The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1895-06-06
CAREER OF JUDGE GRESHAM.
HIS Father Was Sheriff of an Indiana
County.

lsh ancestry. His father, William Gresh-
am, was sheriff of the county, and was
killed in the discharge Of his duties when
Walter was but two years old. In his boy
hood young Gresham did the usual work
OF a farmers son and studied his books at
night. His education was gained by the
hardest kind of work and self-denial, He
went to the district school, and when he
was IL years old he had an opportunity
TO attend the Corydon Seminary. He
got a clerkship in the county auditors
office, and this helped him to pay his board
and school expenses. After two years at
the academy he spent one year at tho
Bloomington University. On his return
to Corydon he secured a place in the coun-
ty clerks office. There he studied law un.
der the direction of Judge William A.
Porter. He was admitted to the bar when
Il years old and began practice at once.
Two years later he was stumping his dis
trict for John G. Fremont, the first presi-
dental candidate of the Republican party,
with which organization Mr.. Gresham
had always allied himself until 1892, when
he declared himself a believer in the Dem
ocratic party. In 1856 he married Miss
Matilda McGrain, a pretty Kentuckian,
whose parents moved to Corydon when
she was quite Dung.
On the eve of forming a law partner
ship at indianapolis, destined to lead to
fortune as well as fame, he read LincOln's
call to arms and paused in his negotia-
tons. The Union was in danger. Repub-
lican institutions We're on trial. If such
us he placed self before country what
would become of the country? Young
Gresham grew more and more serious,
and never having served in the militia
passed all his leisure in studying military
tactics. His young wife, not yet %, with
a girl baby two months old and a boy Of
3 Juggling at her skirts, knew what was in
the mind of her young husband, and
watched him with fear in her heart. Sum.
ter was fired on in April. The following
September Gresham felt that his hour
had come. Personally brave, he was a bit
of a coward when his wife was concerned,
for he knew what Il sacrifice she would
make in giving him up to probable death.
But ut last the time for parting came.
Gresham rode out of COrydon lieutenant
colonel Of the Thirty-eighth Indiana vol
unteers, a regiment recruited so hurriedly
that the men hardly know one end of a
gun from the other. and went into active
service ununiformed. Three months later
Gresham returned home to recruit a regi-
ment of his own, the Fifty-third Indiana.
The men under his command adored him.
Some of those who lived to return said
that Gresham was a severe disciplinarian,
but always just and kind, and one who
never spared himself. After the fall Of
Vicksburg Gresham was promoted to a
brigadier generalship. He took part in
all important movements of the Army of
the Tennessee. Mrs. Gresham only saw
her husband when temporary cessation of
hostilities made her presence in camp
feasible.
Gresham commanded a division march,
ing through Georgia and was terribly
wounded at Atlanta. He was carried off
the field and conveyed to Nashville by a
roundabout way to avoid falling into the
hands of the enemy. Thirty miles of the
journey were mad in an ambulance. I'M
agine the agony to the man who had had
an inch and a half of bone shot away. So
fearful were the roads that the stone had
to be cleared away before the ambulance
could proceed, and then it was at the risk
of the generals life. Mrs. Gresham met
her husband at Nashville, Strangely
enough, as she arrived at the door of the
st. Cloud hotel Gen. Gresham was car
ried on a stretcher through the back door.
1t was q fight for life. Their next move
came to a sudden halt in New Albany.
The wounded mar could go no further,
and thus the Greshams became residents
of Louisville's Indiana suburb. For ten
months Gresham did not leave his bed.
After he got out of bed he was five years
on crutches. He went into the war a
stalwart of %; he came out a wreck. Six
years later. at the age of "a, he found
himself famed for life, with IN impaired
constitution.
In President Arthur's cabinet he filled
first the post of Postmaster General and
then of Secretary of the Treasury. Judge
Gresham made his first mark as a jurist
In the decisions he gave in the intricate
Wabash Railway case. The road had the
backing of the greatest corporation in the
country and the case was defended by the
ablest counsel that could be secured.
Judge Gresham's opinion was so fearless
and at the same time so just as to gain
the admiration of the whole country.
.Judpe Gresham was a candidate for the
Republican nomination Tor PRESIDENT IN
both 1884 and 1888. In 1888 he received
III votes on the first ballot; his vote rose
to 1913 on the third ballot, and then dwin-
died to 80 on the eighth and last. The
Peoples party in convention at Omaha
July, 1892, practically offered Judge
Gresham it's presidential nomination,
which he refused. Judge Gresham was
considered the ideal candidate by the Pop
ulists because of his lifelong opposition to
tyranny, oppression and injustice of any
sort.
Judge Gresham's final departure from
the party at whose birth he had assisted
came in the last campaign. He announced
his intention of voting for Mr.. Cleveland
in a letter dated Oct. %, 1892, and ad-
dressed to Major Bluford Wilson, who
was solicitor of the treasury under Grant.
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