JAMES NOBEL TYNER was born January 17, 1826, at Brookville, Indiana, the son of Richard Tyner, a merchant and general dealer in produce. The founder of the Tyner family was a Welshman, who emigrated to South Carolina, and settled in the last half of the eighteenth century near Columbia, the present capital of the State. The founder of the Nobel family, Mr. Tyner's maternal ancestors, and his wife were Scotch people, reared and married near Dumfries, Scotland, who emigrated to the United States in 1732, and settled upon a large estate on the Potomac river, opposite Mount Vernon. One of the issues of this marriage, and the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, emigrated from Maryland to Virginia, and thence to Kentucky, settling near the Ohio river, opposite the town of Rising Sun, Indiana. He was the father of several children, nearly all of whom afterwards became residents of Indiana. One of his sons was chosen as a Senator from the State of Indiana to the United States Senate i 1816, upon the admission of the State into the Union, and was twice afterwards re-elected to that position. He died while a member of that body and was buried in the Congressional cemetery at Washington. Another son, Noah Nobel, was twice elected Governor of Indiana in the '30s. A third son, Lazarus, was the first register of the land office at Indianapolis, Indiana; a fourth son was for many years Clerk of the Court in Wayne county, Indiana; and still another, Dr. Benjamin S. Noble, who emigrated to Iowa while the State was yet only sparsely settled, was conspicuous in its early politics. He is stated to have been the founder of the town of Indianola, Iowa, which has since grown to be a place of considerable importance. James Nobel Tyner received an academic education in the old academy, then called "Seminary," in the village of his birth. After graduation he was trained as a merchant in his father's store, and before attaining his majority entered into business for himself as a merchant and large dealer in produce, at Cambridge City, Indiana, at which place he established said business in the year 1846. Five years afterwards he removed to Peru, Indiana, where he opened a large department store and dealt extensively in all kinds of flour and grain. He discontinued this business in the latter part of the year 1854, and shortly afterwards commenced the practice of law, having previously studied that profession in his boyhood days at Brookville with John D. Howland, who was subsequently and for a long period Clerk of the United States Circuit and District Courts at Indianapolis. In 1856 Mr. Tyner was the first Republican candidate for Representative in the General Assembly from the county of Miami, and was defeated by a party vote. At the session of the General Assembly the following winter (1857), he was chosen Assistant-Secretary of the Senate, and afterwards, at the special session of 1858, and the regular sessions of 1859 and 1861 served as secretary of that body. In 1860 he was chosen as an elector on the Lincoln ticket for what was then the Ninth Congressional District, represented previously and for a long period afterwards by Schuyler Colfax. On the 5th day of March, 1861, he was appointed, by direction of President Lincoln, as a special agent of the Postoffice Department, his appointment being the second that was made or directed by Mr. Lincoln after his inauguration. Mr. Tyner served in this capacity for five years, and resigned to enter upon the practice of his profession at Peru. Mr. Tyner was frequently chosen as a delegate from the county of Miami, in which he resided, to Republican State conventions, and soon became known as an active and influential party worker. He was an alternate delegate from his Congressional District to the National convention which nominated Grant in 1868, and was a delegate at large to the National convention held at Cincinnati in 1876, in which he took an active part, and where he was largely instrumental in securing the nomination of Rutherford B. Hayes, after a protracted and hot contest. He became diligent and successful practitioner of the law from 1861 until he was chosen as a Represetative in Congress at a special election in the month of February, 1869. He was twice re-elected to Congress from that district, which was then the Eighth, being composed of the counties of Cass, Miami, Wabash, Grant, Howard, Tipton, Hamilton and Madison. He therefore served in the three Congresses - the 41st, 42nd and 43rd. He was made a member of the committee during that the the 42nd Congresses. In the 43rd Congress he was promoted to a placeon the appropriations committee, and by the chairman, James A. Garfield, he was put in charge of all appropriations relating to the postal service. Under the rules of the House at that time nearly all the important legislatino was put upon the appropriation bills in the form of "riders," and passed in that form. During the whole of that Congress, therefore, nearly every section of the statutes relating to the postal service passed under Mr. Tyner's supervision. He was one of the subcommittee during the preceding Congress detailed to codify the postal laws, and most of the duties connected therewith devolved upon him. It was an immense and important task and resulted in the embodiment of all postal laws in one act, which on being printed covered nearly 200 pages. He was therefore mainly the author or codifier of all postal statutes in existence up to that date. During his three terms in the House he was made chairman or member of several important select camittees (sic), and was also during one term a member (and really the chairman) of the committee on public buildings and grounds, which reported and carried through bills for the erection and completion of most of the public buildings designed for the use of postoffices, customhouses and courts in all the large cities. Mr. Tyner also took an active part in pending measures for the reconstruction of the late rebellious States, in opposition to the continuance of the grant of public lands and the issuance of government bonds in aid of the construction of railroads, and for other purposes. He was frequently called to the chair to preside over the deliberations of the House in committee of the whole, as well as in regular session, by Hon. James G. Blaine, who was Speaker of that body during the three terms mentioned, and acquired a considerable reputation as a presiding officer. At the close of his last term in Congress he was tendered the position of Second Assistant Postmaster-General, in charge of the entire contract system of the department, and entered upon the duties thereof in the month of March, 1875. In July, 1876, he was appointed Postmaster-General by President Grant and served acceptably in that position during the remainder of Grant's second administration.
At the commencement of the term of President Hayes, in March, 1877, and after the selection of David M. Key, an ex-Brigadier-General in the Confederate army - which appointment met with almost universal disfavor among the Republicans of the country - Mr. Tyner was besieged by the President, nearly all the Republican members of the Senate and House, and many prominent Republicans throughout the country, to accept the position of First Assistant Postmaster-General, in charge of all the appointments of the department, which, after long persuasion, he accepted. He served in that capacity during the entire Hayes administration and the short term of the Garfield administration, and resigned in the month of October, 1881, shortly after the accession of Chester A. Arthur to the Presidency. He was therefore charged with the duty of making or superintending all appointments to the postal service, embracing an official list of about 150,000, for something over five years, during all of which time he was the real head of the Postoffice Department. His administration of that huge establishment was progressive and eminently satisfactory.
Upon the accession of President Harrison Mr. Tyner was invited to take charge of the law branch of the Postoffice epartment as Assistant Attorney-General thereof, which position he filled during the whole of the Harrison administration and for three months oafter the inauguration of President Cleveland, at the end of which time he resigned to enter upon the practice of law in Washington. He was persuaded by President McKinley to return to the duties of said position in the month of May, 1897, which position he holds at the present time. Mr. Tyner has so long been identified with the postal service, and has held so many positions therein (a greter number, indeed, than any other man has held in the history of the Government) that he has become and is recognized as a standard authority upon postal laws, regulations, and customs of the department.
In 1878 Mr. Tyner was commissioned as a delegate to the International Postal Congress, which held its session in the city of Paris, France, and was again chosen as a delegate to the International Postal Congress which assembled in the city of Washington in May, 1897. He has thus become familiar with everything relating to international mails and postal conventions and treaties, as well as everything relating to the domestic postal service.
Mr. Tyner was married in the year 1848, at Cambridge City, to Miss Dema L. Humiston, with whom he lived happily for 22 years. Two children, Albert H. Tyner, now engaged in business in Cuba, and Lillie E. Tyner, now a resident of Warren county, Illinois, were the issue of this marriage. Mr. Tyner was married a second time, in the year 1872, to Miss Christine Hines, of Washington, D.C., who is still living.
