Albert J. Beveridge.
When the Indiana legislature elected Albert J. Beveridge to the United States senate in 1898, he was but thirty-six years of age, and with one exception was the youngest member of the distinguished body in question. Mr. Beveridge was born October 6, 1862, in a log cabin of Highland county, Ohio, his father being a small farmer. When the war broke out the year preceding his birth, his father and his four half-brothers entered the army, while his mother volunteered as a nurse. Moving to Illinois, they settled near Sullivan, renting a small farm there. At the age of ten the future senator was a full-fledged farm hand. At fourteen he was a railroad laborer and at sixteen joined a logging camp. Whenever he could find no work he attended school. At the age of seventeen young Beveridge heard that the district cadetship for West Point was to be filled by competitive examination. He was one of the competitors, and, although practically self-educated, took second place on a list of twenty-five. In 1881 he managed to enter De Paw university, his capital consisting of $50. By wheat-cutting in the summer, serving as a steward in the college club, and winning money prizes offered to students, he managed to pay his way. Graduating from college with high honors, he went direct to Indianapolis, called on General Benjamin Harrison and asked permission to study law with him. Failing in this, he obtained employment with Messrs. McDonald, Butler & Mason, well-known lawyers at the Indiana capital, and soon became a third partner in the firm. In 1889 he opened an office of his own, and his first fee was from Governor Hovey. His initial political speech was in 1884, and, as someone has put it, he turned out to be “a revelation, a dream of oratory and a trip-hammer of argument.” His fame as a speaker being established, he was in demand in all directions. His subsequent career is well-known to the public at large. In 1887 he married Miss Catherine Maud Langsdale, daughter of George J. Langsdale, the editor of a well-known paper in Indiana.