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 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
and straw bonnets, $69,018, and the manufac- tured products of tobacco, $65,659. Soap and candles, pottery, salt, the working of iron mined within the State, the mining of coal and quarry- ing all figured in the industries of the State. There were three paper mills, located at Brook- ville, Madison and Richmond, with an output valued at $155,196. From eleven counties along the rivers water craft to the value of $107,223 were reported. At Michigan City, our only lake port, commerce by water amounted to 272,400 bushels of grain and 10,368 barrels of flour, pork, etc., shipped out, and 1,850 tons of merchandise and 9,000 barrels of salt received at the docks.
The manufacturing and commercial industries of the State gave employment to 23,666 men.
Growth of Agriculture .- That the popula- tion of the State in 1840 was still largely rural is briefly shown by the fact that the number en- gaged in agricultural pursuits were 148,806 as against 23,666 in the manufactures and commerce and a comparative few in miscellaneous busi- nesses. New Albany, then the largest town in the State, had only 4,220 inhabitants, and Indi- anapolis but 2,692.
With all the activity in the work of internal improvements the transportation facilities during this decade were not materially improved, and the market problem was still a deterrent in de- velopment. Agricultural methods were crude, though an advance upon those of an earlier pe- riod. The wooden mold-board plow and the home-made harrow with wooden teeth were still in general use. The sickle was still the common implement for reaping grain. The threshing was done with the flail or by tramping out with horses, and the winnowing of the chaff from the grain was accomplished by the use of a waving sheet and a hand sieve. The hay was cut with a scythe and gathered with a hand-rake.
Notwithstanding these handicaps the agricul- tural showing of the State by the census returns of 1840 was no mean one. By reason of trans- portation difficulties the raising of live stock that could be taken to market afoot, was the conspicu- ous farming industry. Swine led all the rest for
107
108
CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
the reasons that hogy not only could be taken in droves to the Madison, Lawrenceburg or Cincin- nati slaughter-house. or be slaughtered at home and shipped in barrels to the southern market by every stream that would float a flatboat, but they could be raised at a minimum of cost, as they fed largely on the forest mast which then abounded. The proportion of different kinds of live stock in 1839. as shown by the following census figures. Was: Hogy, 1,623.608: sheep, 675,982; cattle, 619,980 . horses and mules, 241,036.
I naturally followed that the leading crops would be those for stock feeding, and accord- ingly we find corn far in the lead with a total of 28,155,887 bushels .* The oats crop follows, with a return of 5,981,605 bushels. Wheat comes next with a viekl of 4.049,375 bushels, Laporte county far in the lead, owing, it may be surmised, to shipping facilities from Michigan City. Rye. buckwheat and barley figured among the cereals, and the potato crop amounted to 1,525,794 bush- els, while hops were cultivated to some extent, particularly in Ripley county. The hay tonnage amounted to 178,029, with Dearborn county lead- ing, but flax, an important crop for fabrics in earlier years, seems to have fallen off, as from twenty-nine counties there are no returns at all. Of wool there were 1,237,919 pounds, and this probably supplanted flax in the manufactures of the home loom. as these were still largely in ex- cess of the factory products, being valued at $1,289,802. Products of the dairy were valued at $742,269, and those of the orchard at $110,055. Sugar, presumably all maple, and which may therefore be classed as a product of the forest, amounted to 3,727,795 pounds in total output. with Rush county far in the lead. The most sur- prising crop was tobacco, of which not less than sixty counties made returns, the aggregate growth being 1,820,306 pounds.
Agricultural Societies .- One sign of the in- creased interest in agricultural matters was the passage of a law in 1835 for the encouragement of county and township societies, and the crea- tion of a State Board of Agriculture. This lat- ter institution seems not to have cut much figure, and we hear little more about it.+ but the local
· In 1837 David D). Owen, the first State geologist, said of the Wabash country "It is emphatically a corn country ; SO con as the Wabash boats get out with their corn the southern States become so fully supplied that it immediately affects the whole grain market of the South."
i The present State Board of Agriculture dates from 1852.
societies flourished and were stimulating in their effect. There had been an act to incorporate such societies in 1829, and in 1835 Governor Noble stated that "fairs and exhibitions have been held and a spirit of emulation and generous competi- tion has been superinduced, the happy effects of which are witnessed in the improved culture and stock of many of the farms throughout the coun- try." The contemporary account of the first fair of Marion county, held October 30-31, 1835, bears out the governor's laudatory remarks. Of live stock twenty-four classes were entered for premiums. For some reason no premiums were offered for agricultural products, though the fol- lowing year these figured liberally. Articles of home manufacture, such as flannels, jeans, linen and carpeting were encouraged, and also essays on grasses and on the culture of mulberries and the production of silk. The cash premiums awarded amounted to $169 .*
One object of this society was to promote through its members the cultivation of some ar- ticle for export, and the commodity decided on was tobacco. By an article of its constitution the requirement from each member was "the raising of one hogshead, or 1,000 pounds, of tobacco, or the cultivation of one acre in said article, or the paying of one dollar in specie." Nothing note- worthy came of this tobacco movement.
Growth of Schools .- At the end of the thir- ties the percentage of illiteracy was still large, it being estimated that more than 72,000 of the population could not read or write. The illiter- ! ates in 1840 were about one in seven of the adult population, and in 1850 the conditions, as to ra- tio, were not improved. "More than sixty per cent. of the State's children were not in school a single day for the year 1846-47," we are told. and universal free education, maintained by taxes was as yet but a dream of the advanced few, although the school fund in 1849 was esti- mated at $1,890,215.08. To the list of private schools of the academy, seminary and small-col- lege class, more than thirty were added during the decade. In higher education the Catholics established the University of Notre Dame, at South Bend, in 1842, and the Baptist school, es- tablished at Franklin, Johnson county, in 1837, became Franklin College in 1845. The libraries
* Ind. Journal, Oct. 16, 1835.
CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
109
of the State other than private numbered 151, with a total of 68,403 volumes.
MISCELLANEOUS DEVELOPMENTS
Newspapers .- By the federal census there existed in Indiana in 1840, seventy-three news- papers. sixty-nine of which were weeklies and four semi- or tri-weeklies. Three "periodicals,"
work and the first geological survey of the State was made in 1837 and 1838, Owen submitting a report for each of these years. The record of these may be found in the Documentary Journal for 1838, and both were subsequently published in one volume, as the "Report of a Reconnais- sance of the State of Indiana." After this the office of geologist seems to have been discon- tinued and the next we hear of it is in connection
Becks' Mill, Washington County. The first mill on this site was built of logs in 1808. The building shown in the picture was erected in 1861 and was used to grind flour as late as 1905. It is now used mainly to crush grain for feed.
presumably literary papers, had also appeared upon the field, though what these three publi- cations were is now probably lost to human knowledge.
Geological Department .- In 1836 the first step was taken looking toward a geological sur- vey of the State by a joint resolution proposing to Ohio and Kentucky a joint survey. Nothing came of this, and a law of February 6, 1837. authorized the Governor to appoint a State Ge- ologist at a salary not exceeding $1,500 per year, with an additional sum not exceeding $250 for expenses. David Dale Owen, a son of Robert Owen, of New Harmony. was secured for the
with the State Board of Agriculture in the early fifties.
Increase of Official Salaries .- The first in- crease of official salaries was made by a law of 1837, which set the following schedule: Gov- ernor, $1,500 per year ; judges of superior court, $1,500 each ; presidents of circuit courts, $1,000 each : members of the General Assembly. $3 per day for each day's attendance and $3 for every twenty-five miles traveled "by the most usual road."
New State House .- From 1825 to 1834 the Legislatures held their sessions in the Marion county courthouse, but by 1830 these quarters
110
CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
began to be too restricted for the State's business. The Legislature took the first step toward build- ing a new capitol by an act of February 10. 1831. Plans were advertised for, to include Senate and Representative chambers and quarters for the Supreme Court. Secretary of State, Auditor of State, State Library, Law Library, six committee rooms and six clerk's rooms. The contract was given to Ithiel Town and Andrew J. Davis, New York architects of high standing, and the work of construction was begun in 1832 and finished in time for the Legislature of 1835-6. The total cost of the building was restricted to $60,000 .*
Change in Taxing System .- In 1835 a change was made in the taxing system. Prior to that land was classed as first. second and third rate.
The new law provided for an appraisement based on actual market value. Buildings were also ap- praised : there was added to the taxables a long list of chattels, including household articles, and business capital, corporation stock and money at interest were included. A poll tax was fixed of 371/2 cents for State and 371/2 cents for county for each male citizen over twenty-one years of age (Laws of 1835).
Improvement in Housing .- The extent to which the typical log cabin of pioneer days was being supplanted by brick, stone and frame houses is indicated by the following statistics. The total number of brick and stone houses in 1840 was 346, and of "wooden," presumably frame. 4,270. Of the former kind Marion county led with 35. All but sixteen counties re- turned frame buildings, Green leading with 344.
· Ser p. 89.
.
-
Foot of Waltman Hill, Brown County, between Helmsburg and Nashville.
CHAPTER XII
1840 TO 1850-CONDITIONS AND DEVELOPMENT DURING DECADE
The State's Financial Dilemma .- While the general suspension of the public works in 1839 did not quite banish the hope that, somehow, the system would be completed, it proved to be the final collapse of the governmental scheme. For a few years the State continued to operate and slowly extend the Wabash and Erie canal, but the returns from it did not balance the expenses.
The aftermath of the disastrous business fell heaviest upon the next decade, and on Governors Bigger and Whitcomb and the Legislature of their administrations devolved the perplexing task of extricating, as best they could, the com- monwealth from financial ruin and discredit. An official report made in 1842 shows a disgraceful tangle of affairs. Out of a bond issue of $15,- 000,000, "$4,000,000 was represented by worth- less securities," and $2,000,000 had been "em- bezzled by various State officers and agents." The interest on the public debt was far greater than the State could keep up, from 1840 it accu- mulated, adding to the principal at an appalling rate, and how Indiana was ever going to take care of her enormous obligation was not appar- ent. In the face of this desperate outlook it is hardly surprising, perhaps, that a disposition to throw over the most galling part of the burden by repudiation should have cropped out. Just how widely such a disposition actually prevailed among the rank and file is not clearly traceable, but it is generally implied by our historians that at this crisis the State narrowly escaped that blot on her fair name.
The Butler Bill Compromise .- The way of at least partial escape from this dilemma opened up by a compromise which in 1846 took form in what is known as the "Butler Bill." The holders of the State's bonds, whose interest was now far in arrears, employed a New York attorney, Charles Butler, to visit Indiana and effect some settlement with the Legislature. The settlement agreed upon was that the bondholders who
wished could become part owners of the Wabash and Erie canal and its unsold lands and acquire a lien on its earnings. More specifically, one could surrender his bonds and receive for each $1,000 two $500 certificates of stock. One of these would be canal stock and the other State stock. The former had back of it the canal prop- erty, and the latter was to be taken care of by a tax levy (Benton). A part of the agreement was that out of the sales of the remaining lands the canal was to be completed to Evansville. The State was to still retain a supervisory interest, and the property was to be put into the hands of three trustees, two to be appointed by the cred- itors and one by the State.
This compromise was embodied in a long bill of thirty-five sections, covering many complicated points, which became a law January 19, 1846, after considerable opposition that seems to have had no reason other than petty politics .* It did not prove satisfactory to the creditors, and after another fight Butler secured in 1847 the passage of another long bill amending the first.
The result of this compromise legislation was that the State luckily escaped from one-half of its internal improvement debt, thus cutting it to $6,732,880 (Esarey). This reduction enabled the State to save itself, but the rest of the debt re- mained a heavy burden for years. The result to the creditors was that they got what they could out of a bad situation. Eventually they suffered loss that brought, in many cases, ruin and dis- tress, for the canal, after continuing in operation
* A letter from Butler to his wife during his legislative cam- paign (see History of Union Theological Seminary) gives an in- teresting glimpse of his difficulties. "The prospects," he says, "are altogether discouraging, and almost everybody says that noth- ing can be done. Politicians are afraid to move. It is really amazing to see what a paralysis hangs upon this people. .. The governor is a prominent candidate for the United States Senate and dare not open his mouth as he should, lest it might
. My mission is a hard affect his election to that office. . .
one and no mistake. . . . It is certain that if the question is not now settled it never will be; the people will go into re- pudiation."
111
112
CIESMENTAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
roads Bral, m 1877, it was sold by order of Court for the benefit of the bestholders, who "received from the sale about 9 per cent. of their investment" ( Bemtopf The work was completed to the Olno river at Evansville in 1852. after a long series of misfortunes and set- backs, but the part from Terre Haute down proved worse than protitless, the cost being far in excess of returns.
"This closed the story of the old Wabash and Fre. The State and bondholders had expended, il told. $8.259.244. They had received from lunds and tolls, $5.477.238. A magnificent land grant by the federal government had been squan- dered. The total amount of land donated was 1.457.300 acres, or 2.277 sections ; an area equal to the five largest counties or the ten smallest. This was twice as much as the whole donation for the common schools" (Esarey ).
Of this canal in its relation to the commerce and population of the State we will speak in an- other section. ( See next page. )
Completion of Whitewater Canal .- As part of the State system the Whitewater canal was completed from Lawrenceburg to Brookville, the first boat between those points arriving at Brook- ville June 8, 1839 ( James M. Miller ). In 1842 it was sold to Henry S. Vallette, a capitalist of Cincinnati. It reached Laurel in 1843, Conners- ville in 1845 and boats were running to Cam- bridge City by 1846. For the Whitewater val- ley and for each of its towns as they became, in turn, heads of navigation, the canal made an era of prosperity. Cambridge City, we are told, be- came a shipping port for Henry, Randolph and Delaware counties as well as for Wayne and northern Rush, and Brookville and Laurel drew wheat, hogs and other agricultural exports for many miles to the west, north and east. In 1847 Hagerstown company continued the canal to that town, but not much profit was derived from the extension ( Young's Wayne County ).
The beginning of the decadence of the White- gater canal was the damage done by two disas- nous foods in 1817, which damage, it was esti mated, amounted to not less than $180.0.0. the disaster followed, and the final one, so ar as the canal was concerned, was its sale in 1865 to the Whitewater Valley Railroad Com- baby, winch paralleled the ditch with a railroad.
DEVELOPMENT OF BENEVOLENT IN- STITUTIONS
-
The first benevolent institutions other than county asylums for the poor, date from this decade. In article nine of the constitution there was a provision for asylums "for those persons who by reason of age, infirmity or other misfor- tunes may have a claim upon the aid and benefi- cence of society on such principles that such per- sons may therein find employment and every reasonable comfort, and lose, by their usefulness, the degrading sense of dependence." It was fif- teen years until this took shape in county infirm- aries for the indigent and twenty-eight years un- til it included in its broadened scope unfortunates other than paupers. The deaf and dumb, the blind and the insane all became the objects of State aid at this period.
School for the Deaf and Dumb .- This insti- tution was the first to receive consideration, when the Legislature of 1842-3 laid a "tax of two mills on each one hundred dollars' worth of property in the State for the purpose of support- ing a deaf and dumb asylum." The first form of this support was an appropriation of $200 to one James McLean, who was conducting a small school in Parke county. Then William Willard. attracted by the tax levy, established a school in Indianapolis, in 1844, and at the beginning of its second session this school was taken over by the State. Between 1844 and 1849 the attendance increased from 16 to 99. Tuition and board were furnished free to deaf-mutes of the State between the ages of ten and thirty years, the edu- cation including the teaching of a trade. The large building for the school east of the city, which served for more than fifty years, was first occupied October 2, 1850. The original cost was $30,000, but it was subsequently added to.
School for the Blind .- The desirability of some provision for the education of blind chil- dren was first brought to the attention of the Legislature and the people in 1844 through the zeal of James M. Ray, a public-spirited citizen of Indianapolis. Mr. Ray had witnessed in Louis- ville an exhibition of children from the Ken- tucky school for the blind under the charge of William 11. Churchman, a blind instructor, and by invitation of Ray, Mr. Churchman brought his pupils to Indianapolis and gave an exhibition
-
CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
113
for the benefit of our Legislature. The result was the levying of a tax of two mills on the hun- dred for educational aid to the blind. In the be- ginning it was proposed to send Indiana children to the Kentucky and Ohio schools, pending the establishment of our own institution, paying their tuition out of the tax levy, but when the pupils were advertised for there were only five applicants, all told. Then Mr. Churchman, as one experienced in the business, was secured to take the work in hand. In the fall of 1846 he personally canvassed the State, traveling about 1,520 miles through thirty-six counties, and as a
of 1843, by Dr. John Evans, an authority on mental diseases. That address was part of a leg- islative plan for gathering information on the subject, and the following session a law was passed authorizing a special levy of one cent on each hundred dollars for the establishment of an asylum. One hundred and sixty acres just west of Indianapolis were purchased and a build- ing for the accommodation of 200 patients was ready for occupancy in 1848. The total original cost was estimated at $72,069.
Enlargement of State Prison .- The State's prison at Jeffersonville, which dated from 1822,
The First "Crazy Asylum." Built in Indianapolis in the early thirties. It was located in the southwest section of the block bounded by Alabama, New York, Ohio and New Jersey streets. The buildings had been orig- inally occupied by early settlers .- From sketch by C. Schrader.
result twenty pupils were enlisted and placed in the institutions of the above-named States, at a cost of $100 each. In 1847 our own school was established, with Mr. Churchman at its head, on a salary of $800 per year. The term began with only nine pupils, but these increased to thirty the first year. The entire equipment of books and apparatus cost but a little over a hundred dollars and the total expense of that year was a little more than $6,000. The building which, with some additions, still stands, was first occupied in 1853. Its cost was about $68,000 .*
Hospital for the Insane .- The first legis- lative step toward the establishment of an asylum for the insane followed an address in December
was rebuilt and much enlarged in the early for- ties. Its outer wall of brick, thirty inches thick and twenty-eight feet high, covered an area of about four acres. Within this enclosure were guard-house, cell-house, workshops, ware and store houses, grist-mill and a hospital. The aver- age number of prisoners from 1840 to 1850 was 133 (Merrill's and Fisher's gazetteers).
WABASH AND ERIE CANAL AND COM- MERCIAL DEVELOPMENT
The greatest developing factor in the State during this period was the Wabash and Erie canal. It not only gave access to the fertile Wabash valley, the choicest portion of the State, but by opening up a new and direct water route
* For sketch of William H. Churchman and his work for the blind of Indiana see Ind. Mag. Hist., vol. x, p. 77.
8
114
CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
to the East by way of Lake Erie and the Erie canal of New York, but it brought into the State a new and distinct tide of immigration that gave It- character to the population of the northern counties. These countries that bordered on the canal increased in population much more rapidly than counties off the line that, in some cases, of- fered far better natural advantages ( Benton), and land vahies, of course, were enhanced ac- cordingly. It gave a vast impetus to agriculture, which heretofore had virtually no market. Large farms, we are told, began to take the place of small clearings : improved farm machinery began to be introduced, and the crops to pay for it all found their way eastward in large quantities. In 1844, says Benton, 5,262 bushels of corn passed through Toledo, increasing in 1846 to 555.250 bushels and in 1851 to 2,775,149 bushels. This is but a conspicuous example of various agricultural exports, the shipments of wheat and four being also very heavy. A broad belt of country extending up and down the river and extending over "thirty-eight counties in Indiana and nearly nine counties in Illinois" was tribu- tary to the canal, and not only farm stuffs but stone from the quarry, lumber from the forest and other bulky raw material in large quantities sought cheap transportation to the market that was now made possible. Of the magnitude of the trade we get some idea from the statement that in a single day in 1844 four hundred wagons unloaded at Lafayette and that "it was a com- mon occurrence to see as many as four or five hundred teams in that place . .
1111- loading grain to the canal." This export business begat a trade in imports and the returning boats bore westward, besides the immigrants and their possessions, merchandise of all kinds, the ship- ments of salt alone amounting in 1851 to 88,191 barrels.
The increase of population and wealth gave rise to new towns all along the route, and created new industries. The renting of water power from the canal was one of the sources of reve- nue, and numerous mills of various kinds sprang up, as did also grain elevators, shops, ware- houses and other establishments resulting from increasing trade and seeking shipping facilities. This business prosperity in turn developed social features that would furnish peculiarly quaint and literatesque material for the story-writer. Peo-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.