USA > Indiana > Washington County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 9
USA > Indiana > Harrison County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 9
USA > Indiana > Crawford County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 9
USA > Indiana > Clark County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 9
USA > Indiana > Scott County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 9
USA > Indiana > Floyd County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 9
USA > Indiana > Jennings County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 9
USA > Indiana > Jefferson County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 9
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Land in Floyd county varies in price and value according to location. On the Ohio river bottoms and along the creek valleys, land is of the best quality and is valued at from $40 to $150 per acre, the latter price for the best gardening lands. Lands on the hills are steadily enhancing in value by reason of their superior adaptabili- ty to fruit growing. Floyd county is famous for its strawberries, raspber- ries, currants, gooseberries, cherries and other small fruits, and all these grow to the highest perfection on the hill lands. The soil throughout the county is well adapted to corn, wheat, oats and grass, and many fine
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
horses, cattle, sheep and hogs are produced in the county.
The towns of Floyd county, besides New Albany, the county seat, are as follows:
MOORESVILLE, (Floyd Knobs post office,) Lafayette township, on the New Albany and Paoli turnpike, is pleasant- ly located on the south bank of Lit- tle Indian Creek, four miles north of New Albany, and contains several business houses, mechanical establish. ments, a fine public school building, a Christian church, and there is a large Catholic church a short distance east of the town. In a little cabin near Mooresville, while the Indians were yet in the country, a Catholic priest of the order of Jesuits, administered the rites of his church to the few scattered settlers and to the Indians. He was known to the Indians as "Black Gown." It was Father Mi- net, a missionary from the College of the Society of Jesus at Montreal, Can- ada. His long missions were made on foot and extended through the then wilderness from Detroit to Vin- cennes.
SCOTTSVILLE, Lafayette township, in the northwestern part of the county, contains a store, blacksmith shop, and a number of residences. At Mt. Eden church, near this town, is the head- quarters of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, an anti-polygamous branch of the Mormon church. The confer- ences of the sect are held here and the church in Indiana was first organ- ized here. Its membership is com-
posed of men and women of estab- lished moral character, devotedly re- ligious, industrious and thrifty farm- ers and good citizens. Their methods of worship are not unlike those of the Methodists and Baptists in zeal. Their method of baptism is by im- mersion. There are good public schools at Scottsville.
GREENVILLE, in Greenville township, is located on the New Albany and Paoli turnpike, twelve miles north of New Albany. It is a flourishing business town, and next to New Al- bany, the largest town in the county as well as the oldest. Greenville came near being selected as the coun- ty seat. The County Commissioners proposed that the two contesting towns-Greenville and New Albany -for the county seat, must decide the location by their donations, the town making the largest and best donation to be the seat of justice for the coun- ty. The contest was a very animated one ; but in the end New Albany bore off the prize, her citizens donat- ing the four blocks of ground, each 120 feet square, at the four corners of Spring and State streets, besides money subscriptions, adding a bell for the Court House. The bell gift won the county seat for New Albany, and with the money obtained from the sale of the two blocks of lots at the south- west and northwest corners of State and Spring streets and the cash sub- scriptions, the first court house for the county was erected, and several years later, the jail. These two build-
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
ings long ago were torn away to give place to the present elegant court house, jail and sheriff's residence on the remaining two blocks of lots at the southeast and northeast corners of State and Spring streets. The loss of the county seat was a severe blow to Greenville, but her enterprising citizens pushed ahead and their town steadily improved. It now has a number of business houses, a fine mill, good school houses and schools, saw- mills, stave and cooperage factories, churches for the Methodists, Presby- terians and Christians; halls for the Masons and Odd Fellows, and is beau- tifully located and a very pleasant place of residence.
GALENA, Greenville township, is lo- cated on the New Albany and Paoli turnpike, has good schools, a Metlio- dist and Lutheran church, a number of business houses and mechanical establishments, and a large and fine flour mill. The residences in the town are very neat and attractive in appearance. Galena is distinguished for its healthy location.
GEORGETOWN, Georgetown township, is a rapidly growing and very attract. ively located town, on the west side of the county, nine miles from New Albany. It has a number of thriving stores and mechanical establishments, churches of the Methodist, United Brethren and Baptist denominations, and a number of elegant residences and two good hotels. It is a station on the Louisville, Evansville and St. Louis Railroad, and will with its
present growth soon be next to New Albany in population and business. It has halls for the Masons and Odd Fellows, and its schools rank among the best in the county.
NEW ALBANY, INDIANA- New Albany is the county seat of Floyd County, Indiana, and was laid out in 1813 by Joel, Abner and Na- thaniel Scribner. The original plat of the town did not embrace more than one-third of its present area, the purchase of the Scribners amounting to but eight hundred and twenty-six and one-half acres. The land was pur- chased by the Scribner brothers of John Paul, who entered it at the Gov- ernment Land Office at Vincennes. The lots were disposed of by public auction on the first Tuesday and Wed- nesday of November, 1813, and there was a stipulation in the advertisement of the sale that "one-fourth part of each payment upon the lots sold shall be paid into the hands of trustees, to be chosen by the purchasers, until such payments shall amount to five thousand dollars, the interest of which to be applied to the use of schools in the town, for the use of its inhabi- tants forever." This was the manner in which the Scribner High School of New Albany, was founded, which, through the lapse of fifty-nine years has flourished, and is now one among the most efficiently managed and pros- perous high schools in Indiana. It is connected with the public schools of the city as the Colored High School. Provision was also made by the Scrib-
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
ners for lots upon which to erect churches, county buildings, and for a public park, all of which generous de- signs by the founders of the city have been fully carried out. In 1814 a large number of families removed to New Albany, and from that time for- ward, notwithstanding the nearness of Louisville, and the start that town had gained in population and business; the contiguity of Jeffersonville and Shippingport: and the laying off and settlement of Portland, on the opposite side of the Ohio, with the active com- petition these towns offered, New Al- bany had a steady and substantial, though not a rapid growth. On the 4th of July, 1839, New Albany was incorporated as a city; P. M. Dorsey being the first Mayor, Henry Collins the first Recorder, Hon. John S. Davis the first city Clerk. Edward Brown, Sr., the first Treasurer, David Wilkin- son the first Collector of Taxes and City Marshal. The first Councilmen elect- ed, in 1839, were Patrick Crowley, James Collins, Israel C. Crane, Edward Brown, Hezekiah Beeler, Samuel M. Bolin, Henry W. Smith, Randall Craw- ford, Absalom Cox, William Under- hill. Preston F. Tuley, E. W. Benton.
The valuation of the property of the city for taxation in 1839 was 81,760,735, and the rate of taxation sixty-five cents on the one hundred dol- lars of valuation. The population was. 4.200. At this time New Albany was famous, as at present, for the health- fulness of her situation, and began to grow more rapidly; many important
establishments in mechanics and man- ufactures, steamboat building, and the mercantile interest having sprung up In 1839 an eminent citizen of Boston visited the town, and wrote back to the leading newspaper of that day as follows: "The scenery from the hills surrounding this charming town is beautiful and grand beyond descrip- tion, and cannot fail to entrance and enrapture the traveler. The wide expanse of country, the sparkling La Belle Rivier, winding tortuously on its course from a point ten miles distant up the stream to an equal distance below the city; the Falls with their never-ceasing yet musical roar ; Jeffersonville and Louisville at their head ; broad fields, crowned with the glories of the ' golden har- vest, and forests wreathed in carmine tinted and yellow and green foliage; the Silver Hills' stretching away to the northeast, and intervening slopes and fields and densely wooded glens, with the river hills towering from four to six hundred feet skyward to the west, form a view of grandeur and beauty such as is nowhere else to be witnessed and enjoyed in In- diana."
In 1850 the population had in- creased to 8,181 and the increase in the material interests of the city was proportionately advanced: in 1860 the population was 12,000; and at the present time it is estimated at 30,000, and will not fall short of, but probably exceed that number; the population in the past years increas-
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
ing very rapidly by reason of the establishment here within that time of additional manufactories to those previously existing and the building of additional and important railroads.
There were no stirring incidents of importance in the early history of New Albany. It has had a quiet growth, and has ever been more cel- ebrated for its moral, religious, and educational advantages, fine climate and good health, than as a "fast town," where vice is predominant and the temptations to youth numerous and alluring. In its religious, benevo- lent, and educational enterprises it has always held the rank of the first city of Indiana,
New Albany is situated in latitude 38 deg. 18 min. north, and longti- tude 8 deg. 49 min. west, two miles below the Falls of the Ohio, directly opposite the west end of Louisville. It is laid out upon a beautiful pla- teau, above high water mark in the Ohio, upon two benches or plains that sweep northward by a gentle rise from the river, with wide streets crossing each other at right angles. To the west and northwest is a range of hills from three to five hundred feet in height, known to the Indians as the "Silver Hills," from the pe- culiarly bright, smoky halo that ever hangs around and over them. These hills are crowned with grand old for- est trees, or dotted here and there with neat and often elegant sub- burban residences, or farm houses. They add greatly to the beauty of
the city, giving it a most charming and romantic appearance. From these hills a magnificent view of New Albany, Louisville, Jeffersonville, the Falls of the Ohio, the great Ohio river bridge at the Falls, the Ken- tucky and Indiana bridge at the east end of New Albany, the far away hills that loom up in grandeur along Salt river, in Kentucky, the famous Muldraugh Hill of that State, the entire range of "Silver Hills" in Indi- ana for many miles, and a long stretch of river. A more grand and beauti- ful natural panorama is nowhere else unrolled in Indiana. This range of hills protects the city from storms, and such a thing as a hurricane is unknown at New Albany, while the violence of such storms not unfre- quently falls with. destructive force upon the neighboring cities of Louis- ville and Jeffersonville. These hills afford splendid building sites for sub- urban residences, and are especially celebrated for the superior quality and abundance of the peaches, pears, plums, apples, grapes, raspberries, strawberries and other fruits grown upon them. For the purposes of fruit culture the lands on these hills are in great demand. Nevertheless, they sell at remarkably low prices per acre. The city, to the west, along the line of the Ohio River, overlooks miles of rich and highly cultivated garden lands, while to the east and northeast, large and valuable farms meet the view.
Located in the center of the valley
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
of the Ohio, New Albany and the other cities around the Falls are destined to become the central cities, the commercial emporiums, and the manufacturing centers of the richest agricultural region on the continent. New Albany is in constant and easy communication with this vast region, which comprises seven states in its arena ; and by means of the Olio and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries, and her complete system of railroads, she has direct commu- nication with twelve of the largest producing states of America. It requires no prophetic vision to see that these great states must become, if they are not already, the glory and strength of the nation. By rail and river, New Albany is directly con- nected with all the great cotton, sugar and rice growing states. By the same means of communication, she is connected with all the agri- cultural states of the west, north- west, and southwest, and sitting in the very center of the great Ohio basin, at the Falls of the Ohio river, and below these natural barriers to navigation, her geographical position is one which challenges superiority, or even equality, upon the continent. All the vast area we have named can be made to supply her manufactories, and feed them by its demand, as well as build up and sustain her com. merce, mechanical establishments, and general trade. There is no de- nying the fact that the cities around the Falls of the Ohio occupy the
most eligible position in the West, both in relation to manufactures and commerce.
The following navigable rivers are accessible through the Ohio from New Albany throughout their vast ramifi- cations without any necessity for tran- shipment of freights: Alleghany, Ar- kansas, Big Black, Barren, Big Sandy, Cumberland, Green, Grand, Hatchee, Illinois, Kentucky, Kanawha, La Mine, La Fouche, Missouri, Mononga- hela, Muskingum, Mississippi, Ohio, Obion, Osage, Red, Rock, Sunflower, Tennessee, Wabash, White and Yazoo. These rivers, without the bayous, give New Albany natural avenues of com- merce and trade with fifteen States, and with three hundred and forty-six counties whose borders are directly washed by their waters, having a pop- ulation of 11,000,000 souls. The cash value of the farms of this population in 1880 by the census was 81,001,- 562,648; of farm products, $1,019,- 876,412; of live stock, 8989,301,721. This is but a portion of the wealth of the sections penetrated by the navi- gable rivers to which New Albany is accessible.
With the grand railroad system that centers here, New Albany is bound to become, within a very short time, the most important shipping point on the Ohio river below the Falls. Freights from the east, southward bound, are brought here by rail for re-shipment by boat southward; while freights from the south, the great staples of tobacco, cotton, sugar, and molasses, in partic-
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
ular, are brought here by boat for re- shipment east and north. This gives to New Albany an immense commer- cial advantage, which will continue to increase each year as the prosperity of the south becomes more fully devel- oped and permanently established. It will add, too, very largely to the wealth and importance of New Al- bany, as this city will not only be- come noted as a re-shipping point, but by the very force of circumstances, not to mention the well-known enter- prise and energy of her citizens, will become equally noted as a place for the interchange of the commodities, agricultural and manufactured, of the two sections of the Union. The city is located upon the verge of both sec- tions, and will become a great entrepot to the trade of both.
The river trade of New Albany will compare favorably with that of any western city of equal population. The Secretary of the United States Treasury gives the river trade of the city for 1875 as twelve millions of dollars ; for 1880, as thirteen million five hundred thousand dollars; for 1886, as fifteen millions of dol- lars. Here, of itself, is an immense trade ; but to this is to be added the railroad, manufacturing, mechanical, mercantile, live stock, and produce, and general trade of the city, and not least, by any means, its coal and other mineral trade.
New Albany is destined to become a great railroad center. Her natural advantages of location are highly
favorable to this. The city is now the terminus of the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago; the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis; the Louis- ville, Evansville, and St. Louis ; and the Ohio and Mississippi Railroads. These roads connect New Albany. with all sections of the Union, north, south, east and west, giving her rail- road advantages possessed by few cities in the west.
New Albany is united to Louisville by the magnificent iron bridge that spans the Ohio River at the Falls. Trains cross this bridge from New Albany and Louisville every twenty- five minutes, and so great is the travel by this route between the two cities becoming, that it will be but a short time until the trains are run oftener. This bridge is a fine structure and was built at a cost of over two millions of dollars. The Kentucky and Indi- ana bridge spans the Ohio River be- tween the east end of New Albany and the west end of Louisville, is of steel cantilever spans, and cost $1,500,000. It has tracks for steam cars, street railroad, vehicles, and footmen, and trains run over it between Louis- ville and New Albany every twenty- five minutes. These two bridges vir- tually make Louisville and New Al- bany one city in interest, if not in identity. New Albany and Louis- ville are also united by a line of first. class steam ferry-boats, owned by the New Albany and Portland ferry com- pany, which make their trips every ten minutes, and have immense power
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
and carrying capacity. These ferry. boats connect on the Louisville side with two lines of street railroad, that carry passengers to all parts of Louis- ville for five cents. The cost of fer- riage is five cents to footmen, making the cost of a trip from New Albany to the extremest point in Louisville only ten cents. The fare charged on the J. M. & I. railroad, by way of the bridge at the Falls, from New Albany to Louisville is but five cents, and by way of the K. & I. bridge. but ten cents, the latter including street car fare in New Albany, and commuta- tion tickets may be purchased by both the railroad and ferry routes at a re- duction on these low rates. Thus a person may reside in New Albany and do business at Louisville at very slight cost and no inconvenience, and vice versa ; considerations of much im- portance to those who may desire to engage in business at Louisville, but are deferred by the high rates of rent and value of residence property in that city, and the high rates of taxa- tion there on this description of prop- erty.
While New Albany is well pro- vided with river navigation and rail- roads. her citizens have not been un- mindful of their connections with such portions of the interior as are inac- cessible by river or rail. With a lib- eral enterprise that has always been a characteristic of her wide-awake peo- ple, they have provided excellent turn- pikes in several directions, that give the citizens of the country and neigh-
boring towns facilities for reaching the city, and afford splendid drives for those having the leisure and inchnation to take advantage of these well-paved roads. The law of the State is very favorable to such improvements, pro- viding that the lands benefited by them may be specially taxed to aid in their construction. New Albany is now connected with all the adjoining counties by turnpikes.
New Albany has, according to her population, the greatest number and length of paved streets and sidewalks of any western city. The total num- ber of miles of paved streets, side- walks and alleys is, as near as it is pos. sible to arrive at them without actual measurement, about forty-eight. These forty-eight miles of paving are laid down in the most substantial manner, upon the macadam plan, on the streets and alleys. The material used in macadamizing the streets and alleys is a very durable, light colored lime- stone, which after use becoming upon the surface nearly solid, with but few breaks. This paving is as cheap as it is durable, as the stone from which it is constructed exists in inexhaustible supply within a few miles of the city. The sidewalk paving, for the greater part, is done with brick made in the vicinity of the city, and which is of very superior quality, the clay soil north, east and west of the city being finely adapted to brick-making, the brick being equally valuable for build- ing purposes as for paving, and being
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
purchasable at comparatively very low prices.
New Albany has a system of pub- lic market houses, built at the expense of the city, and rented to butchers, hucksters, gardeners, fruit growers and dealers and others, at low rates. These are a great public convenience, and they are kept scrupulously clean by a market-master elected by the city council. All these market houses are inclosed, with broad porches over- hanging, and the floors and walks paved with brick. There are two of these public markets in the city, in which daily markets are held, and as a result New Albany is daily supplied with the best marketing the rich and highly cultivated country surrounding it can provide. This keeps the price of living down to comparatively cheap rates.
New Albany leads all the cities of Indiana in the number and extent of her manufactories, the amount of cap- ital invested and the number of per- sons employed. The W. C. DePauw Company Glass Works, for the manu- facture of plate glass, window glass, fruit jars and bottles, is the largest establishment of the kind in the United States, employing over 1,500 persons, and with a capital of $1,500,- 000. Immense Woolen Mills, Cotton Mills, Hosiery Mills, Cotton Batting Mills, Structural Iron and Rail Mills, Merchant and Bridge Iron Mills, Railroad Axle and Car Iron Mills and Forge Works, Stove Works, Furniture Factories, Machine Works and Found-
ries, Brass Foundries, Steam Boiler and Sheet Iron Works, Flour Mills, Breweries, Tanneries, Planing Mills and Sash, Door and Blind Factories, Smitheries, Carriage and Wagon Facto- ries, Broom Factories, Spice Mills, Fer- tilizer and Glue Factories, Car Works and Railroad Machine Shops, Saw Mills, Bent Wood Works, Handle Works, Marble Works, all these are among her industries, employing in the aggregate over 5,000 persons and with an aggregated capital of about $10,000,000. The annual output of these factories is, in value, not far from $20,000,000.
The mercantile, mechanical, grain, live stock and produce business of the city is very largely represented in es- tablishments, capital and employes, the city being in her material interests exceedingly prosperous and with an outlook of rapid growth in popula- tion and wealth in the future.
While New Albany makes no pre- tensions to special prominence as a wholesale market, her citizens, never- theless, need not be ashamed of the showing she can make in this depart- ment of business. Her wholesale merchants are gentlemen of enterprise, wealth, and liberality, and all of them carry large stocks, excellently assorted, for the trade of the surrounding coun- try, and sell goods to merchants of In- diana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Ten- nessee, and Kentucky. There are in the city wholesale establishments in dry goods, notions and variety goods, millinery goods, hats, caps and furs,
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
boots and shoes, groceries, drugs, books and stationery, hardware and cutlery, stoves, tin, copper and sheet iron ware, iron and nails, railroad sup- plies, crockery and glassware, house furnishings, confectionery goods, wines and liquors, cigars and tobacco, furni- ture, salt, agricultural implements and seeds, saddlery and harness, provisions and produce, and all these are now do- ing a prosperous business. Their aggre- gate sales will amount to not far from ten millions of dollars per year. There are a number of as elegant and well- supplied retail dry goods, drug, va- riety, millinery, jewelry, books and stationery, boot and shoe, hat and cap, and grocery and provision stores, in New Albany as can be found in any city of equal population, and these will sell annually not far from five millions of dollars of goods.
Very few cities of equal proportion can boast of more or better mechanics, engaged in more varieties of occupa- tion, than New Albany. All the trades are fully represented here, and all are flourishing. There is probably not a city in the country of even one- third more population, that can show as many mechanics and laboring men owning their own houses. This is a notable feature of the city, and one that is the subject of frequent and gratifying reference. It speaks more loudly in favor of New Albany as a desirable residence for industrious and frugal mechanics and laborers than anything we could write. There are many large real estate dealers in the
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