History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 42

Author: Archibald Shaw
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1123

USA > Indiana > Dearborn County > History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 42

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"About 1837 there were two cradles in our field, but they never cut as clean as the sickles or the reaping machine. But the cradles soon caused the sickles to be hung up in the barn, seldom to be taken down except to be used for cutting a patch of down grain."

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CHAPTER XXXIV.

EARLY TRANSPORTATION AND HIGHWAYS.

When the first settler landed from his boat on the shores of the Ohio, in Dearborn county, he found an unbroken wilderness. The first endeavor was to blaze trails leading from one settlement to another. The river and the creeks were used as much as possible. Later, bridle paths were cut where necessary for travel. After the county was organized, attention began to be given to the routes of travel and public action was taken, specifying in greater detail where these roads should be located. They were "mere tracks through the woods" at first. Trees were evaded and the bushes cut away, little or no attention being paid to the grades. The highways, if such they could be called, were generally laid out on section lines, regardless of hills or hollows. Travel was either on foot or horseback. The wagon was little used and seldom seen. It was not long, however, until vehicles became plen- tiful. The Dearborn county oak and hickory were the best timber in the world out of which to construct any kind of a wheeled vehicle. Men with the con- structive genius to manufacture them, were quick to take advantage of the de- mand and supplied the people with stout wagons of the kind needed for pio- neer service. The use of the wheeled vehicle called for better roads and, as the country increased in population and wealth, more attention was paid to the matter of transportation. As the markets opened up and the farmer found a demand for the products of his labor he cast about him for the best way to get his articles to that market. Roads were improved and attention began to be given to the grades and to the character of the material used in building the road. The streams were frequently impassable on account of headwater or backwater from the Ohio. The roads in the rainy seasons were almost impassable on account of the character of the soil. The wagon was the only means of transportation to the streams where navigation could be reached.

THE FIRST PERMANENT ROAD.

The first effort to establish a permanent road through Dearborn county, of which there is any account, was in 1799, when Capt. Ephraim Kibby, of Cincinnati, surveyed the route for a road from Cincinnati to Vincennes. The

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route is not recorded, but it is stated that he found the distance from Vin- cennes to the mouth of the Great Miami river to be one hundred and fifty- five miles and forty-eight poles.

The following is from the Western Spy, of Cincinnati, July 23, 1799: "Capt. E. Kibby, who, some time since, undertook to cut a road from Fort Vincennes to this place, returned on Monday, reduced to a perfect skele- ton. He had cut the road seventy miles, when, by some means, he was sepa- rated from his men. After hunting them some days without success, he steered his course this way. He has undergone great hardships, and was obliged to subsist on roots, etc., which he picked up in the woods."

The almanacs, about 1820, it is said, gave the distances on the Cincin- nati and Vincennes road as follow: To Burlington, Kentucky, fifteen miles; from there to Rising Sun, ten miles; thence to Judge Cotton's (a stopping place some three miles back of Vevay). twenty miles; thence to Madison, twenty miles; thence to New Lexington, seventeen miles; thence to Salem, thirty-two miles; thence to French Lick, thirty-four miles; thence to East fork of White river (Shoals), seventeen miles; thence to North fork of White river (Hawkins) twenty miles; thence to Vincennes, sixteen miles, making a total of two hundred and one miles. The travel in those early days between Cincinnati and Vincennes was largely by river as far as Louisville and some- times all the way.

HIGHWAYS ESTABLISHED.

Just when the earlier highways were established, it is difficult to deter- mine. Many of them have long since been abandoned. Others have been re- located at various points, until the road at present bears little resemblance to the one originally laid out. About the year 1820 the state of Indiana com- menced to lay out "state" roads. The road out through Manchester from Lawrenceburg was laid out and located at that time or soon thereafter. It was to be sixty-six feet in width and was part of a system of state roads that was to connect all the principal points in the state. This road was from the time of its first inception a thoroughfare. From the time in 1815 that Robert McCracken blazed a trail to that place, until the coming of the railway, the Manchester road has been an artery of travel.

In 1826 Samuel C. Vance, William V. Cheek and William Caldwell were appointed by the county board of supervisors, as a board of commissioners "to view. lay out and mark a public road leading from Lawrenceburg to Ver- sailles." From this report, it would seem that a road was already in exis-

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tence, but that they recommended a change commencing on "the Wilmington road near Peter Henningin's, running from thence in an easterly direction so as to intersect the road running up North Hogan creek nearly opposite the residence of Henry Bruce." This was accepted by the board of supervisors and ordered opened. . At the May session of the board of supervisors, the following entry appears: "Appeared John Gray, John Dawson and Isaac Caldwell, commissioners appointed by an act of the General Assembly. of the state of Indiana, approved January 31, 1824, and amended January 21, 1826, for the 'purpose of making, running, laying out and locating a road from the town of Lawrenceburg, in the county of Dearborn, to the town of Brookville, in the county of Franklin,' reported they had met at the house of John Gray, in the town of Lawrenceburg, on the 13th day of November, 1826, and, being duly sworn according to law, appointed Henry Mckenzie, surveyor, and Joseph Dart and Isaac Southard, chain bearers, who severally took the oath faithfully to discharge their duties." This road is described carefully by distances, but mentions no houses it passes; it is presumed to be the highway that now is called the Georgetown road.

At the May session, 1829, James Dill deposed, that in the year 1823 a road was laid out from Madison, through Vevay, Rising Sun, Aurora, to Lawrenceburg, by Abel C. Pepper, Thomas Armstrong and David McCoy. Said road he believed ran along the bank of the Ohio river from Lawrence- burg to Tanner's creek and at or near the bank to Aurora and was forty feet wide, and said road was ordered opened.

Again, in the doings of the board of county supervisors, November, 1829, it is recorded that James Vawter, David Finley and James Walker, commissioners appointed by an act of the General Assembly, January 14, 1829, to lay out and locate a road from Madison to Lawrenceburg via Riker's Ridge, Dumaree's Mill and Robert B. Mitchell's, in Jefferson county, Cross Plains, and Erastus Lothrop's, in Ripley county, Parker's Mills, in Dearborn county, thence by nearest and best road to Wilmington.

The report of these commissioners was read and accepted and the road ordered opened. At this same session of the board it was also recorded that John McPike, James Ardery and William P. Rush were a board of com- missioners appointed by an act of the General Assembly, January 17, 1829, to view, lay out and locate a public highway from Lawrenceburg, in Dear- born county, to Rushville. in Rush county. The board reported that they had surveyed and located said road, "commencing at a stake on the corner of Jesse Hunt's meadow at the crossing of Walnut and Partition lane, in

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the town of Lawrenceburg; thence forty degrees, eighty-seven poles, to the turn of the lane between Old and New Lawrenceburg; thence north seventeen degrees, west thirty-four poles, to the hinge post of Stephen Ludlow's great gate, opposite to the dwelling house of George H. Dunn; thence north nine- teen degrees, west twenty-five poles, to a stake; thence north fifty-seven degrees, west twelve poles; thence north thirty-seven degrees, west twenty- four poles, to the house of Joshua Shaw; thence north seven degrees, west thirty poles; thence north thirteen degrees, east five poles, to the mile stake; thence north thirteen degrees, east thirty-five poles; thence to a ·stump near Captain . Crandon's house; thence north to Walker's house; and the descrip- tion goes up Tanner's creek to a five-mile stake at the east end of Salt Fork bridge; thence to the Madison road at the academy and on to the southeast end of a bridge across the West fork of Tanner's creek; thence to a school house on Gidney's land and to a line dividing the lands of Richard and Leonard Spicknall and to a stake near Robert Row's barn and to the center of the Harrison road, on to a field of Isaac Alden's, thence to Pipe creek, near the residence of Squire Sunman. This is now the road up Tanner's creek to Guilford, Yorkville and on, with some changes of location. It is not necessary to say that these roads were not automobile roads, but mere routes by which, in dry weather, wagons could be driven with a fair load. In wet weather they were generally impassable. The description, however, makes it possible to trace the road pretty closely, although it is very probable that the "hinge post on the great gate" and the different stakes mentioned have moldered into dust long ago.

STAGE AND MAIL ROUTES.

On the main lines of travel between points of importance, mail lines were established early, the mail being carried on horseback. Postage was high and few letters were written, owing to the uncertainty of delivery and the time en route. Stage coaches began to be the means of travel on these more important routes as early as 1825. In 1831 the files of the Western Statesman advertise :

"STAGE LINE

"Between Lawrenceburg and Cincinnati.

"The stage on this line is now in operation. Leaves Lawrenceburg at 6 A. M. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Leaves Cincinnati, Tuesday. Thurs-

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day and Saturday, arriving at 1 P. M. Will pass through Elizabethtown and Cleves and every facility will be accorded passengers.

"For passage, call on James WV. Hunter, Postmaster.

CUMMINS & MURDOCK, Proprietors."

On December 16, 1831, the Western Statesman announces that mails will arrive from Cincinnati three times per week; from Louisville, three times per week; from Indianapolis, twice per week, and from Brookville, twice per week.

The stage route to Indianapolis in 1838 was said to be by the way of Napoleon, Greensburg and Shelbyville, and it continued on that route until the advent of the Lawrenceburg & Indianapolis railroad in 1853.

In 1840 The Beacon, published at Lawrenceburg, had the following editorial :

"Nothing will aid so much in bringing the capital and business to the place as good roads, and in this particular our county. is lamentably deficient. It is idle to wait for the state or the county to do anything; this township should take the lead. Nearly one-third of the whole wealth of the county is in this township and there are not more than twenty or twenty-five miles of leading roads in it. That it would take but a short time to turnpike the whole of them, by a judicious and equitable system, must be evident, and such an example would unquestionably be followed by the other large town- ships, and most of the leading roads would be made good."

Aurora, on account of its location at the mouth of the two Hogans, in its early history labored under great disadvantages, on account of the ex- pense of crossing these streams and the mouth after they join. Backwater was common and the creek at its mouth was very deep, making fording impossible. On this account, the village of Wilmington flourished for several decades, until bridges were built across the mouth of Hogan and other ones constructed, giving the city an outlet to the country round about. In 1836 George W. Lane built a bridge across the mouth of Hogan creek, which gave better communication to Lawrenceburg and the hill country towards Manchester. During the session of the General Assembly of 1847 Mr. Lane was a member and he secured a charter authorizing a company to build a turnpike from Aurora to Hart's Mills (now Friendship) in Ripley county. He also was the author of a successful act authorizing a pike to be built from Aurora to Moore's Hill by the way of Wilmington. About the same time a law authorizing township trustees to improve the roads was enacted and

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the Center township trustee graded and macadamized the roads up Man- chester hill and to the mouth of Laughery creek. About the same time the present road from Aurora to Lawrenceburg was constructed and macadam- ized.

A company was organized in 1840 and chartered by the General As- sembly to construct a turnpike from Lawrenceburg to Manchester. The charter was dated February 18. 1840, as the Lawrenceburg & Napoleon Turn- pike Company, but the road was never constructed farther than Manchester. The company was not very prosperous and it was not until February, 1841, that books for the subscription of stock were opened.

The Manchester road was known above all others as "The State Road." It was the main artery of trade and commercial activity in the county. Over its right of way every conceivable form of merchandise was carried. From 1820 until 1853. before the Lawrenceburg & Indianapolis railway was opened for traffic. it was a thoroughfare. The stage might be seen every day hurry- ing along with its four or six horses and the driver sitting on the box. It would leave Lawrenceburg at six A. M., arrive at Greensburg at three P. M., and leave Greensburg the same way, until a line of boats was estab- lished, when the stage would leave Greensburg at three A. M .. being sched- uled to arrive at Lawrenceburg at twelve midday, making connection with the mail for the boat for Cincinnati.

Over this highway were driven from the interior of the state thousands of turkeys, hogs and cattle. As the interior became settled. the traffic was so great that nearly every house on the route became a tavern. Some of these taverns were dubbed the "Three-mile house," "Six-mile house," "Nine- mile house," "Twelve-mile house," as the distance might be, as measured from Lawrenceburg. The chief requisite by stockmen for a tavern was abund- ance of water and forage. Wagons of every description thronged this artery of traffic. Thousands of emigrants, wending their way farther west, where they could have their pick of the best land at a low price, could be seen every day, with their canvas-topped wagons to which might be harnessed horses, oxen or mules, while often there was to be seen, with some of the more fore- handed, a cow or two and perhaps two or three more horses. The New Purchase at first was their destination, but after that became in a manner settled up, they were bound for lands farther in the interior.

LAWRENCEBURG, A CENTER OF TRADE.

The enterprise of the Lawrenceburg merchants and business men ex- tended far to the interior of the state. Farmers from as far north as No-

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blesville or west as far as Greencastle would haul wheat here to sell and return with a barrel or two of salt, New Orleans molasses, New Orleans sugar and other things that they needed to make life more comfortable. These wagons, with their loads of farm products, would sometimes throng the town in such numbers that sleeping quarters were difficult to obtain. Wagons would be coralled in every vacant lot. As the Cincinnati market became better, much of this traffic, in the way of live stock, was diverted at Wright's Corner, where the drovers would shorten the distance by turning to the left at that point and crossing Tanner's creek at Cambridge, thence through George- town to Elizabethtown, Ohio, and across Whitewater and the Big Miami. Another route was to turn to the left at the Abraham Roland farm and drive down to Tanner's creek at Bullock's ford, as it was then called, on the farm of Edward Hayes, present owner, thence through the "cut-off" to Hardinsburg and on to Cincinnati. It sounds like a fairy tale now, but in the deep hollow just beyond what was at that time called Bullock's ford. in the latter thirties and early forties, there were two or three taverns or stop- ping places for drovers. These had, as inducements for the drover, water in abundance, that sometimes, on the hilltops, could not be given.

As the country grew and the roads were better, many drovers would divert their droves and reach the Cincinnati market via Harrison, saving several miles travel in that manner, if they came from east of the line of about where the railway now runs and nearer the Whitewater valley. It is said that the turkey drover would have to watch his flock when night ap- proached, or the birds would fly to the nearest tree as soon as it became roosting time. They would drive during the day peacefully enough, but the natural instincts would send them to the tree tops when twilight came.

BRIDGES.

Bridges were built across the streams where fording was precarious as early as 1830, but it was several years later before permanent bridges were constructed even on the most important routes of travel. In 1838 there was a movement to erect a free bridge across Tanner's creek where the present bridge is located. The county proposed, with the assistance of private sub- scriptions, to build it and went so far as to appoint Isaac Dunn, William Tate and Andrew Morgan superintendents to look after its construction, submit the plans to the board of commissioners, make the specifications and adver- tise for bids. But David Walser, one of the board of commissioners, pro-

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tested in writing against it, alleging that the cost would make an oppressive tax on the people, and the whole matter was dropped for the time.

At the September meeting of the board of county commissioners in 1838, a petition was presented, signed by Abraham Roland, Ezra Ferris, Stephen Ludlow and others, asking that the road up Ludlow hill be changed, and Henry Walker, John Callahan and Davis Woodward were appointed viewers. They reported the proposed change to be for the public utility, and the road was accordingly changed to what is practically its present location.

On September 7, 1835, the road from Aurora to the junction with the state road at Marion Elwell's, was laid out by Jesse L. Holman, William Dils and Thomas Felbre, Noah Davis and Johnson Watts were viewers. This road tapped the business from the interior and diverted much of it to Aurora, where the merchants offered a good market.

CANALS.

As soon as the country west of the Alleghanies began to settle up, a demand for assistance from the general government began to be made. What the people wanted and needed was markets. . The lands were very productive and the surplus grain, live stock and other farm products needed a place where they could be turned into money, or its equivalent. Canals had been successfully constructed in the East and the people of the new West were desirous of trying them here. The project of a canal down the Whitewater river was agitated as early as 1822, by Alvin Joselyn, then interested in a paper at Brookville. Subsequently a convention was held at Harrison, to which delegates were present from all the nearby counties of the state. A survey was made, under the supervision of Colonel Shriver, of the United States engineers. Colonel Shriver died before the survey was completed, but after his death the work was continued by Colonel Stansbury, of the engineering corps. In 1834 the Connersville Watchman said, "A corps of en- gineers are surveying the route of the contemplated canal down the valley of the Whitewater." In January, 1836, the General Assembly passed the celebrated internal improvement acts, among which the Whitewater canal was one. It was to extend from Hagerstown, Indiana, to Lawrenceburg. The con- tracts for its construction were let on the 13th day of September, 1836, amid much jollification at Brookville. By the aid of the state, the canal was built to Brookville, at a cost of $664,665, but the state had undertaken such an extensive plan of internal improvements that it became deeply involved in debt, so that it was compelled to abandon its internal improvement plans.

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The session of the Legislature of 1843 chartered the Whitewater Valley Company, with a capital stock of four hundred thousand dollars. When the canal was first built, the harbor was near the fair grounds and that part of Lawrenceburg took on quite a boom. What is called "Germantown" was laid out at that time by Omer Tousey, Isaac Dunn and George Tousey and many people erected houses. The work of construction brought to the town many laborers and considerable capital. Later, the canal basin was con- structed at the foot of Elm street and an extensive flour-mill was erected, together with other manufacturing establishments, on account of the power furnished by the water from the canal. It added a new impetus to the busi- ness of the town of Lawrenceburg, which remained for several years. Fresh- ets, however, continually interrupted navigation and, with the advent of the railroad in a few years, the improvement took its place among the list of experiments that a new country will always suffer from.

RAILROADS.

Lawrenceburg and Dearborn county were pioneers in the matter of railways. George H. Dunn, a leading jurist of Lawrenceburg, was the leader in the matter of building a railway. When the idea of transporta- tion by steam power was in its infancy, George H. Dunn was an ardent advocate of the construction of a railway from Lawrenceburg to Indianapolis. He was a member of the Legislature at that time and ardently in favor of the idea of constructing such a road. Though disappointment followed, he never gave up, and to his untiring zeal is to be attributed the final success of the road. As early as 1834 he succeeded in forming a company to build the road. It let contracts and several miles of grading was done, but the financial crisis of 1837 temporarily put an end to their efforts. However, Mr. Dunn never ceased to urge its construction, and the company was later reorganized. In 1849 the contract for the construction of first division of the road, twenty miles, up Tanner's creek, was let ; the second division was let a few months later, and the third division, from Greensburg to Indianap- olis, in 1851. In September, 1853. the whole line was completed with the exception of five miles between Greensburg and Shelbyville, which was com- pleted shortly thereafter.

The Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern was incorporated in Indiana on February 14, 1848. The company was authorized to construct a railway

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on the most practical route "between Lawrenceburg on the Ohio river and Vincennes on the Wabash river." The road was to extend "eastwardly from Lawrenceburg to Cincinnati and westwardly through the state of Illinois to the city of St. Louis in the state of Missouri." The whole line was completed for travel in 1857. In 1868 the Whitewater Valley railway was completed. Railways have at the present day taken precedence over every other method of travel, and it remains for the future to determine whether it will hold the important place it now has.

RIVER TRANSPORTATION.

Among the earliest methods of travel and transportation was that of the river. It was the natural route of travel for many years. The navigation of the Ohio has always been of great importance to the country bordering on it. In the earlier days the boats employed were canoes and flatboats. Timber was abundant and it took very few tools to construct one of these crafts. In those early days, when the pioneer was en route, the Ohio pre- sented an animated appearance, with numerous flat boats, canoes and keel- boats. The emigrant boat would contain one or more families, men, women and children, often with their domestic animals and furniture on board. The journey was easy. All the skill required was to keep the boat in the current. A steering oar, at the stern of the boat, and a "gouger," at the bow. would with little trouble keep the boat in the stream.

At an early period, probably as soon as Louisville was founded, keel boats were used. Later on, these boats became. for those days, very luxuri- ous. They had separate cabins for ladies and gentlemen. The proprietors would advertise that "the passengers will be supplied with provisions and liquors of all kinds, of the finest quality, and at the most reasonable rates possible. Persons desiring to work their passage will be admitted, on finding themselves subject, however, to the same order and directions from the master of the boat as the rest of the working hands of the boat's crew." These keel boats. as well as the flatboats. carried oars for increasing the speed, if necessary, going down stream and to row against the current going up the stream. In ascending the stream the cargoes were necessarily light.

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History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 42

Author: Archibald Shaw Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1123

Author: Archibald Shaw
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1123