Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 116, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1916 — INDIANIANS IN FRONT RANK [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

INDIANIANS IN FRONT RANK

State Produces Many Famous Men and Women Who Habe Left Their Impress Upon the World —On Battlefield and in Legislative Halls Indiana's Sons Have Done Their Share, IS THE LITERARY HUB OF AMERICA

By ELLIS SEARLES

Indiana as a state may well point with pride to the number of famous and noted men and women who have left their impress upon the world in the first one hundred years of the • state's history. When Indiana became a state in 1816, just one hundred years ago, the centennial celebration of which event is observed this year, it was sparsely settled with a hardy people who had before them the difficult and dangerous task of carving out a future for the new commonwealth. Such a task called for men and women

of the type that knows nothing of the word “failure." The first one hundred years of the state’s history proves that the spirit of pluck, the genius and the native culture of the people of the new state has not been lost among the succeeding generations. Indiana has given the nation one president, Benjamin Harrison, who was one of the ablest statesmen that has ever occupied that high oftice. It lias give four vice-presidents. The first was Schuyler Colfax, who was elected with President U. S. Grant and served from 186915” 1873; Ttl o trras~~A. Hendricks, who was elected with President Grover Cleveland and served but nine months of his term, until he died on November 25, 1885; Charles W. Fairbanks, who was elected with President Theodore Roosevelt and served from 1905 to 1909, and Thomas R. Marshall, who was elected with President Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and is the present occupant of that oftice. William Henry Harrison, who was territorial governor of Indiana before the birth of the state, was a great soldier and executive. He was the father of William Henry Harrison, who was president of the United States in 1841, serving but one month until his death. The latter was the father of President Benjamin Harrison.

Indiana’s First Governor. Another man who left his impress on the new state was Jonathan Jenthe first governor. Jennings led. the fight against slavery in Indiana which succeeded in having it abolished and forever prohibited in the state. He was a Wayne county citizen. John Paul of Madison was the first president of the state senate, in 1816. Isaac Blackford of Vincennes was the first speaker of the house. Indiana’s first United States senators were James Noble and Walter Taylor. Caleb Mills, a New Englander by birth but an Indianian by adoption.

Was the father of the system of free schools maintained by direct taxation. Gov. Joseph A. Wright, who was not noted* for other things, was, in fact, the “patron of husbandry” in early Indiana. He believed in the development of agriculture and he brought about tjie organization of the first atate board of agriculture. Hugh McCulloch of Fort Wayne was

one of the most noted financiers in the entire history of the nation. He was secretary of the treasury in the administration of President Grant, when the financial system and the financial condition of the country were such as to call for the ablest financial judgment and the hardest of labor. Mr. McCulloch’s portrait still appears on certain denominations of paper currency. Walter Q. Gresham was another Indiana man who reached high places in the history of the nation. He was a great Jurist on the bench of the United States courts. He was postmaster general in the cabinet of President Arthur in 1882 and was secretary of state under President Cleveland. Among the other noted federal judges in Indiana have been William A. Woods. John H. Baker, Francis E. Baker and the present jtfdge, Albert B. Anderson. Perhaps no Indiana man in the one hundred years of its history left behind him a greater influence for good in public life than Oliver P. Morton, the “war governor" of Indiana. Governor Morton was a Wayne county man. Before the Civil war he took a determined stand for the maintenance of the Union and against the secession movement. On this issue he was elected governor. His administration was one continuous period of perilous and thrilling times. He fought for the preservation of the Union with all of his might and power. He used the state’s credit without authority for the purpose of equipping regiments of Indiana soldiers for service in the war, and the legislature later approved his actions and paid all bills. Governor Morton was the inspiration that moved more than two hundred thousand men of Indiana to enlist in the Union army. His patrotism was hard and fast. Many Distinguished Soldiers. Indiana supplied a number of high and distinguished officers to the Uhion army. The leading ones were: Generals George Chapman, Benjamin Harrison, A. D. Streight, John Coburn, R. S. Foster, George F. McGinnis, Alvin D. Hovey, James R. Slack, Robert H. Milroy, Willis A. Gorman, Lew Wal-

lace, John T. Wilder, Thomas A. Morris and General Hackelnmn. The most noted Indiana general In the Spanish-American war was Gen. Henry W. Lawton, a regular army officer appointed from this state. General Lawton went through that war and was sent to subdue the rebellious Filipinos, and he was killed on the firing line in the Philippines. A monument to his memory stands in Garfield park, at Indianapolis. When Benjamin Harrison was elected president he came to Indiana for his attorney general, as a member of his cabinet, and he appointed William H. H. Miller of Indianapolis. Henry Ward Beecher, as a young man, served as pastor of a church at Indianapolis, and it was while in that city that he 'really rose to national fame.

Abraham Lincoln lived for several years in Spencer county, Indiana. He came to that county from Kentucky with his father and mother when he was a young man, and he helped to transform the forest into a habitable place. It was in Spencer county that his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died and was buried, and the state looks after her grave. From Indiana Abraham Lincoln went to Illinois, from which state he was elected president. \ Shortly after the Civil war Andrew Carnegie was for a time an Indiana citizen'. He was a poor young telegraph operator on one of the early railroads. Thomas A. Edison, the great wizard a short time many years ago, and it was in this state that he conceived some of the ideas that later made him the world’s most noted inventor. One Indiana man, still living and in aetive business, whose name shoifld go down in the history of the state is Elwood Haynes of Kokomo. He produced

the first automobile ever made, and ht is still in the automobile manufacture ing business. Literary Hub of America. ' When it comes t# literature, Indiana now stands as the literary hub of America. It has been said that every person in Indiana is an author, and it seems as if this bold statement is true. John Clark Ridpath, the historian, was an Indiana man. Included in the list of Indiana authors are Booth Tarkington, Meredith Nicholson, the late Charles Major, Maurice Thompson, Gene Stratton Porter, Juliet Strouse, known to all newspaper and magazine readers as “The Country Contributor,” and so many others that they cannot all be mentioned. And who does not love James Whitcomb

Riley, the Hoosier poet, whose songs of everyday life have touched the heart of the civilized world? Riley is, perhaps, the most universally loved poet in the world today, and his “Old Swimmin’ Hole.” “An Old Sweetheart of Mine," “Out to Old Aunt Mary’s,” “The Gob’luns,” and “When the Frost Is on-tbft Bunkin'” and many other pofems will live as long as the English language is spoken. George Ade, Hoosier humorist, has made more people laugh than perhaps any other present-day writer. And Kin Hubbard, whose “Abe Martin” has become famous for his homely philosophy and satire on the fads and foibles of men and women, is another humorist of the first rank. Albert J. Beveridge stands out prominently among the statesmen who have gone from Indiana into the councils of the nation. He served twelve years as United States senator and forged his way to the front rank of those who did things. Since his retirement from the United States senate Beveridge has devoted his time to writing books and for the magazines. He wrote “The Russian Advance” while still a member of the senate, and other books followed. His most pretentious work, however, is “The Life of John Marshall,” the first chief justice of the United States Supreme court, on which he is still at work.

Other Prominent Men. Charles W. Fairbanks was a member of the United States senate from Indiana before he became vice-president, and his dignified and conservative statesmanship was a powerful influence in the shaping of national affairs. United States Senator John W. Kern, at present the majority leader of the senate, is a native Indiana man. He was once the Democratic nominee for vice-president. David Starr Jordan, president of Leland Stanford university and one of the leading educators of the country, was for several years president of Indiana university. Robert J. Aley, now the president of the University of Maine, resigned as state superintendent of public instruction of Indiana to accept that position. In religion, in science, in education, in art, in literature, in finance, in business, in industry, in statesmanship, in fact in all of the varied activities of national life, Indiana has contributed at least her share of those who have risen to the high places. The list is a long one, and it tells the story of the march of civilization and the advancement of culture, education and accomplishment that has characterized the first century of the state’s history.

Gen. Lew Wallace.

James Whitcomb Riley.

Oliver P. Morton, “War Governor.”

Charles W. Fairbanks.