History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 74

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 942

USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana > Part 74

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).

the interests of the denomination of which he is a member as has Dr. Hyde. At the same time he is as far as it is possible to think from being a sectarian . in his feelings or work. He is broad and catholic in his spirit, and has the profoundest respect of all denominations of Christians in the city and the State with whom the duties of his various positions have brought him in contact. Directly after resign- ing his position as superintendent of missions for domestic reasons, he became pastor of the Mayflower Church in 1873, which position he still holds. His pastorate has been a very successful one. In addition to his professional labors, Dr. Hyde has been associated with various other interests of city and State. He was for several years a prominent and efficient mem- ber of the school board, held the position of president of the State Social Science Association for several terms, contributing some very valuable papers to its meetings, and is a member of the boards of trustees of several educational institutions. As a friend of every good cause, and of all persons needing and deserving aid, he is widely and most favorably known throughout the city and State. He is ever counted upon as ready to lend a helping hand, and those who look to him are never disappointed, for, while he is quiet and unostentatious in manner, he is earnest and efficient in labor, of an excellent judgment, and has a very warm heart. Of all the worthy members of his profession in the city, it is safe to say that none are more generally or favorably known than is the subject of this biographical sketch. Dr. Hyde was married on the 28th of August, 1866, to Laura K., daughter of the late Stoughton A. Fletcher, Sr., of Indianapolis.

UNIVERSALISTS.

As related at the beginning of this chapter, the Universalists have no distinct organization, though for many years they had a strong one, and for sev- eral years had two. They claim that so large a portion of the orthodox churches has discarded the notion of a material hell and an eternity in it that their sectarian identity is effaced. Everybody is Universalist now, except a few immovable lumps of prejudice. At all events, there is no longer a Uni- versalist Church in Indianapolis.

416

HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.

UNITED BRETHREN.

. The only church of this denomination is on the east side of Oak between Vine and Cherry ; pastor, Rev. Augustus C. Willmore. The first church of United Brethren was organized in 1850, and the congregation in 1851 built the brick house occupied for many years, on the southeast corner of New Jersey and Ohio Streets. In the fall of 1869 a dissension broke out which led to the formation of the Liberal United Brethren, containing a majority of the membership. They refused to allow the other division the use of the house, which led to a law-suit and the recovery of possession by the old society, Aug. 31, 1870. Then the Liberals dis- banded and distributed themselves about among the Methodist Churches. The property is worth about seven thousand dollars. The membership now is about one hundred; the Sunday-school attendance rather larger.

UNITARIAN.

A brief account of this denomination and its dis- appearance about 1872 has been given. It never owned anything, so it has nothing to be noted after its own dissolution.

SWEDENBORGIAN.

There is but one congregation of this denomina- tion in the city, and it occupies New Church Chapel, No. 333 North Alabama Street.

UNITED PRESBYTERIANS.

The only church is on the northeast corner of East Street and Massachusetts Avenue. The pastor is Rev. James P. Cowan.

HEBREWS.

The first Hebrew congregation in this city was organized in the winter of 1855. Before 1853 there were no Hebrew residents here but Alexander Franco and Moses Woolf. The growth of this class of population increased so considerably in the next two years, however, that a church organization was a natural suggestion, and it was made. In the fall of 1856 a room in Blake's Commercial Row, on Wash- ington Street west of Kentucky Avenue, was en- gaged for a church, and Rev. Mr. Berman became the pastor. In 1858 a change was made to a larger

hall in Judah's Block, which was dedicated by Rabbi Wise, of Cincinnati, distinguished for his learning. Rev. J. Wechsler was engaged as pastor, and served till 1861. During that year the congregation had no pastor and became greatly reduced, but in 1862 obtained Rev. M. Moses as pastor, and made some changes from the old style of ceremony which re- stored its strength, and it began to debate the pro- priety of having a house of its own. In 1864 subscriptions were started, and on the 7th of Decem- ber, 1865, the corner stone of the temple on Market Street east of New Jersey was laid with an address from Rev. Dr. Lilienthal, of Cincinnati. After some serious embarrassments the temple was completed and dedicated Oct. 30, 1868. The pews in this church are not rented from year to year, as in Gentile churches, but are sold outright as so much real estate, for which a regular conveyance is exe- cuted. Only adult males are counted as members in making up the strength of the congregation. The membership of Indianapolis Hebrew Society is eighty adult males. A regular school is kept through the week in the temple, and on the Sabbath a special school is held free for those who wish to pursue the study of Hebrew or biblical history. The value of the property is about thirty thousand dollars.

A smaller congregation was formed a few years ago, which holds its meetings in Root's Block, corner of Pennsylvania and South Streets. Its membership is about forty, and has no school attachment.

In the appended summary, exhibiting the present condition of the churches of Indianapolis, no more than an approximation is possible in some cases. In most, however, the church authorities have furnished as accurate statements as they could arrive at. The general result is very close to the truth. It must be noted, as before suggested, that the Catholic authori- ties number the members of their church as " souls,". counting all of whatever age born into the church, as well as all attaching themselves to it, as professors of Protestant creeds do. This makes their numbers look disproportionately large. But count the Pres- byterians or Methodists in the same way and they

417

SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES OF INDIANAPOLIS.

will show larger congregations. The Plymouth Con- gregational pastor counts attendants on his services.

Churches.

Member- ship.

Sunday-School Pupils.

Value of Property.

Baptist ...

1,100

1,150

$100,000

Presbyterian.

2,950

3,400

425,000

Methodist ..

4,700

4,000

420,000

Christian

1,400

1,000

75,000

Catholic ..

10,200

......

500,000

Episcopal.

1,000

000

200,000

Lutheran

600

850

125,000

German Reformed ...

350

450

30,000

German Evang'l Ass'n.

200

12,000

Friends ..

250

......

12,000

Congregationalist

800

......

50,000

United Brethren

100

120

7,000

Hebrew ...

120

......

35,000

Totals

23,770

11,770

$1,991,000

or $2,000,000

CHAPTER XVII.

SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES OF INDIANAPOLIS.

Early Schools .- The history of the early sehools of Indianapolis is very meagre, but happily not con- fused or uncertain. There seems to be no doubt that the first school-house was a log cabin on the point of junction of Kentucky Avenue and Illinois Street, adjacent to a large pond or mud-hole, and built dur- ing the pestilent summer of 1821. The first teacher was Joseph C. Reed, who was the first recorder of the county. He taught but a few weeks, a single quarter, probably, and was followed by one or two others, possibly, though there is no record or safe memory to assure us of it; but the first year of the settlement appears to have been one of no consider- able solicitude about education. There was enough to do to get something to eat and keep a stomach healthy enough to hold it. By the summer of 1822, however, affairs were getting in better shape, and with the irrepressible instiuet of Americans for education, measures were taken to secure adequate tuition for the children of the yearling city capital. A meeting was held at the school-house on the 20th of June, 1822, to arrange for a permanent school. Trustees were appointed, says the sketch of 1850, but the names are not given. James M. Ray, or James Blake,

or Calvin Fletcher, one or the other, or all, most likely, made the first educational hoard of the city. A Mr. Lawrence and his wife were engaged as teachers, and continued in the first school-house till the com- pletion of the First Presbyterian Church in 1824, when they removed to that more eligible locality and building, and the first school-house disappears from history as it probably did from nature thenceforward. Whether it was torn down or turned into the log pottery-shop that preceded the old State Bank, there is no certain indication to suggest. Nor is there any- thing to enlighten antiquarian curiosity as to the origin or fate of that other log sehool-house on Mary- land Street and partly in it, west of Tennessee, which the Baptists used for a time as their place of worship. In 1825, after the arrival of the capital and its ae- companiments, Mr. Merrill, the treasurer, who was probably the best educated man in the place, at the solieitation of the citizens, undertook to relieve the educational stress of the time, caused by a large influx of population with the capital and the Legislature, and taught a school for a time in the log house on the south side of Maryland, west of Meridian, which the Methodists used for a church about that time. A Mr. Tufts taught there too, and one or two others later.

It is not likely that there were more than this and the original school-house till the completion of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Lawrence and his wife, it is supposed, continued in the church till near the time that Ebenezer Sharpe came here from Paris, Bourbon Co., Ky., in 1826. For three years before this the Union Sunday-school had been in operation in Caleb Seudder's cabinet-shop, and later in the church, and here Mr. Blake and his eoadjators had taught the alphabet and spelling, as in any primary school, to some of their young pupils. It was more like a school, and less like a sort of semi-theological recreation, than the modern Sunday-sehool. Mr. Nowland says he learned his A, B, C's of Mr. Blake at the Union, and he was not alone by any means. Mr. Sharpe succeeded Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence in the school of the old church which was kept in the back part, on the alley that runs northward from Market Street past the Journal building. Some years later,

418

HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.

about 1830, he took his school to a frame house on the site of the Club House, corner of Meridian and Ohio, where he continued till near his death in 1835. He was assisted a part of the time by his son, Thomas H. Sharpe, one of the best known and esteemed of the relics of the early days of the city. About the time that Mr. Sharpe took his school to the house on Meridian Street, Mr. Thomas D. Gregg opened a school in an old carpenter-shop on the northwest cor- ner of Delaware and Market Streets, where he was succeeded till about 1840, or a little later, by William J. Hill and others, and lastly by Josephus Cicero Worrall.

Contemporaneously with these, about 1832, Miss Clara Ellick opened a school in the old Baptist Church, corner of Meridian and Maryland Streets. She taught here a couple of years, probably, and then, in 1834, a little frame house was built purposely for a school-house near the west end of the lot, abutting on the alley east of the Grand Hotel. About 1835, Miss Ellick was married to a Methodist preacher by the name of Smith, and give up the school to Miss Laura Kise. During her tenancy of the little frame school-house the Baptists built a bell-tower of open frame-work for their church against the east end of the school-house, a hundred feet from the church. It stood there as long as the old church remained, and was sometimes made the occasion of a general uproar by frolicsome boys, who could not resist the temptation to climb up the frame and jerk the bell- clapper about like a fire alarm. One night two boys, one of whom is now the distinguished author and general, Lew Wallace, climbed up to the bell and fastened a cord to the clapper, which they led across the street and the intervening lots to the bedroom of one of them over a store on Washington Street, and here. they kept a lively alarm going as long as they liked, to the infinite disturbance and mystery of the neighbors, who could not discover what made the bell ring.

As related in the general history, the Legisla- ture, on the 26th of January, 1832, authorized the town agent to lease University Square, No. 25, to the trustees of Marion County Seminary for thirty . years, with permission to them to build on the south

or southwest corner, the other corners were then "out of town ;" and, if the square should be needed for a university before the termination of the lease, a half- acre, where the seminary stood, was to be sold to the trustees. Under this arrangement the old county seminary was built, in 1833-34, on the southwest corner, where a tablet, set in the ground by Ignatius Brown and some others of the " old seminary boys," marks the centre of the site. It was two stories high, about one hundred feet long from east to west from one lobby-wall to the other, with five windows in each story on a side, and about forty feet wide in the main body, while the lobbies at the ends were about fifteen feet square. A stairway ascended from each lobby to the second story. That at the east cnd entered the lecture-room, or exhibition-room, where more than one church made its place of wor- ship before it was able to build a house. The stair- way in the west lobby ascended to a room about twenty fcet square, where was kept the philosophical apparatus of the institution. The chief of these were an air-pump and an electrical machine. South of this room was another smaller, for the teacher's private room. A door led from the apparatus-room to the platform of the exhibition- or lecture-room. After the free-school system was put in operation, in 1853 till 1859, the old seminary was occupied as the high school of the system. It was torn down in September, 1860. The only surviving trustee is Simon Yandes, Esq., and the last who died was James Sulgrove, in the fall of 1875. In the summer of 1860, before the old house was torn down, the whole square was inclosed with a high fence, and covered with an immense show-house or shed by a Mr. Perine, who called it the " Coliscum," and pro- posed to make it a meeting-place for large assemblies, political or otherwise, and for big shows. It was opened on the 4th of July with a military parade, an instrumental concert, a balloon ascension by Mr. J. C. Bellman, and a display of Diehl's fire-works at night. 'The enterprise was too big for the place. The seats would hold twenty thousand spectators. In a few weeks the work was all torn away, and the old house too, and the square was left vacant all through the war. In 1865-66 the city got posses-

419

SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES OF INDIANAPOLIS.

sion of it, feneed it, laid it out in walks, set trees in it, and made it a very pretty park, which it will remain.

The seminary was opened by the late Gen. Dumont, Sept. 1, 1834. He left after a single quarter's expe- rience, and William J. Hill succeeded in January, 1835. Three or four months satisfied hin, and Thomas D. Gregg came in May, 1836. William Sullivan followed in December, 1836, and Rev. Wil- liam A. Holliday in August, 1837. James S. Kem- per took the school in the summer of 1838, and re- tained it till the spring of 1845. Of the effect of his administration on the reputation of the seminary, and the character of the pupils he taught there, the general history has treated as fully as it properly may. In 1845, J. P. Safford succeeded Mr. Kem- per, and gave way to Benjamin L. Lang in 1847 or 1848, who continued till 1853, when the free-school system absorbed the seminary. Of these noted teach- ers, Mr. Holliday, Gen. Dumont, Mr. Gregg, Mr. Hill, and Mr. Safford are dead, the last only two years ago in Zanesville, Ohio. Mr. Gregg made a valuable bequest to the city at his death. Of the schools contemporaneous with the old seminary, the Franklin Institute, the Worrall School, the Axtell Female Seminary, the general history has given an account, as well as of the later ones, the Indiana Female College and the McLean Female Insti- tute. The Baptist Young Ladies' Institute, occu- pied now as the high school of the city school sys- tem, was founded in 1858 by the Baptists of the city, who formed a stock company for the purpose, the paper of which was indorsed by the individual eredit, to the amount of sixteen thousand dollars, of Rev. J. B. Simmons, pastor of the church ; Rev. M. G. Clark, editor of The Witness, the denominational paper ; Mr. Judson R. Osgood, of the Sarven Whcel- Works; and Mr. James Turner. Thus the company was enabled to buy the acre at the northeast corner of the intersection of Pennsylvania and Michigan Streets. The first superintendent was Rev. Gibbon Williams, and his daughter was the principal. In 1862, Rev. C. W. Hewes succeeded, and became substantially the proprietor of the institution. Up to 1866 the site, building, and improvements had

cost fifty-three thousand dollars. The site was for many years the residence of Robert Underhill, one of the earliest iron manufacturers and millers of the city. In 1871 the school board bought the site and buildings, and removed the high school there from Circle Hall (or the old Beecher church).

The MeLean Female Institute filled so conspicuous a place in the educational advantages of the city and was so wholly the work of its founder, the Rev. C. G. McLean, that a short sketch of his life will be of interest to many who knew him without knowing anything of bis past life. He was born in Ireland in 1787. His father, Dr. John McLean, a surgeon in the British navy, died in early manhood on the coast of Africa. His mother, who was also a Mc- Clain, was left a widow before she was twenty-one. She became the wife of Rev. James Gray, D.D., and soon after, with her husband, came to this country. For many years Dr. Gray was the honored pastor of Spruce Street Church, Philadelphia. Under him Dr. MeLean prepared for the University of Pennsylvania, of which he was a graduate. His theological studies he pursued under the celebrated Dr. John M. Mason. In 1815 he married Helen Miller, of Philadelphia, who died in 1822, leaving two daughters. In 1844 he married Mary Yates, daughter of Henry Yates, of Albany. His first charge was in Gettysburg, Pa., where he was pastor for twenty seven years in the Associate Reformed Church. He was afterwards pastor for eight years of the Dutch Reformed Church, Fort Plain, N. Y. Being. unable from ill health to perform pastoral duty, he came in 1852 to this city and opened a female seminary known as McLean Female Institute, in which he was aided by his son- in-law, C. N. Todd, by whom it was continued after his death in 1860. For some time previous he had been unfitted for his duties by a stroke of paralysis. The institution received a good share of the best pat- ronage of the city and State, and was regarded as permanently established at the time of its transfer to other hands on account of the health of the family. After a life of about fifteen years, it was suffered to go out of existence, but its elevating influence has not been lost. Dr. MeLean was best known as a minister. He had rare pulpit gifts. By his famous

420

HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.

teacher he was trained to independent thinking and thorough investigation of subjects. Having no pet theories, he sought every field of inquiry. Hence his discourses, rich in thought, had variety, freshness, and originality. He never read his sermons. His choice language and attractive elocution secured and held his hearers. The young were drawn to him. A winning playfulness led them to seek his presence, and even in his later years he would sport as a com- panion with them. In prayer he was gifted, and he scarcely placed a limit to its power. His strong faith kept him bright and hopeful in the darkest hours.

The Northwestern Christian (now Butler) Uni- versity was the suggestion of the late Ovid Butler. He drafted the charter for it, and planned the outline of the system upon which it has been conducted, do- nated the ground for its first site, endowed one of its chairs permanently, provided a large portion of its general endowment fund, and so identified himself with its history, progress, and interests that the change of its name from the eumbrous and unmean- ing combination that loaded its first feeble existence to the deserved and descriptive name it now bears was an act of equal justice and good taste. The charter for it was passed by the Legislature in 1850, and authorized a stock company with a capital of one hundred dollar shares, the total to range from ninety- five thousand to five hundred thousand dollars. One- third might be expended in a site and building, but two-thirds at least must be an endowment fund. Rev. John O'Kane was appointed by the friends of the enterprise in Indianapolis soliciting agent. He visited all parts of the State in pursuing his work, and in two years had succeeded so far that in July, 1852, the company organized and elected the first board of directors. Mr. Butler donated the ground, twenty-five acres of a beautiful natural grove of sugars, beeches, and walnuts, on the northeastern border of the eity at that time, and part of the farm which was Mr. Butler's residence, ealled Forest Home, and here the college building was begun and never completed. The style was Gothic,-hand- some, striking, and convenient,-and the plan so con- trived that it could be built in divisions, which, when all were completed, would present a harmonious and !

effective mass. The first section, which would have been about a third of the completed edifice, was fin- ished and opened for collegiate purposes on the 1st of November, 1855, the first and only college or in- stitution for the more advanced degrees of education ever known in the capital, except the seminary in Mr. Kemper's time, and some of the high school elasses.

The leading feature of the Butler system, as distin- guished from that of all the institutions of learning in this country at that time, was the admission of female pupils upon the same conditions in the same elasses, with the same course and graduation, as male students. No distinction was made, and no other school twenty years ago followed the example. Some years later another innovation was made on the old system of sexual separation even more startling than this. On the death of a young daughter, Mr. Butler determined to ereet a memorial " more enduring than brass," and endowed a chair of English History and Literature called the Demia Butler chair, and pro- vided that the professor should be Miss Kate Merrill, daughter of the State treasurer who brought up the capital from Corydon, and the best known of the native teachers of the city. Another feature of a liberaliz- ing tendeney (in which, however, it was preceded partially by Alexander Campbell's college at Bethany, W. Va., and by Brown University of Rhode Island) was the permission to a student to take any part of the full course he pleased, and graduate with the ap- propriate title in the division pursued. Thus, some took the full course, with the degree of A.B .; others took only the seientific division, and graduated as Bach- elors of Seience; and a third class, following what is called the philosophical course, graduated as Bach- elors of Philosophy. Just how these masculine titles have been softened into fitness for female proficiency and educational honors we are not informed. About half of the students take one or the other of the partial courses, scientific or philosophical, and about a third of the higher grades of students are females. In the academie or preparatory courses the propor- tion of girls is larger. Of the four literary societies, two, the Athenian and Demia Butler, are composed of female students.

421

SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES OF INDIANAPOLIS.

A law department was opened in connection with the university in 1871, the first term begioning Jan- uary 16th, composed of three chairs or classes, taught by Judge Byron K. Elliott, Judge Charles H. Test, and Charles P. Jacobs. This was maintained for some years, but was recently discontinued and dis- solved. A commercial department, to assist students who desire to qualify themselves for business, was formed and carried on for a time, but appears to have been discontinued in the last few years. Musical in- struction is made a specialty also, and is still a part of the university system, though not of the regular course. The most important division of the univer- sity is the medical department. The Medical College of Indiana, referred to particularly in the chapter on the medical profession, forms this department. The last catalogue shows one hundred and sixty-eight students in the literary department of the university, and one hundred and sixty-four in the medical de- partment. Practically the two arc little concerned with each other, one being in the city and the other five iniles away. In the literary department is what is called a post-graduate course, of which the author- ities say that it, " with the Bible-classes of the fresh- man, sophomore, and senior years, presents a com- plete course of Bible study." This course is free. Of the different degrees conferred by the institution the following official statement is made :

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.

History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 74

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 942

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 942