USA > Indiana > Washington County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 11
USA > Indiana > Harrison County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 11
USA > Indiana > Crawford County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 11
USA > Indiana > Clark County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 11
USA > Indiana > Scott County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 11
USA > Indiana > Floyd County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 11
USA > Indiana > Jennings County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 11
USA > Indiana > Jefferson County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 11
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in his first temples, the trees, and all were blessed." There is but one sur- vivor of that first religious meeting in New Albany, and her feet are still traveling the "straight and narrow pathway" she that night, now more than seventy years ago, found it so pleasant to walk in. At the close of this meeting, another was announced for the night of the same day in the following week. At that meeting a Methodist class was formed, and this continued to meet until June 20, 1817, when the Methodist Episcopal Church was regularly organized in New Albany, by Rev. John Shrader, and the first sacrament of the Lord's Sup- per administered by him in a hotel, kept by a widow lady named Hannah Ruff. On November 25, 1817, the first Methodist church in the town was dedicated by Rev. John Shrader. There are now in the city eight Metho- dist church buildings, two of them Methodist Missions. The next church organized here was the First Presby- terian. The organization was effected on the 7th of December, 1817, with nine members. The first meeting was held in . Mrs. Scribner's residence, being now a portion of what is the Carpenter Hotel-formerly High Street House. The first communion of the Presby- terian Church, of New Albany, was selemnized on the day of organization, Rev. D. C. Banks officiating at the ceremony. The first baptism solem- nized in New Albany was that of the infant daughter of Dr. Asahel and Elizabeth Clapp, Lucinda Ann, yet
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living in this city, and the widow of Mr. W. C. Shipman, deceased. There are now in New Albany, three Presby. terian churches and two Presbyterian Mission churches. The next religious society organized in the city was the Baptist Church, the organization taking place, as near as we can learn, in the autumn of 1821. From this brief sketch it will be seen that the pioneers of New Albany were hardly installed in their log cabins when they com- meneed the organization of churches. This early religious work gave a moral and Christian tone to society in the then village which has "grown with its growth and strengthened with its strength." Now, New Albany can boast of nearly thirty churches, and in the superior cultivation, and moral and religious character of her society is not surpassed by any city of America. These considerations are of importance to all who may desire to locate in a growing city, where church privileges and educational advantages, as well as business facilities, are offered them.
The following embraces a full list of the several religious denominations of the city, and the number of church edifices : Presbyterian, three regular and two mission churches, valued at $125,000. Methodists (white), five regular; one German, two mission, colored, two; property of all valued at 8175,000. Baptists (white), one colored, two; value of property, $40, 000. Protestant Episcopal, one, val. ued at $20,000. Lutheran-German
Evangelicals, with property valued at $40,000. Catholic, two large churches, one German, the other Irish, and with property valued at $150,000. Christian churches, two, valued at $35,000. Universalist church, valued at $15,000. There is a society of Spiritualists in the city, that meets in one of the public halls. There is also a small society of Second Adventists. The Methodists are erecting a new church, to be called Trinity, to cost $25,000.
Every regular church and every mission church in the city of New Al- bany has a Sunday school. Some of these schools have from three hundred to four hundred and fifty pupils .en- rolled. There is probably no city of equal population, west of the Alle- ghany mountains, that has as many children attending Sunday schools as New Albany. The first school was organized here in the early part. of 1818, three years after the pioneer families moved into the then village of not over twenty-five cabins, by Rev. Mr. Reed, a Presbyterian missionary, and Mrs. Austin, a Methodist. The moral effect of these Sunday schools upon the youth of this city has been inost marked; and to-day it can be honestly boasted (and gratefully), that there is less immorality or in- ebriety in the town than is found in other cities. Many of the most prom- inent and wealthy citizens of the city are regular workers in the Sunday school cause.
The Young Men's Christian As-
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sociation, of New Albany, is an honor to the city. It was organized on the 9th of June, 1871, incorporated on the 17th of October, 1871, and now has an active membership of one hundred and fifty. The Association has a fine library, a publie reading room in onė among the best halls in the city, re- ceives many of the leading daily and weekly newspapers of the country, and many of the monthlies of any note in the United States and Great Britain. The Association is doing a noble work, and its attractive hall is daily visited by the young of both sexes. The reading room will compare favorably with any in the country, in its furnish- ing, library and other interior arrange- ments.
One of the chief advantages New Albany will always maintain as a place for manufacturing, is HER NEAR- NESS TO THE COAL FIELDS OF SOUTHERN INDIANA. The Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis Air Line railway, which has its eastern terminus in this city, reaches the southern Indiana coal- fields at a distance of only fifty miles from New Albany. The road trav. erses the center of the fields a distance of about forty miles, and throughout almost its entire distance this coal-field will average ten miles in width. The block coal, in this field, is pronounced by iron-masters equal to the best in the world for iron smelting, and all purposes of iron manufacture. The block coal of Western Indiana is now used in every iron furnace in Indiana, and in the Bessemer Steel works at
Cleveland, Ohio, Chicago and St. Louis, and in all the iron works of Indianapolis and other Indiana cities. Cincinnati is also successfully using the Indiana block coal, in her manufac- tories, in competition with the noted Mahoning and Hocking Valley coals and the best Pennsylvania coals. Prof. Cox and Prof. Foster, former State Geologists, and Prof. Delafontaine, the eminent Swiss geologist, now residing at Chicago, after the most critical examination and careful analysis, pro- nounced these block coals the best in America, and equal, in every respect, to the best variety of Welsh coal. Prof. Foster says: "To the purity of splint c al it unites all the softness and combustibility of wood, and the effects produced by it in the blast furnace, either as to the quality or quantity of iron, far exceeds anything in the man- ufacture of that metal with charcoal." Prof. Cox says : " Without fear of con- tradiction, I pronounce the block coal, of Indiana, the best mineral fuel yet known to the world, for the manu- facture of pig metal, bar iron, or steel. In the blast furnace it produces a metal in every respect equal to the best charcoal iron made from the same ores. In the puddling furnace a less quantity of block coal is required than of the best Pittsburg coals, to a run of bar or wrought iron. The bars are brought off in a shorter space of time, and the quality of the iron is better." Of the Staab and Priest veins of block coal, that are run over- by the Louisville, Evansville & St.
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
Louis Air Line railway, Prof. Dela- fontaine says : "These block coals, we know from experience, when tested in the blast furnace, have all the qualities of charcoal as a reducing agent. Two and a half tons of coal are required to make a ton of iron. They are not quite as strong in fixed carbon as the Mahoning or the Shenango coals, but they produce a more highly esteemed pig metal. Compared with the English coals of Pontypool, Bedwas and Ebbon Vale, the amount of phosphoric acid was far greater in every instance ; and while, in the English coals, there was a notable percentage of sulphur, in the Staab coal there was an entire absence. Comparing these results with the amount of phosphoric acid contained in the ashes of elin, oak and apple- tree wood, the result is that while the Staab coal contains .03 per cent of this deleterious ingredient, those wood ashes contain all the way from 4.19 to 9.61 per cent. Thus, it will be seen that there are coals in the Indiana fields which are free from the element of phosphorus, so deleterious to iron making, than charcoal itself." Here are the highest authorities establishing the superiority of these block coals over all others for the purposes of iron manufacture. These block coals are first reached by the Louisville, Evans- ville & St. Louis Air Line railway, at a distance of sixty-five miles from New Albany, and can be laid down in the manufactories of New Albany very cheaply. Within this same southern Indiana coal zone, the very best cannel
and bituminous coals also abound in inexhaustible supply. These coals are all superior for general manufacturing purposes, for making steam, and domestic use. They are all reached at distances of fifty to eighty-five miles from New Albany, and are traversed by the Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis Air Line railway.
EDWARDSVILLE, Georgetown town- ship, on the New Albany and Cory- don turnpike, five miles west of New Albany. It has a store and several neat residences. The tunnel of the L. E. & St. L. railroad through the Silver Hills, passes under Edwards- ville. This tunnel is 4,372 feet in length, being the longest railroad tun- nel in Indiana. From the summit of the "Silver Hills" at this town a magnifi- cent view of one of the finest natural landscapes in the State is obtained. The town has excellent schools.
When the first pioneers came into the territory now embraced in Floyd county in 1804, they found the country covered with a dense growth of im- mense forest trees. There were also many cane-brakes, such as are now found in Arkansas and other southern States. Bears, panthers, wolves, deer, wild turkeys, wildcats and almost equally wild Indians were numerous, and these pioneers were subject to frequent alarms. But three counties had then been organized in the terri- tory of Indiana, and the savage Indian ranged at will through the almost un- broken forests and wide spreading prairies. Often were the hardy pio-
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
neers surprised and alarmed by these wild Red Men, and many of the first settlers fell victims to the tomahawk and scalping knife of these wily and inveterate foes of the white man. These alarms and slaughters were fre- quent in all parts of Indiana until after the close of the war of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain ; the Indians always being the allies of . the British against this country, and not unfrequently being incited to the most terrible deeds of blood and car- nage against the American frontier set- tlers by the British officers of the army and the hired agents of that Govern- ment. But these days of slaughter have passed. The Indian tribes that formerly inhabited Indiana and made it their hunting grounds have melted away before the advancing civilization and the unparalleled en- ergy of the nineteenth century; and the remnant that yet survives the once proud and no less savage Shawanees, Piankeshaws, Miamis, Pottawattomies, Delawares and Wyandottes, who were once so terrible when upon the war path, have been pushed west to the base of the Rocky Mountains, where they now only linger until the advanc- ing flood of emigration gathers new force, when they will be driven farther westward to where the setting sun bathes his golden glories in the Pacific ocean, and then disappear from this continent forever. The once favorite hunting grounds of these Red Men are swept away; the mighty forests have fallen, and beautiful prosperous vil-
lages, towns and cities, and cultivated farms, bearing in abundance the grains and fruits of the golden autumn have taken their place; the wilderness indeed now blossoms as the rose, and the hum of machinery and the busy notes of enterprising industry ring out from thousands of manufacturing and mechanical establishments. The light birch bark canoe of the savage, no longer splits the rippling waves of the beautiful river, Ohio; but instead, those magnificent floating palaces, the western steamboats, bear over its waters the vast commerce of a mighty nation. The Indian trails and the buffalo paths have given place to the iron-ribbed railroads, where the loco- motive, with its long train of cars, sweeps with lightning speed to ready markets the bountiful products of our bounteous State. The wild whoop of Indian battle is hushed forever; and where it once sounded, now stand hundreds of churches, from which the voice of prayer and praise ascend; and thousands of school houses, where tens of thousands of children meet to. be taught in our free schools, and to be imbued with a love of country, and that spirit of liberty which is equal rights to all, and which has made our happy, proud America the asylum for the oppressed of all lands, and which prepares Americans to give cordial welcome to all peoples who flee from tyranny to find a home under the Stars and Stripes of this grand Union of Freemen.
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
GEORGE A. BICKNELL was born in Philadelphia, Pa., February 6th, 1×17, and is a son of George A. and Emeline (Irglis) Bicknell ; the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter born in New York. The elder Bicknell was a merchant in Phil- adelphia, where subject was reared and educated.
He entered the University of Penn- sylvania, from which he was gradu- ated at the age of fourteen, having taken the regular classical and scien- tific course. He was immediately sent to New Ilaven Law School by his parents, where he remained one year. In the meantime, his father had removed to New York, and there the young man read law in the office of the late Seth P. Staples for several years.
He was admitted to the bar when nineteen years of age, at Albany, N. Y., in January, 1836.
Ile began practice immediately in New York city, where he continued some eight or ten years, when he was taken sick from business and over- study, being the attorney for the Del- aware & Hudson Canal Company. He then concluded to try farming and came West. His father owned five hundred acres of land in Scott county, Indiana, and for five years he cult - vated it, or a part of it. He found it expensive and retired from the busi- ness.
During this time he was elected Prosecuting AAttorney for Scott county, and in 1850 was elected Circuit Pros-
ecutor for Scott, Clark, Washington, Jackson, Orange, Harrison and Floyd counties ; in 1851 he removed from Scott to New Albany, and the next year he was elected Circuit Judge of the Judicial District, comprising the counties above named, and Crawford and Lawrence. This office he held continually for twenty-four years, the circuit being reduced in size in 1873.
In 1876 he was elected to Congress, and was chairman of the committee on the Electoral count, a member of the committee on Foreign Affairs, and several other committees. He was re-elected in 1878, and in 1881 was appointed Commissioner of Appeals in the Supreme Court of Indiana, at the same salary as the regular Judges -this kept him until 1885, since which time he has practiced his pro- fession, and held court for nearly all the circuit judges in southern Indi- ana.
Judge Bicknell published law books which were well received by the legal fraternity. "Bieknell's Civil Prac- tice" and "Criminal Practice" have both gone through two editions.
The Judge's ancestor, Zachary Bicknell, came from the south of England in 1632, in a colony, and set- tled at Weymouth, Mass. Judge Bicknell is eighth in the descent from Zachary Bicknell. The Bicknells were Swedes, and the name was spelled Becknill. About the year 700 they came by sea to a place now, in southeastern Scotland, but then, part of an independent kingdom, and
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
there is yet a hill there called "Beck- mill Hill."
Ile was married in 1840, when twenty-three years of age, to Miss Elizabeth Richards, a daughter of Jesse Richards, Esq., of Batsto, New Jersey. She is still living. Four children of this marriage are still living, viz: George A., who is Lieu- tenant Commander in the United States Navy ; Martha B. Mahon, a widow, living in Washington City; Emma, widow of Rev. George Love, who was a minister of the Church of England, and who livel in Canada at the time of his death, since which event she has lived with her father. The youngest, Jesse R., is Rector of an Episcopal church at Jacksonville, Fla., and has the honor of having remained at his post of duty through- out the recent epidemic there. Judge Bicknell is also a member of the Prot- estant Episcopal church, is A. B. and A. M., of the University of Pennsyl- vania, and in 1864 received the degree of LL. D. from the State University of Indiana, and was Professor of Law in that institution from 1861 to 1870.
ROBERT LA FOLLETTE, who emigrated to the Territory of In- diana November 4, 1804. The pre- ceding day he had married Miss Martha Sampson and together they had crossed the Ohio river and pitched their tent about three-fourths of a mile east of Knob Creek, which loca- tion he had previously selected. Here
in the unbroken wilderness surrounded by the dusky forms of the friendly Indians, they resolved to make their future home and commenced the battle of life. They remained in camp until Mr. La Follette had made a clearing, cut logs and built a cabin. This was the first house built in Floyd county, and the young wife was the first white woman who settled there. Their nearest neighbors were ten miles be- low them, in Harrison county. The Shawanee Indians were their immedi- ate neighbors and with them they lived on the most peaceful terms ; when marauding tribes from other sections made their appearance in the vicinity, Mrs. La Follette was warned by her Indian friends and sent across the river to her people, while her husband joined the expedition to drive them back. They underwent all the hard- ships of pioneer life ; a rude cabin with a floor of split logs, sheltered them, and a bed, table and other furniture of split boards were the household equipments of the young settlers. Mr. La Follette continued to reside where he first settled and when the division line between Clark and Harrison counties was drawn, he was thrown into Clark county and paid his share towards building the first court house at Charlestown, the county seat. A few years later he moved into Harrison county and helped to build, by special tax, the court house at Corydon, and afterward, when Floyd county was organized, he found himself in that county and paid his proportion of the
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levy to buildl the first court house at New Albany. He remained on the farm to which he had removed from the vicinity of Knob Creek, until his death which occurred in January, 1867, when he was eighty-nine years of age. He had resided in the limits of what is now Floyd county sixty-two years, and his wife sixty-one years. Robert La Follette's house was for many years used for meetings, by the regular Bap- tist minister, and pioneer preachers of all denominations were cordially wel- comed. While he was conscientiously religious, he was also religiously con- scious of his duty to kill hostile Indians and never missed an opportunity of joining in the chase. D. W. La Follette, a son of Robert La Follette, was born 13th of September, 1825, and in early life learned that honest toil is the surest road to prosperity. By his own labor he acquired the means to defray his expenses at the State University, and graduated from the law department. Ile afterwards studied law with IIon. W. A. Porter, deceased, of Corydon, wasadmitted to the bar in 1849, in 24th year of his age and immediately com- menced the practice of his profession at Corydon. In 1852 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Court of Common Pleas by a large majority In 1855 he removed to New Albany and formed a partnership with Hon. James Collins. In 1858 he was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Floyd County. In 1872 he was appointed Judge of the Criminal Circuit Court of Floyd and Clark
counties, but declined, and became prosecuting attorney of the district. In 1873 he was appointed one of the law professors in the State University, and filled the chair one year with credit to himself and the institution.
MICHAEL C. KERR was born in Titusville, Pennsylvania, March 15, 1827. He received an academic education and graduated with the de- gree of Bachelor of Laws at the Louisville University in 1851. He was an ardent and indefatigable stu- dent from an early age to the close of his life. His attainments in the broad fields of general knowledge were more than ordinary, while in the branches more directly allied to his public du- ties, such as political economy, the sci- ence of government, parliamentary law, etc., his acquirements were ex- tensive and duly acknowledged by his contemporaries. He taught school for some time in Kentucky, and set- tled in New Albany, Indiana, where he afterwards permanently resided. He began the practice of law in New Albany in 1852, was elected City At- torney in 1854 and prosecuting At- torney of Floyd county in 1855 ; was a member of the State Legislature in 1856 and 1857; was elected reporter of the supreme court of Indiana in 1862, and during his term of office ed- ited five volumes of reports; was elected a representative to the Thirty- ninth, Fortieth, Forty-first and Forty- second Congresses; was the democratic
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candidate at large for Representa- tive in the Forty-third Congress, but was defeated by a small majority of one hundred and sixty-two votes; he was elected in 1874 to the Forty-fourth Congress by a majority of thirteen hundred and nine. But the crowning honor of his public career was his election to the speakership of the House of Representatives, at its or- ganization, in 1875. Mr. Kerr made an able and impartial presiding officer and commanded the undivided respect of all parties. For some time previous to this election to the speakership his health had begun to fail, from the insidious progress of a serious pulmo- nary affection, which was quickened to action by the arduous duties of his office, forcing him before the close of his first session, to seek relief from his toils and sufferings, by a sojourn among the mountains of Virginia. But the disease had gained too much headway and his death took place on the 19th of August, 1876, at the Alum Springs, Rockbridge county, Virginia. His noble qualities of heart and mind endeared him to a large circle of acquaintances and friends. His death was regretted by the whole country.
ASHBEL PARSONS WILLARD was the most popular Governor Indiana ever had ; was born October 31, 1820, at Vernon, Oneida county, New York. His father was Colonel Erastus Willard, sheriff of the
county. The maiden name of his mother, whose memory he revered as long as he lived was Sarah Parsons. She died when he was fourteen, but she had already discerned the dawning brilliancy of his mind, and calling him to her dying bed, counseled him to obtain a liberal education, and to enter the profession of the law. In accordance with her dying wishes, he pursued his preparatory studies at the Oneida Liberal Institute and when eighteen he entered Hamilton College, New York, in the class of 1842. He became first in scholarship in that in- stitution and bore off its highest honors as valedictorian.
After graduating, Willard, depart- ing from the home of his youth, fol- lowed his two brothers, who had pre- ceded him, to Marshall, Michigan, and there, at the age of twenty-two, with feeble health but full of "the mental exhilarations of youth, hope and glory" he embarked upon the stormy sea of life. He remained at Marshall with, of course, a limited legal practice for about a year, when his health not becoming established, he determined to seek a milder clime. He purchased a horse and rode south- westwardly into Texas and back again to Kentucky, when his funds being exhausted but his health ex- ceedingly improved, he stopped and obtained employment as a school teacher. This was the year of the presidential contest between Polk and Clay. Willard, from his boyhood, had been an earnest, working political par-
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.
tisan. He left the school room for the political arena. New Albany, Indi- ana fell within his circle, and there, stranger as he was, he addressed the people. The impression made by the tall, slender young orator was so fa- vorable to him, personally, that it in- duced an invitation to him to make that city his home. It was in the spring of 1845, before he had reached the age of twenty-five that Ashbel P. Willard, without pecuniary resources, in the absence of relatives and only friends of an hour's acquaintance, be- came a resident of Indiana. Entering upon the practice of law at New Al- bany he was compelled to encounter an able and learned bar-such law- yers as Bieknell, Crawford, Otto Da- vis and others, ranking inferior to none in the State. This competition only stimulated him to greater exer- tion. He afterward became the part- ner of Mr. Crawford, but did not, however, pursue the legal profession long enough to reach its greatest honors. Politics, we shall soon see, engaged his thoughts and energies and became the field of labor in which he won his fame. In narrat- ing, however, the events of his life it is proper to here turn aside to men- tion one of a domestic character. On the 31st of May, 1847, he was mar- ried to Miss Caroline C. Cook of Haddam, Conn. Of the offspring of that marriage, the first and third, James H. and Caroline C. Willard survive. In May, 1849, Mr. Willard was elected a member of the city
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