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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00805 4444
LOGAN'S
HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS
· FROM 1818
by Ignatius Brown
[ 1868]
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1
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1588392
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LOGAN'S
HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS
FROM 1818.
Brown
GIVING A CAREFULLY COMPILED RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE CITY FROM THE ORGA- NIZATION OF THE STATE GAVERNMENT: IT- MERCANTILE. MANUFACTURING, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS. COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT. PRES- ENT IMPORTANCE AND FUTURE PROSPERITY ; AS SEEN BY A NATIVE BORN RESIDENT AND WORTHY CITIZEN.
Indianapolis, the political and commer- 1790 and 1795, and had built several vil- cial capital of Indiana, is -ituated on the lages along the river, the nearest being west fork of white river, Irritnde 309 554, about twelve miles above this point. An longitude 86° 5', and about 527 feet above old white woman, the wife of a French the sea. It is two rulles north-west of the tinder. lived there after the cost of the tribe centre of the State, and one mile south-west had lett. She had been taken prisoner, of the centre of Marion county. It oecn- when nine years old, at Martin's Station in pies the midst of a shallow bazin, the ground Kentucky, had married an Indian and rais- rising gradually for miles in all directions, ed a half breed family, and after the death The soil is a clavey loam, sub-soil clay, on of her Indian husband married the French- thick beds of drift gravel and sand, resting man. on silurian clays, limestones and shales .. The gravel beds are great natural filters,. 1518 By treaty at St. Marys, Ohio, Oc. producing thorough drainage and holding toher 2. between the Delaware Indians and ample supplies of the puret water. The Lewis Cass, Johnathan Jennings and Ben- whole country was once densely covered jamin Parke, United States commissioner., with large hard wood trees, and in many the former ceded all their lands in central places on the city site were extensive thick- Indiana, agreeing to give possession in 1821. ets of prickly ash and spicewood. The The reported fertility and beauty of "the thick undergrowth afforded safe covert for new purchase," as it was afterward called, all kinds of game, and for a number of years excited the frontiersmen, and, without wait- after the settlement bears and deer were ing for possession to be given under the readily found in the neighborhood. Hun- treaty, they entered it at various points. ters seldom returned unsuccessful from ibe William Conner, an Indian trader, had set- chase, and, as late as 1542, saddles of verdi- tled at a Delaware village on White river, son sold at from 25 to 50 cents, turkeys at four miles this side of Noblesville, several 10 and 12 cents, and a bushel of pigeons years before this date. His location drew for 25 cents. The river was so fully stocked the attention of others to that stream, and with fish that an old settler declared "a several persons from Fayette and Wayne stone thrown in it anywhere, from the counties, visited this section just before and grave yard ford to the month of Fall creek, after the treaty. In the Spring of 1819, would strike a shoal of fish." The Indians two brothers, named Jacob and Cyrus Whit- reluctantly yieldled the country on account zel, having got permission of the old Dela- of the abundance of fish and game, and ware chief, blazed a trace from the White- many of them lingered in the vicinity long water river to the bluffs of White river. after the treaty. Though they had no per- They remained and raised a crop there manent village here, their hunting and ash- during the Summer, and moved their fami- ing camps were numerous on and north of lies out in October. (Jacob Whitzel died the city site, and a traveller who passed uy there July 2, 1827.) Lewis Whitzel, the the river several years before the settlement, noted Indian scout, celebrated in border says the banks were then dotted with wig- annals, was a brother of these men and wams and the river often partel by their visited them there shortly after, while on canoes. The scene was very striking at his way to Louisiana. Late in the Fall of night when the savages were tire hunting or 1818, Dr. Douglas had ascended the river fishing. The Shawnees and Delawares had from the lower settlements, stopping awhile moved to this section sometime between at the bluffs; and James Paxton descended
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LOGAN'S HISTORY OF
it from the headwaters, reaching this point 1920 Pogue seems to have been the only in January, 1820. These exploring trip inhabitant from March, 1819. to Februa were attended with some risk, for the In- 27, 1820. when John and James McCor- dians were in full po-session and not well mick arrived and built their cabins on the disposed toward the intruders.
river bank, just below the month of Fall
1819 According to most authorities, the creek and near the present bridge. John honor due to the first settler belongs to Maxwell and John Cowan followed shortly George Pogue, a blacksmith from White- after, building cabins early in March, in water, who reached this point from that the north-west corner of the donation on section March 2, 1919. After reaching the Fall creek, near the present Crawford-ville river he turned back and built his cabin road bridge. In March, April and May, on the high ground east of the creek which other families arrived following the trace now bears his name, close to a large spring, left by Cowan and Maxwell, and by the and near the present eastern end of Michi- first of June there were perhaps fifteen gan street. The ruins of this cabin were families on the present donation. Among Ithem were those of Henry and Samuel Davis, Corbaley, Barnhill, Van Blaricum, . Harding and Wilson. The first cabin on the old town plat was built in May, by Isaac Wilson, near the north-west corner of the state house square. Other emigrants arrived during the Summer and Fall, and the settlement grew slowly for a year after- ward. The government surveys in this see- tion were made in 1s19 and 1820.
The congressional act of April 19. 1816, , authorizing a state government for Indiana, had donated (with the privilege of selec- tion,) four sections of unsold lands for a permanent capital. The assembly, on Janu- ary 11, 1820, appointed George Hunt, John (George Pogue's Residence, the First Cabin Built Conner, John Gilliland, Stephen Ludlow, on the Donation.)
Joseph Bartholomew. John Tipton, Jesse B. visible for many years afterward. Pogse Durham, Frederick Rapp, William Prince. was killed by Indians about daybreak one And Thomas Emerson, commissioners to morning in April, 1821. His horses had make the selection, directing them to meet been disturbed during the night, he de- it Comer's house, on White river, early in clared the Indians were stealing them, and the Spring. A part of them only served. taking his rifle set out in pursuit. When Ascending the valley on horseback and last seen he was near their camp, gunshots making examinations, they met as directed were heard, and as his horses and clothes ( Conner's, where, after very serious di -- were afterward seen in their possession little putes between them as to sites at the blutis, doubt remained as to his fate. His death at the mouth of Fall creek and at Conner's, greatly excited the settlers, but their nu- the present location was chosen by three merical weakness prevented any effort to votes against two for the bluffs. On the avenge it. The creek on which he settled, 7th of June, 1320, they reported the choice which then pursued a very winding course of sections one and twelve, east fractional . through the south-east part of the plat, section two and eleven, and enough of west alarming the inhabitants by its floods, re-fractional section three, in township fifteen, ceived his name and remains a lasting range three cast, to make the four sections memorial of the first inhabitant of the pre- granted. The location gave the place in- sent city.
stant reputation, and assisted in bringing
Pogue's claim as the first settler has been "migrants to it during the Summer and contested, and in a published article by Dr. Fall of 1820, and Spring of 1821. Among S. G. Mitchell, in the Indianapolis Gazette, those who then came were Morris Morris, : in the Summer of 1822, it is stated that Dr. S. G. Mitchell, John and James Given, the McCormicks were the first emigrants in' Matthias Nowland, James M. Ray, Nathan- February, 1820, and that Pogue arrived of Cox, Thomas Anderson, John Hawkins, with others in March, 1820, a month later. Dr. Livingston Dunlap, David Wood. Dan- It is singular that this statement, if ill-sel Yandes, Alexander Ralston, Dr. Isaac founded, should not have been contradicted Co. Douglas Maguire and others, and the publicly in the paper at the time, but the abins clustered closely along the river weight of tradition is against it and concursjank, on and near which almost the whole in fixing Pogue's arrival in 1819. Ettlement was located. Most of the above
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INDIANAPOLIS FROM 1818.
hamed parties came in the Spring of 1821. and west. and were ninety feet wide except In the north-west part of the donation, Washington which was one hundred and and west of the present blind asylum, a twenty. There were ciglity-nine squares of traet of one hundred and fifty or two hun- four acres in extent. each four hundred and dred acres was found where the heavy tim- twenty feet front, divided by two alleys ber had been killed years before by locusts fifteen and thirty feet wide crossing at right or worms. The undergrowth was cut off, angles. There were also six fractional brush fenees enclosed portions of the "cat- squares and three large irregular tracts in erpillar deadning," and during this and fol- the valley of Pogue's run. The present lowing years it was cultivated in corn and North, South, East and West streets, were vegetables by the settlers as a common field. not included in the original design. the plat Its existence was a great benefit, for it saved abutting directly against the undivided do- mueh heavy labor in cutting off dense tim- nation lands, but were added afterward by ber and was immediately available for culti- Judge Harrison at the suggestion of James vation. It yielded abundantly, game was: Blake, who said that fifty years afterward readily procured, and though considerable they would afford a fine four mile drive siekness occurred during the Summer and around the town and a half mile from its Fall, the people got along sith comparative centre. The donation outside the plat was comfort during the Fall and Winter of not laid off or divided, for no one supposed 1820. the town would ever extend beyond the
1>21 The legislature confirmed the plat, and no provision was made for it. It choice of site January 6, 1921, named the was afterward divided by the agent, under town Indianapolis, and appointed Christo- direction of the assembly, into large ont- pher Harrison, James Jones and Samuel P. blocks, with few and narrow roads or streets, Booker, commissioners to lay it off, direet-and sold for farms. The "sub-divisions" ing them to meet on the site first Monday are properly in the squares of the old plat in April, appoint surveyors and clerk, make and in these out-blocks, and the "addi- a survey, prepare two maps, and advertise tions" are properly outside of the donation and sell the alternate lots as soon as possi- limits. Unfortunately no rule has ever been ble, the money received from the sales tojadopted by the legislature or city council be set apart as a public building fund. At requiring sub-divisions, and especially ad- the appointed time Judge Harrison was the ditions, to conform generally to the city only commissioner here and the only one plat. Each owner has been left free to who acted. Elins P. Fordham and Alexan- regulate the size and shape of blocks and der Ralston had been selected as the sur-flots, and the width and direction of streets veyors, and Benjamin I. Blythe elerk. Mr. and alleys, to suit his own interest or con- Blyth became a resident of the town and venience, and as a natural consequence the was subsequently the agent. Of Fordham newest portions of our city are the most little is known. Ralston was an old bache-firregular and unsightly portions shown on lor, a talented Scotchman, and when young its map. A rule on this subject should be at had assisted in surveying Washington city. once adopted for the future, and large sums He was afterward connected with Burr's ex-|will have to be expended some day on pedition and on its failure remained in thelaccount of the failure to adopt it in the West. We are indebted to him for the reg- past. The city long since covered the do- ular plan, large squares, wide streets and nation, and its suburbs extend in most direc- diagonal avenues of the old plat. He after- tions from a half mile to a mile beyond, but ward settled here, highly esteemed for his the municipal government and revenues virtues and mental powers, and dying Jan-fare still restricted to the original donation uary 5, 1827, lies somewhere in the old limits. The old town plat was not located cemetery in an unmarked grave.
The surveying party having been organ- ized in April, the plan was determined on, ten feet west and five feet south of the sonth- the plat made and the survey begun. Theleast corner of the Palmer Honse Lot. The lines and corners of the four sections were surveyors found that if the centre of the traced out, with a fraction on the west bank to complete the 2,560 acres granted. A Iplat was fixed there too much of the plat would be thrown in Pogue's run valley, town plat one mile square was marked out then a most unpromising locality. In near the middle of the donation. A circle searching for a better point the natural lot of nearly four aeres in extent surroundedjelevation in the present circle was found by a street eighty feet wide occupied theland at once chosen. It was then covered centre, and from the outside corners of the with a fine grove of tall, straight sugar trees, blocks next to it avenues ninety feet wide which should have been preserved. The were drawn to the corners of the plat. The surveyors were much embarrassed in their other streets ran north and south and east|work by the bayous which then crossed the
in the center of the donation. The joint corner of the four sections is in the alley
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LGGAN'S HISTORY OF
donation in a north-east and south-west di- in September, 1422. The people were dis- rection, and by the dense thickets through satisfied with him and with his successor. which they had to cut their way. In some James Milroy, twho beld the office a fox places these bayou channels are not yet en- months and then resigned, because they did tirely obliterated, and portions of the old not become permanent residents of the town. thickets were found in protected spots till Bethuel F. Morris was appointed December 1850.
24, 1822; Benjamin I. Blythe Feburary 1,
The surveys and maps being completed, 1825; Ebenezor Sharpe April 8. 128, the lot sale was duly advertised and Held by dying September, 1838; John G. Brown Gen. John Carr, (the first State agent, who then held it a few months, being succeeded had reached here shortly before.) on the Jannary or February, 1835, by Thomas H. 10th of October, at a cabin on Washington Sharpe; John Cook, state librarian, held it street just west of the pressut canal. The'a short time in 1843-4, and the office was sale lasted nearly a week. The first day then transferred to the auditor of State Jan- was cold and raw with a high wind, and a nary, 1844, and the business closed up by man at the sale came near being killed by him.
a falling limb. There were many buyers Until 1821 the centre and north part of . present both citizens and strangers, and the State was included in Delaware county Carter's, Hawkins' and Nowland's taverns, yet unorganized but attached, for judicial as well as many of the private houses, were purposes, to Fayette and Wayne counties, thronged with guests ; competition was brisk whose courts had concurrent jurisdiction. and high prices were obtained. The main The people in the new purchase were svedl settlement was near the river, but lots to'and indicted in the courts at Connersville and the east and north sold best, for the unusual other points on Whitewater, and the costs sickness during the Summer and Fall : here-'often exceeded the debt, damages or fines. after mentioned ) had convinced the people Conflicts of jurisdiction also occurred, ill- they must leave the river neighborhood. feeling was aroused, and the people here Each four acre block was divided into 12 finally rebelled against it. To prevent lots 673 by 195 feet. and the alternate lots trouble the assembly, January 9, 1621, au- were reserved beginning with number one. thorized the appointment of two justices of Three hundred and fourteen lots in the cen- the peace for the new settlements, appeals tral and northern parts of the old plat were lying from them to the Bartholomew circuit sold for $35,596,25, one-fifth or $7,119,25.conrt. In April Governor Jemiings ap- down and the balance in four equal annual'pointed John Maxwell. of this place, a jur- installments. The lot west of court square tice of the peace. the first judicial officer on Washington street sold highest, $500, in the new purchase, but he resigned in and the similar lot west of state square June, and the citizens elected James Meti- brought $500. Intervening lots on the vain, who was duly commissioned in Orto- street sold from $100 to 8300. One hun- ber. His twelve foot cabin stood on the dred and sixty-nine lots sold at this timenorth-west corner of Pennsylvania and were afterward forfeited or exchanged by Michigan streets, where he held court, pipe the buyers for others. The reserved and in mouth, in his cabin door, the jury ranged forfeited lots were repeatedly offered at sub- in front on a fallen tree, and the first con- sequent periods, both at public and private stable, Corbaley, standing guard over the sale; but money was scarce. the town im- culprits, who nevertheless often escaped proved slowly, prices declined and for sev- through the woods. Calvin Fletcher was eral years few sales were made. Nineteen then the only lawyer, and the last judge in hundred acres of lots and land, remained all the knotty cases, the justice privately unsold as late as 1831, but were mostly dis- taking his advice as to their dispo-al. posed of in that year by order of the legis- There was no jail nearer than Connersville. lature, the minimum price being ten dollars and it being expensive and troublesome to per acre. The amount received up to 1842, send culprits there in charge of the con-ta- when the sales were ended and closed, was ble and posse, the plan was adopted of about $125,000, and from this fund the frightening them away. A case of this kind state house, court house, Governor's circle, ocenrred on Christmas, 1921. Four Ken- clerk's office and trea-urer's house and office tucky boatmen, who had "whipped their were built. General Carr received the weight in wild cats" on the Kanawha and money and made the deeds at the first sale. elsewhere, came from the bluffs to " Naplis" His cabin stood on Delaware street where to have a Christmas spree .. It began early, Hereth's block now stands, and the elections for the citizens were roused before dawn by were held and the courts began there till'a great uproar at Daniel Larkins elapboard the court house was built. He was appoint- grocery, which contained a barrel of whisky. ed in 1321 at a salary of 2600, but it was The four heroes were di-covered lu-ily em- reduced next year to $300, and he re-igned ployed in tearing it down. A request to
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INDIANAPOLIS FROM 1818.
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desist produced a volley of oaths, a display the country and the want of roads the st- of big knives, and an advance on the citi- tlement was almost entirely isolated. The zons, most of whom immediately found pres- national road had been designed to run fif- sing business elsewhere. They were inter- teen miles south of this point before the site ested, however, in the existence of the gro- was chosen, but the assembly, January 8. cery, and furthermore such defiance of law. 1521, memorialized congress, stating the lo- and order could not be tolerated. \ con- cation of the capital, and asking that it be sultation was held, resulting in the determi- made a point on the line. This was after- nation to take the rioters at all hazards. ward conceded, to the great joy of the peo- James Blake volunteered to grapple the ple, but the road was not commenced in this leader, a man of great size and strength, if State till 1830, and was abandoned in 1539 the rest would take the three others. The before its completion, leaving the town still attack was made, the party captured and in the mud. It is impossible, at present, marched under guard through the woods to with our railroads and good common roads, justice Meflvaine's cabin, where they were to realize the situation of the early settlers at once tried, heavily fined and ordered to after a Spring thaw or a long wet spell. jail at Connersville in default of payment of separated from civilization by sixty miles of bail. Payment was out of the question, and'mnd and shish, with unbridged streams. they could not be taken to Connersville at floating corduroys and fathomless mud that season of the year. Ostentatious pre- holes. Horse-back travel over the so called parations were made, however, for the trip, roads was often a serious business, and with the posse was selected for the journey next a team an impo-Ability. Intil a compara- day, a guard was placed over them with tively late period a "stage" often consisted secret instructions, and during the night the of the four wheels and axles, on which doughty heroes fled to more congenial balanced a crate containing one or two climes.
wet, muddy, half-frozen passengers. dragged
But the Fayette and Wayne county courts wearily into town by four or six horses still claimed jurisdiction, and the annoyance looking like animated masses of mud.
therefrom continued. Doubts existed as to! the legality of Maxwell and Mellvain's ap-)
The Summer of 1821 was distinguished by the general sickness resulting, it was pointments, and a meeting was held at thought, from the heavy fall of rain. It is Hawkins' log tavern, late in the Fall, to de- said that storms occurred every day in June, vise some remedy for the difficulty. It was July and August. Clouds would suddenly resolved to demand the organization of a'gather and send a deluge of water, then as new county, and James Blake and Dr. S. quickly break away, while the sun's rays G. Mitchell were selected as lobby members fairly scorched the drenched herbage, gen- to attend at Corydon and secure it.
erating miasmatic vapors with no wind to
The Summer of 1821 was noted for con-jcarry them off. Sickness began in July tinuous and heavy rains. There is little, but did not become general till after the 10th doubt that much more water fell forty years of August, on which day Matthias Nowland ago than now. Storms of wind, rain and had a raising, all the men in the settlement thunder, were more frequent and violent ; assisting. Remittant and intermittant te- streams rose higher and remained full vers, of a peculiar type, then began, and in longer; sections now dry were then very three weeks the community was prostrated. swampy ; and bayous ran bank full that are Thomas Chinn. Enoch Banks and Nancey now unknown. To travel even a few miles Hendricks, were the only persons who es- was sometimes a de-perate undertaking, and caped. Though so general the disease was teams were often stopped for weeks by high not deadly, about twenty-five only, mostly water. The whole country was wooded and children who had been too much exposed, wet; the air was damper, modifying the dying out of several hundred cases. The Winter cold and Summer heat; the wind few who could go about devoted their time generally came from the south and west, to the sick, and many instances of generous and the climate was milder and more uni- devoted friendship occurred. Their mutual form than now. As the timber and swamps suffering at this time bound the early sett- disappeared the air grew dryer, fogs were lers together in after life, and none recur to less frequent, winds had more sweep and'this period without emotion. New comers came oftener from the north, variations of were disheartened at the prospect, and some heat and cold increased, till at present the left the country circulating extravagant re- cultivation of peaches,-formerly a certain ports about the health of the town, greatly crop,-has been abandoned; and if the retarding its subsequent growth. Disease change continues with the deforesting of that year was general in the West. It was the country, it is questionable whether other little greater here than elsewhere, and the crops besides peaches will not be lo-t. ¡relative mortality was scarcely so great. It In consequence of the wet condition of abated here by the end of October, the gen-
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