USA > Indiana > A history of Indiana from its exploration to 1850 > Part 30
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In response to memorials, Congress, May 26, 1824, do- nated to the State a strip of land 320 feet wide through the
3 House Journal, 1817, 8.
354
HISTORY OF INDIANA
public domain, on condition that the State, in twelve years, would construct a canal thereon. The committee on canals of the Indiana General Assembly reported the grant illib- eral, and moved another memorial.4 The governor urged in his message of 1825 that the grant be accepted at once and a further memorial sent to that body asking a section of land for each mile.5 This would easily build it. Thus a continuous waterway from New York to New Orleans would be opened across the country. The canal needed to be only twenty-eight miles long. Further, there was a great demand, continued the governor, for a canal from Law- renceburg to Fort Wayne. A company, in fact, was already surveying the route. A commissioner was then examining White river, and ere long two hundred miles of waterways would there be opened for navigation. Internal improve- ments were demanded by necessity and the spirit of the times. The State must have canals.
The question of a canal at the portage between the Mau- mee and the Wabash rivers was an old one. Every statesman of this and the preceding period who was interested in the northwest had studied the problem of an all-water trade route between the seaboard and the Ohio valley. Washing- ton repeatedly discussed it; and in a letter to his Secretary of War, Henry Knox, suggested the Maumee portage as the most feasible point of connection.6 The first definite in- formation was based on surveys and observations by Capt. James Riley, a United States surveyor. While surveying land for settlement he noted the ease with which the two rivers could be united. He reported to his superior, a re- port that soon found its way to Congress, that a canal six miles long would connect the St. Mary and Little rivers, from which navigation by the Maumee to Lake Erie and by the Wabash to the Ohio was easy. The swampy prairie through which the canal would run was reported to be so wet that no feeder would be required. This first observa- tion was made in 1818, and during the following season
4 House Journal, 1825, 176.
5 House Journal, 1825, 38.
6 Writings, IX, passim.
LAKE MICHIGAN
SOUTH BEND
MICHIGAN CITY LA PORTE
PORT
LAGRANGE
STEUBEN
ST. JOSEPH
ELKHART
PORTER
ANO LOSE MIS!
DE KALB
STARKE
NOBLE
NEWTON
FULTON
WHITLEY
PULASKI
ERIE
ALLEY
CASS
LOGANSPORT
WABASH
HUNTING- -TON
ADAMS
MIAMI
GRANT
CARROLL
LAFAYETTE
WARREN
ERIE
CLINTON
TIPPE CANOE
MICHIGAN
VELNES
DELAWARE
HAMILTON
1
RANDOLPH
FOUNTAIN
MADISON
VERMILION
MONTGOMERY
HENRY
MARION
HANCOCK ROAD
CAMBRIDGE CITY
RAL
SHELBY
RUSH
UNION
VIAGO
TERRE HAUTE
CLAY
FRANKLA
OWEN
BARTHOLOMEW
DECATUR
MONROE
SULLIVAN
ZOBLOOM INGTON
2
RIPLEY
LAWRENCE . BJRG
GREENE
JACKSON
JENNINGS
DEARBORN
KNOX
SWITZERLAND
SDAVIESS MARTIN
JEFFERSON
VIMARISCHI
VINCONNHE AND
NEW
VINCENNES
WASHINGTON
ALBANY PAOLI
CLARK
ORANGE
TURN
PAKE
AND
DUBOIS
CRAWFORD
FLUXU
GIBSON
HARRISON
M
PERRY
VANDER -BURG
WARRICK
POSEY
SPENCER
EVANSVILLE
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
0
WELLS
WHITE
JASPER
CANAL
LAFAYETTE O
ROAD
BOONE CRAWFORDSVILLE
1
WAYNE
HENDRICKS
PARKE
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NATIONAL
MADIZ JOHNSON
MICH
ZSON
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CAN
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GREENSBURG
CENTRAL
AIL S
TURNPIKE
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LAWRENCE BEDFORD
WASHINGTON SCOTT SALEM
JEFFERSONVILLE
INDIANA IN 1836 E.V. SHOCKLEY
ce
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KOSCIUSKO
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MIAMI INDIAN RESERVATION
JAY
INDIANAPOLIS
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GREEN CASTLE
FAYETT
MORGAN
JEFFERSONVILLE
356
HISTORY OF INDIANA
he ran a line of levels. The canal, he thought, would need to be six miles in length.
§ 67 THE WABASH AND ERIE CANAL
THE history of the canal system of Indiana begins in earnest with an act of Congress approved March 2, 1827.7 The party of Clay and Adams, driven from power in the na- tion, thus, on the eve of dissolution, bequeathed its princi- ples and its policy to the State of Indiana. This act granted to the State, for the purpose of aiding to build a canal, uniting at navigable points the waters of the Maumee and those of the Wabash, a strip of land one-half of five sec- tions wide, on either side of the canal, reserving alternate sections to be selected by a land commissioner under the direction of the President. In the preceding session of the Indiana Assembly the canal committee had reported a bill providing for a canal board and some surveys. This bill failed on account of the reluctance of the majority to raise taxes.8 Surveyor James Shriver was then surveying the Whitewater for a company organized to build a canal from Lawrenceburg to Fort Wayne.9
Meantime the settlers on the upper Wabash were clam- oring for aid. Produce could not be sold nor could they get goods from any place. Salt was hauled by ox teams from Michigan City at a cost of $12 per barrel, the trip requiring two weeks. In 1826 a corps of United States engineers, under the charge of Colonel Schriver, then at work on Whitewater, was sent to survey the portage at Fort Wayne. All were soon sick and Colonel Schriver died. Asa Moore continued the survey to Tippecanoe, and then down the Maumee as far as the rapids, where he also died in his tent, October 4, 1828.10
On January 5, 1828, Indiana accepted the gift from the nation and committed the State to the building of the canal.11 The act of acceptance provided for a board of
7 United States Statutes at Large, IV, 236.
8 House Journal, 1826, 214.
9 Governor's Message, House Journal, 1826, 46.
10 Knapp, History of the Maumee Valley, 397.
11 Laws of Indiana, 1827, ch. 7. See also Joint Resolution, ch. 98.
SYSTEMATIC INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 357
canal commissioners, to consist of three men. The commis- sioners were to select land, hire surveyors, locate the canal, make estimates, lay off town sites, and finance the under- taking.12 The sentiment of the State was strong for inter- nal improvements. All parties favored them. The country was delirious with internal improvement fever.
Two of the canal commissioners, Burr and John, met on the call of Governor Ray at Indianapolis, July 17, 1828, organized, and proceeded to the Wabash; but on studying the law they found themselves without authority.13 A four years' war opened then in the State Assembly, fought on the floor in session and in the newspapers out of session. The lowest estimates on the canal called for an expenditure of $991,000. The Whitewater members cared little for the Wabash and hung back for a deal. The Ohio river group opposed openly and stoutly. The speaker, Ross Smiley of Union county, favored railroads. Governor Ray also fa- vored railroads because of less cost. The group that favored the canal, called the "Wabash Band," lacked unity. Mut- terings of discontent over high taxes reached all parts of Indiana from the people of Ohio, who were building a sys- tem of canals. Added to this, there was no definite knowl- edge furnished by engineers. The settlers on the Wabash were impatient lest the State let the land-grant forfeit. The members from the south opposed, because the State had lost some money on the Ohio Falls canal. The canal committee of the General Assembly of 1828, headed by Samuel Judah of Vincennes, made a lengthy report in favor of canals, and again introduced a bill looking toward con- struction, and again the General Assembly turned them down. Some opposed it because they did not think it nec-
12 This board consisted of Samuel Hanna, of Fort Wayne: Robert John, of Franklin county, and David Burr, of Jackson county. The board did nothing more than investigate and report to the next Assem- bly. The Assembly seemingly had gone as far as it could. When it came to expending money, there was a deadlock. The tax levy of the previous year had netted $33,000, which barely covered expenses. See Governor's Message, December 4, 1827. The annual message of the Governor may be found in either the House, Senate, or Documentary Journal.
13 Indianapolis Gazette.
(24)
358
HISTORY OF INDIANA
essary, others because they wanted more definite informa- tion; while a large third party would not run the State into debt for something not absolutely needed.
When the surveys commenced, an unexpected trouble arose. Navigable points on the two rivers could not be united without building part of the canal in Ohio. This Indiana could not do. Accordingly, Ohio appointed Willis Silliman its agent to confer with Jeremiah Sullivan with like power from Indiana. The men met in Cincinnati, Oc- tober 3, 1829, and agreed that Ohio should take a part of the land grant and dig that part of the canal within her boundary.14
During the following October land sales began at Logansport and Lafayette. The tracts were put up at auc- tion and spirited competition was shown. The prices, how- ever, were a disappointment. The highest prices at Logans- port were $4.06 per acre; lowest, $1.25; average, $1.75. From Lafayette came better reports, lots selling as high as $6 to $9 per acre. Two hundred and thirty-four thou- sand acres had been offered and 41,000 sold in 547 tracts or lots. There were no speculators buying.
The people grew more impatient to see digging begin, but the railroad party, under the lead of David Hoover of Wayne county, was strong enough to block the General As- sembly for a whole session. The supplemental acts of 1832 put the project on its feet.15 Surveyor Joseph Ridgeway
14 Western Sun, January 9, 1830.
15 Laws of Indiana, 1831. ch. 1, 108. We are apt to judge the leaders of this period hastily and accuse them of losing their heads. They did make a gigantic mistake, but there are some mitigating conditions. This venture was considered, and held before the public, ten years before work was commenced. Then it was undertaken only in despair of any better means of reaching a market with their produce. A bushel of corn at Indianapolis was worth 12 to 20 cents. On the river board it was worth 50 cents. An ordinary acre of farm land would produce sixty bushels-a loss on each acre, due to lack of transportation facilities of $18. The loss on one hundred acres was $1,800 annually. The State had within its boundaries millions of such acres whose value and usefulness to the State depended on commercial com- munication with the world. Now the nation was offering to donate land worth $1,000,000 toward a canal whose estimated cost was only $1,100,000, and vest the title in the State. The proposed canal, however,
SYSTEMATIC INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 359
had prepared final estimates that the canal complete would cost $1,081,970. A canal fund was constituted and placed in charge of three commissioners, known as fund commis- sioners. Money was to be borrowed at six per cent, pledg- ing land, tolls, and the faith of the State. Lands were placed in three classes: The first, to sell at $3.50; second, at $2.50; third, at $1.50; and the canal board was to open sales again in October, 1832. Work was ordered com- menced on the canal before March 2, 1832. The canal board began letting contracts March 1, 1832. The canal was divided into sections about one-half mile long, for which the engineers had made full plans and specifications, and then each section was let to the lowest bidder. During the first year thirty-eight contracts were made, covering about twenty miles, and calling for $117,000 in payment. The canal board hired Jesse L. Williams to do its work of supervising construction. The opposition to the canal gradually melted away till 1834, when there was no active trace of it left. It was then accepted as the settled policy of the State. The question with each locality was no longer, how can we oppose the Wabash and Erie, but how can we get a canal for our own county or neighborhood.16
Meanwhile the Wabash and Erie crept steadily west- ward from Fort Wayne to the mouth of the Tippecanoe, which was considered the head of navigation for the Wa- bash. The long line of huts resembled barracks to a forti- fied camp; and, if reports are true, the line resembled a camp in another very real way. The diggers were all Irish, and about equally divided between "Corkers" and "Way Downers" from Kerry. Members of the different bands never met without a fight.17 On one occasion four hundred
was far to the north of the settled portion of the State, and could never benefit nine-tenths of the people who were to build it. And it was only on the tacit agreement that it was to be the first of a system, reaching all parts of the State, that it was undertaken. It is not the undertaking, but the business method that comes in for most censure. There were too many commissioners, engineers, staff officers, land agents, paymasters, finance agents in New York, Baltimore and Boston.
16 See Judge David Kilgore's Speech in Constitutional Convention of 1850. Debates, index.
17 Helm, History of Wabash County, 68.
360
HISTORY OF INDIANA
militia were required to stop an impending battle near Lagro, in which four hundred Corkers had armed them- selves and were moving up the line to clean out their ene- mies. 18 The board reported that about 1,000 men had worked on the canal during the summer of 1834.
After a careful examination of the Wabash river, the commissioners decided that Lafayette should be its southern terminus, and they had already assumed authority to make preliminary surveys. The canal had cost, thus far, $729,- 000, and to go down to Lafayette, which, they said, was the great steamboat landing and commercial center of that region, would cost nearly $100,000 more. The General As- sembly in 1834 ordered the extension, the canal to cross the Wabash at Ballard's bluff in the pool of a dam. At the Birmingham bluff the canal was to be built out in the river and protected by brush rip-rap.19 By the fourth of July, 1835, boats were running on the section west of Fort Wayne, but the tolls were not enough to keep it in repair. Already the wooden aqueducts were rotten. The State finally finished the line, and on July 4, 1843, it was opened from Lafayette to Toledo. The event was fitly celebrated in an oration at Fort Wayne by Gen. Lewis Cass.
§ 68 THE SYSTEM OF 1836
THE opposition to State internal improvement disap- peared with the beginning of active work on the canal. The mania rapidly gathered headway after 1830. The time of the General Assembly was almost entirely taken with such schemes. Reports from all canals built in the east were flattering.20 The Indiana legislature of 1832 incorporated no less than a dozen joint stock companies to build various lines of railroads. These included roads from Lawrenceburg to Indianapolis ; from Madison via Indianapolis to Lafayette; from Jeffersonville via Salem, Bloomington, Greencastle to Lafayette; from Harrison to Indianapolis via Greensburg and Shelbyville; from Lafayette to Lake Michigan; from
18 Documentary Journal, 1835, 18.
19 General Laus of Indiana, 1834. ch. 16.
20 Niles' Register, December 1, 1835.
SYSTEMATIC INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 361
Jeffersonville via Columbus, Indianapolis, and due north to the Wabash. These were not the idle dreams of irrespon- sible adventurers, but on their charters are the names of the best men of the State.
The years during the presidency of Adams and Jackson were an era of great commercial prosperity in the United States. Every resource was being developed to its utmost. Transportation facilities fell far behind the capacity for production. Seaboard prices remained high and steady. Every section was studying the same problem-how to get to market. New York had finished her great canal, but was eager for a waterway from the Lakes to the Mississippi Valley. As a result of this work, New York City was rap- idly running away from Baltimore and Philadelphia in wealth and population. Pennsylvania was spending vast money to get a canal or railroad through from Philadel- phia to Pittsburgh on the Ohio. Baltimore, in conjunction with Maryland and Virginia, was building a canal and a railroad from the Potomac to the Ohio along the old Brad- dock route. Ohio had taken the suggestion of New York, and had almost completed two magnificent canals from Lake Erie to the Ohio. The echo of all this activity was caught up in the newspapers of Indiana, and her farmers, already producing two and three times as much as could be consumed, read them eagerly. Borrow money was the argument, and build canals.21
Still, with the sentiment of the State overwhelming for the system, there was a serious political problem to be solved. All realized that there must be some limit to the number of works undertaken. The "Wabash band" were interested in a first-class canal to Lafayette, and a naviga- ble Wabash from there to the Ohio. The Whitewater mem- bers-the strongest of the interests-were sure of their po- sition, but wished to hold the State to as few lines as possible so as to insure a rapid prosecution of the White- water canal. In the absence of well-organized and disci-
21 Governor Noah Noble's Message, House Journal, 1834. 12. See further House Journal, 1835, 12, where the same idea is advanced more boldly.
362
HISTORY OF INDIANA
plined parties, the project was not so easily carried as planned. The session of 1834-35 was spent in vainly try- ing to organize the Assembly on this basis. As finally or- ganized, this party controlled every county in the State but seven-Harrison, Posey, Crawford, Switzerland, Hendricks, Perry, and Spencer-and six of these were on the Ohio.22
The Whitewater canal was the starting point in all these discussions.23 The settlers in the valley, the most populous district of the State, as early as 1832 had petitioned for a canal. The Assembly of 1833 ordered a preliminary sur- vey, a report of which by Surveyor Gooding was laid be- fore the Assembly December 23, 1834.24 The valley was reported to be shallow and the fall excessive, requiring a great number of locks. There were many washed banks where the canal would have to be built over the river. The survey began at Nettle creek near Cambridge City in Wayne county, close to the crossing of the old National Road. Thence it passed down the west bank to Somerset at the Franklin county line, where it crossed, recrossing again at Brookville and following the west bank to the Ohio at Lawrenceburg. The length was seventy-six miles, seven dams were necessary, fifty-six locks, and 491 feet of lockage. The estimated cost was $1,142,126.
It would give an outlet for Franklin, Rush, Fayette, Henry, Randolph, and Hancock counties, as well as a large part of Wayne, Union, Decatur, and Delaware-a district aggregating 3,150 square miles. Produce could be trans- ported by this means at an average cost of $3.56 per ton as against $10, the present cost. This would save $221,000 for the section each year. The water power would turn 318 pairs of millstones. This argument is given in some detail to show the nature of the discussions that occupied the General Assembly and the newspapers during the dec- ade from 1830 to 1840.25
22 Documentary Journal, 1836, No. 5.
23 For an excellent description of how this law was carried, see speech by Judge Kilgore, Debates in Constitutional Convention, 1850, index.
24 House Journal, 1834, 255.
25 House Journal, 344. This is a good summary of the argument for and against canals as they viewed them at that time.
SYSTEMATIC INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 363
The time of the session of 1834 was taken by the As- sembly in framing a bill for a general system of improve- ments. It developed into a game of legislative seesaw with the Whitewater canal as its center. Every member was willing to vote for the latter provided his own county was not neglected. No system could be determined which it was thought the State could build. When the Assembly of 1835 met, it at once went to work on the unfinished bill. The only fight left over was on the route from Vincennes to New Albany. The influence of the lobby prevailed, how- ever, and it was included.
As a study of the political activity of the times the agi- tation for this road is worth noting. The movement was started by a letter signed "Knox" in the Western Sun in the early summer of 1835. Acting on the suggestion, the citizens of Daviess county met in mass meeting at the courthouse in Washington October 5, and appointed dele- gates to meet similarly appointed delegates from all other counties interested, at Paoli October 26, to deliberate on
the affair of a turnpike road.26 After due discussion it was decided to send a lobby to the General Assembly, con- sisting of one man from each county. It was further de- cided to work for a macadam road. Petitions were pre- pared to be circulated in each county, and a committee of twenty appointed to present this united petition.27 The agitation that backed each route provided by the pending bill was similar to the above, though usually stronger and more insistent.
On January 27, 1836, Governor Noah Noble signed the Mammoth Internal Improvement Bill.28 Taken in all its aspects, its consequences immediate and remote, it was the most important measure ever signed by an Indiana gov- ernor. It carried appropriations aggregating $13,000,000, or one-sixth of the wealth of the State at that time, fixing the policy and mortgaging the resources of the State for half a century. The act provided that the governor, by
26 Western Sun, October 10, 1835
27 Ibid., October 31, 1835.
28 General Laws of Indiana, 1835, ch. 2.
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and with the consent of the senate, should appoint six men to act with the canal board already appointed. These men were to serve three years, except that one-third of the first appointees were to serve one year, one-third two years. The governor in making appointments was to have regard to local situations so that one member should be near each work. This board was to locate and superintend the works provided for, meet semi-annually, and make a detailed re- port to the General Assembly every session. Aside from necessary expenses, each member was to receive $2 for every day actually and necessarily employed. This board was to take such measures as were necessary to commence, construct, and complete the following works:
1. The Whitewater Canal over the route formerly des- ignated. Also a canal to connect the Whitewater with the Central, from some point near the National Road to some point in Madison or Delaware county if possible; if a canal could not be built, then connect them by a railroad. For these the sum of $1,400,000 was appropriated.
2. The Central Canal, commencing at the most suitable point on the Wabash between Fort Wayne and Logansport, via Muncietown, to Indianapolis, down White river to the forks; thence by the best route to Evansville. Provided : The board may select the Pipe Creek route and build a feeder to Muncie if thought best. Appropriation $3,500,000.
3. An extension of the Wabash and Erie Canal from Tippecanoe river down to Terre Haute, thence by Eel river to the Central; or, if the board think best, strike the Cen- tral at the mouth of Black creek, in Knox county. Ap- propriation $1,300,000.
4. A railroad from Madison, through Columbus, In- dianapolis, to Lafayette. Appropriation, $1,300,000.
5. A macadamized turnpike from New Albany, through Greenville, Fredericksburg, Paoli, Mt. Pleasant, Washing- ton, to Vincennes; $1,150,000 appropriated.
6. A resurvey of the route from Jeffersonville via New Albany, Salem, Bedford, Bloomington, Greencastle, to Crawfordsville, to be made before next October. If it be
SYSTEMATIC INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 365
found practicable, construct a railroad, if not a macadam- ized road; for which $1,300,000 was appropriated.
7. Fifty thousand dollars was set aside for removing the obstructions in the Wabash.
8. A survey of a canal if possible, if not, a railroad, from the Wabash and Erie near Fort Wayne, via Goshen, South Bend, Laporte, to the lake at Michigan City. This was to be commenced within ten years.
A general fund was provided, to consist of all moneys raised from sale of State bonds, from loans, grants, profits, appropriations, tolls, and rents. The fund commis- sioners were authorized to borrow $10,000,000 on twenty- five years' time, at six per cent. For the payment of this loan, principal and interest, there were pledged, the canals, railroads, turnpikes, all grounds, rents, tolls, and profits, to the sufficiency of which there was pledged the faith of the State. The right of eminent domain was given the board, and it was authorized to purchase for the State any lands made especially valuable by the works; though no member could buy land for himself within one mile of a canal. The Indianapolis and Lawrenceburg railroad was given the right to borrow $500,000 on the credit of the State, giving by way of security to the State a mortgage on wild lands. Finally, the State pledged itself to build each and all lines with all haste possible.
The news of the passage of the bill was received with every demonstration of joy. Illuminations, addresses, and bonfires were the order in every city and town from Evans- ville to Fort Wayne. Not only in Indiana, but from Bos- ton to New Orleans, the enterprise and spirit of the young State were applauded. The immediate effect of the meas- ure was to boom every town on the line and cause many new ones to spring up-on paper. Thousands of town lots were thrown on the market at the ridiculously low prices of $50 to $200 each; although the land, in many cases, had been bought within the year for $3 per acre.
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