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born: abt 1797
Pennsylvania
married: Elizabeth K. Peppard in 1824 died: April 24, 1875 buried: Crown Hill Cemetery
When I
come to speak of my personal friend of forty-seven
years, and one of my first employers as a store-boy, I
am reminded of many incidents connected with his long
residence in this city that would be interesting to the
reader, if the space would allow and I was able to
depict them as they occurred.
Mr. Landis
came to this place early in the spring of 1822, a young
as well as single man. He built a cabin on the south
side of the State House Square, near Mississippi street,
and there for a year or two dealt out his wet as
well as dryware of different kinds to the dry and
thirsty citizens of the "new purchase."
His
house was the scene of many practical jokes, many of
which hae been referred to in other places in this work;
and sometimes the joke turned upon him, as in this case:
He had
a customer who lived in Urbana Ohio, a painter by trade.
This man had managed to get into Mr. Landis' debt for
solids and liquids to the amount of about ten dollars;
he wished to return home for the purpose of seeing
friends and raising the wherewith to liquidate that for
which he had already liquored. In order to raise the
ways and means he proposed to Mr. L. that if he would
furnish him ten dollars more he would leave in pledge
for the whole amount of indebtedness his box of tools,
including his diamond used for cutting glass, all of
which were very valuable. This proposition Mr. L.
readily acceded to, as it would secure what was already
due. The honest painter brought the box, neatly packed
and nailed ,with two brushes on the outside. Mr. L.
advanced the money, and in a few days the painter was
enjoying the society of kindred and friends.
Some
weeks after a well known citizen, Willis A .Reed, wanted
to use some sash-tools that could not be had in the
stores, and knowing that this man had had them, got
permission of Mr. Landis to open the box and use them.
When the box was opened a few copies of the
"Indianapolis Gazette" came first in view, and then
about a half-bushel of as fine a specimen of White
River corn as could be found in the settlement, but no
painter's tools.
Mr.
Landis afterward met him in Cincinnati and charged him
with the trick. He again turned the joke on him by
denying his identity, and saying Mr. Landis was mistaken
in the man.
Mr.
Landis has held many lucrative and responsible offices
within the gift of the people of the county--such as
sheriff and collector, county treasurer, etc., and
enjoyed the confidence of the masses to a considerable
extent; and, indeed, on several occasions has had a
fortune within his grasp had he looked more to money
than to what was just and right; in fact, he never
learned to use the adverb which Webster defines to mean
denial. I have known him, while county treasurer, to
advance the taxes of his friends, and those that were
unable to pay, to save their property from sale, and,
consequently, additional costs, which would come into
his pocket. How unlike the officers of the present day.
Sheriffs then could not build a four-story block on the
fees of a single term.
The
writer was for several years employed as a clerk in his
store, and has known him to let the poor have goods when
he certainly must have known they were unable, or would
be, to pay for them; the consequence is he has yet to
continue to labor, and does so as much as he did
forty-seven years ago; and while many have accumulated
wealth by grinding and oppressing the poor, Jake Landis
has ever been their friend, and has carried out the
injunction of the Bible more by practice than by
profession or precept, "Remember the poor."
Such
is our old and esteemed citizen whose name heads this
sketch.
Nowland, John H.
B., “Early Reminiscences of Indianapolis, with Short
Biographical Sketches of Its Early Citizens, and of a
Few of the Prominent Business Men of the Present Day,”
1870, pp. 144-146.
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