THE PIONEERS
Our Oldest Citizens, Who Made This Country What It Is
A Man Well Known Amongst Business Men Here, There and Elsewhere
The pen of the biographer is a medium in his hand, it glides smoothly over the page to trace the details and importance and otherwise in the life of the subject. It is sometimes impelled by a vis a tergo, which is the motive power for many an article written as a task, but it may sometimes be, as in this case, that the subject matter allures the writer on and on, till his hand grows weary, or the cruel edict of the editor calls the limit of space. This prefaces a sketch of Paschal T. Lambert, a man who is well known amongst business men here, there and elsewhere.
Paschal T. Lambert was born in Marion county, Indiana, eight miles west of Indianapolis, on what is now known as the Wall Street road to Danville, May 24, 1831. A little figuring will show that Mr. Lambert is nearing the end of his seventy-sixth year - a little more than the time allotted to man; but he fully realizes that in this sense he is living on borrowed time, and he is trying to pay the interest by as close attention to his business as he gave to it twenty years ago. His parents were John Lambert and Lucinda Turpin. His father was born in New Jersey, and his mother was a native of Scott county, Kentucky. They were married in Kentucky, and his father was for a few years a farmer in the famous "Blue Grass" region. They came to Indiana in 1830 and settled near the site of Clermont, eight miles east of Indianapolis and which was then a village in the woods, about ten years old. The farm at Clermont was sold by him in 1836, and in 1838 the family moved to Boone county and settled near the present site of Fayette. Both parents died of typhoid fever, the father aged thirty-seven and the mother thirty-five. They died within two weeks of each other. The typhoid fever - the great plague of the new country - held the pioneers at its dread mercy. It was in the early days of therapeutics, when the treatment meant depletion, instead of the modern measures of sustaining the vital powers of the patient. The family of John Lambert consisted of four children, the eldest being Paschal Turpin, the subject of this article; Henry M. Lambert, who died at Clermont in 1853; Lazena Lambert Graham, who died in 1863, at Clermont. Her husband, Dr. J. P. Graham, died at Sedan, Kansas, in 1902; and Nancy A. Lambert, who died when she was four years old. Thus Mr. Lambert is the sole survivor of the family. At the death of his parents in 1842, Paschal, a boy of eleven years, went to live with his uncle, Robison Turpin, in Hendricks county, with whom he stayed three years. In 1845, he came to Decatur county and lived with William Myers, a brother-in-law of his uncle Robison Turpin, though no blood kin to the young man, who found a home with him.
The Myers farm is some two miles west of this city, on the Columbus road. Here may be said, to have begun the real history of P. T. Lambert, so far as his relations to Decatur county are concerned. He had been attending school since he was ten years old, but the attendance had been interrupted by sickness and other circumstances, and he had made little progress to learning. But for the next seven years, till 1852, he remained with Mr. Myers, making his home on the brow of the hill overlooking Sandcreek, and had the advantages of such school facilities as the time afforded, in a little log school house known as "Science Hill." Just where a mud road leaves the Columbus pike to go down to the Fred Kammerling farm, Prof. Dennis Cokely taught a classical school. P. T. Lambert and Dr. J. Y. Hitt were classmates at the "Science Hill Academy," and perhaps there are others who remember this big-hearted Irishman, whose brogue never left him sufficiently to enable him to call it other than a "letther," but his memory is revered, as that of many other old-time schoolmaster. At this school young Lambert gained the rudiments of what proved to be a good foundation for the practical education which has been the basis of a successful business career. He later attended a subscription school, in which the teacher bound himself in the articles of agreement to teach reading, writing, arithmetic and "a little" algebra. The tuition for a three months' term was one dollar and fifty cents. The text books were: The English Reader, Elements of Geography and History combined - in a catechetical form, Smith's Arithmetic and a grammar by Teeters. Mr. Lambert still has these old school books in a good state of preservation. A problem in the old book on which he won his spurs, by working it after the teacher had failed and pronounced the answer wrong, is here given as a test for any of THE STANDARD eighth grade pupils that dare try to solve it. Problem: "Jacob was to serve Laban 14 years for his two wives. After serving 10 years, 10 months, 10 weeks, 10 days, 10 hours and 10 minutes, how much time had he yet to serve?"
In 1853 Mr. Lambert began clerking in Greensburg, for the late John P. Hittle, but remained with him only one year. In 1854 he went to Albia, the county seat of Monroe county, Iowa. In 1858 he was married to Miss Eliza H. Saunders, formerly of Decatur county, Indiana, then living in Iowa. He lived in Iowa twenty-two years. During this time he was engaged as follows: Three years farming, five years in the dry goods and grocery business; five years in the live stock business; nine years as a bookkeeper - part time in a bank, and the rest serving as a deputy auditor, treasurer and recorder of Monroe county, Iowa. While in Iowa, before returning to Indiana, Mr. Lambert held the office of county commissioner, county assessor and justice of the peace, and as the last official, he married several couples, and recalls with pride that he used a beautiful and impressive ceremony.
Mr. Lambert returned to Decatur county in 1876 and located on the old William Myers farm, west of town, his early home, and remained in possession of it ten years, til 1886, though while on the farm he took up the abstract business, working with J. W. Craig. In February, 1887, he bought out the abstract books from Mr. Craig and has been the leading abstractor in the county since. He has a complete set of abstract books of Decatur county, showing all the deeds and wills and partition records and decrees of court and unsatisfied mortgages, affecting the title of real estate in the county, from the date of original entry to the present date. Mr. Lambert's wife is a sister of Mrs. Robert A. Hamilton, well known in this community. Their father, Captain James Saunders, owned the farm known as the Templeton farm, three miles southwest of Greensburg, from an early date up to 1856. Captain Saunders represented this county in the legislature in 1842, and he was county treasurer in 1844. Mr. Lambert's family consists of Sue, who is at home, John, who died when three years old; Zena, who married Ed White, of Muncie, Clara, who married Oscar G. Miller, of this city; Mary, who died when five years old, and Paschal T., who died when two and a half years old. Mr. Lambert is a Mason. He joined the Blue Lodge at Albia, in 1855, and took the chapter degree at Ottumwa in 1856. He served as Master of his home lodge, No. 36, two years, and was Priest of the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons No. 8. one year. In politics he is a Republican. He says that his religion is "the law of right." P. T. Lambert is a man of positive character. He is liberal in his views, charitable in criticism, but just and firm in his opinions.
