USA > Indiana > A history of Indiana from its exploration to 1850 > Part 21
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The settlements on the Whitewater were keeping pace with those farther to the west. Wayne was the most popu- lous county of the State. The first sale of lots in Richmond took place in August, 1816.34 By 1822 it had 410 inhabit- ants with factories, stores, and two newspaper presses. It was the seat of the annual meeting of the Quakers, who had built a house for that purpose one hundred feet long by sixty feet wide and two stories high.35
33 D. D. Banta, A Historical Sketch of Johnson County.
34 Nile's Register, February 9, 1822, and April 3, 1824.
35 Richmond Intelligencer, Aug. 28, 1822. Western Sun, April 21, 1821.
"Through the politeness of Colonel John Vawter, marshal for the State of Indiana, we have been favored with following census:" Clark 5950
3709
Fayette
Crawford
2583
Floyd
2776
Daviess
2432
Franklin
10763
Dearborn
11468
Gibson 3876
Delaware
3677
Harrison 7875
244
HISTORY OF INDIANA
The sale of county lots at New Castle, seat of Henry county, took place August 5, 1822. Trading posts and squatters were stationed all along the upper course of White river as far as Muncietown.
As noted in a previous chapter, Indianapolis was se- lected by the General Assembly to become the State capital. Gen. John Carr, the State Agent, opened the first sale of lots from the "Donation" October 8, 1821. There was at that time a considerable village with three taverns. Squat- ters had located in the neighborhood as early as 1820. The spring of 1820 saw a rush of settlers to the place.36
The Richmond Ledger, October 22, 1825, said the tide of immigration had never before set so hard toward Indi- ana. For days the main street (National Road) had been thronged with persons moving west, principally from Ohio, They appeared to be of the thrifty, well-to-do class, driv- ing large flocks of sheep and horned cattle. The Bloom- ington Gazette, October 8, 1825, stated that there was scarcely a day but throngs of movers passed through town on their way to White river and the Wabash. The Indiana Journal, at Indianapolis, October 11, said there had passed that town daily for the last four or five weeks, twenty to thirty families, coming from Ohio and going to the Wa-
Jackson
4010
Scott
2334
Jefferson
8038
Spencer
1882
Jennings
2000
Sullivan
3498
Knox
5437
Switzerland
3934
Lawrence
4116
Vanderburg
1398
Martin
1032
Vigo
3390
Monroe
2679
Wabash
147
Owen
838
Warrick
1749
Orange
5368
Washington
2039
Perry
2330
Wayne
12119
Pike
1472
No returns from Dubois
Posey
4061
Estimated
1500
Randolph
1808
Ripley
1812
Total
147,600
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
36 J. H. B. Nowland, Early Reminiscences of Indianapolis; Berry R. Sulgrove, History of Indianapolis and Marion County; Nile's Register, XXII, 48; Western Sun, Nov. 8, 1823, gives a notice of the remarkable growth of the town; see also issue of Nov. 3, 1821. A series of articles in the Indiana Journal, Nov. 4, 1846, to Mar. 22, 1847, by a pioneer gives an excellent account of the founding of the capital.
245
THE GOVERNMENT AT CORYDON
bash. All seemed in good circumstances. Similar reports came from many other towns in the State.
The entries of land at the land office witness the rush of immigrants. In 1816 a land sale opened at Vincennes and in three weeks about 1,500 tracts had been sold for over half a million dollars. Vincennes and Jeffersonville were the leading land offices in the United States in the amount of business. By 1821 this activity had shifted to Brookville, as a result of the opening of the "New Pur- chase." The latter office, for 1821, took the lead, selling in that year over $200,000 worth of land.37 By the close of the period the office at Crawfordsville was handling the rush and setting a record for the United States in the sale of lands.38
Various means of transportation and travel were in use. A great many of the poorer class, including a large propor- tion of the young men, traveled on foot. The movers usu- ally had wagons drawn by horses or more often by oxen. Accompanying each wagon or train of wagons, for they often "moved" in companies, were droves of cattle, sheep, and hogs attended by the younger men and boys. A trav- eler on the traces met "movers" going and coming. Hun- dreds came to the frontiers, lured by the glowing adver- tisements, only to be scared out on arrival by the sickness prevailing everywhere, and by the amount of hard work and harder living everywhere necessary. Thus discour- aged, they soon retraced their journey, A tavern keeper on the New Albany-Vincennes road stated that upwards of 5,000 souls had passed his tavern on the way to Missouri during the year 1819.39 Many of these returned imme- diately.
37 This office was located part of the time at Indianapolis.
38 For the land office reports see American State Papers, Finance V. index.
The following table shows lands sold in State. 1820-1825.
Acres.
Acres.
1820
162,490
1823
165.046
1821
264,578
1824
154.558
1822
252,982
1825 162,270
39 W. Faux, Journal of a Tour to the United States, (1823), 212.
(17
246
HISTORY OF INDIANA
As early as the spring of 1820 a Mr. Foyles projected a stage line from Vincennes to Louisville, making the trip between 6 a. m. Wednesday and 1 p. m. Friday. This was said to be the first stage in Indiana.4º A post stage carry- ing United States mail was established between Louisville and Vincennes April 10, 1824. It left the former place at noon Saturday and arrived, if on time, at Vincennes Tues- day, at 9 a. m., returning to Louisville by Thursday, 6 p. m. The distance was 1071/2 miles and the fare $8.00. By May 4, this had been extended on to St. Louis, and on July 14, a branch line started from Vincennes by way of Princeton to Evansville. It made the trip between 8 a. m. Wednes- day and 5 p. m. Thursday.41
Other important traces led from Yellowbanks, north through Spencer county and Dubois, to Washington; from Troy to Paoli; from Leavenorth to Paoli; from Mauk's Ferry via Corydon, Salem, Vallonia, Columbus, and Frank- lin to Indianapolis; from New Albany, via Salem, Orleans, Bedford, Bloomington, and Gosport to the Wabash or to Indianapolis ; from Madison to Columbus; from Madison to Greensburg; and last and most used was the Cincinnati- Whitewater road to Indianapolis. In the later years of this period the National road began to be used. With the exception of the National road and the Vincennes road, the roads mentioned were mere unimproved traces through the forest, on which a stranger might count himself fortunate if he were not "lost" half the time. Ferries were uncom- mon and dangerous, fords at most seasons deep and muddy. Through the heavy timber these traces rarely dried out. In dodging the mudholes the drivers zigzagged hither and thither among the trees, making the location of the road all the more bewildering to the traveler.42
Business during this period was usually active, due to the demands of the incoming settlers. A person coming up the river from New Orleans counted 643 loaded flat-
40 Vincennes Centinel, April 15, 1820.
41 Western Sun, Nov. 8, 1823; May 1, 1824; July 10, 1824.
42 Indiana Gazetteer, 1849. 125, gives the experiences of Samuel Mer- rill going from Corydon to Indianapolis in 1825.
247
THE GOVERNMENT AT CORYDON
boats on their way down.43 The steamer "United States," launched at Jeffersonville May 15, 1819, was the largest on the western rivers. It was 166 feet long, 700 tons burden.44 However, from 1819 to 1824, the export trade, as it was called, was dead. Grain rotted in the fields or in the stacks. There was no demand for it at New Orleans and there was no money to move it had there been a demand. Business men were unable even to pay the revenue on such goods as were taxed by the federal government. The General As- sembly petitioned Congress not to prosecute for such viola- tions.45 There was due from land buyers at Jeffersonville January 1, 1819, $1,021,834; at Vincennes, $1,390,909.46 Congress from time to time passed laws in the hope of aid- ing public land debtors. The price of land was lowered from two dollars per acre to one and one-quarter. This immediately ruined all land values in the State, and made the hard times harder.47 Half the State taxes were de- linquent.
The years 1820-1822 were pestilential throughout Indi- ana. Promising towns like Palestine and Hindostan were swept from the map. Vevay, Rising Sun, Jeffersonville, and Vincennes were almost deserted. Yellow fever from the south joined forces with ague, malaria, and milk-sick- ness to desolate the frontier.48
43 Nile's Register, July 11, 1818.
44 Vincennes Centinel, May 22, 1819.
45 Annals 14 Congress, 1st Session, 31.
46 Letters from Nathaniel Ewing in American State Papers, Finance, III, 734.
47 American State Papers, Finance, III, 782; Logan Esarey, State Banking in Indiana, 221. To add to the losses at Vincennes the large steam mill, the largest in the State, burned Feb. 10, 1821. "A few years past Vincennes' was the very emblem of prosperity ; every wind wafted her some good. Our houses were filled with inhabitants, our streets were crowded with citizens, the noisy hum of business resounded in our ears. All was life and activity. How sadly is the picture re- versed. More than one-third of our dwelling houses are destitute of inhabitants, our population has decreased nearly or quite one-half, our real property has suffered a greater diminution. Buildings, that a few years ago rented for $200 or $300 per annum now rent for $50 to $100. An universal despondency prevails." Western Sun, Feb. 16, 1822.
48 Indiana Gazetteer, 1850, 118-119; Indiana Magazine of History, X, No. 2, "Hindoostan."
248
HISTORY OF INDIANA
§ 47 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
BESIDE the ordinary American pioneers who flocked to Indiana there were a few representatives of the peculiar religious and economic ideas then prevalent in the East.
During the summer of 1814 the Harmonie Community of Economy, Pennsylvania, sold out their interests in the old home and bought a large tract of land, 17,000 acres, in Posey county. Here they cleared fields, built capacious barns, established factories run by steam. By 1817 they had 200 acres of wheat, large vineyards, rye, barley, oats, and pasture fields, with 1,500 Merino sheep and other stock in proportion. In their factories were produced broad- cloth, tinware, shoes, saddles, flour, beer, and other com- modities.
From their leader, Frederick Rappe, they were called Rappites. Their general customs were like those of the Shakers. All property was held in common. No bad com- pany was allowed; although they made beer, no one drank any of it. There were no marriages, and no children. For a few years it was the most noted place in the State.49
Several communities more or less like the Harmonie located in different parts of the State. As noticed previ- ously, in Vevay a colony of Swiss from Canton Vaud, Swit- zerland, were cultivating the vine and prospering enough to attract the attention of the eastern newspapers. Their boats annually carried a valuable cargo to the New Orleans market. Besides wine they produced hay, and straw hats for the southern market.50
Little was accomplished in the way of carrying out the plan of public education provided in the Constitution. The liberal grant of public land by the United States brought no present aid. There was so much cheap public land on the market that the school lands could neither be sold nor rented to advantage. A law of 1816 permitted twenty household- ers in a congressional township to organize and open a
49 Western Sun, Feb. 13, 1819. Samuel Merrill, Indiana Gazetteer, 1850, 334. Rapp sold to Robert Dale Owen in 1825; see also Geo. B. Lockwood, The New Harmony Movement.
50 Nile's Register, Aug. 23, and Nov. 29, 1817.
-
249
THE GOVERNMENT AT CORYDON
school. A law of 1824 incorporated the congressional town- ship and vested in its board title to the school lands. These trustees are the legal ancestors of our school directors, and this was the beginning of our district school system under the general supervision of the township trustee. Little was done on account of lack of revenues.
At the same session, 1816, a law was passed by the Gen- eral Assembly providing for the organization of a seminary in each county. The instruction in these schools was sup- posed to be rather advanced and would prepare the stu- dents for the State Seminary which had been provided for by the law of 1820, and which was opened at Bloomington for students May 1, 1824. It required years of work on the part of the pioneers to find money, materials, and teach- ers to make this ambitious plan a living institution.51
Itinerant teachers opened private schools in many places. Mrs. Wood, in 1818, advertising a boarding school at Vincennes in which she taught sewing, marking, and muslin work in addition to the common branches-an early instance of manual training. Jean Jean advertised for pu- pils in French and Latin. Horace Harding taught portrait painting. Bishop Flaget opened a girls' school in 1823. The old Vincennes Academy flourished also during this period.
A State-wide medical society was organized in 1819. An organization of the churches had for its purpose the plac- ing of a Bible in every home in the State. Almost every new town that was laid out in the wilderness made provision for a public library. A reading room was provided at Vin- cennes in which several newspapers from the east and even from Europe could be found. One is surprised, not at the meager facilities for education, but at the universal interest in it and the many ways in which the interest was shown.52
The politics of the young State centered around two
51 Laws of Indiana, 1816, 1820, 1824; Baynard R. Hall, The New Purchase; William A. Rawles, Centralizing Tendencies in the Adminis- tration of Indiana; Theophilus A. Wylie, Indiana University, Its His- tory; R. G. Boone, History of Education in Indiana.
52 For a good idea of this activity read the Western Sun, and the Centincl of Vincennes, and the Indiana Republican of Madison. No copies of the Corydon papers of this period are available.
250
HISTORY OF INDIANA
questions. The first in importance was the policy of the national government toward the public land. The great majority of the settlers bought their land on credit. With the failure of the markets during the hard times from 1818 to 1823, many became embarrassed and not a few lost their partially paid-for land. In response to their petitions Con- gress first gave them extra time on their payments, then reduced the prices of land, and as a final measure allowed purchasers, unable to complete their payments, to forfeit their land and take a due-bill for money already paid, which could then be used in the purchase of land at any future time.
The second political issue of importance to Indianians was internal improvements. The pioneers were very anx- ious to have the national government open up the streams and help build roads. William Hendricks, the first con- gressman of the State, was their champion in both these measures. He was without question the most popular man in the State, though Governor Jennings was the shrewdest politician.
In 1817 the political opponents of Hendricks brought out Ex-Governor Posey as a candidate for Congress, but Hendricks was reelected to Congress by an overwhelming majority. In 1819 Lieutenant Governor Christopher Har- rison made the race against Jennings for the governorship, but was badly defeated.53
In 1822 William Hendricks succeeded Jennings as gov- ernor and Jennings became congressman in place of Hen- dricks.
The first real political contest in the State took place in 1824 between the supporters of Clay, Adams, and Jack- son for the presidency.54 For the first time there was county organization and platforms with handbills for the voters.
In general the sympathies of the pioneers were for the
53 Western Sun, Nov. 14, 1818; Dec. 26, 1818; July 24, 1819; May 1, 1819; May 22, 1819; Nile's Register, Sept. 25, 1819.
54 The electors in 1816 and in 1820 were appointed by the General Assembly.
251
THE GOVERNMENT AT CORYDON
rough and rugged Jackson. It was known that Jackson opposed the banks, and, on that ground, received the sup- port of great numbers of financially embarrassed settlers who attributed the scarcity of money to the manipulation of bankers. These men held a State convention at Salem, September 16, 1824, and nominated an electoral ticket and appointed a State committee to conduct the campaign.55 The business men and the well-to-do farmers usually favored Clay on account of his position on the tariff and internal improvements. Indiana voters favored both these measures throughout the early period.
Adams stood well with the lawyers and other profes- sional men and was the favorite among the Quakers and other settlers on the Whitewater. The result showed the great popularity of Jackson. He received 7,343 votes, Clay 5,315, and Adams 3,093.56 Jackson received his highest vote in Washington county, Clay his highest in Jefferson, and Adams his in Wayne. The total vote was light, being only 15,751, out of a voting population of more than twice that number.
The young State was receiving some attention, however, from the east and was not being slighted by politicians. In 1817 Henry Clay visited the State and was entertained by the city of Vincennes.57 In 1819 while President James Monroe was making a tour of the west he, in company with General Andrew Jackson, stopped at Jeffersonville and was escorted by the State militia out to Corydon, where a bar- becue was prepared.58 But most sumptuous of all was the banquet tendered General Lafayette at Jeffersonville April 16, 1825.59
The opponents of slavery had had no difficulty in the constitutional convention in barring slavery from the State, but they could not so easily free the State from embarrass- ment on this subject.
Trouble arose from three sources. A great many col-
55 Western Sun, Sept. 25, 1824.
56 Western Sun, Dec. 4, 1824.
57 Western Sun, June 7, 1817; Nile's Register, June 6, 1817.
58 Centinel, July 17, 1819; Indiana Republican, July 3. 1819.
59 Western Sun, Apr. 23 : Apr. 30; May 28; and July 2. 1825.
252
HISTORY OF INDIANA
ored men, who had by various means secured their freedom in the South, came to Indiana to live. As a rule they be- came paupers and a charge on the county. So many cases of this kind had occurred that when W. E. Summers of Williamson county, Tennessee, asked permission of the First Assembly to buy homes and settle his forty freedmen in Indiana the question caused an animated contest. In a long letter John Dumont, chairman of the house committee, attempted to show Mr. Summers why colored persons were not wanted in the State. The house refused to send Mr. Dumont's letter and the General Assembly was unable to agree on any answer.60
More aggravating than this question of colored paupers was the constant complaint made by Southern newspapers that fugitive slaves escaping into Indiana were aided in making their escape. In answer to these charges the First Assembly made anyone aiding in this matter liable to a $500 claim for damage.61 In 1825 two citizens of Wayne county were so fined.
Still worse was the custom of kidnapping free negroes and carrying them back to slavery, as practiced by unprin- cipled men along the border. July 4, 1818, three such men stole a negro girl from Corydon,62 in 1821 a mob from Louisville attempted to kidnap a free colored man named Moses at New Albany. Nothing but the presence of the militia company saved the negro. 63 September 21, 1822, James Burks tried to capture Edmund Robinson, a free col- ored man of Richmand. The latter escaped, but the attempt caused great excitement.64
The sentiment of the citizens of the State was not the same, however, in all parts of the State. Thus, while Noble and Hendricks were being severely denounced at a mass meeting at Montgomeryville for opposing the admission of
60 Nile's Register, XI, 313; House Journal, I, 33, 43. A bill to admit three colored settlers was introduced but failed to pass. Senate Journal, 1816, 7.
61 Laws of Indiana, 1816, ch. XXIV.
62 Nile's Register, XIV, 328.
63 Vincennes Centinel, March 3, 1821.
64 Richmond Intelligencer, Sept. 25, 1822.
253
THE GOVERNMENT AT CORYDON
Missouri as a slave State, the General Assembly, by a vote of 22 to 5, censured Taylor for voting for the Missouri Compromise and thus permitting slavery.65
The General Assembly further went on record, Decem- ber 31, 1818, in a hot denunciation of the kidnapping of negroes on the border. The senators were instructed and the representatives requested to oppose in Congress all fugitive slave laws.
65 Nile's Register, XIX, 415.
CHAPTER XI
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FROM 1825-1835
§ 48 EARLY ROADS
WHEN Indiana was admitted into the Union it contained about 65,000 people. These lived chiefly in the Whitewater Valley, on the lower Wabash, and along the Ohio river hills. The problem of travel was a serious one and was not liable to be overlooked by legislators who had made the trip to Corydon or Indianapolis.
There were well defined lines of travel leading into the interior of Indiana at this time, each in a measure used by a distinct stream of immigrants. From Kentucky, Vir- ginia, and the Carolinas, they came to Madison and Louis- ville. From Madison, a stage line was early established to the East Fork of White river, or Driftwood creek, cross- ing at the mouth of Flat Rock. From Louisville, Jefferson- ville, and New Albany two routes led to the interior ; one by Salem, Bono, Bedford, and Bloomington to the Wabash at Lafayette; the other led by Greenville, Fredericksburg, Paoli, Mt. Pleasant, and Maysville to the Wabash at Vin- cennes.
One can scarcely realize the condition of travel in 1825. There was no railroad, no canal, no pike. All the rivers except the Ohio were obstructed by fallen trees, ripples, and bars. Two main roads led to Indianapolis, one from Madison, the other from Centerville. The transportation service, if any was to be had, was bad, roads frequently im- passable and stages usually late.
Two schemes for carrying on internal traffic were early taken up by the Indiana government. The earliest was the building of State roads with the three per cent fund. Con- gress had set aside five per cent of the net proceeds of all
255
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
the land sold in Indiana for road building. Three per cent of this was placed at the disposal of the General Assembly, and was always known as the three per cent fund. In 1818 Christopher Harrison was appointed the first agent of this fund. He received the money from the United States and paid it out, according to appropriation by the General As- sembly, to the county agent. The county agent used it in opening roads through the forest. Such roads, known as State roads, were one hundred feet wide, but the money was not sufficient to do more than clear them of timber. Until the country was settled more thickly, and there were consequently more "hands" to work the roads, these were little more than bridle paths. Yet much of the time of the General Assembly from 1818 to 1840 was occupied in au- thorizing these roads and distributing the three per cent fund. In 1821, $10,000 was appropriated. The fund was usually overdrawn; nevertheless it was a great aid to the pioneers, most of whom earned money, working on the roads at $1.50 per day, to pay their annual taxes. All told, over one-half a million dollars were received by the State for this purpose. Various fanciful schemes were discussed in the legislature from time to time for disposing of the fund, but on the whole it was loyally used.
As early as 1802 the subject of a National Road had oc- cupied the attention of Congress, and in the bill admitting Ohio five per cent of the proceeds of the public land sales in that State was set aside as a fund for building roads by which emigrants might reach the public lands of the west. Four years later, a bill passed Congress for a survey of a road from Cumberland, Maryland, to the Ohio river. The route followed the old Braddock trail nearly to the Battleground, and then turned to the west, striking the Ohio at Wheeling.1
It is not usually realized by Americans that this is the greatest wagon road in the world. It was surveyed eighty feet in width, the timber was then grubbed, and the ground graded. Culverts and bridges were built of cut stone, and
1 Schaff, History of Etna and Kirkersville, 61 seq: Indiana Magazine of History, III, 58 seq.
256
HISTORY OF INDIANA
at last a track in the center, thirty to forty feet wide, was macadamized with ten inches of stone. Two six-horse teams could race abreast on this road. In 1818 the road reached to Wheeling, in 1833 to Columbus, Ohio, and in 1852 to Vandalia, Illinois.
From six to twelve independent stage lines operated on it, and a score of companies were in the transportation busi- ness. The schedule of the mail stage was thirty hours from Washington to Wheeling, forty-five hours to Columbus, sixty hours to Indianapolis, and seventy-five hours to Van- dalia. Only thoroughbred Virginia horses were used on the best lines, and the sound of the bugle was as certain an indication of the time of day as the passing of passenger trains on railroads today. The coachman was a man of con- sequence along the route, and almost an idol for the boys. To see him dash up to a post, throw the lines to the stable boys, tell the latest news from the east while the teams were changing, then break away at a fifteen-mile clip, was enough to attract all the youngsters for a mile or two. The driver usually courted this admiration, and never missed a chance to take a boy on the seat with him-a favor the boy paid for with apples and cider, and remembered with pride during the rest of his life. A guild of wagoners soon grew up in the freight business, who were well known and thor- oughly reliable.
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