The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-12
Rarnahas @. Hobbs.

Barnabas G. Hobbs.
The educational and personal history of Mr.
Barnabas c. Hobbs, Republican nominee for
State Superintendent Of Public Instruction, ap
pears in the July number Of the Indiana School
Journal. A reading of Mr.. Hobbss educational
career in Indiana is evidence in itself that no
better candidate could have been nominated
For forty years Mr. Hobbs has been prominent
in State and national education, and though ad
| vanced in years, his energies show no sign of
| abatement, and his acute mind and great heart
are still bent to his life work of public education.
His educational work has covered wide field,
A graduate of Cincinnati College, he returned to
his native State, and for sixteen years VISA
president of Bloomingdale Academy. In
1866 Governor Morton made HIM one of the
trustees of the State Normal, and he was active
in its organization and equipment The same
| year he was elected president of Earlham Col
| lege He was elected Superintendent of Public
Instruction in 1863 and in his BIENNIAL report
| presented the claims of the colored people for
their share of the benefits of the school fund in
mastery manner, securing buildings for their
accommodation. The School Journal continues;
EARLY in November of 1869 occurred an event
which finds no parallel in history, and which is
of special interest to the educational world. A
/ funeral fleet swept in majesty across the
Atlantic, bearing from the United King
| dom to the United States with honors
seldom paid to king, the remains Of
a private citizen. The war-ship Monarch,
/ the first war-vessel Of the Royal Navy, was
the funeral barge. Swallowed by nine great
| guns was the chamber of death, in which tall
! candles were kept burning, amid splendid dra-
peries of mourning A vessel was dispatched
1 by the government of France, and one by our
own as conveys of the Queens ship and fol
! lowed across the sea the remains of the great
dead. This was the return of George Peabody
4 to his native land In youth a grocer boy at
Danvers (now Peabody, Mass, from 1880 to
/ 1847 merchant in great house of Baltimore,
and from the latter date to his death, Nov. 4,
1863, leading spirit in the business halls of the
4 worlds metropolis the greet philathropist had
steadily and rapidly advanced in wealth until
he had built up colossal fortune. Three mill
ions OF dollars he had given to the cause of edu-
cation in the Southern States of the republic,
] and over a million more to various educational
| enterprises in America and these together were
not half the total sum Of his benefactions."
/ How to best utilize this fund, enlarge and ap-
| ply it to the war-worn States of the overthrow
Confederacy, was the great problem before the
| National Educational Association in 1870, and
! Mr.. Hobbs was made chairman Of the commit
| tee to consider it. The scheme he presented for
federal. aid to education in all States where it
might be needed, has received much and favor
able consideration from the people, the press
| and the federal government.
/ OF Mr. Hobbs's mission to Europe, the School
Journal says:
in 70 the Spirit moved the Friends of Amer
/ lea to send message to friend Alexander, the
Emperor of Russia, and another to friend Will
4 lam, the Emperor of Germany. Dr. Hobbs was
chosen to perform the mission. AT st. Peters
burg, he left with the Prime Minister a
memorial, which urged that the Mennon
/ ties of the empire-a sect conscientiously OPP
1 posed to war-might be relieved from military
service At Berlin, Dr. Hobbs presented to the
Crown Prince memorial which advocated the
settlement of international disputes by arbitra-
ton, rather than by war; For some years DR..
i Hobbs has been working in the interests of In
dian education in North Carolina and Tennessee.
1 For the enterprise undertaken by the Friends
with reference to the descendants of Aborigines
in those States, he has secured the sanction and
aid of the government He has made an
4 enumeration of the Cherokees of the reserva-
ton, and determined their share Of apportion-
ments of revenue authorized by the general
/ Congress, which share had been diverted from
its purpose by errors and frauds"
/ DR.. Hobbs is noted as clear and forcible
| speaker, logical thinker, and graceful writer
He has always been busy man, interested
i alike in science and education; he made the geo
logical survey of Parke county, in 1872 and, as
| trustee of the State Normal School and of the
Rose Polytechnic, he has contributed largely to
! their success.
! His integrity of character, his long experience
in Indiana schools, his national reputation as an
1 advocate for the education of all classes with
out distinction Of race or location. his faithful
service as State Superintendent when in that Of
fee, make him the most desirable man for a posi-
ton usually made the taiipece of State political
tickets, but which is really one of the most inn
portant departments of State government.
i
/ THE wickedest man in New York has been
found in Erie county. He is farmer living near
Buffalo, and on Sunday last, seeing that rain
was about to fall he hustled some of his neigh
bors afeld, and began to gather in the hay
crop James Sampson, for such is his name, is a
liberalist in religion, and had very little respect
for the day any how, and when his horri-
| fed neighbors who were church members,
came out to remonstrate he doubled his sin by
innocently proffering them rakes and forks to
help in the work. Then they were filed with
righteous wrath, and, on Monday, he was ar
rested for Decorating the Sabbath. Mr. Samp-
son, like his ancient namesake without ''p, I"
gave them good deal of jaw about that time,
and swore he would at once proceed to
| arrest the minister, organist, choir
and all paid members Of the church
for working on Sunday The children Of dark