Robert Gordon was born in the year 1814, in Miami County, Ohio. His father died
when Robert was very young, leaving the mother with eight children. Robert
found a home in the family of Andrew Broderick, with whom he came to Delaware
County, Ind, in 1819. Mr. Broderick was employed by Mr. Hackley, the French
trader, who had married an Indian woman, and received from the chief of the
tribe a large tract of land, near the present site of Muncie. Mr. Broderick
was engaged to plow the land and assist the Indians in tilling it. Hackley
afterward shot himself, and the land was purchased by Goldsmith C. Gilbert.
Broderick left soon after, but Robert remained with Mr. Gilbert.
In 1833, Mr.
Gordon was married and launched out for himself. He has always been a strong,
energetic, hard-working and upright citizen. He has been a carpenter, a
railroad builder, a house mover, etc. He and Martin Coyner took the contract
for laying the railroad track from Newcastle to Richmond, and from Muncie to
Union City, nearly thirty years ago. Mr. Coyner laid the track from Newcastle
to Richmond, and Mr. Gordon from Muncie to Union City. He also built many of
the edifices in Muncie, a number of large barns throughout the county,
railroad bridges, etc.
For the past twenty-five years, he has been engaged in
moving houses and other buildings, and has accomplished some very difficult
things in this line at Muncie, Middletown, Anderson, Farmland and other
places. He has moved barns that were 70x100 feet, and moved a four-story mill
40x60 feet, for a distance of 150 yards. He also moved the old County
Seminary, in three sections, a distance of one mile, completing the work and
setting up the building in three days.
In his younger days, he was a very
strong man, and many incidents are related of his astonishing muscular
feats. He is said to have lifted a cast-iron wheel weighing 2,400 pounds, and
to have carried three railroad bars on his shoulder at once. He has always
been a reliable and esteemed citizen, and is the oldest survivor of the
pioneers of this county�his period of citizenship here covering sixty-two
years. (Page 215)
George W. Greene was born at Whitehall, Washington Co., N. Y., October 6,1820, and
came to Muncie in 1832, with his parents, George W. and Charlotte Greene. The
father was a carpenter and builder, and was a respected citizen of Muncie. In
the winter of 1835�86, he died.� In the tenth year of his age, the subject of
this biography lost a boy�s last best friend, his mother who died in July
1839.� He then went to live with his uncle, Goldsmith C. Gilbert, working for
him about four years.� He then worked on a farm for about fifteen months, and
at the end of that time (October 6, 1844), began learning the tailor�s trade
under the instructions of W. H. Perkins, at Muncie. After acquiring a
partial knowledge of the trade, he started out "on a tramp," visiting
Logansport, La Fayette, Delphi, Terre Haute and other cities and towns in the
course of his wanderings. Returning to Muncie, he opened a custom merchant
tailoring establishment, and prosecuted his trade successfully until the
outbreak of the late rebellion.�
In June 1861, he enlisted as a private
soldier in Company E, Nineteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered
into the United States service with his regiment on the 29th of July 1861. On
the same day, he received a First Lieutenant�s commission, and on the 5th of
April 1863 was promoted to the captaincy of the company.
His experiences are detailed in the military history of this volume
and form an interesting chapter. He was confined in a rebel prison for twenty
months, and subjected to all the fiendish cruelties that characterized the
treatment of Union men in those vile dens. He was discharged at Washington,
in April 1865, and reached Muncie on the night of President Lincoln�s
assassination.
In October 1866, he was elected by the Republicans of Delaware County to the
office of Clerk of the Circuit Court. At the close of his first term, be was
nominated a second time, and re-elected in October 1870, his last term
expiring in August 1875. He is well known throughout this city and county,
and is universally recognized as an honorable, worthy citizen.
On the 6th day
of October 1851 he was united in marriage with Miss Nancy H. Fleming, daughter
of Silas Fleming, then a resident of New Paris, Ohio.� She died in December
1857.� The subsequent marriage of the only daughter, Ella L. and her removal
to the State of Illinois, left the father alone in the world, without the
comfort of a family, and with an aching void in his heart that time cannot
heal. (Page 215)
Ralph Shaw Gregory was born February 28, 1846, in Niles Township, Delaware Co., Ind. His
parents, Samuel and Mary (Braddock) Gregory, came to this county from
Huntingdon County, Penn., and settled upon a tract of wild land in Niles
Township, which the father entered at the land office at Fort Wayne in 1831.
He was a farmer, and followed that occupation during his life. He died in
1813, having survived his wife eleven years. His children were six in number;
five sons and one daughter. The daughter, Mrs. Margaret Bergdoll, now resides
in Albany, this county; William is engaged in business at Topeka, Kan.; John
and Frank are at Leadville, Col. and Samuel is a farmer and stock-dealer near
Wheeling, in this county.
Ralph S. was born and reared at the old family homestead, in Niles Township,
and, until twelve years of age, his life was passed like that of the majority
of farmer-lads�the routine of farm duty being varied by a short attendance at
the district school during the winter. In 1858, in company with the Hon.
Robert C. Bell, now of Fort Wayne, he came to Muncie and entered the select
school conducted by Professors Ferris and Rice. Renting a room of Peter
Mutch, an old German well known to the earlier citizens of Muncie, they began
to pursue their studies in this "bachelor�s hail," and the incidents of
those days have not failed to supply material for pleasant retrospection and
laughable anecdote in their manhood�s maturer years. Both boys started out
with a laudable object in life, recognizing within themselves the possession
of talents that could not find vent in the pursuit of farm life, and both
have arisen to positions of honor.
Later, in the year 1858, Mr. Gregory
entered Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, Ind., where he continued his
studies until 1862. Unable to resist the promptings of patriotism, in that
year he entered as a private soldier in Company B, Eighty-Fourth Indiana
Volunteers. He was promoted to the rank of Orderly Sergeant, and, about two
years subsequent to the date of his enlistment, was honorably discharged on
account of failing health. He returned to college at Crawfordsville, and
subsequently entered the senior year at Asbury University, graduating with
high honor with the class of 1867.
In 1868, he accepted the position of
Superintendent of the High Schools of Huntington, Ind., and achieved great
success in organizing the graded schools of that city, which now rank among
the best in this State. He occupied this position during the years 1868 and
1869, and was subsequently identified with the Muncie schools in the same
capacity. During his school days, he had decided to adopt the legal
profession, and registered as a student in the law office of Canton E.
Shipley, of Muncie. By diligent study he progressed rapidly, developing
qualities that insured success in his calling, and while still acting as
Superintendent of the Huntington schools, was admitted to the bar of Delaware
County. He formed a partnership with his former preceptor, Mr. Shipley, with
whom he practiced about a year, and at the end of that time formed
partnership relations with Hon. Alfred Kilgore, which continued until the
decease of the latter in 1873, after which he entered into partnership with
Hon. James N. Templer, which relation continued until January 1, 1881. His
choice of vocation was fortunate, and he has made it a success. His keen,
perceptive abilities, his excellent judgment of human nature, his eloquent
pleading and logical address, all proclaim the thorough lawyer. He has an
extensive practice in the Supreme, United States and all inferior courts, and
has won enviable fame, both at home and a broad, as a criminal lawyer.
By
means of a lucrative practice, together with industry and economy, he has
amassed a competence of worldly wealth, and, withal, has ever been a generous
contributor to public enterprises having for their object the best interests
of the city and county. While a very pronounced Republican, and an active
worker in the interest of that party, he has never felt an ambition for
political recognition, and it is not our privilege to record any public
service on his part, save those in connection with the public schools.
He was
united in marriage, July 5, 1880, with Miss Anna Madden, of Muncie, and
during his wedding tour visited various points in Colorado and all the
principal cities of the West. He is a member of Delaware Lodge, A. F. and A.
M., of the Knights of Pythias at Muncie, and of the Improved Order of Red
Men, and has attained to positions of honor and distinction in each�having
served the Improved O. R. M. as Great Sachem of the State of Indiana. In
social and public life he is always the same agreeable gentleman, and his
manly qualities and upright character have gained for him a large circle of
friends, among whom he is honored and prized. (Page 214)