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Gc 577.201 V28e 1169864
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02300 4788
JOSEPH P. ELLIOTT.
A HISTORY
OF
EVANSVILLE
AND
VANDERBURGH COUNTY, INDIANA.
A Complete and Concise Account from the Earliest Times to the Present, Embracing Reminiscences of the Pioneers and Biograpical Sketches of the Men Who Have Been Leaders in Commercial and Other Enterprises.
BY
JOSEPH P. ELLIOTT.
EVANSVILLE, IND. KELLER PRINTING COMPANY, 1897.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1897, In the Clerk's Office of the District of Columbia.
L. Bookshop 2 7.50
PREFACE. 1169864
This history is a recital of prominent local events of our people from the earliest day to the present. Their habits and customs and growth will be told in the simple, plain manner of those pioneers. I had almost said in the open, frank style of that herbic age-when bravery was exercised and deeds of valor performed, when the pro- tection of life and the gnarding of property were the incentives to action, when the home and the family were jealously watched against the wiles of the skulking Indians, when the vain ambitions of con- ventional society of this swift day were entirely wanting.
In those days, let us not forget, a man's word of honor was his bond, as inviolable as his sacred rights, and his simple "yes" or "no" were never repudiated nor impeached by himself, nor discredited by neighbors. They were given without qualification or reservation and accepted in the spirit and force that the conventionalisms or cus- toms of that day attached to them. Sham and pretensiou were no parts of the Hoosier pioneer's nature, nor would he suffer anything to smirch his good name or compromise his family honor. He scrup- ulously separated his politics and his religion, and personal differences were sometimes settled at the rifle's muzzle. Instances are not want- ing where the bravado and the thief have been summarily dealt with. The code of honor among those primitive people was of such a high standard and inflexibility that a villian and a sneak could not adapt themselves to it, and therefore they found more congenial quarters elsewhere, as a rule. Dishonor and bad faith in anyone were never forgiven, and a promise was held sacred. Their high standard of equity and probity developed a race of honorable men and women, and their application of strict morals to daily life restrained the evilly inclined and gave them honest public officials and professional men of superior character and sterling qualities. Reputation was not then a mere bond of dollars and cents, as it is in our rushing, forgetting, ex- citing, nerve-exhausting, peace-destroying day. This brief portraiture of the majestic character of those early heroes may convey a glimpse at the threshold of those of whom we write.
No labors are required at our hands, we are delighted to say, to frame defenses or invent apologies for these friends and neighbors, who are set down in this volume with loving care and jealous love. Herein an humble effort has been made to portray all the phases of life in those early times, as they existed socially, commercially, po- litically, educationally, religiously, and indeed in every channel of
4
PREFACE.
their affairs. The ineidents drawu out to illustrate the customs and habits of our respected fathers shall in no way cast a shadow of dis- respect upon them. As Mark Anthony said of the Romans in the days of Julius Caesar, they were all honorable men-all. That is to say, no bruisers, no mongers of scandel, no violators of law, no broilers, no immoral characters, no evil-doers find a place in this history. Although not a hero-worshipper, the historian has con- scientiously endeavored to be, however, an impartial tribunal in estimating the value and significance and relationship of facts that might illustrate these typical pioneers of whom he writes.
It may add relative value to the truth and character of the facts marshaled in this book, if it is understood by the reader that the larger portion of the period embraced in this volume is covered by the author's own stretch of life. Much that is noted and set down in these pages is taken from personal experience and observation. The remark is veutured without vanity and without any thought that the reader will wonder at it, that the writer is thankful to the Lord, at the green old age of 82 years. for a good memory and a clear recollection of the early citizens of whom he writes and of the progress aud growth of this city.
Acknowledgment is here made of my indebtedness to many of the descendants of the pioneer families, whose deeds are accurately re- corded herein, for valuable aid in supplying family history and other relative facts. These records have been carefully verified by the older family members themselves, and are therefore entirely trust- worthy and genuine. To some extent our forefathers, with ax in haud, gun strapped upon shoulder, and Bible in pocket, hewing their way through the dense forests, were negligent of the matter of making records, and about the only records outside of the courts are to be found in the old family Bible. They chopped and shot and prayed their way through the tangled wild wood until they saw day- light burst in upon them like the smiling sun through a rift in the cloud. As did Nehemiah when restoring the walls of Jerusalem, they builded, as it were, with sword in one hand and trowel in the other.
The anualist could conceive of no better way of preserving the business status of the city and the condition of the people at this time than to give an interesting and elaborate chapter of histories of firms and individual biographies.
These things are now submitted to the friendly reader with a fond hope that he may be profited as well as entertained, and that they will be useful to the future historian of this growing city.
CONTENTS.
BOOK ONE.
CHAPTER. I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
The Author's Advent to the Town-His Long Business Career has made him Thoroughly Acquainted with Every Step of the Progress of Evansville and Van- derburgh County-Personal Incidents-An Interest- ing Letter-List of Business Men in 1837.
II. ORIGINAL FAMILIES.
Their Enterprises-Conquering the Wilderness Vie et Armis-Colonel Hugh McGary, the First Settler on the Site of Evansville-The First Rude Log Hut and Where It Stood-Log Houses then were Primi- tive Forts Against the Indians-Life of MeGary- Siege of Bryant's Station-First White Male Child Born Here-Purchase of the "Pocket" from the Indians-General Evans.
III. REMARKABLE ADVENTURES OF ISAAC KNIGHT AS A CAPTIVE AMONG THE INDIANS. Long Perilons Tramp to Detroit-Sick and Cruelly Treated-Adopted in an Indian Family-Smallpox- Life Among the Treacherous Redskins-After Four Years He Escaped and Returned Home-Adventure of Charles Harrington-Life of General Evans.
IV. PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF PIONEER TIMES. Where Many of the Early Settlers Located-First Campmeeting - Schools - Rude Flouring Mills- Abundant Game-Robbing an Indian Grave-First Steamboat on the Ohio-Journey of the Socialists to New Harmony-Early Times-Threshing Methods.
6
CONTENTS.
V. VANDERBURGH COUNTY FORMED OUT OF WARRICK COUNTY, WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY A PART OF KNOX COUNTY. The Part General Evans Took in Forming Evansville- First Town Eleetion-First Census in 1819-Gradual Growth of the County Seat of the New County- Judge Henry Vanderburgh.
VI. TOWN CORPORATION RIGHTS GRANTED EVANSVILLE BY THE STATE LEGISLATURE. List of Trustees of the Town Board from the First up to the Time When City Rights were Granted-Sub- sequent History of the City-Business Industries.
BOOK TWO.
CHAPTER.
VII. EARLY MANUFACTURERS.
Rivalry Between Stringtown and Newburgh-Negley's Grist Mill an Important Enterprise-A Place Where Men Met and Discussed Polities-Trysting Place for Farm Lads and Lassies -- Some Liked Their Toddy- List of Patrons of the Grist Mill.
VIII. MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION IN PRIMITIVE DAYS. Difficulties in the Way-The River the Great Thorough- fare-Farms Bought in Louisville and Vincennes- Peddling Wagons Sprang into Existence-Wabash and Erie Canal-History of Its Grant and Construc- tion-Legislative Enactments-Terminus of the Canal Where the Present Court-house Stands-First Tow out of Town and First Trip up the Canal-Suits for the Property-Decision of the Supreme Court.
IX. EARLY METHOD OF LEVYING AND COLLECTING REV- ENUE.
First Tax Collected was Less than One Hundred and Fifty Dollars-Finaneial Depression-Coonskins and Other Articles Collected by the Tax-gatherer- Favorable Location for Evansville's Great Prosperity -Class of People Who Settled in Vanderburgh County-Expenditures of Publie Money.
7
CONTENTS.
X. CIVIL TOWNSHIPS.
Formation, Description and Names - First Voting Places in Each-List of Tax-payers in 1837.
BOOK THREE.
CHAPTER.
XI. COUNTY OFFICES.
Complete List of County Officials-Work of the First Meeting of the First Board of County Commissioners -Justices of the Peace as County Commissioners -. County Agent-State Representatives and Senators.
XII. JUDGES OF COURTS.
First Session of the Circuit Court-Associate Judges- Characteristics of Some of Them-District Judges- Old Legal Forms of Procedure-Antiquated Legal Language Dragged Along Down from the Medieval Ages-The Fixity of Legal Principles Necessarily Operate Against Progress in Codes of Practice- Court-houses and Court Cases-Different Law Courts and the Judges.
XIII. FULL LIST OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE FROM THE BEGINNING.
The Only Break being in Pigeon Township-Acted as County Commissioners at One Time.
XIV. SCHOOL SYSTEM.
Wisdom of the Ordinance Organizing the Northwest Territory - Indiana's Large School Fund - First School-house - Pioneer Teachers - History of the City's Schools-A Roster of Superintendents, Profes- sors and Teachers.
XV. HISTORY OF MUSIC IN EVANSVILLE.
Names of Members and Dates of Organizations of Bands-George W. Warren Prominently Connected Therewith All Along-M. Z. Tinker's Life-His Connection with the City Schools for Many Years- Vocalists and Pianists-Noted Soprano Singers.
8
CONTENTS.
XVI. MEDICAL SCIENCE.
Allopathy-Homeopathy in Evansville - History of Milk siekness-The Science of Dentistry-Hospitals and Sanitariums.
XVII. FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.
History of Banking Houses-List of Officers at Present -Building and Loan Associations.
XVIII. THE CIVIL WAR.
Captain Walker and His Company-Some Prominent Institutions-Home of the Friendless-Orphans' Asy- Inm-Insane Hospital-Postoffice-B. M. A. History and Splendid Building-River Transportation.
XIX. THE CHURCHES.
A Complete History of All the Churches of the City- The Protestant Churches-The Catholic Churches- The Jewish Congregations-The Spiritualists.
XX. SECRET AND BENEVOLENT ORDERS.
The Ancient Order of Freemasonry-Odd Fellowship in the City from the First to the Present- Knights of Pythias - Ancient Order of United Workmen - Knights and Ladies of Honor-All the Fraternal Organizations and Benefit Institutions-The Military Orders-Knights of St. John.
XXI. MILITARY ORDERS.
An Invaluable Record of Farragut Post, G A. R .- A Complete List and History of All Who Have Ever Belonged to It-The Womans' Relief Corps-The Sons of Veterans-The Old Soldiers-Other Military Organizations.
XXII. BIOGRAPHICAL.
Some Biographies of the Leading Men of Evansville- Men Who Have Distinguished Themselves in Var- ious Pursuits of Life-Citizens Who Have Helped to Make Evansville What It Is-Those Who Have Laid Its Foundations and Seen Its Growth.
HISTORY
OF
VANDERBURGH COUNTY,
INDIANA.
BOOK ONE.
CHAPTER I.
Introductory Remarks-The Author's Advent to the Town-His Long Business Carcer Has Made Him Thoroughly Acquainted with Every Step of the Progress of Evansville and Vander- burgh County-Personal Incidents-An Interesting Letter-List of Business Men in 1837.
INTRODUCTION.
When Columbus, controlled by ideas beyond those at Salamanca and the wiseacres of his day, pushed out across the undiscovered Atlantic under the directing hand of Queen Isabella and discovered America-or marked the way for its discovery-he knew not what a mighty nation would develop upon the new-found land. He dreamed not of the magnificent cities that would spring up nor of the golden principles of government that the mixed raees would evolve, nor of their high grade of liberty which would be a pattern for all the nations of the earth. He conceived not of the relief that would be afforded the congested people of Europe by emigration to the New World. He could not surmise that the new form of liberty of this wondrous nation would be so broad and tolerant that it would invite the oppressed of all nations to its shores. The marvelous discovery opened up not only a vast country of unsurpassed fertility but found a home for a higher freedom and a deeper civilization than the world ever knew before.
10
HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY, IND.
For one thing this higher development showed there was need for it in the world, showed the uudeveloped state of social relationship, showed the extent of barbarism yet trammeling and enthralling the people, showed the imperfect economical relations that existed be- tween man and man. So the oppressed of many lands found a wel- come in America-fleeing from English, from German, from French, from Spanish, from all forms of European oppression.
Under the providence of an all-wise and beneficent God the thirteen American colonies, despising taxation without representation, threw off the British yoke after a long, hard, bloody, self-sacrificing, patriotic struggle for freedom and blessed their descendants with a priceless bequest of liberty of conscience, liberty of thought, liberty of body. The war of the revolution gave its experiences and its lessons, re- vealed the logical meaning of a wider tolerance and a deeper charity, edueated in wiser measures of human government, and gave sover- eignty to the people, the true source of all power. If there is any meaning in the thought of progress, men, nations, and the world go on developing continually, and so the beauty of American civilization was beheld with wonderment and Delphie prophecies. The war of 1812 was not in vain in the progress of personal and national rights which it distinctly brought into prominence. The war with Mexico was a preliminary step-speaking of the final results-that culminated in the fratrieidal struggle of 1861 and ended in the severance of the shackles from so many Africans imposed on them by an unwise social and economical system. It is "with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right," as Lincoln said, that our glorious republic has finally come to administer affairs, and as far as may be consistent with individual liberty grants equal opportunities to all men.
The Indian wars only helped, it may be said, to confirm the origi- nal settlers in the possession of the land and bring prosperity out of the virgin soil. That liberty of conscience, so distinctly an inherit- ance of American development, gave us an educational system that is at once the admiration of the world and the maker of men of letters, professors, statesmen, men of science, ministers and business men.
Such have been some of the influences at work shaping American character and American methods of thought. The pioneers, it may be said, were the makers of these influences that have practically filled the whole earth like the stone "cut out of the mountain." Such men settled at Evansville, in the beginning, and we to-day are their de- seendants. Their career, as far as it has been preserved, is a most
11
HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY, IND.
interesting one. The object in writing this book is to bring promi- nently to the front the worthy old citizens, now gone over the river of death, and to preserve a class of facts that are in danger of being forever lost sight of and perishing like the men themselves. This volume, it is not extravagant to say, is a social reflex of the people and the days long gone by, and a presentation of the growth that has gone on since, in their descendants and the city. It is not too far- fetched to speak of it as a growth-Phoenix like-out of the ashes of the past.
It is hoped, dear reader, it may not seem improper in the writer, who touched shoulders with those grand, old first settlers, to refer occasionally, as the case may seem to require, to his own relationship to this tast-fading past. The reader, of course, will readily under- stand that in writing the original history of a community, the historian must of necessity rely upon tradition to a limited extent as well as the few recorded facts. In point of fact, these people, now carved in cold type herein, so to speak, were not the path- finders of the great wild west but the pathmakers. And naturally they had no time, opportunity, nor inclination to record the tran- spiring events of the day-scarcely time enough to make distinctions as to property rights. The telegraph, the railroad, the newspaper, the telephone, the matches, all came after their day and generation, and there was no daily record of the passing panorama as there is for us now. Then they were satisfied to have their families around them ; now we have turned Gypscys and wander over the face of the earth. Then, when death, from which there is no appeal, broke the family circle, an entry was made in the family Bible and a life-history was deemed complete ; now the progressive human race has various ways of writing the biographies of the departed ones. In this impul- sive vast-recording age the living human creature makes a record beginning with the cradle and ending only with the grave. The memorial volumes in black, the picture on the wall, the inscription in granite, the obituary column in the church and local papers, the resolutions of friends and orders, the column of character eulogy and loving tribute by a friend, the reporter's biography at the time of death, contain a complete record now of our passing old friends; then our forefathers tenderly laid the father and mother away on the hill, watering the earth with their tears and cherishing the departed one's memory to the last.
It is not a vanity-and this phrase is not an apology-that induces the author to refer to the fact that his grandfather and two granduncles
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HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY, IND.
participated in the first unpleasantness with John Bull & Co. It is not a vanity that leads him to speak of his father, whom many remember as a man of many parts, and whose remains now rest in Oak Hill Cemetery, as a man of righteousness and justice combined. These things show how far back into the past the author's lite reaches, and how near his own finger-tips, so to speak, tonched those of the great and good Washington. Indeed, it has been his good fortune to know personally such men as Henry Clay, Thomas Marshall, Richard M. Johnson, John J. Crittenden, Cassius M. Clay and others, and he knew in a great degree the inward facts of their lives.
Now, the information caught up and recorded here for present and future generations is not the work of an hour, but, in a sense, of a life- time. As the work progressed the writer was more and more im- pressed with its signifieance and magnitude. It grew on his hands. He has not followed the old stereotyped formula of delivering himself of local affairs and events, but has, like a pioneer, blazed out a way of his own. It is his fond hope that some good may be done in this work, some help be extended to some one in some way.
Not desiring to be discursive or digressive, nor to develop unduly any particular fact or fancy in the author's mind, he yet begs to say one more thing. In his opinion the muniment of our liberties is the great charter given us by our forefathers, and as long as that is jeal- ously guarded and serupulously honored American independence and civil liberty will not be a myth and a hiss. Law, natural or divine, may not be violated with impunity. Slavery brought its sorrow and shame upon us and humiliated us in sackcloth and ashes. The pen- alty for every violated natural law must be paid, every error must be atoned for, every pain has a cause. Wrong teaching and wrong ten- dencies and a loosening of respect for the institutions of our wise and good forebearers can alone be the cause of the downfall of our noble civil structures. It is not, therefore a venturesome or vagrant opin- ion, when it is said the millennium is detained by injustice, and false economical conditions, and by that uneradieated element of barbarism, selfishness-apotheosized selfishness. If the handwriting ever appears on the wall to this nation, as it did to Belshazzar at Babylon, it will be written with its own hands and without an excuse. The old ship of state, about which Horace wrote so entertainingly, sometimes gets near dangerous roaring reefs, but we have faith in the supreme and superior altruistic elements at the very foundation of the republie that she will out-weather every storm and out-ride every rough sea, and at last enter safe into the harbor of her destiny-whatever that may be.
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HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY, IND.
Reforms have almost always come up out of the masses-have been brought out by plain men, as for instance the simple fishermen of Galilee. When God selected Lincoln, a woodchopper, railsplitter, and flatboatman, it was another illustration of this fact. When Grant was taken from the currying room of the tannery and selected to lead the Union armies against the pro-slavery sentiment of the land, and thus became an instrument to assist Lincoln in setting the bondmen at liberty, he was also a teacher of men, through example, of the beauty of generosity and the grandeur of liberty and peace. The reader's own mind will supply multiplied similar instances.
And still one more thought, commonplace as it may seem. It is this: Every one is the arbiter of his own destiny, in no small degree, not- withstanding the fact that Robert Owen spent a fortune to demonstrate the proposition that circumstances make the man, notwithstanding Shakespeare's well-worn, oft-quoted sentiment that
"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rongh-hew them how we will."
It is within every one's range to gather knowledge, to accumulate ideas, ideas of some kind; and these control him. Hence he is the arbiter, as stated before, of his own destiny, in so far as he follows out his own inelinations. The future no man may know, for "it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put into his own hands."
Early in life, indeed at the age of seven years, the author became a believer in the teachings of Holy Writ. In all the many conflicts of life since then nothing has transpired to shake his belief in the all-wise providence of God, who never requires impossibilities of His creatures or non-understandable mysteries to be imposed on them.
In His own good time all things will be made plain. All of life is summed up in this : Believe and trust in God. Those who presume to be wiser than the Deity may find what consolation they can in the statement that there is no relief from punishment of a violated phys- ical law, and by analogy none from a mental or moral law-no excep- tions, not even for a Tom Paine or a Pagan Bob.
If we shall have lightened one burden, strengthened one hand, lifted one pain from the heart, buoyed up one despondent soul, we shall be rewarded for our labors and researches.
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HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY, IND.
AUTHOR'S ARRIVAL IN 1837.
The author of this chapter will narrate his coming to Evansville and his observations for a short time thereafter.
I arrived here on Sunday morning, February 15, 1837. My brother, Wm. M. Elliott, had come to Evansville about one month previous on a prospecting trip, and rented a store for our business, to-wit : Saddlery and harness and saddlery supplies. Our store was situated on the west side of Main street, near the middle of the block between Second and Third streets. I eame here on the little steamer " Rover," from Louisville, Ky., having been three days en route, be- cause of an accident.
On my arrival at the wharf I was met by hotel drummers, one of whom was Thomas Johnson, who kept a hotel on the corner of First and Vine streets ; but I had a letter to the proprietor of the Mansion House on the corner of First and Locust, Messrs. Linck and Thorne, being at that time the owners and proprietors of that house.
It was a very eold morning, and as I entered the barroom or sitting- room I remember well the scene. There were about half a dozen of the old citizens present who were in the habit of congregating there, as in all small country towns, to get news, take their toddies and enjoy themselves generally.
When I went in, being a stranger, all eyes seemed fixed upon me and I knew that after I registered there would be numerous inquiries as to where I came from and what I was doing there. I had three letters of introduction ; one to the proprietor of the house, one to Gen. Robert M. Evans, and one to Wm. M. Walker, all of whom hap- pened to be present.
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