•May 30, 2018•

The most successful public figure ever to grow up in Sullivan and graduate from its schools was Albert J. Beveridge. He served two terms in the United States Senate and became a leading national figure in the Republican Party and in the American “progressive” movement in the early 20th century.

After his career in politics came to an end, he wrote highly-regarded biographies of two of the great men in American history: Chief Justice John Marshall, and Abraham Lincoln.

Beveridge achieved this success only after overcoming youthful poverty and years of unremitting physical labor comparable to the experiences of young Abe Lincoln. Yet Lincoln was and remains a subject of public veneration while Beveridge is barely remembered in his original hometown. Then again — Albert didn’t write some of the greatest prose in the English language, didn’t win a war or save the union, and didn’t die a martyr. Also, he didn’t have Lincoln’s sense of humor. And he never won a popular election. Perhaps the two are related.

Albert Jeremiah Beveridge was born October 6, 1862, near Sugar Tree Ridge in Highland County, Ohio. His father, Thomas Henry Beveridge, was in the Ohio Volunteers at the time, fighting Confederates. Thomas’ first wife had died, leaving him eight children, and in early January 1862 he had married a 37-year old widow, Frances Doyle. Albert was the only child of that second marriage.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.