USA > Indiana > Washington County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Harrison County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Crawford County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Clark County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Scott County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Floyd County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Jennings County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Jefferson County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 16
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Many different descriptions of the strange phenomenon was given at the time, and the impression created was quite as varied, according to the intel- ligence, education or superstition of the witnesses to it. Dr. J. C. Clark, at Buck creek bridge, eight miles north of Buena Vista, and B. P. Doug- las, Esq., at Corydon, in describing the meteoric occurrence, say there was a rushing, whistling windy noise, then a rattling, roaring sound like the stampede of Gen. Pope's wagon train driving recklessly over a wooden bridge, then the explosion for a min- ute, like the rapid discharge of a park of artillery, followed by the pro- longed, rolling reverberations, passing from the southwest to the northeast. A scientific analysis of the specimens was made by the late Prof. J. Law- rence Smith, of Louisville, but it would only be of interest to the scien- tist ; hence, it is omitted from this sketch.
LACONIA is a pleasant and prosper- ous little village in Boone township, twelve miles from Corydon, as the crow flies, and almost a due south course. It is on the divide between Mosquito and Buck Creeks, and in section 32. It is not more than two miles from Tobacco Landing, on the Ohio river, which is its shipping point. This is in the Harrison county natu- ral gas region, and when natural gas is properly developed, Laconia may become a great manufacturing town. Corn, grass and fruits are the princi- pal crops grown in the surrounding country.
Tobacco Landing was designed by its speculative proprietors for the most important trading point on the river. Warehouses and all other appointments for a town were pre- pared sufficient for the transaction of all the business of the neighboring region. But trade would not come, and to-day it is nothing more than a steamboat landing. It is noted prin- cipally for having been the boyhood home of the great traveller and author, J. Ross Browne. Doubtless, it was the beautiful scenery of the Ohio river hills, that educated his mind to an appreciation of natural scenes of beauty.
An enthusiastic writer thus describes the region round about Tobacco Land- ing: "From the top of this southern promontory of the State, 410 feet above the Ohio river, a fine outlook is enjoyed ; the ever beautiful Ohio circles in a broad sweep, comprising
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
miles of river scenery equaling the historie waters of the Rhine; some- times a mad, rushing torrent, at others a quiet, sleeping expanse. Beyond, in Kentucky, the Muldrow range of hills are built up against the sky ten to thirty miles away, while six great, sharp, conical, isolated, monument-like knobs, the result of past erosive energy, seem to pierce the blue heavens, solemn in their silent loneli. ness, and a measure of the ages neces- sary to remove, by denudation, a thousand feet of overlying strata." It was amid such scenes, that were nur. tured the longings which were embod- ied in Browne's first public sketches. The neighbors, in kind remembrance of him, named his favorite retreat, "Ross Browne's Gulch." It was thus described by the writer, quoted from above: "The walls are steep or pre- cipitous, of banded limestone, over three hundred feet high. Remote from the intrusion of domestic animals, the original growth of plants, feathery ferns flourish in profusion on the shaded benches and eaves. Each escarped band of rock was festooned with trailing creepers and clinging lichens, while the steep face of Doug- las' Pinnacle would always excite a boy's dreams of romance."
MAUCKPORT is a flourishing little river village. It is situated on the Ohio about three miles below Brand- enburg, the capital of Meade county, Ky., and about fifteen miles from Corydon. The country is broken and hilly around Mauckport; fruit is
grown extensively, and corn and wheat are the principal crops.
NEW AMSTERDAM is pleasantly sit- uated on the Ohio river, eight or ten miles below Mauckport. There is a good farming region adjacent to it, the rich Ripperden and Grassy valleys being tributary, and the farmers of those fertile sections making this their trading and shipping point. The village has all the mercantile and mechanical establishments common to a thriving place of its "dimensions."
VALLEY CITY is a hamlet about three miles east of Amsterdam.
LANESVILLE, next to Elizabeth, is the largest village in the county outside of Corydon. It is nestled in the deep valley of Indian Creek, on section 20 of Franklin township, and was named for Gen. Lane. It is situa- ted on the New Albany and Corydon turnpike road, about ten miles from Corydon, and by the census of 1880 it had 280 inhabitants. It is settled mostly by Germans with a German settlement around it. The people are industrious, economical and well-to-do, with a good number of stores and shops of different kinds to supply all their sim- ple wants. The neighborhood is noted as having been a favorite resort of the savages, and the older citizens remem- ber when there were many relics of the aborigines to be seen about where the village stands. When the first whites came to the county they dis- covered the little saline spring or "seep" at this spot. It attracted the attention of Gen. Harrison, who opened
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
a primitive well and tested the water. The well was merely a hollow tree "gum" sunk some depth in the soft spongy ground. When the water was tested it was found that one gallon of the brine would, on evaporation, yield three-quarters of a pound of good salt. It was never utilized to make salt, however, as a general business.
BRECKINRIDGE is a small place on the turnpike between Lanesville and Corydon, three miles from Lanesville.
PALMYRA is situated in the extreme northern part of the county on the New Albany and Vincennes turnpike road, and is twelve miles due north of Corydon on an air line. It is sur- rounded by a level or gently undula- ting plateau of well cultivated land, originally known as "barrens," which show some fine meadows and pastures and occupied by thrifty farmers. The village is a flourishing one, with the usual stores and shops common to places of its size and demands. This is a fine fruit section. The orchards are among the finest in the county, highly productive, the trees being annually loaded with apples and peaches of excellent quality. Palmyra Lake near by, is a picturesque little sheet of water, covering twelve to fifteen acres and about the depth of fourteen feet of water. The old Indian trail from Louisville via Paoli to Vin- cennes passes by the south side of the lake, and the number of flint arrow heads and flint chips formerly to be found here, show that the lake was a favorite resort of the savages.
BRADFORD is a small village in this same township ( Morgan ) that Palmyra is located in.
NEW SALISBURY is a small village on the road leading from Corydon to Palmyra, about midway between the two places. It is in Jackson township scarcely a mile north of the Airline railroad, which fact will prevent it from ever being a great city.
BYRONVILLE is a small place in the northeast part of the same township, about five miles from New Salisbury.
FRENCHTOWN, in the north part of Spencer township, is a unique little village about ten miles northwest of Corydon. It was established by the Buckhardt or Bogard family, who induced about fifty families. from France to settle contiguous to it. They are quiet, industrious citizens, possessing all the courtesy character- istic of their nation. Many of them cultivate vineyards and make wine ; some of the vineyards are valuable, productive and profitable. Fairdale is a hamlet in the same township, just north of the Airline railroad.
C'RANDALL and CORYDON JUNCTION are stations on the Airline railroad, in Harrison county. Crandall is about four miles from the east county line. Corydon Junction is where the Cory- don and New Albany railroad diverges from the Airline. Both are small places. Rosewood, Boston and old North Hampton are small places on the Ohio river - the first two named in Taylor township, and the last in Washington township.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
IDLEWILD, HANCOCK, WORTH, CEN- TRAL, REHOBOTH are country postoffices. Idlewild and Worth are in Scott town- ship; Central is in Heth township, and Hancock is in Blue River township. A store, postoffice and a blacksmith shop are about the extent of their dig- nity.
Roads .- One drawback to Harrison county, for many years, was a lack of market facilities. Even after the era of railroads it was years before the county enjoyed the benefits of these modern adjuncts of civilization and prosperity. For many years the county did not even have good wagon roads. These highways are indispensable for social intercourse and the enjoyment of progressive civilization. No people can expect fair returns for their labor without commerce and means of trans- portation for exchanging their com- modities. With the best road material almost, in the world, and an inexhaust- ible supply of it, the county was extremely backward in building roads, and the farmers were almost wholly dependent on the river for transport- ing their surplus produce to market. It was not until the building of the Corydon and New Albany turnpike road that the county began to get out of the ruts of old fogyism. About 1850 the project of building a plank road or turnpike from New Albany to Corydon was agitated, and the enter- prise met with varying success for two or three years before it was finally completed. This was at a time when the good people of Harrison county
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did not believe railroads could be built through the hills of southern Indiana. The Western Argus (Corydon) of May 11, 1852, recommending the building of this road and its great value, says :
" Look at our geographical position ; we are in a bend of the Ohio, the river running around a large portion of the eastern, the entire southern, and a part of the western borders of the county, leaving us isolated, cut off, out of the way of any of the great lines of road, having a population of 16,000 souls at present, all engaged in agriculture ; and two-thirds of the surplus raised must pass over this road to market ; there is no other outlet, nor can there ever be. Our very position forbids the idea of this route ever being inter- fered with by railroads. We are not in the line between any great points. The Mt. Carmel route from the Fall to St. Louis is abandoned in effect, and it had as well be, because it would be almost as reasonable to talk of sur- mounting the Alps, as passing the immense range of hills lying between us and the Wabash. Old hunters will tell you that there are fastnesses that exclude wild beasts, let alone railroads. This, then, is the road for Harrison county, the route by which her pro- duce can reach market, etc., etc."
Scarcely a third of a century has passed since the above was penned, and a first-class railroad crosses Harri- son county, and passes the "immense range of hills lying between her and the Wabash." The Alps have not been
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
surmounted, but they have been tun- neled, which amounts to the same thing, and are no longer a barrier to railroads, and still the world moves on. Another railroad from Corydon intersects the Airline, and Harrison county thus enjoys all the market facilities she needs or can desire.
After all the ups and downs conse. quent upon such enterprises, the road was finally completed and thrown open to travel. Being a direct line to New Albany, and thence to Louisville, it gave Corydon the best market facili- ties it had hitherto enjoyed. For sev- eral years it was a popular thorough- fare, and extensively used, even to the building of the Airline railroad, and the Croydon & New Albany railroad. With all the railroads, it is still much traveled, and is valuable to the county.
Railroads .- Although Harrison is one of the old counties in the State, it was slow, and among the last to have railroads. It is only within the last few years that she has known the advantages of railroads. As early as 1837, a railroad from New Albany to Alton, Ill., was projected, but it only resulted in grading the route from Mt. C'armel to Albion, in Illinois. There it rested until 1869, when a charter was granted to the New Albany & St. Louis Railroad Company, by the Ind- iana Legislature, and shortly after another to the St. Louis, Mt. Carmel & New Albany Railroad Company, by the Legislature of Illinois. In July, 1870, these corporations were united under the name of Louisville,
New Albany & St. Louis Railroad Company. Its first officers were Hon. Augustus Bradly, of New Albany, President ; Jesse J. Brown, of New Albany, Vice-President ; George Ly- man, Secretary and Treasurer, and Roland J. Dukes, Chief Engineer. Several routes were surveyed, and the location finally made as follows: From Louisville to New Albany bridge and the J. M. & I. tracks, thence on an air line to the Wabash river at Mt. Car- mel; thence to Mt. Vernon, Ill., where it connected with the St. Louis Southeastern, now the St. Louis divis- ion of the L. & M. Railroad. Liberal subscriptions were made to it by the cities of Louisville, New Albany, the J. M. & I. Railroad, Floyd county and other counties, and other munici- palities along the line, amounting in the aggregate to $1,350,000, and by individuals, 81,411,350. Work com- menced and went briskly forward until the funds were exhausted, when operations were for a time suspended. In 1875 the company was unable to meet its interest and the road was sold for $23,000-a "mere song." Eighty miles west of New Albany had been graded, and the tunnels and trestles mostly completed. Three miles of track out of New Albany was laid, and trains were running on a completed section from Princeton, Ind., to Albion, Ill. The project lay dormant until February, 1879, when a re-organization of the Board was effected with St. John Boyle, of Louis- ville, as President ; G. C. Cannon, of
W. R. Gresham
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
New Albany, Vice-President ; and George Lyman, of New Albany, Sec- retary and Treasurer. After consid- erable ups and downs, the road was finally completed, and trains run through from Louisville to St. Louis without change, using the tracks of the L. & N. from Mt. Vernon, Ill., to St. Louis. Within the last few years it has been greatly improved, and will soon be a first-class road in every respect. It must, necessarily, become a valuable one, as between the two great cities of Louisville and St. Louis, it is almost an air line, and is more than fifty miles shorter route between the two places, than via the O. & M. railroad.
This road passes through the north- ern part of Harrison county, about seven miles from Corydon at the near- est point. While too far from the center of the county to prove as ben- eficial as it would, did it tap the county seat, yet it has been of great value to the county in moving much of its surplus produce, especially from that part of the county most distant from the Ohio river. Taken in con- nection with the Corydon road, the branch from Corydon to Corydon Junction, it forms for the county much improved transportation facilities.
JUDGE WILLIAM A. POR- TER was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, in January, 1800. His parents, who were of the sturdy stock from the north of Ireland, died while he
was yet young, so that he was early thrown on his own resources. He educated himself, and by alternate work and teaching through summer and winter was able to pass through Miami University, graduating from that institution in 1827. He came to Corydon in 1828, studied law chiefly by his own exertions, and was admitted to the bar in 1831. In that year he married Miss Elizabeth McClelland, of Crawfordsville, and brought his wife to her new home on horseback behind him. He was identified with the pioneer practice in Harrison county and his name appears oftener than any other on the early records. He was a man of the strictest integrity and had abound- ing reverence for the dignity of his profession. His papers were never curtailed or abbreviated, and the majesty of the law was upheld by him in every particular. He was not an orator, but his speeches were log- ical and full of force and conviction.
He was Judge of the Probate Court from 1831 to 1836. In 1836 he was elected to the House of Rep- resentatives of the State Legislature, was re-elected in 1846, serving until 1849-the last term as Speaker of the House-and in 1849 was elected to the State Senate. He made his trips to and from Indianapolis on horseback with his "leggings" on, and his saddlebags under him. He was all his life a character in south- ern Indiana and retained many peculiarities to the last; but his
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
"long head" was trusted for safe council until old age deprived him of his powers.
He was truly the Nestor of the Indiana bar, and many students went out from under his instruction to fill high places in the profession. He demanded lessons perfect to the letter, and his pupils were wont to say that a term of study under him was equal to a course of lectures. He had an eye to their morals also, and woe befell the young man who attempted to play the fiddle on Sun- day, while many a deck of cards was slyly hid in a table drawer when the Judge unexpectedly entered the office. Among his students were
Walter Q. Gresham, Ex. Postmaster General of the United States and U. S. District Judge, of U. S. Courts ; Col. Wm. Boone, formerly of Louis- ville, Ky .; Hon. S. K. Wolfe, de- ceased, New Albany, and a number of others. The venerable copy of Blackstone used by these embryo lawyers is now preserved as a curi- osity by one of his daughters. Al- though not a member of any church, he was a rigid Calvinist and died in that faith on the morning of Janu- ary 23rd, 1884. His law library was found after his death to contain many old and rare books that he had accumulated in his long and honora- ble career.
ยท
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
(BY W. P. HENDRICKS, EsQ.)
ITTHE act of Congress, passed July 13, 1787, is the chief corner-stone upon which all of the history of the State of Indiana must be founded, and is the first fixed point from which we may start to run a random line, and to which we must correct back, in order to establish permanence in the way of the truth of our statements, and in order to have them to consist with each other. Back of that, are the uncertain and incoherent facts of French and English occupancy, the tradition of Indian possession, and the relics of prehistoric habitation. All of these are unstable, fragmentary and impersonal, so far as Indiana is concerned.
As all life is of the egg and comes from the germ which is the hidden, and humanly unknown principle of it, but which exists in however so infintes- imal and invisible a degree, so Indi- ana was hidden in this ordinance of 1787, and in due season and course of time came forth in 1816, and stands before the world to-day, a State of which any man may be proud to call himself her son.
ARTICLE 5, of the ordinance, pro-
vides, "That there shall be formed in the said Territory not less than three, nor more than five States, and the boundaries of the States, * shall become fixed and established, as follows, to-wit : * * * *
* The Middle States shall be bounded by the said direct line: the Wabash, from Post Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of Great Miami to the said Territorial line, and by the said Territorial line ; %
* * and whenever any of the said States shall have 60,000 free inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the Congress of the United States on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State government, etc."
Here we have the first definite lines of boundary of the State of Indiana. Subsequently the State of Michigan was taken out of this body of land, and the State of Indiana was left with her present boundary lines.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Indiana Territory was organized with a specific name, by the act of Congress bearing date May 7, 1800 .* (1) It provides: "Laws of United States," Vol. 3, Page 367.
"SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represent- atives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, from and after the fourth day of July next, all that part of the terri- tory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river, which lies to the westward of a line beginning at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of the Kentucky river, and running thence to Fort Recovery, (2) and thence north, until it shall intersect the terri- torial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purposes of temporary government, constitute a separate territory and be called the Indiana Territory." In section 5 of this act it is "Provided, That when- ever that part of the territory of the United States which lies to the east- ward of a line beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, and running thence due north, to the territorial line between the United States and Can- ada, shall be erected into an independ- ent State, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States ; thenceforth said line shall become and remain permanently the boundary line between such State and the Indiana Territory; anything in
(2) Page 5. Fort Recovery was built on one of the head branches of the river Wabash, in the southwest corner of Mercer Co., Ohio, a little east of the present eastern bound- ary of Indiana.
this act contained to the contrary not- withstanding."
We find, further, in an act of Con- gress, approved March 26th, 1804 : "Entitled an act erecting Louisiana into two Territories, and providing for the temporary government thereof. Section 12. Laws of the United States, Vol. 3, page 608.
"That the residue of the Province of Louisiana, (i. e., 'All that portion of country ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana,' which lies north of an east and west line on the Mississippi river, at the thirty- third degree of north latitude, and to extend west to the western boundary of the said cession,) ceded to the United States shall be called the dis- trict of Louisiana, the government whereof shall be organized and admin- istered as follows:
The executive power now vested in the Governor of Indiana territory, shall extend to, and be exercised in the said district of Louisiana. The governor and judges of the Indiana territory shall have power to establish, in the said district of Louisiana, infer- ior courts, and prescribe their jurisdic- diction and duties, and to make all laws which they may deem conducive to the good government of the inhabi- tants thereof," etc. By reference to the map you will find what an immense territory was comprised within the jurisdiction of Indiana territory. It took in the whole of the States of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Michigan, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oregon, Dakota and Washington Territory- in short an expanse of territory larger than any country in Europe at that time.
Jefferson county was organized by virtue of the following act: "An act for the division of Dearborn and Clark counties, and for the formation of a new county out of the said two counties.
1. Be it enacted by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives, and it is hereby enacted by the author- ity of the same, That all that part of the counties of Clark and Dear- born, included within the following bounds, viz; 'Beginning at the mouth of Dog Lick Creek, on the bank of the river Ohio, thence to the corner of sections five and eight, town four, range three, thence north to the Indian boundary line, thence with the same westwardly to a point oppo- site the northeast corner of Clark's grant, thence on a direct line to the said corner of the said grant, thence in a direct line to the Ohio river at the lower line of town two north, range ten east, thence up the Ohio river with the meanders there f to the beginning, shall compose one new county, called and known by the name of Jefferson.
2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the coroners, sheriffs, constables, and collectors of the said counties of Clark and Dear- born, to make distress for all dues and officers' fees unpaid by the said
inhabitants within the bo inds of the said new county at the time such division shall take place, and they shall be accountable in like manner as if this act had not been passed; the courts of Clark and Dearborn counties shall have jurisdiction in all actions and suits pending therein at the time of said division, and they shall try and determine the same, issue process, and award execution thereon.
3. And be it further enacted, That the seat of justice in and for said county shall be, and the same is hereby established in the town of Madison, in town two north, range ten east.
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