DOCSLIB.ORG

Milo Hascall and the Suppression of Democratic Newspapers in Civil War Indiana

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Milo Hascall and the Suppression of Democratic Newspapers in Civil War Indiana MILO HASCALL AND THE SUPPRESSION OF DEMOCRATIC NEWSPAPERS IN CIVIL WAR INDIANA By DAVID WILLIAMS BULLA A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2004 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank several people for pushing me through my graduate years toward completion of this project, which began when I saw Ken Burns’ film “The Civil War” in the early 1990s and picked up speed a few years later with my reading of David Herbert Donald’s Lincoln. I will start my acknowledgements with Mark L’Esperance, education professor at East Carolina University who encouraged me to chase the goal of pursuing a doctoral degree in 1991 when we served as assistant basketball coaches at James B. Dudley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina. Sometime after that, my cousin Maggie Shimon, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, provided a major dose of inspiration, insisting I would succeed in my graduate school endeavors. Another person who encouraged me in my graduate studies was Dr. Kay Phillips of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I would also like to thank three of my former editors for their contributions to my career: Irwin Smallwood, Wilt Browning, and Allen H. Johnson. At Indiana University, where I received my master’s degree in journalism, I would like to thank David Weaver for turning me in the right direction on this project. Dr. Weaver pointed me toward two writers whose scholarship would prove so valuable to this study, Fredrick Seaton Siebert and Jeffrey A. Smith. Also at Indiana, I was fortunate enough to come under the influence of several professors, including Jack Dvorak, Carol Polsgrove, Edward Gubar, Michael Evans, Andy Rojecki (now at the University of Illinois at Chicago), and Cleve Wilhoit. Three scholars whose work originated at IU also ii have been critical to the development of this study: Jon Paul Dilts, Craig D. Tenney, and Stephen E. Towne. They provided the backbone for my historical analysis and interpretation of press suppression in the Hoosier State during the Civil War. Towne’s continued exhaustive research on the press in Civil War Indiana has made my interpretation far less tenuous than it would have been otherwise. I want to also mention the work of John W. Miller, whose 1982 bibliography of Indiana newspapers provided a wealth of details for my study. Emma Lou Thornbrough’s cultural study of Indiana from 1850-1880 and Gilbert R. Tredway’s examination of Democratic opposition to Lincoln in Indiana were also essential to my study. I would also like to thank Brian Hartz and Ivan Eikenberry of Bloomington for housing me while I did research in Indiana. At the University of Florida, I was very fortunate to have my first class with Leonard Tipton, who stimulated my interest in communication ideas and theory. I would also like to thank my teaching mentor, Julie E. Dodd, who, along with Dr. Wilhoit at Indiana, helped me sharpen my teaching skills. I would also like to thank Gregory A. Borchard, journalism professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Dr. Borchard and I served under Dr. Dodd as teaching assistants at UF, and we have shared our thoughts about Civil War journalism history and teaching with many long conversations. He has also been a careful reader of my research. Thanks also to Rob Marino, Jody Hedge, and the UF Editorial Office for all of their help. This paper would not be possible without the invaluable assistance of my committee, led by Bernell Tripp, who has helped shape it on every step of its journey toward completion. Dr. Tripp insisted all along that this be a paper that based on what I was seeing and reading as a researcher, not on preconceived notions from secondary iii sources. I have been a very lucky novice scholar to be afforded that level of freedom. Dr. Bertram Wyatt-Brown has been a most exacting editor and has constantly reminded me of the war’s enormous social, political, and military complexity. The mind and work of Wyatt-Brown is a treasure not only for the University of Florida but also for U.S. historical scholarship. Dr. Meg Lamme has been a sounding board for a wide range of ideas on this topic, especially where this paper fits into nineteenth-century mass communication history, what it ultimately means to the world of communications history scholarship, and what it means to the vein of study for my career. She has constantly challenged me to make connections to the larger body of U.S. journalism history scholarship. Dr. Marilyn Roberts recruited me to the University of Florida, and I am indebted to her for my career at UF. I appreciate all he guidance she has given me. The best part of this research has been the reading of primary documents. I would like to thank the staffs at the following libraries and archives: Indiana State Library in Indianapolis; Indiana Commission on Public Records, Indiana State Archives in Indianapolis; Allen County Library in Fort Wayne; Smathers Library at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida; Library of Congress; Elkhart County, Indiana, Historical Society; Goshen, Indiana, Public Library; Marshall County, Indiana, Historical Society; Dayton, Ohio, Public Library; Chicago Historical Society; Indiana University at Bloomington Main Library, the Lilly Library, and the School of Journalism Library; the Roux Library at Florida Southern College; the Center for Archival Collections at Jerome Library, Bowling Green State University; Main Library, University of Central Florida in Orlando; and the Lincoln Bookstore in Chicago. iv I want to thank my mother, Rebecca Williams Bulla, for providing me with the love to see this project through to its completion; my sister Catherine Bulla Rachide, for constantly reminding me that I would see this project to the end and become a college professor one day; my friend Joseph D. Pearlman for helping keep things in perspective; and my wife, Kalpana Ramgopal, for keeping me on track and focused when I wanted to branch out and study other communication phenomena. Kalpana is a thorough editor, and she constantly has encouraged me to “Cut, cut, cut” and to tell her what a journalist today can learn from Civil War press suppression. She also refused to let me procrastinate. v TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. ii LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................. ix ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1 Statement of Purpose ..................................................................................................13 Significance of Historical Study.................................................................................15 Literature Review .......................................................................................................20 Methodology...............................................................................................................38 Structure of Dissertation.............................................................................................44 Implications ................................................................................................................45 Notes...........................................................................................................................48 2 MILO HASCALL’S WORLD: INDIANA IN THE CIVIL WAR ERA ...................58 Goshen Attorney.........................................................................................................60 Indiana Society at Mid-Century..................................................................................64 “One Country, One Constitution, One Destiny” ........................................................67 Slavery and Temperance.............................................................................................70 Religious Life in the 1850s and 1860s .......................................................................74 Indiana’s Politics in the 1850s and 1860s...................................................................76 Indiana’s Democrats Prefer to Compromise with the South ......................................78 Attitudes Toward Slavery...........................................................................................86 The Election of 1860 ..................................................................................................91 Hascall: A Morton Man..............................................................................................96 Notes.........................................................................................................................100 3 LEGAL, THEORETIC CONTEXT OF FREE PRESS IN CIVIL WAR INDIANA .................................................................................................................109 Borrowing From the British......................................................................................111 Adams’ Sedition Act.................................................................................................114 The Sedition Act.......................................................................................................116
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Abraham Lincoln Papers
    Abraham Lincoln papers 1 From Britton A. Hill to Abraham Lincoln , October 3, 1864 1 Britton A. Hill practiced law in Washington with Orville Hickman Browning after the latter had been unseated in the Senate in 1863 by a Democratic Illinois General Assembly. Confidential Washington Oct 3d, 1864 Mr President; 2 It gives me great pleasure to state, that Mr Browning has been misrepresented as to his speech 3 4 in Quincy— “He merely said, that if Genl. Fremont or Genl McClellan were elected he would not commit suicide; but would endeavor to support the govt faithfully, as he had done under your 5 administration”. He has spoken always in favor of yr administration & reelection. 2 Orville H. Browning 3 At the end of May 1864 a convention primarily composed of Radical Republicans and German-Americans met at Cleveland and nominated General John C. Fremont for the presidency. Fremont withdrew from the campaign in September. 4 General George B. McClellan was the 1864 presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. 5 Republicans were eager to obtain Browning's endorsement, but his support for Lincoln's reelection was lukewarm at best. In an October 3, 1864 letter to William D. Henderson, Browning stated his desire to see the rebellion crushed, however he refused to endorse either Lincoln or McClellan. While Browning admired McClellan's patriotism, he could not support the platform of the party that had nominated him. This refusal to support the so-called “peace plank” of the Democratic platform was the closest Browning came to an endorsement of Lincoln. Browning's letter to Henderson was published in the newspapers and Republican wags spun it as an endorsement.
    [Show full text]
  • The Story of a Rising Race
    This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com Thestoryofarisingrace JamesJeffersonPipkin COUNCIIA.W.H. SOMENOTEDEDUCATORSOFRACE.THECOLORED T.WASHINGTON.BOOKER WESLHYHOFFMAN.JOHN THE STORY OF A RISING RACE THE NEGRO IN REVELATION, IN HISTORY AND IN CITIZENSHIP WHAT THE RACE HAS DONE AND IS DOING ARMS, ARTS, LETTERS, THE PULPIT, THE FORUM, THE SCHOOL, THE MARTS OF TRADE WITH THOSE MIGHTY WEAPONS IN THE BATTLE OF LIFE THE SHOVEL AND THE HOE A MESSAGE TO ALL MEN THAT HE IS IN THE WAY TO SOLVE THE RACE PROBLEM EOR HIMSELF REV. J . J . WPKIK WITH INTRODUCTION BY GEN. JOHN B. GORDON Former Major-General Confederate Army, United States Senator from Georgia. Ex-Commander United Confederate Veterans, Author "War Reminiscences," Etc. ^ CatJogua Proe. (JOPYHTUHT, 1902, BY N. ]).THOMP»ON PUBLISHING OOMPAN V NOT A TERM OF REPROACH. Supposing that this term (negro) was originally used as a phrase of contempt, is it not wilh us to elevate it? How often has it not happened that names originally given in reproach have been afterward adopted as a title of honor by those against whom they were used, as Methodists, Quakers, etc. t But as a proof that no unfavorable signification attached to the word when first employed, I may mention that long before the slave trade began travelers found the blacks on the coast of Africa preferring to be called Negroes. And in all the pre- slave trade literature the word was spelled with a capital N.
    [Show full text]
  • The Other Civil War : Lincoln and the Indians
    ISTORIANS ARE TEMPTED to burden tbe past witb the conflicts of their own time. The neglected corollary to this is tbe tend­ ency to read back the absence of conflicts Hthat were real in an earlier time. The ultimate conquest of the American Indian seems painfully apparent to us today, but tbe outcome was not so predictable to those who lived in nineteenth-century America. So it was with Abraham Lincoln and the Indians. Tbe major concern of Lincoln's presidency was the great War for the Union, but Lincoln could not indulge in the scholar's luxury of seg­ THE regating Indian affairs from that larger conflict. While never his first concern, Indian relations were a nagging problem for Lincoln, periodically breaking into bis con­ OTHER sciousness and demanding men and supplies as well as time and energy. On certain occasions the timing of In­ dian crises gave them an impact on events and decisions far beyond their immediate focus. Moreover, in his re­ CIVIL sponse to these crises, Lincoln was instrumental in de­ termining the fate of native Americans in the years follow­ ing his death. WAR Lincoln's relationship with the Indians preceded bis presidency by many years. His grandfather was killed by Indians in 1784, orphaning Thomas Lincoln at the tender age of six and contributing (so Lincoln claimed) to hard­ Lincoln and the ship in young Abraham's household. Lincoln volunteered for the Black Hawk War, fought largely in Wisconsin and Indians Illinois in 1832, but be saw no real combat action. Years later, Lincoln joked about his achievement as a '"military hero" when he "bent a musket pretty badly on one occa­ sion " and "had a good many bloody struggles with the musquetoes [.sic].
    [Show full text]
  • Camp Douglas News Committed to the Preservation of Chicago History
    Camp Douglas News Committed to the Preservation of Chicago History Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation Chicago, Illinois Winter 2012 Volume 3, Issue 4 Project Phases: Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation—Latest News Awareness and Support: place the artifacts within VIRTUAL CAMP 2010-2013 historic perspectives. DOUGLAS PROJECT CONTINUES Site Location and Site GRIFFIN FUNERAL HOME The students from IIT Planning: 2012 TO BE DEVELOPED presented their results Prologue, Inc. announced November 30 as part of plans to develop an Archaeological Investigation: the IPRO Day at IIT. alternate school, 2012-2013 They, along with 29 community center and Civil other IPRO teams, War museum on the site of Virtual Camp Douglas: 2013 were judged on a the former Griffin Funeral video, table top display Home, 3232 S. King Drive. and oral presentation Construction: 2013-14 The announcement was to a panel of judges. made by Dr. Nancy Jackson, Executive Director of Prologue which Preliminary views of the camp map, story operates alternate schools in Chicago providing boards and web site were impressive. Students educational opportunities to school drop-outs working on the story boards have conducted who are not eligible to reenter the public Civil War research into stories about camp life in schools. The Foundation has been in contact preparation for videos to be produced. Mapping with Dr. Jackson and is cooperating with them Bits & Pieces of Camp Douglas is nearly completed and the on the development of the museum. web site brings stories and mapping together. Ernest Griffin and his Next semester the project will continue at IIT Civil War Units family, after his death in 1995 under the leadership of Professor Laura Batson.
    [Show full text]
  • Hoosiers and the American Story Chapter 3
    3 Pioneers and Politics “At this time was the expression first used ‘Root pig, or die.’ We rooted and lived and father said if we could only make a little and lay it out in land while land was only $1.25 an acre we would be making money fast.” — Andrew TenBrook, 1889 The pioneers who settled in Indiana had to work England states. Southerners tended to settle mostly in hard to feed, house, and clothe their families. Every- southern Indiana; the Mid-Atlantic people in central thing had to be built and made from scratch. They Indiana; the New Englanders in the northern regions. had to do as the pioneer Andrew TenBrook describes There were exceptions. Some New Englanders did above, “Root pig, or die.” This phrase, a common one settle in southern Indiana, for example. during the pioneer period, means one must work hard Pioneers filled up Indiana from south to north or suffer the consequences, and in the Indiana wilder- like a glass of water fills from bottom to top. The ness those consequences could be hunger. Luckily, the southerners came first, making homes along the frontier was a place of abundance, the land was rich, Ohio, Whitewater, and Wabash Rivers. By the 1820s the forests and rivers bountiful, and the pioneers people were moving to central Indiana, by the 1830s to knew how to gather nuts, plants, and fruits from the northern regions. The presence of Indians in the north forest; sow and reap crops; and profit when there and more difficult access delayed settlement there.
    [Show full text]
  • HARDTACK Indianapolis Civil War Round Table Newsletter
    1 HARDTACK Indianapolis Civil War Round Table Newsletter http://indianapoliscwrt.org/ October 8, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. Meeting at Indiana History Center Auditorium 450 West Ohio Street The Plan of the Day “An Irrepressible Conflict”: Civil War Rioting in Cincinnati, 1862 Cincinnati in 1862, lithograph in Harper’s Weekly In July of 1862, Irish workers in Cincinnati rioted to keep black workers from laboring on the docks, and attempted to “clean out” African American residential sections of the city. A precursor to the more infamous New York draft riots of 1863, the violence was triggered by the prospect of a draft and the rumored arming of black soldiers. Fearing that their jobs would be threatened by emancipation and an influx of black workers, immigrant laborers tried to establish themselves as true citizens and African Americans as interlopers. During the Civil War, as at other times in the nation’s history, black men staked their claims to citizenship on their loyal labor and their armed service—not just in federal armies, but in defense of their homes and livelihoods. When black workers organized in self-defense, white Cincinnatians quickly formed militia units in response. This wartime rioting followed patterns of antebellum riots, but the emancipation of African Americans and their military service during the war created a clear turning point in black demands for social citizenship. JOIN US BEFORE THE MEETING AT SHAPIRO’S DELI! All ICWRT members and guests are invited to join us at 5:30 P.M. at Shapiro’s Delicatessen, 808 S. Meridian St. (just south of McCarty Street) before the meeting to enjoy dinner and fellowship.
    [Show full text]
  • The New York City Draft Riots of 1863
    University of Kentucky UKnowledge United States History History 1974 The Armies of the Streets: The New York City Draft Riots of 1863 Adrian Cook Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Cook, Adrian, "The Armies of the Streets: The New York City Draft Riots of 1863" (1974). United States History. 56. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/56 THE ARMIES OF THE STREETS This page intentionally left blank THE ARMIES OF THE STREETS TheNew York City Draft Riots of 1863 ADRIAN COOK THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY ISBN: 978-0-8131-5182-3 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-80463 Copyright© 1974 by The University Press of Kentucky A statewide cooperative scholarly publishing agency serving Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky State College, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40506 To My Mother This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix
    [Show full text]
  • The Ohio National Guard Before the Militia Act of 1903
    THE OHIO NATIONAL GUARD BEFORE THE MILITIA ACT OF 1903 A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts By Cyrus Moore August, 2015 © Copyright All rights reserved Except for previously published materials Thesis written by Cyrus Moore B.S., Ohio University, 2011 M.A., Kent State University, 2015 Approved by Kevin J. Adams, Professor, Ph.D., Department of History Master’s Advisor Kenneth J. Bindas, Professor, Ph.D, Chair, Department of History James L Blank, Ph.D., Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter I. Republican Roots………………………………………………………19 II. A Vulnerable State……………………………………………………..35 III. Riots and Strikes………………………………………………………..64 IV. From Mobilization to Disillusionment………………………………….97 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….125 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..136 Introduction The Ohio Militia and National Guard before 1903 The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed a profound change in the militia in the United States. Driven by the rivalry between modern warfare and militia tradition, the role as well as the ideology of the militia institution fitfully progressed beyond its seventeenth century origins. Ohio’s militia, the third largest in the country at the time, strove to modernize while preserving its relevance. Like many states in the early republic, Ohio’s militia started out as a sporadic group of reluctant citizens with little military competency. The War of the Rebellion exposed the serious flaws in the militia system, but also demonstrated why armed citizen-soldiers were necessary to the defense of the state. After the war ended, the militia struggled, but developed into a capable military organization through state-imposed reform.
    [Show full text]
  • Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Case Log October 2000 - April 2002
    Description of document: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Case Log October 2000 - April 2002 Requested date: 2002 Release date: 2003 Posted date: 08-February-2021 Source of document: Information and Privacy Coordinator Central Intelligence Agency Washington, DC 20505 Fax: 703-613-3007 Filing a FOIA Records Request Online The governmentattic.org web site (“the site”) is a First Amendment free speech web site and is noncommercial and free to the public. The site and materials made available on the site, such as this file, are for reference only. The governmentattic.org web site and its principals have made every effort to make this information as complete and as accurate as possible, however, there may be mistakes and omissions, both typographical and in content. The governmentattic.org web site and its principals shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information provided on the governmentattic.org web site or in this file. The public records published on the site were obtained from government agencies using proper legal channels. Each document is identified as to the source. Any concerns about the contents of the site should be directed to the agency originating the document in question. GovernmentAttic.org is not responsible for the contents of documents published on the website. 1 O ct 2000_30 April 2002 Creation Date Requester Last Name Case Subject 36802.28679 STRANEY TECHNOLOGICAL GROWTH OF INDIA; HONG KONG; CHINA AND WTO 36802.2992 CRAWFORD EIGHT DIFFERENT REQUESTS FOR REPORTS REGARDING CIA EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS 36802.43927 MONTAN EDWARD GRADY PARTIN 36802.44378 TAVAKOLI-NOURI STEPHEN FLACK GUNTHER 36810.54721 BISHOP SCIENCE OF IDENTITY FOUNDATION 36810.55028 KHEMANEY TI LEAF PRODUCTIONS, LTD.
    [Show full text]
  • Lincoln Studies at the Bicentennial: a Round Table
    Lincoln Studies at the Bicentennial: A Round Table Lincoln Theme 2.0 Matthew Pinsker Early during the 1989 spring semester at Harvard University, members of Professor Da- vid Herbert Donald’s graduate seminar on Abraham Lincoln received diskettes that of- fered a glimpse of their future as historians. The 3.5 inch floppy disks with neatly typed labels held about a dozen word-processing files representing the whole of Don E. Feh- renbacher’s Abraham Lincoln: A Documentary Portrait through His Speeches and Writings (1964). Donald had asked his secretary, Laura Nakatsuka, to enter this well-known col- lection of Lincoln writings into a computer and make copies for his students. He also showed off a database containing thousands of digital note cards that he and his research assistants had developed in preparation for his forthcoming biography of Lincoln.1 There were certainly bigger revolutions that year. The Berlin Wall fell. A motley coalition of Afghan tribes, international jihadists, and Central Intelligence Agency (cia) operatives drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Virginia voters chose the nation’s first elected black governor, and within a few more months, the Harvard Law Review selected a popular student named Barack Obama as its first African American president. Yet Donald’s ven- ture into digital history marked a notable shift. The nearly seventy-year-old Mississippi native was about to become the first major Lincoln biographer to add full-text searching and database management to his research arsenal. More than fifty years earlier, the revisionist historian James G. Randall had posed a question that helps explain why one of his favorite graduate students would later show such a surprising interest in digital technology as an aging Harvard professor.
    [Show full text]
  • Indiana Magaz Ine of History Volumelvii Septemeer1961 Number3
    INDIANA MAGAZ INE OF HISTORY VOLUMELVII SEPTEMEER1961 NUMBER3 The Impact of the Civil War on Indiana John D. Barnhart* The Civil War was the greatest challenge Indiana's democratic government had met. The war affected all of the citizens of the state, penetrated their vital social relations, and threatened their necessary and cherished organizations. The way the people met that challenge constitutes much of the history of the war years in Indiana. That all patriots yield obedience to the voice of the people when expressed in a constitutional manner and that all citizens unite in preserving the Union and the Constitution was the message of Abraham Lincoln to the people of Indiana as he journeyed from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration as president of the United States. The next day, February 12, 1861, his fifty-second birthday, he was escorted to the railway station where he entrained for Cincinnati. Lincoln's Indianapolis appearance and speech were the subject of favorable comment by the Republican Daily Journal, but the Democratic Daily Sentinel declared him to be a theorist, a dreamer, and an impractical man who lacked the will and purpose to be a leader.' The attack upon Fort Sumter, April 12, 1561, stunned the people of Indiana and its sister states.2 When the news * The Indiana Civil War Centennial Commission requested publica- tion of the author's two chapters on the Civil War originally included in John D. Barnhart and Donald F. Carmony, Indiana: From F,rontier to Industrial Commonwealth (4 vols., New York, 1954). In preparing the chapters for this purpose they were combined into one, and some revision in style was attempted.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to the Ovid Butler Collection Special Collections and Rare Books, Irwin Library, Butler University
    Guide to the Ovid Butler Collection Special Collections and Rare Books, Irwin Library, Butler University Contact Information: Special Collections and Rare Books Irwin Library Butler University 4600 Sunset Avenue Indianapolis, Indiana 46208-3485 USA Phone: 317.940.9265 Fax: 317.940.8039 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.butler.edu/library/libinfo/rare/ Summary Volume of Collection One manuscript box, one oversize folder Collection Dates 1818–1999 Provenance Butler University Restrictions None Copyright Butler University Citation Ovid Butler Collection, Special Collections and Rare Books, Irwin Library, Butler University Related Collections Board of Commissioners, letter books, 1852–60 Minutes of the Board of Commissioners, March 5, 1850–June 23, 1852 Ovid Butler letter book Ovid Butler Collection, page 2 Biographical Sketch Ovid Butler was an Indianapolis lawyer, philanthropist, and founder of North Western Christian University (today’s Butler University). Born February 7, 1801, in Augusta, New York, Butler moved with his family to Indiana in 1817. After practicing law in Shelbyville from 1825 to 1836, Butler moved to Indianapolis where he practiced law until 1849. His law partner of eleven years, Calvin Fletcher, considered himself blessed to have such a partner, and called Butler “a man of strict integrity great dilligence & integrity” (Diary of Calvin Fletcher, vol. 3, p. 198, Saturday, October 11, 1845). Although ill health led Butler to retire from his law practice in 1849, his involvement in a variety of civic causes continued. Butler was an active supporter of the antislavery movement. In 1848 he was elected as vice president of Indiana’s Free Soil Party, and backed the Free Soil Banner, a campaign paper for the party.
    [Show full text]