Logan's Indianapolis directory, 1868, Part 41

Author:
Publication date: 1868
Publisher: Logan
Number of Pages: 416

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pedition and on its failure remained in the account of the failure to adopt it in the

West. We are indebted to him for the reg- ular plan, large squarcs, wide streets and past. The city long since covered the do- nation, and its suburbs extend in most direc- diagonal avenues of the old plat. He after- tions from a half mile to a mile beyond, but

ward settled here, highly esteemed for his the municipal government and revenues are still restricted to the original donation virtues and mental powers, and dying Jan- uary 5, 1827, lies somewhere in the old limits. The old town plat was not located cemetery in an unmarked grave.

in the center of the donation. The joint

The surveying party having been organ- corner of the four sections is in the alley ized in April, the plan was determined on, ten feet west and five feet south of the south- the plat made and the survey begun. The east corner of the Palmer House lot. The lines and corners of the four sections were traced out, with a fraction on the west bank to complete the 2,560 acres granted. A town plat one mile square was marked out

surveyors found that if the centre of the plat was fixed there too much of the plat would be thrown in Pogue's run valley, then a most unpromising locality. In

near the middle of the donation. A circle searching for a better point the natural lot of nearly four acres in extent surrounded elevation in the present circle was found by a street eighty feet wide occupied the and at once chosen. It was then covered centre, and from the outside corners of the with a fine grove of tall, straight sugar trees, .blocks next to it avenues ninety feet wide which should have been preserved. The were drawn to the corners of the plat. The surveyors were much embarrassed in their other streets ran north and south and east work by the bayous which then crossed the

LGGAN'S HISTGRY OF

donation in a north-east and south-west di- in September, 1822. The people were dis- rection, and by the dense thickets through satisfied with him and with his successor, which they had to cut their way. In some

James Milroy, (who held the office a few places these bayou channels are not yet en- months and then resigned, ) because they did tircly obliterated, and portions of the old

not become permanent residents of the town. thickets were found in protected spots till Bethucl F. Morris was appointed December 1850.

The surveys and maps being completed, 24, 1822; Benjamin I. Blythe Feburary 1, 1825; Ebenezor Sharpe April 8, 1828, the lot sale was duly advertised and held by dying September, 1838; John G. Brown Gen. John Carr, (the first State agent, who then held it a few months, being succeeded January or February, 1835, by Thomas H. had reached here shortly before,) on the 10th of October, at a cabin on Washington Sharpe; John Cook, state librarian, held it street just west of the pressnt canal. The a short time in 1843-4, and the office was sale lasted nearly a week. The first day then transferred to the auditor of State Jan- was cold and raw with a high wind, and a uary, 1844, and the business closed up by man at the sale came near being killed by him. a falling limb. There were many buyers

Until 1821 the centre and north part of present both citizens and strangers, and the State was included in Delaware county Carter's, Hawkins' and Nowland's taverns, yet unorganized but attached, for judicial as well as many of the private houses, were purposes, to Fayette and Wayne counties, thronged with guests ; competition was brisk and high prices were obtained. The main

whose courts had concurrent jurisdiction. The people in the new purchase were sucd settlement was near the river, but lots to and indicted in the courts at Connersville and the east and north sold best, for the unusual other points on Whitewater, and the costs sickness during the Summer and Fall (here- often exceeded the debt, damages or fines. after mentioned) had convinced the people Conflicts of jurisdiction also occurred, ill- they must leave the river neighborhood. feeling was aroused, and the people here Each four acre block was divided into 12 finally rebelled against it. To prevent lots 67₺ by 195 fcet, and the alternate lots trouble the assembly, January 9, 1821, au- were reserved beginning with number one. thorized the appointment of two justices of Three hundred and fourteen lots in the cen- the peace for the new settlements, appeals tral and northern parts of the old plat were lying from them to the Bartholomew circuit sold for $35,596,25, one-fifth or $7,119,25 down and the balance in four equal annual installments. The lot west of court square on Washington street sold highest, $560,

court. In April Governor Jennings ap- pointed John Maxwell, of this place, a jus- tice of the peacc, the first judicial officer in the new purchase, but he resigned in and the similar lot west of state square Junc, and the citizens elected James McIl- brought $500. Intervening lots on the vain, who was duly commissioned in Octo- street sold from $100 to $300. One hun- dred and sixty-nine lots sold at this time were afterward forfeited or exchanged by ber. His twelve foot cabin stood on the north-west corner of Pennsylvania and Michigan streets, where he held court, pipe the buyers for others. The reserved and in mouth, in his cabin door, the jury ranged forfeited lots were repeatedly offered at sub- sequent periods, both at public and private sale; but money was scarce, the town im- proved slowly, prices declined and for sev-

in front on a fallen tree, and the first con- stable, Corbaley, standing guard over the culprits, who nevertheless often escaped through the woods. Calvin Fletcher was cral years few sales were made. Nineteen then the only lawyer, and the last judge in hundred acres of lots and lands remained all the knotty cases, the justice privately unsold as late as 1831, but were mostly dis- posed of in that year by order of the legis- lature, the minimum price being ten dollars

taking his advice as to their disposal. There was no jail nearer than Connersville, and it being expensive and troublesome to per acre. The amount received up to 1842, send culprits there in charge of the consta- when the sales were ended and closed, was ble and posse, the plan was adopted of frightening them away. A case of this kind about $125,000, and from this fund the state house, court house, Governor's circle, occurred on Christmas, 1821. Four Ken- clerk's office and treasurer's house and office tucky boatmen, who had "whipped their were built. General Carr received the

weight in wild cats" on the Kanawha and money and made the deeds at the first sale. elsewhere, came from the bluffs to " Naplis-" His cabin stood on Delaware street where to have a Christmas spree. It began early, Hereth's block now stands, and the elections for the citizens were roused before dawn by were held and the courts began there till the court house was built. He was appoint- ed in 1821 at a salary of $600, but it was reduced next year to $300, and he resigned

a great uproar at Daniel Larkins clapboard grocery, which contained a barrel of whisky. The four heroes were discovered busily em- ployed in tearing it down. A request to

· 5

INDIANAPOLIS FROM 1818.

desist produced a volley of oaths, a display the country and the want of roads the set- of big knives, and an advance on the citi- tlement was almost entirely isolated. The zens, most of whom immediately found pres- sing business elsewhere. They were inter-

national road had been designed to run fif- teen miles south of this point before the site ested, however, in the existence of the gro- was chosen, but the assembly, January 8, cery, and furthermore such defiance of law and order could not be tolcrated. A con-

1821, memorialized congress, stating the lo- cation of the capital, and asking that it be sultation was held, resulting in the determi- made a point on the line. This was after- nation to take the rioters at all hazards. ward conceded, to the great joy of the peo- James Blake volunteercd to grapple the ple, but the road was not commenced in this leader, a man of great size and strength, if State till 1830, and was abandoned in 1839 the rest would take the three others. The before its completion, leaving the town still attack was made, the party captured and in the mud. It is impossible, at present, marched under guard through the woods to with our railroads and good common roads, justice McIlvaine's cabin, where they were to realize the situation of the early settlers at once tried, heavily fined and ordered to after a Spring thaw or a long wet spell, jail at Connersville in default of payment of separated from civilization by sixty miles of bail. Payment was out of the question, and they could not be taken to Connersville at

mud and slush, with unbridged streams, floating corduroys and. fathomless mud that season of the year. Ostentatious pre- holes. Horse-back travel over the so called parations were made, however, for the trip, the posse was selected for the journey next roads was often a serious business, and with a team an impossibility. Until a compara- day, a guard was placed over them with tively late period a " stage" often consisted secret instructions, and during the night the of the four wheels and axles, on which doughty heroes fled to more congenial balanced a crate containing one or two clines.

wet, muddy, half-frozen passengers, dragged wearily into town by four or six horses still claimed jurisdiction, and the annoyance looking like animated masses of mud.

But the Fayette and Wayne county courts therefrom continued. Doubts cxisted as to The Summer of 1821 was distinguished by the general sickness resulting, it was thought, from the heavy fall of rain. It is the legality of Maxwell and Mclivain's ap- pointments, and a meeting was held at Hawkins' log tavern, late in the Fall, to de- said that storms occurred every day in June, vise some remedy for the difficulty. It was July and August. Clouds would suddenly resolved to demand the organization of a gather and send a deluge of water, then as new county, and James Blake and Dr. S. quickly break away, while the sun's rays G. Mitchell were selected as lobby members to attend at Corydon and secure it.

fairly scorched the drenched herbage, gen- erating miasmatic vapors with no wind to The Summer of 1821 was noted for con- tinuous and heavy rains. There is little doubt that much more water fell forty years carry them off. Sickness began in July but did not become general till after the 10th of August, on which day Matthias Nowland ago than now. Storms of wind, rain and had a raising, all the men in the settlement thunder, were more frequent and violent ; streams rose higher and remained full longer ; sections now dry were then very

assisting. Remittant and intermittant fe- vers, of a peculiar type, then began, and in three weeks the community was prostrated. swampy; aud bayous ran bank full that are Thomas Chinn, Enoch Banks and Nancey now unknown. To travel even a few miles Hendricks, were the only persons who es- was sometimes a desperate undertaking, and teams were often stopped for weeks by high water. The whole country was wooded and

caped. Though so general the disease was not deadly, about twenty-five only, mostly children who had been too much exposed, wet; the air was damper, modifying the dying out of several hundred cases. The Winter cold and Summer heat; the wind few who could go about devoted their time generally came from the south and west, to the sick, and many instances of gencrous and the climate was milder and more uni- devoted friendship occurred. Their mutual form than now. As the timber and swamps suffering at this time bound the early sett- disappeared the air grew dryer, fogs were lers together in after life, and none recur to less frequent, winds had more sweep and this period without emotion. New comers came oftener from the north, variations of were disheartened at the prospect, and some hcat and cold increased, till at present the cultivation of peaches,-formerly a certain crop,-has been abandoned; and if the

left the country circulating extravagant re- ports about the health of the town, greatly retarding its subsequent growth. Disease change continues with the deforesting of that year was general in the West. It was the country, it is questionable whether other crops besides peaches will not be lost.

little greater here than elsewhere, and the relative mortality was scarcely so great. It In consequence of the wet condition of abated here by the end of October, the gen-

LOGAN'S HISTORY OF

eral health was soon after entirely restored,

Winter and Spring. John Hawkins had and the people busily engaged in prepara- built a log tavern early in the Fall, where tions for the winter.

The siekness having prevented proper cultivation of the common field, and the throng of strangers at the lot sale having person at that tavern could not see Isaac consumed all surplus food, absolute starva-

the Sentinel office now stands, using logs cut from the site and the street, and so dense was the timber and undergrowth that a

Lynch's house and shoe shop where 5 and tion impended over the settlement. No 7 west Washington now are, and it took roads or mills whatever existed, and all nearly a half mile travel to go from one provisions and goods had to be packed on point to the other. The work of elearing horses sixty miles through the wilderness and burning steadily progressed, and by the from Whitewater. Regular expeditions close of the Spring of 1822 the people re- were organized for procuring food. Flour joiced at being able to take a wagon along and meal were brought on horseback from a zig zag path on and near the street for a Goodlander's mill on Whitewater, then the considerable part of its length.

nearest one, and corn was bought and boated

The first marriage, first birth and first down in canoes and rafts from the Indian death, oceurred during the Summer of villages up the river. , The arrival of sup-

1821. The first marriage was that of Jere- plies from either of these points excited miah Johnson to Miss Jane Reagan. He general joy among the half siek and half walked to Connersville and baek, one hun- starved people. They aided each other in dred and twenty miles, for the license, and this new distress as in the former one, and had to wait several weeks for a preacher to many pecks of meal, pounds of flour, bacon, fish and other artieles of food, were given more destitute neighbors. come along and marry them. He died at his residenee near the eity April 5, 1857. Mordecai Harding (still living,) was the Emigrants were constantly arriving dur- ing the year ending August 1, 1821, by which tinie there were fifty or sixty resident families. The October sales attracted others Shaffer, the first merchant of the place, who and by the end of the year the population was estimated at four or five hundred. Many, however, were only waiting till their cabins were built in the country to move out. Obed Foote, Calvin Fletcher, James Blake, Alexander W. Russel, Caleb Scud- der, Nicholas McCarty, George Smith, Na- thaniel Bolton, Wilkes Reagan and others, arrived during the Summer and Fall of 1821. The wet and sickly Summer was succeeded in October by a long and beauti- first person born on the donation, and James Morrow, the first in the old town plat. The first death was that of Daniel had come in January, 1821, and kept a few goods and groceries at his cabin on the high ground south of Pogue's run, near Pennsyl- vania street. He died in May or June and was buried in Pogue's run valley, near Pennsylvania street, but was taken up and reburied in the old graveyard August 25th. . The first woman who died was Mrs. Max- well, wife of John Maxwell, dying July 3d, and buried on the 4th on the high ground near the Crawfordsville road bridge over ful Indian Summer. The siek recovered Fall creek. Eight persons were buried health and spirits, business improved, new there during the Summer and Fall. No and better cabins were built further from cemetery had been set apart in the original the river, for the settlement left the river survey, but Judge Harrison, at the request after the sickness, though it was still mainly of the people, assigned the lot on the river west of the canal, where a cluster of cabins afterward known as the old burying ground, was dignified with the title of Wilmot's row, Wilmot keeping a little store there.

and on December 31, 1822, the assembly confirmed the grant. In the meantime During the Fall the timber on the streets twenty-five or thirty persons had been was offered to any one who would cut it, buried there. It was covered with heavy and as it was largely composed of splendid timber and undergrowth, but at a eitizens' ash, walnut and oak trees, Lismund Basye meeting March 10, 1824, it was resolved to clear and enclose it. Nearly fifty persons

accepted the grant as a chance for fortune, and labored zealously in felling the trees on had then been laid in it.

Washington street. After cutting a large It may be interesting to give here the part of the timber down the question arose names and dates of arrival of the pioneers " What will he do with it?" and as there in the different trades and professions. were no mills to ent it into lumber, Basye was unequal to the answer. He had drawn John McClung, a new light minister, came in the Spring of 1821, and preached the the elephant and having done so abandoned first sernion here shortly after, in the grove it. The street was so blocked with standing on the circle, the audience sitting around and felled timber and undergrowth that it him on the grass and logs in Indian stylc. was impossible to get through it, and the Services continued there during the Sum- citizens burned it where it lay during the mer and Fall whenever the weather per-

INDIANAPOLIS FROM 1818.

mitted. He died north of town August 18, 1823. Other authorities say the first ser- mon was preached during the Summer, at the state house square, by Rev. Resin Ham- John Maxwell, justice of the peace, March, 1820. William W. Wick, circuit judge, February, 1822. Harvey Bates, sheriff, February, 1822. James J. McIlvain and mond. James Scott, first Methodist preach- Eliakim Harding, associate judges, Sum- er, was sent by the St. Louis conference, and reached here October, 1821, after much difficulty in finding the place. O. P.

mer of 1820. James M. Ray, county clerk, Spring of 1821. Joseph C. Reed, county recorder, Spring of 1821. John McCor- Gaines, first Presbyterian minister, came mack, county commissioner, February 27, August, 1821. John Waters, first Baptist 1820. John T. Osborn, county commission- preacher, came October, 1823. Isaac Coe, physician, May, 1820. Calvin Fletcher, lawyer, September, 1821. Daniel Shaffer, merchant, January, 1821, died May, 1821. James B. Hall, carpenter, Winter of 1820. Matthias Nowland, brick-maker and mason, November, 1820, died November 11, 1822. Andrew Byrne, tailor, November, 1820.

er, Spring of 1821. Samuel Henderson, post- master, Fall of 1821. William P. Murphy, dentist, November, 1829. Elizabeth Now- land, first boarding house, November, 1820, began 1823. Samuel Beck began gunsmith- ing July, 1833, (still at it, 1868,). Hub- bard, Edmunds & Co., book-store, began May, 1833. David Mallory, colored barber, Isaac Lynch, shoemaker, Fall of 1821. in Spring of 1821.

Daniel Shaffer had opened the first store

William Holmes, tinner, Spring of 1822. Michael Ingals, teamster, Fall of 1820. in February or March, 1821, at his cabin Kenneth A. Scudder, Summer of 1820, died on the high ground south of Pogue's run, March 5, 1829, opened first drug store in but dying in May or June, stores were 1823. Wilkes Reagan, butcher and auc- shortly afterward opened by John and tioneer, Summer of 1821. John Shunk,

James Given and John T. Osborn, near the hatter, October, 1821, died September 2, river bank, and by Wilmot, at Wilmot's 1824. Amos Hanway, cooper, came up the row, near the present site of the old Carlisle river in a keelboat, June, 1821. Conrad house, Luke Walpole began in the Fall Brussel, baker, Fall of 1820. Milo R. Da- or Winter, on the south-west corner of the vis, plasterer, Winter of 1820. George state house square, and Jacob Landis on Norwood, wagon maker, Spring of 1822. the south-east corner. Jeremiah Johnson John McCormack, tavern keeper, February 27, 1820, died August 27, 1825. George

also began on the north-west corner of Mar- ket and Pennsylvania streets. The first log Myers, potter, Fall of 1821. Caleb Scud- school house, Joseph C. Reed teacher, was der, cabinet maker, October, 1821. Henry built in 1821, near a large pond just west of and Samuel Davis, chair makers, April or the Palmer house. Reed taught a short May, 1820. Isaac Wilson, miller, March, time being succeeded temporarily by two or 1820. He built the first cabin on the old three others, but no permanent school exist- plat, on the north-west corner of the state ed till after June 20, 1822, when trustees house square, in March, 1820, and the first were chosen, and Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence grist mill on Fall creek, north-west of Black- selected as teachers by a meeting held for ford's addition, in the Summer of 1821, and the purpose at the school house. After the died November 4, 1823. George Pogue, Presbyterian church was finished and the first settler and blacksmith, March 2, 1819, school opened there, Mr. and Mrs. Law- killed by Indians April, 1821. James Lin- rance taught there for several years. The ton, sawyer and mill-wright, Summer of first frame and also the first plastered house

1821, built the first saw mill on Fall creek, near the Crawfordsville road bridge, in September and October, 1821. Nathaniel

was built in the Fall of 1821, by James Blake, on the lot east of Masonic hall. It stood till 1852, and was occupied as the Bolton, editor and printer, September, 1821. Sentinel office from 1841 to 1844. During George Smith, printer and book-binder,

the same Winter Thomas Carter built a two August, 1821, began book-binding March, story ceiled frame tavern, (the first two

1823. Joseph C. Reed, teacher and county recorder, Spring of 1821. Samuel Walton,

story house,) eighteen by twenty feet, at 40 west Washington street. It was long known spinning wheel maker, October, 1826. R. as the Rosebush tavern from its sign. It A. McPherson, first foundry, July, 1832. was afterward moved to the vicinity of the Samuel S. Rooker, house and sign painter, canal, and again to a point near the sol- Fall of 1821. Daniel Yandes, tanner, Jan- dicr's home, where it is yet standing. James uary, 1821. John Ambrozene, watch and Linton built the first saw mill in September clock maker, February, 1825. James Pax- and October, 1821, on Fall creek, above the ton, militia colonel, October, 1821, died Crawfordsville bridge; and about the same April 5, 1829. Samuel Morrow, lieut. colo- time he built the first grist mill, for Isaac nel, Spring or Summer of 1820. Alexan- Wilson, on Fall creek bayou north-west of der W. Russell, major, Spring of 1821. Blackford's addition. Until this mill was

LOGAN'S HISTORY OF

finished the people sent sixty miles to healthier and better housed and acquainted, Goodlander's for flour and meal, or hulled became sociable and merry. Dances, quilt- hominy in a stump mortar. The mills af- ings and weddings were frequent. Candi- terward built here had no bolting cloths, dates were numerous and busily eanvassing and fine flour was not made here until the for the county offices. Christmas brought steam mill was built in 1832. Linton also its round of festivities, and the Winter pas- built the first two story frame dwelling in sed pleasantly in spite of past sickness, the Spring of 1822, at 76 west Washington threatened famine and eold, which was both street. It was burned during the Winter of severe and protraeted. The snow was deep 1847. The first market house was built in and large logs werc hauled on the ice in the maple grove on the circle, in May,

the river, but fuel at least was plenty, and 1822, and Wilkes Reagan first sold meat with large chimneys, great back-logs and there in Junc. The first briek house was roaring fires, the inmates of the rude cabins bid defiance to the weather.

Wyrary

Public Lib

dianapolis

1822. The assembly, on the 3d of Janu- ary, ordered the unsold lots to be leased, the lessees to elear them in four months. Two acres were to be sold for a briek-yard, and a three year lease given of the ferry. Lands in west Indianapolis were leased in lots of five to twenty acres. Improvements on unsold lots could be removed in forty days after sale. One hundred thousand dollars were soon after appropriatad to eut roads through the wilderness.

The Indianapolis Gazette, the first jour- nal in the new purchase, edited printed and published by George Smith and Nathaniel Bolton, was first issued January 28th, from (The First Brick House.) a eabin south-west of the intersection of the canal and Maryland street. The office was built for John Johnson, begun in 1822 and moved to the present theatre corner the finished in the Fall of 1823, on the lot east next year, and a few years afterward to east of Robert's chapel and is yet standing.

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Logan's Indianapolis directory, 1868, Part 41

Author: Publication date: 1868 Publisher: Logan Number of Pages: 416

Author:
Publication date: 1868
Publisher: Logan
Number of Pages: 416