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 19
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 19
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"I had hoped that fifty years of political liberty had prepared the American people to govern themselves advantageously. I supplied houses, the use of capital, and I tried, each in their own way, the different parties who collected here, and experience proved that the attempt was premature. It all proves that families trained in the individual system have not acquired those moral char- acteristics of forbearance and charity necessary for con- fidence and harmony. I can only feel regret, instead of anger. My intention now is to form such arrangements on the estate as will enable those who desire to promote
1 Lockwood, Geo. B., The New Harmony Movement, page 178. New York, 1905.
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the practice of the social system to live in separate fam- ilies and yet to unite their general labor, or to exchange labor for labor, on the most beneficial terms to all, or to do both or neither as their feelings or apparent interest may influence them; while the children shall be educated with a view to an establishment of the social system in the future. I will not be discouraged by any obstacle, but will persevere to the end." 1
Many members of the commune, who took individual holdings, remained as residents of the beautiful valley, where their descendants still live. It is this remnant of former intelligence in the settlement that makes the community differ from other sections. At present, New Harmony is a little town with some commercial ambitions, and takes a pride in its historic past. If Robert Owen had done nothing more for the State than to bring within its borders his noble family, and the famous individuals whom we have men- tioned as sojourning, at times, in New Harmony, he would still be the most valuable and distinguished pioneer of the commonwealth.
After the passing of the commune, Mr. Owen's sons, when not studying or writing elsewhere, re- mained as citizens of New Harmony, where he often came to visit them. Indeed the most brilliant period of New Harmony's history was after Mr. Owen's "splendid social bark went to wreck upon the rocks and shoals of human nature." Many of the eminent scientists continued to make the village their regular residence or rendezvous, and other scholars and travellers, attracted by the fame of the social exper- iment and the scientific researches, travelled thither
1 Lockwood, Geo. B., The New Harmony Movement, page 174. New York, 1905.
Social Experiments at New Harmony 267
on tours of investigation. From this centre, Thomas Say sent out his numerous scientific papers, his finished American Entomology and the American Conchology, for which his talented wife made the beautiful colored illustrations. The gray, gaunt figure of the picturesque Rafinesque roamed over the hills about New Harmony, collecting botanical specimens, and added his name to the illustrious roll of occasional residents. Thither came Prince Maximilian von Neuweid, accompanied by his taxidermist and illustrator, to preserve the results of his excursions into nature's virgin territory. He spent the winter of 1832 in making studies in natural history, in collecting valuable specimens, and having drawings executed. Sir Charles Lyell came to study the geological collection and library brought together by David Dale Owen. Audubon, the great ornithologist, visited the place. Charles Lesueur added lustre to the group of resident scientists by his publications and his explorations of the Indian mounds. It was he who painted the scenery for the community theatre, and taught drawing and the arts in the school. John Chapplesmith, the engraver, and his gifted wife lived in New Harmony the year they were making the illustrations for the United States Geological Reports, issued by David Dale Owen. Dr. Gerard Troost continued his researches in chemistry and mineralogy, until called to the University of Tennessee. Robert Fauntleroy, who married Jane Dale Owen, spent several years in New Harmony, making scientific experiments. The name is still one of the honored ones in the community. There was a whole group of brilliant men associated with David Dale Owen in his work as United States Geologist. It was in the museum at New Harmony that he treas-
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ured his valuable collections made during that survey. Another son, Richard Owen, devoted many years of useful labor to the State as State Geologist, served in the Mexican War, and as Colonel of the 60th Indiana regiment in the Civil War, and afterwards as Professor of Natural Sciences in Indiana University. Another son, William Owen, had taken an important part in the commune as trustee, as an editor of the New Harmony Gazette, and as head of their commercial relations. Of the most widely known of Robert Owen's useful sons, Robert Dale Owen, it has been said, in connection with the socialistic community, that he was the embodiment of the spirit of his father and William Maclure. He believed in its mission, was an enthusiastic helper in its maintenance, and regretful over its failure. After his labors, he was in New York for a time, as associate editor of the Free Enquirer. But it is in connection with his work in his adopted State of Indiana that Robert Dale Owen's life of usefulness became so illustrious. As Mr. John Hol- liday once wrote of him:
"In scholarship, general attainment, varied achieve- ments as author, statesman, politician, and leader of a new religious faith, he was unquestionably the most prominent man Indiana ever owned. Others may fill now, or may have filled, a larger place in public interest or curiosity for a time, but no Hoosier was ever so widely known, or so likely to do the State credit by being known, and no other has ever before held so prominent a place, so long, with a history so unspotted by selfishness, du- plicity, or injustice." 1
Mr. Owen began his political career as a member of
' Holliday, J. H., Indianapolis News.
Social Experiments at New Harmony 269
the State Legislature of 1836, and was also an Elector that year, and one of the most desired speakers of the campaign, being a most logical reasoner and rising above the rancor and personal attacks of the stump speaker. Afterwards he served two terms in Congress, and while there was instrumental in passing the bill founding the Smithsonian Institute, and, as a member of the first Board of Regents, largely guided the nature of the work it was to undertake. In 1851, Mr. Owen became the most efficient member of the Constitutional Convention of Indiana; and in that convention and the following Legislature he merited the reputation for unselfish and far-seeing statesman- ship. Again it should be remembered that while he was in the Legislature his conscientious and persistent efforts advanced legislation for women, until he pro- cured the enactment of the laws securing their right to own and control their separate property during marriage, and the right to their own earnings; laws which abolished the simple dower of the common law, and procured for widows the absolute ownership of one third of the deceased husband's property. He modified the divorce laws of the State so as to enable a married woman to secure a relief from habitual drunkenness and cruelty. The women of the country owe Robert Dale Owen recognition for his successful efforts to establish equitable property rights in one State as a pattern for others. In 1851, a group of Indiana women presented him with a testimonial of their esteem and appreciation of his services to their sex; and the State Federation of Clubs is to place a portrait bust of the distinguished man in the halls of the State-house. Of Mr. Owen's labors for the nation, during the Civil War, it would require volumes to
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recount in detail, when only a passing mention can be made here. He was Governor Morton's most valued co-worker. He procured arms and supplies to equip the troops hurriedly sent to the front, and looked after the men on the field. His stirring appeal to President Lincoln, so the President averred, helped nerve that great Executive to the issuing of the Eman- cipation Proclamation. Mr. Owen served as head of the Freedman's Bureau, and he issued a strong protest to the Northwest against the proposed compromise with the South. He opposed extending the suffrage to the blacks, but labored for years as the efficient friend of the freedmen. He served as Charge d' Affaires at Naples for six years, and wrote with conviction in advocacy of spiritualism. Robert Dale Owen died in 1877. In his death "the last of the great figures conspicuous in the New Harmony communes passed away, but the great movements to which they had given origin and direction still sweep onward in an ever widening current,-the failure of George Rapp's success standing out in vivid contrast to the success of Robert Owen's failure." 1
Groups of men have impoverished themselves in their efforts to alleviate human misery, and for the advancement of their fellow-men on the community plan; but there is no nobler example than that of Robert Owen and his co-workers at New Harmony, in their groping toward the light, in the endeavor to emancipate humanity from ignorance and poverty. This group of illustrious men conferred great honors on Indiana.
1 Lockwood, Geo. B., The New Harmony Movement, P. 377. New York, 1905.
CHAPTER XIII
IN THE FORTIES AND FIFTIES
N OT the least merit of Mr. Tarkington's story of the Vanrevels is the passing glance it gives into the social life of the Indiana villages some fifty years ago. He embodied in the atmosphere of the story, memories of his grandmother's days, and the life and hospitalities on the Wabash of which her family and their neighbors were representative. This phase of the past is apt to escape us. In placing the period of Indiana's civilization, we are apt to carry forward the pioneer times equally in all districts; whereas the southern inland and river towns were quite old settlements, before the aborigines were banished from the northern third of the State.
As the Indians were pushed back, the State gradually emerged from frontier conditions, and the little towns in the southern tier of counties took on themselves the pleasures and gayeties of high-life in a provincial way. The present generation knows little of this charming social life which prevailed in the days before the Civil War. As Edward Eggleston said of the town of Madison when he first knew it, life took an aspect of ease and serenity nowhere shabby, new, or raw. It is true the life was simple, as it was elsewhere in youthful America, and there was little difference
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between the material conditions of the classes, for none were vastly rich; but the tone of society was the same as in Carolina and Virginia from whence so many families had come, and the infusion of Eastern blood added to the sterling qualities of citizenship. The mellowing grace of family traditions, and past history to be lived up to, marked the intercourse of these people. Many of the joys were almost rural, and there was a mingling of the home-made appoint- ments with imported luxuries in household articles
and furniture. But the personal demeanor and punc- tilious manners of the period were far more stately and formal than those of the present. The language of correspondence, of public addresses, and of personal salutation was more elaborate. The style of oratory then in vogue may be recognized in this opening of a patriotic address on the Fourth of July in 1843, by the orator of the day:
"Once more my countrymen, we are permitted grate- fully to behold the Anniversary sun of American Inde- pendence. Once more we salute the Star Spangled Banner, and rejoice that the cherished emblem of our Union and liberty, spotless and peerless as ever, still waves over a land and nation. All this assembling of beauty and chivalry and intelligence and piety, with religous rites and martial music, announce the virtuous emotions over this patriotic celebration."
In the days when such speeches were the custom, correspondence was made a fine art. People com- posed letters then. Men of political life wrote as if for biographical purposes. The belles of the towns were constantly receiving and sending scented billets- doux, sealed with the little glazed wafers or sealing-
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wax. Girls were taught letter-writing and the proper way of composing, signing, and addressing letters. The swain addressing the fair object of his affections in verse or prose, wrote with a quill, inditing flowery paragraphs descriptive of the beauty and grace of the object of his gallantry, to whom he prayed to be permitted to pay his respects.
"I am alone and have been gazing upon the mild and peaceful moon gliding with majesty through the deep blue expanse," writes Almira to her "shining specimen of perfection." Continuing, she says that "this ever inclines me to sadness more than formerly and is a pleasing contemplation in which I love to indulge. Perhaps at this moment one that I admire at West Point is gazing on the same lovely orb, per- haps in the same train of thought. How delightful the idea." These elaborate effusions made the greet- ings and communication among young people much more dignified than the modern "hello!" over the telephone, or "so long " in closing a letter. At the same time "keeping company " was a very informal proceeding. No chaperone was thought of and a gentleman's intentions were not sought, until he was ready they should be known.
The service at table was simpler, in that time, and the present fashion of serving food had not come in, but the quality of the viands in these homes was delicious. Housekeepers vied with each other in culinary skill. The storeroom and cellar of a house- holder, in those bountiful times, would provision a half-dozen families of the present day. The "festal board "-as it was termed in the poetry of the time- fairly groaned with the prodigal variety of dishes. The log cabin of pioneer times had been succeeded by 18
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more spacious colonial homes. George Cary Eggleston said, reminiscently, that in the early forties the thrift and ambition among the well-to-do landowners had dotted the region along the Ohio with spacious brick dwellings-most of them with stately colon- naded porticos in front and ornamented lawns sur- rounding them. Wealth abounded in the towns and luxury was there also. Some of the residences would be accounted fine in our large cities of to-day. Speak- ing of Madison, which was, during the Crimean War, the most important pork-packing centre in all the world, and consequently amassed wealth, he said that the city was beautiful, with its broad, well-shaded, and smoothly gravelled streets, and ornamented grounds surrounding all of the best houses. Of Vevay it was said that " the town is the most beautiful one I have anywhere seen in America." A hint of the style of some of these homes may be seen in a description of an old one which was being advertised as a young ladies' seminary. It was an old residence in 1843, but "its large halls, commodious drawing-room and parlors, airy galleries and unusual number of bedrooms rendered it especially adapted to the needs of a female seminary "; which occupied it for a long and flourish- ing term of years.
The drinking of wines and whiskies was almost universal before the temperance waves passed over the country. Many of the wines and fine brandies were imported and came up the river from New Or- leans. But the home-made cherry bounce and peach brandy were offered everywhere. In the taverns and on the boats where men of the world congregated, it often happened that drink was deep and play was high. In those days, gentlemen prided themselves
-
Old Mahogany Furniture Brought to the Wabash by River and Canal. From a photograph.
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In the Forties and Fifties
on their own cure of hams, venison, and beef. Game was plentiful at all times, and poultry, cream, butter, and fruits were abundant and cheap. Chickens could be bought for six cents each and turkeys for twenty- five cents. Entertaining was not costly, the people were heartily hospitable, and the lack of other amuse- ments made them largely dependent on one another's society. Social visiting seemed to be going on every day, in the forenoon as well as in the afternoon and evening. In these hospitable homes, large families were reared, filling them with gayety and life. To them young gallants brought home their blooming brides, by stage-coach or steamboat, or mayhap on horseback, from the neighboring towns or States. When these happy events occurred, a week of village festivities set in, always beginning with the "infair "- which was the name of the reception given by the parents of the groom, and was an invariable custom.
In some of these homes you would find heavy old mahogany furniture, and silver, glass, and "sprigged" or gold-band china, which had been brought out the long weary way from the East, or up from New Orleans. Every spinnet, piano, hauteboy, or four-poster made of mahogany which is inherited by the present gen- eration represents what was then a treasure, brought out West with toil, and patience over long delays. Local cabinet-makers skilfully made sideboards, bu- reaus, and cupboards of the native cherry wood, which ranked next to mahogany in beauty; and these pieces are worthy of preservation, as examples of good handicraft.
The fashions for a gentleman were much more elab- orate at that time than now. His waist must be of the hour-glass form. He wore a colored broadcloth,
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claw-hammer coat, finished with a low velvet collar and brass buttons, over a buff waistcoat. A black satin stock or flowered neckerchief, with flowing ends, was worn about the extremely high collar. He wore pointed shoes, and the hat that he carried in his hand, as he swept a low bow of salutation, was a bell-crowned beaver made of white fur. A long camlet cloak and gold-headed cane finished the toilet of the gentleman on the Wabash in the early forties.
The manners of the old school went well with the picturesque costume of the period. The gentleman who flourished his cane as he walked, was much puffed out above the waistcoat, by the plaited or ruffled shirt-front, and had a fashion of swearing and b'godding for emphasis.
The ladies wore stiff brocades, shining taffetas, and peau de soie of quaint designs. If these garments had to do duty many more seasons than the frail chiffons of the present day, still the material was elegant, the style formal, and the gowns were worn with the grand dame air of the time. Our modern belles still like to reproduce the costumes worn in the forties. Capes, mantles, and shawls were the outside wraps then in vogue. To obtain the stately silks they bartered eighty bushels of corn in New Orleans for a single yard, and my gentleman gave in exchange, one hundred bushels for a yard of broad- cloth, and cight bushels for a single yard of cotton print. Most beautiful furs were worn in that day. The trappers of the West were still sending their pelts to the markets, and one of Mr. Astor's agents, who had gathered wealth in the fur-trade-one doub- loon for John Jacob, and two for himself, making him a man of importance by 1840-dressed his wife in
The Dress of the Forties. From a photograph of the period.
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furs that were fit for a queen and they were copied by every land speculator's and pork packer's wife on the Wabash.
The universal fashion of that day prescribed very full dress skirts, much be-flounced, and worn over a large hoop. From the sloping shoulders of the tight "'basque " a shawl was draped-lace in summer and broché in winter. The muffs were enormous, measur- ing eighteen to twenty-two inches in length, and a deep "perline' was worn about the shoulders. Bon- nets were universal for old and young, and their large round fronts were filled with a garden of flowers for "face trimmings." Men and women travelled about everywhere, on stage-coach and steamboat, in these showy toilets. For evening, garlands of flowers were worn in the hair and around the low neck and skirt of the gown, and curls were worn so universally that one wonders if fashion has changed the nature of locks since then.
The girls of the little towns were educated at the Academy, or had been away to some Young Ladies Seminary to be "finished " in music and French. Those who went to St. Mary's Convent learned to embroider in chenilles, to make wax flowers, and do the old masters in cross-stitch. They attempted the harp and guitar, and most of them "took piano lessons."
A description of one of these Indiana schools, by Mrs. Carleton, gives an excellent idea of most of them.
"In addition to solid attainments, the young women were taught French and German with piano, guitar, and harp lessons, vocal music, drawing, and painting in oil and water. Piano and guitar-lessons were twenty-five cents each, while French, and lessons in painting and
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drawing were ten cents each, and vocal music at two cents per lesson! From North and South, East and West came young women to this noted classical school for girls. Many of the instructors were from New York State, and the pupils were on the records from Oswego and Saratoga, from Mobile and New Orleans."
Ballads were in vogue, and many a sweet girl sang in simple style but with fresh young voice, "Shepherds have you seen my love?" "The harp that once through Tara's halls," and other forgotten airs. "Manners" were also taught in every good school, including the curtsy and the dance. The dancing masters of that day still wore the ruffled shirt, knee breeches, and buckled shoes of the colonial period.
The curriculum of many of the schools was not very serious; was generally finished in a couple of years and girls married while yet in their teens. When the young ladies had finished their schooling, they came home bearing their worsted flowers, and were welcomed with a June party, while the garden roses and honeysuckles made a bower of the porches and strawberries were plentiful. A bountiful supper followed by cake and ice-cream, mint-julip and punch, were the refreshments served in that day. Young and old were bidden together and the gentlemen were not too blasé to enjoy the festivities. When once a belle was out of school there were informal gayeties going on constantly. Though informal, the dancing parties were called balls, and the figures of the lancers and quadrilles were as stately as their name implied. The ladies in stiff brocades or flounced muslins glided through the dance and curtsied deeply with due appreciation of their grace and dignity.
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In the Forties and Fifties
Their partners never slurred the music nor hurried the low bow. Nothing but the after-supper frolic through Tucker ever approached the romp of a modern two-step.
Horseback riding continued to be a very general pleasure, long after the pioneer paths through the wilderness had broadened into roads. The lady's riding-habit of that day had a long flowing skirt, sweeping almost to the ground, the gloves worn were deep gauntlets, and for gala occasions a plume was worn in the hat; at other times a veil floated out behind the fair equestrienne. Gay cavalcades of the young people attended country parties or a neighbor- ing village festival. The carriage of the period was a large capacious affair, fashioned like a landeau, which had an aristocratic rumble as it bowled along the shaded streets. The ponderous steps let down with a rattle as the barouche drew up at the curb- stone and the door was opened for my much-fur- belowed lady to alight. These carriages have entirely disappeared and nothing quite so impressive in style has taken their place.
In all Indiana households "before the war," and especially in the many homes where dancing was not approved of, the favorite entertainment was the tea- party, sometimes followed by kissing games. At early candle-light, a hostess would assemble her guests, young and old, around her table, ladened with everything the culinary skill of the time produced. The substantial dishes were flanked by pickles, "jells," preserves, hot rolls, the feast culminating in that pride of the village, "at least three kinds of cake." As one of these very hospitable ladies said in her old age, "In my time we had a roast turkey at each end
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of the table and mashed potatoes in the middle and when you sat down you could know there was really going to be something to eat." For these occasions the treasured silver and egg-shell china were brought forth, and home-made ice-cream, then a luxury, crowned the feast. It was during this decade that the thrifty housewives learned the art of canning fruits, and they vied with each other in friendly rivalry which could only be decided at the County Fair.
By this time spinning and weaving were practised only in backwoods homes, but sewing-machines were not yet introduced and when ladies went to "spend the day," they always carried their stint of sewing or eyelet embroidery. Spending the day meant a bountiful noon dinner and they went at eleven o'clock and stayed until five. While they stitched wristbands or worked buttonholes, they gossipped of neighborhood doings, went over the church troubles, and settled affairs of state. These women were as alert, intelligent, and interested in questions of the day as their descendants of present club-land. In the scarcity of literature, books and journals were freely loaned and one's volumes sometimes travelled far and wide. A copy of Scott, or The Children of the Abbey, or Scottish Chiefs, or Moore's Poems some- times wandered so far by horseback, or stage-coach, that they never returned to their owners again. There was not so much literature published every year, in those days, but the English classics and standard Reviews were familiar to Indiana men and women and there was, perhaps, more time for reflection upon what they did read. Godey's Ladies' Book and Peterson's Magazine were the fashion plates, univer- sally consulted by Hoosier ladies for styles and patterns.
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