General Reuben C. Kise

GENERAL REUBEN C. KISE.

The subject of this sketch was born August 15, 1840, four miles east of Danville, Hendricks County, Indiana, and was the first born of three sons of Colonel William C. and Polly A. Kise. His early boyhod [sic] was spent in the county of his birth; at the age of ten years he came with his father’s family to Lebanon, Boone County, Indiana, and at the early age of eleven years, entered the Boone County Pioneer office to learn the printer’s trade, which he successfully graduated from three years later.

In 1856 he entered the county clerk’s office as deputy and continued to act in that capacity under his father, Henry Shannon, and A. C. Daily, until November 1860, at which time the office passes from under the control of his party, after which he embarked in the mercantile business until the breaking out of the great civil war, April, 1861. He entered the war as a private of Company I, 10th Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, and filled the various positions of adjutant, 10th Indiana Volunteers, assistant adjutant general and chief of staff to Generals Manson, Judah, and Schofield; major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel of the 120th Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, and was April, 1865, breveted [sic] brigadier-general, by President Lincoln for gallantry in the battle of Kingston, North Carolina. He was wounded once slightly, and twice captured, but immediately paroled each time, and was acknowledged by all with whom he served to be a superior officer. In January, 1867, he was appointed as first lieutenant in the regular army, and assigned to the 25th United States Infantry (Colonel Gordon Granger’s regiment), but resigned without seeing any service, and returned to his Lebanon home.

At the close of the war he returned to Lebanon and began the practice of law, in which profession he remained until December, 1870, at which time he removed to Vincennes, Indiana, and became editor and proprietor of the Vincennes Sun newspaper establishment, which paper he continued to publish to the time of his death. He was the publisher of several newspapers in Boone County, the last and most important of which was the Boone County Pioneer.

In 1868 he was the nominee of the Democratic party of his state for the office of secretary of state, on the ticket with the late lamented vice-president, Thomas A. Hendricks, who was the candidate for governor, but party prejudice running so high, the entire ticket was defeated at the polls, General Kise running several hundred votes ahead of his ticket.

In the spring of 1866, General Kise was married to Mrs. Adelia Shannon, near Thorntown. This union was blessed with one child, a son, who survives his father and now lives near Crawfordsville, Indiana.

General Kise was a true gentleman and a successful business man, respected by all who knew him. A man of strong convictions and ever ready to battle for the principles which he espoused, and had he not been cut off in early manhood, would doubtless have graced many honorable positions in the State. He died at Vincennes, November 21, 1872, aged thirty-two years, three months, and six days. His remains were interred at the Rodefer Cemetery, near Lebanon, November 23, 1872.

Source: "Early Life and Times in Boone County, Indiana," Harden & Spahr, Lebanon, Ind., May, 1887, pp. 318-319
Transcribed by: Julie S. Townsend - June 28, 2007