numbers and resources. Mr. Smith having been a citizen of Indianapolis most of the time since that period, can now realize the wonderful changes that have taken place in the population, churches, commerce, wealth and general resources of the city as but few can do. When he contrasts the present scene with the little city of that day and looks upon its hundred thousand inhabi- tants, its splendid churches, its elegant private dwellings, its magnificent public buildings, its thundering railroads, its fountains, its parks and beautiful shaded streets, its Sabbath schools, its hospitals, its manufac- tures and growing commerce, it seems to be the work of enchantment, but is really the work of steady toil, mechanical genius and enligntened Christian zeal.
Mr. Smith was compelled several years ago to relinquish the regu- lar pastoral work of the church on account of declining health, but has continued in a superannuated relation to the conference to preach as health and opportunity would permit and in every possible way to ad- vance the cause of Christ's kingdom. In doctrine and church formula he is a Methodist, though he early in his ministry saw and felt the ne- cessity of a closer union among Christians, and this was one of his fa or- ite themes in the pulpit. He rejoices now that his labors and the labors of others of like sentiments have not been in vain. He rejoices in the rapid growth of Christian fraternity among ministers and laymen of all denominations, and that Christ's prayer for the unity of the church is being rapidly fulfilled.
In politics our friend is a staunch Republican, regularly descended
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DELANEY WILEY, M. D.
from the old Whig party. He looks with confidence and pride on the Republican cause ; admits that corrupt men have sometimes crept into it as they have into the church, and into every good cause on earth, but still he glories in the grand record of his party from its very organiza- tion to the present time. Its usefulness history will justify. It has always been the party of popular freedom and civil progress and re- form. It has broken the chains of more than four millions of slaves, and put into their hands the elective franchise as citizens of this Ameri- can nation of free men.
From his boyhood he has been an unflinching abolitionist ; he saw the great wrong of slavery, the sum of all villainies, and preached against it and wrote against it when it cost something to do so. He watched with great eagerness the progress of the late war, believing that whatever of human agency there might be in it, God was in it control- ing it as his own chosen method to wipe out this great moral and po- litical curse of the nation. During the darkest periods of the war Mr. Smith saw the land of promise and the triumph of truth. He heard the shouts of God's invisible agents amidst the roar of cannon and the dread tramp of millions of armed men going to battle. And now, in his old age, he rejoices in a free country, a free church, and the rapid spread of righteousness and humanity over all nations.
DELANEY WILEY, M. D.
Dr. Wiley is the third son of the Rev. Allen Wiley, one of the pioneer Methodist preachers of Indiana Territory. He was born in the midst of a dense and heavily-timbered forest, in Switzerland county, seven miles north of Vevay, on the 12th of August, 1815. He was cradled in a sugar trough, that being the only cradle known to the pioneer women of that Territory.
At the age of five years he walked three miles through mud and rain to school where he learned the A B C's pasted on a paddle, which was in turn passed from one scholar to another. After being educated up to the point he learned his A B abs in Dillworth's and Webster's spelling books; multiplication, subtraction and addition he is indebted for to Dayball's arithmetic. At the age of six years he assisted his father in rolling logs, burning brush and preparing ground for cultivation. At the age of eight years he was placed between the handles of a plow with oxen as the propelling power. With the same oxen hauled wheat and oats on a log sled to Vevay, which he sold for salt and other
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necessaries for the family. The milling was done at a hand- and some- times a horse-mill which required great labor to procure a small amount of bread.
The first money Doctor Wiley ever made for himself was at the age of six years; he cleared ground for Hethcoat Picket, a half-breed Indian. This Indian was in the habit of trading to New Orleans, and had walked from there four times. At that time Switzerland county had but three hundred and seventy-seven voters, with a population of eighteen hundred and thirty-two.
The doctor was but eight months and seven days old when Indiana was admitted into the Union. His grandfather on his mother's side, William H. Eads, was a member of the constitutional convention from Franklin county. Doctor Wiley had six brothers and three sisters, ten in all, not one of which ever tasted intoxicating liquor, chewed or smoked tobacco.
On the 7th of January, 1837, he was married by the Rev. Joseph Tarkington to Miss Elizabeth K. Lindley, of Vevay. From the time he left his place of birth, 1837 to 1840, he was engaged in merchandising ; he then commenced the study of medicine. In 1845 he commenced practice, and has steadily followed his profession since that time.
Doctor Wiley having lost his wife by death, he was married at Jeffersonville, by the Rev. Robert Curran, to Miss Matilda A. Tomlin, on the 14th of October, 1846.
He commenced practice in Jeffersonville in 1845, and there re- mained until 1861, when he came to Indianapolis, where he found and still retains a large and lucrative practice. As he was born and never · lived in any other State than Indiana, inasmuch as he passed his six- tieth mile stone in the journey of life, he will spend his remaining days in the land of his nativity. Doctor Wiley is a worthy representative of an honored parentage. He has but three children, who it is hoped will inherit the good qualities and habits of their ancestors.
JOHN HANNA.
Mr. Hanna, a son of James Parks Hanna, was born September 3, 1827, in what is now a part of the city of Indianapolis. His father entered and improved eighty acres of land in Warren township; he there died on the 31st of August, 1839, leaving a widow and five child- ren, John being the eldest. The mother died in 1844; John and the children remained on the farm until 1846, when General Robert Hanna,
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JOHN HANNA.
being their guardian, at his instance the children broke up house- keeping to the end that they might go to school. The subject of this sketch, determined to acquire an education, started for Greencastle in February, 1846, with four dollars only in his pocket, walked the entire way, entered the university, got the position of janitor of the college, worked his way through college and graduated with honors in June, 1850. He then entered the law office of Judge Delaney R. Eckles and there finished the study of his profession; he then became the law-partner of his preceptor and settled in Greencastle. He was then elected mayor of the city of his adoption, and served three years. After Judge Eckles went upon the bench as circuit judge, Mr. Hanna formed a partnership with the Hon. John A. Matson, which continued until the spring of 1858, when he went to Kansas. He was the same year elected a mem- ber of the Territorial Legislature from the county of Lykins, now Miami, and served as such during the session of 1868-9. Was chairman of the judiciary committee, introduced and carried through the act abolishing and prohibiting slavery in the Territory ; was an earnest and working Republican in politics. After remaining one year in Kansas he returned to Greencastle, and resumed the practice of law. In the Presidential canvass of 1860 he was the Republican elector of the seventh district, and as such voted for Abraham Lincoln. Prior to the Chicago conven- tion he had advocated the nomination of Edward Bates, of Missouri, for the Presidency. Afterward Mr. Bates became Lincoln's Attorney General. Hon. Henry S. Lane and Schuyler Colfax recommended the appointment of Mr. Hanna for United States Attorney for the district of Indiana, and he was also recommended by Mr. Bates, and appointed a few days after the inauguration of President Lincoln, served four years ; then his re-appointment was ordered by Mr. Lincoln; although his name was not sent to the Senate until after the death of the President. He continued to serve until the split between Johnson (the successor of Lincoln) and the Republican party, when he denounced Johnson, and at a Johnson meeting held in Indianapolis he introduced a series of resolutions, which was the immediate cause of his being removed, and Alfred Kilgore was appointed. This proves clearly that Mr. Hanna's political opinions were not in the market to be transferred as merchant- dise.
He furnished Mr. Kilgore all the information desired as to the busi- ness of the office; assisted him in the trials the first term after his ap- pointment. Mr. Hanna then formed a partnership with General Fred Knefler, of this city, in the practice of law, and has devoted his time
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entirely to the practice of his profession except in the canvass of 1868, when he, at the request of his political friends, canvassed the county of Putnam as a candidate for the Legislature. Although defeated, he ran ahead of the State ticket. Since 1868 he has made no political speeches, although known as a decided out-spoken Republican in politics.
His life at the bar has been a constant warfare, and he has had more than the usual share of hotly contested litigated cases. He has, per- haps, been engaged in as many jury trials as any lawyer of his age. As United States Attorney, during the war, his position was one requiring great labor, yet, without assistance, he managed to discharge his duties to the entire satisfaction of the government. The prosecutions for vio- lations of the draft laws, the revenue laws, confiscation acts, conspira- ices, treason and felonies, were numerous, as the records of the court at- test. As a successful prosecutor his record was satisfactory to those who gave him their influence.
Since he commenced the practice of law in this city he has been en- gaged in a number of the most prominent murder cases for the defense, the Clem case, perhaps, being the most noted. His practice at present is remunerative. He still resides at Greencastle, where he has a lovely home near the town. His family library is the best in the county, and the favorite resort of his children of evenings. He regards it as money well spent, and it is his boast that he never had a moment's concern about the whereabouts of his boys after night. His sons incline to be farmers rather than professional men. The oldest is now a farmer in Hendricks county.
While attending the University Mr. Hanna became acquainted with Miss Mahala Sherfy, of Perrysville, Vermillion county, who was attend- ing the female collegiate seminary, then in charge of Mrs. Larabie, wife of Professor William C. Larabie. Miss Sherfy and Mr. Hanna gradu- ated from the same rostrum in June, 1850, and May, 1851, they were married. Mrs. Hanna was a woman of liberal education and superior intellect, and in the fullest sense of the term a true wife. As a Christian she was beloved by her neighbors and idolized by her husband; she was the mother of seven children, one whom died in infancy. She died in the spring of 1870, leaving her partner three sons and three daughters.
Mr. Hanna remained a widower two years, then married Mrs. Emma Pothorff, of Greencastle. They have now an additional son and daughter, eight in all. His children are devoted to him, and it seems a labor of love for him to work in their interest. His eldest child, a daughter, Lillie, graduated at the University two years ago. Mr. H.
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JOHN HANNA.
was therefore the first graduate of that institution that furnished a daugh -. ter for graduation. His second daughter and two of his sons are now attending the same University. He believes in giving girls an equal chance with boys in the advantages of education, and therefore insisted that the University should open its doors to both, which was finally done. The result has proven that the "honors " may be won by the so- called weaker sex if they are given an equal opportunity.
Mr. Hanna's great success in his profession has demonstrated that he is a man of much more than ordinary natural ability, starting out a poor boy, comparatively without friends or money, working his way through college, and attaining an enviable and high position both as a civil and criminal lawyer. It is certainly a great incentive to other poor young men to go and do likewise. Mr. Hanna's record shows that he has descended from an ancestry that had rendered service during the Revo- lution.
His great grandfather was a native of South Carolina, and was there engaged during the entire struggle for American independence in be- half of liberty and the stars and stripes ; he had a large family of sons. Mr. H.'s grandfather, John Hanna, with whom the writer was well ac- . quainted, being one of the elder brothers, the late Gen. Robert Hanna, the younger, and several more of the family, removed to Brookville, Franklin county, early in the history of Indiana Territory. Gen. Robert Hanna was a member of the convention that framed the first constitu- tion of the State in 1816. The father of the subject of this sketch was a mere boy at the time they first came to Indiana. They removed to Marion county in 1826. The grandfather settled on a farm near where the poor house now stands in Wayne township ; his brother Joseph, a short distance from him on the Crawfordsville State road. James Parks Hanna, father of John, lived with his uncle, General Hanna, up to the time of his marriage with Miss Lydia Heward, of New Jersey ; with him too I was personally acquainted, and know whereof I write.
Four years ago Mr. Hanna removed the remains of his father and mother to the Greencastle cemetery, where they will probably remain until that day when the graves and the sea will be called on to give up their dead. Mr. Hanna's record is one worthy of emulation, and should be inscribed in the pages of history.
In person he is about five feet eight inches in height, with a heavy, square frame, though not inclined to corpulency, dark hair, eyes and complexion, and seems to be in the full strength and vigor of manhood, plain and unassuming in manner. A stranger upon entering our court
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rooms could at once single him out as one of the leading spirits of the Indianapolis bar.
"Nothing is difficult beneath the sky ; Man only fails because he fails to try."
Since the above was written Mr. Hanna was nominated by the Re- publican convention for Representative in Congress from the capital city district, and was elected at the State election in October, defeat- ing the Hon. Franklin Landers, the incumbent (and one of the most popular men in the district), thirteen hundred and ninety eight votes.
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