Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Isham Sedgwick
For a score of years Isham Sedgwick has been an honored citizen of Richmond, Indiana. He has won a reputation in business circles and in various fraternal and benevolent lines of work which is more than local, and in politics and all progressive movements he takes deep and commendable interest. In short, whatever tends to elevate and improve the condition of his fellow men, physically, mentally or morally, is certain to receive his earnest support and influence.
The paternal grandfather of our sketch, Richard Sedgwick, was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1774, and in 1806 he emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first settlers in Wayne county, his home being on Elkhorn creek, in what is now Boston township, until 1808, when he was married, and immediately thereafter he removed to a farm of three hundred acres, three miles south of Boston, in what is now known as Harrison township. Union county. In his native land he was a shepherd and farmer, but after he came to America he followed agriculture exclusively. For the day in which he flourished he was very successful and enterprising. He made a specialty of raising fine stock and imported the first short-horn bull ever brought into this part of the country. A fine mechanic, he built the first fanning-mill that was ever constructed, the fore-runner of the threshing-machine, and his inventive genius found other outlets, as well. The fanning-mill mentioned was almost entirely of wood, cogs and wheels being wooden, and the "riddles" were made of raw-hide or tow-string. In 1808, as before mentioned, he was married, the second white man married within the present limits of Wayne county. His bride was Sarah, a daughter of Charles Hunt. She was born in North Carolina and in 1805 accompanied the other members of the parental family to John's creek, Abington township, Wayne county. Her father was a farmer and gunsmith, and so was her brother, John Hunt. The latter was an expert in his line, and could do wonderful feats as a blacksmith. One thing which he sometimes did, to the amazement of beholders, was to weld a piece of broken steel, cold, so no trace of the break was apparent. This secret was a discovery of his own, and he never revealed his method to any one. A number of people are living to-day who testify to the veracity of the story above given, as they saw the work done, and among these are James and George Smith, John Sedgwick, David Hale and Jacob Fender. The Indians, with whom the Hunts were always on the best of terms, would travel for many miles to have their tools made and repaired by these pioneer blacksmiths.
To Richard Sedgwick and wife two sons and four daughters were born, named as follows: Charles; Frances, Mrs. Allen, and afterward Beard; Mrs. Agnes Druley, of Boston township; Mrs. Mary Smith; John; and Martha, wife of William Davenport. Charles, who was an operator of saw and grist mills during his active life, died at the age of four-score years, in Oregon, in 1888. Frances and Mrs. Mary Smith have also passed away, and Martha, the youngest, is now in her seventy-eighth year.
Jonn Sedgwick, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born on the old homestead three miles south of Boston (now in Union county). August 18, 1819. He dwelt at home until 1843, when he was married and removed to a farm on the Elkhorn, this place having been originally entered and settled upon in 1804 by Lazarus Whitehead. After living on this homestead for thirty-eight years Mr. Sedgwick took up his residence in Richmond, and is still living here, respected by all who know him. He rents out a good farm of two hundred and seventy-five acres, in Randolph county, and owns that property, but some years ago disposed of his old homestead. Four years he served as a township trustee, and politically he has been a Whig and Republican. A strong believer in Universalism, he was one of the charter members of that church in Wayne county. His wife Margaret, who was a daughter of Jacob Smelser, died in 1889. Her father was a native of Maryland and accompanied his parents to Kentucky and in 1824 came to this county, settling upon a farm in Boston township. Of the four children born to John and Margaret Sedgwick, Isham is the eldest, and the others are Richard; Anna, wife of James Beeson, a dealer in wire fence and a resident of Richmond; and India, who died in childhood.
Isham Sedgwick was born on a farm situated on the bank of Elkhorn creek, about five and a half miles south of Richmond, March 12, 1846. As a little lad he was very ambitious and made remarkable progress in his studies, while at the same time he was not neglectful toward any of the duties which were assigned to him on the farm. When he was eighteen years old, in the winter of 1864-65, he taught school in this, his home county, and in 1868 he was graduated in Earlham College, which institution conferred upon him the degree of Master of Science in 1879. For two years after his graduation he taught school, and in 1870 he settled upon a farm in Randolph county, and carried on the place for eight years. He was very successful as a farmer and made a specialty of breeding short-horn cattle. Though he came to Richmond in 1878 and has since made his home here, he did not dispose of his farm and live stock interests until 1897.
In 1878 Mr. Sedgwick invented a machine for manufacturing woven-wire fencing, being granted a patent the same year, and then erecting a factory in Richmond. For eighteen years he continued to manufacture the fencing, doing business under the firm name of Sedgwick Brothers, and at the end of that period he sold the patent and plant. In 1893 he became interested in operating coffee plantations in Nicaragua, Central America, and during the three succeeding years he organized four companies. The Indiana Coffee Company, of which he is president, has a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars and was organized in 1894. The Jumaiqui Coffee Company, founded the same year and capitalized at a similar amount, has Mr. Sedgwick as president, and now its property comprises two hundred thousand trees and all the essentials necessary to the culture and care of the plant. In 1895 the Esmeralda Coffee Company, with a capital stock of forty thousand dollars, was founded, with our subject as secretary; and this company controls the output from eighty thousand trees. Lastly, in 1895, the Jilgueros Coffee Company, having eighty thousand trees and capitalized at thirty thousand dollars, he being secretary of the same, was organized. All of these concerns are in successful operation, with a most flattering outlook for the future. In 1897 Mr. Sedgwick turned his attention to the invention of a horseless motor wagon, peculiar in the fact that the motive power is applied to all of the wheels, and different in general construction from all other vehicles of the type. The patent for his device was allowed at Washington, September 21, 1898. Last year he also invented a multiple wind engine, a very ingenious piece of machinery, with great possibilities in many directions. He was one of the original stockholders in the American Tin-Plate Company, at Elwood, and in the Richmond Natural Gas Company, aiding materially in starting both enterprises. Thus briefly have been outlined some of the numerous enterprises in which he has taken a more or less important part, and no special commentary is required as to his ability and versatile talents, as they are well known and acknowledged.
Active in the Republican party, he accomplished much for its success in the campaign of 1896, as he made twenty-six effective speeches. The monetary question was profoundly discussed by him, and he spoke from his own personal experience, owing to the fact that his business relations had brought him into intimate acquaintance with the disastrous state of affairs in a "free-silver" country, Nicaragua. A member of the Patriotic Order Sons of America, he was the national vice-president of the organization for one year. In 1896 he was president of the Indiana division of the Travelers' Protective Association. For seven years, beginning in 1884, he was the leader in the Richmond temperance movement and held a meeting every Sunday during that period.
On the 22d of September, 1870, Mr. Sedgwick married Miss Viola J. Beeson, of this town. Their two daughters are Anna Alice, who is at home, and Bertha L., now one of the head nurses in the Maryland General Hospital in Baltimore. Anna A. is an artist, and in addition to having executed some very fine paintings has been especially successful at wood-carving, in which she is an acknowledged master.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899