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 34
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 34
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With the removal of Mr. Gibson the moving, active spirit, after he had succeeded in securing many items for the collection and had them carefully stored away in a neat, small building, the association ceased to exist, as is to be regretted by all thinking people of the county.
COUNTY TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATION.
.\ county temperance organization was formed as a result of the "blue- ribbon" movement, February 16, 1882, at Newport. The meeting was called to order by Capt. R. B. Sears, of Newport, a member of the state organiza- tion. Dr. E. T. Spotswood, of Perrysville, was temporary chairman, and E. H. Hayes, of Clinton, secretary. Vice-presidents were chosen from each of the five townships in Vermillion county. Mrs. Emma Molloy, a noted tem- perance lecturer, was invited to make a canvass of the county. The consti- tution of the Grand Council was adopted. Resolutions called for none but out-and-out temperance men for the officers of the society. They must also favor adopting resolutions to vote for a prohibitory liquor law in Indiana. It is thought. hy some. that owing to its not being a religious or secret order. that it went down before much good was accomplished.
VERMILLION COUNTY POSTOFFICES.
The facilities for receiving and sending mail matter in this county have greatly changed for the better with the passing of the decades since one man's hat was the postoffice and mail was received "when convenient" from Dan- ville and Terre Haute, at two or three places within the county. The estab- lishment of the free rural delivery of mails in the late eighties and nineties
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brought many changes in the location of postoffices throughout the entire country, including this county. In 1888 the offices in Vermillion county were listed as follows :
Clinton; St. Bernice, at Jonestown, in the northwestern portion of Clin- ton township; Summit Grove, on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois railroad, in Helt township; Toronto, at or near Bono, Helt township, at the crossing of the two railroads of the county; Dana, in the northwestern part of Helt township, on the railroad running east and west through the county; New- port, the county seat; Quaker Hill, sometimes called "Quaker Point," eight miles west of Newport and in Vermillion township; Cayuga, in Eugene township, at the railroad crossings; Engene; Perrysville; Gessie, on the railroad in the western portion of Highland township; Rileysburg, on the same road two miles to the northwest of Gessie: Walnut Grove, Brownton, Highland, Alta, Opeedee were all hamlets and cross-roads, but had no post- offices.
The following is a true list of the postoffices in the county in 1912: Cayuga, Charles Hosford, postmaster: Clinton, J. O. Stark, postmaster ; Dana, Roy Turner, postmaster; Eugene: Gessie; Hillsdale, Margaret Mc- Carty, postmistress ; Newport, M. B. Carter, postmaster: Perrysville, Inskie : Rileysburg; St. Bernice, Ed. McCann, postmaster; New St. Bernice (a rural station ) ; Universal, John Marietta, postmaster.
The postal savings department was introduced in Vermillion county in 19II, and in January, 1913. the parcel post system was installed in the county. All of these facilities give the persons residing distant from the towns and vil- lages almost an equal advantage enjoyed by the town dwellers of years ago. The farmer has his daily newspaper, with latest market reports and the impor- tant news of the entire world, brought to his door each forenoon. And if in need of some small article of merchandise, instead of going to town he can simply phone to his dealer and the mail carrier brings the article on his first trip out, the charges being merely nominal. Verily, the farmer is becoming more independent each year, and has of late just awakened to the fact that he is a potent political factor that must be reckoned with.
POWDER MILL EXPLOSION.
May 4, 1904, at noon, the powder mill at Dorner, two miles `southeast of Newport, was blown up, four men being killed and many more injured. The scene of the disaster was in a little hollow leading off from the main hollow which runs east and west. There were at the time four hundred kegs
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of powder, of twenty-five pounds weight each, amounting to ten thousand pounds of damp blasting powder. Henry Griffin and DeSoto Biggs, two of the unlucky workmen, were blown literally to atoms. The combined weight of the two men was about three hundred pounds and only sixty pounds of scattered fragments of human remains could ever be gathered together. The other two killed were George and Berkley Mayhew, brothers. The woods caught fire from the terrible explosion and it took much hard fighting upon the part of the men present to extinguish the flames before they reached the other side of the hill, where there was stored two hundred and fifty thousand pounds of powder in the magazines of the Dupont powder works. Only two of the fourteen buildings were destroyed. They were never rebuilt. An almost endless litigation ensued for damages upon the part of the deceased men's friends, some of whom compromised and received small amounts from the company. The explosion was heard at Terre Haute and Clinton. John Potts, who was on his father's farm a mile distant, was knocked down by the explosion. Twenty window lights were broken from the county poor asylum : pieces of shafting of six hundred pounds weight were hurled a half mile distant and planted in the earth. A spring never before observed by man was started from out the hill at the glaze : twenty-five copperhead snakes that had not yet come forth from their winter quarters were stunned and afterward killed by the men who were searching for the bodies of the unfor- tunate workmen.
DESTRUCTION BY DYNAMITERS.
Clinton and vicinity has been the scene of terrible dynamiter's work, including the blowing up of the Catholic church and, a few months later, the partial destruction of the piers of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois railroad bridge, at Clinton. The latter explosion was on April 19. 1910, when two explosions occurred. The shock was felt at Dana, Hillsdale and Terre Haute. The guilty ones were never captured, although there were large re- wards offered and expert detectives put into the case. The city offered one thousand dollars and the railroad company three thousand dollars. Blood- hounds were put into service, but all to no purpose.
The partial destruction of the beautiful and massive Roman Catholic church at Clinton, supposed to have been the work of someone not satisfied with the requirements and exactments upon the part of the priest in charge of the Clinton parish at the time. occurred in November. 1909, of which the Clinton Saturday Argus had this to say, editorially :
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"The new Sacred Heart Roman Catholic church was partially wrecked at 11 :45 Tuesday night by the explosion of three sticks of dynamite. The explosions were so terrific that almost the entire windows were blown out of many of the houses in that part of the city. A police force was at once sent for by 'cails' and the night officers responded, but no trace could be found that afforded any clue to the deed.
"The damage done will amount to over one thousand dollars, on which there is no insurance. Wednesday the city council met and voted to offer a thousand dollars reward for the arrest and conviction of the miscreants. Seventy-nine sticks of dynamite were found at the church on Wednesday morning, which had they gone off would have destroyed at least the southern half of the city. A call has been made for a Pinkerton detective and no pains or expense will be spared to bring the guilty parties to justice."
The same local paper said on December 3, 1909:
"The deadly effects of the recent attempt to blow up the Catholic church in this city are far more wide-reaching than the mere damage to the building, serious as it was. Owners of property in that vicinity now live in constant dread and apprehension of still further disaster. Some families have rented rooms down town where they can have the benefit of police protection, day and night : others refuse to sleep at home at night time. Others are offering their property for sale. The Catholic authorities have employed guards for constant night protection. Father Maher has, it is reported, removed from the city and his former duties have been taken by another priest."
Up to this writing. December, 1912, there has been no clue to the persons who performed this dastardly deed.
A BRUTAL OUTRAGE.
During the latter part of the night of October 12, 1883, says the Hoosier State, published at Newport, a most brutal outrage was committed by a band of robbers upon Elias Lamb and their family at their residence, near New- port. In the house were Mr. Lamb and wife and a married daughter, from Wayne county, visiting them. Between three and four o'clock the dog made considerable noise. Mrs. Lamb went to the window to see what was the matter and hissed the dog, which would only plunge out into the darkness and then retreat. Not discovering anything, she returned to bed, but the dog kept up a howling and acted as if someone was encroaching on the premises. In a few minutes Mr. Lamb went out to see if he could discover anything
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wrong. Returning to his room, he had scarcely lain down when the door to an adjoining room against which stood a large bureau was burst open and the bureau feil to the floor, with a terrible crash, breaking everything that was upon. it. Before the two could get out of bed they were seized by two bur- glars and a demand made for their money. Mi. Lamb gave them all he had. The demand being repeated to his wife, she said she had a dollar and seventy- five cents upstairs. The villians made her get it without a light, at the risk of her life. They then declared that there was more money in the house and that they would kill them if they did not give it up. Mr. Lamb answered that they might kill them, but that they could not get any more money, for there was no more in the house. Then they assaulted him and threatened to kill them both if they did not pay over more money. They first pummeled him awhile and then fired two shots, one of them grazing Mrs. Lamb's head, splitting open her ear. Mr. Lamb, although badly bruised and one eye closed. managed to get out of doors, where he pulled the bell rope, which frightened the burglars away.
The daughter referred to, who was sleeping in another room, crawled under the feather bed and thus escaped discovery. Their son John, who was sleeping in a house some hundred yards distant. upon hearing the bell ran over to his parents' house and, finding they were suffering for medical treat- ment, proposed to go immediately for a physician, but they, fearing the rascals might return and do further mischief. begged him to remain with them till daylight.
During the morning the tracks of the robbers were traced both ways. between their house and town. but no further clue was ever obtained.
VERMILLION COUNTY IN MOURNING.
The following will serve the purpose of showing how the deaths of Lincoln, Garfield and Mckinley were taken by the citizens of this county :
LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION.
In common with the entire nation, the news of the death at the hand of an assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, just at the close of the civil con- flict in which he was the true patriot and hero, was received with profound grief and sorrow by this people, who had faithfully supported the great man in his every effort to save the Union. The public meetings were sad ones throughout the county. Men met on the streets, in the shops, on the farms
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and at cross-road postoffices, only to see depicted in one another's faces the sorrow hidden within their hearts. Stunned and silent at first, they soon gave utterance to the bitterness of their souls. A saved Union, but a lamented and assassinated President. Flags were at half-mast ; emblems of mourning were seen on every hand, and many a prayer went up to the Ruler of Nations that peace might come out of the confusion that existed on every hand. It was the first great national sorrow this people had experienced. They had freely given up their brave sons, on many a well fought field of battle, in de- fense of the flag. but never had they mourned a President in such critical days as those of April. 1865.
DEATH OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD.
Again, sixteen years later, in July, 1881, the cowardly hand of an "un- balanced man," with political hatred in his heart, shot down President James Abram Garfield, at the Potomac depot in Washington, D. C. He suffered on, and was the object of a nation's sincere prayers, until death claimed him, September 20th, that year.
The Hoosier State, published then, as now, at Newport, Vermillion county, had the following editorial on the death of Garfield: "Today the whole nation mourns over the death of our President, which occurred at ten thirty-five last Monday night. Eleven weeks ago Guiteau shot him down at the Potomac depot in Washington, while on his way to visit his wife who was ill in an Eastern city. Although a stout, hearty man. usually weighing two hundred pounds, he had dwindled down to less than one hundred and fifteen pounds. The prayers of the whole nation went up for him. but availed noth- ing. Death was sealed upon his manly brow when he was first shot, and no mortal could stay its onward march. The people feel sad and fully appre- ciate the fearful calamity which has befallen our country.
"Yesterday a large number of business houses and residences were hear- ily draped in mourning. It seemed like a pall of despair had spread over our quiet little village and the deep gloom of sadness could be plainly depicted on the countenances of everyone. He is gone. Let the old warrior rest! Let our people hope for the best.
"Memorial Exercises-In honor of the dead President. a public meeting was called at the court house in Newport by Marshal F. M. Bishop. on Sun- day evening, to plan for a memorial meeting there on Monday. . At two p. m. Monday the court house was full; business men all closed their places up and
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attended in reverence and sorrow. Prayer was offered by Rev. J. H. Hol- lingsworth. William L. Little made an appropriate address, highly compli- menting the dead chieftain. C. W. Ward delivered a lengthy address, full of many beautiful sentiments. Capt. B. B. Sears followed with another ad- dress, as did also Henry Hollingsworth."
DEATH OF PRESIDENT M'KINLEY.
For the third time the citizens of Vermillion county were called upon to mourn the death of an assassinated President. Perhaps no better index to the sentiment concerning this dastardly assassination can be had than to re- print a portion of an editorial that appeared in the Democratic organ at Clin- ton, the Saturday Argus, published by L. O. Bishop, which reads as follows: "This morning ( September 20, 1901,) the people of this nation awoke to a great sorrow and shame. Sorrow over the death of William Mckinley, who had been twice elected to occupy the chair of the highest office in the land, a kind, sincere and true gentleman and a high public official. Shame at the consciousness that, in spite of all boasted liberty and justice and prosper- ity that were said to abound, out of all should come one whose life had been so embittered at the wrongs he saw that he dared to lift his hand against the head of the republic.
"In this hour of national affliction, when the future rises full of potent hopes, and the hearts of all true Americans are heavy with sorrow and appre- hension, there should be no partisanship, no strife, nothing but the truest comradeship, for the blow that has fallen from the hand of the barbarian and assassin is a blow, not at William Mckinley the man, but a blow by sav- agery at citizenship: by chaos, at law and order. At this moment, when the destinies of the nation may be changing, there can be but one sentiment in all our hearts-profound sympathy for the one weak woman on whose frail shoulders has fallen this crushing blow."
In Clinton, memorial services were held at the Methodist Episcopal church, at which numerous prominent citizens addressed a large audience. upon whose every face were depicted the lines of grief and true sorrow, re- gardless of party lines. . \ll were Mckinley's friends, in a true personal sense. for he was of that type of manhood that ever has the good will of the com- mon people. in whose interests he always believed he was working while he held public office, either state or national. The occasion of this memorial service will never be forgotten by those present, among whom were those
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who had been called upon to mourn the death of two Presidents assassinated before, Lincoln and Garfield, but to some this seemed the saddest of all, for it was in a time of supreme peace and prosperity in the country.
POVERTY AND HAPPINESS.
In a series of interesting articles from the pen of Editor L. O. Bishop, in the Saturday Argus, of Clinton, in 1911, the following should be preserved as a part of the history of Vermillion county, showing as it does much of interest concerning the days back a half century ago. While many of our readers will not quite agree with the political philosophy of the writer, all will be pleased at the facts herein narrated :
"In one of James Whitcomb Riley's poems, Indiana's gifted poet reflects more than superficial sentiment when he exclaims : 'Take me back to Griggsby Station, where we used to be so happy and so poor.' That was the condi- tion of things that prevailed in Clinton half a century ago.
"The Civil war contributed to this poverty in that it drew out of the country for destruction not only vast supplies in way of foodstuffs, wool for clothing, live stock, horses and mules, but it also drew into this fierce mael- strom of destruction all the able-bodied producers of wealth from town and country. It put a stop to all exchange, because prices of everything went skyward and wages were reduced to a minimum, because no plans were for- mulated for any public or private improvement that would circulate money or employ labor.
"So we were all poor in Clinton in 1861-65. We were poor in material things because there are things today in common use that had not been in- vented. For instance, there was the item of artificial light. No longer than fifty years back we had not even coal oil lamps. Artificial lights for stores, churches and homes were made in two ways. Candles were used in chande- liers and candlesticks. And considerable artistic taste was displayed in mak- ing the chandeliers and candlesticks. And then our mothers took great pride in seeing how smooth a candle they could make by pouring melted tallow down the mold frame through which the wick had been string. Others used an open lamp, filled with .oil of any inflammable kind and the wick hung over the edge of the lamp, or it might run up a spout and be lighted. James Payne informs me that coal oil did not come into use here until about 1864. when 'Esquire Harrison invested in a coal oil lamp and took it to his country home, a few miles west of the city. It was a venomous looking creature,
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with no chimney, and double-barreled at that! It created more curiosity among the neighbors than a flying machine does today. People would drive miles and miles and make it a point to have business at the Squire's to see that 'new fangled contraption' with which the family was going to cut some splurge at night. But there was not one in the house who would go up close to the lamp to light it. And it was used as an ornament until finally someone did screw up courage to fire the tip ends of the two little wicks that seemed to run like a fuse to a mine below.
"The experiment worked ail right. At least it did not blow up and that oil lamp soon developed into a better affair and candles and grease lights, with their snuffers, smoke, grime and dirt, were soon relegated to oblivion. In the matter of producing a perfect artificial light the whole world hung on for centuries to the crudest of affairs and seemed never to think it possible to invent anything better. As a matter of fact, the world has made more prog- ress in way of comfort, convenience and cleanliness and in labor-saving de- vices in the past fifty years than it did in all the centuries that had gone be- fore.
"Even as late as 1868 the wheat crop was cut by hand. And not until the White Brothers, Orville, Ren, Florence and James, always progressive farmers, ventured to invest in a Walter A. Wood binder, and the Knowles Brothers, Charles B. and James E., tried the McCormick, that the farmers could be induced to get away from the back-breaking, slavish task of harvest- ing by hand. These machines were crude, heavy affairs, costing from three hundred and thirty-five dollars to three hundred and seventy-five dollars, re- spectively, and required from three to four horses to draw them when in the field, and were easily disarranged. Then Scott Haginbaugh, an agricultural implement dealer, took the agency and began to exploit their many virtues. The machine used was to bind the wheat by means of wire bands, which were cut by a hatchet in threshing. One day a farmer asked Scott what be- came of this wire. Scott, being equal to all emergencies, very coolly and promptly replied that 'It evaporated.' The explanation seemed to be satis- factory, as a number of machines were sold. But the law of evolution was constantly at work, eliminating the old and useless and substituting the new and better ways of doing things.
"The richest man in Clinton at the beginning of the Civil war was prob- ably worth ten thousand dollars, mostly in merchandise. a residence and some farm land. One family, that of George Mccullough, bad a piano and
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they had a spick span parlor in the old 'White House' that now stands on South Main street.
"John Payton was a successful merchant and later on furnished his family with a piano; John Whitcomb, another merchant, purchased a piano. But outside of these three families, the evidences of wealth and luxury in Clinton were far between.
"We were all poor in Clinton in the early sixties, and that poverty was no more like the poverty that infests our cities today than German silver is like the genuine article. The poverty of 1864 was not poverty that came to men by reason of unjust laws or of vicious systems. It was the poverty of a natural condition of things; wealth was not. It was a poverty that made all men feel socially equal, and they were on good terms with each other. There was no embarrassment on the part of either if a poor washwoman went to divine service attired in calico and sat down beside a woman in all wool or silk; all was well. I have seen the mechanic sit in his shirt sleeves by the side of the merchant in alpaca coat, and both sing the same hymns of praise and gratitude from the same book, and both kneel in the same pew and pray to the same Heavenly Father for his guidance and mercy, and all classes would join in fraternal spirit at the same hospitable table. The poverty of 1861-65 did not imibrute men by closing against them and their children all the natural opportunities for advancement. It did not divide society into two great hos- tile camps that we see about us today, the fortunate on one side and the out- cast on the other. The poor man was not shoved off the earth by some cold. unfeeling corporation, aided by political prostitutes and professional para- sites. The one great universal, underlying cause of the happiness that pre- vailed in 1861 was the fact that every man was practically free to use the land and reap all proceeds of his labor. It was this that gave strength to the North. It was the denial of this principle that made the South weak, and which finally led to its defeat and wiping out of its long cherished system. slavery."
CHAPTER XVIII.
CITY OF CLINTON.
Clinton, named in honor of an early governor of New York, De Witt Clinton, was laid out, probably, by William Harris, a resident of Martin county, Indiana, in 1824. Martin was a government surveyor. But the rec- ord of town and village plats at Newport shows that Clinton was platted and recorded by Lewis P. Rodgers, on January 8, 1829-probably a corrected and legal platting recorded of the original town. It is situated (the original plat ) in section 15, township 15, range 9 west.
At first the growth of the town was very slow, indeed at the opening of the Civil war it only contained about two hundred and fifty inhabitants, but in 1868, when a railroad was an assured fact, it took on new life and vigor. But before railroad days it was the center of an agricultural district around it for a radius of fifty miles or more. Across the Wabash the people traded mostly at Terre Haute, fifteen miles distant from Clinton and always an absorbing factor in the country trade. Clinton stands on a level plateau of land extending from the western bank of the Wabash back nearly a mile to the hills, in which the great coal deposits are, which have for years been suc- cessfully worked. The population of Clinton, according to the 1910 United States census, was 6,289, but according to the 1912 city directory, carefully compiled, the city now has a population of 8.379. Aside from the mining element, the population is largely American. The commercial interests may be listed as between the extensive coal mining industry and the agricultural trade, with a considerable amount of money also put into circulation by rea- son of the vast brick and tile industries of the community, the paving brick alone being a large industry. But beyond question, the city thrives largely on its mining interests which are increasing yearly.
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