USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 45
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Purdue University, headed by that stalwart worker in the cause, Pres. E. E. White, swelled the number from night to night, until a majority of the students of the university had signed the pledge. Each night, from the same platform, spoke clergymen, lawyers, merchants, bankers, newspaper men. railway officers and their reformed employes.
By June the work had become wide and deep, and men from high and low ranks had signed the pledge to the number of ten thousand. The pledge was of the Francis Murphy stripe-containing the words "So Help Me God." etc.
A Blue Ribbon Club was organized in Lafayette and the work continued many months after the leaders. Ward and Hughes, had gone to other fields. The following is a list of the officers of the Blue Ribbon Club: President, A. E. Pierce ; vice-presidents, Col. J. W. Conine, Albert Henderson, Joseph Landry, Mrs. John Weaver, Mrs. Dr. Barnes; corresponding secretary, Matthew Ball; recording secretary. John Griffin ; treasurer, E. HI. Andress; executive committee, Samuel Moore, Fred S. Williams, John F. McHughes, J. H. Wood. I. S. Wade, C. W. Kendle. F. W. Combs, Mark Jones, T. B. Abernathy, John Gormly, Col. C. G. Thompson. Samuel Allen, Lewis Falley. and others.
While within a few years, many of the pledge signers had broken their vows and gone back to their drink habits. yet a great number remained steadfast and never afterwards drank from the intoxicating bowl. Not a
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few of the ten thousand men who signed the pledge in this great meeting are still living in the city, honored and respected for the manly course they were induced to take away back there in the seventies. Many, by reason of age, have, with the great temperance apostle, Francis Murphy (founder of the movement and followed by others), gone to the other world, leaving this as sober, thoughtful men and leaving earth's shining circle broken as it stood in the eventful months and years of the great temperance revival just described.
WEST LAFAYETTE.
The town incorporation of West Lafayette, while it is still a separate incorporation from the city proper, is so interwoven as to generally be known as all one city-"East and West Side." The West Side was organized as a town January 2, 1866, and known as Chauncey. For many years it has been known as West Lafayette. The postoffice is a sub-station of the main office in Lafayette and the population have the same mail facilities as in the city proper, with a station postoffice where money-order and general postal matters are attended to. The present population of West Lafayette is about three thousand five hundred permanent population, with about one thousand eight hundred average attendance of Purdue University students, additional. It is supported largely by the residents who have either retired from the rural districts of the county, or are engaged in some business enter- prise in the city proper. It is a delightful residence portion of Lafayette, stands on an elevated tract of dry land overlooking the Wabash valley, with charming scenes of both city and rural life on either hand.
Of its schools it may be stated that in an early day, before the town was incorporated, there was a country township school house on the present plat and that served the school interests for a few years, when a better build- ing was provided. The old building was moved off about 1875 and a two- story, two-room building took its place: the second structure was made of brick. About 1880 to this was made an extension of considerable size and a new front was put in. This had ten rooms. It was burned in 1890, after which the present ten-room, two-story building was erected on the same lots, at a cost of about twenty thousand dollars. In 1895 Oakland school was erected for a high school and served as such until the present high school building was erected. Since then the old building has been used for graded school purposes. Its cost was about ten thousand dollars. Hence it will be understood that at this date ( 1909) West Lafayette is provided with three modern school buildings: The high school building erected in 1905-06, at a
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cost of thirty thousand dollars-a two-story and basement structure; the Oakland school and the North Side school, "Morton," already named. The high school is located on the corner of Vine and Fowler streets ; the Morton on North and Salisbury streets. The 1909 school board is composed of the following gentlemen : George A. Jamison, president; Allen Boulds, treasurer; E. B. Vawter, secretary. The superintendent of these schools for the last ten years has been Elmer W. Lawrence. These schools are of a higli order and many pupils through choice have, from time to time, been transferred from the city schools to the West Side, on account of the influence and ad- vantages derived from the schools' connection with Purdue University, some of whose instructors also conduct departments in the West Side public schools. The churches of West Lafayette are treated in the religious chapter of this work.
The business of West Lafayette is simply a few manufacturing plants on the valley portion of the plat. and such retail stores as supply the domestic needs of the populace. There is no bank or express office on the West Side.
WEST LAFAYETTE WATER WORKS SYSTEM.
Fortunate, indeed. are the residents of this portion of the city, in that they have long been provided with a most thoroughly up-to-date system of water works, that not only supplies the common citizen, but also the entire Purdue University settlement with the best and purest water to be obtained in this section of Indiana, coming, as it does, from a never-failing system of drive-wells, numbering in all, eleven. This plant was installed by the West Lafayette Water Works Company, whose incorporation dates from October 3. 1892. The first directors were George A. Jamison, Cornelius Callahan, Myron A. Sears, W. H. Caulkins and Samuel A. Snoddy. The first officers. which were elected in January. 1893, were: Cornelius Callahan, president ; George A. Jamison, vice-president : S. A. Snoddy, secretary ; Myron A. Sears, treasurer.
The pumping station was completed February 7, 1894, and the entire plant finished for operation January 1, 1895. The tank or "standpipe" on the hill overlooking the surrounding country, and at which the Purdue Uni- versity class fight comes off annually, is fifty feet high and is thirty-five feet in diameter. The wells (eleven) are driven to a depth of from sixty-five to eighty feet, located on the western bank of the Wabash river, two hundred fee: lower than the tank on the summit. The system now has about eleven
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miles of water mains, with almost eight hundred taps and thirty-four hydrants for city purposes. The plant supplies the entire Purdue University with water, and also there is found seven fire hydrants. The original cost of this plant was sixty thousand dollars. In the last few years there has been added new pumping machinery and boilers. A few extensions have been made to the system, as the town has increased in population-no wells are used, but nearly everyone uses the water from this plant. The pressure at the university, when the tank is half full, is sixty pounds per square inch, while at the company's office it reaches seventy pounds. On Main street level it is ninety-five pounds.
The 1909 board of directors are as follows: Everett B. Vawter (who has always been the manager and prime mover, both in establishing and at- tending to the plant ), president of the board; William F. Stillwell, vice-presi- dent : Charles Terry, secretary; Jacob Kirkpatrick, treasurer, and H. S. P Jennings.
CHAPTER XXII.
BANKS AND BANKING.
(By S. Vater.)
Lafayette has been remarkably exempt from bank troubles. The reason is probably to be found in the fact that the management of her banks has been, generally, in the hands of old citizens, who could not afford to go wrong- men who had accumulated property here, were settled members of the com- munity, were not in need of any get-rich-quick expedients, but were content to go along in the tried ways of honesty and legitimate gains. One half of the banks in Lafayette today can trace their honorable lineage by regular descent for about half a century; and one, the National Fowler, has a historic past extending back over three-quarters of a century.
In early days, the free-for-all banking system was in vogue. Any one could start a bank who chose. There were no requisite qualifications pre- scribed by law. Any man who could persuade people to trust him with their funds could open out as a banker and receive deposits. Not only so, but the issue of paper currency for circulation as money was equally free and open. Any banker could issue such currency, which would be accepted as money, and valuable, just in proportion as the issuing bank was well and widely known. or the reverse. There was no standard of qualifications requisite for admis- sion to the privilege, no authorized examinations to determine the soundness or the reverse of any banking institution. It is not surprising that under such conditions there should be general inconvenience and wide-spread loss. The bills of nearly all banks of issue would be current at some price, somewhere : but they were largely taken at a discount only, the discount being graduated by the general reputation and location of the issuing bank. Thus it happened that many institutions which really were wholly undeserving of credit, would put out large sums in paper money, which would float at a fluctuating valuation for a time, and then die in the hands of the holders, to the loss of everybody handling the stuff except the original issuers, who obtained full value received when they put it out in the first instance. On the other hand. the issues of many staunch and solvent institutions which were accepted at full face value in their own local communities, where the solvency and reliability of the issuing bankers were well known, would be discounted a trifle in near-by communities,
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and discounted still more as they circulated farther and farther from home, the discount increasing with the distance. A man starting with a pocket full of first class local money, would find himself absolutely destitute of anything which would "go" before reaching New York. It was as though every citi- zen was engaged in buying and selling notes ; and after taking in a good sup- ply at a good rate, he would have no assurance of being able to persuade the people to whom he had to make payments that his notes were worth what he had paid for them. Those were the days of "counterfeit detectors" (for these crude issues were very largely counterfeited, to make the matter worse) and monthly and even weekly issues of lists of current and uncurrent money, of "good" and "bad" bank issues. No one who has not actually experienced it, can at all conceive the inconvenience, annoyance and loss, which such a state of affairs entailed. One starting on a journey of any length, with an ample supply of supposedly the best of money, would be in a constant state of trepidation lest his money should spoil in his pockets en route, and be declared bad on arrival at his destination. And so, conversely, he would have just cause for apprehension lest the money picked up in regular course of business at the other end of the line would be found uncurrent and worthless on his arrival at home. There was absolutely no standard, no uniformity. The con- venience of paper money was so generally recognized, however, that this sort of money, bad as the system-or lack of system-was, was universally ac- cepted, at some valuation, and it obtained a recognition far wider and more general than it was entitled to. These bills were redeemable only by presenta- tion at the counter of the issuing bank; and as the amount held by any one person at any one time was usually not large, in fact only a minimum of it ever was presented and payment demanded. Some very funny stories are told of the experiences of holders of such money in search of the banks whose promises to pay lawful coin on presentation they held, to which we need hardly do more than refer, for they are familiar, as well as justified by the actual facts.
Along in the thirties a system of state banks, doing business under au- thority of a charter from the state, sprang up. Indiana soon fell into line with other progressive states. It was a vast improvement over the "wild-cat" sys- tem of free-for-all money issuing. There was no adequate system of state supervision and control provided, it is true ; but it had at least the merit of generally securing reputable people as the responsible heads of these state banks and branches.
The first bank opened in Lafayette was one of these local branches of the State Bank of Indiana. There may possibly have been some "Pharaoh" banks
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opened-and closed-prior to that time! but of this local history has no rec- ord. and the financial historian will have nothing to say.
The Lafayette branch of the State Bank of Indiana, above referred to. was organized and chartered in 1834. the charter being for twenty-five years. There has been not a little discussion as to where this first bank in Lafayette was located: and the location has been erroneously attributed to the northeast corner of Main and Fourth streets, the site now occupied by the Baltimore Clothing House. This first bank was opened for business in Doctor Clark's building, nearly two squares farther north ; which was erected especially for banking purposes, on the east side of Fourth street, second door south of North street. The square. substantial brick building, standing out to the street line, adjoining on the north the new central station of the fire depart- ment, may still be seen, well preserved, and but little changed in outward ap- pearance. Probably but few of Lafayette's citizens know the early history of this old landmark. The bank remained here until the completion of its own building, southwest corner Sixth and Main streets, the site now occupied by the Ball block. There it remained during its life. The building stood during the long process of winding up the bank's affairs, but was torn down, in 1877. to give place to the present business block.
Under the banking law of that day. half of the directors of a branch of the state bank were appointed by the state authority-a very good feature. by the way. of which the would-be amenders and improvers of our national banking system would do well to take note. Good appointees, not owing their official positions to the individual, or to a little clique owning a majority of the stock, under no obligations to them, and beyond their reach, would have a very healthy effect, and prevent many a bank failure. One very weak point of the present banking system is, that the directors know that if they do not co-operate with the "power behind the throne" or raise any objections to the measures of the "controlling interest." they will be dropped out at the next election. The office is usually purely honorary, not salaried, and the director- ate are really chosen with special view to their being probably easily managed, and subservient to the behest of the controlling interest. Thus it is that we find boards of directors of banks all over the country mere figure-heads, prac- tically ignorant of the "inside" workings of the bank. If one-half of the bank directors were men of high character and capacity. appointed, say by the Governor of the state, instead of voted in by the controlling elique, the effect could not fail to be salutary. The first board of directors of the first bank in Lafayette were men of conspicuous influence and prominence in the little community. They were : William F. Reynolds, John Purdue, Samuel
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Hoover, William K. Rochester, Israel Spencer, Joseph S. Hanna, and Dr. Elizur Deming, verily "first citizens" of the Lafayette of that day. Martin L. Peirce served as director for a short time, to fill a vacancy. Joseph S. Hanna was the first president, and held the position throughout the greater part of the bank's existence. William M. Jenners was the first cashier, and A. P. Linn, the first teller, the latter remaining with the bank until it was finally wound up, under charge of Cyrus Ball, its last cashier, and Mr. Linn. Mr. Ball became cashier in 1841, holding the position until the wind-up. A circular issued by Cyrus Ball and Austin P. Linn, dated December 29, 1858, announced that on January Ist succeeding the bank would cease business except for settlement of existing business, the charter expiring January 1, 1859; but that they had individually associated themselves together as bankers under the name of the State Bank of Lafayette, Ball & Linn. This banking part- nership continued for over ten years, from March 23, 1857. to November 15. 1 867.
The Lafayette branch of the Bank of the State of Indiana, the old state bank idea under a slightly different name, and under a new law, was chartered at the expiration of the charter of the old Branch of the State Bank of Indiana, Moses Fowler and Adams Earl, brothers-in-law, who had been conducting a private bank under the firm style of Fowler & Earl, being the controlling spirits. Mr. Fowler had been a leading and active director in the old State Bank from the year 1841 until its charter expired. They opened up in the Reynolds building, southeast corner of Main and Fourth streets, now owned and occupied by the Lafayette Loan and Trust Company. Moses Fowler was made president. John C. Brockenbrough, cashier, his brother, Brown Brocken- brough, bookkeeper, and Thomas G. Rainey, teller. In 1865 the bank was merged into the National State Bank-so called because it was the national- ization of the old Bank of the State-with the same officers. When John C. Brockenbrough left, in 1872, to join fortunes with J. J. Perrin in the new Indiana National Bank, Brown Brockenbrough was made cashier in his place, and so continued through all the reorganizations and changes of name, until his death, in 1905. His position remained vacant for a time, but was finally filled by electing Cecil G. Fowler, oldest son of the president. to the position, with C. B. Phelps and Brown Brockenbrough, Jr., as assistant cashiers. The present officers of the bank are: James M. Fowler, president: W. S. Potter, vice-president : Cecil G. Fowler, cashier : Charles B. Phelps and Brown Brock- enbrough. assistant cashiers: James M. Fowler. John D. Gougar, W. S. Pot- ter. W. V. Stuart. J. L. Caldwell, W. A. Shipley, R. L. Jaques, directors.
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Moses Fowler, who infused his personality to an unusual extent into the administration of the institution throughout his connection with it. was one of the most successful bankers Lafayette ever had. He was, indeed, a model banker. Keen, observant, resourceful, a splendid judge of men, possessed of both tact and courage upon occasion, his very presence inspired confidence. As a banker and a business man he had hardly a peer in the early business community of Lafayette. Coming from Ohio, fresh from the experience of teaching a country school, he first became a clerk, then the owner of an interest, then a merchant on his own account, then a man of large things in general business. He farmed, he handled cattle, he dabbled a little in grain, he had an interest in wholesale merchandizing, and he ran the biggest bank in the city : and he kept all these large interests moving at once. He and Mr. Purdue came from the same vicinity in Ohio, to Lafayette, at about the same time, were of about the same age, both had begun life by teaching school. they were former partners, and between these two men, to the day of their death. differ as they might about men and measures, there was always a strong bond of friendship and mutual appreciation.
The Commercial Bank. a private bank, was started in 1853 by James Spears, Martin L. Peirce, H. T. Sample and J. S. Hanna. It transacted a successful business for ten years, and was the nucleus of the First National Bank, into which its business was merged on the organization of the latter under the new national banking act. The bank was located on the north side of the public square, just east of Third street, No. 48 Main street, and there the First National commenced business, and continued until completion of its own building, about the center of the north side of the public square, which it still occupies.
The First National. it has always been claimed, was actually the first bank to complete its organization and file its papers under the national bank- ing act, but was robbed of the coveted honor of being chartered No. I. by some sort of discreditable manipulation at Washington. Its charter is twenty- third on the list. On expiration of the original charter the bank was re-organ- ized, and has maintained the name, and practically the organization, down to the present. Martin L. Peirce was its first president, and held the position until his death, when he was succeeded by Robert W. Sample, who still holds down the presidential chair. Its first cashier was David McBride, who was succeeded December 18, 1872, by Ainsworth H. Byrns, with Robert F. Braden as assistant cashier. On the death of Mr. Byrns, some five years later. Mr. Braden acted as cashier for a short time ; but on September 22. 1877. Hiram WV. Moore was elected to the cashiership and became a citizen of Lafayette;
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and for over a quarter of a century filled the position with honor and success. On January 1, 1904, he resigned, and was succeeded by Frank W. Spencer, who had grown up in the service of the institution, and had for many years been paying teller and assistant cashier. Mr. Spencer was born in Lafayette, a son of one of our most honored old settlers. Robert W. Sample also was born in Lafayette, son of Henry T. Sample, whose name is indissolubly linked with the early history of Lafayette as one of its most progressive and public spirited citizens. Mr. Sample was for years associated with his honored father in pork packing and other extensive business. When Mr. Peirce died, all eyes naturally turned to Mr. Sample as the one man above all others to fill best the vacant chair ; and in the long and most successful administration which has followed, he has in no wise disappointed the expectations of his friends. Mr. Sample is still preserved in physical vigor, clear-headed, steady, and resolute, though quiet, a man of well-balanced judgment and spotless integrity.
Mr. Peirce was one of the men of note in the banking history of Lafay- ette. He came to Lafayette at a very early day, only about twenty years after the laying out of the town. He first secured a position in the county clerk's office, then was successively coroner and sheriff for two terms. On going out of office he became a member of the firm of Hanna, Barbee & Company, com- mission merchants, and later of the firm of O. W. Peirce & Company, whole- sale grocers. Identifying himself actively with the Commercial Bank, he be- came its president, and by natural succession president of the First National Bank which succeeded it. Mr. Peirce was one of the most conscientious and painstaking of men, scrupulously exact even to a fault, and throughout a long career was looked up to as a model. He was not so aggressive, and possibly not so shrewd. as Fowler: but if he had a fault it was perhaps that of being too indulgent with his near friends. Still. take it all in all, his banking career was one of honor to himself ; and no spot nor stain ever rested upon his honor or integrity. He and Mr. Fowler were the central figures in the banking world here for many years.
Alexander Wilson and Henry Hugh Hanna, his younger brother-in-law, now president of the Atlas Engine Works at Indianapolis, and one of the Capi- tal city's most prominent citizens, a son of Joseph S. Hanna, who was for so long president of the Lafayette branch of the State Bank of Indiana, in 1870 opened a private bank in the room northeast corner of Third and Main, where the Hanna store in early days was kept, and which has been continuously oc- cupied as a banking room ever since. When Mr. Hanna went to Indianapolis to engage in the Atlas Works enterprise, in 1880, the business was still con-
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tinued under the same name by Mr. Wilson until his death, in the early winter of 1894. The son, Joseph H. Wilson, continued the business without change until August of the same year, when the bank was bought by Major William Taylor, another native Lafayettean and a prominent, honored citizen, and the firm name changed to William Taylor & Son, his son, Henry A. Taylor, being associated with him in the business. On the death of the father, January 18. 1899, the son continued the business under the name of Taylor's Bank, with himself as president, and George B. Thompson as cashier. On September 28, 1904, the business was merged into the present American National Bank. chartered that date, and which had been organized by Mr. Taylor, the new bank opening for business on October 1, 1904, with the following officers : Henry A. Taylor, president : Enoch F. Haywood, vice-president : William S. Baugh, cashier ; George B. Thompson, assistant cashier. The first board of directors were: Henry A. Taylor, Enoch F. Haywood, William S. Bangh, William Folckemer, George W. Switzer, Francis H. Yundt, A. D. Pyke. S. L. Bangh, Jacob FF. Marks. Mr. Baugh had just a short time before com- pleted his second term as county treasurer, and was a valuable acquisition be- cause of his wide acquaintance. Mr. Taylor died in December, 1905. only a short time after the inauguration of the new enterprise. and was succeeded by Mr. Baugh, while George B. Thompson was promoted for his long and faithful service in the bank, to the office of cashier. Enoch F. Ilaywood, the first vice-president, withdrew in 1909, and was succeeded by Rev. George W. Switzer. These constitute the present official staff. The American National, it will be seen, therefore, has a pedigree reaching in unbroken succession for nearly forty years.
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