Benjamin
F. Love
Benjamin F. Love. — It is a fact worthy of consideration that
nearly all of the eminent men of this country have struggled up
from obscurity to fortune, position and fame. Here industry, learning, talent and genius secure the highest reward of life.
In a word, the true nobility — nature's rulers, God's noblemen — come to
the front, and the people recognize them. They make our laws,
shape our institutions, and free the minds of the masses from that
ignorance that would otherwise trammel their intellectual development. These reflections thrust themselves upon us as we quietly
contemplate the many eccentricities of the talented lawyer whose
name heads this biography, and whose face we have seen in the
legal battle light up with the radiant hope of success, when, with
invincible argument of logical fact, he was demolishing the polished
sophistries of a wily antagonist. Benjamin F. Love is a native
Hoosier, born in Liberty Township, Shelby County, Ind., March 31,
1831, and is the son of Samuel and Lucy Love, and the ninth in a
family of fourteen children. His grandfather, John Love, a native
of the Keystone State, moved to Kentucky, where he was married,
Samuel being the only fruit of that union. He grew up in Kentucky and married
Lucy Crisler, a native of the "Old Dominion" and in 1823 came to Bartholomew
County, Ind., where the family
remained but a short time; and, not being satisfied with the country
in that vicinity, they returned to Kentucky. In 182[?], Samuel Love
and family again came to Indiana, this time selecting a home in
Shelby County, where he resided until his death, in the spring of 1843.
Samuel Love was an "early-day" Justice of the Peace in
this county, and it is said by some of the oldest inhabitants that
Benjamin F., while a boy, was a constant attendant upon the trials
in his father's court, and always gave strict attention to the conflicts
of the lawyers, and while quite young he displayed great aptitude
in grasping and comprehending [?] questions of fact; and from
his youth he exhibited a logical and analytical mind, which he to
some extent cultivated at neighboring debates with the teachers and bright young men of his locality. He received his education at the
common district school, with the exception of a short course of
study in the Shelbyville Seminary, and in early manhood followed
teaching and surveying. During the latter part of this time, he
studied law in his spare moments, and had charge of a few cases,
which was his first experience in the legal profession. Hoping to
better his condition, and with a desire for change, he went to Missouri, and in the spring of 1861, entered the law department of
Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., remaining there one session. He then returned to Missouri, and in a few months went to
Jackson County, Ind., and shortly afterward, in the summer of 1861,
came back to his boyhood home and located in practice at Shelbyville, where he has since remained.
He was married in Kentucky, in
November, 1855, to Miss Elizabeth Johnson, of that State, who
died in July, 1857. He was again married, July 3, 1865, in Shelby
County, Ind., to Mrs. Martha J. Wooley, nee Winterrowed, daughter of
Anderson Winterrowed, one of the early pioneers of this
county. Mr. Love is regarded as an eccentric man, which arises
from his very unreserved and unpretentious bearing toward his
acquaintances, and, when the cares of business are cast aside, his
indulgence in his large fund of humor and anecdote; and, having a
keen sense of the ridiculous, he enjoys repeating anecdotes and
passages from humorous speeches and orations; and at other times
rising to great intellectual force and power, when the occasion demands it, thus producing an inconsistency in the make-up of the
man that is only appreciated by those who know him best. when
he presents himself before the court or jury in the conflict in behalf
of his client, his combative nature and intellectual power rise to any
emergency that presents itself, and his greatest force is only brought
out when hard pressed or grave responsibility rests upon him; and
the man as surrounded by his friends in the social circle, and the man before the jury, presents a change and contrast of intellectual
make-up that is striking, and it is not strange that those who know
him think him eccentric. While he is a lawyer of extraordinary
ability and strong faculties, he yet in an important case appears slow,
and labors harder than others of his professional brethren ; but
a client may always be certain he will fully develop all the strong
points in his case. His great caution and genuine solicitude for the
cause of his client, and his fear that he might omit something or
commit an oversight that would prejudice his client's cause, is the
reason of his apparent tardiness in such a case. Nothing would be
more mortifying to him than to feel, or to have his client feel, that
he had not done all that could possibly be done in a case. Though
possessing great combative force, he is not what is understood as
an aggressive lawyer until he is sure of his position, and then he
presses his point with vigor, deducing from every fact, or seeming-fact, a logical conclusion that cannot be broken down or undermined.
He has never aspired to office or political preferment, but has devoted himself to the law, and, though an ardent Republican, his
party has not succeeded in obtaining his power and influence upon
the stump. He is scrupulously honest and frank in all his dealings
with his fellow-man; and in all his agreements or professional engagements with the court or bar, he will not allow himself to violate the letter or spirit of any engagement upon any
technicality or
quibble; but he is slow to make any engagement or contract affecting other persons without their full concurrence and approval, but
when once made, it must be honestly and fully maintained. He
has always been temperate and moral; is a man of generous, kind
impulses, and has secured a large circle of warm, sincere friends,
who are [?] devoted to him, and in the social circle his fine
qualities and jolly good humor cast a glow of sunshine over all
who come in contact with him.
History of Shelby County, Indiana, Brant & Fuller, 1887,
"Shelbyville Sketches," page 502-505.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming
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