The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-28
MR. GRESHAM IS DEAD
Continued from First Page.

The father died when Walter was boy of
| two years.
A quiet but resolute man, of force of
character and great bravery, Gresham the
senior was chosen Sheriff of his county at
time when there were many turbulent
elements to control. A man having
wickedly beaten and seriously injured a
schoolteacher, a cripple, a writ for the Of
tenders arrest was issued and placed in
the Sheriff's hands. The man had his
| friends, and these friends warned the
Sheriff away. But that was not the stuff
of which the official was made, and he at
| tempted the arrest, alone and fearless. He
| was set upon by the friends of the offender
and cut and shot to death while perform
ing his duty.
This untimely death of the father left
the boys to till the farm and keep the fam
lily as they grew up, and the future Judge
and Cabinet officer did his full share In
summer he worked on the farm and in
winter attended the district school. The
farm was in the limestone and red clay
belt down there within few miles of the
Ohio River, and what it lacked in fertility
the widow and her sons had to make up
with toll and economy. Till he was 10
young Gresham worked hard with his
hands, habitually rising before daylight
winter and summer, after the manner of
Woodworking farm folk. His mother was
anxious to give him an education, and
managed to send him one year to the SEM
mary at Corydon. Then he was employed
by the County Auditor at Corydon in the
capacity of deputy at the munifcent sal
airy of So a month and board. He earned
it all, saved his money, and with his
hoardings paid his expenses for year at
| the State University at Bloomington.
His funds then becoming exhausted
again, 1t once more became necessary for
him to return to work. AT Bloomington
he had boarded with Rev. Mr. Goodwin,
pastor of a Christian or Campbellite
church, and this good man thought it a
shame that young Gresham should leave
| school before completing his course, and
| begged him to remain, Offering to trust to
the youngsters success and honesty in the
future for his payment. But the boy
thought he would rather pay as he went
| along, and he returned to Corydon and
found work in the Office of the County
| Clerk at 81 day. He did most of the
| work, too. AT the same time he read law
His tutor was an old lawyer from Ohio, a
strong, courageous, Giddings-llke man
from the Western Reserve, and most Bit
| ter opponent of slavery. To him Gresham
recited every day for more than two years.
| Doubtless Porter had some influence upon
| the views and mental habits of his pupil.
| but Gresham had learned to abhor slavery
while yet a boy. The old Yankee merely
helped to confirm the convictions which
had come to the young man, a descendant
| OF slave-owners years before.
| Corydon was and is the capital of Harri-
son County, which lies in the middle
southern extremity of Indiana, half incir-
| cled by the Ohio River, which Just there
makes a great detour into Kentucky and
gives the Indiana county river frontage
! of more than sixty miles. In the dead of
night slaves often escaped their keepers
and, crossing the river, sought safety in
| fight to the North. After them came the
''n1gger-chasers, with their hounds and
guns and long oaths and brutal suspicion
of all the inhabitants. 1t happened on
several occasions that Gresham as a bow
saw these captors taking their victims back
to slavery. Their inhumanity had its nat
ural effect upon him. He was Mortified.
He was set thinking. The thoughtfnlness
of the growing man developed and rounded
into deep conviction that which childs
protest against cruelty had planted. He
became an Abolitionist.
Beginning the practice of law with Judge
Thomas e. Slaughter he met with good
success. The Republican party's first cam
paign in 1856 found him in his law office, a
young man Of %. He became Republi-
can. Not ambitious for political honors
but full of the idea that the slave power
must be checked, he took the stump for
| Fremont. OF five men in that county who
espoused the anti-slavery cause he was
one, his law tutor was another, and his
late law partner, Judge Slaughter, was an
people in the school houses and at meet