USA > Indiana > Vanderburgh County > History of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, from the earliest times to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, etc. > Part 9
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tion of plank road companies. In February, 1851, the Central Plank Road Company of Vanderburgh county was chartered, and in July following, permission was granted by the commissioners to build a plank road to Princeton from Evansville, on the state road. The company was required to build a double track as far as Negley's mill, and to allow paupers and provisions for the poor asylum to pass free of toll. This was the only road of the kind in the county. It was a good road, but never extended beyond Pigeon creek. The incorporators at first thought they had a valuable franchise, but after oper- ating the road ten or a dozen years, became convinced of the contrary, and in March, 1865, Henry C. Gwathney, secretary and treasurer, and probably the largest stock- holder in the company, appeared before the board of commissioners and formally aban- doned all rights under the charter, surren- dering the road bed, which again became a public highway. In this connection the venerable forerunner and probable suggester of plank roads deserves mention. The "corduroy," of poles or rails laid side by side in muddy places, gave the traveler the severest and most vigorous shaking up that it was possible for any human contrivance to administer. A ride over it in a "jolt- wagon" was an experience equal almost to the famous ride of Horace Greeley in the stage coach of Hank Monk.
That produce without a market is not wealth, was early understood. Cheap and rapid transportation, even before the era of railroads, was a problem which engaged the thought of intelligent men. As the county grew in population, a surplus of produce be- Other laws authorizing the incorporation of turnpike or gravel road companies were enacted, but under these no organizations were effected in this county. In the sum- mer of 1870, however, a system of improve- ment was begun by the county, which has since been prosecuted with such vigor that at this time all of the principal thoroughfares leading out of Evansville, and the chief cross roads in all parts of the county, are graveled gan to form a part of every farmer's pos- sessions, and seeking to dispose of it in winter or spring, roads "without bottom " were what he had to contend with. The entire resources of the county had been di- verted to other uses, and any great better- ment of the highways though public agency seemed impracticable. A field for private enterprise was opened by the legislature, when, in 1849, it authorized the incorpora-'and kept in good condition. The system
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was commenced in an experimental and cau- tious way. Contracts to gravel about one mile on each of the roads from the city to Oak Hill and Locust Hill cemeteries, were let to Jacob S. Lowery, the city and county agreeing to share equally the expense, which was provided for by an issue of bonds bearing interest at nine per cent per an- num. The work was found to be very costly, yet of such advantage to the general public that its continuance and extension were determined upon. In 1879 alone, there were expended in this work nearly $68,000, and in the two years following, over $112,000. In later years the amount expended has been less than formerly, though in the past four years it exceeded $102,000.
As early as 1822 Governor William Hendricks, in his message to the legislature, directed attention to the subject of internal improvements. Corydon was then the seat of government, and all supplies, not immedi- ate products of the soil, were brought from Louisville in wagons. The town was of lit- tle importance save when the law-makers assembled, and the Louisville road was one of the bottomless and miry sort. " Waiting for the wagon," was the common excuse with landlords for the lack of the most ordi- nary articles when requested by their guests. If for no other reason, because of this state of things, the legislative mind ought to have been favorable to any suggested method of improvement in transportation facilities. But there were weightier reasons than those of personal convenience. A few years before, the Indian titles to the greater part of the central and eastern portions of the state had been extinguished, and settlers had pushed their way into the new country in great numbers. In most places they found a rich and fertile soil which, with little cultivation, yielded far more than was neces- sary to supply immediate wants. To give flame. Loyal and stalwart supporters to
a market to this surplus was the desidera- tum. The governor seemed to realize what possibilities awaited development in the great state over which he had been called to pre- side. But at the very time of his message the causes were in action which soon pro- duced all over the new state a period of de- pression and business inactivity from which recovery was slow. Ten years later, how- ever, prosperity had returned and the future seemed to hold in its hand the richest of promises. From the south and the east came immigrants of wealth and character. The spirit of the age was progressive. It demanded improvement and the develop- ment of natural resources. Foreign impor- tations destroyed the manufactories which had grown up in the east during the war with England, and abandoning these able and experienced men came with their capi- tal to engage in commerce in the west. The practicability of railroads and canals had been demonstrated. The facilities they afforded to travel and business were quickly recognized. The legislature commenced chartering railroad companies, tentatively at first, and then boldly, the seat of govern- ment had been changed to Indianapolis, the state road leading thereto was being con- structed, and congress, in 1827, had made its first grant of lands to the Wabash & Erie canal. A frenzy, epidemic like, spread among the Hoosier people. They clamored for legislation authorizing a gigantic scheme of development. New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio had met with some success in the prosecution of similar work, and these facts fired the zeal of those advocating the plan. Engineers, would-be contractors, and those awaiting places on the innumerable boards and commissions that would necessarily come into existence, as incidents to the plan, in every possible way added fuel to the
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these were the cohorts of speculators who saw vast fortunes in the increased values of town lots and lands. The strong hand of the state alone could support this enterprise. The stock of the railroad companies already chartered was not taken, and this augured that individual effort was not to be depended on. In 1835-6, a bill providing for a gen- eral system of internal improvement became a law. Its provisions were unwise and ruinous, because its visionary and enthusi- astic projectors in imagination created com- mercial necessities which in reality had no existence. In many cases the termini of railroad lines planned, and on which work was commenced, did not exist except on paper. Such roads led to no surplus of la- bor or produce, and to no market. It was not possible for them to profit anyone but the town-site company and its hangers-on. Governor Noah Noble, an energetic, capa- ble and unselfish man, was unfortunate enough to be the chief promoter of the sys- tem. Among its advocates, next to him in efficiency and zeal, were Messrs. Burr and Evans, the former a canal commissioner, and the latter the speaker of the house of representatives. The completion of the works authorized would have cost thirty millions of dollars. Such individual pros- perity as would result from this expenditure of money was enough to throw entire com- munities into a paroxysm of joy. In the political campaign that followed, all other issues were insignificant; the line was drawn between the element of progress and that of obstruction; the candidates for guberna- torial honors were both whigs, and national questions were wholly lost sight of. Mr. Dumont, the anti-improvement candidate, did not advocate the abandonment of the system, but only desired to impose some limit to its various extension. Such was the feeling in the state, that he was defeated by
Governor Wallace by more than 9,000 votes. A year later, the folly and futility of the scheme began to dawn upon the mental retina of the self-deceived public, and soon thereafter the credit of the state failed, which occurred fortunately before it had succeeded in fastening upon itself the whole of the indebtedness conteniplated. Out of the wreck of the colossal undertaking came some good, though it was in no degree commensurate with the cost, for the means of actual development were thus constructed before they otherwise, in all probability, would have been.
The extension of the Wabash & Erie canal from the north, and its construction from the Ohio river, commencing at Evans- ville, was a part of the general plan pro- vided for, and as soon as practicable ground was broken at this place; the failure of the state system in IS3S caused a suspen- sion of the work, but there were still hopes that the canal might be made a potent fac- tor in advancing the welfare of the state. Through national aid it was completed to Terre Haute, in 1849, and to Evansville in 1853. When finished, it was 459 miles long; 375 in Indiana, and 84 in Ohio. The Indiana portion cost about $6,000,000. The Miami canal, ISI miles long, connected it with Cin- cinnati.
Many contractors did their work in bad faith. The embankments in some places were filled with logs and brush, in conse- quence of which the water, when turned in- to the excavation, found its way through the crevices and spread over the adjoining lands. The canal boats were uncertain and unre- liable, and were, therefore, not well patron- ized. On the whole the canal had but little, if any, influence on the growth of the town, and its meagre usefulness was of short dura- tion, being entirely abandoned about 1864. The commerce of the Ohio river and the
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relation of this county thereto, are subjects too vast for appropriate consideration in the limited space here available. The brightest hopes of the early settlers so far as they in- volved the material development of the city and county, were crystalized into facts by the potent influence of "the beautiful river," not, however, as a joy-giving quantity, but as a highway bringing men together and af- fording means for an exchange of commodi- ties. As soon as a surplus of produce began to be brought to the village for dis- posal, means of carrying it to the world's markets were immediately devised. Chief of these was the flat-boat, still familiar to every resident along the banks of the river, though the magnitude of the business trans- acted by this means has so diminished that it affords no adequate idea of the palmy days of the past. From a small beginning, flat- boating increased rapidly until it was not un- common to see the channel dotted with them as far as the eye could reach. At some seasons fleets of forty or fifty boats loaded with hay, corn, pork, lard, venison, hams, eggs, poultry and other farm products, manned by sturdy crews, went together from these parts to New Orleans and the south. Some of the boats used were built at or near Evansville. When the hull was completed they were launched into the river bottom- side up, and then "turned" by loading one side with dirt and swinging the boat into the current with strong lines fastened to the un- loaded side. Most of the boats, however, were bought at Cincinnati and other up-river towns. These were open boats which had been loaded with salt and other commodities in the Kanawha and other rivers. When btought here they were fitted up to suit the cargo which they were designed to trans- port. They were some times sent out by merchants and at others by farmers, either singly or by several combined. The dignity
of labor was then everywhere recognized, and some of the best men in the community were engaged in flat-boating, among them Gen. Joseph Lane, and others equally as prominent. The crew consisted of from five to twelve men who were subject to call at all hours. The pilot who had charge of the craft, by pounding on the deck warned the men to turn out from their berths and man the oars. The pilot was an important per- sonage, and in this school many were edu- cated who afterward held in their hands the lives of many human beings as they stood at their wheels guiding the palatial passen- ger steamers which later traversed the waters. Among these were Barney Cody, William Elliott, William Dougherty, Thomas J. Stinson, William Onyett, Jack Angel and many others. The introduction of steam- boating did not at first check the transporta- tion of produce by flat-boats. The county grew rapidly in population and its surplus created an increasing demand for boats of all sorts. At length, however, steamboat- ing began to draw heavily upon the flat-boat interests and finally, practically drove it from the trade, except as an occasional carrier of a heavy cargo whose owner was in no haste to get to market. Flat-boats from the in- terior, which came out of the Wabash in great numbers in early times, ceased with the building of railroads from about 1840 to 1850.
The first successful experiments at steam- boating were made in 1807, by Robert Ful- ton, on the Hudson river. In April, 1809, Nicholas J. Roosevelt, of New York, vis- ited the western rivers and made a survey from Pittsburg to New Orleans. Finding favorable conditions the territorial legislature was applied to for a charter, and in Decem- ber, 1810, an act was passed incorporating the " Ohio Steamboat Navigation Company," by which Daniel D. Tompkins, Robert R.
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Livingston, De Witt Clinton, Robert Fulton and Nicholas J. Roosevelt were made a body politic to navigate the western waters under Fulton's and Livingston's patent. In Octo- ber of the next year, the first steamboat built on the western waters was launched at Pittsburg. She was called the New Orleans, was 410 tons burden, had a powerful engine, and was altogether quite handsome in ap- pearance. She was designed to ply be- tween Natchez and New Orleans, and left Pittsburg for the lower river in command of N. J. Roosevelt without passengers or freight. She made from eight to ten miles an hour, and completed the trip in safety. While waiting for water to get over the falls she made several.trips between Louisville and Cincinnati, and was admired and won- dered at by all who saw her. Strange and ridiculous reports were circulated as to the noises then heard for the first time by the people thinly scattered through the dense forests near the river. At Louisville, it is said, the timid and superstitious were greatly alarmed and attributed the unusual sounds to the falling into the river of a burning comet. The settlers in this county had heard with amazement of her construction and all along the shore were on the lookout for her coming. There was then no town here, but the pioneers watched what they considered the wonder of the age as she steamed by waking the stillness of the forest with a puffing and blowing, such as the steamers of to-day are not guilty of. This boat after two years' service was wrecked, and sunk near Baton Rouge, La.
and in May, 1815, under command of Capt. Henry M. Shreve, made the first trip from New Orleans to Louisville-consuming but twenty-five days in the trip. The Ætna and the Washington were the next with which the people of this locality became at all familiar. The latter had two decks, the boilers being on the upper deck. She was the first boat built in this style; under command of Capt. Shreve, she did much to convince the public of the practicability of navigating the western waters. All early steamers were side-wheelers, and generally had but one engine. The early experiments of steam- boating had no direct influence at the time on the growth of this county. Even as late as 1832, few steamers stopped at the strug- gling village of Evansville, then of com- mercial importance, though once in awhile a "high pressure" passed up or down. The business of shipping was done principally by keel boats and barges or flat-boats, the for- mer using sails on their up-stream trips when it was practicable, and resorting to the cordelle when the wind was adverse. This sort of navigation was tedious and expensive, and those engaged in it clearly earned all the money it brought them.
In 1834, the establishment of a newspaper and a bank in Evansville, brought the town into notice throughout the surrounding coun- try, and attracted to this point for shipment much of the surplus produce yielded by the rich lands within and far beyond the county limits. Improvements and substantial devel- opment commenced at once. Commerce with her magic wand began to effect a trans- formation out of which has come a magnifi- cent city and a wealthy county. The Ohio became the great highway between the east and the west, and through the Mississippi poured the products of the northern interior into a market whence it was scattered to all
The Comet and the Vesuvius both passed down in 1814, but neither returned to the upper river. The Enterprise, built at Brownsville, Pa., and owned by a company there, made two voyages to Louisville, in the summer of 1814, under command of Capt. I. Gregg. She afterward went south, | parts of the civilized world. The returning
ATENUES OF TRAVEL.
boats brought coffee, sugar, rice and other products of the tropics which were here un- loaded and sent by wagon to Vincennes, Terre Haute, La Fayette and other towns far inland. The levee from end to end was covered with freight piles, and steamers lay for hours loading or unloading their cargoes. Evansville became one of the largest ship- ping points in the Mississippi valley, and there seemed to be in no probability of an early decline in the steamboat carrying trade.
With the advent of railroads during the decade that followed an appreciable diminu- tion in the amount of the river trade re- sulted. The through steamers from Pittsburg to St. Louis began to be taken from the trade. Merchants discovered that transporta- tion by water was too slow. A bill of goods could be ordered by rail and half disposed of before the arrival the steamer which brought other goods ordered at the same time. Quick sales and a frequent turning of money were what the merchants wanted, and a de- cline of the steamboat business was a neces . sary sequence. Yet this decline was slow, because other places not favored with the railroad, were sufficient to support a large steamboat business. The boats were grad- ually put in short trades with a railroad cen- ter as a distributing point for less favored communities. The change thus commenced in transportation methods did not effect the growth of Evansville or the development of the county, for stimulated by the newly adopted agency, the city became more than ever prosperous in becoming a depot for dis- tribution instead of a mere contributor to the markets of other cities. Attention was wisely paid to manufacturing interests, crude material was converted into industrial implements of all sorts, and a considerable and constantly increasing trade grew up with the surrounding country towns of In- diana, Illinois and Kentucky, which induced
men of sense and capital to establish lines of steamers with Evansville as a home port.
As a result, at the present time, there are more than sixty steamers registered at Evansville, and regular packets ply between this city and all neighboring points on the Ohio and its tributaries.
Railroads. - The internal improvement bill of 1835 provided for the construction of a railroad running northward from Evans- ville, and until some time in 1837 its success- ful operation was looked forward to with great expectations. The collapse of the plan of general public work put an end to all such hopes. It was more than ten years before anything further was done. In the meantime Evansville had grown and pros- pered; a city charter had been granted, and her citizens were zealous and progressive. Intelligent and far-seeing men began to take steps to draw the surplus of the rich interior to Evansville for shipment. Laws had been passed by which local aid might be granted to public works upon a vote of the people. At its March term, 1849, the board of commissioners of the county ordered an election to be held on April 12th following, to take the sense of the people on the ques- tion of subscribing for stock in the Evans- ville & Indianapolis Railroad Company to the amount of $100,000. The poll showed 624 votes for, and 288 against, the proposi- tion. In June of the same year the county auditor was directed to subscribe for 500 shares of the stock at once, and 1,500 shares additional as soon as the company was duly organized. To show the condition of the county treasury at that time, it may be mentioned that the treasurer was directed to negotiate a note for $1,020.50, running four months, at the Evansville Branch Bank, or elsewhere, and apply the proceeds to the payment of the subscription, that being $2 each on 500 shares. In August, 1849, Jas.
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T. Walker was authorized to vote the stock - 500 shares - at the election of directors, and was instructed to vote for Samuel Hall and James Boswell, of Gibson county, and James Lockhart, John Ingle, Jr., John S. Hopkins, James G. Jones, John Hewson, Samuel Orr and Michael P. Jones, of Van- derburgh. At the next election Mr. Walker voted as proxy 2,000 shares, this time for the same gentlemen, except that the name of Willard Carpenter was substituted for that of Mr. Boswell.
To pay the remainder due on its subscrip- tion, the county, in December, 1849, issued $99,000 in six per cent 10-25 year bonds, which were delivered to Samuel Hall, presi- dent of the road, in return for a certificate for 2,000 shares of stock. The bonds were issued in small denominations, the interest was payable in Evansville, and they were in- artistically executed. These facts interfered with their sale, and later they were ex- changed for a new issue, in large denomina- tions, with coupons payable in New York, and having an appearance that might, at least, not offend the fastidious taste of east- ern bond buyers. Even in those days se- curities were judged somewhat by their looks. The people were taxed to pay the interest on these bonds. In June, 1854, the county auditor was authorized to issue cer- tificates of payment of taxes levied in 1850, '51, '52 and '53 to each tax-payer. These were presented at the company's office and a sort of scrip was issued for them. When a sufficient amount of this was accumulated (perhaps $50.00 worth ) railroad stock was issued to the tax-payer, who thus became a part owner of the road. The company soon found that the people were getting too much stock, and stopped transactions of that character
The county held its stock for many years, drawing dividends. In 1875 Philip Decker
proposed to buy the shares held by the county, and a sale was actually made on April 19, of that year, to Mr. Decker for Arnold E. Schræder, $36,000.00 being the amount of the purchase money. Robert D. Richardson in the circuit court secured an injunction against the county commissioners, preventing the sale. In the following June Messrs. Decker, Schræder, W. R. McKeen, and John E. Martin returned the stock and received back their money. On June 30, ISSI, the stock was offered at public auction by Auditor Will Warren, and was sold to David J. Mackey for $150,000.00.
The city of Evansville, as well as the county of Vanderburgh, aided in the con- struction of this pioneer road by subscribing for $100,000.00 of its stock, which in 188I was also sold to D. J. Mackey for $150,- 000.00.
The road was completed and put in oper- ation in 1853. Its name at first was the Evansville & Indianapolis, later it was changed to the Evansville & Crawfordsville, and is now the Evansville & Terre Haute. Its first president was Samuel Hall, of Princeton, an able man, at one time judge of the circuit court of this district, the very essence of honor, and a broad man of affairs. His successor in the presidency was John Ingle, Jr., one of the most acute thinkers and able business managers ever known to this city. He attained an exalted position as a lawyer, was recognized as an efficient executive officer, upright and honorable in every transaction, and in all respects a highly useful citizen. He maintained control of the road almost up to the time of his death, and then gave way to John E. Martin, who was a worthy successor. The road improved rapidly under his management, and he was in all respects a capable and thoroughly honest manager. Those who knew him well and were in a position to know the facts,
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RAILROADS.
say that he was a superior man and officer. His connection with this road terminated when D. J. Mackey assumed control. Mr. Mackey's management has been able and aggressive. Under him the road has con- stantly improved. Its road-bed is now in excellent condition, and its equipment unex- celled. Its varied connections afford Evansville direct communication with all cities north and east, and its facilities for the comfortable conveyance of passengers and the rapid handling of freight, are of the highest order.
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