Carnot Obadiah Spencer (1832-1908), Carnot Bolton Meeker (1836-1911)

From Taylor's Legislative  History and Souvenir of Connecticut, 1901.

    Described as an "ideal public functionary" and  a "worthy citizen and gentleman", Essex, Connecticut native Carnot Obadiah Spencer served terms in both houses of the Connecticut General Assembly and in the twilight of his life held the post of State Commissioner of the School Fund, being responsible for tracking education expenditures throughout the state. 

  The son of Obadiah and Susanna Pratt Spencer, Carnot O. Spencer was born on May 27, 1832 in what is now Essex, Connecticut. A former state assemblyman and Warden of the borough of Essex, Obadiah Spencer had married in 1818 and would have a total of four children, Carnot being the fourth born. Carnot's early education occurred in the common schools of Middlesex County and as a young man was employed by his father in the latter's general store in Essex. Spencer continued his education at the Connecticut Literary Institute in the town of Suffield and married in 1855 to Maria Jane Fuller (1834-1900), a Suffield native. The couple was to remain childless through the entirety of their marriage. 

  In 1861 Spencer followed in his father's stead and was elected as Essex's representative to the Connecticut State Assembly. He would be returned to that body in 1862, 1878, and 1879 and also served Essex as a school board member, town assessor, selectman in 1866, and town clerk from 1875-1878. In 1869 Spencer was elected to the state senate from Connecticut's 19th district and served here until the close of the 1869-70 session. 

  Carnot Spencer left Essex in 1880 and moved to the city of New Haven, where in 1881 he was selected to be chief clerk in the Connecticut School Fund commissioner's office.  He relocated to Hartford sometime afterward but continued in his role as chief clerk until 1898, when he took the reigns as State School Fund commissioner, being appointed to that office in the wake of Commissioner Jeremiah Olney's death. 

  Spencer's time as school fund commissioner extended until his death at age 76 on June 21, 1908. Before his death Spencer had been a longstanding member of Hartford's First Baptist Church and had served as a church treasurer and deacon. Spencer was memorialized in the Budget Report of the Connecticut Department of Finance, which related that 

"In the death of Carnot O. Spencer on the 21st of June 1908, the school fund met with a loss not to be measured or recorded in columns of statistics, although his actions for twenty years was felt in the statistics of the department......The present condition of the School Fund is excellent, owing to his faithful oversight and management."

  Spencer had been preceded in death in July of 1900 by his wife Marie, and following her passing remarried to Josephine C. Williams (1957-1926), who would survive him upon his death in 1908. Both Carnot and Josephine were interred at the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford.

                                                              From the Connecticut Legislative Souvenir of 1905.

From the Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris and Sussex County, 1899.

  Civil War veteran Carnot Bolton Meeker was a lifelong resident of Morris County, New Jersey and entered into political life in the late 1880s when he won election to the New Jersey General Assembly. One of four children born to Daniel and Sarah Richards Meeker, Carnot's birth occurred in what is now Afton, New Jersey on November 28, 1836. 

   A graduate of the Frame Academy in Bloomfield and the Woodbridge Institute, Meeker enlisted in the Union Army and was prominent in the establishment of the 2nd Regiment New Jersey Calvary. He received the promotion to second lieutenant of Co. B. in that regiment and in 1864 became a first lieutenant and aide-de-camp to Union General Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana. 

   At the war's conclusion, Meeker returned home to New Jersey and engaged in farming.  In November 1886 he was elected as a Republican to the New Jersey State Assembly from Morris County and during the 1887-89 session, Meeker would hold a seat on the assembly committees on Agriculture, Fisheries, and Lunatic Asylums. After leaving the assembly he served as the chairman of the Morris County Republican Committee and in the late 1890s was a member of the county Board of Registry. 

  In addition to his political doings in Morris County Carnot Meeker was a member of the A.T.A. Corbett Post of the Grand Army of the Republic as well as being a parishioner at the Hanover Presbyterian Church. A lifelong bachelor, Meeker died on September 13, 1911, in Florham Park, New Jersey, with his burial being at the First Presbyterian Church of Hanover Cemetery.

Maja Leon Berry (1877-1961)

From the December 30, 1937 Danville Bee.

    New Jersey attorney and jurist Maja Leon Berry occupied a prominent place in Garden State public life, being an attorney based in the city of Camden for many years. A past judge of the Ocean County Court of Common Pleas, Berry would be appointed as Vice Chancellor of the Chancery Division of the Supreme Court of New Jersey in 1925, subsequently serving on the bench for over two decades. 

   The son of Samuel and Sarah Louisa Willetts Berry, Maja Leon Berry was born in West Creek Township, New Jersey on January 2, 1877. A student in the Ocean County public school system, Berry spent his adolescence as a teacher in Ocean County and in the late 1890s began pursuing the study of law, enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania's Law School. He graduated from that institution in the class of 1902 and shortly thereafter was admitted to the New Jersey bar. He established his first law practice in Camden and in 1905 formed a partnership with another attorney, John Adelbert Riggins, their firm continuing until it became defunct in 1922. 

   Maja L. Berry married in October 1900 to Edna Steelman (1876-1961), a native of Tuckerton, New Jersey. Married for over sixty years, Berry and his wife are believed to have been childless through the entirety of their marriage.

   In 1907 New Jersey Governor Edward Stokes appointed Maja Berry as judge of the Ocean County Court of Common Pleas. Just thirty years old at the time of his appointment, Berry served on the bench until 1912, when he resigned to accept the post of counsel for Ocean County. He continued in this role until May 1925, when he received the appointment of Vice-Chancellor of the Chancery Division of the New Jersey Supreme Court. He was reappointed to the bench in 1932 and 1939, and in December 1937 made headlines in several newspapers when he ruled against picketing workers at the Canter's Sample Furniture Store in Newark. In his verdict, Berry prohibited the strike, noting that: 

"For its primary object the enforcement of the closed shop upon an employer and the creation of a monopoly in the employment of a particular trade in a given locality."

                                                    Maja Leon Berry, from the Bench and Bar of New Jersey, 1942.

   Berry left the office of Vice-Chancellor in the late 1940s and afterward returned to the practice of law. He joined the law firm of Berry, Whitson, and Berry (founded by his nephew Franklin) in 1948 and continued to be affiliated with it until his death thirteen years later. Active in a number of non-judicial areas in Ocean County, Maja Berry was a past director of the Beach Haven National Bank and Trust Company and was a longstanding parishioner at the Toms River Presbyterian Church, being a member of the board of trustees as well as a teaching a men's bible studies class. Berry is also noted as belonging to several fraternal groups, including the Masons, Knights Templar, and the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
   On July 3, 1961, Maja Berry's wife of 60 years, Edna, died at age 84. He survived her by nearly two months, passing away (also aged 84) on August 30th. Both he and his wife were subsequently interred at the Riverside Cemetery in Toms River, New Jersey. 

                                             Maja Leon Berry in 1930,  from "Along the Toms River", published 1996.

Main Julius Connine (1854-1915)

Portrait from the "Men of Progress" 1900.

   Oddly named Michigan jurist Main Julius Connine logged fifteen years of service as circuit court judge for Michigan's 23rd district, being elevated to the bench in January 1900. A lifelong native of the Bay State, Connine was born in the town of Pokagon on July 7, 1854, being the son of Richard N. and Mary Holmes Connine. Main engaged in work on the family farm during his youth and also earned income by teaching the third grade in Grand Traverse County. This income enabled him to become a student at the Dowagiac High School, and later the Valparaiso Normal School, from which he would graduate in the mid-1870s. 

   Connine earned his B.S. degree from the above-mentioned school and after a period spent as a school principal in Mt. Vernon, Indiana enrolled at the University of Michigan Law School. He remained here for one term and would leave his studies to take on the position of principal at the public schools in Douglass and Champion, Michigan. He had married in 1877 in Crawfordsville, Indiana to Ella Burroughs (1854-1912) and was the father of two sons, Ward Burroughs (born 1878) and Matthew Nelson (1882-1925).

  While serving as principal Connine studied law during his spare time, entering the law office of Allegan County Judge Phillip Padgham to further his knowledge. In the mid-1880s Connine was admitted to the Michigan bar and established his first law practice in the city of Grayling, located in Crawford County. He would ply his trade here for several years, and in 1884 became commissioner of the Crawford County circuit court. He would hold that position for one year and in the following year entered upon the office of prosecuting attorney for Crawford County, serving here until 1887.

  In 1888 Connine relocated his practice to the township of Oscoda in the neighboring county of Iosco. In 1890 he was elected to his first term as Iosco County's prosecuting attorney and continued to serve here in 1892, 1893, and 1894. In November 1900 Connine was elected as Circuit Court Judge for Michigan's 23rd district. He would continue to preside as judge until his death and in 1911 suffered a personal loss when his home in Oscoda was destroyed by fire. Connine later relocated to Tawas City to build a new home when he was dealt further tragedy with the death of his wife Ella. 

   Following Ella Connine's death in July 1912, Main Connine resided at the Isoco Hotel in Tawas City. He died in his sleep in his apartment there on March 15, 1915, at age 59. He was survived by both his sons and was later interred at the Oakwood Cemetery in Tawas City.

Ortho Olden Wolf (1874-1944), Ortho Voorhees Stevens (1881-1976)

Ortho O. Wolf, from the Kansas City Star

   We continue our stay in Kansas to profile four-term state senator Ortho Olden Wolf, who, in addition to his service in state government, was a leading agriculturalist, veterinarian, and farm organization leader, serving as the president of the Kansas Farm Bureau for a number of years. Although a resident of Kansas for over six decades, Ortho O. Wolf's birth took place in Allen County, Ohio on June 4, 1874. The son of Charles and Mary Abbott Wolf, Ortho moved to Kansas with his family in 1884 and his early education took place in Franklin County. As an adolescent, he attended both Baker University and the Kansas Agricultural College and in 1898 graduated from the Chicago Veterinary College.

   After a time spent traveling Great Britain and Scotland to study methods of stock-raising Wolf returned to Kansas and over the succeeding years established a reputation as a veterinary surgeon and cattle breeder of "sound judgment and practical experience", making a specialty on short-horn and Jersey cattle breeds. Wolf married on November 11, 1904, to Daisy Sterling (1965) and later had one daughter, Mrs. Charles E. Funk of Berkley, California. Wolf's status as one of Ottawa, Kansas's prominent farmers received extensive mention in the June 23, 1931 edition of the Daily Huronite, which notes that:

"In the vicinity of Ottawa he owns three tracts of land, 243 acres, 160 acres and 219 in extent, all of which are farmed under his personal supervision."

    As the owner of over six hundred acres of farmland, Ortho Wolf's name was one of the most recognizable in agricultural organizations of the period. A member of the Kansas Board of Agriculture for over two decades, Wolf also held the presidencies of the Kansas State Agricultural Council, the Kansas State Farm Bureau, and the Farmer's Cooperative Elevator Association of Ottawa, and was a member of the Kansas State Board of Veterinary Examiners, the Producer's Commission Association, the National Wool-Grower's Association, and the Mid-West Wool Marketing Association.
   Active in other aspects of Kansas public life, Wolf served as an executive committee member for the Franklin County Fire Insurance Association  and for many years was affiliated with the Kansas State Fair Association, serving in 1911 as the superintendent of its "cattle division." 
   O.O. Wolf first entered Kansas political life in 1912 when he was elected to the Kansas State Senate from Franklin County. Reelected in 1914, Wolf would serve on the committees on Cities of the Second Class, Commerce, Enrolled Bills, Labor, Live Stock, Municipal Corporations, Military Affairs, Ways and Means, and chaired the committee on Drainage. Wolf would be returned to two further terms in the Senate in the elections of 1920 and 1922, serving a total of eight years in all.

Ortho Wolf (third from left) at a Washington,  D.C. agricultural meeting, February 1937.

  During his third term in the senate in 1921 Wolf was selected as a member of the "Livestock Marketing Committee of Fifteen" a group of noted agriculturalists gathered under the auspice of the American Farm Bureau Federation to "give special study and consideration to livestock marketing problems" as well as to "submit recommendations". Wolf would become a founding board member of the National Live Stock Producers Association in 1921-22 and was chairman of the board in 1929. Three years later he became President of the Board of Managers of the Kansas State Fair and continued to serve in that capacity into the following year.

   On several occasions, Wolf was sought out to attend agricultural conferences in Washington, D.C., one of these being a meeting with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Henry A. Wallace in 1937 (portrait shown above.) In January 1939 Wolf again visited Washington as one of two dozen delegates from the American Farm Bureau, meeting with President Roosevelt to discuss its legislative program, as well as labor and wage rates. Wolf maintained a busy schedule in various agricultural organizations until his death, which occurred at a Wamego, Kansas hospital on April 7, 1944. His wife and daughter survived him, with his burial taking place at the Highland Cemetery in Ottawa, Kansas.

                                                   

Ortho O. Wolf in 1939 at an American Farm Bureau conference in Washington, D.C.

From the Caney News, November 1, 1913.

  Another Kansas "Ortho" who carved a career for himself in politics was Otho Voorhees Stevens, who served one term in the state house of representatives from Montgomery County. While little information could be found on his life, the rare portrait of him shown above comes as a welcome surprise. Born in Kansas on May 1, 1881, Stevens was the eldest son of Thomas Andrews and Luella Sams Stevens. He married Nellie W. Barr (1884-1932) in January 1905, and the couple had at least one daughter, Marjorie Barr (Stevens) Oakson (1906-1995).

  The manager of the Burgner-Bowman Lumber Co. in Caney, Kansas, Stevens' company also sold lime, cement, paints, and oils. He entered into the race for state representative from Montgomery County in September 1912, running on the Democratic ticket, and that fall opposed Republican Daniel Dabney. In October of that year, Stevens spoke on his campaign and that year's presidential contest at a Wilson For President meeting in Caney, and that November won his legislative seat. 

  Taking his seat in January 1913, Stevens' one term saw him named to the committees on Cities of the First Class, Judiciary, Municipal Corporations, the Political Rights of Women, Public Utilities, and Supervision of the Journal. Early in his term Stevens visited home in Caney and was interviewed by the Caney Chronicle on his status as a freshman legislator. Speaking on the speed of the legislative process, Stevens remarked:

"The legislature is getting down to real law-making. I have been fortunate enough to be appointed to some of the leading committees and the work has kept me busy night and day. The trouble with the law making to date is we Democrats, get that, we Democrats aren't putting any foolish laws upon the books. The work has been committee work so far and the bills are being threshed over. When the time comes to pass them, we will pass them in a jiffy, get through and come home"

 Towards the end of his term in 1914, Stevens announced that he wouldn't be seeking reelection that year, noting that "the job does not pay expenses." Despite living to the age of 94, little else could be found on Stevens's life after his term concluded. Widowed in 1932, Stevens was later a resident of Collinsville, Oklahoma, where he died on March 3, 1976, two months shy of his 95th birthday. He was survived by his daughter and was returned to Caney for burial at the Sunnyside Cemetery.

DeLanson Alson Newton Chase (1875-1953)

From the 1919 Kansas Legislative composite.

  Oddly named Vermont native DeLanson Alson Newton Chase would go on to find success in both business and politics in Kansas during the early part of the 20th century. A member of both houses of the Kansas legislature, Chase achieved his highest degree of public prominence in January 1925 when he entered the office of Lieutenant Governor of Kansas, serving in this capacity for four years.

    A native of Jay, Vermont, DeLanson A. N. Chase was born in that Orleans County town on April 26, 1875, the son of Arthur and Melissa Burdick Chase.  Mentioned as being a descendant of Ohio Governor and Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, Delanson and his family relocated from Vermont to Atlantic, Iowa when he was still a child. They would reside here for about nine years, later moving to the small town of Leoti in Wichita County, Kansas in 1887. Here DeLanson would attend the public school system until the age of fourteen, whereafter he was apprenticed to be a harness maker in Leoti. 

   Chase made his first venture into business life in 1891, when (upon receiving a loan of $400 from his father) he established a "flour and feed store" in Leoti. He continued to run this business for about a year, later selling it off and using that capital to put himself through college. Enrolling at the Central Business College at Leavenworth, Chase graduated from that school in the class of 1893 and in that same year married Harriett Annette Ayer, a high-school student in Leavenworth. Sources relate that Chase (aged 18) and Ayer (aged 16) married "one hour before her graduation from the Leavenworth High School" and that Ayer had the distinction of being the "first and only married woman ever graduated from that institution." The youthful couple would later become the parents of two children, Donna Augusta (born 1900) and DeWayne Alson Newton (1902-1985).

  The late 1890s saw Chase return to the flour and feed business for a time and later relocated to Omaha, Nebraska, where he worked as a government tagger and livestock inspector. During this time he studied law at a night school in Omaha and in 1901 was admitted to the bar. He would practice law in Omaha for one year and in 1903 reestablished his business roots, organizing Chase & Co., a "wholesale manufacturing extract,  spice, tea and coffee house." Chase served as the president and general manager of this company until its sale in 1907, and in the following year took work with the National Spice Company as its "western representative."

   In 1909 DeLanson Chase returned to Kansas, settling in the city of Pleasanton in Linn County. He would soon become affiliated with several business concerns, including the Monument and Ice Company of Pleasanton and the Burke Printing Company in Fredonia. Chase himself would establish both the D.A.N. Chase Ford Motor Co. and the D.A.N. Chase Dry-Goods Company and also held the presidency of Pleasanton's First National Bank.

From the Kansas City Star, 1928.

    D.A.N. Chase first entered political life in Kansas in the mid-1900s when he began service as treasurer of the Pleasanton, Kansas school district. In November 1916 he was elected as Linn County's representative to the Kansas General Assembly and held seats on the committees on State Affairs, and Printing and Rules during the 1917-1919 legislative session. He would win re-election to the house in November 1918 and during the 1919-21 session served as Speaker pro tem of the house. 

   In November 1920 Chase won election to the Kansas State Senate and after two terms here received the nomination for Kansas Lieutenant Governor in 1924. In November of that year he and Republican gubernatorial candidate Benjamin S. Paulson were elected, officially taking office in January 1925. During his final year as Lieutenant Governor Chase launched his own campaign for the Kansas Governorship, and throughout 1928 stumped throughout the state. Recorded as visiting "nearly 500 Kansas towns" during the course of his campaign, Chase was one of three Republican gubernatorial candidates in that year's primary, the others being Clyde Martin Reed (1871-1949) and former House Speaker John Daniel Miller Hamilton (ca. 1892-1973). As the Alma Enterprise reported in its January 2, 1928 edition, both Chase and Reed's lengthy names left the newspaper editors scratching their heads, noting that:

"We can never get much excited about a candidate who requires three front handles to identify him. Perhaps they are not to blame because their parents so labeled them, but why didn't they drop one or two of those initials before they got into politics."

                                                                      From the Alma Enterprise, June 29, 1928.

   On the election day primary 1928, it was the short-named candidate (Clyde M. Reed) who claimed victory as the Republican nominee for Governor. He would go on to win the governorship that November and after leaving that office was elected as U.S. Senator from Kansas in 1939, serving until his death a decade later. Despite losing the primary Chase would serve out the remainder of his term as Lieutenant Governor, which concluded in January 1929. 

  Little else is known of Chase's life after he left office. For many years prior had been a distinguished Mason in Linn County, being both a past grand master of the Pleasanton and member of the Fort Scott Consistory of Scottish Rite Masons. He remarried at some point prior to his death to Emma Dutt, who survived him upon his death in Ottawa, Kansas on October 19, 1953. A burial location for both Chase and his wife is unknown at this time.

  

From the 1925 Kansas State Senate composite portrait.

From the Iola Register, October 20, 1953.

Iman Clair Wiatt (1901-1967)

From the 1958 Kansas Government Journal.

   The "Sunflower State" of Kansas yields another odd named public official in one Iman Clair Wiatt of Kearny County, and, like fellow Kansan Wentzle A. Stewart, obscurity again wins out. Despite being a prominent resident of Lakin, Kansas (not to mention being a four-term state representative), there are but three tiny biographical blurbs mentioning Mr. Wiatt anywhere online! The closest thing that comes to a biography is a death notice for him that was originally published in the Hutchinson News on the day following his death in 1967. The following lines on Mr. Wiatt have been piece-mealed together from any and all sources available.

   Iman Clair Wiatt was born in Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri on July 21, 1901, a son of Edward and Laura Myrtle Edson Wiatt. Bestowed the unusual name "Iman Clair" upon his birth, Wiatt removed with his family to Kearny County, Kansas in 1907 and married on his 22nd birthday in 1923 to Arla Agnus Stinchcomb (1901-1983). The couple would later have two children, Joan Wiatt Shaw (1924-2014) and Edward Ellsworth (born ca. 1933). Prior to serving in the legislature Wiatt was a farmer and "broom corn grower" in Lakin, Kansas, and was also an organizer of the Kearny County Farm Bureau. A member of the Lakin Methodist Church, Wiatt was also affiliated with several civic and business organizations in Lakin, including Treasurer of the Southwest Kansas Royalty Association and President of the Lakin Rotary Club.

   A genealogical webpage describing Wiatt and his family notes that during the Second World War, he was in charge of "scrap iron, machinery rationing, savings bonds, and emergency production loan committees". Wiatt would later serve as director of the Kearny County Bank and continued to serve in this capacity during his time in the legislature. Wiatt also held the post of Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Kearny, County, Kansas during the mid-1950s.

   Iman C. Wiatt won his first term in the Kansas House of Representatives in November 1956 and would be reelected as Kearny County's representative in 1958, 1960, and 1962. He would be unopposed for reelection in 1960 and during the previous year's session served as chairman of the house committee on irrigation. His final term in the state house concluded in January 1965 and he died two years later on June 22, 1967, one month short of his 66th birthday. Wiatt's death notice in the June 23, 1967, Hutchinson News notes that he had passed away at his home in Lakin after having been ill for six months. He was survived by his wife and two children and was interred at the Lakin Cemetery.

From the Hutchinson News, June 23, 1967.

Wentzle Aena Stewart (1897-1983)

From the 1951 Kansas State Legislative composite portrait.

   A two-term member of the Kansas State House of Representatives from the county of Kiowa, Wentzle Aena Stewart has scant information available online, and although few details could be found regarding him, the picture shown above (located via a 1951 Kansas legislative composite portrait) comes as a welcome surprise. Although a Kansan for nearly all his life, Wentzle A. Stewart wasn't born in the state; his birth occurring in Iowa on December 31, 1897. The son of Henry E. (1868-1951) and Ida Stephens Stewart (1870-1958), Stewart moved with his family to Kansas shortly after his birth, and in 1901 the family settled in Kiowa County.

    A veteran of the United States Navy, Stewart married in April 1924 to Ms. Elsie Jane Miller (1904-1994), with whom he would have three sons: Wesley Earl (birth-date unknown), Harold Alvin (died 1992), and Keith Allen (birth-date unknown). A farmer in Kiowa County for a good majority of his life, both Wentzle and his wife are noted as having been "very involved in organizing Kiowa County farming programs for men and women" and he himself was a past president of the Kiowa County Farm Bureau. 

   Before his service in state government, Stewart had extensive involvement in civic affairs in Greensburg, serving as school treasurer for 22 years and as a clerk for two. Stewart also held the posts of town clerk and trustee for eight and four years, respectively. In November 1948 he was elected as Kiowa County's representative to the Kansas General Assembly, garnering 1, 519 votes on election day. Stewart was returned to the legislature in November 1950 and served until the close of the session in 1953. Little else is known of Stewart's life following the conclusion of his term. He died at age 85 on January 3, 1983, and was later interred at Greensburg's Fairview Cemetery.

                                           Wentzle A. Stewart, from the 1950 Kansas Government Journal.

Quintillion Kepler Groves (1855-1909)

From the 1897 Indiana State House of Representative's composite portrait.

   After a few days of highlighting the lives of several oddly named Indiana political figures, we conclude our stay in the Hoosier state with one Quintillion Kepler Groves, who has one of the most unusual names I've stumbled across in quite some time! A prominent citizen of Perry County, Indiana, Groves was for many decades a farmer and merchant based in the town of Tobinsport and was also active in Republican circles within Perry County. He would serve as the doorkeeper of the Indiana State House of Representatives during the 1897-98 term and in the latter year came within a few hundred votes of being elected to the Indiana State Senate.

   The youngest son of eleven children born to Samuel and Eliza Huckaby Groves, Quintillion Kepler Groves was born in Perry County on April 4, 1855. The exact origins behind the name "Quintillion Kepler" are presumed to be connected to two historical figures, Quintilian (an ancient Roman writer) and Johannes Kepler (the famed German academic, astronomer and mathematician). Despite its peculiarity, Mr. Groves' unusual first name is also one of the most varied in spelling that I've yet seen, with several variations of it floating around online. These numerous variations (which include Quintilian, Quintillian, Quintillion, and Quintilleon) are even further compounded by Groves' gravestone, which records it as "Quintillious". With all of these spelling differences, it was a great relief to me to have found Groves' marriage certificate from 1874, and this certificate (which was presumably filled out by both Groves and his wife Nancy) records the spelling as "Quintillion", and it is that spelling that I've decided to go with in his write-up here. That certificate is shown below (click to enlarge.)

   Groves' early life in Perry County saw him receive his "academic education" in Rome, Indiana and during his adolescence worked at both farming and teaching. He married on Christmas Eve 1874 to Nancy Tobin (1856-1940), daughter of former Indiana state representative Robert Tobin (1815-1898) of Perry County. The couple would later become parents to four children:  Robert Tobin (1876-1914), Mary Jane (1878-1921), Samuel (1881-1906) and Thomas Joshua (1883-1971). 

   Following his marriage Groves farmed in an area known as "Polk's Bottom" near Tobin Township. He would later operate a mercantile firm-general store in Tobinsport and also served as a notary public and justice of the peace beginning in the late 1880s. In December 1893 he took part in the Perry County Farmer's Institute being held at Rome, Indiana and is recorded as giving an address on "Economy on Making Hay" in the Breckenridge News.

   Long active in Perry County Republican circles, Groves was tapped to serve as the Doorkeeper of the Indiana State House of Representatives in 1897 and held this post through the 1897-98 term, even being presented with a "gold-headed cane mounted on black ivory wood"; a gift from the assistant doorkeepers of the house. In 1898  "Till" Groves received the Republican nomination for Indiana state senator from the counties of Perry, Crawford, and Spencer. Squaring off against Democratic nominee Oscar C. Minor, Groves narrowly lost the election in November 1898, being defeated by Minor by just 274 votes (6, 246 to 5, 972).

A notice of Groves' Senate nomination from the Breckenridge News, June 1, 1898.

   Following his senatorial loss Groves continued to reside and farm in Tobinsport. A longstanding member of the local Masonic chapter in Perry County, Groves suffered personal tragedy in 1906 with the death of his son Robert, who succumbed to typhoid fever at age 24 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  Groves continued to be socially active in Perry County affairs until suffering a stroke and for two years "was unable to get about conveniently." The effects of the stroke later were compounded by the onset of bronchial pneumonia, which claimed Groves' life on April 19, 1909. Just 54 years old at the time of his passing, "Q.K." Groves was survived by three of his children as well as his wife Nancy, who died in 1940 at age 86. All of the Groves family (including both of Q.K's parents) were interred at the Lamb Cemetery in Tobinsport following their deaths.

From the Cannelton Enquirer, April 24, 1909.

Thollie Wilbur Druley (1879-1952)

From the 1933 Indiana State Senate composite portrait.

    In the near two hundred year history of the Indiana state senate you'd be hard-pressed to find a name funnier than Thollie Wilbur Druley, a two-term senator from the county of Wayne. A farmer and teacher in that county for a good majority of his life, Mr. Druley is also one of the more obscure Hoosier political figures I've profiled thus far, and the following write-up on Druley could not have been possible without the help of the Wayne County Historical Museum in Richmond, Indiana.  As it stands now there is but a tiny amount of information available online in regards to Mr. Druley, and I'm pleased to relate that upon the completion of the following article there will be at least one biography for him available online, and this would not have been possible without the help of Sue King and the staff at the Wayne County Historical Museum!!

  A lifelong resident of Wayne County, Thollie Wilbur Druley was one of three sons born to local farmer Joseph S. Druley and Mollie Rutter Druley, his birth occurring in Boston Township on January 2, 1879.  His early life was centered around work on the family farm as well as attending Richmond High School. He continued his education at Earlham College and Purdue University and married on November 25, 1903, to Emma Elizabeth Minneman (died 1967). The couple would later become the parents of three children: Pauline (1905-2005), Ivan (1907-1998) and Byron (1911-1984).

   Around 1910 Druley took over the operations of the family farm from his father and would continue to farm for the remainder of his life. Druley began a longstanding connection to civic and religious affairs in Richmond when in October 1910 he spoke at a rally celebrating Richmond's centennial, and in addition to farming was a school teacher and member of the Boston township school board.  As a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church of Richmond Druley is also recorded as having taught Sunday school classes for many years.

   Beginning in 1918 Th0llie Druley took on the position of superintendent of the Wayne County Sunday School Association and in this role was prominent in the running of Wayne County's annual Rally Day. In the October 1928 notice (shown below) Druley is also noted as being a member of the Wayne County "organization committee" that would take part in the Indiana Young People's conference being held in Richmond that month.

From the Richmond Item, Sept, 23, 1928, (courtesy of the Wayne County Historical Museum.)

    Thollie W. Druley made his first move into Hoosier state politics in 1921 when he became a candidate for the state legislature from Wayne County. As one of three Democratic candidates vying for the seat, Druley garnered only 800 votes, being defeated by Republican incumbent James M. Knapp, who polled 5, 473. Druley's political fortunes changed in 1930 when he was a successful candidate for the Indiana senate. 

    Taking his seat at the start of the 1931-33 term Druley was the primary sponsor of the so-called "Druley bill" during that session of the legislature. The bill (which "provided for diverting fees from county officials to the general fund and for placing all county officials on straight salaries to be fixed by county councils") was noted as having resulted in "much agitation", which culminated in a rather humorous incident in 1932. The Vidette-Messenger reported in its August 3rd edition that the Druley bill had been stolen from the desk of state Rep. J.W. Ellyson, and that a grand jury investigation into the theft had been announced by then-House Speaker Walter Myers. However, the brouhaha proved to be short-lived, as Rep. Ellyson (who had been in possession of the bill) had inadvertently left it in the "legislative reference bureau" a day before it was discovered missing.

    In November 1932 Druley was elected to a second term in the senate and served until the close of the session. He was an unsuccessful candidate for a third senate term in November 1934, narrowly losing the election to Republican Albert Ferris, 10,886 votes to 10,292.  Druley made one further attempt at reelection in 1941 when he was a candidate for state representative, being defeated in November by Lee J. Reynolds (1877-1955), who bested him by over 4,000 votes.

From the 1931 Indiana State Senate composite portrait.

    After his time in state government, Druley returned to his farm on the "Boston pike" and busied himself with memberships in several fraternal groups, including both the Eagles and Lion's lodges and the local Masonic chapter. The life of this oddly named state senator came to an end in rather unusual circumstances on the afternoon of March 27, 1952 as the result of a tractor accident that occurred on his farm. On that date Druley had been using a tractor to remove boulders from a field on his property when it overturned, pinning him underneath. Byron Druley discovered his father two hours  later and his death was recorded by his death certificate as being the result of a "crushed chest"

    Following funeral services at the Trinity Lutheran Church Thollie Druley was interred at the Lutherania Cemetery in Richmond. He was survived by all of his children and his wife Emma, who passed away in 1967. Pauline Druley Kaufman, the Druley's eldest child, was also the last surviving of their three children, dying in March 2005, six months short of her 100th birthday.

Druley's obituary (courtesy of the Wayne County Historical Museum), from the Palladium, Mar. 28, 1952.