USA > Indiana > A history of Indiana from its exploration to 1850 > Part 24
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In 1808 Indiana District was organized, including parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Among the noted preachers who devoted their lives to this work were Moses Crume, Josiah Crawford, Samuel Parker and William Wi- nans. The latter is said to have been the first Protestant preacher to visit Vincennes. On one of his early visits he preached in the fort to the officers, a few English and French settlers, and a small number of Indians. Governor Harrison held the candle, by the light of which he read his text.8
In 1816 the Western Conference, of which Indiana Cir- cuit had been a part, was broken and the Missouri Con- ference established. The Whitewater Valley was placed in the Ohio Conference and the rest of the State in the Mis- souri Conference. All told, there were seven circuits in the State at the time.
In 1824 the Illinois Conference was established, to in- clude Illinois and Indiana. "It held its first annual meeting at Charlestown, August 25, 1825. There were then four districts, with thirty-one circuits and stations. At the next meeting, which was held at Bloomington, September 28, 1826, the reports showed a membership in Indiana of 10,- 840.
No other church grew so rapidly during the pioneer period. A succession of able preachers, such as Jay C. Smith,9 Allen Wiley,10 Peter Cartwright,11 John Schrader, Richard Hargrave, William Cravens and scores of others, left evidence of their power not only in the remarkable or- ganization of the church but on the political and educa-
7 F. C. Holliday, Indiana Methodism, 26.
8 F. C. Holliday, Indiana Methodism, 28.
9 Reminiscences of Early Methodism in Indiana, 1879.
10 Life and Times of Rev. Allen Wiley, by Rev. F. C. Holliday, 1853; Sketches of Western Methodism, by James B. Finley, 1856: Scenes in My Life, Rev. Mark Trafton, 1878.
11 Autobiography of Peter Cartwright.
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tional institutions of the State. Among early Methodist laymen were such as Dennis Pennington, Ezra Ferris, James Scott, Isaac Dunn.
Unclean politics had headquarters at this time in the bar-rooms of the taverns. On these the Methodists made ceaseless war. On the other hand, many circuit riders preached regularly in bar-rooms, the tavern keeper main- taining excellent order during the time. It is said the first sermons heard in New Albany and Rising Sun were preached in bar-rooms.12
The Baptist was the pioneer Protestant church in In- diana. The first church of this denomination was organ- ized at Owen's creek, near the Falls of the Ohio, in Knox county, November 22, 1798. There seems to have been four members.13 The congregation met either at Owen's creek, Fourteen Mile creek, or Silver creek. At the meeting of August 8, 1801, they chose delegates to the Salem, Ken- tucky, Association and thus became a regularly organized church. March 21, 1812, the allied churches of Silver Creek, Mount Pleasant, Fourteen Mile, Knob Creek, Indian Creek, Upper Blue River, Lower Blue River, Camp Creek, Salem, and White River formed the Silver Creek Association.14
However, this was not the first but the third association formed by this church in Indiana. The first had been or- ganized over at Vincennes in 1809, and had been named the Wabash. Besides a few Illinois congregations it included the Bethel, Patoka, Salem, Wabash, and the famous Maria Creek congregations in Indiana.
The second Indiana association was an offshoot of the old Miami Association, and, taking its name from its own local Jordan, was called the Whitewater. Loughery Association was organized in 1818; White River in 1821; Flat Rock, Little Pigeon and Salem in 1822; Liberty and Union in 1824; Lost River in 1825; Indianapolis in 1826; Coffee Creek and Danville in 1827; Madison and Tippecanoe in 1833; Curry's Prairie in 1834; Brownstown and White Lick
12 F. C. Holliday, Indiana Methodism, 98.
13 W. T. Stott, Indiana Baptist History, 37.
14 Indiana Baptist History, 77.
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in 1835; Northern in 1836; Bethel in 1837; Freedom and Salamonie in 1840; Northeastern in 1841; Bedford, 1842; Sand Creek, 1843; Judson, 1848; Evansville and Long Run, 1850; Whitewater Valley, 1852; Weasaw Creek, 1853; Mount Zion, 1855; Friendship, 1856; Indiana (colored), 1858.
This list shows at a glance the heroic work these men and women were doing. By 1840 every part of the State was reached by their ministers.
In April, 1833, representatives of twenty-one of these associations met at Brandywine church and organized the Indiana Baptist Association or Convention. Its purpose was to unite all the Baptist churches in Indiana and thus conform to the spirit of the time. No early church was more energetic than the Baptist until internal dissentions over such questions as the origin of evil, missions, educa- tion, and ceremonials in a measure disrupted the organiza- tion and dissipated its zeal and resources.
Like the other Protestant churches, the Presbyterian made its entrance into Indiana from the neighboring charges in Kentucky. Members of the Kentucky churches were continually crossing the Ohio into Indiana. Nothing more natural than that the preachers would occasionally visit their former brethren on the north side of the river, or that the Transylvania Presbytery should retain an in- terest in its people in their new homes in the wilderness. As early as 1804 such preachers as Samuel Rannels, James McGready, Thomas Cleland and Samuel B. Robertson crossed over from their stations to visit old friends in Clark and Knox counties.15 Even earlier, in 1803, Transyl- vania Presbytery, sitting at Danville, Kentucky, determined to send missionaries to Indiana.16 The records of the Pres- bytery show frequent applications by Indiana settlers for "supplies," as visiting preachers were called. One of these came to the presbytery, in 1805, from Knox county. In response Thomas Cleland visited Vincennes and preached in the Council house. The youthful preacher was enter-
15 John M. Dickey, Brief History, 11.
16 Minutes of Transylvania Presbytery, II. 72.
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tained by Governor Harrison, whose young wife was a Presbyterian.17
Two years later Samuel Thornton Scott came to "In- diana" church as the first residing Presbyterian pastor in the State. This church had been organized in 1806 by Samuel B. Robertson. The meeting house was the barn of Colonel Small, two miles east of Vincennes. A short time later Mr. Scott had a pulpit built in the grove, and here at "the Presbyterian Stand" the Presbyterians of Vincennes and vicinity worshipped for many years.
The life of such a preacher differed little from that of other pioneers except that on Sundays he preached and performed other official duties of the church. He received no salary worth mentioning for this, but had to depend on the produce of his farm and shop for a living.18
In 1807 Palmyra church, near Charlestown, was organ- ized, but no resident preacher was stationed there till after the War of 1812. In fact this church did not take on a permanent organization till 1812. During the winter of 1812 and 1813 John McElroy Dickey visited the State, preaching in Clark and Daviess counties, a church near the present city of Washington having been organized a few years previously by Mr. Scott, of Vincennes. In May, 1815, Dickey moved to Washington and soon became the most active worker in the Presbyterian church of Indiana. For a third of a century "Father" Dickey traveled over south- ern Indiana, preaching and teaching and helping his wife incidentally to rear their eleven children.
17 "In the Spring of 1805 I was directed to visit Vincennes and the adjoining regions. It was an uninhabited region. I had to go through a small wilderness trace with only one residence on the way, in the most destitute part of the way, to entertain me during the night. Here was my poor horse tied to a tree, fed with grain packed in a wallet from Louisville, and myself stretched on the puncheon floor of a small cabin, for the night's rest." Cleland, Life of Cleland, 87.
18 There was a certain amount of kindliness shown the preacher, which was not expected by others. Hunters often sent a hind quarter of venison to the preacher, because he could not hunt on Sunday. Tavern keepers and ferrymen never charged him. When Robertson lost his hat and one boot swimming White river, Governor Harrison freely supplied the loss. These little aids largely compensated the preacher for his salary.
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In 1816 there came to Indiana a number of Presbyterian missionaries sent by the New England societies. As a rule these men accepted no regular charges but traveled over the State somewhat after the manner of the Methodist preach- ers. The most noted of these missionaries were Isaac Reed19 and William W. Martin.20 Until 1823 the Indiana churches belonged to the Louisville Presbytery. By an act of the Kentucky synod, October, 1823, most of the Indiana churches were organized into the Salem Presbytery, which held its first meeting April 1, 1824, at Salem.21 Within the next two years Madison and Wabash Presbyteries were added to the list. These, together with the Missouri Pres- bytery, were organized into the Indiana Synod, which met for the first time October 18, 1826, at Vincennes.22 This conference constituted the Presbyterian church in Indiana. The meetings for church organization were as truly State conventions as the meeting held at Corydon in 1816.
The Christian (Disciples) Church had its origin in In- diana early in the nineteenth century. It was a result of the protest against creeds in the church. It gained its membership largely from the Baptist and the Dunkard so- cieties, though many Presbyterians and Methodists became members. It is impossible in many instances to tell at what point a Baptist church became a "New Light" and then a Disciple or Christian.
John Wright, a Baptist of the Blue River, Washington county, church, is frequently given as the first Christian preacher of the State. He began his work as a "Reformer" in 1819. The Dunkards, then quite numerous in south cen- tral Indiana, joined the movement in large numbers-fif- teen churches joining in a body. The Blue River and Silver
19 Youth's Book. In this Mr. Reed details a great many of his ex- periences as a missionary in Indiana.
20 Father of Dr. W. A. P. Martin, President of the Imperial Univer- sity of China.
21 William Robinson, John Todd, Samuel T. Scott, William W. Mar- tin, John M. Dickey, John F. Crow and Isaac Reed were the members, all being present but the first.
22 Baynard R. Hall, The New Purchase, chs. 37, 38. The best treatise is Hanford A. Edson, Early Presbyterianism in Indiana.
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Creek Associations of the Baptist church became almost entirely "New Light," and then Christian.
Somewhat later, but independently, what were known as the Calvinistic Baptist churches of Rush and Fayette counties, under the lead of John T. Thompson, became Christian. The Flat Rock Baptist congregation was the first to go over. Some of these were called "Reformers" and some "New Lights."
Michael Combs, a "New Light" convert of Wayne coun- ty, moved to Montgomery county in 1826 and organized the new church in that section. Beginning with 1826, the teach- ing of Alexander Campbell reinforced the movement in In- diana. The Christian Baptist, the organ of the new church, circulated widely in the State. By 1840 the church was well organized and prosperous.23
Besides the regular work of the church many auxiliary societies were organized. At Charlestown, August 2, 1826, delegates met and established the Indiana Sabbath School Union. Preliminaries for this had been arranged at a meeting held in Charlestown in the preceding October. The purpose of this was the promotion of Bible study, especially among the children. The society established three depots, one at Madison, one at New Albany, and one at Indianapo- lis, where religious tracts, suitable for use in the Sunday schools, could be had. The Indiana Union was a branch of the American Sabbath School Union.24
The American Bible Society, organized in 1816, sent its agents into the State to organize auxiliary societies. In 1826 there were six such societies in Indiana. Their mis- sion was to supply Bibles to any one at cost, and to all who could not pay, they were given free. On the boards of
23 A good brief history of the origin of the Christian Church in In- diana is an article by Rev. H. Clay Trusty, of Indianapolis, in the Indiana Magazine of History. VI, 17. For biographies of the leading pioneer preachers of this sect see Madison Evans. Biographical Sketches of the Pioneer Preachers of Indiana, 1862; also files of Christian Record, 1843-1858.
24 Indiana Journal, July 8, 1826. For an account of the Indianapolis Sabbath School Society, established March 29, 1823, see a four column anniversary report by its president Isaac Coe, Indiana Journal, April 10, 1827.
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these societies were found the most substantial citizens of the day. One of their Bibles not infrequently made up the library of a pioneer family.25 In 1832 M. Fairfield, agent for Indiana, reported that he had visited forty counties and given away about $15,000 worth of Bibles.26
Closely allied with the church was the Indiana Temper- ance Society-organized December 9, 1830.27 There were twenty-five subordinate societies in the State. Each of these sent delegates to the State meeting held at the capital every winter while the General Assembly was in session. Bethuel F. Morris was its first president.
In close connection with the above was the Anti-Gam- bling Society, organized at Indianapolis June, 1834, with branches in the principal towns of the State. Isaac Coe, Superintendent of the Indianapolis Sabbath School, was the leader in this movement. Its purpose was to rid the State of the professional gamblers. The success of this society is a proof that Indiana had passed the pioneer period.28
The Indiana Colonization Society was organized at In- dianapolis November 4, 1829.29 Like its kindred societies, it was State wide, composed of small local subordinate so- cieties in the various counties. It collected, chiefly through the churches, money to pay the expense of sending free negroes to Liberia. Mr. Findley, the society's agent, re- ported that he had a band of eighty liberated negroes ready at the time of the second anniversary meeting to go to
. 25 Indiana Journal, November 24, 1826; ibid May 12, 1830
26 Indiana Journal, April 7, 1832.
27 Indiana Journal, Dec. 3, 1829 ; Dec. 16, 1829; Jan. 10, 1832. "When treated by medical writers and arranged according to its effects on the human body, distilled spirits is placed in the same class with hemlock, opium and various other poisons." After enumerating the effects of liquor as a producer, of crime, the report adds: "In all this outline of misery the countless woes arising from understandings blinded, con- sciences seared, and hearts hardened are not enumerated." First annual report, by Secretary J. M. Ray, cashier of the Indiana State Bank.
28 Indiana Journal, June 21, 1834; and Aug. 14, 1835. The society furnished evidence to grand juries and legal aid to prosecutors.
29 Judge Jesse L. Holman presided over this meeting. The other members of the State Supreme Court were active members. Indianap- olis Gazette, Nov. 12, 1829.
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Liberia. The leading officers of the State were connected with this society, which enjoyed a long and worthy career.30
There was considerable effort put forth during the period from 1825 to 1840 toward improved agriculture. Centers of this work were Wayne, Washington and Marion counties, in each of which a county society was formed. An agricultural journal made its appearance also in each county. This work was summed up in the law of Febru- ary 7, 1835, providing for a county society in each county affiliated with the State society.31 County fairs were held, at which all the various lines of agricultural produce were shown. The greatest good came from the association of farmers and the resulting discussion. Farmers' picnics were held in the groves, where clever handiwork was in- spected or addresses by prominent farmers listened to. By this time the early settlers had succeeded in clearing up suitable farms and were beginning to enjoy a small amount of leisure. Their first thoughts were naturally turned toward relief from their hard life. As a result many of the hardships of pioneer life disappeared.32
In the Indianapolis papers, December 8, 1830, appeared a card calling for a meeting of all citizens interested in forming a State Historical Society.33 The society was or- ganized December 11, with Judge Benjamin Parke as the first president. Its stated purpose was to collect and pre- serve the documents of our history and besides to establish
30 Indiana Sentinel, Jan. 7, 1832. The second annual report by J. M. Ray is given. Closely akin to this was the society organized in Indian- apolis during the winter of 1834 for the promotion of universal peace. A public lecture on the evils of war was provided for each winter while the legislature was in session. Indiana Journal, Jan. 1, 1834.
31 Laws of Indiana, 1834.
32 Indiana Journal, May 15, 1835. The State Board at its annual meeting, April 28, offered premiums for the best essays on (1) best breeds of cattle, (2) horticulture, (3) vine culture, (4) mulberry cul- ture, (5) growing of live fences (hedges), (6) vegetable physiology.
33 Indiana Journal, Dec. 8, 1830. "The members of the General Assembly, the members of the Supreme and Circuit Courts, the Rever- end Clergy, Gentlemen of the Bar, Physicians and Citizens, generally, are requested to meet at the Court House on Saturday evening next at 11 o'clock for the purpose of taking into consideration the expe- diency of establishing and organizing an Historical Society for the State of Indiana."
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a museum in which the relics might be kept for show.34 The General Assembly later provided that the society should be furnished with duplicate copies of all papers and books printed by the State. However, no permanent home was ever provided and the work so well begun was not kept up. The large and priceless collection was loaned and lost until at present the society, though still alive, has no library at all.35
ยง 56 EDUCATION
UNFORTUNATELY the high hopes of the first settlers of Indiana for the foundation of a common school system were not realized. The constitution directed the General Assem- bly to provide for a complete system of schools, "ascending in regular gradation from township schools to a State Uni- versity."36. This ambitious program was destined to re- main a dead letter for almost a century. There was no system and very few schools in Indiana before the Civil War. The constitutional provision remained little more than the expression of an ideal. The enabling act of 1816 gave to the citizens of each congressional township section sixteen of the public land. Each section was worth about $2 per acre, or $1,280. The gift, unfortunately, was not to the State but to the citizens. There was thus entailed on the government one of the worst features of a decentralized school system. Some sections of school land were valuable, others worthless. The principal result of the gift was that it continually held out a hope of education to the citizens where no realization could follow.
A law of 1816 permitted the citizens of a congressional township to elect three school trustees to administer the
34 See the Constitution, Indiana Journal, Dec. 15, 1830. Three judges of the Supreme Court and two future governors, Whitcomb and Wallace, were on the committee that drew up the Constitution. Dr. Andrew Wiley president of the Indiana College, delivered the first annual ad- dress Dec. 10, 1831.
35 The society was incorporated Jan. 10, 1831. In the first 65 pages of Vol. I of the Proceedings are the minutes of the society during the first 56 years of its existence. These are fragmentary and worthless. They show, however, that there has always been alive among our citi- zens some appreciation of the State's history.
36 Constitution of Indiana, Art. IX, sec. 2.
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funds. The law of 1824 incorporated the congressional townships, giving the trustees limited power to lease or sell school lands. The trustees might also divide the township into districts, over each of which they could appoint three sub-trustees. These district officers were authorized to lo- cate and build houses, determine the length of the term and the method of payment of the tuition tax, provided any were levied. Books, discipline, course of study, and even meth- ods of instruction were left to the district trustees. Malad- ministration and neglect are the chief features in the his- tory of the schools under this law.
After 1833 the district trustees were elected by the qualified voters of the district. In 1836 any individual might hire a teacher and draw his part of the school fund for maintenance. There was only one more step that could be taken, and this was taken in 1841, when the qualifications of the teacher were left to the district trustees.
It is not strange that under these circumstances the teaching profession disappeared. Men of high education and of great power filled the ranks of the preachers and lawyers, but the teacher of this period was not uncommonly the laughing stock of the neighborhood.
While other institutions of the State were taking on effi- cient, State-wide organization, the schools, under the dom- ination of the ruinous idea of local self-government, were struggling hopelessly with unequal lengths of terms, in- capable teachers, dishonest trustees, diversity of text-books, lax enforcement of school laws and school discipline, neigh- borhood quarrels over school sites, narrow views of educa- tion, and lack of wise leadership. This situation lasted until the revision of the school law of 1843. The latter date perhaps marks the lowest level of general intelligence ever reached in the State. The harmful effects of the failure to organize were felt in all classes and fields of social life.37
37 The best discussion of this phase of early education is by Dr. W. A. Rawles, Centralizing Tendencies in the Administration of Indiana, 1903. See also R. G. Boone, History of Education in Indiana; Laws of Indiana, 1816, 1818, 1827, 1833, 1834, 1840. House Journal, 1839; Senate Journal, 1825; Decumentary Journal, 1841. By 1840 the leading men of the State recognized the complete failure of the schools. Governor
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Despairing of any relief from the public schools, the churches had, each in its way, tried to solve the problem of popular education. Almost every preacher was a school teacher. The Catholics had a large number of fairly good schools, at which not only their own, but Protestant children received instruction. Hundreds of private subscription schools were founded and continued for uncertain periods. Such schools depended so completely on the teacher and local conditions that no history of them can be written. Any native of the State, past the age of seventy, can de- scribe a pioneer school; no one can describe the pioneer schools.
Higher education fared better in early Indiana than did the common schools. A law of 1806 provided for an uni- versity at Vincennes. The national government endowed the institution with a township of land. A distinguished board of trustees did all that was possible to support the institution but after a fitful life as college and seminary it became dormant and its endowment was taken for the pres- ent State University.
The constitution of 1816 provided that after four years the General Assembly should establish a State Seminary. In pursuance of this, an act was approved January 20, 1820, under which a board of trustees organized the State Seminary at Bloomington. 38 The General Assembly, in
Bigger, in his message, 1842, said "Our schools are a mass of statutory provisions, presenting difficulties even to the legally disciplined mind, which are almost insuperable to the ordinary citizen." The House Com- mittee on Education, 1840, reported : "We present almost the only ex- ample of a State professing to have in force a system of common school education, which does not know the amount or condition of its school funds, the number of schools and scholars to be taught and to receive the distribution of those funds. It is a body without a head." House Journal, 1840, 393. See also the Judiciary Report, House Journal, 1840, 963.
38 This board consisted of Judge Charles Dewey, Jonathan Lindley, David H. Maxwell, John M. Jenkins, Jonathan Nichols and William Lowe. Indiana Journal, Mar. 15, 1825, contains a notice of the opening of the State Seminary at Bloomington. Trustees will open it first Mon- day in April, 1825. Rev. Baynard R. Hall is the superintendent and faculty. Tuition, $5 per year. Good board can be had for $1.25 per week. The institution will be classical and each student must have following books: Ross' Latin Grammar; Valpy's Greek Grammar; Col-
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