Genealogy Trails

Sullivan County, Indiana
Biographies

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JOHN T. AND WILL. H. HAYS. The law firm of John T. & Will. H. Hays, of Sullivan, is composed of John T. Hays, who has been a leading attorney and citizen of this locality for some thirty years, and Will. H. Hays his son, who has been associated with his father since 1900. The firm are attorneys for the various railroads, coal companies, and other
important corporations which are so much concerned in the development of Sullivan county, among them being the Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad Company ; the Indianapolis Southern Railroad Company ; the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern Traction Company; the Bering Coal Company ; Consolidated Indiana Coal Company ; Jackson Hill Coal &
Coke Company ; Carlisle Coal & Clay Company ; Bellevue Coal Company ; Sullivan County Coal Company ; the West Jackson Hill Coal Mining & Transport Company ; the London Liability and Guaranty Company ; the Illinois Coal Operators' Mutual Employers' Liability Insurance Company ; the Central Union Telephone Company ; the Sullivan Lighting Company, and the People's State Bank of Sullivan.

John Tennyson Hays, senior member of the firm, is a native of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, born on the nth day of November, 1845. His parents and grandparents were all native-born Americans. He lived on a farm with his father until he was sixteen years of age, attending the short winter terms of the common schools in his native county during that time. In 1864 he was graduated from the Iron City Commercial College at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, then attended the high school at Lisbon, Ohio, and in 1866 entered Mount Union College. He was graduated from that institution in June, 1869, receiving the highest honors of his class in natural science and mathematics. For a year after his graduation he was principal of schools at Calcutta, Ohio, and in August, 1870, moved to Farmersburg, Sullivan county. He taught in the Ascension Seminary there, and later in Sullivan, until 1874, with the exception of one year, during which he was principal of the schools at Oaktown, Knox county.

In 1874 Mr. Hays became a law student in the office of Sewell Counsel, but at his admission to the bar on March 1, 1875, purchased the interest of Nathaniel G. Buff, in the firm of Buff & Buff, of Sullivan, continuing in partnership with Judge Buff until 1878. In the fall of that year the partnership was dissolved, as he had been elected prosecuting attorney of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit for a term of two years. In 1879 he associated himself in practice with his brother, H. J. Hays, and that partnership was unbroken until 1892. From that year until 1900, when he received his son, Will. H. Hays into partnership, he conducted an independent practice. Although his law business is of immense proportions, his early life on the farm still draws him to the soil, and he now takes great delight in managing his farm, as well as a tract of several thousand acres owned by the West Jackson Hill Coal Mining & Transport Company, of which he is president. He is also a director in the People's State Bank.

Mr. Hays has always been a Republican, but never was a candidate for any office except that of prosecuting attorney. He has always been a member of the Presbyterian church, of which he is an elder and in which he has taught for years in connection with the Sunday school. Socially, he is a member of the Columbia Club, Indianapolis, and has a close connection with the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of Sullivan Commandery, No. 54, Knights Templar ; Jerusalem Chapter, No. 81, Royal Arch Masons; Sullivan Lodge, No. 263, Free and Accepted Masons; Sullivan Council, No. 73, R. & S. M. ; and Sullivan Chapter, No. 188, Order of the Eastern Star. He served eight years as high priest of this chapter and three years as master of his lodge. He is identified with the Knights of Pythias as a member of Sullivan Lodge, No. 85.

He has been twice married ; first in 1869, from which union his two daughters, Martha A. Hays and Bertha Hays Drake, were born.. In December, 1876, he was married to Mary Cain, of Sullivan. Indiana, and of their marriage two children have been born, William Harrison Hays and Hinkle Cain Hays. The career of John T. Hays, most noteworthy and honorable, needs no commendation.

Will. H. Hays, junior member of the firm was born in Sullivan November 5, 1879. He was graduated from the Sullivan high school in the class of 1896, entering Wabash College in the fall of that year. After pursuing a four years' course in that institution he obtained his degree of B. A. in 1900. He had been interested in the law ever since he was a young boy, spending much of his spare time in his father's office. At his graduation he naturally formed a partnership with him, which has since continued. In 1904 Mr. Hays received the degree of M. A. from his alma mater, the subject of the special thesis upon which it was conferred being "The Negro Problem." In college he won the highest oratorical honors and ever since his graduation has given much time to public speaking.

A Republican in politics, in 1902 he was nominated for prosecuting attorney, and was defeated by fifty-three votes. From 1904 to 1908 (two terms) he served as chairman of the Republican county committee; was a member of the State Advisory committee from the Second district from 1906 to 1908, and during the campaigns of 1906 and 1908 was chair- man of the Speakers' Bureau of the Republican state committee. In his religious faith Mr. Hays is a Presbyterian, and teaches a class of boys in its Sunday school. In Masonry he is a member of Sullivan Lodge, No. 263, F. & A. M. ; Jerusalem Chapter, No. 81, R. A. M. ; Sullivan Council, No. 73, R. & S. M. ; Sullivan Commandery, No. 54, Knights Templar, and Sullivan Chapter, No. 188. Order of the Eastern Star. He is also a member of the Indianapolis Consistory, Scottish Rite Masons, and of Murat Temple, Order of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of both the Columbia and Marion Clubs, of Indianapolis, and is a life member of Sullivan Lodge, No. 911, B. P. O. E. He is a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and for six years has been state president of the order. Mr. Hays was married on November 18, 1902, to Miss Helen Louise Thomas, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, a daughter of Judge Albert Duy Thomas, who resides in that place.

ORION BOYD HARRIS, who was. the circuit- judge of Sullivan and Greene counties, Indiana, from 1900 ton 9061 is a native of Knox county, Ohio, born April 15, 1859, son °f Amos M. and Jane. (Hill) Harris. The father was also born in Knox county, Ohio, the date being March 2, 1833 ; he died in 1900. The mother, also a native of Knox county, Ohio, was born in 1834 and died in 1905. They were united in "marriage in their native county in November, 1857, and moved to Greene county, Indiana, in 1866, and lived there until 1873, when they removed to Knox county, Ohio. In Ohio, the father was a farmer, and also a general merchant doing business at one time at Newark, Greene county, Indiana. Retiring from mercantile life, he lived his latter years on his farm. The grandfathers on both paternal and maternal sides came from southeastern Virginia and effected a settlement in Ohio in 1808, remaining there until death. Grandfather Harris raised a family of ten children and they all lived to rear families of their own. Amos M. Harris, father of Judge Harris, was a stanch adherent to Democratic party principles. Both he and his wife were of Scotch-Irish descent. They were members of the Christian church. To them were born six children, as follows: Judge Orion B., of this memoir; Clarence W., residing in Syracuse, Kansas; Victor L., residing in same place ; India A., wife of Harry A. Simmons, residing in Lakin, Kansas; Samuel C., died in infancy; Myrtle, wife of Charles P. Word in, residing in Syracuse, Kansas.

Judge Harris was reared on his father's farm and received his primary education in the district schools. He then attended the Normal School at Utica, Ohio, graduating in the class of 1878. Later he was graduated from Kenyon College, Columbia, Ohio, with the class of 1885. He taught school two years in Ohio, and one year in Greene county, Indiana. Having settled upon the profession of law as the one he wished to pursue, he read law while yet a teacher in both Ohio and Indiana. In 1887 he read with William C. Hultz, of Sullivan, Indiana, remaining until 1890. He acted as deputy prosecuting attorney, under Mr. Hultz, until 1892. From 1890 to 1893 he practiced law alone at Sullivan, Indiana, and at that date formed a partnership with William T. Douthitt, remaining with him until 1896. He then practiced law and managed the Sullivan Times, a Democratic local paper, until 1900. During the last named year he was elected judge of the Sullivan and Greene county circuit courts, taking his office in November, 1900, and serving until 1906, since which time he has practiced alone. His office is now located in the Citizens' Trust Building. In 1902 a Negro was lynched in his county, and the governor of the state undertook to dispossess the sheriff of his office. The judge gave his opinion and the sheriff was not molested. Judge Harris is a Democrat, and in fraternal connections is a member of the blue lodge and chapter of the Masonic order. He is also a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks at Sullivan. Besides his legal business, Judge Harris is the president of the La Gloria Copper Mining Company, of Terre Haute.

He was married May 8, 1890, to Rachel, daughter of Sebum and Mary Elizabeth (McCrae) Kirkham. Mrs. Harris was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, and attended the common and high schools and also the state Normal. She subsequently taught for about three years in her native county. Mr. and Mrs. Harris are the parents of the following four children : Norval K., Naomi, Amos Myron, and Phillip Hill. Both the judge and his estimable wife are members of the Christian church.

ROBERT P. WHITE, of Sullivan, one of the editors of the Sullivan Union, was born September 23, 1876, in Terre Haute, Indiana, son of Samuel A. and Rebecca M. (Pearce) White. (For history of the White family see sketch of Samuel A. White). Robert P. White is a graduate of the Sullivan high school of the class of 1896. He was then employed by his father in his drug store at Sullivan and in 1898, began working on the Sullivan Democrat, continuing on that journal until 1902, during which period he was city editor. In August, 1902, he was made assistant editor of the Sullivan Union, acting in such capacity until February, 1904, at which time, he with his present partner, Dirrelle Chancy, purchased the Sullivan Times, which they sold in March, 1904. Their paper, the Sullivan Weekly Union, has the largest circulation of any paper published within the county.

In his political views, Mr. White is a Republican; has served as secretary of the Republican county committee and was re-elected in 1908. Since the campaign days of 1896 he has been an active party worker. He served as precinct committeeman up to 1906. While engaged on the Sullivan Democrat, he also corresponded for the Terre Haute. Indianapolis and Cincinnati dailies. Being a thorough, up-to-date man,

Mr. White is interested in fraternal society matters and is numbered among the members of the Odd Fellows order, being advanced to the Encampment degree. He is also a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. The Masonic fraternity has also attracted him to its fold, and he is now a member of the Blue lodge, Royal Arch Chapter, and the Royal and Select Masters ; also belongs to the Eastern Star of the same fraternity, all being lodges at Sullivan. Mr. White was married June 16, 1906, to Bertha B. Briggs, who was born in 1874, in Sullivan county, Indiana, and is a graduate of the high school with the class of 1893. She was appointed money order clerk at the Sullivan postoffice and held the position for about five years. Mrs. White is the daughter of Dr. Charles and Josephine (Hinkle) Briggs. Her father died in 1903; he was a practicing physician in Sullivan, and counted among the leaders of his profession.

DIRRELLE CHANEY, who is one of the owners and proprietors of the Sullivan Union, a weekly newspaper published at Sullivan, Indiana, is a native of Sullivan, born October 2, 1877, son of Hon. John Crawford and Ella (Saucerman) Chancy.

Dirrelle Chancy attended the high school at Washington, District of Columbia, and the Wabash College, of Indiana, in which institution he took a literary course. In 1893 he was commissioner of the United States court of claims, serving two years. After his term had expired, he engaged in the newspaper business, first on the Terre Haute Express. In 1900 he was engaged on papers in London and Paris. In 1901-02 was with the Chicago American, in Chicago. In February, 1904, he in company with Robert P. White, purchased the Sullivan Times, and in March of that year purchased the Sullivan Union, having at the same date sold the Times. Mr. Chancy takes much interest in civic society affairs and is a member of the Eagles, Elks and Masons, and the Kappa Sigma fraternity. He took the thirty-second degree in Masonry at Indianapolis and is also a Shriner, and a Knight Templar.

ARTHUR A. HOLMES.  The present efficient postmaster at Sullivan, Indiana, Arthur A. Holmes, was born September n, 1856, at Annapolis, Crawford county, Illinois, son of John H. and Nancy E. (Rains) Holmes. The father was a native of Licking county, Ohio, born March 28, 1828, and died October 31, 1863, in Effingham county, Illinois. The mother was born in Crawford county, Illinois, August 31, 1831, and passed from earthly scenes in Sullivan county, Indiana, February 10, 1890. John H. Holmes was a farmer by occupation and went to Illinois from Ohio in 1848, remaining there until his death. Politically, he affiliated with the Democratic party, but was a War Democrat. After the death of John H. Holmes, his widow married John L. Kaufman, of Gill township, Sullivan county, Indiana.

Arthur A. Holmes was reared to farm labor and received his education at the district schools, and at the College at Merom, Indiana, which educational institution he entered in 1874, and from which he was graduated in 1877. He had also taken private instructions before entering college. He then taught three years, one term in Illinois and the balance of the time in Marshall and Sullivan counties, Indiana. Having decided to engage in the legal profession, he studied law with Buff & Patten of Sullivan. After remaining with them for two years he was admitted to the bar in 1880 and entered into partnership with W. S. Maple of Sullivan, continuing until the spring of 1883, when he formed a partnership with I. H. Kalley, which relation existed until August i, 1887. At the last named date he entered into the service of the government as special pension examiner, remaining until April, 1893, at which time he resigned. In 1891 he had purchased the Sullivan Union and after his resignation from office he was actively engaged on the newspaper, of which he was owner and editor from March, 1891, to July 24, 1902, when he again entered the employ of the government and continued until January 21, 1907, in the pension department. He was appointed postmaster at Sullivan, Indiana, February I, 1898, by President McKinley and re-appointed by President Roosevelt, serving from February 8, 1898, to July 31, 1902, inclusive. He was again made postmaster in January, 1907, and his term will expire January 18, 1911. Mr. Holmes has always voted the Republican ticket and has been an aggressive party worker. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias order in Sullivan.

MAJOR WILLIAM T. CRAWFORD, who having now reached the age of three score and ten years, has been identified with the educational and patriotic history for forty-eight years, and is one of the most honored and popular citizens in this section of the state. He was born on a farm in Jay county, Indiana, January 25, 1838, but when three months old his parents sold the homestead and removed to Columbiana county, Ohio, where his early years were spent. The major is the son of Samuel and Gracy (George) Crawford — the former being a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, where he died aged seventy-nine years. The paternal grandfather, John Crawford, was a native of Ireland (his wife of Scotland) and lived to the remarkable age of one hundred and two years. William George, the maternal grandfather, was a native of Ireland, while his wife (Linea Hull) was born in England. The ancestors on both sides of the family came to the United States about 1800 and located in Columbiana county, Ohio, where they became substantial members of the agricultural community and continued their firm adherence to Presbyterianism. Grandfather George was a justice of the peace in that county for twenty-four successive years, and although a practical and successful farmer was a deep lover of music, and expert violinist and a man of cultivated tastes.

Samuel Crawford, the father, was also an agriculturist and stock- raiser. In stature, he was a very large man, being fully six feet in height ; in his manners, he was mild and kind to those with whom he mingled and labored, and as an illustration of these traits it is related that he never had a quarrel or a law suit. His ambition to be well educated was thwarted when young, but after his marriage, by persistent reading and self-training he became a man of wide general information. Another commendable trait in his character was his unfailing kindness
o old people, and morally, he was ever found on the side of justice and right. The children born to Samuel and Gracy (George) Crawford were ten in number and in the order of their birth are as follows : Nancy, widow of James Chancy and mother of Congressman John C. Chancy, who now resides at her farm home ten miles south of Fort Wayne, Indiana ; Ruth, deceased ; John, residing at Roanoke, Indiana ; George, deceased; Elizabeth, a resident of Idaho and wife of Thomas Crawford; Jane, deceased ; William T., of this review ; Noah, deceased ; Linea E., wife of Alexander McCammont, who resides at Rogers, Ohio ; and Mary M., wife of Sant Hewett, of Florida. All but Jane lived to years of maturity.

Major William T. Crawford was diligently employed on his father's farm and attended the district schools of his home neighborhood and the high school of New Lisbon, Ohio. He began teaching in the same county and after being thus engaged four years, in 1866, came to Sullivan county, Indiana, and built the Ascension Seminary at Farmersburg. Before its completion, however, in August, '1862, he raised a company and was made captain of what was known as Company H, Eighty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, serving as a gallant officer and brave soldier, from August, 1862, to June 12, 1865. He saw much actual campaign service, participating in fifteen battles of the Civil war and being honorably discharged as brevet major. His regiment was first encamped at Locust Grove, opposite Cincinnati, for a few weeks, and then moved to Falmouth, Kentucky. There Captain Crawford was detailed by General A. J. Smith, to act as provost marshall of the place, which he did for two and a half months. The regiment then moved to Lexington and on to Danville, Kentucky, later being sent to Louisville, where it was transported clown the Ohio river and thence up the Cumberland to Nashville, Tennessee : and thence was transferred to Brentwood and Franklin, Tennessee. Before reaching Franklin, Captain Crawford was attacked by typhoid fever and pneumonia, and five physicians gave his case up as a fatal one, telling him if he had any word to send to his family they would be glad to communicate it. The captain said, "Dr. Hobbs, please tell my wife that I have been sick, but am going to get well and live to see this rebellion put down." Dr. Hobbs then turned to Drs. Wiles and McPheters and said: "His will power may yet pull him through." He began to recover, but while still in bed the rebels made an attack on the town of Franklin. He started for his command at Fort Granger, but was so weak that he was compelled to rest on the door steps along the streets.
As he neared the river, five Confederates rode up and demanded his sword. The captain had not realized that they were rebels until after they had surrounded him. The leader at once demanded the captain's sword and when he asked him, "By what authority ?" the rebel replied, "By the Confederate authority. What authority did you think ?" He then ordered him to get up on the horse behind him, whereupon the captain refused. The officer then drew his revolver on him and said, "Then I will leave you here." The captain replied, "You have the drop on me." Again the Confederate officer said, "Hand up your sword at once," and when the captain refused, the rebel demanded that he mount his horse behind him. For answer Captain Crawford knocked the revolver out of the enemy's hand with a hickory cane, which he fortunately carried. At that instant about one thousand shots were fired from the Union lines, one ball striking the leader in the mouth and cutting his tongue partly off. The blood shot out over Captain Crawford and fell upon his sword', which remained unwashed for many years after the close of the war. Another of the Confederates brought his carbine down upon the captain's head, but a ball pierced the rebel's hand. Still another of the Confederate squad was shot through the side, as he was taking aim at the captain's head. Another's horse was shot from under him as he exclaimed, "Throw up your hands or we will shoot out of you." At this critical moment Captain Bails crossed the river and assisted Captain Crawford into the Union lines.

A few weeks later two spies from General Bragg's army (Colonel Williams and Lieutenant Peter entered the Union lines, reporting that they were sent by General Garfield to inspect the camp, presenting as their authority a forged letter from the commander. Representing, also, that they had been surprised and robbed by rebels, they borrowed fifty dollars from Colonel Baird and obtained from him a pass to go to Nashville. Colonel Watkins, of the Sixth Kentucky Regiment (a graduate of West Point) recognized one of the spies as being a classmate of his and they had no sooner left camp than that officer remarked to Colonel Baird : "Those men are spies." As quick as thought, Baird said, "Overtake them and bring them back," which command was accomplished as the Confederates were nearing the outer picket lines. Blandly telling them that the rebels were between them and Nashville and that Colonel Baird wished to send them a guard, Colonel Watkins led them to the regimental headquarters. One of the spies — a distant relative of Washington, answered "We have no fears." But Colonel Watkins persisted and they were brought back. Each wore a white visor on his cap; when they returned a strong guard was placed around the tent. Colonel Baird stepped up to Colonel Williams and raised the white visor from his cap and saw on the band "C. S. A." (meaning Confederate States of America.) The same conclusive evidence was found on their swords, when they were drawn from their sheaths. Captain Crawford was made judge advocate at the trial, which was short and conclusive as to their guilt. Colonel Baird tried to escape the painful duty of hanging them, but, in reply to his telegram, General Garfield telegraphed. "If guilty, hang them at once." and they were accordingly executed — hanged to a wild cherry tree near Fort Granger — June 9, 1863. It is said that the Confederate, Colonel Williams, was a relative of General Lee.

After the war Major Crawford refitted the Ascension Seminary, and in September, 1865, opened a normal school which he conducted until 1872. In that year he moved to Sullivan and consolidated it with the local high school, conducting the higher department as a Normal Institute until 1876, and out of the number who have been educated under him, two thousand two hundred and eighty-three have followed teaching as a profession. After 1876 the major engaged in the pension business in which he is still engaged and during this period of thirty-two years he has obtained between six and seven thousand pensions and increases, the beneficiaries being residents of twenty-three states.

JOHN S. BAYS. The late John S. Bays, of Sullivan, was widely known and deeply honored by the court and bar of both Sullivan and Vigo counties, his prominence as a corporation lawyer bringing him very frequently to the courts of Terre Haute and other points in southern Indiana. Commencing in Sullivan county as a general practitioner, nearly a quarter of a century ago, his strong mind became more and more interested in the development of the great business and industrial development of the section of the state which he had made his home, and those forces themselves began to call upon him with ever increasing insistence for his careful, wise and practical legal guidance. The most important development of southern Indiana centered in its coal interests, and prior to their consolidation Mr. Bays had become the legal counsel for most of the large companies. By thus specializing he achieved a standing which placed him among the best informed and most successful lawyers in the country devoted to the management and exploitation of these vast properties. About two years before his death he effected a consolidation of the coal mines of southern Indiana, and this master stroke extended his reputation as a corporation lawyer throughout the central states. The vast business that resulted from this combination passed through his hands, and he did the work quickly because many years of application had made him thoroughly familiar with the details. He had always been a tremendous worker, all his habits were temperate, his constitution was vital with magnetism and based upon an abundance of physical strength, and yet it is doubtless true that the incessant and concentrated labors which finally gave birth to this last and greatest success of his professional life had much to do with the undermining of his health and his inability to resist the inroads of the disease which, with such comparative suddenness, snatched him from his business associates, his professional co-workers, and his loving kindred and friends. He spent the winter preceding his death in California, but. upon his return to Sullivan in the spring it was found that the change had been unavailing, and after several months of heroic straggling and the final resignation of a calm and resigned Christian, he died in the midst of his family on the I3th of August, 1906. On the day of his funeral the whole city practically suspended business, and the memorial resolutions of the bar associations of Sullivan, Greene, Vigo and Knox counties indicated how general was the feeling of deep loss which pervaded the ranks of his professional associates. In the procession which accompanied his remains from the church to the grave were representatives of these organizations, as well as from the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in which he had long been active. "Coupled with his commanding ability as a lawyer," says one of the tributes, "was a high character as a citizen and a lovable disposition as a man and a friend. Ever kind and courteous in his bearing toward his associates at the bar and litigants, fair and honorable in his professional conduct, respectful and considerate of the judge on the bench, and faithful above all to those who were so fortunate as to become his clients, he has left among us a name to be cherished and an example to be emulated with profit."

John S. Bays was a native of Point Commerce, Greene county, Indiana, where he was born on the 27th of January, 1850. His father, William S. Bays, was born in Virginia, and after his marriage to a Kentucky lady came to Indiana, where he prosecuted his dual calling of hardware merchant and farmer. The parents both died on the old Bays homestead near Worthington, Greene county. John S. obtained his preliminary education in the common schools of his native place, and in 1867, at the age of seventeen, entered the Indiana University at Bloomington. Because of the illness of his father he was obliged to leave the university, after completing a three years' course there. In 1871 he entered the law department of the university, from which he was graduated. Shortly afterward, in 1875, he began practice at Worthington, where he remained for five years, being also the publisher of the Times during a portion of that period. In 1880 he removed to Bloomfield and formed a law partnership with Hon. Lucien Shaw, the firm practicing in Los Angeles, California, in 1883-4. (Judge Shaw is now a member of the supreme court of California.) In the latter year Mr. Bays returned to Indiana, and located at Sullivan, his home thereafter until his death. His talents and strength were all devoted to the practice of his profession and he ever preferred the career of an attorney, as he repeatedly declined to be a candidate for judge of the fourteenth judicial district. In politics he was a Democrat, but was never a candidate for any political office ; but during the administration of Governor Durbin he was appointed as the Democratic member of the board of directors of the Southern Hospital for the Insane, which position he held at the time of his death. The deceased was a member of the Methodist church, the Sullivan lodge of Odd Fellows, and a charter member of Sullivan Lodge No. 911, B. P. O. E. He was instrumental in securing many public improvements for Sullivan, among others the founding of the Carnegie library, of which he was one of the first trustees.

In 1876 Mr. Bays was united in marriage with Miss Hettie Fenton, of Indianapolis, but a native of Canada. She is a daughter of John Fenton, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, and married in Clifton, England. He came to Canada in the fifties with his wife and when they migrated to the United States located in Ohio. Mr. Fenton served in the ranks of the Union army throughout the Civil war, and" afterward located in Indianapolis, where both he and his wife spent their last years and where Mrs. John S. Bays was educated. The widow still resides at Sullivan, the mother of the following : Lee, born January 30, 1878 ; Harold, born January 26, 1880; and Fred F., whose biography is elsewhere given.

Lee received a thorough literary training at DePauw University and graduated in law at the University of Wisconsin. He married Miss Zoe E. Chancy, daughter of Congressman John C. Chancy. Harold, the second son, graduated from the Sullivan High School, and served four years in the army, his experience covering campaigns both in Cuba and the Philippines. He then graduated from Culver Academy, and while a student there held the western academic record in the hammer throw for 1902-3. He married Miss Glenn Lucas, daughter of Captain W. H. Lucas, a sketch of whose life is given in other pages of this work. Harold C. Bays is now head of the artillery department of the Culver Military Academy and instructor in English and mathematics. He has two sons. Lee and Fred Fenton Bays are now associated in the practice of the law, the former having previously been connected with his father.

FRED FENTON BAYS, of the law firm of Bays & Bays, of Sullivan, is one of the able, eloquent and broad-minded young men of this section of Indiana, who in his professional, political and public capacities has already achieved much and given promise of a brilliant and substantial future career. He was born in Bloomfield, Indiana, on the I2th day of July, 1882, a son of the late John S. and Hattie (Fenton) Bays. His father was for nearly a quarter of a century one of the leading lawyers of southern Indiana, and, had he so desired, might have ascended the bench of the higher courts. But all his abilities were wrapped in the practice of the law, and at his death he was considered one of the leading, corporation lawyers of the Ohio valley and had no superior as an authority on the law relating to coal interests. As a man he was pure, high-minded and lovable, and the record of his life is given elsewhere in detail.

Fred F. Bays received the foundation of his mental training at Culver Academy, from which he graduated in 1904, after which he pursued his professional courses in the University of Indianapolis Law School and the University of Indiana Law School at Bloomington, Indiana. Soon after graduating from the latter he entered into practice with his brother Lee, who had been associated with his father. The two brothers, under the style of Bays & Bays, have continued the large business established by their. father, and are handling it with energy and fine judgment. Although general practitioners, they make a specialty of corporate law as relates to the coal interests, representing both the Southern Indiana railroad and the Southern Indiana Coal Company. They are also attorneys for the Standard Oil Company for that section of the state. Their well-appointed and busy offices are located on the north side of the public square on Washington street.

Fred F. Bays is a strong Democrat, and early commenced to participate in the deliberations of the party. At the age of twenty-two he was elected chairman of the county committee, and ably performed its duties for two years. Governor Hanly selected him as a trustee of the Indiana Southern Hospital for the Insane to fill out his father's unexpired term of one and a half years, and at the expiration of that period he was appointed for a new term of four years, which will not expire until 1912. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis, and is also active in the fraternal work of the Elks, being exalted ruler of Lodge No. 911. He maintains his fraternal associations with his alma mater through the Beta Theta Pi of the Indiana University, and has cause to remember his college career with pride as well as fondness. While at Culver he won the first medal for oratory and a medal for debate ; was editor-in-chief of the Vidette, and was a member of the football and track teams, as well as being interested in boxing and athletics in general. He was a true university man, and has carried the broad, active and versatile life of his college days into the realities of professional and social life. From college halls he has continued his interest in oratory, and takes time from his busy professional life to promote the art, and in giving a gold medal to the winner of the annual oratorical contest in the Sullivan high school he pays a beautiful tribute to his late father's memory and at the same time furnishes an inspiration to young men and women to cultivate this ancient and time-honored art. The annual event is known as the "John S. Bays Gold Medal Oratorical Contest."

SILVER CHANEY.  A lawyer, real estate dealer and loan agent, who is doing an extensive business at Sullivan, Indiana, is Silver Chancy, who was born September 14, 1858, in Allen county, Indiana, near Fort Wayne. He is the son of James and Nancy (Crawford) Chancy, the former being a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, born August 9, 1823. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. By trade he was a carpenter and contractor, working at the same in the vicinity of Fort Wayne. In his politics, he was a supporter of Republican party principles. He died in 1901, on a farm in Allen county. The mother was a native of Columbiana county, also ; the date of her birth was 1828, and she still survives and is residing in Allen county. Both she and her husband were Presbyterians in their church faith and membership. Twelve children were born to them, seven being now deceased and the living are : John C., present member of Congress from the Second District of Indiana ; Silver, of this biographical notice ; Mary E. ; Belle, wife of George Lopshire, a resident of Allen county ; Matilda, wife of Joseph Weaver, residing in Wells county.

Silver Chancy spent the early part of his life on the farm and attended the public schools, after which he took an eight months course in the schools of Farmersburg, and received a license to teach and taught two years at Cloverland, Clay county, Indiana. He next attended the Wabash College one year and entered Washington and Jefferson College, in Pennsylvania, where he took a literary course, graduating with the class of 1879. He returned to his native state and taught school in Wells and Allen counties two years, as principal of the Zanesville schools. In 1883, he went to Sullivan and engaged in the abstract business, handling real estate at the same time, and continuing in such work until 1887, when he entered the University of Michigan, graduating from the law department of that most thorough and modern school, with the class of 1889. He then returned to Sullivan county, and commenced the practice of law with C. D. Hunt, of Sullivan. After two years thus associated, he practiced independently for a time, and then formed a partnership with A. G. McNabb, with whom he remained a partner for four years. Since that date he has been alone or with his brother, Hon. John C. Besides carrying on in a successful manner his legal business, he is extensively engaged in loans and real estate transactions. He is a director of the Citizens Trust Company of Sullivan and also director in the American- German Trust Company of Terre Haute ; director and auditor of the Great Western Life Insurance Co. of Terre Haute.

Mr. Chancy and his brother, Hon. John C. Chancy, organized the Alum Cave Coal and Coke company, which was the first movement in the direction of developing the coal fields of the neighborhood of Sullivan county.

Mr. Chancy is interested in fraternities, being a member of the Odd Fellows order and has been district deputy grand master and grand patriarch for about fourteen years in Lodge No. 146. He is also a member of the Masonic blue lodge, chapter and council. He was married August 12, 1889, to Minnie M. McEneney, born in Sullivan county, August 12, 1864; she was educated in Sullivan county and at St. Mary of the Woods class. Her parents were, Patrick and Julia A. McEneney, both now residents of Sullivan, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Chancy have four children: Julia Verne, Silver Dean, John Francis, and Harold R. Mrs. Chancy is a .member of the Christian church and he of the Presbyterian.

WILLIAM H. CROWDER, JR., prominent as the cashier of the Sullivan State Bank, comes of a well-known and highly respected family of Sullivan county, Indiana. He was born November 23, 1868, in Sullivan, son of William H. Crowder, Sr. and wife, whose family history will be found in another sketch within this work. William H. Crowder of this notice, obtained his education in the most excellent public schools of Sullivan and began his business career at the age of sixteen years in his father's banking house. He became the bookkeeper, which position he held until he was twenty-two years of age. At that time he entered into partnership with J. M. Long in the clothing business, remaining four years, when the partnership was dissolved, after which Mr. Crowder went to Linton, Indiana, and there conducted a clothing and shoe store for about four years. He then entered the State Bank at Sullivan, in October, 1900, as the teller of that institution ; and also served as assistant cashier. In September, 1906, he was elected cashier of the bank, which responsible position he still holds. He is a stockholder and director in the Sullivan State Bank and accounted a first class business man.

Politically, he is a Democrat and has held the office of city counsel four years, and his term of office as such will expire January 1, 1910. He is connected with the Odd Fellows order at Sullivan. He was married in June, 1891, to Earlene Moore, born in Sullivan, October, 1872, and educated in her native town. She is the daughter of Robert A. and Susan (Robertson) Moore. The mother is deceased and her father resides at Sullivan. He is a native of Ohio, and both were among the early settlers of Sullivan. Mr. and Mrs. Crowder are the parents of seven children: William H. Jr., born August 17, 1892, now attending high school; Daniel M., born April 25, 1894; Doris, born May i, 1898; Deborah, born April 5, 1900; June, born May 12, 1902; Elizabeth, born April 30, 1904; Ben Allen, born February 26, 1906.

BENJAMIN COX CROWDER, who is now the county auditor of Sullivan county, was born December 20, 1876, in Sullivan, Indiana, son of William H., Sr., and Sarah (Stewart) Crowder. Mr. Crowder received his primary education at Sullivan in the public schools, and in the autumn of 1894 entered DePauw University. When twenty years old he returned to Sullivan and commenced working in the Sullivan County Bank, of which his father was president. He worked as a bookkeeper until this institution and the Farmers' State Bank consolidated into what is now known as the Sullivan State Bank. He remained there until the organization of the National Bank of Sullivan, when he accepted a position in the new bank, he being assistant cashier for the first six months of this institution's history. He then went to Indianapolis and was engaged as bookkeeper in the Crowder-Mason Shoe Company, his cousin, C. H. Crowder being president of that company. He remained thereabout five months and in the autumn of 1901, he was chosen deputy auditor, under J. M. Lang and worked until his term expired and then worked at bookkeeping in the Sullivan State Bank about one year, when he was chosen by E. E. Russell, then county auditor, as his deputy, which position he held until elected to the office of auditor on the Democratic ticket, in November, 1906. He is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks: also belongs to the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, at DePauw University. Mr. Crowder is president of the Citizens Driving Club.

September 16, 1905, Mr. Crowder was married to Emily H. McCrory, born in Sullivan, Indiana, December 3, 1876. She graduated from the high school with the class of 1896. In March, 1900, she acted as assistant in the county auditor's office, remaining there until her marriage. She is the daughter of William and Rachel Ann (Leach) McCrory, both deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Crowder are the parents of one daughter, Rachel Louise, born August u, 1906. Mrs. Crowder is a faithful member of the Christian church.

DR. JOSEPH R. WHALEN, one of the most successful practitioners of Carlisle, is also a large land owner in Sullivan and Knox counties, has important banking and real estate interests in his home city, and, aside from his high professional standing, is a citizen of most substantial ability and character. Born near Bruceville, Knox county, Indiana, on the 30th of March, 1861, he is a son of Dr. Richard M. and Frances J. (Jenks) Whalen. He comes of distinguished ancestry on both sides of the family, the paternal branch originating in Ireland, where his great-great-grandfather was born. The heads of the three succeeding generations, with which the doctor is directly connected, are buried in Bethlehem cemetery, four miles southeast of Carlisle. On the other hand, his maternal grandmother, Jane Arnold, was the daughter of Major Arnold, of Culpeper county, Virginia, who fought with Washington at Yorktown, and now lies buried at Napoleon, Ripley county, Indiana.

John Whalen, the great-grandfather, was among the first school teachers in Sullivan county, and the grandfather, Richard J., was a farmer who took up government land in the county. The title to the property has never been changed, and Dr. Joseph R. is now the owner of forty acres of the original tract. Richard J. Whalen was born in Tennessee and died in Haddon township, this county. His son, Dr. Richard M. (father of Dr. Joseph R.) Whalen, was born in the township named, November 4, 1832, was reared on a farm, and was graduated in medicine from a Chicago college, being long engaged in honorable practice, chiefly in his native locality. He resided in Kansas in 1866 and 1867, and then moved to Haddon township, this county, practicing near Carlisle until his death, July 8, 1899. The deceased was an influential Democrat and a fine citizen, serving for two terms as trustee of Haddon township. He was also a Mason in high standing, having been master of the local lodge for a
number of times and holding membership in Blue Lodge No. 3, at Carlisle. Both he and his wife (who died February 26, 1902) were faithful adherents to Methodism. Mrs. Richard M. Whalen was born at Napoleon, Ripley county, Indiana, on the I2th of February, 1839, daughter of Dr. Joseph Jenks. Her father was born in England ; when eleven years
of age came to America as one of five brothers ; was educated in Cincinnati, Ohio ; practiced his profession in Indiana, Illinois and Kansas, and died in California about 1890. In Kansas occurred the marriage of his daughter to Dr. Richard M. Whalen, on the 12th of May, 1859, and to that union were born the following children: Lewis T., who died in infancy ; Joseph R. ; Mary Annette, wife of D. J. Mathers, who is connected with the National Bank at Carlisle ; Hattie F., deceased ; Fannie S., now the wife of J. B. Latshaw, of Carlisle : Marion R. and Charles, deceased ; and Nellie, who married W. J. Cole, of Sullivan.

Dr. Joseph R. Whalen, of this biography, obtained his early education at Carlisle, Indiana, and after pursuing the higher literary branches at Union College, Merom, taught for a year in Haddon township. He then was associated with his father in the drug business for four years, when he sold his interest and engaged in the buying and feeding of stock until 1891. In that year he was matriculated at the Louisville Medical College, from which he graduated in 1894 with unusual honors, receiving a gold medal as the leader in general scholarship of a class of one hundred and ninety-one students. After his graduation he served as demonstrator of anatomy in his alma mater for a year, spending the following three years in practice at Oakton, Indiana, and the four succeeding years at Bicknell, that state. Since that time he has been an active and successful member of the profession and a public-spirited citizen of Carlisle, following the example of other progressive physicians and surgeons of the country by taking post-graduate studies. In 1893 the doctor pursued such a course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, specializing in anatomy.

Aside from his extensive medical practice, Dr. Whalen has large property interests, which include 810 acres of land in Sullivan and Knox counties and residence property in Carlisle. He was also one of the organizers of the People's Bank of that city, in which he is still a director. In politics, he is a Democrat, and his fraternal relations are with Masonry — more especially with Carlisle Lodge, No. 3, F. and A. M. ; Vincennes Chapter, No. 7, R. A. M., and Vincennes Commandery, No. 20. He has served as master of the blue lodge in Carlisle, Oaktown and Bicknell, Indiana.

On January 1, 1883, Dr. Whalen married Miss Isabelle Gobin, who was born in Haddon township, November 3, 1864, and received her education at Evansville, Indiana, where the ceremony occurred. She was the daughter of John and Margaret (Hall) Gobin, natives of Carlisle, her great-grandmother, Dianna Melburne (Forrester) Hall, being an adopted daughter of Lord Melburne, prime minister of England, and was presented to the court of St. James. The Gobins were early settlers of Sullivan county. Mrs. Isabelle Whalen died June 14, 1907, leaving three daughters: Melburne, born October 7, 1883, now the wife of Manson G. Couch, the mother of two children, and a resident of Lawrenceville, Illinois; Marguerite, born March 5, 1885, and Gladys, born June 27, 1891, both unmarried and living at home. The first Mrs. Whalen was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as are her daughters. On November 4, 1908, the doctor wedded, as his second wife, Airs. Ida Irene (Smith) Starner.

Source: A History of Sullivan County, Indiana:  By Lewis Publishing company , 1909


blackburn

William Maxwell Blackburn

Dr. Blackburn was born near Carlisle, Indiana, December 30, 1828; graduated from Hanover College In 1850 and took his theological course at Princeton. After seventeen years In the pastorate, for thirteen years he occupied the chair of Biblical and ecclesiastical history In the Theological Seminary of the Northwest—now McCormick Theological Seminary, at Chicago. A short term of three years In the pastorate at Cincinnati intervening, he was president of the University of North Dakota for one year, and In 1885 took charge of the Presbyterian Synodical College at Pierre, South Dakota, continuing there till the time of his death, December 29, 1898, rounding out a fruitful life of seventy years. He received from Princeton the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity and from Wooster University that of Doctor of Laws.

The ancestors of Dr. Blackburn were of Scotch-Irish blood. Tradition says that the family was of those who, under the persecutions of the time of Mary Stuart, left Scotland and joined the Huguenots in France in their struggle for religious liberty —a struggle seemingly disastrous in outcome, but vindicated in history as triumphantly glorious. Escaping from their pursuers, it is said that they crossed the English Channel in an open boat, and, about the time of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, returned to Scotland. Falling under the influences that were making for the settlement of the New World they came to America and settled in eastern Pennsylvania, members of the Pennsylvania colony. From there they extended their borders south and west into Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and beyond. The famous pulpit orator. Dr. Gideon Blackburn, of Georgia, belonged to the Virginia branch, and from Kentucky came Governor Luke Blackburn and United States Senator Joseph Blackburn.

The grandfather of William Maxwell Blackburn, William, had his home in Kentucky, but, being opposed to slavery, came north and settled in the valley of the Wabash in Indiana. He was killed not long after at a house-raising and left his widow, a very superior woman, in that new country with a large family of children, of whom the second son, Alexander, became the father of the subject of this sketch. The mother was Delilah Polk, of the same general family as that of President Polk. She was of Kentucky birth and grew up amid the surroundings of Daniel Boone. Her father, Charles Polk, was born at Detroit, Michigan, whither his mother, made prisoner by the Indians in Kentucky, had been taken in midwinter, and his father did not see the boy until he was about two years old. Then the mother bore him on horse-back back to Kentucky. Those were heroic days and produced heroic men and women; though not more heroic than these days of ours where conditions exist like those of that time. Not more than twenty-five years ago, I was with a party which rode in the bitterest of winter weather from the Rosebud Agency to Fort Sully, in South Dakota, and one of that party was an Indian woman who rode on horseback with the rest, having her five-year-old daughter strapped in her blanket upon her back. Often the child cried from the cold, and every member of the party suffered from frost, but the mother never made complaint. There are heroic men and women in these days!

The Blackburns and the Polks were thrifty and well-to-do, and belonged to the better educated class of farmers and business men. Alexander Blackburn and Delilah, his wife, bravely attacked the rugged conditions of pioneer life incident to building up a home and fortune for themselves and their children. They moved from the Wabash Valley when the eldest son, William Maxwell, was four years of age, going with an ox team a distance of two hundred and fifty miles into northern Indiana and making their home near La Porte.

Probably but few of the incidents of that journey were permanently remembered by the boy, but the impressions made upon him could not easily be effaced. There was the long and slow journey; the encampment at night by stream and near rich meadows where the tired oxen grazed; the restful play at evening about the camp fire with the little brother, two years younger, who doubtless cried often and often was left to cry, because mother was busy with the evening meal; then there were the rivers to cross and a part of the way a new country to traverse, while there were roads to cut through thick timber and other difficulties to overcome and trails to meet before they reached the rich prairie land known as Rolling Prairie in "the edge of some of the finest timber that ever grew." There they made their new home. Strong of character by inheritance, the circumstances of early pioneer life developed additional strength. And to this there was added the life-giving spirit of a true religious experience, so that in this pioneer home was ever a glad, joyous household. It was a good place for a boy to grow to young manhood. One writer has fitly characterized this home as "cheerfully religious," the words "cheerfully religious" being used with intention, for he goes on to say, "I was never in a home where the religious life was so prominent and yet never saw a more joyful home," and in the games of youth the "father and mother romped with all the enthusiasm of the youngest." It was here, in walks with his parents, that the future doctor of divinity and enthusiastic student of geology early learned to love the study of nature.

His ready wit and sturdy character, so marked in later life, grew naturally, as does a plant in rich, well watered and carefully tended soil. There was nothing left to chance, and yet it is also true that but few boys needed less of supervision and guidance. His body grew healthy and robust in the life of a farmer's bow. The farm in those days was in a wheat growing region. The sickle gave place to the cradle and this to the famous McCormick reaper, one of the first three, it is said, manufactured by Cyrus McCormick. In the sowing and the reaping and then in threshing the grain, at first with an old-fashioned flail, and in marketing the result at Michigan City or New Buffalo, on the lake twelve miles away, the boy did his full share.

It is probable that he attended school when opportunity offered, but undoubtedly his earlier study of books was at home under the direction of his parents. His father is spoken of as a remarkably well educated man and a great reader, and as having taught school as occasion demanded. That Dr. Blackburn did not lack for early advantages is evidenced by the fact that at seventeen years of age he began to fit for college, and that he graduated with honors shortly after reaching manhood's estate.

At college he was a hard-working student, a ready debater, and early evidenced the clear logic and mental grasp of later days. After graduation a year was spent in teaching school, a winter term at La Porte and a summer term at Constantine, Indiana. His professional studies occupied the following three years, and we find him ordained as an evangelist and preaching at Three Rivers, Michigan, before reaching the age of twenty-five. Shortly before ordination he was married to Miss Elizabeth Powell, who, after treading life's journey fifty-five years with him, survived her husband but a few months, dying March 7, 1899.

The young preacher was always a student; he studied men and books and soon began to write. In his early pastorates his efforts at authorship were largely biographical and show the trend of his study; and out of these studies—or were they but an indication of the larger selection already made—the study of church history came to have for him attractions, and this became his chosen field.

In 1862 he spent some months in travel and study in the mother country. He also went to the continent and was in France, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands, where he devoted himself to careful study of the causes and events of the Reformation, that he might the more correctly interpret the far-reaching results of that religious upheaval. On his return there was published, during a pastorate of four years at Trenton, New Jersey, other biographical studies— lives of John Calvin. Ulric Zwingli, William Farrel, Aonio Palario. the great Swiss reformer, and a history of the Huguenots under the title "Coligny and the Huguenots," in two volumes; all of which appeared in rapid succession.

When it is remembered that to the exacting responsibilities of a city church were also added the absorbing study of history in the life of the Christian church and the Growth of doctrine, one is astonished at the amount of work accomplished. It is only when a powerful mind works effectively and without waste that such results appear. A partial list of the product of Dr. Blackburn's pen gives thirty-three titles to his credit. While still a pastor at Trenton he was offered the presidency of his alma mater. This he declined, though fully appreciating the honor of the call. It was rather as a student of church history than in general administrative ability that he felt his power. In June, 1868, he was elected to the vacant professorship of ecclesiastical and church history in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Chicago. He entered upon the duties of the chair at once, and threw himself with all the zeal and the training of years of special study into meeting the needs of the position. The place had found the man and the man had found his place. It was as when a machine complete, made for a specific purpose and perfectly adjusted, falls into the steady stroke and regular beat of the accomplishment of that for which it was made.

Dr. Blackburn enjoyed his work and worked with all his might. The amount of work he accomplished at this time is marvelous. Occupying the chair of a most important professor-ship, he assisted in making good vacancies in other chairs, sup-plied one or other of the city churches, delivered ecclesiastical and historical lectures outside, and made frequent contributions to periodicals and reviews, and made a steady advance in the preparation of his historical works. His "History of the Christian Church" was published about the time of his withdrawal from the seminary. It is well understood that this resignation was one of the attendant results of the David Swing heresy trial. Dr. Blackburn did not hold to Professor Swing's views, but defended the man in his right to hold these without being branded as a heretic. No one now remembers this trial—we do not know what it was about and wonder what was gained by it. Though Professor Swing was acquitted, he was virtually driven out, and the spirit of intolerance prevailed. With this Dr. Blackburn was not in sympathy, and resigned. Death came and further weakened the faculty, and it was years before the seminary could re-cover.

Long before this Dr. Blackburn's reputation as an author and an authority in his chosen field had been settled. Not only in this country, but in Europe as well, his name was favorably known. A British review of the history of the Huguenots says: "In this work the author has gone to many fountain-heads and set them before the reader in all the distinctiveness of a dramatic picture. If there had been no authentic work on this most interesting subject written on this side of the Atlantic, here is one by an American author that admirably fills the needs," and of his "History of the Christian Church" one of our foremost American reviews says: "Our own country has produced but few ecclesiastical historians of note; Dr. Philip Schaft and Dr. William M. Blackburn are the best. The volume of Dr. Blackburn's now before us is the most creditable general history of the Christian church that has appeared on this side of the Atlantic. Dr. Schaft has as yet covered only a part of the ground. The author is a professor of church history and a well-known lecturer and writer of learning and ability. His researches in general and ecclesiastical history have been widely extended, and his study of Christian doctrine has been thorough. His style is lucid, direct and forcible. His method is much better than that of the old German authors, not being encumbered with endless divisions and sub-divisions, yet following a definite outline with a sufficiently minute analysis. The chapter on religious denominations is of peculiar value. We discover a spirit of fairness and candor which will doubtless secure for the work a wide acceptance among Christians of various names. The author is not unwilling to acknowledge the mistakes of those Christians with whom he would most naturally sympathize, and the virtue of those with whom he is known to differ in important respects. On the whole the history is a fine specimen of condensed, yet spritely historical writing. The work ought to have a place, not only in the theological seminaries and ministers' libraries, but in the families of intelligent Christians of all denominations."

European comment is no less favorable in the tone and spirit with which the author is regarded.
It was expected that the historical study of the church would be followed by a companion volume on the "History of Christian Doctrine." Upon this work had been spent years of study and research, and the manuscript was nearly completed and ready for the printer when this and other valuable notes were destroyed by fire. Such a loss cannot be recovered and the work was not re-written.

On withdrawal from the Chicago professorship, Dr. Blackburn was selected to be chancellor of the Western University at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, which position he declined. A few years were spent in the pastorate at Cincinnati, when failure in the doctor's hitherto robust health and that of others of the family, brought them to North Dakota for a summer in the Devil's Lake region. Quite unexpectedly to him, the University of North Dakota offered him the presidency. He accepted with many doubts and was entirely satisfied to continue the connection but one year. There was too much of politics in a position in a state institution to suit the doctor's make-up. However, he did not choose to return to the older homes and cities from whence he had come. The wine of life and the breezes of the prairies had found way into his blood, and the doctor longed to take part in the work of empire building by making men of character in this newer land. He was called in 1885 to be president of the Presbyterian Synodical College of South Dakota at Pierre.

Until now the most of us had not known Dr. Blackburn.
His stocky figure, strong face and active movements drew attention at once, and men beheld with a gasp the reckless dash with which the doctor, with hat well back on his head and sitting firmly in his two-wheeled cart, sent the half-wild pony through the streets. He became a familiar figure, and we came to love him, though it is doubtful if many fully appreciated him. He was never idle; work was the dominant note in his life. The habit of life had long been fixed and he could not have changed it if he would, and would not if he could, and the new college in a new region afforded ample Held. It was the work of laying foundations, and the doctor strove to lay these deeply and well. Conscious of his own strength, of the great opportunity, and confident of hearty support by his associates in the churches and ministry of his order, nothing discouraged him — the work of the master builder was joy to him and inspiration to beholders.

It is to be regretted that, as seen from the outside. Dr. Blackburn's efforts in behalf of education at this outpost did not receive the loyal support they deserved. Hard times came and the new country did not develop according to plans laid in dreamland. Local jealousies, growing out of the bitter war waged upon Pierre by other aspirants for the capital, alienated some from the support of their college. To Dr. Blackburn there fell the greater burden. With a scanty corps of instructors, he was left almost unaided to secure pupils, and to some extent provide the necessary funds. Had he been a younger man, and had he been a college president of the modern type, it is altogether possible that the institution would have weathered the period of stress and difficulty. But Dr. Blackburn was not of the modern type of college president— he was not a money-getter, and did not take kindly to this feature. Nor would he run into debt, and the result was that when funds were not forthcoming the doctor paid bills out of his own pocket, and when the pocket was empty did without, rather than incur indebtedness. Dr. Blackburn was pre-eminently a teacher, and as such was remarkably successful. Whether in class or as a lecturer, or in the pulpit, he had the ability of a master.
You could not talk with him on the street corner without learning something from him. He taught without effort—he simply could not help himself, for he was a born teacher. It is a pity that such men are obliged to attempt anything other than the chosen work of their high calling. With much the same power as that of Mark Hopkins did Dr. Blackburn teach men. If President Hopkins, sitting on a log with a student by his side, stood for a fully equipped college, the same might be said of President Blackburn and his student seated together on a boulder here in South Dakota.

In June, 1898, the college was removed from Pierre to Huron.

Dr. Blackburn resigned from the presidency, was chosen president-emeritus and to give instruction in psychology and geology, and attended to the duties of his position through the first term of the college year. His death was sudden and painless and took place at his home in the city of Pierre. His body rests in the cemetery overlooking the city and the river beyond, while the ideals for which he strove, the purposes for which he lived and the men into whom he builded of his own lofty character remain, our rich inheritance from one most worthy, who has gone before. This brief sketch has followed the course of only the larger events of Dr. Blackburn's life. It has not attempted to show in any adequate degree his life's abiding influence for good in this world's betterment, nor was it attempted as other than a sketch. Any just analysis of his life and the work accomplished would require much more time than the limits of this paper allow. A few sentences should be written giving in brief the estimate of men who knew him well as a writer, a preacher and a lecturer, and as a man whom to know was a joy and an inspiration. As an author Dr. Blackburn made for himself an international reputation before reaching the age of forty. His style was always that of vital youth. It was clear and full of vigor, almost electrical in effect. A tremendous worker and an insatiable reader, he had something to say on many topics, and he knew how to tell what he knew effectively. In his earlier days and in middle life, when the fire of authorship burned most, the productions of his pen were marvelous in variety and number—church history, biography, books for youth, tracts for the public and studies in many directions followed one another in volcanic pro-fusion. Fact, fancy and argument were at his command.
As a lecturer he was early in demand. Within the first ten years of his work as a pastor, a writer refers to him thus: "He proved able and popular, young, brilliant, eloquent, full of life and energy, an untiring worker, with just enough of a strain of Scotch bluntness and independence in his make-up to make him bold and decisive of speech. He was never tame or common-place, never merely rhetorical, but always argumentative, convincing and stimulating. As a lecturer and pulpit orator he was a perfect artist in word painting. His pictures of scenes that he had witnessed and descriptions of occurrences in which he had borne a part were as clearly and vividly shown before the imagination as if depicted on canvas." And these words continued to be true of his entire life. After coming to South Dakota we find him much in demand. He was interested in every educational effort. He was for one year, and possibly more, a member of the faculty of the Lake Madison summer school; he was also slated for lectures on psychology and geology. This was after he had taken up the special study of geology himself and had become interested in the Bad Lands, the traces of glacial drift and other open pages of the book of nature at hand in this broad and generous state. I cannot say what the psychological course was, but he was brim full of geological data and could not fail to be intensely interesting and instructive.

In the pulpit there were but few his equal. He spoke with conviction and with trained ability. There was nothing for show and no effort at "effect." He preached as he taught, out of a full life. His sermons were often severely logical in form and always logical in thought. As an exegete he was particularly happy, and some one has said that his later sermons were running commentaries on the Scriptures.

A Calvinist by inheritance and training, he was broadly liberal in his recognition of the good in other systems. He would defend his own lines of faith, but never was intolerant of others. His youngest brother is a well known and widely honored clergyman of the Baptist denomination, and the two have always been one in sympathy and desire for the success of the other. When Dr. Blackburn chose to talk doctrinal theology he was fully able to hold his own. He would not, however, allow any-one to force a profitless discussion—too much like threshing over old straw. The story is told of a persistent effort to bring the doctor out on the dogma of infant damnation. Again and again was reference made to bring argument. "You Presbyterians believe that infants dying unregenerate are lost and eternally damned, don't you, now?" was the final attack. The doctor fairly lost his patience, and replied, "Well, suppose we do believe in infant damnation; suppose we do; it does not hurt the infants at all!"

It was not till after coming to South Dakota that Dr. Blackburn devoted himself especially to geological studies. The so-called Bad Lands had great attractions, and he made repeated visits to them, bringing strange casts and shapes of former life back with him. On such an expedition the doctor was a boy again. He wore his oldest clothing and had but little in appearance to recommend him. At one time, when on one of these expeditions, the party drifted into the mining regions of the Black Hills, and here was an opportunity to visit one of the deeper gold mines. This could not be neglected, and application was made to the superintendent, stating who the applicant was and his interest in science as additional reason for the favor desired. Now, the doctor was in traveling attire and had been out in the wilds for some weeks, and there was doubtless ample justification for the incredulous refusal of permission to visit the mines. "You Dr. Blackburn! You president of Pierre University! Not much! Why, Dr. Blackburn's a gentleman, he is!" Had the superintendent heard Dr. Blackburn preach the Sunday following he would have obtained truer knowledge of his identity, notwithstanding the clothes worn by him.

The earlier existence of our State Historical Society had inception in 1890. The first steps for public recognition were taken at a general meeting called for that purpose February 20, 1890, presided over by that grand and rather peculiar old hero, Rev. Edward Brown. Several meetings were held for perfecting the organization, resulting in the selection of permanent officers— Hon. George H. Hand as president, and Hon. O. H. Parker as secretary. It was not, however, till February 18, 1891, that the society was finally incorporated, and February 20, 1891, Dr. Blackburn was chosen to be permanent secretary. Of historical value, as probably the last specimen of the handwriting of Mr. Hand in the interest of the Historical Society, is a slip of paper now loose in the records, giving the fact of Dr. Blackburn's election as the matter of business attended to by the board and signed Geo. H. Hand, president. This slip has further an endorsement by Dr. Blackburn, stating the fact above mentioned relative to Mr. Hand's handwriting. President Hand died soon after, and though a general interest was kept up by individuals, the society, as such, fell into the domain of the future. Dr. Blackburn once grimly remarked that he hoped his election as secretary had not brought on the death of the original society!

He quietly devoted himself to the collection and care of such objects of historical value as came in his way, and waited for the renewal of life which would surely come.

Dr. Blackburn was always interested in everything pertaining to the real advancement of the state and the community in which he lived. He was, moreover, keenly alive to the demand made upon him as a citizen for the public good. State and city politics, in the broader sense of the term, claimed his thought and effort. He was a wide reader. On all national questions he kept himself well posted, and international issues were fresh and living topics when he talked upon them. His life as a man and with other men was manly and robust. His thinking was never lacking in strength. He had a message to men, whether it were of life eternal or the open secrets of nature. This gave him power, for he lived up to the doctrine he taught. He had no patience with form for form's sake, and could not endure shams, nor could he abide fraud and deception. Absolutely fearless in sup-port of truth as he saw it and always ready and eager to learn.

Dr. Blackburn never grew old. The eternal springs of youth were his. There was no such thing as "'dry rot" in either head or heart.

At the appointed time the body failed and was laid to rest. The man still lives—he lives in the work he did, the characters he helped build, and in the remembrance of men. Such men truly live, and live forever.
—Thomas Lawrence Riggs.
Oahe, South Dakota, August, 1902.

[Source: "South Dakota Historical Collections", Compiled by the State Historical Society, Vol. 1, 1902 - Transcribed by K. Torp]

          John T. and Will. H. Hays- The law firm of John T. & Will. H. Hays, of Sullivan, is composed of John T. Hays, who has been a leading attorney and citizen of this locality for some thirty years and Will. H. Hays his son, who has been associated with his father since 1900.  The firm are attorneys for the various railroads, coal companies, and other important corporations which are so much concerned in the development of Sullivan county, among them being the Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad Company; the Indianapolis Southern Railroad Company; the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern Traction Company; the Dering Coal Company; Consolidated Indiana Coal Company; Jackson Hill Coal & Coke Company; Carlisle Coal & Clay Company; Bellevue Coal Company; Sullivan County Coal Company; the West Jackson Hill Coal Mining & Transport Company; the London Liability and Guaranty Company; the Illinois Coal Operators’ Mutual Employers’ Liability Insurance Company; the Central Union Telephone Company; the Sullivan Lighting Company; and the People’s State Bank of Sullivan.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          John Tennyson Hays, senior member of the firm, is a native of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, born on the 11th day of November, 1845.  His parents and grandparents were all native-born Americans.  He lived on a farm with his father until he was sixteen years of age, attending the short winter terms of the common schools in his native county during that time.  In 1864 he was graduated from the Iron City Commercial College at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, then attended the high school at Lisbon, Ohio, and in 1866 entered Mount Union College.  He was graduated from that institution in June, 1869, receiving the highest honors of his class in natural science and mathematics.  For a year after his graduation he was principal of schools at Calcutta, Ohio, and in August, 1870, moved to Farmersburg, Sullivan county.  He taught in the Ascension Seminary there, and later in Sullivan, until 1874, with the exception of one year, during which he was principal of the schools at Oaktown, Knox county.

          In 1874 Mr. Hays became a law student in the office of Sewell Counsel, but at his admission to the bar on March 1, 1875, purchased the interest of Nathanial G. Buff, in the firm of Buff & Buff, of Sullivan, continuing in partnership with Judge Buff until 1878.  In the fall of that year the partnership was dissolved, as he had been elected prosecuting attorney of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit for a term of two years.  In 1879 he associated himself in practice with his brother, H.J. Hays, and that partnership was unbroken until 1892.  From that year until 1900, when he received his son, Will. H. Hays into partnership, he conducted an independent practice.  Although his law business is of immense proportions, his early life on the farm still draws him to the soil, and he now takes great delight in managing his farm, as well as a tract of several thousand acres owned by the West Jackson Hill Coal Mining & Transport Company, of which he is president.  He is also a director in the People’s State Bank.

          Mr. Hays has always been a Republican, but never was a candidate for any office except what of prosecuting attorney.  He has always been a member of the Presbyterian church, of which he is an elder and in which he has taught for years in connection with the Sunday school.  Socially he is a member of the Columbia Club, Indianapolis, and has a close connection with the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias.  He is a member of Sullivan Commandery, No. 54, Knights Templar; Jerusalem Chapter, No. 81, Royal Arch Masons; Sullivan Lodge, No. 263, Free and Accepted Masons; Sullivan Council, No. 73, R. & S.M.; and Sullivan Chapter, No. 188, Order of the Eastern Star.  He served eight years as high priest of this chapter and three years as master of his lodge.  He is identified with the Knights of Pythias as a member of Sullivan Lodge, No. 85.

          He has been twice married; first in 1869, from which union his two daughters, Martha A. Hays and Bertha Hays Drake, were born.  In December, 1876, he was married to Mary Cain, of Sullivan, Indiana, and of their marriage two children have been born, William Harrison Hays and Hinkle Cain Hays.  The career of John T. Hays, most noteworthy and honorable, needs no commendation.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Will. H. Hays, junior member of the firm was born in Sullivan November 5, 1879.  He was graduated from the Sullivan high school in the class of 1896, entering Wabash College in the fall of that year.  After pursuing a four years’ course in that institution he obtained his degree of B.A. in 1900.  He had been interested in the law ever since he was a young boy, spending much of his spare time in his father’s office.  At his graduation he naturally formed a partnership with him, which has since continued.  In 1904 Mr. Hays received the degree of M.A. from his alma mater, the subject of the special thesis upon which it was conferred being “The Negro Problem.”  In college he won the highest oratorical honors and ever since his graduation has given much time to public speaking.

          A Republican in politics, in 1902 he was nominated for prosecuting attorney, and was defeated by fifty-three votes.  From 1904 to 1908 (two terms) he served as chairman of the Republican county committee; was a member of the State Advisory committee from the Second district from 1906 to 1908, and during the campaigns of 1906 and 1908 was chairman of the Speakers’ Bureau of the Republican state committee.  In his religious faith Mr. Hays is a Presbyterian, and teaches a class of boys in its Sunday school.  In Masonry he is a member of Sullivan Lodge, No. 263, F. &A.M.; Jerusalem Chapter, No. 81, R.A.M.; Sullivan Council, No. 73, R. &S.M.; Sullivan Commandery, No. 54, Knights Templar, and Sullivan Chapter, No. 188, Order of the Eastern Star.  He is also a member of the Indianapolis Consistory, Scottish Rite Masons, and of Murat Temple, Order of the Mystic Shrine.  He is a member of both the Columbia and Marion Clubs, of Indianapolis, and is a life member of Sullivan Lodge, No. 911, B.P.O.E.  He is a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and for six years has been state president of the order.  Mr. Hays was married on November 18, 1902, to Miss Helen Louise Thomas, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, a daughter of Judge Albert Duy Thomas, who resides in that place.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Orion Boyd Harris, who was the circuit judge of Sullivan and Greene counties, Indiana, from 1900 to 1906, is a native of Knox county, Ohio, born April 15, 1859, son of Amos M. and Jane (Hill) Harris.  The father was also born in Knox county, Ohio, the date being March 2, 1833; he died in 1900.  The mother, also a native of Knox county, Ohio, was born in 1834 and died in 1905.  They were united in marriage in their native county in November, 1857, and moved to Greene county, Indiana, in 1866, and lived there until 1873, when they removed to Knox county, Ohio.  In Ohio, the father was a farmer, and also a general merchant doing business at one time at Newark, Greene county, Indiana.  Retiring from mercantile life, he lived his latter years on his farm.  The grandfathers on both paternal and maternal sides came from southeastern Virginia and effected a settlement in Ohio in 1808, remaining there until death.  Grandfather Harris raised a family of ten children and they all lived to rear families of their own.  Amos M. Harris, father of Judge Harris, was a stanch adherent to Democratic party principals.  Both he and his wife were of Scotch-Irish descent.  They were members of the Christian church.  To them were born six children, as follows:  Judge Orion B., of this memoir; Clarence W., residing in Syracuse, Kansas; Victor L., residing in same place; India A., wife of Harry A. Simmons, residing in Lakin, Kansas; Samuel C., died in infancy; Myrtle, wife of Charles P. Worden, residing in Syracuse, Kansas.

          Judge Harris was reared on his father’s farm and received his primary education in the district schools.  He then attended the Normal School at Utica, Ohio, graduating in the class of 1878.  Later he was graduated from Kenyon College, Columbia, Ohio, with the class of 1885.  He taught school for two years in Ohio, and one year in Greene county, Indiana.  Having settled upon the profession of law as the one he wished to pursue, he read law while yet a teacher in both Ohio and Indiana.  In 1887 he read with William C. Hultz, of Sullivan, Indiana, remaining until 1890.  He acted as deputy prosecuting attorney, under Mr. Hultz, until 1892.  From 1890 to 1893 he practiced law alone at Sullivan, Indiana, and at that date formed a partnership with William T. Douthitt, remaining with him until 1896.  He then practiced law and managed the Sullivan Times, a Democratic local paper, until 1900.  During the last named year he was elected judge of the Sullivan and Greene county circuit courts, taking his office in November, 1900, and serving until 1906, since which time he has practiced alone.  His office is now located in the Citizens’ Trust Building.  In 1902 a Negro was lynched in his county, and the governor of the state undertook to dispossess the sheriff of his office.  The judge gave his opinion and the sheriff was not molested.  Judge Harris is a Democrat, and in fraternal connections is a member of the blue lodge and chapter of the Masonic order.  He is also a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks at Sullivan.  Besides his legal business, Judge Harris is the president of the La Gloria Copper Mining Company, of Terre Haute.

          He was married May 8, 1890, to Rachel, daughter of Seburn and Mary Elizabeth (McCrae) Kirkham.  Mrs. Harris was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, and attended the common and high schools and also the state Normal.  She subsequently taught for about three years in her native county.  Mr. and Mrs. Harris are the parents of the following four children: Norval K., Naomi, Amos Myron, and Phillip Hill.  Both judge and his estimable wife are members of the Christian church.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Robert P. White, of Sullivan, one of the editors of the Sullivan Union, was born September 23, 1876, in Terre Haute, Indiana, son of Samuel A. and Rebecca M. (Pearce) White.  (For history of the White family see sketch of Samuel A. White).  Robert P. White is a graduate of the Sullivan high school of the class of 1896.  He was then employed by his father in his drug store at Sullivan and in 1898, began working on the Sullivan Democrat, continuing on that journal until 1902, during which period he was city editor.  In August, 1902, he was made assistant editor of the Sullivan Union, acting in such capacity until February, 1904, at which time, he was with his present partner, Dirrelle Chaney, purchasing the Sullivan Times, which they sold in March, 1904.  Their paper, the Sullivan Weekly Union, has the largest circulation of any paper published within the county.

          In his political views, Mr. White is a Republican; has served as secretary of the Republican county committee and was re-elected in 1908.  Since the campaign days of 1896 he has been as active party worker.  He served as precinct committeeman up to 1906.  While engaged on the Sullivan Democrat, he also corresponded for the Terre Haute, Indianapolis and Cincinnati dailies.  Being a thorough, up-to-date man.  Mr. White is interested in fraternal society matters and is numbered among the members of the Odd Fellows order, being advanced to the Encampment degree.  He is also a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.  The Masonic fraternity has also attracted him to its fold, and he is now a member of the Blue lodge, Royal Arch Chapter, and the Royal and Select Masters; also belongs to the Eastern Star of the same fraternity, all being lodges at Sullivan.

          Mr. White was married June 16, 1906, to Bertha B. Briggs, who was born in 1874, in Sullivan county, Indiana, and is a graduate of the high school with the class of 1893.  She was appointed money order clerk at the Sullivan post office and held the position for about five years.  Mrs. White is the daughter of Dr. Charles and Josephine (Hinkle) Briggs.  Her father died in 1903; he was a practicing physician in Sullivan, and counted among the leaders of his profession.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Dirrelle Chaney attended the high school at Washington, District of Columbia, and the Wabash College, of Indiana, in which he took a literary course.  In 1893 he was commissioner of the United States court of claims, serving two years.  After his term had expired, he engaged in the newspaper business, first on the Terre Haute Express.  In 1900 he was engaged on papers in London and Paris.  In 1901-02 was with the Chicago American, in Chicago.  In February, 1904, he is company with Robert P. White, purchased the Sullivan Times, and in March of that year purchased the Sullivan Union, having at the same date sold the Times.  Mr. Chaney takes much interest in civic society affairs and is a member of the Eagles, Elks and Masons, and the Kappa Sigma fraternity.  He took the thirty-second degree in Masonry at Indianapolis and is also a Shriner, and a Knight Templar.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Arthur A. Holmes – The present efficient postmaster at Sullivan, Indiana, Arthur A. Holmes, was born September 11, 1856, at Annapolis, Crawford county, Illinois, son of John H. and Nancy E. (Rains) Holmes.  The father was a native of Licking county, Ohio, born March 28, 1828, and died October 31, 1863, in Effingham county, Illinois.  The mother was born in Crawford county, Illinois, August 31, 1831, and passed from earthly scenes in Sullivan county, Indiana, February 10, 1890.  John H. Holmes was a farmer by occupation and went to Illinois from Ohio in 1848, remaining there until his death.  Politically, he affiliated with the Democratic party, but was a War Democrat.  After the death of John H. Holmes, his widow married John L. Kaufman, of Gill township, Sullivan county, Indiana.

          Arthur A. Holmes was reared to farm labor and received his education at the district schools, and at the College at Merom, Indiana, which educational institution he entered in 1874, and from which he graduated in 1877.  He had also taken private instructions before entering college.  He then taught three years, one term in Illinois and the balance of the time in Marshall and Sullivan counties, Indiana.  Having decided to engage in the legal profession, he studied law with Buff & Patten of Sullivan.  After remaining with them for two years he was admitted to the bar in 1880 and entered into partnership with W.S. Maple of Sullivan, continuing until the spring of 1883, when he formed a partnership with I.H. Kalley, which relation existed until August 1, 1887.  At the last named date he entered into service of the government as special pension examiner, remaining until April, 1893, at which time he resigned.  In 1891 he had purchased the Sullivan Union and after his resignation from office he was actively engaged on the newspaper, of which he was owner and editor from March 1891, to July 24, 1902, when he again entered the employ of the government and continued until January 21, 1907, in the pension department.  He was appointed postmaster at Sullivan, Indiana, February 1, 1898, by President McKinley and re-appointed by President Roosevelt, serving from February 8, 1898, to July 31, 1902, inclusive.  He was again made postmaster in January, 1907, and his term will expire January 18, 1911.  Mr. Holmes has always voted the Republican ticket and has been an aggressive party worker.  He is a member of the Knights of Pythias order in Sullivan.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Major William T. Crawford, who having now reached the age of three score and ten years, has been identified with the educational and patriotic history for forty-eight years, and is one of the most honored and popular citizens in this section of the state.  He was born on a farm in Jay county, Indiana, January 25, 1838, but when three months old his parents sold the homestead and removed to Columbiana county, Ohio, where his early years were spent.  The major is the son of Samuel and Gracy (George) Crawford – the former being a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, where he died aged seventy-nine years.  The paternal grandfather, John Crawford, was a native of Ireland (his wife of Scotland) and lived to the remarkable age of one hundred and two years.  William George, the maternal grandfather, was a native of Ireland, while his wife (Linea Hull) was born in England.  The ancestors on both sides of the family came to the United States about 1800 and located in Columbiana county, Ohio, where they became substantial members of the agricultural community and continued their firm adherence to Presbyterianism.  Grandfather George was a justice of the peace in that county for twenty-four successive years, and although a practical and successful farmer was a deep lover of music, and expert violinist and a man of cultivated tastes.

          Samuel Crawford, the father, was also an agriculturist and stock raiser.  In stature, he was a very large man, being fully six feet in height; in his manners, he was mild and kind to those with whom he mingled and labored, and as an illustration of these traits it is related that he never had a quarrel or a law suit.  His ambition to be well educated was thwarted when young, but after his marriage, by persistent reading and self-training be became a man of wide general information.  Another commendable trait in his character was his unfailing kindness to old people, and morally, he was ever found on the side of justice and right.  The children born to Samuel and Gracy (George) Crawford were ten in number and in the order of their birth are as follows:  Nancy, widow of James Chaney and mother of Congressman John C. Chaney, who now resides at her farm home ten miles south of Fort Wayne, Indiana;  Ruth, deceased;  John, residing at Roanoke, Indiana;  George, deceased;  Elizabeth, a resident of Idaho and wife of Thomas Crawford;  Jane, deceased;  William T., of this review;  Noah, deceased;  Linea E., wife of Alexander McCammont, who resides at Rogers, Ohio; and Mary M., wife of Sant Hewett, of Florida.  All but Jane lived to years of maturity.

          Major William T. Crawford was diligently employed on his father’s farm and attended the district schools of his home neighborhood and the high school of New Lisbon, Ohio.  He began teaching in the same county and after being thus engaged four years, in 1860, came to Sullivan county, Indiana, and built the Ascension Seminary at Farmersburg.  Before its completion, however, in August, 1862, he raised a company and was made captain of what was known as Company H, Eighty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, serving as a gallant officer and brave soldier, from August, 1862, to June 12, 1865.  He saw much actual campaign service, participating in fifteen battles of the Civil war and being honorably discharged as brevet major.  His regiment was first encamped at Locust Grove, opposite Cincinnati, for a few weeks, and then moved to Falmouth, Kentucky.  There Captain Crawford was detailed by General A.J. Smith, to act as provost marshal of the place, which he did for two and a half months.  The regiment then moved to Lexington and on to Danville, Kentucky, later being sent to Louisville, where it was transported down the Ohio river and thence up the Cumberland to Nashville, Tennessee.  Before reaching Franklin, Captain Crawford was attacked by typhoid fever and pneumonia, and five physicians gave his case up as a fatal one, telling him if he had any word to send to his family they would be glad to communicate it.  The captain said, “Dr. Hobbs, please tell my wife that I have been sick, but am going to get well and live to see this rebellion put down.”  Dr. Hobbs then turned to Drs. Wiles and McPheters and said: “His will power may yet pull him through.”  He began to recover, but while still in bed the rebels made an attack on the town of Franklin.  He started for his command at Fort Granger, but was so weak that he was compelled to rest on the door steps along the streets.  As he neared the river, five Confederates rode up and demanded his sword.  The captain had not realized that they were rebels until after they had surrounded him.  The leader at once demanded the captain’s sword and when he asked him, “By what authority?” the rebel replied, “By the Confederate authority.  What authority did you think?”  He then ordered him to get up on the horse behind him, whereupon the captain refused.  The officer then drew his revolver on him and said, “Then I will leave you here.”  The captain replied, “You have the drop on me.”  Again the Confederate officer said, “Hand up your sword at once,” and when the captain refused, the rebel demanded that he mount the horse behind him.  For answer Captain Crawford knocked the revolver out of the enemy’s hand with a hickory cane, which he fortunately carried.  At that instant about one thousand shots were fired from the Union lines, one ball striking the leader in the mouth and cutting his tongue partly off.  The blood shot out over Captain Crawford and fell upon his sword, which remained unwashed for many years after the close of the war.  Another of the Confederates brought his carbine down upon the captain’s head, but a ball pierced the rebel’s hand.  Still another of the Confederate squad was shot through the side, as he was taking aim at the captain’s head.  Another’s horse was shot from under him as he exclaimed, “Throw up your hands or we will shoot – out of you.”  At this critical moment Captain Bails crossed the river and assisted Captain Crawford into the Union lines.

          A few weeks later two spies form General Bragg’s army (Colonel Williams and Lieutenant Peter entered the Union lines, reporting that they were sent by General Garfield to inspect the camp, presenting as their authority a forged letter from the commander.  Representing, also, that they had been surprised and robbed by rebels, they borrowed fifty dollars from Colonel Baird and obtained from him a pass to go to Nashville.  Colonel Watkins, of the Sixth Kentucky Regiment (a graduate of West Point) recognized one of the spied as being a classmate of his and they had no sooner left camp than that officer remarked to Colonel Baird: “Those men are spies.”  As quick as thought, Baird said, “Overtake them and bring them back,” which command was accomplished as the Confederates were nearing the outer picket lines.  Blandly telling them that the rebels were between them and Nashville and that Colonel Baird wished to send them a guard, Colonel Watkins led them to the regimental headquarters.  One of the spies – a distant relative of Washington, answered “We have no fears.”  But Colonel Watkins persisted and they were brought back.  Each wore a white visor on his cap; when they returned a strong guard was placed around the tent.  Colonel Baird stepped up to Colonel Williams and raised the white visor from his cap and saw on the band “C.S.A.” (meaning Confederate States of America.)  The same conclusive evidence was found on their swords, when they were drawn from their sheaths.  Captain Crawford was made judge advocate at the trial, which was short and conclusive as to their guilt.  Colonel Baird tried to escape the painful duty of hanging them, but, in reply to his telegram, General Garfield telegraphed, “If guilty, hang them at once,” and they were accordingly executed – hanged to a wild cherry tree near Fort Granger – June 9, 1863.  It is said that the Confederate, Colonel Williams, was a relative of General Lee.

          After the war Major Crawford refitted the Ascension Seminary, and in September, 1865, opened a normal school which he conducted until 1872.  In that year he moved to Sullivan and consolidated it with the local high school, conducting the higher department as a Normal Institution until 1876, and out of the number who have been educated under him, two thousand two hundred and eighty-three have followed teaching as a profession.  After 1876 the major engaged in the pension business in which he is still engaged and during this period of thirty-two years he has obtained between six and seven thousand pensions and increases, the beneficiaries being residents of twenty-three states.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          John S. Bays – The late John S. Bays, of Sullivan, was widely known and deeply honored by the court and bar of both Sullivan and Vigo counties, his prominence as a corporation lawyer bringing him very frequently to the courts of Terre Haute and other points in southern Indiana.  Commencing in Sullivan county as a general practitioner, nearly a quarter of a century ago, his strong mind became more and more interested in the development of the great business and industrial development of the section of the state which he had made his home, and those forces themselves began to call upon him with ever increasing insistence for his careful, wise and practical legal guidance.  The most important development of southern Indiana centered in its coal interests, and prior to their consolidation Mr. Bays had become the legal counsel for most of the large companies.  By thus specializing he achieved a standing which placed him among the best informed and most successful lawyers in the country devoted to the management and exploitation of these vast properties.  About two years before his death he affected a consolidation of the coal mines of southern Indiana, and this master stroke extended his reputation as a corporate lawyer throughout the central states.  The vast business that resulted from this combination passed through his hands, and he did the work quickly because many years of application had made him thoroughly familiar with the details.  He had always been a tremendous worker, all his habits were temperate, his constitution was vital with magnetism and based upon an abundance of physical strength, and yet it is doubtless true that the incessant and concentrated labors which finally gave birth to this last and greatest success of his professional life had much to do with the undermining of his health and his inability to resist the inroads of the disease which, with such comparative suddenness, snatched him from his business associates, his professional co-workers, and his loving kindred and friends.  He spent the winter preceding his death in California, he died in the midst of his family on the 13th of August, 1906.  On the day of his funeral the whole city practically suspended business, and the memorial resolutions of the bar associations of Sullivan, Greene, Vigo and Knox counties indicated how general was the feeling of deep loss which pervaded the ranks of his professional associates.  In the procession which accompanied his remains from the church to the grave were representatives of these organizations, as well as from the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in which he had long been active.  “Coupled with his commanding ability as a lawyer,” says one of the tributes, “was a high character as a citizen and a loveable disposition as a man and a friend.  Ever kind and courteous in his bearing toward his associates at the bar and litigants, fair and honorable in his professional conduct, respectful and considerate of the judge on the bench, and faithful above all to those who were so fortunate as to become his clients, he has left among us a name to be cherished and an example to be emulate with profit.”

          John S. Bays was a native of Point Commerce, Greene county, Indiana where he was born on the 27th of January, 1850.  His father, William S. Bays, was born in Virginia, and after his marriage to a Kentucky lady came to Indiana, where he prosecuted his dual calling of hardware merchant and farmer.  The parents both died on the old Bays homestead near Worthington, Greene county.  John S. obtained his preliminary education in the common schools of his native place, and in 1867, at the age of seventeen, entered the Indiana University at Bloomington.  Because of the illness of his father he was obliged to leave the university, after completing a three years’ course there.  In 1871 he entered the law department of the university, from which he was graduated.  Shortly afterward, in 1875, he began practice at Worthington where he remained for five years, being also the publisher of the Times during a portion of that period.  In 1880 he removed to Bloomfield and formed a law partnership with Hon. Lucien Shaw, the firm practicing in Los Angeles, California, in 1883-4.  (Judge Shaw is now a member of the supreme court of California.)  In the latter year Mr. Bays returned to Indiana, and located at Sullivan, his home thereafter until his death.  His talents and strength were all devoted to the practice of his profession and he ever preferred the career of an attorney, as he repeatedly declined to be a candidate for judge of the fourteenth judicial district.  In politics he was a Democrat, but was never a candidate for any political office; but during the administration of Governor Durbin he was appointed as the Democratic member of the board of directors of Southern Hospital for the Insane, which position he held at the time of his death.  The deceased was a member of the Methodist church, the Sullivan lodge of Odd Fellows, and a charter member of Sullivan Lodge No. 911, B.P.O.E.  He was instrumental in securing many public improvements for Sullivan, among others the founding of the Carnegie library, of which he was one of the first trustees.

          In 1876 Mr. Bays was united in marriage with Miss Hettie Fenton, of Indianapolis, but a native of Canada.  She is a daughter of John Fenton, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, and married in Clifton, England.  He came to Canada in the fifties with his wife and when they migrated to the United States located in Ohio.  Mr. Fenton served in the ranks of the Union army throughout the Civil war, and afterward located in Indianapolis, where both he and his wife spent their last years and where Mrs. John S. Bays was educated.  The widow still resides at Sullivan, the mother of the following:  Lee, born January 30, 1878;  Harold, born January 26, 1880;  and Fred F., whose biography is elsewhere given.

          Lee received a thorough literary training at DePauw University and graduated in law at the University of Wisconsin.  He married Miss Zoe E. Chaney, daughter of Congressman John C. Chaney.  Harold, the second son, graduated from the Sullivan High School, and served four years in the army, his experience covering campaigns both in Cuba and the Philippines.  He then graduated from Culver Academy, and while a student there held the western academic record in the hammer throw for 1902-3.  He married Miss Glenn Lucas, daughter of Captain W.H. Lucas, a sketch of whose live is given in other pages of this work.  Harold C. Bays is now head of the artillery department of the Culver Military Academy and instructor in English and mathematics.  He has two sons.  Lee and Fred Fenton Bays are now associated in the practice of law, the former having previously been connected with his father.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Fred Fenton Bays, of the law firm of Bays & Bays, of Sullivan, is one of the able, eloquent and broad-minded young men of this section of Indiana, who in his professional, political and public capacities has already achieved much and given promise of a brilliant and substantial future career.  He was born in Bloomfield, Indiana, on the 12th day of July, 1882, a son of the late John S. and Hattie (Fenton) Bays.  His father was for nearly a quarter of a century one of the leading lawyers of southern Indiana, and, had he so desired, might have ascended the bench of the higher courts.  But all his abilities were wrapped in the practice of law, and at his death he was considered one of the leading corporation lawyers of the Ohio valley and had no superior as an authority on the law relating to coal interests.  As a man he was pure, high-minded and loveable, and the record of his life is given elsewhere in detail.

          Fred F. Bays received the foundation of his mental training at Culver Academy, from which he graduated in 1904, after which he pursued his professional courses in the University of Indianapolis Law School and the University of Indiana Law School at Bloomington, Indiana.  Soon after graduating from the latter he entered into practice with his brother Lee, who had been associated with his father.  The two brothers, under the style of Bays & Bays, have continued the large business established by their father, and are handling it with energy and fine judgment.  Although general practitioners, they make a specialty of corporate law as relates to the coal interests, representing both the Southern Indiana railroad and the Southern Indiana Coal Company for that section of the state.  Their well-appointed and busy offices are located on the north side of the public square on Washington street.

          Fred F. Bays is a strong Democrat, and early commenced to participate in the deliberations of the party.  At the age of twenty-two he was elected chairman of the county committee, and ably performed its duties for two years.  Governor Hanly selected him as a trustee of the Indiana Southern Hospital for the Insane to fill out his father’s unexpired term of one and a half years, and at the expiration of that period he was appointed for a new term of four years, which will not expire until 1912.  He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis, and is also active in the fraternal work of the Elks, being exalted ruler of Lodge No. 911.  He maintains his fraternal associations with his alma mater through the Beta Theta Pi of the Indiana University, and has cause to remember his college career with pride as well as fondness.  While at Culver he won the first medal for oratory and a metal for debate; was editor-in-chief of the Vidette, and was a member of the football and track teams, as well as being interested in boxing and athletics in general.  He was a true university man, and has carried the broad, active and versatile life of his college days into the realities of professional and social life.  From college halls he has continued his interest in oratory, and takes time from his busy professional life to promote the art, and in giving a gold metal to the winner of the annual oratorical contest in Sullivan high school he pays a beautiful tribute to his late father’s memory and at the same time furnishes an inspiration to young men and women to cultivate this ancient and time-honored art.  The annual event is known as the “John S. Bays Gold Medal Oratorical Contest.”
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Silver Chaney – A lawyer, real estate dealer and loan agent, who is doing an extensive business at Sullivan, Indiana, is Silver Chaney, who was born September 14, 1858, in Allen county, Indiana, near Fort Wayne.  He is the son of James and Nancy (Crawford) Chaney, the former being a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, born August 9, 1823.  He was of Scotch-Irish descent.  By trade he was a carpenter and contractor, working at the same in the vicinity of Fort Wayne.  In his politics, he was a supporter of Republican party principles.  He died in 1901, on a farm in Allen county.  The mother was a native of Columbiana county, also; the date of her birth was 1828, and she still survives and is residing in Allen county.  Both she and her husband were Presbyterians in their church faith and membership.  Twelve children were born to them, seven being now deceased and the living are:  John C., present member of Congress from the Second District of Indiana;  Silver, of this biographical notice;  Mary E.;  Belle, wife of George Lopshire, a resident of Allen county;  Matilda, wife of Joseph Weaver, residing in Wells county.

          Silver Chaney spent the early part of his life on the farm and attended the public schools, after which he took an eight month course in the schools of Farmersburg, and received a license to teach and taught two years at Cloverland, Clay county, Indiana.  He next attended the Wabash College one year and entered Washington and Jefferson College, in Pennsylvania, where he took a literary course, graduating with the class in 1879.  He returned to his native state and taught school in Wells and Allen counties two years, as principal of the Zanesville schools.  In 1883, he went to Sullivan and engaged in the abstract business, handling real estate at the same time, and continuing in such work until 1887, when he entered the University of Michigan, graduating from the law department of that most thorough and modern school, with the class of 1889.  He then returned to Sullivan county, and commenced the practice of law with C.D. Hunt, of Sullivan.  After two years thus associated, he practiced independently for a time, and then formed a partnership with A.G. McNabb, with whom he remained a partner for four years.  Since that date he has been alone or with his brother, Hon. John C.  Besides carrying on in a successful manner his legal business, he is extensively engaged in loans and real estate transactions.  He is a director of the Citizens Trust Company of Sullivan and also director in the American-German Trust Company of Terre Haute; director and auditor of the Great Western Life Insurance Co. of Terre Haute.

          Mr. Chaney and his brother, Hon. John C. Chaney, organized the Alum Cave Coal and Coke company, which was the first movement in the direction of developing coal fields of the neighborhood of Sullivan county.

          Mr. Chaney is interested in fraternities, being a member of the Odd Fellows order and has been district deputy grand master and grand patriarch for about fourteen years in Lodge No. 146.  He is also a member of the Masonic blue lodge, chapter and council.  He was married August 12, 1889, to Minnie M. McEneney, born in Sullivan county, August 12, 1864; she was educated in Sullivan county and at St. Mary of the Woods class.  Her parents were, Patrick and Julia A. McEneney, both now residents of Sullivan, Indiana.  Mr. and Mrs. Chaney have four children:  Julia Verne, Silver Dean, John Francis, and Harold R.  Mrs. Chaney is a member of the Christian church and he of the Presbyterian.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          William H. Crowder, Jr., prominent as the cashier of the Sullivan State Bank, comes of a well-known and highly respected family of Sullivan county, Indiana.  He was born November 23, 1868, in Sullivan, son of William H. Crowder, Sr. and wife, whose family history will be found in another sketch within this work.  William H. Crowder of this notice, obtained his education in the most excellent public schools of Sullivan and began his business career at the age of sixteen years in his father’s banking house.  He became the bookkeeper, which position he held until he was twenty-two years of age.  At that time he entered into partnership with J.M. Long in the clothing business, remaining four years, when the partnership was dissolved, after which Mr. Crowder went to Linton, Indiana, and there conducted a clothing and shoe store for about four years.  He then entered the State Bank at Sullivan, in October, 1900, as the teller of that institution; and also served as assistant cashier.  In September, 1906, he was elected cashier of the bank, which responsible position he still holds.  He is a stockholder and director in the Sullivan State Bank and accounted a first class business man.

          Politically, he is a Democrat and has held the office of city counsel four years, and his term of office as such will expire January 1, 1910.  He is connected with the Odd Fellows order at Sullivan.  He was married in June, 1891, to Earlene Moore, born in Sullivan, October, 1872m and educated in her native town.  She is the daughter of Robert A. and Susan (Robertson) Moore.  The mother is deceased and her father resides at Sullivan.  Mr. and Mrs. Crowder are the parents of seven children:  William H. Jr., born August 18, 1892, now attending high school; Daniel M., born April 25, 1894; Doris, born May 1, 1898; Deborah, born April 5, 1900; June, born May 12, 1902; Elizabeth, born April 30, 1904; Ben Allen, born February 26, 1906.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Benjamin Cox Crowder, who is now the county auditor of Sullivan county, was born December 20, 1875, in Sullivan, Indiana, son of William H., Sr. and Sarah (Stewart) Crowder.  (For an account of his ancestors see sketch of William H. Crowder, Sr., in this work.)  Mr. Crowder received his primary education at Sullivan in the public schools, and in the autumn of 1894 entered DePauw University.  When twenty years old he returned to Sullivan and commenced working in the Sullivan County Bank, of which his father was president.  He worked as a bookkeeper until this institution and the Farmers’ State Bank consolidated into what is now knows as the Sullivan State Bank.  He remained there until the organization of the National Bank of Sullivan, when he accepted a position in the new bank, he being assistant cashier for the first six months of this institution’s history.  He then went to Indianapolis and was engaged as bookkeeper in the Crowder-Mason Shoe Company, his cousin C.H. Crowder being president of that company.  He remained thereabout five months and in the autumn of 1901, he was chosen deputy auditor, under J.M. Lang and worked until his term expired and then worked at bookkeeping in the Sullivan State bank about one year, when he was chosen by E.E. Russell, then county auditor, as his deputy, which position he held until elected to the office of auditor on the Democratic ticket, in November, 1906.  He is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks; also belongs to the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, at DePauw University.  Mr. Crowder is president of the Citizens Driving Club.

          September 16, 1905, Mr. Crowder was married to Emily H. McCrory, born in Sullivan, Indiana, December 3, 1876.  She graduated from the high school with the class of 1896.  In March, 1900, she acted as assistant in the county auditor’s office, remaining there until her marriage.  She is the daughter of William and Rachel Ann (Leach) McCrory, both deceased.  Mr. and Mrs. Crowder are the parents of one daughter, Rachel Louise, born August 11, 1906.  Mrs. Crowder is a faithful member of the Christian church.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Dr. Joseph R. Whalen, one of the most successful practitioners of Carlisle, is also a large land owner in Sullivan and Knox counties, has important banking and real estate interests in his home city, and, aside from his high professional standing, is a citizen of most substantial ability and character.  Born near Bruceville, Knox county, Indiana, on the 30th of March, 1861, he is a son of Dr. Richard M. and Frances J. (Jenks) Whalen.  He comes of distinguished ancestry on both sides of the family, the paternal branch originating in Ireland, where his great-great-grandfather was born.  The heads of the three succeeding generations, with which the doctor is directly connected, are buried in Bethlehem cemetery, four miles south of Carlisle.  On the other hand, his maternal grandmother, Jane Arnold, was the daughter of Major Arnold, of Culpeper county, Virginia, who fought with Washington at Yorktown, and now lies buried at Napoleon, Ripley county, Indiana.

          John Whalen, the great-grandfather, was among the first school teachers in Sullivan county, and the grandfather, Richard J., was a farmer who took up government land in the county.  The title to the property has never been changed, and Dr. Joseph R. is now the owner of forty acres of the original tract.  Richard J. Whalen was born in Tennessee and died in Haddon township, this county.  His son, Dr. Richard M.(father of Dr. Joseph R.) Whalen, was born in the township named, November 4, 1832, was reared on a farm, and was graduated in medicine from a Chicago college, being long engaged in honorable practice, chiefly in his native locality.  He resided in Kansas in 1866 and 1867, and then moved to Haddon township, this county, practicing near Carlisle until his death, July 8, 1899.  The deceased was an influential Democrat and a fine citizen, serving two terms as trustee of Haddon township.  He was also a Mason in high standing, having been master of the local lodge for a number of times and holding membership in Blue Lodge No. 3, at Carlisle.  Both he and his wife (who died February 26, 1902) were faithful adherents to Methodism.  Mrs. Richard M. Whalen was born at Napoleon, Ripley county, Indiana, on the 12th of February, 1839, daughter of Dr. Joseph Jenks.  Her father was born in England; when eleven years of age came to America as one of five brothers; was educated in Cincinnati, Ohio; practiced his profession in Indiana, Illinois and Kansas, and died in California about 1890.  In Kansas occurred the marriage of his daughter to Dr. Richard M. Whalen, on the 12th of May, 1859, and to that union were born the following children:  Lewis T., who died in infancy;  Joseph R.;  Mary Annette, wife of D.J. Mathers, who is connected with the National Bank at Carlisle;  Hattie F., deceased;  Fannie S., now the wife of J.B. Latshaw, of Carlisle;  Marion R. and Charles, deceased; and Nellie, who married W.J. Cole, of Sullivan.

          Dr. Joseph R. Whalen, of this biography, obtained his early education at Carlisle, Indiana, and after pursuing the higher literary branches at Union College, Merom, taught for a year in Haddon township.  He then was associated with his father in the drug business for four years, when he sold his interest and engaged in the buying and feeding of stock until 1891.  In that year he was matriculated at the Louisville Medical College, from which he graduated in 1894 with unusual honors, receiving a gold medal as the leader in general scholarship of a class of one hundred and ninety-one students.  After his graduation he served as demonstrator of anatomy in his alma mater for a year, spending the following three years in practice at Oakton, Indiana, and the four succeeding years at Bicknell, that state.  Since that time he has been an active and successful member of the profession and a public-spirited citizen of Carlisle, following the example of other progressive physicians and surgeons of the country by taking post-graduate studies.  In 1893 the doctor pursued such a course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, specializing in anatomy.

          Aside from his extensive medical practice, Dr. Whalen has large property interests, which include 810 acres of land in Sullivan and Knox counties and residence property in Carlisle.  He was also one of the organizers of the People’s Bank of that city, in which he is still a director.  In politics, he is a Democrat, and his fraternal relations are with masonry – more especially with Carlisle Lodge No. 3., F. and A.M.; Vincennes Chapter, No. 7, R.A.M., and Vincennes Commandery, No. 20.  He has served as master of the blue lodge in Carlisle, Oaktown and Bicknell, Indiana.

          On January 1, 1883, Dr. Whalen married Miss Isabelle Gobin, who was born in Haddon township, November 3, 1864, and received her education at Evansville, Indiana, where the ceremony occurred.  She was the daughter of John and Margaret (Hall) Gobin, natives of Carlisle, her great-grandmother, Dianna Melburne (Forrester) Hall, being an adopted daughter of Lord Melburne, prime minister of England, and was presented to the court of St. James.  The Gobins were early settlers of Sullivan county.  Mrs. Isabelle Whalen died June 14, 1907, leaving three daughters:  Melburne, born October 7, 1883, now the wife of Manson G. Couch, the mother of two children, and a resident of Lawrenceville, Illinois; Marguerite, born March 5, 1885, and Gladys, born Jun 27, 1891, both unmarried and living at home.  The first Mrs. Whalen was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as are her daughters.  On November 4, 1908, the doctor wedded, as his second wife, Mrs. Ida Irene (Smith) Starner.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Thomas E. Ward, the present treasurer of Sullivan county, Indiana, was born January 4, 1863, in Sullivan, son of Anderson and Elizabeth Jane (Roll) Ward.  The father, who was a native of Tennessee, of Irish ancestry, was born March 21, 1818, and died September 22, 1884, in Sullivan county, Indiana.  The mother was born in Vigo county, Indiana, in 1836, and died March 2, 1882, in Sullivan county.  They were united in marriage in Vigo county in 1854, and resided for a time – probably about four years – in Fayette township, Vigo county, and then moved to a farm six miles from Sullivan, in an eastern direction.  After living there one or two seasons, they moved into the town of Sullivan.  They then moved back and forth to the farm from Sullivan at different times, but were living on the farm at the date of their death.  Anderson Ward came to Indiana when ten years of age with his parents.  When he was old enough, he taught school and became a physician, and was also a minister in the Church of Christ, being in the ministry at the time of his death.  Politically, he was a Democrat.  He was at one time a member of the Masonic order.  He and his wife were the parents of the following children:  Sarah, deceased; Polly, deceased; Nancy M., residing at Terre Haute; Bettie, of Vigo county; Thomas E.; Katie, now of Vigo county; Jennie, of Vigo county; John B., residing in Sullivan county; Mattie, living in Chicago; Lou H., residing in Sullivan; Maggie, residing in Sullivan county.  The living children are all married and settled in homes of their own.

          Thomas E. Ward, the fifth child in his parents’ family, received his early education is his native place and labored on the farm until he was twenty-three years of age.  He then started out life on his own account following farming until the autumn of 1907, when he purchased a residence in Sullivan.  During the winter months for fifteen years he worked in the coal mines.  In November, 1906, he was elected county treasurer of Sullivan county, taking his office January 1, 1908.  He was elected on the Democratic ticket, which party he has always supported.  He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is advanced in that order to the Encampment.  He also holds a membership with the Modern Woodmen of America, at Sullivan.

          October 16, 1886, he was married to Katie Waggoner, who was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, January 14, 1867, daughter of William H. and Mary (Snow) Waggoner.  Her mother is residing in Oklahoma.  Five children were born to Thomas E. Ward and wife:  Lillie E., July 15, 1889, a graduate of Lyons Business College, of Sullivan, Indiana, with the class of 1907, and now assisting her father in his official duties as treasurer; Ivy Fern, July 27, 1891, attending school at the State Normal at Terre Haute; Tressie May, May 3, 1893, attending high school; Vernice Keitha, March 5, 1900; and Roy Anderson, October 17, 1905.  Mr. and Mrs. Ward and family are members of the Church of Christ; he is an elder and trustee of this church, at Palmer Prairie, Sullivan county.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Arthur Elmer DeBaun, the efficient clerk of the Sullivan circuit court, Indiana, was born in Fairbanks township, Sullivan county, March 2, 1870, son of James P. and Rebecca J. (Dilley) DeBaun.  His father, who was also a native of the same township, was born March 14, 1839, and died February 10, 1899.  Abraham DeBaun, the grandfather, was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, November 27, 1813, and came to Sullivan county, Indiana, in 1831 with his father and mother, Samuel and Mary (Devine) DeBaun.  Samuel DeBaun was a native of Virginia, born in 1776, and his father was a soldier in the Revolutionary cause.  His powder horn is now highly prized by Arthur E., of this sketch.  Samuel, the great-grandfather, died April 3, 1900.  The wife of Abraham, Elizabeth Pogue, was born in Fort Knox, near Vincennes, Indiana, July 28, 1816, and died July 17, 1884.  She was five months old when her parents, James Pogue and wife, in the fall of 1816, with two other families, settled in Fairbanks township.  These three original settlers and their families consisted of James Pogue, Joseph Thomas, and Leduwick Ernest.  The mother of Arthur E. DeBaun, also a native of Fairbanks township, was born in 1845, and died February 1, 1871.  She was the daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Johnson) Dilley.  Her father was born in Ohio in 1806 and died in 1872; he came from Lawrence county to Sullivan county, and was among the pioneer settlers of that region.  Nancy Johnson was born in 1813 in Ohio and died in 1887; she came with her parents to Sullivan county about 1820.  The above named were farmers by occupation and helped to start the first enterprises in this part of the state.  James P. DeBaun was married twice, his second wife being Sarah Ann Lee, who was born in Illinois, May 23, 1853, and died August 23, 1901.  The three children born of the first union were: Iverson W., born 1866, died in infancy; Walter Scott, born January 22, 1868, resides in Fairbanks township; Arthur Elmer, of this memoir.  There was no issue by the second marriage.  James P. DeBaun was a Democrat of the stanch and uncompromising type and always followed farming.  He and his wife were members of the Christian church.

          Arthur Elmer DeBaun, who was reared on his father’s farm was permitted to attend the public schools, and later entered DePauw University, at Greencastle, where he spent six years, graduating in the Liberal Arts course in the class of 1897.  He then followed teaching school for two terms in Fairbanks township.  Desiring to follow the legal profession, he took a law course in the Indiana Law School at Indianapolis and was graduated in 1901.  In the spring of 1902, he went to Sullivan, becoming deputy county clerk, which position he held until he was seated as clerk, March 28, 1908, being elected to the office in 1906.  He is a Democrat, and was elected on that ticket.  Mr. DeBaun is a member of the Christian church.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          Richard Levy Bailey, county surveyor of Sullivan county, is a native of Hamilton township, this county, born December 14, 1866, son of Marshal and Caroline (Bivins) Bailey.  Bedford, Lawrence county, Indiana, was the birthplace of the father, who was born January 3, 1836.  Mr. Bailey’s mother was also a native of the same place and has been dead a number of years.  The father married a second time, a Mrs. Scott, who is also deceased.  For his third wife, he married Mrs. Sarah Sutton, and they are now residents of Hamilton township, where the father has resided for forty-four years.  Marshal Bailey and Caroline Bivins were united in marriage in Lawrence county and came to Sullivan county, locating in Hamilton township, in the early autumn of 1863, settling on the place on which he still resides.  His ancestors were of German and Scotch-Irish lineage.  At one time the father owned about three hundred acres.  Politically he is a Democrat.  Both he and his first wife were members of the Christian church.  Their children were eleven in number.  Six are deceased, and the surviving are: Richard L.; Dr. W.A., residing at Sullivan; Lola, wife of William Bolinger, of Sullivan; Tressie Eaton, residing in Gill township, Sullivan county; Inez, wife of Ward Hawkins, residing in Sullivan.  There was no issue by Marshal Bailey’s second and third marriages.

          Richard L. Bailey attended the district schools of his home township and later the Southern Indiana Normal school at Mitchell, graduating from the scientific course in the class of 1884.  He then attended the State University at Bloomington for one year.  The next three years of his life he spent in farming and teaching school, after which he entered the law office of George G. Reily, at Vincennes, Indiana, remaining there eighteen months and was admitted to the bar in 1889.  He then associated himself with Charles G. McCord, of Vincennes, in the abstract business for three years.  He next went to Texas, and assisted in the organizing Armstrong county of that state.  There he was chosen deputy county clerk and served about two years.  In the meantime, he had entered a section of land, which he finally sold, and after traveling through the West a short time, he returned to Vincennes, where he was made county surveyor of Knox county, which office he held for one term.  He next became a contractor in building levees along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, in which work he continued until 1900, when he returned to Sullivan county, Indiana, and established himself in the profession of a civil engineer.  He was appointed county surveyor in August, 1900, taking office December, 1901.  He served, however, under the ex-county surveyor from August, 1900, until his regular term commenced, and which will expire January 1, 1909.  He was elected to this office on the Democratic ticket, of which party he is a firm supporter.  Mr. Bailey has taken nine degrees of Masonry; he now holds membership at Sullivan.  He was a charter member of the Elks order at Sullivan; he belongs to the Tribe of Ben Hur, having joined that order in Knox county, but now belongs to the lodge at Sullivan.

          He was married December 28, 1893, to Gertrude Benefield, born in Hamilton township, a daughter of John and Sarah (McGrew) Benefield.  Her father is deceased and the mother is residing in Sullivan.  She was born in Hamilton township, while her husband was a native of Lawrence county, Indiana.  They were farmers and he came to this county when a boy.  Mrs. Bailey attended the Sullivan high school and Indiana State Normal, at Terre Haute.  She then taught school in the district schools of Sullivan county for nine years.  Mr. and Mrs. Bailey are the parents of one daughter: Juanita, born September 14, 1894.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty

          John William Lindley, a representative of the legal fraternity at Sullivan, is a native of Crawford county, Illinois, born December 19, 1867, a son of Samuel and Harriet (Hollenbeck) Lindley.  The father was also a native of Crawford county, Illinois, born in April 1833, and is still living in that county, on a farm.  The mother was born in Clarke county, Illinois, September, 1842, and still survives.  The grandfather, William A. Lindley, was a native of North Carolina, and came to Illinois a single man, settling in Crawford county, about 1800, where he resided until about fifty-six years of age.  He was a farmer, of English descent, and reared a family of seven children.  Grandfather Hollenbeck came from Dutch ancestry of New York.

          Samuel Lindley, the father, always kept the farm on which he was born and reared and the title has never been changed.  Politically, he is a Democrat of uncompromising terms.  Among the local positions he has held may be mentioned that of supervisor.  Both he and his wife are exemplary members of the Baptist church.  Originally, the Lindley family were Quaker religious faith.  The children born to Samuel and Harriet (Hollenbeck) Lindley are: Emma, wife of E.H. Boyd; Charles E., a resident of Crawford county; Mollie, deceased; John William, of this sketch; Ollie J. (twin sister of John W.), now wife of Charles H. Voorheis, of Crawford county; Ola, wife of J.H. Neff, residing in Sullivan county; Samuel E., of Sullivan, a dentist.

          John William Lindley was reared midst the scenes and labors incident to farm life and attended the common schools, after which he attended the Southern Illinois Normal University, graduating with the class of 1892.  He then taught school one year in the city schools of Robinson, Illinois, and read law in the same city, at the same time, with Bradbury & Mchatton.  He remained with this firm for two years and passed the examination before the appellate court, August 3, 1894, he began practice in Sullivan, Indiana, in partnership with John C. Briggs, with whom he remained until August 1, 1899, since which he has practiced independently.  He has been connected with nearly every criminal case tried within Sullivan county is the last four or five years, thus proving his ability as a rising attorney.  He was prosecuting attorney for the Fourteenth judicial district for 1903-04.

          Mr. Lindley is a member of the Sullivan County Bar Association.  Politically, he affiliates with the Democratic party and in his fraternal relations is connected with the Knights of Pythias, Elks and Modern Woodmen of America.

          He was happily married, in September, 1901, to Zona Lacey, who was born in Sullivan, Indiana, September, 1877.  She received her education in the county of her birth.  Her parents are Edward P. and Margaret Lacey, both of whom still reside in Sullivan, her father being a teacher in the public schools.  The children have blessed the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lindley: Price, born in 1903, and Lois M., born in 1904.  The parents are members of the Baptist church.
Transcribed by Katherine Haggerty


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