USA > Indiana > Huntington County > History of Huntington County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 23
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A few Huntington County men served in other companies and regi- ments in the Spanish-American war. Charles E. Perry was a private in Company C, One Hundred and Fifty-seventh; Edgar Kelsey was sér- geant-major of the One Hundred and Sixtieth; William E. Palmer and Cal Sinninger were privates in Company E of the same regiment; Palmer O. Norris was a sergeant in Company F; Jesse A. McTagertt and Marion L. Norris were privates in the same company; and John Connolly was a private in Company G.
The Huntington County company lost two men by death while in the service-Henry S. Altenbach and Frank Rosebrough-both of whom died in the hospital while the regiment was in camp at Chickamauga Park.
James B. Kenner, of Huntington, was appointed paymaster of vol- unteers, with the rank of major. He appointed Israel H. Heaston, also of Huntington, as his chief clerk. Both had served in the Civil war. They left Huntington on June 25, 1898, for Washington, where they remained for several days learning their duties. On July 8th they left Washington for Jacksonville, Florida, where they paid the Seventh Army Corps $75,000. They were next sent to the camp at Chickamauga Park, where they spent the time from August 3d to the 16th in paying off the soldiers quartered there. From there they went to Knoxville, and during the remainder of the year they moved from one camp to another in performance of their duties. On March 1, 1899, they left Atlanta for Cuba, and arrived at Havana on the 4th. They paid the soldiers in Matanzas and Quemadis, and on board a hospital ship, when they were ordered to the Province of Puerto Principe on the 5th of April. After paying the troops there they were ordered home, and on the voyage paid off the members of a cavalry regiment on the transport.
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Altogether Major Kenner and his assistant paid out $1,335,000. At the time of his death Major Kenner was working upon a history of the Spanish-American war and had his manuscript almost completed when cut down by the Grim Reaper.
Vol. I-14
CHAPTER XI INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
FIRST HIGHWAYS-FORT WAYNE AND INDIANAPOLIS STATE ROAD-
HUNTINGTON AND LIBERTY MILLS PLANK ROAD-TURNPIKE COM- PANIES-FREE GRAVEL ROADS-RIVERS AS AVENUES OF TRANSPORTA- TION-THE CANAL ERA-LAND GRANT FOR THE WABASH & ERIE CANAL-FIRST CANAL BOAT-STATE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC WORKS-ITS COLLAPSE-BENEFITS RESULTING FROM THE WABASH & ERIE CANAL- THE RAILROAD ERA-EARLY OPPOSITION-THE WABASH-FIRST RAILROAD TRAIN REACHES HUNTINGTON-THE CHICAGO & ERIE-THE CLOVER LEAF-THE CINCINNATI, BLUFFTON & CHICAGO-ELECTRIC LINES-DRAINAGE AND RECLAMATION OF SWAMP LANDS.
When the first white men came to what is now Huntington County there was "not a stick of timber amiss." One of the first necessities, therefore, in the way of internal improvements was the opening and improvement of public highways. Before roads were cut out through the forest the traveler, in going from one place to another, followed the most direct route, often referring to a small compass, if he was fortunate to have one, to keep him in his course. In the absence of the compass he relied upon the sun as his guide. Where an old Indian trail existed it was used by the early settlers as a thoroughfare until better roads could be constructed.
Surveys for state roads were made at an early date. Some of these roads were afterward opened and improved, but in a majority of cases they were merely "cut out" by the settlers who located along the route, the state going to very little expense beyond the cost of the sur- vey, and frequently this expense was borne by the counties through which the road passed. In the earliest records of Huntington County mention is made of the Fort Wayne and Indianapolis state road, and of roads leading to "Muncietown," as the City of Muncie was then called, and to Goshen, in Elkhart County. The Fort Wayne and Indianapolis road crossed the southeastern part of the county, and near it some of the first settlers of Salamonie Township selected their lands and erected their cabins.
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The first roads in the county were marked by "blazes" on the trees. They followed "the line of least resistance" between the ter- minals, without regard to points of the compass, and with equal disre- gard as to how much they might interfere with some pioneer farmer's arrangements for clearing and improving his land. In after years most of these old "traces," as they were called, were altered and straightened to conform to the section lines of the government survey. The greater part of the business of the county commissioners in early years was the hearing of petitions praying for the establishment of public highways in various parts of the county.
In the construction of the first roads the most primitive methods were used. After the timber was cut from the line of the road and the stumps removed, some attention was given to filling in the marshy places. Small logs, ten or twelve feet in length, were thrown crosswise of the road. As these logs sank into the mud another layer was added and in this way the corduroy road was built. It was not as smooth as a pavement, nor as solid as a rock, but it answered the purpose.
A company was organized in 1850 with a capital stock of $25,000 to build a plank road from Huntington to Liberty Mills, in the northeast- ern part of Wabash County. The Huntington terminus of the road was at the junction of Jefferson and Matilda streets. From that point it ran on or near the line of the Goshen road for about six miles, and from there to Liberty Mills, "allowing for such variation as may be found necessary." James R. Slack was the first secretary of the company and had a great deal to do with the construction of the road. Timber was plentiful in those days and the sawmills along the line of the road were kept busy for some time in sawing oak plank 8 feet long and 3 inches thick for the roadway. The road was completed about 1853 and was the first toll road in Huntington County.
Soon after this road was commenced another company was formed for the purpose of continuing it to Warren. The fact that the planks used were only 8 feet in length made it impossible for two vehicles to pass on the road and the company promulgated a rule that teams going toward Huntington should have the right of way, those going in the opposite direction to drive off the plank to allow them to pass. . For this and other reasons the road was not popular, and as the supply of timber began to diminish it was allowed to fall into decay. It was finally abandoned about 1870.
The first gravel road in the county was projected about the close of . the Civil war, to run from Huntington, via Mount Etna, to the Grant County line. Promoters, after looking over the country, declared that plenty of gravel could be obtained for the road, but there was enough
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opposition to the enterprise to delay the actual beginning of the work until 1867. Even after the road was commenced many were skeptical as to whether or not it would ever be finished. One old resident expressed himself as follows: "I do not expect to live to see this road completed. In fact, I don't expect that my children will ever see a gravel road from Huntington to the Grant county line.
Notwithstanding this pessimistic view, he lived to see not only that road completed, but also over two hundred miles of fine gravel road built within the limits of Huntington County.
In 1868 the gravel road from Andrews to the Salamonie River, a distance of six miles, was commenced, but it was not finished until sev- eral years later. The experience of the early gravel road companies showed that the people had but little faith in the utility of this class of highways, and this indifference, which in some instances developed into a stubborn opposition, made it difficult to secure subscriptions to that capital stock.
The Huntington, Kelso & Warren pike was begun in 1874, and, like the Andrews and Salamonie road, was not completed for several years. It is about fifteen miles in length, and is now one of the best roads in Northern Indiana. Soon after it was commenced the road from Huntington to Lancaster was undertaken and was finished about the same time. This road is eight miles long. All these early gravel roads were built and operated by companies that were permitted to charge toll, the rates of which were fixed by law.
In 1877 the Legislature passed an act authorizing the purchase of toll roads, upon petition of the residents along the lines, when such petitions were sustained by popular vote. The commissioners of the several counties of the state were also given power to issue bonds for the construction of free gravel roads, not to exceed $50,000, and to levy a tax upon the lands on either side of the road for a distance of two miles for the payment of the principal and interest of such bonds. Under the operations of this law the "good roads movement" received its first great impetus in Indiana. As soon as the law went into effect the people of Huntington County began organizing for the purpose of securing the construction of all the free gravel roads that could be built under the law. During the next decade the following gravel roads were built in the county :
The Huntington and Markle road, eight miles in length, in 1878; the Mishler road, from Huntington northeast to the Whitley County line, about nine miles long, in 1878; the Stults road, from Huntington due north to the Whitley County line, eight miles, 1879; the Columbia City and Fort Wayne roads, aggregating about fifteen miles, in 1880
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and 1881; the Roanoke and Christian road, the Union Township road, the Huntington, Warren and Montpelier road, the Polk Township road and the Huntington and Zanesville road were all built during the years 1881 and 1882; the Roanoke and Jackson road, the Hosler road and the Infirmary road were all completed in the spring or summer of 1884, and the Wabash and Salamonie road was finished in 1886. To aid in the construction of these roads the commissioners of Huntington County issued bonds for a little over $130,000.
But the work did not stop with the building of these roads. On the contrary it has gone on until now Huntington County has approxi- mately four hundred miles of as good roads as there are in the state, the cost of which was about $400,000. And still other roads are under
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OLD BRIDGE OVER THE WABASH ON THE MOUNT ETNA ROAD
construction or in contemplation. The people of the county have dis- covered that good roads are a paying investment. Instead of hauling "a little jag" of produce to market, the farmer can now haul a full load, with less exhaustion to his team and less wear on his wagon.
The first bridges over the streams were built of timber, roofed and weather-boarded to protect the framework from the weather. A few of these old covered bridges are still to be found in various parts of the state, and there is at least one in Huntington County. But it is only a question of a few years until they join the corduroy roads of early days, and in another generation they will be forgotten, or linger only in the memory as an example of the crude way the pioneers had of doing things. The first iron bridge was built at Andrews by John Mur-
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phy & Company, the cost of the structure being about $5,000. One by one the old ·wooden bridges have given way to steel, and in somes cases steel has been supplanted by concrete.
At the time the first settlements were made in Huntington County the waterways of the state constituted the main arteries of traffic. The first roads were projected between points on the principal rivers, where they could connect with the pirogues and canoes of the traders. For a number of years after the capital of the state was located at Indianap- olis there was a pleasing fiction that the White River was navigable. The Fort Wayne and Indianapolis state road was intended to connect the Wabash & Erie Canal (whenever it should be built) with the waters of the White River, which would afford transportation to the Ohio. The Muncietown road also connected with the White River, and the Goshen road with the St. Joseph River, over which traffic could reach Lake Michigan.
Settlement in the states of the Middle West was rapid and the demands for internal improvements, especially transportation facilities, increased faster than money could be accumulated to supply them. During the first twenty years of Indiana's statehood, at nearly every session of the Legislature there were introduced bills providing for the establishment of a state system of internal improvements. The mes- sages of the different governors during this period were full of recom- mendations, some of which possessed a certain degree of merit, though a majority of these recommendations would now be regarded as extremely visionary. Governor Ray was particularly energetic in his efforts to secure the enactment of laws that would enable Indiana to inaugurate and prosecute to completion "a grand system of internal improvements, and for the ultimate production of a revenue that shall relieve our fellow-citizens from taxation."
Foremost among the projects for providing transportation chan- nels was that of improving the natural waterways of the state. The first traders along the Wabash and other western rivers carried their goods in canoes or pirogues. These traders, and the settlers about the trading posts, tried to impress Congress with the idea that the Wabash was navigable to Lafayette, and represented that a canal could be easily and cheaply constructed from that point to the mouth of the Maumee River, thus connecting the country around the Great Lakes with the Mississippi Valley.
As early as 1822 the states of Indiana and Illinois began to work together for the improvement of the Wabash River. A little later the subject of connecting the Maumee and Wabash rivers by a canal came before the legislatures of Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. About this time
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the first steamboat ascended the Wabash to Lafayette. The news of this incident was heralded far and wide and gave a wonderful impetus to the canal project, the advocates of that scheme insisting that it was now clear that the Wabash was navigable to Lafayette, and that the canal was feasible. A commission was appointed to investigate the subject and report to the legislatures of the three states as to whether a railroad or a canal was the most practicable means of communication between the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lake region. The com- mission reported in favor of the canal, because it could be built and operated at much less expense than a railroad ; because so far the utility of the railroad as a common carrier had not been fully demonstrated, while traffic and travel by canal was a certainty, except in extremely cold weather, when the ice might interfere with navigation.
Congress was now overwhelmed with petitions praying for the con- struction of the canal. It was argued that it was a military necessity ; that in the event of war with a foreign power troops and munitions of war could be moved with great speed and at slight cost from the interior to the northern border. It was also represented that the canal would bring a large number of settlers into the central part of the country, and that through this settlement the nation would in a few years receive more from the sale of public lands than it would cost to build the canal. Finally, Congress yielded to the pressure and by the act of March 2, 1827, granted to the states of Indiana and Ohio each alternate section of land, equal to a strip five miles in width on each side of the canal, which was "to connect the navigable waters of the Wabash river with Lake Erie."
It was further provided that work on the canal should be commenced within five years after the passage of the act, and that if the money derived from the sale of lands was not sufficient to complete the canal, the states should supply the deficit. The land in Indiana thus granted for the construction of the canal was estimated to be worth $1,250,000. The state authorities, fearing that the land grant would not produce suf- ficient revenue for the completion of the canal, was a little slow in accepting the grant, but it was finally accepted, with all the conditions imposed by Congress.
Samuel Hanna, Robert John and David Burr were appointed a board of commissioners to conduct the sale of the lands and to oversee the construction of the canal. By an act of the Legislature, approved January 31, 1832, the commissioners were required to divide the lands into three classes, to be sold respectively at $1.50, $2.50 and $3.50 per acre, one-fourth cash and the balance in payments extending, in some instances, over a period of fifteen years. Lands unsold could be entered
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at the prices above named. A land office was opened at Fort Wayne and the announcement sent broadcast that the canal lands could be purchased on easy terms. This opportunity to obtain good lands, within easy access of a main artery of commerce, brought a large number of immigrants to the Wabash Valley, some of whom founded homes in what is now Huntington County.
Work on the canal was commenced at Fort Wayne in February, 1832, a few days before the expiration of the five-year limit fixed by Congress. Two years later the State of Ohio had done nothing toward building her portion of the great waterway, and on February 1, 1834, the Indiana Legislature adopted a memorial asking the state's senators and representatives in Congress to use their influence "to secure the passage of an act granting to Ohio the permission to select land from the reserves lately acquired from the Indians," in lieu of the alternate sections along the line of the canal, as contemplated in the original grant.
President Andrew Jackson refused to approve the treaty of Octo- ber 23, 1834, because of the great number of individual reservations it granted to certain Indians. These individual reservations interfered to some extent with the construction of the canal, but when President Van Buren ratified the treaty in 1837 the state was given the privilege of selecting any unsold government land in the state of equal quantity. The selections were made in 1844 and a public sale was held in the fall of that year at Peru, whither the land office had been removed from Fort Wayne in 1840. This land office followed the construction of the canal and in 1847 was removed from Peru to Logansport.
In the meantime the craze for a state system of public improvements had not abated in the slightest degree. By 1836 the state was thought to be in a financial condition to justify the inauguration of an extensive system of public works. While many of the projected improvements had no direct bearing upon the welfare or development of Huntington County, it is deemed appropriate to give a brief account of the gigantic undertaking of the state under the act of 1836. By the provisions of this act the governor was authorized to appoint a board of internal improvements, to consist of six persons, said appointments to be made "by and with the advice and consent of the senate and the canal com- missioners then in office." Eight great waterways and land thorough- fares were specified in the bill. In order that the reader may under- stand what ideas were entertained by legislators three-quarters of a century ago the list of these internal improvements is given in full :
1. The Whitewater Canal, which was to begin on the west branch of the Whitewater River at the crossing of the national road, running
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thence down the Whitewater Valley to the Ohio River at Lawrenceburg.
2. The Central Canal, "to commence at the most suitable point on the Wabash & Erie canal, between Fort Wayne and Logansport, run- ning thence to Muncietown; then to Indianapolis; thence down the val- ley of the west fork of the White river to its junction with the east fork of said river, and thence by the most practicable route to Evans- ville, on the Ohio river."
3. The extension of the Wabash & Erie Canal from the mouth of the Tippecanoe River to Terre Haute.
4. The construction of a railroad from the Ohio River at Madison to Indianapolis, via Columbus and certain other points named in the bill. This road was afterward completed and was the first railroad in the State of Indiana.
5. A macadamized turnpike from New Albany to Vincennes over a route touching Fredericksburg, Salem and Paoli. If the reader will take a map of Indiana and trace the route of this turnpike he will find that as a crooked highway it is certainly a masterpiece. But each of these towns wanted to be on the line of the road and the members of the Legislature were evidently of an accommodating disposition.
6. The construction of a railroad, or, if a railroad was found to be impracticable, a turnpike from Jeffersonville to Crawfordsville.
7. The improvement of the Wabash River from Vincennes to the mouth of that stream. This improvement was intended to stimulate steamboat navigation of the Wabash and add to the revenues of the Wabash & Erie Canal.
8. A canal from some point on the Wabash & Erie Canal near Fort Wayne to Lake Michigan. As the point on the canal was not definitely designated, some of the pioneers of Huntington County entertained the hope that the Lake Michigan Canal would pass through the northern part of that county. The canal, however, was never built.
To carry out the intent of the bill the sum of $10,000,000 was appro- priated. Concerning the act, Dillon, in his "History of Indiana," says : "The state system of internal improvement, which was adopted by Indiana in 1836, was not a new measure, nor did the adoption of the system at that time grow out of a new and hasty expression of popular sentiment. For a period of more than ten years the expediency of providing by law for the commencement of a state system of public works had been discussed before the people of the state by governors, legislators and distinguished private citizens."
In the discussion thus referred to by Dillon, the advocates of a state system of public improvements did not lack for a precedent. To use a favorite expression of political party platforms, they could "point with
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pride" to the fact that the State of New York had built the great Erie Canal, and that in ten years the tolls had paid the entire cost of con- struction. If a canal in New York had been such a suecess, why should not Indiana profit by that expericnee? The theory appeared to be flawless, but the application of it failed to produce the anticipated results. To quote again from Dillon :
"In fixing the mode of organizing a state board of internal improve- ment, and in defining the duties and powers of this board, the general assembly of 1836 committed several material errors. On account of these errors, and for other reasons, the internal improvement law of 1836 encountered a strong opposition; and this opposition was most marked among the people of those counties through which the lines of the proposed public works did not pass."
After all, such a condition is not surprising. The people of those counties far removed from the lines of publie improvement were pay- ing taxes to the state, which was using the publie revenues to build canals and roads that gave sueh counties no direet benefit. And, like Banquo's ghost, this opposition would not down. By 1839 it had beeome so insistent that work upon the internal improvements was suspended. In his message to the Legislature that assembled in Decem- ber of that year, Governor Wallace summed up the situation as follows:
"The failure to procure funds, as we had a right to expect from the extensive sale of bonds effected in the early part of the season, has led to great and unusual embarrassments, not only among the eon- traetors and laborers, but also among the people. The state has, in con- sequenee, fallen largely in debt to the former, and is without means of discharging it. . . What shall be done with the public works ? Shall they be abandoned altogether? I hope not. In my opinion, the poliey of the state, in the present emergency, should be, first, to provide against the dilapidation of those portions of the works left in an unfin- ished condition, and, secondly, as means ean be procured, to finish some entirely, and complete others, at least, to points where they may be rendered available or useful to the country."
The Legislature of 1839 authorized the issue of $1,500,000 of certifi- eates of indebtedness, in the form of state treasury notes, for the pur- pose of paying the claims of the contraetors and other public creditors. These certifieates circulated as curreney for a time at their face value, but within two years they had depreciated from 40 to 50 per eent. Owing to the fact that they were printed on yellow paper they beeame known, after the depreciation set in, as "yellow dog" money. The Legislature then redeemed these certificates with an issue of engraved scrip in denominations of $5 and $10, which was made receivable for
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