Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Charles C. Binkley
The final causes which shape the fortunes of individual men and the destinies of states are often the same. They are usually remote and obscure, their influence wholly unexpected until declared by results. When they inspire men to the exercise of courage, self-denial, enterprise, industry, and call into play the higher moral elements, such causes lead to the planting of great states, great nations, great peoples. That nation is greatest which produces the greatest and most manly men, as these must constitute the essentially greatest nation. Such a result may not consciously be contemplated by the individuals instrumental in their production. Pursuing each his personal good by exalted means, they worked out this as a logical conclusion. They wrought on the lines of the greatest good. Thus it is that the safety of our republic depends not so much upon methods and measures as upon that manhood from whose deep sources all that is precious and permanent in life must at last proceed.
We are led to the foregoing reflections in reviewing, even in a cursory way, the salient points which mark the career of him whose name appears above. He has not alone attained prestige and success in the practice of a laborious and exacting profession, but has been conspicuously identified with many interests which have subserved the material prosperity of Indiana; has proved a valuable factor in the legislative and political councils of his state and nation; has attained marked distinction in one of the great and noble fraternal organizations; has been in that constant sympathy and touch with the work of Christianity that stand as an earnest of effective and zealous personal labor; and, while not without that honorable ambition which is so powerful and useful an incentive to activity in public affairs, he has ever regarded the pursuits of private life as being in themselves abundantly worthy of his best efforts. As one of the representative men of Wayne county and of the state, consideration is due Senator Binkley in this compilation.
Sixty years ago in the attractive little village of Tarlton, Pickaway county, Ohio, there was born to George S. and Margaret (Lybrand) Binkley a son to whom was given the name of Charles C. He whose nativity is thus recorded figures as the immediate subject of this sketch. His father, George Simon Binkley, was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, and his mother, Margaret (Lybrand) Binkley, was a native of Ross county, Ohio, both being of stanch German lineage, their respective grandparents having emigrated from the Fatherland and established homes in America. Senator Binkley was one of five children, there having been two sons and three daughters in the family. It should be noted that a1l grew to maturity, that all are married and that all are active, successful and honorable in the earnest discharge of life's duties.
Charles C. Binkley was reared in his native village, attending the public schools in his boyhood and preparing himself for entrance into the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, where he prosecuted his studies for some time, later matriculating in the Ohio University, at Athens, where he completed his essentially literary course. Having decided upon and formulated his plans for his life work, he began reading law at Brookville, Franklin county, Indiana, where he became a student in the office of Hon. John D. Howland, who was subsequently clerk of the United States courts for Indiana. For a short period he was a deputy for Hon. John U. Johnston, clerk of the Franklin circuit court. Prior to entering upon the practice of his profession Mr. Binkley was elected clerk of Brookville township, and this preferment gave distinctive evidence of his eligibility and personal popularity, for he was a stanch Republican in his political proclivities, while the political complexion of the township was very strongly Democratic. He was admitted to the bar in Brookville, and is still in the active practice of his profession.
Mr. Binkley was united in marriage to Miss Georgianna Holland, daughter of Hon. George and Elizabeth (John) Holland, of Brookville, and he somewhat later entered into a professional partnership with Judge Holland, with whom he was associated in Brookville until 1861, and thereafter at both Brookville and Richmond, Indiana, until the death of his honored colleague, November 30, 1875, offices being maintained in both placesnoted. Senator and Mrs. Binkley have two sons and two daughters, all of whom are married. A man of broad mental grasp and marked business ability, Senator Binkley naturally became prominently concerned in many undertakings and movements which have distinct bearing on the material prosperity of this section of Indiana. In 1865 he was an active participant in securing legislation that enabled the Whitewater Valley Canal Company to sell to the Whitewater Valley Railroad Company the right to build a railroad on the bank of the canal. About the same time he was elected president of the canal company mentioned, and as such executive made the transfer to the railroad company of the right to construct its line as noted. He continued in the office of president of the canal company until its waterway was no longer in use as a means of traffic, having been superseded by, more modern and effective methods of transit, he having been the last incumbent of the position of president.
From its' organization until the time of his abandoning business associations in Franklin county, in the fall of 1875, he was the attorney for the Whitewater Valley Railroad Company, and was very prominently concerned in its construction and subsequent management. As attorney he prepared the organization for the several hydraulic companies occupying the canal, from Cambridge City, Indiana, to Harrison, Ohio, the list including the Connersville, Ashland, Laurel, Brookville & Metamora and Harrison Hydraulic Companies. In 1867, about the time he removed with his family from, Brookville to Richmond, Mr. Binkley found the Cincinnati, Richmond & Fort Wayne Railroad Company making a desperate effort to build its road. It had been struggling, to accomplish its object from as early a date as 1854, but its efforts had not been attended with any appreciable measure of success. In 1867 Mr. Binkley was elected secretary of the company, and shortly afterward William Parry was chosen president. In these offices the gentlemen continued - Mr. Binkley subsequently becoming treasurer also - until long after the road was constructed and, in fact, for years after the time when its line was leased, in 1871, to the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad Company, and the subject of this sketch is still a member of the board of directors of the company. It is needless to say that he brought to bear his rare executive ability, his mature judgment and indomitable energy and enterprise in shaping the affairs of the company and gaining to it the object which it had so long struggled to attain. His efforts in the connection unmistakably had potent influence in placing the company and its properties upon a substantial basis.
In his political adherency Senator Binkley has ever been stanchly arrayed in support of the Republican party and its principles, and, it was but in natural sequence that he should become an active worker in the cause and one of the leaders in political work. He has been in no degree a seeker for political preferment, but the conspicuous place he has held in the councils of his party is evident when we take into consideration the fact that from the year 1860 up to the present time he has been a delegate to every Republican state con¬vention in Indiana, with the one exception of that of 1898, when he was absent from the state. In 1872 he was a delegate from his district to the national Republican convention, held in Philadelphia, when General Grant was nominated for his second term as chief executive of the nation, and Henry Wilson for vice-president.
In 1898 Mr. Binkley was elected to the state senate from Wayne county, and in the session of 1899 was a member of ten, and chairman of two, of the important committees of the upper house of the state legislative assembly. He prepared, and took a leading part in securing the passage of the bill providing for the return of the battle flag captured during the war of the Rebellion from Terry's Texas Rangers. The success of Mr. Binkley in a professional way affords the best evidence of his capabilities in this line. He is a strong advocate with the jury and concise in his appeals before the court. Much of the success which has attended him in his professional career is undoubtedly due to the fact that in no instance will be permit himself to go into court with a case unless he has absolute confidence in the justice of his client's cause. Basing his efforts on this principle, from which there are far too many lapses in professional ranks, it naturally follows that he seldom loses a case in whose support he is enlisted. He is not learned in the law alone, for he has studied long and carefully the subjects that are to the statesman and man of affairs of the greatest importance, — the questions of finance, political economy, sociology, — and has kept abreast with the thinking men of the age. A strong mentality, an invincible courage, a most determined individuality and a sterling character have so entered into his make-up as to render him a natural leader and a director of opinion. He is distinctively a man of high intellectuality, broad human sympathy and clearly defined principles. These attributes imply predilections which have naturally led him into associations aside from his professional, business and public life, and in conclusion we consistently may revert to the more important of these.
In early life the Senator was initiated into the mysteries of that noble fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in the same he has risen to high distinction and has ever maintained a live interest in its affairs. In 1889 he was elected and installed as grand master of the grand lodge of the state of Indiana, and therefrom was, in 1891 and 1892, grand representative to the sovereign grand lodge of the order. As such representative he attended the session of the sovereign grand lodge at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1891, and that at Portland, Oregon, in the succeeding year. At the present time he is a trustee of the grand lodge of the state and is also a member of the I. O. O. F. home committee, comprising five members, that recently located and is now engaged in building a home for aged and indigent Odd Fellows, and Odd Fellows' wives, widows and orphans, the home being located at Greensburg, Indiana, and standing as one of the noble benevolent institutions of the state and as an honor to the great fraternity which brought it into being.
From his youth up Senator Binkley has been a zealous and devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has been particularly active in Sunday-school work. He was superintendent of the Sunday-school at Brookville, and as soon as his family came to Richmond he was elected superintendent of the school of the Union Chapel, which subsequently became and is still known as Grace Methodist Episcopal church. With the exception of an interim of a few months he was thus continued as superintendent for twenty successive years. He served as delegate to the general conference of the church at its session in 1880, having been elected to represent the North Indiana conference. In 1884 he was elected as one of the delegates to the conference composed of representatives from all the Methodist bodies in America to celebrate the close of the first century of organized Methodism, attending the conference, which was held in Baltimore, Maryland, December 9-17, in the year mentioned.
In 1883 Senator Binkley was elected a member of the board of trustees of DePauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, and was thereafter re-elected and served for twelve consecutive years, during the greater portion of which time he was chairman of the committee on finance. He has always had an abiding interest in educational and all other matters that subserve the prog¬gress and well-being of his fellow men, and he has been recognized as a power for good in any community where his influence has been directed.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899