USA > Indiana > A History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922 > Part 9
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My brethren, how tame does language sound in speaking of Blythe Hynes, as we always loved to call him. How feeble are words in the analysis of a character so well rounded so complete, so lovable as his.
Yet the custom of attempting to honor the dead by the passage of appropriate resolutions, by the utterance of mournful sentiments, is old and honorable.
If the traditions of the Bar are preserved, as no doubt they will be, this occasion shall also surely come to us. Our survivors, forgetting all the evil of our lives, will hereafter, in graceful rhetoric chronicle for us also the good that we have done. May we live our lives that those who will perform this duty for us shall be able as truthfully to say all that is honorable, all that is of good report of each of us, as we can before God and man speak well today of Blythe Hynes.
Harrison Kiger who belonged to the period preceding the Civil war, and is referred to in the record in the Longworth suit, gives a glimpse in his testimony into the best society of Evansville in 1851 when as a witness meeting the testimony of young Miles then in Ev- ansville for the purpose of platting and selling the Longworth tract in lots (delayed by Kiger for nearly 20 years) he describes meeting Miles on a social occasion at the residence of Mr. Samuel G. Clifford.
Mr. Clifford was a highly educated man from New England and was described to the writer by one who knew him as a polished gen- tleman of the old school much resembling in many respects his son, the late Alexander Clifford, who married Miss Lillie Foster, the sister of the late John W. Foster, also his son Dr. George S. Clifford, of this city who married Miss Emily Orr.
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Samuel G. Clifford married Miss Grant of Covington, sister of Mrs. George S. Sonntag, in whose family Clifford's children men- tioned, also their sister Amy Clifford Nelson, were reared, on the early death of their parents. Another of the Grant sisters married John Henry Morgan of Morgan Bros., a man of much prominence in the business world, and who in the sixties was the first man to intro- duce in this section fine stock, including blooded cattle of the Jersey and Alderney breed, which was of permanent value to the farmers in Vanderburgh and adjoining counties.
Morgan's palatial residence on Water Street, now Riverside Ave- nue, was one of the attractive social centers of Evansville for a gen- eration, where frequent entertainments were presided over by his wife and daughters, Amy Viele, Margaret Gray and the late Bessie Chand- ler and their friends, but the men who recall those revelries of the sixties carry on their heads the evidence of snows of many winters.
PIGEON SPRINGS
The oldest place for amusement in Evansville, now nearly one hundred years old, is the salt wells, by which name it is still known to the old inhabitants, though in its best days it was known as Pigeon Springs Resort, located on Pigeon Creek south of and adjoining Mary- land Street. The success attending the boring for salt water in 1824 was the occasion of rejoicing and congratulation, as salt works were preceded by such boring, and salt works which meant cheap salt near at hand at that time was a matter of the greatest importance in frontier settlements. Even the people in Henderson County, Kentucky, and farther south, walked to Terre Haute, Indiana, to get salt, which had to be carried in sacks on horseback, or by wagon. A good statement of how this event was viewed by the citizens of the town of Evans- ville appears in an editorial in the Evansville Gazette of that date, which reads as follows :
"Editorial Sept. 9, 1824.
"It is with much pleasure we announce to the public the success which has attended the indefatiguable exertions of Messrs. James W. Jones and Elisha Harrison in the pursuit of Salt Water near this place, in about one mile and a half from Evansville, and within one mile of the Ohio River.
"They perforated a solid rock to the depth of 463 feet when (after passing several small veins of salt water), they struck a large vein very highly impregnated with salt. Its strength is believed to be not inferior to any heretofore obtained in the Western country, and in such abundance that it is hoped there will be a sufficiency from this single well to supply two furnaces of 50 kettles each.
"Much credit is due these gentlemen for their unwearied exertions. The difficulties which they have had to encounter were immense, and the money expended considerable, and it is hoped that the advantages to be derived to the community as well as to themselves will be very great.
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PIGEON SPRINGS, ONE MILE WEST OF EVANSVILLE, 1845. NOW KNOWN AS SALT WELLS
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HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
"When we take into consideration the promising aspect of the town of Evansville, the tolerably healthfulness of its situation, and that of the adjacent country (the improper representations abroad to the contrary notwithstanding) its well known advantage as a place of landing and deposit, added to the advantages of which the present prospect of a valuable saline establishment in its immediate neighbor- hood, we are led to hope that ere long, we will be able to assume a rank of distinguished eminence amongst the villages of the Western country."
For nearly ninety-nine years this place has been an attraction as a resort or place of amusement, and in the early days it had the inevit- able tavern and entertainment required by law for a tavern, including food and drink for man and beast. In the early forties, the property was owned by Nathan Rowley (associated with Thomas Gifford), one of the most practical and forceful men in Evansville, who came to Evansville in 1821, who was continuously associated in one form or another with many matters of public interest for forty years, and who lived through till after the Civil war, when the writer distinctly re- members him, a very old man much stooped, who walked with the aid of a cane. He was many years a Justice and is spoken of by the old citizens as Squire Rowley.
Nathan Rowley took the contract for building the last eight miles of the Wabash and Erie Canal into Evansville, and completed the work with wheelbarrows and shovels. Thomas Smyth, father of the late Henry B. Smyth, and grandfather of Mrs. Mabel Bell, wife of Sam Bell, auditor of Vanderburgh County, married Rowley's daugh- ter, and was one of the captains who ran a canal boat through from Evansville to Lake Erie during the short period that it was operated the entire distance. Henry B. Smyth, who died in 1922, remembered in his early youth that when school vacations came in June for several years his father used to close his house in Evansville and take his mother with him, the only child, by canal boat the round trip between Evansville and Lake Erie.
Mr. Guy Ashley, who was born at the salt wells property says Nathan Rowley sent to his (Ashley's) father, the late Henry Ashley, in England the lithograph of the Pigeon Springs, elsewhere published, which so impressed him that he came to America and at Rowley's suggestion lived a while on the grounds, and occasionally worked on the canal. With Rowley was associated Thomas Gifford, an English- man of means and of good family, who was a prominent man in the social life of Evansville, and also in the English Settlement, who died recently in California.
It is related by William Warren, who married his niece, the pres- ent Mrs. Warren, that he fancied a pretty girl in the English settle- ment, and directed his attentions in that locality, but so often found the horse of Levy Igleheart, Jr., who lived some ten or fifteen miles east in Warrick County, tied to the fence at the lady's house, that he vowed on one occasion the next time he found that horse tied there he would quit going himself. In the sequel, Gifford died an old bachelor
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and the lady was the mother of the three older present members and officers of Igleheart Brothers Milling Corporation of this city.
The salt wells road often mentioned as a land mark in the county and town records, ran direct from the town about one mile north to the resort. June 19, 1845, the following advertisement is found in the Evansville Journal :
"Pigeon Springs.
"Pigeon Springs advertised by Rowley and Gifford, as a Health Resort. One mile from' Evansville on Pigeon Creek. Southern pa- tronage solicited. Hotel accommodations first class. Wild game of all kinds in the forest surrounding the Springs. The buildings are all new, large and well planned. Bowling saloons and a bar apart from the main building in a shady grove. The proprietors invite Southern- ers to call and examine this establishment, etc.
"(Signed) ROWLEY & GIFFORD."
"The New Orleans Picayune will publish the above daily and weekly one month and send paper containing it with bill to the proprietors."
A cut of this resort at that time is elsewhere found in this volume.
Mr. William Warren who married Eliza H. Bethel, daughter of Thomas and Maria Gifford Bethel of Newburgh, narrates a scrap of social history told him by Mrs. Bethel, that during the Mexican War the salt wells was a prominent resort, and had its proper accommoda- tions winter and summer, and that she was then living there with her brother, Thomas Gifford. That Captain Thomas Bethel; of New- burgh, while during the war and temporarily in Evansville stopped at this resort and rode backwards and forwards from Evansville horse- back in full uniform, a commanding figure, a circumstance later fol- lowed by their marriage.
The first line of street cars built in Evansville, drawn by mules and horses was constructed to the salt wells from the central part of the city by the road still used by the electric railway line, and the same property is now used and fitted up in modern and extensive scale as the leading place of outdoor summer entertainment for the people of Evansville and visitors, and is known as Pleasure Park.
The Exchange Hotel
The Journal of April 10, 1845, contains an advertisement by C. K. Drew as proprietor of the Exchange Hotel, located on Water Street and extending through to First Street. The building was built by George White, father of the late Dr. Isaac White, and contained a large hall. For many years this hotel was a social center in Evans- ville. This property is identified in a suit brought in 1842, elsewhere referred to, in which the real estate is described as lot No. 25 and the adjoining half of lot No. 26, Old Plan of Evansville, which for a num- ber of years had been the leading hotel for the entertainment of guests, including the traveling public, with all of the fittings of the old time tavern, including a well equipped bar, together with ample dining room and dancing hall which had been, as it continued afterwards to
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be, the central point for amusements of that class among the better element in the town of Evansville.
Bull's Head Tavern.
There are a few persons only still living who remember the old Bull's Head Tavern which was prominent in the early and middle fifties, perhaps earlier. It was located on a large tract of land now bounded for a long distance by Main Street from Eighth Street to Amity and Williams Streets. Williams Street was originally Row- ley's Lane, extending from Main Street to Nathan Rowley's farm, which was a forty-acre tract, now known as the Northeastern Enlarge- ment to the City of Evansville, platted by Nathan Rowley.
Bull's Head property was bounded on the east by what is now known as the Chicago and Eastern Illinois railroad yards, occupied by the passenger station and tracks leading north. The Tavern was a large two-story frame building with a two-story porch in front of the entire building, which contained the bar and a large dining room and dancing hall, and was fitted up as a tavern with all requirements for eating and drinking for man and beast, which the law then compelled tavern keepers to provide for the accommodation of the public. There was a long row of stables on the rear of the premises with accommoda- tions for horses, wagons and buggies, where farmers and travelers were accustomed to leave their teams while in the city ; also a number of rooms for lodging guests with ample dining room facilities, and at the end of the stables was a ten pin alley.
When Bull's Head Tavern was first opened, there is no record. It probably was in the forties, possibly even earlier, as Nathan Rowley acquired his property in the twenties, and elsewhere speaks of the neighborhood as attracting attention. Many sedate citizens used to gather here at night for social purposes, especially card playing. Here was the fashionable dance hall of the town, or city, as it was in the fifties, a reference to which is found in Mrs. Shanklin's paper else- where in this volume. Alvin B. Carpenter, brother of Willard Car- penter, became the owner of it some time in the fifties, and later in the fifties occupied it as a residence during his residence in Evans- ville. He later moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, where he died. He was a man of much prominence in the commercial world, a man of large means, as was his brother, Willard Carpenter, who endowed Willard Library. Later John Law, one of the prominent men of southern In- diana when the Bull's Head ceased to be used as a tavern lived in it with his family, which included among other children, Carrie Law, later Mrs. David J. Mackey, and Edward E. Law, recently deceased. The original location was upon the state road from Evansville to Princeton and beyond, a road much traveled from a very early period, which ran from Eighth and Main Streets to Pennsylvania Street, and at Pennsylvania Street turned diagonally across the one hundred and sixty-acre tract known for a generation vacant as the Nicholas Long- worth tract, until sold by his heirs to Cincinnati merchants, who platted the Heidelbach and Elsas Enlargement to the City of Evans-
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ville, and the state road was from the time of such platting within the limits of the enlargement vacated, and Main Street was turned to run due north to the present entrance to Gavin Park. After Judge Law moved from this location, it was again occupied for tavern purposes, but its best days had passed, the city had outgrown it, and it was used for more humble tenants until A. B. Carpenter, still its owner, tore it down.
Belle Vue.
During the fifties of the last century, and later till after the Civil war, how much earlier is not recorded, a pleasant resort known as Belle Vue was maintained just below the mouth of Pigeon Creek on the Ohio River. At the present time the Louisville and Nashville Railroad track crosses Pigeon Creek near its mouth, and parallels the leading road near the river west of Pigeon Creek, almost its entire length, and before the days of automobile travel had almost practic- ally destroyed the commercial value of the real estate near the mouth of Pigeon Creek on both sides of the creek, except for manufactories and railroad switching purposes. Previous to that time travel from the west, from Union Township, from the Henderson Ferry and the Lower Mount Vernon Road entered Evansville over the wagon bridge at the mouth of Pigeon Creek, but when the railroad constructed a railroad bridge immediately adjoining the wagon bridge, the location was too dangerous for travel with horses and travel moved farther north crossing Pigeon Creek from the west on Franklin Street bridge. Previous to this interference with travel by vehicles and horses, there was located on the west side of Pigeon Creek near its mouth on the road leading west, after crossing the bridge, a place of amusement known as Belle Vue.
The building was a one-story frame building, to which were at- tached a saloon and dancing hall with an outdoor garden, garden lat- ticed on the street side, Saturday nights and Sunday the young people of both sexes gathered for dancing and general recreation. The young men were under no fear of police in their sometimes boisterous demon- trations when imbibing too freely of liquor. It was quite common for the dance to break up in a fight, in which the regular leaders and habi- tuees found an excuse to eliminate outsiders, who were on such occa- sions regarded with suspicion. While the place was regarded by the Puritan uptown element as something like a "bowery" resort across the creek, no very serious injuries generally resulted than a black eye, or other mere bruises.
The late Sebastian Henrich, one of Evansville's model citizens, in his old age with a smile described one of those scenes to which he hap- pened to be a witness. On one occasion as an innocent spectator, he - saw a fight start where the young men were under the influence of liquor, and someone near him was knocked down, and he was thought to be the assailant by some drunk rowdy, who started toward him call- ing out, "Kill him." Driven by the crowd, Henrich rushed to the creek immediately in front of the house and jumped into a skiff in the water, luckily ready, and pulled himself across the Ohio River to the Ken-
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tucky shore, and waited several hours till his friends came after him. However, the Turners held their meetings here, and respectable peo- ple frequented the place as a pleasure resort.
Pelzer Garden.
Located a short distance east of the salt wells in Jacobsville, near Dunk's Lane, was a place of amusement very similar in character and operation to the Belle Vue Garden. It remained until after the Civil war, how long before that period it was in existence, is not recorded. In close proximity was Dunk's greenhouse, established at a very early period in Jacobsville, and one of the pioneer establishments of that character in the city and county.
The Jacobsville settlement was itself a very old one. The elder Jacobs was one of the first settlers near the city of Evansville, and owned a farm and he and his descendants were active workers in the building of the city. Among these descendants are Mrs. Elizabeth McGhee Bush and Mrs. Nellie Jacobs Bittroff, as well as a number of other descendants who live in Evansville.
EVANSVILLE LIBRARIES
"No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so last- ing."-Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
So also must have thought the little group of men who first lighted the library torch in Evansville.
The Evansville Library Association, established "to promote the diffusion of useful knowledge by means of a library and reading room and by public lectures," was incorporated August 10th, 1855, with a capital of $30,000. One thousand shares, at $30 each, were issued.
On the 18th of August the following officers were chosen: for president, John Ingle, Sr .; vice-president, Conrad Baker; recording secretary, George Foster ; corresponding secretary, James Harlan, Jr .; treasurer, Samuel Bayard; directors, G. W. Rathbone, J. E. Blythe, G. Copeland, W. E. Hollingsworth, William Heilman.
The library, located in the second story of Judge Foster's building at the corner of First and Main Streets, was opened to subscribers, December 1st, 1855, with John F. Crisp in charge.
According to the By-laws, the library was to be open every day from 8 A. M. until 9 P. M. excepting Sundays, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. The privileges of the li- brary were extended, not only to stockholders, but also to persons not stockholders, for the term of one year on the payment of $5. The librarian was required by the By-laws to give security in the sum of $500 for the faithful discharge of his duties. One of the By-laws reads as follows:
"He shall deliver upon the application, or the written order of any stockholder or subscriber, whose name has been registered and dues paid, one book, if it be a folio, quarto or octavo, and one book or set of books, not exceeding three volumes, if it be duodecemio or of smaller size."
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In 1864 "Constitution, By-laws, Regulations of the Reading Room and Catalog of Books of the Evansville Library Association," was pub- lished by order of the Board of Directors. Under rules and regula- tions we find :
"Members will not be allowed to remove books from the shelves for examination. But the librarian will bring any book or books to the tables when requested by a member."
The printed catalog of this period is most interesting. No system of classification was used, but the books as they came into the library were numbered and placed on the shelves consecutively.
Four hundred dollars worth of books had been purchased when the library was first opened. Later other books were added to the collec- tion, but as the years went by money became more scarce and as a consequence the book stock became more and more dilapidated and out-of-date.
By 1874 a general lack of interest led the stockholders to donate the property of the Association to the city.
The council turned the responsibility over to the school board which at that time was composed of Dr. H. W. Cloud, J. H. Polsdorfer, and Luke Wood.
In "Evansville, Her Commerce and Manufactures," published in 1874, C. E. Robert says: "The City Council having ordered a tax of one cent to be levied annually (amounting this year to about $2,400) the institution has been placed on a more substantial and promising footing."
New books were ordered and the collection was housed in a building at the corner of Seventh and Vine Streets. This library was known as the Evansville City Library, and its collection of 9,600 vol- umes later formed the nucleus of the Willard Library.
In the meantime the Evansville Catholic Library Association was organized in March, 1869, for the purpose of disseminating "useful knowledge that would aid in the strengthening and upbuilding of the church." It was set up in rooms at the Church of the Assumption, but has long since passed out of existence.
Into oblivion has also passed the Vanderburgh County and Pigeon Township Libraries, both organized under old state laws, in the early days of the city. These were housed in the court house, and each in its time played an important part in the intellectual life of the community.
In 1873 Mr. Willard Carpenter conceived the idea of founding a college for the city of Evansville. After consulting with various citi- zens, Mr. Carpenter found that the funds available would be inade- quate to build, equip and endow such an institution as he desired. He therefore decided to substitute a library, and a board of trustees was appointed. In a letter written to the trustees August 23rd, 1876, he says :
"I am induced to do this in the well-grounded hope that such an institution may become useful toward the improvement of the moral and intellectual culture of the inhabitants of Evansville and collaterally
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to those of the state of Indiana ; and also toward the enlargement and diffusion of a taste for the fine arts.
"I have directed skilled attorneys to prepare a deed conveying the property therein described, estimated by me to be worth the sum of $400,000.
"I desire and direct that the building for the public library hereby proposed shall be located on that portion of the property which is generally known as Carpenter's Field, the remainder of said tract of land known as Carpenter's Field shall be forever kept as a public park."
The first board of trustees consisted of : Thomas E. Garvin, Alex- ander Gilchrist, Henry F. Blount, John Laval, Matthew Henning, Charles H. Butterfield.
October 26th, 1876, the property involved was deeded by Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter to the trustees of the Williard Library.
In a statement made by the trustees in June, 1915, we find this paragraph :
"The value placed upon this property by Mr. Carpenter was $400,000. It was probably worth as much as that sum before the slump occurred in the selling prices of real estate which resulted from the panic of 1873. As a result of these conditions the value of this real estate was not more than $200.00."
The foundations of the building were constructed in 1877, but fi- nancial troubles interferred with further work until 1882. The build- ing was completed in the fall of 1884 and the library was opened March 28th, 1885. Mr. Carpenter died November 6th, 1883, before the great dream of his life was fully realized.
Miss Otilda Goslee was the first librarian and under her direction and that of her successor, Miss Katherine Imbush, the Willard Li- brary has grown through the succeeding years in number of books, equipment and usefulness.
However, as the city extended its boundaries and as thinking men and women became more acutely aware of the children's book needs, it seemed no longer possible to serve the whole community from one library building.
Therefore, on March 9th, 1909, the West Side Business Associa- tion appointed a committee consisting of E. L. Craig, Dr. George W. Varner, and Charles F. Werner, for the purpose of getting a library for the West Side. Mr. Craig, as chairman of the committee, entered into negotiations with Mr. Carnegie. As the correspondence proceed- ed, the idea expanded, and finally resulted in Mr. Craig's asking Mr. Carnegie for four branch libraries; one to be located on the South Side, one on the North Side, one in Howell, and one on the West Side. Months went by while Mr. Carnegie investigated the library resources and possibilities of Evansville.
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