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 44
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PIKE COUNTY.
Tins county lies in the southwestern corner of the State. It is an irregular shaped county, and contains 300 square miles, or 192,000 acres. It was organized in 1817, and was named in honor of General Z. M. Pike, who fell at the capture of York, April twenty-seventh, 1813. The surface of the county is either level or rolling. In the western part of the county the soil is a rich, dark loam, with a mixture of sand, which renders it very friable. The bottom lands of the White river, which forms the northern boundary of the county, and the Patoka, which flows through the center, and which form about one- sixth part of the county, are very rich and productive; proba- bly no larger crops of corn are raised in any part of the West. Walnut, hickory, poplar, cottonwood, ash, pecan and elm, are the prevailing timber. The land in the eastern part of the county is more sandy, and the timber consists mainly of oak, hickory, gum, sassafras, and dogwood.
Petersburgh, situated in the north part of the county, in Washington township, is the county seat. It is a town of 1,200 people, and possesses all the facilities usual for towns of this size. Pike county possesses no railroad facilities as yet, but the Wabash and Erie canal passes through the north western portion.
The numerous statistical tables in another part of this volume will be found to give additional information in regard to the counties, such as population, area, wealth and taxation, manufactures, agricultural products, value of farms and farm- ing implements, schools and value of school property, churches, etc.
DATES OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SEVERAL COUNTIES, NUMBER OF SQUARE MILES OF EACH, AND NAMES OF COUNTY SEATS.
A DAMS COUNTY was organized in 1836, contains three hundred and twenty-four square miles, county seat, Decatur ; Allen county was organized in 1823, contains three hundred and twenty-four square miles, county seat, Fort Wayne; Bartholomew county was organized in 1821, contains four hundred square miles, county seat, Columbus ; Benton county was organized in 1840, contains four hundred and four- teen square miles, county seat, Fowler ; Blackford county was organized in 1839, contains one hundred and eighty square miles, county seat, Hartford City ; Boone county was organized in 1831, contains four hundred and eighteen square miles, county seat, Lebanon ; Brown county was organized in 1836, contains three hundred and twenty square miles, county seat, Nashville; Carroll county was organized in 1828, contains three hundred and seventy-eight square miles, county seat, Delphi; Cass county was organized in 1829, contains four hundred and twenty square miles, county seat, Logansport ; Clarke county was organized in 1801, contains four hundred square miles, county seat, Jeffersonville ; Clay county was organized in 1825, contains three hundred and sixty square miles, county seat, Brazil; Clinton county was organized in 1830, contains four hundred and thirty-two square miles, county seat, Frankfort; Crawford county was organized in 1818, contains two hundred and eighty square miles, county seat, Leavenworth; Daviess county was organized in 1817, contains four hundred and thirty-two square miles, county seat, Washington ; Dearborn county was organized in 1803,
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contains two hundred and ninety-one square miles, county seat, Lawrenceburg; Decatur county was organized in 1821, con- tains three hundred and seventy-two square miles, county scat, Greensburg ; DeKalb county was organized in 1837, contains three hundred and forty-six square miles, county seat, Auburn ; Delaware county was organized in 1827-8, contains four hun- square miles, county seat, Muncie ; Dubois county was organ- ized in 1817, contains four hundred and twenty square miles, county seat, Jasper ; Elkhart county was organized in 1830, contains four hundred and sixty-seven square miles, county seat, Goshen; Fayette county was organized in 1819, contains two hundred square miles, county seat, Connersville; Floyd county was organized in 1819, contains one hundred and forty- eight square miles, county scat, New Albany ; Fountain county was organized in 1826, contains four hundred square miles, county seat, Covington ; Franklin county was organized in 1811, contains three hundred and eighty square miles, county seat, Brookville ; Fulton county was organized in 1836, contains three hundred and sixty square miles, county seat, Rochester ; Gibson county was organized in 1813, contains four hundred and forty-nine square miles, county seat, Princeton ; Grant county, was organized in 1831, contains four hundred and twenty square miles, county seat, Marion ; Greene county was organized in 1821, contains five hundred and forty square miles, county seat, Bloomfield ; Hamilton county was organized in 1823, contains four hundred square miles, county seat, Noblesville; Hancock county was organized in 1828, contains three hundred and twelve square miles, county seat, Green- field; Harrison county was organized in 1809, contains four hundred and seventy-five square miles, county seat, Cory- don ; Hendricks county was organized in 1824, contains three hundred square miles, county seat, Danville; Henry county was organized in 1822, contains three hundred and eighty-five square miles, county seat, Newcastle; Howard county was organized in 1844, contains two hundred and seventy-three square miles, county seat, Kokomo ; Huntington county was
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ORGANIZATION OF COUNTIES.
organized in 1834, contains three hundred and eighty-nine square miles, county seat, Huntington ; Jackson county was organized in 1815, contains five hundred and forty-four square miles, county seat, Brownstown ; Jasper county was organized in 1838, contains nine hundred and eighty-four square miles, county seat, Rensselaer ; Jay county was organized in 1836, contains three hundred and seventy square miles, county seat, Portland ; Jefferson county was organized in 1810, contains three hun- dred and sixty-two square miles, county seat, Madison ; Jen- nings county was organized in 1816, contains three hundred and seventy-five square miles, county seat, Vernon ; Johnson county was organized in 1822, contains three hundred and twenty square miles, county seat, Franklin ; Knox county was organized in 1790, (subsequently reduced) contains five hun- dred and sixteen square miles, county seat, Vincennes ; Kosciusko county was organized in 1836, contains five hun- dred and eighty-eight square miles, county seat, Warsaw ; La- Grange county was organized in 1832, contains threee hundred and eighty-four square miles, county seat, LaGrange ; Lake county was organized in 1837, contains four hundred and eighty square miles, county seat, Crown Point ; LaPorte county was organized in 1832, contains four hundred and fifty square miles, county seat, LaPorte ; Lawrence county was organized in 1818, contains four hundred and forty-four square miles, county seat, Bedford ; Madison county was organized in 1823, contains four hundred square miles, county seat, Anderson ; Marion county was organized in 1821, contains four hundred and twenty square miles, county seat, Indianapolis ; Marshall county was organized in 1836, contains four hundred and forty square miles, county seat, Plymouth ; Martin county was organized in 1820, contains three hundred and forty square miles, county seat, Shoals ; Miami county was organized in 1834, contains three hundred and eighty-four square miles, county seat, Peru ; Monroe county was organized in 1818, contains four hundred and twenty square miles, county seat, Blooming- ton ; Montgomery county was organized in 1823, contains five
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hundred square miles, county seat, Crawfordsville ; Morgan county was organized in 1822, contains five hundred and forty square miles, county seat, Martinsville; Newton county was organized about 1860, contains four hundred and thirty square miles, county seat, Kentland ; Noble county was organized in 1836, contains four hundred and twenty square miles, county sea', Albion ; Ohio county was organized in 1844, contains ninety square miles, county seat, Rising Sun ; Orange county was organized in 1816, contains four hundred square miles, county seat Paoli ; Owen county was organized in 1819, con- tains four hundred square miles, county seat, Spencer; Parke county was organized in 1821, contains four hundred and ten square miles, county seat, Rockville ; Perry county was organ- ized in 1815, contains four hundred and fifty square miles, county seat, Cannelton ; Pike county was organized in 1817, contains three hundred square miles, county seat, Petersburgh ; Porter county was organized in 1836, contains four hundred square miles, county seat, Valparaiso ; Posey county was organ- ized in 1814, contains three hundred square miles, county seat, Mount Vernon ; Pulaski county was organized in 1839, contains four hundred and thirty square miles, county seat, Winamac; Putnam county was organized in 1822, contains four hundred and eighty-six square miles, county seat, Green- castle ; Randolph county was organized in 1818, contains four hundred and forty square miles, county seat, Winchester ; Ripley county was organized in 1818, contains four hundred and fifty square miles, county seat, Versailles ; Rush county was organized in 1822, contains four hundred and ten square miles, county seat, Rushville; Scott county was organized in 1820, contains one hundred and eighty square miles, county seat, Scottsburgh ; Shelby county was organized in 1822, con- tains four hundred square miles, county seat, Shelbyville ; Spencer county was organized in 1818, contains three hundred square miles, county seat, Rockport ; Stark county was organ- ized in 1850, contains four hundred and thirty-two square miles, county seat, Knox ; Steuben county was organized in
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1837, contains three hundred and fourteen square miles, county seat, Angola ; St. Joseph county was organized in 1830, con- tains four hundred and seventy-eight square miles, county seat, South Bend ; Sullivan county was organized in 1817, contains four hundred and thirty square miles, county seat, Sullivan ; Switzerland county was organized in 1814, contains two hun- dred and twenty square miles, county seat, Vevay ; Tippecanoe county was organized in 1826, contains five hundred square miles, county seat, Lafayette; Tipton county was organized in 1844, contains two hundred and fifty square miles, county seat, Tipton ; Union county was organized in 1821, contains one hundred and sixty-eight square miles, county seat, Liberty ; Vanderburgh county was organized in 1818, contains two hundred and sixteen square miles, county seat, Evansville ; Vermillion county was organized in 1824, contains two hun- dred and ninety square miles, county seat, Newport; Vigo county was organized in 1818, contains four hundred square miles, county seat, Terre Haute ; Wabash county was organized in 1835, contains four hundred and twenty square miles, county seat, Wabash ; Warren county was organized in 1827, con- tains three hundred and sixty-four square miles, county seat, Williamsport; Warrick county was organized in 1813, con- tains three hundred and thirty-six square miles, county seat, Booneville; Washington county was organized in 1814, con- tains five hundred and forty square miles, county seat, Salem ; Wayne county was organized in 1810, contains four hundred square miles, county seat, Richmond ; Wells county was organ- ized in 1837, contains three hundred and eighty square miles, county seat, Bluffton; White county was organized in 1834, contains five hundred square miles, county scat, Monticello ; Whitley county was organized in 1838, contains three hundred and twenty-six square miles, county seat, Columbia City.
HON. JAMES D. WILLIAMS.
CHANDLER INCELS
CHAPTER LXXVI.
PRESENT AND FUTURE GREATNESS OF INDIANAPOLIS.
INDIANAPOLIS, THE FUTURE GREAT CITY OF THE WEST-ITS PRESENT IMPORTANCE AND FUTURE GROWTII.
THERE is no other city in the west or northwest that has been blessed with such a wonderful growth, during the past five years, as Indianapolis. Unlike most other cities that have attracted the attention of the world by their advancement, its growth has been as substantial as it has been rapid. Nor has this amazing development been unexpected by far-seeing business men, for the following reasons: Indianapolis is the centrally located city in the United States; it is the nucleus of the greatest net-work of railroads in the world; it is near the point of the funnel through which the whole west and southwest cattle trade must pass on its way east; it is near the centre of the corn belt of the United States; through Indian- apolis is the shortest route for the transportation to the eastern cities of all the agricultural products of the great Mississippi valley; the numerous competing trunk lines of railroads give superior advantages in freights, making it one of the best wholesale centres in the west; near Indianapolis are inexhaust- able deposits of a superior quality of coal, which can be deliv- ered in the city for steam purposes at six to eight cents per bushel, and which makes as good iron as charcoal, without coking; there are vast deposits of iron within a few miles of the city, which will largely take the place of Lake Superior ore; it is in the centre of a timbered region which is unsur- passed in the world for quality, varicty and quantity; the Ohio river on the south, and Lake Michigan on the north, give Indi- anapolis a peculiar geographical position near the centre of a
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
narrow belt through which passes by rail everything moving from the east to the west or from the west to the east; the only complete double-track belt railroad in America is now being built around Indianapolis, thus bringing every manu- factory which locates on it, or any of its switches, in direct communication with every part of the vast net-work of rail- roads which surrounds it; Indiana has the largest school fund of any State in the Union, and Indianapolis has fully availed herself of this advantage; the city debt is less than 1} per cent. of the taxables; the entire State, county, township and city tax is only $1.76 on the $100; it is claimed that statistics show that Indianapolis has the lowest death rate of any city in the United States.
These are among the many things constantly contributing to the material and moral development of the city.
The first settlement upon the site of Indianapolis was made early in the year 1819,* before the cession of that portion of the State to the United States by the Indians, in pursuance of the treaty of St. Mary's in 181S. Though there has been some difference as to the person and arrival of the first settler, the conclusion of those most familiar with the history of the city is that the honor, such as it is, belongs to George Pogue, a blacksmith, who came from the Whitewater settlement and built a cabin near the point where Michigan street crosses the creek named after him. IIe was killed by the Indians in 1821. The next settlers were the McCormicks, who located near the river where the present National road bridge stands. On the eleventh of January, 1820, the legislature of the State appointed ten commissioners to select a site for the future capital - congress having provided in the act of April nineteenth, 1816, admitting the State into the Union, that she should have four sections of any unsold public lands that might be selected, as a gift. Five of the commissioners accepted the appointment, and in the spring of 1820 traversed the White river valley in
* Our sketch of Indianapolis is compiled from a pamphlet published under the auspices of the Real Estate Exchange of Indianapolis." We have re produced the pamphlet, adding to or taking from it to suit the objects of our work.
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pursuance of the duty they were charged with. That was the central region of the State, and therefore the proper place of search. Opinions were divided between the bluff's of White river, sixteen miles south, Conner's settlement, about the same distance north, and the present location. Three votes finally fixed the selection here over two for the bluff's. The choice was made on the seventh of June, 1820, and confirmed on the sixth of January, 1821. The town was laid off' in the summer of 1821, by Alexander Ralston, who had assisted in the same work at the National capital, and, no doubt, thence derived the idea that gave Indianapolis its four grand "avenues." As the course of the river bending to the east cuts off a part of the southwest section, an equivalent was given in a portion of a fifth section on the west side of the river, the site of Indi- anola. A mile square in the centre of the main body of the "donation," on the east side of the river, was "platted "; ten streets ninety feet wide, at distances of four hundred and twenty feet parallel with the meridian, crossing ten streets of the same width, except Washington - one hundred and twenty feet wide-and at the same intervals at right angles to the meridian, with a central space of a circular form, surrounded by a street, for the Governor's residence. From the opposite angles of the four blocks adjacent to the circle four avenues diverged, bisecting the quarters of the plat into eight huge right-angled triangles. The streets and avenues were named after the States of the Union at that time, as far as they would serve; but the principal street was called Washington. Those bounding the plat were called, from their locality, East, West, North and South, and the central streets crossing at the circle were called Market and Meridian. The blocks formed by the intersections of the streets were quartered by alleys parallel to the streets, one-half being thirty feet wide-many now converted into streets- and the other fifteen feet wide, each quarter containing three lots, and the length of the lots vary- ing a few feet, according as they abutted on the broader or narrower alleys. The "outlots" constituting the remainder of the " donation," a half mile wide on each side of the plat, were laid off subsequently, more in small farms than in city
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lots. These are all as densely built up now as the original plat, while as much more has been platted and added by the owners since, conforming generally, except in the width of the streets - usually reduced to sixty feet, sometimes less -to the original survey. The name of Indianapolis was suggested by Jeremiah Sullivan, a member of the legislature from Jefferson county, afterwards one of the State's supreme judges, and was adopted by acclamation. The first sale of lots was held on the tenth of October, 1821, and after several days three hundred and fourteen had been sold, at an aggregate price of $35,596.25, of which one-fifth was paid down. The highest priced lot was on the northwest corner of Washington and Delaware streets, opposite the court house; it brought $560. The next was west of the state house square, and brought $500. The average was abont $200. The current of settlement and sale was cast- ward from the river, where the first pioneers had, with the backwoods instinct, built their cabins. A visitation of chills and fever, due to the dense vegetable growth and the malaria produced by decomposition - now and for many years as in- frequent a disease as any - had warned their followers to get further away from the river bottom. During this year crops failed, and provisions were mainly brought on horseback, through sixty miles of trackless forest, from Connersville, to which the new village was attached for judicial purposes. On the thirty-first of December, 1821, Marion county was organ- ized, with a large attachment for "judicial purposes " of terri- tory now constituting five adjacent counties. From the fund derived from the sale of lots was supplied the means to build the court house-used as the state house for ten years; a treasurer's office and residence; a governor's house in the circle - but never occupied except by public offices; a small office for the clerk of the supreme court, and the present state house, begun in -1832 and finished in 1835. The court house was begun in 1822, and so far completed as to receive the legislature in 1825 upon the removal of the capital from Corydon, Harrison county. The first jail, of hewed logs, was built in 1822. Indians remained in the vicinity for some years after the location of the capital, and the murder of nine
CROSSCUP & WEST-SC. PHIL A.
HON. DAVID S. GOODING.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
Shawnees by six white men, some miles north of Pendleton, in the spring of 1824, created a good deal of apprehension of a bloody retaliation. But the arrest, conviction, and execution of three of the murderers pacified the savages. These were the first instances of the legal execution of white men for killing Indians in the history of the United States. A census taken in this year (1824) showed one hundred fainilies on the " donation," composed of one hundred and seventy-two voters and forty-five unmarried but marriageable women, indicating a population - allowing for the unusual proportion of single men in a new settlement-of six to seven hundred. The first regular post office and postal service were established on the seventh of March, 1822, the mails previously having been an affair of private enterprise or accommodation. The first stage line for passengers was established on the Madison road in 182S. The capital was ordered to be removed to its new loca- tion by an act of January twenty-fifth, 1824, and Samuel Merrill directed to execute it. IIe did so in the following November, and the legislature met for the first time in Indianapolis on the tenth of January, 1825, holding its session, as above inti- mated, in the court house, the senate in the second story and the house in the court room below. No governor's residence was occupied as such till 1839, and it, on account of inconven- ience, was sold in 1865; and now the governor has no residence but such as he may own or rent, a liberal allowance for the latter purpose being made by the State. The first private school was opened in 1821. The first church built for that purpose was erected in 1823-4, and belonged to the Presby- terians. The celebrated Oriental scholar and eccentric George Bush, was the second pastor, filling the place from 1824 to 1829. The first Sunday school -composed of all denomina- tions, and called the Union school - was opened in April, 1823. The first public school house - rented to private teach- ers till the establishment of the free school system - was the old seminary, built in 1833-4. The first newspaper - the Indiana Gazette-was issued in January, 1822. The first market house was a shanty in the circle; but another, and now the only one, though greatly enlarged, was built in 1832
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directly north of the court house. The first municipal organ- ization was effected in the same year, by the election of five trustees. Previously, the only law was the State statutes, and the only officers squires and constables. Five wards were formed, enlarged to six after the reincorporation of 1838. This government continued till a city charter was granted in 1847. The first fire company was formed in 1835, and the first engine, half the cost of which was paid by the State, pro- cured in the fall of the same year. The first banking facilities were afforded by the branch of the old State bank, organized in 1834. In 1825 Alexander Ralston made a survey of White river to determine the practicability of making it permanently navigable, but nothing ever came of this or subsequent efforts in that direction. A little steamer, intended to carry stone for the National road bridge across the river, came to the town in the spring of 1831, but was nearly wrecked on a bar going back, and no other ever came within reach. The first dry goods store was opened in 1821; the first saw and grist mills in the same year; the first foundry in 1832, west of the river; the first steam mill - a sad failure -in 1832. " This epitome of the history of the city's origin is deemed a fitting intro- duction to an account of its development and an exhibit of its present condition."
With the removal of the capital in 1824-5, came a strong impulse to settlement, which was pretty nearly lost after 1827. The population in 1826 was 760. In 1827 it consisted of 529 white and 34 colored males, and 479 white and 24 colored females, a total of 1,066 -an average growth of nearly fifty per cent. in a year. In that year there were three churches - the Presbyterian, with thirty members; the Baptist, with thirty-six; the Methodist, with ninety-three, and the Union Sunday school, with one hundred and fifty pupils. There were twenty-five brick, fifty frame, and eighty log houses - six of the brick houses being two stories high. It was claimed that $10,000 worth of goods had been sold during the year preceding, including two hundred and thirteen barrels of whisky and one hundred kegs of powder, the latter showing a large reliance upon game for food. The proportion of
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