USA > Indiana > Morgan County > The pioneers of Morgan County : memoirs of Noah J. Major > Part 20
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During Rev. Elam McCord's pastorate the members built the old brick house recently pulled down to give place to the new Baptist church now in process of erection. While in those early days it did not take as long to build a church as it did to build a temple, yet it was long enough to be a weariness to the flesh, and solicitors made several round trips before they could rightly sing "Since I can read my title clear."
In his boyhood young McCord changed localities several
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times. He came with the family from Centerville to Bain- bridge, Putnam county, and from there to Gosport, Owen county, and next to Clayton, Hendricks county. Between these moves he was kept in the common schools, and at eighteen years of age entered Indiana University, from which he graduated with honor in 1872. After leaving college he obtained employment as teacher in the schools of Marion, Indiana, where he remained one year. In April, 1873, he came to Martinsville, where he read law in the office of Harrison & Sherley, then attended the law school of the State University, graduating in 1876. Being now fully equipped for practice, he returned to our city, where he has been anchored ever since. At first he formed a law partnership with William R. Harrison, one of the fore- most lawyers of the State. This firm had a large practice for ten years, since which Mr. McCord has been prac- tically alone in his profession. He has also, at various times, been engaged in farming and stock breeding.
In October, 1883, he chose as his wife Miss Mary Callis, and time has but confirmed the wisdom of his choice. She is the youngest daughter of E. W. and Ellen (Orner) Callis, natives of New Jersey.
Mr. Callis came to Martinsville in 1855, and bought of T. J. Worth the Morgan County Gazette and converted it into the organ of the Republican party, in whose interest it was run until 1870. Probably no man in Morgan county exerted a greater influence in recruiting soldiers for the Union army, and staying their hands and hearts in the darkest days of the struggle, than Edwin W. Callis, of the Gazette. The old numbers of this paper, from 1861 to 1865, abound in calls and demands for war meetings, speeches, and reports, and with brilliant paragraphs, that, taken altogether, will be found to contain the real history of Morgan county during the war between the States.
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Mr. and Mrs. McCord have a well-ordered and happy home. Two bright little boys gladden their lives and fur- nish relaxation and recreation for the father after a hard day's work in the courtroom, amidst the discordant ele- ments of suits at law, and the vexations of "wicked wit- nesses and crooked lawyers." They are prominent and influential members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and regular attendants at its services. Mrs. Mc- Cord is an enthusiastic and brilliant member of the Mar- tinsville Woman's Club, a first-class literary institution.
ADAM HOWE.
In 1894, in the middle of Cleveland's administration, Adam Howe came to the front in local politics. He had always taken part in political discussions, private and pub- lic, but was not a seeker for official honors or profits.
As his views were always against the single standard, against the demonetizing of silver, and in favor of the greenback currency, he could never be a "stalwart" mem- ber of either of the dominant parties who, time and again as policy seemed to dictate, have nursed, fondled, and spanked the "rag baby," according to the mood they were in. Mr. Cleveland, an honest man, who would have all honest debts paid in "honest money," and Mr. Pierpont Morgan, another stickler for honest business transactions, "had a time." The President found a lean and leaky treas- ury bequeathed to him by the outgoing administration, which he desired to replenish with gold. As fast as he filled it, Mr. Morgan emptied it with "rag babies." Here is an object lesson worthy of all consideration. The thing would be funny if it were not quite so humiliating. One corporation playing a game of finance with the President and Congress, and "skunking" them to a finish, ought to bring a "maiden blush" on Uncle Sam's phiz. If Adam
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Howe had been President he would have loaded J. Pier- pont to the guards with coin without discrimination, and "trumped" his trick. This is exactly what any President would have done thirty years ago. But the real question with the President was that of expediency and not of law. Many things are lawful which are not expedient, and this may have been one of them.
Adam Howe was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1835. His parents emigrated to Kentucky in 1842, with a family of seven children. They remained in that State until 1845, at which time they moved to Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania. After two years' stay in the Smoky City, they returned to Kentucky, arriving in Covington about the middle of June, 1847. The cholera was raging on the big river at that time, and in July both his parents died of it, and, as well as we remember, two of the children were also victims.
The family being thus shattered by that great destroyer of human life, young Howe, then a lad of thirteen years, shipped as cabin boy on board a steamer then plying the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Here he learned much he would never have learned elsewhere. In 1850 he appren- ticed himself three years to learn the blacksmith's trade, after which he roamed awhile as a journeyman, working in various shops in the towns and cities to perfect his knowledge of the trade. He came to Martinsville in 1856, when he immediately began work at his trade and where the roar of his bellows and ring of his hammer have been heard for forty-five years.
In 1860, the Democrats among other things declaring in favor of annexing Cuba, upon such terms as would be honorable to all parties, he supported the Douglass wing of that party. From that time on he has acted independ- ently of all parties, with an eye single to the currency
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question. In 1864 he supported the Republicans because they strongly favored the greenbacks, which the Democrats denounced as "Lincoln money." In 1868 the Republican platform seemed indifferent on the currency question, while the Democrats were getting quite friendly with the treasury notes, 10-40's and so on, as being good enough for every- body. He voted the Democratic ticket. In 1872 the Gree- ley platform declared in favor of specie resumption. He voted for General Grant. In 1873 somebody slipped a para- graph into a sort of omnibus bill which demonetized silver. The Republicans were blamed for this act, but they pro- tested a dovelike innocence for a time. Then Mr. Howe arose and flew over into the Greenback camp and supported Peter Cooper. In 1880 he thought the difference between the two parties was the difference between "tweedledum and tweedledee," so he voted for Tweedle D. In 1884 he again joined hands with the Republicans, and continued to support the party until 1896, when, after much wran- gling and loss of sleep, the National Republican Conven- tion adopted Mr. Cleveland's gold plank in its platform. When the Republican county convention met in 1896, Mr. Howe withdrew his name, and proceeded to stump the county in favor of William J. Bryan and "16 to 1."
Mr. Howe was nominated and elected by the Morgan county Republicans in 1894. He was a fearless, honest, and candid member of the session of 1895. He created some friction by his opposition to the bill to redistrict the State for senators and representatives. Although a lay- man, he contended such an act would be unconstitutional and he was thoroughly vindicated by the subsequent de- cision of the Supreme Court.
Mr. Howe has the distinction of being the only black- smith that ever represented Morgan county. He can ham- mer iron as well as a political opponent. As between the
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drones and working bees, he is for the workers, and knows full well what it costs to earn a hundred dollars with ham- mer and tongs. He has studied the vexed question of cap- ital and labor, but he is not likely to solve it before the undertaker is called in.
He regards the country as far greater than any party, and a party far greater than any man in it, and only to be used as a means to an end. He regards loyalty to convic- tions as the pillar of patriotism, and political grafters as the jackals of politics.
September 11, 1860, he was united in marriage to Miss Leah Saylors, daughter of Harrison Saylors, who has been a faithful wife and mother, and a true helpmate. She comes from pioneer stock, her grandfather, Alexander Cox, having bought a farm and moved into the Centerton neigh- borhood in 1824.
Mr. and Mrs. Howe are possessed of good social quali- ties and have many friends who wish for them the best that earth can give, a happy and peaceful old age.
Q. A. BLANKENSHIP.
Quincy Adams Blankenship was nominated and elected by the Republicans of Morgan county in 1896 and re-elected in 1898. In 1840 his father, P. M. Blankenship, was elected representative by the Whig party. This is the only instance of father and son being chosen as assemblymen for this county during the seventy-eight years of its organization. Many changes had occurred between the election of the father and son, and the Whig party had gone to seed wrestling with the slavery question.
The Know-Nothings had only a mushroom existence, while the Democratic, the most aged and venerable of par- ties, had a furious attack of "yellow jaundice" early in the sixties, and seemed almost "tuckered out" for twenty
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or thirty years. From the central time of the Civil War to 1884 the Republican party dominated national politics with a will which would not be balked. Its unmeasured success in prosecuting the war to an honorable close brought to its support a very large per cent. of the surviving soldiers of the North, who have steadily supported it without ques- tion ever since.
Quincy A. Blankenship was nourished on Whig milk in the beginning, but finished up on strong Republican meat. He was born in Paragon, Morgan county, Indiana, Novem- ber 15, 1851, and is the third son of Perry M. and Basheba Hodges Blankenship. He had eight brothers and sisters and two half-brothers and one half-sister.
The Hodgeses and Blankenships have been conspicuous citizens of Lamb's Bottom for many years. Philip Hodges and wife were among the foremost pioneers in this county. Philip Hodges was not only the first land owner in the county, but was the first in the New Purchase, as it was then called. He and his estimable wife (whose maiden name was Gross) lived to a ripe old age and were greatly honored and highly respected by all who were thoroughly acquainted with them.
Young Blankenship was brought up in an industrial at- mosphere. His ancestors were not only a workaday people, on the farm and in the shops or sawmill, but were keenly alive to the educational, moral, and religious development of the best that is in man. Indiana has made rapid strides in these particulars in late years by means of the common schools, the churches, and the higher institutions of learn- ing.
The subject of our sketch passed his boy life on his father's farm. I imagine he was a clever boy at planning, especially how he might get the other fellow to hoe the potatoes, not that he had so much aversion to work, for he
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is by his very makeup very industrious, but that he might have more time to play, which most lively boys prefer to do.
After the schools in Paragon he attended the high school at Martinsville for a time and then entered the Northwest- ern Christian University, now Butler College. In 1879 he entered the county clerk's office as deputy during Henry Hodges's term. He remained in this office about four years, reading law meanwhile, and was admitted to the bar in February, 1883.
In 1874 he began farming near the village of his birth, and has ever since been closely identified with the interests of the agricultural class of our citizens. He has fed and marketed large numbers of hogs and cattle, from his own fertile fields of Lamb's Bottom, a valley unsurpassed for its richness and beauty.
But Mr. Blankenship is much more than a farmer and stock raiser. He is very much alive to public questions and the consequent political maneuvers they engender.
As between the taxpayer and the taxeater, he is for the payer. This tender sentiment brought him, while in the Legislature, in collision with some of the blind pigs of his own party who desired a law enabling them to "milk the cows" three times a day. The "third house" is like a horse leech, always crying, "Give, give." It insists that the salaries are too low, while the taxpayers are wondering why there are from three to sixteen candidates for nomination where the nomination is equal to election.
In the session of 1897 Mr. Blankenship was chairman of the committee on claims. He set his face as flint against exorbitant charges and trumped-up claims against the State. He was quite ready to allow just and reasonable claims. But this committee is often puzzled to find out the whole truth concerning an old claim, and sometimes it acts very much like we do when a tramp claims a square meal. We
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know we do not owe it to him, but we all allow it in order to be rid of him.
During this session there was a bill the purport of which was to allow county offices to retain certain fees. It was not strictly a party measure, but politically the majority would have been held responsible for its passage. As we remember, neither the Governor nor the Speaker was in favor of it, but on counting noses it appeared almost cer- tain that it would pass, if its friends could get it to a vote before final adjournment. Those opposed could only com- pass its defeat by parliamentary tactics. This job was given into the hands of Mr. Blankenship. The result was no vote on the bill could be had in time to submit it to the Governor. After this the cold shoulder was turned to him by several of his own party. Nevertheless, he was nomi- nated and re-elected in 1898.
He was appointed chairman of the committee of ways and means in the House of 1899. The most interesting measure of this session was a bill to reform the doing of county and township business. He took an active part in support of this bill and was again on the winning side.
While in the Legislature he became acquainted with many Republican politicians of different localities in the State. On the floor of the House he was soon an observed member and gave that august body to know that he was not a silent partner of the firm.
When the woman's suffrage committee was looking for a member who would offer their petition, they were told to go to Quincy A. Blankenship, of Morgan; that like John Quincy Adams, for whom he was named, he firmly believed in the right of petition, though the petitioners were sure of nothing but empty honor. When the petition was offered there was a general call for Blankenship. He arose, and after recognition said, in part: "Mr. Speaker-There has
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not arisen before this House so great a question as woman suffrage. Ought they to have the right to help choose citizens to make laws, and citizens to administer laws, or not? Ought Suffrage to be based on sex or sense? What should be the qualifications of a voter-brawn or brain? Is Bob Fitzsimmons a better elector, in the true sense, than May Wright Sewall would be? Is taxation without repre- sentation any more righteous now than it was in '76?
"Mr. Speaker, there are members on this floor whose wives are their superiors-morally, religiously, intellectu- ally, and politically. I am one of them, and you would be another if you were not a fearful old bachelor [the Speaker pro tem. was unmarried]. I occasionally see a medieval mossback who is dreadfully afraid of a woman. He wishes her to keep strictly in her 'spear,' washing dishes and babies' faces, and the dirty linen of dirtier men. Poor man! I pity him. He is a laggard born too late; small loss if he had not been born at all.
"We are told that suffrage will degrade our women, drag them down to the beastly level of the ward bummer. Not so. The reverse would happen. At the polls men would be respectful and decent for once in their lives. Why do we allow our wives and daughters to attend political rallies if it is degrading? Instead, their very presence has a re- fining and elevating influence on the meeting. It is only when men and men only stalk together, that they go to the lowest level; only in the stag dance they lose all manners. No, sir; when the time comes, if it ever does, when civil rights and equal suffrage bear sway, our citizens will move on a higher plane than ever before. Equal and exact rights to all women as well as to all men, is the righteousness that will exalt the nation."
I am by no means certain that I have quoted Mr. Blank- enship verbatim, but if not, I am sure he has the grace to
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wink at my ignorance. At the close of his second term he received the appointment of assistant collector of internal revenue for the Sixth District of Indiana. He attended the Philadelphia convention and worked with a will for Governor Roosevelt's nomination. He is a thorough Re- publican-could not be anything else-but he fights shy of ring rulers and kicks dog collars to the four winds.
April 17, 1883, he was joined in marriage to Miss Fannie Miller, a very estimable young lady of Martinsville. She is an earnest worker in the W. C. T. U. organization. She is a helpmate who helps, and her liege lord has to hustle to keep up. They have an only child, Gail, of whom they are justly proud. They have a neat and commodious home in Martinsville in which are stored and for ready use their sweetest joys.
JOSEPH J. MOORE.
Our joint senator in 1890, for the district composed of Johnson, Morgan, and Brown counties, was Joseph J. Moore, a native of Johnson county, who was born in Union township, April 29, 1831.
His parents, who were from Ohio, located in this town- ship at an early date of its settlement. The subject of our sketch has experienced the marvelous development of a "babe of the woods" climbing into the senatorial chair. He tells me that he went fifty-four days to school in the primitive log schoolhouse and one term at Franklin Col- lege; the balance of his education he superintended him- self. He is another self-made man, and it appears that he has turned out a good job.
He resides in Trafalgar, and is a very successful mer- chant, farmer, stock dealer, and miller. He is familiar with all the modern improvements of farm implements and the modern modes of living. He keeps in the procession
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and, if not in the "band wagon," is better still in one of his own. He is a rail-splitter but never split his party. He is a steady going Democrat whose motto is, "The great- est good to the greatest number."
While in the Senate he bent his energies in favor of good roadways. The statute that now provides, "That when any community shall construct a gravel road one mile long, acceptable to the board of county commissioners, the same shall be kept in repair as are the free gravel roads of the county," was one of his favorite measures.
He was chairman of the joint standing committee on the State Library, and member of the committees on roads, on public printing, on rights and privileges, and on legis- lative apportionment.
November 23, 1856, he was joined in marriage with Miss Ermena Forsyth, an estimable young lady whose parents were also very noted and influential pioneers of Johnson county. They are blessed with two children, F. F. Moore, who resides in Indianapolis and is engaged in the practice of law, and Mrs. Alice French, who is quite an artist and was educated in Boston. She is well known in art circles.
Mr. Moore is a member of the Masonic order. Although not a church member, he is a liberal contributor and quite friendly to all church and Sunday school work, himself having taught in the Sunday schools of the village. Mrs. Moore is a member of the Baptist church.
By a long life of neighborly kindness and usefulness Mr. and Mrs. Moore command the love and respect of their many friends and acquaintances.
FREDERICK A. Joss.
When we were divorced from Johnson and married to Marion county for senatorial representatives, Frederick Augustus Joss floated to the top and was nominated and elected by the Republican party in 1898.
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He is a citizen of the capital, a young, enthusiastic stal- wart, who had the honor in the Senate of putting in nomi- nation Albert J. Beveridge-the fleet-footed orator of Indi- ana-for United States senator. After the election of Charles A. Bookwalter to the mayoralty of Indianapolis, Mr. Joss was made city attorney, which position he now holds. He is a lover of politics and a useful member of the Republican organization, and has a bright future be- fore him.
He was born in Centerville, State of Michigan, May 5, 1867. His father, John C. Joss, was a manufacturer at one time and was clerk of St. Joseph county, Michigan, for sixteen years. He was born in Antwerp, Belgium, of Ger- man parents, who were forced to leave there for political reasons. He came to this country just before the Civil War. He served four years in the Union army and was promoted to captain. He lost his left leg on the third day of the Battle of the Wilderness. He was killed in a rail- road accident at Niles, Michigan, the point where he left the cars upon coming to America before the war. The mother of Senator Joss was Mary Moore Merrell, of New York State.
Senator Joss received his early education in the com- mon schools and high school of Centerville, the Ann Arbor high school, and the preparatory department of the Uni- versity of Michigan. He entered the university in 1885.
After spending a year in a mining venture in Canada, Mr. Joss came to Frankfort, this State, and read law with the Hon. S. O. Bayless. He practiced law in Frankfort until July 12, 1892. On an offer of employment by his present law partner, Ovid B. Jameson, he came to Indian- apolis. In January, 1895, the present law partnership of Jameson & Joss was formed.
In 1891 Mr. Joss was married to Miss Mary Q. Hub-
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bard, of Wheeling, West Virginia. They have two chil- dren, Mary Hubbard and Luciana Hubbard Joss. Mr. Joss is a member of the Dutch Reformed Church of America.
GABRIEL M. OVERSTREET.
In 1882 the Republican party of the senatorial district of Morgan and Johnson counties found a popular and efficient candidate in the person of Gabriel Monroe Over- street, of our neighboring city, Franklin. Although there was a Democratic majority against him, he was elected, and served with marked ability in the sessions. of 1883 and 1885.
Mr. Overstreet was never much of a politician. He was once elected prosecutor by the Democrats, but during the heat of the discussion of the slavery question he became a Republican and has steadily adhered to the politics of that party ever since. During the Civil War he shouldered his musket and marched with the One Hundred and Thirty- eighth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers. The study and prac- tice of law has been his life's work. In this he has been pre-eminently successful. The law firm of Overstreet & Hunter, of Franklin, has been one of the most remarkable in the State. For ability and business it has seldom been surpassed, and for continuance, never equalled. It was formed on the 21st day of February, 1849, and continued until the death of Mr. Hunter more than forty-two years afterward. Nature had given to these men the qualities of mind and heart out of which lasting friendships are made.
Mr. Overstreet is of good English stock. His ancestors, probably, first settled in Virginia and about the first of the nineteenth century moved to Kentucky, where the subject of our sketch was born, May 21, 1819.
In 1834, his father, Samuel Overstreet, moved from Old- ham county, Kentucky, to Johnson county, this State, where
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he purchased land near Franklin and proceeded to carve out a home in the green woods of Indiana. Here Gabriel, a lad of fifteen years, took the first lessons in a backwoods education, such as chopping and rolling logs, grubbing and picking brush, plowing and hoeing corn around stumps, and stumping toes against unforeseen obstacles. So it was he learned how to grow strong and how to keep so.
At about twenty years of age his father, who was a well- to-do farmer, gave each of his children a portion. Gabriel took his $600 and used it in obtaining an education that would fit him for a profession. His bringing up, to this date, differed little from that of other boys who worked nine months in the year and went to school the remaining three, until they had attained their majority. He spent the first year in the Franklin Labor Institute, preparatory to his entering Indiana University, where he took a four- years' course and received his bachelor's degree in 1844.
It may be well here to note how much more an Indiana student of fifty years ago got out of a dollar than a Prince- ton or Yale student gets out of it to-day. One of the "smart set" would now spend $600 in six weeks and account to his father that he had practiced the most rigid economy. The moral is, "A fool and his money are soon parted."
But it must be admitted that $600 is not a large sum to carry a student through college, even in Mr. Overstreet's school days. On one occasion at the end of a term when the books were balanced he had just twenty-five cents left. He then walked from Bloomington to Franklin, forty miles, without his dinner.
During the vacation he worked at anything he found to do. One time he took the job of clearing ground and earned $50. But success usually crowns the level-headed worker wherever found, and Mr. Overstreet's life demon- strates it.
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In November, 1849, he was united in marriage to Miss Sarah L. Morgan, daughter of Rev. Lewis Morgan. To them were born seven children, all living to adult age. His son, the Hon. Jesse Overstreet, is the present representa- tive in Congress of the Seventh District of Indiana.
In religious faith Mr. Overstreet is a Presbyterian, and was a ruling elder in that church for many years.
For many of the items contained in this paper I am indebted to the "Bench and Bar of Indiana," by Judge Banta.
J. M. BISHOP.
With this paper we now close our sketches of the mem- bers of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana who were elected as senators and representatives of Morgan county, beginning with John M. Coleman and Eli Dixon, elected in 1822, and ending with Hon. J. M. Bishop, chosen in 1900. Mr. Bishop has the distinction of being the last member elected in the nineteenth century.
He is a lifelong Republican, having begun making speeches as early as 1876 in the interest of the principles of that party. He has steadily held to his political integrity during all the ups and downs through which that organiza- tion has passed since his advent into the political arena. As far as we know, this is the only official position that has been awarded to him by his party.
Mr. Bishop was born in Hamilton county, Indiana, May 31, 1850, and is one of eight children born to Joseph and Nancy (Chew) Bishop. His parents were Virginians, of English descent, and closed their lives in Mooresville, Indi- ana. Mr. Bishop's faithfulness and kindness in the evening of their lives, and to the close, will ever remain the brightest pages of his history. He is a lawyer and attends to much of the legal business of his native town and its vicinity. He is a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal
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church, and a highly respected citizen of Mooresville, which has been his home for a quarter of a century. Like Mr. Bain he has never been married. They are the only bach- elors among the fifty-three names in these sketches.
POLITICAL SUMMARY.
Perhaps we can not close these sketches more profitably than by recapitulating.
For nine years after the county organization we were joined to several other counties for representation in the General Assembly.
From 1822 to 1831, the names of the senators were John M. Coleman, James B. Gregory, Levi Jessup, and Lewis Mastin; and the representatives were Hugh Barns, Eli Dixon, Daniel Harris, Thomas J. Matlock, Dr. Hussey, and Alex Worth. The two last named were citizens of Mooresville at the time of their election.
Under the old constitution the elections were held once a year, on the first Monday in August for representatives and every third year for senators. The Legislature met once every year-generally in the fall season-until 1852, when the present constitution was adopted, changing the election to once in two years.
The date and order of their election from 1831 is as follows :
John W. Cox, R., 1831-'32 ; Grant Stafford, W., 1833-'34, senator, 1836-'40; W. H. Craig, R., 1835; Hiram Matthews, R., 1836; Dr. John Sims, R., 1837; Jonathan Williams, R., 1838; John Eccles, R., 1839; Perry M. Blankenship, R., 1840; P. M. Parks, D., 1841-'47; Dr. Francis A. Matheny, R., 1841-'42-'43; A. B. Conduitt, R., 1844, senator, 1848-'56; Isaac W. Tackitt, R., 1845-'54; Oliver R. Dougherty, R., 1846-'47 ; Alfred M. Delevan, R., 1848-'49, senator, 1850; William P. Hammond, R., 1850; Enos S. Taber, R., 1852;
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Algernon S. Griggs, senator, 1854, joint representative, 1868; Cyrus Whetzel, R., 1858; John W. Ferguson, R., 1860; Dr. Jarvis J. Johnson, R., 1862; Franklin Landers, joint senator, 1860; Colonel Samuel P. Oyler, joint sen- ator, 1864; Ezra A. Olleman, joint representative, 1864; Noah J. Major, R., 1864-'70-'78; Captain John E. Greer, R., 1866; James V. Mitchell, R., 1868; Ebenezer Hender- son, joint senator, 1868; James J. Maxwell, joint senator, 1872; Dr. Harvey Satterwhite, R., 1872; William S. Sher- ley, joint representative, 1872; Dr. John Kennedy, R., 1874; Major George W. Grubbs, R., 1876, senator, 1878; Captain David Wilson, R., 1880; Gabriel M. Overstreet, joint senator, 1882; James F. Cox, joint senator, 1886; George A. Adams, R., 1882-'84-'88; Alfred W. Scott, R., 1886; William Harvey Brown, R., 1890; William Davison Bain, R., 1892; Joseph J. Moore, joint senator, 1890; Adam Howe, R., 1894; Quincy Adams Blankenship, R., 1896-'98; William E. McCord, joint senator, 1894; F. A. Joss, joint senator, 1898; and J. M. Bishop, R., 1900.
From the beginning until 1854 the voters were divided into Whigs and Democrats, and the party lines were strictly drawn from 1828 to the last named date. The Democrats were Cox, Williams, Eccles, Parks, Matheny, Delevan, and Tackitt. The Whigs were Stafford, Matthews, Sims, Craig, Blankenship, Conduitt, Taber, Hammond, Dougherty, and Griggs. After the Republican organization, Craig, Blank- enship, Matthews, Dougherty, and Griggs espoused the Re- publican cause, while Taber and Conduitt affiliated with the Democrats.
Of the last named forty-three members, sixteen were of the Methodist Episcopal church, twelve of the Christian church, three Presbyterians, three Universalists, one Bap- tist and one member of the Dutch Reformed Church. There were five doctors, fourteen lawyers, one miller, one black-
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smith, one pastor and evangelist, four ministers, six farm- ers who followed no other business, and sixteen who con- nected farming with merchandising and other callings. The general character of the foregoing fifty-three men would compare favorably with that of any delegation sent to the State capital during the eighty years past since the county's organization.
We cannot yet lay claim to the birth and education of any great man, as men count greatness, but he may now be going to school or soon will be going, and when the supreme hour comes, he may arise and flash a story or a poem across Indiana's literary horizon as bright as a comet's tail. Or he may develop into a Tall Sycamore of the Wabash, or a later Albert Jeremiah spellbinder. He is bound to come.
NOTE.
The writer has had the honor of the personal acquain- tance of almost all of the members of the Legislature elected from this county during the last seventy years, and is glad to pay this tribute of respect to their patriotism and moral worth and preserve their names a while longer from in- evitable forgetfulness.
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