USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 37
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Chapel and assembly hall is another attractive structure on the grounds. This has a seating capacity of six hundred persons ; has easy opera chairs on main floor and gallery. The Ministerial Association of Lafayette supplies a preacher to attend to the spiritual needs of the soldiers each Sunday : there is also a Sunday school in the afternoon, besides prayer meeting services each week which are usually conducted by members of the Home. In the base- ment is a very interesting museum and an elaborate library of good and use- ful books. The amusement room is provided with a billiard table. eard tables, backgammon boards, checkers and other game appliances.
The large number of "county cottages" scattered here and there through- out the pleasant grounds, are mostly frame buildings. well painted and pro- vided with all necessary conveniences.
The water works plant is located directly on the bank of the Wabash river, where the supply of water comes from three six-inch wells which go to a pure water-the finest in the state-and is pumped to the highest elevation of the grounds (one hundred and eiglity-five feet) to the capacity of one mil- lion gallons daily, and then to a large tank almost a hundred feet high. mak- ing the total distance from the Wabash about three hundred feet.
The electric light plant is equipped with two dynamos-one with four hundred and fifty and the other with seven hundred and fifty candle power. Every building and every room on the grounds is lighted with electricity. as well as all streets.
The laundry is equipped with all modern machinery. During the year 1901 there were washed and ironed two hundred and nineteen thousand and six hundred and seventy-three pieces.
The fire department is complete within itself. It is manned by members of the Home. A patrol box system obtains and the Home employs day and night policemen who are vested with power to make arrests. For the com- fort of these patrolmen these "boxes" have been provided.
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One of the things known as a "joy forever" about the grounds is the . spacious esplanade or fountain, which must be seen to be fully appreciated.
The general plan and improvement of the Soldiers' Home grounds is indeed exquisite. The landscape on and as viewed from the grounds is one of rare and most captivating beauty. The large number of old and stately forest kings cast a shade and give a romantic scene that no artificial hand could possibly give: The winding streets and avenues, with cement walks and driveways, make the drive about the place all that could be desired. Many of the streets are befittingly named in memory of some fallen chieftain or noted battlefield, including Shiloh, Gettysburg, etc. The "silent city"-the cemetery-is well taken care of and there annually are laid away to rest the weary bodies of the men who wore the blue from '61 to '65.
In and around the Home are many beautiful scenes of rural life and river landscapes. A tasty footbridge crosses Cedar Ravine and a spring of cooling water there is greatly enjoyed by the old veterans. Then there is to be seen High Bridge over Happy Hollow and a score more of interesting objects to please the eye of both inmate and visitor.
If one ever doubted that America appreciates and cares for her defenders, a visit to this beauty spot of Indiana will convince them that not only in times of peril and war does she care for her brave soldiery, but that now after forty years have come and gone, she still seeks to show these old and infirm men that she wishes them all the peace and comfort possible to provide for them, at any cost.
OBSEQUIES-DAYS OF MOURNING AT LAFAYETTE.
The following is an abridged account of the people of Tippecanoe county, who held services at the receiving of the news of the death of several notable characters of this nation, including the several Presidents, around which no little of sadness and tragedy was surrounded :
The news of the death of Gen. William Henry Harrison, within one short month after he had been inaugurated President of the United States, to which position he had been called as if by acclamation, cast a deep gloom over the whole republic, and the nation was mantled in deep mourning. Funeral pro- cessions and ceremonies were held all over the land; and orations were de- livered and eulogies pronounced in every city and hamlet from the Balize to the Penobscot. As Indiana had been the theatre of his early struggles and wartare, Tippecanoe county containing his most glorious battlefield, conse- crated by the blood of fallen patriots, that had been won by him and his
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gallant compeers-it was deemed meet and just that the citizens of Lafay- ette should join in solemn ceremonies, that would evince their sorrow for the great national bereavement. A meeting was called, committees were ap- pointed. a day was fixed for the assemblage of the citizens, the order of the procession was arranged, and on the 17th day of April, 1841, the Hon. Albert S. White delivered an able, eloquent oration, in which he reviewed the life, character and eminent services of the departed statesman, whose mem- ory will be cherished by every patriot throughout the land, and more espe- cially the people of the great Northwestern territory, which sprang into states through his wise guidance.
GENERAL JACKSON'S DEATH.
In less than five years from the death of Harrison, the nation was again called upon to mourn the loss of another great and truly pioneer character- Andrew Jackson, then an ex-President, and whose name will ever occupy a bright spot in the history of the nation. He was alike distinguished for his bold, decisive and energetic character. in the cabinet and in the field. A pub- lic meeting of the citizens of Tippecanoe was called, and great preparations were made for an appropriate observance of the funeral obsequies of the hero of New Orleans, and on the 25th day of June, 1845, George Van Sant- voord. Esq., delivered an able eulogy on the life and character of the departed dead. which oration was listened to with profound attention by a large audi- ence, composed of members of all political parties, who assembled to pay a last tribute of respect to the memory of Andrew Jackson.
DEATH OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
The death of John Quincy Adams, ex-President of the United States, February 23, 1848, afforded another occasion for the profound sorrow of the citizens of the nation, and indeed the entire world. This patriot, states- man and diplomat enjoyed the confidence and esteem of all parties in this country, in whose services he had spent a long, eventful and very useful life. April 1, 1848. Hon. Godlove S. Orth, by request of a committee appointed at a public meeting. delivered before an immense concourse of people an appropriate and eloquent eulogium of the life and character of the "Old Man Eloquent," which was responded to by unmistakable evidences of the deep sympathy of the vast assemblage, who keenly felt that one of the brightest stars in our political firmament had set.
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DEATH OF POLK AND TAYLOR.
Upon the death of General Zachary Taylor, the old hero of Palo Alto and Buena Vista, who was soon made President of the United States, the intelligence of his death being received in Lafayette appropriate services were hield and the oration on that occasion was delivered by Robert Jones, Jr.
And upon the death of ex-President James K. Polk, another day of mourning was set by the citizens of Tippecanoe county and held at Lafayette.
HENRY'S CLAY'S DEATII.
June 29. 1852. the spirit of that grand American, Henry Clay, passed to the other world. He was renowned as an orator, statesman and philan- thropist. Never did the great heart of a nation feel a deeper wound than when this truly great man entered the silent tomb. At Lafayette, John A. Wilstach, Esq., selected for the purpose, pronounced an eloquent oration on the life and character of the great statesman at Jolinson's Grove, on the 17th day of July, 1852, to the citizens of Lafayette and surrounding country. The concourse was large and attentive and seemed anxious to treasure up every word that fell from the speaker's lips, who on that occasion seemed to catch the mantle of inspiration from the great subject of his eulogy, whose glow- ing eloquence had often fired the hearts of his fellow-countrymen.
THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
The files of the daily papers of Lafayette on the morning of April 15. 1865. announced the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, in Ford's theater, on the previous evening. At the tolling of the church bells, the citizens assembled at the court house and Judge Test adjourned circuit court and presided over an informal meeting : he spoke briefly, with much deep sorrow depicted on his face. Following him, Hon. Daniel Mace spoke. Specials were rapidly read, as they came to the city, by wire, telling more of the awful calamity. Mr. Lingle read these dispatches. Strong men wept like mere children and the deep emotion of the audience was betrayed in their quivering lips and in "curses not loud but deep." Resolutions were adopted, requesting a general suspension of business at noon that day. Committees draped in heavy mourn- ing the public square-the same was made up of Messrs. W. H. Levering, W. 11. Hatcher, Daniel Brawley, H. Quigley and S. Wise. The meeting
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in the morning had adjourned until two o'clock in the afternoon, when a densely packed meeting filled the public square.
Sunday, April 16, 1865, Rev. MeMullen preached a powerful and patri- otic sermon in the Public Square, at three o'clock. The business houses were closed and all seemed deeply affected. The newspapers all had their make-up in heavy mourning, by turned column rules, throughout the entire issue. The oration of Rev. McMullen was delivered from a large stand erected in front of the county clerk's office. Two immense flags were properly draped about the stand. There was also a lifelike portrait of the dead President, which picture was the property of T. Baker of the Lafayette House. The speaker held the vast concourse of people spell-bound for all of two hours. It will be remembered by many, still living, that the President laid in state in many of the eastern eities and that the funeral train did not reach Lafayette en route from Indianapolis to Chicago, until the first day of May. The train passed through Lafayette in the night, yet thousands of people were out along Fifth street and about the old market place. Houses were illuminated and displayed many symbols of mourning. The bands played solemn dirges, while the train slowly moved through the city. Many men wept at the sight of the train. and at the sound of the music. The train contained several elegant passenger coaches, including the Prince of Wales' car, expensively trimmed and draped in the richest of alpaca, black satin and erape, with rosettes of pure white satin. Thus passed the dead American-the lamented and martyred President, "Honest Abe"-Abraham Lincoln, of whom the earth has never seen his equal.
IN MOURNING FOR PRESIDENT GARFIELD.
With all this great Nation's boast and her pride of liberty. it was her misfortune and shame that within her bounds there lived (and that in times of peace ) a citizen who, either through wickedness or a semi-insane mind. struek down the President of the Republic, James Abram Garfield, on the second day of July, 1881. while walking arm in arm, in a depot waiting-room. at the national capital, with the secretary of state, Hon. James G. Blaine.
Of the long, painful, yet patient weeks and months of awful suffering endured by the victim of the assassin's hand. the reader is all too well ac- quainted, to here be informed.
At eleven o'clock and thirty minutes, the spirit of the President took its flight, the date of his death being September 19, 1881.
Ten minutes after the news had been flashed to Lafayette, the solenin sound of the bells were heard tolling. Memorial services were planned and a committee of the following had the same in charge: H. W. Chase. F. E. D.
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McGinley, Hon. G. S. Orth, Hon. Thomas B. Ward, Hon. J. M. LaRue, Rev. J. W. T. McMullen, John B. Ruger, William H. Levering, S. Vater, John G. Sample, Col. W. C. Wilson, E. H. Waldron, Col. C. G. Thompson, John C. Doblebower and ex-Mayor Kimmel.
At the memorial meeting the opera-house was filled, and that was but a few as compared to the vast crowd that lingered on the outside, to pay respect to one they had come to greatly love. Judge Coffroth stepped to the front of the stage and remarked: "It is midnight and the Nation is in tears; Rev. Dr. Allis will address the throne of Grace." Following was the reading of dispatches by S. Vater.
It was on September 27, 1881, that Mr. Garfield was buried, and at that time Lafayette held appropriate services in the opera hall and at evening in the various churches of the city. Again the business of the city was at a standstill-all seemed in deep gloom. The busy car shops and all factories in the city closed and the men attended the memorial services. The Catholic churches said mass for the President; work on the new court house was sus- pended. At the meeting at the Hall, Capt. DeWitt Wallace was president and W. S. Lingle acted as secretary. Befitting resolutions were prepared, offered and adopted. Hon. Godlove S. Orth delivered an eloquent oration on the life and noble career of Garfield. Purdue University closed its class rooms and held services at their chapel. Proper services were also held at the Ninth Street and Trinity Methodist Episcopal churches.
IN MEMORY OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT.
Up to Saturday, August 8, 1885, Lafayette had never witnessed so sad a day, in many respects, except possibly on the occasion of President Lincoln's death, as was that one. It was the day on which the lamented dead hero was laid in his tomb, in New York city. Lafayette was draped heavily in mourn- ing and thousands of countrymen came in to take part in the solemn services of memorial. Ulysses S. Grant-soldier and President-had been dead since July 23d, but had laid in state until the day above named. The Lafayette Journal files furnish the historian with the facts for this sketch. Its columns contained an original poem by "John Rex." three stanzas of which were as follows :
"Across the red horizon flame, The bells toll heavy-hearted : A city with a soldier's name Mourns for the Chieftain departed.
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"But Death a blessed fruitage yields ; Their martial spirits have met- Grant grasps, upon Elysian fields, The hand of Lafayette.
"A city with a soldier's name Mourns for the Chieftain departed ; Our flag and France's oriflamme, And bells all heavy-hearted."
Lincoln. Garfield, and this time Grant. On this occasion the largest concourse of people that ever attended any public demonstration in Lafayette, appeared in true mourning. People came in from remote country districts to do honor and pay their last respects to the fallen chieftain. The city pre- sented mourning on every hand-the houses in all parts of the place were heavily draped in black and many had pictures of Grant draped and in their windows. Streamers of mourning hung from business houses and dwellings. Flags floated at half mast throughout the city. The principal attraction was the exquisite Memorial Arch erected at the intersection of Fourth and Main streets. Its west face bore the inscriptions of the famous battles he had won from '62 to '66, while the eastern face had inscriptions recounting Grant's civic career, as President and citizen. Evergreens entwined in and around it making graceful letters and decorations. The street parade was fully a mile in length and started at promptly 1:30 P. M. for the grove and when it reached the Memorial Arch, the command "uncover" was given, when in- stantly every head was bared in respectful homage to him to whose memory they marched. All civic orders were represented and many Grand Army Re- public posts were in from remote places. The colored lodge of Odd Fellows bore a striking figure in the long procession, bedecked as they were in their bright, tasty regalia. The speaker's stand was beautifully decorated in black and flowers of sweetness and purity. Hon. Francis Johnson was chairman and introduced Mayor J. L. Caldwell as president of the day. After he made a short. eloquent speech, prayer was offered by Rev. E. Barr, after which Rev. A. Marine, of Indianapolis, made the oration, proper-and it was a masterly effort.
Thus Lafayette, the city from which Grant had first given consent to become a colonel, and who had frequently honored the city with his presence, now honored him by the appropriate occurrences just related.
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IN MEMORY OF PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY.
In common with every city, town and hamlet in this country, Lafayette was called upon in the month of September, 1901, to meet in the solemn gathering of memorial services for the beloved Mckinley, who, while partici- pating in the happy events of the Pan-American Exposition at the city of Buffalo, New York, was shot by him who was later known to be an anarchist of the worst type. He was shot while in the act of extending his hand in friendship to him who proved to be his assassin. The date of the act of shoot- ing was September 6, 1901, and the President was taken to the home of the president of the Exposition, Mr. Milburn, where he died the 14th of the same month at 2:30 A. M.
The committee on memorial services at Lafayette was as follows: Maj. John W. Warner, Lieutenant James L. Glascock, William E. Beach and the Revs. Dr. John P. Hale, Oscar R. Mckay and Theodore F. Herman. of the Lafayette Ministers Association.
The mayor of the city requested that all business be suspended during the day, including the shops. At just two o'clock P. M., September 19th, all along the lines of the great Wabash railway system, in all the states in which that road runs, the trains were ordered to stop at whatever point they might be at that hour. for a period of five minutes. The ticket windows all along the line were also closed down. This was the only road leading into Lafayette that so sacredly kept the hour in memory of that matchless "Cap- tain of Industry," as Major McKinley had been called. but which later was used in another sense. Lafayette, as a city, had all of its commercial places closed. The memorial services here were unique, in that they were held at many places, the committee knowing full well that no three buildings would accommodate the throng who would attend.
At the Second Presbyterian church one service was held-simple but very impressive. The front seats had been reserved for the Uniform Rank of the Knights of Pythias order and for the Red Men's League. Rev. G. W. Switzer, D. D., of the West Side Methodist Episcopal church, presided. The Scriptures were read by Rabbi Morris Feuerlicht of the Jewish Temple, and he chose the goth and 23rd Psalms, respectively. Dr. Switzer offered the invocation, after which "Nearer My God to Thee" was sung. The chief speaker of the occasion was Hon. J. Frank Hanly, whose truly excellent ora- tion began by these words : "Between the midnight and the dawn, the silent,
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swift-winged death angel came and with noiseless, slippered tread, glided into the room where the anxious watchers stood and paused a regretful while by the bedside, loath to take out of the world such wealth of greatness and of good as there it looked upon, then laid its fingers on the tired, white brow of the President as he slept."
At Trinity Methodist Episcopal church, the Grand Army of the Re- public posts assembled with the throng; also the Woman's Relief Corps. to- gether with the survivors of the late Spanish-American war, of this county.
At the First Baptist church, at the same hour, Dr. John P. Hale, who had spoken at Purdue University in the morning, was called upon to take the place of the regular speaker. who was taken ill. Dr. Hale spoke pathetic- ally of the private life and character of the departed dead. At this church, assembled with others the officials of the city and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
At the First German Reformed church, Sigel Lodge of Odd Fellows were out in a body, while the Rev. Theodore F. Herman addressed the people in the German language. He remarked. "Shame that the kind of a tragedy could be possible in free America-had it been in Russia it might have been looked for any time. But in this, the great Eldorado of the poor and the asylum of the oppressed, how could such a thing have happened ?"
At West Side Methodist Episcopal church, at three o'clock, services were held at which (as it was at most of the services) the favorite song of President Mckinley was sung-"Lead Kindly Light." Then after the rendering of "Sometime We'll Understand." by Miss Fannie Cowdrey, Dr. Thomas F. Moran, a member of Purdue faculty, delivered an eloquent, touch- ing address in which he exalted Mr. Mckinley's many Christian virtues. Capt. Alexander A. Rice also spoke.
At the African Methodist Episcopal church, at the same hour, Rev. Wil- liam Underwood delivered the oration.
At the Indiana Soldiers' Home, in Assembly Hall were assembled all old veterans who could possibly get from their quarters. The address was made there by Rev. Detch, pastor of Congress Street Methodist church, and occupied fully an hour and a half.
At Spring Grove church. in Wea township, memorial services were held, at which addresses were made by Alva O. Reser and Charles E. Thompson, after which a strong set of resolutions were passed, and in which congress was virtually petitioned to take steps that such a sad scene would never again be possible in this country.
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TRYING TO KIDNAP NEGRO CHILDREN.
There was an attempt to kidnap two negro boys in Tippecanoe county, in the spring of 1823. It came about in this wise: When Peter Weaver, the first settler of the county. came from eastern Indiana to this county, he brought with him two negro boys named Ben and Run, whom he had taken to raise-children of a negro woman who had been brought as a slave from North Carolina to Indiana territory, and afterwards became free when the slave trade was prohibited by the constitution of this state.
Slavery, even at that early day, showed symptoms of its irrepressible tendency, by unblushingly invading free territory, and putting the people to the trouble of killing it twice before it would acknowledge it was dead.
In the spring of 1823, while Ben and Run were at work in a corn field at the lower end of Wea Plain, Mr. Weaver's family was startled by the cries of the boys as they made for the house, at full speed, yelling as they ran. Supposing that one of them had been bitten by a snake, a portion of the family made haste to meet them, inquiring "What's the matter? What's the matter?" They said that two men had attempted to capture them-that one of the men first tried to decoy them over the fence into the brush. to show them the road to a neighbor's house. but that before they arrived at the fence, the sight of the other man on the outside of the field, and the manner of their interlocutor. excited their suspicions, and caused them to turn and flee for the house. Such a bold attempt to kidnap the little negro boys aroused the honest indignation of the old soldier, who had marched under Washing- ton. and he immediately repaired with his son. Patrick Henry. to the back field, armed in backwoods style. to reconnoiter, and, if possible, to bring to justice those who had made a flagrant attempt upon the liberty of the unoffending boys, who were free born, and over whom he had determined the lash of the slave-owner should never fall. if he could prevent it. The search of the father and son convinced them that the fears of the boys had been well founded. Signs of the two men and their horses were quite plain, and portions of the ropes with which they had intended to have tied their captives were dropped in their hasty retreat: besides the neighbors 1 } seen two suspicious looking men. answering the description of those seen by the boys. skulking through the woods near Weaver's field for several days previous.
Suspicion at once attached to an old acquaintance on White Water, who at one time had an indirect claim on the mother of the negro boys, and who, it was suspected, was concerned in spiriting away Jefferson Croker, a free
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negro man, whom the law had manumitted, but from his mysterious disap- pearance from the White Water country, it was supposed he was drawn back into slavery, by the vile hands of kidnappers, when the greater portion of the freight and business of the Underground Railway ran the other way.
The would-be kidnappers of little Ben and Run were never caught and well it was for them, too, for pioneer Weaver was a bad man to have trouble with and was a man who usually brought down his game at sight.
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