USA > Indiana > An illustrated history of the state of Indiana: being a full and authentic civil and political history of the state from its first exploration down to 1879 > Part 38
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The Depauw college for young ladies is one of the best and most popular female colleges in Indiana. The institution is the property of the Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For the last six years, or since its reorgan- ization in 1866, it has been under the direction of Rev. Erastus Rowley, D. D., as president, who has been recently re-elected to the same position for the next three years. This college
JACOB F. STUDEBAKER, ESQ.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
occupies one of the most pleasant and commanding sitnations in the most beautiful portion of the city of New Albany. This city has long enjoyed a high reputation for its educa- tional advantages, as well as for the high moral and religious tone of its inhabitants. It is noted for its healthfulness, and is accessible in all directions by various railroads and by the Ohio river. The college building, originally erected for a ladies' boarding school, has been enlarged and improved within the past six years, at an expense of near twenty thousand dollars, and now other improvements, embracing the entire renovation of the interior of the building, are just completed. The rooms for the boarding pupils and teachers are all carpeted and well furnished. The capacity of the building is sufficient to accommodate seventy-five boarding and an equal number of day pupils. This college affords very superior facilities to those desiring to educate and accomplish their daughters. The faculty embraces six experienced and successful educators besides the president. The college year opens September eleventh and closes June fourteenth. The institution confers upon its graduates the degrees of Mistress of Englishi Litera- ture and Mistress of Liberal Arts. Every valuable improve- ment in method of instruction will be adopted, and the great aim will be to develop the mental and moral powers of the pupil, and to educate the mind to habits of thought and investigation. The college is furnished with globes, maps, charts, and apparatus to illustrate natural philosophy, chein- istry, electricity, and astronomy. The music department embraces instruction on the piano, organ, guitar, and in vocal- ization, while the French and German languages are taught by competent teachers. The graduating class in 1872 numbered nine young ladies.
The St. Mary's female academy is a first-class one, under the care of the Sisters of St. Francis (Catholic,) and with Sister Veronica as Lady Superior. The building is one among the largest and best adapted educational edifices in the State, having accommodations for eight hundred pupils. All the branches of a thorough and accomplished education are taught, including music, the modern languages, painting, needle-work,
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CLARKE COUNTY - HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
flowers, etc. There is probably no better Catholic academy in the west than St. Mary's, and it is the pride of the Catholics of southern Indiana.
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The Morse academy is a high school of the best grade, under the supervision of Prof. F. L. Morse, in which the education of the two sexes together is a leading feature. This academy possesses all the advantages of a college in apparatus, and the high character of its board of instruction. The marked suc- cess that has attended it, and enabled Prof. Morse to erect the most commodious and convenient buildings, indicates its high character.
Besides those schools already named, there are five Catholic parochial schools; German Protestant parochial school; Ger- man Methodist parochial school; and seven private schools. Add these private and parochial schools, colleges, and acad- emies to the grand system of public free schools, and it will readily be seen that the educational advantages of New Albany are unrivaled.
The churches and benevolent institutions of the city are equal to the educational facilities in every respect. The New Albany Society of Natural History is well organized, and evinces the high culture of the citizens
CHAPTER LXVIII.
CLARKE COUNTY - HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
TN 1784, the legislature of the State of Virginia, in consid- cration of the important and valuable services rendered to that commonwealth by General George Rogers Clarke, donated to him large tracts of land in that part of the Indian territory which he had nominally placed under its government. Among these lands was a tract comprising a portion of the site of the
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
present city of Jeffersonville, and including also the lands upon which the struggling village of Clarkesville is located. At the latter point old " Fort Clarke" was located, and around it many of the most thrilling scenes and incidents in the early history of Indiana were enacted. Many of the deeds of the brave Clarke, center to this old landmark of his remarkable career. Ile, with his brave Virginians, fought his way along the ever-bending banks of the Ohio, not only contending with Indians, but Englishmen, and through repeated triumphs, which shed an enchanting lustre upon the annals of border warfare, he unfurled the flag of a free people and a republican government over the soil now included within the limits of the State of Indiana. But as we have given an account of most of General Clarke's services in behalf of Indiana, in the first part of this work, we shall have to pass over his opera- tions around Fort Clarke, at this time, and deal with more recent events. It should be remarked, however, that the early settlement, or attempted, at Clarkesville, was not successful. However, in the year 1802, Jeffersonville was located, near this point, by John Gwathmey. This new seat of civilization was named in honor of the illustrious author of the declara- tion of independence, Thomas Jefferson. The town was incor- porated in 1816, and the city was incorporated in 1839. These two events mark its progress, which has been steady, but not rapid.
Omitting, for want of space, the hundreds of incidents in . the carly history of Clarke county, we will observe only some of its most noticeable present features.
The surface of the county along the Ohio river, and from three to five miles in the interior, is rolling, and the remain- der mostly level, except a chain of "knobs," which form a semicircle along the northwestern boundary of the county, and strike the Ohio river just below New Albany, in Floyd county. Only about half of these " knobs " are cultivated, but they are covered with a good quality of timber, chestnut, oak and pine being the distinguishing classes. Aside from the " knobs," the lands in the county are susceptible of cultivation. The strip along the river, about thirty-five miles in length, and
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CLARKE COUNTY - HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
from five to ten in width, has a limestone soil, and, though mostly rolling, is, when well tilled, as productive as any of the celebrated bottom lands. There are no prairies in the county. The farms are generally well improved, and are graced with good buildings. Iron ore, marble, excellent building rock, and hydraulic cement are found in abundance.
Most of the lands within the present limits of the county are embraced in what was known as the "Illinois grant." This was made, as before intimated, by the legislature of Vir- ginia in 1796, and conveyed to certain commissioners one hundred and forty-nine thousand acres of land, in trust, to be apportioned, according to their rank, to General Clarke, and the officers and men of the regiment which he commanded in the expedition to Vincennes and Kaskaskia. It was divided into five hundred acre tracts and apportioned according to the terms of the grant. One thousand acres more, lying along the falls of the Ohio, were also granted at the same time for the location of a town to be called Clarkesville. This was intended as a monument to the memory of General Clarke, and it was hoped that the town would develop into a great commercial centre, but these hopes were futile. It flourished for a short time, but soon sunk into decay. It is now only a small vil- lage, with no prospects of reaching metropolitan pre-emi- nence. The first settlements in the place were made from 1790 along up to 1800. The carly settlers located along the banks of the Ohio river, so as to be able to escape into Ken- tucky at the approach of the hostile natives.
Jeffersonville, the principal town, has grown to be a handsome and important city, with a population of over eight thousand, and excellent free school facilities. The city is handsomely laid out. The streets are broad, crossing cach other at right angles. The buildings are nearly all substantial and present something worthy of notice in the way of architecture. Many neat cottages beautify the streets and give the town a pictur- esque and rural appearance.
"The chief manufactures of Jeffersonville are railway cars, steamboats, and machinery of various kinds .* The Jefferson-
* From a sketch of Jeffersonville in the Pittsburgh United Presbyterian
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
ville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company's machine shops and car works give employment to a considerable num- ber of mechanics, and besides these there are two ship-yards which afford, in active business times, regular employment to about two hundred skilled artisans. It is claimed that there are more steamboats built here annually than at any other point between Pittsburgh and New Orleans, and that they rank among the best steamers that navigate the western waters. Just beyond the city limits, 'the Ohio Falls Car Company' conduct a large establishment, with a capacity for the employment of eight hundred workmen, and near by is its competitor, 'the Southwestern Car Company,' the princi- pal work for which is done by the convicts (three hundred and fifty in number), of the Indiana State Prison South, whose white front is in sad contrast with the gloom that dwells within. Beside these, there are two iron-foundries, an oil- stone factory, an extensive coopering establishment, and just at this time more noticeable than any of them, in consequence of the horrid screams of its steam-whistle every morning, the large pork-house on the river bank, where two hundred men are employed in killing twelve hundred hogs daily. The loco- motive whistle, too, is heard nearly every hour of the day and night in Jeffersonville, whose heart is pierced by the iron bands of the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis, and the Ohio and Mississippi, besides those of other minor local roads.
"The local government is presided over by Mayor Pile, a venerable gentleman of three score years and ten, who, being to ' the manor born,' has grown up with the growth of Jeffer- sonville, and is a fair specimen of the plain, frank, honest, hardy western pioneers who lived in this section of country when it was an unbroken wilderness, and have been spared to see it blossom like the rose. But the crowning glory of Jef- fersonville, and that which imparts to it much of its business life and vitality, is the extensive depot of the Quartermaster's Department. Some idea of the magnitude of this structure may be formed when it is stated that the series of fire-proof warchouses, built in the shape of a hollow square, contain one
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CLARKE COUNTY - HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
hundred and fifty thousand square feet, or three and one-half acres of flooring, with a storage capacity of two million seven hundred thousand cubic feet. The ground upon which the depot is located, covering about fifteen acres, was donated for the purpose by the city of Jeffersonville. The building has a frontage of over three thousand two hundred feet, and the principal offices are above the main entrance. In the centre of the court yard is a tower one hundred feet high, in which, at an elevation of seventy feet, is a watchman's room, from which every one of the numerous warehouse doors are visible. On the summit of this tower there is also a large tank, of the capacity of six thousand gallons, from which copious streams of water can be thrown to any part of the building. In the court-yard there are also two reservoirs, of the capacity of three hundred thousand gallons each. This immense structure was erected at the cost limited by the appropriation of con- gress, viz .: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars-a rare fact in the financial history of public buildings. *
"The public property now stored in this depot is estimated to be worth about twenty-two million dollars. From it are now supplied with clothing, camp and garrison equipage, and all kinds of Quartermaster's stores, the military posts in the South and West, and most of the troops operating in chose sections. The depot is so capacious and so well arranged, that if all the old material now stored in it were disposed of, and new and serviceable material stored in its place, enough could be kept on hand to supply the entire army of the United States. There are now nearly one hundred male employes on the rolls of the depot, exclusive of about seven hundred women, who are engaged in making shirts, drawers, stable frocks, and bed-quilts to meet the demands of the service. This work is a god-send to the poor sewing-women of Jeffer- sonville. 'Ladies' pay-day,' at the depot, is always an event- ful and memorable occasion. It is full of sunshine and joy, and the source of a general diffusion of comfort and happiness throughout the community. Hundreds of poor women, with
* From a sketch in the United Presbyterian.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
smiling faces, light hearts, and lighter steps, may be seen on that day returning from the depot, the cheerful possessors of their monthly earnings, which are destined to make so many homes look brighter and more happy. Seven thousand dollars distributed every month among the poorer classes in a com- munity of eight thousand, carry with them many comforts and delights, and the baker and the butcher, the grocer and the dry-goods dealer - indeed all classes of the populace - feel the happy influences of the welcome pay-day.
" The Jeffersonville Depot is the conception and design of Major-General M. C. Meigs, Quartermaster-General, and may justly be ranked among the proudest monuments of his enlightened and efficient administration of the Quartermaster's Department."
Charlestown, situated near the center of the county, and twelve miles north of Jeffersonville, on the Ohio and Missis- sippi railroad, is the county seat. It is a smart, thriving town, of about three thousand inhabitants, and is, in every way, an honor to the county.
CHAPTER LXIX.
SHELBY COUNTY - HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
CHIELBY county was named in honor of Isaac Shelby, an 2 officer of considerable distinction in the Revolutionary war, as also the war of 1812. He was also governor of Ken- tucky. The county was originally level forest land, with fertile bottoms along the streams, from half a mile to two miles in width. The uplands are elevated about forty feet above these bottoms. The soil in the bottoms is a rich dark loam, with a slight mixture of sand; on the upland there is much clay, cov- ered with a dark muck, which required drainage before it could be successfully cultivated. The timber in the bottoms was principally walnut, ash, etc .; on the uplands, beach, oak
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SHELBY COUNTY - HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
and hickory were the distinguishing features of the forest. It is a first-rate farming county, in almost every respect.
" Shelbyville, the county seat, was laid out on the fourth of July, 1822, * on a donation of land made by Jolin Hendricks, James Davison, and John C. Walker. The commissioners appointed for that purpose, were Ebenezer Ward, of Bartholo- mew county; Benjamin J. Blytlie, of Dearborn county; Amos Boardman, of Ripley county; George Bentley, of IIarrison county, and Joshua Cobb, of Delaware county. They met at the house of David Fisher, July first, and after four days deliberation decided upon the location of the county seat, where it at pres- ent stands, giving it the name of Shelbyville, a double honor to the venerable and patriotic ex-governor of Kentucky, Isaac Shelby. Jacob Wetzel, of the noted Indian fighting family of that name, on learning of the treaty of October, 1818, had blazed a trace from Jehu Perkins', on the old boundary line, to the bluffs of White river, about eighteen miles below the present site of Indianapolis. Richard Thornburg settled the same fall on Flat Rock, and James Wilson the same fall also on Blue river, the Wetzel trace crossing at both places. B. F. Morris was the first surveyor; Capt. Mclaughlin, one of his assistants, camped on Wilson's place in November, 1S1S. Ile put his field notes and some other papers and valuables in a keg and concealed it, together with a hatchet, on the creek near his camp, when he left the neighborhood for the winter, and on returning in the spring found them safe and uninjured. James Wilson may be regarded as the first settler. IIe came from Jefferson county, Ind., in 1819, and lie induced Bennett Michael, a shoemaker, to settle near him; also Jolın Forman, Benjamin Castor and John Smith, who came afterwards. Isaac H. Wilson, a son of James, who was born in Jefferson county in 1807, and came to Shelby county with his father, is still living in Shelbyville. He informed me that Indians were occasionally met with when he first came to the county. IIe frequently saw Joseph White-eyes, a Delaware chief, who had a son called Charles and a grandson named James, who was
* From a sketch by J. C. Beck, M. D.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
red headed. Two Indians, known as Cuman and Pishaw, lived on Blue river, a few miles from his father. They had very handsome half-breed wives. On one occasion Mrs. Wilson invited them to visit her, which they did, riding upon ponies in gaily decorated side-saddles. They were very tastefully dressed, and wore silver brooches on their arms, and neat slippers fastened to the feet with silver bands, and exhibited a good breeding and politeness that might have excited the envy of their more civilized white sisters.
"Marion is the oldest town in the county. It was laid off in 1820, on the south-west quarter of section twenty, township thirteen north, of range seven east. John Sleeth was one of the original proprietors. Ilis daughter Nancy was the first person married in the county; she was mar- ried to Abel Summers, May fifteenth, 1822, by Rev. Henry Logan, then living near the Bartholomew county line."
After 1828, Shelby county increased rapidly in population and wealth, and it still continues to thrive. To-day, the rail- road facilities of Shelbyville, and also of Shelby county, are second to no county in the State of equal population. Shelby- ville has grown to be a city of over 3,500 inhabitants, among whom are some of the ablest and most enterprising business and professional men in the State. The schools of the county are well organized and efficiently conducted. The incorporated schools of Shelbyville are the just pride of her citizens.
CLINTON COUNTY.
CLINTON county was named in honor of DeWitt Clinton. The surface of the county is level, excepting along the Wild- cat, in the southwest corner. There is no barren or waste lands in the county. In the south-western portion is the " twelve mile prairie." There are one or two other small prairies in the county, but, with the exception of these, and the one first named, all the balance of the surface was originally covered with a dense and heavy forest, containing an abund- ance of timber of a fine quality. The soil of the county may be termed alluvial, with a clay bottom. All the grains and
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CROSSCUP & WEST-SC.PHIL A.
HON. G. N. FITCH.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
grasses indigenous to the West can be produced in this county with profit. It is, perhaps, especially adapted to the cultivation of hay and for pasturage. Generally speaking it is one of the best farming counties in Indiana. As a proof of this, it may be mentioned that it is quite thickly settled with an intelli gent, wealthy class of farmers, who have grown up to inde- pendence with the growth of the county.
Frankfort is the county seat. The section of country from which this young city derives its trade, is one of the best agri- cultural sections in the West. It already has a population of over three thousand, and is steadily progressing in all its industries. Its schools are excellent, supported by first-class talent, and provided with commodions buildings. The city has very good railroad facilities, and has all the elements of future prosperity, which are being rapidly developed.
BOONE COUNTY.
BOONE county contains two hundred sixty-seven thonsand five hundred and twenty acres of good land. The county was organized in 1830, with a population of six hundred and thirty. It was named in honor of Daniel Boone, the hero of border life. The southeastern, western and northwestern portions of the county are gently undulating. The other portions are level. The soil, in most parts of the county, is a dark loam, deep and very rich. It is remarkably well adapted to the pro- duction of all kinds of grain, grasses and vegetables indigen- ous to the Northwest. Timber is plenty and of the finest quality. Boone county is composed of the summit lands dividing the waters of the Wabash and White rivers. This accounts, probably, for the level, wet lands so common on almost all dividing ridges. They are generally termed " sum- mit levels," and are frequently composed of many ponds and small lakes, with only occasional ridges of high land. The county is watered by Eagle creek, White Lick and Walnut Fork of Eel river, which empty into the former, and Big Rac- coon and Sugar creek, which empty into the latter. Owing to the level surface of the county where these streams have their source, they are sluggish and comparatively of no value in the
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BOONE COUNTY - HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
way of propelling machinery. "The dense forests of heavy timber and low wet lands of Boone county, were not suffi- ciently attractive to bring within its borders a class of men of peculiar refinement and means, consequently it was first set- tled by mem of stout constitutions, iron wills, and but little financial resources. It required a vast amount of labor and untiring effort to clear away the heavy forests preparatory to raising crops. Many of the early settlers cleared out a little ' truck patch,' sufficient to raise some 'roasting cars,' beans and other garden vegetables, after which they applied themselves to hunting, fishing, etc. The settler who could command a good rifle, two or three dogs, a cow, and one old horse, with the means to buy powder and lead, was considered supremely happy. In these early days there was abundance of wild game-deer, bear, wolves, turkeys, pheasants and quails. The currency of the country was the skins of deer, raccoons, mink and wild honey."
The county was once the home and hunting-grounds of a tribe of the Miamis; upon the banks of the streams were the graves of their fathers. In these little mounds lie the remains of many a native warrior and hunter. The site of the present town of Thorntown was once the habitation of nearly five hun- dred Indian and French traders. About the year 1833 most of the tribe were removed from the reservation at this place, which was purchased by the government in 1828. Thorntown, located in the northwestern part of the county, was once a lively Indian trading post; since that time it has become a lively place, with a civilized home trade. Only a few years ago the county of Boone was a wilderness, so densely covered with heavy timber and underbrush that the rays of the sun were almost entirely cut off from the earth in the summer season. Lonely and desolate must have been the feelings of those who first traversed these woods, when naught but nature's uncultured sounds greeted the car - when the eye could see no heavens for the intervening foliage - when ser- pents and lizards, frogs and hornets, and wild beasts were possessors of the land. Forty years have wrought a mighty change in the county. Then no cleared fields were visiblo
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
from one neighbor's to another; great lakes of water, backed up by huge trunks of fallen trees, were visible on every hand; but now the lake has become a fertile field; great farms have been opened; the eye can see for miles over green or golden fields of corn. The cabin superseded the wigwam, and the neat cottage has superseded the cabin in almost every locality
Lebanon, the county seat, is located near the centre of the county, in a rich and productive section. It is a small town, but is thrifty and rapidly improving. It has a population of about three thousand, including a fine class of citizens, enter- prising, intelligent and prosperous. The town and county have good schools and school advantages .*
CHAPTER LXX.
HENDRICKS COUNTY - HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
H ENDRICKS county is located near the centre of the State of Indiana. It contains about one hundred and thirty-five thousand acres of land. The county was organized in 1824, and was named in honor of Governor William Hen- dricks. The surface of the county is gently rolling, and the soil is generally very good. The county is well timbered, especially in the northern portion. It is well watered by Eel river, Mill creek, Mud creek, White Liek creek, and their numerons tributary streams.
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