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 46
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INDIANAPOLIS.
the owners invite them by liberal donations of the necessary ground, or part of it. Streets are being graded and graveled, and bridges built to accommodate the increasing pressure of settlement and business there.
Some idea of the effect of the rapid and solid growth of the population and business of the city may be obtained from a few instances of the advance in real estate. Forty-two years ago a farm near the city and several town lots were sold for one thousand dollars for the whole. That property is worth now twice as much as the one thousand dollars would have produced at compound interest at ten per cent. There are plenty of similar instances of the enormous yield of early real estate investments. But few samples of a later date will prob- ably be nearer to the purpose of exhibiting the rapid devel- opment of the city. In 1865 nine acres southeast of the original town plat, but in the "donation," were bought for ten thousand dollars. A short time afterward they were divided into seventy-two lots, which have been sold, or are now held at two thousand dollars cach, or in the aggregate, one hundred and forty-four thousand dollars, more than four- teen times as much as they cost. The purchaser in 1865 sold five acres for twenty-seven thousand dollars, and then sold enough of the lots remaining to cover his original outlay, within a few years, and now holds lots enough to make his clear profit nearly one hundred thousand dollars without counting that upon the five acres first sold. In another more recent instance, a lot of ground on the west, or " tabooed " side of the river, was bought three years ago for seven thou- sand one hundred dollars, and platted into fifty-eight lots. Five have been sold within the year for three thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars, or more than half of the cost of the whole fifty-eight. In December, 1872, a lot east of the city limits was bought for nine thousand dollars on five years' time, with six per cent. on the deferred payments. The owner has refused fifty thousand dollars for it, though the panic has come between the purchaser and the proposition to buy. A tract in the same vicinity was bought at the same time for six thousand dollars, and has since been sold for sixty thousand
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
dollars. In the fall of 1870 a farm four miles cast of the city was sold for one hundred and twenty-three dollars an acre. Within the past few weeks four thousand five hundred dollars an acre have been refused for it. These are but samples of thousands of cases. The amount of real estate sales in 1873 was $32,579,256, against $19,326,450 in 1872, and $7,997,503 in 1871. These figures tell their own story.
The influences which have made Indianapolis a city of one hundred thousand inhabitants, and a taxable property of $65,000,000, and the first inland city of the Union, as set forth in this exposition, must of course continue to operate with equal, if not greater force for a well placed city, with all advantages for manufactures and commerce, when once it gets fairly started in growth is apt to grow like a snowball, the big- ger the further it goes. But besides these main or primary influences, the effect of which has already been imperfectly indicated, there are others of by no means slight importance. 1st. IIcalth. In the first settlement of the town chills and fever, and most malarious diseases prevailed, as they will in any country where vegetable decomposition is constant and extensive, but with the clearing of the woods the swamps dried up and malaria disappeared. Now, no city in the Union is less affected by endemic or local diseases. The death rate is but one in seventy, a fact that tells the story of health in a word. 2nd. Schools. A free-school system, supported partly by the State's fund and general taxes, but mainly by a city school tax, has been in successful operation for twenty years, with one brief interruption, caused by an adverse decision of the supreme court, and now has schools in every one of the thirteen wards, with a high school and training school for teachers. There are twenty school houses, of which ten cost from $35,000 to $45,000 cach, and can accommodate seven hundred and fifty pupils cach. The advance of ten years may be judged by the following comparison: Number of children entitled to tuition in the public schools in 1864, 6,863; num- ber in attendance, 1,050; value of school property in that year $88,500. Number of children in 1874, 19,000; number in attendance, 10,000; value of school property in 1874, $691,256.
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INDIANAPOLIS.
There is also the N. W. C. University, a medical college, a Catholic theological school, a city library with about 15,000 volumes, supported by a tax of five cents on one hundred dol- lars, having over six thousand patrons. 3rd. Church accom- modations. There are in the city sixteen Methodist, eleven Presbyterian, eight Baptist, five Episcopalian, four Christian, four Catholic, two Congregational, two Lutheran, one Jewish Synagogue, one Quaker, and churches of other denominations sufficient to make the whole number nearly seventy. 4th. There are three morning papers, three daily evening papers, fourteen weeklies, and twelve monthilies. 5th. Public im- provements. A new court house, costing about$1,700,000is nearly completed. A new state house has been provided for by the legislature. Over two hundred miles of lighted and paved or graveled streets have been made. A competent fire system, consisting of six steam engines, twenty-seven horses for hauling, and paid men to work, has been in operation about fourteen years, with a water supply from over one hun- dred cisterns and the Holly Water Works. A sewerage sys- tem has been established and several miles of sewer, trunk and tributary, built. The river is crossed by ten bridges, within the lines of the city extended to the river, with two more to be added this year (1874), by the Belt railroad, all of iron but one, the old National road bridge. Several of the railways, on their completion, or before, organized a Union company for common tracks and a passenger depot in this city. These, though extended to the utmost are overcrowded and must be still more enlarged. To escape the destruction of ordinary business created by passing trains, the city has built one tun- nel under the tracks, one viaduct over them, and has ordered a second viaduct, and plans are now under discussion for one or two more. Several elevated railways for the coal trains have been erected by interested parties. There are thirteen wards in the city with a representation of two councilmen each. There are six parks: Circle, four acres; State House, ten acres; Military park, eighteen acres; University park, four acres; Southern park, recently bought for $110,000, eighty-six acres; Northern park, at northern end of city, one hundred
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
acres, donated by the owners. The State Asylums for the Insane, Deaf Mutes and Blind, and the Female Reformatory, are in or near the city; but besides, the city has an orphan asylum for white native children: one for Germans, one for colored children, also a Home for Friendless Women, a Cath- olic Female Reformatory, and a free dispensary. There are four cemeteries: Greenlawn, as old as the city, and in the city limits; Crown Hill, two miles northwest, laid out and beauti- fied in the best style, containing three hundred acies; a Cath- olie cemetery south of the city near the suburbs, and a Hebrew cemetery. The State taxes amount to fifteen cents; the school tax is sixteen cents; county and township tax forty cents; city taxes, seventy-five cents; city school tax, amount to thirty cents on one hundred dollars. The city debt is less than $1,000,000. The taxable property, as above stated, is $65,000,000.
The rapid growth of the city, and the constant increase of its industrial establishments, keep up a severe strain upon all the capital and banking facilities attainable. There is not a dollar unemployed, unless it be in the silly fear or caprice of its owner. Money pays in everything. The law allows ten per cent. interest and thus legalizes what necessity long ago compelled. But with ordinary energy and prudence the legal interest is not half of what money can be made to pay. Put into small lots and neat and cheap tenements, for rent or final sale to men of small means, capital will pay thirty per cent., exclusive of the increased value of the real estate adjacent to the improvement. Put into well managed manufactures it will pay. . It will pay in banking and accommodating the gen- eral want of means. Security is abundant, of the best kind, and the means of profitable employment are abundant and waiting, but the capital does not come as fast as the growth of the city and its interests need it. This makes the strongest possible solicitation to capital to come here. There are eleven private and six national banks in the city, a sufficient proof of the value of capital and banking facilities here, and yet the hunger for capital to carry industrial and other enterprises to their easy and legitimate ends is the most severe affliction of the city.
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PROGRESS OF THE GRANGE.
Within the last ten years Indianapolis has been rapidly taking on all the characteristics of a metropolis. The social interests of the city have not been neglected. The society of Indianapolis, in taste and culture, and refinement, is doing much to raise the name of the people of the State to a higher social and intellectual standard in the nation. There is a dis- position manifesting itself for literary improvement, and within the last few years the people have reached a higher literary standard in all social intercourse. The theatre has been elevated, the reading-room has been filled with works of a higher standard, and the musical circle has been extended. In short, Indianapolis is marching onward equally in all her interests, and preparing herself for that event, not least among the possibilities of the future-the removal of the National Capital within her borders!
CHAPTER LXXVII.
PROGRESS OF THE GRANGE IN INDIANA.
THIS organization, including, as it does, over one hundred thousand of the citizens of Indiana, is fully entitled to notice in a history of the State. The growth of the order in the State, as, indeed, throughout the country, has been unpre- cedeuted in the history of secret organizations. In the spring of 1869, three granges were organized in the State, two in Vigo county, and one at Indianapolis, and these were the only representatives of the order in Indiana till the year 1872. During this year, fifty-four subordinate granges were organ- ized by the farmers in four or five counties in the north- western part of the State, and, in the fall of that year, a State grange was formed, a State executive committee was appointed, and arrangements were made to extend a knowledge of the
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
principles and purposes of the organization throughont the State. At the beginning of the next year, arrangements were made with the proprietors of the Indiana Farmer, to devote some portion of space in cach number to discussing the in- terests of the order. From this time its growth was steady and rapid. Wherever the paper cirenlated, granges were formed, and, before the next meeting of the State grange, at Valparaiso, in November, over six hundred dispensations had been issued to as many subordinate organizations. In 1874, the growth of the order was still more rapid, and, at the present time, over two thousand granges are enrolled on the books of the State secretary - a larger number than in any other State in the Union.
The officers of the first State grange, 1871-72, were as fol- lows: John Weir, Terre Haute, master ; A. Lansing, Val- paraiso, lecturer; O. Dinwiddie, Orchard Grove, overseer; O. M. Curry, Terre Haute, steward; J. T. Graham, Brook, assistant steward; G. L. Lowe, Beaver City, chaplain; C. I .. Templeton, Lowell, treasurer; T. Keene, Valparaiso, secretary; E. M. Robertson, Lowell, gate-keeper; Mrs. C. D. Poor, Val- paraiso, ceres; Mrs. M. B. Scott, Terre Haute, pomona; Mrs. Thirse Weir, Terre Haute, flora; Mrs. E. G. Graham, lady assistant steward.
Executive committee : John W. Wyatt, Kentland ; David Yoeman, Rensselaer; J. T. Graham, Brook; J. G. Culp, Fran- cesville; A. Poor, Valparaiso; W. Thomas, Valparaiso; master and secretary, members ex officio.
The following named persons were elected as State grange officers, at the session of the State grange in 1873 : Henley James, Marion, Grant county, worthy master; James Com- stock, Greenfield, Hancock county, overseer; C. W. Davis, Kentland, Newton county, lecturer ; Russell Johnson, Val- paraiso, Porter county, steward ; J. C. Phillips, Elizaville, Boone county, assistant steward ; B. F. HIam, Markleville, Madison county, chaplain ; George II. Brown, Rensselaer, Jasper county, treasurer ; Madison M. Moody, Muncie, Dela- ware county, secretary ; S. R. Gipe, Dayton, Tippecanoe county, gate-keeper ; Mrs. Sarah E. James, ceres ; Mrs. Cath
1
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arine Comstock, pomona ; Mrs. Hanna Davis, flora ; Mrs. Miranda Phillips, lady assistant steward.
Executive committee : J. F. IIall, Glenhall, Tippecanoe county ; David Yoeman, Rensselaer, Jasper county; A. Poor, Valparaiso, Porter county; J. T. Graham, Brook, Newton county; Lindol Smith, Dow, Carroll county; J. Q. A. Newsom, Elizaville, Boone county.
The present State grange officers, elected in November, 1874, are the same as above, with these exceptions: John. W. Zegler, of La Porte, succeeds C. W. Davis as lecturer. There are also several changes on the executive committee. At the meeting of the State grange, in November, 1874, Henley James, worthy master, delivered the following address:
SISTERS AND BROTHERS: A time-honored custom requires that I should, at this time, report to you the condition of our order in Indiana.
The increase of our order, during the past year, has far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of its friends, having increased from about four hundred to two thousand granges. The past year has been the crisis of our life as an order. Opposed, as we have been, by those who in time past have considered us their lawful prey, backed as they were by well organ- ized monopolies of wealth and power, to which even the goverment, in all of its departments, were bowing and doing homage.
The power of capital, controlled and dirceted as it was, by comparatively a few persons, had become insolent in its demands, and oppressive in its purposes.
The industry of the country has been taxed so heavily, and the laws so made as to discriminate against the agricultural interests, until the tax- gatherer has claimed the lion's share of our income.
Our order is the child of necessity - the forlorn hope of the farmer.
Agriculture being the chief productive source of the wealth of our coun- try, all the illegitimate speculation and stock gambling of the day is based upon the products of your toil, and all the failures that result from such reckless schemes have to be accounted for in the depreciated price of your products.
The failure of a Jay Cooke cost the agriculturists of the country many millions more than Jay Cooke was ever worth.
The order of patrons of husbandry seeks to place all business on its proper basis. To inculcate the true principle, that the perpetuity of our free institutions depends on the rights of all classes being sacredly re- spected, and every person left free and untrammeled in the race of life, to pursue whatever legitimate business he may choose.
The results of our efforts for reform have thus far been crowned with very happy results.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
We have honored our profession by placing representatives of our class in high positions, in both the State and national governments.
Socially, we have accomplished substantial good, by introducing amongst the agricultural classes a system of social communication hitherto un- known.
Much has been accomplished educationally, by infusing into the minds of agriculturists a desire to become acquainted with the laws of science, and apply the same in the cultivation of the soil.
Temperance is a fundamental principle of our order, and the teachings of the grange have already done much good in that direction.
Financially, we have accomplished much, by dispensing with the old system of purchasing through middlemen, who were fleecing us of our profits; and we now find no difficulty in establishing direct trade with manufacturers and wholesale men, upon terms very favorable to both pro- ducer and consumer, though much yet remains to be done in the way of more fully establishing a system of co-operation, both in our purchasing and selling.
Since the meeting of the last State grange, some changes have occurred in the State purchasing agency - Brother Kingsbury having resigned the agency, and Brother Alpheus Tyner being appointed to fill the vacancy, at such salary as may be agreed upon, to be paid by the State grange, instead of receiving a per cent. on the purchases made - which system seemed to meet with general disfavor. The present system seems to be working well and will, if properly pursued, result in substantial benefit to the order. This subject will come before you for your action.
Our order, true to its profession, has been swift to relieve suffering where- cver the cry of the needy, based upon the. claims of charity, have been heard. At my special request, the worthy secretary forwarded to our suf- fering brothers of Louisiana, rendered destitute by the overflow of the Mississippi river, one hundred dollars. I hope that this act may receive the approbation of the grange.
Appeals are also made from our brethren in Kansas and Nebraska, ren- dered destitute by the ravages of the grasshoppers; and appeals are also made from different portions of our own State from brothers and sisters made destitute by the ravages of fire. I recommend that the grange take such steps as may be necessary to give such timely relief as may be con- sidered proper.
The amendments of the constitution of the national grange, adopted at the seventh annual session of the same, will come before you for action.
I would suggest the propriety of this grange fixing the compensation of its officers, so that all may know the amount of the expenditures, and thereby silence the extravagant rumors that have been circulated by the enemies of our order.
I would recommend that such steps be taken as may be necessary to encourage direct trade between the different sections of our country, and through the medium of reciprocal trade in the exchange of commodities,
-
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cement the different sections of our country together in one common brotherhood by making our interests identical.
I would call the attention of the grange to the fact, that the American Cheap Transportation Association has cordially invited us to meet with them at Richmond, Va., on the first day of December next, and as it will, perhaps, be impossible for this grange to send an accredited representative to that meeting, we should at least give them an expression of our sympathy for the noble objects of that association.
I would call the attention of the grange to the fact that the third amend- ment of the constitution of the national grange proposes a change in the time of the meeting of the national grange, from the first Wednesday in February to the third Wednesday in November, which will bring the meet- ings of the national and our State grange into such close proximity that your representative could not attend both meetings. Therefore a change in the time of the meeting of our State grange will be necessary.
I recommend that this grange take such steps as may be necessary to provide for the incorporation of the granges, both State and subordinate, and that the legislature be requested to make such changes in the laws governing corporations as may be necessary for that purpose.
Since entering upon the duties of the office I now hold, I have delivered more than one hundred lectures, public and private; I have traveled in the interests of the order full five thousand miles, besides writing three thou- sand letters, and attending to the other duties of the office. My labors, though very arduous, have been pleasant, inspired as I have been by the importance of our organization and the justice of our aims. That I have committed errors of judgment is by no means improbable, but I hope that honesty of purpose may be attributed to me; and I desire to tender my thanks to the officers and members of the order for the uniform kindness received from them.
To the sisters of our order I would especially tender my thanks, for the valuable aid that the order has received from you. To your influence, your labors, your fidelity to the order, is attributed to a very large extent the success the order has already attained; and I have full confidence, sisters, that your influence will never be withheld in the perpetuation of that order which is the first to recognize and respect the full rights of woman; and I congratulate you upon the sure prospect, that through the influence of the noble order of patrons of husbandry, your sex will be pro- tected and elevated to the enjoyment of your rights, many of which you have been unjustly deprived of.
To show our readers the principles and purposes of the organization, and the work it is accomplishing, we copy a few of the reports passed upon at the session of the State grange of 1874:
We, your committee on the good of the order, respectfully submit the following report, to wit:
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
1. We find the order throughout the different portions of the State, with very few exceptions, to be in a high and unprecedented state of prosperity.
2. We recommend the acceptance of the offer of the national grange to vest in this grange the right to manufacture the Werner harvester, and that the executive committee be authorized to make such arrangements for the manufacture of the same as the state of the finances will permit; and we urge upon the members of our order the wisdom and necessity of purchas- ing implements only of such manufacturers as shall accede to our pro- position to purchase without the intervention of agents or middlemen.
3. We also recommend the repeal of rules Nos. 22, 23 and 24, for the government of subordinate granges, and that they be allowed to receive applications for membership, without regard to the distance of the appli- cant from other granges.
4. We further recommend that the executive committee be instructed to take the necessary steps for carrying out the provisions of section two of number two of the constitutional amendments, relative to the establish- ment of county and district granges, when such section and number shall have been ratified by the requisite number of granges.
5. Believing that the deeper the mystery in which our meetings are shrouded, the greater will be our power, we urge upon the officers and members of subordinate granges the necessity of keeping strictly secret all proceedings of the order not intended for the public car.
Resolved, That we fully recognize the importance of the diffusion of knowledge, and the education of all the children of the State, and pledge our cordial support to all measures adapted to the accomplishment of so worthy a purpose.
Resolved, That intemperance is a great evil and a prolific source of misery and crime, and the cause of large and wasteful expenditures of the public money; therefore, we pledge ourselves to use all proper means to discour- age intemperance and promote morality, virtue, and the practice of tem- perance by all the people.
Be it Resolved, By the delegates to the Indiana State grange in conven- tion assembled, That the declaration of purposes as set forth by the com- mittee on resolutions at the last annual meeting of the national grange are correct, and ought to receive the hearty approval of every true patron of husbandry in the State of Indiana, and more especially the fifth section of said declaration of purposes.
Your committee on transportation and co-operation beg leave to make the following report:
That the railroad system of the country has become oppressive to the producer by exacting high rates upon local freights; therefore,
Resolved, That we, as producers, ask our legislators, both State and national, to enact such laws as will be just to the railroad interests of the country, for we look upon the railroads as being one of the great levers for opening up the agricultural and mineral resources of the west; but while we are willing to grant them all just rights, we, as producers, ask
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PROGRESS OF THE GRANGE.
that the laws be such as to make them serve the people instead of ruling them, and compel them to carry passengers and freights at rates in pro- portion to the actual cost of the road, and local in proportion to through freights.
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