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 30
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W. W. Dudley, who during the Garfield ad- ministration was United States marshal for In-
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diana, and who, during the Harrison campaign of 1888 was chairman of the National Republi- can Committee, during that campaign mailed let- ters to Indiana chairmen containing this lan- guage: "Divide the floaters into blocks of five and put a trusted man with necessary funds in charge of these five, and make him responsible that none get away, and that all vote our ticket." Hon. Solomon Claypool was district attorney at the time, and very promptly after the election an attempt was made to indict Dudley under Sec. 5511 (the federal election law, since repealed ) making one who "aids, counsels, procures or ad- vises" another "to commit or attempt to commit any offense" named in the section (including the bribery of a voter ) punishable by fine or impris- onment. The grand jury was impaneled and instructed November 14, 1888, and continued their deliberations until December 24, when they requested a construction of the language of the act. An adjournment was had until January 15, 1889, when the court further instructed the jury essentially as follows : "But in any case, beyond the mere fact of the advice or counsel, it must be shown that the crime contemplated was com- mitted or an attempt was made to commit it." It was immediately charged by the Democratic press that Judge Woods had "changed his in- structions" so as to shield Dudley ; that after pro- ceedings were commenced, "Republican leaders were frightened : Quay and Wanamaker, one or both, hastened to Indianapolis: high and close counsels of the party were held, and the supple- mental charge devised, carefully weighed and adopted." A sharp issue of fact arose out of what constituted the first charge. There being at that time no official court reporter, the news- paper reports of the first charge were said to be inaccurate and untrue. On the other hand Judge Woods insisted that his first charge, which was oral, did not put any construction on the statute, but kept close to its very words; and even his loudest and most persistent accusers commended the first of the charges in question as being "in the plain, simple language of Section 5511." Whether the counseling or advising of another to do an act made criminal, by Section 5511, was a punishable offense under that section, unless the act so counseled or advised was done or at- tempted to be done, was a legal question about which at first blush great lawyers differed.
Judge Woods' conclusion, in the negative, was supported by very able decisions; Republic v. Roberts, 1 Dall. 39; Regina v. Gregory, 10 Cox C. C. 459 ; and by the language of Section 5323 R. S., relating to piracies. Hon. Joseph E. Mc- Donald took the opposite view, and even Justice John M. Harlan at first was so inclined, but on examination of the authorities cited the latter very frankly acknowledged the correctness of Judge Woods' conclusion. But the defamers of Judge Woods continued their efforts to smirch his judicial character. The following Democratic State convention adopted a resolution solemnly declaring "that the brazen prostitution of the machinery of the federal court of the United States for the District of Indiana, by its judge and attorney, to the protection of these conspira- tors (Dudley and others) against the suffrage,j constitutes the most infamous chapter in the ju- dicial annals of the Republic." The fight was continued in the Senate by Senators Turpie and Voorhees in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat the confirmation of Woods as circuit judge. Senator McDonald's letter of November 9, 1888, and Mr. Claypool's testimony before the Senate Committee, show beyond question that the last charge was in exact accord with the view of the statute which Judge Woods had declared to Mc- Donald, to Claypool, and to others before the first charge was given. There was, therefore, no change of front. After newspaper discussion of the subject had died out, Hon. W. H. H. Miller, then attorney-general, called Judge Woods' attention to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Mills, 7 Peters 138, where the precise point was decided as long ago as 1833. The Supreme Court held in that case "that an indictment for advising, etc., a mail carrier to rob the mail, ought to set forth or aver that the said carrier did in fact commit the offense of robbing the mail." This decision was entirely overlooked at the time of the Dudley controversy, and sustains emphat- ically the correctness of the judge's instructions.
The most notable judicial action of Judge Woods was the injunction against the American Railway Union in the strike of 1894, and the trial and punishment of Debs and others for vio- lation of the injunction.
During Judge Baker's administration as dis- trict judge the cases growing out of the embez-
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zlement of funds of the Indianapolis National Bank were tried. The sensational events accom- panying the trial, which are yet well remembered, include the trial and conviction for contempt of court of a juror who solicited a bribe, and the accidental shooting of Addison C. Harris by a client in another case.
In the summer and fall of 1894 the attention of the court was directed to the trial of the strike cases, resulting from the so-called "omnibus in- junction" against Debs and other officers and members of the American Railway Union. The fearless and prompt prosecutions conducted by Frank B. Burke, district attorney, before Judge Baker, for the first violations of the injunction in this district resulted in early breaking the backbone of the strike in this State and a prompt restoration of law and order in the railroad centers.
In the Scott county lynching case, tried in 1899 and resulting in a small verdict for the plaintiff, Judge Baker announced the doctrine that a sheriff is liable on his official bond for damages resulting from his failure to exercise reasonable care in protecting the life and health of prisoners in his custody. Tyler v. Cobin, 94 Fed. 48. This decision attracted wide attention, and has resulted in legislation in this and other States designed to hold sheriffs to a stricter ac- countability for the safety of prisoners.
Notable cases have been tried and determined during Judge Anderson's occupancy of the federal bench for the Indiana district. In 1909 the Pan- ama libel suit was commenced in Washington, D. C., and an effort made to extradite the editors of the Indianapolis News from Indianapolis to Washington for trial. It was contended that the publication of an editorial in the Indianapolis News reflecting upon Theodore Roosevelt and others was libelous, and as the paper circulated in Washington, as well as elsewhere, the editors could be extradited from Indianapolis to Wash- ington for trial. In denying the application for a warrant of extradition, Judge Anderson, in an able oral opinion, said: "To my mind that man has read the history of our institutions to little purpose who does not look with grave apprehen- sion upon the possibility of the success of a pro- ceeding such as this. If the history of liberty means anything, if constitutional guaranties are worth anything, this proceeding must fail. If
the prosecuting authorities have the authority to select the tribunal, if there be more than one tribunal to select from; if the government has that power and can drag citizens from distant States to the capital of the nation, there to be tried, then, as Judge Cooley says, this is a strange result of a revolution where one of the grievances complained of was the assertion of the right to send parties abroad for trial." A similar result was reached in the New York district, where the case was appealed to the Supreme Court and the decision denying the application for extradition of editors of the New York World was affirmed.
In 1912 an indictment was returned in Judge Anderson's court against a large number of offi- cers and members of the International Association of Structural Steel and Iron Workers for conspir- acy to unlawfully transport dynamite on passen- ger trains from State to State. The purpose was to further the interests of the iron workers in strikes in various parts of the country. Mys- terious explosions, resulting in great destruction of property and loss of life, occurred in various parts of the country. Witnesses from Boston and San Francisco, in all parts of the country, and some from foreign countries, told details of a most amazing plot that resulted in great loss of life and of property. The case was prosecuted by Charles W. Miller, then United States attor- ney, and resulted in the conviction and sentence of thirty-eight officers and members of the union.
In 1914 Judge Anderson tried the Election Conspiracy Case, growing out of an election in Terre Haute. It was popularly believed that since the repeal of the so-called Force Bill, under which the case In re Coy was tried during Judge Woods' administration, there was no federal stat- ute which could be invoked for the protection of the purity of the ballot in federal elections. Nevertheless a large number of Terre Haute politicians were indicted and brought to trial, found guilty and sentenced to prison for con- spiracy to violate various sections of the federal statutes relating to elections. This case was vig- orously prosecuted by United States Attorney Frank C. Daily, under a Democratic administra- tion, against a large number of Democrats, Re- publicans and Progressives, resulting in convic- tion and punishment of the offenders, and the example set by the Indiana court has resulted in election conspiracy cases in other States.
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The legislation of Congress has shown a con- sistent design to enlarge the jurisdiction of State courts over controversies between citizens of dif- ferent States by limiting the jurisdiction of fed- eral courts over the subject-matter involved. The decisions of the Supreme Court on jurisdic- tional questions have imposed still further limita- tions, as, for example, the decision in Bardes v. Hawarden Bank, 178 U. S. 524, construing the bankruptcy law in such a way as to throw into the State courts practically all litigation involving the marshaling of assets of a bankrupt fraudu- lently or preferentially transferred. Notwith- standing these jurisdictional contractions, the fed- eral courts of Indiana are very busy, and although Indiana is one of the largest districts in the Union, the nisi prius work was practically all performed by Judge Anderson during his term, while other States having less work are subdi- vided into two or more districts or divisions with a district judge for each .- Rowland Evans.
Insurance in Indiana .- Prior to the year 1852 all the insurance companies in the State of In- diana were organized by special act of the Leg- islature. The acts incorporating these com- panies were very broad, giving power to do all kinds of insurance, and most of them also includ- ing banking powers. The first insurance com- pany to be chartered in Indiana, in 1832, was the Lawrenceburg Insurance Company of Lawrence- burg. The stock of this company was trans- ferred to Drew & Bennett, of Evansville, Ind., in 1884, who changed the name of the company to the Citizens' Insurance Company of Evans- ville, Ind., under which name it was operated until 1903, when it went out of business. Nota- ble among the insurance companies that were granted special charters prior to the adoption of the Constitution of 1852, are the Firemen's and Mechanics' Insurance Company and the Madison Insurance Company. These companies were or- ganized by prominent citizens of Madison and have been successfully operated up to the present day.
When the Constitution of 1852 was adopted there was put into it the following provision : "In all cases enumerated in the preceding section and in all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, all laws shall be general and of uniform operation throughout the State" ( Art.
4, Sec. 23. Ind. Const. 1852). This section re- voked the power to create corporations by spe- cial enactment.
At the first session of the Legislature under the new constitution a law was passed for the organization of both stock and mutual insurance companies. (Ind. R. S. 1852, p. 351.) This law of 1852, with some few amendments, is still the only law in the State of Indiana providing for the organization of fire insurance companies. When this law was enacted there was contained therein Section 22, which read as follows: "Whenever such company shall be notified of any loss sustained on a policy of insurance issued by them, the company shall pay the amount so lost within sixty days after such notice, under a pen- alty of ten per centum damages for every thirty days such loss remains unpaid thereafter." This section virtually prohibited the organization of insurance companies in the State of Indiana.
Beginning with the year 1881 and at nearly every session of the Legislature thereafter, up to the session of 1897, a bill was prepared by the writer and introduced in the Legislature to re- peal this Section 22, but the bill was defeated at every session until the session of 1897, when it was passed.
No stock insurance company worthy of the name had ever organized under the law of 1852 from the time of its passage until the repeal of this Section 22. The reason therefor is readily apparent. Since the repeal of this section sev- eral strong stock fire insurance companies have organized under the law of 1852 and are reflect- ing credit upon the State by their successful man -! agement.
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A number of mutual fire insurance companies were organized under the amendments to the Act of 1852, passed in 1865, and attained very large success. Few of these companies are, how- ever, in existence, and those that are in existence confine their business to a limited territory.
A few life insurance companies were organ- ized under the mutual law of 1865, but none of them are now in existence. They have either retired from business or reincorporated under later enacted laws.
In 1881 the Legislature passed an act provid- ing for the organization of farmers' mutual fire insurance companies. The business of these -
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companies was confined to three contiguous coun- ties. Under this law a great many farmers' mutual fire insurance companies are existing to-day.
A number of assessment life and accident in- surance companies were organized in Indiana prior to 1883, under the provisions of the Volun- tary Association Act. A number of these com- panies did a very large business, but none of them are in existence to-day.
In 1883 the Legislature passed an act provid- ing for the organization of life and accident in- surance companies on the assessment plan, and thereafter, at the session of 1897, passed the Stip- ulated Premium Assessment Law. The life in- surance business in Indiana may be said to date from the enactment of the law of 1897. Several of the strong life insurance companies in the State were organized thereunder and continued to operate under these laws until the year 1899, when the law relating to stock and mutual life insurance companies was passed. After the pas- sage of this last-mentioned law all the companies that had previously organized under the Assess- ment and the Stipulated Premium Laws reorgan- ized under the Stock and Mutual Life Insurance Company Law and have continued to since op- erate under the provisions thereof. The life in- surance business in Indiana really dates from the year 1899.
Previous to 1901 life insurance companies on the stock plan, in order to do business outside of the State, were required to have not less than $200,000 of capital stock, and mutual life insur- ance companies were required to have not less than $200,000 of net surplus funds. This was by reason of what is known as the Retaliatory Section in the laws of the different States. The law of Indiana would not admit a foreign in- surance company with less than $200,000 of cap- ital stock paid up, or, in case of a mutual com- pany, with less than $200,000 of net surplus, and, therefore, other States virtually said to Indiana companies : "We will exact a like requirement of you and will not permit you to do business un- less you have a like capital stock, or a like sur- plus." As none of the Indiana companies, prior to 1901, had such an amount of capital stock or net surplus, they were thereby confined to the limits of the State of Indiana for business. In
GOOSE ROCK
Peculiar Rock Formations in Turkey Run, Parke County.
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Dol. however, the Legislature amended the law of Indiana as related to life insurance companies and permitted life insurance companies of other states to do business in Indiana with $100,000 capital stock or net surplus. This let the Indiana companies into other States, and their material growth may be dated from that year.
In 1907 the Indiana life insurance companies passed through their most crucial period. At the session of the Legislature of that year there Mts a lill introduced, which, if it had passed, would have wiped out all Indiana life insurance companies and would have rendered it impossible ever thereafter to have organized a life insur- ance company within the State so long as the bill would have remained as a law on the statute books. Fortunately for the State of Indiana the life insurance companies and an aroused public sentiment were enabled to defeat this vicious leg- islation, and saved the life insurance business to the State.
Prior to 1899 the fraternal orders existing in the State of Indiana were organized under the Voluntary Association Act heretofore mentioned. In 1899 the Legislature passed a law for the organization of fraternal beneficiary associations and established rates for insurance therein. There are a number of very strong fraternal
beneficiary associations in the State doing busi- ness under the provisions of this act.
In 1893 the Legislature enacted a law for the organization of live-stock insurance companies. A number of companies have been organized under this law and one of these companies is recognized to-day as the leading live-stock in- surance company in the United States.
Prior to 1909 the only laws under which an accident insurance company could be organized were the old laws of 1852 and amendments thereto, the assessment laws of 1883 and 1897, and the Voluntary Association Act, neither of which laws were satisfactory.
In 1903 a casualty law was passed in Indiana, but it did not provide, however, for insurance against personal accidents until amended by the Act of 1909. There are several companies doing
- business in the State at this time that are organ- ized under the law of 1903 and the amendments of 1909, and are doing business throughout the United States.
In 1907 and again in 1909 and 1911 unsuccess- ful attempts were made to pass the Fire Marshal Law. The bill was again introduced at the ses- sion of the Legislature in 1913 and passed. The law is now in successful operation .- Guilford A. Deitch, author of Insurance Digest.
PART III
A General Survey of Indiana by Counties with Brief Historical Sketches
Edited and Compiled by Max R. Hyman
HISTORICAL NOTE
An Outline of the State's Development
The Mound Builders .- That the territory now occupied by Indiana was inhabited by prehistoric people is evidenced by their work, silent, yet indisputable evidence of their former occupancy, which still remains. These works, notable in the southern part of the State, are in the form of mounds, memorial pillars, fortifications, weapons and domestic utensils that furnish "abundant evidence to show that at one time, long anterior to the coming of the red man, Indiana was quite densely populated by a race that lived, flourished and passed away,"* leaving no other traces of their existence. They have been classed as the Mound Builders.
Under Three Flags .- The territory which is now included within the present boundaries of Indiana was formerly owned by the Miami Con- federacy of Indians. It was first explored by La Salle in the latter part of the seventeenth century, about 1670, when he is said to have descended the Ohio river as far as the Louisville rapids. It is well established that he traversed the region of the Kankakee and St. Joseph rivers in the northwestern part of the State in 1679. Father Allouez, the French missionary, accom- panied by Dablon, visited this vicinity in 1675- 80,t and French trappers appeared at the end of the seventeenth century.
'It was under the domination of Francet from the time of the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi by La Salle, in 1682, until 1763, when it was ceded to Great Britain after the French and Indian war. From 1763 to 1779, it was held nominally by Great Britain as a part of her colo-
nial possessions in North America and the juris- diction of the State of Virginia was formally ex- tended over it from 1779 to 1784.
In 1778, during the Revolution, Vincennes and Kaskaskia were captured from the British by a force of Virginians under George Rogers Clark and later in the same year the region northwest of the Ohio was made the county of Illinois by the Virginia Legislature.
In 1783, the British claims to all territory east of the Mississippi and north of Florida were re- linquished in favor of the United States. The States which claimed title to lands northwest of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi ceded their rights to the United States before 1787, and in that year this region was organized as the Northwest Territory.
Indiana Territory .- In 1800, that part of the Northwest Territory lying between the Missis- sippi river and a line extending from a point on the Ohio river opposite the mouth of the Ken- tucky to Fort Recovery and thence to the Cana- dian line was organized as the Territory of Indi- ana, together with the area now constituting Illi- nois, Wisconsin, northeastern Minnesota and western Michigan. Two years later, by a clause in the enabling act for Ohio, the boundary be- tween Indiana and Ohio was fixed in its present location and by the same act the region north of Ohio was added to Indiana. In 1804, the form of territorial government was changed from the first to the second grade, thus giving Indiana a Legislature and a Delegate in Congress. The organization of Michigan Territory in 1805, and Illinois Territory in 1809, left Indiana with its present boundaries, and in December, 1816, the State of Indiana was admitted to the Union.
* Smith's History of Indiana, p. 42.
{ History of Notre Dame, p. 30.
# Jacob Piatt Dunn, in his History of Indiana, says "Indiana had no capital within her boundaries for one hundred and thirty years after white men had been upon her soil. She was but part of a province of a province. For ninety years her provincial seat of government vacillated between Quebec, New Orleans and Montreal, with intermediate authority at Fort Chartres and De- troit and the ultimate power at Paris. Then her capital was whisked away to London, without the slightest regard to the wishes of her scattered inhabitants, by the treaty of Paris. Six- teen years later, it came over the Atlantic to Richmond, on the James, by conquest; and after a tarry of five years at that point, it shifted to New York City, then the national seat of govern- ment, by cession. In 1788 it reached Marietta, Ohio, on its progress toward its final location. In 1800 it came within the limits of the State."
TOPOGRAPHY OF INDIANA
1. Highest elevation in the State-1,285 feet above sea level, Summit, Randolph county, eight miles south of Winchester.
2. Lowest elevation in the State-313 feet above sea level, at the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio rivers, Posey county.
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3. Average elevation above sea level-esti- mated to be 700 feet.
A topographic map of an area is an expression of the surface features of that area. Such a map could be absolutely true in detail only when based upon a system of contour lines having the smallest possible intervals.
The map herewith is not offered as a piece of perfect workmanship. The elevations were de- rived from the data published in the State Geolo- gist's Thirty-sixth Annual Report, and in the ab- sence of complete topographic contours the boundaries of areas of different elevations could not be established with exactness, but the bound- aries are generally true.
Could one but stand at some point in southeast- ern Indiana, say between the southeastern corner of Switzerland county and the southeastern cor- ner of Union county, and look westward or southwestward and see the outcropping features of the geological formations of the State, they would present an ascending series, geologically speaking, from the Lower Silurian, in the extreme southeastern part of the State, up to the highest formation, the Merom sandstone, along the Wa- bash river on the western side of the State. Above this of course is the glacial drift. Or, to put the matter in another way, the formations are successively younger as we ascend geologic- ally from the eastern and southeastern parts of the State to the western part, the sediments and drift of the western part having been laid last.
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