USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time > Part 13
USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time, centennial ed. > Part 13
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About 1843 there arose a religious frenzy over the immediate second advent of Christ, which swept over the country, and made a distinct impression on certain temperaments in Indiana. The belief in the speedy return of Christ for a glorious reign on earth has always elicited enthusiasm, and in the early part of
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the nineteenth century, in New England, William Miller became the founder of a sect holding peculiar views on the subject of the millennium. His followers increased until there were over 50,000 people in America and England who had embraced his hopes. The Millerites believed that their leader had found out the meaning of Daniel's incomprehensible prophecies ; that he had worked out like a sum in arithmetic, the exact day when the end of the world was to come, and that was in August, 1843. They became fanatically responsive to the exhortation to be ready for the immediate Judgment Day, and thought the clergy inconsistent, who professed to believe in prophecy and yet discarded this revelation. These teachings had spread over the East, and made their way as far as the Western frontier.
The fierce polemical discussions and the conclusive sectarianism of that day had taught the people any- thing but the "modesty of true science, " and we are told by the people who were living at that time, that the unsolvable problems of the centuries were taken out of the hands of puzzled scholars, and settled summarily and positively by the imaginative laymen.
Many persons in various parts of the country had become such fanatics that they had sold or given away their lands and possessions, in awestruck an- ticipation of the immediate end of all things; also as a testimony to their belief. Shrewd sharpers played upon credulity and bought up for a small pittance the property of the deluded. This happened in various localities east and west. Later, when the catastrophe did not take place, there were many lawsuits and lifelong feuds over property so disposed of. We are told by old citizens who remember this wave of fanat-
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icism, that trade took up the craze. One enterprising manufacturer had table covers of oil-cloth, printed, on which was a design of a wheel displaying all these figures of Daniel's prophecies. They were eagerly bought by the deluded followers, and were used long after the failure of the millennium to appear; and the ascension robes did duty as frocks for festival oc- casions. After months of preaching and exhortation to be ready for the end, the religious excitement reached its culmination as the tenth and eleventh of August came on. Some made ascension robes. Work was suspended everywhere. The people who did not believe in the new cult, felt sorry for the frenzy of the deluded ones and wished the time were passed.
A witness of the scene said that the sun on the eleventh of August rose gloriously. People pointed to it with trembling and said it would rise no more. Men said: "Behold the beginning of the fervent heat that shall melt the elements." Night grew on, and every "shooting star" was a new sign of the end. In their different neighborhoods the people assembled out of doors to await the coming. They sang hymns, exhorted each other, shouted with excitement, some fainted from sheer terror, and some nervous temper- aments lost their reason during the strain of the last hours. In many districts the torrid summer heat was broken by violent thunder-storms, which added to the agitation and terror of the excited multitudes. The lightning flashed, and the rain poured down in torrents on the kneeling congregations.
When the tragical night had passed, without the day of judgment being ushered in, and the clear fresh morning dawned, cool and refreshed by the rains, it found the credulous people dazed and exhausted.
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The reaction, was, in many ways, disastrous to belief and morals.
Early settlers from the Atlantic States, had never known of Sunday-schools, and brought no plans with them for such services. Indeed many church members in Eastern cities at that time would not permit their children to attend the "new fangled " Sabbath-schools. The little children sat, or slept, through three-hour sermons, and that was the limit of their Sabbath-day diversions. In Indiana, as elsewhere, when Sunday- schools were inaugurated they were used to instruct children and adults, how to read; and many an ignorant pioneer youth has learned his letters from Watts's Hymns or the Bible. One of the verses com- mitted to memory by the children of those days will give an idea of the cheerful character of the theology taught:
"Why should I love my sports so well, So constant at my play, And lose the thoughts of heaven and hell; And then forget to pray?"
From Historical Sketches of Sunday-school Work by Wm. H. Levering, who spent his life in the work, and sixty years of that time laboring in the Indiana field, we learn the following facts regarding Sabbath-schools in Indiana :
"While much has been done and written about the early churches yet almost no mention was made of Sunday- schools. This was owing to the fact that there were but a few or none; for be it known that prior to a half a cen- tury ago, Sunday-schools were in disfavor with a large number of the churches. The writer well remembers that
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in his earliest experiences the churches gave a cold shoulder to Sunday-Schools, faithful women persisted in maintaining them, and in time, when their great value as a 'nursery of the church' was forced upon the attention of the ruling members the church opened its heart and its doors."1
In the year 1828, a young Christian missionary came from Connecticut to Washington in Daviess County, Indiana, the Reverend Ransom Hawley, and much of his earliest efforts and time were devoted to or- ganizing and building up Sunday-schools in Washing- ton, and its vicinity. The houses of worship were cold, and many of these country schools could not be kept open in the winter months. Mr. Hawley has recorded that
"some who commenced with the alphabet can now read. Those who religiously instruct their offspring have found Sabbath-schools not interfering with their rights, but an auxiliary in bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
This old memorandum reminds us of two facts re- garding the changes since the Sabbath-school movement began. Now spelling lessons are no longer necessary, and to-day, perhaps, the Bible training is largely from the Sunday-school, instead of at the mother's knee. Committing verses of Scripture to memory was a marked feature of the teaching in those days. Whole books of the Bible were recited each Sabbath. Great familiarity with the text of Holy Writ was acquired and remained in the memory.
1 Levering, Wm. H., Pamphlet, Historical Sketches." La Fayette, 1906.
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Reverend Hawley adds:
" At first our books were the New Testament and Watts's Psalms and Hymns. On August 7, 1829, we sent $40.373 to New Albany for books. These were library books published by the American Sunday-school Union, and spelling books published by the same society. All of these schools were conducted on Union principles-that is all denominations participating. I do not know of any other kind of schools until after 1840. My journeying in preach- ing was done mostly on horseback, and I have ridden thus more than 90,000 miles. One, Reverend Isaac Reed, Presbyterian missionary, arrived in New Albany in 1818 and there organized the first Sunday-school in Indiana."
After two previous short-lived attempts, a per- manent organization of the State Sabbath-school forces was accomplished in 1865 and is still flourishing under the name of the Indiana State Sunday-school Union. The last statistics that he records gives the number of Sabbath-schools in the State as 5617; officers and teachers, 45,600; scholars, 515,568. Mr. Levering was nine times elected president of this State union. As in other States the Sabbath-schools of Indiana now may truly be called the Church at work.
In the temperance work, the early churches took little part; but their good membership formed various organizations for the control of the liquor traffic and the persuasion of the intemperate. The first tem- perance paper published in the West is credited to an Indiana man. John W. Osborne, a worthy citizen of Greencastle began issuing the Temperance Advo- cate, in 1834; and for many years he sent out this sheet at his own expense. There have been many temperance organizations of Christian people since
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then and the sentiment against general drinking is very different from pioneer times.
The student of the early history of the Western States will find in the reminiscences of old settlers no more interesting chapters than their recollections of the pioneer churches and their ministers. Into the fruits of their ardent labors, the present gener- ations have entered; their memories are a heritage. Here, the subject may only be brought in as one of the influences in the development of the State. In- diana's obligation to these influences cannot be cal- culated. The present and future generations can scarcely measure their indebtedness to those devoted Christian forefathers. A record of their labors in their various neighborhoods would be an invaluable addition to the archives of the Commonwealth. It is scarcely possible that an acquaintance with the greatly good, an intimate knowledge of their unpre- tending heroism, a sympathy with their unselfish sorrows and their lofty joys will not refine and elevate our lives.
CHAPTER X
CRIMES OF THE BORDER
1 N common with all other frontiers, Indiana had grave tales of outlawry and crime in the early days. The reprisals on the Spanish traders of the river towns and the confiscation of their goods were among the earliest depredations that occurred after the Americans were responsible for the Territory. In their anger over the closing of navigation on the Mississippi River, the settlers would become completely exasperated over the embargo and confiscation of their goods. In this temper, they would form bands of raiders and seize every boatload of commerce, on the small rivers, belonging to Spanish boatmen. They would also appropriate every vestige of merchandise owned by Spanish merchants in the towns on the shore. These forays would be followed by appeals to the Spanish Governor at New Orleans, and the whole matter of reprisals and open navigation would be carried on up to Madrid. These international squabbles on the frontier made stirring times in Indiana .Territory. The Indian warfare is recounted in the story of the Territorial period. We come now, upon the consequences of that warfare. The very license and necessity of carrying deadly weapons for defence against the savages made the people familiar
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with arms and bloodshed. Every pioneer carried a rifle, a knife, and a tomahawk or axe, when he was laboring. The members of the organized militia were required by law to attend church in full fighting trim, to be ready for any surprise by the Indians. From these customs, it came about that, in any sudden heat of passion or enmity, assault was pretty sure to follow an encounter. It is also necessary to remember that some of the frontier people had come from the rougher border element of the Southern mountains. While having their own code of honor, which governed their fights, they were essentially a rude, boisterous, drink- ing, fighting class of people. They were always a source of displeasure and offence to the much larger class of law-abiding citizens. When they gathered, as was their custom, on Saturday afternoon or on muster day, and whiskey had circulated freely, the causes for which they might take umbrage increased hourly. During the homeward ride, on horseback, the road was one wild "halloo" of racing and banter, often ending in a free-for-all fight. They had an unwritten code which required that "all fights must be fit fairly "; and when the "under dog cried 'nuff" the striking, gouging, kicking, and hair-pulling con- test must be acknowledged settled, at least for that time. Much of this fighting was pure banter, without any quarrel to start the fray. Mr. Parker recalls the fact that differences of opinion were not even necessary. Neat clothing, correct speech, and gentlemanly bearing were often a sufficient provocation; or a bully might choose to "Renown it" by drawing a circle about himself, and defying any one to enter the space, claiming that he could "whup " the whole town.
Political strife in hotly contested campaigns some-
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times called into use the handy weapons that were worn for defence. And so through all the experiences of the border there crept in lawless deeds among the hardy frontiersmen. It is not only of these encounters, but of organized bands of freebooters, horse-thieves, counterfeiters, kidnappers, and the excesses of the bands of Regulators, that sensational stories were told by old settlers.
Shortly after the War of 1812, before steamboats were in use on the rivers of Indiana, there was a class of bargemen who used to loaf about the landings. They were a hardy, roistering, fearless set of fellows, and none of them more muscular or more daring than one Mike Fink. With his drinking, laborious, sturdy crew, he spent much of his time, when the river was low, in the towns along the Ohio. Mike and a friend named Carpenter used to practise rifle-shooting, by filling a tin-cup with whiskey, placing it, in turn, on each other's head, and shooting at it at the distance of seventy yards. It was always pierced, without injury to the one on whose head it was placed. After showing their confidence in each other in this way for a number of years, they quarrelled over an Indian squaw, and henceforth there was smothered hate. Later they pretended to "make up and call it off with a drink." To show that peace was declared they were to shoot for the cup, as of yore. Bequeathing his trusty rifle, shot-pouch, powder-horn, and wages to a friend, Carpenter took his position with the cup of whiskey on his head. Mike loaded, picked the flint, drew a bead, and called out: "Hold your noddle steady; don't spill the whiskey-I shall want some presently." Cocking his rifle again he took aim, and his foe fell, shot, in the centre of the forehead. The law was too
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uncertain, and Fink was " removed " by a friend of the murdered man. He also went unpunished. Mike Fink was once convicted for shooting off a negro's heel as he was standing on the wharf. He gave as his justification, that the darky's heel projected too far behind, preventing him from wearing a genteel boot, and he wished to correct the defect. Such marksmen as these used to pride themselves on " bark- ing a squirrel "-that is shooting so close to it, without scratching it, that the animal was killed by concussion. They were fond of snuffing a candle, at fifty yards, for the drinks.
As horses were the most necessary possession of the new settler, the loss of an animal meant great hardship and was desperately resented. Until the middle of the last century, farmers in the outlying districts suffered from the depredations of horse-thieves. They were the boldest of all the marauders of the border. They often went in gangs, rode away with the best horses in the neighborhood, and divided the plunder among them. Stringent laws were passed for their punishment. The code was, that a man who was guilty of stealing a horse should be whipped fifty to one hundred lashes; for a second offence, hanging was the penalty. Receiving stolen horses was a crime punishable by death. Very often the thief was whipped, and then drummed out of the country.
In the earliest time, when courts were few and distant, the people often took the law into their own hands, and were regularly organized into " Regulators." These bands hunted down marauders. They also often held court, very informally, for flagrant mis- demeanors, and Judge Lynch executed sentence. The lash was considered very efficacious in 1816,
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and was the punishment imposed by law universally. Twenty strokes were given and a fine of five dollars was added for altering bounds. For manslaughter, a man was branded in the hand with the letters M. S.
Prompt measures often checked further disturbance to the settlers. A story is told of a frontier judge whose common-sense rulings stopped the incursions of one gang. Indiana was still a Territory. The country was a wilderness, except a few posts and settlements. Governor William Henry Harrison had moved to Vincennes, as the Executive of the Territory. The country was filled with Indians, friendly and hostile, when a gang of desperate horse-thieves from Ken- tucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia began to cross the river and steal and drive away the horses of the white men and Indians, indiscriminately. The settlers were for lynch law and hanging, or at least whipping; but the opinion of the Governor, that the laws should be enforced upon the offenders, prevailed, and many thieves were taken and confined, ready for the sitting of the court. At the next term, trial after trial, with convictions, was held, but the United States Attorney was a young green lawyer, and every conviction was followed by successful motions in arrest of judgment, for some defect in the indictments. The clamor against the court reached the ears of the judge and he resigned, when General Marston G. Clark, a cousin of General George Rogers Clark, was, by consent, appointed judge to fill the vacancy. The General was no lawyer-was brought up in the woods of Kentucky, could scarcely read a chapter in the Bible, and wrote his name as large as John Hancock's in the Declaration of Independence. He was about six feet in his stockings, very muscular-wore a hunting-
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shirt, leather pants, moccasins, and a foxskin cap, with a long queue down his back. Court came on, Judge Clark on the bench. The jail was full of horse-thieves. The penalty was not less than thirty-nine lashes on the bare back. The grand jury turned into court indictments against each of the prisoners. Here is an account of the proceedings:
"Judge Clark-' We will try John Long first, as he seems to be a leader in this business. Bring him into court." Sheriff-'There he sits, I brought him with me. John Long, stand up.'-' You are indicted for stealing an Indian pony; guilty or not guilty?' Counsel-' May it please the Court, we plead in abatement that his name is John H. Long.'-' That makes no difference; I know the man, and that is sufficient.'-'We then move to quash the indictment before he pleads in chief.'-'State your ob- jections.'-' First. There is no value of the horse laid. Second. It is charged in the indictment to be a horse, when he is a gelding.'-' I know an Indian pony is worth ten dollars; and I shall consider that a gelding is a horse; motion overruled.' Plea of not guilty; jury impan- elled; evidence heard; proof positive; verdict, guilty; thirty-nine lashes on his bare back. Counsel-' We move in arrest of judgment, on the ground that it is not charged in the indictment that the horse was stolen in the Territory of Indiana.'-' That I consider a more serious objection than any you have made yet. I will consider on it till morning. Sheriff, adjourn the court, and keep the prisoner safe till court meets.' The judge kept his seat till the sheriff returned from the jail .- ' Sheriff, at twelve o'clock to-night you and your deputy take Long into the woods, clear out of hearing, and give him thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, well laid on; put him in jail again; say nothing, but bring him into court in the morning.' The order was obeyed to the very letter, and the next morning
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Long was in the box when court opened, his counsel ig- norant of what had taken place. Judge Clark-' I have been thinking of the motion in arrest, in the case of Long; I have some doubts that the evidence proved that he did steal the horse in this Territory, and I think I ought not to sustain a motion that, I understand, will discharge the prisoner after he has been found guilty by the jury, but I feel bound to grant a new trial.'-Long, springing to his feet, cried out : 'Oh, no, for heaven's sake! I am whipped almost to death already. I discharge my attorneys and withdraw their motion.' Judge Clark-' Clerk, enter the judgment on the verdict, and mark it satisfied.' The other prisoners were brought up in succession, and con- victed. No motion to quash, or in arrest, was afterward made. The prisoners were whipped and discharged, carrying with them the news to all of their comrades. Not a horse was stolen in the Territory for years after- ward." 1
Sometimes the self-constituted "Regulators " were the ones who were in the wrong. One of the most substantial men of the whole countryside in central Indiana was for many years pointed out as the man who had been hung and yet was alive. His history was that in the early times, before the days of rail- roads and mail communication, he had gone overland to the Territory of Illinois. He had journeyed with another man who drove his own team of horses, hitched to his spring wagon. They investigated the prairie lands and the stranger decided to settle there; but the man from Indiana preferred to return to his own section. He purchased the horses and wagon, from the man, and drove back to his former neighborhood. From the intimations of some evil-disposed persons,
1 Smith, Oliver HI., Early Trials, page 160. Cincinnati, 1858.
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who wished to do the young man a harm, the report gained credence that he had murdered the stranger out on the lonely plains and taken the vehicle and horses. Of course he stoutly denied the slanderous story, but it grew with the telling of it, until the word went around that the whole tale was known to be true. The Regulators took it up, and seized the young man for murder and horse-stealing. Because he ad- mitted that he had no witnesses to prove his innocence of the terrible charges, the border ruffians put a rope around his neck, passed it over the limb of a tree, and hanged him. After a few awful seconds, they eased up on the rope and let him down on to the ground. Some of the less cruel ones in the crowd tried to resuscitate the victim. Their efforts were rewarded with signs of life, and when the man could speak again, he prom- ised them that, if they would give him a chance to have a court trial, he would take them to the spot where he had buried the man! This was news indeed. The next day a posse of men went with the accused, and after a long journey across country he led them about from one settler's cabin to another, until he found and produced the man, alive and well, whom they had accused him of killing! He explained to them that he had only promised them that he would point out the burial-place just to gain time and an opportunity to convince them of his innocence by showing them the man. He told them that he rec- ognized the fact that in their unreasonable frame of mind it was the only way to secure a reprieve long enough to clear himself for all time.
In early days, counterfeiting seemed to be a most fascinating way of making money easily. Driving through the lonely districts of the State, in after years,
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a mysterious cave or a deserted cabin would be pointed out to the traveller as the place where some noted counterfeiter's band had been taken "red-handed." Desperate characters, who would dare to pass off spurious currency, would ally themselves with a more or less skilled engraver with a moral bias; and while he plied his expert trade in seclusion, the "gang " would roam to other parts, and buy guns, ammunition, horses, or lands with the false coin or scrip. The price he paid the men was generally " sixteen to one," but in counterfeit dollars. In Mr. Howe's tales of The Great West, he gives an account of one of the most successful of these counterfeiters, named Stude- vant, who lived in several States-as the exigencies of his business demanded,-but whose imitation cur- rency was circulated all over Indiana. Mr. Howe says that he was a man of talent and address, pos- sessed mechanical genius, was an expert artist, skilled in some of the sciences, and excelled as an engraver. For several years he resided in secluded spots, where all of his immediate neighbors were his confederates, or persons whose friendship he had conciliated. At any time, by the blowing of a horn, he could summon from fifty to a hundred armed men to his defence. He was a grave, quiet, inoffensive-looking man, who commanded the obedience of his comrades and the respect of his neighbors. He had a very excellent farm; his house was one of the best in the country.
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