HON. CHARLES MONROE FORTUNE,

whose services both as a lawyer and former circuit judge at Terre Haute have made his name familiar throughout the state, is an Indianan whose distinctions have been in every case worthily earned. As a young man he was not unacquainted with hardship and with honest manual toil, and he knows how to appreciate and sympathize with all classes and conditions of men. Judge Fortune was born in Vigo County, Indiana, on a farm, November 25, 1870. His grandfather, Zachariah Fortune, was an early settler in Meigs County, Ohio, where Henry Cole Fortune, father of Judge Fortune, was born in 1831. Henry Cole Fortune married in Mason County, West Virginia, Frances Howell, who was born in that county in 1838. Her father, Nelson Howell, went as a soldier in the Civil war and lost his life in battle. Henry C. Fortune came into the Wabash Valley during the '50s, and while the Civil war was in progress he operated as a contractor a ferry on the Wabash River at Darwin, Illinois. In 1869 he bought a farm of 170 acres in Prairie Creek Township of Vigo County, and subsequently operated another farm which he owned in Clark County, Illinois. He died at his home in Clark County in July, 1883. His widow survived him until February 28, 1907. They were the parents of nine children, seven of whom reached maturity and two are now living, DeKalb, a farmer in Prairie Creek Township of Vigo County, and Judge Fortune. Judge Fortune was the youngest of seven sons. He was only twelve years of age when his father died, and that event in the family history caused him to come face to face with the serious responsibilities of life, and he had to do his own thinking and at an early age was earning his own living. At the age of sixteen he left the home farm, where he had acquired most of his schooling, and for two years he worked as a hand in a factory at Terre Haute. Later as a clerk he worked at the watchmaker's trade, and while that gave him employment for his daylight hours he spent the evenings in the study of law. In 1898 he entered the law office of Cox & Davis at Terre Haute, and after three years passed a successful examination before the examining committee of the local bar association. Forthwith he entered upon an active practice in 1901, and for three years was associated with Judge James H. Swango. In November, 1905, Mr. Fortune accepted the democratic nomination for the office of city judge. It was popularly understood that this was only a nominal honor, since Terre Haute was a stronghold of republicanism, and it was with gratified surprise on the part of his friends and party associates and with considerable consternation in the opposite camp that he was elected by a majority of seventy votes. Judge Fortune entered upon his duties as city judge in January, 1906, and served thirty-three months. He resigned to take up his duties as judge of the Vigo Circuit Court, to which he was elected on the democratic ticket by the largest majority ever given a circuit judge in that district. Judge Fortune was on the Circuit bench six years. In that time he handled on the average 1,500 cases every year, and without reviewing his judicial career here it is sufficient to say that among all that great number of decisions which he rendered only five cases were appealed, and there was only one reversal by higher courts. It was Judge Fortune who more than any other individual led the movement in Terre Haute which brought about not only reform in local politics but gave a decided impetus to political reform throughout the nation, when a large group of prominent Terre Haute men were indicted and tried in the Federal Courts. Judge Fortune has long been prominent in local fraternities at Terre Haute, being a member of the Young Men's Institute and Knights of Columbus No. 541, is a member of the Commercial and the Young Men's Business clubs, and in his profession and in his capacity as a private citizen has found many ways to indulge a practical philanthropy in behalf of many worthy persons and causes. Judge Fortune first married, March 18, 1897, Myrtle L. Sparks, who died the same year. She was well known in literary circles in Terre Haute and a number of her verses which were first published in
the old Terre Haute Express were afterward put into book form. In July, 1911, Judge Fortune married Gertrude Maison, a native of Terre Haute and a daughter of A. W. and Caroline (Myer) Maison.