Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Daniel Surface
Perhaps no enterprise to which man directs his energies brings one into closer touch with the people and the vital interests of the time than the labor of the newspaper correspondent. Through many years Mr. Surface has been connected with journalism, and the positions which he has filled have demanded peculiar skill and tact, in addition to literary ability and a calm, unbiased judgment. Through the civil war his duties led him to the battle fields of the south, that the news of the movements of the armies might be transmitted throughout the land to the anxious ones who awaited such messages from the front. Now he is at the head of a leading paper of eastern Indiana, the Palladium, of Richmond, his labors advancing it to a foremost position in journalistic circles.
Mr. Surface is a native of Preble county, Ohio, born May 19, 1836, and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Redman) Surface. He was graduated in Otterbein University, in the class of 1862, and immediately afterward accepted the position of principal of the Michigan Collegiate Institute, at Leoni. At the close of the school year he entered a wider and far different field of labor, becoming war correspondent for the Cincinnati Gazette. He was first sent to West Virginia, and three months afterward to Chattanooga, joining General Hooker when he took command of the Army of the Cumberland. His duties were of an exceedingly difficult nature, for he was not only obliged to encounter hardships and dangers, but also the jealousies and opposition of officers, on account of the greater liberties granted him. The fact that some correspondents had unwittingly given information to the enemy also made his place much harder, but he succeeded in winning the confidence of the authorities, especially of General Grant, who accorded him a privilege allowed only two other correspondents in the west. The order was as follows:
Headquarters of
The Military Division of the Mississippi,
Nashville, December 26, 1863.
Guards, pickets and military authorities will pass the bearer, Mr. D. Surface, correspondent Cincinnati Gazette, throughout the entire command, without hindrance; and the government steamers and military railroads will furnish him free transportation to and from any point within the military division until further orders.
By Order of Major-General Grant.
George K. Led, Assistant Adjutant-General.
Mr. Surface was a witness of the entire series of battles from Mission Ridge until the capture of Atlanta, and the Cincinnati Gazette of that period contains many interesting letters from his pen. One which attracted particular attention was a clear and comprehensive account of Sherman's "great field movement" which compelled Hood to evacuate Atlanta and demoralized the Confederate army. The letter also contains a description of the captured city. After the fall of Atlanta Mr. Surface remained for a few months in Washington with Whitelaw Reid, then of the Gazette's bureau of correspondence, and also acted as correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. He accompanied General Grant through the battles of the Wilderness and then went by ship to Savannah to meet Sherman, at the close of the famous "march to the sea." Mr. Surface remained at that place as correspondent for the Cincinnati Gazette and the Philadelphia Enquirer until the termination of the war.
On his return from the south he purchased an interest in the Toledo Commercial and became its editor, but on the expiration of a year sold his interests and resumed his connection with the Gazette. From July until October, 1866, he traveled through the south, attending the state conventions held there for the purpose of reconstruction. His communications during that period are replete with information, not only concerning the proceedings of those conventions, but of the spirit of the southern people and the conditions that prevailed in that section of the country. In 1870 Mr. Surface purchased an interest in the Richmond Telegram, which he edited for some time and then sold his interest and became secretary and treasurer of the Richmond Chair Company, thus engaging in the manufacture of chairs for eight years. In 1896, in connection with Samuel J. Flickinger, of Cincinnati, he purchased the Palladium, which is now being conducted under the firm name of Surface & Flickinger, with the senior partner as manager and editor. This is one of the oldest journals in the state, having been founded in 1831. It has always been Republican in politics since the organization of the party, and wields a strong influence in support of the principles advocated by that political organization. Mr. Surface is a man of scholarly attainments and is a most able writer, his style being fluent, yet not verbose, his diction correct, and his utterances clear. In addition to his prose compositions he has also produced a number of poems of considerable merit, among which maybe mentioned an address to the alumni of Otterbein University, and "Symposaic," which won an encomium from Charles G. Leland, the editor of the Knickerbocker Magazine.
On the 24th of December, 1867, Mr. Surface was united in marriage to Miss Kate Kumler, of Butler county, Ohio, who died December 20, 1894. They had one daughter, who is now Mrs. T. S. Allee, of Chicago. For twelve years Mr. Surface has been a member of the school board of Richmond and has done effective service in the interests of the schools. He is a public-spirited citizen and advocates all measures of progress and reform, doing all in his power to promote the general welfare. He is especially active in support of the Republican party, and his influence in political circles is most marked. He possesses a cordial, genial manner, is uniformly courteous and inspires personal friendships of unusual strength.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899