Fayette County, Indiana - Chapter 15: Distinguished Dead, 1885

Chapter 15: Distinguished Dead

IT is thought that a chapter devoted to the lives of deceased citizens, who were honored with high ofiScial positions, or reached eminence in their professions, may with propriety be given in this part of the work. Sketches of the lives of other deceased citizens of equal worthiness, and perhaps prominence in their several fields, have been given in variotis other chapters throughout the work, as, for instance, Newton Claypool, Daniel Han kins, George Frybarger, Joshua Harlan, and others among the early business men of Connersville; Abraham Van Vleet, Daniel Bench and others, of the press; Wilson Thompson, James Conwell and others, of the clergymen; Judge Eeid, the Truslers and others, of the legal profession; Drs. Gayle, Moffitt, Mason and others, of the medical profession; John Conner, Thomas Simpson, Judges Helm and Webb, Jonathan John and many others of the pioneers in general, etc., etc., etc.

Oliver H. Smith

Oliver H. Smith was the only resident of Fayette County who reached the high position of United States Senator. His place of birth and early life can not be more beautifully and impressively related than in his own language: " My grandparents on both sides were fi'iends and associates of William Penn; crossed the Atlantic from England with him, and belonged to the same society. The steamer, as she runs up the Delaware (from Philadelphia) passes one of the most beautiful countries, on the Pennsylvania side, in the world, highly cultivated. On the Jersey side it is more wild and picturesque. On the Pennsylvania side stands the beautiful city of Bristol. On the Jersey stand Burlington and Bordentown. Near the latter is seen in the deeply shaded grove the mansion of the late ex-King, Joseph Bonaparte, as it rose from the ashes of his former splendid residence. The city of Trenton, the capital of New Jersey, stands prominent on the right. The more humble Morris - ville covers the left bank at the falls of the Delaware, where the permanent arch-bridge unites the two cities.

" When but a mere youth, as I was approaching Morrisville in the dusk of the evening, I heard the cry of fire just as I reached the center of the town. I saw a man walking upon the top of a house, bucket in hand, without a hat, sprinkling water upon the roof. A gentleman in the crowd asked me if I knew who he was, and remarked, ' This is Gen. Moreau, of France. ' The General came down after a short time, and I had a full view of him. I looked upon the hero of Hohenlinden at the time with much interest. He was short and thick, dark complexion, black hair, eyes Jind whiskers, stern countenance. He afterward fell by a cannon shot at the battle of Dresden in 1813, while fighting with the allies against the French Army under the command of Napoleon.

"At Trenton the tide ceases; the rocky shoals and rapid currents of the Delaware commence. The traveler leaves the steamer and takes the cars. Some twelve miles above the city of Trenton, the current of the river becomes still more rapid; the water dashes over Well's Falls; Smith's Island divides their channel at the base. That island belonged to my grandfather, and descended to my father. Here I must stop and let the traveler pass on to look at the mountain scenery on the upper Delaware, as it winds its serpentine way north to the State of New York, where he finds his source. I have arrived at the place of my birth, on the 23d of October, in the year 1794. The beautiful Delaware, with its clear waters, rapid currents, floating rafts, tine shad and beautiful striped bass, stretches away in the distance from my father's farm, the Jersey hills rising one above another to the clouds on the east; on the west a beautiful ridge; on the north Bowman's Hill. Near the junction of the hills was found many years ago a few acres of level ground in the woods. The early settlers, my father among them, selected this spot for their schoolhouse. It was a most solitary location, only found by the schoolboys by their winding paths from their valley and mountain homes. The neighbors met, the ground was prepared, and the schoolhouse built

"The building was 20x26 feet of undressed mountain rock, one low story, four windows of 8x10 glass on each side, and two at each end, a continuous desk around the wall on three sides, with a corresponding bench for the scholars. When I first entered the schoolhouse, at the age of six years, in the year 1800 - I distinctly remember the day - with my little dinner basket on my arm, the master was sitting at his desk on the right of the door, and a large bucket of water on the loft. Our playing grounds were cleared smooth from surface rock. Our path led us to the top of Bowman's Hill, where we had a splendid view of the Delaware and surrounding country for many miles. I have .often thought, in after years, that these views in my youth exercised a powerful influence over mv mind. The same feelings that prompted me in my early life to break over the bounds of my valley home, pushed me onto look over the towering Alleghany into the beautiful valley of the Mississippi.

" The school-boys one evening roped a little intoxicated Irishman, who happened to be passing by. He got very angry and named the schoolhouse Lurgan, after a place of that name in Ireland, and from that day it went by no other name. I saw it when after an absence of twenty years in the West, I visited the home of my youth; I looked upon it with deep feelings, as my alma mater."

In 1813, on the death of his father, he left home on foot with a few dollars in his pocket, to see the world. "I had seen very little of the world; thirty miles was the farthest I had ever been from home. I longed to see beyond the river hills of the Delaware." He went by way of Morristown to New York, and " gazed up and down the city with astonishment and delight." Thence he went up the Hudson, and on reaching West Point he says: " This spot was consecrated to my youthful mind; here waved the Nation's flag. I asked the Captain to stop and let me see Fort Putnam. He at once consented and we landed. I now stood on Revolutionary ground, my heart beat quick and joyous; I ran up Mount Independence, where stood old Fort Putnam, venerable in its ruins, stern monument of a sterner age; it had survived the assaults of tyranny, and the attempts of treason. I stood at the rock from which the chain was stretched across the narrow channel of the river in the time of the Revolution, to prevent the passage of the British vessels. While I stood upon old Fort Putnam, and cast my eye far down the magestic river toward New York, the scenes of the Revolution, the treason of Arnold, the capture and execution of Andre, with a thousand associations, rushed upon me."

He returned home again, but whether he remained any length of time we do not know, but presume he did not, as he was employed in a cotton or woolen mill for some time in Pennsylvania before coming West. In the spring of 1817 he came to Indiana and first settled at Rising Sun, where he remained until the winter of 1818, then removed to Lawrenceburg, where it is believed he read law with Gen. Dill and was admitted to the bar at the March term of the Dearborn County Court, receiving his license to practice from the hand of Judge Miles C. Eggleston, who examined him in person. Says the Senator: "His remarks made a deep impression upon me. My means were exhausted, and it was a question of life and death with me." The Judge kindly remarked: " Mr. Smith, I will sign your license, but you are only prepared to commence the study; but don't be discouraged, but persevere in your studies, and you may yet stand high in your profession."

Young Smith directly after procuring his license removed to Versailles, in Ripley County, and there began his professional life. His first case was a trespass quare clausum f regit - "as his Blackstone told him." A neighbor had bored another's sugar-tree without asking. Smith represented the plaintiff and secured a verdict of 12J cents. His fee was $2.50. In the spring of 1820 Mr. Smith left Versailles, removing to C'jnnersville, where he made his first plange into the heady current of pioneer life. He had been in Connersville but eighteen months when he was induced to run for the Legislature, and in August, 1822, he was elected. He served during the session of 1822- 23 and was the member by whom the name was given to Johnson County, which was named after Judge Johnson, of Indiana. Mr. Smith remarks, "It so happened that it was the greenest Legislature ever convened in the State. The raw material was not so defective as the experience of the m;mbers. The session lasted six weeks and perhaps no Legislature ever met and adjourned in the State doing less harm."

Our subject was made Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. Referring to his first effort in that body the Senator says, "All eyes were turned to me, as the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, supposing, of course, that I knew all about it. The house was tilled with a distinguished audience from all parts of the State, and several from Kentucky. I arose. It was my first efibrt in a Legislative capacity, and much was expected by the audience. 'Mr. Speaker,' said I. These were my only words. I grew blind, and down I sank in my chair, almost unconn scious, when Maj. Henry P. Thorton, who was our Clerk, a great wag, sprang from his desk, ran to where I was seated, and whispered in my ear, 'My dear sir, you must have studied your speech at home; you have made a powerful constitutional argument ' "

In 1824 he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of the Third Judicial Circuit by Gov. Hendricks, in which position he served two years, and distinguished himself by the prosecution of some of the most noted cases in the criminal history of the State. The southern court was at Vevay and the northern at Fort Wayne, and during the two years he served as Prosecutor there wag not a single court held or a grand jury impaneled in his absence on the circuit. He became a candidate for Congress in 1826 and was elected by a majority of 1,500. His competi tor, the Hon. John Test, was one of the first men of the State; had been on the court bench, was a tine lawyer, a good speaker and had represented the district three full terms. Mr. Smith served during the sessions of 1827 and 1828, contemporaneous with such men as Tristriam Burgess, John Randolph, Samuel C. Southard, McDuff and others.

It will be well to inform the reader that the first effort of Mr. Smith in Congress, though not flatteringly born, resulted in greater success than his first effort in the General Assembly of the State. A bill apportioning $100,000 to the work of constructing the Cumberland road was before the House. Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia, one of the strongest men in the House, had made a long constitutional argument to prove that the General Government had no power to make appropriations to construct the work. His speech was able and its effect upon the favorite measure of the Indiana delegation was greatly feared. "My colleagues were not disposed to speak; I had not spoken. I felt much reluctance to speaking, but duty seemed to require it. I got the floor for the next day. The Committee arose, and the House adjourned. I was in for my first speech in Congress. I passed a sleepless night. I concluded to back out. By daylight I was up walking the pavement before my boarding house, when the newsboy handed me the National Intelligencer, wet from the press. I opened the paper, glanced over the Congressional proceedings, looked under the editorial head, when, Oh ! horror of horrors ! there it was, 'The Hon. Oliver H. Smith will address the Committee to-day in reply to the Hon. Philip P. Barbour on constitutional powers.' Hero I was; there was no backing out without disgrace. I could eat no breakfast. The hour arrived. The house was crowded. Mr. Barbour was seated before me. My friends were around me to give me courage. I grew more bold as I advanced, and never to this day did I feel when I closed a two hour's

In the House Mr. Smith made no conspicuous mark, but earned and gained the reputation of a hard working, honest and sensible member. On the expiration of his term in the House he returned to the law, and continued in very active pursuit of his profession, till he was elected to the United States Senate in December, 1836, over Gov. Noble and Gov. Hendricks, his predecessors. He first entered the Senate during the executive session of March, 1837. He was made Chairman on the Committee on Public Lands in that body over R. I. Walker, then of Mississippi. Here his habits of hard, constant labor shone conspicuously, no less unimpeachable integrity and sound judgment. "So thoroughly was his judgment trusted by his associates on the Committee, and his industry relied on to do all necessary work, that he became absolutely the whole Committee, and when a reference was made to it, it waa expected of course that Mr. Smith would see all about it. He was publicly complimented by Mr. Clay for his services to the country in that position. During his term as Senator, wo believe in 1838, he removed from Connersville to Indianapolis, where he afterward resided, practicing his profession steadily and successfully, until his disease compelled him to abandon all labor."

Mr. Smith, soon after the election of James B. Ray as Governor of the State, was offered a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court, "but having no judicial ambition, and not being willing to be laid on the bench at a salary of $700, I had the fortitude to resist the temptation." The Senator was the author of a work published in 1858, under the title of "Early Indiana Trials and Sketches."

His death occurred in Indianapolis, March 19, 1859, having been sick for nearly a year with a disease, the nature of which we believe was not clearly marked. The Indianapolis Journal of March 21, 1859, said: "There is not a corner of the State in which the melancholy announcement of the death of Hon. Oliver H. Smith which we make this morning, will not wake feelings of deep and sincere sorrow. * * * j£e died as he lived, a firm and sincere Christian. No man since the lamented Marshall's death was more widely known or highly esteemed. His eminent public career, his great services to the cause of internal improvement, and his unspotted private life gave him a place in the public regard, that few have filled more worthily."

tury, from which sprang men of considerable note, was that of the McCarty name. Benjamin McCarty, with family, emigrated from Grainger County, Tenn. , in about the year 1801 or 1802, and temporarily stopped on Dry Fork, in Ohio, and there awaited the preparation of the lands in what is now Franklin County, for market. He made the first entry in that county, and in 1804 removed thereto. He was made one of the first Judges of the county courts, under the Territorial Government. He is said to have been a man of herculean frame and of a strong mind. Enoch McCarty, a son, was a member of the first convention that formed the State constitution; of the Legislature repeatedly, and many years Clerk and Judge of the Franklin Circuit Court. Of him says Oliver H. Smith: "He was a cool, strongminded man, of the very first standing in society, and contributed largely to the mass of mind that controlled early Indiana; cast all his influence on the side of morality and religion."

Gen. Jonathan McCarty, the subject of this sketch, was born in Virginia on the 3d of August, 1795. He was reared on his f ather' s f arm, which was in sight of the village of Brookville, and commanded a view of the rugged hills, beautiful and fertile valleys and rippling waters of the Whitewater, a country upon which had been poured out with a lavish hand of the beauties from nature's great store-house. Impressive and grand is the scene. Here in the little log school house, that graced the hill-side and valleys of the neighboring settlements, was educated Gen. McCarty. In viewing the vicinity, the writer was impressed more than ever with the words of Webster and other statesmen. The former, on being asked where his youth was passed, in substance replied, "I lived in sight of the ocean." Others, in response to interrogatories concerning what was raised among the rock-covered hills and cliffs of portions of New England said, "Men.'' As we stood below the village on an evening in June, at a point taking in in full the grandeur of the scene under an air laden with the perfume of the wild roses, sweet clover and elders abounding on all sides, musing over the past, we asked ourself, Did not the Tests, the Hannas, the McCartys, the Nobles, the Wallaces, the Rays, the Eads, with numerous others, gather inspiration from these towering and forest-clad hills?

Jonathan McCarty for a time assisted his brother Enoch in performing the duties of the Clerk's office, and at intervals read law, being, we believe, both his own tutor and perceptor, and in the course of time was licensed to practice law. He early became a politician, was elected to the Legislature of Franklin County and procured the passage of the law laying off the county of Fayette. He then removed to the new county, settling in the county town of Connersville. He was made the first Clerk of the Courts of the county and performed the duties of the several other county offices then devolving upon that officer. He served as Clerk of the Courts of the county until in 1828, and as such was the Recorder, Clerk to the Commissioners, etc. In 1829 he was appointed Receiver of public moneys in the land office at Fort Wayne, and in 1830 removed his family from Connersville to that point.

In 1828 Gen. McCarty made the race for Congress, being a candidate on the Democratic ticket, his opponent being Judge John Test, of Brookville, a National Republican. The conflict resulted in the election of Judge Test by a triumphant majority. In an address delivered by the General during the canvass he made these observations: "I have resided for more than twenty-five years in the territorial limits of what now forms this Congressional District; first in the county of Dearborn, then in Franklin, then in Fayette, my present residence. * * Having been reared and educated in the western country> accustomed to its policy and laws, I necessarily imbibed, at an early period, those Republican principles so repeatedly and practically illustrated in the Western States - and have always been proud of the name and title of a Republican.'' Referring to hie views as regards measures of national policy, he says, "Upon the subject of internal improvements and a fair and adequate protection of American industry and manufactures, about which so much has been said, and which has called forth the ablest talents of the Nation on both sides of these questions, it seems to me that there can be little or no division of sentiment in the Western States. All agree in the propriety of these measures and but few doubt the constitutional power of the Government upon these subjects. Should I be called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens of this district, to represent them in the councils of the Nation, I shall support the principles of internal improvements and the protection of American manufactures and industry."

In 1831 Gen. McCarty was elected to Congress from his district, defeating his former competitors. Judge Test, and Oliver H. Smith. The General was a supporter of the administration and the election terminated an unusually heated canvass. During the canvass Samuel W. Parker, who was then editing the Political Clarion, and who, it will be borne in mind, was opposed to the election of the General, thus alluded to him in that paper: "Gen. McCarty for four or five years had particular notoriety as a heated partisan of President Jackson. As a man he is possessed of natural abilities which rate considerably above mediocrity, abilities which could not but have rendered him truly and justly consijicuous, had they been properly disciplined and directed. From village to national politics, he is shrewd, calculating, artful and indefatigable, and in his demeanors he is affable, courteous and interesting. * * * "

Gen. MeCarty served his district in Congress from 1831 to 1837, and in 1848 or 1849 remove.! to Keokuk, Iowa, with the intention of there practicing his profession. He was twice married, the first time to Miss Desdemona Harrison, who died during their residence at Fort Wayne; and the second wife was Elizabeth Parsons. His death occurred at Keokuk, Iowa, where rest his remains, in about the year 1852.

Oliver H. Smith, in his "Reminiscences," remarks of him, "He was one of the most talenied men in the State. He was defective in education, but had great native powers; represented his district in Congress for several years with ability. As a stump speaker he was ardent and effective; his person was above the medium size; his head and face of line mould; his voice strong and clear, and his actions good."

Caleb B. Smith

This distinguished man was born in the city of Boston, Mass., April 16, 1808, and at about the age six years his parents removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, in which city he grew up and there gathered most of the associations of his boyhood. At the age of fifteen he entered the Cincinnati College, where he, for a period, pursued his studies, then was sent to the more extended and celebrated institution of Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio. He entered the university in 1825 and remained until 1827. On leaving college he returned to Cincinnati, and there at once commenced reading law. In the fall of 1827 he removed to Connersville and there resumed the study of law under Oliver H. Smith, who thus alludes to the first introduction:

"One day I was sitting in my office at Connersville, when there entered a small youth about five feet, eight inches high, large head, thin brown hair, light blue eyes, high, capacious forehead, and good features, and introduced himself as Caleb B. Smith, of Cincinnati. He stated his business in a lisping tone. He had come to read law with me if I would receive him. I assented to his wishes, and he remiiiaed with me until he was admitted to practice, aud commenced his professional, as well as his political, career at Connersville. He rose rapidly at the bar, was remarkably fluent, rapid and eloquent before a jury, never at a loss for ideas or words to express them; if he had a fault as an advocate, it was that he suffered his nature to press forward his ideas for utterance faster than the minds of the jurors were

He completed his law studies and began practice in the fall of 1828. Three years later, (1831) at the age of twenty-three, he made the race for Representative from the county in the General Assembly, but was defeated. In June, 1832, he, in connection with Matthew R. Hull, established at Connersville a weekly newspaper styled the Indiana Sentinel, the first of its name. The paper was spirited and conducted with marked ability. It supported Henry Clay for President. In May, 1833, Mr. Smith withdrew from the paper and was that same year elected to the Legislature and re-elected in 1834. The great question of internal improvement was now agitating the minds of the country, and for the system young Smith took an active part; also for Gov. Noble, the champion of it In 1835 he was sent to Washington by the Governoj' to obtain from the War Department an order detailing Col. Stansbury and a corps of engineers to survey the routes of some or all of the great projected lines of canals and railroads which it was in contemplation to construct, and determine their practicability. On returning to Connersville he was again elected to the Legislature, and in the following December was elected Speaker of the House on the first ballot.

In 1836 he was again chosen Speaker, making the second time he had been elected to this position before he had attained the early age of twenty-eight years. For several years he was one of the Fund Commissioners for Indiana.

In 1840 he was again elected to the Legislature, it being the fifth time he had been so honored by his adopted county. He was made Chairman of the Committee on Canals, That same year he was one of the Presidential Electors on the Harrison ticket. In 1841 he ran for Congress, but was defeated. The Whigs running two candidates suffered defeat, Andrew Kennedy, their competitor, being elected. Two years later Mr. Smith was elected to Congress, and in 1845 was re elected, and again re-elected in 1847.

"In these three terms he made himself the foremost man of the Indiana Delegation, and at the close was probably not only the most prominent man in national affairs from the State, but the most prominent man who had ever represented it."

commission, after he left Congress, with Corwin and Payne, under the Mexican treaty. Few men in the West have filled a larger space in the public eye."

In 1851 he removed to the city of Cincinnati, and was elected President of the Cincinnati & Chicago Eailroad Company. The project proved ruinous and Mr. Smith became deeply involved. In 1856 he became an elector for Ohio on the Fremont ticket. In 1859 he severed his connection with the railroad and removed to Indianapolis, resuming the practice of his profession. He was made Chairman of the Indiana delegation at the Chicago Convention in 1860, and contributed greatly to the success of Abraham Lincoln, seconding in his nomination with twenty sis votes from Indiana. He was an Elector for the State at Large on the Republican ticket.

His vigorous campaign made for the martyred President was recognized in his being made Mr. Lincoln's Secretary of the Interior. He resigned his position in the cabinet on Christmas Day, 1862, to accept the Judgeship of the United States Court for the District of Indiana, January 1, 1863.

"As a Judge he was courteous to a degree which disarmed partisan bitterness at a period of unusual party exasperation, and his fairness was so evident that there coald be little more complaint of it than of his demeanor. It was chiefly as an orator and especially as a popular or 'stump' orator that Mr. Smith excelled. Here he had few rivals. His voice singularly clear, sonorous and penetrating, rarely encountered a crowd that could exhaust its power without obtaining the full freight of thought it carried. His language was copious and appropriate, often striking aud always clear, and his style though affecting little of the polished elegance of the pen, was rarely slovenly or feeble. He possessed the ability to argue a proposition convincingly."

This citizen, orator, statesman and Judge of distinction died in the court building at Indianapolis, Ind.,the 17th of January, 1804 The circumstances of his death as announced in the Indianapolis Journal of January 8, 1864, were as follows:

"He left home in the morning with his son to attend court, which was in session, and appeared to be in his usual health, which, however, for some months past has not been very robust. On arriving at the court house he went into his private room to rest a few minutes before opening court, and while sitting before the tire was seized with a fit of coughing which in some unexplained way ruptured a blood vessel and caused a profuse and almost choking flow of blood. He was alone at the time, but in a few minutes Postmaster Conner entered the room and discovering the condition of the Judge, notified those who could best assist in the matter and had him removed to the bed in the private office of District Attorney Hanna. Drs. Jameson and Wright were called in, and the utmost efforts of these experienced physicans were directed to the stopping of the flow of blood. They succeeded partially, but not till more than a gallon had been thrown up, and the patient fearfully if not fatally, reduced in strength and vital energy. After the checking of the hemorrhage the Judge remained calm, and, it was hoped, in a condition which rendered recovery possible. But late in the afternoon a paroxysm of coughing seized him again and ,renewed the hemorrhage, and attacking a system already reduced, speedily rendered death inevitable. Some time before dark it was considered certain that he could not live through the night, and those unhappy fears were realized too soon, as his condition made it impossible to move him."

At the death of Judge Smith it was|ordered by the President of the United States that the Executive Building at the seat of Government be draped in mourning for fourteen days, "in honor of him as a prudent and loyal counselor, and faithful and effective coadjutor of the Administration in an hour of public difficulty and peril."

Samuel W. Parker

A walk of fifteen minutes- to the south of Connersville conveys one to the "Old Elm Farm," a beautiful and picturesque suburban or country seat - - long the home of men of distinction. Back of and above this homestead on the brow of a towering hill overshadowed by a cluster of evergreens and the more lofty forest trees which crown and fringe the surrounding ridge, is nestled the grave of Samuel W. Parker, to whose memory has been ascribed by a United States Senator, a place among the first lawyers of his time.

Of the ancestors of Samuel W. Parker little definite knowledge is known. His father, Samuel Parker, was a native of the State of Vermont. Said Samuel W. : "I have induced myself to believe that paternal ancestors were from England, more, however, from the name than anything else." The mother of Samuel W. was Elizabeth Miller, a native of Massachusetts, the ancestors of whom our subject believed to be of German extraction. At an early age both parents with their parents immigrated to New York, and were married in Jefferson County, October 20, 1803, in a town called Champion. They lived in Watertown until in August, 1805, on the 2d day of which month the husband died and was there interred. He was a carpenter by trade, and a worthy young man. The subject of this sketch was his only child, and his birth occurred one month and seven days after the father's decease.

"At the age of one year and six months," said our subject, "I was adopted by one of the most kind and affectionate step-fathers that ever orphan boy was blessed with." This was Joseph Wadley, who was born on the same day with Mr. Parker's own father, and he, too, was a carpenter by trade. He owned a farm on Stony Creek near Sacketts Harbor, where he had built a flouring-mill; and in this vicinity, at the age of about four years, in a little log schoolhouse, young Parker took his iniatory steps in schooling. From 1811 to 1815 Mr. Wadley and family resided in and about Bloomfield, in Ontario County, of the same State, during which period, and when not more than nine years of age, little Sam was often entrusted with a team of a wagon and two horses in the conveyance of brick to the neighboring town of Canandaigua, being assisted only in the loading of them.

In 1815 the family immigrated to Cincinnati,Ohio, and there and in that vicinity remained until 1818, when they settled at Oiford, Ohio, during which period our subject at different times attended the Lancastran Seminary, superintended respectively by Harrison and Cathcart, during a portion of which attendance the school numbered from 200 to 500 pupils, over whom young Parker acted as general monitor.

It seems that Mr. Wadley was very anxious to give his children a good education, and especially the stepson, often remarking to him that he never expected to be able to give him anything else, and at all events that would be the best fortune that could be given him. So it was mainly this object that directed him to Oxford, from the prospect of an excellent institution of learning there. At this village young Parker first attended a common school about one year, in which reading, spelling and history alone were studied. He subsequently attended a grammar school then just opened by the Rev. James Hughes, under the charge of the Trustees of the University - the first germ of the future college. Here he began the study of the languages - Latin and Greek - and here were made his first efforts at declamation; and on the latter he remarks : ' 'I succeeded well, was fond of the exercise, and soon ranked among the best declaimers in the institution. At several public exhibitions the laurels wej-e won by me; and many a vision of glory did these laurels excite in my young imagination. "Here, too, my fir.st attempts at composition were made. In this I did not succeed so well. It was a tame exercise when contrasted with spouting forth the eloquent thoughts of the Roman, English and American orators. In this branch, however, I stood about equal to my fellows. But little attention was then directed to composition; declamation swallowed up all, and when the Trustees of the institution, on a public examination and exhibition day, pronounced me the best declaimer in the institution, I deemed myself a man of full proportions, though it seems that, in reality, I was but a stripling of but fifteen years."

After Mr. Wadley's arrival in this city on immigrating thither, he was soon engaged in bridge-building and other carpenter work, and during a part of his stay in the vicinity, he was engaged at Mt. Pleasant in building flat-boats, termed "Broad Horns," and while in and about the city, fishing and swimming seemed to be a favorite sport of the young step-son, as he speaks of frequently amusing himself with other lads in swimming and bathing in the river, and diving from and under the boats, etc., etc., and later on at Oxford, ball was a pleasant pastime to him.

The late summer and early fall of 1821 have been pronounced by him as the halcyon days of his life. Nearly three months of his time were passed on a visit to an uncle who resided near North Bend, on the Ohio. His uncle kept a large dairy, and the visitor assisted in attending to the cows, milking, making butter and cheese, and going to the Cincinnati market and sporting through the neighboring country. The following incident occurring on this visit from its connection with so distinguished a man is worthy of note, and is given in the language of the participant himself in after years:

" Whilst at North Bend, on one fine summer day several of the neighbor boys and myself went down to the river at Gen. Harrison's farm to swim. Whilst there we noticed the tempting looks of the fruit in the General's orchard - and the temptation was too strong to withstand. Accordingly we entered the enclosure and commenced our assaults upon it. Having pretty well filled our pockets, we commenced a retreat, and, as we were getting back over the fence, we espied the old hero himself, leaping his garden fence, bounce into the orchard and make toward us. Though some three hundred yards distant, his manner very plainly indicated that he had some designs upon those who had just gratified their designs upon his fruit. We accordingly made a hasty retreat to the river, jumped into a canoe lying at the shore, and had but cleverly got our canoe out of his reach when "Old Tip " was at the water's edge. He assumed a most furious attitude; his eyes seemed to flash javelins into our bosoms, and his curses were withering. He bade us instantly back to the shore or he would have the Constable after us - and whole troop of young thieves in jail before sun down. To disobey was impossible, and our pockets were full of what must be our con- demnatioQ. We accordingly commenced plying the paddle for the shore, and in the meantime also busied ourselves in stealthily slipping overboard all the fruit that could not be easily concealed. We landed, and I stepped forward as spokesman. I observed that we had come down to the river to swim. We saw the haw tree just inside the orchard fence, and thinking it no harm to take a few hawa from it, we accordingly got over and did so, - and suiting _the action to the word I pulled from my breeches pocket a few haws that happened to be there, and displayed them as proof of our innocence. A most benignant smile came over the old soldier's swarthy features. 'Ah,' said he, boys, if that is all the mischief you have done, come up here with me and get some of my apples. I have some very fine ones yet, if the boatmen have not stolen them all off. Any body is welcome to my fruit so long as it lasts, if they will only come and ask me for it - but d - n a thief. I hate them.' And this was my first interview with that patriot soldier, and honest man, who, when he died, the Nation mourned in tears - because the ' good President ' had fallenl He then as little thought of being President as I did of the after service of two years and a half at the head of a newspaper, advocating his pretensions."

Up until the fall of 1824, when Miami University was regularly opened, young Sam attended for a time the grammar school heretofore mentioned as started by Mr. Hughes, which had been discontinued on the death of that gentleman, but which was reopened by Eev. Spencer Clark, and a common school in the village taught by Abner Philbrick. During the spring, summer, and fall of this last mentioned year he worked on a farm rented by his step-father in the vicinity of Oxford, which was the only regular year's manual labor that he ever performed.

In January, 1825, he entered the institution as a free scholar, under provisions that had been made for five young men of merit.' The limited circumstances of this step-father compelled him to take advantage of such provisions, and enter thus or not at all. On this point Mr. Parker says, " It was rather humiliating to my proud spirit, but the goodness of the cause and a firm determination to rise above it, reconciled my feelings to the sacrifice."

His four years' course in Miami University, from the beginning to the day of graduation, was a succession of brilliant intellectual triumphs; term after term and year after year he was the recipient of compliments and high honors at the hands of his classmates and of the Faculty. He entered the university as a freshman, and at the close of the first session was selected, with one other class-mate, to deliver an original oration; theme. Patriotism and some of the events of the American Revolution. From the beginning he attracted attention as a speaker, and continued to occupy a position in this respect second to none connected with the institution. Before the close of the year, in addition to his studies he took charge of a class in the grammar school, in part, and in this way got ofi" of the charity list. At the close of the second session he was selected to deliver the oration introductory to the exhibition.

In December, 1825, was organized the Union Literary Society of the Miami University, of which he was one of the founders, and over which he subsequently presided. After the organization of this society, young Parker from the first took a stand as an extemporaneous debater and declaimer amongst the most prominent members, which station he retained until his graduation. Says Parker: "The most formidable antagonist I ever met in debate in the society, was Robert C. Schenck, of Ohio, and so the strongest will say who encounter him." During his remaining years in the institution he was closely identified with the interests of this society, and was on several occasions highly complimented in the bestowal of honors by it upon him in public exercises, among which was his unanimous election to prepare a report upon the Rise, Progress and Present Condition and Future Prospects of the Society, and deliver an address on the occasion, which he accepted and performed in a manner that was highly gratifying to the society and to the public.

In 1828 the Faculty and students of the university formed themselves into a society auxiliary to the American Colonization Society, in Washington, D., C, and Parker was by them appointed to deliver a public address on the 4:th of July, 1828, on the colonization system, held in the college chapel in conjunction with a celebration of the citizens of Oxford. The orator was James Crawford. Mr. Parker spoke for nearly an hour, and the speech won him much applause. Many of the auditors expressed a desire to have the address published in pamphlet form. At the dinner table a complimentary toast was drank to the "orators of the day."

Commencement Day came, and with it found the already distinguished young Parker facing a great concourse of people, among whom were personages of culture and distinction, with a theme for graduation of "Symmes' Theory of Concentric Spheres." As a speaker on this occasion, Parker was unanimously voted the chief; said Dr. Slack, then the distinguished chemical professor in the Cincinnati College, commenting on the speech that he "did not think Capt. Symmes himself could have presented his theory in a manner more happy and im- pressive." Says the speaker, "This effort was of no little service to me. It gave me a celebrity through the country which college efforts seldom acquire, and it was the means of introducing me to several gentlemen of intelligence and reputation." To the dissatisfaction of many of the students and some of the Faculty in the assignment of class honors, Parker was given the third place. His fi'iends claimed for him the second if not the first honors. The second place was given to the son of Dr. Bishop, the President of the University. On the evening of September 24, 1828, a commencement ball was given at Apple's Inn, in Oxford, of which young Parker was manager, and says he: "It was the first ball I had ever attended, and I believe I may say the first social party of any kind, though then twenty-three years old. I had been a student the most of my days, and a close one too; I did not lose a half dozen recitations during the whole four years of my college course." Mr. Parker acted as a tutor during the greater portion of his time in college.

Until his graduation the most of his days were passed in school, yet when out of school and during mornings and evenings and vacations he was accustomed to do, and did do, almost all kinds of manual labor; this the circumstances of the family required, and it was most cheerfully complied with, in a just appreciation of the assistance and love borne him by his step-father. "In fact," said our subject, "I have done a little of everything, almost, in my time, for the sake of being handy in aid of my step-father." To further show the great esteem and appreciation held by him for this father, we quote his own words: "The kind attention and essential services always rendered me by my most excellent step-father never recur to my mind without filling my bosom with sensations of gratitude almost painful. Would to heaven that good old man could have lived that I might return to him some of the ten thousand kindnesses in the evening of his days that he bestowed upon me in the morning of mine."

Soon after the graduation of Mr. Parker he settled in the village of Connersville, and in November opened a private or subscription school, which he taught several terms, and in the following May secured the Principalship of the county seminary, then just being completed, and in July opened the first school in that building. He was here engaged in teaching until the close of a term of school in April, 1830, when he resigned the position.

Early in the year 1829 he began writing editorially for the Fayette Observer, the proprietor and senior editor of which was Daniel Rench, and soon thereafter the editorial charge of the paper was given him, and in February, 1830, Mr. Parker became in a manner the proprietor. New type, etc., was procured, and Mr. Parker sent forth to the country the first issue of the newspaper titled the Political Clarion, ]\Iay 22, 1830, which was continued two years and edited with marked ability, such as called forth a complimentary letter from Henry Clay, whom he vigorously supported for the chief magistracy. The young editor was honored by calls from the Governor, Senator Noble, and Judge Test, then Representative in Congress from the Connersville District, and his importance seemed great. We extract the following from an editorial in the Clarion of April 30, 1831:

"In this village we first commenced in the business of the world. We have formed friendly associations here, which we wish not to sunder. Here we first looked out over the land for ourselves, and beheld wicked men treading down the virtuous, corruption vitiating the undefiled, creeping into the councils and Cabinet of the Republic, and threatening a general deluge - the precedents, the laws, and the constitution which came to us from hallowed bands spurned and violated - anarchy and confusion smothering the voice of honest men and justice - all the vile principles of our nature kindling into a blaze, catching upon the vitals of our Government and freedom, and blown upon us as it were by the breath of the hurricane. Hence we believe sprang at least some of the incentives that induced us to stay here, to enlist under the banner that we have here, and however faint and unavailing the efforts might be, to prepare for a struggle in the conflict here, until we fail or it be over. None of oiur ardor is or will be abated. Our course is on, right on, until our Republican institutions, the American system and Henry Clay are overwhelmed, or rise and triumph together on the 4th of March, 1833."

From the very beginning Mr. Parker had determined upon adopting the law as his profession, and with this view on opening his first school in Connersville he put in odd hours reading Blackstone in the ofiice of Oliver H. Smith, but it was soon thought by the patrons of his school and others, that he could not do the two things at the same time, and the law was soon temporarily dropped, and not again taken up until during the latter half of the first year he was publishing the Clarion. He studied in all about six months, and we may say without any instruction, he was admitted to the bar in August, 1831, having been first examined at Brookville, by Judge Miles C. Eggleston, August 6, and his license signed, and the examination completed August 22, before a committee of lawyers at the Wayne Circuit Court, which committee reported favorably, and the license was perfected by the signature of Judge Test. The day following he made his maiden speech to a jury in

In 1834 Mr. Parker established the Watclmian, a weekly paper, which he continued until after the close of the Presidential election in 1836, advocating with great zeal the election to the Presidency of William Henry Harrison. In 1833 he made the race for Representative in the Legislature from the county of Fayette, but was defeated; however, seven years later he was elected to that position. The following year he was elected to the State Senate and served one term, when he was again chosen a Representative in the Legislature.

In 1836 he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney for the circuit, and during his service in that capacity, remarked the Rev. James Havens at his funeral, " he did more for the morality in this part of the State in ferreting out and suppressing vice and crime than any man then living." He traversed the State in in 1840, 1844, 1848, 1852 and 1856, and was champion Whig of the Whitewater Valley. Says Gen. Thomas Bennett: "He was a zealous partisan of unwavering fidelity, never flinching from any responsibility imposed upon him by the party of his choice. He took the great Clay for his model, and with a devotion amounting to almost idolatry, he followed his chosen chieftain while he lived, and when he died he lingered long at the grave of the gallant old Whig."

In 1849 Mr. Parker was elected to Congress and served two terms as the Whig Representative of his district, his Congressional career closing with the Thirty-third Congress in March, 1855. He could have triumphantly returned to the seat he had so ably filled, but he declined a renomiuation. He voted against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and on the subject made a most masterly and brilliant speech which won him high compliments. The House being in the Committee on the Whole on the State of the Union, Mr. Parker said:

"I would address myself gladly on this occasion if I could, to all my fellow citizens of the South, to all of the North. I am of neither the North nor South; but still I am from a free State - one baptized as such and sanctified, I hope, by the glorious ordinance of 1787, in which I think I have cause for exultation - I am sure I have still greater cause in the fact that I come here from the great Northwest.

Mr. Chairman, I have sometimes contemplated that marble group, at once beautiful and sublime, which rests upon one of the projections of the eastern portico of this Capitol, and thought I saw a patriotic embodiment there, which probably did not occur to the fervid fancy of the artist. That stalwart pioneer with gigantic proportions, a brave heart, strong hands and the bearing of a hero, is no inapt representation of that section of this confederacy from whence I come. See how he holds in his mighty grasp, harmless as an unweaned child, those two savage arms, one pointing South and the other North, each armed with the implements of death. The fond mother as she bends over her sleeping child, fears no evil; and so securely are they protected, that the watch-dog looks kindly on ! * * * * * *

" I desire no concealment of my opinion in regard to the institution of slavery. I look upon it as a great evil, and deeply lament that we have derived it from the parental Government, and from our ancestors. But here they are, and the question is, how can they be best dealt with ? If a state of nature existed and we were about to lay the foundation of society no man would be more strongly opposed than I should to incorporate the institution of slavery among the elements.

" Sir, that is precisely the work on which we are now engaged. Where a 'state of nature' now exists; on a virgin soil, where a slave never trod though savages have roamed there from the ' primal morn,' we are 'about to lay the foundation of society' for the millions of civilized and Christian people that will soon congregate there for a home forever for themselves and their children. W^hat ought we to do ?

Mr. Parker had been several times an elector from his district and once for the State at large; and says Gen. Bennett, " He contributed to the success of his party his means, his talents and his mighty energies. He shone brightly as a lawyer and statesman. In the beginning he took an eminent pose as a lawyer and was ranked high amongst the Whitewater bar, composed as it was of the brightest legal minds of the State. His thrilling eloquence, his bitter sarcasm, his quick retort, his shrewd ingenuity in the management of his cause soon filled his office with clients and rallied around him troops of friends. From that time he was a giant at the bar."

After the close of Mr. Parker's Congressional career he was engaged in the practice of the law at Connersville and the neighboring courts, and resided on the Old Elm Farm, heretofore referred to, where his death occurred from pneumonia, suddenly and unexpectedly, February 1, 1859. At this time he was President of the Junction Railroad Company, and had previously for years been President of the Whitewater Canal Company, and had ever been intimately identified with all the great improvements which have rendered the Whitewater Valley the garden spot of Indiana.

"With deep sensibility does the court receive these testimonials of respect to the memory of the late Hon. Samuel W. Parker. Near did he stand to its members, near in age, near in professional association, near in social companionship. Valued was the relation. INIr. Parker was one of the most brilliant and promising men of the State. Gifted with a mind of high order, which he had stored with solid learning, and decorated with the elegancies of ancient and modern literature - possessed of tine oratorical powers and every virtue that graces social life, combined with habits of great industry, it could not be otherwise that he should reach commanding positions at the bar and in the councils of the Nation. The death of such a man, at whatsoever time it may happen, cannot but be sorely felt, but it tills us with a deeper sadness when we behold him stricken down in the prima of manhood and in the middle of his career and fame. * * * * * "

In substance the Hon. Oliver H. Smith remarked of Mr. Parker, that he was a ripe scholar, and when he first saw him at Gonnersville, he was a slim, flaxen-headed stripling, light eyes and brows, large white forehead, good features, head erect, the step quick and firm. He rose rapidly at the bar until he stood among the first of his age. He was clear, strong, able before the jury; his voice was of great volume, when he brought it up to its full pitch. He always threw himself bodily into the cause of his client, making it his own. On the stump, as a public speaker, he stood high with his party; few men, of his age, have made so many public political speeches, of so much power. While in Congress he took part in many of the important debates, in which he placed himself among the best of the speakers of the house.

On the 16th of July, 1834, Mr. Parker was united in marriage with Susannah, daughter of William Watton, of Connersville, Ind., who still survives him.

James Cottingham Mcintosh was born in Connersville, Ind., January 13, 1827, of parents, Joshua and Nancy Mcintosh, the former being a native of the State of Virginia and the latter of Maryland. In the spring of 1824 the family settled in Connersville. The mother was a devoted Christian ".woman, and the father for many years an acceptable local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The latter served as one of the Associate Judges of the county in 1847-51. James from boyhood was carefully and prayerfully instructed in the tests and principles of Christianity. He early indicated strong religious tendencies and in January, 1844, under the ministry of W. W. Hibben, he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. His early youth was characterized by close habits of study, which continued through life. His close application to study seemed to be prompted by two elevated motives, first an ardent thir!;t for knowledge, and secondly, a deeply conscientious estimate of the value and responsibility of time. His early education was obtained in the schools of his native village. In the fall of 1846 he entered Asbury University, at Greencastle, Ind., from which institution he was graduated in 1849, completing the college curriculum in three years, and that brilliantly, as he carried off the honors of a very strong class.

For a time after graduation he took charge of a school in Lagrange, Ind. , which was only preparatory to the study of law, which he commenced in 1850, with Hon. S W. Parker, of Connersville. Here the same zeal and devotion to his books characterized him, as had previously marked his course in the school room and at college. In 1851 he was admitted to the bar. Judge Elliott being the Presiding Judge, and his own father occupying a seat on the bench as one of the Associate Judges. He was subsequently admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the State.

" From this beginning he worked his way upward in his profession until he made a reputation as a lawyer surpassed by a very few. And be it noted that the public prominence he attained was as a lawyer - politics had nothing to do with it. He never asked for office, in fact, he refused to allow his name to be used in that connection, and while many of his associates in the State have left their names to be tossed about on the billows of politics, he quietly toiled on in his profession, leaving a work that will last as long as jurisprudence has a place in the State he loved.''

His biographer says: "His devotion to his legal studies and duties, however, had no effect in diminishing his religious interest, nor did it then, or ever, interfere in the slightest degree with his faithful performance of his church duties Always calm and dignified, never demonstrative, his entire Christian life was a steady, persistent elevated plea for the truth of Christian doctrines, the purity and grandeur of Christian principles, and the beauty and elevation of Christian character. He did not flash with the fitful and momeatary glare of the brilliant meteor, but glowed with the steady light of the planet that keeps the track of its orbit.

"Naturally, he was not self assertive, but exceedingly reserved, unobtrusive, and even diffident; nothing but his own sense of duty and the force of his own personal merits ever brought him to the front. His will force was a dominant power, and his purpose was an uncompromising fact. Deliberate and careful in making up his judgment, the conclusion once reached was generally a finality, from which there was no appeal; while the turning aside from deliberately formed purpose was a thought not to be entertained. He was a man of thorough and painstaking research, and remarkable for the accuracy of his knowledge. From his legal associates I learn that this was characteristic of his law practice, and I know it to have been true of his Biblical studies and knowledge. It was seldom safe to question a position taken by him. He was a man of profound sensibilities and tender affections."

From the time that he became identified with the church until his death, he was by example and counsel a pillar in the church. He was a prominent delegate to the General Conference in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1872, and for many years prior to his death he was one of the Trustees of the university, of which he was an honored alumnus.

In an editorial of one of the county papers at the time of his death we read: " At the bar he had no superior. He was acknowledged by all the most able." During his obsequies his native city and the surrounding country laid aside its labors, and with one accord tendered the tribute of respect due to his memory. The city closed its business houses. In offering the resolutions of the bar on his death the Hon. B. F. Claypool, the oldest practitioner of that body said: "It has been my fortune to have known our departed brother from his infancy, and for more than fifty years we have traveled the journey of life side by side. We met upon the same play-ground of childhood, in the school room of youth, schooled in the same college, fought the battles of the profession side by side in the same arena for more than a quarter of a century, often meeting in the tierce struggle of debate for the mastery, and not unfrequently the angry and violent language of debate seemed to arouse feelings of anger that would not subside, but as we left the court room, we left behind the animosities of the conflict, and met as we ever had met, as friends; and it is a pleasing thought to know that at the close of his life we were friends, almost brothers. He was possessed of an ardent and sanguine temperament, and in all of his cases he threw the force of his strong will and varied learning. Conscientious in the discharge of his duty to his client, he was always prepared. He never wearied in the examination of his case until he thoroughly understood it, and when he came into court he was fully prepared for the conflict. A faithful student and a devoted Christian, he fully realized that 'life's but a walking shadow,' and that 'the veil which covers the face of futurity is woven by the hand of mercy,' and whenever he realized that in the excitement of professional contest he had in an unguarded moment wounded the feelings of a brother, he sought the earliest opportunity to erase all harshness and bitterness engendered by his conduct. For many years past disease was preying upon him, and at times he seemed very irrascible, yet he endeavored with all the will force he could command to restrain his temper, treat his antagonist with propriety, and keep within the bounds of decorum, for he felt and fully realized that 'there is indeed a God, that sees and hears whate'er we do,' and to that God he was accountable to the fullest extent. And now that he has gone from among us, and will no longer mingle in the strifes and contests of the court, let us forget his foibles, and remember only his virtues."

The death of Mr. Mcintosh occurred in the evening of August 27, 1878. He left surviving him his wife, Elizabeth W. (Martindale) Mcintosh, whom he had married in Indianapolis, April 28, 1851, and five children.