Henry S. Lane, born in 1811 and dying in 1881, began his political career as a state legislator in 1837 and served in the U.S. Congress from 1840 to 1843 and from 1861 to 1867. In 1860, as part of a Republican Party strategy to win state offices, he was elected governor and served for two days before the Indiana General Assembly elected him to the U.S. Senate, after which Oliver P. Morton became governor. Lane lived here from 1845 until his death. In 1854, he helped unite diverse Indiana political groups into the People's Party to oppose the Democratic administration, especially the extension of slavery into U.S. territories. The People's Party joined the Republican Party, and Lane was chair of the national convention in 1856. He also helped secure Abraham Lincoln's presidential nomination at the 1860 Republican National Convention.