Marion County, Indiana - Chapter 8, 1884 (part 1 of 3)

The Bench And Bar

In the general history is related the organization of the county and the early sessions of the first court. No more need be said here than that Judge William W. Wick was elected the first judge by the Legislature at Corydon in the winter of 1821-22, and Hervey Bates appointed sheriff by Governor Jennings early in 1822. Both were residents of Connersville, and came here together in the early spring of 1822. The circuit consisted of Marion County, enlarged for judicial purposes by a considerable portion of the territory now composing Johnson, Hamilton, Boone, Madison, and Hancock Counties, with the following earlier-organized counties : Monroe, Morgan, Lawrence, Hendricks, Green, Owen, Rush, Decatur, Bartholomew, Jennings, and Shelby. The first session of the court was held at the house of Gen. Carr, the State agent, on Delaware Street opposite the court-house, Sept. 26, 1822. Judge Wi(.-k presided, with Eliakim Harding and James Mcllvain as associates. James M. Ray was clerk by election the previous April, and Hervey Bates sheriff by regular election in August succeeding his appointment. Calvin Fletcher was the first prosecutor by appointment. Up to 1824, when the court-house was so far completed as to be available for the sessions, the first meeting was held at Carr's house, as the law had designated that place, and then an adjournment was made to Crumbaugh's on Washington Street, - or the place in the woods where the street was to run, - just west of the future line of the canal. We have no record of the lawyers in attendance at that first session of the first court of the county, and there is no certainty that there were any belonging to the town except Mr. Fletcher, the prcsecutor, and Harvey Gregg, one of the founders of the Western Censor, the predecessor of the Journal. Mr. Fletcher long held a prominent place at the bar, and only left it to take the presidency of the Indianapolis branch of the State Bank.

Hon. Calvin Fletcher. - Robert Fletcher, the progenitor in America of the Fletcher family, was probably born in Yorkshire, in 1592. He settled at Concord, Mass., in 1630, with a family consisting of a wife, two sons, - Luke and William, - -and one daughter. In the direct line of descent from this pioneer was born, on the 4th of February, 1798, Calvin, the subject of this sketch, the eleventh in a family of fifteen children. Under the teachings of an excellent father and a mother of more than ordinary ability he learned those habits of industry and self-reliance which, coupled with upright principles, uniformly characterized his later life. While performing all the duties exacted from a boy upon a New England farm, he very soon manifested a great desire for a classical education. Depending upon his own earnings for the means by which to achieve his desire, he set about the preparation for college by pursuing his studies at Randolph and Royalton Academies, Vermont. After some vicissitudes he for a time abandoned study and began labor in a brick -yard in Pennsylvania. Circumstances soon after influenced his removal to Ohio, where he first taught school at Urbana, Champaign Co., and was subsequently private tutor in the family of a Mr. Gwin, whose fine library afforded him abundant opportunity for reading. He finally studied law with Hon. James

Cooley, afterwards United States Chargi (T Affaires to Peru. In 1819 he removed to Virginia, and was licensed to practice by the Supreme Court of that State, but his strong love of freedom and the rights of man caused him to renounce his intention, and returning to Urbana, Ohio, he became the law-partner of Mr. Cooley. In 1821, Mr. Fletcher settled in Indianapolis, the capital of the State, with his family, and was the first lawyer in that city. His business soon became lucrative. He later became prosecuting attorney, and associated with him as partners Ovid Butler, Esq., and Simon Yandes, Esq. On making the capital his ht>me Mr. Fletcher actively interested himself in its prosperity, and readily won the confidence and esteem of its citizens. In 1827 i he was elected State senator, in which office he was continued until 1832, when he abandoned politics. 1 though a successful career was open to him had he | chosen to follow it. He was in 1825 appointed State's attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, embracing from twelve to fifteen counties. In 1834 he was appointed one of four to organize a State bank, and to act as sinking fund commissioner, which office was held for seven years. From 1843 until 1859, when the charter expired, he acted as president of the Indianapolis branch of the State Bank. Mr. Fletcher was a strong man physically, morally, and intellectually. He was equal to the emergency when justice to himself required an exhibition of strength, and in the same spirit he stood ready to befriend those who might have been otherwise injured. He was a lover of nature. He took mnch interest in the study of ornithology, and made himself familiar with the habits of birds, their instincts and characteristics. The domestic animals found in him a sympathizing friend. He was kind to them, and ever ready to acquire a knowledge of their dispositions and qualities, that he might turn it to their advantage. He was fond of the science of astronomy, and, in fact, of all studies that were elevating and ennobling. In his well-selected library of general literature, in addition to law-books, might be seen local histories, periodicals, the works of Audubon, school journals, and miscellaneous works. In one leading trait his course was marked and earnest,, - no poor man ever applied to Calvin Fletcher in his need, either for counsel or assistance, and was sent empty away. When the friends of the colored man, fleeing from bondage, were few and unpopular, his sympathy and helping hand were never withheld. He was like all men of power in his age, exceedingly rapid in thought and action. Before others had begun the argument he had concluded it. Repose was not his dominant characteristic. But more to be admired than all these traits was his earnest, consistent Christian character. No man could love and respect the Bible and the minister more than he. He was a constant student of the one and hearer of the other. Calvin Fletcher was married, on the 1st of May, 1821, to Miss Sarah Hill, of Champaign County, Ohio, a lady of remarkable energy of character, combined with gentleness of disposition and refined tastes. Her death occurred in September, 1854, and he was again married, to Mrs. Keziah Price Lister. The children of Calvin Fletcher are James Cooley, Elijah Timothy, Calvin, Miles Johnson, Stoughton Alfonzo, Maria Antoinette, Crawford, Ingram, William Baldwin, Stephen Keyes, Lucy Keyes, and Albert Elliott. The death of Calvin Fletcher occurred May 26, 1866. At a meeting of the bankers, held at Indianapolis, resolutions respecting his death were adopted, of which the following extract is appended :

'-'That in the career of Mr. Fletcher are presented very striking evidences of what great and good things may be accomplished under our free institutions by sound sense and unfailing energy, no matter how unpromising the circumstances of the possessor may be at his outset in life.

"That his success in business is the history of a life of hopeful labor, pure integrity, genial benevolence, steady caution, and active usefulness, in which great results have been attained, not by brilliant strokes of adventure or any dependence upon fortune, but by those plainer and less obtrusive methods which are within the reach of the great majority of men, and affords a lesson of hope and warning, - hope to the uprighr, diligent, and frugal, warning to the reckless and idle who wait upon fortune."

In the fall of 1823, a little over a year after the first session of court, a lawyer of marked ability came from Pennsylvania primarily, but later from Lebanon, Ohio, where he had studied law with the celebrated orator and lawyer, Thomas Corwin, and inado his home here permanently. He was as prominent in the profession as Mr. Fletcher, and much longer in it. Tiiat was Hiram Brown.

HiRA.M Brown, an eminent advocate in Indiana, traced his descent from a family of Welsh origin, living in Southern England, that accompanied or soon followed Lord Baltimore's colony to Maryland, settling at Welsh Flats, in Pennsylvania. The descendants of this emigrant remained in that region and in Maryland for years, and one of them, Wendel Brown, with his two sons, prior to 1754, crossed the , mountains and visited the Monongahela Valley, taking no settlement because of the savages ; and It was not till 1765 that his son, or grandson, Thomas |Brown, located at Redstone Old Fort, - so called beause the mound-builders in former ages had erected

Col. Michael Cresap (unjustly charged with murier in Logan's celebrated speech) had prior to 1765 located a " tomahawk right" to several hundred acres, including the Old Fort, and in 1770 built a hewed log house on it, with a nailed shingle roof, the first west of the mountains. Thomas Brown bought Cresap's house and claim, and in 1785 perfected his title by purchase from the commonwealth, and laid out the town of Brownsville. He died in 1797, aged fifty-nine years, and was buried in the Old Fort, his tombstone stating that " he was the owner of this town." He left a large estate and family, but their hospitality and extravagance dissipated their patrimony, and the members scattered throughout the West, leaving few representatives of the name or blood in their old home.

One of the sons, Ignatius Brown, born Dec. 1, 1769, at Brownsville, died at Lebanon, Ohio, June 3, 1834. Early in 1791 he married Elizabeth Gregg, a woman of good mind and great force of character, and to them, on the 18th of July, 1792, was born their first child, Hiram Brown, the subject of the present sketch. They afterwards had six other children, - Milton, a distinguished lawyer and congressman from Tennessee ; Ashel, a leading lawyer at Lebanon, Ohio ; Hervey, a lawyer and member of the Legislature, both in Indiana and Tennessee ; and three daughters, - Minerva, Matilda, and Orpha, - all of whom married. In 1798, Ignatius Brown removed his family and remnant of his property to Kentucky, where he bought several thousand acres of land and resided several years; but his title proving defective he was impoverished, and compelled again to emigrate. He located a claim in the Symmes' Purchase, near Denfield, in Warren Co., Ohio, but when returning caught cold, which produced paralysis of the optic nerves, resulting in instant and total blindness ; in this helpless state he was led by his comrades through the wilderness to his family. Vision afterward slowly returned, and in old age he could read without glasses. While blind he was made justice of the peace, and subsequently associate judge of the County Court, a position he held at the time of his death.

The young wife, brave under this disaster, moved her helpless husband and family to the new location, and began making a home in the woods. The burthen, of course, fell on Hiram, then a mere boy, and for years his life was devoted to this work, foregoing an education that the rest should get it, and have shelter and food. By studying at night he learned to read well and write, acquired some knowledge of grammar, and " cyphered as far as the rule of three." Subsequently, by reading the best authors, he gained so great a command of pure English that his forensic efforts, though never specially prepared, were admired for their fluency, finish, and perfection of style. After several years' work on the farm he determined to become a merchant, and entered a store in Lebanon, but the change so injured his health that he was thought to be consumptive. Returning at once to farm work, to chopping and milling, he soon recuperated and became noted for activity and strength, being champion in all athletic exercises. It is said that, with a few yards' ! run, he could jump over the head of a man his equal in height. At twenty to twenty-five years old he was in the prime of physical strength. He was five feet eight inches high, weighed one hundred and sixty-five pounds ; erect, symmetrically formed, with small hands and feet. His head was large, features clearly cut, brows arched, shading large lightblue eyes ; mouth firm, and lips thin. His voice was musical, high-pitched, and under perfect control.

His business being prosperous, he was married, May 29, 1817, to Miss Judith Smith, a very beautiful and amiable woman, who survived him nearly six years. She was born July 12, 1794, in Powhatan County, Va., the daughter of Rev. James Smith, one of the earliest Methodist preachers. This union was a happy one, lasting over thirty years. They had nine children, one dying in infancy ; the rest survived them.

After marriage he traveled on horseback to Washington City to patent a boat-wheel he had invented, but before doing anything with it the panic of 1820 overwhelmed him, with many others, and he lost all his property. After settling bis affairs he studied law with Thomas Corwin for six months and was admitted to the bar. Mr. Corwin wished him to remain at Lebanon, but deeming Indianapolis abetter point, he removed here with his family early in November, 1823, and was admitted by the Supreme Court in 1824.

He soon acquired a good practice, ranking highest as an advocate in criminal cases. Before a jury his bearing was easy, gestures apt, voice clear and penetrating, his statement of the evidence fair and forcible. He instantly grasped the strong points in his cases, and illustrated them in so many different ways that he fixed them in the jurors' minds without wearying them by the repetition. He identified himself with the feelings and interests of his clients, and made their cause his own. His native wit and keen sense of humor often enabled him to so ridicule an opponent's case that it was laughed out of court. He was sometimes, though not often, sarcastic and bitter in denunciation, but his nature was kindly and forbearing. He was most formidable in desperate cases, when the odds were heaviest against him. " Court week" then brought the whole country into town, and when he spoke the house was always crowded. A volume would be needed to detail the incidents in his professional career and give the anecdotes told of his wit, humor, and stinging repartee. Some have been published, but most have perished with those who heard them. For years he was in every important case, and was generally successful. With the exception, perhaps, of a short service as prosecutor, at an early day, he declined executive or judicial position, practicing his profession from November, 1823, till June 8, 1853, when he died, the "father of the bar." His early associates had nearly all died or retirfid, and a new generation was growing up whose ways were unlike their fathers'. He disliked the change, and missed and mourned his old opponents. He often fell into reveries, his memory busy with the past, his face changing with each crowding recollection, his eyes flashing until he would break out with the exclamation, " Ah, there were giants in those days !"

We now have no idea of the hardships endured by the old bar in their practice, the circuit once extending from Bloomingtou to Fort Wayne, its whole extent a wilderness. Traveling it was a campaign often involving weeks of absence from home, man and horse struggling through endless swamps, swim- niing swollen rivers, and sleeping in the woods. It was at all times tedious and laborious, and in some seasons difiScult and dangerous. The fees were far less than now, and often remained mere promises to pay. This at least was Mr. Brown's experience, for though he nominally made a great deal of money, his indulgence lost him the greater part of it. He generally tore up the notes and accounts against his more dilatory clients rather than press their collection. With his wife and son he traveled through Iowa in 1848, stopping each night with some old client encountered on the way, and on his return said he ought to receive some credit for the rapid growth of that State, for he found it largely peopled by his runaway clients.

He had no love for or desire to accumulate money, and at his death he left only his town residence and a small farm south of the city, on which and its orchard he had expended money enough, if it had been invested in town property, to have made him rich. He admitted this, but said he then would not have enjoyed it, maintaining that men only actually possess the money they spend, and get no benefit from it unless so used.

Neither a politician nor a partisan, he was a lifelong Whig and admirer of Henry Clay, naming his oldest son for him. He made Whig speeches, and during the Morgan excitement was strongly urged to run for Congress by the anti-Masons ; but though success seemed certain he refused, and never entered political life. His habits and tastes were strongly opposed to such a career. He disliked the glare of public life, and delighted in home and its pleasures, the society of children and old friends. With them his fun-loving nature had free rein, and wit, humor, and anecdote were lavished on all around him. Those only who saw him under such circumstances could properly appreciate the sterling worth and honesty of the man.

He inherited hospitality, and the latch-string was always out. All preachers and clients were welcome, and for years his house contained nearly as many guests as members of his own family ; and as they generally came on horseback, this " entertainment for man and beast" not only increased the labors of

Reared at a time when liquor was kept in every house and tendered to every visitor, it was only natural, with his temperament and social qualities, that at times he used it to excess. It was a common vice with the bar, but with him a little went a great way. He left off its use entirely for years before he died, and notwithstanding his opposition to secret societies - believing them to be inimical to republican institutions, which require the most open discussion and treatment of all questions - he united with and became a prominent oflScer in the Sons of Temperance, and labored in that cause till his death. At about the same time he joined the Methodist Church, - in which his wife had been a life-long member, - and died in that faith. He denounced gambling in all its forms, and was selected by a public meeting to assist in the prosecution of the gamblers, who seemed to have been given free rein by the regular authorities. In endeavoring to do so he was hampered, and the facts and evidence withheld from him in the clerk's office. Commenting on this at a subsequent public meeting, he said that whether the action of his friend the clerk was right or not, it had at least illustrated the greatest of the virtues, for " his charity had covered a multitude of sins."

He was among the earliest to introduce fine fruits into this section, and spent much time, labor, and money in the effort. Though rarely tasting fruit himself, and though no market then existed for it, he planted twenty-fouV acres in the choicest varieties, as he said, for the public benefit and future markets. His devotion to it caused his death, for, having spent a very hot day in it, he was partially sunstruok, and on returning home at night was seized with congestion of the brain. He rallied from the first attack, and seemed better for several days, but a relapse took place on the night of the 7th of June and he lay unconscious till eight o'clock p.m. of the next day, when he died. When his critical illness became known his old friends hastened to his side. Among them came Calvin Fletcher, his old opponent at the bar, who seemed most deeply affected at his loss. His death was a shock to the community. Full obituary notices, with sketches of his life, appeared in all the journals. The courts adjourned; the bar passed resolutions, which were spread on the records, and bench and bar attended his funeral in a body. The funeral discourse was pronounced by his old friend, Rev. W. H. Goode, at Roberts' Chapel, June, 1853, and his remains were interred in Green Lawn Cemetery. They were subsequently removed, with those of his wife and two of his sons, to a lot at the eastern base of the hill in Crown Hill Cemetery, where they rest in peace, awaiting the resurrection.

Mr. Brown had nine children ; one died in infancy, the rest survived him. Eliza S., the eldest daughter, married J. C. Yohn, a prominent merchant of the city ; they have four surviving children and several grandchildren. Minerva V., the second child (now deceased), married A. G. Porter; they have five surviving children and several grandchildren. Angeline, the third child, died at four years of age. Martiia S., the fourth child, married Samuel Delzell, a prominent business man of the city ; they have one surviving child. Clay Brown, the oldest son, was educated at the seminary under Kemper, and at A.sbury University ; studied medicine with Dr. John Evans, and graduated at Rush Medical College; began practice at Anderson, Ind., but removed in a few years to this city, soon taking high rank in his profession ; he was appointed assistant surgeon of the Eleventh Indiana Volunteers, and was present' at Fort Donelson, where overwork and exposure produced illness, from which he died at Crump's Landing, Tenn., just before the battle at Shiloh ; his body was brought home by Adjt. Macauley, and buried with the honors of war. Matilda A. was married to Jonas McKay, and is residing at Lebanon, Ohio ; she has two daughters. Ignatius Brown, the second son, was educated under Kemper and Lang at the seminary, studied law with his father, graduated Bachelor of Law at Bloomington, and began practice; he married Miss Elizabeth M. Marsee, oldest daughter of Rev. J. Marsee ; she is now dead ; they have four children ; Mr. Brown left the practice at the beginning of the war, and is now with his sons in the abstract-of-title line. James T. Brown, the third son, was educated at the seminary under Kemper and Lang, became traveling salesman for Guthrie & Co., of LouLsville, married Miss Forsythe, and died (childle-ss) in 1861. Mary E., the youngest child, married Barton D. Jones, and is now residing in Washington City ; they have

I Probably no man connected with the county courts was so widely known and closely associated with their history in the minds of all early residents as Robert B. Duncan, the deputy of James M. Ray for several years, and then for nearly a score of years the clerk succeeding Mr. Ray, on the latter's acceptance of the cashiership of the old State Bank in 1834.

Scotchman, having emigrated to America in 1754, where he engaged in the pursuit of his trade, that of a tailor. He married Agnes Singleton, born in 1742, also of Scotch parentage, and had children, - Robert, James, John, and three daughters. Robert was born in Pennsylvania, Sept. 28, 1772, and during his youth resided in that State, after which he removed to Western New York and engaged in farming pursuits. He married Miss Anna Boyles, and had children, - James, Esther, William, Kobert B., Margaret, John, Samuel, Jane, and Annie. The death of Mrs. Duncan occurred in 1822, and that of Mr. Duncan Jan. 6, 1846. Their son Robert B. was born in Ontario County, N. Y., June 15, 1810, where the earliest seven years of his life were spent. In 1817 he removed to Ohio and settled near Sandusky, his residence until the spring of 1820, when the family emigrated to Conner's Station, in the present Hamilton County, Ind., then an unsurveyed prairie. Various employments occupied the time here until 1824, when he became a resident of Pike township, Marion Co., and engaged in the pioneer labor of clearing ground and farming. The year 1827 found him a resident of Indianapolis, where he entered the county clerk's oflnce as deputy, and remained thus employed until March, 1834, when he was elected to the office of clerk of the county, and held the position for sixteen successive years. Mr. Duncan had meanwhile engaged in the study of law, and immediately, on the expiration of his official term in 1850, began his professional career, confining himself mainly to business associated with the Probate Court. He still continues to practice, devoting himself to the interests of the firm with which he is associated in connection with the Probate Court and to consultation. Mr. Duncan was early in his political career a Whig, and continued his relations with that party until his later indorsement of the articles of the Republican platform. With the exception of his lengthy period of official life as county clerk, he has never accepted nor sought office. He was reared in the stanch faith of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, and still adheres to that belief. Mr. Duncan was married in December, 1843, to Miss Mary E., daughter of Dr. John H. Sanders, of Indianapolis, to whom were born children, - John S. (a practicing lawyer), Robert P. (a manufacturer), Anna D. (wife of William T. Barbee, of Lafayette, Ind.), and Nellie D. (wife of John R. Wilson, of Indianapolis). Mr. Duncan enjoys the distinction of being the oldest continuous resident of the county.

Two years after Mr. Duncan came to the town to take the deputy's place with Mr. Ray, James Morrison came up from Charleston, Clarke Co., having been elected Secretary of State to succeed Judge Wick. He was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1796, came to this country a young lad, with his parents and brothers (the late William H. and Alexander F.), studied law with Judge William B. Rochester, in Western New York, and after his admission to the bar came to Charleston, where he practiced his profession with the late Judge Charles Dewey, of the State Supreme Bench from 1836 to 1847. Whea elected Secretary of State, in 1829, he removed here permanently with his brothers, and succeeded Judge Bethuel Morris as presiding judge of the circuit. He also succeeded Samuel Merrill as president of the old State Bank, on the accession of the latter to the presidency of the Madison Railroad. He was the first attorney-general of the State, and the first president of the Burns Club, being a native of the same shire. For twenty-five years he was senior warden of Christ Church, and during the remainder of his life, after the organization of St. Paul's Church, held the same office there. He was one of the best men, intellectually and morally, that the city has ever claimed. He was an honorable lawyer, and that means a great deal, and he was a Christian gentleman.

In the latter part of the second decade of the city's existence, Mr. Ovid Butler came to Indianapolis and formed a partnership with Mr. Fletcher, which was subsequently enlarged by the addition of Simon Yandes, Esq., eldest son of the late Daniel Yandes, the pioneer mill builder of the New Purchase. Mr. Yandes was noted at the bar for accuracy, clearness, and persevering labor, as was Mr. Butler, and with Mr. Fletcher's experience and dash, the firm was one of rare strength, as well known for its integrity as its ability.

Ovid Butler was born on the 7th of February, 1801, in Augusta, N. Y., and died at Indianapolis, Ind., on the 12th of July, 1881. His father, the Rev. Chauncey Butler, was the first pastor of the Dbeiples' Church in this city. He died in 1840. His grandfather, Capt. Joel Butler, was a Revolutionary soldier, and served in the disastrous Quebec expedition. He died in 1822. In 1817 the family removed from the home in New York to Jennings County, in this State, where Ovid Butler resided until he arrived at the years of manhood. Here he taught school for a few years and studied law. In 1825 he settled at Shelby ville, where he practiced his profession until 1836, when he removed to Indianapolis, which became his permanent residence. He continued in his practice here, having as partners at diiferent times Calvin Fletcher, Simon Yandes, and Horatio C. Newcomb, among the ablest and most prominent lawyers of the State. His business was extensive and very lucrative, but owing to impaired health he retired from the bar in 1849.

He was married in 1827 to Cordelia Cole, who lived until the year 1838. He was again married, to Mrs. Elizabeth A. Elgin, daughter of the late Thomas McOuat, in 1840, who survived him one year. No man was more fortunate in his domestic relations. As a lawyer Mr. Butler excelled in the office. In the argument of legal questions and the preparation of pleadings he was laborious and indefatigable. With firmness, perseverance, clearness of purpose, and tenacity without a parallel he pushed his legal business through the courts. With not many of the graces of the orator, he surpassed, by dint of great exertion in the preparation of his cases, those who relied upon persuasive eloquence or sudden strategy at the bar. Plain, quiet, gentle, modest, but solid and immovable, he was a formidable antagonist in the greatest cases that were tried during his practice. His style was strong and sententious ; without ornament, without humor, without elegance, but logical and convincing. His clients always got his best ability in the preparation and trial of their cases. His legal knowledge was general and comprehensive, his judgment sound, and his reasoning powers vigorous. He met few competitors at the bar combining so much industry, strength, perseverance, and culture. He had the unbounded confidence of the community in his common sense, integrity, and general capability in his profession.

After his retirement from the bar he devoted his life mainly to the interests of the Christian Church and of the Northwestern Christian University. But for a few years after the close of the Mexican war, while the questions as to the extension of slavery into the territories acquired were being agitated, he took an active part in politics. In 1848 he established a newspaper in Indianapolis called The Free Soil Banner, which took radical ground against the extension of slavery and against slavery itself. The motto was "Free .soil, free States, free men." He had been previously a Democrat. He served upon the Free Soil electoral ticket and upon important political committees, and took the stump in advocacy of his principle.s in the Presidential campaigns of 1848 and 1852.

In 1852 he contributed the funds, in a great measure, to establish Tlie Free Soil Democrat, a newspaper for the dissemination of his cherished views upon these questions. This was finally merged in The Indianapolis Journal in the year 1854, Mr. Butler having purchased a controlling interest in that newspaper. In the year 1854 the Republican party was organized out of the anti-slavery men of all parties, and took bold ground upon the subject, and the Journal became its organ. The influence Mr. Butler exerted upon public sentiment was great and beneficent. He ranged in the higher walks of politics, steadfa-stly and intelligently advancing the great ideas, then unpopular, which have since become the universal policy of the nation. He lived to see his principles written upon the banners of our armies and gleaming in the lightning of a thousand battles, to see them embodied in the Constitution and hailed with delight wherever free government has an advocate.

Mr. Butler gave further evidence of devotion to his principles by aiding in the establishment of a free-soil paper in Cincinnati, and taking a wider range when Kossuth came preaching the gospel of liberty for down-trodden Hungary, he again opened his liberal purse for humanity.

But he sought quiet and retirement. Many years ago he removed his residence from his old home in town to his farm north of and beyond its limits. Here, among and in the shade of the great walnut-, ash-, sugar-, and elm-trees, he built his house, and here he spent the remainder of his years. Here, walking or sitting beneath these grand representatives of the primeval forest, might be seen his venerable form fitly protected by their shadows. Here he received his friends and welcomed them to his hospitable board. Here his family assembled, his

City Of Indianapolis

The appearance of Mr. Butler was not strikinji. Of about the average height, as he walked he leaned forward, as if in thought. His eye was bright and cheerful, and the expression of his countenance was sedate, indicative of sound judgment, strong common sense, an unruiHed temper, a fixedness of purpose, and kindness of heart. His voice was not powerful or clear, his delivery was slow and somewhat hesitating; but such was the matter of his speech, so clear, cogent, apt, and striking, that he compelled the attention of his hearers. The weight of his character, the power of his example, the charm of a life of rectitude and purity gave a force to his words which, coming from an ordinary man, might not have been so carefully heeded. Emerson says, " It makes a great difference to the sentence whether there be a man behind it or not." He was a little shy and unobtrusive in his manners, especially among strangers, but to his old friends cordial, winning, and confiding. He avoided controversies, kept quiet when they were impending, and conciliated by his decorous forbearance those who, by active opposition, would have been roused to hostility.

Stronger than all other features of his character was his unaffected piety. For many years of his life he was an humble and devoted Christian, illustrating in his daily walk and conversation the principles he professed. Devout without display, zealous and charitable, he placed before and above all other personal objects and considerations his own spiritual culture ; looking to that true and ultimate refinement which, begun on earth, is completed in heaven.

The great and memorable work of Mr. Butler was connected with the Northwestern Christian University, now called " Butler University." He, with many friends, had for some years contemplated the establishment of this institution, and in the winter of 1849-50 obtained the passage of a charter through the Legislature of this State. Mr. Butler drafted it, and had the credit of giving expression in it to the peculiar objects of the University. The language of the section defining them is as follows : " An institution of learning of the highest class for the education of the youth of all parts of the United States and of the Northwest ; to establish in said institution departments or colleges for the instruction of the students in every branch of liberal and professional education ; to educate and prepare suitable teachers for the common schools of the country ; to teach and inculcate the Christian faith and Christian morality as taught in the sacred Scriptures, discarding as uninspired and without authority all writings, formulas, creeds, and articles of faith subsequent thereto, and for the promotion of the sciences and arts." As to intellectual training, this calls for a high standard. As to religious teaching, it is radically liberal.

But Mr. Butler was not an aggressive reformer. His gentle nature had no taint of acrimony or intolerance in it. While he entertained, announced, and adhered to his own views with unalterable tenacity, he exercised toward all who disagreed with him an ample Christian charity. He was not a sectarian in the narrow and offensive sense. He was willing to wait patiently for the gradual and slow changes of public opinion as truth was developed.

For twenty years he served as president of the board of directors of the University, and in 1871, at the age of seventy, he retired from the ofiSce, saying in his letter of resignation, " I have given to the institution what I had to offer of care, of counsel, of labor, and of means, for the purpose of building up not merely a literary institution, but for the purpose of building up a collegiate institution of the highest class, in which the divine character and the supreme Lordship of Jesus, the Christ, should be fully recognized and carefully taught to all the students, together with the science of Christian morality, as taught in the Christian Scriptures, and to place such an institution in the front ranks of human progress and Christian civilization as the advocate and exponent of the common and equal rights of humanity, without distinction of sex, race, or color."

He had fought the good fight, he had adhered to his purpose, he had not labored in vain. But for ten years more, and until his death, he gave the University his attention and his best thought. He had devoted so many years of his life and so much of his energy to this purpose that it had become the habit of his being to promote and protect the interests of the University. His influence and his spirit are still as powerful as ever there. Absence, silence, and death have no power over them.

He did not run to the mountains, or the seaside, or Saratoga for happiness. His residence, his carriage, and his dress were plain. He gratified his taste, but it was an exalted one. The campus of a college, his gift to men, was to him a finer show than deer-parks or pleasure-grounds. The solid walls of the University were more pleasing than a palace carved and polished and decorated for his own comfort. He delighted to look upon well-trained men and women rather than pictures and statuary. He preferred to gather the young and docile of the human race, and put them on exhibition, rather than short-horns or Morgan horses, and yet he did not despise or underrate these other good things. He gratified a refined and ennobled taste when he selected the man for culture and not the animal. But it was not all a matter of taste ; he looked much farther than that. He loved cultivated men and women for their uses ; for their power and capability to do good ; to teach the truth, to set examples ; to lead men from vice and ignorance ; and to give them strength and encouragement. And so he put forth, for many of the best years of his life, his constant exertions to build up a great institution of learning, in which the principles of human freedom and of Christianity should be taught forever. He did not die without the sight. He inspired many to unite with him in the work, and has laid a foundation in a place and in a way that, so far as can be seen, will be perpetual for great good.

The Circuit Court was the only one known here till 1849, except the Probate Court, which was hardly accounted a court, and not held in high consideration, being little more than a sort of relief to the Circuit Court, the probate business of which it assumed. The judge was never or rarely a lawyer, and his business was that of an accountant rather than a judge. In 1849 the bar decided, after some consultation, that the Circuit Court needed to be relieved in a more effective fashion than the Probate Court did it, and the late Oliver H. Smith drafted a bill to create a Common Pleas Court for this county. It passed, and Abram A. Hammond, subsequently Lieutenant-Governor and Governor, was made the first judge and clerk, the bill adding one duty to the other to make the fees a sufiicient salary. In a year he went to California, and was succeeded by Edward Lander, an elder brother of the late Gen. Fred. Lander, and the first chief justice of Washington Territory. An act of the Legislature of May 11, 1852, abolished this local court and created a State system of Common Pleas Courts, specially charged with probate business, but given also concurrent jurisdiction with the Circuit Court and justices of the peace in a certain range of civil and criminal business. The order of judges of this court will be found in the list of county officers. The district contained Marion, Boone, and Hendricks Counties. In 1873 " all matters and business pending in the Courts of Common Pleas" were "transferred to the Circuit Courts of the proper counties," and the system of Common Pleas Courts came to an end, after an existence in Marion County of nearly a quarter of a century.

In the courts of inferior jurisdiction the justices of the county and city occasionally attained a creditable and well-earned distinction. Among these were Henry Brady, Thomas Morrow, Samuel Moore, Charles Bouge, Hiram Bacon, James Johnson, John C. Hume, and others in the county outside of the city; and in the city, Obed Foote, Henry Bradley, Caleb Scudder, Charles Fisher, and particularly William Sullivan, whose long tenure of the office, with the extent of his business and the soundness of his judgment, made him of almost equal authority with the Circuit Court. For many years he was almost ihe only justice of the peace that the bar would trust with any bu.siness.

William Sullivan. - The ancestors of Mr. Sullivan were among the earliest settlers of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and the adjoining Slate of Delaware. His grandfather, Moses Sullivan, was of Irish-English descent, and his wife, Mary Parker, of Kent County, Md., was of English extraction. Their children were David, William, and Mary, the first-named of whom was the father of the subject of this sketch. He married Elizabeth Peacock in 1794, and settled in Kent County, Md. Their children were Joel, Aaron, Sarah, Nathan P., William, Ellen C., and George E. The survivor of these children, William Sullivan, was born April 25, 1803. His father having died when the lad was in his fifth year, he was placed in the academy at Elkton, Md., and remained at this institution until his seventeenth year. On the death of his mother in 1827 he made an extended tour for purposes of observation and improvement, and continued his studies, after which he accepted employment from a corps of civil engineers as land surveyor and general assistant, and gained much practical knowledge in this vocation.

He removed in 1833 to Ohio, and for a term engaged in teaching, subsequently entering Hanover College, Indiana, where he was employed both in study and as an instructor. In 1834 Indianapolis became his home, where he immediately opened a private school, and later became connected with the Marion County Seminary, of which he acted as principal. In 1836 he was appointed to the office of civil engineer of the city of Indianapolis, and under his direction the first street improvements were made. The office of county surveyor of Marion County was also conferred upon him. During this time he constructed a large map of the city for general use, and a smaller one for the use of citizens. Mr. Sullivan took an active interest in educational matters, and was instrumental in organizing and building the Franklin Institute, which in its day enjoyed a successful career. He on dissolving his connection with this institution accepted the appointment of United States deputy surveyor of public lands, and immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties in Northern Michigan among the Chippewa Indians, then a troublesome and dangerous tribe. He was, while discharging the duties of this office, appointed chief assistant of the distribution post-office, then removed to Indianapolis, and held the position for four years, keeping account of the business and making quarterly and final settlement of the office receipts during the whole of that time.

In the spring of 1841 he was elected mayor of the city, and served one term. In the fall of that year he was chosen justice of the peace in and for Centre township, Marion Co., at Indianapolis, and continued to hold the office until 1867, a period of twenty-six years, frequently discharging the duties of police judge during the absence of the mayor. He was also, while acting as justice of the peace, the only United States commissioner at Indianapolis. He was later appointed by the United States Court the commissioner in bankruptcy for the State of Indiana. Meanwhile he has devoted both means and time to public improvements, particularly to plank-, gravel-, and railroads centring at Indianapolis, serving for several years as a director of the Central Railway from Richmond to Indianapolis, and subsequently as trustee of the Peru and Indianapolis Railroad. Mr. Sullivan was a well-read elementary lawyer before coming West. On retiring from active pursuits in 1867 he had a large amount of unsettled business, which induced him to be admitted as a practicing attorney in the various courts of Marion County, though he has during later years declined business for other parties. In politics he acted with the Democrats until the passage of the " Kansas-Nebraska Acts," since which time he has voted with the Republican party. On the 8th of March, 1835, Mr. Sullivan was married to Miss Clarissa Tomliuson, who was of Scotch and English descent, and resided in Indianapolis. Their children now living are Clara E. (wife of Col. Richard F. May, of Helena, Montana), Flora (wife of E. Wulschner, of Indianapolis), and George R. Sullivan, who married Mi.ss Annie Russell, of Indianapolis, and has one son, Russell. Both Mr. and Mrs. SuUivatx, though advanced in years, enjoy excellent health and exceptional mental vigor.

In 1865 the Criminal Circuit Court of Marion County was created to relieve the original court of a class of business that consumed a great deal of time, obstructed important interests, and largely increased the cost of maintaining the court to the county and the costs of litigation to parties. A separate court would hasten the dispatch of business of all kinds, and be a money-saving as well as trouble-saving measure. The Criminal Court, however, was not separated so completely frotn the parent court as was that of the Common Pleas in 1849. It was separate only in its duties and its judges. The county clerk had charge of its papers and records, and the county sheriff served it as he did the old Circuit Court and the Common Pleas Court. These three, the Circuit, the Common Pleas, and the Criminal Court, consitituted the judicial force of the county from 1865 to 1873, when the Common Pleas was reabsorbed into the Circuit Court. The Criminal Court continues, with a little modification since its original establishment, with a series of accomplished and efiScient judges, as will be seen from the list appended to this work. The member of the city bar who is probably the best known as an advocate in the Criminal Court, though his practice is by no means confined to that class of business, is Jonathan W. Gordon.

Hon. Jonathan W. Gordon was born Aug. 13, 1820. His father, William Gordon, was an Irish laborer, who emigrated to the United States in 1789- 90, and settled in Washington County, Pa., where, Aug. 18, 1795, he married Sarah Wallon, a native of Greenbrier County, Va., by whom he had fourteen children, of which the subject of this biography is the thirteenth. The father removed from Pennsylvania to Indiana in the spring of 1835, and settled in Ripley County, where he resided until his death, Jan. 20, 1841. His wife survived him until May 29, 1857, when she died at the residence of her youngest daughter, Mrs. Charlotte T. Kelley.

In the mean time the subject of this sketch married Miss Catharine J. Overturf, April 3, 1843; entered upon the profession of the law Feb. 27, 1844 ; went to Mexico, June 9, 1846, as a volunteer in the Third Regiment of Indiana Volunteers ; lost his health in the service, and upon his return abandoned the law and studied medicine on account of hemorrhage of the lungs; was graduated as M.D. from Asbury University in 1851, and resumed the practice of the law at Indianapolis in 1852. He was elected prosecuting attorney in 1854 ; member of the House of Representatives in the General Assembly in 1856, and again in 1858 ; and during the latter term was twice chosen Speaker.

In 1859 he was nominated by many members of the bar, without distinction of party, for the office of Common Pleas judge, made vacant by the death the war. He served during the three months' service in the Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and received from the President during the time the appointment of major in the Eleventh United States Infantry. He accepted the position and served in garrison duty until March 4, 1864, when he resigned ; and, returning to Indianapolis, resumed the practice of the law. He united with those represented in the Cleveland Convention of that year in the support of Gen. Fremont, but when he ceased to be a candidate, supported Mr. Lincoln. He made two political speeches during the contest, taking strong ground against public corruption, and the exercise of all unauthorized power. In the fall of the year he defended those citizens of the State who were arraigned and tried before military commissions, and maintained the want of any jurisdiction on the part of such commissions to try a citizen of a State not involved in actual war. His argument was printed and largely circulated at the time, and it is believed that little was added to it by any subsequent discussions. He opposed not so much the impeachment of President Johnson, as the heated and partisan manner in which the Republican party tried to make it effective. This he opposed with zeal and enthusiasm from first to last, and when it failed in the vote on the eleventh article, congratulated the country on its failure.

He supported Gen. Grant in 1868, and in the course of the canvass delivered one of his ablest speeches in defense of the constitutionality of the measures of Congress for the reconstruction of governments in the seceding States. In the spring of 1869 he .suffered a great loss in the burning of his house and the greater part of his library. This loss he has never been able to repair, and his preparation in many a great controversy since has limped because of it. In 1872 he again supported Grant; was placed at the head of his electoral ticket in the State, and being elected was chosen by his colleagues president of the electoral college. In his speech upon taking the chair, he endeavored to ameliorate the asperity of party feeling and spirit by a generous tribute to the great journalist who had been supported by the opponents of the President. His party nominated him in 1876 for the oflBce of attorney-general of the State, but as the party was defeated that year in the State, he went down with the rest. In 1868 he ran for and was elected to the House of Representatives in the General Assembly. His canva.ss was regarded as indiscreet and audacious by many of his more prudent friends. Under the leadership of its most prominent leader, the Republican party of the State was deeply poisoned with the greenback virus. He knew this as well as others ; but believing that it was altogether more important that sound views on the subject of the currency should be presented to the people than that he should be elected to the Legislature, he exposed and ridiculed the fallacies of the greenbackers without stint or mercy. His defeat was confidently predicted by many prominent men of his own party ; but at the close of the election it was found that just views are understood and appreciated by the people, for he ran as well as his associates on the ticket. In the Legislature he devoted his labors and time to the amendment of the criminal law, so as to secure conviction of the guilty in many cases where it was before next to impossible. His labors were defeated for want of time to carry them through. He did succeed, however, in limiting the power of courts to punish for contempt, a thing hitherto neglected in the State.

Having lost his first wife, he married Miss Julia L. Dumont, March 13, 1862. He has had six children, five by his first, and one by his last wife.

He has followed his profession with a fair degree of success, bestowing great labor upon such new questions as have from time to time arisen in the course of his practice. In several instances he has, it is believed, given a permanent bent to the law as decided by the highest tribunal of the State ; but has in others failed where he believed, and still believes, that he was right. In such cases he finds consolation in the faith that just principles do finally triumph, and that his defeats are not final. He has not been satisfied to be merely a lawyer, but has taken a general view of literature and philosophy. Smitten with the love of poetry, he has sometimes mistaken it for the impulsions of genius, and essayed to sing. Some of his fugitive pieces have met with popular favor, and others with neglect. In this way he has been preserved from surrendering himself to the muses by the dead level of appreciation. He is not likely now to be spoiled by the passion for literary success. His last published poem shall end this sketch.

The Open Gate

THE OPEN GATE. I stand far down upon a shaded slope, And near the valley of a silent rirer, Whose tideless waters darkling, stagnant mope, Through climes beyond the flight of earthward hope, Forever and forever.

No breath of air to make it crisp or quiver, Nor sun, nor star to shed the faintest gleam To cheer its gloom ; but as the Styx, we deem, It creeps through might forever.

And all life's forces whisper, " We are weary ; Pass on and out, thou canst no more repeat The golden dreams of youth : and rest is sweet, And darkness is not dreary.

And countless millions have gone out before thee; What shouldst thou fear, since men of every state, And clime, and time have found the open gate. The gate of death or glory.

And look not back with aught like vain regretting j The sunny days of life for thee are o'er, - And thy dark eyes shall hail the light no more, - The final sun is setting."

In 1871 the Superior Court of Marion County was created with three judges, from the decision of any one of whom an appeal lay to all of them in " banc." In 1877, March 5, the number of judges was increased to four, and reduced again to three by the act of May 31, 1879. One of the most noted judges of the Superior Court, though not of the first three, was Samuel B. Perkins, for many years a member of the Supreme Court.

Samuel Elliott Perkins was born in Brattleboro', Vt., Dee. 6, 1811, being the second son of John Trumbull and Catharine Willard Perkins. His parents were both natives of Hartford, Conn., and were temporarily residing in Brattlcboro', where his father was pursuing the study of law with Judge Samuel Elliott. Before he was five years old his father died, and his mother removed with her children to Conway, Mass., where she also died soon afterward. Before this, however, Mrs. Perkins being unable to support her family, Elliott was adopted by William Baker, a respectable farmer of Conway, with whom he lived and labored until he was twenty-one years of age. During this time, by the aid of three months' annual schooling in the free schools in winter, and by devoting evenings and rainy days to books, he secured a good English education, and began the study of Latin and Greek. After attaining his majority he pursued his studies in different schools, working for his board and teaching in vacation to provide means for tuition and clothing. The last year of this course of study was spent at the Yates County Academy, N. Y., then under the presidency of Seymour B. Gookins, Esq., a brother of the late Judge Gookins, of Terre Haute, Ind. Having obtained a fair classical education he commenced the study of law in Penn Yan, the county-seat of Yates County, in the ofiSce of Thomas J. Nevius, Esq., and afterward as a fellow-student of Judge Brinkerhoff, late of the "Supreme Bench of Ohio, studying in the oflSce of Henry Welles, Esq., since one of the judges of the Supreme Court of New York. In the fall of 1836 he came alone, on foot, from Buffalo, N. Y., to Richmond, Ind., a stranger in a .strange land, not being acquainted with a single individual in the State. His original intention had been to locate in Indianapolis, but on reaching Richmond he found the roads impassable from recent heavy storms, it being necessary to carry even the mails on horseback. Finding it impossible to proceed farther, and desiring to lose no time in qualifying himself for practice, he inquired for a lawyer's office, and was referred to Judge J. W. Borden, then a practicing attorney in Richmond, and now criminal judge of Allen County. He spent the winter in his office doing office work for his board. In the spring of 1837, after a satisfactory examination before Hon. Jehu T. Elliott, Hon. David Kilgore, and Hon. Andrew Kennedy, a committee appointed by the court for that purpose, he was admitted to the bar at Centreville, Wayne Co., Ind. He immediately opened an office in Richmond, and soon obtained a large and lucrative practice. The Jeffersonian, a weekly paper, had been established in 1837 by a Democratic club, with Mr. Perkins as editor. In 1838 the Jeffersonian was sold to Lynde Elliott, who conducted it about a year and failed. He had mortgaged the press to Daniel Reed, of Fort Wayne, for more than its value. Mr. Reed visited Richmond, after Elliott's failure, for the purpose of moving the press to Fort Wayne. Unwilling that the Democracy of the place should be without an organ, Mr. Perkins came forward and paid off the mortgage, took the press, recommenced the publication of the Jeffersonian, and continued it through the campaign of 1840. In 1813 he was appointed by Governor Whitcomb prosecuting attorney of the Sixth Judicial Circuit. In 1844 he was one of the electors who cast the vote of the State for Mr. Polk. In the winter of 1844, and again in 1845, he was ' nominated by Governor Whitcomb, a cautious man and good judge of character, to a seat on the Supreme Bench, but was not confirmed. On the I adjournment of the Legislature, quite unexpectedly i to himself, he received from the Governor the api pointment for one year to the office for which he and were temporarily residing in Brattlcboro', where his father was pursuing the study of law with Judge Samuel Elliott. Before he was fire years old his father died, and his mother removed with her children to Conway, Mass., where she also died .-'>('-Wiird. Befori" tliis, huwovoi-. Mrs. P.v the aid of thr«!« months' annual sctuioling in the free cchoob in winter, and by devoting evenings and rainy days to books, he secured a good English education, and began the study of Latin and Greek. After attaining his majority he pursued his studies in | different schools, working for his board and teaching ^ in vacation to provide means for t^iition and clothing, i The last year of this course of study was spent at the I Yates County Academy, N, T., tlieu under the presi- j dency of Seymour B. Gookins, Esq., a bruiUer of the I late Judge Gookins, of Terre Haute, Ind. Having obtained a fair classical education he commenced ihc study of law in Penn Yan, the county-seat of Yates ' County, in the office of Thomas J. Nevius, Esq., and \ afterward as a fellow-student of Judge Brinkerhoff, I late of the Supreme Bench of Ohio, studying in the : office of Henry Welles, Esq., since one of the judges : of the Supreme Court of New York. In the fall of 1836 he came'alone, on foot, from Buffalo, N. Y., to Richmond, Ind., a stranger in a strange land, not being acquainted with a single individual in the State. His original intention had been to locate in Indianapolis, but on reaching Richmond'he found the roads impassable froin recent heavy storms, it being necessary to carry ev«n the 'mails on horseback. Finding it impossible to proceed farther, and desiring to lose no time in qualifying himself for practice, he inquired for a lawyer's office, and w<i:> referred to Judge J. W. Borden, then a practiciuj. attorney in Richmond, and now criminal jiidge of ''Jen County. He spent the winter in his offic "' » work for his board. In the spring oi « satisfnctory examination before Hon. r. Elliott. 'avid Kilgore, and Hon. Andrew Kennedy, a committee appointed by the court for that purpose, he was admitted to the bhr at Centreville, Wayne Co., Ind. He immediatei opened an office in Richmond, and soon . obtained large and lucrative practice. The Jefferaonian, 'IT, had been established in 1837 by '::''. «iih Mr Perkins as editor. Il . ' i Lynde Elliott ind failed. He had Fort Wayne, ^ ;. .,-, _ .i:. iieed visited Richmond, after Elliott's failure, for the purpose of moving the press to Fort Wayne. Unwilling that the "Democracy of the place should be without an organ Mr. Perkins came forward and. paid off the mort gage, took the press, recommenced the publication of the Jeffersonian, and continued it through th' campaign of 1840. In 1843 he was appointed h- Governor Whitcomb prosecuting attorney of tl. Sixth Judicial Circuit. In 1844 he was one of tl;' electors who cast the vote of the State~for Mr. Polk In the winter of 1844, and again in 1845, he wanominated by Governor Whitcomb, a cautious miu and good judge of character, to a seat on tin Supreme Bench, but was not confirnied. On tl. adjournment of the Legislature, quite unexpected !^ to himiielf, he received from the Governor the n|. pointment for one year to the office for which h had been nominated. He was then thirty-four years of age, and had been at the bar and a resident of the State but nine years. With much reluctance he accepted the appointment, having to risii the re-election of Governor Whitcomb for a renomination to the Senate the following year. He was, however, reelected, and Judge Perkins, having served on the bench one year, was renominated and confirmed by the Senate, receiving a two-thirds vote, seven Whig senators voting for him. In 1852, and again in 1858, he was elected, under the new Constitution, by the vote of the people to the same position, and was therefore on the Supreme Bench nineteen consecutive years. When, in the stress of political disaster in 1864, he left that court he did not therefore despair or retire, but entered at once into the practice of his profession. In 1857 he accepted the appointment of professor of law in the Northwestern Christian (now Butler) University, which position he retained several years. In 1870-72 he was professor of law at the Indiana State University, at Bloomington. He felt much pride and gratification in the marked success of so many of his students. In addition to his immense labor as one of the judges of the Supreme Court and professor of law, he prepared in 1858 the " Indiana Digest," a book containing eight hundred and seventy pages, and requiring in its writing, arrangement, and compilation for the press a great amount of labor, involving the deepest research into the statutes of the State and the decisions of the Supreme Court. This work has received the approbation of the members of the Indiana bar as a work of great merit and utility. In 1859 he also produced the " Indiana Practice," a work requiring an equal amount of labor. In 1868 he undertook the editorship of the Herald, formerly and since the Sentinel, the Democratic State organ. In August, 1872, he was appointed by Governor Baker, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Rand, to a seat on the Superior Bench of Marion County, a nisi prius and inferior tribunal, one of great labor and responsibility, and discharged its duties with all diligence and fidelity. He was subsequently elected to the same office in 187-1 without opposition. Nor was there ever a juster act of popular gratitude and recognition than when the people of the State, in 1876, almost without action upon his part, took him from this place and returned him to a higher station in the courts of the commonwealth which he had formerly so long adorned with his presence. To his studious application, which supplemented the natural qualities of his mind, much was due for the reputation of the Indiana Supreme Bench in the days when it was honored for its wisdom. He helped to give it the name it had in the days of Blackford and Dewey, his first associates in the court, and not the smallest part of the loss occasioned by his death is, that it deprives the bench of the quality it needs most and has least. Shortly after Judge Perkins' appointment to the Supreme Bench he became a resident of Indianapolis, where he continued to live until the time of his death. He took a lively interest in the development of the material interests of his adopted city, and during his long residence there assisted with his means and influence in many enterprises looking toward the prosperity of Indianapolis. As he was familiar with adversity in his early days, and often experienced all that was bitter in poverty, his heart continually prompted him to acts of benevolence toward the unfortunate of his neighborhood. It was a mystery to many how he could apply himself professionally with such unremitting diligence, and at the same time take suoh a lively interest in everything looking toward the prosperity of Indianapolis ; but the fact is he knew no rest; he was indefatigable; he never tired when there was anything to be done. His life was an unceasing round of labors which he never neglected, and which he pursued with a devoted industry from which more robust constitutions might have recoiled. On political subjects the judge was a pertinent and forcible writer, and when his pen engaged in miscellany its productions possessed a truthful brevity, perspicuity, and beauty which ranked them among the best literary productions of the day. His eulogy on the late Governor Ashbel P. Willard, delivered in the Senate chamber during the November term (IStiO) of the United States District Court, does ample justice to the character and memory of that distinguished man ; and the sentiments that pervade the entire address bear testimony to the soundness of the head and I goodness of the heart from which they emanated. ; The piih and fibre of his mental faculties are not by anything better attested than by the very evident growth and progress of his judicial style. His mind was of that finest material which does not dull with age or become stale with usage. He improved steadily and constantly to the very last. His last opinions are his best. There is in these a manifest terseness, a cautious, careful trimming and lopping oflF of all superfluousness ; the core only, the very kernel of the point to be decided, is presented. But for this tacit acknowledgment of a fault in bis earlier writings he is not to be upbraided, but commended rather for the moral courage necessary in the avowal and avoidance of such fault. The first, and not the least, quality in a judge is thorough integrity of purpose and action. In this great qualification he was faultless. In a long and diversified course of public life no charge was ever made against him of corruption or oppression, or even of discourtesy or unkindness. In his intercourse, whether with his colleagues of the bench and bar, or with the people at large, no stain was ever found upon the ermine which he wore. Too much praise can hardly be bestowed upon the firmness with which he maintained his political integrity. In early life an ardent friend and supporter of the principles of Jackson and Jefferson, he remained faithful in his adherence to them to the end. There were many notable examples in his day of political apostasy ; there were many of his contemporaries who, yielding to what was called the force of circumstances, did

But he was not of the number. At the grand assizes of the future, posterity will award to the late chief justice of Indiana the white glove of purity, in token of a lengthened term of public service in which justice was administered without fear, without favor, and without reproach. Judge Perkins died of paralysis of the brain, at his residence on West New York Street, Indianapolis, at midtiight, Dec. 17, 1879, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He died full of years and honors.

It seldom falls to the lot of a single individual in these feverish and changeful times to fill a position of such high honor and trust in the State such a length of time. As is customary on the death of a member of the profession, a bar meeting was called, and, after appropriate remarks, the following memorial was reported by Governor Baker, as chairman of a special committee :

"Again, in the history of the State, death has entered tho Supreme Court and made vacant a seat upon its bench. The chief justice is dead. We meet to do suitable honor to the name and memory, and mourn the death, of Judge Perkins. Uis eminent success is an encouragement, his death an admonition. Endowed with strong and active faculties, he pursued the purposes of his life with fortitude and determination, and at the close of his career he stood among the distinguished of a profession in which distinction must be merited to be achieved.

" He was successful in life, and attained exalted position and enjoyed the admiration and approval of his countrymen, not only because of his excellent natural endowments, but also because his faculties were cultivated and developed by diligent labor, and beautified by extensive and useful learning, and also because his motives were pure and his conduct upright. In this wo have a lesson and an encouragement.

'* The people gave him high honor, and made it as enduring as the laws and the records of the State. His name is forever interwoven in our judicial history. So long as society shall remain organized under the government of law will the student of laws consult his opinions and decisions. Through coming generations will his labor and learning influence both the legislator and the judge.

Judge Perkins was married, in 1838, to Amanda Juliette Pyle, daughter of Joseph Pyle, a prominent citizen of Richmond, Ind. By this marriage there were ten children, three of whom lived to maturity. Mary married Oscar B. Hord, and died in 1874, leaving four sons, - Samuel E. P., Henry E., Frank T., and Ricketts Hord. Emma married H. C. Holbrook, and died without children. Samuel Elliott, Jr., the only one now living, married Sue B. Hatch, and has two little sons, - Samuel Elliott and Volney Hatch Perkins.

Court is now transacted much the larger proportion of all the civil business of the county, except probate business, which all goes to the Circuit Court. The sessions run on almost continuously from one year's end to another. The succession of judges will be found in the appended list of county officers. Among those who have served with efficiency and high credit none have left the bench with a more desirable record and reputation than Judge John A. Holman.

John A. Holman comes of English stock. His great- grand father, George Holman, was born in Maryland, Feb. 11, 1762. When sixteen years of age he went with his uncle to Kentucky, where they settled near the site of the city of Louisville. In February, 1781, while going to Harrodsburg, he with hia companions were captured by the Indians, carried as a prisoner into what is now the northern part of Ohio, where he was compelled to run the gauntlet and barely escaped death. Not long afterwards he was sentenced by a council to be burned at the stake, but was rescued by a warrior who adopted him as a son. He was in captivity three years and a half when the tribe consented that he might return to Kentucky to obtain supplies for them, in company with some of their number. Returning through the forest they struck the Ohio River a few miles above Louisville, and, with guns and blankets lashed to their backs, swam the river. Young Holman was at once ransomed and immediately entered the service of Gen. George Rogers Clark, and served under him in the following campaign.

On his return from captivity he had passed down the White Water, and was delighted with the country. In 1804 he, with two friends, returned to the White Water country and selected a home on the east bank of the river, about two miles south of where the city of Richmond now stands, to which he removed his family in the following spring. They were the first settlers in Wayne County, where he resided the remainder of his life.

His son William was a captain in the war of 1812, and afterwards became a Methodist preacher on the frontier, and was widely known for his zealous devotion to the establishment of the principles of Methodism. James, another son of the old pioneer, was well known for his steady integrity. His youngest son was George G. Holman, who married Mary, the daughter of Governor James Brown Ray. He was a leading merchant in Centreville for many years, from whence he removed to Indianapolis.

John A. Holman, the subject of this sketch, is the youngest child of George G. and Mary Holman. He was born in the city of Indianapolis on April 16, 1849. He was educated at the Northwestern Christian University, graduating at the age of seventeen. Even before this he had determined to devote his life to the profession of the law. Immediately after commencement-day he began his studies under the instruction of those eminent jurists, Samuel E. Perkins and David McDonald, and was admitted to the bar, ex gratia, upon their recommendation, when but nineteen years of age.

Martin M. Ray, his kinsman, then practicing at the Indianapolis bar, was so well pleased with the boy that he took him into his office at once as an associate, with whom he remained in active practice until the sudden death of Mr. Ray, in August, 1872. Although now only twenty-two years of age, he had already taken high rank at the bar, and continued to practice alone with eminent success until 1876, when, on Judge Perkins being again elected to the Supreme Bench, young Hohuan was at the age of twentyseven appointed by Governor Hendricks to the vacancy on the Superior Bench of this city. His early training and profound knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence eminently fitted him for the discharge of judicial functions. He knew the source and history of the law. He was familiar with the origin and development of the rules of property and business, whether found in statutes or recorded only in the treatises and reports. His knowledge was so thorough and his faculties so well disciplined, that from the beginning he presided with dignity and even justice. He remained upon the bench until the end of the year 1882, when he again returned to the bar.

The bar of Indianapolis has had the good fortune to be steadily recruited from the local bars of the State, and it has thus become possessed of no inconsiderable share of their ability and reputation. It has in a measure swallowed them as fast as they showed force enough to be felt beyond their local limits. A lawyer in a county town attracts attention, in time gets to be prominent in politics, is elected to a State office, comes to the capital, and stays. Others, for the advantages offered by the Su preme and Federal Courts, come and settle here perma nently. Thus came here Governor David Wallace William J. Brown, Oliver H. Smith, Caleb B. Smith Ovid Butler, Samuel E. Perkins, Oliver P. Morton Thomas A. Hendricks, Conrad Baker, Joseph E McDonald, John M. Butler, Jonathan W. Gordon Ralph Hill, William Henderson, Oscar B. Hord Benjamin Harrison, and others. Among members of the city bar of national reputation, professionally and politically, are ex-Governor and Senator Oliver P. Morton, ex-Governor and ex-Senator Thomas A. Hendricks, and ex-Senator Joseph E. McDonald.

Oliver Pebrt Morton. - In the little village of Saulsbury, Wayne Co., Ind., on the 4th day of August, 1823, Oliver Perry Morton was born. He was of English descent, his grandfather having emigrated from England about the beginning of the Revolutionary war, and settled in New Jersey. His mother died when he was quite young. After the death of his mother the most of his boyhood days were spent with his grandparents in Ohio, and with his widowed aunts in Centreville, Ind. His opportunities for education were rather limited, and at the age of fifteen he was put to learn the hatter's trade with his half brother, William T. Morton. At this occupation he worked four years, employing all his spare time in study. Early in 1843 he entered Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio. He remained there two years in hard study. While there he was counted the best debater in the University, and displayed the powers of presenting an argument that afterwards made him so famou.s.

On leaving college he entered the office of Hon. John S. Newman, at Centreville, and began the study of law. He was then nearly twenty-two years of age. On the 15th of May, 1845, he married Miss Lucinda M. Burbank, daughter of Isaac Burbank, of that place. This marriage proved a most happy one, his chosen companion holding and exercising over him

He went into the study of the law as he did everything else - with all the energy and industry he had. His preceptor said of him that he was a most laborious student, occupying all his time in mastering the fundamental principles. He did nothing half-way. He centred all the powers of his mind on his study, and his intense application brought its reward. In 1847 he was admitted to the bar, and entered the practice of the law in Centreville. Although Indiana then had not attained to the powerful position she has since occupied, the bar of Wayne County was an exceptionally strong one, and one that would have ranked high in any State. It numbered among its members such men as John S. Newman, Caleb B. Smith, James Rariden, Samuel W. Parker, Jehu T. Elliott, and others. It was among these men young Morton expected to try his fortunes. They were the men he was to meet and combat. They were men learned in the law, men of high character, with reputations already established, and a young man to occupy a place among them had to be possessed of more than ordinary ability. Among these men he soon came to be acknowledged a sound lawyer, and they found that in him they met one able to cope with them before the bench or jury. Business multiplied, and he was retained in many important cases in all the neighboring counties. In 1852 he was appointed judge of the circuit. He had only been practicing five years when he received this high honor. In a circuit composed of such distinguished lawyers as those mentioned above, this appointment at so early an age was no light honor, and is but an evidence of the ability he was recognized as possessing. He only remained on the bench a year, when he relinquished it to again enter active practice, in which he continued until 1860.

Some men have been disposed to look upon him as more of a politician than a lawyer, and to regard his legal attainments as being limited. This was not the judgment of those who knew him. In fact, it is contrary to the natural order of things for a man with his analytical mind and his powers of application to have been a poor lawyer. The universal testimony of those who met him at the bar is that he was a master. His o;reat faculty was his power of going to the very root of a thing. He studied his cases closely, seized upon the salient points, and those he presented with vigor and skill. He discarded all the tricks so often resorted to by lawyers, and depended solely upon the law and the facts. When he was ready to go into the trial of a case he was prepared at all points ; there were no surprises in store for him, but he was thoroughly conversant with every feature of the case and the law bearing upon it. He seemed to deal with the great principles of the law, and to apply them to the case at bar, disdaining to seize upon quibbles or technicalities. In his addresses to the court or jury he was always impressive, building his facts into an edifice, cemented by the law, that was impregnable against all attacks. One who knew him well, and had met him at the bar, said of him, " His great characteristic was that he studied up his cases, and he never came into court without giving evidence of careful preparation. ... I distinctly remember that in the four years before he was called into the service of the State he literally annihilated everybody connected with the bar of Wayne County, and walked rough-shod over all other lawyers of the circuit. . . . There are probably few men who have at the same age surpassed him in ability and success." His success was demonstrated by the fact that when he left the practice in 1860 he was the leading attorney in all Eastern Indiana, and was engaged in every prominent case. After his death the bar of Indianapolis adopted unanimously a memorial, in which it was said, " Having chosen his profession, Senator Morton's place in it by natural right was in the front rank, and, without a struggle, he was conspicuous there by force of character, generous stores of knowledge, and eminent ability. He was a judge remarkable for the wise, speedy, and impartial administration of justice on an important circuit at an age when most men are making their first steps in professional life." The men who drafted the memorial and adopted it knew whereof they spoke, for Mr. Morton had been called at one time to preside over the Circuit Court of Indianapolis. Of that time one of the most prominent lawyers of

Indianapolis said, " I saw him but once in the exercise of the functions of judge. . . . His decision was a clear and forcible enunciation of the law, which left no doubt in the minds of those who heard it of its correctness." His great political rival, Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, said of him at a public meeting, " I never met Governor Morton in court, and had no knowledge of his habit in the management of cases. I have heard from others, however, that' which convinces me that he was very able, and I know he must have been, because he possessed every qualification for eminence in our profession." Such was the testimony universally given.

All his speeches on the stump, in the Senate of the United States, all his messages to the State Legislature, show an intimate knowledge of the great principles of law, especially constitutional law. One remarkable instance of this kind he exhibited in his speech on the right of secession. It had been claimed upon all hands that there was no power inherent in the government to coerce a State. In . that speech he took the ground that secession was the act of individuals and not of States, and ought to be so regarded ; that the individuals could not shield themselves behind State governments. This was the key to the whole problem. The late Senator Matt H. Carpenter, who had been associated with him in the investigation of the Louisiana case, said, " No one need tell me that Morton is not a great lawyer. I know better. I have seen him and been a witness to his power and knowledge of the law." Senator Thurman, in one of the debates, said, " The Senator from Indiana may have been a lawyer at one time, but has been too much engaged in politics, and has forgotten the law on this subject. He has not kept up his reading." Senator Morton's only reply was to call from memory for the reading by the secretary of passages of law from a large number of authorities, all so applicable to the case and so much against the position taken by his opponent, that Senator Thurman was overwhelmed and signally defeated.

Senator Morton was a Democrat in politics in his earlier years, and always took a deep interest in political aflFairs. In 1854, when the Missouri Compromise was repealed, Mr. Morton was one of the vast army who left the Democratic party and united to stem the tide of slavery aggression, and he became the leader of the new party in his section of the State. He attended the Pittsburgh Convention in 1856, and actively participated in its discussions. On the first of May of that year the new party met at Indianapolis to nominate a State ticket. Mr. Morton was elected unanimously to head the ticket. His oppon^nt was Hon. A. P. Willard, the idol of his party, and who was regarded as the ablest stump speaker in the State. A joint canvass was arranged, and the champion of the new party soon proved himself more than a match for his opponent in debate. His strong, logical arguments utterly drove his antagonist from all his defenses. The election resulted in favor of the Democrats, and Mr. Morton thought his political career was ended. The Republican party grew very rapidly between 1856 and 1860. In the latter year he accepted the second place on the ticket with Hon. Henry S. Lane as its head. He throw himself heart and soul into the canvass, and was everywhere recognized as the most powerful debater in either party. This time his party was successful.

The anticipated election of Mr. Lincoln as President had brought about threats of secession, and his success was no sooner heralded than South Carolina made haste to take herself, as she thought, out of the Union. It was a critical time. All hearts feared the Union was gone. The prevailing sentiment seemed to be that there was no remedy for sece.ssion. The Democrats held that there was no power to coerce a State, and the leading Republicans were advocating that the " wayward sister" should be permitted to depart in peace. There were stormy forebodings on all sides. The idea of civil war was abhorrent, yet the loyal people did not like the idea of having the Union dismembered. In the midst of this general gloom there came a lightning flash which electrified the North and startled the South. On the 22d of November a monster meeting was held in Indianapolis to ratify the election of Lincoln. The newly-elected Governor Lane and others spoke. Their speeches were of a conciliatory nature. At lengtli Lieutenant- Governor Morton arose, and in his very first words the vast audience saw that the man had come with the hour. There was no uncertainty with him. He at the very outset announced that if the issue was to be disunion and war, he was for war. It was a momentous occasion, and he felt that he was speaking for the Republican party, and not alone for it, but for the whole loyal element of the country, and his measured words fell upon the air like the notes of a bugle calling men to action. He discussed the right of secession and the power to coerce, and gave to the acts of South Carolinians an interpretation none before had been clear-sighted enough to see. On coercion he said, -

"What is coercion but the enforcement of the law? Is anything else intended or required? Secession or nullification can only be regarded by the general government as individual action upon individual responsibility. Those concerned in it cannot intrench themselves behind the forms of the State government so as to give their conduct the semblance of legality, and thus devolve the responsibility upon the State government, which of itself is irresponsible. The Constitution and laws of the United States operate upon individuals, but not upon States, and precisely as if there were no States. In this matter the President has no discretion. He has taken a solemn oath to enforce the laws and preserve order, and to this end he has been made commander-in-chief of the army and navy. How can he be absolved from responsibility thus devolved upon him by tlie Constitution and his official oath ?"

He demonstrated that there was no right of secession belonging to the States ; that they were parts of a whole and could not dissolve the connection, and that if they attempted to dissolve the Union force must be employed. He said, -

" The right of secession conceded, the nation is dissolved. Instead of having a nation, one mighty people, we have but a collection and combination of thirty-three independent and petty States, held together by a treaty which has hitherto been called a Constitution, of the infraction of which each State is to be the judge, and from which any State may withdraw at pleasure. . . . The right of secession conceded, and the way to do it having been shown to be safe and easy, the prestige of the Republic gone, the national pride extinguished with the national idea, secession would become the remedy for every State or sectional grievance, real or imaginary. ... If South Carolina gets out of the Union, I trust it will be at the point of the bayonet, after our best efforts have failed to compel her to submission to the laws. Better concede her independence to force, to revolution, than to right and principle. Such a concession cannot be drawn into precedent and construed into an admission that we are but a combination of petty States, any one of which has a right to secede and set up for herself whenever it suits licr temper or views of peculiar interest. Such a contest, j let it terminate as it may, would be a declaration to the other States of the only terms upon which they would be permitted to [ withdraw from the Union. . . . Shall we now surrender the nation without a struggle, and let the Union go with merely a ! few hard words ? If it w&s worth a bloody struggle to establish this nation, it is worth one to preserve it, and I trust that wo shall not, by surrendering with indecent haste, publish to the world that the inheritance our fathers purchased with their ! blood we have given up to save ours." I

In concluding, he struck the key-note of the whole in declaring and emphasizing that we are a nation and not a combination of States. Upon this point he said, -

'* We must, then, cling to the idea that we are a nation, one and indivisible, and that, although subdivided by State lines for local and domestic purposes, we are but one people, the citizens of a common country, having like institutions and manners, and possessing a common interest in that inheritance of glory so richly provided by our fathers. We must, therefore, do no act, we must tolerate no act, we must concede no idea or theory that looks to or involves the dismemberment of the nation. . . . Seven years is but a day in the life of a nation, and I would rather come out of a struggle at the end of that time, defeated in arms and conceding independence to successful revolution, than to purchase present peace by the concession of a principle that must inevitably explode this nation into small and dishonored fragments. . . . The whole question is summed up in this proposition : ' Are we one nation, one people, or thirty-three nations, or thirty-three independent and petty States ?' The statement of the proposition furnishes the answer. If we are one nation, then no State has a right to secede. Secession can only be the result of successful revolution. I answer the question for you, and I know that my answer will find a true response in every true American heart, that wc are one people, one nation, undivided and indivisible."

This was the first time that resistance upon the part of the North had been advocated-. It touched the popular chord everywhere. From that time on there was no hesitancy upon the part of the loyal masses. Mr. Lincoln, when he read it, said that " it covers the whole ground, and declares the policy of the government." That speech made' Mr. Morton a leader in national politics.