John James Key

Part II

Defrocked as a major in the U.S. Army, John J. Key became a member of the Terre Haute bar in early 1863.

He was among the 30 Terre Haute lawyers who signed a minimum fee agreement, which became effective April 15, 1863.

Signatories to that agreement, itemized in this column in 1996, included four congressmen, two cabinet members, two Indiana attorney generals, three chief U.S. ambassadors, three Speakers of the Indiana House, one Indiana Supreme Court judge, one U.S. bankruptcy judge, 10 state court judges, the future Mississippi state auditor and five Civil War officers with a rank of colonel or higher.

Key's family may not have moved to Vigo County until later that year. On July 21, 1863, Hester "Hetty" (Rudd) Key gave birth to Louisa, the couple's third daughter in five years. She was baptized at St. Michael's Church in Cannelton on Aug. 25.

The other Key girls were Anna and Harriet, born in 1858 and 1860, respectively. Though carrying Hester's maiden surname, 18-year-old Joseph Rudd Key -- John's son killed at Perryville in October 1862 -- apparently was the product of a prior marriage. John and Hester were not married until April 18, 1849.

Though the Keys had abundant ties to Terre Haute, the timing of their relocation is a bit puzzling. In 1863, Elizabeth Key Nelson, John's sister, was residing in Santiago, Chile, where husband Thomas Henry was serving as Abraham Lincoln's ambassador.

Hester's sister, Susan, died in December 1853 and Susan's widower, Judge Elisha Mills Huntington, a Terre Haute resident, died on Oct. 26, 1862.

Ballard Smith, a half brother of Hamilton Smith, who married Hester's sister Louise, was a close acquaintance. Ballard lived in Cannelton from 1853 to 1861 before moving to Terre Haute. While residing there, he had served as Circuit Court judge, state legislator and Speaker of the House.

John's father, Marshall Key, died in November 1860. According to probate records, John inherited all his father's real estate and personal property in Perry County, including $5,000 in American Cannel Coal Co. bonds.

By the end of 1863, John and Hetty bought a home on the southwest corner of Sixth and Poplar streets in Terre Haute, where they resided until 1873.

Meanwhile, on Oct. 3, 1866, yellow fever claimed Ballard Smith as its victim.

For three years, Key maintained a law office by himself. However, in 1867-68, he was a partner with Daniel W. Voorhees, advertising that he was a lawyer, life insurance agent and a notary public.

After Voorhees was re-elected to Congress in November 1868, Key returned to practice by himself, occupying an office on the north side of Ohio Street, between Third and Fourth streets.

The Nelsons returned from Chile in late March 1866, but Ambassador Nelson did not return to the law practice. Though the family lived in Terre Haute, Nelson counseled President Ulysses S. Grant on Latin American affairs and was a traveling lecturer.

In 1869, Grant convinced Nelson to become U.S. Minister to Mexico. On March 22, 1872, Elizabeth Key Nelson died in Maltrata, Mexico. She could not be interred in Terre Haute's Woodlawn Cemetery until Oct. 23 because Grant would not release Nelson from his duties.

Casual research suggests that Key did not engage in much litigation. If he had any political ambitions, the scar of his Civil War experience may have been an Achilles' heel.

It is not clear when the Keys left Terre Haute. Neither John nor Hetty appear in a Terre Haute City Directory after 1873. However, Perry County Historian Mike Rutherford has examined real estate documents indicating the Keys represented that they were Terre Haute residents as late as Nov. 20, 1877.

After Nov. 7, 1878, they resided in Georgetown in the District of Columbia.

John J. Key died in Georgetown in 1886 at age 69, and is buried at Holy Rood Cemetery, an Irish Catholic graveyard associated with the Holy Trinity Church.

It is unlikely Key conceived that the letter he received from President Lincoln in November 1862 would be deemed one of the most significant 600 documents in American history by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute 140 years later.

In "History of St. Meinrad Archabbey," the Rev. Albert Kleber notes that John Key was baptized a Roman Catholic after he located in Terre Haute. Judge Huntington, Key's brother-in-law, converted to Catholicism in 1862, a few months before his death.

Joseph Rudd Key and Judge Huntington's son, Robert Palmer Huntington, were the first students to enroll at St. Meinrad's in April 1854.

Hetty Ann Key was a resident of Washington, D.C., when she submitted her husband's will for probate before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia on March 10, 1888.

She died in 1899 at age 71 and is buried next to her husband and her mother, Ann Benoist Rudd, who, according to her gravestone, perished in 1883.