USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 36
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The superintendent shall provide for the examination of graduates from the common branches and from the high schools. He shall attend as many commencements as he can. He shall hold a preliminary institute in each township prior to the opening of school; but instead he may hold a joint institute for two or more adjoining school corporations. In 1908 there were three preliminaries held in Tippecanoe; the high school teachers met in the office one day; the common school teachers the next ; and on the third day the beginning teachers held their institute. The course of study was dis- cuissed with these sections.
Since 1899 but eight examinations are held in the year. Since January. 1908, licenses of one, two and three years' duration only have been issued. The county superintendent must hold these examinations: grade the manu- scripts ; issue the licenses ; and keep a record of same. He must keep a daily
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record of all his proceedings. He must, not later than July Ist of each year, issue a success grade to each teacher under his supervision.
In the event of failure of a trustee to take the enumeration, it becomes the county superintendent's duty to cause the enumeration to be taken. From the fifteen enumeration reports of the county, the county superintendent reports to the superintendent of public instruction and to the county auditor. A penalty of twenty-five dollars is attached for failure to report.
The official dockets of courts, auditor, commissioners, justices, prosecutors, mayors and trustees are subject to the inspection of the county superintendent.
He is chairman of the county board of education, and as such suggests texts for high schools. And he must furnish a county manual annually, which sets forth the plans of the county board for the year. The course of study detailed ; the texts; and other matters of interest and importance are found in this little volume.
He must make annually a report to the superintendent of public instruc- tion, statistical and financial, based on fifteen reports from the school corpora- tions of the county. This is a long report and difficult to make.
As chairman of the truancy board, the county superintendent has a vote for the truant officers. The appointment is made annually in May. This officer reports his work to the county superintendent for approval.
It will from these facts appear that the county superintendent who tries to do all his duty is a very busy man. It may also be apparent that one man will have more work than he can properly execute in a large county like Tippe- canoe.
SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.
The superintendent of public instruction is an outgrowth of the treasurer of state. The acts of the legislature of 1849 made the treas- urer of state the superintendent of the common schools, and the school com- missioners of the counties reported sale of lands and other statistics to him. The constitution of 1851 created the office of state superintendent of public instruction.
The duties of this office are important and far reaching. The super- intendent is chairman of the state board of education: of the state board of school book commissioners; of the state teachers' training board; and makes the distribution of state funds to the counties for school purposes. He plans the course of study for the state and sets the pace for the head of the county schools. Ile is the state head of the school system of Indiana.
DAN W. SIMMS 1907 TO -
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M . M . LAIRY 1906 TO -
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H . B.LYMAN 1908 TO-
MEMBERS BOARD OF EDUCATION
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, IND. 369
NOTE: Acknowledgments are especially due Judge H. H. Vinton; the law firm of Crockett & Baird; and the Rev. R. D. Utter, D. D., for the use of their valuable libraries. Septimius Vater, W. B. Smith, Prof. G. M. Moser and others have assisted the writer materially in the present task. BRAINARD HOOKER.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
RAILROADS, CANALS AND RIVER TRANSPORTATION.
The matter of transportation has always been of great use and interest to the settlers of any community. In the days before railways the most efficient means by which products and merchandise could be transported from one point to another was primarily by keel-boat and barge plying the uncer- tain currents of navigable streams, and later by a system of canals which usually were constructed along the valleys of streams, and from them were fed with a sufficient supply of water to float the canal boats. These boats were usually drawn by means of a horse traveling on what was called a tow- patlı. This afforded a very cheap means of conveying all kinds of produce to and from the sea-board.
The subject of internal improvements began to agitate the minds of the people of Indiana as early as 1818, but nothing definite was undertaken in way of providing such improvements until about 1832, when public roads and canals were begun. The Wabash & Erie canal was among the greatest of such undertakings. During 1835 thirty-two miles of this canal were com- pleted. Of the three million, seven hundred thousand dollars of state indebted- ness about one-half had been expended on the construction of this canal. The state had annually paid two hundred thousand dollars interest on its public debt and finally in 1837 the people began to feel that the burden was too great to think of increasing further, and the work of making appropriations for internal improvements began to lessen. By 1839 all public improvement work ceased. The state owed a debt of eighteen million dollars in 1840, but be it said to her credit that she did not repudiate her obligations as did nu- merous states at about that date. In 1850 private capital and enterprise pushed to the front and began to make internal improvements as an investment. The advent of the railroad had forever ended the use of canals, practically speak- ing, for time as well as cheapness must be counted with in shipping goods. With the ushering in of the railroad era, there came a new life to this county, as well as to all parts of Indiana.
The Wabash river had been the great channel through which had been conveyed the products of the soil and in exchange were brought by boat fron the far away Southland the groceries and many other articles of household
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use. The wharf at Lafayette had been for years a busy scene of shipping. The river fleets were numerous and extensive, but all had suddenly been changed-the steam horse and iron rail had been introduced.
The Wabash & Erie canal was completed to Lafayette from the northeast, in 1843, but was not finished to Vincennes until 1849, when the railroads began to supersede the canals. This expensive water-way was accordingly soon abandoned altogether. It was sold out in sections to parties who wished to utilize it for water-power purposes in manufacturing.
Prior to the introduction of the canal system, the Wabash river was the great water route and Lafayette was called "head of navigation." Great rewards were offered to those who should make the stream of use for steam- boats as far up as Logansport, and even to higher points up the river, but all to no avail, as such improvements were found to cost more than they were worth, on account of the rapids and the many rocks encountered.
At Lafayette the canal once cut a big commercial figure, but with the introduction of the railway systems it was forever abandoned and for many years there has been but little to mark the site of that water-way, the streets having been graded and filled, as well as the right of way where once trod the horse and driver on the tow-path, which were altogether too slow a means for the enterprising population of Indiana, when once it was learned that steam railways were practical.
STEAMBOATING AT LAFAYETTE-1836.
The files of the Free-Press and Commercial Advertiser show the follow- ing advertisement of the then leading wholesale grocer of Lafayette :
"T. T. BENBRIDGE.
"Wholesale Grocer and Liquor Store, Main street, Northeast Corner of Public Square, Lafayette, Indiana.
"Received by late boat, and all for sale at lowest prices-50 bags of coffee; 15 boxes chocolate; 3,000 Spanish made cigars; 300 boxes Malay cigars; 200,000 common cigars ; 1,000 pounds of cheese; 1,500 pounds cod fish ; 12 barrels of Bologna Sausage; 1,000 pounds bar lead : 30 kegs gun- powder ; 50 bags shot ; 30 boxes Herring; 20 barrels of New Orleans rum; 50 barrels American brandy ; 30 barrels American gin; 5 barrels Holland gin; 20 barrels Mountain Wine; 10 barrels Barley Whisky; 10 barrels Old Monongahela Whisky; 25 barrels molasses.
"All arrived on the boat 'Tecumseh' yesterday."
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STEAMBOAT REGISTER.
The following boat notice was carried in the Free-Press in April, 1836:
"The River continues in fine boating stage. Arrivals, as follows: April 2, 1836, 'Emigrant' from mouth of Wabash; 'Portsmouth' from Americus; 'Tecumseh' from Logansport; 'Cuba' from Cincinnati.
"April 3, 'Tecumseh' from Logansport; 'Mt. Vernon,' from Cincinnati. "April 5, 'Citizen,' from Cincinnati.
"April 7, 'Aid,' from Louisville; 'Lady Byron,' from Louisville ; 'Science,' from mouth of Wabash."
The railroads had covered the state, crossing and re-crossing Tippe- canoe county, in almost every direction by 1884, at which time the state had a total of five thousand. five hundred and twenty-one miles of railroad in operation.
The following is a description of the railroads in Tippecanoe county up to 1887: "There are five railroads running through Tippecanoe county ; four of them run through Lafayette. Their short and long names are: The "Monon" route, or the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago; "Wabash," the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific; "Erie," or Lake Erie & Western; "Big Four," the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago; the "Narrow-Gauge," the Toledo & Kanssas City. All of these roads have had their legal names from time to time as they fell into the hands of different companies.
The first railroad line to traverse the territory of Tippecanoe county was the Monon route, completed in the autumn of 1852, and the same was put in operation the following summer from New Albany to Michigan City.
Fifty thousand dollars stock was taken in this road by individuals in Tippecanoe county. It was at first called the New Albany & Salem railroad, and about 1864 the present name was adopted. James M. Reynolds, of Lafayette, was for a number of years manager of this road. The "Lahr House" was the principal passenger depot for Lafayette, while "Lafayette Depot" was about half a mile to the north. The present city station of this road is situated on Fifth street, in the heart of the city, and is one of the fine modern structures of this line of road-a handsome stone building, one story in height, and is used exclusively for the passenger service of the road. This depot was completed in 1901.
The track of the Wabash railroad was completed to Lafayette in 1854, and the cars commenced running the next year. Azariah Boody was for a long time afterward president of the company operating this route. At first
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it was known as the Toledo, Wabash & Western, then the Toledo, Wabash & St. Louis, and finally the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific.
The next railroad enterprise in this county was the construction of this division of the Lake Erie & Western railroad in 1869, in Lafayette, by Adanis Earl, who for the purpose organized the "Lafayette, Muncie & Bloomington Railroad Company," and was elected director and was also its first president. Tippecanoe county gave three hundred and seventy-three thousand dollars in aid for this road. All along the line the various counties through which the road was established, the sum of from fifty thousand dollars to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was donated. The track was complete to Lafayette in 1874. From Bloomington. Illinois, it was completed to the state line in 18;I. The present name was adopted in 1881.
The "Big Four" has the following history in this county: In 1869 the Cincinnati, Lafayette & Chicago Railroad Company was organized to con- struct and operate a railroad from Lafayette to Kankakee, seventy-five miles distant, there to unite with the Illinois Central for Chicago. It was built and owned by Adams Earl, Moses Fowler and Gustavus Ricker, Mr. Earl being president, general manager and builder. This line was completed in 1872. In 1877 Mr. Earl purchased Mr. Fowler's stock and thereby obtained control. In 1879 he disposed of his interest to Boston capitalists and at the same time retired from its management.
The Lafayette depot of the two latter named roads is situated at the foot of South street, at the bridge over which both roads cross the Wabash river. This company uses the tracks of the Lake Erie & Western for a dis- tance of eighteen miles west of Lafayette.
The old narrow-gauge railroad, passing through the southeastern por- tion of Tippecanoe county, with Clark's Hill as one of its station points within this county, in 1887-8 was made a standard gauge and first class road. More than a quarter of a century passed and still the people had only the advan- tages of the canal and Wabash river boats as transportation facilities. The railroad era began here fifty-seven years ago, and great have been the strides in railroad traffic with the passing of these years. Where Lafayette had the arrival of but one boat, each second day, she now has forty trains daily.
With these great systems of iron highways, diverging in all points of the compass from Lafayette, this county has most excellent shipping and passenger train facilities. The transformation has been great since William Digby, in the month of May, 1825. named his newly platted town on the banks of the Wabash river after General Lafayette. and at a time when no trading was being carried on here, save by Longlois, the old French trader.
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After the canal was abandoned and fell into disuse as a motive power for machinery, great loss was met with. It was long argued even in modern years that the canal should have been kept in repair for the water that it carried through the country and might have been utilized for mechanical purposes, the driving of milling plants and factories. At one time there were numerous mills for the making of flour along the creeks and along the site of this canal. With the invention of the "roller process" for manufacturing flour, the old buhr-stones have fallen by the way and are counted only as relics of the pioneer days. Had it not been for the introduction of electricity in the later eighties. as a motive force for the propelling of light machinery, the theory held by the people who wanted the state to keep up the dams and keep the canal in good water-carrying repair might have been practical, but since the development of this wonder-working element-electricity-the notion obtained now seems amusing.
LAFAYETTE BELT RAILWAY.
1
In 1891 a company was formed in Lafayette with Adams Earl and others as prime movers for the purpose of building a belt line around the eastern portion of Lafayette, in order to give shippers and manufacturers better advantages in switching from one system of railway to another in the city. It was made to appear that it was of general use to the tax-payers and a tax was levied on the property by which one hundred thousand dollars was raised. The total length of the road is a fraction over six miles, yet its cost was stated as being almost one hundred thousand dollars. For a time the line was successfully operated, but of late years it has gone partly to decay, while one section of it is used for switching from the Wabash railroad. It forms a semi-circle around the city on the east.
ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEMS.
With the march of the decades, the people of Tippecanoe county have had the full benefit of the advanced sciences and the wonderful discoveries and inventions wrought out by man. This applies as much, or even more, to the matter of transportation of both freight and passengers as to any other branch of industry. First the "prairie schooner" wending its way over hill and glen, drawn by trusty oxen or horses ; next the river crafts of keel-boats, barges and later the majestic steamboat. Then these were superseded by the
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fast rolling steam cars drawn by locomotive, by steam power, which it was thought could never be improved on or excelled, but with the advent of the electric age, beginning (practically) in 1880, with the Edison light, there came a still more wonderful innovation in the way of power to assist man, and Tippecanoe county, with Lafayette, was among the early cities to be equipped with electric lights, and still a little later came the electric street cars ( 1887) and this afforded a wonderful convenience in and about the city. But this did not materially aid the farming communities, but it was not long before inven- tive genius and capital hand in hand sought out a way to apply the electric current in such a manner that it was practical for interurban cars, nearly as large as ordinary steam railway coaches, to be propelled hither and yon over the county and to distant points within the state.
The ordinance book of the city of Lafayette shows that the first enact- ment looking to the present system of interurban lines was approved January 12, 1903. in which the Fountain-Warren Traction Company was granted a franchise to construct and operate an interurban railway through this city. This was the beginning of what has now come to be known as the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company, and the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern Traction Company. On the first named line are the following sta- tion points : Battle Ground. Soldiers' Home, the Tecumseh Trail, Lafayette, Buck Creek and Colburn, in this county.
On the southeastern line is the town of Dayton. in Sheffield township.
These lines of traction are a great help to agriculturists and side town customers of Lafayette, Indianapolis and northern cities with which they connect by trains almost each hour in the day.
BOYS AT THE WHARF.
Twenty boats were frequently seen unloading and loading between where now stands the Big Four depot and the gas works plant, along the Wabash & Erie canal and the Wabash river. One citizen, now over seventy years of age, and who was born in Lafayette, relates how, when a school boy, he with others frequently went to the wharf, when the wholesale men and boat hands were unloading goods, and when not in too full view of the owners of the cargo, they used to insert pieces of cane hollowed out into the holes found in New Orleans sugar barrels and hogsheads, and from the same draw out their pockets full of sugar. Also how at other times, they used to insert a willow sprig into the vent-holes of molasses casks and in that way draw
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forth the New Orleans syrup. They would then draw the willow covered with molasses through their mouths until they had had a sufficiency, after which they would go home or to school. They also extracted many a dozen fresh oysters from out the kegs in which they were in those days packed.
The same gentleman now relates to the historian how he has seen many times in the water route shipping season, teams loaded with provision and grain, camping on and south of the public square for two and three days at a time, waiting to get a chance to unload. So great was the rush about the mills and wharf of the canal and river front. Some of these teams came from far to the south and east of Indianapolis, for it must be remembered that before the railway period had been ushered in, Lafayette sold many more goods and had a larger market than did Indianapolis.
INDIANA STATE SOLDIERS' HOME
CHAPTER XIX.
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST.
INDIANA STATE SOLDIERS' HOME.
While the Soldiers' Home for the northern district of the state is a state institution, it has a local history connected with that of Tippecanoe county, hence a brief history of the institution is here given.
Col. W. S. Haggard, the present commandant, a member of the com- mittee of the Grand Army of the Republic department, appointed for the pur- pose of locating a State Soldiers' Home, suggested to a committee meeting at Indianapolis in the summer of 1891 the location now occupied by the institution. Several other places, notably Warsaw and Muncie, competed for the location, but after a visit by the committee to the several sites offered in various places, the committee decided to recommend Lafayette, which point was accepted by the encampment at Evansville the following year. As a member of the legislature in 1893, Mr. Haggard introduced a bill in the house and succeeded in passing it, but it reached the senate too late in the session for consideration, where it died. Later Mr. Haggard was elected to a seat in the state senate and introduced the Soldiers' Home Bill as the first bill on the calendar and got it through both houses of the legislature by a unanimous vote in each house. The bill carried with it an appropriation of seventy-five thousand dollars, and also provided that county commissioners might appropriate money from the general fund for the construction of cot- tages at the home, and thirty-nine of such cottages have been built at about the cost of one hundred thousand dollars, for construction and equipment.
Four cottages were built by the department of Indiana at a cost of five thousand dollars; two by the Woman's Relief Corps and one by the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic.
This Soldiers' Home occupies a tract of land consisting of one hundred and eighty-seven acres, purchased by Tippecanoe county at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars, and an additional strip of land along the Wabash river front nineteen hundred feet in length, the gift of a citizen of Lafayette.
The fair capacity of the home was in June, 1909, about one thousand persons, but there were on the rolls thirteen hundred and fifty, of which num-
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ber seve- hundred and sixty were women and five hundred and eighty-nine were mel ..
The home was opened late in the year 1895.
The following is the order in which the various commandants have served :
Capt. John P. Megrew was the first to hold such position and was suc- ceeded by Gen. Jasper Packard, who died in 1899, and the vacancy was then filled by Col. Gilbert R. Stormont, who resigned in 1903, at which time Col. Richard M. Smock was elected, serving two terms up to the Ist of May, 1909, when he was followed by Col. W. S. Haggard.
The officers aside from Commandant Haggard are now : Capt. D. B. Kehler, adjutant : Warren R. King, chief surgeon; Drs. Aldine E. Morgan and George W. Lee, assistant surgeons; William P. Stump, camp lieutenant ; HI. R. Canfield, commissary sergeant ; Laura E. Ingersoll, chief matron ; Mrs. Lillian Edgerly, superintendent of nurses.
Returning to a more minute description of the grounds and buildings, it may be said that the average altitude of these charming grounds is one hundred and eighty-five feet above the low water mark of the Wabash river, which flows along the eastern border of the tract.
A beautiful gateway is at the foot of the bluff through which the grounds are entered from the Riverside road. This gateway was designed by John Levering, who was treasurer of the board of trustees: the same was built under his direction in the summer of 1900. Its portals are guarded by a good sized cannon supported on trucks. It is fixed in the center of the two main entrance columns of brick and stone work and on a large masonry base sev- eral feet high.
The administration building is a model of architectural beauty; it was completed in September, 1899. The executive building and adjutant's resi- deut are conspicuous figures among the numerous buildings. The main dining room and Widows' Home. besides containing the main dining room of the institution, has a kitchen, bakery and daily store room. Four hundred and twenty can be seated in the dining hall at one time. This as well as most of the main buildings are brick structures.
The Old People's Home is occupied by old soldiers and their wives who are too feeble to walk to the main dining room for their meals. Here sixty can be seated. This department is provided with kitchen, bath rooms, barber shops and numerous parlors for the comfort and convenience of the veterans and their wives. This building has a north front of one hundred and eight feet and is one hundred and twelve feet deep. The tower surmounting it is
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one hundred and forty-eight feet high and from it may be seen Lafayette, Delphi, Battle Ground and the surrounding country for many miles.
The Old Men's Home is designed for single men who have become too feeble to walk to the main dining hall. It is well planned and well furnished throughout.
The hospital building has a frontage of one hundred and sixty feet and is seventy-nine feet deep. There are two wards within the building and ample bath rooms, closets, reception rooms, office, operating rooms, etc., all on the ground floor. There is also a new hospital in which better accommoda- tions may be had.
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