USA > Indiana > Centennial history and handbook of Indiana : the story of the state from its beginning to the close of the civil war, and a general survey of progress to the present time > Part 12
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The Legislature, consisting of ten senators and twenty-nine representatives, convened on No- vember 4, 1816, with John Paul, of Madison. presiding over the Senate and Isaac Blackford. of Vincennes, as Speaker of the House. The governor's message was general in character and a reflection of the principles set forth in the con-
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
stitution, revealing no particular initiative. The Legislature elected James Noble and Waller Tay- lor United States Senators; Robert New, Sec- retary of State ; William HI. Lilley, AAuditor, and Daniel C. Lane, Treasurer, and with this person- nel the ship of State was launched.
Conditions and Needs as Shown by Jennings' Messages .- Jennings, during his tenure as Governor, delivered six messages to the Legisla- ture. A review of these as an index to the con- dition and needs of the State shows that the questions uppermost were : Revenue and finances, internal improvement, education and the State militia.
Of the first item he says in his message of December 7, 1819: "The system under which the revenue is assessed and collected requires a thor- ough change to insure an impartial collection, as well as prompt payment into the treasury," and adds: "The embarrassed situation of our circu- lating medium has produced effects distressing to the community, especially to the farming in- terest and those who are in debt to the United States for the purchase of lands"; the particular explanation of this being that national bank pa- per only was received at par by the government, whereas the circulating medium that came to hand was a depreciated paper currency, and this, when paid for lands, was at a loss of from 5 to 10 per cent. The explanation given of pre- vailing hard times was that the war with England had thrown upon the country "a greater quantity of circulating medium than we have been accus- tomed to witness," with the result that there had followed much speculation and debt, while the suspension of specie payment had given rise to speculation in bank paper, which had been "prac- ticed upon the unwary and unadvised to an enor- mous extent." In his message of 1820 he speaks of the difficulty in collecting taxes and states that the average annual revenue from taxation since 1816 had been $13,000, whereas the ex- penditures had averaged $17,000, and it had been necessary to meet the deficit by making loans, while for the year past $5,000 remained unpaid. In 1821 the Legislature was convened a month earlier than the set time on account of financial troubles, the bank of Vincennes, from which the money had been borrowed, making a demand for the payment of $20,000 of the public debt, to- gether with interest due on the whole debt for
that year. This institution had, in 1817, been made the State bank, from which the State was to secure its loans, but its mismanagement was such that the Legislature of this year (1821-2) authorized legal proceedings to cancel its charter.
In the matter of internal improvements, the first necessity was for more roads, but as early as 1817 the Governor urged the importance of a canal at the falls of the Ohio, and the next year he indulged the "flattering hope of a speedy commencement" of that enterprise, the Ohio Canal Company having been incorporated. For revenue he advocated the selling of a township of land known as "French Lick," which had been "reserved and vested in the State for the use of a saline," but which had proved of no value for salt. In this message we find the first germ of the idea for an internal improvement system. It was in the power of the Legislature, he argued, "to lay the foundation of a system of internal improvement co-extensive with the State." The 3 per cent. fund if judiciously saved and invested might, he maintained, come to yield $30,000 an- nually for the making of roads and canals, and he suggested "substantial leading roads" from the permanent capital that was to be established to "important points on the limits of the State."
In the message of 1819 we find the first sug- gestion for the institution that afterward became Indiana University. The constitution stipulated that it should be the duty of the General Assem- bly to apply the funds from all school lands to school purposes, and the plan contemplated a system of ascending from township schools to a state university. In accordance with this, the governor expressed the view that "the seminary township, situated in Monroe county, would af- ford a site combining the advantages of fertility of soil with a healthy climate, as well as a posi- tion sufficiently central to the various sections of the State." The enabling act of 1816 had given a township for a State seminary. When the Con- stitutional Convention was in session a committee was appointed to select the township and the one in the present Monroe county was chosen. The law establishing the seminary was passed January 20, 1820.
Contemporary Legislation .- Reviewing the legislation that followed these several messages, we find, virtually, the same questions directly dealt with. One of the first laws of interest sets
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
the schedule of official salaries for that day. The governor was allowed $1,000 per year, to be paid quarterly ; the judges of the supreme court and the presidents of the circuit courts received $700 each ; members of the General Assembly were given $2 per day for each and every day's attend- ance. and $2 for each twenty-five miles traveled by "the most usual road," the same being allowed the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House. The secretary of the Senate was to have $4 per day, and the clerks of the House $3.75. Doorkeepers' pay was $2, and the mem- bers of the Constitutional Convention, important as their services would seem to be, were allowed no more than the doorkeepers plus $2 for each twenty-five miles traveled.
In the matter of internal improvements, there was legislation on the Ohio Falls canal, the "Ohio Canal Company" being incorporated the first leg- islative session. An act of January 22, 1820, em- bodied an elaborate scheme for permanent roads, which are specified as follows: Madison to Ver- non ; Lawrenceburg to Brookville, thence to Con- nersville, Waterloo, Centerville and Winchester ; from the Ohio line to Brookville, thence to seat of government (the permanent capital, presum- ably, though not yet located) ; Lawrenceburg to Napoleon, thence to seat of government; New Albany to Salem ; McDonald's Ferry to Browns- town ; Bethlehem to Brownstown ; Rising Sun to Versailles; Brownstown to Bloomington, Madi- son to Brownstown; Rockport to Vincennes ; Corydon to Salem: New Albany to Corydon. thence to Mount Sterling and Princeton ; Madi- son to Versailles; Vevay to Versailles; Evans- ville to Princeton, thence to White river; Poke Patch through Boonville and Springfield to Har- mony : the Ohio line to Richmond, Salisbury and Centerville to west boundary of Wayne county ; Charlestown to Corydon ; Brookville to Versailles and Vernon ; New Albany to Charlestown, thence to seat of justice of Scott county and to Vernon ; New Albany through Palestine to Bloomington ; New Albany to Fredericksburg, Paoli and Hin- dostan ; the Ohio line to Fairfield and Conners- ville, thence to seat of government: New Lon- don to seat of Scott county.
Education was not forgotten, though the con- ditions were unfavorable to the development of anything like a system, one great obstacle being a lack of funds to build schoolhouses and pay
teachers. As said above, the State Seminary was established in 1820. The same year the Madison Academy was incorporated, and provisions made for sundry county libraries. During the first four years several laws, indeed, were passed for the incorporation of academies, seminaries and library associations. As early as 1816 steps were taken to judiciously administer the school sec- tions, these being section 16 of each township. Superintendents were appointed to lease these
4.
1
Map of Indiana in 1820, showing first county organiza- tion of the purchase of 1818.
lands and each lessee was required to increase their value by setting out, each year, twenty-five apple and twenty-five peach trees, until one hun- dred of each had been planted. In 1821 a com- mittee was appointed to draft a bill for a general system of education. being instructed to guard particularly against "any distinction between the rich and the poor." This bill did not appear in the statutes until 1824.
The system of land assessment and taxation at first adopted was essentially different from that adopted later. The assessment was so much per acre, and the adjustment to values was made by dividing the lands into first, second and third
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
classes. The rate of assessment was very low, running, in different years, from 80 cents to $1.50 per hundred acres on first-class land, and from 40 to 621/2 cents on the poorer classes.
The legislation in a moral direction aimed at various evils. There was a law against dueling, and one against gambling, directed against cer- tain games and gaming appliances, even forbade the bringing of playing cards into the State as merchandise under penalty of $3 fine and for- feiture of the cards. A drastic law against may- hem was aimed at the brutal fighting so much in vogue with the rougher element. Some of the criminal laws retain the severity of the territorial statutes. For rape or commerce with a girl un- der ten years of age, the penalty was death. For sodomy the maximum penalty was $500, impris- onment for five years and one hundred stripes on the bare back, besides which the culprit was ren- dered "infamous and incapable of giving evi- dence." Barratry incurred a fine not exceeding $500 and imprisonment not exceeding three months, a "barrator" being defined as one who "frequently excites and stirs up suits and quar- rels, between citizens of this State, at law or oth- erwise." An act for establishing a State prison at Jeffersonville, with an appropriation of $3,000 for a building, was passed January 9, 1821, and a poor law of the second session (1817-18) pro- vided for overseers of the poor, and for the "farming out of the poor" at public vendue or outcry! The brutal feature of this is somewhat relieved when we reflect that in the absence of poorhouses the only other thing was to place pau- pers, at public expense, with those who would assume their charge. They were handed over to the lowest bidders, who were entitled to the la- bor of the able-bodied, but provisions were made against ill-treatment, and in case of suit the poor were to be defended gratis.
A law of the second session (Special Acts, 1817-18) also established medical districts and a board of medical censors to be appointed "for the purpose of examining and licensing physi- cians to practise in the State:" and in 1819 the "State Medical Society of Indiana" was author- ized, with "power to settle finally all differences between the district medical societies and also between individuals and the respective societies, in cases of appeal, and to assign to each district society their geographical limits."
An act to authorize the choosing of a site for the permanent capital was enacted in 1820. One of January 9, 1821, authorized the survey, in con- nection with Illinois, of the line between the two States.
A census of 1820 showed that the population of the State had increased within four years from about 64,000 to 147,178, and the inhabitants of the new State "began to open new farms, to found new settlements, to plant new orchards, to erect schoolhouses and churches, to build hamlets and towns, and to engage, with some degree of ardor, in the various peaceful pursuits of civ- ilized life. A sense of security pervaded the minds of the people. The hostile Indian tribes, having been overpowered, humbled and impov- erished, no longer excited the fears of the pioneer settlers, who dwelt in safety in their plain log cabin homes, and cultivated their small fields without the protection of armed sentinels. The numerous temporary forts and blockhouses, which were no longer required as places of ref- uge for the pioneers, were either converted into dwelling houses or suffered to fall into ruins" (Dillon).
The New Purchase .- Perhaps the most im- portant event that occurred during the Jennings administration was the acquisition of territory that virtually doubled the area for settlement. This was the tract since known as the "New Pur- chase," though formerly the Harrison purchase of 1809 was called by that name. It was secured by several treaties with different tribes held at St. Mary's, Ohio, in October, 1818, with Jona- than Jennings, Lewis Cass and Benjamin Parke as the purchasing commissioners. The Miamis, Delawares and Potawatomies were the chief tribes treated with and the lands they relinquished comprised the central and choicest portion of the State, extending from the old frontier to a line north and northwest of the fertile Wabash val- ley .* The land thus gained has been estimated as about eight million acres, out of which has since been carved more than a score of coun- ties. The amount paid for it was, to the Miamis, as chief owners, a perpetual annuity of $15,000, the building of a grist and sawmill, the support- ing of a blacksmith and a gunsmith, the provid- ing of such implements of agriculture "as the proper agent may think necessary," and one hun-
* See map of Indian land cessions, p. 31.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
dred sixty bushels of salt annually. Out of the tract twenty-one grants, amounting in all to forty- nine sections, were granted in fee simple to as many Indians, and there were six reservations, the largest, afterward known as the "Miami re- serve," containing approximately one thousand square miles. To the Delawares, who laid claim to the White river valley, was allowed other ter- ritory west of the Mississippi river, the "value of their improvements," one hundred twenty horses, enough pirogues to transport the tribe, together with provisions for their journey, and $4,000 perpetual annuity. To the Potawatomies, for a tract of about sixteen hundred square miles northeast of the Wabash and the relinquishment of all the claims they might have to the rest of the total purchase, was given a perpetual annuity of $2,500. It may be of interest to note that these annuities in the aggregate equaled 3 per cent. in- terest on about $717,000. All the other items. liberally estimated, would bring the total cost well within the $800,000 mark, or about 10 cents per acre. As the government subsequently sold the land for $1.25 per acre it can be seen that, con- sidered as a transaction in real estate, it was by no means bad .*
The statement is made by various local histori- ans that the Delaware Indians reserved the right to continue in possession of the country until 1820 or 1821. The authority for this we are un- able to trace, there being no such provision in any of the treaties above mentioned. As a mat- ter of fact, the first surveys were made in 1819. As early as January, 1820, the new territory was organized, parts of it along the southern and eastern edge being attached to the counties of Jennings, Jackson, Franklin, Fayette, Wayne and Randolph, all the rest being formed into two large new counties, Delaware and Wabash. The older counties above named were given "concurrent jurisdiction" in civil cases in Delaware county, and Vigo, Owen and Monroe were given like jurisdiction over Wabash county. An interest-
* One of the rare documents in the State library is the parch- ment copy of the treaty made with the Miamis. This was the duplicate instrument that was given to Chief Richardville for the tribe. In course of time it came into the hands of Mr. Charles B. Lasselle, of Logansport, who was a zealous collector of relics relating to the history of the Wabash valley. Attached to the parchment are the signatures of thirteen representatives of the United States besides the three commissioners, and sixteen Mi- ami chiefs (by mark). Among the former are Joseph Barron, William Conner and Antoine Bondie, as interpreters. The treaty bears the date of October 6, 1818.
ing item among the laws of 1820-21 is the ap- pointment of John Vawter to take the census of "all the white male inhabitants above twenty-one years of age within said counties of Wabash and Delaware, and return a list of the same to the office of Secretary of State, on or before the sec- ond Monday in November next."
Search through the legislative documents fails to disclose any further reference to this first
All of the northero part of the
wtale held by Indiare
County
Reservation
Tabaah
County
Randolph
Montgoe- ery
Rar.ry
Madison
Faybe
Putnam
PLOD
Morgan
Tosnaon
Fretallt
Owe
Cecetur
Bartholomew
Sullivan
Dear-
Jen-
ning●
Lawrence
Paviced tip
Ecott
Inox
Washingtet
Orange
Pike
DuboLa
Gibeon
Crawford
Floyd
Har-
rieon
Perry
der-
warrick
burg
Spencer
Posey
Map of Indiana in 1824, When the Capital Was Moved to Indianapolis .- By E. V'. Shockley.
census of the New Purchase, which was prob- ably ordered in anticipation of the influx of immi- gration that would follow the locating of the capital.
The Squatter Population .- The New Pur- chase was organized and provision made for "civil cases" (as noted above ) a year and a half before the first land sales were made. Whether or not this had any reference to the unauthorized "squatter" occupancy of the territory, such occu- pancy existed, just as it had existed throughout the southern part of the State before the various land purchases by the government. The first permanent white settler in central Indiana of whom we have record was William Conner, who in 1802 established a trading post on White river.
Shelby
Monroe
R:pley
Creune
C1 ....
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
about four miles below the present site of No- blesville. In 1819 a little colony, led by John Finch, settled on a small prairie beside the river, nearly opposite the Noblesville site. This spot, afterward known as the "Horseshoe Prairie." from a curve of the river at that point, was, in August of the year mentioned, taken possession of by seven or eight families, an advance party having the previous spring put in crops and built houses.# Another group was located at the "Bluffs" of White river, where the village of Waverly now stands, about eighteen or twenty miles below Indianapolis. Jacob Whetzel, a brother of Louis Whetzel, the famous Indian fighter of Virginia, located here in March, 1819, having, the year before, employed his son Cyrus and four other axmen in cutting out a rude road- way between the Bluffs and Franklin county, which was afterward known as the "Whetzel Trace." Other families joined the Whetzels, and before the opening of the lands there seems to have been quite a settlement at that point .; Also, about fifteen families, most of whom are said to have come from the Whitewater valley, settled in the vicinity of the mouth of Fall creek, where several Indian trails converged, and where, ac- cording to J. H. B. Nowland, a sandbar deposited by the waters of the creek formed a much-used fording place in the river. The extent of the squatter occupancy beyond these settlements is probably greater than is generally supposed from the records that exist. John Tipton, one of the commissioners to locate the capital, speaks of people up and down the river, giving the impres- sion that there were scattered residents. Judge Banta gives the names of men who located within the present bounds of Shelby, Bartholomew and Johnson counties before the lands were put on the market, some of them as early as 1818; and if this were true of the localities Banta knew of it was doubtless true over a wider arca.
Locating the Capital .- By an act of January 11. 1820, the General Assembly appointed a com- mission of ten men from as many different coun- ties to select the four sections of land that had been donated in the enabling aet for a permanent capital of the State. The commissioners were : George Hunt, of Wayne county: John Conner,
of Fayette ; Stephen Ludlow, of Dearborn ; John Gilliland, of Switzerland; Joseph Bartholomew, of Clark ; John Tipton, of Harrison; Jesse B. Durham, of Jackson : Frederick Rapp, of Posey ; William Prince, of Gibson, and Thomas Emmer- son, of Knox. They were to meet on a specified day at the house of William Conner (the trad- ing post on White river) and, after due oath, to "proceed to view, select and locate among the lands of the United States which are unsold a site which in their opinion shall be most eligible and advantageous for the permanent seat of gov- ernment of Indiana, embracing four sections, or as many fractional sections as will amount to four sections." Provision was made for a clerk "who shall keep a fair record of their proceed- ings herein, which shall be signed by each and every of them, and attested by their clerk, a copy of which they shall file in the office of Secretary of State." If this "record of proceed- ings" was ever kept and filed as ordered it has gone the way of other valuable documents, due, perhaps, to the criminal carelessness, or at least culpable stupidity, which led an irate citizen, ninety years ago, to denounce certain officials who had cleared the old Corydon state house of "useless papers," as "no more fit for their busi- ness than hogs for a parlor." At any rate, the only record we have of the work of the commis- sion, aside from the bare report of results, is the private journal of John Tipton, the member from Harrison county. This document, which may be found in full in the Indiana Magazine of History, vol. i, pp. 9 and 74, is here given in brief.
The writer states that on Wednesday. the 17th of May, 1820, he set out from Corydon in com- pany with Governor Jennings to meet with the other commissioners in the New Purchase. They had with them a black servant boy, a tent and "plenty of baken and coffy." At Vallonia they picked up two other members of the commission, Colonel Durham and General Bartholomew, and also two unofficial persons who were "going out to look at the country." On Monday, the 22d, after five days' traveling, they reached William Conner's, the prescribed meeting place, which is described as a prairie of about two hundred fifty acres of the White river bottom, with a number of Indian huts near the house. By noon of the next day all the commissioners except William Prince, of Gibson county, were present, and they
* For best account of this settlement see "Reminiscences of Judge Finch," in Ind. Mag. list., December, 1911.
: D. D. Banta's "Historical Sketch of Johnson County," p. 9.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
proceeded with their work. The probabilities are report to the Legislature on June 7. 1820, which reads :
that they viewed Conner's prairie as a possible site, and also the Finch settlement, three miles above. The Journal does not say so, but Fabius M. Finch, in the "Reminiscences" cited above. states that they visited his father's place. From
Old Constitutional Elm Tree at Corydon, still standing. Under this tree it is said the first constitution of Indiana was adopted, on June 29, 1816.
Conner's they followed the river down to the set- tlement at the mouth of Fall creek, and after viewing that place, passed on down to the Whet- zel settlement. The commissioners and the visit- ing members of the party, of whom there were several besides Governor Jennings, seem to have prospected to and fro between these points in separate groups, but finally they all met again on Saturday, the 27th, at the cabin of John McCor- mick, which stood below Fall creek on the high ground just above where Washington street meets the river, and agreed upon the Fall creek location. As the government survey was not completed, however, the tract could not be specifically de- scribed. Judge William B. Laughlin, the sur- veyor, was sent for to finish his work, and after a delay of eleven days the commissioners fin- ished theirs.
The statement that has been made and re- peated that only five commissioners voted on the question of location and that two of those voted for the "Bluffs," and the oft-repeated newspaper story that the commissioners visited and consid- ered the site of Strawtown, above Noblesville, has not the slightest documentary support. The reasons for the selection that was made are given, in a brief and general way, in the commissioners'
"The undersigned have endeavored to connect with an eligible site the advantages of a navi- gable stream and fertility of soil, while they have not been unmindful of the geographical situation of the various portions of the State ; to its politi- cal center as regards both the present and future population, as well as the present and future in- terest of the citizens."* This is signed by all the commissioners except William Prince.
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