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 29
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Under a "vocational education" act approved February 22, 1913, provision was made for a "County Agent," to be appointed by Purdue Uni- versity upon petition of twenty or more residents
of a county who are actively interested in agri- culture. The duties of this agent are, under the supervision of Purdue, "to co-operate with farm- ers' institutes, farmers' clubs and other organiza- tions, conduct practical farm demonstrations. boys' and girls' clubs and contest work, and other movements for the advancement of agriculture and country life, and to give advice to farmers' on practical farm problems, and aid the county superintendent of schools and the teachers in giving practical education in agriculture and do- mestic science." By the statistician's report of 1914 there were twenty agents appointed in as many counties, and they are a pronounced stimu- lus to the farming communities. One feature of the work is the organization of "county tours" in which all who wish to join drive over the county; visiting selected farms for a field study of crops or the inspection of live stock or farm improve- ments. These prearranged trips are usually made by auto, and are led by the agent, accompanied, perhaps, by a Purdue specialist who lectures upon the particular subject in hand. An idea of the interest aroused by these trips is conveyed by the report of 1914, which, summing up the results of the "alfalfa campaign" alone, over, twenty counties, states that "a total of 613 auto- mobiles participated in the tour, carrying 3,184 people. Two hundred and eighty-seven farms were visited, inspecting 2,080 acres of alfalfa. One hundred fourteen meetings were held, with a total attendance of 12,951. A grand total of 16,135 people were reached."
Social Status of Farmers .- Within the easy memory of middle-aged men there has been a marked change in the status of the average, rep- resentative farmer. Not only is the uncouth backwoodsman of whom Eggleston wrote ex- tinct, but the rustic Hoosier whom Riley pictured in his earlier days is, to say the least, vastly modi- fied. Various educational influences-a universal free school system, the ubiquitous newspaper and farm paper, and other cheap periodicals, farm- ers' institutes, granges, clubs and other organiza- tions-in fact, influences too numerous to easily trace, have done their work to a degree that is very noticeable to any first-hand observer. The literary copyist who to-day goes nosing in' ob -: scure places in search of the time-honored "Hoosier characters" is somewhat amusing as a.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA 193
man behind the times who does not yet realize that the present type, while retaining all the old- time shrewdness, humor, raciness and fellowship, has developed new qualities that present a new field for the character delineator. The typical farmer of to-day is well informed and in intelli- gent touch with the wider affairs of the world. He is coming to be a conscious part of the great social movements. Financially he thrives better
than he once did, and he lives better. The "mod- ern" house in the country is not uncommon ; the rural telephone service is all but universal ; more automobiles are sold to farmers, it is said, than to any other class. The spread of the interurban service has also been a great modifying factor in rural life in promoting a freer touch with urban life, and the social differences between city and country people are becoming obliterated.
ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
The State Seal .- The origin of the State seal of Indiana is involved in obscurity and has, from time to time, been a subject for discussion.
In the first constitution we find it provided that "there shall be a seal of this State, which shall be kept by the Governor, and shall be used by him officially, and shall be called the seal of the State of Indiana." On the 13th of December, 1816, the first Legislature enacted that "the Gov- ernor of this State be and he is hereby authorized to provide a seal and also a press for this State, and that a sum not exceeding one hundred dol- lars be and is hereby appropriated for that pur- pose, to be paid out of any money in the treas- ury not otherwise appropriated." In the House Journal of 1816 the proposed seal is discussed and the design of it is thus defined: "A for- est and a woodman felling a tree, a buffalo leaving the forest and fleeing through the plain to a distant forest, and the sun setting in the west, with the word Indiana." It will be noted that while most of the features existing in the seal are specifically described in the above, no men- tion whatever is made of mountains, which are manifestly incongruous in an Indiana seal. These mountains have been variously explained as the Alleghanies, the Rockies and as "the hills lying east of Vincennes," while the orb beyond them has been both the rising and the setting sun-the emblem of a rising prosperity and of empire taking its way westward. The House Journal "specifications" say "the sun setting in the west."
There are reasons for suspecting that the de- sign did not originate with the Legislature of 1816, but was borrowed, and this turns out to be true, for on a slavery petition in the archives at
Washington, dated 1802, is an imprint of the seal of Indiana Territory, which has the same general features as the present emblem-the woodman cutting a tree and the buffalo, sun and moun- tains, with the word "Indiana" on a scroll in the branches of the tree. A reprint of the document, with a description of the seal, may be found in the publications of the Indiana Historical So- ciety, Volume II, pp. 461-469. Discussing the subject there Mr. J. P. Dunn argues that the de- vice was ordered in the east and brought to the new territory by either Governor Harrison or John Gibson, the territorial secretary.
Nearly twenty years ago the Legislature under- took to ascertain the origin of the seal and the authority of the device, because of the various and different forms in use, whereas it was de- sirable that the public business of the State should have a well-defined and legally author- ized seal. R. S. Hutcher, the leading clerk of the Senate in 1895, an expert in such studies, was appointed a special commissioner to investigate the matter and learn whether the State "has any legalized, authorized great seal." The result of Mr. Hutcher's investigation was but to prove that little or nothing could be known. There was even no record to show that the design agreed upon by the two houses in 1816 had ever been formally adopted. Hutcher recommended that a more definite seal be established by legislative action, but no such action was taken .*- G. S. C.
* The humoristic editor of the Rushville Republican some years ago thus described the seal:
"It exhibits a woodman, in short pants and G. A. R. hat, hack- ing at a tree, one of his hands grasping the end of the ax-handle while the other clutches it close up to the butt, in the way weak woman splits kindling. A hornless Poland-China buffalo is fly- ing from the awful sight with a despairing gesture from a tail
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
The Word "Hoosier."-The origin of the word "Hoosier" as a nickname for the Indiana resident has long been a matter of discussion. John Finley, of Richmond, has been credited with introducing the term into print by his poem, "The Iloosier's Nest." first published as a "carrier's address" in the Indianapolis Journal for the New Year's issue, January 1. 1833 .* Recently, how- ever. I have found an earlier usage. The Indiana Palladium, of Lawrenceburg, in its issue of July 30, 1831, in a farcical skit describing Noah Noble as horse in the political race, uses the expression : "11c may be called a 'Hoosher'."
A number of stories about the origin of the word have been current for many years, some of them being absurd and none of them tenable. The best study of the question, and the only one making any pretense to thoroughness, is a mono- graph by J. P. Dunn, published in volume iv of the Indiana Historical Collections. Mr. Dunn's study practically proves that it is not a chance word at all, but one with antecedents that, prob- ably, reach far back in the English language; which was long used in the south to denote cer- tain uncouth characteristics, and which was im- ported hither as descriptive of an element of our carly population. This would seem to be borne out by early newspaper references; as, for ex- ample, a correspondent in the Madison Republi- can and Banner, of October 3, 1833, speaks of "the almost proverbial roughness of Hooshier- ism." and the same paper, issue of September 12, 1833, referring sarcastically to James B. Ray's new publication, The Hoosier, alludes to the "singular title of The Hoosier." and adds: "All things considered, we regard the title in this case as not inappropriate."-G. S. C.
The United States Courts for the District of Indiana .- The courts of the United States for the District of Indiana were established by an Act of Congress on March 3, 1817. Three days later Benjamin Parke was appointed the first district judge. He was a native of New Jersey, who, in 1801, removed to Vincennes and after- ward to Salem, Indiana. He was a captain under
neatly as long as its body, having previously shed one of its horns beside a stump, upon which leans a small but graceful black handled mop. In the background old Sol, with his hair on end, sinks down behind a sway-back hill to rest."
. In the history of Potter county (page 18) it is claimed that the cabin described by Finley as the "Hoosier's Nest" was a house on the old Sae trail built by Thomas Snow.
William Henry Harrison in the battle of Tippe- canoe. He was prominent in the territorial gov- ernment and a member of the constitutional con- vention that framed our first constitution. He served until his death, July 13, 1835.
From 1817 until 1825 the court was held at the old capital at Corydon, Indiana. The record books, which are still well preserved and in the custody of Noble C. Butler, clerk, exhibit inter- esting and varied, though comparatively unim- portant litigation during Judge Parke's adminis- tration. The common law and chancery plead- ings, with technical verbosity as recorded in the plain, old-fashioned handwriting of Henry Hurst, the first clerk of the courts, are curious mementos of obsolete and cumbersome judicial procedure. The first case recorded was that of United States vs. Andrew Hilton, on May 4, 1819, an indictment prosecuted by Thomas H. Blake, district attorney, charging that the de -! fendant did "deal in and sell to a certain Charles; Dewey" domestic distilled spirituous liquors without having paid the tax, at the town of Liverpool, Daviess county. There was a trial by jury and a verdict of not guilty. It does not appear whether the Dewey mentioned in the in- dictment was the same Charles Dewey who in 1825 was appointed United States district attor- ney and afterward for many years was a judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana. The last case at Corydon was Cuthbert Bullitt vs. Rich- ard M. Heth's Administrators, a scire facias on a judgment in debt amounting to $1,031.23, which, on November 6, 1824, was dismissed at plaintiff's costs.
In January, 1825, the federal courts were re- moved to Indianapolis. The first case tried in this city was on January 5, 1825, and is entitled United States vs. Sundry Goods, Wares and Merchandizes. It was a libel of information filed by Charles Dewey, the then district attor- ney, for the confiscation of a varied assortment of goods, including liquor, seized from William H. Wallace, for illegal trading with the Indian tribes on the northwest side of the river Tippe- canoe. There was a judgment forfeiting the goods and awarding one-half to the United States and one-half to Edward McCartney, the informer. An appeal was prayed to the Supreme Court, but does not appear to have been per- fected.
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Jesse Lynch Holman, the second district judge, was commissioned September 16, 1835, and held office until his death, March 28, 1842. He was born in Danville, Kentucky, in 1784, and studied law in the office of Henry Clay, coming to Indiana in 1808. He was a territorial circuit judge and afterward, from 1816 to 1830, judge of the Indiana Supreme Court. It is said that Judge Holman, in addition to his judicial labors, served as a Baptist clergyman in Aurora, from 1834 until his death.
The third district judge for Indiana, Elisha Mills Huntington, was commissioned May 2, 1842, and served until his death, October 26, 1862. He was born in Otsego county, New York, in 1806, and removed to Indiana, where he was admitted to the bar. He was prosecuting attorney in 1829, circuit judge in 1831, and com- missioner of the General Land Office at Wash- ington in 1841.
During Judge Huntington's administration an interesting case was tried under the fugitive slave law. In the year 1845 Vaughan, a citizen of Missouri, sued Williams for rescuing slaves of the plaintiff after the plaintiff had found and arrested them in a cabin near Noblesville. The defendant demurred to the complaint on the ground that the Ordinance of 1787, which pro- hibited slavery in the territory northwest of the river Ohio, required fugitive slaves to be re- turned only when claimed in one of the thirteen original States. The circuit justice ruled, how- ever, that the Constitution of the United States operated to repeal any provisions of the Ordi- nance repugnant to its terms, when Indiana was admitted into the Union, and, the provision of the federal Constitution requiring the return of fugitive slaves escaping from one State into an- other being paramount, the obligation to return them was binding if the plaintiff successfully established his title. The evidence in the case developed that the slaves, Sam, Mariah and child, were purchased by the plaintiff from a man named Tipton, in Missouri, and that Tipton, having prior to the sale of the slaves moved with them into Illinois, remained in that State the statutory time required to gain a residence, and having also voted and exercised the rights of a citizen of that State prior to the sale to Vaughan, the slaves became free under the laws of Illinois and therefore Vaughan had no title. The jury,
so instructed, returned a verdict for the de- fendant .- Vaughan v. Williams, 3 McLean 530.
Judge Huntington was succeeded by Caleb Blood Smith, a native of Boston, who studied law at Cincinnati, Ohio, and at Connersville, Indiana, whence he removed to Indianapolis. Judge Smith was influential in procuring Lin- coln's nomination and was Secretary of the Inte- rior in Lincoln's cabinet, which position he re- signed to accept the district judgeship on Decent- ber 22, 1862. He was a man of remarkable ora- torical powers. After serving a little over one year he died, and Albert Smith White, of La- fayette, was his successor, but White held the
Old United States Court-House and Postoffice Building at Indianapolis, occupied until 1904.
office only a few months, dying at Stockwell, Indiana, September 4, 1864.
President Lincoln then appointed David Mc- Donald, who took the oath of office December 13, 1864. Judge McDonald was a professor of law in the Indiana University, which institution conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. He was also author of McDonald's Treatise, a work on practice, which for many years was relied upon, and is to this day esteemed by many as a most useful textbook to guide the logic of the practitioner and the judgment of the justices to "turn upon the poles of truth."
It was during Judge McDonald's administra- tion that the military commission composed of Brevet-Major General Alvin P. Hovey and others convened in the United States court room and tried Harrison H. Dodd, William A. Bowles, Andrew Humphreys, Horace Heffren, Lambdin
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P. Milligan and Stephen Horsey. leaders of the Indiana branch of the Knights of the Golden Circle. The conspiracy embraced an alleged scheme for an armed uprising of rebel sym- pathizers, the liberation of prisoners of war at Camp Morton and other military prisons in Ohio and Illinois, the assassination of Governor Mor- ton, and the establishment of a Northwestern Confederacy, to be composed of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky. The prisoners were confined in cells in the Postoffice building, except Dodd, who, upon his parol, was allowed, while his trial was in progress, to occupy a room on the third floor, from which, about four o'clock in the morning of October 7, 1864, he escaped through a window by means of a rope fastened to his bed. Friends who visited him had fur- nished him with a ball of twine, which he utilized to draw up a rope from the outside. The street lamps near the federal building had been dark- ened to conceal his exit. He went to Canada and remained there until the Supreme Court of the United States released his co-conspirator, Milli- gan, on habeas corpus proceedings. Dodd after- ward became a prominent Republican politician in Wisconsin. After Milligan had been found guilty and sentenced to death, application was made by his counsel, Major J. W. Gordon, to the United States Circuit Court for a writ of habeas corpus. Judge McDonald and Circuit Justice Swayne, who heard the application, being unable to agree, certified the questions involved to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the jurisdiction of the military tribunal was denied. The case is a leading one on the subject of the jurisdiction of military tribunals and the power of civil courts to review their judgments upon writs of habeas corpus .- In re Milligan, 4 Wallace 2.
Until May 10, 1869, there were no circuit judges, the work of the circuit court being di- vided between the justice of the Supreme Court assigned to the circuit, and the district judge. John McLean was the first Supreme Court jus- tice assigned to duty in this circuit, followed by Justices Noah H. Swayne, David Davis, John M. Harlan, Mellville W. Fuller, John M. Harlan and Henry S. Brown. In 1869 the act providing for circuit judges was passed and Thomas H. Drum- mond, of Illinois, was appointed to that office by President Grant.
Walter Q. Gresham was appointed district judge to succeed Judge McDonald, and commis- sioned September 1, 1869. In 1882 he resigned and became postmaster general in the cabinet of President Arthur, and was succeeded by William Allen Woods, of Goshen. Judge Gresham was appointed circuit judge on October 28, 1884, after the resignation of Judge Drummond. Judge Woods continued as district judge until the creation of the circuit court of appeals, when, on March 17, 1892, he was commissioned circuit judge by President Harrison, and subsequently became, and was at the time of his death, on June 29, 1901, the presiding judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Judicial Circuit.
To fill the vacancy caused by the promotion of Judge Woods to the bench of the circuit court of appeals, John H. Baker, of Goshen, was ap- pointed district judge and served until December 18, 1902, when his resignation took effect. Judge Baker tendered his resignation to the president on May 1, 1902, to take effect upon the appoint- ment of his successor, shortly after his son, Francis E. Baker, was appointed by President Roosevelt circuit judge in place of Judge Woods. Francis E. Baker, who, at the time of his ap- pointment by President Roosevelt, was one of the justices of the Supreme Court of Indiana, was commissioned January 21, 1902, as judge of the circuit court of appeals for the seventh ju- dicial circuit, and is now in office .*
After the resignation of Judge John H. Baker, Albert B. Anderson of Crawfordsville, was ap- pointed district judge on December 8, 1902, and qualified on December 18, 1902, and is now in office.
While Gresham was on the district bench the Whisky Ring conspirators were prosecuted by Charles L. Holstein, as assistant and afterward United States attorney. The Whisky Ring was a conspiracy between distillers and government officials whereby distillers who were not in the ring were trapped into technical violations of the law and members of the ring were made exempt from the payment of certain taxes. In less than one year the government had been defrauded out of nearly two millions of dollars. The prose- cutions were ordered by President Grant under
* Judge Baker died at his home in Goshen on October 21, 1915, at the age of eighty-four years.
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the injunction, "Let no guilty man escape." A number of persons were indicted in this district and convicted and a large amount of property confiscated.
About the year 1877 the prosecutions against James Slaughter and Carey Miller for defalca- tions in the First National Bank were conducted. It is said that while the grand jury was engaged in the investigation of these cases preparatory to returning the indictments one of the grand jurors came to Judge Gresham and asked him whether the government of the United States, or the ad- ministration (at that time President Hayes) had any right to control the deliberations of the grand jury. Judge Gresham replied that it cer- tainly had not. The juror stated that the dis- trict attorney had said that the government did not wish to prosecute a particular case and wanted to withdraw proceedings against a certain man. As soon as Judge Gresham took his seat on the bench that day he had the grand jury brought in and charged that they should not be influenced by the wishes of the administration or the desire of the district attorney in any way whatever in their deliberations; that where a matter had been submitted to them it could not be withdrawn, and that the president of the United States had no more control over their deliberations than the czar of Russia.
About this time also the first cases under the federal election law were brought, resulting in the indictment of Henry Wrappe from Jennings county. In this case General Benjamin Harrison was pitted against Thomas A. Hendricks. Hen- dricks challenged the array on account of their political opinions, and Judge Gresham ordered the jury to be made up of half and half, Repub- licans and Democrats.
During Judge Gresham's administration and immediately following the panic of 1873, there was an epidemic of railroad foreclosure suits. In the flush times prior to 1873 eastern capital had sought investment in the development of the railroads of the west and many railroad com- panies were thrown into the hands of receivers because of their embarrassed financial condition. It was in the receivership of the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railway that Hon. John M. Butler contended before Judge Drum- mond for a modification of the doctrine of real estate mortgages when applied to railroads so
that claims for labor performed and supplies fur- nished shortly before the appointment of a re- ceiver should be paid in preference to the mort- gage debt. Judge Drummond in this case an- nounced the famous "six-months' rule," which he adhered to in subsequent cases, that claims for labor, supplies and materials accrued in the op- eration and maintenance of a railroad during a period of six months prior to the appointment of a receiver should be paid out of the proceeds of sale in preference to the payment of the mort- gage bonds. In the Chicago, Danville and Vin- cennes receivership the rule was applied to the case of some equipment purchased by the road. Henry Crawford, who appeared for the bond- holders, vigorously assailed before Judges Drum- mond and Gresham the application of the six- months' rule as an attempt at confiscation of property and denounced the rule as a figment of "sentimental equity." Crawford took the case to the Supreme Court of the United States (Fos- dick v. Schall, 99 U. S. 235), where the six- months' rule was fully approved, but the case reversed on another point. It is related that after the decision of the Fosdick case, Judge Drummond met Mr. Crawford and said to him : "What do you think now of my sentimental equity ?" Crawford replied: "Yes, Judge, you had the ingenuity to invent, but not the common sense to apply the doctrine." The principle of the Fosdick case wrought a revolution in the law of railroad receiverships. It became firmly em- bedded in federal jurisprudence and has proved a blessing to railroad employes all over the country.
While Judge Woods was on the district bench the celebrated tally sheet forgery cases were tried, resulting in the conviction and imprison- ment of Simeon Coy and William F. A. Bern- hamer. To General John Coburn, more than any other man, is due the credit for the prompt or- ganization of the Committee of One Hundred and the manifestation of a determined sentiment, non-partisan in character, to purify the political atmosphere of Marion county by punishment of a most brazen crime against the ballot. After conviction, and with the inevitable consequences of his crime before him, Coy announced his unique aphorism "When I'm done I'm did."
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