Vigo County, Indiana - Chapter 14: Remarkable Men in Commerce, Law, Medicine and, 1908 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 14: Remarkable Men in Commerce, Law, Medicine and

The early courts, though they may not have been distinguished by great technical knowledge and ready command of the great body of jurisprudence, were generally remarkable for sound good sense and practical rendering of justice. That there were the assemblages of men of good common sense and high ideals of justice and civil rights can be proved in the fact that Abraham Lincoln and hundreds of other great American public leaders grew up and developed in the environment of the country court house. Though far from the "madding crowd." from the great market places and the famous forums, they were trying cases before juries that well represented the whole American people and involved the same fundamentals of law and government that the greatest lawyers of the country employed in the greatest cases.

At the meeting of the Chicago Bar Association, following his death, June 14, 1880, tributes were paid to Judge Samuel B. Gookins by such distinguished men as Lyman Trumball, Judge Tuley, Judge Farwell, Melville W. Fuller (chief justice), and others. Judge Gookins lived in Terre Haute from the date of his landing at Fort Harrison in June, 1823, until within twenty-five years of the close of his life, when he moved to Chicago and became identified with the bar of that city. He served on the supreme bench of Indiana, and his name was urged on Lincoln for a place in the United States supreme court, but Davis was preferred for that place. He was a great constitutional lawyer, and his decisions were models of

In his tribute to the late jurist, I\Ir. Fuller said : "He exhibited all the qualities and accomplishments of the learned, diligent and skillful lavVyer, which he was. But I think he impressed his brethren most and the community most profoundly with his excellence as a man, notwithstanding his eminence as a lawyer."

Judge Gookins, who was born in Vermont, was descended from an Englishman, Daniel Gookins, who settled in Newport earlv in the seventeenth century and afterward settled at Boston. In 1823 the Gookins family, headed by the brave pioneer mother, set out for the west. From Sackett's Harbor they took passage on the second steamboat on Lake Ontario to Lewistown, thence by wagon around Niagara falls, by open boat to Buffalo, by schooner to Detroit, to Fort IMeigs at the head of the J\laumee, from there to Fort Wayne in canoes. The canoes were carried over the portage by ox teams, and launched in Little river, and down that stream into the Wabash and finally after six weeks and two days, the family arrived at the fort settlement where Samuel was destined to grow up and give lustre to the professional annals of the locality.

As a boy Gookins lived on Fort Harrison prairie in the family of Captain Daniel Stringham, learned the printer's trade in the first Terre Haute newspaper office, afterwards became editor, and was persuaded to enter law by Judge Kinney. He was elected judge of the supreme court in 1855. but resigned partly on account of insufficiency of salary ($1,200) and removed to Chicago in 1858. He was an author as well as lawyer. He contributed articles to such magazines as the Knickerbocker and the Continental. One written in 1862 called "Tom Johnson's Bear" was a political satire addressed to President Lincoln and intended to show the absurdity of holding the negroes in slavery while their masters were trying to destroy the Union. It was first read at a public meeting in Chicago, but before it appeared in print the emancipation proclamation was published. Another article "How Mr. Lincoln Became an Abolitionist" appeared in 1863. One of his last works was the history of Vigo county which was published in 1880.

For many reasons R. W. Thompson was Terre Haute's most interesting of characters. He was a link between the modern era and the Revolution. He had seen Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Lafayette, had heard their voices, and as a boy had leaned against the knees of Revolutionary veterans and heard their tales. He was a survivor of Indiana's galaxy of orators who had spoken for Clay and Harrison. In Congress he knew and talked with Webster, Clay, John Adams, and heard Lincoln deliver his speech on the Mexican war. He had been a high official in the Panama Canal Company during the French control of that enterprise. And. finally, he was secretary of the navy under Hayes. He could tell his reminiscence in an animated, picturesque manner which gave them a charm not always to be found in the printed page.

Richard W. Thompson was one of southern contribution to this countv, from Culpeper county, Virginia. Both grandfathers were in the war for independence. The family was one of Culpeper's best, and Richard W. had the opportunities for securing culture and mental training that were noted as among the best attributes of the Virginia gentlemen before the war. At the age of twenty he went to Kenucky, and then to Indiana, where he was alternately in the mercantile business and in teaching. A strong inclination and taste for study brought him in close contact with a law library, and before he realized it he had laid the basis for a legal career. Having adopted the profession almost by accident, he was admitted to practice in 1834, and the same year took his seat in the legislature with the Whig members, was re-elected, and then went to the senate, where he served as president pro tern. His activity in the great Whig campaign of 1840 brought him in close contact with the most famous men of the time, including many conspicuous in the previous political affairs of the nation as also some who were to grow greater when the issue of Civil war was presented.

At the outbreak of the war he became commandant of Camp Dick Thompson at Terre Haute, and was busy with the work of raising companies, drilling men and sending them properly equipped, to the front. From this line of duty he was transferred to the office of provost marshal of this district. As such he is not less well remembered for his tact and steady kindliness in dealing with many problems of discipline and the maintenance of order than as a stern representative of the supreme military power of the nation.

Some years passed during which he continued his career as a lawyer and admired citizen of Terre Haute. Then came unexpectedly the invitation to join President Hayes' cabinet, and for four years he was secretary of the navy. In 1880 he became chairman of the American Department of the Panama Canal Company, and after his resignation retired to his home in Terre Haute, where he spent his last years in an activity that was delightful without being unprofitable, and productive without being burdensome. At his home at 1200 South Sixth street, one of the famous landmarks of the city, he lived in his library among his books, surrounded by his family and friends. And when the end came, on February q, 1900, the town and

Now this happened on the Wabash, a long time ago. Before the ground was troubled much with a shovel or with hoe - Before the gourds and pumpkins gleamed between the rows of corn, And before most people living wished they never had been born.

Wild catamounts and Injuns,, and prairie wolves and b'ar. Still- prowled along the Wabash to raise the squatter's h'ar. But Dick, the ruddy, swore, with manv a savage growl. That he wasn't born in Culpeper to be frightened by an owl.

He fished for cat and turtle in the Wabash, rolling wide ; He built him boats of cotton-wood, to stem the rushing tide. And when the big canawl was dug for the trade in corn and beans, He was the noblest capting of the horse and mule marines.

And thus in fame the lad who came from old Culpeper grew. The tonguiest man of all the whooping Hoosiers knew. For he wrote their party platform, and in making public speeches He could beat Dan Voorhees every time out of his dustv breeches.

But Dick's life was passed in pleasure till a startling rumor spread That the ancient Pope was moving when he ought to be in bed. And was coming with his cardinals to occupy the West, \\nTere the wicked cease from troubling and the wearv are at rest.

Then Dick he sot him down and a solemn oath he took That he'd neither fish nor sleep till he'd masked him with a book, And he wrote and wrote and wrote and refused his toast and tea Till he ended it and signed it Dick Thompson with a "p."

*"Richard W. Thompson Memorial" is a volume published in 1906, containing numerous tributes and resolutions from eminent public men and the press on his life and services.

Now for boats on the Wabash, and for boats on the canawl, And for writing of a book that will make the papists bawl, The lad who came from Culpeper is called for to be The head center of the vessels of the national navee.

When W. K. Edwards died he was honored by the largest funeral ever held up to that time - "The grandest funeral pageant ever seen in this city and probably the grandest in the state except Morton's." Excursion trains brought over a thousand persons by the different railroads, and great numbers of vehicles came from the surrounding country. Judge Gresham, Judges Sol Blair, Martindale, ex-Governor Baker, Senators Voorhees and Thompson took part in the services. Rev. S. F. Dunham being the minister in charge. It was estimated that 20,000 people turned out to follow or view the procession, which was two miles long.

Colonel Edwards had lived for thirty-two years at the Terre Haute House, until his death September 25. 1878. He was born near Louisville, Kentucky, about 1820. was a graduate of the Indiana State University and the Transylvania University of Lexington, Kentucky, and in 1843 began practicing in Terre Haute. His career was marked by terms in the legislature, being speaker of the house one term ; was first mayor of Terre Haute under city organization ; was associated with the T. H. & I. and the T. H. & C. railroads, with banking interests, was president of the board of trustees of the Indiana State LTniversity at the time of his death, and prominently identified with many larger circles of political and business affairs. As agent, attorney and trusted counselor of Chauncey Rose, Colonel Edwards has been called the velvet glove on that strong hand. He was a genial, courteous man, with his little peculiarities. A Kentuckian, he was the son of a gentleman of the old school, from whom he derived his own manners. At his death he was chief patriarch of the Odd Fellows grand encampment of the state of Indiana.

John P. Usher was born in New York, the son of a very poor man. As a very small boy he hired to work for a neighbor at three dollars a month. His first work was carrying sugar water to be boiled down to maple syrup. It was a very large sugar orchard, and his employer worked him nearly to death, so that Usher ran aw^av and returned home. His father was angry, and 'told him he would never be good for anything, but John replied that he would show his father- some day that there was more "come out" in him than he supposed. He gained a common school education, and at nineteen or twenty studied law. and practiced a while in his native state and then removed west. He was a man of no ordinary talent, and on the circuits of Indiana and Illinois, in which he was pitted against Lincoln and his great cotemporaries, he held his own. being a verv successful lawyer. He had taken an active part in Lincoln's campaign, and was appointed to succeed Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, as secretarv of the Interior in Lincoln's cabinet. In early life he was a handsome man. of fine form and features, but in later life became corpulent, though not losing his fine dignity of appearance. Lie became verv rich - said to have entered large bodies of choice lands along the Union Pacific Railroad, besides owning considerable stock in the company.

Daniel W. A^oorhees (1827-1897). "The Tall Sycamore of the Wabash," who came to Terre Haute in 1857, the same year in which the present speaker, Joe Cannon, was studying law in this city, was born in Butler countv, Ohio. His father was a native of Kentucky, and his grandfather of New Jersey, and his grandmother was the daughter of one of Daniel Boone's companions. His great-grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier, and the ancestry was a mingling of Dutch and Irish. Dan A'oorhees was a farmer boy, bred to sturdiness and a large sphere of activity in the plain life of early Indiana. He graduated from .A.sbury (DePauw), studied law with a Crawfordsville firm, and was a partner of E. A. Hanagan, a former L'nited States senator, at Covington, until he located at Terre Haute. Since his college days he had been noted for his oratory, and it had been prophesied by one of his old teachers that he would reach a place of distinction as an American orator. He was first a candidate for congress in 1856. reducing a normal majority from 2.619 to 230. In 1858 he was appointed, by Buchanan, L^nited States district attorney for Indiana, and in i860 was elected to Congress, and again elected in 1862. 1868 and 1870. On the death of Senator Morton in 1869 he was appointed to the unexpired term in the United States senate, and in 1878 was elected by the legislature to that office, which he filled with ability that made him one of the national leaders of affairs, until his death in 1897. three terms.

Voorhees won his reputation as an orator and one of the most brilliant and effective court pleaders of the country in his defense of John E. Cook, one of John Brown's lieutenants. The young man was tried for complicity in the treasonable designs of his leader, and being a relative of Governor WiHard, one of Voorhees' closest friends, the young Terre Haute lawyer was prevailed upon to go to Mrginia and undertake the defense. Friends of \'oorhees, with good reason, endeavored to dissuade him from this course, but he answered, also with good reason, 'T am going to defend my friend's relative, let the consequences be what they may." His plea failed to save his client from the gallows, but it gave Voorhees a place among America's orators, and his speech to the jury has been printed and reprinted and will long be read as an example of eloquence.

"Voorhees is a born orator," was the tribute of a man who in other afifairs was of equal eminence in Indiana and the nation. "He could speak eloquently before he could speak correctly. In the senate he does not speak often, but always to the point, and rarelv to seats which are not filled. On the stump he has few equals and no superior." This recalls the case of the countryman who read both Voorhees' and Harrison's speeches and decided to vote with Voorhees. "Of a commanding figure, copious in language without being verbose, with a clear, ringing voice that can be heard by the largest assembly, even in the open air, and a perfectly natural and easy delivery, he is a popular orator of the highest grade. As .a lawyer he may not be ranked among the highest, but as an advocate, especially in important criminal cases, when his sympathy has full play and successful defense depends more upon skillful management and the human feelings of the jury than upon the weight of evidence, it would be difficult to find his peer. He is one of Indiana's favorite and most highly and justly known sons."

C. Y. Patterson (1824-1881) was born at A'incennes, studied law with Griswold & Usher, graduated at Harvard Law School, which he had attended while Judge Story and Judge Greenleaf were among its noted lecturers. He married the daughter of Hon. John Law, one of the circuit judges of southern Indiana. He was a partner of Mr. Usher about 1852-3, was mayor of Terre Haute, 1856-57, and re-elected twice, but resigned in order to become judge of the common pleas district, consisting of Parke,, Vigo and Sullivan counties. When he canvassed for re-election in 1864 he was defeated by Samuel F. Maxwell, this being the first and only time in his career when he failed of election. He practiced as partner with J. W. Allen until elected judge of the eighteenth Indiana circuit, consisting of Vermilion, Parke, Sullivan and Vigo counties. In 1872 he was re-elected, and in 1878 was again elected, but the circuit was now the fourteenth (Vigo and Sullivan). He died in office, and it was his distinction that he had been elected to the honors of the judiciary more often than any other man from this county or city, and he honored the office by ablest services as judge.

bar, through two generations. Lsaac N. Pierce has occupied his present office since February. 1836. A short time before he had dropped into that office, a young law student, to pay his respects to Colonel Thomas H. Nelson, whose office it was. He was fascinated by the manner and language of Colonel Nelson, and thought he was one of the greatest men he had ever seen. Changing his plans, he expressed a desire to read law with the veteran lawyer. The colonel cordially assented, and when Mr. Pierce arrived in Terre Haute to take up his study he found that Colonel Nelson had already advertised a partnership between them. It was a good beginning for that long, industrious and honorable career of Judge Pierce's during fifty-one years in Terre Haute. The partnership continued until Colonel Nelson went to Chili as United States minister.

Mr. George C. Duv died February 10, igo8, at Cincinnati, where he was temporarily away from his home in Indianapolis, where he had lived since leaving Terre Haute. Mr. Duy was identified with the business interests of Terre Haute in the days of the old State bank, having been cashier of the bank on Ohio street opposite the court house, where it still stands as an ancient landmark, and a witness of its once stately grandeur - for such it was considered in the little town of Terre Haute. This earlv training accounts for Mr. Duy's exactness and care in all his court documents, pleadings and reports, which were considered models for the less experienced to follow. George C. Duy was married to the only daughter of Judge S. B. Gookins, with whom he was for years associated in the practice of law. Their home was on Strawberry hill, a beautiful piece of landscape, located in the then southern suburbs of Terre Haute, covered with forest trees, and a right royal and hospitable home it was. and the scene of many a brilliant function. It afterwards became th.e property of Coates' College, but now the place is chequered with streets and adorned with many pretty homes. Mr. Duy was afterwards associated in the law business with Judge Harvey D. Scott, and later with Hon. George W. Faris, which latter firm continued until Mr. Duy went to Indianapolis to take charge of some large business affairs.

In 1852 a young man of twenty-two presented himself for admission to the bar who made a great impression upon the older members, among them many distinguished lawyers. He was of singularly attractive personal appearance, tall, lithe figure, fine head, keen, black eyes, high, broad forehead and intellectual face - such was John P. Baird, fresh from his law studies at Bloomington. The bar then contained such men as W. D. Griswold, John P. Usher, R. W. Thompson, Judge Kinney. Salmon Wright, Judge Gookins, C. \Y. Baker and other older men, while the younger men were Harvey D. Scott, Newton Booth, Blackford Moffatt, Thomas H. Nelson and others. Mr. Baird became a partner of W. D.

I40 Greater Terre Haute And Vigo County

Griswold, and later of Salmon Wright, and when the war came on entered the service which won him high military honor but eventually wrecked his life. Shattered in health, he returned from the army, practiced some years, and as his mental powers became more and more unbalanced he retired and waited the "tomorrow,." which came on March 7, 1881.

Joseph S. Jenckes fnow of Indianapolis) and Joseph G. Cannon for several months in 1857 ^^^'i law together in the office of John P. Usher and Chambers Y. Patterson at Terre Haute. On parting in September of that year, Jenckes went to Cincinnati to study law in the university, and the future speaker of the house began practice at Tuscola, Illinois.

It is told that when W. D. Griswold, another of the talented lawyers of the early bar, came to Terre Haute on foot, he stopped at a farm house near Fort Harrison and asked for dinner. He offered to work in payment. The woman of the house, who understood that he was a tailor by trade, wanted a pair of pants cut out for her husband, and though Griswold had called himself a tailor, he knew nothing about the sartorial requirements for such a garment. He went to work and cut out the cloth according to his best ideas. He got his dinner, and hurried away.

"In the fall of 1817 I traversed the states of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, looking for a location at which to reside and engage in business. I spent several days in Terre Haute, which had been laid out the previous year. The following winter I spent in Kentucky. Favorably impressed by the location and the people in and about Terre Haute, I returned and became a resident in April, 1818.

"There were but two cabins in Terre Haute, and the nearest boarding house was at Fort Harrison. There were no direct roads. The trip east was made by the way of Louisville, Baltimore and Philadelphia. It was a source of great rejoicing when the first steamboat landed at Terre Haute in 1822. In 1819 I moved to Parke county and engaged in the milling industry. I sawed and furnished the lumber for the court house erected in the public square. I returned to Terre Haute in 1825."

Such was the coming of Chauncey Rose, "The Peabody of the West," to Indiana as told by himself in the records of an Old Settlers' Society in October, 1875.

Chauncey Rose was born in a retired farmhouse, on the Wethersfield Meadows, in Connecticut. December 24, 1794, and died at Terre Haute, Indiana, August 13. 1877. John Rose, his father, was the son of John Rose, who emigrated from the Highlands of Scotland early in 1700.

Marv \\'arner. his mother, was a daughter of John Warner, of Wethersfield. The mother died, aged 72, in 1832, and the father, aged 80, in 1838.

Cliauncev Rose survived his six brothers and one sister, all of whom were without children ; so that when he died, also childless, he was the "last of his race." Two of his brothers. George and John, were successively partners of Stephen Bulkeley. of Hartford. Connecticut, and carried on an extensive business in the East India trade at Charleston, South Carolina. Upon the dissolution of this partnership, John became a prosperous cotton broker at New Orleans. After George's death, John removed to New York and became one of the ablest business men of his time.

The education of Chauncey Rose consisted of a brief attendance of the common schools of his district ; Init he inherited good health and was endowed with energy, courage, a strong intellect and abundant connnon sense ; his firmness of will did no discredit to his Scotch ancestry, and his unflinching integrity in purpose and act were marks of his Puritan nature. To this combination of traits was added the habit, of self-reliance bred in him by his father, which is the essential quality of all strong characters, and in ]\Ir. Rose was consjiicuous.

The Northwest Territory, as it was then called, offered strong attractions to a man of such character as Mr. Rose. He decided to trv his fortunes on the frontier, and went to Movmt Sterling, Kentucky, where some friends resided in 181 7.

How he came to Indiana has been told in his own words. He spent five years in what is now Roseville, in Parke county, engaged in milling and trade. These were five years of hard and untiring labor - chopping timber and driving oxen. He frequently worked in the mill dam in water waist deep for hours at a time.

In 1825 JNIr. Rose returned to Terre Haute with a capital of $2,000 to engage in trade and become one of the most popular and successful merchants of the region. His profits were judiciously invested in land, which he worked according to the most approved methods, until, acre by acre, it gradually passed, with the increasing population, from farm land to city lots. In these and other ways, open only to those who improve the opportunities of a new country, he amassed a fortune.

Mr. Rose was foremost in securing railroad transportation for the new state. He bore the principal labor of building the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad ; his courage and resolution secured the construction of the road by individual subscriptions - largely secured from his friends by personal efforts - instead of by the aid of grants of land, which had not then become the fashion, and his scrupulous supervision made that road one of the best and safest in the state. He contributed largely to the

His financial successes were great, but so was his industr)'. His industry and well-known integrity would have gained him fortune, but these were giiided by an intelligence, by an understanding of the future that led to the most fortunate investments.

A distinguished mark of this man's character was his public spirit and liberalitv ; he always responded to every worthy application. Among the more worthy of his good deeds was an act of justice to the memory of his brother John, which was so unique that it cannot be omitted.

He found that, for many reasons, the will of his brother, if executed under the laws of the state of New York, would not accomplish the clearly defined intentions of his brother. The will made bequests of more than a million dollars, and Mr. Rose became satisfied that only a small part of the bequests would reach the objects for which they were intended. He succeeded, after nearly six years of vexatious litigation, in setting the will aside. He thus became heir to an estate valued at $1,600,000. Mr. Rose, however,, required no deliberation to decide that justice to the memory of his brother and his own character required that the money should be disposed of to execute the objects yirovided for in the will as far as ^possible. He dispensed more than a million and a half dollars in New York for more than eighty charitable objects, ranging in amounts from $1,000 to $220,000.

J\Ir. Rose was never indifferent to the influence of religious institutions upon a growing community. He contributed liberally toward the expenses of nearly every church edifice in Terre Haute. He was nearly always a regular attendant at church till within a few years of his death. His filial regard or his mother influenced him in action on such matters. It is said that her opposition to his going west was softened by his promise to pay her an annual visit. This pronu'se could not be fulfilled luitil the end of the fifth year, but his annual visit, often performed on horseback, was rarely omitted again during the good lady's life. At her death he gave the old homestead to the town of Wethersfield, with $3,000 to improve it. It is now the town farm - a well ordered asylum for the poor. He added $2,000 for the town library and $1,200 to endow an academy.

He knew how to watch the dimes and save them, as well as .give them away. Mr. Rose wanted every man to pay his debts scrupulously. He could then return the money if he chose, and he often did so. but pay them he nuist. He believed in simple living, and after he began to contemplate the Rose Orphans' Home he would often advise members of his household to refrain from some expenditure, saying that it would be taking food from some poor orphan's mouth. He kept a ]3ursc for private charity.

and this becoming known caused him much annoyance. He was not afraid of work, and it is said that he was often seen at the corner by the Terre Haute House, then his hotel, with a hoe in his hands scraping- the mud from the crossings.

JNIr. Rose's old home still stands at the corner of Seventh and Giestnut streets. Its modest exterior, broad veranda, low roof and rambling outlines, and position in a grassy orchard nearly a full block in size, gives it very much the appearance of an old New England farmhouse. The east wing, opening oft the parlor, has been kept essentially as Mr. Rose left it. His bed room was here and a small room for books. It was here that he refused to sell the Terre Haute & Indianajiolis Railroad, though he wanted to sell and was offered his price. He refused because the purchasers would not treat all the other stockholders the same way as thev did him. He insisted that all who wanted to sell should have the same price.

Few men have left as manv evidences of a humane and philanthropic spirit or have bestowed their charities so wisely. There is the entire absence of anything like selfishness in each of them. By the munificent g;ift of $go.ooo to the Ladies' Aid Society of Terre Haute he has enabled it to become a noble and magnificent charity. His donations to Providence Hospital, now St. Ann's Orphan Home, were upon a most liberal scale. The medical dispensary where the poor are provided without money is a work of Christian benevolence. Added to these, with others less conspicuous, is the Rose C)rphans" Home, with an endowment sufficient to insure its permanency, which is of itself enough to confer immortal h.onor upon his memory.

In Uhio street from Water to Ninth probably can be found reminiscences of more people connected with the past or early history of Terre Haute than in the same number of blocks of any other street. On it were built the first log house of the city, the first brick residence, the first bank, law offices, doctors' offices, the first ferry and postoffice, the first telegraph and express office and the first bridge and steamboat landing. ,

A resident on Ohio street in the early forties, next to the bank, was Albert Lange. When he came to Terre Haute about 1836, he, George Habermyer and one or two others were the only Germans in town. George Habermyer at that time was a fine German citizen, and though he was a saloon-keeper and himself one of his best customers, he was much liked for his great big heart, and received much sympathy on account of his affliction, his wife b6ing insane for many years. Her insanity was the result of a shock caused by her coming suddenly upon the bodv of a young German who had gone into her house to kill himself.

Albert Lange ( 1801-69) was born in Prussia, was a student of the University of Halle, and studied law. He was of the liberal school of politics, and much interested in the republican institutions and the governmental reforms then being discussed. This made him suspected by the authorities, and as a result he emigrated to America, coming to Terre Haute in 1836. In 1849 he was sent as United States consul to Amsterdam, and on returning in 1851 was elected auditor of Vigo county, serving as such until i860. He was elected auditor of the state, and served with great credit during the stirring period of the war. He was elected mayor of Terre Haute.

Ezra W. Smith built the home on Ohio street now occupied by the Young Men's Christian Association, which in its time was one of the finest residences of the city. He was a very successful, money-making man. He built a double brick business house, and also owned the Corinthian Hall block at the northeast corner of Third and Main streets. He was proprietor of a distillery and flour mill. He severed his connection with Terre Haute very abruptly. A party was to be given at his home. No one came on the evening set, not even Mr. Smith, for he disappeared that night and never more was heard of. His estate was settled a few years later by W. D. Griswold.

Of pioneer families, few were more closelv identified with the early history of the city than the Ross family. On March 2, 1895, Uncle Harry Ross celebrated his ninety-fourth birthday, the occasion also being notable as the birthday of the city's oldest inhabitant. He had come to Terre Haute more than seventy years before, and in an article reviewing his career the Gazette at that time published some interesting reminiscences of the pioneer days. Harrv Ross was born in Saratoga cotmty, New York, March 2, 1801, and grew up in New York state.

His three elder brothers, to quote the Express from here on, Russell, John and James, had gone west and were in the brick manufacturing business at Vincennes. They wrote back glowing accounts of the fine new country, and it was in 181 9 that the remaining members of the family decided to move west and join the boys. None of them realized at the time the extensive step they had taken. The trip from New York to Indiana was a year's undertaking. It was in the fall of 1819 that the immigrants started, intending to follow the water course as much as possible. A great portion of the trip was made overland. The weather grew colder, the rivers were all low, and progress was necessarily slow. The stopping place was to have been Evansville, Indiana, but owing to the cold weather and freezing river the little party was forced to stop at Wheeling, on the Ohio river, until the spring thaw. It was about Christmas time when the progress of the boat was checked by the ice ; early in the following March the journey was resumed. Arriving at Evansville the immigrants packed their belongings into wagons, and proceeded through the slush and mud to Vincennes. They located on the grand prairie about forty miles north of Vincennes and about where Hutsonville, Illinois, now is. In 1824 the three Ross brothers, Harry, James and Russell, came to Terre Haute and went into the brick business.

They rented some land of General Allen, which was located about where the present county poor farm is, and started a brick yard. They were afraid to get nearer the river on account of the chills and fever which were so prevalent about the river banks. After a few years at this place they overcame the fear of that "ager" and moved to the banks of the river, just north of the Johns' lumber yard. For many years the Ross brothers supplied all the brick used in Terre Haute for building purposes. Continuing at brick making until about 1838 or '40, the brothers sold out and went into the general merchandise business in a small frame building which stood on Second street between Main and Ohio streets and about in the middle of the square. Just before Christmas of 1841 a disastrous fire leveled that entire block of buildings to the ground. The entire village turned out to fight the flames, but nothing could be done to check the furious flames,, and almost everything in the buildings was destroyed by fire. The Ross brothers had been in business at Darwin, also, and left Terre Haute for that place immediately after the fire, and went into the pork packing business at that place. Remaining at Darwin but three years, they returned to Terre Haute and rebuilt their store upon the former site.

The new block was of brick, and was the first three-story building in the town. It had an open front, which was considered quite a metropolitan innovation at the time. Besides his merchandising business, Mr. Ross made other judicial investments. He was a director of the First National Bank for over twenty-eight years, and also a stockholder in the \'andalia Railroad and was a member of the board of directors for many years. He retired from active business pursuits in 1861.

When Mr. Ross reached here the county court house was just being built, and he went up in the half completed belfrv and took a look at the surroundings. He could see every house in the village, and thev numbered exactly forty. They were mostly scattered along on First and Second streets, although some few had located out on the prairie. Ne.xt to the "ager," the shortage of money during the pioneer days was one of the greatest hardships encountered bv the earlv settlers. There was actually no money at all, to speak of. A few Mexican dollars found their way into the section, but there were no smaller coins, and when business cerned proceeded to a blacksmith shop, where the dollar was cut into eight "bits." The bits were small and hard to carr\', and were so sharp that they wore out the trouser pockets in short order. So they had almost as much trouble in keeping the money as they had in getting it. As an illustration of the scarcity of money, Mr. Ross said that the postage on a letter from here to Onondaga, his old home, was twenty-five cents and was paid at the end of the route. His parents wrote to their relatives in New York state and told them to quit writing letters, for they could not pay the postage for them at this end.

Many of the settlers who went to New Orleans on flatboats with their crops brought back specie with them, but it was many years before monev became anyways common. "My brother James and I earned our first $100 by making sausages," said Mr. Ross. "We filled sausages for i\Ir. Gilman, who ran the first pork house in Terre Haute, and we purchased eighty acres of timber land for the money received." Russell, Mr. Ross' elder brother, raised William Earle, who was the first child born in Terre Haute and who afterwards wrote a history of the city. Earle's parents died when he was quite young, and Russell Ross volunteered to take care of the young orphan. He grew up in the family until he became of age, when he went into business with another young man. He borrowed money to get a start in business, and left suddenly, forgetting to pay his debts. He had always longed for a sea voyage, and making his wav east he shipped for a long trip. It was while at sea that Earle compiled his history of Terre Haute.

The square on which is the Deming homestead cost Judge Deming $100, which he had loaned upon it. The borrower could not possibly pay it, and one night packed up and quietly left town next morning. The judge heard of it and, mounting his horse, after a chase overtook the man. The debtor said he could not possibly pay and the judge would have to take the land for it. A part of this same square was sold to the city school board for $20,000, and though the high school, the library and a church have been built there, the best part of the original ground is left.

While living at First and Ohio, where her sons, Demas and Arthur, were born, the new Deming residence was completed, and Mrs. Deming was anxious to move to it, but she never could get the judge, or "Mr. Deming," as she always called him, to make the move. Finally the judge had to go on a trip east, and the stage was hardly out of sight before she had secured the necessary drays (the moving vans of the time) and hurried cver\'thing off to the house in which she lived many years.

1819, and came to Terre Haute in 1822. His first, or nearly first, office was in the second story of the old court house, before it was quite finished. He was a very successful lawyer, but retired from practice in 1834, from the firm of Farrington, Wright & Gookins. He was another e.xample of the sterling character and ability of the first citizens, as kind and courteous as he was just and honorable, and he had no enemies. He was the first cashier of the branch of the State bank, and at one time its president, and a director during its existence. He served in both houses of the legislature. He was appointed by Lincoln assessor of this revenue district. He was one of the early large pork packers, as senior member of the H. D. Williams & Co.

One can not look at the dingy old State bank without thinking of the little girl who once lived in the building back of it, built for the home of the former cashier, and wondering how ,it seemed to her to go from this to the palace of the Czar to paint pictures of him, the Czarina and various grand duchesses and other notable people. The Kfissners lived here for years, while their music store was next door. This was a family of many talents, the father a fine musician and the children of more than ordinary accomplishments in music and languages. One of the rooms was equipped with a stage on which they performed little French and English plays. It was after they had moved to their home on North Seventh street that Amelia Ktissner developed her talents as a painter to become one of the best-known miniaturists of the world. Several persons here possess samples of her work, fortunately secured before she had begun to know plutocrats and royalty.

General John Scott, a brother of Lucius H. Scott, was born in New York in 1793, served in the war of 1812, being present at the attack on Sackett"s Harbor, and about 1826-27 came to Terre Haute, where he established a retail business with his brother at Third and Ohio. He served as treasurer of the T. H. & I. R.- R.. 1851-67, and retired when seventy-four. During the early days he made trips to New Orleans in the river commerce of that period.

Colonel Thomas Bowling (1806-1876) was born in Ireland, came to .\merica in 1814 and worked for Gales & Seaton on the National Intelligencer, and while a newspaper man in Washington acquired the friendship of many influential and notable persons, of much value to him in later life. He came to Terre Haute in 1832 and established the Wabash Courier, which he sold in 1842. He then became editor and proprietor of the Wabash Express. His papers were very influential in Indiana life. He served eight years in the legislature, was trustee of the Wabash & Erie canal from 1850 until his death, a member of the city council, 1S67-71, and countv commissioner in 1873, and also an official of the Savings bank, 1869-76. After the dissolution of the Whig party he identified himself with the Democratic party, and continued to act in that line to the time of his death. In state and county politics he was always consulted, and his advice had much to do in molding the course of the party. At the time of his death he was a member of the national Democratic committee.

In the death, on December 28, 1892, of Linus A. Burnett, there passed away one of the city's and coimty's oldest residents and a man of action and worth in many ways.

Linus A. Burnett was born in Canada July 8, 1818. His infancy was passed in Chautauqua county, New York, and with his parents he came to Vigo county in 1821, the journey being made by water, and Terre Haute being reached by the Wabash river. Most of his business career was in the leather business, first as a tanner and later in the handling of it as a merchant. He was at one time a partner of John H. O'Boyle and again of -Mayor Fred A. Ross, but for the most part was sole proprietor of a store. With James McGill he organized what was then known as the Vigo bank, but the venture was a losing one to him and when the affairs of the bank were wound up he found that he was a heavy loser. His latest business career was on South Fourth street, but the business was a small one. for his capital had been seriously impaired.

Mr. Burnett always took an active interest in public affairs. He served two terms in the legislature from 1849 to 1853 and in 1854 was elected sheriff. From 1868 to 1882 he was postmaster. In 1873 he was elected president of the Cincinnati & Terre Haute Railroad Company. His last public office was as a member of the city school board, of which he was treasurer. In politics Air. Burnett was a Republican, was a member of the state central committee of his party and an active friend of Governor Morton. Mr. Burnett was one of the charter members and first officers of the Rose series of building and loan associations in this city and initil he was compelled by ill health to give up his active connection with the association was one of the most painstaking and efficient of its directors.

In relating the early history of the medical fraternity in Terre Haute we follow the sketch left by Dr. Ezra Read, who settled here in 1843 s""^' knew many of his predecessors. In 1817. when Terre Haute was a year old, a medical society was formed at Vincennes, which included in its membership physicians resident and practicing in the country later organized as \'igo and Parke counties. Its early records, which were perused by Dr. Read, indicated that the first members were men of high character and earnest professional zeal. Among the first members were Dr. John W. Davis, who once resided at Terre Haute, and who later in life gave more attention to public affairs than to medicine, as he became a member of congress, was elected speaker of the house, was a commissioner to China, and was appointed governor of Oregon territory.

Dr. Lawrence S. Shuler was one of the most eminent of the first physicians of this district. He lived both in Terre Haute and Vincennes. He married a sister of Nathaniel F. Cunningham, which made him the uncle of W. R. McKeen's second wife. His widow passed the later years of her life in this city. His son was Lawrence Shuler, long warden of the southern penitentiary. Dr. Shuler performed some remarkable operations, and was the most noted surgeon of this part of Indiana during the pioneer period. He successfully operated upon a little girl of eleven years for congenital blindness. The child stayed at his home for several months, and when vision was restored, as Mrs. Shuler has related, she was almost bewildered with joy at the wonders before her. She learned the colors with difficulty, and her friends were known for a long time only by their voices, and it was thus that she first recognized her father. A large abdominal tumor was removed from a woman in the seventh month of gestation. She recovered and a child was born that was living twenty or more years later. Dr. Shuler was an unsuccessful candidate for gangress from this district. Back in the twenties he had for his pupil and partner the late Dr. E. V. Ball. His office was at First and Ohio streets. Dr. Shuler practiced in Terre Haute from 1825 to 1828, dying in the latter year at the age of thirtyseven.

When priority of location in A'igo county is considered the first physician was undoubtedly Dr. William Clark, who was the military surgeon at Fort Harrison when it was defended by Zachary Taylor. As told elsewhere Dr. Clark was one of the most gallant defenders of the burning fort, exposing himself to the missiles of the Indians while he directed the removal of a roof in order to check the spreading flames. He practiced medicine for a dozen years in Vigo county, being here in 1817, at the arrival of Lucius H. Scott, whose life he saved by his skill and tender care. He removed to the vicinity of Eugene, Indiana, in 1824. Dr. Charles B. Modesitt was the first physician to settle in the town of Terre Haute, with whose early affairs he was prominently identified, and his name is often mentioned in the early history. Dr. Modesitt, who was a native of Prince William county, Virginia, was a graduate of Prince \\'illiam college. He moved to Ohio in 1814, and came to Fort Harrison in 1816. He bought property at the first sale of town lots and built the first house, a log cabin, at Water and Ohio streets. He was in manners a courtlv, dignified Virs;inia g'entleman, and in mingling: with the early pioneer settlers never lost sight of his self-respect and polite manners. He was a diligent and faithful physician, enjoyed an extensive practice, and ranked with the most eminent in his profession in western Indiana. His daughter, Mrs. Frances Warren, who survived her father over fifty years, has told in her old age that among Dr. Modesitt's patients were some Indians who lived near the town. He died in 1848, aged sixty-four.

The second house built by Dr. Modesitt on the site of the first cabin built in Terre Haute was put up by Tom Puckett and another man - of studs placed rather close together and the interstices filled with brick. Over these oak clapboarding was nailed horizontally, the edges joining and perhaps weather-stripped. Little porches were on the north, east and south sides, and these were used a great deal, visitors usually sitting down on the porches, which overlooked the river and opposite shore. The front room was the doctor's shop, office and drug store. Back of it was a large room, about twenty-two by seventeen, for dining and living room, with a large fireplace and high mantel, and a stairway to the second floor. Back of that was the kitchen, with its large fireplace and crane, where all the cooking was done. A bed room opened of? that. Instead of carpet the floors were covered with white sand, of which a couple of barrels at a time would be brought from the river sand bar.

Mrs. Modesitt did not spin or weave herself, but she was a very efficient housekeeper who could get work from her servants. There was always a supply of good domestics from the farmers' families - a very nice class of women, both as help and companions, and a number of them were married from Mrs. Modesitt's home. She spoke of having been burdened in Virginia by the bunch of housekeeper's keys and the necessity of keeping everything under lock and key.

It was a pleasant party every spring when all the family and Tom Rogers (who looked after the doctor's ferry, tannery, blacksmith shop, etc., while the latter was doctoring) would get into a wagon with two wash tubs and go over to a prairie near St. Mary's to gather enough strawberries to fill the tubs. It was a grand prairie on which grass grew in upright sprigs instead of matting into sod. The strawberry plants also grew upright and held up a little cluster of four or five berries, a few inches above the ground. The berries and stalks were plucked together, and from a very small space the tubs were soon filled. Wild strawberries were abundant in other places - for twenty or twenty-five years in succession Mr. Welton Modesitt (son of the doctor) had seen strawberries gathered on Strawberry Hill, where many went regularly to get them.

Small boys of the pioneer time had a great deal of fun. It kept them busy to get through with all they had to do. They began to hunt before they could hold a gun up and had to rest it on a log or stump. There were fish in the river and nuts and wild fruits to gather. On moonlight nights it was much fun to stay out, as long as they dared, to play and hide around the stumps scattered over the village.

Mr. Welton Modesitt, who furnished the above description about his father's home, had seen the block house and log pickets ten to twelve feet high around it, constituting all that remained in his time of Fort Harrison. Once, returning from Watertown, where his wife's people lived, he met, while stopping at Niagara Falls, Dr. Maxwell Wood, brother of the late Charles and Dr. John Wood, then chief of the naval medical department. Dr. Wood had married a niece of President Taylor, and he was with General Taylor at this time. He took Mr. Modesitt info the room where sat the hero of Fort Harrison and Palo Alto and introduced him as from "Fort Harrison prairie." The general started up and said it had been many years since he had heard that name. It brought to his mind the most beautiful recollections that could be associated with any name to him. He remembered so well the fort where he fought his first battle, the river bend, the lovely prairies that stretched away from it, and rising like islands above them the beautiful groves of wild cherry, plum and walnut trees, and clumps of sumac, hazel, etc.

Dr. Eleazer Aspinwall came to Terre Haute in 1817 from New York. He is said to have been a member of that Aspinwall family, some of whom were the famous ship owners whose steamers ran between New York and Panama. Dr. Aspinwall was a man of some means, and bought an interest in the Terre Haute Land Company. He died about 1824, and his estate was settled with painstaking care by W. C. Linton (who had married Ann Aspinwall in 1820).

Dr. Ezra Read was one of the most brilliant among the early profession. He was universally esteemed in Terre Haute, and at his death flags were set at half mast. He was a hard worker and student, and his fondness for books led him to collect a large number during his lifetime. (Some of which are now preserved in the public library.) By talent and cultivation he had a wide range of knowledge, and was intimate with a circle of acquaintances among distinguished politicians and other celebrities. As a youth he was a midshipman in the American navy, and he was also attached to the little army and navy with which the republic of Texas was established in its independence from Mexico. He was chief surgeon at the battle of San Jacinto, and one of the trophies exhibited in his office was the bullet that pierced the skull of Colonel Cos, brother of General Cos, one of the Mexican leaders in the war.

The Barbours were pioneers. Daniel Barbour came here with Dr. Durkee (Durkee's ferr)'), and was one of the first settlers in Fayette township. Corey Barbour ( 1807- 1879) came from New York with his father in 181 7, and became a farmer, living on land bought by his father in 1826, in the old homestead. He also was one of the packers of pork, and made many trips to New Orleans with shipments of pork, corn and hay.

Daniel Barbour and his wife and family celebrated his ninetieth anniversary in Fayette township, when fifty of his descendants sat down to dinner. He was born in 1780, came from Olean Point in a pirogue to Evansville in 1817 and then pushed on to Fayette. He swam his horse across the prairie east of Terre Haute. He was a model pioneer, temperate, industrious and raised a fine family of sons and daughters.

Micajah Goodman probably came into the county in 181 1 with the Listen party, and settled west of the river in the times when the Indians were numerous and wild animals abundant. His reminiscences handed down tell of his killing a panther and of nearly killing an Indian. His hogs, as was the custom, ran at large in the woods to feed on the mast, and when a hog was wanted the farmer went out for it as if for game. On one of these hunts Mr. Goodman espied an Indian apparently busily engaged in skinning a hog. Resting his gun against a tree he was about to fire when the Indian rose and held up the hide he had been removing - it was the hide of a deer, in killing which he had, of course, committed no trespass on the settler's rights. Micajah Goodman was from North Carolina, and was the founder of the West Vigo Congregational church. He had been a member of the New Hope church in Sugar Creek, but had withdrawn because of some differences with other members concerning slavery.

Nathaniel Preston, who was from Vermont, came here in 1836, and being an educated New Englander, established a private school in the old brick school house. A year later he entered the branch of the State Bank and was advanced to the position of teller and cashier.

George B. Richardson, father of H. Richardson, was born in New York. His father, Joseph Richardson, left Geneseo in 181 5 to explore the Wabash country around Fort Harrison, was pleased with it and returned east to make preparations for emigration. A party crossed the Alleghanies in wagon to Olean Point on the Allegheny river, where they built three boats - one by Richardson and one by Abraham Markle - and journeyed in those boats down the Ohio and up the Wabash, landing at Fort Harrison as the first emigrant party that pushed up the Wabash. This little party of emigrants was received at the fort with a salute of fifteen guns, and the garrison produced a basket of wine and gave them hearty welcome. George B. Richardson was then twelve years old. They brought with them the agricultural implements then in use, but instead of settling on Fort Harrison prairie the father went to Clark county in the neighborhood of York. George B. Richardson was one of the California forty-niners, and when fifty-seven 3'ears old enlisted in the Union army for three years, and was promoted to sergeant and second lieutenant. He came to Terre Haute in 1868, dividing his time between York and Terre Haute until 1880, when he died at his home here.

George Jordan (1798-1881) was a farmer who came to this region from Pennsylvania, settling in Honey Creek in 181 7 and putting in a crop of wheat on Lambert's place. In 1819 he walked back to Ohio, sleeping and eating with the Indians on the way. In 1822 he made his first trip to New Orleans with a flatboat of corn.

John Collett in first coming west made his way literally through a wilderness, for he surveyed the road as he came. He settled at Terre Haute and was a merchant with his son, Joseph. He was identified with this region in many ways, and many deeds that are recorded today begin with the name Collett. The Colletts moved with the land office to Crawfordsville, but their great interests were in Vermilion county, where they laid out and founded Newport and Eugene. The homestead was on Spring creek between these two towns. Here Harrison's boats landed en route to Tippecanoe. Near by on the section line runs the old Army Ford road. At the landing the troops had eighteen axes, one of which was lost and was found about two years ago on the Collett land (see elsewhere). On one of the Collett farms was the, grave of Tecumseh's wife, which was carefully protected for many years. There was also the remains of an Indian forge (so it is believed), dating back to Indians before those known to the white settlers, and pieces of iron and copper worked at it have been found of extraordinary hardness and temper.

The daughter of John Collett was a beautiful young woman. She was engaged to Lucius Scott, who then was a teacher in one of the log school houses near the Durham settlement. The marriage day had been set, the bridal garments made, when Miss Collett died and was buried in the cemetery east of Six street, the grave being between two trees at the corner of Seventh and Walnut. There was no preacher at that time to read the service, and Lucius Scott performed the sad and trying duty of speaking at the grave of his lost bride. An old-fashioned stone in Woodlawn preserves the memory.

bringing three sons and six daughters. She was born in New Jersey, and her children in Baltimore, Maryland. Her husband was of English birth, and a captain in the war of 1812, and she received a pension. She had been well off, but gave up mucn, beyond legal requirements, in paying security debts. Her oldest son. Maxwell W., was surgeon general in the United States navy. Charles Wood was one of the notable men of Terre Haute, secretary of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad. And Dr. John Wood practiced many years in this city. Her daughters married well-known men of this city. In her time Mrs. Wood was a woman of wonderful activity and helpfulness, very charitable, and in many ways one of the noble women of early Terre Haute.

William Maxwell Wood (1809-1880) became surgeon general in the navy. He entered the navy as assistant surgeon in 1829 and was fleet surgeon of the Pacific squadron in 1844-46. On his own responsibility and at the risk of his life he made a dangerous journey through Mexico to !Mazatlan to inform Commodore Sloat of the breaking out of the war - which was the commodore's only information and induced him to proceed to California. Surgeon Wood's exploit was commended by the committee of naval affairs as a special service in enabling the United States to seize California, at a time when Great Britain might have done so. Dr. Wood was fleet surgeon of the East Indian squadron and took part in the Giinese war, being on board the flagship, participating in the capture of four barrier forts on the Canton river. During the Civil war he was fleet surgeon of the Atlantic blockading squadron, and was on board the in the first battle of ironclads when the Monitor repulsed the Merrimac. He retired in 1871.

Mrs. Sophia Fuller (grandmother of Horace Burt) was one of Terre Haute's noted pioneer women. At her death she left a large estate in real property. She willed her home and five acres of land in Preston's subdivision as a home for friendless females, together with the residue of her estate after providing for a number of relatives. (The courts atniulled this provision.) She came as a young wife of twentyone from Hartford, Connecticut, in the fall of 1820, traveling in their own conveyance from Hartford to Wheeling and from there in a flatboat with their carriage horses and goods to Mt. Carmel. Chauncey Rose, an old friend and neighbor, had invited them to come to Roseville, where he had a mill and store. i\Ir. Fuller bought a farm and lived there until 1847, when the family moved to the home at Seventh and Mulberr\-. In 1854 he bought thirty acres on the Poplar or Bloomingdale road, and moved to it. He died in 1858, leaving a valuable estate, which was divided between his wife and daughter (Mrs. Burt).

and a will and force of character suflficient to govern a state, and yet was a very devoted wife and mother. She kept a diary (good old departed custom), which has given many interesting historical notes of the year in which she made her journey to Vigo county. "At Cincinnati." reads one extract, "my husband bought a small boat, put into it our traveling baggage, purchased some articles, such as pots, kettles, dishes, tinware, etc. We made a bedstead of our wagon body and a table of our goods case, seats of our trunks. Our horses go on another boat, and our small boat is lashed to Dr. Baker's large one. With this arrangement we leave for Louisville. Dr. Baker sends his man ahead to kill game as we glide slowly but safely down the Ohio. Wild turkevs and squirrels are in great abundance. * * * At Evansville we disposed of our boats and traveled in our wagons to ^It. Carmel, where we arrived December 20, 1820, and remained until February. We leave this wild-looking country and the people, the men mostly dressed in buckskin, for the Wabash. * * * gjQp ^ short time at Honey Creek and keep on to Terre Haute. This is a beautiful spot of earth : river on the west side, and east, far as the eye can reach - delightful. Three frame houses and a few log cabins are all that is to be seen. Our destination is yet fifteen miles ahead, to the mills of Brooks, Robbins (Moses) and Rose. * * * We reached the mills, a wild, romantic looking place, situated on Raccoon creek. There are but few white inhabitants. Several tribes of Indians are near ; many of them come to the mill ever\- day. bring their venison, turkeys, wild honey, etc., and their squaws their baskets to exchange for flour and other things. * * * March 22 - We leave our friend's house, only to be neighbors ; they have built for us a snug log house with three rooms, and a shelter to cook under, besides a small house in addition for our meat, flour, etc. * * * Mr. Rose and Mr. Robbins have taken up their abode with us." ]\Irs. Fuller was taken sick in July, and still feeble in December, with her husband nearly as bad from attacks of the ague. She writes: "Oh, that we had never seen the Wabash. Our little darling prattler is our greatest joy. She is always happy and never tired of play." In 1824 they "buy a farm of one hundred and sixty acres on Little Raccoon ; have good health, have become quite happy, but work very hard." In 1827 "visit our New England home. Mother Fuller, Mr. Blinn and Cornelia returned with us and settle in Terre Haute." There is a tribute to Mrs. Fuller's fidelity as a pioneer's wife in the last words of her husband: "You have been my good wife always." As was quite characteristic of many early settlers, Mrs. Fuller, though given to pious thought and of religions temperament, was not a member of any religious body.

Mrs. Hannah Booth was of Quaker ancestr_v, tall and straight and imposing, one of those old ladies whose hair did not show a silver thread in old age, and she never leaned against the back of a chair. Her son, Newton Booth, became governor of California in the seventies. In 1874 Walter Booth, who lived at Paris, Illinois, sent the following telegram to Sacramento: "Assume no airs over me, young man. Modest mind at last finds a fitting reward, and I am alderman of my village. - Walt." The governor replied with congratulations and said : "You have done nobly. Go up to the head. - Newt."

The death of Phcebe A. Cook in October. 1907, removed a woman whose life associations had continued with Terre Haute through all the changes that marked the years from 1829 to the present. Mrs. Cook was a daughter of the late Thomas Dowling by his first marriage to Miss Harriet Severn, and was born in Washington, D. C, December 3, 1827. She came to this city when two years of age, when Colonel Dowling, who was subsequently to play a prominent part in the history of this city, became connected with the old Wabash Courier in 1829. The Dowling home was situated at the corner of Second and Ohio streets, the grounds occupying an entire square. She was married when quite young to Louis M. Cook, son of James Cook, a New Englander of Scotch descent, who came here in the early days to establish a dry goods establishment on Wabash avenue, near the court house square. Later the dry goods business was given up, and the firm of James Cook & Son established a hardware business, which was continued for many years, the last building occupied by it being located on the site of the present Albrecht store.

The old Cook homestead, on the north side of Mulberry street, between Si.xth and Seventh streets, at present occupied by W. H. Floyd, was built for her a few years after her marriage, by her father. Colonel Dowling. It was the center of Terre Haute society of the early days, and was famed for the broad hospitality it dispensed. As its mistress, she was noted for her generous nature and warm friendships.

Mrs. Cook was one of the first members of St. Stephen's Episcopal church, becoming identified with it about 1835 or 1836, when Bishop Kemper visited here and established the little mission on Fifth street, between Wabash avenue and Cherry street, on the present site of the livery establishment of S. J. Fleming & Son. The little frame building occupied by the church is §till standing on the rear of the lot. She was prominent in the work of the church, and visiting dignitaries of the church were almost invariably entertained by the Cooks. Rev. S. F. Donham, for many vears rector of St. Stephen's, and at present located at Albion, New York, made his home with them for manv vears.

In the possession of Mrs. A. G. .\damson, granddaughter of Britton M. Harrison, is an interesting relic with a remarkable history. It is a gold watch, stem-winding, hunting case, Liverpool make, inscribed with the date 1828 and the name "B. Harrison." When in 1858 Harrison & Son had an establishment on Water street (north of the Big Four), where they made soap and candles, Mr. Harrison lost this watch, in 1003, while the bridge builders were sinking the coffer dams for the stone pier of a new Big Four bridge a workman found, thirty-two feet below the bottom of the river near the bank, a gold watch. The name inscribed on it proved it to be the tvatch lost by Mr. Harrison fortyfive years before. It had been dropped nearer the bank than when found, for as time passed the river encroached and what was land became river, and the gravel and sand swept by the current into the eddies below the bend had buried the watch deep under clay, gravel and sand, w'here it was found. The outer hunting case was in good order, though the gold was dull. The enamel of the face had gone, the minute and second hands had disappeared, and a very small hour hand remained. The remainder was less, affected, for the steel of the balance wheel is partly bright and partly dim. The relic is now in the possession of the granddaughter of the first acting mayor of Terre Haute to recall pleasant memories of a very bustling citizen and interesting man.

Thomas Puckett was often alluded to as the man who drove the bear into the village. This strange tale was related in the Register in 1826, whether intended to tell of a real incident or to mystify the people of a later age, is open to question. It appears that Mr. Puckett was a skillful driver and guide of cattle and hogs through the woods. Having, while in search of strayed hogs in the woods, started a bear and lost him while going for a gun, he resolved that he would drive the next bear home with him. He soon foimd a much larger bear than the first, near Eel river, and on horseback, with the aid of a large stick, drove the animal to the Honey Creek road. After traveling eighteen miles the bear had become so foot-sore traveling over the rough and frozen ground that it lay down and would go no farther. Fortunately, Puckett met his brother, who had a gun, and then dispatched the bear. Tom Puckett was on Fort Harrison prairie as early as 1814, and claimed to have built the first log cabin in Terre Haute near the Modesitt house on the river bank. He was also one of that party with Joseph Liston, who had the distinction of turning the first furrow in this township and county. One of Puckett's companions in hunting was Dr. Thomas Parsons, who was here as early as 1819. Puckett emigrated to Texas in 1S39, and in the late sixties drove some cattle to Kansas, which was too much for the pioneer of seventy-five years, and he died soon after in Douglas county, Illinois.

Martin Grace (1824-1880), who was mayor pro tern, when Edmunds died, was a native of Ireland and a British soldier in India. He came to Terre Haute about 1850, learned the stone cutter's trade and served as postmaster at St. Mar3''s, 1857-59, councilman from the third ward, 1859-61, and was later a justice of the peace.

Fifty or sixtv years ago the leaders of what was called society were as a rule either the first emigrants or native to the soil - and were fit to grace any society. The women were refined and even elegant, the men, many of them cultured and college bred - they were well born. The gay and elegant society pictured in Booth Tarkington's "The Van Revels," was not much overdrawn.

More than a passing glimpse of Terre Haute society and people of fifty \ears ago is given in an article written by Bayless W. Hanna* about twenty-five years ago. It will be much more interesting to all who remember the genial and talented Mr. Hanna to let him repeat his story than to attempt to recast it. He gives a contemporary view of many who passed away years ago, and many of his sketches of character and personal appearance are very happy and much better done than could be done by another. ]\Iany of our readers will see rising before their mental gaze some of the fine old characters here described by Mr. Hanna.

His story began with a reference to the members of the bar of fifty years ago. Salmon Wright, Amory Kinney, S. B. Gookins, Woolsey Barbour, C. T. Noble and Thomas H. Nelson were the older members of the bar. with R. W. Thompson, John P. Usher, W. D. Griswold, John P. Baird and li. D. Scott rapidly moving up to take their places. After speaking of this body of men, who would have been an honor to any legal fraternity in the land, Mr. Hanna turned to the social features of Terre Haute.

In 1857-8-9 Terre Haute society was at its best. It has often been remarked that it never was so elegant, before or since. The young gentlemen here then were for the most part college graduates, and the voung ladies witli commendable spirit, more than kept pace with them in the grace of literature and arts of social life. Newton Booth, Charles Cruft, Aleck Crane, Minot Wasson, James McDougal, T. P. Murray, G. ^^'. Bement, \Villiam E. ]\IcLean, Stephen J. Young, Edward Allen, John W. Jones, John Chestnut, Frank Clark, George C. Duy, Dr. J. C. Thompson, S. M. Turner, Butler Krumbhaar, James C. McGregor,

*Bayless Hanna was elected attorney general in 1S70. In the state senate he was considered a great orator. He was attorney for the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroad. He married Oakalla Reed.

Greater Terre Haute And Vigo Couxty

Bedell Duy, Joseph S. Jenckes. Firniin Nippert, W. K. Edwards, Dr. James T. Helm, W. G. Jenckes, Joseph H. Blake. A. J. Edsall, Mel Topping, Yankee Williams, and Judge Conard were prominent as popular unmarried gentlemen ; and Lizzie Booth, Cedelia Madison, Lucy Gookins, Sally ]\IcKeen. Sarah Wood, Oakey Reed, Belle Jenckes, Eanny Groverman, Anna Turner. Letitia Watson, Fanny Wood, Mary Voorhees. Anna Eitzhugh, the Misses Blake, Topping, Watson, Krumbhaar and Cruft, Eliza Crawford and Sophie Isaacs were among the many brilliant and beautiful young ladies.

The young married people were not behind them. Their names are still fresh, though their ranks have been thinned, and the frost of years arc falling upon them all - S. S. Early, Jacob Hager, W. B. Warren, Warner Williams, W. R. McKeen, W. B. Tuell, H. D. Williams, C. Y. Patterson, Thomas H. Xelson, Levi G. Warren, W. H. Buckingham, Daniel W. A'oorhees, John S. Beach, Ralph Tousey, John Wasson, R. X. Hudson, John Hager, Lew Lois D. Cook and Luther Hager. (Of this most delightful circle of young married couples there are living at this time. 1908, only A\'. R. ^IcKeen, JNIrs. C. Y. Patterson, Mrs. W. H. Buckingham and Mrs. R. X. Hudson.) All these and their amiable wives were young then and at their best socially.

The class just before them was still upon elastic feet. It included George Hager, W. J. Ball, Beebee Booth, Jacob D. Early, Charles Wood, Curtis Gilbert, Demas Deming, S. H. Potter, Thomas Dowling, Dr. Ezra Reed, Judge E. M. Huntington, Dr. John Wood. X^athaniel Cunningham, D. S. Danaldson, Charles Groverman, W. F. Krumbhaar, Joseph Jenckes, Sr.. W. D. Griswold, James H. Turner, T. C. Buntin, James Farrington, John P. Lusher, P. M. Donnelly, Chauncey Warren and S. B. Gookins. They were rare people and have left an impress on Terre Haute society which nothing but a sordid love of money and its attending ignorance, satiety, stupidity and animality can supplant. (Of the rare group of men named none are living.)

Terre Haute society in that day was based upon the highest and best social foundations. Ignorance was tabooed ; illiteracy could wear no shield ; the possession of fortune added nothing to respectability, outside the hands of its own architects. * * * Terre Haute in that day was a poor location for frauds, charlatans and hypocrites.

\lr. Early was one among ten thousand. He was the handsomest and most lordly looking man ever seen here. His hearing was dull, and it was laborious to converse with him, but he was a model of sagacity, urbanity and good fellowship. He employed labor on a large scale and paid it liberally. He was a good and just man. Demas Deming, James Farrington, Curtis Gilbert, and Levi G. Warren were the chief rivals of Rose and Early.

Demas Deming, Sr., was small in stature, always pleasant, exceedingly active, wise and circumspect, and never ostentatious or supercilious. He was vastly rich, but no one ever would have supposed so from any outward personal demeanor. His superb land, extending almost from the eastern confines of the city to the hills, was his idol. Almost any day during his lifetime he could have been found on his way to or from, or upon these lands. He was emphatically the best poised man of his contemporaries.

Mr. Gilbert was a pioneer here. He was the first clerk this county had. His fine, correct, neat records will never cease to attract attention. He was essentially accurate in all that he did. He was of medium size, thin and serious looking, and exceedingly regardful of the rights and sensibilities of others - his fellow citizens. No man, perhaps, ever lived and died in \ igo county more universally respected than this firm, earnest, honest man.

Mr. Farrington was a model in every way. He was a lawyer by profession. His love of business, however, and the rare opportunities of his day to amass fortune lured him from his profession. He was the highest type of personal integrity. There was no stain upon his business transactions. He was a polite and cultivated gentleman ; his hospitalities were faultless alike in substance and dispensation.

Mr. \\'arren was a firm, square-built, handsome man. He was never demonstrative, but exceedingly agreeable when approached. He had an unusual sense of the ludicrous, and his quiver was always supplied with darts of repartee. In business he was serious, severe, distrust- fill. He was liberal. Init never foolishly so. His home was a model of good cheer. He died suddenly before his energies were half wasted, but his house was in order and his large estate well disposed. His death was a public calamity.

Mr. Griswold might properly be coupled with this class, though he was much younger than any, excepting Mr. Warren. He was a lawyer, and in his day as such, very successful. It is said he was exceedingly aggressive in his practice - indeed quite partisan, ready to fight every time it came his turn. He has acquired great wealth in business. He is a thorough scholar ; a cynical, biting, terse writer, and a born hater of every sham. He began his life's venture as a school teacher. He had nothing to commence with and has been the 'builder of his own fortune. He is unquestionably one of the real great men of his day.

Judge Huntington, for many years judge for the district of Indiana, might be classed with ]\Ir. Griswold. They were nearly the same age and were warm personal friends. Judge Huntington was the gaiete de coeur of them all. He was exceedingly handsome in person, and a more chivalrous man could be rarely found. In the court of St. James, or St. Cloud, he would have been just as ominant in social arts as he was here. His home was always attractive. None who knew him can ever forget him.

Dr. Read was Huntington's close friend. He was a gentleman of exceptional talents and learning. He lived with the classic writers. He read Latin and Greek with facility, and never wearied of them. He had many notable peculiarities. His opinions, his manners, everything about him was violent, aggressive and dominant - but in the sick room, where he was at his best, he was as soft and gentle as a woman. He eased more pains, assuaged more rigors, and brought back more men and women from the gates of death to life and health than any who have preceded or succeeded him in this community.

checks, without one dollar of any sort of stocks or securities as a banking basis, which were as current here and in surrounding counties as gold and silver. The rib rivals of the bank made unfriendly comments about its circulation, but all their accusations were refuted by its integrity. Every dollar was redeemed in current funds. What the firm could not find to take up in Judge Watson's lifetime has been redeemed by Mr. Shannon, his surviving partner.

There was an individual living here in those days whom the older ones will recognize by the initials. He was an oddity - noble in many wavs, but very peculiar. He delighted in exaggeration. He despised the commonplace humdrum of life. He was a most ambitious, erudite, artistic Munchausen, but he hurt nobody. In business he was truthful and honest. * * * His insatiable imagination, it is hoped, has now found a more restful home beyond the mysterious line which separates the two

Mr. Lamb was large in person, and every square inch of his great franie was of pure honor and inviolable truth. His face is perfectly photographed on the memory of all who knew him. He was a noble specimen of the best type of manhood. His vocation was not pretentious, 'but his integrity made it equal to any in respectability and usefulness. He was honest, brave, charitable, just and good. The cause of old age, poverty, childhood, sorrow and tears, he always espoused.

Who has forgotten George Habermeyer? He was a marvel. He was a saloonkeeper and hardly sober for twenty-five consecutive years ; but who ever knew him to do an unkind or uncharitable act ? He was the very embodiment of charity. He professed nothing, but he went around doing good continually. * * *

Worrell, in his old-time suit, with his glossy and flowing beard, his magic bow and sharp call, "circle all" - what a lubricator of human joints he was.

Twenty-five years hence ! Christmas day in 1907 ! Who can conjecture what it will reveal? Who will be left of the living now? Who will finish the chronicle of fifty years. The young and the middle-aged ninv will only know - the rest will have passed down into the dark shadow, through which all the sons and daughters of men must go at last. ^ B. W. H.

C. C. Smith, who was horn in 1824 and came to Terre Haute in 1842, was the only man in Terre Haute who knew and had a clear view of Colonel Vigo, when he was a boy under twelve, and the other a veteran at the end of life. On coming to Terre Haute, Smith began business with his brother in a store in the frame row at First and Main, which sheltered several well-known firms of that period.

Rodney Tillotson, Terre Haute's jeweler, came here in 1824 as a little boy with his father. Judge Elijah Tillotson (1791-1857), who was one of the first if not the first jeweler, and learned the business and continued it until he died in 1873. _

Thomas H. Clarke was deputy to Lucius H. Scott, the first elected sherifT, and served two terms, 181 8- 1822. He was elected in 1822 to the legislature, representing \"igo and Parke ( including what is now \'ermilion). Clarke succeeded Scott as sherifT. He later moved from the county to Savannah, Missouri.

Judge James T. Mof^'att died suddenly in Xovember, 1861, aged seventy-one. He came to Terre Haute in 1830 from New York city. He served as probate judge of the county, was state senator (1840-43), representing \'igo. Clay and Sullivan, and was appointed postmaster of Terre Haute in 1849 ^Y President Taylor. He served four years in this office and held other places.

George F. Ellis, who was born in Leeds. England, established the Wabash Woolen Mills in 1854. He died during the eighties. The mills were on First, between Ohio and Walnut. Two "self-acting si)inners" had been imported from England for these mills.

George W. Patrick, a younger brother of Septer. succeeded the latter when he went to California in 1848. He gave up practice in i860 and was in the drug business at Sixth and Main during the war. He was a very conscientious man. very kind-hearted, and was long remembered. He was born in 1816 and died in 1874.

W. H. Buckingham ( 1827-1879) will be best remembered as the bookseller, for few that lived in Terre Haute from 1848 to 1872 had not bought books, and some of the best, from him. He was a quiet, suave gentleman, and his wife was a favorite in society. He came here at twenty-one from Connecticut and oj^ened his book store, and in 1873 was elected auditor of the \'andalia Railroad.

Courier, and was taught to set type by I. M. Brown, and later went on the Express, under D. S. Danaldson. He then became connected with the Prairie Beacon at Paris, which had been started by his father. As editor of the Charleston Courier, his paper was the first to suggest the nomination of John C. Fremont. He was a versatile, brilliant and pugnacious newspaper man.

James Whitcomb was a native of Vermont, was commissioner of the general land office, appointed by Jackson, and then came to Indiana and settled at Terre Haute in 1841, and lived here until elected governor in 1843. He became United States senator, and died while in office in 1852. Mr. Whitcomb lived in the two-storv frame house just north of the old Baptist church on Fourth street, between Eagle and Mulberry.

Robert G. Hervey was an engineer and identified with the building of some of the early railroads. He helped build the Evansville & Indianapolis line. After making considerable money by building and establishing skating rinks, he came here at the inception of the Paris & Decatur road (or Illinois Midland). He located at Paris in 1871, where he built a street railway, founded a bank in Decatur, and in 1875 located at Terre Haute. He was the first president of the Illinois Midland. He accjuired one of the finest residences in town, and owned a summer house on the St. Lawrence,, near the Thousand Isles. His wife, a refined and beautiful woman, much admired and respected, died in 1880.

Theodore T. Woodruff took out patents Nos. 161 59 and 16160, December 2, 1856, for improvements in railroad car seats and couches - one of the first, if not the first, which substantially embodied the ideas of the present sleeping car, by which two seats are connected into a couch, and an upper tier is let down. Many patents had been filed for headrests, tilting-backs and connecting seats into couches, but none yet as perfect as this.

Father S. P. Lalumiere was born in \'incennes in 1804. He was the first priest ordained for the diocese of Indiana. He came to Terre Haute to St. Joseph's church in 1842, and his body now rests in the vault beneath that holy edifice. Father Lalumiere and Col. R. W. Thompson were close friends, though they diiifered in theology. It was after this friendship had been formed, and probably partly as a result of their friendly controversies,, that Mr. Thompson wrote his book, "Papacy and the Civil Power."

Dr. J. H. Long, who died in 1880 after thirty-four years of practice, was born in Pennsylvania in 1821, and graduated from the Jefferson Medical College. He was a brother of Judge Long, and was descended from Revolutionary ancestors.

of the early building in this city. He built the Terre Haute House in 1836-37, and all the buildings that were erected by Mr. Rose during the former's lifetime. In his later years he was in Mr. Rose's employ altogether, and also did much of the building for the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad. He was elected twice to the city council from the old Second ward. He was a man of much reading and mental culture.

John G. Turner, who died in 1881, aged forty, was brought to this city by Chauncey Rose at the age of five. He enlisted in the Second Indiana Cavalry, served in the paymaster's office of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad, succeeded Hazen as postmaster of Terre Haute, and about 1870 removed to a farm in Missouri.

Samuel Malone was a colored man who was born a slave in Mrginia, was set free by decree of circuit court at the age of twenty-one, and in 1837 started in a two-horse wagon with four children for Illinois, but stopped at Terre Haute, He bought eighty acres of land in Otter Creek and lived there forty-three years acquiring a comfortable home for his children. One son became a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal church.

Thomas Durham, of Honey Creek (1801-1873"), born in Tennessee of Quaker stock, his parents having freed their slaves in Kentucky, came to this county in 1S22, and was one of the members of the wealthy Durham family, of whom it was said at one time that every foot of land for seven miles along the Prairieton road belonged either to a Durham or a relative of the Durhams. Thomas Durham was a famous hunter, and one of the most successful deer-hunters of the county.

Alexander McGregor (1805-1884), who was born in Perthshire, Scotland, came to this country at the age of twenty-four, and to Terre Haute in 1833, where he began merchandising.

John Duncan (1810-1878), a native of Ireland, learned the pork packing business in Belfast in the same house where several large dealers later prominent in America began their apprenticeship. He came to this country in 1853, and for the following twenty-five years was associated with his line of business until he became known in this capacity all over the country, and was probably the best qualified packer ever in Terre Haute. He was in Cincinnati after coming to America, then became associated with a large meat firm, Hugh McBirney & Co., at New Orleans, and finally located at Terre Haute in 1861, with the firm of H. D. Williams & Co., on South First street. His later associates were Eevin & Reed, Mr. Early and Mr. Warren.

Orson Fuller (1812-1877) began driving stage coach at sixteen and drove for the firm which had the contract to carry mails from Baltimore to St. Louis. He came to Terre Haute in 1848, and in company with

Zenas Smith (1796-1877), of Xew Jersey, came to Terre Haute in 1831, was contracting mason and plasterer, and served as justice of the peace from 1857 to 1874.

About 1834 Henry Fairbanks set out for the west, w'ent to Chicago, saw nothing in the little hamlet for a young man, and turned to Indiana. At Lafayette he bought a skiff and with two companions landed at Terre Haute to begin a very honorable and successful career. One of his companions was J. P. Chapman, a brother-in-law, who was one of the "sassiest" editors that ever struck Terre Haute. He moved his paper, the Inquirer, from here to Indianapolis, which was the beginning of the Sentinel, and made famous the saying, "Crow, Chapman, crow," as a Democratic slogan.

John B. Hager was a classmate at West Point (1840 - ) of the later Generals Hancock and Pleasonton, S. B. Buckner and others. From the Fourteenth Indiana he was transferred to the Fourteenth Regular Infantry as captain. He was in three of the Seven Days' battles before Richmond, at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and was provost marshal of Richmond after the capture. He was with his regiment when sent to California, bv way of the isthmus, and to Arizona and the northwest. He resigned in 1866.

James Cook (1798-1872), who opened a dry goods store here in 1847, s'ld two years later changed to hardware, began work as a clerk at Morristown, New Jersey, at fifteen. While working he studied, and became one of the most proficient linguists w^e have had in this cit}'. He acquired a fair knowledge of Greek and Latin, and was versed in French, Italian, Spanish and German, especially in French.