USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Vigo county, Indiana, with biographical selections > Part 59
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Edward A. Hannegan made his first appearance in the court- room in the old building, and although he did not long reside here yet he always turned to Terre Haute-always expressed the wish to be buried here, and his grave may be seen in the cemetery north of the city. Hon. D. W. Voorhees, in a public address, said that the three foremost orators he had ever listened to were Edward A. Hannegan, Wendell Phillips and Bishop Simpson.
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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.
As early as 1836 the fact became apparent to the authorities that more room and more safety for the records were demanded, and then was commenced the movement that led to the building of the second court-house, on the corner of Market and Ohio streets, which was occupied until the present building received the courts and officers.
The county commissioners' record shows the following: June 13, 1836, it was ordered that John H. Watson be, and is, hereby appointed to contract for and superintend the building of a fire- proof clerk and recorder's office, to be erected on the public square south of the court-house, between the court-house and the street. John H. Watson was a member of the board. This building spoken of was to be located in the court-house square, where the old court- house was at the time located.
July 20, 1843, it was ordered "that the site heretofore selected for the erection of a fire-proof clerk and recorder's office be changed, and that the same be erected on Lots 1 and 2 in the subdivision of Lot 96, and that the sum of $1,085 be, and the same is, hereby appropriated for the erection of said building. Provided, that the town of Terre Haute shall convey to the county of Vigo, by deed in fee simple, the one undivided half of said Lots 1 and 2, and shall unite with the county in the erection of a building thereon for the use of said town and county, said property to be held by said town and county as tenants in common, the town being entitled to the exclusive use and occupancy of the second story of said building and the said town and county being entitled each in common to the free and equal use of the hall and passage through the building in the first story, and the county being entitled to the exclusive use and occupancy of the other rooms in the first story, and the remain- der of the premises and appurtenances not covered by the building to be held in common, the house to be thirty-three front by fifty feet deep, the hall to be twelve feet wide, the part to be occupied by the county to be divided into three rooms." This building after- ward erected was known as the Town Hall, and was consumed by fire early in 1865. It was also called by the boys "MDCCCXLIII," which was inscribed on a stone set in a front gable of the building.
December 13, 1843, it was ordered "that the three offices in the new building, to wit: The front room on Market street be appropriated for the use of the treasurer and auditor, the second or middle office to the clerk and the third office to the recorder." The auditor's office never occupied any part of the building, but remained in the northeast corner room of the old court-house, in the court- house square, until the present building, occupied as a court-house, was completed.
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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.
June 8, 1847, an order was passed appropriating $50 to assist in filling up and grading the pond east of the town hall. This was the pond which was in the square between Ohio and Main and Third and Fourth streets.
June 9, 1852, it was ordered "that a loan of $1,500 be made to pay a note given to James Farrington for the purchase of lots on the corner of Ohio and Market streets." [Market street is now Third street. |
January 18, 1865, B. H. Cornwell, auditor, was authorized to close the contract with the city of Terre Haute for the interest of said city in the ground upon which the old town hall stands, and that he draw an order upon the treasurer of the county for $850 to pay for the same. On the same date Benjamin McKeen (W. R. McKeen's father) was authorized "to go to Indianapolis and pro- cure plans and specifications for the building to be erected on the southeast corner of the public square (this is the location of the present court-house) for county offices and court-room, and after procuring plans make publications for bids for the erection of said building."
March 27, 1865, bids were received for the construction of a court-room and offices on the corner of Ohio and Market streets from Clift & Williams, Samuel T. Reese and J. B. Hedder, George Haslet and C. N. Gould and J. S. Smith and Joseph Fellenzer.
March 28, 1865, the contract was let to Clift & Williams and Hedden & Reese, for $24,050, the contractors to take the old town hall at $500, and also 194,000 brick then on the ground at $8.75 per thousand, the building to be completed on or before December 1, 1865.
June 1, 1865, the auditor's report shows that there was expended on the new court-house to May 31, 1865, $5,075.50.
June 1, 1866, the auditor's report shows the expenditures on the new court-house from June 1, 1865, to May 31, 1866, amounted to $26,132.31.
September 5, 1866, J. & A. F. Smith were allowed $190 balance in full for making counters and fitting up the county offices in the court-house.
September 7, 1866, it was ordered "that the place of holding the courts for Vigo county, Ind., not otherwise provided for by law, be transferred to the new building provided for that purpose on Lot No. 96 of the original in-lots of the town of Terre Haute, tempo- rarily and until such time as the regular place of holding courts in said court-house shall be in proper condition."
The last order needs explanation. At that time the old court- house in the court-house square needed repairs badly, and it was
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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.
proposed to transfer the courts to the new building (the present old court-house) until such time as the court-house in the square was fixed. But that was never done, and the location of the courts never went there again. The old court-house was sold to Jacob Stark, father of Chris and Louis Stark, who is still alive and is living east of the city. He used to say that "he was the only Dutchman in America that owned a court-house." It had one large room below and four rooms above. The building on the corner of Market and Ohio streets was used until 1888, when it was sold to private parties, and remodeled in the spring of 1890, making elegant busi- ness rooms below and suites of offices above. It was in the work of reconstruction that the laborers took out the old corner-stone and scattered the precious contents on the street.
The proceedings that resulted in the building of the present court-house may be found in the chapter preceding "county com- missioner's court." The corner-stone thereof was laid with most imposing ceremonies August 28, 1884. This public holiday was under the auspices of the Masons, and the principal address was by Hon. D. W. Voorhees. A great crowd from all the surrounding country poured into town on that occasion, as well as from all the adjacent towns in Illinois. The building was completed, except the basement, and the first circuit court convened therein May 10, 1888.
Externally there are few buildings in the world that excel it in beauty of finish, and architectural proportions and effects, and all has been made to stand perpetually. The dimensions of the building are, from north to south, 226 feet, and from east to west, 277 feet, the main entrances being from the four cardinal compass points; height from the ground, 88 feet, and to the top of the dome, 196 feet, about thirty-five feet above that of the Congregational Church. On the main floor are the principal offices, and two large court- rooms are on the second floor, with high ceilings expanding to the roof. The superior court-room is 64x48 feet. From basement to the top it is all elegantly finished and furnished, heated with steam that is conducted from a detached building on the south, and is pro- vided with an hydraulic elevator.
Everything about it is rich and elegant, from the ground to the topmost pinnacle, and the entire cost was a little less than $500,000. One of the speakers at its dedication predicted that its glittering dome would stand there the first in Vigo county to be kissed by the morning light, when there would be a population in the county of a million people.
Jail .- A companion piece to the first rude court-house was the rougher log jail. Hand in hand, these two institutions of civilization go together. The people look with pride upon their great public
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buildings, and their strong jails and penal institutions. Only a few short centuries ago the celebrated Old Bailey court in London had but little use for places of detention for criminals. All crimes then were supposed to be treason toward the king, or against private property, and the trials were short, and the punishment for even petit larceny was instant death. One day every week was hang- man's day, when the convicted were cleared out of the cells and room made for the batch that was sure to follow the next week. Historians of that time tell us, in speaking of the victims of the Old Bailey court every hanging day, that " men, women and children hung in rows like candles in the chandler's shop." Was this a miscarriage of justice and sense on the part of our ancestors, or was it simply tempering the lambs to the storm winds? Stamping out crime by this bloody ordeal only multiplied crime, as was the slaughter of 100,000 witches, simply manifolding the race of evil spirits to overrun the nations of men, and destroy human intelli- gence. Pouring out of this fountain head of justice in its severe and relentless pursuit of crimes against property came that horrid stream of cruelties in the church wars, the Kirk-sessions of Scot- land, and in the school-rooms and the firesides. Protecting mor- als, like protecting property, ran their bloody parallel lines through the dreary centuries. Human ingenuity exhausted itself in finding new modes of torture and death. Punishments that were considered most infamous-that had passed beyond the afflic- tion of the body to thumbscrew the mind and soul, to be followed by eternal damnation and its literal fires of pitch and brimstone, after all were but fattening food for the evils they would fain cure.
At the time when the first old log jail was built in Terre Haute, the style of architecture was simple and effective for the purposes intended. They were made two-stories high, with no ground floor entrance. This ground floor was the safety cell. The walls were double, and poles were set upright between the two walls, so it was very difficult to cut out of such a structure. An outside stairway led to the second floor, in the center of which was a trap door, and a ladder stood handy to run down this hole, on which one could go up and down, and the prisoner was simply led to this place by the jailer and ordered to descend the ladder, when it was pulled up and the trap door closed. Perhaps one little six-inch-square hole con- siderably higher than a man's head, with strong iron bars across it, was the only light or ventilation the " Black Hole " had. A woman prisoner would have been left in the upper and better room; but they hardly thought it necessary to have a bastile for women in those days.
There was a characteristic of the prisoners of that day, that it
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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.
seems has passed away with the old log jails. When a man com- mitted a crime he avoided arrest as diligently then as now, but once a prisoner there was something about them, a curious unwrit- ten code, that they would not either kill or deceive to escape. In- stances were not uncommon where guards trusted prisoners to al- most every liberty, " on honor," and none betrayed the trust, not even when keeping faith, they well knew would lead them to tlie scaffold. Many amusing or perhaps better, pathetic incidents in this respect are related of the early day, some of them probably fic- tion, but many founded in facts.
It is told of one of the early sheriffs here (names of all parties not necessary ) had on hands a convict who had been sentenced to the penitentiary at Jefferson. It was very inconvenient to make the trip on horse-back or in a buggy. As good fortune would have it, one of the merchants of the town was preparing to go there on busi- ness, and the sheriff asked him if he would not take the convict along and turn him over to the keepers. He readily consented and gave the man a seat in his buggy, treating him simply as a com- panion. On the way they staid all night at a wayside inn, and the next morning the merchant had his horse ordered out, jumped into his buggy and drove off, forgetting all about his prisoner. When the poor fellow found it out, he started after him in high dudgeon, and had a long run to overtake him and resume his place in the buggy, berating him all the remainder of the way for thus neglect- ing him.
The fact was the merchant, as well as the sheriff, hoped he would run away. His offense was petty and only technical guilt existed, but the poor fellow would not so have it, and he served out his time.
The case of Beauchamp (who was brought on horse-back, all the way from Texas to this place by two young men and hanged), is a remarkable case in this regard. He was a man of great cour- age and physical strength; he knew what awaited him, but when finally caught, it may be believed that that incomprehensible in- fluence would have brought him here to the scaffold, if this agreement had been made with him after his capture. That he could have escaped any day he chose, on the way is most true, but from the moment of his capture, after fleeing hundreds of miles, he never made another effort, but calmly met his fate.
That first log jail was soutli of the present jail. It filled its purposes for many years, and then a jail was built on the corner of Third and Walnut streets, and a jailer's house was a part of the structure. This was originally a log house, but was torn down and enlarged and changed in 1854-55. A brick and stone jail was
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finally made of it. The brick walls in the cells were at one time lined with iron, and then commenced the race of the keeper try- ing to keep them in, and the boarders trying to get out. It stands at the northwest corner of Walnut and Third streets; a two- story brick dwelling.
The present jail was completed in August, 1882, and was in- spected by the grand jury on the 12th of that month. It is strong, spacious and cleanly. The building contains over 300,000 pounds of iron and steel. Some people would call it a handsome public building, and if one could think of it not in connection with the purposes for which it was constructed, no doubt it might be really grand to look upon, but not otherwise. There is something inex- pressibly sad in the fact that such is human frailty that these great buildings should exist where is the type of so much misery and woe.
A pest hospital became an imperative necessity, and the present one was provided in the fifties. The particulars of which may be found in the chapter on " County Commissioners."
County Fair .- This is comparatively a modern institution in all the Western States, and as conducted, county fairs are an Ameri- can institution, unlike the ancient "fairs" in England, where people every year gathered and bartered and sold, and smart boys of the family went and traded the colt that was the family's wealth for green goggles, as did the dear old Vicar of Wakefield's son
In the early fifties, Vigo county waked up to the duty of holding a county fair. The farmers moved in the matter and the people of Terre Haute offered willing encouragement. A semblance of an organization was effected, and in 1854 a "fair" was held in the court-house square. The country boys combed the burs out of their carting horse's mane and tail, and entered them to rack, trot or hand-gallop for the premium-a small ribbon. The town man brushed up some of his goods and took them to the fair. The good people met, shook hands, told stories, drank painted lemon- ade and enjoyed life for once. For ten years at irregular times there were held county fairs. The thing was maturing however slowly-the interest was widening among the people. The county authorities felt the influence, and began to take steps that soon led to the founding of the present Vigo county Agricultural Society, a regularly incorporated institution owning their present valuable property and its improvements, all made for the sole purposes of the society.
The elaborate premium list for the year 1890 will inform you that it is the " twenty-fifth regular county fair," and that the total of premiums and purses to be distributed among exhibitors is $8,000.
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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.
The institution when young struggled, as have all such things under financial distresses, and at times lingered and threatened to collapse. But the county and city authorities, realizing the importance of it, would lend encouraging aid from time to time.
W. R. McKeen, in behalf of the heirs of Benjamin McKeen, offered to sell for the society's purposes the fifty-four acres now in their use. It was admirably suited for the purpose, was a bargain, and the county purchased the ground. A street railway now runs to the main entrance, and within are elegant buildings, halls, and amphitheater shaded by great old forest trees, that altogether make it an inviting place. Two race tracks are provided-mile and half mile-and like everything else about it, these are considered by noted horsemen all over the country as being the finest in the land. And in lieu of the broom-tailed colts, the boys once exploited at the fairs in the old court yard, are to be seen strings of the most noted horses in the world. No such collection of horses was ever before seen in the world's history as was that of the annual Horse Trotting Association meeting of 1890. It was estimated that $2,000,000 worth of horses might on that occasion have been seen at one time in the ring, and this was not because of the great number of animals, but at the head of the list was the great Terre Haute horse Axtel that sold for more money than was ever before paid for a horse, even if the hunch-back king did in a great emergency offer his "Kingdom for a horse." Next to him was the noted four-year- old Sunol, the fastest three-year-old ever turned on a track, and a hundred others only less noted because overshadowed by these world- wide celebrities.
The Terre Haute Trotting Horse Association is an annex of the County Agricultural Society and this has done for blooded horses even more than the fair proper has been able to do toward the improvement of the common farm stock of the county.
All this has grown out of the little beginnings that once met in the court-house yard and held the first fairs in the county. The advancement of agriculture in all its branches has come largely from this source.
Another branch of the county fair is the Vigo County Horti- cultural Society. Trees and fruits and flowers and shrubbery are a part of the pleasures and refinement of life, benefiting all, adorn- ing the land, refining and elevating the taste, the good and the beautiful blending in sweetest harmony.
The first regular county fair under the auspices of the present organization was held in 1858. The officers of the society were: William D. Ladd, president; T. P. Murray, vice-president; William Durham, secretary, and Henry Fairbanks, treasurer.
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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.
Officers 1890: Leonard S. Briggs, president; James M. Sankey, vice-president; Uriah P. Jeffers, superintendent; George A. Scholl, treasurer; Charles A. Oakey, secretary. Directors: John G. Will- iams, J. M. Sankey, L. S. Briggs, G. C. Clem, Ed. Ellis, W. T. Beauchamp; these to serve one year. To serve two years: G. A. Scholl, U. R. Jeffers, H. D. Roquet, Frank McKeen, John M. Clift and W. R. Hunter.
Poor Asylum .- Feed the hungry and clothe the naked is a sacred charge. The unfortunates are always with us, in trembling old age and in the weak wail of the famishing babes, victims so often of men's unholy greed. There was a time when Vigo had not a pauper in it, but the growth of population brought the prize of this perpetual crop at quite an early day. The responsibility of the care of these was in the hands of the county authorities, where it naturally went when the demands became burdensome upon pri- vate charity.
The first poor-house was built in 1853. It was 28x30 feet in dimensions, had six rooms and a hall through the center. The building was contracted for $725. William Coates did the paint- ing-$70 for the outside and $25 for inside work.
The first poor-farm was sold in June, 1856; contained eighty acres, the north half of the northeast quarter of Section 26, Town 12, Range 9. The city had grown to it, and the accommodations were wholly inadequate. It was ordered laid off in five-acre lots as an addition to the city, and to be sold at public sale by the county auditor.
In the early part of 1866 the county purchased its present poor- farm of 135 acres of Dr. George W. Clippinger on the south side of the southwest quarter of Section 12, Town 12, Range 9 west. The contract for this property was made by County Commissioner Benjamin McKeen and confirmed by the board July, 1866; consid- eration, $10,000. In March, 1867, T. B. Snapp was employed to fur- nish plans and specifications for the new county asylum, and notices to builders were published in the Express and Journal, the whole to be completed in 1867. J. L. Brown, superintendent, and E. D. Carter, master mechanic. The farm lands were rented to John W. Jackson and John M. Coltrin. The work progressed rapidly, and in September John L. Brown was authorized to contract for engine boilers to furnish hot water for the building. The cost of the buildings as audited in May of that year was $5,450.
These are the buildings and grounds of the present county poor asylum, where the unfortunates with the other charities of the churches and the city of Terre Haute are sufficient for all worthy needs.
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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.
Toll Bridge .- In January, 1865, W. K. Edwards, president of the draw-bridge across the Wabash at Terre Haute, was authorized to collect toll as follows: Four-horse wagon, 50 cents; person and horse, 15 cents; cattle and horses, each, 5 cents, and other tolls in proportion.
Post-Office .- December 13, 1881, a bill was introduced in con- gress appropriating $150,000 for the purpose of securing the site and the erection of a suitable government building in Terre Haute. That is, the bill appropriated $75,000, and limited the total expen- diture on the same to $150,000. The government was offered nearly every desirable piece of property in town from which to choose. The site corner of Seventh and Cherry streets was chosen, and the building commenced in the summer of 1884, and completed, as it now stands, in 1887. It is one of the handsome, solid stone buildings of the city, beautiful in architecture and ornate in finish throughout. The main floor and basement is the post-office, and the upper part is the revenue offices, board of examiners, etc. The measure of the difference in the beginning and now is not inaptly shown in the first post-office in Coleman's hat and the present magnificent structure that the advancement of the country has required. The business for the year 1889-90 shows the following: Stamps sold, $45,021.37; money orders sold, $345,780.68; total number of letters delivered by carriers, 2,095,834; postal cards, 555,720; second, third and fourth-class matter, 1,578,195; letters collected by car- riers, 1,644,796; postage on all matter going through this office, 4,603.021. D. C. Greiner is postmaster.
The Terre Haute post-office became a second-class office, and was given a free delivery in October, 1879. The order was made in August of that year, to go into effect in the following October, with six carriers and forty street boxes. Nicholas Filbeck informs me that he secured the use, at the commencement, of sixty-five street boxes. The papers of that time award much credit for this im- provement to Postmaster Filbeck. This quickly changed the old- time scenes at the post-office after the arrival of each mail.
Market House .- The first market house was built in the center of the street at the corner of Ohio and Third streets. This re- mained until 1838. It was simply pillars supporting a roof. It was torn down and the present fine two-story building at the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets was erected. The lower part is used as a market house, and the entire upper part is occupied by the city as council hall and offices. It is quite an elegant and spacious structure.
Plank Road .- November 10, 1852, the. Western Plank . Road Company was formed. Their charter authorized the building of a
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