Walpole Gillespie Colerick (1845-1911)

From the Men of Progress of Indiana, 1899.

  Our profile today centers on the life of Walpole Gillespie Colerick, a Ft. Wayne, Indiana native who served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. A lifelong Hoosier, Colerick was born in Ft. Wayne on August 1, 1845, one of six sons born to David Hoge and Elizabeth Gillespie Walpole Colerick. David H. Colerick was himself a prominent Indiana public official, serving two terms in the state legislature and later was a Ft. Wayne judge. The subject of today's article was bestowed his unusual name due to them being his mother's middle and last names. 
   Walpole G. Colerick attended schools local to the Ft. Wayne area and began the study of law under the tutelage of his father. After a period of study Colerick was admitted to the Allen County bar and soon thereafter joined his father in his law practice. The practice of law was a prevalent theme throughout the Colerick family, with each of Walpole's brothers becoming lawyers themselves. 
   Through the succeeding years, Colerick gained praise as a leading attorney in the Ft. Wayne area, and with this rising profile came calls for him to run for public office. The 1882 work Public Men of Today gives note that Colerick was "never particularly an aspirant for political honors, preferring that if any such were in store for him, the office should seek the man, rather than the man the office." 
    In 1878 Colerick had a change of mind on political life and launched a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. Hoping to represent Indiana's 12th district in Congress, Colerick's opponent that year was Republican John Studebaker (1817-1912), a prominent banker and merchant. On election day in October 1878, it was Colerick who emerged victorious, besting Studebaker by a vote of 17,067 to 9,712. Taking his seat at the start of the 1879 session, Colerick would serve on the committees on Elections and the joint committee on the Census. In November 1880 he won a second term in Congress, narrowly defeating Republican candidate Robert Stewart Taylor, and during the 1881-82 session served on the committees on the Census and Public Health.

From the Public Men of Today, 1882.

    After his legislative service concluded in 1883, Colerick returned to Ft. Wayne and was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court Commission in November of that year. He held this post until 1885, and thereafter resumed his earlier law practice, being joined by his nephews Guy Colerick and Kenneth Larwill. On April 11, 1904, Walpole Colerick married Clemence Carrier (1861-1947), a friend of many years standing. It's interesting to note that Colerick married quite late in life (he was almost 60) and in comparison to some of the other men profiled here (many of whom married when they were barely out of their teens), their marriage is quite unique. 
  The couple was wed only seven years before Colerick's death on January 11, 1911, at age 65. The Ft. Wayne Sentinel notes that he had been in a state of impaired health for several weeks before his death, which occurred after undergoing surgery at the Lutheran Hospital in that city. Clemence Colerick survived her husband by over thirty years, dying in 1947 at age 86. Both were interred at the Lindenwood Cemetery in Ft. Wayne, the same resting places as that of Ochmig Bird (1813-1878) an oddly named Indiana State Representative who was profiled here back on December 11.

An aged Walpole G. Colerick, from the January 18, 1911 Ft. Wayne Sentinel.

From the Jan. 18, 1911 Ft. Wayne Sentinel.

Ochmig Bird (1813-1878)

   Multi-term Indiana state legislator Ochmig Bird was a native of the Keystone State, his birth occurring in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania on March 19, 1813. His early education took place in the state of his birth and at age 23 he relocated to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Bird married in 1840 to Anne Suttenfield (1821-1879). Two children were eventually born to this couple, James Ochmig (1841-1906) and Eliza Jane (1851-1911).
   After his resettlement in Indiana, Bird set about establishing himself as both an engineer and railroad builder. He is also listed as being a prime mover in the construction and development of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and was "prominently identified with its enterprise for about a quarter of a century." In 1842 Bird was elected to his first public office, that of surveyor for the city of Ft.  Wayne. Throughout the succeeding years, the name of Ochmig Bird became familiar to voters in the aforementioned city, as he was elected to the Ft. Wayne city council (serving 1851-1852), and as Allen County treasurer (serving 1856-1860).
   Acknowledged as an "earnest and enthusiastic Democrat all his life", Bird was elected to the first of three terms in the Indiana house of representatives in 1849. During the 1849-51 session, Bird sat as a member of the committee on Canals and Internal Improvements, and a decade later was re-elected to the house, serving two more terms from 1862-66. These terms saw Bird named to three new committees, those being Banks, Railroads, and Ways and Means.
  The election year of 1868 saw Bird elected to the state senate and from 1868-69 sat on the committees on Legislative Apportionment, Military Affairs, and the State Library. He would resign in mid-1869 and in 1871 was elected to another term in the Senate, where he served until November 1874. A longstanding member of the Masonic lodge in his city, Bird died aged 64 on January 21, 1878, in Ft. Wayne and was later interred in the Lindenwood Cemetery in that city. His wife Anne survived him by one year, dying in October 1879 at age 58. The rare portrait of him shown above was discovered in the Pictorial History of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, published in 1917. This work also memorialized Bird's services to Ft. Wayne as ones of "lasting value", and that he:

"Was a man of practical mind, the type of citizen to represent the people at a time when many important public questions forced themselves on the state and county authorities."