USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana > Part 45
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house. He was followed by the father and brothers, and when in the middle of the street was shot by Henry and mortally wounded. The Holtzclaws were arrested and admitted to bail, and then fled the country. Sometime afterwards Eli was re- arrested in the South and brought here by a brother of his victim. By this time two of the most important witnesses were gone. Langtree had been drowned and Weide had removed to Min- nesota ; so their testimony could not be had. Holtzclaw took a change of venue to an adjoining county, and in the absence of these witnesses was tried and acquitted.
PUBLIC SENTIMENT.
Situated on the line between the free and the slave States, Madison was a quasi Southern city. The opinions and senti- ments of her inhabitants were moulded, to a great extent, by the opinions and sentiments of their Kentucky neighbors. Runaway slaves were hunted over the hills and through the valleys of Jefferson. The abolition settlement in Lancaster township was considered a plague-spot on the body politic. The Hoyts, the Nelsons and the Tibbettses of that neighborhood, although honorable and peaceable men, were tabooed because they believed in the equality of all men before the law. The Euletherian school at College Hill received the maledictions of the people, because in it the fountain of knowledge was as free to the negro as to the white man. Dwelling houses which had been erected near this college for the use of colored students were burned and destroyed. It is no wonder that in a commu- nity where Southern sentiments were so common the duel should be considered a proper method for settling disputes. Although we never had a duel here, we had several narrow escapes from meetings under the code. John Abram Hen- dricks challenged John Lyle King, Joseph G. Marshall chal- lenged Jesse D. Bright, Michael G. Bright challenged John Brough, and Robert S. Sproule challenged John A. Hendricks. The difficulty between Messrs. Hendricks and King occasioned much feeling in the city. They were both young men of prom- ise and were sons of leading citizens. Mr. Hendricks had been an officer in the regular army, but had resigned and come home. Mr. King, in a communication to the Indianapolis
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Fournal, over the signature of "Ion," mentioned this fact in the following words :
" Captain John A. Hendricks, formerly of the United States Infantry, but now of the peace establishment, has resigned his commission and returned home.
"' Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars That make ambition virtue ! O, farewell ! Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, th' ear-piercing fife, The royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war. And, O, you mortal engines, whose rude throats The immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit, Farewell ! Othello's occupation's gone !'
" Ill health and an inability to weather the Mexican climate are the causes, I hear, assigned for his return."
Captain Hendricks was offended at this reference to him and to his return, and published in the Madison Banner, over his own name, a letter, in which he pronounced " Ion " a liar and a coward. Mr. King, still maintaining his incognito, replied in a bitter letter, in which he quoted the couplet from Hudibras,
" For those that fly may fight again, Which he can never do that's slain,"
and said his name was with the Banner editor and was at the service of the Captain. Captain Hendricks went to Bedford, Kentucky, and from there wrote Mr. King a challenge and sent it by a Mr. Rowan. Mr. King refused acceptance of the chal- lenge, giving as a reason for the refusal that he was not on equal terms with his enemy ; that his acceptance would subject him to the penalty of the law of Indiana, while Mr. Hendricks would escape such penalty by reason of having written the challenge in another State. Upon receiving this reply Mr. Hendricks came to Milton, opposite this city, and wrote another challenge, without naming the place where it was written. This paper was delivered to Mr. King by Abram W. Hendricks, Esq., and the invitation declined because it lacked a venue. By this time the difficulty was widely known, and coming to the knowledge of
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Governor Hendricks and Victor King, the fathers of the bellig- erents, they interfered and prevented a hostile meeting.
The difficulty between Messrs. Marshall and Bright origi- nated at a political meeting which took place at Ritchey's Mills in this county. Inasmuch as I wrote an account of this matter some years ago for the Indianapolis fournal, which embodied all I know about it, I shall say nothing further of it here.
The trouble between Mr. Bright and Mr. Brough grew out of a controversy in relation to selling the State's interest in the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. Mr. Bright challenged Mr. Brough, but, instead of accepting the challenge, the latter published it in the Madison Banner with the reasons for his re- fusal. In speaking of this difficulty the late George D. Prentice said in his paper that most persons would think Mr. Bright would have the advantage of Mr. Brough in a duel, on account of the great size of the latter, but, in fact, the advantage would be on the other side, as it was doubtful if the pistol was then made which could send a bullet to Mr. Brough's vitals. He was a behemoth in size.
The difficulty between Messrs. Sproule and Hendricks grew out of political differences, and was not generally known. Sproule was the challenger, and he sent the hostile message by Michael Steele Bright. Nothing came of it, and the matter was soon adjusted.
THE GOLDEN ERA.
This was Madison's golden era. She was the entrepot of the merchandise sold and consumed in Indiana. She was the gate at which the traveler entered the State. She had three whole- sale dry goods houses, and as many wholesale groceries and boot and shoe establishments. She was one of the largest pork- packing points in the country. No less than four establishments were engaged in the killing and packing of hogs, one of them being the largest then in the world. She had a starch manu- factory on Crooked creek and a glue factory just outside the city limits. She had several of the largest flouring mills west of the Allegheny mountains. She had three large iron foun- dries, a brass foundry, a boiler manufactory, and many other establishments of great value. She had a chamber of com- merce, a reading-room and a public library. In addition to the
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magnificent Pike and the Ben Franklin, which landed daily at her wharfs, she had daily lines of steam packets to Cincinnati and to Louisville, and a regular one to Frankfort. Her wharfs were covered with hogsheads of sugar and molasses from New Orleans, and with boxes and bales of merchandise from the Atlantic slope. Her streets were crowded with men who came to buy her merchandise and her manufactured goods. Her citizens were jostled on the sidewalks by strangers who came hither to view her greatness, or to enter Indiana through her portals. Such was Madison from 1844 to 1852. when the zenith of her prosperity was reached.
HER PRESENT POSITION.
Although Madison is not now what she then was, she is a city of which her people may well be proud. Her material in- terests are great and her memories are glorious. Her starch has a market in the old world ; her saddle-trees are sold in every State of the Union, and her furniture and her steam engines are floated down the beautiful river that flows at her feet to distant markets. The men she has educated and sent out from her midst have played no mean part in the drama of life. The Madison colony at the State capital is noted for the intelligence and business worth of its men and the beauty and goodness of its women. Many of the leading men of Chicago were reared in your city, and the same is true of Saint Louis. Go where you will in the West you will find Madison men. In the East. too, she is represented, for the head of one of the most eminent banking houses in America* was a resident of Madison when I first saw it. The late Chief Justice of Oregon was a Madison boy, and Justice Beck, of the Supreme Court of Iowa, is an old time Madisonian. "I am a Roman citizen " was the proudest boast of the dweller on the banks of the Tiber, and " I am a citizen of Madison " should be the proudest boast of every one whose home is in the healthy and beautiful city under the hills.
*J. F. D. Lanier.
THE INDIANA PRESS OF THE OLDEN TIME .*
I PROPOSE giving you some sketches of the press of Indiana as it was from twenty-five to thirty years ago. I hope they will interest you ; the subject they seek to illustrate interests me. The sketches will of necessity be short, for the subjects are too numerous to be profusely illustrated within the time allotted to an address like this.
I speak of a time within the memory of men now living. I . speak of a time within the memory of some who hear me. These will bear witness to the truth of what I say.
In 1850 the population of Indiana was 988,416. To-day it is 2,000,000. At the State election in 1852, 187,121 votes were cast ; at the election last October, 470,738 ballots went into the box. In 1852 there were but 350 miles of railroad in the State ; now there are over 6,000. I give these figures to remind you of the great strides in population and wealth Indiana has taken since the time of which I speak. Has the press of Indiana kept pace with population? I shall not answer the question, but con- tent myself with showing what the press then was ; you know what it now is, and when you have heard what I have to say you can answer the question yourselves.
Thirty years ago the Indiana newspaper was not what it now is. It was printed on inferior paper, with larger type, and its make-up was not so symmetrical or attractive. The editor's name was always at the head of the editorial column. There was no shirking of responsibility nor hiding behind the backs of others. The editor was answerable for the conduct of the paper, and there was no mistaking who he was.
*An address delivered before the Democratie State Editorial Convention at Michigan City, June 30, 1881.
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THE INDIANA PRESS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
The editorial " we " was more frequently used then than now. Indeed, it was sadly abused, for the editor took it wherever he went. "We took a ride yesterday," or " we have been sick," or " we shall be absent from our office for a day or so," might often be found in the papers of those days. It is now a rare thing to see in a respectable journal such abuse of this useful word, the public having concluded that it should never, in a newspaper, represent the personality of the writer.
At that time the telegraph was sparingly used by the press. The news by it came over the O'Reilly line, and seldom filled over half a column. It came from New York and from Wash- ington and from the other large Eastern cities, and was mainly confined to the markets and to political affairs. The special correspondent and the special telegram were unknown. Nor was the interviewer abroad in the land. This species of news- paper workers has come upon the stage of action since the time of which I speak. But few journals had a distinctive depart- ment for local news. In most of them general and local news were mixed and published in the same columns. George Ben- nett, of the Cincinnati Enquirer, was the first distinctive local editor in the West. Some of the Indiana papers followed the Enquirer's example and established local departments, but most of them mixed news and opinions indiscriminately.
The first side of a newspaper in those days contained a love story complete in itself, or a serial story which ran through many numbers. I remember that the Ripley County Index pub- lished the whole of " Pilgrim's Progress." The Madison Ban- ner facetiously advised its editor to commence on the " Bible " when the Pilgrim reached the land of Beulah. It was common to see at the foot of the last column on the first page the words, " To be continued." At a party in Madison a gentleman was asked who was his favorite author. He replied that he believed he liked "To be continued " better than any other writer he knew. He was then a prosperous dry goods merchant, and afterwards went to New York and became a millionaire. After this, who will say that culture is a factor in money-getting?
There were three daily papers then published at Madison, and for a time there were four. The Banner had grown into influence under the direction of Daniel D. Jones, a little chubby Welshman
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of decided talents. He set his editorials as he composed them. and they were among the best that appeared in the press of that day. When he died his interest in the Banner was bought by John Robert Cravens, who in a few months sold it to the speaker. Milton Gregg started the Tribune at Madison in 1851 ; but there was no room for it, and the next year he took it to New Albany. and published it there until he died. Mr. Gregg was an easy, flowing writer, but was not a particularly strong one.
Michael C. Garber, whose death occurred but a few months ago, edited the Madison Courier. He was an independent, plucky man, and a vigorous, though not a polished writer. He was ill suited to conduct an organ, such as the Courier had been, and his foot was on the pedal but a short time until he kicked the machine to pieces. His assistant-the brilliant and erratic Baymiller-was as independent as his chief, and the two prac- ticed independence to such a degree that they soon vaulted out- side the Democratic party. To strangle the Courier and have a personal organ Senator Bright and some of his friends started the Madisonian, and put it in charge of Robert S. Sproule. It had a sickly existence of a year or so and died, as all personal organs are apt to do. Many of you will remember poor Bob Sproule. He was an impulsive, big-hearted Irishman, improvi- dent and reckless. " Alas, poor Yorick ! Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table in a roar? " There comes no answer.
The Ledger, at New Albany, was established by John B. Norman and Phineas M. Kent. Mr. Kent soon sold his inter- est in the paper to Lucien G. Matthews, who was associated with Mr. Norman in the conduct of the Ledger so long as the latter lived. Mr. Norman edited the paper, and those who remember his writings will class him among the best writers in the State. He died in October, 1869, of apoplexy. * Of gentle nature, modest and unassuming, he was ill suited to breast the turbu- lent waves of life. He was honest and true in his friendships. affectionate and devoted in his family and social relations. He was no orator, but with his pen expressions he was facile, grace- ful, forcible and oft eloquent. In political contests he wielded a trenchant blade, and with logic he could combine sarcasm as keen as polished steel." When Jenny Lind was at Madison in
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1851, there being no large hall in the city, she sang in a pork- house. Norman's description of the concert was one of the nicest pieces of newspaper work ever done in Indiana. It went the rounds of the press, and Jenny Lind in the Madison pork- house was as noted as Whittington in London town. Messrs. Kent and Matthews still live, but neither of them is engaged in newspaper work. .
The Indianapolis Sentinel was then edited by William J. Brown. Mr. Brown is better remembered as a politician than as an editor, but he wrote well and conducted the Sentinel with ability. He held several offices in the State and was repeatedly elected to Congress. At one time he came near being made Speaker of the House, and would have been had not some of the Southern members refused to vote for him. He was deeply chagrined at his failure, and in a letter to a friend, after re- counting his services to the South and the treatment he had received from the Southern members, he said : " I am done." After this he was called by his political opponents, "Done Brown."
The Indianapolis fournal was then controlled by John D. De- frees. Mr. Defrees went to Indianapolis as the Senator from Saint Joseph county. He conducted the fournal for several years and then sold it. When Mr. Lincoln became President Mr. Defrees went to Washington, where he has since resided. Most of the time he has held office, and is now superintendent of the government printing office.
Dr. E. W. H. Ellis, a resident of Goshen, was elected Audi- tor of State in 1850, and soon afterwards, in connection with John S. Spann, established the Indianapolis Statesman. The Statesman was published weekly, and after existing a year or so was absorbed by the Sentinel. It advocated the nomination of General Jo Lane for the Presidency, and as the Sentinel also claimed to favor his nomination, Dr. Ellis asked Mr. Brown why he did not fly the General's flag. Mr. Brown replied that first- class hotels never put up signs ; that it was only cross-roads tav- erns that did so. Dr. Ellis was a strong and pungent writer and a poet of decided merit. He died at Goshen a few years ago, being postmaster of that city at the time.
About this time a series of sketches appeared in the Indian-
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apolis Locomotive, a weekly paper published by Elder & Hark- ness, which attracted much attention. They were so much above the average of newspaper contributions that there was great speculation as to who the writer was. He proved to be Berry R. Sulgrove, then a young lawyer, but now one of the most noted writers in the State. His nom de plume, Timothy Tugmutton, will be remembered by those who were familiar with the newspapers of that day. Mr. Sulgrove afterwards edited the Indianapolis Journal, and since his withdrawal from that paper he has been a contributor to most of the journals published at the State capital. His information is vast and varied, and he writes with ease and grace upon almost all subjects. There is probably no man in the State of so extensive information, and none who excels him in ability to give it to the public in an at- tractive form.
James P. Luse then owned and conducted the Lafayette Fournal. In 1853 he sold it to William G. Terrell, and six years afterwards purchased it again. He again sold it, and for the third time bought it. In 1866 he left Lafayette and went to New Albany to edit the Commercial of that city. He is now, and for some time has been, the leading editorial writer on the Indianapolis Journal. Mr. Luse is a scholarly man and a vig- orous writer, and is well acquainted with public men and meas- ures. There are few men in the State who equal him in in- formation, and fewer still who have his ability to write. His pen is as prolific and his style as vigorous as they were a quar- ter of a century ago. In 1852 he and I were of a party of ed- itors that went to Louisville to escort General Scott, then the Whig candidate for President, to Indiana. When we were in- troduced to the General, Mr. Luse remarked that we were Whig editors from Indiana, and were working hard to make him President. "Ah, gentlemen," replied the old hero, " the people of Indiana, then, have heard of Lundy's Lane."
The Lafayette Courier was then conducted by William R. Ellis. Mr. Ellis is still living,* but he abandoned journalism long ago. He sold the Courier, in 1854, to William S. Lingle, its present owner. Mr. Lingle was one of the Madison colony
* W. R. Ellis was a brother of Dr. Ellis, named above, and he died at Lafayette · since this lecture was delivered.
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that went to Lafayette with Mr. Terrell when he bought the fournal. He wields a caustic pen, as I have good reason to know. When I edited the Madison Banner I published a com- munication from Lingle that well nigh cost me a fight or a foot- race. Had not Providence favored me I should have had to fight or run. I have thought, ever since, that Lingle did not properly appreciate the vicarious offering I made for him twenty- nine years ago.
In these days A. H. Sanders edited the Evansville Journal. Evansville was not then even relatively what it now is, and the Journal's field was a circumscribed one. This paper has grown with the prosperous city in which it is published, and is now understood to be one of the most valuable pieces of news- paper property in the State. There was then no Democratic paper published in Evansville. Several attempts had been made to establish one, but without success, Charles P. Baymil- ler, a lieutenant of Garber and of Terrell, being one of those who made the effort. The Evansville Courier, now so ably conducted by the Shanklin brothers, was not then in existence.
In 1852 Enos B. Reed and Alf. Burnett started the Demo- cratic Union, a weekly paper, at Vernon. It was profusely il- lustrated with wood cuts which had done previous service. Reed edited the paper and Burnett was its traveling correspond- ent. In a letter from New York he spoke of calling on N. P. Willis, the poet, incog. The press made so much sport of this piece of silly vanity that his letters stopped.
Mr. Reed, then as now, was a lover of the " foaming lager." One day he invited a prominent citizen of Vernon to take a so- cial glass in a grocery store. The "prominent citizen" de- clined the beer, but remarked that, as the cost was the same, he would take a mackerel. As the people of Vernon liked mackerel better than beer they were not congenial to the poet-editor. So, in a short time.
" He folded his tent like the Arab, And as silently stole away."
I well remember one incident connected with his career at Vernon. A ballad over my name was published, which at- tracted the poet's attention. He critically tore it into shreds, for which I thank him sincerely. From that day to this I have
.
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not attempted rhyme, being satisfied, with him, that if I have talents they do not lie in that direction.
Some ten years ago Mr. Reed started the Indianapolis People. It " took " from the start, and is now a valuable piece of prop- erty. It circulates chiefly among the working people, and is probably as influential with that class as any journal published at Indianpolis. Mr. Reed is a florid, rotund, jolly man, and is warm in his friendships. He is a devoted disciple of Izaak Walton, and deftly handles the hook and line. A hooked bass or red-eye throws him into ecstasies.
In 1855 Jacob B. Maynard bought the Cannelton Reporter and entered journalism. From that time until now he has been engaged in editorial work; in Cannelton, in Evansville, in Louisville, in St. Joseph, Missouri, and in Indianapolis. For more than four years he has been the leading writer on the Indianapolis Sentinel. As a statistician he has no equal in the Indiana press. He has the figures on his finger's end, and can tell all about the exports and the imports ; how many bushels of wheat and corn are raised and how many consumed ; how many gallons of whisky-Bourbon or Robinson county-are manufactured and how many drunk, and how much per capita it costs to run the government. He can dash off a political leader as easily as he can prepare a statistical table. He can also write a charming sketch, and, when necessary, successfully court the muse. A pen equally versatile I do not know. Those who judge him by his political leaders are apt to mistake the man. These are often denunciatory and vituperative, whereas he is naturally gentle and kind. He fashions a leader as a potter his clay-to suit the purpose for which it is designed. The late George Harding used to say that when the manager of the Sentinel wished a particularly savage article prepared he threw Colonel Maynard a piece of raw beef over the transom of his door. He works seven days in the week, year in and year out. and the quantity and quality of his work are marvelous. It is questionable if there be another man in the State who can do so varied work and do it so well. From the day of the presi- dential election in 1876, until the day Mr. Hayes was inaugu- rated, the Sentinel's rooster appeared as regularly as the paper, but when, for the first and only time in our country's history,
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· a man not elected put on the presidential robes, Mr. Maynard took down his rooster. Six days before he took the chicken from his perch he thus addressed him :
"OUR ROOSTER.
" At twilight's shades and morning's dawn Our Rooster's watched the course of crime, He's seen the perjured villains fawn, And heard the thieving kennel whine.
"On watch when Grant, the second Nero, Ordered troops to murder law, IIe's stood his ground like Spartan hero, With indignation in his craw.
" Grandly he crowed the glory When triumph flashed, where Rads lay slain,
Till all the world caught up the story, And vict'ry was the grand refrain.
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