USA > Indiana > Sullivan County > A history of Sullivan County, Indiana, closing of the first century's history of the county, and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth, Volume I > Part 12
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Iron is on hand for track-laying, and a frog is to be put in on the track of the E. & T. H. at the junction."
Henceforth for many years the narrow-gauge line becomes a popular subject for the shafts of ridicule from the editor of the Democrat. One of the amusing arraignments appeared in an issue of July, 1877, when a bold leader announced a "Strike on the Narrow Gauge," the continuation being : "The following communication was handed to us by one of the committee with request for its publication. We hope the matter will be amicably adjusted without calling upon the president for troops. 'Mr. Joseph W. Wolfe, president. Sir: We, the undersigned, a regularly constituted committee of the employes, including engineers, firemen, brakemen, conductors and yard hands on your road, demand fifteen per cent advance on our wages, to take effect from and after July 24, 1877. If our modest request is not promptly complied with we will strike at 12 o'clock M. tonight. We have the assurance of a strong alliance and co-operation of the Crawford and Lockwood Bysickle What-is-it Line. Our language should not be construed as intimidating, but if our wages are not increased, we will tear up the track, ditch the engines, burn your round-house, pull up your piling and plant your road-bed in sweet pota- toes, as productive industries must prevail if the railroads go under. An early reply is respectfully solicited .- John Flannagan, Buncomb O'Flint, John Stout, Child Fairweather, Bumpres Hobbs, committee.'" A little later it was reported that the strike had subsided without trouble.
A more serious review of the condition of this road appears in the issue of October 10, 1877: "The narrow-gauge road has failed again. We do not know how many times this has happened in the past two or
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three years. A number of different contractors have taken hold of it, work to the amount of $11,000 has been done in grading and pile-driving, ties have been furnished, a neat little locomotive is here but not paid for. J. W. Wolfe has guaranteed orders until he finds himself involved for considerable amounts. The last collapse is due to the refusal of the sub- scribers to the bonus to give their notes payable on completion of the road. The contractors evidently expected to get the subsidies before work was done."
In November of the same year a public meeting was held at Sullivan in the interest of the narrow gauge. A technical error by which the lan- guage of the election notice did not correspond with that of the petition threatened to invalidate the collection of the taxes voted two years before. Mr. Wolfe, the president of the enterprise, addressed the meeting, explain- ing the error and reviewing his work for the enterprise undertaken on his part without hope of personal benefit.
Early in January, 1878, it was announced that General Lyon and other citizens of Quincy, Illinois, had assumed the obligations of the road and had undertaken to complete the line so that cars would be running from the Wabash river to Linton by the first of July. The Democrat urged that all taxes and subscriptions should be paid at once.
It was the summer of 1880 before the county began receiving any benefit from this railroad. In July it was announced that the narrow gauge was making preparations for business, having already hauled con- siderable wheat from the east side of the county. Will Stark was appointed first agent at Sullivan. Early in August the first excursion to
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Sullivan over this road was run on account of the Democratic mass meeting.
Another chapter in the history of the narrow gauge is told in the issue of the Democrat of February 1, 1882. Acting according to the directions of the court, Judge Black, who had been appointed receiver for the Cincinnati, Effingham & Quincy Construction Company, sold the assets of that corporation at the court-house door in Sullivan. The pur- chaser was John B. Lyon, the principal creditor of the bankrupt company. The assets brought considerably more than their appraised value. Among the assets were the subscriptions and the taxes voted in the different town- ships. Suits were brought for the collection of the taxes in Cass, Hamil- ton and Gill townships, and Gill township succeeded in evading the collec- tion for some years.
Financial difficulties were not the only ones that assailed this railroad. In November, 1883, heavy rains caused floods that did great damage to all the railroads, but were specially disastrous to the narrow gauge, the road-bed and bridges in the river valley being entirely destroyed, and it was not until the following August that the track was built down to the river bank. The condition of the line is shown in some items in the Democrat that appeared in the spring of 1885. On one occasion, as the train was pulling into the station, about fifty feet of the track gave way. the engine, tender and a heavily loaded coal car crushed through the rotten ties, and was left embedded in the mud. A few days later another section of track gave way about a mile cast of Sullivan, and three flat- cars were left in the mud. In the following summer it was stated that Mr. P. H. Blue had taken charge of the road and would put it in good
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condition. In 1886 the general offices were moved to Sullivan, a bridge was constructed over the Wabash, and some additions were made to the rolling stock. The first train crossed the Wabash river in April. At this time the full title of the road had become the Indianapolis and Illinois Southern, though locally it was always referred to as the "narrow gauge." In June, 1886, the road was mortgaged to W. R. McKeen and John S. Alley, trustees, for half a million dollars, to secure a bond issue of that amount. A portion of the proceeds of these bonds were used for paying off matured bonds, while the remainder was to be devoted to the rehabili- tation of road-bed and rolling stock. By the first of July, 1886, through trains began running over the line as far as Effingham.
A statement of the road's condition in October, 1887, enumerated between five hundred and six hundred employes, reported that the road had been made standard gauge as far as Palestine, and that the gauge would be uniform throughout to Effingham by the close of the year, that almost every bridge was new, that a new iron bridge was being con- structed over the Embarrass river, and that a hundred new freight cars had been ordered.
Another stage in the tedious chronicles of this road was reached in January, 1890, when a foreclosure sale of the I. & I. S. R. R. was held, and the property was bid in by the first-mortgage holders. In August, 1892, as reported by the Indianapolis News, the board of state tax com- missioners listened to a most pathetic tale concerning the helpless, hope- less poverty and bankruptcy of this road. John T. Hays of Sullivan was the pleader before the board in behalf of the I. & I. S. He reviewed its history as a narrow-gauge line, built by a construction company which
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got all the stocks and bonds. The rails used were but thirty-five to forty pounds a yard and were second-hand at that, and yet since that iron was laid in 1880 less than ten miles of it has been replaced. The ties were for a narrow-gauge line, but were not changed when the gauge was broad- ened. The rails are, claimed the pleader, absolutely worn out, and not over 25 per cent of the ties can be used when the new track is laid, and the right of way is too narrow for a standard gauge. The only portion of ballasted track on the entire road is about half a mile near Sullivan. The length of the entire road in Indiana and Illinois is eighty-eight miles, and the total earnings for the past year were $81,281, and the net earnings did not suffice to pay one cent of interest on the obligations. The four locomotives were bought second-hand from the Vandalia in 1887 at $4,000 apiece. The rails are so small that the flanges of the engine and car wheels cut out channels in the rotten old ties, these grooves being a sort of protection, since they prevent the rails . from spreading. The engines are in the ditch scores of times in a year, and some of the wheels are on the ground more days than not. At this point of Mr. Hays' speech, according to the version of the Newos, the blare of a brass band was heard, and all recognized its melody as "Listen to my tale of woe." The woful description was then continued by the Sullivan attorney, who said that the railroad shops consisted of a blacksmith shop, and that the one pas- senger coach was a survival of the narrow-gauge period, and its width had not been changed, and standard-gauge trucks had been placed underneath.
Not until the close of the decade did relief come to this much ridi- culed railroad. In September, 1899, articles of incorporation were filed at the clerk's office for the Illinois & Eastern Railroad Company, which
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was thought to be the final move in the purchase of the I. & I. S. by the Illinois Central, and in the following year the Indianapolis Southern and the Illinois and Indianapolis were consolidated under the former name, both being Illinois Central lines. In November, 1906, the line between Effingham and Indianapolis was finally completed, and service established between those cities.
In January, 1872, it was announced that passengers were carried without change from Sullivan to Chicago, over the E., T. H. & C. Up to that time this railroad had always been referred to as the Evansville & Crawfordsville, which was the original name, but about this time it assumed the title of Evansville and Terre Haute, which has since been borne by that portion of this line south of Terre Haute. The opening of the road to Chicago was regarded as of special advantage to the industrial interests of Sullivan county, as it undoubtedly was. It opened a direct trade for the coal mines, and stimulated that industry to a great develop- ment during the next few years .*
The northeast quarter of Sullivan county is a network of railroad
* The Democrat of August 6, 1903, gives the following historical outline of the E. & T. H. Railroad: It was chartered in 1847 as the Evansville & Wabash, being the third road built in the state. It was first intended to build the road from Evansville to Olney, Illinois, crossing the river at Mt. Carmel. The stock- holders were Evansville people who took shares of fifty dollars each. Sam Hall was the first president. After ten miles of the road had been constructed, the route was changed with Vincennes as the objective point. Among the later presidents of the road were John Ingle and John Martin, and in 1882 D. J. Mackey was made president. Capt. G. J. Grammer became president in 1893, and during his term many extensive improvements were made. The consolidation of the road with the C. & E. I. under the Rock Island management occurred during the presidency of H. C. Barlow, who assumed the office in 1900.
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lines which carry off the output of the coal mines. These short lines are all branches either of the E. & T. H. or of the Southern Indiana. The latter railroad, throughout its entire length. is essentially a coal road, and until recently has made no attempt to accommodate passenger traffic, and has done little business outside of handling the enormous coal tonnage which originates along its lines.
The main line extended southeast from Terre Haute to Linton and beyond, passing through only the northeast corner of this county. What was known as the Sullivan county branch was built from a point about a mile south of Jasonville. In May, 1901, its construction was said to be progressing rapidly. This branch resulted in the establishment of the railroad station of Gilmour, which was named for the superintendent of the Alum Cave mine. In January, 1900, it was reported in the paper that John R. Walsh had driven from Jasonville to Sullivan over the route of the proposed extension, and that it was definitely decided that the branch should be brought to Sullivan. Work on the Black Hawk-Sullivan exten- sion was begun early in 1902, and at the same time the final scheme of the lines in this county was adopted, including a branch from Glendora to Shelburn, and thence northeast to the Sullivan extension. It was believed that these different roads would practically control the choice coal fields of this county.
The opening of passenger traffic over the Southern Indiana for Sulli- van did not occur till the end of 1905. Trains began running on Novem- ber 13th, though some trains had been running on the shorter branches
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from Sullivan since the latter part of August. The route to Terre Haute by this line is about five miles longer than by the E. & T. H.
Electric Railroads.
At the meeting of the town board of Sullivan on December II, 1902, four companies were heard with regard to franchises for electric lines. R. G. Haxton wanted a franchise for the Black Diamond Railroad, to con- nect Evansville and Indianapolis, via Sullivan. Parties in Sullivan asked for an interurban franchise, the Indiana Traction Company proposed to build a road from Vincennes to Terre Haute, and the Sullivan Light, Heat and Power Company protested against the granting of license for the time being, on the ground that they were considering a local street rail- way to operate in connection with any interurban lines. All the petitions were tabled. In the following January the Indiana Coal Belt Traction Company was incorporated to build a line from Sullivan to Linton, but the town of Sullivan refused to grant them a license in the following April. In June, 1903. the Sullivan town board granted franchises to the Indiana Coal Belt Traction Company and to the Western Indiana Trac- tion Company, the latter being a Vincennes corporation. Both were given franchises for the use of certain streets for a period of fifty years, their lines to be completed by the end of May. 1908. Farmersburg also granted a franchise to the Western Indiana Company.
May 26, 1904, it was announced that a company backed by Chicago capital and known as the Terre Haute Southern Electric Company was given a franchise by the county commissioners, the line to run from Terre
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Haute to Sullivan, Linton, Vincennes, Jasonville, Merom and intermediate points. The actual construction of an interurban line had not yet begun, though there was much discussion of the undertaking and the granting of franchises. Early in 1905 it was said that three electric lines were seek- ing entrance to Sullivan streets, and that in the competition for traffic the new Southern Indiana Railroad would also prove a formidable oppo- nent of these interurban lines, since it proposed to run ten accommodation trains a day, with low fares.
In the spring of 1905 the Terre Haute Traction & Light Company made public their plans to build an interurban line to Sullivan, and early in April the company began actual work along the route of survey south of Terre Haute. In October of that year the Sullivan town board granted the company privilege of constructing tracks on either Court, Section, State or Broad streets, for a period of twenty-five years, for a consideration of $1,000. Shelburn had granted the franchise free, and Farmersburg received five hundred dollars for the grant. Work of con- struction continued during 1905 and through the spring of 1906, and the first interurban car running on a regular schedule left the public square at Sullivan on June 24, 1906, at 7 a. m. A large crowd of passengers took this first ride. A majority of the local passenger traffic between Sullivan and Terre Haute is now cared for by the interurban line.
In the spring of 1907 the Terre Haute and Merom Traction Com- pany was formed, and a line surveyed for an interurban road from Terre Haute through Prairietown, Middletown, Fairbanks, Staffordshire, Scott City and Merom. At the November election of the same year the propo- sition of granting a subsidy to this company was submitted to the voters Vol. I-11
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of the townships through which the road would pass. It indicates the emphatic attitude of the people on this subject as contrasted with their sentiments and actions of thirty or forty years ago that all the townships defeated the movement by heavy majorities. During 1908 some work was done along the proposed route, but the original company went into a receivership in May, and at this writing the townships of Fairbanks and . Turman are still without transportation facilities.
Chronological Notes.
Feb. 28, 1872-Meeting called to consider proposition from the Terre Haute and Cincinnati R. R. Co. to run their road through Carlisle provided a two per cent tax is raised. The meeting unanimously in favor.
June 26, 1872-Terre Haute and Southwestern will cross the Wabash at Chenowith's ferry. Cross ties already contracted for.
Sept. 10, 1873-A branch railroad to be built from the E. & T. H. from Shelburn to the coal fields in Jackson township.
Sept. 2, 1874-The railroad company is planning to move the Sulli- van depot either three-quarters of a mile north or south of present location.
March 21, 1876-The Indianapolis and Sullivan Narrow Gauge Coal Railroad has been organized.
August 28, 1888-A strike of engineers on the E. & T. H., but the trouble was settled by restoring two men who had been discharged.
Nov. 5, 1889-The St. Louis, Indianapolis & Eastern Railroad incor- porated. First directors, P. H. Blue, C. P. Walker, F. E. Basler, J. T. Hays, S. R. Engle, C. R. Hinkle, John Giles.
CHAPTER IX.
THE TOWN OF SULLIVAN.
The town of Sullivan was founded as the result of the selection of the site as the county seat, and in this respect was a made-to-order town. Members of the Walls family had entered the land in this vicinity only about three years before the site was chosen by the county commissioners, so that the place now occupied by the court-house square and all the sur- rounding ground was little changed from its state of virgin wilderness.
William Reed, Samuel Brodie and Abraham F. Snapp were the county commissioners who selected the site. They were free to exercise their own discretion in the matter of selection, provided their choice was fixed upon a place for the court house within a mile and a half of the geographical center of the county. The comparatively high ground between Buck creek and Busseron on which they determined to locate the seat of justice would appear to have been the most eligible place within those limits.
It is an interesting fact, and one that is confirmed by numerous bits of evidence throughout this history, that the site of the central portion of Sullivan was formerly wet and swampy notwithstanding the slope toward
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the beds of the creeks on either side. It is said that in 1843 water some- times stood to a depth of two feet on the court house square .*
The townsite was deeded to the county agent (who was the legal agent for the transaction of the business connected with the establishment of the seat of justice), to be divided into town lots, and such as were not reserved for official purposes were to be sold. Of the proceeds, one-sixth was to be given to the former owner of the land, that being a condition of the deed, and the balance was to be used for the erection of a court house and other purposes connected with the county seat.
The survey of the original site was completed May 25, 1842, and the first sale of lots occurred the following day. The thirty-five lots sold on that day brought prices ranging from $20 to $100 apiece. The original plat of Sullivan was four blocks square. On the north it was bounded by Beech street, on the east by Broad, on the south by Harris, and on the west by Section. From north to south the streets were Beech, Wall. Washington, Jackson, Harris; from east to west they were, Broad, State, Main, Court and Section. Altogether there were 136 lots in the plat.
In 1842 it is said that the principal houses of the new town were the log dwellings of Hugh S. Orr, Mason F. Buchanan, George Smith and Squire McDonald and a little blacksmith shop owned by the first named .;
* The Democrat (July 31, 1885,) reported that in digging a cistern on the northwest corner of the square, about three feet below the surface the workmen found the stump of a small tree, and when it was removed a vein of water was discovered which was believed to flow from a spring which about forty years before had been situated about where Julius Hatry's store stands. It was thought that the stump was of a swamp willow, many of which once grew on the ground now covered by the business houses of the town.
t "Hugh Orr, who bought the first lot in the sale of town lots 23 years ago, is moving to Greene county. His smithy, the oldest building in town, will soon be gone." (Democrat, April 5, 1866.) Hugh S. Orr died May 19, 1873.
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After the removal of the county records to Sullivan and the building of the first court house, this soon became a center of business and residence. A description of the village in 1848 mentions a number of well-known citizens of the county and town. On Section street in that year were some one-story frame houses occupied by James C. Allen, then a young lawyer but later congressman from Illinois; John H. Wilson, who was sheriff of the county at the time the county seat was moved from Merom; James W. Hinkle, who had just moved to town and was teaching school ; and Drs. John E. Lloyd and James H. and D. B. Weir, also Elias Albert- son, John Bridwell and A. J. Thixton. Joseph Gray was one of the few residents of that time who lived in a two-story house. On the corner of Section and Washington streets was Howard's tavern stand, which the proprietor had enlarged to two stories, and of which Washington Lilley became proprietor about this time .* Another two-story frame hotel, owned by John R. Mahan, stood on Court street near the corner of the square. On Washington street near the northwest corner of the square were two small store buildings which had been built by Major Stewart of ยท lumber sawed by whip-saw. Maj. Isaac Stewart, Dr. William M. Crowder and James H. Reed also had their dwellings on Washington street. Daniel Turner and F. C. Freeman (a cabinetmaker) were among the few who then lived on the south side of the square. The village was better sup- plied with physicians at that time than with merchants, artisans or law- yers. James, Samuel and John J. Thompson were practicing here in addition to those already mentioned.
* In 1855 this was called the Railroad House, and J. P. Duffiey was propri- etor.
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For a number of years the affairs of the county seat were conducted in the quiet manner which leaves little record on the page of history. Considerable business was done by the early merchants, who had their small shops around the square and brought their stocks of merchandise overland from Louisville or from some of the river ports. The county officials for the most part lived in the village, and the court sessions and the annual payment of taxes brought a large part of the population of the county into town at least once a year. The county seat was a natural focus of interest during political campaigns. In 1843 James Whitcomb, then candidate for governor, made a speech in Sullivan, which was the first of many successive occasions at which the people have congregated from different parts of the county to listen to political oratory. Besides the social activities that centered around the churches, there were special occasions that brought the people together in social pleasures, and at the homes of the principal families of that day there reigned a hospitality and cheerful ease that compensated for many of the inconveniences that would seem intolerable in this twentieth century.
Municipal Growth.
Altogether it was a period of individualism, softened by the firm adherence to justice and the general spirit of kindly neighborliness which characterized the people of the time. The churches, the schools, and the county institutions themselves were products of the instincts and habits of a people who had always been accustomed to the forms and usages of self-government. But the citizenship of Sullivan had not yet advanced far in those activities of a social community which characterize
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the well organized and highly efficient town government. The growth and improvement of Sullivan as a town corporation may be observed with profit by those who desire to understand the development of municipal affairs .*
It will be understood that for a number of years after the founding of the town there existed practically no regulations upon the peaceful vocations of the citizens. People lived in town and experienced no more responsibilities and likewise few more conveniences than the rural inhabit- ants." The streets were not different from the highroads through the country, except that increased travel upon them made them more nearly impassable. For many years there were no sidewalks, except the paths on the sides of the streets, and here and there a few boards or some gravel or cinders to keep the feet from burying in the mud. The ragged gleams of an old-fashioned lantern or torch, carried in the hands of those
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