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 14
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The Ohio and lower Wabash had the advan- tage of steamboat transportation at an early day, ! but what is claimed as the first vessel of this kind on White river did not come until 1829 or the early part of 1830, when the "Traveler," cap- tained by William Sanders, carried a load of salt as far as Spencer .* For many parts of the State the flatboat traffic continued until the advent of the railroads.
EDUCATION
Constitutional Provision .- The ninth article of the constitution had taken this stand on behalf of the education of the State's future citizens :
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"Knowledge and learning generally diffused through a community being essential to the pres- ervation of a free government, and spreading the opportunities and advantages of education through the various parts of the country being highly conducive to this end, it shall be the duty! of the General Assembly to provide by law for the improvement of such lands as are, or here- after may be granted by the United States to this State for the use of schools, and to apply any funds which may be raised from such lands, or from any other quarter, to the accomplishment of the grand object for which they are or may be intended ; but no lands granted for the use of schools or seminaries of learning shall be sold by the authority of the State prior to the year eighteen hundred and twenty; and the moneys which may be raised out of the sale of any such lands, or otherwise obtained for the purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain a fund for the' exclusive purposes of promoting the interest of literature and the sciences, and for the support of seminaries and public schools. It shall be
. Rav's message, 1828.
* Ind. Quar. Mag. Hist., June, 1906.
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the duty of the General Assembly, as soon as circumstances will permit, to provide by law for a general system of education, ascending in a regular gradation from township schools to a State university wherein tuition shall be gratis and equally open to all. And for the promotion of such salutary end, the money which shall be paid as an equivalent by persons exempt from military duty, except in times of war, shall be exclusively, and in equal proportion, applied to the support of county seminaries; and all fines assessed for any breach of the penal laws shall be applied to said seminaries in the counties wherein they shall be assessed."
This was an admirable foundation on which to rear the educational structure, but as a matter of fact it was a good while before the citizenry could work to the program with any degree of efficiency, and during this period the actual edu- cational status was very crude.
County Seminaries .- What is known as the "County Seminary Law of 1818" marks the first step toward a system. This, conformably to the constitutional provision, established a seminary in each county, the public funds for which were to be derived as specified. How inadequate this fund was is shown by the fact that in 1825 Dear- born, one of the most populous counties, raised but $700. while only seven had in excess of $200 and eight had less than $50 each .* These pit- tances, in many instances, were eked out by pri- vate aid from public-spirited citizens, and as a matter of fact some of the seminaries became not only educational but social centers of con- siderable importance at that day. As schools they were, in some places, mixed and ungraded, with pupils ranging, as Professor Boone says, from "four to thirty years of age," though where the township schools existed they were confined to the higher grades. A table of these seminaries and their location given by Boone shows eighteen to have been established up to 1830.
School Law of 1824; Distinctive Character. -In 1824 an act was passed to establish a general system of township schools, and this law was no- table as compared with the legislation existing elsewhere at that day. In most States the idea prevailed that public schools were to be for those who could not otherwise afford them, whereas
the Indiana law was thoroughly democratic and framed "to guard against any distinctions between the rich and the poor." By this law any three residents of a congressional township could call a meeting of the other residents to take steps in school organization by the election of three school trustees for the township. After taking the prescribed steps the inhabitants should "be a body corporate politic" in whom the six- teenth section of school land should be vested. The trustees as the agents of this corporation were to divide the township into districts and appoint for them sub-trustees who, by calling meetings in their respective districts, were to as- certain the public sentiment as to the establish- ment of public schools. Those districts that fa-
Typical Log Schoolhouse Erected in Indiana Under the Law of 1824.
vored such establishment were called upon to build a schoolhouse, so much free labor being exacted of each free-holder. The length of term and questions of expenditure were also submitted to the voters. The moneys accruing to the town- ship from the school lands were to be equitably divided among the various districts. The town- ship trustees were to examine the teachers and grant licenses. That the actual operations of the system thus established was, in the earlier days at least, very crude, is indicated by the fact that efficient teachers were scarce. and that their con- tracts for teaching specified "what part of their wages should be in produce, when and where de- livered, what part should be paid in money, and in what instalments, and whether the teacher should be boarded among his employers" (Boone) .
Public Schools Not "Free."-While the
* Boone's "Education in Indiana," the most comprehensive study we have on this subject.
TEATERIM MISURA AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
not trans die getting from the selma won - parth
sin jore porcate afford. Hu schen term was Boone states that the law was "doomed to failure for lack of funds to main- tom the system " he remained in force until 1833. but as a matter of fact a large proportion of the townships in the organized counties made no attempt to establish schools.
Private Schools .- That public sentiment and Support it matters educational moved too slowly tot the more advanced element is indicated by the establishment of sundry private seminaries and academies, of which twenty-two prior to 1836 are on record. This class of schools is cited by Professor Boone as having rendered an invalu- able service to education throughout the State .*
College Beginnings .- Three permanent in- stitutions of learning date back to the period we are considering-the State Seminary, afterward Indiana University: Hanover Academy, after- ward Hanover College, and the school that be- came Wabash College.
State School .- The first of these, as the name implied, was fostered by the State and was part of the State system. Opened in 1825 as the "State Seminary" it became "Indiana College" in 1828 and "Indiana University" in 1838, though the year after the conferring of this latter dig- nity the faculty consisted of only three members and the students were but sixty-four.
Hanover College .- This institution was the first of the private denominational schools, and its carlier history is one of the most inspiring chapters in our cultural struggles. Founded by the Presenterians for the cardinal purpose of pro-
. "The list of these twenty two schools, their location and dates of ot Ting The . follow -Corydon Seminary, 1816; Vincennes P.s. 11 . Moon', A atomy (lavoma), 1819; New Albany 1 1. 1. Mart 1 hor School (location not given), 1824; Va Hun Sen, 182%; Cambridge Academy (Lawrence- Que, 120. Brechtse Summary (Liberty), 1827; Hanover Nilens, 18 6, Fel River Seminaty ( Logansport), 1829; Eugene Academy. 1800, Female Summary (Greencastle), 1830; Teach- 1 ' So many ( restonsvalley, 1830; West Union School ( Mon- DID 18 . Bhn River Acileny (Salem), 1832; Christian Col- V), 183, Western Union Seminary (locality not Piero, 190, Tonale Seminary (Salem), 1835; Carlisle Sh. 1 (Saber dort9, 183 ; Olive Branch School (Lafay- ett. ), 180 Be 18'I these private schools had in- nedover umacher, thetrong before that some Lel simeant fortel. The temple by Me Boond is
"huicing an educated ministry it began as "Han- over Academy" in 1827 and was chartered as a college in 1833. As early as 1829 it was adopted as a synodical school by the Presbyterian Synod of Indiana, and a theological department was established. Its struggle for existence was heroic, and as a means to its ends it attempted a manual labor experiment. whereby moneyless students could pay their way by work. Cooper, cabinet, carpenter and printing shops were in- stalled, bricks were made and wood was chopped. By 1835 this venture had proved a failure. partly by reason of a difficult market for the products. Nevertheless it had drawn students from as many as eight or nine States and its attendance chiring this manual-school period was the largest in its history, being two hundred forty in 1833. Soon after, through various misfortunes, it de- clined almost to the point of perishing, but recov- ered by the determined efforts of its promoters and took an honored place among the State's edu- cational institutions. The Scotch-Irish stock that stood back of this school was notable for strength of character and sturdy moral fiber and formed an important element in our early popu- lation.
Wabash College .- As has been said in a pre- vious section the Presbyterians of Indiana stood pre-eminently for education, and as the Hanover school was established for the promoting of an educated clergy so was the original of Wabash College founded for the training of teachers. This school, under the name of "The Wabash Manual Labor College and Teachers' Seminary." was opened at Wabash on the 3d of December, 1833, with an attendance of twelve pupils and with Prof. Caleb Mills at its head. Like Han- over this embryo college languished for want of support and struggled under debt, to which was added the misfortune of a fire in 1838 that all but wiped it out. During this decade it can be re- garded as a heroic beginning only (W. H. Smith ).
Lyceums .- As an educational factor mention should be made of a law of 1831 whereby twenty or more citizens of any county could incorporate lyceums "for mutual improvement in the arts and sciences."
Libraries .- The constitution contained a provision that whenever a new county should be created at least ten per cent. should be reserved
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out of the proceeds from the sale of town lots in the seat of justice and applied to the establish- ment of a library for the county. As early as 1816 and again in 1818 laws were passed to carry this provision into effect, and thus throughout the legislation of the twenties we find repeated measures for the founding of these libraries. To just what extent they were used and what part they played in the education of the people, there is perhaps, no way of learning now. An auxili- ary to this system was another system, pri- vately promoted, of Sunday school libraries, which undoubtedly had much influence, especially with the younger generation. In 1827 it was esti- mated that there was in the State a Sunday school membership of two thousand children, and while this was but a small percentage of even the juve- nile population, it made an excellent seed bed, and one writer on the subject affirms that to these libraries "may safely be ascribed much of the in- telligence and much of the virtue of the people of later generations."*
State Library .- The State Library was es- tablished by an act of February 11, 1825. The first official word touching such a library is to be found in the Journal of the first constitutional convention, where, under date of June 28, 1816, it is "Resolved, That it be recommended to the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, to ap- propriate the money voluntarily given by the citizens of Harrison county to the State, to the purchase of books for a library for the use of the Legislature and other officers of government ; and that the said General Assembly will, from time to time, make such other appropriations for the increase of said library as they may deem necessary." After a lapse of nine years the pro- posed library materialized, largely through the efforts of Judge Benjamin Parke, to whom is given the credit of being one of our earliest and most ardent promoters of all matters pertaining to education. Its original purpose, as specified in the Journal, was to serve the various officers of the State, and it included what afterward be- came the Supreme Court Library. The humble- ness of its beginning is indicated by the fact that for sixteen years it did not even have a separate librarian, but was in the hands of the Secretary of State, who received the munificent sum of $15 per year extra for taking care of it, and the an-
nual appropriation up to 1831 was but $30. For a good many years the State Library was something of a joke, and the librarianship one of the minor political plums, but its scope grad- ually broadened until it has become a large and valuable reference library for the use of all citi- zens.
RELIGION
General Character .- During the earlier pe- riod of the State's history it was, in its religious phase, largely a missionary field. According to a study of this subject by Prof. C. B. Coleman* "it is scarcely too much to say that Indiana Prot- estant churches were not a natural development produced by the settlers who came here, so much
First State House in Indianapolis, Built in 1832. (See page 109.)
as they were a planting made by ministers and missionaries from the older sections of the country." These ministers and missionaries, in large part, represented prior to 1830 the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian denomi- nations. The Baptists, though at first the leaders, did not keep pace with the other two, and those sects are pre-eminently conspicu- ous in our early religious history. Broadly speak- ing they represented two types of religionists- one the intellectual and educated class, the other. the masses who were swayed largely by their feelings.
Presbyterianism .- Of the Presbyterians it has been said that they "build schoolhouse and church side by side;" and that "of Indiana it is almost literally true that there were 10 schools until the Presbyterian minister arrived." These
* J. P. Dunn, "The Libraries of Indiana."
* Some Religious Developments in Indiana: Ind. Mag. Hist., vol. v, No. 2.
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monsters Were among the first school teachers and among the first to bring privat libraries into the territory. The denomination was the first in several years to establish . haner school for the education of a clergy native to the west. who could better meet the requirements of pioneer hie Thus was the Hanover school, sketched on a previous page. To illustrate the zeal and devo- tion of the ministry Mr. Coleman cites, as typical, the Rev. John M. Dickey, whose average salary for sixteen years was $80, and who eked out living for his family by farming, teaching sing- img classes, doing clerical work, surveying land, teaching school and mending shoes, while his wife managed the household, spun and made all the woolen and linen garments of the family, ex- tended to numberless visitors the hospitality due from a preacher's wife, and reared a large family of children. This sketch is but a sample of many that may be found in the Presbyterian annals. The Salem Presbytery, the first in Indiana, was formed in 1823 and the first synod in 1826.
Methodism .- The church that made the deepest impress on the pioneer population was the Methodist with its zealous proselyting and its playing upon the emotions with a drastic the- ology and a fervent appeal that ofttimes swept through communities as a sort of emotional con- tagion. The open-air camp meeting, given over to religious demonstrations and attended by large numbers drawn thither by the excitement, made Methodism "catching." and the extraordinary zeal of the clergy, rude men of the rank and file, for the most part, who carried the gospel to the people far and near in the face of hardship and privation, won a membership to the sect that soon outranked all others in point of numbers. No more interesting biographies can be found than those that have been preserved of many of the itinerant preachers or circuit riders, and no narratives afford more intimate glimpses of the lives of the people.
Catholicism .- The Catholic church is by far the oldest religious institution in the State, as it dates back to the days of the French occupancy. For many years the history of the Vincennes chinch seems to be virtually the history of the church within this territory, but the Catholic di- rectory of 1837 designates about thirty stations in various parts of the State that were visited more or less regularly by priests. The diocese
of Vincennes, comprising Indiana and about one-third of Illinois, was created in 1834, with the Rev. Simon G. W. Brute as its first bishop.
Christian or Disciples' Church .- This sect in Indiana may be said to have had its beginning about 1819. It was a breaking away from the superabundance of "man-made" creeds and doc- trinal points that were cumbering the Protestant faith, and the reaction in favor of a simpler form of belief, based on "the Bible as the living creed," was crystallized by the influence of a few men, into a movement that in time became one of the strongest churches in the State.
Religious and Moral Societies .- The reli- gious element in this period did not confine it- self to church organization, but promoted vari- ous societies in the name of religion and morals. The Indiana Sabbath School Union, a branch of the American Sabbath School Union, was formed at Charlestown, Clark county, in 1826. Bible societies, auxiliary to the American Bible Socie- ties, were formed in different parts of the State, and were instrumental in distributing thousands of Bibles either free or at cost price. The or- ganized crusade against intemperance began with the formation in 1830 of the Indiana Temper- ance Society. Another movement that may be classed as moral, though it had its economic and social side, was that of removing the free negroes from America and colonizing them in Liberia, Africa. The Indiana Colonization Society, formed at Indianapolis in 1829, was a branch of a national organization. It continued in active existence for years, with many of the leading men of the State back of it, and in 1846 it launched a monthly publication, "The Coloniza- tionist," knowledge of which is so meager that no Indianapolis historian makes mention of it.
The Press .- Prior to 1820 ten or a dozen newspapers had sprung up in Indiana, most of them after the admission of the State. In a gazet- teer of 1833 we find what is perhaps the first pub- lished list of papers, which shows twenty-nine to be in existence at that time. As some are known of before that date that are not included in the list it is probable that an uncertain number were short-lived. That the newspaper at that day and for a good while after commanded a precarious living is evidenced by the papers them- selves as they occasionally voiced their discour- agements and difficulties. To "owe the printer"
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Church Near Elkinsville, Brown County.
CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
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Primitive Schoolhouse, Brown County.
Home of a Basket Weaver, Brown County.
Photographs by F. M. Hohenberger.
Pioneer Home, Brown County.
CEVB ANTAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
oggiog digestion that seemed to bother malay's conscience, and the editor, in many Haces, was glad to get his pay in commodities of any kind from corn to cordwood. The local news that was published was very meager, the con- fent- of the columns revealing that popular inter- ost ran largely to national politics and foreign news, with an infusion of State matters that grew is internal affairs developed.
An occasional rare book or pamphlet bears the late of the twenties and the imprint of some In- liana press. The Rappites, at Harmonie, did some printing, and their successors, the com- munity of Robert Owen, had a well-equipped out- fit. In 1825 they launched a periodical, the "New Ilarmony Gazette," which was quite distinct in character from any other publication in the State, being devoted to social propaganda and the philo- sophical discussion of moral principles .*
Medicine .- February 12, 1825, a law was passed to "incorporate medical societies for the purpose of regulating the practice of physics and surgery in the State." By it authority was given to doctors of the various counties to meet at the seat of government and organize into a corporate body, to be known as "The Medical Society of the State of Indiana." The circuit court circuits were to comprise so many medical districts, "to be known as first, second or third medical dis- tricts, according to the name of the circuit." Within these areas district societies were to be formed. The State society was to be composed of delegates from the district societies, and cen- sors from the districts were to examine all can- didates for license and grant diplomas. Persons of bad moral character could not be licensed.
Militia .- By the adjutant-general's report for 1828 we find that the aggregate number of officers and men in the State militia is estimated at 40,000, but the real status of this establishment incheated by the fact that only 16,657 had re-
andede' Lich Newspapers of luciana" sce Ind. Quar.
ported for muster, which was 12,184 less than in 1826. The complaint of trouble in getting re- ports is also indicative of the waning interest.
Benevolence ; Paupers and Negroes .- Gov- ernor Ray was, in many instances, in advance of his times. One of his efforts was for reform in the treatment of paupers. In his messages of 1825 he said : "It is the poor and needy that can justly claim more of our deliberations than the affluent. . These unhappy objects of pub- lic charity are sold like merchandise or cattle in a public market to persons who are generally induced to become their purchasers from motives of gain and avarice. . . To me this practice seems degrading to our character as a Christian people." His suggestion was that the State be divided into districts of counties or larger areas. and that in each of these districts an asylum be established. A committee report on public asylums* does not, however, coincide with the governor's opinion. This report reads: "Com- paratively speaking we can scarcely be said to have any paupers. The proportion is less than one to one thousand of our population." The existing system, it thought, was wisely adapted to the situation of the country, and therefore it believed that the establishment of asylums was not then expedient.
It is interesting to note that as early as 1829 Ray deplores the excessive influx of negroes into Indiana. These, he said, added an uneducated and "immoralized" element, most of whom were paupers on society. As a remedy for this he ad- vocated the colonization scheme which for a num- ber of years many regarded as the solution of the negro problem. As illustrating a peculiar twist of his moral perceptions he advocated the exportation of whisky because the wealth of the country would be increased and because "the moral condition of our society would be greatly improved and ameliorated."!
* House Journal, 10th session, p. 135.
Ray's message, 1829.
CHAPTER VIII
THE STORY OF NEW HARMONY
The Rappites .- Two notable intrusions into Indiana's early history were the successive social settlements of George Rapp and Robert Owen at New Harmony (first called Harmonie). in Posey county. As early as 1815 the "Rappites," or "Harmonists," a German religious sect under the leadership of George Rapp, located on the Wa- bash, having purchased there a holding of nearly thirty thousand acres. This they owned in com- mon, and there was not even a separation into families, as one of their doctrines was that of strict celibacy. They were intensely religious, docile to their leader, inoffensive, industrious and thrifty with many skilled workmen among them. The little town of Harmonie that they built up had many brick buildings, some of them the larg- est and most imposing to be found in the State at that time. They established a cocoonery and silk factory, a woolen mill, oil mill, saw mill, brick yard, brewery and distillery, and the wil- derness in which they settled was, within the years of their occupancy, converted into well- tilled, productive farms, with orchards and vine- yards. The yield of their fertile acres and their various industries begat a trade of no mean pro- portions which extended down the Mississippi to New Orleans, while two or three prosperous stores were maintained at Vincennes and else- where. As a result they acquired a wealth and a comfort of living far in advance of the pioneer conditions of their American neighbors, from whom they were altogether removed in spirit and in sympathies.
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