History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922, Vol II, Part 33

Author: Esarey, Logan, 1874-1942; Cronin, William F., 1878-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Dayton, Ohio : Dayton Historical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 620


USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922, Vol II > Part 33


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42


29 Catalog, 1854, p. 16: "The following studies constitute the course necessary to be completed in order to graduation to the degree of Bachelor of Science: Mitchell's Ancient and Modern Geographies, Butler's English Grammar, Ray's Arithmetic, Ray's Algebras, Wilson's American History, English Composition and Declamation, Davies' Bourdon's Algebra, Geometry (Davies' Legendre), Applications of Algebra to Geometry, Plane and Spher- ical Trigonometry (Davies'), Descriptive Geometry (Davies'), History, Analytical Geometry (Davies'), English Literature, Rhet- oric, Elements of Criticism, Chemistry (Silliman), Calculus (Davles'), Mental Philosophy (Reid), Geology (Hitchcock), Agri- cultural Chemistry, Physiology, Mechanics (Bartlett), Logic (Whately), Evidences of Christianity, Political Economy (Say), Moral Philosophy, SurveyIng (Davies'), Civil Engineering, Inter- national Law, Acoustics and Optics (Bartlett), Astronomy, Con- stitution of the United States, Butler's Analogy."


1010


HISTORY OF INDIANA


does not appear, nor is it apparent just why it should have been called scientific.


Hanover was always among the most liberal to- ward science. The catalog of 1849 gave Olmstead's Natural Philosophy and Woods' Botany in the jun- ior, and chemistry, astronomy, geology and miner- alogy in the senior college year. Jared M. Stone, the professor in charge, illustrated his lectures with ex- periments. This was not changed until after the Civil war.


Wabash was the home of pure classicism. As late as 1852, after the new state constitution had gone into effect, the whole classic course was intact except the last term of the last year when the professor of chemistry delivered a series of lectures on geology, with experimental illustrations.


In 1860 in an elaborate article on the course of study for colleges, Rev. Dr. W. W. Wightman found little use for the natural sciences except to train the powers of observation and vary the monotony of the language work.30 One of the first questions which came before the State College association, organized in 1868, was the place of science in the college course. A committee appointed at the first meeting, reported at the second, 1869, that Greek and Latin should be cut to one-fourth of the whole time in the course, but it was the general opinion that this was too short.81 Dr. Archibald in his inaugural address at Hanover, 1869, regretted the fact that something would have to be yielded to the demand for scientific and utili- tarian subjects in the college course.32


The real change did not come till in the eighties when the influence of Louis Agassiz, David Dale Owen, Richard Dale Owen, David Starr Jordan,


80 Indiana School Journal, 1860, p. 79.


31 Indiana School Journal, 1869, p. 299.


32 Indiana School Journal, 1869, p. 159.


1011


RELIGION AT THE COLLEGES


John M. Coulter, John and Josephus Collett and the Indiana Academy of Science, organized at Indian- apolis, October 6, 1858, began to be felt.33 Under these men the lecturer became a research man, the text book gave way to the laboratory and demonstra- tion, to investigation.


§ 183 RELIGION AT THE COLLEGES


Religious education was a matter of first concern with these early colleges. All were sectarian except the state university and it may as well have been, for it had the reputation over the state of being domi- nated by the Presbyterians. Prayers were held in its chapel every morning and every student had to at- tend.34 In 1860 the same requirement still held with the addition that each student must attend a sermon at 3 p. m. Sunday in the university chapel. "At all chapel exercises students are expected to be in their seats when the bell stops tolling.'"35 At Wabash in 1856 "every student was required to attend morning and evening prayers; also a biblical recitation on Sabbath morning and a lecture by the president on Sabbath afternoon."36 At Hanover in 1850 the course was so arranged that each student every day recited some lesson directly related to biblical history. Each Sabbath all were required to attend a lesson on the Assembly catechism, a public Sabbath sermon espe- cially for the students, regular Sabbath services either in the chapel or in some congregation of the village, and in addition attend prayers at the chapel morning and evening.37


33 Indiana School Journal, 1858, pp. 339-382.


34 Catalog of 1840.


35 Catalog of 1860.


36 Wabash Catalog 1855-6.


37 Hanover Catalog 1849-50.


1012


HISTORY OF INDIANA


Asbury maintained a school of theology, the only considerable school of that kind in the state. Besides this every day's work began with religious exercises in the chapel, and there was a sermon delivered in the chapel on Sabbath afternoons by a member of the faculty. Attendance at both were compulsory as well as morning attendance on Sunday at some church selected by the parents. Weekly prayer and class meetings were held, but attendance was not compulsory.38 These conditions were fairly uniform in all the regular colleges.


§ 184 COEDUCATION


The education of women was a troublesome task for the earlier colleges. It was pretty generally be- lieved that women were unable to master the heavy subjects like higher mathematics, moral philosophy, logic or even Latin and Greek. For this and social reasons it was thought best to put them in separate schools.


In the old seminary system of the state there had been a few of these institutions founded expressly for women. Such were the Greencastle Female sem- inary, 1830, conducted for a generation by Mrs. W. C. Larabee; the Monroe County Female seminary, 1833, of which Cornelius Perring was the master; the Salem Female seminary of John I. Morrison, 1835; Fort Wayne Female college, 1847, opened largely through the efforts of Isaac Jenkinson, who later secured the admission of women to Indiana uni- versity; Rockville Female seminary, 1840; Craw- fordsville Female seminary, 1840; DePauw Female college at New Albany, 1845; Indiana Female col- lege at Indianapolis, founded by George W. Hoss, 1850; and perhaps a dozen others. Nearly all of


38 Asbury Catalog 1870-71.


1013


COEDUCATION


these were private and sectarian. The new state con- stitution closed all seminaries that depended either directly or indirectly on public funds.39 Oberlin col- lege, Ohio, first of colleges, admitted women in 1837. It was only a half-hearted admission, however, for it had a "Ladies' course." At graduation women were not allowed on the stage, the professor kindly reading their essays for them. Antioch college, at Yellow Springs, made no distinctions whatever when it was opened in 1853 by Horace Mann. In 1853 Northwestern Christian (Butler) at Indianapolis, admitted women but sustained a "Ladies' course" for a few years.


The subject of coeducation had been a common one for discussion among teachers and school men for a number of years. In 1867 Isaac Jenkinson laid a resolution before the trustees of Indiana university providing that women be admitted on the same terms as men. The resolution carried by the doubtful vote of four to three, and in the next catalog the invitation was offered.4º Sarah P. Morrison had already made application for admission and was answered that there was no law nor rule to prevent her entering.


39 Indiana School Journal, 1880, p. 421: "The old arguments against co-education are, or rather were: 1. If women are admitted the college will become demoralized; both sexes will neglect their studies for each other's society; courtships will abound, scandals will erise; no prudent parent will permit a daughter to thus associate with young men when away from home. 2. To admit ladies means to lower the standard of scholarship; they have not the mental strength to compete successfully with young men. We cannot lower our standard, and, therefore, cannot admit ladies."


40 Catalog Indiana University, 1868, p. 24: "Ladies are ad- mitted to the Collegiate Course, Classical and Scientific, on the same terms as young men, and are entitled to the same rights and privileges, but no ladies will be admitted to the Preparatory Department."


1014


HISTORY OF INDIANA


She was therefore the first woman to enter the uni- versity. The Asbury university catalog of 1869-70 also has the announcement that women are admitted on equal terms with men. Merom admitted women in 1868.41


§ 185 LAW


The practice of the law had great fascination for - early Indianians. It was considered the best intro- duction to politics, a field which ultimately claimed the attention of nearly all ambitious men. The early lawyers were trained in the office but there soon de- veloped a demand for law schools. The trustees of the state university from the first looked forward to the time when a law school could be made a part of the university. Actual work began in 1841 with Judge David McDonald of the local circuit court as instructor. In 1847 Judge W. T. Otto joined McDon- ald. In 1876 the school closed for want of funds, opening again in 1889, since when it has continued.


Asbury opened a law school in 1853 under charge of John A. Matson. From 1854 to 1858 A. C. Downey was professor. In 1862 it was discontinued and op- ened again in 1871; closed in 1882; opened in 1884 and was finally discontinued in 1894. Lack of funds thus crippled the best law school in the state up to that time. The school had issued degrees to 187 students.


Notre Dame opened a law department in 1868. It met with only partial success till 1883 when Prof. William Hoynes, a practicing attorney of Chicago, took charge and placed it on a secure footing. Judge


41 T. A. Wylie, History of Indiana University, 74. In 1868 a company of 23 young women demanded entrance to Wabash. The faculty after due deliberation refused to admit them. Indiana School Journal, 1868, p. 501.


1015


MEDICINE


Timothy E. Howard was for a long time connected with this school.42


The Angola, the Indiana law school of Indianapo- lis, the Benjamin Harrison law school at Indianapo- lis as the successor of the Indianapolis college of law, and the American Central, the Central normal col- lege and a few others have conducted work in this field. The Indiana University school of law in 1901 made its requirements a three year course with col- lege entrance requirements necessary to enter. In 1911 the entrance requirements were raised to two years of college work, thus making the school an in- tegral part of the university. It now offers a doc- torate in jurisprudence.43


§ 186 MEDICINE


Early medical education in Indiana was given, as with law, generally in the office of the practitioner. The best physicians supplemented this with training in the Ohio, Kentucky and eastern medical schools. The first medical school in the state seems to have been at Laporte. It was opened by Dr. Daniel Meek- er, in the spring of 1842. During the months of March and April of that year he gave a course of lec- tures on the general field of the practice of medicine. The school was a part of a larger scheme, chartered in 1842 as Laporte university." The school was in session eight weeks in March and April and it re- quired two terms to graduate. It corresponded to the "institutes," or summer normals, in the general field of education. The attendance grew to be about


42 History of the University of Notre Dame, 122.


43 Courts and Lawyers, 472, seq. See, also, "Legal Education" by W. P. Rogers in Proceedings Indiana Collegiate Association, 1898.


44 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1841, ch. LXII. See, also, Dr. G. W. H. Kemper, Medical History of Indiana, 52 and 69.


1016


HISTORY OF INDIANA


100. In four or five years the name was changed to Indiana Medical college and in 1848 the spring course was given at Lafayette, hoping to rouse interest in that city where a permanent home for the school might be made. No sufficient inducement was found and Drs. Elizur Deming and Daniel Meeker trans- ferred their interest to the Medical College of Indi- anapolis. -


At the session of Indiana Asbury board of trus- tees, November 1, 1848, the Indiana Central medical college was established at Indianapolis.45 The uni- versity was not able to support the medical school and it was abandoned after four years. From 1852 to 1869 no medical school worth mentioning occupied the field. In the latter year the Indiana medical col- lege was founded. In 1874 the College of Physicians and Surgeons was established, as the result of a divi- sion in the faculty of the former. These schools con- tinued as rivals until 1878 when they were united to form the Medical college of Indiana, a school of But- ler university until 1883. The Fort Wayne College of Medicine, founded in 1879, the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Indiana Medical college united in 1905 to form the School of Medicine of Purdue university. The Indiana university school of medicine at Bloomington, founded in 1903, and the State College of Physicians and Surgeons, founded at Indianapolis in 1906, were united as the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1907. In 1908 the Indiana Medical college was united with the latter, since when the Indiana University School of Medicine has continued. These steps have been enumerated to show the process of unification and organization. The entrance requirements have been raised gradually to university standards and at pres- ent are guarded by statute. The state has, in the in-


45 Asbury Catalog, 1884, p. 15.


1017


GRADUATE SCHOOLS


terests of public health, extended its supervision and control over this field more thoroughly than over any other.48


§ 187 GRADUATE SCHOOLS


Graduate work has been done in a number of In- diana colleges, though only one at present announces a graduate school in its annual catalog. Notre Dame offers work leading to the doctorate in botany, chem- istry, English, Greek, Latin, philosophy, physics and law.47 Purdue and DePauw offer one year of gradu- ate study leading to the master's degree. Although Indiana university has been offering graduate work since before 1880 not until 1882 was a scheme of work laid out leading to the doctorate. The requirements were restated in the catalog of 1887, one year for the master and three for the doctor. In 1904 a definite program of studies and requirements was laid down which has not been changed materially since, so far as it applies to the liberal arts. The requirements of the professional schools have been raised gradually until those of law, medicine and education have be- come essentially graduate in character. The bache- lor's degree in law requires five years of college work, the doctor's degree in medicine six years, and in education the same as in the liberal arts. The full course of seven years is offered in all.48


§ 188 COLLEGE UNITY


As might be inferred from the previous part of this chapter there was little cordiality among the col-


46 These facts have been taken from the various university catalogs and the statutes. The consolidation has not been effected without difficulty, but these are not germane to this history and are omitted.


47 Catalog 1915-16.


48 Catalog 1916.


1018


HISTORY OF INDIANA


leges during the first half century of their existence. Their common bonds of poverty and neglect seemed only to make them more irritable and jealous. The jealousy and mutual opposition did not exist so much among the faculties as among the alumni and sup- porters of the various colleges. A false notion was prevalent that each student that matriculated at one college was just so much a loss to all the others. The fact is and was that collegiate education is somewhat like habits or fashions, the more students at one col- lege the more will soon be at all, providing a reason- able equality of facilities prevails at all. A very meager per cent. of the youth of Indiana, or of any other state, have ever attended college. The possible number of freshmen in the state is about 80,000. Of these only 12,267 graduated from the high schools in 1916. The number of freshmen who entered college is not ascertainable but was far below the latter number.


The leading educators of the state have always deprecated competition in college work, pointing out that their mutual bickerings led directly to mutual loss. In 1867 Barnabas C. Hobbs, state superintend- ent, called a number of college professors together at DePauw college, New Albany, and there, on the 26th of December, following, they formed a State College association. In connection with the State Teachers' association two or three successful meetings were held, before it was allowed to die. In 1878 it was re- organized and has since continued more or less active.


Several problems have been prominent at these meetings of college men. The old question of religi- ous instruction has remained throughout, though sectarianism in the old denominational sense has been abandoned.49 Far more important has been the


49 See the address by J. J. Mills, president of Earlham, in Proceedings of Indiana College Association, 1889, p. 8.


1019


COLLEGE UNITY


problem of internal college organization. This has included the standardization of entrance require- ments, the requirements for the baccalaureate de- gree, and the nature and scope of graduate work. The entrance requirements have been finally fixed by the high schools and the state department at four years of high school work above the eight grades of the common schools. The state controlled colleges are virtually compelled to receive the graduates of commissioned high schools, though some feeble effort is made to determine what studies shall be pursued in the high school by those who desire to enter the colleges. The obvious contradiction in this claim has prevented its being insisted on.50


The question of the content of the baccalaureate degree has been more chronic. It opens up all the old curriculum wars of the past. The friends of the old Latin, Greek, mathematics, philosophy menu stood stoutly for a prescribed course composed of their favorite branches.51 Public opinion, in one form or another, has gradually forced science, history, com- mercial and industrial subjects into the curriculum. An amusing feature of this contest is that as each subject found itself securely within the curriculum it at once assumed a "holier than thou" attitude to its former friends still struggling for admission.52


50 For a statement of entrance requirements in 1916 see State Superintendent's Report, 1916, p. 578. This, it will be observed, is but a summary of the State High School curriculum. For an earlier discussion and list see "College Entrance Requirements," by R. L. Sackett, of Earlham, in Proc. Ind. Col. Association, 1899, p. 21.


51 See addresses by H. A. Gobin and Scot Butler in Pro- ceedings Ind. Col. Association for 1883.


52 A good idea of this struggle continually going on may be had from a study made by a committee of Indiana University in 1910. There is scarcely a volume of the Proceedings of the


1020


HISTORY OF INDIANA


Still more difficult has been the determination of what and where graduate work shall be done. An indication of the partial solution of this question will be found in the brief notice, given above, of legal, medical, and theological education. The tendency is to demand creative scholarship in graduate work rather than culture. Finally, the desire of Caleb Mills is partly realized in the state board of educa- tion's classification of the colleges as given in the official reports.


Indiana College Association but contains one or more addresses on this perennial subject.


CHAPTER XXXV


COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT


§ 189 THE CHANGE


Before the Civil war the manufacturing industry in Indiana attracted little attention. The principal businesses were sawing lumber, packing pork, grind- ing flour, and distilling whisky. The first was carried on almost entirely for local home use and was strictly a neighborhood business like threshing or harvest- ing. Saw mills were to be found in almost every neighborhood, to which farmers hauled logs for house and barn patterns. Coopers were to be found in every locality, who secured staves from the neigh- boring forest, often getting the timber free, and mak- ing apple, pork or flour barrels. The hoops were made of hickory poles cut in the nearby woods. A negligible quantity of both timber and hooppoles was shipped by flatboat to the coast for the use of the sugar planters.


Pork-packing in the thirties and forties in Madi- son, Terre Haute, and a few other towns was a con- siderable business. The work had to be done in the winter months on account of a lack of refrigerators. The barrels were made and stacked on the ground during the summer and when the packing season opened idle farm hands from the vicinity were easily secured to do the work. The milling and distilling business could be carried on throughout the year if water was available for power. There were only a few merchant mills and distilleries, located at such towns as New Albany, Lawrenceburg, Terre Haute and Logansport.


1022


HISTORY OF INDIANA


In 1820 there were 61,315 persons engaged in ag- riculture and 3,229 persons in manufacture. Of the latter Clark county led with 389 persons so em- ployed; Jefferson county had 271; Knox had 212; Wayne, 281; Dearborn, 245; and Fayette, 252.1 Most of these manufactures were shipped south by flat- boat.


In 1840 there were employed in the coal and iron industries of the state 150 men; in the lumber busi- ness, 767; in the packing industry, 237; in making machinery, 120; there were twelve cotton mills em- ploying 210 persons; in leather and tannery work there were 978 persons employed; in breweries and distilleries, 500; in paper mills, 100; carriages and wagons, 481 men; the whole amount of capital in- vested in manufacturing was $4,132,045, including $1,241,312 used in building houses and $2,077,018 in- vested in 204 flour mills, 846 grist mills and 1,248 saw mills. These latter employed 2,224 men, an aver- age besides the proprietor of one man to the mill.2


In 1860 there was $17,881,586 invested in manu- facturing, producing, annually, goods worth $41,- 840,434 and paying $6,147,667 to the 20,755 hands employed. There were 5,110 different establishments which used up $26,613,038 worth of raw material, almost all of which was produced in the state. Wayne county led with $2,761,010 worth of manufac- tured goods; Jefferson was second with $2,473,884; Dearborn, third with $2,060,042. These were the only counties above $2,000,000. Wayne county turned out annually $307,500 worth of farm machinery and $1,- 201,014 worth of flour and meal, besides $243,600 worth of whisky. Jefferson county (Madison) packed $600,000 worth of pork, Vigo (Terre Haute), $685,-


1 United States Census, for 1820.


2 United States Census, for 1840.


1023


THE CHANGE


000 worth. Dearborn (Lawrenceburg) distilled $578,800 worth of whisky, Floyd (New Albany) ground $291,500 worth of flour; Cass (Logansport) county turned out $339,538 worth of flour and Clark county (Jeffersonville), $331,016 worth. Floyd coun- ty was the greatest manufacturing center and New Albany the leading commercial city of the state. Flour and meal were by far the leading manufactured products of the state, totaling $17,337,950. Lumber came next at $4,271,605; then pork, at $3,350,754; whisky, at $2,063,121; machinery, at $1,409,465; leather goods (boots and shoes), at $1,087,495. There were no other items as high as $1,000,000 in value.3


This census, 1860, reported one cotton mill costing $250,000 and employing 177 men and 190 women. This had been established at Cannelton in 1848 and represented a movement to build up a cotton manu- facturing industry on the lower Ohio, using native coal and bringing cotton up from the coast on the river steamers. During the session of the General Assembly of 1847 six charters for cotton mills were enacted. The Taylor cotton mill, headed by Gen. Zachary Taylor; the Ward cotton mill, headed by Robert J. Ward, one of the leading capitalists of Louisville; the Indiana cotton mills, headed by John Helm, governor of Kentucky; the Cannelton cotton mills, headed by C. T. James, of Rhode Island and having on its board of incorporators such men as Judge E. M. Huntington, Salmon P. Shase and Ran- dal Crawford; the Perry cotton mills, headed by Virgil McKnight; and the Clay cotton mill, headed by John J. Jacobs, with Abel C. Pepper and Pincney James among its incorporators. Besides these, six other manufacturing companies were incorporated to be operated at the same place.ª


8 United States Census, of 1860.


4 Laws of Indiana, Special, 1847 (index, Incorporations).


1024


HISTORY OF INDIANA


The cause of this remarkable boom was the open- ing of the American Cannel coal mines at Cannelton in 1836 by Gen. Seth Hunt, of New Hampshire, with Boston capital. This company was mining a half million bushels of coal annually at a low price.5 The


5 Cannelton, a pamphlet written by Hamilton Smith and published by the American Cannel Coal Co. This is withal an excellent summary of manufactured conditions east and west. Two of the papers are by Judge Huntington.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.