USA > Indiana > Marshall County > A twentieth century history of Marshall County, Indiana, Volume II > Part 5
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These three successive campaigns, with their accompanying joint discus- sions covering a period of six years, made between the same competitors, with the same result, are perhaps without a parallel in the history of the state. The notable distinctive feature in them was the unchanging stability of both parties to their choice of candidates. That the party uniformly successful should have retained in its service the same candidate is not so singular, but that the minority party, under these circumstances, should have steadily adhered to its defeated candidate is somewhat uncommon.
These joint debates resulted in making Mr. Colfax twice speaker of the national house of representatives, and vice president of the United States, and electing Mr. Turpie three times to the senate of the United States, in which both of these distinguished statesmen left honorable records, of which every Indianian is justly proud.
Not until Marshall county was "gerrymandered" from the "bloody ninth" to the Thirteenth district was it honored with a candidate for con- gress. Since then it has had the following candidates for congress: Henry G. Thayer, republican ; Charles Kellison, democrat ; Daniel McDonald, demo- crat. None of these was elected.
In other higher positions Marshall county has been honored by nomina- tions and appointments as follows :
C. H. Reeve, delegate to democratic national convention, New York, 1868.
Horace Corbin, delegate to democratic national convention, Baltimore, 1872.
Daniel McDonald, delegate to democratic national convention, St. Louis, 1876, and to Chicago, 1884.
John S. Bender, delegate to greenback national convention, Chicago, 1878, and member committee on resolutions, also delegate to national green- back convention, 1880.
M. A. O. Packard was democratic candidate for reporter supreme court, 1868.
Charles P. Drummond was democratic candidate for attorney general, 189-
Election Days.
Election days in the county have usually been quiet and peaceable, but two or three disturbances worth naming having ever occurred-the one above named being the most notable. At the presidential election in Green township, in 1860, a civil disturbance occurred between the two political parties, occasioned by the democrats challenging the vote of a young man
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
who had been attending commercial college at Pittsburg. This was the signal for challenges on the part of the republicans, and from that out almost every man's vote was challenged whether he was known to be a legal voter or not, and much bitterness of feeling was engendered, but beyond a unani- mous "mad" all round nothing serious resulted from this exhibition of politi- cal malice.
The old whig party, the American party, and later the republican party, have always made their nominations on the "mass convention" plan-that is, those in attendance decided the number of votes each township should be entitled to in voting for the nomination of candidates, etc. The democracy have uniformly held their conventions on the delegate plan-that is, the county central committee usually apportioned the delegates each township should be entitled to, on the basis of so many votes for each 100 democratic votes cast at a general election held immediately prior. Of late years they adopted the plan of instructing the delegates in what proportion to cast their votes for candidates in the county convention on the first ballot. This was called giving each candidate his "relative strength." It was thought by many if relative strength was the proper way of nominating candidates it should be by the primary election system, and so at the county convention in 1878 the writer of this history formulated the following resolution, which was introduced and its passage secured by the late Judge Capron, who was a delegate to the convention :
"Resolved, That it is the sense of this convention that future nomina- tions for county offices shall be made by the primary election system, and that the person having the highest number of votes shall be declared the nominee for the office for which he is a candidate, and the county central committee is hereby authorized and required to arrange the details necessary to successfully carry into effect the provisions of this resolution."
At the first primary election held under this resolution nearly the entire democratic vote of the county was polled. The system was kept up for a number of years, but was finally abandoned, and the party returned to the delegate system, but providing for double the number of delegates.
Presidential Elections.
The presidential elections in Marshall county from the first election down to the present time have been the controlling influence which has kept the dominant parties in line. Every four years as soon as the presidential nominations are made party lines are tightly drawn and the "battle royal" begins. With two or three exceptions the democratic party has been success- ful in carrying the county for its nominee for president. The following are the names of the presidential candidates, and the majority they received at each election since the organization of the county :
1840-Van Buren, democrat.
Majority. 36
1844-Polk, democrat 58
1848-Cass, democrat 106
1852-Pierce, democrat 168
1856-Buchanan, democrat 111
1860-Lincoln, republican
153
1864-MeClellan, democrat 383
1868-Seymour, democrat 460
1872-Greeley, mugwump. 27
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
1876-Tilden, democrat .570
1880-Hancock, democrat .542
1884-Cleveland, democrat 761
1888-Cleveland, democrat 605
1892-Cleveland, democrat .555
1896-Bryan, democrat
605
1900-Bryan, democrat
.502
1904-Roosevelt, republican 123
In 1860 the county went for Lincoln by a majority of 153. The war spirit for the preservation of the Union was abroad in the land, and the democratic national convention held at Charleston having divided on the doc- trine of "squatter sovereignty" as advocated by Stephen A. Douglas, and the southern states having nominated John C. Breckinridge as their candi- date for president, and the northern states later having nominated Douglas, the party in Marshall county became divided to such an extent that the new republican party had no trouble in carrying the county for Lincoln.
In 1872 the democrats made no nomination, but at the democratic na- tional convention held at Baltimore committed the unspeakable folly of en- dorsing the nomination of Horace Greeley, who had previously been nomi- nated by a convention of bolting republicans. Greeley had always been a bitter opponent of the democratic party, and a large number of the democrats all over the country, and especially of Marshall county, refused to vote for him, and hence the large reduction in the democratic vote in the county.
The reason the republican party was able to carry the county in the presidential election of 1904 was on account of a split which occurred in the democratic party in 1896 on the money question ; and again in 1900, in both of which elections W. J. Bryan was the democratic candidate, but was de- feated by the large number of democrats who refused to vote for him in both elections on the money issue, which was practically the same in both cam- paigns. In the campaign of 1904 the faction who opposed Bryan in both of the previous campaigns secured the nomination of a candidate for president who represented their views in the person of Alton B. Parker. The conse- quence was that about 500 democrats who had voted for Bryan in the previ- ous campaigns refused to go to the polls on election day, and many others who went to the election voted for the republican candidate, President Roose- velt, thus enabling him to carry the county by 123 majority.
In many of these fifteen presidential campaigns that our people have taken part in since the organization of the county there have been more than the candidates of the two dominant parties, but none of them were able to carry enough votes to make any perceptible change in the result. The green- back party made the best showing in 1880, when it cast 536 votes for Weaver, its candidate for president.
First Presidential Election.
The writer's first recollection of a presidential campaign was the first election held for president in Marshall county known as the Harrison cam- paign of 1840, and further designated as the campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too"; "Coon skins," "log cabins," and "hard cider." He was a small boy then, but the excitement was so great and there being nothing else in those days to attract attention the occurrences easily made a vivid and lasting impression on his mind.
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
There was not much difference on national issues between the two parties, whig and democratic, and therefore the candidates were selected more for some noted achievement than as the embodiment of the principles his party represented. So the democrats renominated Martin Van Buren, and the whigs selected Gen. William Henry Harrison, who had been the mili- tary governor of the territory of Indiana and had won the decisive battle of Tippecanoe November 11, 1811, which ended the Indian warfare and estab- lished permanent peace in the northwest. Harrison represented the pioneer element, and so the coon skin, and the log cabin, and hard cider, all common in those days, were adopted by the whigs as the party emblems, and right good use did they make of them.
At all the rallies-and, by the way, that was the first campaign that anything of the kind had ever occurred-the adherents of Harrison wore coon skin caps, and on some of the ox wagons were erected miniature log cabins, with coon skins, which were legal tender those days for all debts among neighbors, nailed to the gable end. The processions were mostly made up of wagons drawn by oxen, a few men and boys on horseback and the re- mainder of the procession on foot. The writer can just remember of seeing a section of one of these rallies pass the family cabin in the southern part of the county, and while it was an insignificant parade as compared with the political processions of later days, to the few inhabitants here then it was "the greatest show on earth."
There were no local newspapers published anywhere in this part of the country then, and so either party could declare it had a procession two miles long and there were a thousand voters in line without the fear of being called the biggest kind of liars by the organ of the opposition.
LIX. SPIRITUAL RAPPINGS.
During the year of 1851 spiritualism, or "rapology," as it was called then, was a subject of considerable discussion in the columns of the Pilot, which had just been established in Plymouth during the early part of that year. "Rapology" meant "spiritual rappings," which had its start in 1848 through the Fox sisters at Rochester, New York, and which was at that time generally known as the "Rochester knockings." Nothing that occurred dur- ing the nineteenth century created such widespread interest as did this sup- posed discovery of spirit return after death. The editor of the town paper was liberal in his views on all subjects, and opened the columns of his paper to all who desired to be heard on either side of the question. The articles that appeared in the paper did not seem to clear the fog that enveloped the question, and when the discussion closed the readers were no wiser than they were in the beginning. A correspondent signing himself "Hoosier" closed his article by saying: "My present impressions are that the whole concern is a humbug." Another correspondent gave a remarkable spiritual occurrence that happened in a graveyard, and closed by saying: "To the uninitiated in spiritual mysteries, and to the uneducated in the new theory, this will ap- pear like a fairy tale; 'to the Greeks, foolishness'; 'to the Jews a stumbling block,' but to the real believers in this doctrine it will be like manna in the
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
wilderness, and to them we dedicate it." And that was the way the question was left so far as the discussion of it in the paper was concerned.
The following notice appeared December 17, 1851: "Raps-W. N. Sims, the medium for spiritual communications, is now operating at the Yel- low River House, Plymouth, Indiana, performing wonders, such as writing in the absence of any person, moving furniture and rapping in different parts of the room. On one occasion the rappings were heard on different parts of the diningroom table while the boarders were taking their meals. Those who wish to investigate this question will find him at the hotel during this week only."
When the first rappings occurred by the Fox sisters in 1848 there was much excitement in that part of the country, which rapidly spread, and it was not long until it was known all over the world. It early began to be investigated, and a couple of years later a committee of three doctors having investigated the matter to their own satisfaction made a report, which was published in part in the Pilot of April, 1851, in which the doctors stated that they had discovered the mode in which the sounds were produced. They stated that the sounds were made by a partial dislocation or cracking of the knee joints ; of course, subject to the will of the medium. They said: "With- out entering at this time into a very minute and anatomical and physiological explanation it is sufficient to state that the muscles inserted into the upper and inner side of the large bone of the leg (the tibia near the knee joint) are brought into action so as to move the upper surface of the bone just named laterly upon the lower surface of the thigh bone (the femur), giving rise. in fact, to a partial lateral dislocation. This is sufficient by act of the will without any obvious movement of the limb occasioning a loud noise, and the return of the bone to its place is attended by a second sound. Most of the Rochester rappings are also double. It is possible, however, to produce a single sound by moving the bone out of place with requisite force and allow- ing it to slide slowly, in which case it is noiseless."
In reply to this the Fox girls put in a protest and invited an investiga- tion. They said :
"As we do not feel willing to rest under imputation of being imposters, we are very willing to undergo a proper and decent examination, provided we can select three female and three male friends who shall be present on the occasion. As there seems to be much interest manifested by the public on this subject we would suggest that an early investigation as is convenient would be acceptable to the undersigned.
"MARGARETTA FOX. "ANNA M. FISH."
No authentic statement has ever been made that the learned doctors who discovered that the sounds were "produced by a partial dislocation or crack- ing of the knee joints" accepted the invitation of the Fox sisters that they were willing to undergo "a decent examination" for the purpose of showing to the world that the "rappings" were not produced as the learned doctors had stated. However, as a matter of fact, it is of no consequence whether an investigation was made or not. Those who believe in spirit return after death make use of other means to enable them to communicate with their de-
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
parted friends, if the communications they receive are really and truly from those who have passed "over there." The demonstrations and investigations that have been made the past more than half a century by the most learned men in the country have shown that the alleged communications from the unseen world are not all produced by fraud, trickery, sleight of hand, or hypnotism, but after all these have been eliminated as being under test condi- tions impossible there is a residium left, which, if it is not produced by the departed-what is it ?
Several years ago there was organized what was called "The Thirteen Club," composed of thirteen liberal-minded, intelligent men of Plymouth, the object being the investigation of literary subjects and various unsolved prob- lems relating to human existence here and hereafter, among which was spiritualism, clairvoyance, hypnotism, telepathy, mind reading, Christian science, and kindred subjects. When the question of spiritualism came up for investigation one of the members of the club was selected to visit a lady whose character was above reproach, and whose fame as a voice and writing medium was established as being one of the best. Several seances were held with the lady, a full report of all that occurred being reported in full to the club, which furnished a subject for discussion at many of the meetings of the club for more than a year. One occurrence that took place at one of the seances will indicate the trend of the whole: It was about 2 o'clock in the afternoon ; it was in the front parlor of the lady's dwelling; only the sitter and the medium were present ; the large plate glass windows were open ; the sun was shining brightly ; there was a small uncovered sewing table between the medium and sitter, on which they rested their hands; the lady had never before seen the sitter and did not know his name or the names of any of his people, dead or living. After conversing with inarticulate voices for some time, the sitter was requested by the medium to place a piece of blank white paper in a folding slate which was lying on the table. This was done and the slate closed with the blank paper inside. She then told the sitter to take the slate and place it on the floor off to his right about two feet, and then place his right foot on the slate, which was done. The hands of the medium and sitter rested on the table and a conversation was kept up until three slight knocks were heard on the slate, which the medium said indicated that the writing was done. The sitter took up the slate and opened it, and on one side of the paper was written, as with a lead pencil, a note addressed to the sitter expressing gratification that he was there and signing her name at the bottom. It was the name of the dead wife of the sitter! The medium did not touch the slate or paper at any time during this part of the sitting. This little incident has been given to show that fraud or deception was out of the question and for the purpose of enabling those who are investigating the question to satisfactorily tell how it was done.
Mind Reading.
Many years ago there came along a man that gave a public exhibition in the basement of the Methodist church in Plymouth, which was then used for public entertainments of an unobjectionable character, of his powers as a mind reader. His manner of demonstration was to have some one in the audience secrete some object, a knife, watch, piece of money, etc., where he would not know where it was, and then he ( the performer) would be blind-
382
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
folded by a committee and the party who had secreted the article would take the performer by the hand, all the time keeping his mind fixed on the object and the place where he had secreted it, the performer's mind remaining passive during the time. All the objects, with few exceptions, hidden during the evening were found without much difficulty. Occasionally an object would be hidden and the party hiding it could not concentrate his own mind on the object or the place where he had placed it, and in such cases the per- former would walk around the house, turning here and there without hav- ing any particular object in view. It was not, however, the performer that found the object. It was the one who had hidden it. The performer's mind was in that condition that he saw the object and the place where it was, just as did the person who secreted it. Some minds are more easily controlled in that way than others, and some are so constructed that they cannot be controlled at all. But the mystery of it all is, Why is it and how is it that the current of electricity, or whatever it is that passes from one to the other, enables the blindfolded performer to see the object as plainly as the one who deposited it and lead him to it without difficulty? On this occasion a gentle- man went out of the building and deposited his watch in the rear of the build- ing. He came back, blindfolded the performer, took him by the hand and the performer took him rapidly down the aisle, out of the door and to the rear of the building, picked up the watch and handed it to the owner in two minutes' time.
Several years ago a Jewish lady by the name of Miss Loeb came to Plymouth from Chicago and gave some very interesting exhibitions of her powers as a mind reader at the opera house, and also on the street and at private houses. At the opera house she was first blindfolded and a gentle- man went down the aisle to the rear end of the hall, took a watch out of a man's vest pocket, opened the back case and placed in it a piece of white paper. He returned and, placing his hand on Miss Loeb's shoulder, she started immediately down the aisle,. went directly to the man, took the watch from his pocket, opened the case and took the paper out. The following day she made an appointment to mect a gentleman at the postoffice at II o'clock. The gentleman was to hide something some place in town and she was to find it. He took a deck of cards and selected the ace of hearts as the one she was to pick out if she found the deck. This he placed in the drawer in the public stand in the First National bank near the front door. He found her at the postoffice promptly on time. He bandaged her eyes, placed his hand on her shoulder, when she immediately started up the street towards the bank, a block away. When she got opposite the door she turned in and, going to the desk, opened the drawer, took out the deck of cards, run them off until she came to the ace of hearts, when she said, "That is it." This was correct and the test did not occupy more than five minutes in all.
During her visit here with relatives and friends she performed many more tests of mind reading as remarkable as the one above related.
Telepathy is on the same line, and since the discovery of wireless teleg- · raphy wonderful progress has been made in this almost unexplored field of mind development. It shows, however, that mind is an entity that can be acted upon by other minds without outward knowledge on the part of the mind influenced thereby.
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
LXX. DESTRUCTIVE FIRES AT THE COUNTY SEAT. Fire of December 16, 1851.
The first destructive fire which occurred in Plymouth was on the early morning of December 16, 1851, the particulars of which are learned from the issue of the Plymouth Pilot of the day following, which is herewith repro- duced :
"Destructive Fire .- A fire broke out on Tuesday morning about 8 o'clock in the building belonging to Robert Rusk, on the east side of Michigan street. The buildings which contained the dwellings of Robert Rusk and Frank Baker, and another family ; the office of Dr. Rufus Brown; the tailor shop of W. L. Bentz, and tin shop of Robert Rusk were burned, also the grocery store of Bailey & Trowbridge ; the store wareroom of John L. Wester- velt ; the barber and tailor shop of A. Kendall, and part of the drug store of H. B. Pershing. The balance of the drug store and the law office of C. H. Reeve were pulled down, which arrested the fire. The morning was bitter cold, the mercury standing at 13° below zero, with a strong wind, fortunately from the west. Our citizens collected en masse and worked with a good will. Ladies and all, regardless of weather or condition, turned out and worked like firemen. Most of the goods were saved, and the insurance of Bailey and Westervelt will probably cover their losses. It's a hard time, though, to be turned out of doors without a vacant building in town and no lumber to build any with. We understand the losses of Pershing and Wester- velt will be considerable. Three of the buildings were owned by Pershing and Judge Steele, on which there was no insurance, and none on the build- ing of Rusk. Including the buildings, etc., we are informed the loss is over $5,000. If, as we hope is true, the losers by the fire are able to stand it we rather think it will eventually prove a benefit by the replacing of the unsightly (though convenient ) buildings burned with substantial and commodious business houses."
Commenting on the heroic conduct of the ladies the editor of the Pilot said :
"We never saw ladies work as ours did at the late fire. We saw the wife of one of our merchants come running down the street, and, finding she had 10 apron on, she gathered up her dress and carried out more drugs and glassware than any man could. Mrs. Rhinchart, it is said, did more work and manifested more coolness than any man there. She stood upon the counter in Westervelt's store and handed down goods from the shelves until the flames burst through the side of the building. Another lady, the wife of one of our merchants, without gloves or bonnet, regardless of the bitter cold, continued to carry goods until the buildings were either burned or torn down; in fact, among all the ladies we saw no one but what was cool regardless of everything except saving property, and their capacious aprons and dresses made 'carry-alls' that saved large quantities of goods that would have otherwise been lost."
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