USA > Indiana > Vanderburgh County > Evansville > History of the city of Evansville and Vanderburg County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 21
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It seems that they were after three negroes who were farming in Pa- toka bottoms. To reach them they would have to cross a certain little bridge and it was agreed that they would wait until a little before daylight so that none of the farmers would be up and then make the raid and hurry back with the negroes.
But several good men of Princeton had no difficulty in finding out the plans. Some time before, they had become so incensed at these slave- hunting bullies, who came heavily armed, pretending to be very bad men, etc., that they determined to give the next visitor a lesson and they had eight heavy bombs made by Kratz and Heilman, who had a machine shop in this city. Each of these bombs contained three pounds of powder with a screw attachment into which a time fuse could be put. They figured very nicely and slipped along the bank and laid their bombs and then hid until the proper time to light them.
Fortunately everything turned out just right, for the party had just gotten on to the bridge when they went off. These men told their friends afterwards in secret that such a Fourth of July celebration had never oc- curred in that country before. They said that each one of the bombs made a noise like a cannon and that long before the last one went off nothing could be heard except some horses going at full speed back to Princeton. The leader who posed as such a fire-eater was never seen and the men who helped him and who, up to that time, had been among the most obnoxious citizens of the little town, got such a lesson that they
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changed to fairly good men. At any rate, they were never known to take part again in running off any negroes.
The strangest thing that ever happened in these perilous instances was where two men came from the South and obtained the services of a drunken kind of a fellow, and a hostler in a livery stable. The drunken fellow owned a large white bulldog, which he delighted in fighting and the hostler laid claim to a Newfoundland dog. By some means they had found while wandering through the woods a kind of nest at the foot of a large tree. Around it were pieces of bones and two pieces of corn bread, and they at once decided that runaway negroes had been hiding there at night and making the place their bed, coming out during the daytime to get such meals as they could until they could work their way further North. These two worthies kept the secret to themselves until a few days afterwards when they got in with two slave hunters. It seems that these slave hunters had heard of three negroes who were hiding in that section and took it for granted that they had found the very place to locate them. They de- cided to surround the bed that night and capture them and hurry them back to Evansville and across the river. At the proper time they surrounded the spot but heard no noise of any kind. The hostler had imbibed enough whisky to make him bold so he decided to rush in and stir out the negroes. But in going in he disturbed an enormous wild sow with a litter of pigs. His Newfoundland dog crept up and grabbed one of the pigs which imme- diately commenced to squeal, while the bull dog went for the sow, who added her squealings to the rest. At that time the country was full of wild hogs of whose ferocity I have spoken in another place. It seemed but a moment before the woods were full of them, coming from all directions. Several enormous boars attacked the dogs, ripping them open and killing them almost instantly. Another cut the legs of the hostler all to pieces while another went for the drunken fellow and tore his side until he was a cripple for life, while still another whirling around, attacked the horse of one of the slave hunters and tore his hind legs and threw off the rider which he at once attacked. In desperation the other slave hunter ran his horse alongside and his companion jumped on behind him and they escaped and while they were chasing the horse, the crippled man managed to get into a small tree and out of immediate danger. The horse had to be killed. It was such things as this incident that stopped the influx of the slave hunters into this country.
In the early days of Evansville, Judge A. L. Robinson was well known as the greatest abolitionist here. There may have been others who felt as strongly as he did, but he was the most outspoken in his belief. It was always hinted that he knew a great deal about what was known as the Underground Railway. I might mention several others, but as these things are all past and gone and the negroes will never again be in slavery, I do not think it best to take up too much space with this matter. I have only given these incidents because there are today so many people here who
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CHESTNUT SCHOOL BUILDING
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have no idea that such a state of affairs ever existed in Evansville and its immediate vicinity.
Having treated of slavery days and realizing that a large proportion of the population of Evansville is colored, it would be hardly right to leave the subject without some remarks on the condition of the negro in this city at the present day.
In my youth there were about six negro families in Evansville, and as I remember them, they were hard-working honorable people and esteemed by everyone. Who does not remember the dear old Aunty who for so many years was a consistent member of one of our best churches and who could be seen every Sunday in her pew. Others might stay away for one excuse or another, but she-never. One of the first restaurants of Evansville was conducted by a negro and it was then the Lottie of Evansville. In another family were some fine musicians who were called on to furnish music at almost every social affair. It was after the war that the colored popula- tion of Evansville began to increase so fast. Negroes came in hordes from every part of the south. Their great idea was that their only hope of not being put back into slavery was to get into a free state and when we think of how uneducated they were and what little chance they had to know any- thing of the great affairs of life, who can blame them? I realize that in taking up the question of the colored man, I am handling a subject on which many of the greatest writers in this country refuse to say anything. It must be remembered that for years these colored people did not even have to do their own thinking. Their masters thought for them. They were simply expected to work and they had no thought for the morrow, because they always knew that their meals and a place to sleep were assured. To take the race bred under these conditions for years and throw them on its own resources was indeed a stupendous undertaking and a mantle of charity ought to be thrown over a great many of their faults and failings during the war and just after the war. But at the present day, and I intend to call things by their right names, there is no excuse for the ignorant, shiftless nig- ger, for how many years has elapsed since the war and how much has been done to educate these people? If many of them are still uncouth, un- educated and shiftless, it must be attributed to the fact that they have no desire whatever to help themselves. The best men in their race have been for years trying to elevate them but where they stubbornly refuse to be elevated their sins should fall on their own heads. Some may say that they spring from a race which by heredity gives them instincts far dif- ferent from the instincts of the white man. Yet this rule could not be applied to them as a race for in our own race are bloodthirsty wretches who every day of their lives disgrace the name of white man. Then take it in lower Europe today and look at the scum sent from the lowest cess pools of vice and ignorance of the races of that country and we have the Blackhand and Camorra, so that after all, all races are much like. The trouble with the negroes in Evansville is, and by this I mean the great
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majority, that they do not reach out their hands and take the gifts that are offered them. Their preachers may preach to them, their best men may lecture to them, their teachers may try to instruct them and yet they are satisfied to live happy-go-lucky existences or to become puffed up with what they know, and imagine that they are not only the equal to the white man but in some cases, are superior. And this fault I have seen in a great many of the younger generation who have received education. Education has not helped them but has spoiled them. It has made them feel that they were too good to work-but enough of this.
The chief position of the negro in Evansville today seems to be to act as a factor in politics. Of course a great majority of them belong to the republican party as is quite natural. There are some who vote with the democrats and the trouble is that the leaders of both parties look on them as mere pieces of barter and sale, the only trouble being that none of the leaders are willing to state that "once bought they stay bought." It is no doubt a fact that negroes at every election receive money from both sides and no one knows how they vote. But it is a crying shame that elections in Evansville cannot be carried on without them and by this I mean without their being bought. The man who says that these colored folks are not bought simply stultifies himself. Every man in Evansville who knows anything at all, knows that the man who makes this statement lies and knows he is lying when he makes the statement and also knows that the other fellow knows he is lying. This may be rather plain, but it is never- theless true. Only a few days ago a colored man whom I respect and esteem as I do a great many of their race whom I have known for years, and whose good qualities have always appealed to me, said about as follows :
"I don't think that I will ever vote in Evansville again. An honest negro never gets any credit for being honest. If he goes and votes for any party, the assumption is that he has been bought. The only credit he ever gets is from his own conscience and I doubt if that pays him enough for the time and trouble it takes to go to the poles and be harrassed by endless questions every time he wants to cast his ballot. The trouble with my people," he continued, "is that they are like a lot of sheep. They can be huddled together and under the influence of some spellbinder they go and vote blindly for any man who happens to be on the party's slate. They never stop to think whether the right men are on the slate or not and in this respect they are exactly as they were in the slavery days. They follow the will of their masters and seem to have no brains of their own. As for me, I am disgusted with the situation and, as I said, I don't think I will ever cast another vote here no matter how long I stay here."
For a time in Evansville the negroes were scattered all over the city. Unfortunately many of them were poor, even those who worked hard and faithfully from one year's end to another and they were not able to pay rent for decent cottages and therefore lived in all sorts of tumble-down structures. As these structures were condemned and tore down they were
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forced to move still further out. As things exist now, a greater popula- tion of the negro population resides in what is known as Baptist Town in the 7th ward, though at various places on the outer streets there are neat little homes well cared for that belong to negro men, where they live clean moral lives and have the respect of their neighbors. One of the greatest evils with which we are confronted at the present, is the horde of little negroes who are growing up. They seem to have reverted and are lazy, idle, expert thieves and natural born liars. I have seen hundreds and hundreds of cases where it seemed impossible for them to tell the truth about anything. They refuse to go to school, wear clothes that ought to put them back in the forests of Africa, prowl through alleys committing all sorts of evils and when they are caught, immediately proceed to shed tears and draw on their well-worn stock of ready lies. The average police- man does not believe one story one of these little fellows tells and in this he is right. Just how to combat this evil I do not know, but this city would be a great deal better off if quite a number of these youthful savages were set outside of its limits forever. They are not the children of respectful and self-respecting parents. They are the offspring of the worthless niggers.
Of late the race question seems to have come up stronger than ever. In a speech made recently by one of the best posted men in the east he took the ground that the question would settle itself by the dying out of the negro just as has been the case with the Indians. All thinking men know that the hording of negroes in big cities means just what this man says. The negro's only hope is in agriculture. He can be a good farmer- though shiftless as a rule and he can never, with but few exceptions, be anything else. The case of J. J. Groves of Kansas, shows this plainly. Nearly every one who rides on the Union Pacific or Rock Island trains west of Kansas City has noticed a big brick house just north of the rail- road tracks about half a mile east of Edwardsville, Kan. The house sits back from the roadway and up on the side of the bluffs. There are no trees to hide it, and the house is visible for several miles before one reaches Edwardsville from the east. Coming from the west the bluffs hide the big home until the train is almost even with it.
That house of twenty-two rooms cost $22,000 and it is owned by a negro, probably the richest in Kansas and one of the richest in the country. He has made it all in Kansas. None of his neighbors know how wealthy J. J. Groves really is. Groves probably knows but does not tell. He owns 523 acres of Kaw Valley land, every acre worth at least $150 and some of it worth nearly double that amount. Within a few days he has refused $30,000 for one 120 acre tract, not including any houses. This price was a valuation of $250 an acre for this tract, and Groves would not sell at that figure. The land pays good interest on a much higher valuation than that.
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J. J. Groves was born in slavery in Green county, Ky., in 1859. Of course he never realized the trials of the slaves, as his people had been re- leased from this when he was four years of age. But his former master was a good one and Groves stayed with him until he was twenty years old. Then he came to Kansas. This twenty-year old negro boy landed in Kan- sas City with just seventy-five cents in his pockets. He walked into what is now Armourdale. This part of Kansas City, Kan., was then farm lands. J. T. Williamson was a farmer there and Groves went to work for him.
At the beginning of the second spring Groves and Williamson made a deal whereby Groves was to work for Williamson at forty cents a day, but he should have some time of his own. Williamson lent him a team, seed and let him rent ten acres of ground. Three acres were planted to sweet potatoes, three to watermelons and the rest to Irish potatoes. Groves was married that year. Both man and wife worked hard and in two years they had saved enough from their share of the crops of the ten acres to buy a team of mules and a ramshackle old wagon. Then they moved to west of Edwardsville and rented sixty acres of land. In three years' time Groves and his wife cleared $2,200 from that sixty acres of land, and then they made the first payment on eighty acres of Kaw Valley land, which they still own, it being a part of their 523 acre holdings in Wyandotte county. As they made a surplus they invested it in other Kaw Valley lands, and later they bought 1,600 acres of Grove county wheat land. The Groves' farms in Wyandotte county included 602 acres until a short time ago, when an eighty acre tract was sold.
On the Groves estate in addition to the big brick house there are seven farm houses for hired help, one orchard of seven thousand trees, 220 acres of Irish potatoes, fifty acres of cabbage and other crops. All the farm- houses are large and comfortable. The big brick house is one of the finest farmhouses in the state. It is finished in solid oak, with oak doors with the panels inlaid with birch and ebony. The floors are all oak and maple. The walls are stenciled. The house is wired for electricity and piped for gas, and has hot and cold water in all the sleeping rooms. The plans were drawn by a Kansas City architect and the house embodies all the latest ideas for comfort and rich finish. Groves explained to the architect the size of the house he wanted and the finish. The architect drew plans that suited Groves and was told to go ahead. When the final cost came Groves paid the $22,000 cheerfully, as he knew he had a home that equalled, if it did not exceed, any other farmhouse in Kansas for size and splendor of finish.
In addition to this land holdings of 2,100 acres, Groves owns some property in Kansas City, stocks in industrial concerns and some public and private corporation bonds. Also he carries a large daily balance in several Kansas City banks.
The above is the story of what J. J. Groves, born in slavery, has done in thirty years. Groves employs nearly all negroes on his farms and he is
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interested in getting members of his race back to the soil and away from the cities.
"The negro does not get much encouragement in the cities," said Groves. "There are worthless negroes, and many white people judge our race by these. But there are lots of honest and industrious colored people, too, but the conditions in the cities are such that they are not encouraged, and these are judged by the bad negroes. The negroes ought to get out of the cities. The farm is the place for them. I keep urging my friends to get out of the towns and go to the farms, and more and more are doing it. The race never will progress much in the cities, but it will go forward in the country, where its members are away from the evil influences of city life and the glamour and show.
"There is no race prejudice on the farm. A bushel of corn raised by a negro is worth just as much as a bushel of the same grade raised by a white man. The soil is there, and it is just as easy for the negro to get his liv- ing from it as it is for the white man. But it takes work. The negro can make more money with the same amount of work on the farm than he can in town, and he will be happier and better for it.
"When I go to Kansas City I talk to the negroes there and urge them to get out on the farms. I tell them they cannot afford to raise their chil- dren in town. When a white boy gets out of school in the summer time he always finds a job. There are plenty of jobs in town for white boys, but there are very few for the black boys. During the summer the little negro boys loaf around the streets, they get bad habits and they grow up to be lazy and shiftless. There is always work to be done on the farm and there are no streets to play in and no bad companions to play with, and the negro boys and girls raised on the farm do not become lazy and worthless.
"But when I talk this way to my people in the cities they say :- 'I haven't any money to get started on the farm. I get a dollar or two a day here and it keeps us, but that is all.' That is the same sort of story you hear from lazy white men, who are always telling about how they would get along if they had the money to start with, instead of quitting loafing around, whittling sticks and getting out and making some money.
"Any negro who wants to can get out on the farm. All he needs to do is to make the change. Go anywhere in this country and get out in the country. There is plenty to do. He can find work easily. Let him work awhile. If he shows to the farmer and to the neighbors that he is indus- trious and honest and wants to do something for himself the way will be easy for him. He will have no trouble renting a little piece of land.
"The farmers will lend him their teams and tools and advance the seed and take their pay when the crop is harvested. I know a dozen of negroes who have done and are doing this. They do not find trouble. It takes only a year or two for a negro's share of the crops to be sufficient for him to buy his teams and tools and a little later he can buy a little land
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of his own. All the capital any negro needs to get a start on the farm is his hands, a willingness to work and a determination to be honest."
If the negro would get out of town, give up his idea of making a liv- ing with an old ramshackle wagon and a half-starved horse or mule, it would be better for him. The Humane Societies all over the land are rapidly doing a good work in putting him out of business. He can't ex- pect to feed his family and feed his horse on a few loads per day, picked up by chance. On every side are chances for him on the big farms, but he won't work if he can help it. He prefers to be his own boss, though he lives in a shanty and half the time hasn't enough to eat. I am speaking of course, of the race, as a race and not of the few hard-working ones.
CHAPTER XV.
COURT HOUSES AND JAILS-CRUDENESS OF THE FIRST ATTEMPTS-TWO NEW COURT HOUSES-HUME REDMON'S DEATH-SITE OF THE PRESENT COURT HOUSE-THE JAILS-SOME OF THE INMATES-A NEGRO FIEND AND A' JACK-LEG LAWYER-THE FIRST RAILROADS-SLICK WORK-RAILROAD WIND-P. D. & E. SHOPS-THE SMOOTH-TONGUED VENNER.
COURT HOUSES AND JAILS.
As stated elsewhere, the first court house in Vanderburg County was a portion of the two-story frame building of Hugh McGary. To give the exact location, it stood about forty feet from Main street and twenty-five feet from Water street, fronting on Main, the view from the front being up the river. At this time the house was entirely surrounded by a growth of large trees. The downstairs was composed of the usual two rooms, divided by a hall and in the second story Mr. McGary resided with his family. This has a great deal to do with the early history of Vander- burg County, for it was in 1819 that it was decided to incorporate the vil- lage and there were twenty-nine votes in favor of it and none against it. Lots that had been donated to the county were offered for sale in order that some adequate county buildings might be erected, as it was imposing on the good nature of McGary to use his residence for a court room. A number of lots were sold which amounted to a little over $4,000. On the 15th of February, 1819, it was decided to locate a court house in the center of Main street at Third. This was afterwards altered to the south quarter of the public square, which occupied the four-quarter blocks on Main and Third streets. In June the square was cleaned up, but nothing further was done until 1820 when a pound, or, as called in those days, "stray pen," was erected which was made of white oak posts and rails and was about one hundred feet square. On the west quarter was a market house, which was torn down long before the writer came here. The new brick court house which was finally built, was on the south quarter block and was the first brick house in the town. It was very heavy looking, with heavy walls, strongly timbered and with a stone foundation three feet thick. It was thirty-four by forty-six feet in size and two stories high and was painted brown. At that time it was considered a very imposing building. There were five windows on each side and two in each end, while the door or main entrance was in the end fronting on Main street. The lower floor
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was all brick. The contract was given Elisha Harrison and Daniel F. Gold- smith. They took the contract in April, 1819, and delivered over the build- ing in May, 1820. At that time there was no money in the treasury and the building was paid for by orders which drew interest and as some of them were not taken up by the county for more than ten years, the cost was much increased. Strange as it may seem, a part of this building is still standing. There have been changes in the front of it, but the old bricks are still there and they lack only about ten years of being a century old. This speaks well for the quality of the bricks turned out in those days. Mr. James Newman up to 1837 kept the county records in his house, but at that time a fire-proof brick office was built eighteen by thirty feet large, just south of the court house. Again in 1833 a few changes were made in the court house and it was painted a deep green, but the county grew so fast and its business increased to such an extent that in 1852 a contract was let to James Roquet, one of whose sons still lives here, to build a new court house, jail and jailer's residence. This was to occupy the north cor- ner of Main and Third. The contract was that it was to be finished by March 1, 1854, but there were many delays. The cost price was to be $14,000. Just before its completion, Christmas Eve, 1855, a fire began in the lumber yard of Robert Fergus, northeast of the court house, which destroyed the building. Some of the offices had been partially occupied and the records had been removed to them and were nearly all saved. In a year afterwards a contract to rebuild was let to Frank B. Allen for about the same price. This was completed in 1857 and will be remembered by many of our citizens. It was a two-story brick building in good style and crowned with a dome. The main entrance was through a portico supported by heavy Grecian columns. There was a corridor on either side in which were the offices of the auditor, clerk, sheriff, recorder and treasurer. The second floor was for the court room, commissioners' room, the jury room and the judge's office. Just next to it was the sheriff's residence with the jail in the rear. Many will remember when the late Gus Lemcke was elected sheriff and resided here with his family. This court house stood for many long years and in it were tried cases some of which, I am sorry to say, are still on the docket. At no time was it a greater center of attraction than on the day that two negroes were hanged to the lamp-posts just at the cor- ner of Main and Third, or the night when Hume Redmon, the blood-thirsty brute and murderer, who murdered his young wife at Mount Vernon, was taken from the jail and killed just around the corner on Sycamore street, after which his lifeless body was thrown into the corridor, where it lay for several hours and where no man, with a spark of manhood in him, no mat- ter how much sympathy he might have in his disposition, would pollute his hands by touching this debased hound. In fact, men who walked past him could hardly resist the temptation to kick his senseless body. As this may give an idea of what bad men were in the old times, a short history of this fiend may not be out of place.
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