USA > Indiana > Vermillion County > History of Parke and Vermillion Counties, Indiana : with historical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families > Part 12
USA > Indiana > Parke County > History of Parke and Vermillion Counties, Indiana : with historical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families > Part 12
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On a dark, gloomy Sunday, George Howard, Joseph Ralston, Henry
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Slavens and Ludwell Robinson together went to the jail. Then Howard, with tears in his eyes, said to Beauchamp: "I have done all I could, but there is no hope; nothing remains for you but to prepare for death." Beauchamp replied that he was ready to die, thanked Howard warmly and requested to have Rev. Newport preach his funeral before the execution; then ate a light breakfast and made his last wishes on various matters, known to Henry Slavens (then editor and lawyer), who also wrote out his so-called confession. Friday, February 8, 1843, was a bitter cold day, but a large crowd assembled. Beauchamp sat in the old court house, dressed for death, and listened to his own funeral sermon. Then the sad procession repaired to a hollow half a mile east of town, where the gallows had been erected. He said no more to the crowd than a mere good bye. Sheriff Youmans was so agitated that his first blow missed the rope. The next severed it, and just as the condemned murmured, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," the drop fell and, without unus- ual struggle, he passed to eternity.
It is foreign to this work, but only a few years before his cousin Beau- champ, of Kentucky, had died the same death, and for a crime likewise com- mitted in defense of family honor. His wife had been seduced before mar- riage by one Sharpe, who later became attorney-general. The wrong was talked over by the young people, and finally Beauchamp became so frenzied that he called Sharpe out one night and killed him. The wife of the mur- derer clung to him to the last with most affecting devotion. As the fatal day drew near, both seemed exalted above the ordinary feelings of mankind. They prayed aloud, they sang till the jail walls echoed their fervor, and exulted that he was to die for no mercenary crime, but in defense of chastity and family honor. She rode with him to the scaffold, sustained his courage in the last trying moments and had inscribed on his tomb her endorsement of what she considered his chivalrous act. Thus died the two Beauchamps, men of high spirit and noble, but untrained, instincts. Men of strict honesty in life, but victims of illy-regulated passions. Their's were no vulgar crimes, and it is impossible for the generous mind not to feel a sympathy with such men, even while inexorable law condemns.
Another peculiar case will be narrated in this connection: In Numa there had lived from a very early day one Silas Bowers, who was a business man, but always in some local trouble and had many suits at law. He had come to be an experienced rogue. In 1854 this man whose name was Bow- ers lost a suit at law by the testimony of one Sidwell, and in a few nights afterward Sidwell's barn burned, with his crop and tools within it. The honest citizens rose en masse, seized Bowers and a few of his gang, whipped
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him and a hired witness, named Burke, till they confessed to the arson, then notified them to leave on pain of death. Burke immediately complied, after detailing that Bowers employed him to burn the barn, and he in turn em- ployed one Reeder, who really applied the torch. Reeder was chased into a swamp in Vigo county and there mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen in this section of the country. Bowers went to Terre Haute, and actually had the audacity to return, backed by a new gang. The society here known as the Regulators now saw that it was a life and death contest, as Bowers had not only employed attorneys and brought suits, but had a gang of sup- posed assassins to aid him. The citizens again captured him by stratagem, and whipped him so unmercifully that his back was a mass of raw and bleeding flesh. Then, it is reported, they tied him to a tree, placed a gun in Sidwell's hands and directed him to shoot Bowers, which Sidwell offered to do if enough of them would join to make it uncertain who fired the fatal shot.
The country was now terribly excited. The first move of the Regula- tors had been generally approved; indeed, they numbered some of the best men in the county. But some shrank from extreme measures; two parties formed. and Bowers had a few sympathizers. He left, but again returned, this time only asking permission to settle up his business and then leave the country. This the Regulators readily granted. But the mob spirit was now aroused, and good citizens who had started with it could no longer control it. Other men were now "regulated" for mere offenses against morality, and one, Ben Wheat, was fearfully lashed for no offenses at all that anyone can recall now. Meanwhile Silas Bowers had finished his settlement, placed his remain- ing property in the hands of a trustee and, with his wife, had started for Illinois in a carriage. He had most unwisely threatened vengeance just be- fore leaving, and it was whispered about that his death was determined. A few miles west of the Wabash he was fired upon with unerring aim by two men concealed ahead of him by the roadside, and fell from his carriage mor- tally wounded, his life blood spattering the dress of his wife by his side. The manner of his assassination was never successfully searched out, and it is well perhaps not to inquire too closely or curiously, even at this late date, as to just who had a hand in this affair-let the cloak of charity fall and there forever remain.
In 1856 occurred another murder, which may here be of some interest. In the school of Couse and Condit were two lads of fifteen and eighteen sum- mers, Oscar P. Lill and Charles H. Thompson. They got into difficulty, one with the other, over some small affair in a literary society, which resulted in Thompson stabbing and killing his classmate. Thompson fled to Mississippi,
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but was pursued and brought back the next summer. The trial was a long delayed one, and celebrated counsel was procured on both sides, including Hon. Dan Voorhees as prosecutor and Hon. R. W. Thompson, later secretary of the navy, for the defense. The murderer was finally sentenced for one year and the governor pardoned him out in a few months, when he went to Iowa, served honorably in the Union army, settled in New Orleans, where he was city appraiser under the reconstruction government, and after the revolution there in 1877 returned to Iowa. It was an unfortunate affair and the man Thompson, who did the criminal deed in his youthful passion, always carried with him the deep, sad regrets of having taken the life of a fellowman.
Including the killing of Nillis Hart, at Montezuma, in the autumn of 1856, Parke county had eight homicides up to 1881, of which three were directly due to whisky and two to lust.
The last murder in this county was the killing of Mrs. Lottie Vollmer by J. C. Henning, at Rockville, in the nineties. The murderer was tried and hung at Crawfordsville, Montgomery county.
THE WORK OF INSANITY.
In the month of April, 1896, the entire county was saddened by the work of an insane man named Alfred Egbert, of Rockville, who killed a Mrs. Herman Haschke, an innocent woman in the part of town in which the insane man lived; and in meeting the sheriff, Col. W. D. Mull, his trusty deputy, William Sweem, Agnes, a daughter of the murdered woman, aged nine years, and her brother, Herman, aged seven years. The work was all done with a shot gun, with which he killed himself while secreted in one of the stock stalls at the county fair grounds, thus ending one of the most terrible tragedies ever darkening the pages of Parke county history. The funeral of Colonel Mull was attended by persons from all over the county; the court house was heavily draped in mourning and sorrow was felt, keen and deep, everywhere. The old soldiers and Grand Army had charge of his burial, Rev. F. K. Fuson, of the Presbyterian church, preached his funeral sermon. This truly good man and county official, Colonel Mull, was born in Ohio, came here in 1840, enlisted in Company A, Fourteenth Indiana Regiment, served later as colonel of the One Hundred and Forty-ninth Regiment. He studied medicine at Jefferson Medical College and practiced medicine at Terre Haute till 1877.
The deputy sheriff, also killed, was raised in Parke county, as a car-
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penter, and was a good man and inoffensive citizen, carrying out the duties of his office when shot down by this unfortunate mad man.
The murderer, if such he might be termed, was born in Rockville in 1874, was by trade a carpenter and worked on the house of Dr. Mull, among his last jobs. Thus six human lives went out in as many hours, on Rockville soil.
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CHAPTER XI.
POLITICAL HISTORY AND ELECTION RETURNS.
Perhaps no more accurate account of the early political complexion of Parke county can here be given than that expressed in a former history of the county by that fair-minded citizen, J. H. Beadle, from whose writings we here draw liberally. Among other points he makes clear of the following facts, put into other language, in part.
Concerning the clerk's office in Parke county, it may be said that for numerous reasons there lias been connected with it much of political and other interesting history. This office was held for thirty years, almost a generation, by two men, while that of the sheriff was frequently held more than five years at once by the same individual. Very few, if indeed any, counties in the commonwealth have been so fortunate in their county offi- cials. For fifty-nine years, says Mr. Beadle, down to the date of his writing, there was an unbroken line of county treasurers without a single defalcation.
Again, take the map of the Hoosier state, as it was in 1840, and the Whig strongholds then are generally strongly Republican now. And what is true of Indiana is also true of the country at large. The Friends (Quak- ers) were nearly all Whigs, and nearly every member of that honorable so- ciety became radical Republicans. Reserve township, for example, was Democratic on the issues of tariff, bank and distribution; it remained Demo- cratic when those issues were as dead as Julius Caesar, and was still Demo- cratic in Garfield's time as President, but on an entirely new set of political issues, which have no connection with the issues of 1840. Yet men are sometimes blamed for changing their party, though political parties are ever changing themselves. "Why men who held together on finance and revenue issues should be expected to hold together on negro suffrage and reconstruc- tion, is one of those things no logician can solve."
Along about 1832-3 there seems to have been a general epidemic among the county officials, as to being elected and after a time handing in their resignations. From records it appears that many men who in 1828 had been Jackson men, in 1832 were anti-Jackson men. John G. Davis, who was elected on his popularity for sheriff in 1831, resigned in 1833. At the same
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time Coroner Johnston resigned, and Nugent was appointed in his stead; but he, too, resigned in March, 1835, and Hugh J. Bradley was commissioned in his place. It was almost impossible to find a man in those days who would hold the office of coroner or probate judge. Meanwhile the county offices and nearly all of the records of the county were consumed by fire ; the Legislature was appealed to and corrected the difficulty, as far as possible, by an act to validate titles and records, but an immense amount of trouble devolved on the officials, and of course the people got impatient and decided to "have a change," as they have in politics many times since then-sometimes for the better and again for a far worse administration.
In 1823 Nathaniel Huntington and Thomas H. Blake ran for the Legis- lature, to represent Parke county with Vigo, and the vote stood: Parke- Huntington, 79; Blake, 245. Vigo-Huntington, 138; Blake, 310. In 1824, Jacob Call, Thomas H. Blake and Ratliffe Boone ran for Congress; and in 1826 the last two and Lawrence S. Shuler, of Terre Haute. But Boone was by this time too strong for anybody to successfully cope with him. His district extended from the Ohio to Lake Michigan, and he faithfully canvassed it every campaign. Lawrence S. Shuler was the most eminent surgeon in this part of Indiana, and frequently went a hundred miles to perform some deli- cate operation. He died not long after he was a candidate, universally la- mented. Boone's next competitor was John Law, who brought into the can- vass of his district great energy. He and Governor James B. Ray made a thorough canvass of the district in 1828, holding forth at every settlement, and people came as far as thirty miles in canoes and on horseback to hear them speak. One night they were swamped in the Wea plains, but found a house at ten next morning, got breakfast and fresh horses, and galloped on to their next appointment. Boone continued to represent this district as long as he cared to (Parke, however, was soon cut off in a more northern district ), then went to Missouri, and, after all, died in comparative obscurity. There is much talk of the purity of politics at that early date, but upon a slight ex- amination into the records, it will be seen that candidates abused one another then even more violently than in these latter times, and more rudely and coarsely, too.
Judicial circuits were on the same broad scale, and for years lawyers and judges (same as Lincoln and Douglas traveled together) went from Terre Haute to Laporte on horseback, carrying their documents in leather saddle- bags. Only the toughest physiques could stand such exposure ; the weaklings died young men, or went back to older communities, and so natural selection secured the survival of the fittest. Hence it was, that out of the pioneer law-
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yers came a grand galaxy of great men: John Law, from Vincennes; Blake Huntington and Farrington, from Terre Haute; Caleb B. Smith, from farther east ; Joseph A. Wright, Tilghman A. Howard and William P. Bryant, from Rockville; Hannegan, Patterson and Wallace, from Covington; Lane, Curry and Wilson, from Crawfordsville. Of the early lawyers who frequently practiced at Rockville, five afterward graced the bench, seven became mem- bers of Congress, and at least two became United States senators. Joseph A. Wright became governor and minister to Berlin; Bryant became chief justice of Oregon, and Howard, charge d'affaires to the new republic of Texas. Later came E. W. McGaughey, who was in Congress several terms, and Thomas Nelson twice represented this country abroad, in cases of extreme delicacy and with great success. Indeed the bar of Rockville continued to shine with brilliant and unusual luster down to if not later than 1852, after which many of the talented men removed to larger fields of operation in the West and Southwest. The Civil war came on and a new class of thinkers and workers obtained hold and have managed things at the bar in a different and more modern manner, but in no case excelling those of earlier years.
As a matter of fact, each recurring campaign brought forth some new and generally local issue in politics in Parke county, and these issues tended to make factional fights within the parties and made a very unsettled state of affairs. First came the question of a national road, which was partly sur- veyed in 1827. One set of civil engineers reported in favor of a route from Greencastle, with a bridge across the Wabash at Clinton; another from Terre- Haute, and a third from a point some distance below. Vigo county secured the Representative and Terre Haute got the road. Before its completion Terre Haute people going to Indianapolis went north to Markle's Mills, then followed the east bluff of the wet prairies and Raccoon to Bridgeton, crossed the Raccoon and went up to Dixon's Mills, where they crossed again and followed the highest land eastward.
Then the Wabash and Erie canal became a question; it excited violent discussions for a score or more years before it was finally completed, as it did occasionally years thereafter.
One writer on this topic said: "In 1825 Joseph M. Hayes, of Monte- zuma, announced himself a candidate for the Legislature, with a spirited ad- dress to the people, in which he claimed the power to do much for the canal if elected. The canal and other schemes in way of internal improvement con- tinued to agitate the people for the next twelve years; then came the sweep- ing panic of 1837, knocking all such matters into insignificance and turning the people's minds toward finance. The first period involved the questions
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most natural to a new country, and national issues came only incidentally ; the second era was the day of national issues, from 1837 to 1854, and the third was memorable for the exciting subjects of slavery, war and reconstruc- tion. It is also curious to note that the old document from which Hayes' letter was copied, relative to the canal issue, also states that a Mr. Deweese had run a keel-boat to Roseville, and introduced the first rats into Parke county-they landed from that boat!"
In 1840 the Whigs swept everything. In March, 1841, they expected an immediate and great improvement, and Parke county property took a sud- den rise; John Tyler vetoed the bank bill, and property took a tumble. Then the western people finally surrendered the hope of a national paper money. and entered on that era of financial chaos and interminable state and local banks, which lasted over twenty years. In 1842 the Whigs were divided and made a rather poor showing in this valley; but early in 1843 they were again harmonious, and set to work with a fury and partisan bitterness that seems wild to the present reader. The newspapers and speakers were all high-keyed and said many harsh, bitter and personal things one against the other, but to no avail to the Clay defenders-their idol was defeated. The Whig party, after its triumph of 1848, slowly passed away; slavery became the paramount issue, and that led to war. In that great civil strife Parke county bore a glorious part, the history of which appears in another chapter in this work. After the Civil war had ended, for many years the returned soldiers, backed by their friends, dictated the policy and the offices of the county, until about 1890-96, when a younger generation of politicians took the reins of county government into their hands and in a measure relegated the old guards to the rear, while some of the officials in the county have been Democratic and others Republican. The "stand-patter" and the "progressive" is no new thing in Parke county politics-they have thrived here for these three score years and more, and are still in evidence.
ELECTION RETURNS.
It is impossible to give full presidential election returns, but the follow- ing fragmentary account will give the reader a general idea of the political complexion of national matters in Parke county :
1864-Lincoln (R) 2,112 1872-Grant (R) (Majority __ 983
McClellan (D) 1,236 1876-Hayes (R) 2,429
Tilden (D) 1,817
1868-(No record)
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1880-Garfield (R) (Major-
ity ) 797
1884-Cleveland (D)
-1,929
Blaine (R)
.2,562
1888-Harrison (R)
2,768
Cleveland (D)
.2,160
1892-Grover Cleveland (D)_1,993
Benjamin Harrison (R)
2,363
1896-William McKinley (R)_2,818 William J. Bryan (D)_2,590
Prohibition candidate
40
People's Party
156
William J. Bryan (D)_2,647
Gold Standard
IO
National
46
1900-William Mckinley (R)-3,064 William J. Bryan (D)_2,587 Prohibition candidate - 205
People's Party
6
Socialists
6
Social Democrats
66
Union Reform
I3
1904-Theodore Roosevelt (R)
3,468
Alton B. Parker (D) __ 2,176 1908 -- William Howard Taft .(R) -2,939
Prohibition candidate.
307
Socialists
197
CHAPTER XII.
PARKE COUNTY SCHOOLS.
BY PROF. JOHN A. LINEBARGER.
We, of our day and age, are so accustomed to the rights and privi- leges we enjoy that it does not occur to us that we are reaping the result of the earnest thought and endeavors of the men who have preceded us. This is as true in the field of education as elsewhere. We somehow fail to remem- ber with proper appreciation the pioneers who laid the basis for our splendid system of public education.
As we have noted the meager beginning and have seen the wonderful growth and development, the organization, the supervision, the course of study, the changed teaching force, we are interested to know what has been the impetus that has brought this progress to us.
The famous Ordinance of 1787 declares "Religion, morality and knowl- edge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The spirit of this ordinance is found in both constitutions adopted by the state. It seems to us that the men who have guided our state caught the meaning, for the in- junction has been performed to the fullest in both letter and spirit.
We point with pride to our elementary and secondary schools and spend almost a million dollars annually in support of our higher institutions of learn- ing. How vitally the schools have affected the life of the state we can realize only in part.
As Indiana has not been tardy in the work of education, so the history of the schools of this county shows that Parke has always kept abreast the educational thought of Indiana and the nation.
It is much to be regretted that so very little is known of the beginnings of our school system in the various townships of the county. It appears that our earliest schools were established about 1830. Sugar Creek township's first school house was located on Wolf creek in 1829, with Nathaniel Mor- gan as teacher. Another school was established north of the Narrows in 1830. Three schools were organized in Howard township in 1830; one in section 16 in the northern part, one in the southern and one in the eastern
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part of the township. The earliest school in Liberty township was near Sylvania, with Isaac Hobson as teacher.
Reserve township's first school was in the Linebarger settlement in the house of Josiah Horgar, his son being the teacher. One year later, in 1825, the first school house was erected in this neighborhood. James Siler taught the first school in the southern part of the township in a vacant cabin near the residence of Solomon Allen, who boarded the teacher for thirty-seven and one-half cents per week.
Probably the first school in Union township was taught in the small log structure which stood for many years on the Burton farm just east of Bell- more. A more pretentious early building near Bellmore, which is thus de- scribed, may serve as typical of the best of the primitive school buildings. "The school house was four cornered. One corner was used for a fireplace . and from this ascended a chimney. The floor was 'ready made.' Lumber was generally too scarce, so it was thought that the ground would do. When floors were put in they were made of puncheon. The window was an opening provided by leaving a log out of the side of the house and covering it with greased paper. The roof was of clapboards fastened down by a binder, as one would make safe a load of hay on a wagon. The seats were halves of logs with flat sides up and wooden pins for legs. There were no desks. Along the side of the house and below the window, that there might be as much light as possible, was an eighteen-inch plank used as a writing desk. Big and little reached up and bent down that they might learn to write. If there were any other fixtures besides the benches and writing desk they were in keeping with the style of house."
In 1839 a school house was built in what is now No. I district in Florida township. It was built by subscription for both school and church purposes.
G. K. Lankford was the first school trustee elected in Raccoon town- ship. Prominent among the early teachers were William Goodin, Hugh Vin- zant, G. L. Bailey and Calvin Pruett.
The first school house in Washington township was built in what was known as the "lost quarter." The first teacher was John McBride. Enoch Kersey taught the first school in the Roaring Creek settlement in 1833. It was a subscription school, Mr. Kersey receiving two dollars per scholar per month.
The first school in Adams township was taught by John McGinnis in the Andrew Ray log cabin on the northeast corner of the square, after Ray had moved into his new home. This was in the early twenties. Other early teachers in this township and town were William Noel. Jeremiah Depew,
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John Hayes, Lucinda Depew. John Garrigus, Jesse Lowe and Judge Morris. In 1837 an effort was made to secure Asbury University (now DePauw) and liberal subscriptions were made, but Greencastle was successful.
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