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 41
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This checked the depredations for a time, but in a few months operations were resumed. By this time, however, there were a number of honest, law-abiding citizens in the county of Miami, who organized themselves into a vigilance committee, determined to break up the gang at all hazards. Every member of this committee was given authority to arrest any suspicious character, or at least to cause his arrest by the proper authorities. Finding themselves confronted by a band of deter- mined men as well organized as themselves, the majority of the despera- does sought a more congenial climate. The few that remained contented themselves with disturbing religious meetings, throwing stones through the windows of dwellings and the commission of other acts of equally annoying and petty character.
In 1853 a man named Myers was arrested for passing counterfeit money and though he made a defense his guilt was so clearly established that he was sentenced to the penitentiary for a long term. This seems to have ended the career of the outlaws in Miami county. It is said that Dr. E. H. Sutton, who was the first physician to locate at Gilead, was one of the leaders in the organization of the vigilance committee, and was otherwise active in ridding that part of the county of undesirable char- acters. After serving part of his sentence, the man Myers was pardoned,
Vol. 1-25
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upon a petition signed by many of his former neighbors, and he was never again known to indulge in any overt acts against the laws of his country or the welfare of the community.
PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT
Twelve years after the organization of Miami county an incident occurred that had a potent influence upon all its subsequent history. In order to make this incident more clearly understood, it is necessary to go back to the time when the "Big Reserve" of the Miami Indians was opened to settlement, immediately after the treaties of 1838 and 1840. The reserve was reported to be one of the "richest spots in Indiana" and was not long in bringing to it a sturdy, honest and industrious class of citizens. On account of the representations concerning the great fertility of the soil, and the desirability of the reserve as an agricultural district, it was with great difficulty that a homestead law-or, more cor- rectly speaking, a preëmption law-was obtained in 1845, giving settlers the opportunity to purchase the lands at two dollars per acre. Money was a scarce article among those who had already located upon the reserve, but most of them felt confident that they could eventually "pay out" and secure the title to their homes. - Most of the money in circula- tion on the frontier came from payments made in the construction of the Wabash & Erie canal and from the sale of peltries. Settlers would sometimes make a journey back to the old neighborhood from which they had come to borrow a few dollars to finish payment on their lands.
While the pioneers were struggling with these conditions they were further handicapped in paying for their lands by failure of crops and a great deal of sickness in the years 1845-46. Still these hardy frontiers- men went on, hoping for better health and better times, when they could finish paying for their farms and give their attention and industry to the development of the country. Their optimism received a severe shock in the spring of 1847, when it was learned that the president of the United States had issued a proclamation ordering the immediate sale of the Miami reserve lands "for cash only." It has been intimated that this proclamation was largely due to the influence of speculators, who, seeing that some day the lands would be of considerable value, and knowing the circumstances of the inhabitants hoped to get possession of the reserve, upon which they could ultimately realize substantial profits. Whether this be true or not, the proclamation struck terror and dismay to the hearts of the settlers, who saw that if the orders of the president were carried into execution many of them would lose all the labor they
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exerted in establishing a home in the wilderness. In this exigency word was sent out calling the settlers to meet in Peru for the purpose of taking such action as might be deemed best under the circumstances. At that preliminary meeting it was decided to prepare a petition and forward it to the president without delay. On June 12, 1847, an adjourned meeting was held to adopt the petition. One petition was presented by John U. Pettit, afterward judge of the circuit court; one by Andrew J. Harlan, of Grant county and member of Congress from his district; and one by James B. Fulwiler, of Peru. The Fulwiler petition was adopted by the meeting. It was as follows. :
"To HIS EXCELLENCY, JAMES K. POLK, "President of the United States:
"We, the undersigned, beg leave respectively to represent to your Excellency, that we are settlers upon the lands known as the ‘Miami Cessions,' in Indiana; that we are not ignorant of the extraordinary cost of these lands to the government, mainly owing to extravagant rep- resentations of their value by distinguished men whose foot-prints have never tracked the soil; that, to the serious prejudice of settlers, it has continued to be represented as immensely valuable, and surrounded by a highly developed and densely populated country; thus creating and fostering that bitter sectional prejudice which manifested itself in unwonted hostility to the passage of the late preemption law. That these representations have been made at random and without a knowledge of the country, and that the impressions which prevail abroad in regard to the worth of the lands are incorrect, must sufficiently appear by reference to the maps and field notes of the surveys. Instead of meriting the reputation of being the 'garden of the state,' a cognomen gained for it by strangers to its quality and strangers to the surrounding country, it is, in fact, a body of ordinary land; the choicest portions thereof hav- ing been reserved by individual Indians by treaty stipulations, and these, together with numberless tracts selected by the state for canal purposes, comprise nearly all the best land and most desirable locations. That the adjacent country, instead of being densely populated and valuable, is, in truth, sparsely settled, and its unimproved lands will scarcely command the minimum government price. That a large majority of the present occupants of the territory settled thereon prior to the passage of the preëmption law, knowing that in the event of its becoming state land, they would have the benefit of easy and extended payments, and hoping, should it become Federal lands, that their improvements, in case of their inability to purchase, would not be taken from them with-
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out remuneration. That, were it possible to blot out these improvements and transform the country into its primeval state, the condition in which we found it, our honest convictions are that not one-half the tracts, now rendered valuable by our labor, could be sold at their minimum rate.
"Permit us further to represent that the number of families occupy- ing this territory, as actual settlers, is nearly two thousand, the value of whose improvements will probably average three hundred dollars each, and of this number not more than two hundred will be prepared to avail themselves of the benefit of the late preemption law; unless the sale shall be postponed until the fall of 1848, affording time to realize the proceeds of the labor of the present and succeeding years. Unless the sale shall be thus deferred, the consequences will be that two hundred settlers will be able to secure eighty acres of land each, which will bring into the United States treasury the inconsiderable sum of $30,000. Eighteen hundred will be unable to buy and must necessarily lose $540,000 expended in improvements, while the sale of these lands, on account of the improvements, will add to the national exchequer $288,000, selling at the minimum rate of two dollars per acre, which may be the case, when the settler has not the means to compete with an organized band of speculators.
"In view of this state of facts, the proclamation of your Excellency designating so early a day for the sale of these lands has given rise to the most lively emotions of regret in the breasts of those for whose benefit the late preemption law was enacted, and we have spontaneously laid aside our implements of husbandry and have congregated together for the purpose of imploring, at the hands of your Excellency, a post- ponement of this sale.
"We came here as pioneers of a country usually come, in humble circumstances, many of us having large families claiming support at our hands; have suffered the privations incident to the settlement of a new country, our labor and the products thereof have been absorbed in opening our fields and erecting our cabins, and the general sickness which has prevailed to a fearful extent for the past two years, producing an incalculable amount of human suffering and destitution, has swept away the means that otherwise might have been spared to secure at this time our wilderness homes-homes which are dear to us, not on account of the superiority of the soil, nor in view of their desirable localities, but because we have reclaimed them and rendered them valuable by the sweat of our brows-because of our labor, highways and communication now traverse the wilds where a short time ago the trail of the Indian ventured not-homes rendered dear by social and domestic ties, and thrice sacred as the burial ground of departed friends. Yet, if this
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application for postponement fails, the homes of eighteen hundred families who have thus contributed their toil and treasure to render them valuable, will pass into the hands of heartless speculators, and these families will become houseless, homeless, dispirited wanderers after new fields of labor for a subsistence.
"In concluding this appeal, your Excellency will permit us to say, while we are sensible that no ordinary circumstances, at this crisis, should be allowed to check the flow of money into the national treasury, we at the same time feel confident that the voice of humanity, though it comes from the wilderness, will not plead in vain.
"Therefore, we ask, if within the scope of executive discretion, that your Excellency may cause the sale of the 'Miami Cessions' to be post- poned, at least until the fall of 1848 or until after the next Congress shall convene, and your petitioners will ever pray, etc.
"MIAMI RESERVE.
"June 12, 1847."
Copies of the petition were circulated with all possible speed through the counties of Miami, Cass, Howard, Grant and Wabash and were promptly signed by several thousand settlers in the "Big Reserve." The petition was then hurried to Washington, and upon its arrival there was not intrusted to any less a personage that President Polk himself. After reading the petition and listening to the messenger who brought it to him, he rescinded the order for the sale of the Miami lands and in this way the homes of some fifteen hundred families or more were saved from the rapacity of land speculators. Had the president refused to listen to the plea of the petitioners the history of Miami county might be differently written in this year 1914-eighty years after its organ- ization.
EARLY PRICES AND WAGES
Within recent years a great deal has been said and printed in the public press about the high cost of living. But a comparison of prices now with those of the early days shows that the pioneer did not possess very great advantages over the people of the present generation. Market reports, published in the Peru Forester soon after it was started in 1837, show that the settlers were then paying much higher prices for staple articles than are paid now. The merchants of that day handled only a few of the necessaries of life and these had to be hauled long distances on wagons before they could be placed on the shelves and offered for sale. One of the old market reports referred to quotes brown sugar at
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20c per pound; loaf sugar, 25c to 30c; candles, 25c; nails, 10c to 15c; according to size ; tea, $1.00 to $1.25 ; coffee, 20 to 30c; calico, 20c to 50c per yard; unbleached muslin, 16c to 25c; bleached muslin, 20c to 30c; flour, $11.00 to $11.50 per barrel. Women's shoes could be bought for $1.00 to $2.00 per pair, and men's boots (few men wore shoes in those days), from $3.00 to $5.00. Most of the boots and shoes were made by local shoemakers from leather tanned in the country tanyards. On the other hand the things the farmer had to sell, because of the restricted market, commanded low prices. Beef sold at from 5c to 7c per pound ; pork, from 6c to 7c; butter, from 18c to 25c; eggs, 121/2c per dozen; chickens, 371/2c per pair.
Owing to the scarcity of money, the merchants gave long credits and took a large part of their pay in such produce as could be hauled away and exchanged for goods. Laborers received from 50c to 75c a day in wages, and mechanics, such as carpenters and masons, from $1.00 to $1.25. During the winter months the settler added to his income by trapping fur-bearing animals, frequently selling as much as one hundred dollars worth of skins in a season. While the Wabash & Erie canal was under construction many of the pioneers found employment for them- selves and their teams, thus earning a little "ready money." After the completion of the canal the prices of store goods decreased slightly and the prices of farm products increased about in proportion, bringing better times to the inhabitants of the county.
THE STRANGER'S GRAVE
In the spring of 1830 a number of homeseekers came to what is now Miami county. Among them was a man named Eli Macy, from Wayne county, Indiana, who spent a day or two at Miamisport. One morning in June he announced his intention of swimming the Wabash river, in order to pursue his journey. The June freshet was then at its height and there was a high stage of water in the river. Despite this condition and the warnings of the settlers, he mounted his horse and plunged into the stream. Unable to stem the swift current, both horse and rider were carried down stream some distance and Mr. Macy was drowned. His body was buried on the bank of the Wabash, near the spot where he lost his life, and the place was marked by a rough ashler. For three-quarters of a century this stone was pointed out to visitors as "the stranger's grave." In the spring of 1908, when preparations were commenced for the dedication of the city park, the Peru Commercial Club decided to erect a more suitable monument in the place of the rough stone that had marked the spot for so many years. Accordingly a neat shaft of Bedford
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limestone about eighteen inches square and five feet high was placed over the grave. On the west side of this monument is the inscription :
The Stranger's Grave ELI MACY of Richmond, Ind. Seeking a Homestead, was drowned while fording the Wabash River near this place in JUNE, 1830.
On the east side is the simple inscription : "Erected by Peru Com- mercial Club, 1908." The monument stands immediately east of the city park, on the bank of the Wabash river, and marks the scene of one of the earliest tragedies of Miami county. Young and full of ambition, Eli Macy left the friends and associations of his early life to establish for himself a home in the Wabash valley, only to lose his life in a rash attempt to cross a swollen river, and there is something pathetic in the name bestowed upon his last resting place-"The Stranger's Grave."
AN EXTRAORDINARY "SWAP"
Among the early settlers in Allen township were two families named Adams and Hernsberger, who built their cabins near each other and between whom a neighborly friendship soon became established. It was not long until Mr. Adams began to show a fondness for Mrs. Herns- berger's society. The attachment was mutual and an elopement was planned, but Mr. Hernsberger was on the alert and overtook the run- aways before they had proceeded very far on their journey. Instead of creating a disturbance, or showing a desire to wreak summary vengeance upon either his wife or her paramour, Mr. Hernsberger proposed that if Mr. Adams would give him Mrs. Adams and a small sum to boot, no fur- ther objection would be offered to the elopement. The trade was accord- ingly made and an old settler used to tell the story, adding that they "lived happily ever afterwards."
It seems hardly probable that such a transaction would be tolerated, even in the most primitive community. The story seems to be well authenticated, however, and as the court records of the county were
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destroyed by fire a few years later it cannot be learned whether the divorce courts were called into requisition to legalize the "swap" or not.
QUEER REAL ESTATE
In Book B, page 545, Miscellaneous Records, in the county recorder's office, is a document dated September 30, 1854, in which J. F. Reynolds mortgaged to Milo S. Felt "the following real estate in Miami county, State of Indiana, described as follows, to-wit: the undivided one-half of canal boat 'Golden Gate,' teams, furniture and tackle belonging to said boat," etc.
It certainly requires some stretch of the imagination to regard an undivided interest in a canal boat, mules and furniture as "real estate," but it does not appear that any technical objections were ever raised by the mortgagor, or that he refused payment when the obligation fell due.
SOME PROMINENT CITIZENS
A number of Miami county people have held positions of trust and responsibility under various national administrations. James N. Tyner, more extended mention of whom has been made elsewhere, served three terms in Congress and was connected with the United States postal service from 1874 until his death, holding the position of postmaster- general for a time under Grant's second administration.
Ira B. Myers, who was active in promoting the interests of the old Workingman's Institute along in the '50s, was afterward United States .consul at St. John's, New Brunswick.
John W. O'Hara was admitted to the bar in Miami county in June, 1888. He took an active part in political affairs and was for a time United States consul-general at Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, South America. He afterward was appointed consul at Santos, Brazil, and in both these positions his ability as a diplomat was demonstrated to be of a high order.
Henry Sterne, one of the partners in the firm operating the Peru Woolen Mills in their early history, held the position of United States consul at Budapest, the capital of Hungary, in which position he acquitted himself with credit and served until his death.
Mrs. Oren, better known in Miami county as Mrs. Wesley Haynes, was the first woman to hold the office of state librarian in Indiana. She was long resident of Clay township. Subsequently two other Miami county women held the position of state librarian, viz .: Mrs. Emma Davidson and Miss Eileen Ahern, who was a teacher in the Peru public
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schools. William E. Henry, also a resident of Miami county, was like- wise state librarian for several years.
William H. H. Miller, for several years a law partner of Benjamin Harrison, at Indianapolis, was located in Peru as superintendent of the public schools for some time before his removal to the state capital. When Mr. Harrison was elected president in 1888 he appointed Mr. Miller his attorney-general.
James F. Stutesman, a native of the county, was admitted to the bar at Peru in October, 1893. The next year he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature and was subsequently appointed United States minister to Bolivia, South America. In 1913 he was appointed a commissioner to visit the South American republics and secure their cooperation at the Panama Exposition at San Francisco in 1915.
George B. Lockwood, who is mentioned elsewhere as an author, was for some time secretary to Congressman George W. Steele at Washing- ton, and afterwards served as private secretary to Governor W. T. Durbin and Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks. Before he attained to his majority he was appointed court reporter of the Miami circuit court and was the youngest court reporter ever in Indiana. He is now the editor of the Indiana State Journal and the Muncie Press, both papers being published in the same office at Muncie.
In the educational field Frank Fetter, Ph. D., has an almost world- wide reputation. After graduating at the Indiana State University he received the degree of Master of Arts at Cornell. He then went abroad and took his Doctor's degree at the University of Halle, Germany. Returning to his native land, he was an instructor in Cornell and Leland Stanford Universities for some time, when he accepted the chair of political economy and history in Princeton University, which position he still holds.
John DeHuff, another Miami county educator, was appointed a teacher in the schools of the Philippine Islands a few years ago and by his ability and resourcefulness has risen to an important position in the educational system.
POLITICAL MEETINGS
While Miami county has been well represented by large gatherings held by all the leading political parties in many campaigns, probably the two most noted rallies were in 1884. James G. Blaine, the Republican candidate for president in that year, visited Peru on October 21, 1884, and was welcomed by a vast throng of people. He was accompanied by a number of the leading Republicans of Indiana and the day given
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over to speech-making. The newspapers of that date refer to the meet- ing as one of the greatest rallies ever given by any party in Miami county.
When the Democratic leaders in the county learned that Blaine was to visit Peru they immediately began preparations for a meeting that would equal, if not eclipse, the great demonstration of the Republicans. A barbecue was decided upon and the date fixed as October 23, 1884, only two days after the Blaine meeting. As this was the first barbecue ever attempted in Miami county, it attracted wide attention. Uniformed clubs and bands came from the surrounding towns and, notwithstanding the day was rather cold and raw, it was estimated that 25,000 people. were in Peru to attend the barbecue. Colonel Josiah Farrar was marshal of the day and among the speakers were Thomas A. Hendricks, the Democratic candidate for vice-president, and Joseph E. McDonald.
Mark Twain, in his "Roughing It," tells how great gatherings and processions in a western mining town were for years compared with the number that turned out to attend the funeral of Buck Fanshaw. So in Miami county for a number of years the number of persons attending a Republican rally were compared with the attendance at the Blaine meeting, and Democratic gatherings with the great barbecue of 1884.
TEMPERANCE
There has always been a strong temperance sentiment in Miami county, notwithstanding that during the early years of its history there were several· "still-houses" in operation within its borders and whisky was both plentiful and cheap. In the earlier agitation of the question the Sons of Temperance had a few organizations in, the county and in later years the Independent Order of Good Templars, whose members were pledged to discountenance the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, was strongly represented in all the principal towns. During what is known as the Murphy, or "Blue Ribbon" movement, a great temperance revival was held in Peru. Hundreds signed the pledge and wore the blue ribbon as a badge of total abstinence. Several years later Mr. Murphy, the originator of the movement visited the city and con- ducted a series of temperance meetings.
In 1908 Governor Hanley called a special session of the state legis- lature, which passed a local option law, providing that any county in the state might, at a special election called for the purpose, vote to discontinue the licensing of saloons. Under the provisions of this law Miami county was one of those that "went dry," a special election hav- ing been ordered by the commissioners on March 8, 1909, for Tuesday, March 16, 1909.
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DISASTROUS FIRES
In the absence of adequate records it is impossible to give a complete account, or even the exact date, of some of the fires that have occurred in the county. The first disastrous fire in Peru was that when the west side of Broadway from Third street to the alley south was entirely wiped out by the flames. This was about 1870. The buildings in that section were all of frame construction and the only fire-fighting apparatus at that time was the old hand engine, which was inadequate to the demand. After trying for a time to extinguish the flames the depart- ment turned its attention to saving the adjoining buildings and pre- venting the spread of the fire. The loss was heavy and the origin of the fire cannot at this late day be ascertained. Within a short time the entire block was rebuilt, the old frame structures being replaced by new ones of a more substantial character.
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