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 24
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326
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
The conditions precedent to the establishment of rural free delivery routes are-Good roads, unobstructed by gates, no unbridged creeks or streams not fordable at all seasons, and a possible patronage of one hun- dred or more families on each route of twenty-four miles. Such condi- tions represent a long advance over such primitive roads and scattered settlement as prevailed in Sullivan county during the first half of the last century, and for this reason rural free delivery is entirely character- istic of modern life.
The first rural delivery routes in Sullivan county were established in April, 1903, two wagons being started from Sullivan, one north and one south, and Farmersburg was also chosen as a center of distribution. By July, 1904, there were six routes radiating from the county seat, and by April, 1905, sixteen routes were in operation in the county, and a little later seventeen new ones were established, giving daily mail facilities to practically every corner of the county.
A noteworthy result of rural delivery has been the abolition of rural postoffices, formerly maintained for the convenience of a neighborhood, but which under present conditions are not justified by the business and population of the locality. The postoffices in Sullivan county in January, 1903 were 22 in number, being as follows :
Alum Cave
Fairbanks
New Lebanon
Burchard
Farmersburg
Paxton
Caledonia
Farnsworth
Pleasantville
Carlisle
Graysville Riverton
Cass
Hymera
Shelburn
Delcarbo
Jackson Hill
Staffordshire
Dugger
Merom
Sullivan
Embury
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
The postoffices of Sullivan county, according to the official postal guide for 1909, are the following :
Caledonia
Farnsworth
New Lebanon
Carlisle
Gilmour
Paxton
Cass
Graysville
Pleasantville
Dugger
Hymera
Shelburn
Fairbanks
Merom
Sullivan
Farmersburg
CHAPTER XXVII.
CIVIL LISTS.
State Senators from Sullivan County.
1818, William Polke. 1857, W. E. McLean.
1821, Thomas H. Blake.
1861, Henry K. Wilson.
I822, John Jenckes. 1865, B. W. Hanna.
1825, John M. Coleman. 1869, James M. Hanna.
1828, William C. Linton.
1871, Joshua Alsop.
I832, James Farrington.
1872, M. B. Riggs.
1834, George Boon.
1875, Henry K. Wilson.
1837, James T. Moffatt.
1879,
F. W. Viehe.
1843, Ransom W. Akin.
1883, Joshua Ernest.
1846, James H. Henry.
I890, Charles T. Akin.
1849, James M. Hanna.
1894, Andrew Humphreys.
1855, Michael Combs.
I902, George W. Thralls.
State Representatives.
1817-20, Robert Buntin.
1822-23, Henry D. Palmer.
1820-22, Robert Sturgis.
1824, Josiah Mann.
1820-22, John McDonald (repre- 1825-30, George Boon.
senting Sullivan and 1831-32, John W. Davis. Knox). 1833, James Depauw. 328
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
1834, Joseph Latshaw.
Theophilus Chowning.
1835, Seth Cushman.
1853,
Squire McDonald.
1836, Joseph Briggs.
William McKee.
Samuel Brown.
1857, John W. Davis.
1837, Samuel Brown.
Michael Branson.
William R. Haddon.
1858, David Usrey.
1838, Samuel Brown. 1861, W. W. Owens.
George Boon. I863, S. G. Burton.
1839, W. R. Haddon.
1867,
Benjamin Wolfe.
Justus Davis. I 869,
N. D. Miles.
1840, George Boon.
1873,
S. S. Coffman.
184I, John W. Davis.
1875, James L. Nash.
Justus Davis.
1877,
S. S. Coffman.
1842, John W. Davis.
I879, John C. Briggs.
1843, Thomas Turman.
1881, Charles T. Akin.
1845, John H. Wilson.
1883,
Charles T. Akin and James B. Patten.
Silas Osborn.
1888, John T. Beasley and
E. A. Lacy.
1847, Benjamin Wolfe.
1890, John T. Beasley and
1848, Benjamin Wolfe.
I. N. Kester.
Silas Osborn.
1894, J. Higbee and
1849-50, James K. O'Haver.
J. W. Redman.
James H. Wier.
1902, David N. Curry.
1850, John H. Wilson.
1906, Thomas B. Springer.
1851, J. W. Davis.
County Commissioners.
The county commissioners at the time of the burning of the court house in February, 1850, were Joseph W. Wolfe, Jesse Haddon and Levi
1846, Benjamin Wolfe. Silas Osborn.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Maxwell. Haddon's term expired the same year, and Wolfe's in 1851. The commissioners elected during the succeeding years as vacancies occurred or terms expired are named in the following order :
1850, William Beard. 1874, Charles Scott. 1851, Samuel Brodie.
1875, William Combs.
1852, Jacob Hoke (vice Brodie, deceased ). 1877,
1876,
Levi Woodward.
1853. Levi Maxwell.
1854, Josiah Wolfe.
1855,
John A. Cummins.
1856, Hezekiah Riggs.
I879,
Jackson Rich.
1857, John Sproatt. 1881, James J. Snyder.
1859, William H. Griffin.
1860, C. B. Shepherd.
1861, John A. Cummins.
1884, Jacob Billman and
William Schaffer.
1863, C. B. Shepherd.
1864, Isham W. Allen.
1865, Eli Dix.
I866, Levi Woodward.
1867, Henry R. Wallace.
1868, Eli Dix.
1869, Levi Woodward.
1870, H. R. Wallace.
1871, Eli Dix. 1872, William Combs.
1873, William A. Thompson.
1888, Harrison Pitman and James Pounds.
1890, Harrison B. Pitman and James L. Nash.
1894, John Wood and J. R. Joseph.
1902, Joseph Asbury and Wiley Gambill.
1906, Hilla Lovelace and Lewis O. Turnbull.
Charles Scott.
1878, James J. Snyder.
I879. Phillip R. Jenkins (vice Woodward).
1882, Jacob Billman and William Arnett.
1862, W. H. Griffin.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Sheriffs.
1817, Morgan Eaton (January to September ). 1863,
1817, Bailey Johnson.
I866,
W. H. Mayfield.
1821, George Boon.
1870, Thomas J. Land.
1825, Edward Wilks.
1872, John F. Curry.
1827, Richard Dodd.
I874, Owen C. Hancock.
1831, Seth Cushman.
1875, John Dudley.
1835, Shadrack Sherman.
1880, James L. Berry.
1839, Absalom Hurst. 1884, L. H. Willis.
1841, John H. Wilson.
1888, W. H. Hawkins.
1845, David H. Hancock.
1890, W. H. Hawkins.
1846, F. Garretson.
1894, William Mills.
1849, Henry Dooley.
1854, Zachariah Burton.
1906, Marion F. Walters.
1908, Frank Wible.
Auditors.
1841-52, H. K. Wilson.
1852-54, Joseph W. Wolfe.
1855-59, H. K. Wilson.
1859, Ferdinand Basler.
1 863, Ferdinand Basler.
1867, Murray Briggs.
1872, Robert M. Griffith.
1878, David Crawley.
1890, William Willis.
1894, James R. Riggs.
1902, E. E. Russell.
1906, Ben C. Crowder.
Treasurers.
1862, John Giles. 1866, W. H. Griffin. 1870, David Crawley.
:850, John S. Davis. 1854. W. B. Ogle. 1858, Ed Price.
1902, John S. Dudley.
1856, James W. Brodie.
1860, Matthew McCammon.
Alexander Snow.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
1874, Abraham Mcclellan.
1878, C. P. Riggs.
1882, Charles L. Davis.
1890, Jonathan Scott.
1894, Wm. R. Frakes.
1902, A. V. Minich.
1906, Thomas E. Ward.
Recorders.
1817, John Jones.
1817, Robert Buntin.
I865, J. L. Griffin.
1818, Samuel Coleman. I874, John N. Fordyce.
1830, M. E. Nash.
1882, Joshua Beasley.
1836, Benjamin Wolfe.
1890, V. D. Cummins.
1846, H. K. Wilson.
1894, V. D. Cummins.
1847, James H. Reed.
I902,
W. L. Hunt.
1857, W. G. Neff.
1906, A. J. Curry.
Clerks.
1817, Robert Buntin.
1871, Jesse Bicknell.
1817, Samuel Coleman, vice Bun- 1879, Thomas J. Mann.
tin, resigned. 1883, Thomas J. Mann.
1830, Benjamin Wolfe. 1887,
1891,
Wm. M. Denney.
1894, Ed. Shepherd.
I902, Tilghman Ogle.
1863, Edward Price.
1867, W. C. Griffith.
Surveyors.
1818, John Wallace.
* ** %
1852, Enoch Walls.
1854, W. S. Hinkle.
1856, Samuel M. Reed.
1858, Thomas B. Silvers.
P. R. Jenkins.
1842, H. K. Wilson.
I851, Joseph W. Wolfe.
1859, J. W. Hinkle.
1906, Arthur E. DeBaun.
1861, Robert K. Hamill.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
1860, Nathan Thomas.
1870, Alonzo F. Estabrook.
1888, B. E. Briggs
1906, R. L. Bailey.
1890, B. E. Briggs
1908, Daniel Sisson.
Coroners.
1817, William Ledgerwood (Jan- 1852, Benjamin Timmons.
uary to September). 1853, B. D. Walls.
1817, John M. Peebles.
1854,
A. S. Anderson.
1818, William Ledgerwood.
1856, Surrell Nichols.
1819, John Jones.
1858, Daniel Case.
1820, George Mack.
1860, John Turner.
1822, James Lisman.
1861, Thomas McIntosh:
1824, James Brooks.
1862, B. B. Neal.
1826, Seth Cushman.
1868, James W. Brodie.
1828, Shadrack Sherman.
1870, W. C. McBride.
1830, Absalom Hurst.
I872, S. T. Trout.
1832, William Hill.
1874, Caleb Snapp.
I836, Landon Parks.
1876, Owen Davis.
1838, Jesse J. Benefiel.
I878, John Wagoner.
1840, Joseph B. Booker.
1888, James E. Martin.
1842, George D. Clark.
1890, Oliver P. Harris.
1846, Samuel Wilson.
1902, W. P. Maxwell.
1848, Nimrod Walls.
1906, C. E. Brewer.
1850, Charles W. Hanley.
1892, F. M. Cunningham.
1902, R. L. Bailey,
Population.
The population of Knox county in 1800 and 1810, at both of which censuses Sullivan county was still a part of the original county, was as
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
follows : 1800 -- 2,402 and 28 slaves; 1810-4,551 and 135 slaves. The population of Sullivan county during the subsequent decades has been :
1820
3,498
1870
18,453
1830
4,630
I880
20,336
1840
8,315
1890
21,887
1850
10,14I
1900
26,005
1860
15,064
CHAPTER XVIII
A SKETCH OF INDIANA THROUGH THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD AND UP TO ORGANIZATION AS A STATE.
By an act approved May 7, 1800, congress provided, "That from and after the fourth day of July next, all that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river, which lies westward of the line beginning at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of Kentucky river, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north, until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate territory, and be called the Indiana Territory." The act pro- vided further, "That there shall be established within the said territory a government in all respects similar to that provided by the ordinance of congress, passed on the thirteenth day of July, 1787, for the govern- ment of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio; and the inhabitants thereof shall be entitled to, and enjoy, all and singular, the rights, privileges and advantages granted and secured to the people by the said ordinance." A further provision of the act creating the Indiana territory was, "That so much of the ordinance for the govern- ment of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river, as relates to the organization of a general assembly therein, and pre-
335
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
scribes the powers thereof, shall be in force and operate in the Indiana territory, whenever satisfactory evidence shall be given to the governor thereof, that such is the wish of a majority of the freeholders, notwith- standing there may not be therein five thousand free male inhabitants of the age of twenty-one years and upwards." But until there should be such five thousand inhabitants the representatives in the general assembly, if one should be organized, should be not less than seven nor more than nine; to be apportioned by the governor among the several counties, agreeably to the number of free male inhabitants of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, in each. As to the eastern boundary line, as fixed in the act, it was further provided, "That whenever that part of the territory of the United States which lies to the eastward of a line beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, running thence due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall be erected into an independent state, and admitted into the union on an equal footing with the original states, thenceforth said line shall become and remain permanently the boundary line between such state and the Indiana territory." A final provision was that, until the general assembly should determine otherwise, "Saint Vincennes, on the Wabash river, shall be the seat of government for the Indiana territory."
The Harrison mansion is the name given to the venerable building in which the legislature of the territory held its sessions and in which the governor resided and where the general court was held. The building is still in a good state of preservation ; and efforts have often been made to have the state secure it as a historical museum.
The house, from an architectural point of view, as well as from its massiveness, seems remarkable. At the time it was erected its situation was a wilderness, far from civilization, and to get the materials for its construction, the glass, iron, etc., meant a year or more of time before
.
337
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
they could be delivered at Vincennes. Historical societies have en- deavored to have it kept as a lasting monument to the memory of those who built so well and as a reminder that this was the birthplace of government, religion and education in the west. The building is two stories high, with a large attic, and a basement under the entire place. It was completed in 1805. The ceilings are thirteen and one-half feet high and the rooms are spacious. The walls are of brick and inside and out are eighteen inches thick. The glass in the windows came from England, and it took two years to have it delivered. The wood was sawed with the old-fashioned whip-saw, and all the nails were hand- forged on the grounds. The woodwork is hard-paneled, finished with beading and is of solid, clear black walnut. It is said that the walnut in the house today is worth a small fortune.
So came Indiana into existence, with a capital of her own, and with even a freer form of government than that of the northwest territory, prior to its legislative stage. The area of this new Indiana territory included all of the present state of Indiana, except a small wedge-shaped section in the southeast part of the state, east of a line running from a point on the Ohio opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river, northeasterly to Fort Recovery, in the state of Ohio, this line being the old Indian boundary line, between those points named in the treaty of Greenville. The new territory included also a narrow strip less than three miles in width on the west side of the state of Ohio, north of Fort Recovery, and lying between the north and south line through Fort Recovery and the present boundary of the two states. The territory included besides, all of the state of Michigan lying west of the north and south line through Fort Recovery; also the whole of Illinois and Wisconsin; and so much of Minnesota as lies east of the Mississippi river. The limits of the Indiana territory, for a time, extended even west of the Mississippi.
Vol. I-22
338
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
By an act approved March 26, 1804, congress attached to Indiana all that part of Louisiana west of the Mississippi and north of the thirty-third degree of north latitude, under the name of the District of Louisiana. At a session of the governor and judges of Indiana territory, held at Vincennes, beginning October 1, 1804, a number of laws were adopted for the District of Louisiana. During the following year, however, by an act of congress approved March 3, 1805, this district was organized into a separate territory. This was truly an imperial domain. Detroit, Sault Ste. Marie, St. Ignace, with eastern Michigan and all Ohio, re- mained in the northwest territory until the admission of Ohio as a state of the Union, November 29, 1802, when the northwest territory, as a political division, ceased to exist. At that date also, congress attached to Indiana the remainder of Michigan, or Wayne county, as it was then called; and, in 1803, William Henry Harrison, as governor of the Indiana territory, assumed jurisdiction over all of Mich- igan, and extended the limits of Wayne county to Lake Michigan. Thereafter, until the formation of the territory of Michigan, June 30, 1805, Detroit, Sault Ste. Marie, and St. Ignace, as well as the sites of Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Niles, with all the valley of the St. Joseph, were in Indiana. Chicago and St. Louis were then in Indiana ; and so were the sites of Milwaukee, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth. The inland sea, Lake Michigan, was wholly within the Indiana territory. The ambition of Napoleon is said to have been to make the Mediterranean a French lake; and he came near succeeding. La Salle made Lake Michigan a French lake; it was afterwards a British lake; and now it is the only one of the great lakes that is wholly American ; in the first years of the nineteenth century, it was an Indiana lake, surrounded on every side by Indiana territory.
On May 13, 1800, the appointment by the president of William
339
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Henry Harrison, of Virginia, as first governor of the Indiana territory was confirmed by the senate. Harrison had been secretary of the northwest territory, and also delegate in congress from that territory. On the next day, John Gibson, of Pennsylvania, a pioneer of distinction, was appointed first secretary of the territory. It was to Secretary Gibson that the great chief Logan, in 1774, delivered his celebrated speech, known to every school boy. William Clark, Henry Vanderburg and John Griffin were appointed the first judges of the territory. Harrison did not come to assume his office until January, 1801. John Gibson, the secretary, arrived at Vincennes early in July, 1800, and, as acting governor, proceeded to make appointments of territorial officers and to provide for the administration of the affairs of the new government, which was formally organized July 4, 1800. The first entry on the executive journal, dated at Saint Vincennes, July 4. 1800, reads as follows : "This day the government of the Indiana territory commenced. William Henry Harrison having been appointed governor; John Gibson, secretary ; William Clark, Henry Vander Burgh and John Griffin, judges in and over said territory." This was the second time in the history of our commonwealth that July 4th proved to be a notable day. It was on July 4, 1778, that George Rogers Clark surprised and captured Kaskaskia, then the capital of the British possessions northwest of the Ohio, thus opening up the first page of our history, as a part of the American Union ; and now again on July 4, 1800, was organized the government of Indiana, as an incipient commonwealth of the republic.
On January 12, 1801, Governor Harrison having arrived at Vin- cennes and issued proclamation therefor, the governor and judges con- vened in legislative session and adopted laws for the government of the territory. This was the first body ever convened within the present limits of Indiana to make laws for our commonwealth. The ordinance
340
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
of 1787 continued in force, so far as applicable, as also the laws already adopted for the government of the northwest territory before the division.
The new court, called the General Court of the Indiana territory, organized and held its first session at Vincennes, March 3, 1801. The court record opens as follows: "At a General Court of the Indiana Territory, called and held at Saint Vincennes the third day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and one. The commissions of the judges being read in open court, they took their seats, and present : William Clark, Henry Vander Burgh and John Griffin, Judges. Henry Hurst, Clerk of the General Court, having produced his commission from the governor and a certificate of his having taken the oath of allegiance and oath of office, took his place. John Rice Jones, Attorney- General, produced his commission, and a certificate of his having taken the oath of allegiance and oath of office." One of the orders made on this first day of court is of much significance. It was for the examination of certain persons "for counsellor's degree, agreeable to a law of the Territory." Among the persons so ordered to be examined as to his proficiency in the law was the Attorney-General himself, John Rice Jones. After obtaining their degree as counsellors, those distinguished gentlemen were required to appear at subsequent terms of court, to be examined for their second degree, for admission to practice as attorneys-at-law. Now-a-days it is the constitutional privilege of "every person of good moral character, being a voter," to be admitted "to practice law in all courts of justice." Which is the better system in "a government of the people, for the people, and by the people," may perhaps be a subject of debate. One may become a good lawyer, though admitted to practice without examination ; and he may be a poor lawyer, though admitted after the most severe examination. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings."
341
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
The business of this early supreme court was very light, as com- pared with the business of the courts of our day. From the organization of the court, March 3, 1801, until the close of its last term, September 16, 1816, just before the territorial form of government gave way to the establishment of a permanent state government, two manuscript dockets, or order books, one of 457 and the other of 120 pages were found suffi- cient to contain all the orders of the court. The court sat at Vincennes from its organization until 1813, when the seat of government was removed to Corydon, in Harrison county.
The general court, unlike the supreme court of our day, had original as well as appellate jurisdiction. The business, however, was usually appellate, the appeals being taken from the several county courts. Yet the most important case that came before the court was an original action for slander, brought by the governor, William Henry Harrison, against one William McIntosh, a wealthy Scotch resident of Vincennes, and said to be a relative of the distinguished Sir James McIntosh. The case was tried by a jury selected as follows: Forty-eight men were summoned by elisors, appointed by the court ; of these, the plaintiff struck out twelve names, after which the defendant struck out twelve. From the remaining twenty-four a jury of twelve men was drawn by lot. The jury gave the governor a verdict for four thousand dollars, a part of which was remitted and the rest given to charity. The judges of the general court, like the judges of our supreme court in their respective circuits, had power to preside in the circuit courts; and we learn that Benjamin Parke, after whom Parke county was named, while judge of the general. court, rode on horseback from Vincennes to Wayne county, to try a case of larceny. It is said that his judicial bench on that occasion was a log of wood. The case was one of petit larceny,-exceedingly petty, indeed,-the theft of a pocket knife. The people of those days
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
sought the just enforcement of the law upon the statute books, accord- ing to its true intent and meaning, rather than the making of many new laws. A speedy hearing, a fair trial, a prompt acquittal of the innocent, a certain conviction of the guilty, the taking of no man's property without right and the delay of no man in the recovery of what belonged to him, -these things seemed to our simple forefathers the true ends of the administration of justice. They deemed the enforcement of the old laws of more consequence than the making of new ones. To remedy mis- carriage of justice, they looked to the courts and to the officers appointed to administer the laws, rather than to the enactment of new laws.
The first judges of the general court were succeeded by Thomas Terry Davis, Waller Taylor, Benjamin Parke and James Scott. The last three occupied the bench until the territorial form of government came to a close, in 1816. The most distinguished of the judges, and one of the ablest public men in the history of Indiana, was Benjamin Parke. Soon after the close of his services as judge of the general court, he was appointed first judge of the United States district court for Indiana, serving from 1817 until his death, in 1835. Waller Taylor was also a man of distinction. While judge of the general court he served as major with Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe. On the organization of the state government, in 1816, he was chosen as one of the first United States senators from Indiana, and served for two terms. James Scott, the third member of the general court at the time of its dissolution, was appointed one of the first judges of the state supreme court, and served for fourteen years. The attorneys-general for the territorial period were three in number,-James Rice Jones, Benjamin Parke and Thomas Randolph. Jones was one of the compilers of the Indiana code of 1807. Disappointed in his political aspirations, he went to Illinois, and after- wards to Missouri. He was a member of the first constitutional conven-
-
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
tion of Missouri, and afterwards member of the supreme court of that state. Thomas Randolph, the last attorney-general of the territory, was a cousin of John Randolph of Roanoke. He was killed at the battle of Tippecanoe, in 1811. The office of attorney-general ceased to exist from his death until its re-establishment by the legislature, under the new constitution, in 1855. To Benjamin Parke, and to General Washington Johnston, another distinguished lawyer, our supreme court is indebted for the nucleus of its present library,-one of the finest west of New York City. The books of Parke and Johnston upon the shelves of this library are made the more precious by the autographs of those eminent men. The salaries of the judges of the general court were seven hundred dollars a year each ; that of the attorney-general, at first sixty and after- wards one hundred dollars a year.
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