USA > Indiana > Vanderburgh County > Evansville > History of the city of Evansville and Vanderburg County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
"In the olden days we were none of us rich. We all had plenty. That is the majority of us and if our neighbors had not as much, we helped them, but there was a bond of sympathy beween us all, that the people of the present day and age do not seem to understand. If the poor needed help we helped them and if they knew anything of morals or manners, they were gladly received at all the hospitable old homes. I may have some foolish ideas, but I cannot see why a man or his family who once had plenty of this world's goods and had lost it, often through no fault of their own, should not be just as good and be as well thought of, after losing their money, as when they had it. Riches do not last through many generations and many of the descendants of the families who would have been called wealthy in the olden days, have very little today. Yet the stock is just as good as ever and they are just as much entitled to every social distinction. I did not intend to moralize when I began to talk to you of the olden times, but these ideas have crept into my head as I sit and think of the careers of those I have known during my long residence here and of whom there are so few left today. I think perhaps, returning to our social enjoyments,
56
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
that the most pleasant days in Evansville were just before the war. There was never a time that there were not Kentucky girls visiting here, for we were great neighbors with our friends across the Ohio, while girl-visiting be- tween here and Vincennes was a regular thing, so that there were, at every party, plenty of strangers who soon learned to know hospitable Evansville and who always came back whenever the chance presented itself. We girls thought nothing of little trips to the neighboring towns where we were equally well-treated. But when the war came, it changed everything for a time. No one can ever make me believe that conditions have ever been the same since that time. Of course this is now a great city where all sorts of polite social amenities are rather rigidly observed.
"We hear little now of the straw rides, the nutting parties and the May parties, which were always a feature and never neglected and which filled my girlhood days. We were taught to believe that there was nothing wrong in them at all and yet conditions have changed in other ways. In the olden times if a young man had come to call on a young lady and had taken her out strolling by herself or had sat with her alone in the parlor, darkened to the usual shade now observed, the whole neighborhood would have held up its hands in holy horror. In those days when a young man called on a girl, either one or both parents remained in the room, during the winter. In summer they sat on the porches and one of them was always present. Very often both parents were present. There was no chance for that interchanging of sweet nothings which is so common today. While I do not go out much of an evening, I know that it is considered the proper thing for a young couple to sit for instance in the dark corner of a porch. My father would have quickly ordered off the place, any young man who would ever attempt such an undignified thing with my sisters or myself. It was only after a young couple had become engaged and the news was well known in the neighborhood, that they were permitted to go anywhere together. Some member of the family always accompanied them. I do not know whether this change has made matters better or worse. There is an old saying that love will find a way and to the best of my recollection, our young men of the olden times could sit in a room full of people with their sweethearts and look so much love that it was hardly necessary to say anything. The girls always understood. The girl who did not was not a true daughter of Mother Eve. My grand- daughters have often told me of "Old Folks" parties and Tacky par- ties and have explained to me just what they are. We had nothing of that kind when I was a girl and for the simplest of reasons. What would be considered an old folk's costume at the present time, was just about what we wore then. Our mothers always managed to have a best dress, as did each one of the girls, although the best dresses of the girls were usually simple white muslins with a ribbon or two. If any of us wore a band of lace it was from a cherished hoard that our mothers had put by in the old hair trunks, and which were only brought out on festal occa-
57
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
sions. There are today in some of our old families, pieces of lace work which are more than a century old. These have been worn by great- great-grandmothers down to the present, for even at this day when every- thing must be new and must come from either Paris or from some high- priced professional dressmaker, a bit of that old lace always looks well to the girl who possesses it, and she considers herself lucky. But not all of us had laces and often our best dress for the greatest state occasion was a simple white muslin with a little bow at the neck, a ribbon in the hair or wild flowers, and a broad belt of ribbon, for the leather belt was absolutely unknown. To have worn a belt of that kind in those days would have stamped a girl as being 'mannish.' Only a man ever wore belts and to go a little further into details, while I am telling you of the old Evansville girls, it will not shock you to tell you that colored hose were unknown. Plain white stockings were the only thing we knew to match these dresses, of course. In the winter we wore wool stockings of a delicate hue, but the girl who attended a dance or frolic, even if there were heavy drifts of snow, was always supposed to wear the thinnest white stockings she could possibly obtain and very low shoes.
"Among other things that are hoarded today in Evansville are the old shawls that the pioneer woman wore only on state occasions. These of course were of silk and heavily fringed and were all made either in Eng- land or France. Many of our mothers brought shawls from England when they came over and afterwards they could be traded for by those who happened to be in New York, Baltimore or Philadelphia, for in those days these were about the only points through which goods were imported, except Charleston, South Carolina. Many of these relics came from North and South Carolina, for quite a number of our people can trace their descent to the pioneers who came from these two states. Sometimes they came from New Orleans and I remember the trousseau of one wealthy lady who came here to live in 1850 but who died here shortly afterwards, that was a marvel of silks and old laces. It is unfortunate that these did not go into the proper hands at her death. But as I was here living in Evansville at the time she died, I know that neither those nor her jewels went where they belonged.
It has been a pleasure to me to talk to you about the old days and after all, it seems but a short time since I was a girl and this country was almost the wilderness I have described. I know only too well that my span of life is nearly over and this fact comes home to me most poignantly when I close my eyes and think how few of the old girls of Evansville are still living. I have few theories about either the next life or the spirit world, but I often catch myself thinking that if there is such a thing as the spirit life and my father and mother can see what is going on today, how strange it must be to them to realize that the little country settlement in which they lived and reared their children, has grown into the great pushing city of today, with what I am sure are the very greatest of opportunities before it."
CHAPTER VI.
HUGH M'GARY-HE WAS THE ACTUAL FOUNDER-HIS PURCHASE OF THE ORIGINAL GROUND-STARTING OF THE FERRY-HIS STORE AND THE FIRST POST-OFFICE- GENERAL EVANS COMES-INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN -M'GARY'S TROUBLE-WHY HE LEFT HERE.
The deed to Hugh McGary for the ground on which stands the city of Evansville was made by the government to him in 1812, and, though as stated, other pioneers were scattered around this section, to him and to him only belongs the credit of founding it. And to him belongs the credit of keeping it here after it was first founded, for it came near being wiped off the map.
He saw the great advantages in her location. He had confidence from the start and was the kind of man who never turned back when once he made up his mind. Various descriptions of him have been given and the consensus of them is about as follows. He was of medium height, but very strongly built, and very active. He was not a man of much educa- tion, but belonged rather to the middle class as far as booklearning was concerned. But in the rough and tumble class, ready for a game of skill, a contest of muscle or a downright fight, he was easily a leader.
Still he was a shrewd man and one who acquired education from obser- vation, as witness the facts that he filled admirably the position of associate judge of Warrick County.
He was known as a fighter and this did not apply to his fists alone; he was ready to fight for anything he believed was right. He was of dark, almost swarthy complexion, with piercing black eyes, set wide apart. He married "Polly" Anthony, a daughter of the man who built the first mill on Pigeon Creek.
In this connection it may not be out of place to insert a recently pub- lished account of his career. The writer says:
"It is said that the history of a nation is but the biography of its great men and what is true of the larger governmental unit, the nation, may be equally so of the smaller unit, the city. The early history of Evansville is indeed the epitome of the activities of this one man, Colonel Hugh Mc- Gary, founder of a village which has become a commercial and manu- facturing metropolis, the abode of more than 80,000 people."
Speaking of the return trip to Evansville after having come down the old Indian Trail, and thence crossed to his Kentucky home, he says :
58
59
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
"Hugh McGary, and his three brothers, Jesse, Harrison and William, all sturdy pioneers, filled with adventurous spirit, put their Kentucky home behind them, crossed the Ohio and sought a new abode in the wilderness of the new Indiana territory. They landed at the foot of what is now Di- vision street and drew their canoe up under the "old elm tree" which stood on the spot now marked by a young tree of the same variety, planted in recent years to commemorate the landing place of the founder of Evans- ville.
"Perhaps the pioneer as he stood beneath the branches of the elm saw a vision of the city's future. Who can deny him the prophetic eye? Who can say that as he stood there he did not see in his mind's eye the picture of the city's greatness, her tall buildings, busy factories and bustling streets ?
"He pushed on, however, into Warrick county, but remained there only a few months, returning to the place where he landed. Now began the long and tiresome battle to establish the town which his brain had con- ceived.
"March 27, 1812, Colonel McGary purchased from the federal govern- ment much of the land which is now covered by the city of Evansville. He was not the first white man to settle here but those who had come before had lacked his hardihood, his indomitable spirit and had been driven back across the Ohio by the Indians, who inhabited the region. McGary was one of the rough and ready type of the new West .. The qualities which gained him prominence among the men with whom he associated himself were not the accomplishments and pleasing manners which attract attention in polite society. He had no extraordinary ability. Indeed, as the settlement grew up around him there were many who, intellectually, towered head and shoulders above him. He did, however, possess that which is infinitely of more value to the settler of a savage country, the es- sential attributes of the pioneer. Strength, the inherent strength of his Kentucky forests; fearlessness, such as is found in men who dare blaze their own trails through the interminable wilderness; a sense of justice, which restrained him from encroaching upon the rights of others and a pugnacious Irish disposition which boded ill for those who encroached upon his own, were the dominant traits of this man's character.
"McGary was known far and wide as a "fighter," a dangerous man to rouse and in those days when a man's life from day to day depended upon his ability to defend it alike from savage man and savage beast, this repu- tation was rather creditable than otherwise.
"The pioneer at first merely established a ferry over the Ohio river, known for miles about as McGary's ferry. In 1813 the legislature passed the act which resulted in the formation of Warrick county. This included all the territory now composing Spencer, Warrick, Vanderburg and Posey counties. The same year, a commission was appointed to choose a site for a county seat and they were directed to meet at the mill of Jonathan Anthony, McGary's father-in-law. McGary's land was far from being the
60
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
center of the county but he was shrewd in placing before the commis- sioners the advantages of his site and by the donation of 100 acres of land to the county secured a favorable report from them and the choice of his place for the location of the seat. June 14, 1814, it was ordered by the county court that the agent of the county proceed to lay the city off into lots.
"The embryonic city was named in honor of General Robert M. Evans, a distinguished soldier and citizen of Gibson county, who had up to this time, in no way identified himself with the place. General Evans and Colonel McGary had previously been friends and neighbors and the Colonel was quick to realize the General's worth and the advantages to be gained through the weight of his name and influence. McGary doubtless took this means of enlisting his support and interest in the welfare of the town.
"For a few short months everything took on a rosy hue. McGary's ambi- tion seemed realized, all there was left for him to do was to sit down and watch the fulfillment of his dream. Three months passed in peace, and, then, the legislature meeting once more, decided upon the formation of Posey county in the southwestern corner of the territory. This so altered Warrick county as to place Evansville at one extremity of the river border, still more than fifty miles long. Because of this the legislature passed a law providing for the removal of the county seat from Evansville to a point thirteen miles to the eastward. The town established by the provision of the act was called Darlington and after a brief, uneventful career, passed out of existence, its decadence being due to the removal of the seat of jus- tice of Warrick county to the town of Boonville.
"At the time when the legislature took the county seat from Evansville it passed a law providing that those who had risked money in lots in Evans- ville were authorized to cancel the deeds and collect the money paid for them. By this act the town was practically legislated out of existence. Stag- nation set in, everything sank into decay. With each passing day the out- look grew blacker and blacker. McGary alone was undaunted and when the situation presented the most discouraging view, he was busying his brain to find some means of avoiding complete disaster.
"He secured a license to open a trading store and made his home the meeting place of every class of men. He played politics with a shrewd and confident hand and about this time was appointed to the associate judgeship of Warrick county. This was long before the day when it was necessary for an aspirant for judiciary honors to spend years in prepara- tion. To dispense justice in McGary's time the sole requisites were fair play, fearlessness and integrity. He possessed all of these and his record on the bench was no mean one.
"On July 27, 1817, Hugh McGary, General Evans and James W. Jones, also a resident of the settlement, laid out what is now known as the orig- inal town of Evansville, reaching from Third to Water street and from Chestnut to Division street. The block crossed by Third and Main streets
61
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
was reserved as a public square. There were 144 lots in the town. On January 7, 1818, a law was passed by the legislature, creating Vanderburg county and naming Evansville as the county seat. Now McGary could see the beginning of the realization of his dream. His next effort was to have a postoffice established here and when it was, he was appointed postmaster. Mails were received at irregular intervals by stage from Vincennes."
General Evans first served under General William Henry Harrison and fought with him at the battle of Tippecanoe. He and Harrison were always the warmest of friends. About the year 1826 he settled at New Harmony and kept a hotel, but he had confidence in this city and moved back here in 1828, buying a half interest in McGary's holdings. He took Main street for a sort of dividing line and laid out the city above it, known as the "Original Plan" of Evansville. History states that in 1827 General Evans had one son Camillus and a lovely daughter Miss Julia. When I came here there were four grandsons, De Witt, Bob, Paul and Perry. I stood over the dead bodies of Paul and Bob the night they killed each other at the old Appolo Halle. De Witt was drowned and though I went to school with Perry I never knew what became of him.
The Evans homestead was on a little mound on the banks of the old canal, what is now Fifth street. There were great trees around it, the orig- inal growth of the forest. General Evans was a great friend of James W. Jones and of McGary and the three re-platted the town in 1817. Just before the county of Vanderburg was taken off Warrick County Evans and McGary then offered to donate one hundred lots and $500 in cash if the legislature would "establish a permanent seat of justice in Vanderburg County at Evansville."
The daughter of General Evans was married to Judge Silas Stevens. The only son was Camillus, who was drowned. I know the history of the first marriage and divorce of Paul Evans and know why he quarreled with his mother, then married again and went south, and also why he and Bob quarreled, but as it has never been published there is no good in dragging out a family skeleton. Mrs. Saleta Evans in her last years tried to do all the good she could and has left a monument to her memory. "Let the dead past bury its dead."
During all this time a few settlers had been coming in and new cabins were being built. Hugh McGary essayed a frame house and the first court was held in one end of it, his family goods being moved into his store for the time being. The first election was held in August, 1818, and the fol- lowing town trustees were elected: Hugh McGary, Isaac Fairchild, Everton Kinnerly, Alfred O. Warner and Francis J. Bentley. Hugh McGary was elected president and Elisha Harrison secretary and lister (assessor), John Connor treasurer. The collector and town marshal was Alphonse Fair- child. The first levy was twenty cents on the dollar and the great sum of $191.28 was collected. Think how little our forefathers had. At this time there was just one public building, an iron or tavern kept by Ansel Wood.
62
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
It was known as the Bull's Head in after years and it remained long after I came here.
The work done by McGary did not prevent the family from furnishing material for a criminal calendar after the courts of justice were organized. Jesse, the eldest brother, served as the object of the first serious prosecu- tion in the county. He was indicted for assault and battery with intent to murder. Later he was let out on bail furnished by his brothers Hugh and William, but once out of custody he became so violent and defiant that the brothers withdrew the bail and Jesse was again taken in charge by the sheriff. There was no jail or safe place where he could be lodged, so he was chained to a hickory stump in the rear of the sheriff's house. Like his brother Hugh in later years he was acquitted but was too proud to live in the community which had witnessed his humiliation. He soon left and was not again heard from. The cases of the two brothers, so nearly parallel in every par- ticular, form an interesting chapter in Evansville early history.
March 1, 1819, it was unanimously voted by the twenty-nine voting citi- zens of the town to incorporate. Hugh McGary's name appears among the incorporators. In the home of Alfred O. Warner March 8, 1819, twenty- three men voted to elect a board of five trustees. One would hesitate to accuse such honorable men as our early founders of corrupt politics but for some reason or other several of the candidates received twenty-four votes, when there were only twenty-three men voting. Isaac Fairchild, Francis J. Bentley and Everton Kennerly received twenty-four votes. Hugh Mc- Gary was chosen president and Elisha Harrison secretary of the board, and ceived one. Records do not show why three men received twenty-four votes, nor if Mr. Warner voted for himself. An unbiased person might believe that politics were played in much the same manner one century ago as they are now. Bentley refused to serve, so Warner got the place. Mc- Gary was chosen president and Elisha Harrison secretary of the board, and Alphus Fairchild collector and marshal. The first tax levy was twenty cents on each $100.
From the time he had completed his term as associate justice of the county court, McGary had kept a tavern. His building was along the river front and was made of hewn logs, a story and a half high and thirty-eight feet long by eighteen feet wide. It was first used as a store but later con- verted into a tavern and it was here that the first postoffice was located. About the time of the first election the population of the village was about 100 and it was growing rapidly. From 1820 to 1828, witnessed a period of depression nation wide. This caused the village to remain practically still during these years. McGary through all this time continued to remain the "first" citizen of the community. His tavern had something of the character of a club. All the prominent people met there and discussed the events and gossip of the day.
In 1827 and 1828 prosperity began to return, carrying in its trail rapidly increasing population for Evansville.
63
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
The year 1832 came and brought with it his deepest humiliation. By a trick of fortune, McGary was repaid with ingratitude for services which merited the highest reward. He was arrested for horse theft, tried and acquitted by a court of justice but driven to seek a new home by the idle gossip of his enemies.
Thus the man to whose aggressiveness and wonderful force of char- acter Evansville owes its founding turned his back on life's work, left the city for which he had given so much of the labor of his mature years and closed his days away from the habitation he loved.
It was in the year of 1832 that Mark Wheeler appeared before Squire Jacobs of Scott township and swore out a warrant charging McGary with appropriating one of his horses.
In those days horse stealing was a crime fully as serious as murder and of the two, punishment was generally more certain to follow the first than the second named offense. In the "Circuit Rider," Edward Eggleston says, "It is a singular tribute to the value of a horse, that among barbarous and half civilized people, horse stealing has ever been accounted a crime more atrocious than homicide. In such communities to steal a man's horse is the greatest of larcenies-is to rob him of the stepping stone to civiliza- tion."
A warrant was issued for McGary and the duty of serving it fell to the constable, Samuel Hooker. He well knew McGary's reputation as a "fighter" and anticipating a desperate resistance took five men, heavily armed, with him in search of the supposed culprit. The martial host found him peacefully astride the stolen horse, waiting to welcome them as friends. He surrendered without a murmur and returned with his captors and was arraigned before the bar of justice.
His defense was simple. He claimed to have purchased the animal from a man named Wasson who subsequently ran away and could not be found. The act established Wasson's guilt in the minds of most of the community and resulted in the acquittal of McGary.
McGary had some enemies, as every man of action must have and these never daring to fight him openly, satisfied their vindictive natures by libel- ing him at every turn. For a time he bore up proudly against all the taunts they hurled upon him. Rough though this man's exterior was, it covered a heart as tender as a woman's, and it bled when he saw men who were formerly his dearest friends turn coldly from him. Telling his friends he was going on a business trip, he mounted his horse and facing to the south- ward, rode away into the wilderness, never again to be heard of by those who had fought and worked, side by side with him in the effort to make Evansville the city it was destined to be.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.