USA > Indiana > Miami County > History of Miami County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 26
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There is one fact in connection with Miami county history during the Civil war period that has never been sufficiently emphasized. In common with most of the other counties of the state, there was some disloyal sentiment in Miami. But from the records of the provost mar- shal general it may be seen that, when drafts were ordered to fill the quota of enlistments, not a single citizen of the county left his home to avoid the draft. Only a few counties in the state have such a record.
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
For four centuries after the discovery of America the island of Cuba was a Spanish dependency. An expedition for the liberation of the Cubans was projected by Narcisso Lopez in 1850, but it ended in
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a miserable failure. Four years later the Cuban junta in New York organized a relief movement upon a larger scale, but before anything definite could be done news of the scheme reached the Spanish govern- ment and the undertaking was forestalled. In 1868 there was a gen- eral insurrection among the Cubans, which was followed by a ten years' war. During that time Spain sent over 100,000 troops to the island to overcome the revolutionists, and at the end of the war the inhabitants of the island were cruelly informed that they would have to pay the war debt of some $200,000,000. This started another revolution, but this time the Cubans moved slowly, making careful preparations, and it was , not until February, 1895, that an open insurrection broke out in the provinces of Santiago, Santa Clara and Matanzas. Within sixty days 50,000 Spanish soldiers were in Cuba, under command of General Campos. He was succeeded by General Weyler, whose cruelties aroused the indignation of the civilized nations of the world and forced the Spanish government to send General Blanco to take his place. Although the new commander was less inhuman than his predecessor, he was equally determined in his intention to subdue the islanders and compel them to continue under Spanish rule.
In the meantime legislative bodies and political conventions in the United States had been passing resolutions asking this government to recognize the belligerent rights of the Cubans, if not their absolute independence. About ten o'clock on the evening of February 15, 1898, the United States battleship Maine, then lying in the harbor of Havana, was blown up and a number of her crew were killed. This brought the excitement in the United States to fever heat and on April 11, 1898, President Mckinley sent a special message to Congress, asking for authority to intervene in behalf of the people of Cuba. On the 20th Congress passed a resolution, which was approved by the president the same day, recognizing the independence of Cuba and demanding that Spain withdraw all claims to and authority over the island. Five days later war was formally declared by Congress, though two days before the declaration the president proclaimed the ports of Cuba in a state of blockade and called for 125,000 volunteers to enforce the reso- lution of Congress.
Late on the afternoon of April 25, 1898, Governor James A. Mount received notice by telegraph from the secretary of war that Indiana's quota of the 125,000 volunteers would be four regiments of infantry and two light batteries of artillery. The telegram further stated that it was the wish of the president "that the regiments of the National Guard, or state militia, shall be used as far as their numbers will permit, for the reason that they are armed, equipped and drilled."
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Instead of four regiments, the state raised five, which were numbered to begin where the Civil war numbers left off. The Indiana regiments in the Spanish-American war were therefore the 157th, 158th, 159th, 160th and 161st.
With the same spirit of patriotism that actuated the people of Miami county at the beginning of the Civil war, a meeting was called at the court-house in Peru for the evening of April 20, 1898, the same day Congress passed the resolution recognizing the independence of 'Cuba and five days before the formal declaration of war with Spain, to discuss the situation and take such action as might be deemed neces- sary. Hon. James F. Stutesman called the meeting to order and Judge J. T. Cox was chosen permanent chairman. Speeches were made by Mr. Stutesman, H. P. Loveland, W. E. Mowbray, Captain W. H. H. Spaulding and others, all expressing sympathy with the struggling Cubans and urging the United States to intervene in their behalf. At the close of the meeting an opportunity was given to those present to enroll themselves as members of a military company, which was to be tendered to the governor in the event of a call for volunteers. About thirty men signed the roll, that evening and during the next few days the number was increased to over one hundred. On Thursday evening, April 28, 1898, these men met and elected H. P. Loveland, captain ; Milton Kraus, first lieutenant; and Michael Bearss, second lieutenant.
Not long after this Captain Loveland called on Governor Mount and tendered the services of his company. He was informed by the gov- ernor that the quota under the first call had been filled by companies of the National Guard, with a few additional volunteers. The governor promised, however, that Miami county should be among the first to be recognized in case a second call was made. A little later, when the One Hundred and Sixty-first Regiment was in process of formation, Captain Loveland again called on the governor to remind him of the promise and urge the acceptance of the Miami county company. It so happened that Company M, of the One Hundred and Sixtieth Regi- ment, was organized in Cass county, which is in the same Congressional district as Miami, and as there were some of the districts not yet rep- resented by any company, the governor insisted that the new regiment should be made up of companies from these districts. He admitted having made the promise to accept the company from Miami county, but the fact that the Eleventh district already had one company in service caused him to rescind that promise, in order that all parts of the state should have representation. Through this combination of circumstances, Miami county could not "go to war" with a full and regularly organized company, though several of her sons served as members of other organizations.
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Jacob A. Karn, of Peru, was a sergeant in Company B, One Hun- dred and Fifty-eighth regiment, and in the same company Burl R. Elsworth, Jerome Landauer, Sanford See and Loren Whittenburger served as privates. Five Miami county men were in the One Hun- dred and Sixtieth Regiment: Charles M. Wey, in Company B; Lester K. Miller, in Company D; Howard O. Powell (corporal), Edward S. Baity and John F. McLean, in Company K. Jessee Montrose was a member of Company I, One Hundred and Sixty-first Regiment. In the Twenty-eighth Battery of Light Artillery Francis J. Coyle was a cor- poral; Silas W. Carpenter, a musician, and Charles Griswold, a private.
MILITIA COMPANIES
A few years after the close of the Civil war a company called the Peru Grays was organized in that city, with J. H. Jack as captain; W. F. Daly, first lieutenant; Isaac Bozarth, second lieutenant. Rank and file, the company was composed of the best young men in the county. On one occasion this company took an excursion to Put-in- Bay and the city of Sandusky, accompanied by the old Howe band, and everywhere both the "boys" and the musicians met with a cordial reception. In 1876 conditions arose at Seymour, Jackson county, that apparently demanded the presence of the militia and Governor Hen- dricks called upon the Peru Grays to report for duty. The company went as far as Indianapolis, when it was learned that order could be restored without the use of the troops, and after a few days in the state capital the Grays returned home. Many people criticised the mem- bers of the organization for their promptness in obeying the orders of the executive, notwithstanding they had taken an oath to do so, and in time the dissatisfaction thus engendered resulted in the disbandment of the company.
The Bunker Hill Light Guards was organized on November 7, 1885, by W. W. Robbins, with forty-seven members. The officers of the com- pany were W. W. Robbins, captain; J. W. Reeder, first lieutenant; J. W. O'Hara, second lieutenant. A band of eleven members was organ- ized under the leadership of David Long. Captain Robbins afterward became a major in the Indiana National Guard. After a few years the novelty of "being soldiers" wore off, the interest in the organization waned and in time the company was disbanded.
In the fall of 1906 a military company was organized at Peru and was mustered into the Indiana National Guard as Company L, Third Regiment. The officers at the time of organization were E. M. Phillips, captain ; E. J. Howes, first lieutenant; W. W. Failing, second lieuten-
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ant. Some changes were subsequently made in the official roster, by which Fred Becker became captain and W. W. Failing was promoted to first lieutenant. The company's armory on West Third street, between Broadway and Miami streets, was destroyed by fire on Janu- ary 8, 1910, and soon after that the organization was disbanded. Upon writing to the adjutant-general's office for the official record of this company, the following information was received :
"February 10, 1914.
"Dear Sir :- Company L, Third Infantry, I. N. G., was mustered in at Peru, Indiana, October 10, 1906, with Ernest M. Phillips as cap- tain; Earl J. Howes, first lieutenant; John R. Huber, second lieuten- ant. The company was mustered out March 1, 1910, J. Fred Becker being captain at mustering out date. The company had no other com- missioned officers at this time.
"Very respectfully, "FRANK L. BRIDGES, Adjutant-General."
REGULAR ARMY AND NAVY
Several Miami county boys have distinguished themselves in the United States army and the navy. Hiram I. Bearss was commissioned as second lieutenant about the beginning of the Spanish-American war. During that conflict he was promoted to captain for meritorious services and later was sent with his regiment to the Philippines, where for his bravery on several occasions he was recommended by his superior officer, Major Waller, for still further promotion. He is still in the service.
Edgar Ridenour, in 1898, was appointed a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He completed the course in that institution and entered the army as a lieutenant. He is still in the service and now holds the rank of captain, having won his promotion by good discipline and soldierly conduct.
Edward R. Coppock enlisted from Jackson township in the regular army some years ago and at the close of the year 1913 was stationed at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont. He has risen to the rank of lieutenant.
Two brothers, Peter and Otto Haughtington, entered the regular army as privates and both served in the Philippines. Otto twice reën- listed and during his last term served in China at the time of the Boxer troubles. He rose to the rank of quartermaster sergeant and while in the Philippines wrote several interesting letters home, some of which
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were published in the Peru newspapers. These brothers are no longer in the army.
Walter Constant, a member of one of Miami county's old families, attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, where he was graduated some time in the '70s. He entered the navy as an ensign and rose to the rank of lieutenant, perhaps even higher. His death occurred at Yokohama, Japan, in the early '90s and his remains were accompanied by a naval escort to Peru, where they were interred with military honors.
Victor S. Jackson, another Miami county boy, is now a paymaster in the United States navy, with the rank of lieutenant-commander.
Hale Stutesman, a son of Frank M. Stutesman, of Peru, is second lieutenant in the Tenth United States Infantry and at the beginning of the year 1914 was stationed with his regiment at Panama. Before entering the regular army he was graduated at Princeton University.
CHAPTER XII INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
FIRST HIGHWAYS-THE OLD STRAWTOWN ROAD-RIVERS AS THOROUGH- FARES-WABASH & ERIE CANAL-INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 1836-COLLAPSE OF THE STATE SYSTEM OF IMPROVEMENTS-BENE- FITS RESULTING FROM THE CANAL-ITS FINAL END-STEAMBOAT NAVIGATION OF THE WABASH-THE RAILROAD ERA-LAKE ERIE & WESTERN-THE WABASH-PAN HANDLE-THE EEL RIVER RAILROAD -PERU & DETROIT-CHICAGO, INDIANA & EASTERN-CHESAPEAKE & OHIO-ELECTRIC LINE-MIAMI COUNTY'S SYSTEM OF DRAINAGE.
One of the first necessities in the way of internal improvements in a new country is the location and opening of public highways. When the first white men came to the region now comprising Miami county there was "not a stick of timber amiss." In going from one place to another the most direct route was followed, the traveler often referring to a small compass to keep him in the right course. Where an old Indian trail existed it was used by the early settlers until better roads could be opened. The first roads were merely marked by "blazes" on the trees, without regard to points of the compass, no matter how much they might interfere with some pioneer farmer's calculations. In after years nearly all these old "traces," as they were called, were altered and straightened to conform to the section lines of the official survey.
When the county commissioners met on the first Monday in Septem- ber, 1834, a petition came before the board asking for the opening of a road from Peru to Mexico. Joseph Clymer, George Townsend and John F. Saunders were appointed viewers. They reported in favor of the petitioners and this was the first road established in Miami county.
Surveys for state roads were made at an early date. Some of these roads were afterward opened and improved, but in a majority of instances they were simply "cut out" by the settlers living along the route, the state making very little expenditure of money beyond the cost of the survey, and in some cases this expense was defrayed by the counties through which the road passed. The first road of this character in Miami county was the state road from Strawtown to Miamisport, which Vol. I -16
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was authorized by the act of February 1, 1834. Section 1 of that act provided that "Jesse Wilson and James Hughey, of the county of Ham- ilton, and William Rayburn, of Miami county, be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark, and cause to be opened a state road from Strawtown, in Hamilton county, to Miamisport, in the county of Miami, near the mouth of the Mississinaway river."
The commissioners were given power to employ a surveyor and his necessary assistants, and to select such route as they deemed best and most practicable, the survey to provide for a public highway, not exceed- ing thirty-five feet in width. They were required to give bond for the faithful performance of duties and to report to the clerks of the counties of Miami and Hamilton. In due time the road was opened, though for many years it was almost impassable at certain seasons of the year.
At that time the waterways of the state constituted the main arteries of traffic. Strawtown being located near the White river and Miamis- port upon the Wabash river, as well as upon the line of the proposed Wabash & Erie canal, then under construction, the state road between these two points was intended to serve as an outlet for the traders along the White river to the Great Lakes, via the canal.
It would be practically impossible to give a history of each of the public highways established by the county authorities. For several years after the organization of the county, scarcely a session of the commis- sioners was held at which there were not introduced petitions asking for the opening of roads between certain points. In such cases viewers were appointed and upon their favorable report the board would order the opening of the road. A few years after the Civil war, the city of Peru gave $40,000 to encourage the construction of gravel roads. This sum was divided among four roads, each receiving $10,000. They were the old Strawtown & Peru state road and the roads leading from Peru to Mexico, Paw Paw and Xenia. This was the beginning of the good roads movement in Miami county. Since that time the work of grading and graveling the highways has gone on, from year to year, until most of the roads in the county are as good as any to be found in the Wabash valley.
THE CANAL ERA
During the first twenty years of Indiana's statehood-from 1816 to 1836-at nearly every session of the legislature there were introduced one or more bills looking toward the establishment of some state system of internal improvements. Most of the governors of this period were interested in the development of the state's natural resources, and their messages to the legislature were replete with recommendations, some of
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which possessed a certain degree of merit, but a majority of them would now be regarded as extremely visionary. Governor Ray was particu- larly energetic in trying to secure the enactment of laws that would enable the state to inaugurate and prosecute "a grand system of internal improvement to a successful termination, and for the ultimate produc- tion of a revenue that shall relieve our fellow-citizens from taxation."
The prevailing idea at that time seemed to be that water navigation was the one thing needed to stimulate commerce and develop the natural resources of the state. The first traders along the Wabash, and other western rivers, carried their goods in canoes or pirogues. Then came the flatboat, by means of which cargoes were carried down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, where the flatboat was sold for what it would bring, it being more economical to construct a boat for each voyage than to attempt to bring the unwieldy craft up stream. These early traders, who carried on their traffic in pirogues, and the settlers around the trading posts, tried to impress congress with the idea that the Wabash was navigable to Lafayette, and represented that a canal could be constructed from that point to the mouth of the Maumee river at comparatively slight expense. It was probably due to the reports circulated by these traders that early gazeteers stated the Wabash river to be navigable as far as Huntington and other points above Peru.
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 Wabash and Maumee rivers by a canal came before the legislatures of Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. About this time the first steamboat ascended the Wabash as far as Lafayette and this gave a wonderful impetus to the canal project. A commission was appointed to investigate the matter and report to the legislatures of the three states as to the feasibility of connecting these states with the Great Lakes by a canal or railroad, and which would be the most practicable. The commission reported in favor of the canal, because it could be built and operated at less expense than a railroad; that 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 demands for a canal. One argument was that it was a military necessity; that in the event of war with another power, troops and munitions could be quickly and cheaply moved from the interior to the lakes. By the act of March 2, 1827, congress granted to the states of Indiana and Ohio each alternate section of land in a strip five miles wide on each side of the canal, which was to connect the navigable waters of the Wabash river with Lake Erie, with
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the suggestion that the states supply the rest of the money necessary to complete the canal. The land in Indiana thus granted for the purpose of building the canal was estimated to be worth $1,250,000. The state was a little slow in accepting the grant, but it was finally accepted with all the conditions imposed by congress. A land office was opened at Fort Wayne and the canal lands were offered for sale at prices ranging from $1.50 to $3.50 per acre, one-fourth cash and the balance in pay- ments extending, in some instances, over a period of seventeen years. This opportunity to secure good lands, within easy access of a main channel of transportation, brought a large number of immigrants to the Wabash valley, some of whom settled in what is now Miami county.
Work on the canal was commenced at Fort Wayne in February, 1832, under the supervision of a board of canal commissioners. Two years later the state of Ohio had done nothing toward building her por- tion of the canal, 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.
The treaty of 1834 was not approved by President Jackson, because of the number of individual reservations. In 1837 President Van Buren ratified the treaty and the next year Chauncey Carter began the surveys. J. L. Williams, then canal commissioner, classified and booked the lands in the spring of 1840, preparatory to a sale later in the year. That summer the land office was removed from Fort Wayne to Peru and was located at the northeast corner of Second and Miami streets. The first sale of canal lands here took place on October 5, 1840, when about ten thousand acres were sold. The individual reservations interfered with the canal grant of every alternate section and the state was given the privilege of selecting any unsold government land of equal quantity. The selections were made in 1844 and a public sale was held in the fall of that year at the land office in Peru. In July, 1847, the land office was removed to Logansport.
In the meantime the financial condition of the state was thought to be such in 1836 as to justify the inauguration of an extensive system of public works. Consequently, the legislature of that year passed an act authorizing the appointment of a board of internal improvements, to consist of six persons to be appointed by the governor, "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and the Canal Commissioners then in office." Eight great water and land thoroughfares were specified in the bill. Only one of these-the extension of the Wabash & Erie canal-
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affected the material interests of Miami county, but the subject is deemed of sufficient interest to justify the insertion here of the entire list, in order that the reader may learn what ideas were entertained by legislators three-quarters of a century ago with regard to the develop- ment of the resources of Indiana. The public works proposed by the bill were as follows:
1. The Whitewater canal, which was to begin on the west branch of the Whitewater river at the crossing of the national road, and run- ning thence down the Whitewater 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; thence to Indianapolis; thence down the valley 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 Madison to Indianapolis, via- Columbus and certain other points named in the bill.
5. A macadamized road from New Albany to Vincennes over a route touching Fredericksburg, Salem and Paoli.
6. The construction of a railroad, or, if a railroad was found to be inexpedient, a turnpike from Jeffersonville to Crawfordsville.
7. The improvement of the Wabash river from Vincennes to the mouth of the stream.
8. A canal from some point on the Wabash & Erie canal near Fort Wayne to Lake Michigan.
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 pro- viding by law for the commencement of a state system of public works had been discussed before the people of the state by governors, legisla- tors and distinguished private citizens."
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