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Surnames: Ashbrook, Bright, Carnahan, Hess
Classification: Obituary
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Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
Fort Wayne, Allen Co., IN
Friday, Aug. 4, 1905
GENERAL CARNAHAN DEAD
He Was the Founder of Pythian Military Rank.
He was prominent in the Grand Army and a Progressive and Useful Career is Ended.
INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 3,--James R. Carnahan died at 6:35 a.m. today at his home, No. 8 West
Drive, Woodruff Place, of paralysis of the stomach, with complications, among which was
uraemic poisoning. His health began to fail about the middle of last January and he was
not able to attend to business after May 26. For the last four weeks he has been confined
to his room. All his family were at his bedside, his daughter, Mrs. Hess of Fort Collins,
having reached here at 3 a.m. today, while he was yet conscious.
The funeral will be held from the family home, 8 west Drive, Woodruff Place, at 2 p.m.
Saturday. It will be conducted by the uniform rank, K. of P. of this city and state, and
many members of the order from other states are expected to be present. The body will be
on view to friends from 10 a.m. to 12 m. Saturday.
Was Born In Dayton, Ind.
James Richards Carnahan, past grand chancellor of Indiana, and major general of the
uniform rank, Knights or Pythias of the World, was born in Dayton, Tippecanoe county, this
state, Nov. 18, 1841.
He was of Scotch-Irish descent and came from soldier stock, a great-grandfather, and two
great-grand-uncles having served in the revolutionary war. The father of General Carnahan
was a native of Kentucky, a graduate of the theological seminary at Auburn, N.Y., who went
to Lafayette in 1827, and was pastor of one Presbyterian church for fifty years.
Determined to have an education, young Carnahan entered Wabash college, at Crawfordsville,
with $5 as the sum total of his earthly possessions. He sawed wood, swept the halls,
worked in gardens, kept a set of books for a business house, and thus worked his way until
the breaking out of the civil war, when in April, 1861, at the first call for troops, he
enlisted as a private in Wallace's Zouaves, the Eleventh Indiana volunteer infantry
regiment.
Drilled by Lew Wallace
For two years prior to the war he had been a member of a military company under the
command of Captain afterward Major Lew Wallace, and had profited by the thorough drill and
discipline then obtained. From the Eleventh Indiana regiment he went into the
Eighty-sixth Indiana in which he was a member until the close of the war. He filled
various official positions in his company and regiment and in the last year of the war was
a staff officer. At the close of the war a commission in the regular army was tendered
him, which owing to the opposition of relatives and friends, he did not accept.
In the autumn of 1865 he re-entered Wabash college, at which he was graduated in June,
1866. He entered the law office of Ray, Gordon & March at Indianapolis, in the autumn
of 1866 and was graduated by the Indianapolis Law school. He was admitted to practice in
the superior court of the state in 1867; established himself at Lafayette, and in October,
1867, was elected prosecutor of Tippecanoe county, a position he filled until 1873. In
October, 1874, he was elected and commissioned judge of the Tippecanoe criminal circuit
court.
Became a Knight of Pythias in '74.
His history as a Knight of Pythias began in the winter of 1874, at which time he became a
member of Lafayette lodge No. 51, in which he retained his membership until his death. He
entered the grand lodge of Indiana after passing through all the chairs of Lafayette
lodge, and was elected grand chancellor of Indiana in January, 1880.
He was looked on as the founder of the uniform rank of the order. In the winter of 1876-77
he organized what was then known as the Lafayette K. of P. drill corps. In January, 1881,
he was appointed adjutant general of Indiana by Governor Porter and organized the militia
of the state.
In 1884, under his direction, separate regimental encampments of the Indiana militia were
held at Richmond and Peru. Without any aid from the state by way of appropriation, he
obtained for Indiana a thorough and available body of organized militia, put troops into
camp three years in succession for a week at a time, and sustained them by private
contributions induced by the military spirit he had aroused in the people of the state.
Grand Jurisdictions Organized.
At the session of the supreme lodge K. of P. of 1882, he was placed on the committee on
uniform rank and drafted the additions to the general laws whereby regimental
organizations of the order were made in grand jurisdictions having certain number of
subordinate divisions. This committee was made a standing committee, and its labor
resulted in completely reorganizing the uniform rank as it then existed. A book of tactics
was prepared by him and Lieut. W. R. Hamilton, of the United States army, General Carnahan
writing most of the tactics and superintending the publication of the book. This work was
given to the supreme lodge. The first edition of the tactics was completed in July, 1883.
At the session of the supreme lodge of 1884 he was selected and commissioned as the first
major general and placed in command of the uniform rank, Knights of Pythias of the World,
a position he held continuously until his death. The rank now has a membership of 50,000.
The organization by reason of its efficiency in drill and discipline has been recognized
by the war department as next to the militia the greatest adjunct to the military forces
of the government.
Prominent in the G. A. R.
He was a member of Robert Anderson, post 369, G. A. R., this city. He became identified
with the grand army in 1866. His comrades of the grand army in a circular setting forth
his services as a soldier and his qualifications for the office of commander-in-chief,
gave an interesting history of the man and the battles in which he took part. His most
important service was during the campaign prior to and including the battle of Nashville.
He was aide-de-camp on the staff of Major General T. J. Wood, commanding the Fourth army
corps, and received high compliments from his commanding general, and from Major General
George H. Thomas, commanding the army of the Cumberland, for faithful and efficient
service. Following the battle of Nashville he participated in a campaign in east
Tennessee, and, on the termination of hostilities, returned to Nashville and took part in
the final grand review of the troops of the army of the Cumberland. During his army
service he participated in thirt!
y-three general engagements.
Illness Barred Candidacy.
He was a past department commander of the grand army of the state, and but for his
illness, which caused the withdrawal of his name as a candidate, would probably have been
elected commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic at its approaching
encampment. Last year he was appointed by President Roosevelt one of the visiting
committee to West Point Military academy, and delivered an address before the graduates of
that school of the class of 1904.
He was one of the men that originated the plan for establishing the state soldiers home at
Lafayette, and was a member of the board and its president until his successor was
appointed by Governor Durbin. He was, at the time of his death, one of the trustees of the
Indianapolis Technical institute. His work as a member of the Indiana Chickamauga
battlefield commission, of which he was secretary and compiled the report, was recognized
as a labor of the most painstaking care. He was appointed to the board by Governor
Matthews.
General Carnahan was a member of the Second Presbyterian church; a member of Mystic Tie
lodge F. & A. M., and a thirty-two degree member of the Ancient Accepted Scottish
rite.
Known as Master of Detail.
He was recognized as most zealous, faithful and efficient in everything he undertook,
being a master of detail with a clear head and always working with a definite purpose in
view. He was esteemed in every relation in life, and in the Pythian brotherhood was
doubtless its best known and most influential member.
He leaves a widow and three daughters: Mrs. H. G. Ashbrook, of Cleveland, O.; Mrs. Michael
Steele Bright, of Superior, Wis., and Mrs. Ralph Hess, of Fort Collins, Colo.
General Carnahan's Funeral.
Of the two Pythian services for the dead which will be read at the grave Saturday
afternoon, one, the burial service of the uniform rank was written by General Carnahan.
The funeral cortege will, it is expected, be one of the most imposing seen in Indianapolis
in recent years. All companies of the Indiana brigade, U. R. K. of P. have been ordered to
participate in the services, and companies from Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky are expected.
By its secretary and President W. H. Dryden and A. A. Hasket, members of the Association
of the Supervisors of the Battle of Old Stone River, have been requested to attend the
funeral in a body. The Masons will also attend.
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