USA > Indiana > Morgan County > The pioneers of Morgan County : memoirs of Noah J. Major > Part 17
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ruffians who prowled around the speaker's stand had to be overawed or shot. It was not so here in Morgan county. We had free speech, and plenty of it. Political padlocks and dog collars were not much in evidence yet with us. We have heard something of late years about campaigns of education for the purpose of teaching people how to coin money and what to coin it of ; how to spread on the tariff, to expand commerce, to beat trusts and combines over the head with a fly-brush, and "damn civil service with faint praise." Not so in 1860. The money question was hardly referred to in the platform, or from the speaker's stand. The question was: "Shall we be a pure democracy or a slave oligarchy?" The Republicans of that day would have brooked the very devil to have held their places in the Declaration of Independence.
We have the opinion that the voters of 1860 were the best informed men on the main issue, pro and con, that ever went to the polls before or since; for a continued discussion had been kept up for five years by the papers and the people, in season and out of season. Such men as Davis, Tombs, and Benjamin, of the South, and Sumner, Phillips, and Greeley, of the North, had sounded the keynotes of the coming campaign for four years, and their respective fol- lowers took up the arguments and hurled them at each other like prize fighters.
Mr. Ferguson was chosen by the Republicans as their standard bearer, and made a determined canvass, person- ally. He had considerable experience in politics before he came to this county, having been chosen by the citizens of Greene county to represent them. Whether he was a Re- publican then we do not know, but we do know that Greene county was reliably Democratic at that time. We are in- clined to think, however, he was Republican from the beginning. He was a minister in the Christian church in
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early life, and his first appearance in this county was in that capacity. He was three times married. His first wife was Miss Stone, sister to Judge Stone of Greene county. To them were born three sons and four daughters. Some time after her death he became acquainted with Mrs. Frances Stafford, widow of Senator Grant Stafford. The acquaintance resulted in their marriage about the year 1854. They had four children. The second wife died about 1877. He subsequently married a lady of Indianapolis.
Soon after his second marriage he moved to this county and engaged very extensively in farming and stock feeding. Late in the '50's, having an enormous corn crop growing, he arranged to feed about five hundred hogs. In August he went to Monroe and adjoining counties to buy the stock hogs, and with them came that indescribable pest, hog cholera, the first to appear in the vicinity of Martinsville. For a time it was no unusual thing for him to find twenty dead hogs in a day. The loss was appalling and paved the way to his financial ruin, as it afterward did to many other big farmers. Many a man with less will power would have utterly despaired. Not so with Elder Ferguson. He re- doubled his efforts and manfully fought against adversity to the last. "Prosperity begets friends; adversity tries them." Sometimes when weighed in a balance they are found wanting. This was his experience.
About 1880 he gathered up the fragments of his property and moved to Kansas. After shifting his base a few times, he finally landed in Wichita, where at one time he owned property valued at $17,000. It was probably somewhat encumbered, as that was the way they generally did busi- ness in the Far West at that date. The property depreciated and slipped away and left him penniless and all broken down in health. From this last stroke he never recovered, but died about three years ago almost an object of charity. He
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was about eighty years of age when the welcome summons came. The people of Centerton and Brooklyn will remem- ber John W. Ferguson as a very live man, working night and day for the Union army, making speeches for enlist- ments and thundering anathemas against secession, throw- ing in Sunday sermons gratuitously to level up spiritual things. He was a patriotic and respected citizen, an honest man, a good neighbor, faithful husband, and almost too indulgent a father.
DR. JARVIS J. JOHNSON.
Dr. Jarvis J. Johnson was elected representative in 1862. He undoubtedly represented the good people of Morgan county during the most critical period of the State's his- tory. The session of 1863 was stormy beyond comparison. The administration had been handicapped; and, taken alto- gether, the Union army had been beaten oftener than it had won.
The blood already spilled was horrible to contemplate, to say nothing of the enormous debt piled up and the treasure lost. The antiwar party of the Legislature was in the ascendant, and led by such men as Brown and Packard, maintained a formidable opposition to Governor Morton, who had already sent thousands of troops to the front, and was fast making Indiana a banner State in the war for the Union. After wrangling away half the time of the session and doing nothing, not even making the necessary appro- priations for the benevolent institutions, and interest on the State's debts, the "anti-warriors" undertook to tie up, hand and foot, the great War Governor of Indiana, by passing a bill relieving him of the command of all the military forces of the State, and placing it in the hands of the minor State officers-a thing wholly without precedent or reason. This was the last straw that "broke the camel's back."
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D. C. Branham left forthwith, taking with him seventeen other members to his home in North Madison, where they stayed the remainder of the session, thus breaking quorum and leaving things much the same as if there had been no Legislature.
Dr. Johnson, who had always been a very active Demo- crat and influential man in the party, suddenly called a halt, when the Charleston battery opened fire on Fort Sumter, declaring he was for the Union, right or wrong, first, last, and all the time, and he showed his faith by his works, for he took an active part in organizing Company G, Twenty- seventh Indiana Regiment, the company being mostly made up of Jackson township boys. He was appointed captain of the company and soon after their arrival at Indianapolis was appointed surgeon of the regiment. In August, 1861, he was captured by the Confederates near Winchester, Vir- ginia, during General Banks's retreat. After his release, and while in Richmond, he became possessed of the skele- ton of one of the famous John Brown's sons, which he shipped to Martinsville and kept in his office; but when the Brown relatives began to search for it, he willingly returned it to them. He was in touch with Governor Morton and kept him informed of all the great movements of the oppo- sition in this county until that notable day at Indianapolis, in the fall of 1863, when they threw up the sponge and their revolvers down in Pogue's Run and "cut out" for a safe retreat like a scared coyote, never more to "poke sticks" at Governor Morton. War Democrats, like Dr. Johnson and thousands of others, turned the tide in Indiana and saved the State from a baptism of blood.
After his election to the office of county clerk he moved from Morgantown to Martinsville, where he resided at the time of his death. He was born on a farm near Bedford, Indiana, on the 4th day of March, 1828-the day General
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Jackson was inaugurated President, first term. He chose the medical profession as a calling, and after a good com- mon-school education and a course of reading, he attended the medical school of Louisville, Kentucky, where he soon became a popular student and was graduated with honors. In the spring of 1849 he located in Morgantown, this county, where he began what proved to be a very successful practice of his profession which he continued through life.
March 29, 1851, he was joined in marriage to Miss Cath- arine Griffitt. To them were born four daughters and three sons-one daughter and one son dying in infancy. The third and youngest son, Jarvis J. Johnson, Jr., who recently died at Martinsville, had chosen his father's profession and for a time was connected with the Home Lawn sanitarium. The other son, Goldsmith Johnson, and Mrs. J. G. Bain and Mrs. J. P. Baldwin, reside in Martinsville, while the young- est daughter, Mrs. Harry Askew, and husband, reside on a farm near Bedford, where the father was born.
In 1887 the doctor's first wife died, and, in 1894, he was joined in marriage to Miss Jennie Moran. She and their daughter Helen are also survivors.
Dr. Johnson was a good business man, attending strictly to the minutiæ of things; hence he was the most successful pension agent in the city, and pension examiner for eighteen years.
At one time, he was associated with Lanbough in the Antimorphine institute. Dr. Holman and also Dr. Andrew J. Marshall were once his partners in practice. He was an attentive reader and a good thinker, with a mind well stored with practical knowledge. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the M. E. church, and a regu- lar attendant when health permitted.
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FRANKLIN LANDERS.
Franklin Landers was elected senator for the counties of Morgan and Johnson in 1860. He was a lover of politics in the best meaning of the word, from his boyhood days. He was nominated and elected by a large majority by the Douglass wing of the Democratic party in that memorable contest, and while a senator dissented from the views of such antiwar Democrats as Brown and Packard. He favored the prosecution of the war for the preservation of the Union, and upon all questions tending to establish the supremacy of the United States his voice was in the affirma- tion. He was a candidate for presidential elector on the McClellan ticket in 1864.
In 1874 he was elected to Congress, where he took a lively interest in the financial questions which were engross- ing so much of the attention of the people at that date.
In 1875 the Greenback party nominated him for Governor of Indiana, but the Democratic convention, before which his name was presented for endorsement, finding the con- test between Mr. Landers and Congressman Holman to be so warm as to preclude the possibility of harmony, the names of both were withdrawn and a compromise effected upon James D. Williams. Over his protest, his many ardent friends in 1876 nominated him again for Congress, and, though defeated, he ran ahead of his ticket some eight hun- dred votes. In 1880 he led the Democratic hosts as their candidate for Governor, but the majority of the voters at this election were found with the opposing party.
Mr. Landers at his best stood very near the head of the list of the largest farmers and live stock dealers in Indiana. He owned several fine farms, well stocked with cattle and mules, and kept a personal supervision over all, to which he added merchandizing and pork-packing at Indianapolis. He accumulated property rapidly and was liberal in gifts
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and donations for the benevolences and church work which was going on all around him in the '60's. One of his first movements was to buy a large farm upon which Brooklyn now stands and plat it for that pretty little village-one of the most beautiful in the county-and stipulating in the titles that no ground should ever be used for saloon pur- poses, and the people have earnestly striven to carry out Mr. Landers's wishes.
He was born in Madison township, this county, March 22, 1825. His father, William Landers, was a pioneer of pioneers. Born in Virginia in 1789, he came when a child with his parents to Kentucky. In 1820 he settled in Madi- son township, where he became the owner of a large farm. He was also a man of affairs, having been county commis- sioner, associate judge, and justice of the peace. He was twice married and father of fourteen children, Franklin being the second born of the second wife. William Landers died December 10, 1851.
The Landers family have been prominent citizens of Mor- gan and Marion counties for eighty years. The subject of our sketch moved to Indianapolis in 1864, where he con- tinued to reside until his death. He had been twice mar- ried. His first wife was Miss Mary Shufflebarger, by whom he had six children, and who died in 1864. In 1865 he was married to Mrs. Martha Conduitt, by whom he had five children.
Mr. Landers was blessed with one of the most perfect physical organizations to be found, never having been indis- posed a day in his long life until his recent fatal illness. This fact enabled him to perform an immense amount of physical and mental labor, and contributed no little to his useful career. The world is the better for the example of such a noble life.
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COLONEL SAMUEL P. OYLER.
Colonel Oyler, of Franklin, won the senatorial honors of Morgan and Johnson counties in 1864. He was Mr. Lan- ders's competitor in 1860. But the heavy Democratic majority of that day in Johnson county could not be over- come by the Republican party. The time intervening be- tween 1860 and 1864, in consequence of the war and the questions growing out of it, had so changed public opinion that the Republican nominee was easily elected. The dark clouds that continually hung over the administration and Republican party during 1862 and '63 were lifted, and vic- tory was perching on the banners of the Union army along the line. The fighting for a twelve-month had been fast and furious, and the terrific blood-letting at Gettysburg demonstrated that the finish must needs be on Confederate soil. Gunboats and batteries commanded the Mississippi river, while a close blockade was kept along the seaboard.
Sherman was "marching through Georgia," while Grant was pushing Lee to the wall. It began to look like the god of war, if there be such a god, sure enough was on the side of the heavy battalions. The resources of the Confederates were growing less and less each day, with the wear and tear of their army, while the North lacked much of being exhausted. Indeed, we were just learning how to make guns, mold bullets, and fight, when the end came, but we were glad to quit this bloody work when we could honor- ably do so.
Mr. Oyler went into the army at an early date and won his way up to the office of colonel, but a bodily infirmity compelled him to resign, after which he returned to Frank- lin and resumed the practice of law. He never lost his interest in the war and questions growing out of it. He was a good advocate, both on the stump and at the bar.
He was an influential member of the senate. Like Mr.
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Landers, he was a home-made man of substantial qualities. He was a house plasterer by trade and was at one time a Universalist preacher. He was an Odd Fellow of the high- est degree, to which fraternity he was very much attached until his death in 1898. He was married in early life, but no children were born to the union. The Colonel will long be remembered as one of the leading politicians and barris- ters of Franklin.
EZRA A. OLLEMAN.
Ezra A. Olleman was elected joint representative for Johnson and Morgan counties in 1864. He was a citizen of Madison township, this county, and a man of affairs from the time of his coming into the State until the infirmities of age and disease rendered active life impossible.
He was born in Kentucky in 1828. His father died when Ezra was fourteen years of age, and soon after he came to Indiana and for a time was employed as a "tame" cowboy, to drive cattle from Indianapolis to the Atlantic seaboard; sometimes to New York and Baltimore. His wages were six dollars a month.
He next apprenticed himself to a cabinetmaker in Cin- cinnati for three years. Soon after this he came to Moores- ville, where he set up a cabinet shop of his own. About three years later he sold his shop and furniture and in- vested the proceeds in a general store at Waverly. Not far from this time he was joined in marriage to Miss Amanda Kelly, daughter of James S. Kelly, who in his day was one of the foremost business men of the county.
Mr. Olleman became possessed of one of the finest farms in Madison township and was greatly interested in high farming and stock breeding. For a time he was principal editor of the Indiana Farmer, and, in company with James Buchanan, established The Sun, the first paper in the West
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edited in the interest of the Greenback party. He was the first chairman of the State Central Committee of the Na- tional Greenback party, and also chairman of the executive committee.
In the spring of 1863 he enlisted in Company D, Seven- tieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, but was soon discharged for physical disability. He was elected as a stalwart Re- publican and continued to support that party until the financial questions became acute over the retention of the greenback system of currency. It was then he espoused the cause of the National Greenback party.
He and his wife passed away about two years ago, leaving five children to mourn the sorrow which came to the parents in their last days.
NOAH J. MAJOR.
Noah J. Major was elected to represent Morgan county in 1864, as a Republican. At this election Governor Morton and the whole ticket received a majority of 540 votes in this county, the largest majority ever polled by any party before or since. He was again elected as an Independent Republican in 1870, and as a Greenbacker in 1878, by nom- inal majorities. This ended his official career.
He was born in Brookville, Indiana, August 14, 1823. His father, William A. Major, came to Martinsville with his family in the fall of 1832, and bought and improved a large farm three and a half miles north of this city, where he died in 1847. The son owned and remained on part of the old homestead forty-eight years. For the last twenty years he has operated Elmwood Farm, five miles north- east of town. He has been a farmer and stock feeder for fifty-seven consecutive years. He has been thrice married and is the father of six children, only two of whom are now living. His first wife was Miss Hannah Hastings,
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to whom he was married in 1844. In little more than one year she suddenly died, leaving an infant son a few days old, who followed the mother in nine months. In 1846 he was joined in marriage to Miss Mary E. Rudicell. To them were born five children, one dying in childhood. The mother departed this life in 1872. November 4, 1875, he wedded Mrs. Margaret A. Piercy, widow of the late Joseph W. Piercy.
He has been a member of the Christian church fifty-nine years and an elder in the same forty-nine years. He has been a total abstainer from tobacco and strong drink-a legal Prohibitionist-for eighteen years.
He graduated from an old log schoolhouse, under one of Eggleston's "Hoosier schoolmasters." This was supple- mented by a five months' course under Professor Edmon- son, in the old County Seminary.
His political hobby is: "Make laws so it will be easy to do right and hard to do wrong."
JOHN E. GREER.
Captain John E. Greer was elected representative by the Republicans in 1866. The nomination took place in William Hardwick's barn, near Centerton. In August, 1862, the President called for 300,000 more volunteers, and Captain Greer raised about thirty-five men, who were assigned to the Fifth Cavalry. After the war he returned to his home in Green township and resumed farming and stock feeding. He was a stalwart Republican and trustworthy member of the Legislature of 1867.
Captain Greer was born in Scott county, Kentucky, De- cember 10, 1827, and came with his parents to this county in 1838. In 1848 he married Miss Mahala Petre, of De- catur county. To this union were born eleven children, eight of whom are living and reside in Kansas. Captain
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Greer moved to Kansas in 1880, where he engaged prin- cipally in buying and shipping mules to the South. He died suddenly at Independence, Kansas, January 17, 1896. His wife survives him.
The Greers are of Irish descent and seem to be endowed with the military spirit, as several of their ancestors served in the Revolutionary War as well as in the War of 1812. Most of the older Greers settled in Ohio, but John A. Greer, father of Captain Greer, settled in Kentucky. In 1842, four years after he came to this county, he started with a flatboat, laden with farm products, to New Orleans, but when nearing Vickburg he died and was buried on the bank of the Mississippi river. Grant Stafford was appointed administrator of the estate and some time elapsed before the settlement was completed.
JAMES V. MITCHELL.
James V. Mitchell was elected to the House of Repre- sentatives in 1868, as a Republican. Before and up to 1860, he was a Democrat. He worked and voted for Senator Douglass for President in the memorable struggle of 1860. But, when the war was actually begun, he readily allied himself with the Lincoln administration and Republican party. He continued his support of that party until the session of 1869, when the question of the Fifteenth Amend- ment came before the House for adoption or rejection. He spoke and voted against adoption, and was, we think, the only Republican who did so. Of course, after this, that party gave him his passport, and he returned to his first love, for which he has worked in his own way ever since. Mr. Mitchell's political career would seem to indicate that he possesses an element of independence quite a good way above the average, and has the courage of his convictions.
In 1871 he was elected by the Legislature trustee of the
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Wabash and Erie Canal. He is a native of this county, having been born in Martinsville, October 15, 1842. His father, James M. Mitchell, came to Martinsville early in the thirties and began the mercantile business ; he was soon associated with his brother, Samuel Moore Mitchell, under the firm name of J. M. & S. M. Mitchell. They sold goods, farmed, packed pork and boated it to New Orleans for nearly thirty-five years, and at the dissolution of partner- ship in 1867 each had made a handsome fortune.
Giles Mitchell, the grandfather of James V., came to southern Indiana in 1810, and to Martinsville in 1832. He was a bricklayer by trade and built the first brick court- house in our town.
After going through the schools of Martinsville, the sub- ject of this sketch became a student and graduate of Indi- ana University at Bloomington, after which he began the study of law with Barbour & Howland. Later on he formed a partnership with Alfred Ennis and afterward with James B. Cox. He still practices his profession, to which he adds farming and stock breeding. Mr. Mitchell is a dear lover of a fine horse.
He has been thrice married. First to Miss Addie Draper, in 1863, who died in San Jose, California, in 1869, leaving two children-May Pearl, now Mrs. Warrington, of Cin- cinnati, and Richard Draper, who resides in our city. April, 1871, he wedded his second wife, Mrs. Lawson, of Cin- cinnati, who died suddenly. He was united to Mrs. Alice Newby, widow of the late John S. Newby and daughter of John Thornburgh, of Mooresville, June 1, 1898. Mr. Mitchell is domestic by nature and a model husband. He has also been exceedingly fortunate in his choice of help- mates. They were of that class of women who truly make and maintain a "sweet home."
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EBENEZER HENDERSON.
In 1868 Ebenezer Henderson was chosen joint senator for the counties of Johnson and Morgan, and probably has had the largest experience in politics of any citizen in Mor- gan county.
In 1856, John L. Knox was elected county treasurer, and re-elected in 1858. Mr. Knox was an honest and very popular member of the Democratic party, but his quali- fications, taken altogether, were hardly equal to the respon- sibilities of that office, which has proved to be the Waterloo of so many incumbents.
Mr. Henderson was chosen deputy, although but twenty- three years of age, and so well did he manage the office that in 1860 he received the nomination of his party for that office, and was the only man elected on the Democratic ticket. His majority was twenty-five, while some of the Republican candidates received a majority of three hun- dred. He took an active part in the election contest of 1858. When it finally appeared that Mr. Knox had been counted out by the irregularities of the election boards of Clay and Monroe townships, Knox owed much to Hender- son for winning the case.
While in the Senate during the session of 1871, he be- came the author of the fee and salary bill which passed the General Assembly at that time, but which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. It embodies the same principles as does the present law. That is, it fixed fees and salaries according to population. The constitu- tion has been so amended as to make this permissible.
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