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 33
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 33
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In 1839 what was styled the "Indiana Furnace" in Clinton township, this county, was in full blast. It was the result of the discovery of paying quantities of iron ore within the community, and it grew to be among the most extensive industries in the Wabash valley. Here probably was produced the first pig- iron in Indiana. Geologists inform us, however, that the principal iron ore found in this county is an impure carbonate, occurring in nodules and irre- gular layers or bands. These nodules once supplied the material for the fur- nace on Brouillet's creek, where they yielded thirty-three per cent. of iron. The ore in Vermillion county is said to range from twenty-five to forty-five per cent. of iron. Along in the eighties there was discovered in the Norton creek bottoms, near the head of Helt's prairie, a hed of bog iron ore, said to be three feet thick and covering an area of from six to eight acres. This. however, has never been developed.
The opening of the iron mines in Clinton township, in 1837. was the commencement of the iron industry here. The old Indiana Furnace was in section 27, township 14, range 10. Stephen R. Uncles was the chief owner
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PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
and superintendent. Associated with him were Hugh Stuart and Chester Clark, the firm being Uncles & Company. Years later the land and iron works passed into the hands of Stuart & Sprague, and still later to E. M. Bruce & Company, the "company" being David Stinton.
In 1859 George B. Sparks, of Clinton, bought a controlling interest and. under the firm name of G. B. Sparks & Company, the business was continued until 1864. Quite a village of cabins for the use of the workmen, and large company supply store, with shops and other buildings, might have greeted the eye of the traveler away back in the thirties and forties, when this was looked upon as a new country. Here the iron ore was cast into "pigs," then re-cast into many kinds of castings, such as mill machinery, and especially into stoves, which were then just coming into general use as a household necessity. From these furnaces went forth thousands of tons of castings and pig iron, into the markets of the central West. Many a boat on the Wa- bash was freighted with the products of this furnace and foundry. Here many found employment at good wages. The money thus paid out freely circulated in the neighborhood and made times quite lively. There were 1.700 acres of land connected with the furnaces, and all was owned in 1887 by George B. Sparks, who used the greater portion of it for agricultural pur- poses. Even at that date there was nothing to remind one of the once smok- ing. flaming, consuming fires of the Indiana Furnace and the little hamlet that stood near the dingy plant. save a few cabins, almost ruined by decay. and here and there a piece of machinery heavily coated with the rust of years. The fires had long since been quenched, because of more improved methods, a better grade of iron ore, and more modern facilities, those which were ushered in with the true "Iron Age" that commenced at the close of the Civil war.
There are still a few persons living in the county who remember the busy 'spot known as the "Furnaces," and recall the long string of teams employed in drawing the ore from the mines and in conveying the manufactured metal. in "pigs" and in stove-plate and cooking utensils, to the waiting flat-boats on the banks of the near-by Wabash. The iron industry was of short duration as compared to that of coal mining, which is now the great king of Vermillion county industries.
From a recent history of Indiana, by Smith, we quote the following con- cerning the early iron industry: "Limonite or bog-iron ores are found in many Indiana counties, including Vermillion. Experience has proven that these ores are too silicious to compete with the rich beds of hermatite of Mis- souri. Tennessee and Georgia. . As a proof of this it is only necessary to state
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PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
that of fourteen blast-furnaces which have been erected in Indiana in the . past, not one is now in operation and most of them have long since been in ruin and decay. The last furnace went out of business in 1893."
POLITICAL AND ELECTION RETURNS.
While it is not the province of this work to go into the details of the political history of Vermillion county, which has, in common with other counties of Indiana, been one fraught with many interesting events, it must here suffice to simply refer incidentally to the political complexion of the county, as found in the presidential election returns.
At an early day there was a good sprinkling of the Whig party element within Vermillion county and from this sprang the Republicans of a later era, which element is now very strong. In and near the village of Perrysville, in 1844, the Whigs were strong as a party and to show their enthusiasm the following little instrument is introduced to the reader :
"Perrysville, Ind., July 10, 1844. "Dr. R. M. Waterman, Lodi :
"Respected Sir: Owing to the political excitement of the times, and to the expected visit of Mr. R. W. Thompson to our place on next Friday, with all creation besides, we have been induced to ask you to favor the Whigs of this place with the loan of your cannon for Friday next. We wish to put a stop to the noise of this little loco-foco pocketpiece with a few rounds from a Whig gun.
"Yours, etc.,
"Thomas H. Smith, Barnes, John Kirkpatrick. David Hulick, James Blair, B. H. Boyd, M. Gookins, C. R. Jewett, R. Haven. W. H. Brown, Joseph Cheadle, W. B. Moffatt, J. S. Baxter. R. J. Gessie S. Barnes, A. Hill, C. F. McNeill, Jacob Sherfy, Austin Bishop. J. S. Stephens, B. R. Howe, John R. McNeill, A. Dennis, G. H. McNeill."
At the commencement of the Civil war, Vermillion county was about evenly divided as to Democrats and Republicans, but fortunately did not have a large number of the "stay-at-home stripe" in either party, hence the few "copperheads" did not dare make as much disturbance as in many parts of the Hoosier state. Lincoln was elected and Vermillion county gave him about as many votes as the opposition party had. The presidential vote
3,58
PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
since the Civil war closed, beginning with the election of Gen. U. S. Grant in 1868, has been as follows :
1868-U. S. Grant (R) maj __ 457 Horatio Seymour (D) __ William J. Bryan (D) __ 2,131
1872-U. S. Grant (R), maj -- 750 Horace Greeley (Lib.)_
1876-R. B. Hayes (R). 1,358 Samuel J. Tilden (D) __ 1,114 1880-Gen. James A. Garfield (R) 1.562
W. S. Hancock (D). .1,235 James B. Weaver (G) __ 149 John W. Phelps ( Nat.)_ I 1884-James G. Blaine (R) ___ 1,59I Grover Cleveland (D) __ 1.320 1888-Benjamin Harrison (R) 1.729 Grover Cleveland ( D) __ 1,448
C. B. Fisk ( Pro. ) 87 1802-Benjamin Harrison (R).1.709 Grover Cleveland (D) __ 1,428
Bidwell (pro.) 81
Jas. B. Weaver (Peo.) __ 189
1896-William Mckinley (R)_1.781 .
1900-William Mckinley (R) _2,293 William J. Bryan (D) __ 1.767 Joshua Levering ( Pro.)_ 107 1904-Theo. Roosevelt (R) ___ 2,724 Alton B. Parker (D) __ 1,437 Swallow ( Pro.) 328
Watson ( Peoples) 29 1908-William Howard Taft (R) 2,502
William J. Bryan (D) __ 1,812 Eugene V. Debs (Soc. )- 407 E. W. Chafin (Pro.) __ 217 1912-William Howard Taft (R) 1,621
Woodrow Wilson (D) _1,780 Theo. Roosevelt ( Pro.) 680 E. V. Debs ( Soc.) 550
THE GATHERING STORM.
The files of the Saturday Argus, of Clinton, published by L. O. Bishop, in June, 1911, contained the interesting reminiscence of fifty years ago in Clinton and Vermillion county, and, bearing on the political issues of those days, it is here quoted as follows :
"Perhaps in the minds of the younger readers of these memories will arise the question, Why, in view of the fact that Clinton was so far from the slave country, and a part of the North, was there such a powerful pro- slavery sentiment here? Allow me to digress from the main line of my story to answer this question. It must be borne in mind that at that time in which I write of Clinton, it had but one door open to the commerce of the world, and that was south via the Wabash, Ohio, Mississippi rivers. New Orleans was our great clearing house. It was no uncommon sight to see a fleet of flat-boats tied up along the river front in those days, unloading sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice, dry goods and tons of other manufactured goods
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PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
and commodities and taking on corn and wheat and pork for the South. These flat boats were operated by hand. And it required several months to make a round trip. The stories of river adventure and frolic and tragedy, if written, would make up some of the richest reading matter to be found in any literature. But it was commercialism that reached out from the great slave market and sent its poison up through the natural arteries of the physi- cal country and thus stupefied and held captive for years the mind, the heart and conscience of the people until such prophets as Owen Lovejoy and John Brown and William Lloyd Garrison, like John the Baptist, came crying through the wilderness, 'Awake! repent, and throw off the horrid spell.
"The only competitor this river ever had was the Wabash & Erie canal, which then extended up from Evansville, somewhat parallel with the Wa- bash river, via Terre Haute, Lafayette to Toledo. Over this slow and tedious route a considerable commerce was conducted until the early sixties, when the absence of labor at home practically put it out of business. But there is in this connection a fundamental fact that cannot be too strongly emphasized and applied to the problems of today, and that is this: Unrestricted control and use of the means of communication and transportation is a source of strength that is absolutely indispensable to the welfare of the people. So when this struggle came on the people of Clinton found themselves at one end of a river which ran at the other end to the very heart of the slave country, and was controlled by the slave power along every inch of its tor- tuous route from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico. Thus our commerce was bottled up and the stopper was in the South. Clinton felt this condition. It affected all classes. The slave power had many and effective agents at work all through this part of the country. Among them, preachers like Parson Brownlow. The only other outlet was to the north by wagon route to Chi- cago, and it was far more uncertain and expensive than was the easy flat boat ride down stream to New Orleans. When one closely understands how strong was this commercial bond between the South and the middle West through the medium of these great rivers then it will be seen that the West made a greater sacrifice than any other part of the country, for the Eastern states had their railroads to the seaboard and then all the world beyond as a field over which to roam for trade. And then, again, population was sparse.
"The population of Clinton in 1860 was not over two hundred and fifty. As late as 1865 men used to sit in Johnny Rhyan's little old shoe shop and take a complete census of every man, woman, child, horse, cow, jack, chicken, dog and cat. . And when they had taken the census, how they used to swell up with pride, and exclaim, 'See how we have grown in ten years,'
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PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
"That my estimate was correct was shown Friday by J. H. Bogart, who in less than ten minutes' time recalled and named every family, store, ware- house and shop in Clinton in 1861. Not only is this feat remarkable for memory, and shows how men preserve their fine mental powers, including that of memory, but it shows the rapidity with which Clinton has grown. Just think of it. Here is a town of only two hundred and fifty in 1861. whereas today (19II) the place has reached seven thousand, and instead of thirty-five blocks, today covers over a square mile.
"By 1860 public sentiment throughout the North began to assume con- crete form. It forced from unwilling lips defense of the truth. It crushed the wornout old Whig party and threw it into the political scrap-heap as a wreck. It split the slave-ruled party and shoved into the breach the virile, alert. wedge of the newly-born Republican party and when the memorable campaign of 1858 came on there was such a tremendous widespread activity as was never before witnessed on any continent. If it be true that 'coming events cast their shadows before,' then certainly the campaigns of 1858-60 clearly forecast the struggle that was to burst upon the country a year later. That summer and fall were given over to politics. Nothing else was dis- cussed.
"The demonstration that greeted Lincoln on that occasion has, so far as I recall, never been equalled in the border line of the two states of Indiana and Illinois.
"The Clinton delegation started with a strong cavalcade of mounted young women and men. Others went in gayly decorated wagons and others in carriages. Like an avalanche, it swept on across the township, gathering to itself large delegations all along the way. At the same time, from all the country surrounding Paris other delegations were moving on toward a center and when Mr. Lincoln arose to speak he was greeted by a sea of eager faces that covered several acres, solidly standing. That procession is to this day the talk of the older men and women who remember it.
"The campaign of 1860 was a furious campaign. No secret ballot then. Every voter in Clinton township had to come to town to vote and election day participated in it to the last hour. The young, humane Democratic Re- publican party took the township and sent the word to Lincoln that so far as this river town was concerned it would stand for a united country. But our town paid a terrific price for its rejection of the tempter. And the debt is not paid yet. Little apparently do the people of today seem to realize the awful cost it has taken in times past to maintain liberty and guarantee prog- ress.
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PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
"So it was that under such thrills and stress my earliest days swiftly passed. And one day father came home in a great hurry from up town. His face was pale and his voice trembled. Someone asked him, 'Why, Frank, what on earth is the matter?' 'Fort Sumter has been fired on,' he huskily replied, and on he went to spread the awful, ominous news. Just then another one came past and corroborated the news. It seems as though ill news of great importance spreads as if by magic. It was true in this case. All Clinton was on the streets in a few moments after the news of the Fort Sumter affair arrived. Excitement was at fever pitch. Church bells were rung, crowds were addressed by impromptu speakers, and the children caught the fever and could hardly be kept in school.
"The next thing we knew, President Lincoln had issued an appeal for seventy-five thousand men, and then the real seriousness of the crisis came rolling in with a rush to every home."
MARKET QUOTATIONS.
The question of high and low tariff has always been one of interest to the political parties of this country, and in 1910 the arguments put forth in favor of the higher tariff, and the denial that the tariff made higher cost of living, was put forth in the Hoosier State, published at Newport, this county, in the following list of articles, based on what ten bushels of wheat would have purchased in 1896, under low rates of tariff ("tariff for revenue only") and under the Republican rule and higher tariff of the administration of the last named political party. The list is as follows :
In 1896 ten bushels of wheat bought forty-seven pounds of coffee; in 1910 it bought one hundred and thirty-four pounds.
In 1896 ten bushels of wheat bought one hundred and twenty-three pounds of rice : in 1910 it bought two hundred and thirteen pounds.
In 1896 ten bushels of wheat bought nine barrels of salt; in 1910 it bought thirteen barrels.
In 1896 ten bushels of wheat bought one hundred and thirty-two pounds of granulated sugar: in 1910 it bought two hundred and forty-nine pounds.
In 1896 ten bushels of wheat bought twenty-five pounds of tea; in 1910 it bought forty-nine pounds.
In 1896 ten bushels of wheat bought one hundred and twenty-three yards of gingham; in 1910 it bought one hundred and sixty-nine yards.
In 1896 ten bushels of wheat bought two pairs of men's kip shoes and
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PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
left a balance of $1.47: in 1910 it bought four pairs of the same kind of shoes and left a balance of $1.81.
In 1896 ten bushels of wheat bought sixty-nine bushels of bituminous coal; in 1910 it bought one hundred and ten bushels of coal.
In 1896 ten bushels of wheat bought fifty-seven gallons of coal oil; in 1910 it bought one hundred and one gallons.
In 1896 ten bushels of wheat bought two hundred and ten pounds of nails ; in 1910 it bought six hundred and forty-one pounds.
In 1896 the government was operating under the low tariff legislation of President Cleveland's administration; in 1910 the government was ad- ministered under the Payne-Aldrich tariff list of the Republican party ad- ministration, as established by the Mckinley bill, and upon which issue President Mckinley had been elected to office.
In the month of December, 1912, the following were the general prices at retail for the commodities named : Flour, $3.00 per hundred; corn, per bushel, 55 cents ; wheat, 97 cents ; potatoes, 75 cents; coal, per ton, $2.50; granulated sugar, per pound, 8 cents ; coffee, from 25 to 30 cents ; butter, 35 cents ; eggs, per dozen, 35 cents ; milk, 7 cents per quart; beans, $3.75 per bushel ; apples, $2.90 per barrel; prints, per yard, 5 to 8 cents ; sheeting, 8 to 12 cents per yard ; wool, per pound, 12 cents ; common nails, 2 1-2 cents by the keg ; coal oil. 15 cents ; gasoline, 20 cents ; hogs were worth $7.50 and western cattle. $6.50 per hundred, live weight.
ORIGINAL VILLAGE PLATS.
The following is a list of the original village plats of Vermillion county, Indiana :
Clinton was platted in section 15, township 14, range 9 west, January 8, 1829, by Lewis P. Rodgers.
Cayuga (first known as Eugene Junction) was platted September 20, 1827, by S. S. Collett.
Dana, in section 26, township 16, range 10 west, by Samuel and J. B. Aikman, Samuel B. Kaufman, and H. B. Hammond, the date being August 18, 1874.
Alta was platted May 18, 1871, in Helt township, by John T. Panton, John D. Johnson, James McLaughlin.
Fairview Park was platted by Charles W. Whitcomb (trustee) on the southwest quarter of section 3, township 14, range 9, August 16, 1902.
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PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
West Clinton Junction, platted May 31. 1911, by H. M. Ferguson, San- uel C. Stultz and Henry C. Dies.
Rangeville was platted September 16, 1911, on section .7, township 14. range 9 west, by the Clinton Coal Company.
Geneva was platted, at least recorded, December 28, 1900, by the Torrey Coal Company, in section 5. township 14. range 9 west.
Rhodes was platted on the southeast of section 33, township 14, range 9. by the Brazil Block Coal Company, December II, 1903.
Needmore was platted as a sub-division, in section 34. township 14. range 9 west, on September 29, 1904. by the Indiana Fuel Company.
Centenary was platted in section 13, township 14, range 10 west, October 19, 1910, by Joseph W. Amis (trustee).
Chum's Ford was platted in sections 30 and 31, township 14, range 9 west, by U. G. Wright (trustee), December 8, 1910.
Universal was platted in the northeast quarter of section 31, township 14, range 9 west, March, 1911.
Perrysville was platted in section 34, township 19, range 9, and in sec- tion 33, of same township and range, May 25, 1832, by James Blair.
Gessie was platted in section 28, township 19, range 10 west, March 20, 1872, by R. J. Gessie.
Rileysburg was platted in the southwest quarter of section 17, town- ship 19, range 10 west, June 4, 1904, by Sarah E. Peterson and Richard C. Peterson.
Newport was platted, or rather recorded as a village, July 28, 1828, and re-platted and corrected up for record, March 8, 1837, by S. S. Collett ; lo- cated in section 26, township 17, range 9 west.
St. Bernice, platted in the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 28, township 15, range 10 west, August 18, 1905, by Alfred M. and Elizabeth J. Reed.
Summit Grove, platted on sections 22 and 23, township 15, range 9 west, November 16, 1871, by Abraham H. Puy.
Hillsdale was platted in section 2, township 15, range 9 west. November II, 1872, by Everlin Montgomery and Benjamin F. Maston.
Highland was platted in section 27, township 16, range 9 west, and the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 34, same township and range, September 20, 1835, by Michael Gohmly.
Jones was platted in Helt township, in section 34, township 15, range If west, by Phillip Jones, on February 25, 1862.
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PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
Springfield was platted, or recorded as a village płat, October 1, 1828, by James Burns.
Solon was platted April 2, 1836, on the east half of the northwest quar- ter of section 23, township 17, range 9 west.
Transylvania, platted in section 34, township 15, range 9 west, May 9, 1837, by A. E. Sergent and G. Powers.
Sheperdstown, platted by John Villarson, in the northeast quarter of section 7, township 19, range 10 west, and in section 6, same town and range, August 10, 1836.
CEMETERIES OF THE COUNTY.
Clinton cemetery, platted in section 10, township 14, range 9, by five trustees, December 22, 1890 .
Toronto cemetery, by five trustees, F. V. Austin, W. F. Kerns, M. Puffer, S. Jenks and Samuel Malone, November 26, 1893: location, section II, township 15, range 10 west.
Other cemeteries platted and recorded are the Vermillion cemetery and the Thomas cemetery.
Eugene cemetery, platted by trustees. L. T. Naylor, G. H. Fable, M. G. Hosford. June II, 1891, in section 31, township 18, range 9 west.
Bales cemetery, platted by trustees, May 1. 1894, in section 36. township 16, range 10 west.
Hopewell Friends cemetery.
POPULATION OF THE COUNTY.
In 1880, according to the United States census reports, Vermillion county had inhabitants as follows :
Clinton township and towns, 3,000; Helt township and towns, 3,027 ; Vermillion township and towns. 2,215: Eugene township and towns, 1,340; Highland township and towns, 2,433; total in county, 12.015.
PRESENT POPULATION.
The last federal census gives Vermillion county a population of 18,865. divided among the townships and towns and cities as follows, that of 1900 being also noted :
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PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
1900.
1910.
Clinton township and city
-5,193
9,341
City alone
2,918
6,289
Fairview Park
680
Eugene township and Cayuga
2,038
2,112
Cayuga town
832
9II
Helt township and Dana
3.799
3,543
Highland township
2,133
1.845
Vermillion township and Newport
2,089
1,974
Newport alone
610
732
1
The total population of this county in 1870 was 10,840; in 1880 it had 12,015; in 1899 it had 13,154; in 1900 it had 15,252; in 1910 it had 18,865.
In 1910 there were seventy-four persons to each square mile, in this county. The rural population was fifty. to the square mile.
The white population was 18,740 and the negro population 121. Native white population, 14.466; foreign-born white population included these : From Austria, 342; Germany, 178; Hungary, 230; Italy, 811; Russia, 210; Scotland, 179; Ireland, 22.
The county was divided as to sex : 10,002 males, 8,863 females.
The total of illiteracy was 300; per cent. of illiteracy, five and two- tenths per cent. of population.
Total between six and twenty years of age 5.423: school attendance, 3.614: number of dwellings, 4.347; number of families, 4.544.
The city of Clinton had, in 1900, 2,918 population : in 1910. it had 6,229: 33 negroes; illiterate, 200; of school age, 1.692; attending school, 1,095; dwellings in city. 1.301 : families in city, 1,468.
COUNTY SOCIETIES.
Besides the County Medical Society mentioned elsewhere, this county had other important societies which, with the death and removal of their founders, went down. These included the Western Indiana Scientific Asso- ciation, founded by the spirit and activity of that well-known man of New- port, William Gibson, and later of Perrysville, who, in the summer of 1875. issued a call to his friends in science with a view of organizing a society. The first meeting met in August that year and such men attended and took part as Prof. B. Rhoades, William Gibson, M. L. Hall, William L. Little, Jesse Houchin, P. 7. Anderson and Samuel Groenendyke. At their next meeting
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PARKE AND VERMILLION COUNTIES, INDIANA.
they organized what they were pleased to style "The Western Indiana His- torical and Scientific Association." They adopted a constitution and by- laws for the purpose of "promoting discovery in geology, archaeology and other kindred sciences; for our mutual improvement therein, and for the se- curing of a cabinet of natural history and a collection of minerals and fossils as will illustrate the resources and wealth of Vermilion county." The con- stitution was signed by John Collett, William L. Little, William Gibson, H. H. Conley, M. L. Hall, S. B. Davis, M. G. Rhoades, Jesse Houchin, W. C. Eichelberger, Samuel Groenendyke, B. E. Rhoades and P. Z. Anderson. Mr. Collett was elected president : M. G. Rhoades, vice-president : William L. Lit- tle, treasurer : H. H. Conley, corresponding secretary ; M. L. Hall, recording secretary, and William Gibson, librarian and curator.
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