Calvin Fletcher, Sr. was an American attorney, banker, farmer, landowner, and state legislator from Indianapolis, Indiana.
Background
Calvin Fletcher, Sr. was born on February 4, 1798, at Ludlow, Vermont, the son of Jaese Fletcher and Lucy Keyes, and a descendant of Robert Fletcher who, coming from England in 1630, settled at Concord, Massachusetts.
His father, Jaese, was engaged in farming at Ludlow, where Calvin spent his youth.
Education
The latter’s early education was scanty, and Fletcher, Sr. was able to attend school at Randolph and Royalton only intermittently.
Career
In April 1817, leaving home Fletcher, Sr. endeavoured to ship before the mast at Boston but failed.
He thereupon turned westward and made his way principally on foot to Pennsylvania, where he worked as a labourer for a time, and then proceeded to Urbana, Champaign County, northwestern Ohio. There Fletcher, Sr. taught school, and in the autumn of 1817 entered the law office of James Cooley, subsequently United States chargé d’affaires in Peru.
In 1819 Fletcher, Sr. went to Richmond, Virginia, and was licensed to practise law there, but returning to Urbana was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1820, and became Cooley’s partner.
In 1821, however, he moved to Indianapolis, which had just been made the capital of Indiana, and was the first lawyer to practise there. From thenceforth it was his home. Commencing with no financial resources, he soon acquired a lucrative legal connection.
Fletcher, Sr. became prosecuting attorney for Marion County in September 1822, serving as such for a year, and in August 1825 was appointed state’s attorney for the 5th judicial district, embracing eight counties. This position he also held for a year, when he was elected to the state Senate, continuing in the legislature till 1832. He enjoyed a large and increasing practise, both on circuit and before the supreme court, and became the acknowledged leader of the district bar.
In 1834 the legislature appointed him on a committee to organize a state bank, an undertaking which was successfully accomplished. He was approached in 1836 with a proposal that he become a candidate for Congress but declined, saying that he preferred to adhere to his profession and educate his children.
In 1843 Fletcher, Sr. relinquished his law practise on being appointed president of the branch office of the State Bank at Indianapolis, and thereafter confined his attention to banking, becoming the head of the Indianapolis Banking Company when the charter of the State Bank expired.
Calvin Fletcher, Sr. died on May 26, 1866, in Indianapolis, Indiana, from injuries received through being thrown from his horse.
Achievements
Religion
Calvin Fletcher, Sr. was known as a very religious man. He joined the Methodist Church in 1829 and provided financial support to assist other denominations build their own churches.
Fletcher, Sr. served as superintendent of Sunday Schools at Asbury Chapel and Roberts Chapel, helped establish these Methodist congregations in Indianapolis, and also attended Wesley Chapel on the Circle.
He contributed to the erection of almost all the early churches in Indianapolis. The Fletcher Place United Methodist Church was built on the on a portion of the farm, after the land had been donated to the church.
Personality
Physically a man of great strength with remarkable powers of endurance, Calvin Fletcher, Sr. was always, as his son said, "constitutionally on the drive, " incessantly at work.
Of simple tastes, he lived unostentatiously and took no pleasure in public life though in private he was extremely sociable.
Interests
Calvin Fletcher, Sr. was largely interested in agriculture, owning and himself working a 1, 600 acre farm on the outskirts of the city.
Connections
On May 1, 1821, Calvin Fletcher, Sr. married Sarah Hill of Fleming County, Kentucky. On November 5, 1855, Fletcher, Sr. married Mrs. Keziah Price Lister, née Backhurst.