History of Franklin County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 5

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 5

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FRANKLIN COUNTY, INDIANA.

and on this basis Delaware was the only state in the Union which exceeded Indiana. Of the troops sent from Indiana, 7,243 were killed or mortally wounded, and 19,429 died from other causes, making a total death loss of over thirteen per cent for all the troops furnished.

During the summer of 1863 Indiana was thrown into a frenzy of excite- ment when it was learned that General Morgan had crossed the Ohio with 2,000 cavalrymen under his command. Probably Indiana never experienced a more exciting month than July of that year. Morgan entered the state in Harrison county and advanced northward through Corydon to Salem in Washington county. As his men went along they robbed orchards, looted farm houses, stole all the horses which they could find and burned consider- able property. From Salem, Morgan turned with his men to the east, having been deterred from his threatened advance on Indianapolis by the knowledge that the local militia of the state would soon be too strong for him. He hur- ried with his men toward the Ohio line, stopping at Versailles long enough to loot the county treasury. Morgan passed through Dearborn county over into Ohio, near Harrison, and a few days later, Morgan and most of his band were captured.

During the latter part of the war there was considerable opposition to its prosecution on the part of the Democrats of this state. An organization known as the Knights of the Golden Circle at first, and later as the Sons of Liberty, was instrumental in stirring up much trouble throughout the state. Probably historians will never be able to agree as to the degree of their culpability in thwarting the government authorities in the conduct of the war. That they did many overt acts cannot be questioned and that they collected fire arms for traitorous designs cannot be denied. Governor Morton and General Carrington, by a system of close espionage, were able to know at all times just what was transpiring in the councils of these orders. In the cam- paign of 1864 there was an open denunciation through the Republican press of the Sons of Liberty. On October 8 of that year the Republican news- papers carried these startling headlines: "You can rebuke this treason. The traitors intend to bring war to your home. Meet them at the ballot box while Grant and Sherman meet them on the battle field." A number of the leaders were arrested, convicted in a military court and sentenced to be shot. However, they were later pardoned.

The Spanish-American War of 1898 has been the last one in which troops from Indiana have borne a part. When President Mckinley issued his call for 75,000 volunteers on April 25, 1898, Indiana was called upon to furnish three regiments. War was officially declared April 25, and formally

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INDIANA IN 1833. By E. V. Shockley.

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INDIANA IN 1836 E.V. SHOCKLEY

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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

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FRANKLIN COUNTY, INDIANA.

came to an end by the signing of a protocol on August 12 of the same year. The main engagements of importance were the sea battles of Manila and Santiago and the land engagements of El Caney and San Juan Hill. Ac- cording to the treaty of Paris, signed December 12, 1898, Spain relinquished her sovereignty over Cuba, ceded to the United States Porto Rico and her other West India Island possessions, as well as the island of Guam in the Pacific. Spain also transferred her rights in the Philippines for the sum of twenty million dollars paid to her for public work and improvements con- structed by the Spanish government.

POLITICAL HISTORY.

It is not possible to trace in detail the political history of Indiana for the past century and in this connection an attempt is made only to survey briefly the political history of the state. For more than half a century Indiana has been known as a pivotal state in politics. In 1816 there was only one political party and Jennings, Noble, Taylor, Hendricks and all of the politicians of that day were grouped into this one-the Democratic party. Whatever differences in views they might have had were due to local issues and not to any questions of national portent. Questions concerning the improvements of rivers, the building of canals, the removal of court houses and similar questions of state importance only divided the politicians in the early history of Indiana into groups. There was one group known as the White Water faction, another called the Vincennes crowd, and still another designated as the White river delegation. From 1816 until as late as 1832, Indiana was the scene of personal politics, and during the years Adams, Clay and Jackson were candidates for the presidency on the same ticket, men were known politically as Adams men, Clay men or Jackson men. The election returns in the twenties and thirties disclose no tickets labeled Democrat, Whig or Republican, but the words "Adams," "Clay," or Jackson."

The question of internal improvements which arose in the Legislature of 1836 was a large contributing factor in the division of the politicians of the state. The Whig party may be dated from 1832, although it was not until four years later that it came into national prominence. The Democrats elected the state officials, including the governor, down to 1831, but in that year the opposition party, later called the Whigs, elected Noah Noble governor. For the next twelve years the Whigs, with their cry of internal improvements, controlled the state. The Whigs went out of power with Samuel Bigger in 1843, and when they came into power again they appeared

FRANKLIN COUNTY, INDIANA.

under the name of Republicans in 1861. Since the Civil War the two parties have practically divided the leadership between them, there having been seven Republicans and six Democrats elected governor of the state. The following table gives a list of the governors of the Northwest Territory, Indiana Terri- tory and the state of Indiana. The Federalists were in control up to 1800 and Harrison and his followers may be classed as Democratic-Republicans. The politics of the governors of the state are indicated in the table.

GOVERNORS OF INDIANA.

Of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio-

Arthur St. Clair

1787-1800

Of the Territory of Indiana-

John Gibson (acting) July 4, 1800-1801

William H. Harrison 1801-1812 1

Thomas Posey 1812-1816 1 I 1 1

Of the State of Indiana-

Jonathan Jennings, Dem. 1816-1822

Ratliff Boon, Dem. September 12 to December 5, 1822

William Hendricks, Dem. I822-1825

James B. Ray (acting), Dem. Feb. 12 to Dec. 11, 1825

James B. Ray, Dem.

1825-183I

Noah Noble, Whig 1831-1837 1 1

David Wallace, Whig

1 1837-1840

Samuel Bigger, Whig 1

1 1840-1843

1 1 James Whitcomb, Dem. 1843-1848 I 1

Paris C. Dunning (acting), Dem. 1

1 1849-1857

Ashbel P. Willard, Dem. 1857-1860

Abram A. Hammond (acting), Dem. 1860-1861

Henry S. Lane, Rep. January 14 to January 16, 1861

Oliver P. Morton (acting), Rep. 1861-1865

Oliver P. Morton, Rep. 1865-1867 1

1 1 I Conrad Baker (acting), Rep. 1867-1869

1 Conrad Baker, Rep. 1869-1873 1

Thomas A. Hendricks, Dem. I

1 1

1873-1877

James D. Williams, Dem. 1877-1880 I 1

1 Isaac P. Gray (acting), Dem. 1880-1881

Albert G. Porter, Rep.

1881-1885

1 I

1848-1849

Joseph A. Wright, Dem.

FRANKLIN COUNTY, INDIANA.

Isaac P. Gray, Dem.

Alvin P. Hovey, Rep.

1893-1897

1897-190I

1901-1905

1905-1909

1909-1913

-1913-

1 1 1

1 1

Claude Matthews, Dem.

James A. Mount, Rep.

Winfield T. Durbin, Rep.

Samuel R. Ralston, Dem. Thomas R. Marshall, Dem. J. Frank Hanley, Rep.

A CENTURY OF GROWTH.

give a brief survey of what these one hundred years have done for the state. anniversary, and it becomes the purpose of the historian in this connection to

been subdivided into counties year by year, as the population warranted, until There has been no change in territory limits, but the original territory has

of one year. Starting in with a population of 5,641 in 1800, Indiana has From 1816 to 1840 new counties were organized every year with the exception from thirteen counties in 1816 the state grew to ninety-two counties by 1859.

increased by leaps and bounds until it now has a population of two million

is interesting in showing the growth of population by decades since 1800: seven hundred thousand eight hundred and seventy-six. The appended table

Per Cent

of Increase.

334.7

500.2

I33.I

99.9

44.I

36.6

24.5

17.7

10.8

14.8

7.3

Increase.

18,879

122,658

195,853

342,835

302,550

362,012

330,209

297,664

214,103

324,058

184,414

Population.

5,64I ·

24,520

147,178

343,03I

685,866

988,416

1,350,428

1,680,637

1,978,30I

2,192,404

2,516,462

_2,700,876

Census Decades.

1800

18IO

1820

1830

1840

1850

I860

I870

I880

1890

I 900

1910

_1889-1891 1885-1889

Nov. 24, 1891 to Jan. 9, 1893

Ira J. Chase (acting), Rep.

and the second state to be formed. It is now on the eve of its one hundredth Indiana was the first territory created out of the old Northwest Territory

FRANKLIN COUNTY, INDIANA.

Statistics are usually very dry and uninteresting, but there are a few figures which are at least instructive if not interesting. For instance, in 1910, I,143,835 people of Indiana lived in towns and cities of more than 2,500. There were 822,434 voters, and 580,557 men between the ages of eighteen and forty-four were eligible for military service. An interesting book of statistics from which these figures are taken covering every phase of the growth of the state is found in the biennial report of the state statistician.

The state has increased in wealth as well as population and the total state tax of six thousand forty-three dollars and thirty-six cents of 1816 increased in 1915 to more than six million. In 1816 the only factories in the state were grist or saw mills ; all of the clothing, furniture and most of the farming tools were made by the pioneers themselves. At that time the farmer was his own doctor, his own blacksmith, his own lawyer, his own dentist and, if he had divine services, he had to be the preacher. But now it is changed. The spin- ning wheel finds its resting place in the attic ; a score of occupations have arisen to satisfy the manifold wants of the farmer. Millions of dollars are now in- vested in factories, other millions are invested in steam and electric roads, still other millions in public utility plants of all kinds. The governor now receives a larger salary than did all the state officials put together in 1861, while the county sheriff has a salary which is more than double the compensation first allowed the governor of the state.

Indiana is rich in natural resources. It not only has millions of acres of good farming land, but it has had fine forests in the past. From the timber of its woods have been built the homes for the past one hundred years and, if rightly conserved there is timber for many years yet to come. The state has beds of coal and quarries of stone which are not surpassed in any state in the Union. For many years natural gas was a boon to Indiana manufacturing, but it was used so extravagently that it soon became exhausted. Some of the largest factories of their kind in the country are to be found in the Hoosier state. The steel works at Gary employs tens of thousands of men and are constantly increasing in importance. At Elwood is the largest tin plate fac- tory in the world, while Evansville boasts of the largest cigar factory in the world. At South end the Studebaker and Oliver manufacturing plants turn out millions of dollars worth of goods every year. When it is known that over half of the population of the state is now living in towns and cities, it must be readily seen that farming is no longer the sole occupation. A sys- tem of railroads has been built which brings every corner of the state in close touch with Indianapolis. In fact, every county seat but four is in railroad connection with the capital of the state. Every county has its local telephone

FRANKLIN COUNTY, INDIANA.

systems, its rural free deliveries and its good roads unifying the various parts of the county. All of this makes for better civilization and a happier and more contented people.

Indiana prides herself on her educational system. With sixteen thousand public and parochial school teachers, with three state institutions of learning, a score of church schools of all kinds as well as private institutions of learning, Indiana stands high in educational circles. The state maintains universities at Bloomington and Lafayette and a normal school at Terre Haute. Many of the churches have schools supported in part by their denominations. The Catholics have the largest Catholic university in the United States at Notre Dame, while St. Mary's of the Woods at Terre Haute is known all over the world. Academies under Catholic supervision are maintained at Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, Rensselaer, Jasper and Oldenburg. The Method- ists have institutions at DePauw, Moore's Hill and Upland. The Presby- terian schools are Wabash and Hanover Colleges. The Christian church is in control of Butler and Merom Colleges. Concordia at Fort Wayne is one of the largest Lutheran schools in the United States. The Quakers support Earlham College, as well as the academies at Fairmount, Bloomingdale, Plainfield and Spiceland. The Baptists are in charge of Franklin College, while the United Brethern give their allegiance to Indiana Central University at Indianapolis. The Seventh-Day Adventists have a school at Boggstown. The Dunkards at North Manchester and the Mennonites at Goshen maintain schools for their respective churches."

The state seeks to take care of all of its unfortunates. Its charitable, benevolent and correctional institutions rank high among similar institutions in the country. Insane asylums are located at Indianapolis, Richmond, Logansport, Evansville and Madison. The State Soldiers' Home is at Lafayette, while the National Soldiers' Home is at Marion.

The Soldiers and Sailors' Orphans' Home at Knightstown, is main- tained for the care and education of the orphan children of Union soldiers and sailors. The state educates and keeps them until they are sixteen years of age if they have not been given homes in families before they reach that age. Institutions for the education of the blind and also the deaf and dumb are located at Indianapolis. The state educates all children so afflicted and teaches them some useful trade which will enable them to make their own way in the world. The School for Feeble Minded at Fort Wayne has had more than one thousand children in attendance annually for several years. Within the past few years an epileptic village has been established at New Castle, Indiana, for the care of those so afflicted. A prison is located at

FRANKLIN COUNTY, INDIANA.

Michigan City for the incarceration of male criminals convicted by any of the courts of the state of treason, murder in the first or second degree, and of all persons convicted of any felony who at the time of conviction are thirty years of age and over. The Reformatory at Jeffersonville takes care of male criminals between the ages of sixteen and thirty, who are guilty of crimes other than those just mentioned. The female criminals from the ages of fifteen upwards are kept in the women's prison at Indianapolis. A: school for incorrigible boys is maintained at Plainfield. It receives boys be- tween the ages of seven and eighteen, although no boy can be kept after he reaches the age of twenty-one. Each county provides for its own poor and practically every county in the state has a poor farm and many of them have homes for orphaned or indigent children. Each county in the state also maintains a correctional institution known as the jail, in which prisoners are committed while waiting for trial or as punishment for convicted crime.

But Indiana is great not alone in its material prosperity, but also in those things which make for a better appreciation of life. Within the limits of our state have been born men who were destined to become known through- out the nation. Statesmen, ministers, diplomats, educators, artists and literary men of Hoosier birth have given the state a reputation which is envied by our sister states. Indiana has furnished Presidents and Vice- Presidents, distinguished members of the cabinet and diplomats of world wide fame; her literary men have spread the fame of Indiana from coast to coast. Who has not heard of Wallace, Thompson, Nicholson, Tarking- ton, Mccutcheon, Bolton, Ade, Major, Stratton-Porter, Riley and hundreds of others who have courted the muses ?

And we would like to be living one hundred years from today and see whether as much progress will have been made in the growth of the state as in the first one hundred years of its history. In 2015 poverty and crime will be reduced to a minimum. Poor houses will be unknown, orphanages will have vanished and society will have reached the stage where happiness and con- tentment reign supreme. Every loyal Hoosier should feel as our poetess, Sarah T. Bolton, has said :

"The heavens never spanned, The breezes never fanned, A fairer, brighter land Than our Indiana."

CHAPTER II.

GEOLOGY.

The best discussion of the soils of Franklin county is found in the Report of the State Geologist for 1909. This was written by A. E. Taylor after making an exhaustive study of the county. The report is given in full as it appears in that volume.

PREFATORY.

The first settler of Franklin county erected his cabin at New Trenton in 1803. Eight years later the county was organized, and in 1818 a news- paper, known as the Brookville Enquirer and Indiana Gazette, was started at Brookville. Advancements have been slow in a large portion of Franklin county. The railway facilities are poor, only fifteen per cent. of the wagon roads are improved, and agricultural methods and conditions are not as good as those of the other counties of the area of survey.

Brookville, a town of about three thousand inhabitants, is the county seat and the leading manufacturing center. Among the chief manufacturers is the Thompson & Norris Paper Company, which employs ninety-eight men; the Brookville Furniture Company, with sixty-five employes ; the Brookville Buggy Company and the Freis & Sons Tiling and Brick Company.

Oldenburg, with a somewhat smaller population than Brookville, is noted for its large Catholic school. The other towns of the area are small country villages. Southwest of Laurel are several stone quarries and another is situated east of Peppertown.

Franklin county has a population of seventeen thousand and covers an area of three hundred and ninety-four miles. There are about two hundred and ten thousand acres of land in farms. In 1908 near thirty thousand acres were planted in wheat, thirty-one thousand in corn, three thousand in oats, twelve thousand in clover, nine thousand in timothy, five thousand in potatoes, forty-one in tobacco and one hundred and forty in alfalfa. In the orchards of the county there were over twenty thousand apple trees, seven thousand peach, two thousand cherry, one thousand pear and one thousand plum. There were approximately five thousand head of horses on hand

FRANKLIN COUNTY, INDIANA.

January 1, 1909, four hundred mules, five thousand dairy cattle, four thou- sand beef cattle and nineteen thousand hogs. About thirty-one thousand hogs and thirty-five hundred sheep were sold during 1908.

Franklin county probably has more standing timber than any of the contiguous counties. Among the trees still standing can be seen the black walnut, white oak, red oak, burr oak, chestnut oak, black oak, sycamore, red elm, white elm, slippery elm, hickory, pignut, shelbark, white beech, yellow beech, red beech, white ash, blue ash, black ash, hoop ash, hackberry, yellow poplar, white poplar, rock maple, white maple, red or swamp maple, butter- nut, wild cherry, honey locust, buckeye, blue gum, mulberry, red cedar, sweet gum, linden and cottonwood.

PHYSIOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.

The surface formations of Franklin county are largely made up of two glacial drifts belonging to the Pleistocene period. The older of these is the Illinoian. All of Laurel township, part of Whitewater and all of the surface lying west of Whitewater river and its west forks, with the exception of the steep slopes, stream terraces and some later drift in Posey township, are covered by the Illinoian drift soils.

The surface of the Illinoian drift is that of a gently undulating plain, deeply dissected by stream valleys, differences of three hundred feet in alti- tude being common between the floors of the valleys and the tops of the ridges. It seldom exceeds thirty feet in thickness, and generally plays out entirely along a steep slope where washing has been a prominent factor. Its surface appears as a light gray silt, deeply oxidized. In fact, decomposition has been so complete that the limestone boulders and gravel are almost en- tirely absent, having been dissolved. Granite gneisses, diorites, basalts, quartzites and others of the crystalline group are occasionally present, but nowhere in such numbers as in the later Wisconsin drift. No dark colored land or other indications of undrained depressions occur on this drift, show- ing that complete oxidation of the vegetable accumulations has taken place subsequent to the drainage of all kettle basins, sloughs and marshes.

The later Wisconsin drift varies from ten to sixty feet in thickness. The undrained swamp areas and Miami black clay loam dottings are present in the northeast quarter of the county, and also a great variety of boulders. A few kames occur two or three miles south of Blooming Grove. Like the older drift, it is a gently undulating surface considerably cut up by stream

FRANKLIN COUNTY, INDIANA.

valleys in the eastern part, while in the western and northwestern portions of the county it is comparatively level.

The limestone outcropping in the hilltops west of Laurel and north of Brookville belongs to the Silurian period, while the blue limestone and shale appearing at the surface on almost all of the steep slopes south of the Laurel outcrops, are the Cincinnati formations of the Ordovician period. An oil well drilled one mile north of Buena Vista passed through thirty-four feet of Illinoian drift, one hundred and five feet of Niagara and Cincinnati limestones and seven hundred and six feet of Cincinnati shale before reach- ing the Trenton limestone.

SOILS.

On account of the Illinoian drift being the surface formation over the large part of Franklin county instead of the later Wisconsin, as in the case in contiguous counties, and the Cincinnati limestone being the formation from which the limestone slope soil has been derived, we meet some quite different types than those mapped in the other counties. The land derived from the Illinoian drift is known as the Oak Forest silt loam, while that from the later Wisconsin is the Miami silt loam or Miami black clay loam. The Huntington loam is the inain bottom land, ninety-five per cent. of which occurs in the terraces and flood plains of White Water river and its forks. The bottom land soils of the many narrow valleys among the smaller streams will be known as Hamburg loam, owing to their typical development in the . vicinity of the village of Hamburg.

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History of Franklin County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 5

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