History of Johnson County, Indiana, Part 51

Author: Branigin, Elba L., 1870-
Publication date: 1972
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen, [Evansville, Ind.], [Unigraphic, Inc.]
Number of Pages: 981

USA > Indiana > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Indiana > Part 51

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 first serious effort to improve the highways of Johnson county was by the construction of "plank roads." Levering, in her "Historic Indiana," says: "About the time that railroads were first penetrating the west, there arose a great craze for the building of 'plank roads.' This was in response to the urgent demand for better wagon roads whereon to reach the markets. Timber was plentiful and cheap and this material seemed to offer a solution of the good roads question. By the year 1850 four hundred miles of 'planked roads,' at a cost of twelve hundred to fifteen hundred dollars per mile, had been completed in the state, but by that time the first roads so constructed had begun to show the weak points of the method of paving. When new, these roads carried the passenger along swimmingly : but when the planks began to wear thin and the sills to rot out, and the grading or foundation to sink away, they became justly called 'corduroy roads,' and were certainly a weari- ness to the flesh. In some low places the construction sank entirely out of sight; many miles of roads became so execrable that the farmers drove alongside in the mud rather than justle their bones over the logs and ruts of the artificial roads."

The first of these new planked roads to be built in Johnson county was one connecting Edinburg and Williamsburg in the year 1850. Another was built along the line of the Hopewell road, leading from Franklin to Bargers- ville. These were built without the use of gravel or other material for the foundation. Longitudinal trenches were dug and in these were laid the green logs, hewed square, and on these "stringers" were laid spiked oak boards two and one-half to three inches in thickness. These boards were not to exceed eight feet in length, so that the road when constructed was too narrow to admit of the passage of vehicles on the improved portion: the loaded wagon was given the right of way, the other vehicle taking to the mud. These two efforts at improved highways met with little favor and the experiment was not repeated elsewhere. The mistake was soon realized and they began to

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improve the highways with gravel, an abundance of which was found along all the streams of the county.

Toll roads were authorized by section 13 of the act of May 12, 1852, and again under the act of February 3, 1865. It was not until after the pas- sage of the latter act that gravel road companies were organized in Johnson county to construct and improve the highways under the law authorizing the charging of tolls. In the year 1866 the Mocksferry Gravel Road Company was organized "to run from William Ditmars, near Franklin, to Drake's School-house," about three miles west from Edinburg. In the same year the Franklin and Sugar Creek Gravel Road Company was organized to construct a toll road from the northeast corner of the city of Franklin, on the line of the Franklin and Greenfield state road, to the Needham farm. and thence by Clark's mill to the Shelby county line.

In the next year similar organizations were formed to construct toll roads along the line of the Bluff road to Hopewell; along the line of the Graham road for a distance of five and one-half miles; along the line of the State road to Whiteland; along the line of the Hopewell and Union Village road, and along the line of the Shelbyville road to the county line. These organizations were soon followed by similar organizations, so that by 1870 practically all of the main highways of the county were under control of cor- porations authorized by law to charge tolls. This system of improvement worked well for many years, resulting in the construction of many miles of good highways, but in the year 1885, when the people had begun to tire of this system of road maintenance, and had come to believe that the highways ought to be maintained by the county, and when the stockholders of the various corporations began to suffer loss from the lack of sufficient revenues to keep the roads in good repair, the toll roads were on petition made a part of the free gravel road system of the county, and in the year 1887 the last of the toll roads had been abandoned.

About the time that toll roads were abandoned much interest was taken by the farmers of the county in the matter of improving the highways. Many miles of highway in the next score of years were improved upon peti- tion of the land owners interested, generally under the statute authorizing an assessment of all lands lying within two miles of the proposed improvement. Since the passage of the "Three Mile" road law, several of the townships, notably Union, Hensley, Blue River, Pleasant and Needham, have constructed many miles of gravel roads, bonds of the township having been issued to meet the cost of such construction. The county now has two hundred and

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seventy-six miles of improved gravel roads under the free gravel road system of maintenance.

According to Levering's Historic Indiana, page 234, the "railroad from Madison to Indianapolis was the first one to be built in Indiana. It was con- structed part of the way by the state at a very gradual pace, and the remainder of the distance by private persons enjoying a subsidy of land from the state. In 1839 this road had been completed twenty miles to Vernon and so delib- erate was the work of extension that it did not reach Indianapolis until 1847. With the exception of the Madison road, all of the first railways in Indiana,' as in other states, were all laid with strap iron or wooden rails." According to Judge Banta, the Madison & Indianapolis railroad was constructed to Edin- burg in 1845, and it was two years thereafter before the line was completed to Franklin. Others, however, insist that the road had been completed only to Columbus in the year 1845. John H. Woolley is authority for the state- ment that construction work on the line between Edinburg and Franklin was in progress during the years 1846 and 1847. Hs thus describes the manner of its construction : "Trenches were dug along the lines of the track and filled with gravel to a depth of twelve or fifteen inches. Upon the gravel, wood sills, four by twelve, were placed and upon these the ties were laid trans- versely, spaced about four feet apart. To these ties 'stringers,' six by six, were bolted, and upon the inner edge of these 'stringers' were placed iron plates about five-eighths by three, upon which the wheels ran." It is fairly certain, therefore, that while the road from Madison to Vernon was laid with rails imported from abroad, the extension thereof, at least through the county of Johnson, was laid with rails of strap iron. Wood-burning engines were used for many years on this railroad, and the furnishing of four-foot cord- wood to the railroad was a source of large income to many of the farmers and workingmen along the line of the road. Shortly after the Madison road was completed, a road was constructed from Jeffersonville toward the capital city, and between Edinburg and Columbus the Jeffersonville line was built paralleling the Madison tracks. On April 30, 1866, the Jeffersonville Railway Company and the Indianapolis & Madison Railroad Company consolidated, the new corporation taking the name of the Jeffersonville. Madison & In- dianapolis Railroad Company. Upon this consolidation, that part of the Madison line between Edinburg and Columbus was abandoned and the con- struction work removed. On the 26th day of September. 1871, the Jefferson- ville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad Company leased its system for a term · of nine hundred and ninety-nine years to the Pittsburg, Cincinnati & St. Louis

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Railway Company and the Pennsylvania Railway Company and since that time the road has been under the control of the Pennsylvania system.

"In the spring of 1846," says Judge Banta, "the project of building a lateral branch railroad from Franklin to Martinsville was actively discussed, but two or three years were consumed before anything definite was accom- plished, and the Martinsville and Franklin railroad was not completed until . some time in 1853. In the fall of 1857 the old flat-bar iron and the wooden rails gave out and trains ceased to run. In the spring of 1866, however, the franchise of the old company passed to a new owner and the line was built through to Fairland in Shelby county, thus making a connection with the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette Company." In 1876 this road passed under the control of a new corporation known as the Fairland, Franklin & Martinsville Railway Company, and since that time the road has been under 'the control of the Big Four system.

In 1848 the Shelbyville Lateral Branch Railroad, connecting Edinburg and Shelbyville, was built, but the venture proved unprofitable and it was soon abandoned, and about 1860 all the iron was removed from the track.

The Indianapolis Southern Railroad Company was granted its first fran- chise in the county February 6, 1905, and work of construction was com- pleted through the county in the following year. On May 22. 1911. the road passed under the control of the Illinois Central Railroad Company.

The interurban railroad, according to Mr. Fred B. Hiatt, in the Indiana Quarterly Magazine of History. Volume V, page 122, "had its beginning in a line between Alexandria and Anderson, over which the first car was run Jan- uary 1, 1898." But it is not at all certain that Charles L. Henry, the promoter of that line, was the first to realize the importance of this new means of trans- portation. James T. Polk, Grafton Johnson and other prominent citizens of Greenwood, as early as 1891, formed a corporation for the construction of an electric railway to connect Greenwood and Indianapolis, and on April 14th of that year were granted a right of way along the state road for the use of that company. On November 13. 1894, these rights were transferred to the In- dianapolis, Greenwood & Franklin Railway Company, and the original incor- porators being unable or unwilling to finance the road, asked for an election to vote a donation of a subsidy from Pleasant township. A subsidy of two per cent. on the taxable property of that township was voted at a special elec- tion held on December 21, 1894. At that election four hundred and thirty- four voted for the subsidy and three hundred and eighty-one against, and upon this favorable vote a tax of seventeen thousand dollars was ordered levied on the duplicate for 1895 and an equal amount for the following year.

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The law requiring the company to expend an amount of money equal to the subsidy levied, and the company not having met this requirement, the board of commissioners of the county ordered the collection of the tax sus- pended in March, 1896. After extended litigation, the auditor of the county was, in 1902, and again in 1904, directed to proceed with the collection of the subsidy. Another legal action, however, prevented the collection of the sub- sidy and only a small fraction of the tax was ever paid. In the meantime the line was constructed to Greenwood and cars began to run between that town and Indianapolis in January, 1900. On the 10th day of May, 1900, the fran- chise was extended from Greenwood to Franklin and work begun between these points. The first car left Franklin for Indianapolis on June 6, 1901. On July 7, 1902, the franchise was extended from Franklin to Edinburg. Joseph I. Irwin and William G. Irwin, of Columbus, successors to the rights of the gentlemen first named, built all that part of the road situated in Johnson county and remained in control of the same until 1913, when it passed under the control of the Inter-State Public Service Company. Many other interur- ban roads have been projected through the county, but none of them were built. In 1902 a franchise was granted to Frank A. Farnham for a line along the Bluff road, and to J. T. Polk and E. A. Robinson for a line connecting Greenwood and Shelbyville. In the same year a line was projected to connect Franklin and Martinsville, and in 1905 a franchise was granted to the In- dianapolis & Ohio Valley Traction Company along the line of the Three Notch road.

The first franchise for a telegraph line granted by the board of com- missioners of Johnson county was given to the Mutual Union Telegraph Com- pany on the 17th of February, 1882, for the construction of the telegraph line along the Madison and Indianapolis state road. On June 22d of the same year, the Central Telephone Company was granted the use of the highways connecting Franklin and other parts of the county. This franchise was re- newed on September 14, 1896. A franchise was given to Ferd R. Strickler on the 15th day of December, 1897, to extend his telephone system then in use in the city of Franklin to other parts of the county. The New Long Dis- tance Telephone Company received its first franchise in the county on Novem- ber 26, 1898. The first use of the telephone in the public offices of the county was on November 24, 1897, when a telephone was contracted for to be placed in the auditor's office of the county. The remarkable growth of this method of communication is evidenced by the fact that there are now in use in John- son county more than twenty-nine hundred telephones.

The several common carriers of the county now are assessed for the

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following mileage: Pennsylvania, main track, 21.71 miles, side track, 7.79 miles; Big Four, main track, 19.97 miles, side track, 2.44 miles; Illinois Cen- tral, main track, 20.37 miles, side track, 1.77 miles; Indianapolis, Columbus & Southern Traction Company, main track, 22.12 miles, side track, .99 miles ; Postal Telegraph Company, 164.99 miles; Western Union Telegraph Com- pany, 385 miles; American Telegraph and Telephone Company, 164.96 miles ; Central Union Telephone Company, 984.50 miles; New Long Distance Tele- phone Company, 305 miles; Citizens' Telephone Company of Edinburg, 100 miles; Franklin Telephone Company, 239.50 miles; Morgantown Telephone Company, 36 miles; Providence Telephone Company, 146 miles; Stott's Creek Telephone Company, 13 miles; Whiteland Telephone Company, 346.50 miles.

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CHAPTER XVII.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

By the organic act creating the county of Johnson a commission was named to select a county seat and the commissioners were required to meet at the house of John Smiley on the first Monday in May, 1823, to fix the per- manent seat of justice for said county. Of the five commissioners named, three met at the time and place set apart: Col. James Gregory, of Shelby county, Major McEwan, of Bartholomew county, and a third whose name is not known. The commission considered two locations, one on the lands of Amos Durbin and near the mouth of Sugar creek, and the other on the lands of George King at the mouth of Hurricane creek. These places were inspected by the commissioners and King also agreed to show them over the southeast quarter of section 18, in Franklin township, which cornered with the center of the county and which tract had been purchased by King as a possible location for the new county seat, but a storm coming on, without inspecting the other site, the commissioners decided to locate the town on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 13, in township 12 north, of range 4 east, which forty-acre tract King donated to the county, together with eleven acres lying between it and Young's creek.

It was not, however, until January 2, 1827. that George King delivered his deed for the lands donated to the county as a seat of government. In the early history of the town of Franklin, George King was a leading actor. When he came to the county in 1820 he was then about forty years of age and, while not a man trained in the schools, was a leader in all business affairs. He was born in Wythe county, Virginia, and had moved with his widowed mother to Kentucky while quite a lad. He had been apprenticed to a wheelwright. of whom he learned his trade. The story of King's first visit to Franklin for permanent settlement is thus told by Judge Banta: "It was in the latter part of February or first of March. 1823, that. accompanied by his two unmarried daughters and his married daughter and her husband, Daniel McCaslin, and Simon Covert, whose wife stayed behind until the ensuing fall, and Isaac Voorhies, a young and unmarried man, King left his Kentucky home and came to Johnson county. The movers found a road cut out to

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Elisha Adams' place and thence on, assisted by Robert Gilchrist, they made their own road up the east bank of Young's creek to the mouth of Camp creek (Hurricane).

"It was late in the day when the axmen, followed by the teams and cattle, reached the creek, where they found a dark and turbulent stream run- ning between them and their destination. Not knowing the fords, the teams were driven back to a high, dry knoll where a camp fire was started and a camp made. Little did the campers on that knoll, as they watched by the light and warmth of their camp fire that night, dream that they would live to see the day when that knoll would become the site of a college devoted to Christianity and culture.

"Hardly were teams unhitched that evening when it was discovered that meal and sieve had been left at Adams'; whereupon King, Gilchrist and Mc- Caslin returned, leaving Covert and Voorhies to occupy the camp alone. Other things, it seems, had been left behind also, for the campers milked into and drank milk out of the bells which had been brought for use in the range. The next morning, on the return of King and McCaslin, the pilgrims sought for and found a place to safely cross the swollen stream. A beautiful tract of high and dry land on the north bank of Young's creek, which was afterward graded down and occupied by the residence of Judge Woollen and others, was their objective point, but such a network of down logs, overgrown with spice-wood and other bushes, all woven together with wild-grape vines, not to mention a forest of beeches, maples, hackberries, sycamores and buckeyes, did they en- counter, that the whole day was consumed in reaching their destination.

"In the evening, wearied and hungry, the emigrants reached the high ground King had selected for his cabin site. A tent was erected and a hasty camp made. The meal bag and the sieve having been brought up from Adams' a supper of corn-cake and bacon was enjoyed. Tin cups took the place of cow bells for drinking vessels. At an early hour the men lay down on a browse bed by a glowing camp fire, under cover of a tent, to sleep. During the night, however, a tempest of rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning and wind, arose and such commotion ensued in the forest around them that they felt their lives were imperilled. The next morning work was begun on King's cabin, a two-roomed structure with an entry between, which served as a house for all until the little fields were cleared and the crops all laid by."

In the following fall the town of Franklin was surveyed and the first sale of lots took place on the 2d day of September, 1823. It was conducted by John Campbell, of Sugar creek, the first county agent, and, to encourage bid- ding, he laid in a plentiful supply of whiskey for the thirsty crowd. One of

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the earliest records of the county is an allowance to John Campbell, agent, .for two dollars and sixty-one and three-fourths cents for whiskey and station- ery furnished and evidently used on just such occasions as these.

Of the first settlers in the town of Franklin was a man by the name of Kelly, who built a cabin on the west side of the square and kept a bakery, where he sold beer and cakes. The log court house was built in the year 1824, and about the same time the sheriff, John Smiley, built a log house where the Franklin National Bank now stands and where for many years a tavern was kept. Just west of the tavern Daniel Taylor built a log store house, the first store in the new town. On the west side of the square William Shaffer, the county recorder, erected a dwelling house near where the jail now stands, and in 1825 Samuel Herriott and Joseph Young built a store room on the northeast corner of that block. The new settlement grew slowly, and it was not until May, 1827, that the brush was cut out of the public square.

It is not known definitely when the new town was incorporated. An election was ordered held upon the question of its incorporation on the 5th of May, 1834, but no record of the vote at that election is recorded, and there is no evidence that a town government was formed at that time. The only mention of a town government prior to the year 1855 is found in a record in the commissioners' court, under date of August, 1850, authorizing "the pro- per authorities of the town of Franklin to maintain a market house at the northwest corner of the public square." The first record of a meeting of the board of trustees of the town of Franklin now preserved was dated April 10, 1854. At that time Trustee Benjamin Davis, Ephraim Jeffrey, Barney W. Clark, Henry Kneaster, M. M. Tresslar and Andrew B. Hunter met at the office of Overstreet & Hunter and proceeded to organize a town government. William P. Douthitt served as the first clerk of the town. The first town election recorded in the clerk's office was held on the 7th of May, 1855.

In 1859 an enumeration of the citizens of Franklin was taken and the following figures showing the population of the town are recorded: "In the corporate limits, 1, 134; in the suburbs and Hog Chute, 115; in West Franklin, 204, and in East Franklin, 280." This enumeration was taken as a step to- ward incorporation, but after such census disclosed the fact that the popula- tion was under two thousand, further steps toward incorporation as a city were abandoned. Among the early officers of the town corporation were Samuel P. Oyler, assessor; Duane .Hicks. J. Hillman Waters and J. O. Mar- tin, clerks; and P. Birchard, W. A. Owens, W. H. Henderson, Leon Richey, Duane Hicks, Byron Finch and Amos Birchard, marshals.

An enumeration of the children and youths of the town was taken in

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October, 1858, showing a total enumeration between the years of five and twenty-one of two hundred and eighty-five. A year later this number had increased to three hundred and seventy-six.

The first fire department of the new town was organized on the 12th of December, 1859, and its equipment consisted of four ladders, two hooks and a wagon, purchased at an outlay of one hundred dollars and forty cents. James Wilson and Henry Kneaster were appointed foremen of fire apparatus.

On August 15, 1861, it was resolved by the town board that inasmuch as the recent census showed a population of over two thousand, and as one-third of the votes of the town asked for an election upon the question of incorpora- tion as a city, a vote was ordered taken on August 27th at the following houses : Henry Surface's shoe store; the district school house; the court house; the residence of G. M. Payne; at Duane Hicks' furniture store; at J. Holmes' store, on the corner of Main and Jefferson streets, and at the resi- dence of Samuel Lambertson. The vote at that election was canvassed on the day succeeding the election, showing an affirmative of one hundred and sixty- nine, and a negative of five. The roster of the city officers will be found in the appendix.

The city authorities took no steps toward public improvement until after the year 1866, and even then the common council were inclined to move slowly in the matter of public improvement. For example, to encourage property owners to lay sidewalks of brick fronting their residences, it was ordered on January 5, 1867, "that any owner of a lot or part of a lot in the corporate limits of said town should be entitled to a receipt for all corporation taxes thereon for the year 1867, by paving or graveling the sidewalk in front thereof to the acceptance of any of the trustees of said town." During the years 1866 to 1870 all the sidewalks of the town were improved under the order of the city council.

During the same period the question of lighting the streets of the town began to attract much public discussion, and on May 11, 1869, the Franklin Gas Company was organized with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, an ordinance granting a franchise to D. G. Vawter, N. M. Scofield, L. W. Fletcher, John Clark, John T. Vawter, P. W. Payne, A. Alexander, W. S. Ragsdale and R. T. Overstreet having been passed by the common council on February 27. 1869.

Very little public improvement was ordered by the city authorities during the next score of years. On July 30, 1890, a franchise was granted to M. L. Johnson and W. B. Jennings to organize a corporation under the name of the Franklin Water, Light and Power Company, for the erection, maintenance

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History of Johnson County, Indiana, Part 51

Author: Branigin, Elba L., 1870- Publication date: 1972 Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen, [Evansville, Ind.], [Unigraphic, Inc.] Number of Pages: 981

Author: Branigin, Elba L., 1870-
Publication date: 1972
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen, [Evansville, Ind.], [Unigraphic, Inc.]
Number of Pages: 981