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 28
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 28
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" And thus for more than thirty years I worked But all was written for the day, And ere the day was done
It found its straight and certain way into oblivion."
Elihu Stout is credited with establishing the first newspaper in Indiana Territory, in the year 1804, at Vincennes, which was then the capital. It was called
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the Indiana Gazette and, after many vicissitudes, still flourishes under the name of the Western Sun. Through his publications, his public spirit, and his fine character, Mr. Stout wielded a wide influence for half a century.
The number of newspapers increased slowly, as new counties were organized. The story is told of one of the earliest sheets that it was printed with swamp mud used for ink, and run off on a cider press. The editor complained that the lack of mails made it difficult to gather enough news to issue a newsy paper! The paper on which the earliest journal was printed was often brown wrapping paper. Sometimes it was printed only on one side of the sheet. After it had been read, the subscriber would return his sheet and have it printed on the reverse side the next issue. There was little currency in those days, and the edi- tors often advertised that they would forgive debts if produce was brought to the sanctum. Maple sugar, jeans, tow-linen, oats, chickens, corn meal, firewood, and coon skins or deer hides were solicited in pay- ment of arrears, "before winter set in." Articles advertised in these early newspapers included knee- buckles, spinning-wheels, flint rifles, buckskin and saddle-bag locks. Notices of murders and kidnapping by the Indians were among the local items of the day.
Besides the usual titles of Journal, Times, Register, or Express, some of the names given to the weekly papers published in wilderness towns had the flavor of frontier life. The Broad Axe of Freedom, The Whig Rifle, The Coon-Skinner, The Pottawattomie, and Miami Times live only in the treasured files of public libra- ries, but they once passed current as regularly as the uncertain mails would permit.
In his reminiscences of Brookville, Mr. Johnson tells
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this story of early journalism: The newspaper then published in the town was called the Brookville En- quirer. Robert John was the editor, and subsequently there was associated with him I. N. Hanna, a sprightly and talented young man. The editors, however, soon got at loggerheads. During the ensuing Presidential campaign, Robert John was for John Quincy Adams and I. N. Hanna was for Henry Clay. An editorial would, therefore, come out for Adams, followed by another signed "Junior Editor" for Clay, creating considerable sensation among the politicians of Brook- ville-and indeed all the citizens were politicians.
If one is tempted to feel that a difference of opinion on political subjects is eternal, he should contemplate the peaceful demise, within a short period of each other, of the great newspaper combatants at the capital, the Journal and Sentinel. Both were historic organs, dating from older papers established in the '20's, and representative of their respective parties. For many decades they were ably edited, and were a reflection of the sentiments and principles of the two great political parties that formed their constit- uency. For years they fought the party battles with energy and virulence. The Sunday edition of the Journal, under the editorship of Miss Anna Nicholas of late years, was a model family paper. The cause of the passing of the Sentinel and Journal is perhaps not obscure, and is certainly an interesting indication of a new phase of party politics in the State. The notable editors had passed from control. The Dem- ocratic party has for several years been divided in its convictions on public policies, and probably did not sustain a party organ. The Republicans have grown more independent of party control and they
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The Daughter of Chief Massaw. From a sketch from life by William Winter on the Miami Reservation.
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read independent papers. How much personal in- difference of candidates and private financial reasons mingled in allowing the two journals to be submerged, is not told, but, as the Lafayette Courier said in its requiem,
"It is impossible to note the passing of the old-timers without regret, for they recall a vigorous journalism and bring back the days of intense political rivalry, when loyalty to party was second only to loyalty to country. Times have changed, and doubtless for the better. We have more independence now in the newspapers, but there is no gain-saying the statement that the old days were interesting."
The record of brilliant talent which has been em- ployed in Indiana journalism would make a long roll of distinction. Journalists received due honors in their day, and their interesting careers form part of the history of their respective fields of labor. There is a great temptation to make personal mention of individuals, but their life's story should have a volume to itself. Nor is there a dearth of good work through the State at present. At the capital, the literary ability of those regularly engaged on some of the papers has never been excelled.
The State takes a commendable pride in its writers on scientific subjects. Beginning with the scientists at New Harmony, who joined David Owen in his community experiment in the wilderness, and since then, there have always been scientific men in Indiana who have made valuable contributions to the literature of their especial branches. Some of these men were born in the State, and others, coming from elsewhere, have identified themselves with the history of Indiana.
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Their useful labors have been within the State, and their national recognition located them in this common- wealth, and has reflected honor upon it. Most of these scientists were members of the faculty of some of the colleges. Indeed by far the largest part of the intellectual development of the State has been through the labors of its teachers in the schools and colleges. Many of these men and women have published critical and historical works, and others the results of their original investigations. It could only be a list if all these books were mentioned, but they represent the patient research, the scholarship, and literary skill of the best trained minds in the State. They are honored and honorable within its borders.
The monographs published by the State Historical Society, the scientific societies, and the educational bodies are of a high order of literary merit, sound scholarship, and of national importance in the knowledge they impart on the subjects treated.
Hoosier books may be more widely known than the pictures painted by Indiana artists, but there has been no literary work done that is better than the artistic work done by the present-day "Hoosier Group" of painters. The efforts of the pioneers were naturally directed to perpetuating the features of their loved ones; consequently the early artists of Indiana devoted their talents to portrait-painting. Later an occasional one, like George Winter, or Jacob Cox, ventured into the delineation of Indian life, or the landscapes about them. In the frontier life, the painter was a person apart from the everyday world. It was regarded as little short of lunacy for a man to attempt to live by art, but if he would, then the neighbors pointed him out as a celebrity; even if
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lack of patronage kept him indigent. General Wallace tells us in his Autobiography of his father's commands, when he showed an early predilection for art, which the family feared would become a passion :
"'You must give up this drawing. I will not have it. If you are thinking of becoming an artist, listen to me: In our country art is to have its day. The day may not come in your time. To give yourself up to the pursuit means starvation.' 'But Mr. Cox'-'Oh, yes,' he replied, 'Mr. Cox is a good man, but he had a trade to fall back upon-a shop to help him make ends meet. I suppose you do not want to be a poor artist-poor in the sense of inability as well as poverty. To be a great painter two things have always been necessary-a people of cultivated taste, and education for the man himself. You have neither.'" 1
The extinguishment of the beautiful dream left him disconsolate. And thus the artistic yearnings of the youthful Lew Wallace, like those of many another frontier boy, were quenched by his discouraging environment. "I resolved to give up the dream," he says, "still it haunts me. At this day even, I cannot look at a great picture without envying its creator the delight he must have had the while. it was in evolution." 1
In this story we have revealed to us the repression of the artistic temperament in the life of many a frontier youth. The early painters had only self- training, and it may be said felt their way toward the light. The pathos of the isolated artistic nature, far away from any atmosphere of encouragement, could
1 Wallace, Lew, Autobiography, page 50. New York, 1906.
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scarcely be depicted by brush and pencil. The work of these men, and those who immediately followed them, is interesting as a portraiture of the times, and as examples of the state of art "before the war."
After the painters of pioneer days, the Munich and Paris schools were attended by students from different towns in Indiana. Some of them remained abroad, and others settled where there was more encouragement and patronage. They reflected credit on the State of their birth wherever they were, by the quality of their productions. To those who came back to Indiana, well trained in their art, the common- wealth is now indebted for its enviable position in the Association of Western Artists. They are known throughout the country as the Hoosier Group, and, while differing individually, there is a certain kinship in the products of their brush. They paint the things about them, the hills of Brown, the citizens of the towns, the drooping beeches of the wood, the bit of upland from their own studio window, a homelike landscape just out of town, or the gray beach in front of their summer cottage. The Hoosier Group have succeeded too. They have maintained their ideals for the encouragement of art within the State; they have secured an appreciative patronage, and they command the attention of students who are to become the painters of the future.
Indianapolis, being the capital and the centre of things in many ways, has always had successful artists who have led in the effort to create a distinct oppor- tunity for the development of the talent about them. A very interesting fact in connection with the growth of art in Indiana has been the occurrence of little detached groups of men, outside of the capital, as
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A Miami Indian. Sketched from life by William Winter on the Miami Reservation.
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in Madison, in Muncie, and in Richmond, who have worked along their own lines, and have come into an appreciative recognition, wherever their canvases have been shown. These men paint scenes which have the very breath of the woods; and the coloring in their pictures is a joy to the possessor. In the blending of realism and idealism, they are very happy. They feel and express the sentiment of their own beloved landscapes. An instance of the art impulse occurring in the solitary individual in the provinces is in the career of Amelia Kusner Coudert, the noted miniature- painter. Born in Terre Haute, with no primary teach- ing to guide her impulse, she felt, as she said, that she could paint. While studying in New York, she produced some extraordinary work, which afterwards attracted attention in London, when exhibited there under the patronage of Sir John Millais. Immediately the young artist's success was assured, until now it may be said that Mrs. Kusner Coudert has painted miniatures of most of the crowned heads and celeb- rities of Europe.
In a notice of Western artists by Mr. Dickerson it was very correctly stated that the late Chicago ex- hibition revealed the fact that, if one were to omit the work of the women painters, he would deprive the exhibition of some of its best art. Indeed, what some have regarded as the best painting would be omitted; for In an Old Gown, by Miss Martha S. Baker of Indiana, not only received an honorable mention at the recent Carnegie exhibition, but was purchased by the Munic- ipal Art League of Chicago for its permanent collection. The same statement regarding women's work was made at Indianapolis exhibitions. The paintings in oil and water-color by artists whose names we recall at random,
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as Izor, Steele, Woods-Ulman, Hendricks, Goldsworth, Robinson, Comingore, Rehling, Birge, King, Morlan, Wilson, and many others equally good, show evidence of real talent. The illustrated parchments by Evaleen Stein, the illustrations by Virginia Keep and others, the modelling by Helen Hibben and Clara Barth Leonard, give evidence of serious work being done by the young women in Indiana.
Public taste in the West, art critics say, is grow- ing appreciably discerning. Picture-buyers are slowly being educated to confidence in Western picture- makers. They are learning to regard what an artist creates, not where he creates it. This growth in creative power, accompanied as it is by the increasing self- confidence of the possible purchaser, encourages the Western artist.
Most of the exhibitions of art in Indiana towns have been the results of the efforts of the women in those communities. These collections were intended to stimulate the latent artistic talents of students, and for the general pleasure and information of the public. They also afford an opportunity for possible purchasers to show their appreciation of the work exhibited. There is scarcely a city in the State but has its circle for the study of the literature of art, and that study is carried on by the local literary clubs. The town of Richmond has a popular organization, with three thousand members, whose membership fee of fifty cents each sustains an annual loan ex- hibition of great merit. At a late exhibition, Otto Stark won the Foulke prize with a beautiful landscape, and Justin Gruelle and Dorothy Morlan received honorable mention. In the prize offered by the famous "Richmond Group," Anna Newman was first, and
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Girardin and Holly had honorable mention. Raymond White received recognition for his portrait carved in ivory, and Miss Overback for excellence in design. This association is given as an example of the forces that are working for the elevation of the whole people, in matters relating to art, and for the encouragement of local artists.
In the spring of 1903, the Hoosier Group of artists assembled an exhibit in Indianapolis consisting solely of the work of Indiana painters "contemporary and retrospective." This collection made it very evident to the visitor that the springtime of art had already dawned upon the State; that the patient, persistent work done by the men born within its bounds had nursed the feeble impulse toward artistic expression, by brush and pencil, until the State could now take an honorable place in the field of art.
While this exhibit may not have been so stirring as a military review, it was a greater source of pride and congratulation. The gentle arts of peace had brought honors to the State, not attainable by war. It was a noticeable fact that there were so many canvases that one would like to live with. The sub- jects chosen were never morbid, or the inspiration of a degenerate nature. The coloring was pleasing, natural, and there was little straining after sensationalism. Lovely woods were pictured by Bundy and Conner and Girardin and Ball and Nordyke. There were great portraits by William M. Chase, T. C. Steele, and others ; marines by the illustrious Richards; sea pictures and landscapes by such favorites as Forsythe, Gruelle, Adams, Stark, Forkner, and Love; genre and figure paintings by Henry Mosler, Stark, and many others whose gentle scenes and charming coloring live in
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the memory when the name of the artist has slipped from recollection. The water-colorists and illustrators also made a most interesting contribution. As noted in the catalogue, "the point of great interest in the exhibition was this: that the body of this work was done by the natives of Indiana in Indiana, who love the State and love art, and who feel and know that here as well as anywhere art can be created; and they venture this ambitious effort to, as far as possible, prove the fact." Mr. Steele continues to preach this truth, by the beautiful pictures which he brings up from his summer studio in Brown County, and J. Otis Adams sends his canvases from Brookville to take first prizes at the Exhibition of the Western Society of Artists. The names of Vance, Weisenberger, Wheeler, Walker, Reeves, Riess appear on the lists among the resident artists who are showing new canvases, and winning new laurels as the seasons go by.
Indianapolis is easy of access from all parts of the State and if an endowment should be given to the Art School at the capital, which would enable the directors to offer scholarships to young students who would be attracted to such a centre, it would give a helpful impetus to the study throughout Indiana.
The books that have been written by Indiana authors have attained greater fame, perhaps, than the pictures of her painters, because the printed form of expression is more easily disseminated to the multitude. But it is very certain that the Hoosier painters have produced beautiful work, and have fully shown the development of the artistic impulse in the commonwealth.
CHAPTER XVIII
EDUCATION IN INDIANA
1 N the very earliest dawn of Indiana's history, when there were only a few families at each of the scattered French military posts, the only instruc- tion given was by the French priests. In 1719, Father Marest wrote back to his superior, "as these people have no books and are naturally indolent, they would shortly forget the principles of religion, if the remem- brance of them was not recalled by these continued instructions. We collect the whole community in the chapel and after answering the questions put by the missionary, to each one without distinction of rank and age, prayers are heard and hymns are sung." In after years when there was a resident priest, an effort was made to teach the children to read and write, but the happy-go-lucky frontier Frenchman resisted mental effort even more than he avoided physical toil. We are told that their written language was much worse than their speech (which was tolerable French). All that they knew was handed down from father to son. They had no education. There never was a school in the territory until during the American occupation. In 1793, Father Rivet held what was probably the first regular school in Indiana; it was in Vincennes. There is record of a little school in a
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settlement in Dearborn County three years later. After the Americans gained control of the territory, and settlers began to come in from the East and South, the children were at first taught in the homes. Colonel Cockrum recalls, in his Pioneer History of Indiana, that in the very first years of settlement, when there was such great danger from Indians and wild beasts, the teacher was employed to go to the houses and spend about one third of the day with the family in- structing the children. In this way, with six families he could give three lessons each week to all of the children. These circulating teachers, as they were called, did a good work. When it became less dan- gerous for the children to pass through the forests they would congregate at the home of the family most centrally located in the neighborhood, in a lean-to built at the side or end of the pioneer's cabin. Here if there were enough families within reach of each other, one of the mothers or an older sister would collect the children of the scattered families together and teach them to read and write and "cipher." As soon as possible the neighborhood would get together and build a log cabin in which to hold the school, and a "master" would be "hired" for three months of the year. A site was selected near a living spring, if possible; and the memory of drinking the cool spark- ling waters from the long-handled gourd which always hung by the spring brings back one of the joys of childhood.
Judge Banta tells us in his interesting recollections, published in the Indianapolis News, of the old school- houses and the buildings which were made to do duty as such; he speaks of a school that was taught in 1808, in the dwelling-house of John Widner, which house
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was almost a fort, having been constructed with special reference to making resistance against attacks of Indians.
"Indeed, there is direct authority for the statement, that schoolhouses were constructed in Washington County with port-holes, for shooting at the Indians, and if in Washington County, we have good reason to suppose that they were likewise so constructed elsewhere at the same time. The first school in Martinsville was a summer school on a gentleman's porch taught by Dr. John Morri- son. Barns were given up during part of the temperate season to the pedagogue and his pupils. Mills were also utilized on occasions. The first school ever taught in the English language in the town of Vevay was by John Wilson, a Baptist minister, in a horse mill. An early school in Waynesville, Bartholomew County, was taught by a retired distiller, in a blacksmith shop, which school, for reasons not stated, was attended by young men and boys only. In Spencer County a deserted tannery was utilized. In Knox, in Jackson, and perhaps elsewhere, the old forts, after the close of the Indian wars, were turned into schoolhouses." 1
Old settlers give graphic pictures of their schooldays, in these surroundings. "Pleasing reminiscences come before me," said Barnabas Hobbs, "when I think of the pioneer schoolhouses. They were made of hewed logs and had puncheon floors and capacious mud and stick chimneys with great fire-places. They had benches without backs or desks, and there were two long wooden pins above the teacher's desk on which his whips were laid. These were generally well- trimmed beech or hazel rods, from two to six feet in length-some well worn and others kept in reserve. Teachers were expected to govern on the home plan-
1 Banta, D. D., in Indianapolis News, 1892.
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'spare the rod and spoil the child.'" They believed the rod had a twofold virtue. It was not only a terror to evil-doers but was a specific against stupidity. Beech and hazel rods had a wonderful stirring effect on both mind and body. The State at this time had no school revenue to distribute, so each voter must become a builder. By common consent the voters divided themselves into choppers, hewers, carpenters, and masons. If any could not report for duty on the schoolhouse, they might pay an equivalent for work in nails, glass, or boards for the roof. If they neither worked nor paid, they could be fined thirty-seven and one half cents a day. These school buildings were well ventilated, not only by the great open fire but from the chinks between the logs.
Whence came the pioneer teachers? They were generally adventurers from the East, or from England, Scotland, or Ireland who sought temporary employ- ment during the winter, while waiting for an opening for business. Some of these were first-class men, and they left a lasting impression on the communities.
Schools commenced then at seven in the summer and half-past seven in the winter. There was one hour at noon and five-minute recesses; fully ten hours in school in summer. In the pioneer period "loud schools" were in universal esteem. By this is meant, that all of the pupils studied out loud. The theory was that sound intensified the memory. Boys and girls were taught to think in the midst of noisy surroundings. In those ungraded district schools the younger pupils listened to the instructions and re- citations of the older ones and bright pupils stepped from one class to another as rapidly as they were able to progress. The geography lessons were taught to
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Young's Chapel, Consolidated School, Union Township, Montgomery County, Indiana. Hacks ready to start home
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the whole school at one time in concert. Many an old timer can recall his States and capitals to this day, better than his grandson, by humming over "Maine-Augusta on the Kennebec River," etc. Manual labor was also a part of the school life, for the great open fire-places must be kept replenished with logs and these must be chopped by the older boys of the school who rather enjoyed the reprieve from study.
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