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Ulysses P. Schenck

SCHENCK, ULYSSES P., merchant and manufacturer, of Vevay, Switzerland County, was born in the canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland, May 16, 1811. His parents, John J. P. and Matilda Schenck, came to this county in 1817, and settled on a farm about three miles from Vevay. His father was a tinner, but after his arrival in America turned his attention principally to farming until 1825. He then removed to Louisville, then Shippingport, and engagged in the mercantile trade on a small scale, gradually increasing and enlarging his business until 1832, when he returned to his farm near Vevay, where he soon afterward died. Ulysses P. Schenck was obliged to content himself with the limited opportunities for education which the common schools afforded, and early acquired that self-reliance which proves the best mental discipline. To trace the successive steps by which, from a humble commencement, he gradually rose to be one of the wealthiest men in Southern Indiana, would be interesting as well as profitable; but the limits of a biographical sketch forbid more than an outline of his history. Industry, perseverance, good managment, energy, and, above all, strict attention to the principles of honesty and integrity, "point the moral and adorn the tale." He was employed as clerk by his father in Louisville until he came of age, when he was enabled to commence business for himself at the same place. In 1837 he removed to Vevay, and the following year engaged in the mercantile trade on the site of his present mammoth establishment. He was successful from the very start, and added to the profits of his business by sending flat-boats down the river. He soon commenced to deal very largely in produce, and by careful management and judicious investments gradually accumulated a fortune, which, however, he did not lock up, but put into circulation through various channels. His name soon became identified with steamboat interests to a large extent. In 1854, with his brother, he built the "Switzerland," which, on the outbreak of the Civil War, he sold to the government for a gunboat. He has owned and controlled as large a number of steamboats as any one man on the Ohio River. In 1876 the U. P. Schenck," one of the largest boats on the river, was built for the Cincinnati and New Orleans trade, and does a fine business. His son, Andrew J. Schenck, was her first captain, and is now her sole owner. As may well be supposed, Mr. Schenck is prominently identified with the manufacturing, financial and other interests centering in the city of Vevay. He is president of the Union Furniture Manufactuing Company, the principal industry of the place, which gives employment to about sixty hands; president of the First National Bank of Vevay, which he was the prime mover in organizing; and has been interested in the Versailles turnpike road since its construction. From the enormous quantities of hay purchased and handled by Mr. Schenck, he was long known by the title of "The Hay King." In 1878 his immense ware-rooms, containing a large quanity of hay, were burnt to the ground, but he has since rebuilt them on a somewhat smaller scale. He has been a member of the Baptist Church for nearly thirty-five years, and has been a liberal contributor to Church enterprises. He expended about ten thousand dollars to aid of the erection of the Baptist Church edifice in Vevay, and has also donated large sums to Franklin College, a Baptist educational institution, of which he was a trustee for several years. On the 22d of September, 1830, Mr. Schenck married Miss Justine Thiebaud, a lady of Swiss extraction, whose family were among the early settlers of Vevay. She came to this county in early childhood, on the same vessel with her future husband, unconscious of the link which was destined to unite them in later years. Of a family of eleven children born to them, only two survive, Andrew J. and Ulysses, who are associated with their father in business, the latter widely known among steamboat men as Captain Schenck. In politics, Mr. Schenck has always been a Democrat, but has avoided official position, except when local and city offices have, from time to time, been thrust upon him. Personally, he is a gentleman of quiet appearance, inclined to be over-modest in his estimate of himself, frank and kindly in this manners. He still gives close personal attention to his affairs, and undoubtedly has many years of usefulness still before him. No name is more familiar to the citizens of Southern Indiana than that of U. P. Schenck. He possesses an extraordinary memory; and, while conducting a more extensive business than perhaps any other man in Southern Indiana, he seems at all times perfectly familiar with every detail of his immense establishment. His patience is proverbial; he never acts hastily, but, coolly calculating the risks of a proposed investment or transaction, giving it careful and systematic consideration, rarely makes a mistake. He is always ready and willing to advise others, and many are eager to avail themselves of his valuable lessons on business matters. In short, he has one of those rare minds that enable their possessors to amass wealth, and to a great extent control public sentiment, without incurring the envy or ill-feeling of those with whom they come in contact.