USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 25
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"During the years 1834 and 1835 work on the Wabash and Eric Canal was pushed forward with great energy. The middle division, extending from St. Joseph River to the forks of the Wabash was completed in 1835 at a cost of $230,000. This line was opened for navigation on the 4th of July, 1843, with great display.
GRAND SYSTEM OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
"In 1836 the Legislature passed a law providing for a general system of improvements to be carried on under a board of internal improve- ments and surveys by competent engineers were begun on the various works provided for. The passage of this act caused great rejoicing throughout the State and everywhere meetings were held to give ex- pression to the general feeling of joy. At Indianapolis the citizens illuminated their houses while bonfires blazed in all the streets. The people went wild: they saw an era of prosperity opening before them that would drive poverty from the land and make all men rich. It was expected and believed that the revenues that the State would enjoy from the various works would not only make taxation unnecessary, but fill the State coffers to overflowing. A period of wild speculation ensued. Those who owned one farm bought others, and those who owned none went into debt and purchased one. Trading of all kinds became active. The illusion only lasted a few months and then the reverse side of the picture came, with bankruptcy, distress and ruin.
"The works provided for in the act of 1836 consisted of (a) the Whitewater Canal, from the west branch of the Whitewater River down the valley of that river to the Ohio, at Lawrenceburg; (b) the Central Canal, a branch of the Wabash and Erie, from some point between Fort Wayne and Logansport, to Muncietown and Indianapolis, and thenee to Evansville on the Ohio, via the White River valley-in other words, a waterway passing through the central sections of Indiana, from north- east to southwest, the route of which was to be sonth of the Wabash and Erie; (c) an extension of the Wabash and Erie, from the mouth of the Tippecanoe River down the valley of the Wabash to Terre Haute, and thence to some point on the Central Canal; (d) a railroad from Madison, on the Ohio running northwest through Columbus, Indianapolis and Crawfordsville to Lafayette; (e) a mac- adamized turnpike road from New Albany, on the Ohio, through the southwestern part of the State, via Greenville, Paoli, Mount Pleasant and Washington, to Vincennes; (f) either a railroad or a turnpike
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from Jeffersonville on the Ohio River to Crawfordsville west of the central part of the State, by way or Salem, Bedford, Bloomington and Greencastle; (g) improvement of the Wabash from Vincennes to its mouth ; (h) either a canal or a railroad from the Wabash and Erie Canal near Fort Wayne, by way of Goshen, South Bend and Laporte, to a point on Lake Michigan, at or near Michigan City, to be called the Erie and Michigan Canal or railroad.
SMALL PARTS OF THE SCHEME COMPLETED
"The whole length of these roads and canals was more than 1,200 miles, and the total estimated cost aggregated nearly $20,000,000. To enter upon these improvements the State issued and sold bonds to the amount of $10,000,000. It was soon discovered that the State had entered upon a series of enterprises which it could never carry out, and had burdened the people with a debt amounting to more than $18,000,000. The Wabash and Erie Canal was completed as far as Lafayette and was in constant use, furnishing transportation for all the surplus product of that section of the state through which it run, but the receipts from tolls were not enough to maintain it and to pay the interest on the cost. The country was too new for such an extensive work. A part of the work was done upon all the canals and roads projected. The White Water Canal was opened for navigation from Lawrenceburg to Con- nersville. The Madison and Indianapolis Railroad was finally completed, and the State sold its stock for a great deal less money than it had expended on the work, which amounted to $1,492,000.
AFTERMATHI : WIDE DISTRESS AND REPUDIATION
" The financial distress which swept over the country in 1837 finally compelled the abandonment of all these works. Contracts had been let for most of them, and much work had been done. Their abandon- ment caused widespread disaster, bankrupting most of the contractors and leaving hundreds and thousands of laborers without the pay for the work they had done. The State was unable to pay the interest on the debt it had incurred. Finally the State was forced to compromise with her creditors by surrendering to the bondholders some of the works that had been begun, together with large tracts of land, for one half the amount of the indebtedness, and issuing new bonds for the remainder. "The debt created by this attempt on the part of the State to construct railroads and canals proved to be a long plague on the people. All the bonds and certificates of stock that were required to be released
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to the State had not been surrendered; the creditors to whom had been transferred the unfinished works never completed them, and finally abandoned what had been completed. The bonds were a mortgage upon these works and several attempts were made to induce the Legislature to pay the full amount of the bonds which had not been taken up by the creditors as provided for in the Compromise Act. To prevent the Legislature at any future time from paying any part of the debt that was to have been assumed by the ereditors the people, in 1873, adopted an amendment to the constitution which read :
" . No law or resolution shall ever be passed by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana that shall recognize any liability of this State to pay or redeem any certificate of stock issued in pursuance of an act entitled " An Act to provide for the funded debt of the State of Indiana and for the completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal to Evansville," passed January 10, 1846; and an act supplementary to said act passed January 29, 1847, which by the provisions of said act, or either of them, shall be payable exclusively from the proceeds of the canal lands and the tolls and revenues of the canal in said acts mentioned; and no such certificate of stock shall ever be paid by the State.'
"This ended the agitation of the State's ever again assuming any part of this debt which had been paid and discharged by a surrender of the franchises of the State."
LAND GRANTS IN AID OF THIE CANAL
By various congressional acts passed in 1827-34 the National Gov- ernment granted the State of Indiana lands for canal purposes "equal to the alternate sections in a strip five miles in width," specified (in a separate act) at 29,528.78 aeres. From the sale of these lands was raised the fund by which the Wabash & Erie Canal was constructed. In the late '30s the body of land in Wabash County thus made available was sold in parcels to suit purchasers, being mostly paid for by the various issues of state serip. This was received at par for land, but bought by Eastern speculators at various rates of discount.
Speculation in "canal paper" ran high in 1835-36 in every portion of the country, and all the vacant lands were finally entered. Some of the purchasers were residents, others Eastern speculators. and, as stated by a participant of these transactions, not a few of the latter "swept whole townships at a purchase." Shortly afterward came the reaction and hard times, and many who were obliged to pay both interest on the money invested, as well as the taxes on the land, went under; others, who were able to bear up under it until the coming of stability
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and prosperity, with the consequent rise of their properties, became immensely rich.
COLONEL BURR AND MAJOR FISHER APPEAR
The survey of the line of the Wabash & Erie Canal through Wabash County was made in 1833 under the general supervision of Jesse L. Williams, of Fort Wayne, chief engineer, assisted by Stearns Fisher, Solomon Holman and Charles Voorheis. Col. David Burr was a member of the first Board of Commissioners. Thus two men, who were afterward to become leading citizens of Wabash County were identified with this great publie improvement.
Major Fisher was especially prominent in connection with the canal work. It is said that during his first connection with the enterprise he worked with the spade almost as much as with the transit, but soon became a full-fledged assistant civil engineer, holding that position until the canal was completed. The record thus made, brought him the super- intendeney and he continued as its chief executive until the canal passed into the hands of the bondholders in 1847. But we are ahead of our story.
FIRST CANAL CONTRACTS IN THE COUNTY
The first canal contracts for work in Wabash County were let May 4, 1834, at the house of Colonel Burr in the new Town of Wabash, which he had platted the month before, in association with Col. Hugh Hanna. It was surely a busy day for the two Colonels, as the first public sale of town lots and the letting of contracts for the building of the canal fell within the same twenty-four hours.
Å large number of persons were present to bid for the construction of the various sections. The contract for building the section adjacent to Wabash, as well as for the construction of the lock, was awarded to Meyers (Lewis) & Jones (Lemuel G.). The next section was eventually built by Benjamin Mariner, and contracts for adjoining sections were given to Thomas Hayes and William Terrell, both of Pennsylvania. Lewis Meyers, one of the contractors on the first section, died before the work was completed; the lock was built by the partner of the deceased, Mr. Jones, assisted by David and Jacob D. Cassatt, father and son. Thus two other good citizens first came into prominence through their work on the Wabash & Erie Canal. From the lock to the stone bluff the eanal was completed by Zera Sutherland.
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IRISHI WAR OF AUGUST, 1835
In August, 1835, during the second year of canal-building, occurred the famous Irish war, which culminated about the middle of that month in a serious riot near La Gro. As is usual in such cases, historians of that conflict have generally assumed that it was another case of Catholic against Protestant, or Orangeman. But the weight of evidence is that the Wabash & Erie Canal laborers, at least in Wabash County, were all Catholics, and that the hostile forces were divided on other than religious lines. It is known that most of them were formerly employed on the Chesapeake Canal, where they had quar- reled and formed into two factions. When they came to work on the canal west of the mountains they split into two gangs, their line of cleavage being the old fight (whatever that was), and the headquarters of the respective parties were La Gro and Wabash Town. The one gang called themselves "Corkonians," the other, "Fardowns"-why, is also a mystery. The one thing certain was that each party to the dispute hated the other with the fierce hatred of the typical Irishman.
Along toward the middle of August, after several individual and factional rows had occurred, despite the efforts of the canal authori- ties to avert them, the two sides gathered near La Gro, to the number of several hundred, and, armed with spades, pick-axes, clubs, knives and pistols, proceeded to engage in a pitched battle.
It is not known to this day which army was victorious, or the exact loss in blood and limb. But the canal authorities induced the workmen to cease active warfare. The Irishmen were farther persuaded by the state troops, which were sent from Fort Wayne and Lafayette. Chief Godfroy, of the Miamis, also offered a large force of his warriors to crush the Irishmen.
. With the state and the Indians behind the civil authorities, the rioters were arrested en masse. It is evident from the account written by Judge Coombs, who came to Wabash a few days after the riot, that at least some of the prisoners were tried in the Circuit Court of Wabash County. Hle says about two hundred of them were locked up when he reached town, and that he "found so much criminal business here" he decided to remain. Ile adds that 200 were found guilty.
Although all were technically guilty, work upon the eanal eould not be entirely suspended on account of a general melee, however furious. So most of them were released, on promises of future good behavior. It is probable that the trials in Wabash County were undertaken more to weed out the ringleaders than for any other purpose; also perhaps to "teach the workmen a lesson" and give them to understand that the
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work on the canal must not be interfered with in the future by their individual quarrels.
THE CHARGE AT THE FORD
The real leaders-those who had been persistently fomenting trouble -- were taken to Indianapolis for trial, under an escort of sixteen soldiers, with Elias Murray as captain. "The only way to get them there," says one account, "was on foot through the woods. They set forth, the soldiers well armed. The route was down the Wabash to Logansport, and thence to Indianapolis. At the mouth of the Eel River, the Wabash had to be waded, though rather deep. The prisoners refused to wade, declaring they would die first. The captain simply told the boys to be 'ready'; still the prisoners refused, when the captain, giving an order to fix bayonets, directed the soldiers to charge. The charge was made and the prisoners, with a howl, sprang for the ford and waded through, with the bayonets at their backs. Once safely across the river, a rank was formed, and the boys' were required to walk in front; and thus the end of the journey was safely reached and the prisoners were placed in limbo at the state capital." Several of them were sent to the penitentiary for short terms; but the "charge at the ford" was the last military feature of the Irish war.
As stated, the canal was completed to Wabash Town on the 4th of July. 1837, and, in some unaccountable manner, Captain Ed Patchen broke into the prearranged programme of the celebration by forging the impudent beak of his little "Prairie HIen" ahead of the big canal boat " Indiana," commanded by the popular Captain Dana Columbia, and thus filched the honor of being the first to navigate the canal. A large party from Huntington and other points had come down on the "Indiana," and Captain Patchen's ambition so o'er-leaped itself as to get him in bad repute all around. The general celebration was held on the site of the old Treaty Grounds, and its satisfactory conclusion was a grand ball in the evening given in the little room over Colonel Hanna's store.
DECLINE AND DEATH OF THE CANAL
Navigation was soon afterward opened to Peru and July 4, 1843, its completion to Lafayette was celebrated with an enthusiasm which spread through the entire valley of the Wabash. The canal had the field for nearly a decade, and for some years after, as the first through train on the Toledo, Wabash & Western, was not in operation until
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January, 1856, and it was some time before it seriously cut into the canal business. But the decline did commence and continued until 1872, in which year George Todd, of La Gro, sent the last cargo along its waters.
The canal between Wabash and La Gro being out of repair, boats ceased to be operated on this section in 1872. Todd & Wright, mer- chants at La Gro, received the last freight from the East, being a load of blacksmith coal of 2,500 bushels from Cincinnati. The freight, both east and west, was much cheaper than at the present time.
FIRST RAILROAD (THE WABASHI) IN 1856
It was not until 1856 that the Wabash & Erie Canal had any com- petitor of a general nature in Wabash County, and it was a competitor which eventually was to give it the death stroke.
In 1852 the Lake Erie, Wabash & St. Louis Railroad Company was organized ; in the following year a survey was made, passing through the Wabash Valley north of the river, and by the close of 1853 construction was in progress within the limits of the county. Hands were at work in the vicinity of Wabash Town in the early spring of 1854, and within two years from that time the roadway was practically completed and the track laid.
On the 20th of January, 1856, the first train arrived, at the Town of Wabash over the Lake Erie, Wabash & St. Louis line, and three days later trains commenced to run regularly between Toledo and Wabash. A few weeks later the road was completed and trains were running to Peru, and March 17, 1856, found the line in operation from Toledo to Logansport, early in June to Delphi and two months later to Lafayette. Not long after it reached the state line.
Later, this line became the Toledo, Wabash & Western, and for many years has been known as plain " Wabash." It runs from northeast to southwest, the City of Wabash and the old town of La Gro being its principal stations.
Wabash County as a civil corporation gave no aid to the Toledo, Wabash & Western, but meetings were held at various points along the line and private parties subscribed to the capital stock. How many shares were taken in this county cannot now be definitely ascertained, although estimates have been made of from twenty thousand dollars to thirty thousand dollars.
THE VANDALIA ROUTE
In 1852 a line of railroad was projected traversing the Eel River Valley. It was originally known as the Logansport & Northern Indiana
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and subsequently as the Auburn & Eel River Valley Railroad. These two corporations had many ups and downs-chiefly downs-and when the Detroit, Eel River & Illinois Railroad Company was formed, about 1870, to take over the fragmentary enterprise the outlook was anything but bright. But Chester and Pleasant townships levied a special tax of $30,000 for the completion of the road through Wabash County, and in 1872 the line was actually put in operation. It ent through the northwestern corner of Chester Township, by way of Liberty Mills, and North Manchester, intersecting the Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan line (Big Four) at the western border of the latter town; passed through the southeastern corner of Pleasant Township, with Ijamsville as its station, and so on across the northwestern corner of Paw Paw Township to the Town of Roann, and thence out of the county. Those of today know it as the Vandalia Route.
THE "BIG FOUR"
In 1872 Messrs. Gardner and Wells built the Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan Railroad through Wabash County. To encourage its eon- struction a county tax was levied, collected and applied, amounting to $6,000 per mile. The large machine shops of the company were after- ward erected near the eastern limits of the City of Wabash, the corpora- tion paying a bonus of $25,000 as an inducement for the location.
The road has long since been known as the Big Four, or the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, and it is the most important transportation route in Wabash County. It enters the county from the south, about the middle of the south line of Liberty Township, its first station being La Fontaine, that township. The road then passes northwest and north through Liberty and Noble townships to the City of Wabash, runs in a generally northerly direction near the line dividing Noble, La Gro. Paw Paw and Chester to North Manchester, whence it turns northwesterly toward and across the northern county line. It crosses the Erie (the old Chicago & Atlantic) at Bolivar and the Van- dalia line at North Manchester.
Thus Wabash County is favored with a north and south line, and three railroads running east and west, as well as two well equipped traction or interurban lines-the Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana and the Union Traction Company of Indiana. They are both electric lines.
UNION TRACTION COMPANY OF INDIANA
The Union Traction Company is the owner of 365 miles of track which lies mainly within a kite-shaped area, bounded on the north by
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a line drawn between Lafayette, Logansport, Peru, Wabash and Fort Wayne, on the east by one conmeeting Fort Wayne, Bluffton, Muncie and New Castle, and on the south by the shortest line, between New Castle and Indianapolis. The City of Wabash is nearly midway on the long northern line, the backbone of the kite running south to Anderson and La Fontaine being the only regular station in Wabash County.
The Union Traction system is composed of lines originally con- structed from Indianapolis to Logansport and Peru, and from Middle- town to Alexandria and Tipton, besides lines acquired by purchase from Marion to Wabash and from Muncie to Bluffton and Union City.
Charles L. Henry, of Anderson, Indiana, promoted the construction of the first traction line in the state, that extending from Ander- son to Alexandria. This was in 1898. Two years later, on January 1, 1900, the service was inaugurated on the Indianapolis & Eastern road. Just a year later, the original line of the present system entered Indianapolis, and later embraced the Indianapolis, Muncie and Alex- ander-Marion divisions. The line from Indianapolis to Porn via Kokomo was opened December 3, 1903. The Union Traction lines handle a heavy freight business, as well as carrying baggage with the best of the steam railroads.
FORT WAYNE & NORTHERN INDIANA TRACTION SYSTEM
The first line which is now a portion of the Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Traction System within the limits of Wabash County was that which runs from Wabash to Peru. This was built by the Wabash River Traction Company, which started operating August 1, 1901. In 1903 the property was sold to the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company, which shortened its line, three years afterward, by extending it through the City of Wabash to Boyd Park. The old line skirted the eity along the highway. The Fort Wayne & Southwestern Traction Company was completed between Fort Wayne and Wabash in 1901, and was sold to the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company on November 1, 1904. In March, 1911, the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company was reorganized and the name changed to Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Traction Company.
The company has a well-organized freight, as well as passenger service, and operates over twenty miles of track in Wabash County, substantially paralleling the Wabash Railroad line north of the river. Its regular stations in the county are La Gro, Wabash and Boyd Park.
These two traction companies operate in this county entirely south of the City of Wabash, but before long will probably extend their lines
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toward North Manchester. When that is done, with the good system of free pike roads already in operation, Wabash County will enjoy fine facilities for the interchange of all the necessities and many of the luxuries of life, as well as for free communication between all its people.
TELEGRAPH LINES
Wabash County has a record of which its people may justly be proud in the practical adoption of labor-saving, time-saving and con- venience-producing inventions. Emphatically falling within that class are telegraphs and telephones, which, with the ever-active mail service, tend to bind together the people of a thousand communities as one family.
The first crude telegraph line in the world, founded on the Morse system and running between Washington and New York, was put in operation in 1837. The great invention made slow progress and one of the first lines west of the mountains was that which was strung along the Wabash & Erie Canal in the spring and summer of 1849. This continued to be operated with little interruption for the next eight years or more, until the Lake Erie, Wabash & St. Louis Railroad had been constructed and was in successful operation as the established line of commercial intercourse along the valley of the Wabash, connecting the chief points of trade formerly occupied exclusively by the canal. In October, 1857, the telegraph line was transferred from the banks of the canal to the margin of the railroad-a formal manifestation of the trans- fer of sovereignty from the one to the other. Many of the telegraph lines subsequently built were constructed before the railroads were sur- veyed, but the two lines were eventually made to substantially con- form.
THE FIRST TELEPHONE LINE
In 1878, only two years after the Bell telephones commenced to be introduced, such men as Elijah Haekleman and John N. Myers were testing the principles of the invention in Wabash. The first line ever put in operation in the city is thus described: "On Saturday, the 1st of June, 1878, John N. Myers, of Wabash, having previously read in some scientifie paper, published in Washington, D. C., a carefully pre- pared account, giving in detail the method of constructing and operating telephones, conceived the idea of demonstrating the practicability of the recent discovery. Accordingly he prepared a line of twine thread Vol. 1-16
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