Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1895 — LEADING LIFE OF A RECLUSE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LEADING LIFE OF A RECLUSE.

William H. English, Hancock’s Running: Mate in 188 >. A great many people nowaday* would find it difficult to answer offhand the question, Who ran" with Han-

cock on the Democrat i c ticket In 1880? William H. English is % the man in question, and, though th* obscurity which A-*yait* a retired Vice President of the United States is proverbial, it Is doubtful if Mr. English could

have dropped more completely from the public view even if he had been elected Vice President when he ran for that office. For the past ten years Mr. English has been engaged in literary labor that has completely absorbed his attention and made him practically a recluse. After his defeat in the. Vic© Presidential race he continued the even tenor of ’his way at his home in Indianapolis until 1885. when a reunion of the surviving members of the Indiana constitutional convention awakened his interest in the history of the State. The constitutional convention W’as held in 1850-’sl, and Mr. English was theprincipal Secretary of the body. Hd was also the speaker of the first House of Representatives that convened under the new’ constitution. At the reunion of the convention’s survivors ten years ago a committee w’as appointed to carefully collect and preserve data relating to the early history of Indiana, and Mr. English was made Chairman. He became intensely interested in the. subject, and w T as soon doing the entire work of the committee. He had not been thus engaged very long before he concluded to write a history of Indiana, and since he has (been engaged in the work he has been rarely seen on public occasions, even In Indianapolis. It Is said that he fre< quently has five or six assistants aid" Ing him, and that he has expended fully $50,000 In buying historical documents. Mr. Engish lacks a few’ weeks of being 73 years old, < but is still able to perform a great deal of work, and Is as enthusiastic over his history of Indiana as a schoolboy would be over a new ball. He Is worth between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000, and is said to be the largest individual owner of real estate in the State of Indiana. Despite their difference in politics, he and exPresident Harrison are warm personal friends.

W. H. ENGLISH.