Samuel R. Cavins

The ancestors of Samuel R. Cavins were Scotch, and emigrated to Ireland, settling int that part of Ireland known as Cavan county.
About the year 1745 three brothers emigrated from Ireland to the United States, and settled in New Jersey. One of these brothers moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, and later to Loudoun county, that state, and settled near Waterford. He raised a large family, among whom was JESSE CAVINS, who with one of his brothers, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. JESSE CAVINS also raised a large family, and two of his sons, SAMUEL and JOHN, were soldiers under Genereal Wayne, in the Indian War. SAMUEL was killed at the battle of Fallen Timbers. JOHN CAVINS was at that battle, and also at River Raisin, and received a land grant near Lexington, Kentucky. He raised a large family, among whom was the subject of this sketch. SAMUEL R. CAVINS was born April 27, 1792, in Greene county, Kentucky, was a veteran of the War of 1812, a son of a soldier under Wayne in the Indiana War, and a grandson of a Revolutionary soldier. While a boy he went to Vincennes, Indiana, and while there General Harrison, governor of Indian Territory, gave him the first schoolbook he ever owned. This circumstance probably made him a Whig, as his father was a Democrat. About the year 1813 he went from Vincennes with a hunting party down the Wabash and up White River, to a point about one mile south of Bloomfield, where they encamped during the time the party was hunting. This was before there was a white man living in Greene county.
In 1814 he entered the arm as a substitute in the Sixth Kentucky Infantry, and served under General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. He went to the battlefield of Tippecanoe a year after the battle to assist in gathering up the remains of the dead soldiers.
In 1822 he returned to Indiana from Kentucky, and resided a few years in Monroe county. His principal occupation was teaching school.
He studied law at Bloomington, Indiana, in the office of James Whitcomb, who was afterwards governor of Indiana. About that time he taught school at Bloomington. Amng the person who attended his school were Joseph A. Wright, afterwards governor of Indiana and United States Senator; Judge Maxwell and Mrs. Hardesty, mother-in-law of Hon. D. W. Vorhees. On the 22d day of December, 1825, he was married to SUSAN GAINEY, near Springville, Lawrence county, Indiana. Soon after this time he moved to Lawrence county, near Springville. His occupation at this time was farming, but he taught school in the winter time, and made shoes at night. At times he would assist his wife in weaving in the winter season. In 1827 he moved to Jackson township, Greene county. In 1828 he was elected associate judge of Green [Greene} county circuit court. His commission was issued by Governor Ray, on the 20th day of March, 1829.
In 1833 he moved to a settlelment on Indian Creek, between Jonesborough and Springville, and clerked in a general sdtore for John Shirley. In 1834, he purchased a farm near Bloomfield, and lived on it until 1835l when he moved to Bloomfield, where he resided until his death on the 7th day of March, 1864.
In 1834 he resigned as associate judge and was elected clerk of the circuit court for a term of seven years, and recorder for the same time. His commission as clerk and recorder were issued on the 22d day of August, 1834.
He held the offices of clerk and recorder until 1855, being elected for three consecutive terms and during that time was ex-officio auditor, except during two years.
On the 2d day of March, 1836, he was commissioned by Governor Noble as colonel of the Forty-ninth Regiment of Indiana Militia, to hold the office until he was sixty years old.
After the expiration of his term of service as clerk, recorder and auditor he entered upon the practice of law, and had a large practice up to the time of his death. He died after a short ilnees from typhoid fever.
It is hardly probable that any man has ever lived in the county who was more liberal to the poor, more hospitable at his home, or more popular with the people. He was a Whig in politics at all of the elections at which he was a canadiate, and his county was Democratic, yet his popular majority never went below five hundred.
SAMUEL R. and SUSAN CAVINS were the parents of twelve children, of whom four sons and four daughters grew to mature years, all of the sons entering the army at the breaking out of the Rebellion and serving with distinction their full periods of enlistment, none for less than three years. JOHN, the eldest of the family, died at the age of fifteen; ADEN G., the second in order of birth, was colonel of the Ninety-seventh Regiment, Indiana Infantry, during the Civil War; ELIZABETH, the oldest of the daughters, now deceased, was the wife of JOHN RHODES of San Jose, Califonria, who served as judge of the Sumpreme court for twenty years and of the circuit court and superior court for several years, when he resigned at the age of eighty-four on account of defective hearing; Mrsd. SARAH O. HART, also deceased, was the mother of Hon. ELIJAH HART, of the appellate court of California, another of her sons, the late Hon. AUGUSTUS HART, of California, was the youngest attorney general in the United Syayes at the ttime of his election. Colonel E> H> C> CAVINS, of Bloomfield, further mention of whom will be found elsewhere in this volume, is the fifth in succession, the next being NANCY, who died in infancy, after whom was Mrs. MARGARET F. BURNAM, whose son, HARRY BURNAM, a prominent lawyer of Nebraska, is now serving as city attorney at Omaha. Rev. BENJAMIN F. CAVINS, the seventh, is a well known and highly esteemed Baptist minister of TTexas; he served in the Fourtheenth Indiana Infantry and the Third Indiana Calvary during the Civil War and earned honroable mention as a brave and gallant soldier; SAMUEL H>, died in Infancy, as did also SANUEL R>, RILEY W>, deceased who served in the FOurteenth Indiana and was also a member of a Michigan regiment, was the father of Assistant Attoerney General Alexander G. Cavins of Indianapolis; MC HENRY and SUSAN died in infancy. Colonel E. H. C. and Rev. Benjamin F. Cavins being the onbly survivors of this once large and interesting family circle.
The mother of these children survived until 1907, lacking only eighteen months of being aged one hundred years.

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"Biographical Memoirs of Greene County, Ind. with Reminiscences of Pioneer Days", B.F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, IN, 1908, Vol. 1 400-4

Last updated 7.11.2009