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Indiana Authors and their books, 1816-1980.
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TALBOT, JOHN WILLIAM: 1863-1937.

John William Talbot , son of Peter William and Johanna Mary Talbot, was born in South Bend, Ind., on Dec. 12, 1863. He read law in the office of Warren Woodbury in Detroit, Mich., and was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1892. On Sept. 24, 1894, he married Minnie E. O'Brien. From 1893 until his death on Dec. 14, 1937, he practiced law in South Bend, Ind.,

Information from Who Was Who in America.

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TARKINGTON, JOHN STEVENSON: 1832-1923.

John Stevenson Tarkington , son of the Rev. Joseph and Maria Slauson Tarkington and father of Newton Booth Tarkington, was born in Centerville, Ind., on June 24, 1832. He was educated at Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw) University, receiving the degrees of A.B. in 1852 and A.M. in 1855.

In 1855 he began the practice of law in Indianapolis and in 1863 was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives. He also served as judge of the 7th Judicial Circuit in 1870-72. During the Civil War he was a captain in the 132nd Indiana Infantry.

Mr. Tarkington was twice married: first to Elizabeth Booth, the mother of Newton Booth and Mary Booth Tarkington Jameson, and after her death to Linda Schulz. He wrote under the name of John Stevenson. He died in Indianapolis Jan. 30, 1923.

Information from Who Was Who in America and the Indianapolis Public Library.

TARKINGTON, JOSEPH: 1800-1891.

Joseph Tarkington , son of Jesse and Mary Tarkington and grandfather of Newton Booth Tarkington, was born in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 30, 1800.

In 1815 he moved with his family to Harrison's Blockhouse (now Edwardsport, Ind.) and in 1816 to Stanford, Ind., west of Bloomington . As a young man he farmed with his father. He was converted at a camp meeting in 1820 and in 1824 was licensed to preach.

From 1825 to 1838 he was a circuit preacher in Indiana and Illinois , in 1838 was located at Lawrenceburg, Ind., in 1839 served as pastor at Richmond , and then occupied several stations until 1843, when he was appointed presiding elder for Centerville District. From 1845 to 1853 he occupied pulpits successively in Brookville, Vincennes , and Greensburg . For two years, from 1855 to 1857 he acted as agent for Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw) University, from 1857 to 1862 he was again occupied as a minister, and in 1862 he retired to his home near Greensburg .

Mr. Tarkington married Maria Slauson on Sept. 21, 1831.

Information from Representative Men of Indiana, Vol. I.

  • Autobiography of Rev. Joseph Tarkington, one of the Pioneer Methodist Preachers of Indiana … Cincinnati, 1899.Search "Autobiography of Rev. Joseph Tarkington, one of the Pioneer Methodist Preachers of Indiana" by TARKINGTON, JOSEPH: 1800-1891. in IUCAT, Google Books, OCLC WorldCat, or HathiTrust

TARKINGTON, NEWTON BOOTH: 1869-1946.

Of all writers Booth Tarkington most nearly interpreted the American scene from the beginning of this century through the Twenties as the average American saw it.

Tarkington's interest lay in the people whom he and most other Americans knew well. He was at his best on North Meridian Street (his "National Avenue") in Indianapolis , or with the people who had prospered to a chill eminence above that thoroughfare, or, as in the case of the family of Alice Adams, had slipped below it. He did well, too, on the streets neighboring to Meridian and progressively less impressive, and he knew what went on in the residential streets which fed the ebony glitter of the colored folks' main-stem, Indiana Avenue.

Mostly, though, he knew the Indiana middle class and he put them down, in his notably careful and beautiful script, for future generations and for the world at large to meet. They were by no means all nice people; there was always the leavening of Alice Adams' bootlegging brother, the nastiness of some of the Magnificent Ambersons, but the proportion of good, near-good, wishfully-good and pure bad was about right. There was neither the high romance of George Barr McCutcheon nor the grimy realism of Theodore Dreiser: Tarkington's people lived.

Every town in American had its Magnificent Ambersons, and a doting Adams mother and a frustrated Adams daughter kept up a pretense of gentility in most American towns and cities. Penrod was easily recognizable to any citizen who was a boy in Penrod's day, and to most parents of any age, there were half a dozen prototypes of The Gentleman from Indiana. There have been Willie Baxters ever since boys began to reach the shaving age, and Willies will always be with us as long as civilization maintains.

Tarkington , to average citizens, was not only a great Indiana author, but to many he will always be the great page: 313[View Page 313] Indiana author, regardless of the manifestos which critics may issue on the literary virtues of Dreiser and the others.

Newton Booth Tarkington was born in Indianapolis on July 29, 1869, into the very sort of background he wrote of best–comfortably prosperous middle class. His father was Judge John Stevenson Tarkington and his mother was Elizabeth Booth Tarkington. They named the baby for a distinguished uncle, Newton Booth, early governor of California .

Tarkington was sent to Phillips Exeter Academy for his college preparation and, upon graduation, he entered Purdue University. In spite of the genial companionship of George Ade and John T. McCutcheon, he transferred to Princeton after two years but left without a degree. He was active in Princeton literary and dramatic affairs. He also stood well in his classes, although he later said, "No doubt I imbibed some education there, though it seems to me that I tried to avoid that as much as possible." It was no matter–he was to receive academic honors enough in later life.

His first ambition was to become an illustrator: he made the old LIFE with a drawing in 1895 and then received thirty-one consecutive rejections. Thereafter he stuck to writing but with little more immediate encouragement. Finally a publishing house bought Cherry–and put it away among its other presumed errors in judgment–but the purchase price was paid. It was $2.50, and that sum, according to Tarkington, was the gross return from five years of writing. Publishing it after the establishment of Tarkington's fame, the buyer realized a handsome profit, even including storage charges.

Success was coming, however, and it was not far away. Having had no luck with short stories (even Monsieur Beaucaire had made the rounds and collected its share of rejection slips), he decided to try a novel. He laid it in Indiana , he peopled it with Indianians whom he knew, and The Gentleman from Indiana resulted. It was an immediate best-seller, and it remained near the top of the list for an amazing length of time.

Monsieur Beaucaire and other previously rejected manuscripts came out of Tarkington's desk drawer and were viewed in a different light by publishers. The young man leaped from a $1000 or so annual income (received from the rentals he had bought with his Uncle Newton Booth's bequest) to a total of $27,000 in 1900. In 1919 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature for The Magnificent Ambersons; he won it again with Alice Adams in 1922, and later the American Institute of Arts and Letters awarded him its medal for distinguished fiction.

Tarkington was always one to enjoy his living–at Purdue and at Princeton and, after he became a notable literary figure, in the spots in North America and Europe most likely to furnish entertainment. Between times, though, he returned to Indianapolis , even from the beloved summer home of his later years in Kennebunkport, Me. In his gaudy younger days, in his mellow and intelligently socially-conscious middle life and in his contented old age he was a Hoosier.

Tarkington did not always write great books, but he always wrote good ones. Writing, for him, was a very serious business–fifteen and sixteen hour stretches in his study with his meals sent in. Probably, as time goes on, it will be realized increasingly that the best of his efforts are important social documents, that the lightest of them have a Mark Twain quality of surviving freshness and that they are all good entertainment.

Tarkington was happy in his choice of male associates throughout his life. The friendship of Ade, the McCutcheons, Harry Leon Wilson, Julian Street, and all the others could make any life an enjoyable one. With women, however, he was less at home. He had the reputation at Princeton of being something of a wallflower in mixed company; perhaps those occasions furnished documentary material for the agonies of Willie Baxter and Ramsey Milholland.

His first wife was Laurel Louisa Fletcher, daughter of a highly successful Indianapolis banking family of whom recognizable portraits appear in Tarkington's writing. Their divorce was followed shortly and tragically by the death of their one daughter of pneumonia. His second wife, Susannah Robinson of Dayton, O., whom he married on Nov. 6, 1912, survived him. She was always interested in his writing and aided him in its continuance and development.

Tarkington's later years were plagued by ill health: by a heart ailment which brought orders to slow down and by an eye trouble which brought about almost complete blindness (although he made every effort to conceal the fact). In spite of the suffering from these disabilities, and even more from the inactivity they enforced, he kept up his interest in the affairs of the world. He maintained until the last an urbane and only slightly detached attitude toward the life to which he had contributed so much.

Booth Tarkington died at his Indianapolis home, 4270 North Meridian Street, on May 19, 1946.

Information from friends of Tarkington; newspapers and miscellaneous sources.

TAYLOR, FRANK BURSLEY: 1860-1938.

Frank Bursley Taylor , son of Robert Stewart and Fanny Wright Taylor, was born in Fort Wayne, Ind., on Nov. 23, 1860. He graduated from high school in 1881 and attended Harvard University for a time. On Apr. 24, 1899, he married Minnetta A. Ketchum of Mackinac Island, Mich.

In 1900 Mr. Taylor was employed in the Michigan Geological Survey. From 1900 to 1916 he was employed in the U. S. Geological Survey, Glacial Division, and in 1908-09 in the Canadian Geological Survey. He published numerous papers relating to the history of the Great Lakes and Niagara Fails and to the glacial and postglacial geology of the lake region, both in the U. S. and Canada . Those of his works which were published by various governments are not listed here.

Information from Who's Who in America.

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TAYLOR, HENRY WILLIAM: 1841-1901.

Born in Lexington, Va., in 1841, Henry William Taylor studied medicine after the Civil War and practiced in 1841 Sullivan, Ind., In addition to his poetry he wrote essays and medical papers. He died in Sullivan on Jan. 29, 1901.

Information from Parker and Heiney–Poets and Poetry of Indiana.

TAYLOR, JAMES WALTER: 1822-1888.

James W. Taylor , whose autobiography, Uncle Jimmy, was published in 1909, began dictating the book to his children while he lived in 1909 Perrysville, Ind., in 1867. His son, the Rev. A. M. Taylor, had the book published while he was minister of Zion A. M. E. Church in 1867 Perrysville South Bend, Ind.

Information from the South Bend Public Library.

TAYLOR, NEWTON MARSHALL: 1847-1920.

Born at Attica, Ind., on Oct. 3, 1847, Newton Marshall Taylor graduated from Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw) University in 1873, receiving the M.S. degree in 1876. He graduated from the Bloomington Law School in 1875. On Aug. 11, 1875, he married Lou Ensey.

Mr. Taylor engaged in the practice of law in Indianapolis until his death on Apr. 14, 1920. From 1880 to 1882 he served as prosecuting attorney for the 19th Judicial Circuit, and from 1911 to 1915 he was judge of the Marion County Juvenile Court.

Information from De Pauw University's Alumnal Record, 1920.

TAYLOR, TUCKER WOODSON: 1854-1901.

Born in Greencastle, Ind., on Dec. 22, 1854, Tucker Woodson Taylor graduated from Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw) University in 1878 and in 1878-79 was a tutor in Forest Academy, Kentucky . He was later private secretary to W. C. De Pauw and John Clark Ridpath. He first wrote poetry in 1887. He used the pen names of "William T. Hunter" and "Civis Americanus."

Information from Parker and Heiney–Poets and Poetry of Indiana and Federal Writers Project–Indiana Authors, 1937.

TEAL, ANGELINE GRUEY (MRS. NORMAN) 1842-1913.

Born on a farm in southern Ohio on Aug. 28, 1842, Angeline Gruey moved with her family to 28 Noble County, Ind., when she was three years old. She grew up on a farm and was educated in the common schools and at Miss Griggs' Seminary at 28 Wolcottville, Ind.

On Jan. 1, 1866, she married Dr. Norman Teal of Kendallville, Ind. A member of the Western Writers' Association, she wrote poems, children's stories, and short stories which were published in various magazines. She was a resident of Kendallville from her marriage until her death, which occurred on Sept. 3, 1913.

Information from Dunn–lndiana and Indianans, Vol. 111.

TEST, CHARLES H.: ?-?

Charles H. Test , son of Judge John Test, early Indiana jurist and Congressman, was born in or near page: 316[View Page 316] Brookville, Ind. According to O. H. Smith: "He was a young man of fine talents and great energy of character. At quite an early age he took a high position among the ablest of the profession … He held the offices of President Judge of the Circuit and Secretary of State many years, and then returned to the county of Wayne, where he now [1857] resides …"

Judge Test later returned to Indianapolis , where he was residing in 1876 when D. S. A., writing of Indiana authors in the CINCINNATI GAZETTE of Dec. 7, 1876, says of him: "Several works belonging to this department [fiction] of Indiana literature are missing [from the collection of Daniel Hough], notably, 'The Novice,' by Judge Test… When applied to for a copy by Mr. Hough, he replied, 'I know of but one copy in the State, and I know thee'll not get that.'"

Charles H. Test was an uncle of Gen. Lew Wallace.

Information from Smith, O. H.–Early Indiana Trials and Sketches; CINCINNATI GAZETTE for Dec. 7, 1876, and the INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY, Vol. 13.

THIEME, HUGO PAUL: 1870-1940.

Hugo Paul Thieme , son of Frederick John and Clara Hanna Thieme, was born in 1940 Fort Wayne, Ind., on Feb. 12, 1870. He was a student at Concordia College in Fort Wayne until 1890 and graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1893, receiving the Ph.D. degree in 1897. In 1894-95 he studied in Paris and Berlin . On Sept. 6, 1899, he married Evaleth Mabel Thurston.

He was an assistant in French literature at Johns Hopkins from 1895 to 1897, acting head of the modern language department at Earlham College in 1897-98, and on the faculty of the University of Michigan after 1898 as, successively, assistant professor, junior professor, and professor of French and chairman of the Romance language department. He also served as American correspondent of LA REVUE D'HISTOIRE LITTERAIRE DE LA FRANCE.

He died on June 2, 1940.

French classics edited by him, and his textbooks, are not listed.

Information from Who Was Who in America.

THIEME, THEODORE F.: 1857-

Theodore F. Thieme , son of Frederick J. and Clara Weitzman Thieme, was born in Fort Wayne, Ind., on Feb. 7, 1857, and was educated at Concordia College in Fort Wayne and Columbia University. On Jan. 18, 1894, he married Bessie Loring.

After spending twelve years in the drug business, in 1891 he organized the Wayne Knitting Mills. He served as president and director of various companies and was founder of the Fort Wayne Art School and Museum.

Information from Who's Who in America.

THOMPSON, GEORGE B.: 1862-1930.

George B. Thompson , son of John and Catherine Costello Thompson, was born in 1930 Aurora, Ind., on Sept. 24, 1862, and attended Battle Creek College in 1885-86.

In 1893 he was ordained to the ministry of the Seventh page: 317[View Page 317] Day Adventist Church and from 1893 to 1896 served as a missionary in Africa. He was in charge of church work in West Virginia in 1897-98, in New York from 1898 to 1903, and secretary of Sunday School work for the world from 1904 to 1912. From 1912 to 1918 he was general secretary of Seventh Day Adventist church work in North America and from 1918 to 1926 field secretary for the world. The Rev. Mr. Thompson traveled and preached in India, Egypt, Great Britain, Scandinavia, and other countries of Europe and the Far East.

He was twice married–first to Delia A. Hicks, who died in 1914, then to Stella M. Slaten.

He died on June 21, 1930.

Information from Who Was Who in America.

THOMPSON, JAMES MAURICE: 1844-1901.

James Maurice Thompson (the name had become simply Maurice Thompson long before his signature was important to anyone but himself) was the possessor of a wide variety of talent which he employed in the shaping of careers in six widely separate fields–most successful of which was literature.

He was born in the small eastern Indiana community of Fairfield on Sept. 9, 1844, to the Rev. Mathew Grigg and Diantha Jaeggar Thompson. The senior Thompson was a Southerner by birth and, at the time of the birth of Maurice, pastor of the Baptist church in Fairfield ; in the pursuit of his calling he was soon called upon to remove, first to Missouri and shortly thereafter to Kentucky .

Something occurred shortly before 1854 to bring about a radical change in Mathew Grigg Thompson's career: whether he experienced some profound spiritual upheaval or merely inherited some land and some slaves, he had deserted the pulpit by that year and was established as a planter in the Coosawattee valley of upper Georgia.

Mathew Grigg Thompson must have either inherited upon a rather generous scale or have found his years in the pulpit a good apprenticeship for the profitable management of slaves and good red soil, for he was able to hire competent tutors to educate his sons (the younger, Will Henry Thompson, had been born in Missouri in 1846) in the classical languages, literature, French and mathematics. Quiet, thoughtful young Maurice was given an extra measure of the latter, since his youthful fancy lit upon civil engineering as a career.

In addition to formal education there was also learning in woodcraft, still pleasingly and painlessly obtainable in north Georgia. Those remarkable people, the Cherokees, had been driven from the country only a generation before and there were still plenty of men about, white and black, who had learned their peculiar way in the woods and who liked nothing better than to pass it on.

Maurice and Will Thompson took full advantage of both academic and extra-curricular opportunities and acquired both an abiding love for the outdoors and a sound scientific knowledge of its components. Eventually this love would furnish ample subject matter for the best of the writing which made Maurice a prominent literary figure of the last quarter of the Nineteenth century.

The Civil War interrupted this pleasant life and both young men enlisted in the Confederate army, Maurice in 1862, before his eighteenth birthday, and Will shortly after.

The brothers served the Confederacy well but the end of the war saw most Georgia planters only a cut above penniless, with the Thompson family no exception. After being mustered out, Maurice went to Calhoun, Ga., to continue his studies in surveying and engineering and, as further insurance of a future livelihood, to read law. Little is known of his supposed two years of residence in that town except that he is believed to have done his first serious writing there: contributions of verse to some of those ephemeral Southern "literary journals" which had survived the war or were endeavoring to temper the gloomy days of Reconstruction by beginning publication.

In 1867, his studies either completed or forsaken as unpromising, Maurice Thompson began a botanical, zoological and ornithological survey of Lake Okeechobee , in Florida , of the Okeefinokee Swamp and of some other regions of similar interest in the deep South.

While natural history surveys may have been good rehabilitation measures for a young man recently fresh from the wars, they could not have been very remunerative; and neither, apparently, was any other pursuit likely to appeal to educated young Georgians of the day. The Thompson brothers rightly guessed that they would probably be elderly Georgians before conditions improved. Finally they decided upon a course which page: 318[View Page 318] must have appeared singular indeed to most of their fellow veterans: the South was certainly overrun with undesired and undesirable Northerners; why should not this be an auspicious time for a few Southerners to go North? Packing their belongings in knapsacks and cutting a couple of walking sticks, they set out.

Some weeks later they arrived in Crawfordsville, Ind., a town as rabidly Union as might be found in the Midwest and the sanctuary of four recently retired Union generals. The Thompsons had no purpose in view, no acquaintance in the town.

Almost immediately it became evident that their unlikely choice was wise. A railroad was being built through the country. John Lee, in charge of construction, could use young engineers and Maurice and Will Thompson soon had jobs. The people of Crawfordsville must have been more tolerant of recent enemies than might have been anticipated (although Maurice Thompson was as agreeable and as urbane an enemy as one might meet) for within a year Alice, daughter of John Lee, had married him and he had settled as a permanent resident of the town. A few years later Will Thompson married Ida, sister of Alice.

In 1871, as soon as he had his feet on the ground financially, Thompson gave up engineering and opened a law office in partnership with his brother. The firm was never remarkably successful but both men were reasonably competent and their practice earned them comfortable livings. More important, law practice allowed Maurice time to resume his writing. As an evidence of the popular acceptance of the Thompson brothers in their new home, it must be noted that Maurice was elected to the Indiana State Legislature in 1879—certainly an honor not visited upon many in the Midwest who had borne hostile arms only fifteen years earlier.

In 1873 the ATLANTIC MONTHLY published one of his contributions and, encouraged, he redoubled his efforts. An early result was a series of articles on the then-neglected subject of archery which brought about his general recognition as a writer and also created a nation-wlde craze for the sport. The knowledge of archery which both Maurice and Will Thompson possessed was a product of the plantation days and had been acquired, according to Meredith Nicholson's The Hoosiers, "from a hermit who lived in the midst of a pine forest near his home."

In 1875 Thompson's first book appeared. It was Hoosier Mosaics, a collection of charming sketches of incidents in the Indiana small town scene. Thompson drew the backgrounds of Colfax and Jamestown sharply and accurately and the incidents reported in at least two of the sketches are as readable as the current and reminiscent examples in which the NEW YORKER specializes. Two novels, His Second Campaign and A Tallahassee Girl, were published in 1882; and the latter, enjoying a fair sale in both the Northern and Southern states, encouraged him to give up the law. With the exception of serving as Indiana state geologist and chief of the department of natural history between 1885 and 1889 (the duties of which office were not particularly exacting at the time) he continued until his death as a prosperous literary man and lecturer.

Thompson's novels continued to appear with some regularity but with no great success until, in 1885, his first work in the field of nature study made its appearance. It was By-Ways and Bird Notes and the writing of it was probably inspired by the ready acceptance which periodicals gave to his contributions on the subject. It was followed, at intervals of one or two novels, by The Boys" Book of Sports, 1886; Sylvan Secrets, in Bird Sonys and Books, 1887; Stories of the Cherokee Hills, 1889; and My Winter Garden, 1900. These, with the early Witchery of Archery and Alice of Old Vincennes, are the chief basis of his fame as a writer of books. His place as a critic and a poet is yet to be finally evaluated and will be based chiefly upon his voluminous contribution to the periodical press of the Eighties and Nineties, but it was undoubtedly as an essayist, and more specifically as an essayist on the subject of the outdoors, that he excelled.

It is logical to give Maurice Thompson a considerable share of credit for arousing, through his books and his writing for periodicals, the interest of his literate fellow citizens in nature study and the outdoor life.

Thompson is remembered by his neighbors as rather diffident and self-effacing, but as an unfailingly pleasant and hospitable man. His wife, Alice Lee Thompson, was a woman of great charm and their beautiful home, Sherwood Place, on the east edge of Crawfordsville , was always open to their friends, and those of their three children–and to anyone at all who might be interested in nature, literature, the classics or, particularly, in archery. The family always wintered in their beloved South.

In this pleasant life Thompson grew in stature in the contemporary world of letters. After 1888 he served as non-resident literary editor of the INDEPENDENT, read papers and spoke widely. Finally, in 1900, he achieved his life-long ambition–he wrote a tremendously successful novel.

The book is Alice Of Old Vincennes. Its scene is the page: 319[View Page 319] old French village on the lower Wabash and its plot concerns the capture of the town by hard-bitten young Gen. George Rogers Clark and the manner in which he used it to control the Old Northwest. It is an excellent historical novel of the days before the formula for the historical novel had been standardized with a ratio of at least four conquests in the boudoir to one on the battlefield. The incidental characters are real, and their activities are historically authentic. Even Alice, the heroine, is a character not entirely of his own imagining, according to Thompson's foreword. Her "romantic life, as brokenly sketched in Mr. Roussillon's letter" written in 1788 and preserved by a Louisiana Creole family, was authenticated by the author's research.

Throughout his writing career, Thompson had always returned hopefully to the novel at intervals in his more successful efforts at the essay, criticism and verse. He had published at least nine novels, only two or three of which were even moderately successful. Perhaps his recurrent efforts were inspired by the fact that Lew Wallace, a neighbor only two blocks down Pike Street, had produced a record American best seller in 1880 with a book called Ben Hut. Modest as he was, Thompson must have recognized that his own literary touch was both lighter and surer than that of his friend Gen. Wallace and that he lacked only a bit of good fortune and equally appealing subject matter in order to create a Ben Hur of his own. In the matter of appealing subject matter he could have had no great hope of a permanent triumph–Wallace had already appropriated the Christ and his early followers–but the career of Gen. George Rogers Clark and the town of Vincennes had lately attracted considerable notice through the publication of Capt. William H. English's Conquest of the Country Northwest of the Ohio River 1778-1783 and Life of Gen. George Rogers Clark. Thompson wrote by far his most workmanlike novel and the good fortune took care of itself.

Alice Of Old Vincennes was a best seller of 1900 and it began 1901 with even more promise. In the first weeks of that year there appeared no reason why the record of Gen. Wallace, down street, should not soon be equalled. The prospect must have been pleasing even to the unenvious spirit of Maurice Thompson, for the General was a bit arrogant in his own success and there had been some rather dismal failures among Thompson's earlier novels.

As it turned out, Ben Hur, with the world-wide interest in its subject and setting, continued to sell in tens of thousands after the four or five year boom in sales of Alice Of Old Vincennes had settled to a few thousand copies a year. By that time it made little difference to James Maurice Thompson, for he had died quietly at Sherwood Place on Feb. 15, 1901–at exactly the summit of his popularity.

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THOMPSON, RICHARD WIGGINTON: 1809-1900.

Dick Thompson was a stormy figure on the Indiana and the national scene for some sixty-five years. Hero or villain, depending upon the viewpoint, he was in the thick of every Indiana controversy: he was always a partisan, never a neutral, be the question religious, political, ethical or economic.

Richard Wigginton Thompson was born on June 9, 1809. His parents were William Mills and Catherine Wigginton Broadus Thompson, of Culpepper County, Va. They gave their son a sound education, which evidenced itself in the literary merit and the polish of his speeches and voluminous writing.

About 1831 young Thompson came west to Louisville, Ky. He taught school for a time in Lawrence County, Ind., read law, was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1834, hung out his shingle in Bedford, Ind., and the same year was elected to represent his new home in the state Legislature. Hoosiers loved orators in those days; Thompson was one of the best, and his comparatively short residence in the town seems to have been no political handicap at all. He served in the Indiana House and Senate from Lawrence County from 1834 to 1838. He was congressman from the district in 1841-43 and again 1847-49. He moved his residence to Terre Haute in 1843.

Of his national political career W. E. S., writing in the Dictionary of American Biography, says:

"Presidents Taylor, Fillmore, and Lincoln made him proffers of offices, but he declined. He was active in the secession controversies and during the Civil War served as provost marshal for the Terre Haute district. He was a delegate to Republican National Conventions in 1868, 1876, and 1892, and in the last named nominated Benjamin Harrison for the presidency. In 1877 he was appointed Secretary of the Navy in the Hayes administration … It has been affirmed that this was the only major appointment made by Hayes that was 'dictated entirely by political considerations and it was the only bad one' … While holding this post he took the chairmanship of the American Committee of the Panama Canal Company at a salary of $25,000 yearly, thinking this no bar to retaining his post in the cabinet, whereupon Hayes notified him 'that his resignation (unoffered) had been accepted' … Extremely partisan in politics, intolerant in religion, a lobbyist for railroads, Thompson was throughout his active life a figure about whom angry controversy swirled. Few of his contemporaries among public men were so frequently attacked on ethical grounds …"

Richard Thompson married Harriet Eliza Gardiner on May 5, 1836. She died in 1888, he on Feb. 9, 1900, at Terre Haute, Ind.

Information from the Dictionary of American Biography; Woollen–Representative Men of Indiana; Smith–Early Indiana Trials and Sketches; and Roll– Colonel Dick Thompson .

THOMPSON, WILL HENRY: 1846-1918.

Will Henry Thompson , brother of Maurice and son of the Rev. Grigg and Diantha Jaeggar Thompson, was born in Missouri , on March 10, 1846. (The year 1848 is sometimes given.) He was educated by private tutors, at Calhoun Academy, and at Georgia Military Institute. (See also, sketch of James Maurice Thompson for details of early life.)

During the Civil War he served in the Fourth Georgia Infantry of the Confederate Army, taking part in the campaigns of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor , and Petersburg .

In 1868, with his brother Maurice, he came to Crawfordsville, Ind., and from 1868 to 1871 was employed as a civil engineer occupied with building railroads in western Indiana . In 1871 he was admitted to the bar and opened a law office in partnership with his brother which continued until he removed to Seattle in 1889. From 1896 to 1904 he served as western attorney for the Great Northern Railway System.

Will Henry Thompson and Maurice Thompson were responsible, through their writings, for creating a nation-wide interest in the sport of archery. Both had hunted with the bow during plantation days in the South. Will Henry Thompson was champion page: 321[View Page 321] archer of America in 1879, 1884, 1888, 1901, and 1908.

He married Ida Lee of Crawfordsville, Ind., on June 11, 1874. In addition to his books, Thompson contributed to CENTURY MAGAZINE. He is best known for his poem, "High Tide at Gettysburg."

He died in 1918.

Information from Who's Who in America and Burke and Howe–American Authors and Books, 1640-1940.

  • The Witchery of Archery–A Complete Manual of Archery with Many Chapters of Adventure by Field and Flood, Etc. (withMaurice Thompson). New York, 1878.Search "The Witchery of Archery–A Complete Manual of Archery with Many Chapters of Adventure by Field and Flood, Etc" by THOMPSON, WILL HENRY: 1846-1918. in IUCAT, Google Books, OCLC WorldCat, or HathiTrust
  • How to Train in Archery: Being a Complete Study of the York Round (withMaurice Thompson). New York, 1879.Search "How to Train in Archery: Being a Complete Study of the York Round" by THOMPSON, WILL HENRY: 1846-1918. in IUCAT, Google Books, OCLC WorldCat, or HathiTrust

THORP, ABNER: 1840–?

Abner Thorp was born in Lawrenceburg, Ind., in 1840. He was the author of at least two books of the Sunday School genus, the first of which was published in New York by the Methodist Book Concern.

Information from the Federal Writers Project–Indiana Authors, 1937.

THORPE, ROSE HARTWICK (MRs. EDMUND CARSON): 1850-1939.

Among the greatest contributions to the repertoire of the elocutionist, whose art thrilled the front parlor gatherings and church sociables of America in the late Nineteenth century, was that sterling composition "Curfew Must Not Ring To-night." Many an amateur well-nigh blinded himself with eye-rolling and wrecked his vocal cords in the changes of pace attendant upon its rendition. It was a classic of its kind and it was written by a daughter of Mishawaka, Ind.

She was Rose Hartwick , daughter of William and Mary Hartwick, born in Mishawaka, Ind., on July 18, 1850. She was graduated in 1868 from the high school in Litchfield, Mich., where her family had moved when she was ten years old.

Miss Hartwick's literary career began at its very pinnacle, with the writing of "Curfew Must Not Ring To-night" in her twentieth year. The poem was published in a Detroit newspaper in 1870 and attracted immediate attention. She married Edmund Carson Thorpe on Sept. 11, 1871, and continued with her writing. By 1881 she was editing three Sunday-school papers in Chicago and she continued as editor and later contributor to journals and magazines from 1880 until her death on July 19, 1939.

Mrs. Thorpe's last years were spent with her family in San Diego, Calif.

Information from Who Was Who in America and Appletons" Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. VI.

TIPPY, WORTH MARION: 1866-

Worth Marion Tippy , son of Oren and Mary Isabel Carder Tippy, was born in Larwill, Ind., on Nov. 8, 1866, and graduated from De Pauw University in 1891, receiving the D.D. degree in 1907. He also studied at Cornell University and at Sage School of Philosophy. On May 16, 1895, he married Zella B. Ward.

Ordained to the Methodist Episcopal ministry in 1893, he served as pastor in New Jersey, Indiana ( Lafayette, Oxford, Terre Haute , and Indianapolis ), Ohio , and New York until 1917. From 1917 to 1937 he was executive secretary of the Commission on the Church and Social Service of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. He was also a lecturer and university preacher.

Information from Who's Who in America.

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TODD, MARY GENEVIEVE: 1863-1896.

Born in Vevay, Ind., in 1863, Mary Genevieve Todd entered the Catholic Church on Sept. 19, 1886, and entered the Community of Sisters of Providence at Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. , on Jan. 10, 1890. She died in 1896.

Information from the Barry Ms.

TOMPKINS, ARNOLD: 1849–1905.

Arnold Tompkins was born on a farm near Paris, Ill., on Sept. 10, 1849. His parents were Henry and Delilah Williams Tompkins.

Tompkins attended Indiana and Butler universities, at intervals teaching in Illinois , and finally graduated from Indiana State Normal at Terre Haute in 1880. He married Miss Jennie Snyder on Dec. 23, 1875.

After teaching in Worthington and Franklin, Ind., he became a member of the De Pauw University faculty in 1885, of the Indiana State Normal in 1890, and of the University of Illinois. He served as president of Illinois Normal University in 1899 and of Chicago Normal School, 1900-05.

He died on Aug. 12, 1905, in Georgia .

Information from the Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XVIII, the De Pauw University Alumnal Record, and the Indiana State Library.

TOPH, OLLAH PERKINS: 1862-

Born in Rushville, Ind., in 1862, Ollah Perkins Toph was educated in the public schools of Indianapolis. She began writing at the age of fourteen, and her first appearance in print was the publication of an essay in the CHRISTIAN STANDARD. In addition to poems and stories printed in GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, COSMOPOLITAN, HOME MAKER, and other magazines, she was a regular contributor to and on the staff of Chicago religious papers. Mrs. Toph, a resident of Indianapolis , was also known as a musician and a lecturer.

Information from the Indianapolis Public Library.

TRAHEY, JAMES J. 1875-1906.

Born at Michigan City, Ind., in 1875, James J. Trahey was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in 1903 and died in 1906. He contributed articles on Latin to the Catholic University BULLETIN.

Information from the Barry Ms.

TRUEBLOOD, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: 1847-1916.

" Benjamin Franklin Trueblood (Nov. 25, 1847-Oct. 26, 1916), educator, publicist, and professional worker for international peace, was born in Salem, Ind., and adhered throughout his life to the Quaker principles of his parents, Joshua and Esther (Parker) Trueblood. After graduating from Earlham College in 1869, he began his educational work as professor of classics at Penn College, Iowa . From 1874 to 1890 he served as president of Wilmington College, O. , and of Penn College … On July 17, 1872, he married Sarah H. Terrell of New Vienna, O. In 1890 he broadened his educational activity by becoming a professional worker for international peace. A year abroad as agent for the Christian Arbitration and Peace Society provided an opportunity for studying European conditions and for becoming acquainted with leaders in the peace movement … From 1892 until 1915 he served as secretary of the American Peace Society and as editor of its periodical, the ADVOCATE OF PEACE … As a result of his tireless activity in organizing branch page: 323[View Page 323] peace societies, of writing not only for peace periodicals but for other magazines, and of lecturing on innumerable occasions, he played a responsible part in the rapid expansion of the peace movement …

"As editor of the ADVOCATE OF PEACE he set a new standard for pacifist journalism. Without sacrificing the moral, ethical, and religious elements that had given so much impetus to pacifism, he interpreted the peace movement and the forces promoting war with realism as well as vision. His analyses of contemporary events were characterized by shrewdness, insight, and literary merit. Himself an uncompromising foe of all wars, militarism, and violence, he believed it was necessary to enlist the support of every shade of opinion if pacifism and internationalism were to be translated into actualities …"

Condensed from M. E. C., Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XIX.

TRUEBLOOD, NEWTON A.: ?-

Newton A. Trueblood was a member of the branch of the noted North Carolina Quaker family which settled in Indiana . He had a good education, engaged in business in Kokomo, Ind., for many years, and later lived in Knightstown. He wrote under the pen name of "Frank Winter."

Information from Parker and Heiney–Poets and Poetry of Indiana.

TRUSLER, THOMAS JAMES: 1838-1909.

Born in Fayette County, Ind., on Feb. 11, 1838, Thomas James Trusler attended Miami University. He served as school examiner in Fayette County for several years and practiced law in Liberty and Connersville before coming to Indianapolis in 1856, where he served as a deputy in the Secretary of State's office for eight years. He then established a law practice in Indianapolis and for fourteen years he had the responsibility of preparing the acts of the Indiana Legislature for the printer. He died on Mar. 5, 1909.

Information from the Indiana State Library.

TURNER, TIMOTHY G.: 1817-1904.

Timothy G. Turner , newspaper editor and early business statistician, was born in Waitsfield, Vt., in 1817. He was educated in the local schools and read law in New York .

As a young man he went to Cleveland, O., then a thriving lake port, served for a time as the editor of the CLEVELAND HERALD and helped to reorganize the old TRUE DEMOCRAT as the CLEVELAND LEADER.

He married L. Olivia Morrell in 1847, and in 1855 the couple moved to South Bend, Ind., where they stayed a few years before returning to Ohio . Turner enlisted in the Union forces during the Civil War. He served for two years, was captured and was held at Libby Prison for four months.

In 1867 he returned to South Bend and remained there until his death on Aug. 3, 1904. He compiled and published the South Bend city directories from 1871 through 1880.

Information from the South Bend Public Library and the Northern Indiana Historical Society.

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  • Gazetteer of the St. Joseph Valley, Michigan and Indiana, with a View of Its Hydraulic and Business Capacities. Chicago. 1867.Search "Gazetteer of the St. Joseph Valley, Michigan and Indiana, with a View of Its Hydraulic and Business Capacities" by TURNER, TIMOTHY G.: 1817-1904. in IUCAT, Google Books, OCLC WorldCat, or HathiTrust
  • Turner's Guide from the Lakes to the Rocky Mountains, via Cleveland and Toledo, Michigan, and Southern and Northern Indiana, Chicago and Northwestern and the Union Pacific Railroads; also from Missouri Valley, via the Pacific and Sioux City Railroad and the Steamboats of the Northwest Transportation Company; Including a Historical and Statistical Account of the Railroads of the Country, Towns and Cities Along the Route, and Notices of the Connecting Roads and Routes (withC. E. Turner). Chicago, 1868.Search "Turner's Guide from the Lakes to the Rocky Mountains, via Cleveland and Toledo, Michigan, and Southern and Northern Indiana, Chicago and Northwestern and the Union Pacific Railroads; also from Missouri Valley, via the Pacific and Sioux City Railroad and the Steamboats of the Northwest Transportation Company; Including a Historical and Statistical Account of the Railroads of the Country, Towns and Cities Along the Route, and Notices of the Connecting Roads and Routes" by TURNER, TIMOTHY G.: 1817-1904. in IUCAT, Google Books, OCLC WorldCat, or HathiTrust

TURPIE, DAVID: 1829-1909.

David Turpie , destined to play an important part in Indiana politics during almost half a century, was born in Hamilton County, O., on July 8, 1829.

He graduated from Kenyon College in 1848, removed to Logansport, Ind., and was admitted to the bar in the following year. In 1854, at the age of twenty-five, he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He became judge of the Circuit Court in 1856 but resigned. He served as a member of the Indiana State Legislature in 1853 and again in 1858.

Turpie was a candidate for the office of lieutenant governor in 1860 but was defeated by Oliver P. Morton, who became wartime governor of the state when Henry S. Lane resigned the office to accept a seat in the U. S. Senate. Turpie did serve in the U. S. Senate from Jan. to Mar., 1863, filling the term of Jesse D. Bright, who was expelled in 1862. He was later elected and served from 1887 to 1899.

He died in 1909.

Information from Who Was Who in America and Turpie–Sketches of My Own Times.

TUTTLE, JOSEPH FARRAND: 1818–1901.

Joseph Farrand Tuttle , for thirty years president of Wabash College and a leader in educational and religious affairs in Indiana , was born in Bloomfield, N. J., on Mar. 12, 1818.

The Tuttles had long been well known in the East, and his father, the Rev. Jacob Tuttle, was a prominent New Jersey minister. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Ward.

Joseph Farrand Tuttle had private instruction until his tenth year, when he was enrolled in Newark Academy. After four years of study he was taken by his parents to Ohio, where he spent the next four years on his uncle's farm.

In 1837 he entered Marietta College as a freshman and graduated with first honors in the spring of 1841. In the same year he enrolled in Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati , where Lyman Beecher made a considerable impression on him. He spent 1843 as a tutor in Marietta College and was licensed as a minister of the Presbyterian Church in 1844, receiving the A.M. from Lane in the same year.

In 1845 he accepted his first pastorate, that of the Second Presbyterian Church in Delaware, O., and married Susan Caroline King, whose father, Dr. Barnabas King, was also a minister, of Rockaway, N. J.

In 1847 the Rev. Mr. Tuttle was called as assistant pastor to the Presbyterian Church in Rockaway, N. J. It was not common for young ministers in Ohio to be employed by East Coast churches in those days, and Tuttle may have owed his good fortune in part to his wife's and his own family connections: whatever the case, he continued at Rockaway, speaking and writing for the religious and secular press, until his election to the presidency of Wabash College in 1861.

It is possible that Lyman Beecher, who like his brother, Henry Ward Beecher, had long been an active supporter of Wabash College, had a hand in the selection of Dr. Tuttle to fill the presidential vacancy created by the death of Dr. Charles White.

At Crawfordsville , Dr. Tuttle found Wabash flourishing as an educational institution but in little better financial condition proportionately than it had been two decades before. The years of President White's tenure had seen almost uniform annual deficits.

President Tuttle worked to remedy this difficulty for thirty years, beginning during the Civil War, when the only able-bodied students on the campus were those who had enrolled for a semester or so between enlistments or while recovering from duty-incurred wounds or illness.

Wabash survived the war, and the president, building on the foundation that had been laid before 1861, added to endowment, increased and improved the faculty and secured funds for buildings and equipment. When he resigned, at the end of three decades of service and at the first half century mark of the college, Wabash was well established.

Even after his resignation Dr. Tuttle continued to teach at the college, to write and to speak, in Crawfordsville and out, on religion, history, current events page: 325[View Page 325] and whatever other subject seemed in demand. He kept his intellectual and human interests bright until his death in 1901.

Information from Kennedy–History of Montgomery County, Indiana and Osborne and Gronert–Wabash College: The First Hundred Years.

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