USA > Indiana > Henry County > Hazzard's history of Henry county, Indiana, 1822-1906, Volume II > Part 44
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For sometime after this date access to the present site of the county asylum was not possible by direct road from New Castle, on account of the swamp made by the spreading waters of Blue River, but a road was blazed northward past the old Woodward homestead for some distance which then made a circuit to the west, avoiding the marshes in the bottoms. Subsequently the Cadiz road was built running directly west out Broad Street and the county asylum was reached by a road running north, a mile west of New Castle, past the Catholic cemetery and many years later the Northwestern pike was constructed extending in a northwesterly direction through the Blue River bottom and bisecting the land belonging to the county asylum, formerly the Indian village of White Raven.
WOODVILLE.
This old and now obliterated village is situated in Greensboro Township. nine miles west and one mile south of west from the court house in New Castle, and is in the N. W. 1/4 of the N. E. 14of Sec. 19, Tp. 17 N., R. 9 E., and was laid out and platted by James Atkinson and acknowledged May 30, 1836, and contains eight blocks, consisting of forty eight lots.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
John Judge's addition, situated immediately north of the original plat, on the east side of Main Street, was platted August 20, 1855, and was acknowledged by John Judge on the same date and contains two blocks, consisting of six lots. The main street of the village running east and west was and is the boundary line between Harrison and Greensboro townships. Woodville never got beyond two scores of hotises and now there remain but two or three dilapidated places to mark its former site.
There never was a postoffice in the village. At one time a store owned by Alfred Jackson and Leonard Fowler flourished there and at the same time a physician named Wilson C. Olden pursued the practise of medicine. Like many other villages located before the days of railroads, Woodville went into decline on their adyent to more favored towns. The village probably took its name from the dense forests which surrounded it at the time it was located.
CHAPTER XLIII.
HENRY COUNTY OFFICIAL REGISTER.
GENERAL STATEMENT OF POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND PARTY LINES-CLERK- AUDITOR - RECORDER - SHERIFF - TREASURER - ASSESSOR - COLLEC- TOR - COMMISSIONERS - CORONER - SURVEYOR - SUPERINTENDENTS OF COUNTY SCHOOLS - COUNTY COUNCIL - TOWNSHIP ADVISORY BOARDS - COUNTY ATTORNEY-DRAINAGE COMMISSIONERS-COURT HOUSE JANITOR- COURT BAILIFFS-BIOGRAPHICAL MENTION.
In making up the Official Register of Henry County, showing who have been its officers from its organization to the present time, it is proper to consider the political divisions that have existed since the county was formed ; and to make clear the reasons for divisions on party lines, it is necessary to refer briefly to the political divisions that have existed since the United States became a nation ; in fact to get a clear view of political divisions it is necessary to consider those ex- isting between the colonies and the mother country before the Revolution and the differences between the colonies during the existence of the confederacy, im- mediately following the Revolutionary War, as well as the political conditions which developed after the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. Im- mediately following the Revolution there was nearly as much difference of ma- terial and political interests, real or imaginary, between the thirteen common- wealths forming the confederacy as there had been between the colonies and England before their separation, and it looked for a time as if the fruits of the struggle for independence would be lost and the confederacy dissolved by reason of those conflicting interests.
Several efforts were made to get the colonies to unite in an offensive and de- fensive alliance and a few of the far-seeing men of the country, notably Ben- jamin Franklin and Robert Morris, of Pennsylvania. James Madison, of Virginia, and the Pinckneys, of South Carolina and Maryland, carly advocated a general government for all the colonies. But the rivalries and jealousies which had grown up between them, especially the rivalries and jealousies between the different sea- port towns, such as New York. Boston, Providence. Philadelphia, Wilmington. Baltimore and Charleston, as to which should be the great commercial city long constituted a formidable obstacle. Each of the colonies was absolutely independ- ent of its neighbors and the colonies in which the cities named were situate were outhidding each other for foreign trade and by various means and strate- gems seeking to divert trade to their own ports. It was for this reason that the clause was introduced into the Constitution of the United States which forbade any discrimination between the ports of the United States: or, in other words,
CLERK
AT
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S
ER
DR. GEORGE
E
R K
SHIRK
BENJAMIN
JOHN
HUDELSON
SIONER
REPRESENTATIVE
SIMON
T. POWELL
REPRESENTATIVE
H. COOPER
ROBERT
& JOHN
MILLIKAN
R.
BEN.
S. PARKER
IN
N
W. BURI
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HENRY COUNTY OFFICIALS.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
declaring that duties should be uniform at all of the ports. Another obstacle was the dispute between New York and New Hampshire as to which of the two owned the territory now embraced in the State of Vermont, and a greater obsta- cle in this direction was the disputes and jealousies existing between New Hamp- shire, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Delaware on the one side, and the colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia on the other side, on account of the vast public domains claimed by the latter colonies outside of their original boundaries and jurisdiction, thus making the outlook for any unity of action between them very dark. Another serious dispute between the colonies, or at least such of them as contained navigable rivers running through two or more colonies, was the right of complete navigation of the rivers; that is, that a boat bound from a port in one colony should have unrestricted navigation to the ports of another colony. This was denied and vexatious restrictions were place 1 on vessels bound from the ports of one to the ports of another colony. This question was settled in the convention by that clause of the Constitution giving Congress exclusive power to regulate commerce between the States, which gives the general government absolute control of the navigable waters flowing through two or more States. As the word "State" is now for the first time used in this ar- ticle, it is proper to say that before the adoption of the Declaration of Independ- ence there were no States, but the thirteen original States were separate and in- dependent sovereign governments, each refusing allegiance to any higher authority. Another fear that arose can be best described by taking the case of Pennsylvania. Her fear was that if she united in a general government with the small colonies, like Delaware, that they might unite in levying a direct tax on her vast empire of unsettled land extending to the head waters of the Ohio River. Still an- other fear which was common to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Vir- ginia was that if they went into a general government that the northern colonies might unite and interfere with their great domestic instituion, African slavery, and the distinguished Virginian, Patrick Henry, opposed the formation of the Federal union to the very last, on the ground that the Southern colonies were uniting in a common government which gave Congress the power to abolish slavery, which it did three quarters of a century afterwards. These two last questions were con- promised in the Constitution by that clause which bases direct taxation by the gen- eral government upon population and not upon property, and by the further com- promise which gave to the slave-holding colonies the right to count three-fifths of their slaves as a basis of representation in Congress, and which prohibited inter- ference with the African slave trade before 1808.
But probably the greatest bone of contention was as to the disposal of the vast tracts of land, claimed by some of the colonies, west of the Alleghanies and west and north of the Ohio River, and those which Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia claimed, lying south of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi River. It was contended that all of this land should be ceded to the proposed central govern- ment for the benefit of all, and this was finally done. The colonies of Virginia and Connecticut united in ceding all of their western territory for the benefit of the proposed new government, and this vast domain was formed into the Northwest Territory with its seat of government at Marietta, Ohio, and out of which the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and that part of Minnesota,
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
lying east of the Mississippi River, have since been formed. This territory be- longed mainly to Virginia and the colony having the next largest interest was Con- necticut, which owned all that part of Ohio bordering on Lake Erie, after- ward known as the Western Reserve. New York and Pennsylvania made claim to a part of this territory but it was resisted by Virginia. Then Virginia, always in the advance, under the leadership of James Madison, the protege of Thomas Jefferson, united with North Carolina and Georgia and relinquished their rights to what are now the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and all that part of Louisiana east of the Mississippi River to the proposed general gov- ernment, and this territory was organized into what was known as the Southwest Territory, which was governed from Knoxville, Tennessee. Thus the principal ob- jections being removed and the demand for some central authority becoming more and more imperative and the fact that Great Britain refused to carry out her treaty stipulation regarding the independence of the colonies on the ground that there was no central and binding authority in them, finally brought about the convention which formed the Constitution of the United States. This convention met at Phil- adelphia on May 25. 1787, and was in session until September 17. 1787. The result of its deliberations was the present Constitution less the fifteen amend- ments that have since been added. It was under this Constitution that the govern- ment was put in operation, March 4, 1789, though Washington was not formally inducted into the office of president until April 30th, following.
One might have thought that after all the labor and patience that had been expended in getting the convention together, in forming the Constitution and in organizing the government under it, that there would have been some unity of opin- ion as to what the instrument, in its grants, reservations and implied powers. meant ; but no sooner had the government been formed than violent discussions and divisions arose over its meaning. Some of the questions then raised have not been settled unto this day, the last discussion of the implied powers occurring in the de- cision by the Supreme Court, hy a vote of five to four, of what are known as the "Insular cases," which defines the present relations of the Philippine Islands to the general government. Two parties at once arose. The one claimed that the Constitu- tion should be liberally construed, and that it was as elastic as if it had been made of India rubber, and that all the power possible should be centered in the general government to the exclusion of the power of the State governments. This party took the name of "Federal" which is in effect the Republican party of to day. They were generally known at first-in fact the term is still applicable-as "Loose Construc- tionists." The other party claimed that the Constitution should be strictly con- strued ; that the government of the United States and of the States was a govern- ment of distributive powers. This party took the name of "Republican," and its ad- herents were known as "Strict Constructionists," which is in effect the Democratic party of to day, claiming from the very foundation of the government that the central government shall be clothed with as little internal power as possible at the expense of the States. Hence it was that Jefferson, in his first inaugural, said : "We are all Federalists, we are all Republicans."
Washington was a moderate Federalist, but he surrounded himself with the extremes of the two parties. Alexander Hamilton, his first Secretary of the Treasury, led the Federal party, while Thomas Jefferson, his Secretary of State,
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
heli the same relation to the Republicans. Washington was succeeded by a Fed- tralist, his vice president during both terms, John Adams, of Massachusetts, who) succeeded in making his party so very obnoxious through the Alien and Sedition Laws that the election of 1800 resulted in his defeat and the selection of Thomas Jefferson as President. Shortly after this Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr, and thus the party of loose construction and centralized power lost its ·first and greatest leader. Jefferson succeeded himself. Then came the contro- versy with England and France over the Berlin and Milan decrees and the great questions relating to our commerce all of which grew out of the wars between England and France. The embargo was laid by Jefferson and this bore most heavily upon the commercial colonies of the North and particularly of New. England, which then controlled the deep water tonnage of the United States. Afterward under Madison came the second war with England. To this war all of New England, in fact most of the Federalists were violently opposed, and were called the "Blue Lighted Federalists" from the fact that they were accused of build- ing blue lights on the shores of New England to pilot vessels into port contrary to the embargo. They were also accused of being what was known in the Civil War times as "blockade runners". The governors of Massachusetts and Vermont and. perhaps, of some other States even went so far in their opposition to Mr. Madison and his conduct of the war of 1812-15 that they sought to withdraw their respective State troops, then at the front, from the authority of the general government. The extreme Federalists called a convention at Hartford, Connecticut, the ultimate ob- ject of which it was charged was to dissolve the Union. This convention has been known in history ever since as the "Hartford Convention," which drew an address to Congress, demanding certain proposed relief and appointed a committee, the head of which was Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts, Washington's second Sec- retary of State, to carry the petition to Congress and if the proposed relief therein prayed for was not granted, then it was charged the Hartford Convention was to reassemble and formally proceed to dissolve the American union. This was all in the autumn of 1814. Congress did not meet until December, the committee did not get to Washington until the January following, and when it did arrive, it found that Andrew Jackson had fought and gained the battle of New Orleans and that peace had been declared between Great Britain and the United States. The address to Congress was not delivered. The result was that "Hartford Convention" became a very odious term and the Federalists of that day found themselves in a very unenviable position. They were without political influence, in fact they were held up to universal condemnation and detestation. The result was that in 1816 the Federalist candidate for president, Rufus King, so far as the returns were con- cerned, hardly knew that he was running for the office. James Monroe was elected president by the first great land-slide majority. So odious was Federalism made through the Hartford Convention and the alleged blue lights on the coast of New England that the party for the time became extinct, and in 1820, Monroe was re- elected president without any opposing candidate against him, and he received every electoral vote cast, except one from New England, which was withheld on the ground that no president other than Washington should be the unanimous choice of the people.
The second term of Monroe, extending from March 4. 1821. to March 4. 1825. was then known and is now commonly referred to as the "Era of
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
Good Feeling." there being, so far as surface indications were concerned, but one political party in the United States. It was during this era of good feeling in 1822 that Henry County was organized. Hence there were no political divisions in the county. However, the practically unanimous election of Monroe was only a calm preceding the storm. Whereas in 1820 there had been but one presidential candi- date and a campaign free from excitement, there were four candidates in 1824, and a campaign full of excitement. Up to this time and until 1832 such a thing as a national convention to nominate candidates for the presidency was unknown. It took nearly half a century of the existence of the government to evolve a national convention. Up to 1828 the candidates for the presidency were put in nomination .by a caucus of the members of Congress representing different parties, or by the State legislatures nominating a candidate and commending hitn to other States.
Under the surface, the conditions had been working during the era of good feel- ing to bring about in the United States another division on party lines and in 1824, the campaign was what would now be called a "Free for All." The caucuses of the members of Congress broke up into cliques, with the result that there were nomi- nated John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Henry Clay of Kentucky, William H. Crawford of Georgia and Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, none of them, however, running as Federalists ; at that time at least all professed different shades of the Republican belief. No candidate had a majority, the vote being for Adams 84. for Clay 37, for Crawford 41, for Jackson 99. As a result, the election for the second time went into the house of representatives. The supporters of Adams and Clay united and Adams was elected. In this campaign in Henry County the voters, all classified as Republicans, were divided only as "Adams men." "Clay men." "Jackson men," with possibly an occasional "Crawford man." The vote is not obtainable in the office of the County Clerk nor of the Secretary of State. The adherents of Jackson immediately set up a great cry that their candidate, having received many more electoral votes than Adams, had been defrauded of the office, as John Randolph of Roanoke declared in the halls of Congress, by a coalition between a Puritan (Adams) and a black leg (Clay), Mr. Clay being so stigma- tized by the erratic Virginian on account of his fondness for attending the Ken- tucky horse races and wagering his money on a favorite.
The legislature of Tennessee soon after nominated Jackson for president and he was thus kept continually before the voters until the election of 1828 came around, when he was triumphantly elected, the opposing vote being cast for Adams. The voters in Henry County were classified as either "Adams men" (the followers of Clay were supporters of Mr. Adams) or "Jackson men," but the vote is not obtain- able. Mr. Clay, then in the Senate from Kentucky, soon quarreled with Jackson : in fact, the quarrel dated back to 1824 and perhaps before, and it is more proper to say, immediately after Jackson's term of office began, March 4. 1829. Mr. Clay and his supporters began in Congress the formation of an opposition party. However, not much headway at first was made. Jackson being elected over Henry Clay by a large majority in 1832. Jackson was this time nominated by a national convention held in Baltimore, Maryland, the first of its kind in the history of the government. The vote in Henry County was 767 for Clay and 580 for Jackson. The opposition continued formidable. They were not content to be known as
Republi ans, so they were gin to lar .. a . nal Renwvilans th - ogw-ny . r Jackson and his administration rabene the name of 'Den mai (amico the National Repub cans had taken . - zame of This': 10- ! em at. - Demor an the name of "Democrat." Thus the Ka crear partie, wera .s al li. hed in Amap ) 6 tics. ani have so continual into r .. . or sent da, the Revi . an @ 12 .. . the Whig party IDe name Whig losing its popularin i's influen - an. . . art through its opposition to the Mexican War. The Republi an party was formaur orga .: ized for the presidential ampaign of 1956. . 's first presi len ial and a. p.g Cerral John C. Fremont.
With the campaign of 1836 politi al di i ion tesame compete in Han ~ Cont. he Whig party being argely in the ascendant. The author has was. fiel rhe pe . . a. l g- ions in the county as dating from 1995-T. Prior to this "ime and la es were pred lu for office without regard to political affi. ations, and up to rats rime no such thing as a nomin- ating convention had ever been heard ot in Henry County "he niu ster "he i'fe en ofices being designated usually by conference of some of de Chuler Den the fin usually headed by Dr. Joel Reed. Since the time 10 5-" man other than a or Repub ican has been e evated to office in Henry County. with ray "que ex epr. n. Miles Murphey, then a Democrat, but after the repea' of he M'ssonti 0 mp m'se n 1954. a Republican. and then again after the Civi War a Democrar. ro the end of h's life. was in 1837 elected a member of the lower house i he g nera assem - This vas an exceptional ase, as Mr. Murphey was a very popular man. and. next "or Joel Reed. probably then the leading citizen of the Sunry. In 7839 Thomas G on. a Moderate Demo- crat. was elected sheriff. This was another v.rv ex :epriona. ase (rinn Finning not inon a party platform but on his personal popularity and the recori har he had made n many previous positions of public trus in the county From the annual election of 1838 in Henry County may date the history of county conventions and he nomination of regular party candidates. Up to about the beginning of the C: War he Whigs and Republicans. as well as the Democrats. had always nominated a delegate on en ion but since that time the Republican nominations have been made ir a primary election. No other party than the Republican has made its nominations by a primary 'n Henry County.
The Whigs continued largely in the ascendancy in the county inti 9. when as strange a mixture of political affiliations as was erer known was om'inel in one on- vention which nominared what would now be known as fusion and lares. all of whom except one were elected. In that year there were o be elected three is egates to the proposed convention to form a new constitution of the State. The Whigs nom nared as delegate to the convention Daniel Mason. of Wayne Township Isaa Parker f Frank- lin . Dr. George H. Ba engal . of Fall Creek. fr senator WWWam A. Rifner of Prairie. for representative. William W W' "ams, of Spice and for sheriff. Samue Hazzard fa- ther of the author of th's History of Henry In opposition there was a in mn f the Democrats. Free-so'l Whigs opposed to the extension is avery Ajo tion ers an Pro- hibitionists, who nominated as de ega".s. Isaa' Kin.er and Daniel Mowrer . Henry Township, and John F. Johnston. of Prairie- : r sena r Ezekle T H'ckman. Prairie for representative. Isaac H. Morris, ri Wayne for sh.riff. Ish a Jene n. H.arv Every one of these andidates. ex e r JUEn F Johnsr n. was er.i 'e 'ng ie. at. bv Dr. George H. Ballengal .. The Democra's in this isien " encon's share. ev rr candidate on the t'.ket was a straigh! it and r Dem ra- - x epr Isaa Kinier wh stood as the lone representative of the Abovinas s. the Free so. Whigs ani As Pri- hibitionists. From that alec on to he fresen r'me nor a single man t- an 1 2 or Republican has ever been elee ell to fire Herrera ne instances has any one except a member of he ioninan art been E district in which Henry County formed a part "he exertion being in the ass Ante R. A. Thompson and Exum Saint. bo h fusionists, to the lower house i "he general assembly in 1874 and 1878 respec iver, as is fi - ser 10 0 1je == e 12 ha =r where their election is recorded and Charles M. B ._- r { Knightsr wh. . erer se- ing att r." and Calvin W Thompson ' An sin. se val Us'a ".
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
old common pleas court, as is more fully described under the head of "Henry County Courts" in the succeeding chapter. In 1890 a fusion ticket was nominated by a joint convention of Democrats, Populists and Prohibitionists; while they greatly reduced the usual Republican majority, they failed to elect any of their candidates.
In this connection it may be interesting to consider in detail the vote of Henry County, relating to the formation and adoption of the present constitution of the State.
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