Wayne County, Indiana - Chapter 31: Literature of Wayne County, 1912 (part 2 of 2)

Isaac Kinley, son of Isaac and Ann Reece Kinley, was born in Randolph county, Indiana, Nov. 7, 1820. When he was three years of age the family moved to Wayne county. Beginning at the age of fifteen, he taught school for nearly a quarter of a century in Wayne and Henry counties In 1849 he married Nancy B. Holloway, who died in 1855. Mr. Kinley was a delegate from Henry county to the Constitutional Convention, in 1851, which framed the present constitution of Indiana. He represented the county in the State Senate at the sessions of 1857 and 1859. On Oct. 2, 1859, he was married to Mrs. Jennie G. Adams, of Bristol, Me. He organized Company D of the Thirty-sixth Indiana infantry and was made its captain. Before leaving for the seat of war he and his wife removed to Richmond. For meritorious service he was chosen as major of his regiment. Soon after his promotion, on Dec, 31, 1862, at the battle of Stone River, he received a severe wound. In 1866 he was elected Senator from Wayne county, serving four years. He was active in literary work. He established and conducted for a time the "Beech Tree," a paper of literary merit. At one time he edited the "Citizen," a weekly paper published at Knightstown, and the "Industrial," a monthly, at Richmond. In 1874 he left Richmond for California, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying there, Jan. 15, 1909. He always took a deep interest in the welfare of all toilers, and at Los Angeles published the "Slogan," devoted to the interest of laboring people. He also published a collection of his verses, entitled "Songs of Labor."

Mrs. Jennie G. Kinley, wife of the foregoing, was born in Bristol, Me., May 8, 1822. The earlier years of her life were spent in the vicinity of "Old Brown's Head," which she made the theme of one of her poems. Her most important contributions to literature, however, were made while she was living in Indiana. "The Iron Bedstead" was a popular satire of bigotry and intolerance. - She was a contributor to various magazines and periodicals. She died at Los Angeles, Cal., in 1877.

Rudolph G. Leeds, son of William B. and Jeanette G. Leeds, was born in Richmond, Wayne county, Indiana, March 15, 1886, and has resided in that city the greater part of his life. He married

Florence Smith, daughter of Philip W. and Susan Smith, also of Richmond. He is the editor of the "Richmond Palladium," and also proprietor and editor of the "Indianapolis Sun." He wrote in 1911, "The Equal Price Law," which was published first as a supplement to one of the issues of the "Palladium," and then prepared for publication in book form.

Francis A. MacNutt, son of Joseph G. and Laetitia Jane (Scott) MacNutt, was born in Richmond, Ind., Feb. 15, 1863. His early education was obtained in the Richmond public schools and the Friends' Academy of this place. At the age of seventeen he was sent to Philips Exeter Academy, and after two years there spent one year in the Harvard Law School. Several succeeding years were spent in travel in Europe and study in Germany Later, in Mexico, he worked at Spanish-American historical subjects under the direction of the late Abbé Fischer, sometime chaplain to the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. In 1886 he spent some time in Spain and England, engaged in similar studies. Mr. Mac- Nutt entered the Accademia Ecclesiastica in Rome, in 1887. The Accademia ranks as one of the first educational institutions of the Catholic church, and the academicians are especially trained for the diplomatic administrative functions of the church. Mr, Mac- Nutt returned to America, in 1889, and was appointed first secretary of the American Legation in Constantinople; where he remained until he was transferred in the same capacity to Madrid. He was also attached, temporarily, to the Behring Sea Arbitration Conference between the United States and Great Britain, which met in Paris, in 1893. In January, 1898, he married Margaret Van Cortlandt Ogden, of New York. From 1898 to 1906 he occupied the post of High Chamberlain at the Pontifical Court in Rome, to which he had been appointed two years previously, by Pope Leo XIII. The first writing for publication ever done by him was a series of articles on Spanish cities, for a London magazine, the "Month." Mr. MacNutt's first book was "Letters of Cortes to Charles V" (1908). This is in two volumes and is a translation from the Spanish, accompanied by notes and appendices and preceded by a biographical and bibliographical preface. This is followed by an original work in one volume, "Bartholomew de-Las Casas, His Life, His Apostolate, and His Writings." This appeared late in 1908. His last book, which appeared in 1909, in the "Heroes of the Nation's Series," is an original work in one volume, "Fernando Cortes and His Conquest of Mexico" (all published by- G. P. Putnams' Sons).

Edwin C. Martin was born in Hamilton, Ohio, and was graduated at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H. He began the practice of law in Cincinnati, but soon abandoned it for newspaper work. He was the editor of a Grange paper in Cincinnati for a year or two. He then bought the Richmond "Weekly Telegram," which he edited for three years; started the "Daily Telegram," which he edited for five years; and then sold to go to New York, in March, 1891. When "McClure's" magazine was started, in 1893, Mr. Martin went into the company and was on the board of directors and one of the editors of the magazine during its first seven years. He sold out his interest and retired from the magazine in 1900; since then he has been doing general writing and editorial work for several publishing houses in New York. His productions have been mainly short stories and articles of literary criticism. His editorial work is that of reading and editing book manuscripts.

Martha Evans Martin, daughter of John and Margaret E. (Briggs) Evans, was born in Terre Haute, Ind. She was educated at De Pauw University. Upon leaving college she taught in the public schools and became court reporter in Richmond, which position she held three years. After her marriage with Edwin C. Martin she became, from 1886 to 1891, associate editor, with her husband, of the Richmond "Telegram." From 1896 to 1900 she was editor of "Demorest's" magazine. She has been a contributor to various magazines and newspapers, mainly on nature topics. She is the author of "The Friendly Stars" (1907).

Oliver Woodson Nixon was born Oct. 25, 1825, near Guilford, North Carolina. In 1830 his father (who was the first man in North Carolina to free his slaves) came to Wayne county, Indiana, and settled in Newport (now Fountain City). He became for a time a student at the Friends' Boarding School, now Earlham College, and also attended Beech Grove Seminary. Afterwards he took a four years course at Farmers' College, near Cincinnati, Ohio. The discovery of gold took him to California, and after a serious illness he embarked on a sailirig vessel for Oregon. A storm came on and the passengers were given an involuntary journey along the Alaskan coast, then almost unknown, but, finally, were carried back to Oregon; there he learned much of the history of the country, which knowledge was useful to him in after years. After two years there he took his journey homeward, sailing down the Pacific coast to Nicarauga, thence overland to the

Atlantic. Two years later he graduated at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. In the following summer he was married to Louise Elstun. At the breaking out of the Civil war he was appointed surgeon of the Thirty-ninth Ohio infantry and was, for a time, medical director of the Army of the Mississippi. At the battle of Island No. ro an explosion occurred, which wounded him permanently, so that he had to give up his chosen profession. He was twice elected treasurer of Hamilton county, Ohio, and, in 1870, was one of the company that established the Cincinnati "Chronicle." After the consolidation of the "Chronicle" with the Cincinnati "Times," Dr. Nixon went to Chicago, in 1877, and joined his brother, William Penn Nixon, in the purchase of the "Inter Ocean." He was the literary editor of that paper for nearly twentyfive years, resigning in 1902, to accept the position of professor of Northwestern Literature in Whitman College. In 1895 Dr. Nixon published "How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon to the Union." This book is said to have aided greatly in the establishment of Whitman College, at Walla Walla, Wash., near the seat of the Old Mission. In 1903 he published "Memories of a Forty-Niner." Since his death, a condensation of his first book has been published for younger readers and Sunday school use. Dr. Nixon died at Biloxi, Miss., May 9, 1905, and his body was brought to his old home, Fountain City, for interment.

Mary Wright Plummer, daughter of Jonathan W. and Hannah A. Plummer, was born in Richmond, Ind., in 1856. She was graduated at Friends' Academy, Richmond, in 1872. In 1881-2 she was a special student at Wellesley, and in 1887-8 was a student of Library Science at Columbia. Miss Plummer was president of the New York State Library Association in 1906. She was United States delegate to the International Congress of Libraries at Paris, in 1900. In 1895-6, she was editor of the Pratt Institute Monthly. Miss Plummer published "Hints to Small Libraries" in 1894 and in 1902 (Brooklyn) ; "Verses" (DeVinne), in 1896; "Roy and Ray in Mexico," in 1907; and, in 1899, she compiled "Contemporary Spain" (Introduction E. E. Hale). She has been a contributor to various periodicals, and for a number of years has held the position of director in the Library School of Pratt Institute.

Robert E. Pretlow was born near Dublin, July 15, 1862. He was graduated at Earlham College in 1883 and now lives at Thorntown, Ind. Two of his poems - '"Requiem" and "Midnight Song of the Mocking Bird" - appear in Parker and Heiney's Anthology.

Evans Reed, was born Aug. 17, 1850, on a farm near Richmond, Ind. He was edicated in the University of Michigan and the United States Military Academy at West Point, being graduated from the latter institution with the class of 1873 and made second lieutenant, First United States Infantry. He served on frontier duty in various parts of the West and Southwest, and, in 1908, was awarded a medal by Congress for Indian War Service ;he also served in Virginia and California and was colonel on the staff of the governor of Washington; he was inspector general of Indiana with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in 1881-1882; he was the army member of a transportation commission, appointed in the interest of the Field-Columbian Museum to visit foreign countries, in 1894- 1896; in 1898 he was chief engineer of the Illinois National Guard and colonel of a provisional regiment of Illinois volunteer infantry. He was on college duty as professor of Military Science and Tactics at the Southern Illinois Normal University, at Carbondale, IIl., 1883-1885 ; at the Northwestern Military Academy, Highland Park, Tll., 1888-1889; and at Howe School, Lima, Ind., 1897-1905. He married, at Indianapolis, Ind., in 1882, Sallie E. Ferguson, daughter of Clement A. Ferguson and Eleanor Irwin, his wife. While in the then Dakota Territory, 1874-76, he collected the basis of the data for a paper, entitled "A Calendar of the Dakota (i. e. the Sioux Indian) Nation," published by Capt. Garrick Mallery, United States Army, in April, 1877, in Bulletin 3, No. 1, of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey, and republished by Captain Mallery as the "Dakota Winter Counts," in his paper on "Pictographs of the North American Indians," in Powell's Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, 1882-1883. Colonel Reed is author of "Signal Tactics,' 1880; Upton's "Infantry Tactics Abridged and Revised," 1882; "United States Artillery Tactics Abridged and Revised," 1882; "Military Science and Tactics,' 1883; "Broom Tactics," 1883; "Knights of the Globe Tactics," 1896; "Cadet Life at West Point," 1896; "Frontier Garrison Life," 1903; "Indian Campaigning," 1903; and "Army Titbits," 1903. His present home is in Chicago.

Jesse Siddall Reeves, son of James E. and Hannah M. Reeves, was born in Richmond, Ind., Jan. 27, 1872. He attended the Richmond public schools from 1878 to 1884; fitted for college from 1884 to 1887, principally at Earlham College; entered the freshman class of Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, 1887; entered junior class of Amherst College, 1889, graduating (B. S.) in 1891. From 1891 to 1894 he was at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, a student of history, economics, and jurisprudence, receiving his Ph. D. in 1894. He was admitted to the Wayne County Bar in January, 1897, and practiced law at Richmond from 1897 to 1907. In 1905 Mr. Reeves was lecturer of Diplomatic History at Johns Hopkins, in 1907 became assistant professor of History at Dartmouth College, and in 1910 Professor of Political Science at Michigan University. In 1894 his "International Beginnings of the Congo Free State" was published at Baltimore; in 1905, "The Napoleonic Exiles in America"; and in 1907, "American Diplomacy Under Tyler and Polk" (Johns Hopkins Press). Mr. Reeves has contributed to various periodicals, among them being the "American Historical Review," the "American Political Science Review," and the "American Journal of International Law."

William Peters Reeves, son of James E. and Hannah More (Peters) Reeves, was born in Richmond, Ind., June 7, 1865. He attended the Friends' Academy, the Richmond public schools, and Earlham College to the sophmore year. He entered Johns Hopkins University in 1884, graduating A. B. in 1889 and Ph. D., in modern languages and English, in 1893. He was instructor in rhetoric in Union College, 1895-7; professor of English in the University of Iowa, 1897-1900; and, since 1900, has been professor of English in Kenyon College. Mr. Reeves made researches in the record offices and libraries of London and Edinburgh for "A Study of Scottish Prose to 1600," which appeared in Baltimore in 1894; also he made researches in London and Oxford for a volume, still in preparation, on John Wycliffe, for the Belles Lettres Series (Heath and Company, Boston). He has been a contributor to the "Dial," the New York "Sun," and "Modern Language Notes."

Frederic M. Smith, a son of James and Abby Miller Smith, was born in Richmond, Ind., in 1870. He was graduated at the University of Indiana in 1899, and later had graduate work at Harvard, Berlin, and Oxford. His first writings were out-door papers for the Richmond "Sunday Register." Since, he has contributed about 200 stories, travel sketches, critical articles, and poems to such periodicals as "Harper's Weekly," the "Critic," "Poet-Lore," "Sewanee Review," "New England Magazine," "Everybody's," "Munsey's," "Ainslee's," "Smart Set,' "Short Stories,' New York "Sun," and New York "Globe." In 1899-1900 he wrote a series of travel sketches for the Boston "Transcript." Mr. Smith's "Christin," a novelette, was published serially in the "Ladies Home Jour- nal," 1901; "The Yellow Sard," a novel, is serialized in 'Munsey's "All Story" magazine, 1909; and "The Betty Stories" appear in the "Woman's Home Companion," 1909. Mr. Smith has also written several plays for amateur production. Since 1905, Mr. Smith became assistant district superintendent of schools in Porto Rico.

Esther Griffin White, daughter of Oliver and Carrie (Cottom) White, was born in Richmond, Ind. She- was educated in the Wayne county schools and Earlham College. She has been connected with the "Palladium," the "Sun-Telegram," the "Evening Item," and the "Morning News," all of Richmond. Miss White has done special feature work and stories and has acted as occasional correspondent for the Indianapolis "Journal," the Indianapolis "News," and the Indianapolis "Star." She has written stories and articles on various phases of art for a number of publications, including the "Craftsman," the "Art Interchange," the "Fine Arts Journal," the "House Beautiful," the "Independent," the New York "Times," the "Woman's Home Companion," "Young's Magazine," "Brush and Pencil," the "Greater West," the "Indiana Woman," and "Arts.and Architecture," published in Sidney, Australia. 'Reprints of her articles from American magazines have appeared in "Ex Libris Journal,' London, and "Ex Libris," the "Organ des Exlibris- Vereins zu Berlin." Two articles on "Indiana Bookplates," appearing in the "Craftsman" and "Brush and Pencil," respectively, have been filed in the State Library as the only contribution to the history of bookplate art in Indiana. Her bookplate collection, while not only the largest, is one of the best known in the United States. Her writing on matters pertaining to art has included chiefly articles upon "art book binding" and its exponents, history and designers of bookplates, sketches of Richmond and other Indiana artists, and a great deal of miscellaneous writing on the general subject. On local papers Miss White has acted as musical and dramatic critic in addition to general newspaper writing. In 1910 she published "Indiana Bookplates" (Nicholson Press, Richmond, Ind.), a sumptuous volume containing a valuable collection of bookplates, with an account of these and some general criticisms on Indiana art. In 1911 she edited and issued "Poems by Louise Vickery Boyd" (Nicholson Press, Richmond, Ind.).

'Luke Woodard, son of Cader and Rachel (Outland) Woodard, was born on a farm in Wayne county, March 12, 1832. His parents were Friends who removed from Wayne county, North Carolina, to Wayne county, Indiana, in 1826. In 1853, in West Grove Meeting, Wayne county, Indiana, he was married to Elvira Town- send. For many years Luke Woodard was a minister in the Society of Friends. He is the author of "The Morning Star - a Treatise on the Nature, Offices, and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ," 1875 (New Vienna, Ohio); "Gathered Fragments on Talks to Young People, Talks to Parents, and Social Hours With Ministers," 1883; "Poems" (Nicholson, 1891), and "What is Truth?" His latest book is "Sketches of a Life of '75" (Nicholson, 1907).

In the Biographical volume of this publication will be found extended biographical sketches of David Worth Dennis, William Dudley Foulke, Henry C. Fox, Isaac Jenkinson, and Arthur Middleton Reeves, while separate chapters in this volume are given to George W. Julian and Oliver P. Morton.