History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II, Part 87

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 680

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houses and banks in different parts of Europe, and which so eminently fitted him for discharging the responsible duties afterward awaiting him on this side of the water. He spent one year at Marseilles bank, France, then several years in a large manufacturing establishment at Birming- ham, England, when he returned to Switzerland on account of ill-health, where he afterwards performed the duties of head bookkeeper three years for the large firm of Benziger & Co. Other and more responsible duties, however, awaited him, that changed his entire plans for the future. A Mr. Fischli had purchased large and extensive tracts of land where the city of Jeffersonville now stands, and at different places throughout the State of Indiana. Mr. Fischli was a native of Switzerland, and had his property left to his heirs, seventeen in number. The amount of property and the great number of per- sons falling heir to the same complicated matters so much that it necessitated an executor of more than ordinary abilities to make an equitable dis- tribution and disposition of the estate. This responsible position and trust of business affairs was given to Mr. Zulauf. He set sail for the New World in 1846, intending to return to his native country once this whole matter was settled. The extent of his business was not fully realized, nor even surmised at that time, and all claims were not fully adjudicated up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1873.

As time advanced he began to comprehend the situation of affairs, and in 1848 opened up a store on Fourth street, and becoming more iden- tified with the people, and his worth as a business man appreciated, was appointed as the Swiss consul to the western States by the Government, as a representative of his country. This position was held for several years, but desiring to return to his native country, the office was finally relin- quished.

He was also selected soon after this as presi- dent of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianap- olis railroad. He had by a timely business fore- sight seen the ultimate need of the road, and upon its partly going down, invested capital him- self in the enterprise, and was chosen by the stockholders as its second president. He held this position for a number of years.

He had never determined to make America his home, and returned again to Switzerland, where

Dr. M. Field.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

he remained five years, but the vast amount of patrimonial lands left in his trust necessitated his return to America at the expiration of that time. He was married in 1857 to Miss Wilhelmina Schoch. Her father was a prominent Govern- ment official of Bavaria, her native country, where she was raised, and received a liberal edu- cation.

There have been born to this union four chil- dren, two of whom are dead. John and Johan- nah are living. Mr. Zulauf was a member of the Protestant church; was a Republican in pol- itics, an esteemed citizen, and his death, which occurred November 7, 1873, occasioned not only a loss to his devoted family, but to his neighbors and to the citizens of his adopted country in general. He was a finely educated gentleman, spoke in all six different languages, and was well read in ancient and modern lore.

DR. NATHANIEL FIELD

is one of the oldest physicians in the State of Indiana, a graduate of Transylvania Medical school, founded at Lexington, Kentucky, in the early part of this century, and the only one west of the Alleghany mountains. He was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, on the 7th day of November, 1805, located in Jeffersonville, Indi- ana, in September, 1829, where he has since re- sided. His father was a native of Culpeper county, Virginia; was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war; was at the siege of Yorktown, and after the surrender of Cornwallis emigrated to Kentucky in the spring of 1783, taking up his quarters in the fort at which was afterward Louis- ville, near the head of the canal. He was the first delegate from Jefferson county to the Vir- ginia Legislature. He resided in that county until his death in September, 1831.

Dr. Field is in some respects a remarkable man, is an original thinker, forming his opinions inde- pendently of popular sentiment or the authority of books. Whatever he believes to be right he advo- cates boldly and fearlessly, regardless of conse- quences to himself. Though born in a slave State, and in a slave-holding family, at an early age he contracted a dislike to the institution of slavery, and wrote an essay against it entitled Onesimus. He was one of the first vice-presidents of the

American Anti-Slavery society ; was president of the first anti-slavery convention ever held in In- diana, and president of the Free-soil convention held in Indianapolis in the summer of 1850.

Notwithstanding his anti-slavery principles, he never would take any advantage of the slave- holder by advising his slaves to leave him and make their escape to Canada; nor did he take any part in what was called the "Underground railroad." In a contest between the slave and his master on the question of freedom, he was neutral. He determined to abide by the law creating and maintaining the institution, until ab- rogated by the moral sense of the masters them- selves. He opposed slavery on moral and relig- ious grounds, and appealed to the reason and conscience of the slaveholder and the slave.

As an illustration of his uncompromising devo- tion to the right, in June, 1834, he voted against the whole township of Jeffersonville on the question of enforcing one of the black laws of the State at that time. At a township election in the month mentioned the following question was submitted to vote: "Shall the law requiring free negroes now in the State, and such as may hereafter emi- grate to it, to give bond and security for their good behavior, and that they will never become paupers, be enforced or not?" The law had been a dead-letter on the statute book, and this new-born zeal for its enforcement was not prompted by any fear that the negro might be- come a pauper or a criminal, but by hatred of the Abolitionists. At that time pro-slavery mobs were wreaking their vengeance on anti- slavery men, destroying their printing presses, burning their houses, and driving them from their homes, culminating in the cowardly murder of Elijah Lovejoy, at Alton, Illinois.

The mob spirit at that time was epidemic, and was never at a loss for a pretext to make war on the negroes. After scanning the paper sub- mitting to him the question, and on which he re- quested to vote, the Doctor noticed that every voter in the township, saints and sinners alike, had voted for enforcing the law. It was near the close of the polls and the voting place was in- fested by loafers and roughs, indignant at the idea that the Abolitionists were trying to put the negroes on an equality with them. They were anxious to see if Dr. Field would take sides with the negroes, knowing that he was an anti-

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slavery man. He knew very well that hatred of the negroes would make it impossible for them to give the required security, and that their ex- pulsion at that time in the year would be at- tended with loss of their crops and great suffer- ing. He tried to reason with the excited crowd, asking for an extension of time until the poor creatures could make and gather their crops, pay their rent and leave the State in peace. But he might as well have tried to excite the com- passion of a herd of hyenas. After giving his reasons for delay he voted in the negative, the only man that had the moral courage to vote for mercy. As might have been foreseen, the ne- groes could not give security nor had they the ability to get out of the State as their enemies re- quired, and consequently they were driven from the town and neighborhood by mob violence. For three weeks there was a perfect reign of terror. The negroes were shamefully abused, and fled in every direction for safety, leaving most of their property behind them. No magistrate or con- stable pretended to interfere with the mob. Dr. Field was notified that he would have to leave town with the negroes whose cause he had espoused. Without a moment's delay he made preparations for defence, resolving to stand his ground, and, if necessary, sell his life as dearly as possible. He provided plenty of ammunition, and fire-arms, and fortified his house. One brave man volunteered to assist him in defend- ing his castle. Each of them had a large knife for close quarters. When all arrangements were made the mob was notified that they could com- mence the attack whenever it suited their con- venience. But fortunately for some of them, and the doctor too, the invitation was declined.

Notwithstanding the perils of those days that tried the strength of a great moral principle, Dr. Field has lived to see its triumph, the downfall of American slavery, and the enfranchisement of the negroes. But very few of the men of that day are now living. They nearly all passed away without witnessing this wonderful change in the status of a once oppressed and down-trodden race.

In 1854, by the death of his mother, Dr. Field came into possession of several valuable slaves, whom he immediately emancipated, thereby prov- ing the sincerity of his professions and his con- sistency. In July, 1836, he represented Jefferson-

ville in the great Southern Railroad conven- tion which assembled at Knoxville, Tennessee, for the purpose of devising ways and means to make a railroad from Charleston, South Caro- lina, to Cincinnati, with a branch to Louisville, from a point somewhere west of Cumberland Gap. He represented Clark county in the State Legislature in the session of 1838-39. He was chairman of a select committee to investigate charge against Andrew Wylie, D. D., then presi- dent of the State university. He made an elab- orate report, completely acquitting him of the charges preferred against him. He was surgeon of the Sixty-sixth Indiana volunteer infantry in the late civil war, and rendered important ser- vice on several battle-fields and in improvised hospitals, having charge of hundreds of wounded men, and performing nearly all operations known to military surgery. He is an excellent operator, and is acknowledged to be among the best sur- geons of the State. In 1868 he was president of the Indiana State Medical society. His con- tributions to medical literature consist of papers published in the transactions of the society, and also articles for the State Medical Journal, be- sides essays on various medical subjects read before the County and District Medical societies. He has also written quite a number of scientific papers entitled Moses and Geology, The Chro- nology of Fossils, The Antiquity of the Human Race, and The Unity of the Human Race. Also lectures on miscellaneous subjects, viz : The Arts of Imposture and Deception Peculiar to American Society, The Financial Condition of the World, Hard Times, and Capital Punish- ment.

One of the most extraordinary circumstances in his life is, that he has been a pastor of a church in Jeffersonville for more than a half century, without a salary, making a gospel free of charge to the world. He has strictly fol- lowed the example of John the Baptist, Christ and the Apostles, who never made merchandise of the gospel. He has baptised nearly one thou- sand persons in the Ohio river; has held several theological debates, one of which was published in 1854, an octavo work of three hundred and twenty pages. The subject was the State of the Dead, involving the doctrine of the natural and inherent immortality of the soul. His opponent was Elder Thomas P. Connelly, a graduate of

James. S. Reads

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

the State university. The doctor is now far ad- vanced in years, but possesses a remarkable de- gree of intellectual and physical vigor for one of his age.

JAMES G. READ.

This well known and prominent citizen of Jef- fersonville, was born in Washington county, Ken- tucky, in 1793. When a lad he went to Nash- ville, Tennessee, and there served an apprentice- ship in a printing office. In 1816 he came to Indiana and settled in Davis county, where he founded the town of Washington. Starting in life with no other capital than a strong constitu- tion and indomitable will, he gradually accumu- lated a fortune and became an extensive land owner, having property in Davis, Clark, Jeffer- son, Washington, Scott, and many other counties in the State. He was appointed receiver of the land office at Jeffersonville under President Jack- son, and served in that capacity during his ad- ministration. In politics he took an active part and was a strong candidate for Governor against Noble and Wallace, suffering defeat, however, in each instance. After the expiration of his term as receiver of the land office, he represented Clark county several terms in the State Senate and House of Representatives; was president of the Senate one term and speaker of the House two terms. He was a clear headed, far seeing financier, and during his service in the Legisla- ture, was principal in taking action for the sale of the interest of- the State in the Wabash and Erie canal, to the bondholders, which sale paid $7,000,000 or $8,000,000 of indebtedness of the State. The canal had already cost the State some $15,000,000, and was now in good work- ing condition, but this clear-headed man saw be- yond his time, and anticipated the building of railroads, which soon made the canal of no value to its purchasers. He was a man of enterprise in building up the State, a strong advocate of the railroad system, but opposed to State investment in works of that kind, believing private enterprise should forward and control the industries of the country.

When a resident of Washington, Davis county, he was engaged in mercantile business, and wherever he dealt his word was his bond. He was a man kind and unassuming, of strict integ-

rity in all the affairs of his busy life, social with his equals and inferiors, and charitable to the poor.

In his family he was a kind husband and father. He left a widow, who yet survives, and four children, John F. Read and Sarah A. Ran- som, of Jeffersonville, Mary J. Randall and Mar- tha A. Meriwether, of Fort Wayne. On his death, which occured in 1869, he left $1,000 to the poor of the city, and the balance of his large estate to his widow and children.

JOSEPH WHITE SPRAGUE.

Joseph White Sprague was born in Massachu- setts, January 18, 1831. His youth was passed in the family homestead, at Salem, standing on the street which Hawthorne in his Scarlet Letter describes as "long and lazy, lounging wearisomely through the whole extent of the peninsula, with Gallows Hill at one end"-this same Gallows Hill being historic as the place where more than two hundred years ago took place the famous exe- cutions for witchcraft. The old house stands as a relic of pre-revolutionary times; its chambers, with their quaint furniture and tiled fire-places- the latter illustrating, in one instance, the fables of Æsop; the old parlor, in one corner of which a rare old clock, made as a gift to the Pope, and captured by the patriots of the war of Independ- ence, has for more than a hundred years marked the hours and quarters by the playing of popular airs of a century ago. Everywhere is, in its original form, that which the exponents of mod- ern æstheticism have striven to imitate, and, be- yond all, as it may not be imitated, a savor of age, and an historical interest that few man- sions now standing can boast.

Joseph W. Sprague was the son of Hon. Joseph E. Sprague and Sarah L. Bartlett. His father was graduated from Harvard college with the class of 1804.

A complete statement of the genealogy of the Sprague family, as it exists in Joseph W. Sprague, and others of his generation, would be interest- ing, did the limits of this biography permit of following the authentic and comprehensive rec- ords of the various branches; as it is, a quotation, here and there, will not be amiss.

In the Higginson fleet, which reached this

60*

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

country in June, 1629, were three brothers, sons of Edward Sprague, of Upway, in the county of Dorset, England. The father died in 1614, and the sons, when they emigrated, did so entirely at their own cost, an exception at that day, when so large a share of those coming to America owed much or little to the holders of the patents of the King. President Everett records of them that "they were persons of substance and enter- prise, excellent citizens, and general public ben efactors." Although they disembarked at Salem they did not long remain there, but selected a home in the woods, at a spot which the Indians called Mishawaum, but which every school-boy knows as Charlestown. Ralph, an ances- tor of J. W. Sprague, took the freeman's oath in 1630, and, with his wife Joanna, was first to enter the covenant of the church in 1632. In November, 1666, Ralph Sprague was chosen representative to the general court, and filled the seat during seven different sessions.

The descendants of the Spragues lived in Charlestown and Malden until 1769, when Ma- jor Joseph Sprague, sixth in lineal descent from Edward Sprague, removed to Salem.

On Sunday, February 26, 1775, before the struggles at Concord and Lexington, this same Major Sprague was wounded by the British, under Colonel Leslie, who were moving to seize some cannon in the neighborhood of Salem. The residents of Salem had raised a drawbridge to prevent Leslie from crossing the North river. Major Sprague owned a distillery and gondola which lay in the river near by. It was while en- deavoring to scuttle this craft, to prevent the British from crossing the river, that he received his wound, one of the first inflicted in the war of Independence.

The great grandfather of the subject of this sketch resided, and the grandfather was born, in the house since doubly famous, as the first revo- lutionary headquarters of Washington and as the late home of Longfellow, and the place of the great poet's death.

Mr. Sprague is the tenth in lineal descent from John Rogers, of London, the martyr preb- endary of St. Paul's and vicar of St. Sepulcre, who was burned at the stake at Smithfield, Feb- ruary 14, 1555. John Rogers, fourth in descent from the famous divine, was the fifth president of Harvard college.

James Leonard, who came to America in 1652 and settled at Taunton, Massachusetts, was also an ancestor of Mr. Sprague. Leonard es- tablished a forge at Taunton, which was in suc- cessful operation two centuries later, and his house, razed in 1851, stood at that time as one of the oldest in the United States. The New England Leonards were supposed to be descend- ants of Leonard, Lord D' Acre, made a baron in 1297, for bravery shown at the time when the Knights of St. John were compelled by the Sul- tan of Egypt to evacuate St. Jean D'Acre, in 129 1.

The Leonard family was one of the most distinguished in the nobility of the United King- dom, being descended in two lines from Edward III., through his sons John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Thomas Plantaganet, Duke of Gloucester.

John Johnson, who came to Haverhill, Mass- achusetts, in the fall of 1657, was likewise an ancestor of Mr. Sprague. He was murdered in an Indian foray in 1708, and his wife was killed at the same time, her infant child, however, he- ing found alive at her breast.

Mr. Sprague also traces his descent from Adam Barttelot, esquire of Brean, a knight, who came to England with William the Conqueror, fought at Hastings and received as share of the spoils of conquest grants of land at Stopham, Sussex. This estate is now owned by Sir Walter B. Bart- telot, created a baronet by Victoria, June I, 1875. The family had its representatives at Cressy and Poictiers, subscribed for the defense against the Spanish Armada in 1588; one of them, Sir John, commanded at the capture of the castle of Fontenoy, in France. Before the be- ginning of the Sixteenth century and even to this time, the family carries a castle in its crest.

Richard Bartlett, the first American represen- tative of the family, came to this country in 1635, and settled at Newbury, Massachusetts. Hon. Bailey Bartlett, of Haverhill, Massachu- setts, maternal grandfather of Mr. Sprague, was fifth in lineal descent from him. Mr. Bartlett was a man of significance and prominence. He was present when the Declaration of Indepen- dence was first proclaimed; he was a member of the last Congress holden at Philadelphia, and of the first at Washington, and a member of the convention which adopted the first constitution of the United States.

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For forty years from 1789 this sterling Bartlett was high sheriff of Essex county, Massachusetts, being appointed by Governor Hancock, with the unanimous approval of his council. He died in 1830, leaving behind him eleven of a family of fifteen children. One of these, Edwin Bart- lett, was for many years United States consul at Lima, Peru, and, returning, built at his country- seat, "Rockwood" on the Hudson, a villa then esteemed the handsomest in the United States. The grandson of Bailey Bartlett, General Wil- liam F. Bartlett, of Boston, was the youngest general in the Federal army during the war of the rebellion. He lost a leg at Yorktown; at Port Hudson he was severely wounded; at Petersburg he led the brigade which assaulted the lines, and when the mine was exploded every officer of his staff save one was killed, his brigade was almost annihilated, his wooden leg shattered and he taken prisoner.

From an obituary notice of Joseph E. Sprague, published at the time of his death, in 1852, is extracted the following :

Mr. Sprague's political writings during the existence of the old parties, when he was actively engaged as one of the prominent advocates of the Republican cause, were numer- ous, able, and efficient. Few men probably were more in- fluential or more efficient in carrying the measures which they espoused. Of late years his contributions to the press have been mostly biographical and historical, tributes of affection from his warm heart to personal friend, or reminis- cences from his well stored memory, enriched by drawing upon a valuable and extensive correspondence relative to public characters and public services of historic interest. We do not think there is a man living who has made so many and varied contributions of this character to our biographi- cal literature as Mr. Sprague, and for his task he possessed the amplest materials, not only in his thorough knowledge of local and public events, but from his long and intimate asso- ciation with our most active citizens and politicians, and con- fidential correspondence with a large circle of eminent states- men, whose friendship he prized among his most cherished recollections.

In a notice which he wrote of his friend Judge Story, he stated that, for a quarter of a century, he was a member of a social club of a dozen members of his political friends, which met every week at each other's residences, all strangers being invited to share their hospitalities. Here every political question was discussed, and from these discussions arose those measures which placed Massachusetts in the hands of the Republican party, and subsequently elevated that ac- complished and upright statesman, John Quincy Adams, to the Presidency. Judge Story and Mr. Sprague were the leading spirits of this political club.

The father and maternal grandfather of Joseph W. Sprague for sixty consecutive years filled the office of high sheriff of Essex county in Massa- chusetts ; the father was the friend and corre-

spondent of John Quincy Adams, Daniel Web- ster, Henry Clay, Edward Everett, and other prominent statesmen of his day, and their letters to him are now a cherished heritage of his son; to these and many other of the foremost men of the time-statesmen, judges, lawyers, scientists, and literati, the hospitable home at Salem was always open, and the benefit of such a social atmosphere was enjoyed by the subject of this sketch during those formative years when its value was greatest.

Mr. Joseph W. Sprague had from his youth a strong natural love for mathematics, mechanics, chemistry, etc., and, as a boy, experimented in the last named science to the sad detriment of the carpets and furniture of his home. He pur- sued his preparatory studies at Salem, entered Harvard college in 1848, and was graduated, with the degree of bachelor of arts, in 1852. This was supplemented, in 1855, by the degree of master of arts. After graduating in the academic department Mr. Sprague pursued his scientific studies for two years in the Lawrence Scientific school of Harvard college, taking, in 1854, the highest of the three classes of degrees conferred upon graduates of that department. Before his second graduation he was for a short time en- gaged in making solar calculations for the United States Nautical Almanac, and also for one year acted as instructor in the highest mathematics, in the engineering department of the Scientific school.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II, Part 87

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 680

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 680