The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1904-05-19
HAS WON HIS WAY
BORN TO POVERTY AND PRlvATION
His Steady Rise to Eminence the Re-
suit Of His Own Arduous and Un-
ceasing Endeavor.

On the 4th of April forty-one years
ago the Republican candidate for gov
ernor of the great state of Indiana was
born. At that moment there was
nothing to justify prediction that he
would ever be known beyond the mar
row region in which he lived or that
he would ever rise beyond the limita-
tions that extreme poverty often fixes
to the aspirations of men.
The father was a cooper; tenant
in a poor rural community known as
Shake Rag" near st. Joseph, Cham
paign county, Illinois. One of the
neighbors very aptly expressed the
condition when he said that "if ever
a boy came up out of the ground and
got great it was Frank Hanly."
A mile from the cabin home was
Rowdy Bend scSoolhouse. This the
young Hanly attended for six months.
This was the sum of Frank Hanly's
schooling But the mental constitu-
ton, supplemented and sustained by
an excellent physique, matriculated
this boy in the greatest of all educa-
tional institutions, the university of
life. In this he has been always a
faithful and diligent worker, and out
of it all he has acquired what few ac-
quire frcm the institutions of learning
that are supposed to At young men
for the battle of life.
Frank took to books says q
brother He had set out to be law
yer and an orator. Fortunately the
father was in touch with the young
mans aspirations. Often, it is said,
the father would take the boy by the
hand and walk to Champaign, ten
miles away, In order that the boy
might hear the great orators of the day
on the political platforms.
When Frank was sixteen years old
blindness came to the mother to add
to the other misfortunes of the fam.
| fly. The father then sacrificed the
little that he had In the vain hope of
restoring the mothers eyesight. The
children, four in number, were sepa-
rated. Frank went to Williamsport,
Warren county, Indiana, to saw wood
for IS cents day, and soon his father
and mother rented a farm liz that
neighborhood and settled upon it to be
near the son.
| But Frank Hanly in those days was
doing something besides saving wood
His leisure hours were devoted to
study. He bought books and read
them with the avidity that only an
eager, hungry mind can know. The
| preference was given, of course, to
books of law, though he gave suficient
attention to school textbooks to quail
ify him for teaching school. At nine
teen he became the teacher Of coun
| try district school in Warren county
Then in the summer he abandoned the
saw-tuck for the ditch. 1t is said that
he has dug more bitches in Warren
county than any other man In 1t. No;
only this. but he soon became known
IS the best ditch-digger In the county
In the meantime he had attended va
rious debates in the neighborhood and
soon had become known as the ditch
digging orator and debater-
After young Hanly became teacher
he was mcrried to Miss Eva Simmer
the daughter Of farmer. 1t is said
that here he started his library with
. secondhand copy of THE Life OF
Garfield" very appropriate as well
as very inspiring volume f5r 4 young
man lIghting his way to fame and for