History of Franklin County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 24

Author: Reifel, August J
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1648

USA > Indiana > Franklin County > History of Franklin County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 24

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GREETINGS AT CAMBRIDGE CITY.

"The crowd at Milton was not a patching to the crowd at Cambridge City. There were cannons, more bands, the state officers were there and every one had a great jubilee. They kept it up all night and most of next day, and everyone had any kind of fun he wanted, and did not have to pay for it. I tell you, there is a big difference now and then. Why, we went through the stretches of woods four and five miles long then to get to Cam- bridge, and it would be hard to find a stretch now half a mile long. Those were great days, though, and everybody made money, but mighty few kept it. It was come easy and go easy.

"Of course, I was around the canal about all my life, but I ran a boat about seven years, and good years they were, too. But I saw that the busi- ness on the canal was falling off and so I sold all my boats, closed out my business, bought a farm and have been a farmer ever since. I'm getting to be a pretty old man, and want a rest. I guess that I am about the only one of the boys who used to run on the canal that is left, and it won't be very long until I tie up forever."

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CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO RAILROAD.

Before the White Water canal was in good running order, Franklin county began to agitate the building of a railroad through the county. In the early fifties the local papers are full of articles on the building of railroads through the county and the plat book in the recorder's office (pages 12-13) shows a railroad through the northeastern corner of the county known as the Cin- cinnati, Cambridge & Chicago Short Lines Railroad. The date of it is given as August 4, 1853, and it was just sixty years from that time until the present road was built across that corner of the county. On Noble's map of 1858, is shown this railroad as if it were actually constructed and future generations seeing this map might think that there was actually a railroad through the county at that time. A part of the grade for this road was actually made, but unforeseen circumstances stopped the building of the road. Traces of the grade may yet be seen, although in places trees had been growing for more than half a century. In 1902 the Chicago, Richmond & Muncie Railroad Company began building its line and, as finally surveyed, six and eighty-eight one hundredths miles of its track was in Franklin county. On April 4, 1902, Bath and Springfield townships voted on the question of granting a subsidy to the company. Bath voted a subsidy of twelve thousand dollars by a majority of sixty, while Springfield voted twenty thousand dollars by a majority of sixty-nine. There are two stations on this line in the county, Peoria and Bath, with a passenger and freight depot at each station.

BIG FOUR (WHITEWATER DIVISION ).

It was not until after it was seen that the canal had outlived its useful- ness that the building of a railroad through the county took on a serious aspect. The floods of the latter fifties damaged the canal so that it was of little use after the beginning of the Civil War. In 1863 the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Railroad Company secured the right to use the towpath of the canal for the building of the railroad and within three years Brookville had steam connection with Cincinnati. This road, now known as the White- water division of the Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati & St. Louis railroad (Big Four), has 27.8 miles of the county, which, with 3.93 miles of side-track, is listed for taxation at $194,925.

This road has passed through several hands and has never been a paying (17)

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proposition, due not only to the limited territory which it serves, but also as well to the heavy expense entailed by the frequent floods which sweep down the White Water valley. The flood of 1913 practically ruined the right of way through the county and more than one hundred thousand dollars was expended by the company before the track could be used again. In fact, so extensive was the damage that it was nearly two months before the trains were running. There was talk at the time that the company would discon- tinue the road altogether, but, fortunately for Franklin county, the company decided to keep the road in use. For nearly a year the Big Four has main- tained through service only between Cincinnati and Connersville, and at the present time operates two passenger trains each way daily between these two points. There is one passenger train which reaches Brookville each night from Cincinnati and returns to that city at five o'clock the next morning.

CHICAGO DIVISION OF BIG FOUR.

The Big Four was the first railroad built between Indianapolis and Cincinnati and three and twenty-five one-hundredths miles of its track lie in Franklin county. It crosses the southwestern corner of Ray township and goes through one town in the county, Huntersville. This road was con- structed in the fifties and has been a good paying proposition ever since it was built. This road is double tracked through the county. This road was valued at $134,875 in 1914, for the three and a fourth miles of tracks which it had in the county.

THE PROPOSED RICHMOND AND BROOKVILLE CANAL. By James M. Miller.

Among the first settlements in southeast Indiana were those along the fertile valley of the East Fork of Whitewater river and its tributaries. The settlers were a thrifty, energetic people, and their industry soon produced a surplus. At quite an early day flatboats were built at Dunlapsville and Quakertown and loaded with the products of the farms, and when a rise. in the river occurred were run out into the current and floated to New Orleans. In the spring of 1819 or 1820, a flatboat that had been built and loaded with provisions at Dunlapsville by George Newland, father of the blind musician of that name who was well known in Indianapolis, passed Bassett's mill dam at Fairfield on its way to New Orleans.

Possessing the push and energy that they did, it is no wonder that these people were among the first to advocate internal improvements. Such

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improvement was very early agitated and by 1834 the scheme for a canal down the East Fork began to assume form. On August 4 of that year a meeting was held at Richmond to consider the practicability of constructing a canal from that city to intersect the proposed Whitewater canal at or near Brookville. This was followed by a meeting in Brookville to consider the propriety of constructing a canal down the East Fork of the Whitewater river from a point in Darke county, Ohio, to connect with the Miami canal at or near Dayton, Ohio. On September 12, 1836, a convention of delegates from Wayne and Franklin counties assembled at Dunlapsville in the interest of the proposed canal. On calling the roll the following delegates answered : Robert Morrison, John Finley, Warner M. Leeds, John Ervin, Irwin Reed, Daniel P. Wiggins, James W. Borden, William R. Foulke, Alexander Stakes, Basil Brightwell, Achilles Williams, Mark Reeves and W. B. Smith, of Richmond; Smith Hunt, Frederick Black, W. J. Matchett, Col. E. Rials- back, Jacob Hender, Thomas J. Larsh and William Clerick, of Abington ; William Watt, James Lamb, William Youse, Jesse Starr, T. H. Harding, J. F. Chapman, Ladis Walling, Jacob Imel and Greenbury Beels, of Brown- ville; George Newland, John Templeton, J. W. Scott, Matthew Hughes, Hugh McCollough, Israel Kirk and Bennett Osborn, of Dunlapsville; Redin Osborn and James Wright, of Fairfield; Abner McCarty, Samuel Goodwin, William T. Beeks, George Kimble, John Ryman, John M. Johnson and George Holland, of Brookville. A permanent organiation was eected. Committees of three from each delegation were appointed to correspond with parties residing on the line of the proposed canal and notify them of future meetings, and give any other information in regard to the enterprise.

On January 27, 1837, the Legislature of Indiana directed the board of internal improvements to survey and locate early the ensuing summer a canal from Richmond to Brookville, to intersect the Whitewater canal at or near the latter place. They were to use the local engineers then employed on the Whitewater canal, and to incur no extra expense for the state. Accordingly, Col. Simpson Torbet was employed as engineer-in-chief and Col. John H. Farquhar, Thomas Noell, Elisha Long, J. C. Moore and M. Dewey, who had been employed on the Whitewater, presumably, formed the engineering corps of the Richmond and Brookville canal. On December 2, 1837, Colonel Torbet made his report to the state board of internal improve- ments, stating that he had completed the "survey and location of a canal down the East Fork of the Whitewater river, beginning at Richmond, in Wayne county, and terminating at Brookville, in Franklin county."

The canal was to be 331/4 miles long, 26 feet wide on the bottom, and

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40 feet at the surface, and to have a depth of four feet of water. There would be 314 miles of slack water and 3 miles of bluff, requiring riprapping of loose stone protection. There was a fall of 2731/2 feet, requiring the fol- lowing mechanical structures : 2 guard locks, 2 aqueducts, 7 culverts, 2 water weirs with gates, 16 road bridges, 2 towpath bridges over the East Fork, 5 dams, and 31 lift locks. The dams were to be located at the following points : Dam No. I, one-half mile from Richmond, at the National road, 160 feet long; Dam No. 2, 160 feet long, 514 miles from Richmond, near Larsh's mill; Dam No. 3, 170 feet long, 1114 miles from Richmond, near Ottis' mills; Dam No. 4, 180 feet long, above Fairfield, and 2312 miles from Richmond; Dam No. 5, 200 feet long, above Brookville and 32 miles from Richmond. The locks, each 90 feet long by 15 feet wide, were to be located at the following places : No. I, one-half mile from Richmond, at the National road bridge; No. 2, at Bancroft's factory; No. 3, at Siddle's mills; No. 4, McFadden's sawmill; No. 5, Rue's mill; No. 6, Henderson's farm; No. 7. Henderson's sawmill; No. 8, Colonel Hunt's lands ; No. 9, at Shroyer's farm; No. 10, at Abington; No. II, at Schwisher's house; No. 12, guard lock where the canal crossed the river; Nos. 13 and 14, in Brownsville; No. 15, at Aschenbury's sawmill; No. 16 and 17, at Adney's land; No. 18, at Silver creek; No. 19, at Newland's, near Dunlapsville ; No. 20, at J. F. Templeton's lands; No. 21, at Hanna's creek; No. 22, above Fairfield; Nos. 23 and 24, at Wolf creek; No. 25, at Robert Templeton's farm ; No. 26, at John Logan's lands ; No. 27, at McCarty's farm; No. 28, on school section ; No. 29, at But- ler's land; Nos. 30 and 31, in Brookville.

The line of the canal followed the right (east) bank of the river for a distance of 1114 miles, when it crossed over to the left (west) bank at Dam No. 3, and followed that side of the river for 1214 miles, passing into slack water below Hanna's creek, and' recrossing to the right bank at Dam No. 4, above Fairfield, and continued down that side of the river to Brook- ville.

This is the route according to the original survey, but it must have been relocated, for George Templeton later said that the line crossed over to the left (west) bank at the southwest corner of his farm, near where the school house stands on Fairfield pike, and that there was to have been a feeder dam at that place. This would correspond with the locks located on the John Logan, Abner McCarty and Amos Butler lands, besides' avoiding some extensive bluff excavations, and is a far more practicable route than to have continued down the east side of the river from the dam above Fairfield to Brookville. This would locate Dam 5 about 30 miles instead of 32 miles from

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Richmond and about 31/2 miles above Brookville. The route as surveyed in Brookville passed down east Market to the intersection of James, now Fourth street, where it veered to the west and terminated in the pool of the White- water canal formed by the dam across the East Fork. The estimated cost of the canal per mile was $15,277, and for the 331/4 miles, $483,778, includ- ing contingencies of $24,188; the entire cost of the canal was estimated to be $507,966.

Colonel Torbet said in his report of the proposed improvement : "With the exception of the bluffs and the lockage, the valley of the East Fork is of the most favorable character for the construction of a canal. There would be many advantages growing out of its construction, the benefit of which can scarcely be anticipated. It would be the channel through which all the trade of one of the most populous, fertile and wealthy regions of the western country would pass. Richmond, situated at the head of naviga- tion, with its vast water power, extensive capital, and enterprising inhabitants, might become the Pittsburgh of Indiana."

A fatality seemed to have followed the engineers of the Whitewater and Richmond and Brookville canals. Colonel Schreiver died while he was engaged in surveying the former, while Colonel Torbet, completing the survey of the latter, made his final report January 5, 1838, and died the 23rd of the following March at John Godley's, near Harrison, Ohio.

In January of 1838 a meeting was held in Brookville in the interest of the canal. A draft of a charter for the organization of a company was approved, and two committees were appointed, one to correspond with our representatives in the Legislature, requesting their influence in behalf of the charter, and the other to communicate with towns along the line of the proposed canal. In the same month a meeting was also held at Fairfield, of which James Osborn was chairman, and James L. Andrews, James McManus, George W. Thompson and Nathaniel Bassett were appointed commissioners, as required in the charter. In February of 1839 Warner M. Leeds, secretary of the company, published the following notice :

"Richmond and Brookville Canal Stock Subscription-Books for sub- scription of stock in the Richmond and Brookville canal will be opened by the commissioners on the first day of April, 1839, and kept open twenty-one days, agreeable to the charter, at the following places, viz : Richmond, Abing- ton, Brownsville, Dunlapsville, Fairfield and Brookville. The following commissioners were authorized to have special charge of said books, one of whom will attend to each of the following places for the purpose of receiving subscriptions : Robert Morrison, Richmond; Col. Smith Hunt,

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Abington ; John Rider, Brownsville ; James Osborn and James Andrews, Fair- field, and Samuel Goodwin, Brookville."

The Richmond Palladium of April 27, 1839, states that Franklin, Union and Wayne counties had taken $215,000 worth of stock, of which $50,000 was taken by Richmond, the following citizens of that place taking stock : William Dewey, Warner M. Leeds, Benjamin Fulgum, James King, Andress S. Wiggins, Charles Paulson, John Ogan, Dennis McMullen, Henry Moor- man, Caleb Sheren, Irwin Reed, Joseph M. Gilbert, Benjamin Strattan, Wil- liam Owen, Cornelius Ratliff, William Kenworthy, John Sufferin, Benjamin Mason, Basil Brightwell, Benjamin Pierce, Isaac Jones, Benjamin Straw- bridge, Armstrong Grimes, Solomon Horney, Jr., Jacob J. Keefer, Reuben . M. Worth, William Meek, Williams S. Watt, John M. Laws, Isaac Beeson, Kasson Brookins, Henry Hollingsworth, James W. Salter, Hugh S. Hamil- kon, Thomas Newman, William B. Smith, Oliver Kinsey, Clayton Hunt, and Samuel E. Perkins. For the names of the stockholders we are indebted to Joseph C. Ratliff, of Richmond.

Undoubtedly Brookville and Franklin county did their duty and were as generous as Wayne and Union counties or any of the towns along the line of the canal, but no record of the stockholders can be obtained. The names of only two have been learned; these were Graham Hanna and James Wright.

In September of 1839 Richmond and Brookville papers contained advertisements calling for bids for constructing sections 1, 2 and 3, near Richmond; 13, near Abington; 20, near Brownsville; 40, near Fairfield, and 52, near Brookville. The advertisement states that the sections to be let "embrace a number of mechanical structures, consisting principally of dams and locks, with some very heavy bluff excavations." Specifications of the work were to be posted at Doctor Matchett's tavern in Abington, Doctor Mulford's tavern in Brownsville, Abijah DuBois' tavern in Fairfield, D. Hoffman's tavern in Brookville, and at the company's office in Richmond. The lettings took place as advertised, except section 52, near Brookville, which, owing to the heavy excavations, was not let. So far as can be learned, no work was done near Brookville, but on section 40, near Fairfield, the contractors, Henry and Harvey Pierce, excavated about one and a half miles of the canal down the east side of the river to the farm now owned by Sallie and Missouri Hanna. Traces of excavation can also be seen plainly on the farm of James Blew. Sections 1, 2 and 3, near Richmond, were let, and from a mile and a half to two miles of excavation made. No use of these excavated portions was ever made until 1860, when Leroy

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Larsh erected a grist mill on the portion near Richmond, which is yet in operation.

At the breaking of ground for the Whitewater canal John Finley, editor of the Richmond Palladium, quoting Moore's "Meeting of the Waters," with changes to suit the occasion, said : "The last picayune shall depart from my fob ere the East and West Forks relinquish the job." Whether the last picayune departed from the editor's fob or not is unknown, but undoubtedly the East Fork relinquished the job, and Richmond failed to become the "Pittsburgh of Indiana."

CHAPTER X.

AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES.

The first attempt to form and conduct an agricultural society in Franklin county was the organization of such a society in September, 1834. The first officers were as follow: David Mount, president; Enoch McCarty, Samuel Lering and Samuel Goodwin, trustees; George Holland, recording secretary ; Rufus Haymond, corresponding secretary; George W. Kimble, treasurer. The township directors (then called curators) were as follow: Brookville township, William T. Beeks, Daniel St. John, Joseph Goudie, Richard Littel and Samuel Hymes; Highland township, Bradbury Cottrel and Solo- mon Allen; Blooming Grove township, James Webb, John Allen and W. T. Jacobs ; White Water township, John P. Case and Samuel Rockafellar; Bath township, William Shultz and Abraham Lee; Posey township, I. Lockwood, James Simmons and Alexander McKee; Springfield township, Samuel Shirk, Philp Jones and Isaac Wamsley ; Ray township, Charles Martin and James Halsey; Fairfield township, Benjamin Snowden, James Wright, Redin Os- born and Michael F. Miller. John A. Matson was selected to deliver the first annual address.

At the fair in 1837 stock and machinery were exhibited on a lot near the residence of Samuel Goodwin. The butter, cheese and all articles to be judged by the ladies were placed in a room at the court house. James Calfee was then acting as the society's secretary. This fair was held at Brookville, while later exhibits were made at Laurel, as will be observed later on. Brookville has had three fair grounds. The first was situated in the southern part of town, near the present home of Mr. Hathaway; the second was near the present school building; the last one where now is located the cemetery, on the west side of White Water river. At the last named locality about thirty acres of land was leased and fairly well improved by the agricultural society, which continued to have their annual exhibits until 1881, when the society disbanded. The land was sold to the Odd Fellows of Brookville, who converted it into the present cemetery.

Prior to 1850 the original society went down, and a meeting was called for August 29, 1851, for the purpose of organizing a society in Franklin

MEYER TOBACCO BARN, BROOKVILLE TOWNSHIP.

MANUFACTURING DISTRICT, BROOKVILLE.

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county, under the new Indiana state law. It was signed by James Everett, James McClure, John P. Brady, Thomas Fitton, A. B. Line, John R. Good- win, C. F. Clarkson, Isaac Peck, George Holland and Samuel Goudie. C. F. Clarkson, who was elected president of the new agricultural society, later in life made a famous record as a journalist in Iowa, where he was familiarly known as "Father Clarkson," and was the founder of the great Iowa State Register, now the Register-Leader, of Des Moines, Iowa.

The first county fair under the auspices of this society was held at Laurel in 1852. Three acres of ground, just south of the village of Laurel, were fenced in with a seven-foot board fence; a speaker's stand, floral hall, mechanic's hall, a hall for grain and dairy products, an office and ticket building, with pens for cattle, hogs and sheep, were among the improvements of the place. The main buildings were thirty by one hundred and fifty feet in size.

After the removal of the fair to Brookville things went on well for many years, and very creditable annual exhibits were made. But as time passed and the state fair began to absorb the interest hitherto taken in local county affairs, this county, with many others in Indiana, began to wane and finally, after several new leases on its existence, went down. This is to be regretted, when one comes to consider that Franklin county is still classed among the good farming sections of the state. At an early day the population was more or less absorbed in manufacturies and living off of the forests, which were finally ruthlessly cut down and shipped away or consumed at home. But with the passing of factories and mills, a majority of the free- holders began to turn again to the soil for their chief support.

THE SOIL.

At an early day the bottom lands and valleys generally were too full of vegetable matter to be good wheat-raising lands, but after several de- cades of corn growing on these lands this condition was all changed, and then wheat was profitably grown. In many sections there were produced as many as fifty successive crops of corn, which tended to exhaust the vegetable mat- ter, after which other grains grew better.

In the eastern part of the county there was a large amount of level and wet land, which was not considered valuable for farming purposes, but later on, when drained and cleared off, became the richest part of the entire county. In this portion there is a clay sub-soil with a vegetable loam for the upper surface. In Blooming Grove and parts of other northern townships

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the soil is gray and, in instances, almost white, with a yellow sub-soil, which when brought to the surface affords a fine productive soil. In the southern part of the county the sub-soil is also a yellow clay, though not as pro- ductive as in other sections. But the proper care, fertilization and general rotation of crops has brought these lands up to about the standard of this section of the state. Especially here one finds many of the most valuable orchards and vineyards. It has been said by scientists that this county lacks in lime, and hence fertilizing and the plowing under of green clover has been successfully followed for many years to the betterment of the soil.

LIVE STOCK.

As a grazing county this is most excellent and those who have turned their attention to more stock and less grain growing, have come to be the wealthy- husbandmen. The dairy industry also has been profitable, and is still so. As one example of this branch of farm industry it should be stated that hundreds of pounds of milk are shipped from milk and cream stations within the county, to distant markets, including Cincinnati. Again, the quality of stock matured here can be shown by the following description of a mammoth steer, which item appeared in one of the weekly home papers a few years ago :

"One indication of this county being a good live-stock section is the fact that here was bred and matured one of the largest, if not the very largest, steers grown in the world. He was exhibited at various stock and horse shows in 1906. He was raised and kept until past four years of age on the farm of Perry M. Elwell, in Springfield township, and sold to Andy Wissel, when he was eighteen hands high at his shoulder, six feet in circum- ference, seventeen feet and four inches long from tip of tail to tip of nose. He then weighed three thousand, five hundred pounds. He was known as 'Jumbo.' "

HORTICULTURE.

That fruit growing in Franklin county may be made a success, one's at- tention only need be called to the following item in a local Brookville news- paper of 1906, which stated the facts concerning three of the most extensive orchards in the county : D. L. Secrest raised twelve thousand bushels of fine marketable apples that year; Herman Trichler, six thousand bushels; Charles F. Jones, three thousand bushels." The editor adds: "There are hundreds

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History of Franklin County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 24

Author: Reifel, August J Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1648

Author: Reifel, August J
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1648