History of Whitley County, Indiana, Part 16

Author: Kaler, Samuel P. 1n; Maring, R. H. (Richard H.), 1859-, jt. auth
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: [Indianapolis, Ind.] : B. F. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 940

USA > Indiana > Whitley County > History of Whitley County, Indiana > Part 16

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In the summer of 1842, Jacob Frederich built a fence enclosing twenty-five perches at the south-east corner of the public square in a square form, the east side and south end of the jail to form a part of the fence, which was six feet high, with a heavy oak gate well hung and with good lock.

June 8, 1844, the commissioners ordered built what was called a fire proof office build- ing forty-eight feet long, twenty feet wide, one-story high, ten feet in the clear, built of brick. The specifications, too long to be given here, read like it was to be a fortress that might withstand the best cannon of that day. There were two partition walls cut- ting the building into three equal rooms, two twenty-light windows in each room, with shutters of sheet and bar iron. A door to each room opening on the street covered with heavy sheet iron, and each door a lock of different style so that keys might not be interchanged. A fire-place in each room with a separate chimney for each. This was located on the north-east part of the public square. To be accurate, forty-eight feet west of Main street; the south-east corner of the building six feet north of line running through the center of the public square from east to west. This was built by David Shepley for $1,250 and $23 for extras, and completed in August, 1844, and the county treasurer at once occupied the middle room, the auditor the south room, the clerk and recorder the north room. The building faced to the east.

The new county officers' fire proof build- ing was not completed until there began an agitation for a brick court house, good and substantial, that might be used for the courts, conventions and general. opera house, and

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that might also hold the records and pro- vide offices for the county officers. At the regular December term 1847, the commis- · sioners ordered the county agent to procure plans for a new court house and at the March term, 1848, they adopted the plans of Hossler & Radcliff, architects, for which they paid $15, and full specifications were put on record. After having duly adver- tised for bids, on the 7th day of June, 1848, the contract was let to F. Araline & -Rine- hart for $7,620. They failed to complete the contract by filing bond as required. Ad- ditions were then made to the specifications and on the 14th of June, 1848, the contract was let to Henry Swihart and Thomas Washburn, who completed it, and on the 12th day of October, 1850, it was accepted and paid for at $7.747.50, and on the fol- lowing day it was occupied by the officers. The bell was installed in March, 1853, at a cost of $250. This same bell, no longer used for the simple purpose of making use- less noise, is now each hour struck by a hammer from the court house clock to note the passing hours. On December 9, 1853. the commissioners made a solemn order as to ringing this bell, under the direction of either the sheriff or auditor: "To be rung during the setting of courts or any other public occasion. May be rung morn- ing, noon or night, or at any other stated period or periods. Any other per- sons than auditor or sheriff may have it rung at any time by doing the labor of ringing it themselves or paying for the same." June 10, 1853, an order was made that the court room could be used only for the following purposes: holdings courts, political conventions, railroad conventions

and all other meetings for secular purposes interesting the people, also for religious meetings and lectures on literary and scien- tific subjects. Church services were often held in it. It was as nearly the center of the square as the engineer could locate it. It was torn down in April and May, 1889. From the beginning there was trouble with the cupalo leaking and the records show not less than twelve appropriations for re- pairing it during the less than fifty years it was occupied. Otherwise it was an hon- est and substantial building, in a perfect state of preservation when torn down. For its day it was a first class court house, ranking with the best in Indiana.

At the February term of circuit court, 1881, court was forced to adjourn because of defective chimneys. Judge Van Long appointed Richard Collins and I. B. Mc- Donald to repair the flues, which they caused to be done, but with little effect. At the March term of the same year the commis- sioners ordered C. H. Pond to draw plans and specifications for enlarging the build- ing and improving it in several ways. The plans suggested an outlay of about $20,000. The board called into consultation some thirty heavy tax payers from all parts of the county and agreeable with the general senti- ment it was not deemed worth the cost and for the present it was left alone. This started the agitation for a new building that might furnish protection from fire, vandal- ism and burglary. Soon after, the country was startled by the stealing of the records of an Illinois county and hiding them until by a series of maneuvers the county was obliged to pay $25,000 for their restora- tion. The loss of the records of Whitley

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county could not be made good by any money consideration. It would involve the title to every foot of realty in the county, besides being irreparable in many other ways. Our records might be as easily stolen as a horse from a good stable and they might burn as easily as a common dwelling. The county treasurer's office was so small that not more than three or four persons could occupy the lobby at a time, which was a great inconvenience to the peo- ple in busy tax-paying time. That office had a little safe but little better than none and it could be easily loaded by a couple of men and hauled off by night. True, the treasurers were depositing the public moneys in the bank vaults, but frequently hundreds of dollars were taken in after the banking hours as an accommodation to the public and it was recalled that at one time over $40,000 remained in the safe over night. In December, 1865, the safe then in the county treasurer's office was blown up by burglars and an insignificant sum of money taken. A new safe was immediately pur- chased, but was too large for the little treas- urer's office and was put in the auditor's office, where it remained until the new court house was built and in 1891 was traded on the present burglar proof safe in the treas- urer's office. There was no sheriff's office at all. In the clerk's and auditor's offices the room was all occupied and many valuable papers had to be packed in boxes, almost in- accessible to the public. That there was most urgent necessity for something was ap- parent to everybody. The agitation went on, but politics was at red heat in a close county. The building of a new court house would be inpopular and the politicians dare not advocate it. Finally in 1888 the com-

missioners decided to build. Several citi- zens were invited to make trips with them to see a number of court houses in different parts of the country. Brent S. Tolan was employed as architect. The rink building across from the south-east corner of the square, the north side lots 3 and 4, block 18, north-east corner of Main and Market streets, was rented from Linvill & Mitten as temporary quarters for the county business, and on April 1. 1889. everything was moved in. The rear room was used as court room, the front divided into two rooms, the north side was used by the auditor and treasurer, the south side by the clerk and recorder, the sheriff's office was the whole building at large. The court house was sold to Hon. C. B. Tully for $150 dollars and torn down and taken away in April and May, 1889. On the ist day of April, 1891, just two years after, the new building was occupied and the people of Whitley county will have no more clamor for a new court house for a century. It is an elegant stone building, built without a job or a graft and at a sum almost half of what it would cost to-day. The time chosen was when material was at its lowest point since the organization of the county and lower than it will ever be again, unless some unprecedented business depres- sion should strike the country. It was built by George W. Vanator and Joseph H. Baker, of Warsaw, for about $165,000, including the furnishing. The exact price we are unable to give, as in the last end of the work some things like grading and put- ting in walks were included in the court house expenses. The cost, however, of building and furnishing the house was about the sum stated. During the contracting and building of the court house George W. Law-

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rence was chairman of the board ; Chauncey B. Mattoon, auditor, and William F. Mc- Nagny, county attorney, or advisor to the board. These gentlemen determined to save every cent possible to the tax payers, to see that the work was honestly done and the materials just as specified and that there should not be one cent jobbing in it, and they succeeded and deserve the gratitude of the people.

The first court house, the old frame still standing at the corner of Van Buren and Whitley streets, was sold at public auction December 9, 1853, to Sylvester Knapp for $35.25, to be removed by May 1, 1854. which was done. On the same day the county officers' fire proof brick building at the north-east corner of the square was sold at public auction to Henry S. Cobangh for $60, to be removed by June 1, 1854. For some reason unknown the contract was never carried out and the commissioners ordered it removed by the county under the direction of the auditor. About the cost of removing it was realized from the sale of material.

The old heavily built fence around the court house square, the only one ever built around it, was put up in the fall of 1852. The contract was let to Samuel Brown for $195, but he failing to do the work, Auditor Simon Wanderlich purchased the materials and managed the labor for the county and the total cost was $187.50. It was removed in the spring of 1884. In March, 1842, David E. Long and Asa Shoemaker cleared the forest from the court house square and to the middle of the streets adjoining at a cost to the county of $52.50. In September, 1852. James B. Edwards graded the grounds as they lay until 1891 at a cost to the county of $271.50. In 1860 Joseph F.

Shoemaker planted the grounds with trees at a cost of $75. These, the second supply of nature, had grown to a beautiful grove and the grounds were used for conventions and all sorts of gatherings in summer for years before it was a second time denuded. on the building of the last court house in 1889. The losing of the grove from the square was attended with great regret by all our people. In 1891, after the comple- tion of the present court house the grounds were graded to their present condition by the county under the direction of Eli W. Brown.

The first jail built on the south-east cor- ner of the public square was partly burned and totally disabled by John Wheatley, a prisoner waiting trial for larceny in March, 1855. Immediately thereafter a jail and sheriff's residence was built on the site of the first court house removed, to-wit, on the spot now covered by the engine house and city offices. This was completed No- vember 1, 1855, built by James B. Edwards at a cost of $5,224. It was constructed on poor plans, was insanitary and unsafe. All criminals charged with felony or grave mis- demeanor were for years conveyed to Fort Wayne until wanted here for trial.

In 1875. the present jail and sheriff's residence was built, completed and occupied early in 1876. The contract price was $34.486. The architect was J. C. Johnson. of Toledo, and the contractor was James M. Bratton, of Huntington. This was sup- posed to be the very acme of safety, but in

April, 1881, a prisoner confined one after- noon had by the use of a case knife sawed off the grates in a window and made his es- cape before the next morning and steel and iron experts were called to examine the grates and pronounced the iron almost soft

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as lead. Extra grates were immediately purchased by the commissioners, to be made of homogeneous steel, of alternate layers so soft as to keep the bar from breaking and so hard they could not be cut. So fearful were the authorities that the steel would not be right that on the arrival of the grates every blacksmith and metal worker in the county and one from Fort Wayne were called to test them. They were first re- jected, but on securing an expert who had them heated and cooled, they were accepted and placed. They have since defied repeated attempts to saw out. Again in February, 1884. the community was startled by the breaking out of jail of Charles W. Butler, the wife murderer, together with two crimi- nals held for counterfeiting, and several for minor offences. They simply broke a cor- ner out of one of the stone walls of the upper tier of cells, crawled through it and out of a hatch-way or opening in the roof. Exami- nation showed these walls to be of one thick- ness of stone, eight inches thick, without "other protection. A corner large enough for the men to crawl through was easily broken out. These cell tops and all other vulnerable places were then securely covered with heavy boiler iron riveted or bolted to the stone. Since that time there has been no jail breaking and the building bids fair to answer the county yet for many years to come.

In March, 1857, the county purchased from James T. Long the north-east frac- tional quarter of section 16, in Columbia township, to be used as an asylum for the poor. The buildings then on the farm were used until the completion of the present brick structure, finished, accepted and occupied the first Monday in March, 1865. The plans were drawn by C. H. Pond, who still lives in Columbia City, at a cost of $15. The contract was let January 30, 1864, to David J. Silver, of Allen county. The contract price was $11,900, but extras were added making the total cost, including a large cistern, etc., about $12,380. The old build- ings were given to Joseph Yontz, the first superintendent, for taking them away. The present brick hospital building was erected in 1895. The superintendents, as near as we can ascertain, to the present were Joseph Yontz, about ten years and Stephen Haley one year, Asa Meredith, about ten years, Cyrenus Coplen, about twelve years, then Charles Dimick and William Minor, who is at present holding the position. The su- perintendent holds his place by virtue of ap- pointment of county commissioners, makes his reports to them and is always under their control and subject to their orders.

The earliest physicians employed to at- tend the paupers at the asylum were Dr. John B. Firestone, Dr. Martin Ireland and Dr. Stephen Major.

POSTOFFICES AND POSTMASTERS.

No part of the history of any people is more interesting than that which pertains to their communication with the outer world. When Whitley county was first set-

tled, the means of communicating with dear ones left back in the eastern states was very poor and also expensive. Contrast our two- cent letter postage with that of the 'thirties,

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when there was no uniform rate of postage, charge being made according to the distance a letter was to be carried, and it being speci- fied that a letter was to consist of one sheet of paper. two sheets requiring double post- age, three sheets triple, and so on.

The charge for carrying a letter any. distance not exceeding thirty miles was six cents per sheet, over thirty and not exceed- ing eighty miles, ten cents; over eighty and not exceeding one hundred and fifty miles, twelve and one-half. cents; over one hitin- dred and fifty and less than four hundred miles, eighteen and three-fourths cents. For any distance over four hundred miles there was a flat rate of twenty-five cents per sin- gle sheet letter.

For newspapers, a rate of one cent a copy was made for distances not over one hun- dred miles, and one and a half cents for any greater distance, except that any newspaper could be carried to any point in the state where published. without regard to distance. for one cent. Thus any weekly newspaper cost from fifty to seventy-five cents per an- num for postage. Few could afford even a weekly, and a daily paper was undreamed of by our people.

All other difficulties of frontier life out of the way, the expense, where money was so hard to get, made letters between fam- ilies and friends few and far between. Then. too, the means of transporting letters was so slow and so very poor, that a large per- centage of letters sent never reached their destination. Who has not heard the sad story told by some old pioneer, of hearing of the death of a parent, relative or friend, not a hundred miles away, weeks, even months, after it occurred. Practically were

our pioneers shut out from the world, their isolation, their loneliness mnade complete. The early years were strewn with deaths from loneliness and homesickness. How, in their desolation, they magnified the ad- vantages of old home. And again, if years afterward they were permitted to revisit the scenes of childhood, how different from what they expected. how disappointing. Rapid transit has almost annihilated that destroying monster, homesickness.

Our first settlers were obliged to go to Huntington. Fort Wayne, Warsaw or Goshen for mail, if they ever got a chance letter: and these towns were not accessible as they are to-day. It took days of travel to reach them.

SOUTH WHITLEY.

At the organization of the county, there was but one postoffice in existence within its limits. The settlers on Eel river, about what is now South Whitley. made applica- tion in the fall of 1836, for a postoffice. The office was ordered established February 25. 1837, with David D. Parrett as postmaster. but the government could not and did not deliver mail to the place until 1850. The office was named Whitley. All mail ad- dressed to Whitley. Whitley county, Indi- ana, went to the Huntington postoffice until the Whitley postmaster, or some one in his place, called for it. So with outgoing mail. If deposited with Parrett at Whitley, he held it until he could go or send it to Hunting- ton.

On the 14th of May. 1842, a postoffice was established at Columbia City, and it was called Whitley Court House, and on

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the same day the name of the Whitley post- office was changed to South Whitley, as it still remains. Mail for South Whitley still came by way of Huntington, but the outgoing mail might be sent either to Whit- ley Court House or Huntington. Later it came also by way of Columbia.

July 1, 1850, a route was established from La Gro, Wabash county, through South Whitley, to Warsaw, making a round trip once a week. A branch line was also established from South Whitley to Colum- bia City, making a round trip once a week.

July 1. 1854, a route wa's established from La Gro, by North Manchester, Liberty Mills. Collamer, South Whitley, Clear Spring and Farmers to Warsaw, forty-one miles. Twice a week from La Gro to South Whitley, and only once a week the residue, with a weekly branch from South Whitley to Columbia City and back.

July 1, 1858, the route was changed, making Columbia City instead of Warsaw, the northern terminus. It ran from La Gro, North Manchester, Liberty Mills, Collamer, South Whitley to Columbia City, thirty- three miles, and back twice a week ; but one of these weekly round trips left Liberty Mills out. This service continued until July 1. 1866, after which one route ran from Columbia City to South Whitley and Colla- mer, making a round trip once a week, and one route from Fort Wayne to South Whit- ley, Collamer and intervening points, mak- ing a round trip once a week ; and this serv- ice continued until the mail was carried daily to South Whitley over the Eel River Railroad. The postmasters at South Whit- ley have been :

David D. Parrett, February 25, 1837. to September 7. 1849.

William W. Arnold, September 7, 1849, to September 13, 1852.

Samuel A. Sheibley, September 13, 1852, to December 21, 1854.

Job Dow, December 21, 1854, to July 18. 1856.

Aaron Metz, July 18. 1856, to Septem- ber 1, 1857.

Adam Bitner, September 1, 1857, to October 12, 1857.

Obadiah Carper, October 12, 1857, to September 5, 1861.

John Allbright, September 5. 1861. to January 7, 1862.

Jesse Arnold, January 7, 1862, to April 7, 1869.

William A. Hitchcock, April 7, 1869. to May 9. 1872.

Samuel Robbins. May 9. 1872. to July 8. 1885.

Thomas J. Lafollette, July 8. 1885. to June 13, 1889.

George W. Reaser, June 13. 1889, to February 15. 1892.

Rena Murray, February 15, 1892, to September 5, 1893.

Stephen D. Dunlap, September 5. 1893. to August 4, 1897.

Edward E. Hissem, August 4, 1897, to December 20. 1902.

Cash M. Graham, December 20, 1902.

COLUMBIA CITY.

On the 14th day of May, 1842, a post- office was established at the seat of justice. of Whitley county. The citizens asked that it be called Columbia, but the department replied that there was already a postoffice by that name in the state. A controversy then arose over a name. Richard Collins

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renewed his effort to call it Beaver, the name he tried to give the town. But during the dispute, the department named it Whitley Court House, and changed the already exist- ing Whitley postoffice to South Whitley.

While Whitley Court House postoffice was established May 14, 1842, there was no mail service to the place until July Ist of the same year. During these six weeks or more, mail for the place was supposed to lie in the Fort Wayne postoffice till called for by the postmaster or some one for him, and outgoing mail had to be carried to Fort Wayne in the same manner. Then came a confusion between the two Whitley post- offices, that was very annoying and lasted until long after Whitley Court House had become Columbia City postoffice. Letters intended for either place often went to the other, and many found their way to the dead letter office and were never received by the party intended. As the business of the offices grew, this became so annoying that something had to be done. The long name was never popular and was not chosen by the people. Agitation for a change .kept up from the first, but did not take definite form till the winter of 1853 and 1854. Finally, somebody called a meeting or elec- tion to be held in the new Court House, De- cember 16, 1853, to decide the name. Rich- ard Collins renewed the fight for the Indian name Beaver, and Dr. Swayzee led the fight for Columbia City. If it could not be Co- lumbia, it could be that name with city attached. It would give the place a big name. Considerable acrimony was manifest before and during the caucus, but Columbia City won out, was certified to the depart- ment at Washington as the choice of the

people, and on the 16th day of January, 1854, the day Lewis Dowell took the office, the name was changed. The railroads car- ried the name Columbia until recent years when they, too, changed to Columbia City.

From July 1, 1842, to July 1, 1846, there was a weekly mail, one round trip a week from Fort Wayne to Whitley Court House and back. The next year, on the establish- ment of Coesse postoffice along the route, it was included.

From July 1, 18446, to July 1, 1850, this route was maintained and also one from Columbia to Plymouth, by way of Warsaw and intervening towns, making a round trip once a week, distance fifty-one miles. Also the branch line from South Whitley: a branch from La Gro to Warsaw.

A route was also established July I, 1850, from Metea to Columbia, 55.36 miles, but October I, the same year, this route did not come farther north than North Manchester. On same date, two more routes were established out of Columbia. One to Elkhart, one round trip a week. One to Wolf Lake and back, eighteen miles, one round trip a week, and July 1. 1853, one to Albion and back, twenty miles, one round trip a week.

Then came the Pennsylvania railway, and from July 1, 1858, to July 1, 1862, we had only the La Gro-South Whitley route and the Wilmot and intervening offices route, and these were the only ones up to 1866.

From 1866 to 1870, the Wilmot route was extended to Cromwell and we had the route to South Whitley and Collamer, this latter continued to the completion of the Eel River Railroad, and the Cromwell route

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was changed to Ligonier. The following is a complete list of Columbia City post- masters:

David E. Long, May 14, 1842, to Octo- ber 17. 1845.

Simon H. Wunderlich, October 17, 1845. to December 9, 1845.

James B. Edwards, December 9, 1845, to October 21, 1847.

Joseph H. Pratt, October 21, 1847, to July II, 1849.

James Wallace, July II. 1849, to Au- gust 13. 1850.

Adams Y. Hooper. August 13, 1850, to April 12, 1852.

Warren Mason, April 12, 1852, to Janu- ary 16, 1854.

Lewis Dowell, January ' 16, 1854, to May 20, 1854.

Warren Mason, May 20, 1854, to Octo- ber 28, 1854.

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History of Whitley County, Indiana, Part 16

Author: Kaler, Samuel P. 1n; Maring, R. H. (Richard H.), 1859-, jt. auth Publication date: 1907 Publisher: [Indianapolis, Ind.] : B. F. Bowen & Co. Number of Pages: 940

Author: Kaler, Samuel P. 1n; Maring, R. H. (Richard H.), 1859-, jt. auth
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: [Indianapolis, Ind.] : B. F. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 940