USA > Indiana > DeKalb County > History of DeKalb County, Indiana : together with sketches of its cities, villages and towns and biographies of representative citizens : Also a condensed history of Indiana > Part 22
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FEMALE PRISON AND REFORMATORY.
The prison reform agitation which in this State attained telling proportions in 1869, cansed a Legislative measure to be brought forward, which would have a tendency to ameliorate the condition of female convicts. Gov. Baker recommended it to the General Assembly, and the members of that body showed their appreciation of the Governor's philanthropic desire by conferring upon the bill the authority of a statute; and further, appropriated $50,000 to aid in carrying out the objects of the act. The main provisions con- tained in the bill may be set forth in the following extracts from the proclamation of the Governor:
" Whenever said institution shall have been proclaimed to be open for the reception of girls in the reformatory department thereof, it shall be lawful for said Board of Managers to receive them into their care and management, and the said reformatory department, girls under the age of 15 years who may be committed to their custody, in either of the following modes, to-wit:
"1. When committed by any judge of a Circuit or Common Pleas Court, either in term time or in vacation, on complaint" and dne proof by the parent or guardian that by reason of her incorrig- ible or vicious conduct she has rendered her control beyond the power of such parent or guardian, and made it manifestly requisite
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that from regard to the future welfare of such infant, and for the protection of society, she should be placed under such guardianship.
"2. When such infant has been committed by such judge, as aforesaid, upon complaint by any citizen, and due proof of such complaint that such infant is a proper subject of the guardianship of such institution in consequence of her vagrancy or incorrigible or vicious conduct, and that from the moral depravity or other- wise of her parent or guardian in whose custody she may be, such parent or guardian is incapable or unwilling to exercise the proper care or discipline over such incorrigible or vicious infant.
"3. When such infant has been committed by such judge as aforesaid, on complaint and due proof thereof by the township trustee of the township where such infant resides, that such infant is destitute of a suitable home and of adequate means of obtaining an honest living, or that she is in danger of being brought up to lead an idle and immoral life."
In addition to these articles of the bill, a formal section of instruction to the wardens of State prisons was embodied in the act, causing such wardens to report the number of all the female convicts under their charge and prepare to have them transferred to the female reformatory immediately after it was declared to be ready for their reception. After the passage of the act the Governor appointed a Board of Managers, and these gentlemen, securing the services of Isaac Hodgson, caused him to draft a plan of the proposed institution, and further, on his recommendation, asked the people for an appropriation of another $50,000, which the Legislature granted in February, 1873. The work of construc- tion was then entered upon and carried out so steadily, that on the 6th of September, 1873, the building was declared ready for the reception of its future inmates. Gov. Baker lost no time in proclaiming this fact, and October 4 he caused the wardens of the State prisons to be instructed to transfer all the female convicts in their custody to the new institution which may be said to rest on the advanced intelligence of the age. It is now called the " Indiana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls."
This building is located immediately north of the deaf and dumb asylum, near the arsenal, at Indianapolis. It is a three- story brick structure in the French style, and shows a frontage of 174 feet, comprising a main building, with lateral and transverse wings. In front of the central portion is the residence of the superintendent and his associate reformatory officers, while in the
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rear is the engine house, with all the ways and means for heating the buildings. Enlargements, additions and improvements are still in progress. There is also a school and library in the main building, which are sources of vast good.
October 31, 1879, there were 66 convicts in the " penal " depart- ment and 147 in the " girls' reformatory " department. The "ticket-of-leave " system has been adopted, with entire satisfaction, and the conduct of the institution appears to be up with the times.
INDIANA HOUSE OF REFUGE.
In 1867 the Legislature appropriated $50.000 to aid in the formation of an institution to be entitled a house for the correction and reformation of juvenile defenders, and vested with full powers in a Board of Control, the members of which were to be appointed by the Governor, and with the advice and consent of the Senate. This Board assembled at the Governor's house at Indianapolis, April 3, 1867, and elected Charles F. Coffin, as president, and visited Chicago, so that a visit to the reform school there might lead to a fuller knowledge and guide their future proceedings. The House of Refuge at Cincinnati, and the Ohio State Reform school were also visited with this design; and after full consider- ation of the varied governments of these institutions, the Board resolved to adopt the method known as the " family " system, which divides the inmates into fraternal bodies, or small classes, each class having a separate house, house father and family offices, -all under the control of a general superintendent. The system being adopted, the question of a suitable location next presented itself, and proximity to a large city being considered rather detrimental to the welfare of such an institution, Gov. Baker selected the site three-fourths of a mile south of Plainfield, and about fourteen miles from Indianapolis, which, in view of its eligibility and convenience, was fully concurred in by the Board of Control. Therefore, a farm of 225 acres, claiming a fertile soil and a most picturesque situation, and possessing streams of running water, was purchased, and on a plateau in its center a site for the proposed house of refuge was fixed.
The next movement was to decide upon a plan, which ultimately met the approval of the Governor. It favored the erection of one principal building, one house for a reading-room and hospital, two large mechanical shops and eight family houses. January 1, 1868,
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three family houses and work-shop were completed; in 1869 the main building, and one additional family house were added; but previous to this, in August, 1867, a Mr. Frank P. Ainsworth and his wife were appointed by the Board, superintendent and matron respectively, and temporary quarters placed at their disposal. In 1869 they of course removed to the new building. This is 64 by 128 feet, and three stories high. In its basement are kitchen, laundry and vegetable cellar. The first floor is devoted to offices, visitors' room, house father and family dining-room and store- rooms. The general superintendent's private apartments, private offices and five dormitories for officers occupy the second floor; while the third floor is given up to the assistant superintendent's apartment, library, chapel and hospital.
The family houses are similar in style, forming rectangular build- ings 36 by 58 feet. The basement of each contains a furnace room, a store-room and a large wash-room, which is converted into a play-room during inclement weather. On the first floor of each of these buildings are two rooms for the house father and his family, and a school-room, which is also convertible into a sitting. room for the boys. On the third floor is a family dormitory, a clothes-room and a room for the " elder brother," who ranks next to the house father. And since the reception of the first boy, from Hendricks county, January 23, 1868, the house plan has proved equally convenient, even as the management has proved efficient.
Other buildings have since been erected.
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY.
CHAPTER I.
-- INTRODUCTORY.
CHANGES OF FIFTY YEARS .- LIFE IN THE CROWDED EAST .- COUR- AGE OF THE PIONEERS .- THEIR LABORS AND REWARDS .- A PEN PIOTURE.
Within one brief generation a dense and unbroken wilderness has been transformed into a cultivated region of thrift and pros- perity, by the untiring zeal and energy of an enterprising people. The trails of hunters and trappers have given place to railroads and thoroughfares for vehicles of every description; the cabins and garden patches of the pioneers have been succeeded by comfort- able houses and broad fields of waving grain, with school-houses, churches, mills, postoffices and other institutions of convenience for each community. Add to these four towns from 1,000 to 2,000 inhabitants in size, and numerous thriving villages, with extensive business and manufacturing interests, and the result is a work of which all concerned may well be proud.
The record of this marvelous change is history, and the most important that can be written. For fifty years the people of De Kalb County have been making a history that for thrilling interest, grand practical results, and lessons that may be perused with profit by citizens of other regions, will compare favorably with the narra- tive of the history of any county in the great Northwest ; and, considering the extent of territory involved, it is as worthy of the pen of a Bancroft as even the story of our glorious Republic.
While our venerable ancestors may have said and believed,
" No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, For the whole boundless continent is ours,"
they were nevertheless. for a long time coutent to occupy and possess a very small corner of it; and the great West was not 16 (245)
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opened to industry and civilization until a variety of canses had combined to form, as it were, a great heart, whose animating prin- ciple was improvement, whose impulses annually sent westward armies of noble men and women, and whose pulse is now felt throughout the length and breadth of the best country the sun ever shone upon-from the pineries of Maine to the vineyards of California, and from the sugar-canes of Louisiana to the wheat fields of Minnesota. Long may this heart beat and push forward its arteries and veins of commerce.
Not more from choice than from enforced necessity did the old pioneers bid farewell to the play-grounds of their childhood and the graves of their fathers. One generation after another had worn themselves out in the service of their avaricious landlords. From the first flashes of daylight in the morning until the last glimmer of the setting sun, they had toiled unceasingly on, front father to son, carrying home each day upon their aching shoulders the precious proceeds of their daily labor. Money and pride and power were handed down in the line of succession from the rich sather to his son, while unceasing work and continuous poverty and everlasting obscurity were the heritage of the working man and his children.
Their society was graded and degraded. It was not manners, nor industry, nor education, nor qualities of the head and heart that established the grade. It was money and jewels, and silk and satin, and broadcloth and imperious pride that triumphed over honest poverty and trampled the poor man and his children under the iron heel. The children of the rich and poor were not per- mitted to mingle with and to love each other. Courtship was more the work of the parents than of the sons and daughters. The golden calf was the key to matrimony. To perpetuate a self- constituted aristocracy, without power of brain, or the rich blood of royalty, purse was united to purse, and cousin with cousin, in bonds of matrimony, until the virus boiling in their blood was transmitted by the law of inheritance from one generation to another, and until nerves powerless and manhood dwarfed were on exhibition everywhere, and everywhere abhorred. For the sons and daughters of the poor man to remain there was to forever fol- low as our fathers had followed, and never to lead ; to submit, but never to rule; to obey, but never to command.
Without money, or prestige, or influential friends, the old pio- neers drifted along one by one, from State to State, until in Indi-
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ana-the garden of the Union-they have found inviting homes for each, and room for all. To secure and adorn these homes more than ordinary ambition was required, greater than ordinary endur- ance demanded, and unflinching determination was, by the force of necessity, written over every brow. It was not pomp, or parade, or glittering show that the pioneers were after. They sought for homes which they could call their own, homes for themselves and homes for their children. How well they have succeeded after a struggle of many years against the adverse tides let the records and tax-gatherers testify; let the broad cultivated fields and fruit- bearing orchards, the flocks and the herds, the palatial residences, the places of business, the spacious halls, the clattering car-wheels and ponderous engines all testify.
There was a time when pioneers waded through deep snows, across bridgeless rivers, and through bottomless sloughs, a score of miles to mill or market, and when more time was required to reach and return from market than is now required to cross the conti- nent, or traverse the Atlantic. These were the times when our palaces were constructed of logs and covered with "shakes" riven from the forest trees. These were the times when our children were stowed away for the night in the low, dark attics, amongst the horns of the elk and the deer, and where through the chinks in the "shakes" they could count the twinkling stars. These were the times when our chairs and our bedsteads were hewn from the forest trees, and tables and bureaus constructed from the boxes in which their goods were brought. These were the times when the workingman labored six and sometimes seven days in the week, and all the hours there were in a day from sunrise to sunset.
Whether all succeeded in what they undertook is not a question to be asked now. The proof that as a body they did succeed is ali around us. Many individuals were perhaps disappointed. Fortunes and misfortunes belong to the human race. Not every man can have a school-house on the corner of his farm; not every man can have a bridge over a stream that flows by his dwelling ; not every man can have a railroad depot on the borders of his plantation, or a city in its center; and while these things are desirable in some respects, their advantages are oftentimes ontweighed by the almost perpetual presence of the foreign beggar, the dreaded tramp, the fear of fire and conflagration, and the insecurity from the presence of the midnight burglar, and the bold, bad men and women who lurk in ambush and infest the villages. The good things of this
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earth are not all to be found in any one place; but if more is to be found in one than another, that place is in our rural retreats, our quiet homes outside of the clamor and turmoil of city life.
In viewing the blessings which surround us, then, we should reverence those who have made them possible, and ever fondly cherish in memory the sturdy old pioneer and his log cabin.
Let us turn our eyes and thoughts back to the log-cabin days of a quarter of a century ago, and contrast those homes with com- fortable dwellings of to-day. Before ns stands the old log cabin. Let us enter. Instinctively the head is uncovered in token of reverence to this relic of ancestral beginnings, early struggles and final triumphs. To the left is the deep, wide fire-place, in whose commodious space a group of children may sit by the fire and up through the chimney may count the stars, while ghostly stories of witches and giants, and still more thrilling stories of Indians and wild beasts, are whisperingly told and shudderingly heard. On the great crane hang the old tea-kettle and the great iron pot. The huge shovel and tongs stand sentinel in either corner, while the great andirons patiently wait for the huge back-log. Over the fire. place hangs the trusty rifle. To the right of the fire-place stands . the spinning wheel, while in the further end of the room is seen the old-fashioned loom. Strings of drying apples and poles of drying pumpkins are overhead. Opposite the door in which you enter stands a huge deal table, by its side the dresser whose pewter plates and " shining delf" catch and reflect the fire-place flames as shields of armnies do the sunshine. From the corner of its shelves coyly peep out the relics of former china. In a curtained corner and hid from casual sight we find the mother's bed, and under it the trundle-bed, while near them a ladder indicates the loft where the older children sleep. To the left of the fire-place and in the corner opposite the spinning-wheel is the mother's work stand. Upon it lies the Bible, evidently innch used, its family record tell- ing of parents and friends a long way off, and telling, too, of children
" Scattered like roses in bloom, Some at the bridal, some at the tomb."
Her spectacles, as if but just used, are inserted between the leaves of her Bible, and tell of her purpose to return to its comforts when cares permit and duty is done. A stool, a bench, well notched and whittled and carved, and a few chairs complete the furniture of the room, and all stand on a coarse but well-scoured floor.
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Let us for a moment watch the city visitors to this humble cabin. The city bride, innocent but thoughtless, and ignorant of labor and care, asks her city-bred husband, "Pray, what savages set this up?" Honestly confessing his ignorance, he replies, " I do not know." But see the pair upon whom age sits "frosty, but kindly." First, as they enter, they give a rapid glance about the cabin home, and then a mutual glance of eye to eye. Why do tears start and fill their eyes? Why do lips quiver? There are many who know why; but who that has not learned in the school of experience the full meaning of all these symbols of trials and privations, of loneliness and danger, can comprehend the story that they tell to the pioneer? Within this chinked and mud-daubed cabin we read the first pages of our history, and as we retire through its low door-way, and note the heavy battened door, its wooden hinges and its welcoming latch-string, is it strange that the scenes without should seem to be but a dream? But the cabin and the palace, standing side by side in vivid contrast, tell their own story of this people's progress. They are a history and a prophecy in one.
CHAPTER II.
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SCIENTIFIC.
GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY .- GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF DE KALB COUNTY .- ZOOLOGY.
GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY.
De Kalb is smaller than the "model" county which contains sixteen townships. It comprises nine whole and three fractional congressional townships, or rather more than ten townships alto- gether. The county lies just south of the northeastern corner county of Indiana, and is bounded as follows: On the north by Steuben County; on the east by Defiance County, Ohio; on the south by Allen County, and on the west by Noble County. It is situated on the " divide" between the tributaries of the Mississippi and those of Lake Erie, and is drained by the St. Joseph of the Maumee and its tributaries, including the Cedar. The county con- tains the usual physical characteristics of the Northwestern States, having a gentle rolling surface, originally covered with hard-wood timber. The best land, agriculturally, is in the northern and east- ern parts of the county.
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF DE KALB COUNTY.
BY T. J. SANDERS, A. M.
Having in mind the thousands of pupils who receive instruction in the excellent schools of De Kalb County, and conscious that the greater part of those who have come to inaturer years are unac- quainted with the subject of general geology, I desire, in the first place, to describe the formation of the world as a whole and give such an account of the great periods of the earth's history that we may be able to fiud our place in that history, and thus, as in- locating a place upon a map first, we may be the better able after- ward to study it more satisfactorily and understandingly. Indeed.
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without this method of procedure, all our ideas are vague and the entire work unsatisfactory and unscientific.
Omitting the nebular hypothesis, which assumes the earth, to- gether with all other bodies of the solar system, to have been in primeval times in the form of an incandescent gas of incompre- hensible dimensions, and the second step derived from the former, through long cycles of whirling motion, radiation, and condensa- tion, the liquid or molten earth, with its wonderful processes of crust formation, we begin our brief description with the process of
ROCK-FORMATION.
The first or original rock is what was first formed as a crust, igne- ous rock, rock withont form or strata-a mere slag. The earth, losing heat by radiation and becoming smaller, the crust, in ac- commodating itself to the smaller sphere, must necessarily rise in some places and sink in others, just as by the shrinking of an orange the rind becomes wrinkled. Then the water, having been previously formed as the result of the great world formation, the residue, the ash-heap of the great conflagration, obeying the law of gravity, is gathered together into the depressed areas and thus the dry land, or rather the dry rock, appears.
Now, by the action of winds, rains, waves and the various chem - ical and mechanical agencies, the exposed rock is decomposed, carried to the sea, and deposited in horizontal strata, which, in process of time, becomes stratified rock, just as is being done at the mouths of the rivers and the beach and bottom of the oceans of to-day.
BASEMENT ROOK.
From the preceding, we may conclude that there is everywhere beneath the waters and soil of the earth's surface a basement of rock, sometimes called bed-rock. The outcropping of rock above the surface, the rocky bluffs forming the sides of many valleys, the ledges projecting from the sides of mountains, and the cliffs of the sea shore are portions of this rock exposed to view. Now, the various strata which compose the stratified rocks of the globe, with their included fossils, are the leaves of that great book which unfolds to us the history of the earth through its incomprehensibly long periods of time. The lowest strata, of course, furnish ns the first chapter in that history. In no part of the earth's surface is the record complete, but all have their long blanks-periods in which no strata occur. This is caused by the elevating of the
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crust above the waters of the ocean, and, when this is continental, finis is appended to the chapter and the history of the rocks is finished forever.
In North America we have an excellent example of the unfold- ing and development of geological history, and as the continent gradually emerged from the ocean, it left us the record almost complete. The following section is a representation of the succes- sive geological ages, with the corresponding formations and periods of the globe, by the side of which is placed that of De Kalb County with its many and immensely long blanks between the Devonian and Quaternery or Psychozoic Ages.
Thus a glance at the section will show us our place in the history of the formation of the globe, not the least interesting part of which is the long blank between the Devonian and Quaternery Ages, showing us conclusively that our soil rests upon the Devo- nian. At the close of the above-named period, all Northern Indi- ana and a strip extending through the central part of the State to the Ohio River emerged from beneath the sea and the 'history of the rocks of De Kalb County was finished forever.
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