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 7
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* Dillon, p. 409.
t Ibid.
* The sub-title to J. P. Dunn's "Indiana" is "A Re ler ption From Slavery," and the book is primarily ah exha istive study of this particular question, which the author holls to be an im- portant formative factor in our history.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
to the whites at all. One of his first duties was the acquiring of land for the prospective com- monwealth to grow upon and his accomplishment to this end was one of his conspicuous services. The ownership was complicated, a number of tribes having overlapping claims to various parts of the territory desired, and treaties negotiated with these tribes by Harrison extended over a period of six years, or from 1803 to 1809. The fruit of this was five separate purchases within the present Indiana that comprised the whole southern portion of the State and lapped over into Illinois. Besides these there were other large tracts not within the present limits of our State. Subsequent purchases by other agents brought the number of tracts up to more than fifty before the entire State was secured, and the last one was made in 1840. These lands were paid for, chiefly, by such commodities as the Indians needed or fancied and by annual payments of money, and were trivial as compared with the value of the territory .*
Land Surveys; Rectangular System .- The first step, preparatory to settlement, was the sur- vey of the public lands as they were secured by the government. The system adopted was one that was elaborated for the public domain of the nation and dates back to 1785. It is known as the "rectangular system" and consists of series of east-and-west and north-and-south lines inter- secting each other so as to cover the face of the country with squares of an equal size called con- gressional townships. These rectangles, six miles square, are subdivided into thirty-six square miles of "sections." The measurements are made from base and meridian lines, each township be- ing numbered in its relations to these two lines. As numbered north or south from the base line they are described as a given number of town- ships. East or west from the meridian they oc- cupy a certain range. The sections are numbered from 1 to 36, beginning in the northeast corner of each township, running westward to 6, then eastward on the second tier to 12, and so on. Any- thing less than a section is described as a fraction of a specified section and its exact location given within the section. By this admirable system any tract in the State can be easily and accurately lo- cated and its boundaries defined, thus avoiding
the confusion and troubles that have arisen in some of the States, notably Kentucky, by reason of overlapping claims.
The Indiana base line, which was run in 1804, crosses the southern counties about the latitude of Vincennes. Our meridian runs a few miles west of the longitudinal center of the State, ex- tending from the Ohio river to the Michigan line. The location of these two principal lines was de- termined by the fact that the first tract to be sur- veyed by the general system west of Ohio was one adjacent to Vincennes, extending eastward to the point where the intersection of the lines was established. The surveys of the various" tracts shortly followed the purchases. Vincennes and its immediate surroundings and Clark's Grant show irregular surveys owing to the work being done before the introduction here of the govern- ment system.
The government surveyors not only established their measurements, but, incidentally, gathered much valuable information about the natural fea- tures and resources of the country which was carefully recorded in their field notes.
"In the land office at the statehouse in Indian- apolis may still be seen the drawings, together with the 'field notes' made by these early survey- ors of our State. They are in excellent condition, and not only show the surveys as they were made, but also the location of lands purchased from the Indians from time to time, the locations of the roads and canals through the State, and many other interesting things connected with the history and development of our State."
Land Sales and Land Offices .- As the lands were surveyed and put on sale land districts were established, each with its land office where pur- chasers entered their claims and secured the same by paying down one-fourth of the government price, which at one time was $2 per acre, and at another $1.50. The balance was paid in annual instalments and subject to forfeiture if the pay- ments fell delinquent. In time there was consid- erable trouble with delayed payments, and some legislation for relief.
The first land office in Indiana was established at Vincennes, March 26, 1804, with John Badol- let as register and Nathan Ewing as receiver.
* For map see p. 31. A full list of the purchases may be found in Smith's "History of Indiana."
* Mrs. Conklin's "Young People's History of Indiana" has a very informative chapter on the early surveys and land sales. See also map of government surveys in Indiana, by Prof. John Collett, in geological report for 1882.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
The second office was opened at Jeffersonville in 1807. Subsequent ones, as the acquired lands ex- tended northward, were at Brookville, Indian- apolis, Crawfordsville, Winamac and Fort Wayne.
Divisions of Indiana Territory .- Originally Indiana Territory extended westward to the Mis- sissippi and northward to the Canadian bound- ary. In 1805 a division was made by a line run- ning eastward from the southern extremity of
Ohio extended north to Canada till the forma- tion of the State of Ohio in 1802. when the coun- try cut off by Ohio's northern boundary was added to Indiana. The western boundary of Ohio as established at that time shifted the line that had previously formed the eastern boundary of Indiana, thus forming the "Gore."*
First Party Divisions .- The first party divi- sions in Indiana were not along the line of na- tional questions, but on local issues that aroused
-
Old Mill on Big Raccoon Creek near Armiesburg, in Parke County. The tradition is that William Henry Harrison encamped here with his troops on his way to the Battle of Tippecanoe. in 1811. Courtesy of A. H. Nordyke.
Lake Michigan and north of this line the Terri- tory of Michigan was created. Again, by a con- gressional act of February 3, 1809, all that coun- try lying west of the Wabash river and of a line drawn due north from Vincennes to the Cana- dian line was constituted a separate territory and called Illinois. This gave to Indiana its present limits except that subsequently the Michigan line was shifted ten miles north of the southern ex- tremity of the lake.
The eastern part of the Michigan peninsula was not at first a part of Indiana Territory, as the line separating the latter from what is now
considerable feeling and gave rise to factions as well as parties. Conspicuous among these issues were the question of permitting slavery and the division of the territory, the latter being more or less linked with the first. Knox county developed a dominating pro-slavery group with Harrison as its recognized head, and this was reinforced by the pro-slavery element in the Illinois country Clark county and the eastern side of the terri- tory was largely anti-slavery, with Jonathan Jen- nings as its most conspicuous champion. This di- vision existed until the formation of the State
+ See section "The Gore," p 4.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
Constitution fixed the status of the question in favor of anti-slavery. In 1805 one hundred and five anti-slavery residents of the Whitewater re- gion signed a memorial to Congress petitioning that their section be annexed to Ohio, the reason directly given being that while they were in easy communication with that State they were sep- arated from the Indiana seat of government by a wilderness that for many years would likely be unoccupied by any other than Indians. As these petitioners were, mainly, anti-slavery Quakers and entirely out of harmony with the party in power at Vincennes it is likely that the unex- pressed reasons were the strongest.
Again, in the same year, another petition asked that a latitudinal division of the territory be made and that the lands already purchased from the Indians, extending from the Miami to the Missis- sippi be made into a state. This would give Vin- cennes the central and logical position for the permanent capital, and was all to its advantage, and it was opposed by the Illinois residents who objected vigorously to the Vincennes domination. One source of dissension was the question of en- tering the second grade of government, the ar- gument against which was additional expenses and increased taxes without commensurate bene- fits ; the Harrison party came to be regarded with odium as "aristocrats," and, in short, the terri- tory with its internal animosities and factions was anything but a harmonious social unit .*
Extension of Suffrage .- For the first terri- torial grade the ordinance of 1787 conferred no rights of suffrage on the citizen. The governor and judges were installed by the federal govern- ment and the laws and courts, and all appoint- ments, both civil and military, were in their hands. The appointive power and general au- thority of the governor could be autocratic.
With the second grade, wherein a house of rep- resentatives was elected while the legislative council was appointed from Washington, the vot- ing was "restricted to those inhabitants who, in addition to other qualifications, owned, severally, at least fifty acres of land" (Dillon, p. 540). While the large powers of the governor were not abused by Harrison there was more or less chaf- ing under the restriction imposed upon the citi- zen. A law of 1807 modified the qualifications of
electors by a liberal construction of the ordi- nance, and Congress in 1808 modified them still more by extending the franchise to the owner of a town lot of the value of $100. Still Congress was petitioned, not only to further modity the qualifications but to make the legislative council and the territorial delegate to the federal body elective. The election of the delegate was granted in 1809, and in 1811 the right of voting was given to every free white male person who had attained the age of twenty-one, who had been a resident of the territory for one year, and who had paid a county territorial tax. In 1814 the law was made to read "every free white male person hav- ing a freehold in the territory and being a resi- dent in the same," the time of residence being eliminated. This year, also, Congress authorized the Legislature to lay off the territory into five districts of two counties each and extended to the voters the privilege of electing the members of the legislative council. The next step was the complete self-government granted by the act en- abling the territory to become a separate State . with its own constitution .*
First Original Laws .- The first laws in op- eration in Indiana Territory were a code com- piled by the governor and judges from the stat- utes of other States. In 1807 the Legislature which was established with the second grade of government (in 1805) passed the first laws orig- inal with the territory ; and these, together with the borrowed code as revised by John Rice Jones and John Johnson and amended by the Legisla- ture, were published the same year. "These old statutes relate principally to the organization of superior and inferior courts of justice : to the ap- pointments and duties of territorial and county offices ; to prisons and prison bounds ; to real es-
* Edward E. Moore, in his book, "A Century of Indiana," points out that the territorial government really contained very little that was democratic. As he says: "The governor, the sec- retary, the judges and one branch of the Legislature were ap- pointed by the president and congress, and the minor officers, including the magistrates and civil officers in the counties and townships, were appointive by the governor. The people had the bare privilege of electing the members of the lower house of the Legislature under the second grade of government. Even then they were hedged about with residence, race and property qual- ifications until the franchise was enjoyed by a small percentage of the population only. Such property qualifications were also required of the officers to be appointed or elected as to insure their selection from the wealthier and more favored classes. The governor was made a part of the Legislature and at the same time had the power of absolute veto over its acts. He also had authority to convene, prorogue or dissolve the assembly when he saw fit.
* For a lengthy study of the political conditions during the territorial days, see Dunn's "Indiana."
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
tate, interest on money, marriages, divorces, li- censes, ferries, grist mills, elections, punishment of crimes and misdemeanors, militia, roads and highways, estrays, trespassing animals, enclosure and cultivation of common fields, relief of the poor, taverns, improving the breed of horses, taxes and revenues, negroes and mulattoes under indenture as servants, fees of officers, sale of in- toxicating liquors, relief of persons imprisoned for debt, killing wolves, prohibiting the sale of arms and ammunition to Indians and certain other persons, the standard of weights and meas- ures, vagrants, authorizing aliens to purchase and hold real estate in the territory, the incorporation of a university, the Vincennes library, the bor- ough of Vincennes, the town of Jeffersonville, the Wabash Baptist Church, etc.
"By the provisions of the territorial code of 1807 the crimes of treason, murder, arson and horse-stealing were each punishable by death. The crime of manslaughter was punishable ac- cording to the common law. The crimes of bur- glary and robbery were each punishable by whip- ping, fine and, in some cases, by imprisonment not exceeding forty years. Riotous persons were punishable by fine and imprisonment. The crime of larceny was punishable by fine or whipping and, in certain cases, by being bound to labor for a term not exceeding seven years. Forgery was punishable by fine, disfranchisement and stand- ing in the pillory. Assault and battery as a crime, was punishable by fine not exceeding $100. Hog- stealing was punishable by fine and whipping. Gambling, profane swearing and Sabbath-break- ing were each punishable by fine. Bigamy was punishable by fine, whipping and disfranchise- ment" (Dillon). Debtors were not only impris- oned, but when liberated could be sued by the sheriff for maintenance, thus incurring, perforce, more debt. Paupers could be "farmed out" for their maintenance to the lowest bidders at "pub- lic vendue or outcry." For altering brands on do- mestic animals one, for the second offense, might be branded on the hand with a letter "T" (for thief ), burned in with a red-hot iron, while for manslaughter he might be similarly branded with "M. S." Disobedient children or servants could be sent to jail or a house of correction till they should "humble themselves to the said parent's or master's satisfaction." For mayhem one could "be sold to service by the court for any
time not exceeding five years." As an offset to the fierceness of these laws it should be said that they seemed to be more or less dead letter relics of an earlier day, for we hear little of the worst of the penalties being inflicted. Very few, if any, were hung for horse-stealing, yet horse-stealing was practised : and as to mayhem, in a rude fight- ing age, when gouging and biting was the ap- proved method, it was one of the commonest of crimes, and it is doubtful if any one ever spent five years in virtual slavery for so popular a sport. Another illustration of the crudeness of the laws was the legislation against Sabbath breaking, profane swearing, fisticuffs, cock fight- ing, horse racing, and various kinds of gambling, all of which misdemeanors were practised with
.
First Buildings on Indiana University Campus.
very little interference. The most incongruous of all was the direct forbidding of lotteries by a statute that was approved and signed the same day as another law authorizing a lottery for the benefit of Vincennes University .*
Difficulties of Early Judiciary .- One of the problems of the territorial period was that of a satisfactory judiciary system, the source of trou- ble being an imperfect adjustment between the federal and the legislative powers. A memorial by the Legislature laid before Congress as late as 1814 thus sets forth the difficulty :
"By a law of Congress one of the judges ap- pointed by virtue of the ordinance for the gov- ernment of this territory. is authorized to hold a court. Thus one of the [federal] judges, being competent to hold a court, may decide a princi- ple or a point of law at one term, if the other two
+ See laws of 1807.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
judges are present, they may decide the same principle or point of law different. Thus the de- cisions of the superior court, organized, we pre- sume, by the general government finally to settle in uniformity the principles of law and fact which may be brought before them by suitor, may be, and frequently are, in a state of fluctuation ; hence the rights of persons and property become insecure. There is another evil growing out of the system of one judge being competent to hold the superior court, or that court which forms the last resort of the suitor in any government, and particularly in the territory; for appeals are taken from all the courts of inferior jurisdiction in the territory to the court organized by the ordinance, which inferior courts are never con- stituted of less than two judges. Thus the suitor in the territory is frequently driven to the neces- sity of appealing from the judgment of two men to that of one. But this dilemma only constitutes part of the solecism for the next superior court, as the other two judges may overturn the prin- ciples of the decision of their brother judge at the preceding term. Hence the want of uniformity in the decisions of the court of the last resort. Anger and warmth in the suitors and a confusion in our system of jurisprudence is the result."
Prior to this memorial the Legislature had at- tempted to correct the defects, but they lay be- yond its power. In response to the appeal a con- gressional act of February 24, 1815, provided that there should serve at least two judges of the superior court.
First Banks .- In 1814 the territorial legis- lature chartered the two first banking institutions in the territory -- "The Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Indiana," at Madison, by an act of Sep- tember 6, and "The Bank of Vincennes," on Sep- tember 10. The property of the former was lim- ited to $750,000 and that of the latter to $500,- 000. Both charters were granted till 1835. On January 1, 1817, the Vincennes institution was adopted as the State Bank of Indiana and it was authorized to increase its capital by a million dol- lars, to be divided into ten thousand shares of $100. It was also empowered to adopt the Farm- ers' and Mechanics' Bank as one of its branches. Before 1821 other branches were established at Brookville, Corydon and Vevay. The State Bank became so dishonest that in 1822 the Legislature proceeded against it and deprived it of its fran-
chises after proving sundry crimes including em- bezzlement .*
Industrial Beginnings. - The remoteness from the markets of the world and poor trans- portation facilities discouraged manufacturing industries throughout the territorial period; hence agriculture was the almost universal indus- try. A census of 1810 shows that in a population of 24,520, there were 33 grist mills, 14 saw mills, 3 horse mills, 18 tanneries, 28 distilleries, 3 pow- der mills, 1,256 looms and 1,350 spinning wheels. The value of the products, as estimated, were : "Woollen, cotton, hempen and flaxen cloths and mixtures, $159,052; cotton and wool spun in mills, $150; nails (20,000 pounds). $4,000; leather, tanned, $9,300; products of distilleries (35,950 gallons), $16,230; gunpowder (3,600 pounds), $1,800; wine from grapes (96 barrels), $6,000 ; maple sugar, 50,000 pounds manufac- tured, value not stated" (Dillon). Even this modest showing must be examined if we would form a true estimate of the manufacturing indus- tries as detached from the ordinary industry of the people at large. By far the largest item given, that of fabrics for clothing, was almost entirely the products of the home loom and spinning wheel, the mill products being valued at $150 only. More or less of the leather was home- tanned ; many of the nails, doubtless, were the output of the village smithy, and the maple sugar was, perhaps, wholly a home article. It may be pointed out that the item of liquor seems quite disproportionate to the population and the other industrial products. In fact, the first separate in- dustries to spring up in the beginning of our sys- tem were the grist-mill, the saw-mill and the dis- tillery.
Agriculture was in a primitive stage. The fa- cilities were crude, the crops raised, few, and the rude farms were won slowly from the wilderness only by vast labor, but farming was the hope of the country, and as early as 1809 we find in exist- ence the "Vincennes Society for the Encourage- ment of Agriculture and the Useful Arts," with Governor Harrison as its presiding officer. One writer states that this society was the forerunner of the State Board of Agriculture, and that within a few months after its organization it dis-
* For history of banking see Esarey's "History of Indiana," "The State Bank of Indiana," by W. F. Harding in Journal of Political Economy, Dec. 1895, and chapter in Smith's Hist. Ind.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
tributed $400 in premiums. In the columns of the only newspaper, The Western Sun, we also find occasional communications urging interest in this direction. In one of these hemp is sug- gested as a crop so desirable that associations ought to be formed to promote its production. Its value is given as $110 per ton and its yield as a ton to two or three acres. The raising of sheep is also urged by this paper.
Educational Beginnings .- Despite the en-
isted from a very early date, though records con- cerning them are meager and somewhat conflict - ing. The very first one of any kind, so far as these vague records indicate, seems to have been an Indian school located at a Delaware village on White river where it crosses the line between Marion and Johnson counties, the solitary testi mony to it being a casual allusion found in John Tipton's journal of his trip as a commissioner to locate a site for the State capital, in 1820. This
3
5
4
6
The First Buildings of : 1. Wabash College. 2. Earlham College. 3. Hanover. 1853-4. 4. Northwestern University, now Butler College. 5. Franklin College. 6. Notre Dame.
couraging policy of the United States govern- ment from the beginning and donation of school lands, the difficulties incident to the pioneer con- dition of the country prevented the development of any system of popular education during the territorial period, though Governor Harrison and other friends of education kept in sight the American policy, as voiced in the Ordinance of 1787, that "religion, morality and knowledge be- ing necessary to good government and the happi- ness of mankind, schools and the means of edu- cation shall forever be encouraged."
An uncertain number of private schools ex- 4
passage, speaking of the spot above mentioned says : "I am told there was once an Indian village here. Wm. Landers, who lives one mile back from the river, told me that an Indian said the French once lived here and that the Indian went to school to a Frenchman in this place but they left it about the time of Hardin's campaign which [ was ] about 33 years ago."* Hardin's campaign was in 1789, a little later than the time indicated by Tipton.
The first white schools are generally thought to have been among the French, and conducted
* Ind. Quar. Mag. Hist., vd. i. p. 13.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
by Catholic priests. The earliest claims made for these was one taught at Vincennes by Father Flaget, in 1792, and another by Father Rivet, in 1796. It is possible, however, that the first American schools dated back quite that far, as the earliest American settlements at Vincennes and at Clark's Grant antedated those years. Ac- cording to Judge D. D. Banta, who has delved industriously in this subject, there is evidence of a school in Dearborn county prior to 1802, and there is a claim for one in Clark's Grant, one and a half miles south of Charlestown, in 1803 .* It may be added that as Clark's Grant, three years before that, had 929 residents, twenty or thirty families having come as early as 1784, it is not at all likely that this school of 1803 was the first. Of course, these rude first schools multiplied as the population increased, though, as implied above, there is now no way of ascer- taining their number.
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