USA > Indiana > White County > A standard history of White County Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and county, Vol. I > Part 17
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office of the Indiana Democrat, and in the following year joined the busi- ness department of the Lafayette Free Press.
After three years of such experimenting, Mr. Huff decided to study law, and commenced his course in the libraries of John Pettit, afterward his brother-in-law, and Rufus A. Lockwood. He was admitted to the bar in 1837, and practiced alone and in partnership with Judge Pettit, Zebu- lon Baird and Byron W. Langdon. When he was elected to the common pleas bench he had acquired a substantial standing as a lawyer and had become widely known as an ardent Free Soiler. He resigned the judge- ship after eighteen months of service, and later vigorously championed the cause of the new republican party, being one of the presidential electors from Indiana who cast his vote for Lincoln in 1860.
Several years before his death Judge Huff moved from Lafayette to Indianapolis, but the years were telling upon his vitality and he soon joined his son in Monticello. There his death occurred in January, 1886. His remains were taken to his old home for burial, where the courts and members of the bar, as well as numerous friends outside the pale of his profession, testified to the great ability and generous impulses of the deceased.
COMMON PLEAS JUDGES, 1854-69
David Turpie succeeded Judge Huff, but occupied the bench only for the July term of 1854, and Governor Wright appointed Gustavus A. Wood as his successor. Judge Wood occupied the common pleas bench but one term-that of October, 1854-and then came, in succession, Mark Jones, who served until 1856; Judge Wood, again, from December, 1856, to May, 1861 (with the exception of the March term of 1860, at which Godlove O. Behm presided) ; Judge Godlove, the May term of 1861; David P. Vinton, 1861-67; Alfred Reed, 1867; B. F. Schermerhorn, one term, 1869, and Alfred Reed, from October, 1869, until the court was abolished in 1873.
CAPTAIN AND JUDGE ALFRED F. REED
In 1867 a new common pleas district was formed, comprising the counties of Carroll and White. Up to that time the district had con- sisted of Tippecanoe and White counties, and all the judges, save Mr. Turpie, had been residents of the former county. With the new dis- tricting, White County felt that she was entitled to representation upon the bench, and her wishes were gratified by the nomination and election of Capt. Alfred F. Reed, who had practiced for a number of years before the Civil war, served gallantly as captain and lieutenant, resigning his seat in the state senate to return to the arduous duties of a soldier, and after the conflict at arms was over, quietly and earnestly resumed the practice of his profession. He was elected and commissioned judge of the Common Pleas Court, October 1, 1869, and again on October 28, 1872. When the court was abolished by act of March 6, 1873, he resumed Vol. I-8
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the practice and speedily regained his former standing and professional business, his judicial record adding to both as time progressed. Mon- ticello and White County have reason to be proud of his character and his acts.
Captain Reed was born in Clark County, Ohio, February 3, 1824. Although his parents first came to Indiana in his childhood, the family did not permanently locate in White County until in November, 1852. After that date Monticello was their home. In the meantime Alfred F. had married and been admitted to the bar. He practiced his profession until the outbreak of the Civil war, and on August 1, 1861, was com- missioned captain of Company K, Twentieth Regiment of Indiana Vol- unteers. As such he served until the fall of 1862, when he resigned to assume his seat in the state senate ; but, after one session at Indianapolis, he felt that his duties called him to the front; he then resigned the senatorship and in March, 1864, was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Twelfth Indiana Cavalry, continuing as such until the close of the war. He was many times wounded and the stress of army life undoubt- edly hastened his end, as his death at Monticello occurred October 23, 1873, in his fiftieth year.
THE LAWYERS OF 1834-51
Before the coming of Mr. Reed, in 1852, to engage in the practice, the following were the members of the bar who had professional business at the county seat, only two of whom-Messrs. Thompson and Turpie- were residents : William M. Jenners, William P. Bryant, Andrew Ingra- ham, Aaron Finch, Rufus A. Lockwood and John Pettit, who first ap- peared in 1834; John W. Wright, 1835; Zebulon Baird, 1836; William Wright, 1837; Thomas M. Thompson and Hiram Allen, 1838; Daniel D. Pratt, 1839; D. Mace and W. Z. Stewart, 1840; L. S. Dale, 1841; G. S. Orth, 1842; Robert Jones, Jr., 1843; Samuel A. Huff, David M. Dunn and J. F. Dodds, 1843; William Potter and A. M. Crane, 1847; J. C. Applegate, Elijah Odell and A. L. Pierce, 1848; David Turpie, Robert H. Milroy and T. C. Reyburn, 1849; Hiram W. Chase, 1850, and Abra- ham Timmons, 1851.
Not long after Captain Reed located at Monticello as a practicing attorney, the roll of resident lawyers was augmented by the admission of W. H. Rhinehart, Benjamin F. Tilden, James Wallace and Robert W. Sill, so that White County was no longer so dependent upon the profession drawn from Logansport, Lafayette and Delphi.
THE SILLS
The last named was the widely known Sill family, being a son of the founder in the State of Indiana, viz .: William Sill, the first clerk of White County, who came with his wife to Washington County in 1828, two years later moved to Tippecanoe County, and in the fall of 1830 settled in what is now Prairie Township, White County. There he
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farmed and taught school for a time, and in 1834 located in what is now Monticello, erecting the first house in town on lot 1, at southwest corner of Bluff and Marion streets. He served seven years as county clerk, and was in the fifth year of his second term when he died, January 7, 1846.
Robert W., the oldest of the eight Sill children, studied law; was sheriff of the county from 1848 to 1852, and not long afterward con- menced active practice at Monticello. At a later day another son, Milton M., made a substantial record as both a newspaper man and a lawyer. As the author, also, of a history of White County, which he had not completed at the time of his death, he has rendered a good service to the editor of this work.
LAWYERS OF 1856-90
In his article on the "Bench and Bar," Milton M. Sill had this to say of his fellow-practitioners: "Between 1856 and 1890 many mem- bers were added to the local bar. Johnson Gregory, who had located at Reynolds; William J. Gridley, Ellis Hughes, Judge Joseph H. Mat- lock, Joseph W. Davis, Judge A. W. Reynolds, W. E. Uhl, Thomas Bushnell; Robert Gregory, a son of Johnson Gregory; E. B. Sellers, O. Mcconahay, Hugh B. Logan, Daniel D. Dale, W. S. Bushnell, William Guthrie, Judge T. F. Palmer, John H. Wallace, W. S. Hartman, Isaac Parsons, George F. Marvin, A. K. Sills, W. H. Hamelle and Charles (. Spencer, all joined and became members of the White county bar between these dates, presenting quite an array of legal talent in our courts.
JOSEPH H. MATLOCK
"Judge Matlock removed here from Peru with his family and built a neat and commodious office on the present site of the Herald building. His first partner was Joseph W. Davis, a bright and promising young lawyer who had moved from our neighboring county of Carroll, but he dying in the early spring of 1872, Judge Matlock formed a second partnership with Henry P. Owens, a young lawyer from Kentucky, and they together enjoyed a large and increasing practice until the death of Judge Matlock in --. [Editor : December 29, 1878.] After the death of Judge Matlock a partnership was formed by Owens with William E. Uhl, which was continued until the declining health of Mr. Owens compelled him to retire from the practice altogether."
ORLANDO MCCONAHAY
Undoubtedly there have been not a few greater lawyers than Orlando McConahay, there have been none more popular or charged with more vim, either professional or personal. His friends were legion, especially in Monticello and Monon, his home towns during most of his life and the chief scenes of his practice, his official activities and his personal con- flicts and complications of all kinds. He came of Scotch-Irish ancestry,
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his father, Ranson, being a native of Bourbon County, Kentucky. Three years after his marriage the father moved to Tippecanoe County, where Orlando was born in 1832. The family home afterward became what is now Liberty Township, and in January, 1846, the elder Mcconahay commenced to serve out the unexpired term of William Sill, the first county clerk. This he completed, was re-elected to the office, and com- pleted his official life in 1858, and his career on earth a decade later.
The son, Orlando, assumed the clerkship which the father relin- quished and performed its duties for eight years. In the meantime he had been admitted to the bar and located at Monticello for practice at the expiration of his official term in 1867, forming a partnership with Ellis Hughes in 1871.
Mr. Mcconahay's successor in the office of county clerk was his fellow attorney and former assistant, Daniel D. Dale, and there are a few of the profession yet in the county who remember the acrimonious triangular contest between Messrs. Dale, Mcconahay and Robert Greg- ory, which raged with such fury in 1873. Without going into the merits of the charges and counter-charges, it will probably be admitted from the perspective of the present that Mr. Dale, who was generally pounced upon by both Messrs. Mcconahay and Gregory, came out of the fray with his feathers considerably ruffled and his comb pretty well picked to pieces. McConahay was drawn into the fight at its last stage, and most of his friends were sorry he mixed in; they felt, as was expressed by a poetic contributor to the press, who signed himself "A German Fellow Citizen," and starts out with this hitch :
"Vell, Mcconahay, now how you feel, Mixed up mit Dale and Gregory into dem ugly steal ? You plays der dickens mit yourself ust now In mixen into dose unhealthy row."
Mr. McConahay built up a fair practice in Monticello, notwithstand- ing his rather fiery temperament and somewhat indiscreet conduct, and afterward moved to Lafayette, where he remained about two years. While in that city he served as justice of the peace. In 1885 he located at Monon, where he lived the remainder of his life, holding such offices as town attorney and notary public.
LAWYERS IN ACTIVE PRACTICE
The members of the bar of White County who have been enrolled since 1890 are as follows, those engaged in the practice being indicated by a *:
Law firms: Spencer, Hamelle & Cowger, Monticello; Palmer & Carr, Monticello; Sills & Sills, Monticello.
Resident attorneys: * E. B. Sellers, Monticello; * T. F. Palmer, Mon- ticello; Benj. F. Carr, Monticello; * W. S. Bushnell, Monticello; * Wm. Guthrie, Monticello; * W. H. Hamelle, Monticello; * W. J. Gridley, Monti-
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cello; * A. K. Sills, Monticello; * Charles C. Spencer, Monticello; * George F. Marvin, Monticello; L. D. Carey, Monticello; M. B. Beard, Wolcott ; James T. Graves, Monticello; George W. Kassebaum, Monticello ; Thomas. J. Hanna, Monticello; * A. R. Orton, Monticello; Clarence R. Cowger, Monticello ; W. R. Taylor, Monticello; A. K. Sills, Jr., Monticello ; H. T. Brockway, Monticello; S. L. Callaway, Monticello; Henry C. Thomp- son, Monon ; W. A. Ward, Reynolds.
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SOME WHITE COUNTY SCHOOL BUILDINGS
CHAPTER VIII
EDUCATION AND PROMINENT MEN
TERRITORIAL LEGISLATION-PUBLIC EDUCATION UNDER THE FIRST CON- STITUTION-TRUSTEES OF SCHOOL LANDS-TOWNSHIP TRUSTEES- THE OLD-TIME COMFORTABLE SCHOOLHOUSE-EARLY CONDITIONS IN WHITE COUNTY-THE THREE-DAYS SCHOOLHOUSE-PIONEER EDU- CATIONAL MATTERS-FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE IN THE COUNTY-A SEMI- NARY WHICH WAS NEVER BORN-THE COUNTY LIBRARY MORE FOR- TUNATE-A MONTICELLO SCHOOL WITH CLASS-SCHOOLS IN JACKSON TOWNSHIP-JONATHAN SLUYTER'S GOOD WORK-SPREAD OF THE SPIRIT INTO MONON-WEST POINT SCHOOL AND TOWN HALL-GEORGE BOWMAN, AS MAN AND TEACHER-THE PALESTINE AND NORDYKE SCHOOLS-SPROUTINGS IN CASS TOWNSHIP-THE STATE BRINGS BETTER ORDER-SCHOOL EXAMINERS-BUILDING SCHOOLHOUSE UNDER THE NEW ORDER-THE TEACHERS-FORERUNNERS OF THE HIGH SCHOOLS-THE FARMINGTON SEMINARY-PROF. WILLIAM IRELAN- THE BROOKSTON ACADEMY-CORN-CRIB AND REGULAR SCHOOLS- FIRST ROUND GROVE SCHOOLHOUSE-PRESENT COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION-TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION AND INSTITUTES-RULES AND REGULATIONS - PRESENT STATUS. OF THE COUNTY SYSTEM - DR. WILLIAM S. HAYMOND-CHARLES S. HARTMAN-DR. WILLIAM E. BIEDERWOLF.
Nothing was ever done by either the French or British governments to establish or encourage the founding of public schools among their scattered subjects in the western wilds, but with the first extension of American paper rule over the Northwest the cause was brought for- ward as one of the fundamentals of popular sovereignty. As has been stated, a congressional ordinance of 1785 provided for the donation of section 16 in every congressional township for the maintenance of public schools, and the more comprehensive and famous measure of 1787 declared that "religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to the government and happiness of mankind, schools and means of education shall forever be encouraged." In this matter the fathers of the Northwest sustained the character of the founders of the United States, and its greatest supporters ever since, of being both idealists and practical men. They first provided the basis of a fund for the popular schools ; then pledged the future American generations forever to encour- age them. Forever is a large word, but America has always dealt in futures, and when 128 years have passed after that pledge was given,
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the generations of the present are encouraging the cause of public educa- tion with greater zeal and immeasurably greater resources than their sponsors of 1787 ever dreamed of.
TERRITORIAL LEGISLATION
Indiana Territory had the Indians to fight, as well as the wilderness to break, but her public men brought up the subject repeatedly, Gov- ernor Harrison in one of his messages suggesting that military educa- tion be grafted into the public system. In 1807, after a sweeping pre- amble re-dedicating the people to the principle of popular education, the Legislature incorporated the Vincennes University "for the instruc- tion of youth in the Latin, Greek, French and English languages, mathe- matics, natural philosophy, ancient and modern history, moral philos- ophy, logic, rhetoric and the laws of nature and nations." In the following year the Territorial Legislature authorized the judges of the Courts of Common Pleas to lease the school lands, and in 1810 they were authorized to appoint trustees for that purpose; these agents, however, were forbidden to lease more than 160 acres to any one person and the destruction of timber on the leased lands was forbidden. These acts concluded the actual performances in behalf of the cause, but, consid- ering how many other measures came before the territorial authorities and legislators in the nature of self-defense and self-preservation, it is. remarkable that so much was accomplished.
PUBLIC EDUCATION UNDER THE FIRST STATE CONSTITUTION
The first state constitution, adopted in 1816, provided that none of the school lands should be sold by the authority of the state previous. to 1820, and that it should be the duty of the General Assembly, as soon as possible, "to provide by law for a general system of education, ascending in a regular gradation from township schools to a State Uni- versity, wherein tuition shall be gratis and equally open to all. And. for the promotion of such salutary end, the money which shall be paid as an equivalent by persons exempt from military duty, except in times. of war, shall be exclusively, and in equal proportion, applied to the support of county seminaries; and all fines assessed for any breach of the penal laws shall be applied to said seminaries in the counties wherein they shall be assessed."
TRUSTEES OF SCHOOL LANDS
The General Assembly of 1816 took up the work and made provi- sion for the appointment of superintendents of school sections, with power to lease the school lands for any term not to exceed seven years, and each lessee was required to set out annually on such lands twenty- five apple and twenty-five peach trees until 100 of each had been planted. Between 1816 and 1820 several academies, seminaries and literary socie- ties were incorporated in the older and more populous counties.
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The first measure which provided for any comprehensive system of public education was passed in 1824, the bill being the result of the labors of a special commission appointed by the Legislature several years before; the act, which became law, was "to incorporate congressional townships and provide for public schools therein."
TOWNSHIP TRUSTEES
After providing for the election of three school trustees in each town- ship, who should control section 16 and all other matters of public edu- cation, the law made provision for the erection of schoolhouses, as fol- lows: "Every able-bodied male person of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, residing within the bounds of such school district, shall be liable to work one day in each week until such building may be com- pleted, or pay the sum of thirty-seven and one-half cents for every day he may fail to work." The trustees might also receive lumber, nails, glass or other necessary building material, in lieu either of work or the daily wages.
THE OLD-TIME COMFORTABLE SCHOOLHOUSE
The schoolhouse, according to the law of 1824, provided: "In all cases such school house shall be eight feet between the floors, and at least one foot from the surface of the ground to the first floor, and be furnished in a manner calculated to render comfortable the teacher and pupils."
As no funds were provided for the pay of teachers or the erection of buildings, the schools were kept open as long as the subscriptions held out, and the comfort of the teacher and pupils depended on the char- acter of the householders who supported the institution. Neither could the school trustees levy a tax except by special permission of the district, and even then the expenditure was limited to $50.
In 1832 the Legislature ordered the sale of all county seminaries, the net proceeds to be added to the permanent school fund. Its action did not affect White County, as its citizens did not commence to collect funds for that purpose until 1834, when they were organized under a separate government. In 1837 the county received its quota of the sur- plus disbursed from the United States treasury to the various states dur- ing the preceding year. Indiana's share was $806,000, and of that sum the State Legislature set aside $573,000 for the permanent use of the common schools of the commonwealth; but only the interest of the fund could be used by the counties.
EARLY CONDITIONS IN WHITE COUNTY
When White County commenced its political existence there were no public schools, in the accepted sense, within her borders, and nearly twenty years were to pass before anything like the prevailing system of popular education was to be in force. The conditions then prevailing were these: "The man or woman who had a desire to become an in-
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structor would get up a written agreement called a subscription paper, and pass it around among the people of a certain neighborhood for sig- natures. The agreement usually called for a certain number of pupils at a certain price per pupil, and when the required number was obtained the school would begin. The ruling price for a term of three months was two dollars per pupil, and the number of pupils to be taught was to be not less than twenty. The board and lodging for the teacher would be provided by the patrons of the school, each one, in turn, furnishing a share during the term, or if the teacher preferred, which was nearly always the case, he or she might choose a boarding place and remain there during the term for a small compensation to the patron of the school whose home was selected. The board and lodging of the school teacher was regarded as a small matter by the early settlers, and one dollar per week was taken as ample compensation for the trouble imposed by this arrangement. The first plan was designated as 'board- ing among the scholars' and the second as 'boarding himself' or 'board- ing herself.'
THE THREE-DAYS SCHOOLHOUSE
"The first matter of importance, however, before the beginning of the school, was to provide a building for the accommodation of the teacher and pupils; but this was, also, an easy matter for the pioneers. The settlers of a neighborhood would get together on a specified day, say a Thursday, and begin the erection of a school house at some point as nearly central in the neighborhood as a site could be procured ; which was always easy to obtain, as land was worth one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and a suitable site could be found where the owner of the land, if he had children of school age, was only too willing to donate an acre or half an acre of his land for the purpose. Beginning the building on Thursday, they would finish their work on or before Sat- urday night, so that it would be ready for occupancy on Monday morning."
PIONEER EDUCATIONAL MATTERS
The mellow memories clinging to the old log schoolhouse have so often been spread upon the printed page that we leave the familiar ground for more personal matters directly concerning the pioneer schools and teachers in the White County field before the commencement of the modern era in 1852.
FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE IN THE COUNTY
The first schoolhouse built within the limits of White County was located on the banks of Big Creek, in what was known as the Robert Newell neighborhood-so named after that old settler, afterward pro- bate judge, who has already appeared several times in the course of this history. It stood on the land of George A. Spencer, whose home was also White County's first courthouse. The schoolhouse, which was
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constructed of round logs and was 12 by 14 feet in size, had been built for a family residence. After a short occupancy for domestic pur- poses it had been abandoned, and some time in 1834 was opened as a school, Mr. Spencer having kindly placed seats in it and otherwise trans- formed the room into a temple of learning. Mr. Spencer had children, and the other resident families who supported the enterprise were headed by Benjamin Reynolds, John Burns, Robert Newell, William M. Kenton, Zebulon Dyer, James Shafer, John Phillips, and perhaps a few others.
From a description which has come down to us from one of the old settlers it is learned that a log had been left out of the south side of the hut to admit the light, and that two puncheons, fastened together with wooden pins and hung on wooden hinges, formed the door, which was securely closed with a wooden latch in a wooden catch. A string passed through the door above the latch and served to raise it from the outside at all times, unless the pupils caught the master out, when it would be drawn in and, by barricading the window with benches, they often suc- ceeded in delaying the routine of study, but such an act was certain to bring upon the daring culprits the dire vengeance of the master, whose authority was thus set at naught.
The first teacher in this first school was Matthias Davis, father of Mrs. Daniel McCuaig, of Monticello, a man of rare mental qualifications for that period and a kindly and conscientious teacher, who delighted in his work and was beloved by his pupils. He could be severe, however, when he "was locked out," or his authority otherwise flouted.
A SEMINARY WHICH WAS NEVER BORN
Soon after the organization of the county the citizens commenced to agitate the founding of a county seminary, authorized by the state constitution of 1816. The movement materialized in the legislative enactment providing that certain fines and penalties, assessed against those who swore, broke the Sabbath, or engaged in rioting, should be thus applied. The law provided that when $400 had been collected, the board of trustees might proceed to erect a seminary building. In May, 1835, Jonathan Harbolt was appointed seminary trustee to serve for one year. The fund went on so slowly collecting under Mr. Harbolt and his successors that it had reached only $403 in June, 1853, and $781 in 1857; by that time the new school law established under the con- stitution of 1852 had gone fully into operation, and as there was no place in that system for a county seminary, its fund was turned over to the common schools.
THE COUNTY LIBRARY MORE FORTUNATE
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