USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 47
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In 1873 Col. John S. Williams opened a private banking house in the room No. 32 Columbia street, and in December. 1875. removed into the build- ing on the opposite ( south ) side of the street, southeast corner of Columbia street and the alley between Third and Second streets, which had been erected specially for banking purposes. Here he associated his son, Frederick S. Williams, with him, in the business, and here they remained until their failure,
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in the summer of 1879. Following the failure, Col. Williams and his son established the Sunday Times, which has ever since remained in the family.
Colonel Williams was a prominent figure in the affairs of this city and county for many years, a man who made warm friends and fierce antagonisms. He was a native of the state of New York ; came to Lafayette about the first of the year 1853 as attorney for the Wabash road, which position he gave up to become mayor of the city when elected, in 1856. When the Civil war broke out, he was commissioned colonel of the Sixty-third Regiment. the so- called "Irish Regiment," and served for a time with the Army of the Potomac, but resigned before the end of his four years' term of enlistment. In 1866 he was appointed collector of internal revenue for this district, which post he held for three years. In the break-up of parties following the war Mr. Wil- liams dropped back into the Democratic ranks, and from that time forward was prominent in the local councils of the party. He was third anditor of the treasury under President Cleveland, but returned to Lafayette and resumed his newspaper work. He was more widely known as a politician and editor than as a banker, the banking business being but a brief episode in his career. As a writer and a politician he was bright, keen, quick-witted and incisive. His newspaper career was rather a stormy one, not only because of the antag- onisms growing out of his failure, but because in general he assumed the role of iconoclast, and thus aroused many fierce animosities ; but his unquestionable ability served him well, and his side of the battle was usually well fought.
The Lafayette Savings Bank was organized in July, 1869. under the general savings bank act of the state, and is one of the few organizations under that act which have proved successful. The main feature of the law is, that it is essentially a co-operative institution. There are no stockholders. The profits belong to the depositors; so the losses, if any, fall upon them alone, for there is no one upon whom to call or assess to make good any shortage. No interest is paid or agreed to be paid upon deposits ; but what- ever the earnings may be. is distributed to the depositors in the shape of a semi-annual dividend. Thus the depositors get, after paying the operating expenses, all the earnings of their money. The business is managed by trustees, who are a self-perpetuating body, tenure being for life, and vacancies being filled by election by the remaining trustees. The trustees serve prac- tically without remuneration, except such incidental benefit as may be derived from participation in the control of so large a sum of money as it is possible for the deposits to become. Their position is pure and simple a trust for the depositors. These unique conditions, so different in these indicated respects from ordinary banking institutions, are at once the strength and the weak-
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ness of the system. Theoretically, they are perfectly equitable, not to say millennial; but are open to danger that unsafe men may possibly work them- selves into this self-perpetuating control, and misuse the savings of the de- positors, without incurring a penny of personal liability. There have not, for some reason, been many successful savings banks incorporated under the Indiana law, but among those few the Lafayette Savings Bank is conspicuous. Its trustees have always been men of high character and probity. Its divi- dends have for many years yielded its depositors a return equal to the best interest they could have obtained from any responsible institution. Its growth has been more than satisfactory, and has been a tangible evidence of general public confidence in its management. The first president was John Purdue ; secretary, William S. Peckham, Sr. : and its trustees, besides Mr. Purdue, were Israel Spencer, Henry T. Sample, Eli N. Cooper, Rudolph S. Ford, Adams Earl, Henry S. Mayo, Alexander Wilson, Hiram W. Chase, Martin L. Peirce, Owen Ball, Robert Breckenridge, Ira G. Howe, James H. Telford, John Opp, William F. Reynolds. It will be seen that the board contained representatives of all the principal commercial banking interests of the city. The growth of the business of the bank has been steady, and practically uninterrupted. It
has been the standing boast of the managers that the bank has never solicited a dollar of deposits, yet the aggregate reached half a million dollars within the first ten years of its life, and has now, after fort yyears, grown to over two million dollars, or to be exact, two million, twenty-nine thousand and eight dollars and three cents at the last published statement. July 1, 1909. Practically the entire deposits, except a handsome cash balance, are invested in first mortgage loans on farm property. The present officers are: President, Richard B. Sample ; vice-president, Abraham Levering: secretary and treas- urer, Thomas J. Levering : paying teller. Thomas G. Rainey ; receiving teller, Albert S. Harshaw ; bookkeeper. Harry W. Emerson.
The German Savings Bank was organized December 18. 1871, and began business in the room on the ground floor of the Fowler Bank building now and for a long time past occupied by the Western Union Telegraph office. The original trustees were John B. Ruger, Frederick A. Thieme, John C. Bansemer, Louis Kimmel, John A. Reis, Theodore Gaasch and Jacob Pancera, only one of whom survives. Subsequently James Murdock, Dr. E. B. Glick, James B. Falley. Consider Tinkler, Chris. Scherer, and Thomas Wood were added to the board. John B. Ruger was from the first president. John C. Bansemer was the first secretary, and served for several years, being suc- ceeded by Louis Kimmel. In the closing month of 1877, however, the trustees decided to wind up the business of the bank, there being some symptoms of
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restlessness among the depositors, caused by the closing of the Second Na- tional, and adopted the then somewhat novel method of calling in all the principal depositors and permitting them to choose from the securities of the bank an amount to cover the bank's indebtedness to them. In this way the business was wound up without the usual long delay, and nobody lost anything.
The Lafayette Loan and Trust Company was organized by James Mur- dock early in 1899, and opened for business on May ist of that year. It represented a strong and influential group of local interests, and its personnel was representative of our most prominent citizenship. William Wallace was elected president and Walter J. Ball appointed secretary, and have held those positions throughout the ten years' exceedingly successful life of the company. On July 1, 1902, it took over the business of the Indiana Trust and Safe Deposit Company, which went into liquidation along with its foster parent, the Perrin National Bank, and Septimius Vater, the secretary of the Indiana, became treasurer of the Lafayette, and remained in that position until Septem- ber 10, 1909, when he resigned. His successor has not, at this writing. been appointed. William Folckemer was vice-president until his death, April 28, 1907, when he was succeeded by Charles Murdock. The original board of directors was composed of the following: William Wallace, Charles S. Warner, William Folckemer, John Wagner, Robert W. Sample. Edward F. Bohrer. Charles Murdock, Brown Brockenbrough, Job H. VanNatta. Death, in the ten years since past, has made sad inroads in the directorate. James Murdock, John Wagner, Sr., Brown Brockenbrough, Sr .. William Folckemer and Herman Pottlitzer ( the latter not of the original board, but who came into it at a very early day), together with Dr. J. H. Crouse, who came into the board in the consolidation as a representative of the Indiana, having successively dropped out of the ranks. The present board of directors is composed of the following: William Wallace, Walter J. Ball. Charles Murdock, Job H. VanNatta, Cecil G. Fowler, Julius Berlovitz, Edward F. Bohrer, John Wagner, Robert W. Sample. Albert A. Wells, Septimius Vater, Joseph S. Ewry. In the matter of deposits the company's business long since passed the million-dollar mark, the last annual statement ( March 31. 1909) showing individual deposits of one million, one hundred twenty-three thou- sand, nine hundred and fifty-eight dollars and twenty-seven cents. Its trust business proper has grown at an equally rapid rate, and become one of the prominent features of the company's business. The Lafayette Loan and Trust Company has had a conspicuously successful career, and enjoys to a high degree the confidence and approbation of the business community.
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The Tippecanoe Loan and Trust Company was organized August 15, 1901, largely through the efforts of Samuel Moore, who was its secretary and treasurer from the beginning, and is still acting in that capacity, though at the last annual meeting, in August, he was elected president of the company, W. W. Alder, who had faithfully served as president from the beginning, retiring. The first organization was as follows: President, W. W. Alder; vice-president, Frank P. Bellinger ; secretary and treasurer, Samuel C. Moore. Directors, Will R. Wood, J. L. Loeb, George A. Jamison, Otto A. Prass, Frank P. Bellinger, James E. Marshall, W. W. Alder, Daniel E. Storms, and Fred Meyer. The present officers are: President, Samuel C. Moore; vice- president, James E. Marshall. Directors: The two officers named and Jacob J. Biehn, George A. Jamison, Julius L. Loeb, W. F. Grimes, C. H. Beckett, Will R. Wood and William F. Reitemeier.
The Tippecanoe Loan and Trust Company has not made great head- way in the matter of deposits, though showing some steady growth, but has always earned fair dividends, and seems to be filling satisfactorily a modest place in the city's affairs. It has succeeded in getting a fair share of trust business.
The Indiana Trust and Safe Deposit Company was organized distinctive- ly as an adjunct of the Perrin National Bank, its stockholders being limited to the stockholders of that bank. and their holdings in each company were in exact proportion to their holding in the other, the purpose being to avoid any possibility of clash when it came to dividing expenses, the two occupying different parts of the same room, the banking room owned and occupied by the Perrin Bank. The Indiana was opened for business September 1, 1899, with John O. Perrin as president, Albert A. Wells as vice-president, Septimius Vater as secretary, and William H. Perrin as assistant secretary; these four, with J. J. Perrin and Dr. J. H. Crouse, constituting the board of directors. The organization remained the same throughout the three years' life of the company, except that on the resignation of Jolin O. Perrin as president, just before the annual meeting of January, 1901, J. J. Perrin, with reluctance, because of his age and failing health. became president, and Charles C. Rob- inson was elected a director, taking the place vacated by John O. Perrin. The Indiana had gathered up a deposit of three hundred and forty thousand dol- lars, but followed the fortunes of its parent institution, and was merged into the Lafayette Loan and Trust Company under the same agreement by which the Perrin National was consolidated with the Merchants'.
CHAPTER XXIII.
LAFAYETTE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
(Hon. Alva O. Reser.)
The history of education in the city of Lafayette is similar to the lustory of education in the state of Indiana. In the early days of the city subscription schools were in vogue, and little help was obtained from public funds. The first school in Lafayette was taught by Joseph Tatman, in a log cabin, at the foct of Salem street, in 1827. After that various subscription schools were taught. In 1842 the County Seminary was opened by Joseph Adams. This building was located at the corner of Twelfth and Columbia streets. The new constitution of the state went into effect in November, 1855, and that abolished the seminary and transferred the funds to the common school funds of the state.
Our Revolutionary fathers struggled against oppression, and developed a country where all men are free and equal. The pioneer struggled against obstacles, and made the wilderness to blossom as the rose. And so, along educational lines in the early days in Indiana, it was a struggle against ignor- ance and prejudice. Early in her history Indiana, and the city of Lafayette as a part of the state, did not take a commanding place along educational lines. The term "Hoosier" is supposed to have got its derivation from that fact. For decades after Indiana became a state many other states had a much smaller per cent. of illiteracy than did Indiana. The Constitutional Conven- tion of 1850 gave an impetus to education. Mr. William T. Harris, for many years United States commissioner of education, in one of his reports, said. "No state in the American Union ever made such gigantic strides along educational lines as did Indiana after the constitutional convention of 1850." What was true of the state was also true of the city of Lafayette, in a larger degree. if that could be. Yet the victory was not easily won.
Obstruction after obstruction was placed in the way of the progress of the schools. Tax levy after tax levy was declared unconstitutional. Statute after statute was declared ineffectual. Throughout the decade from 1850 to 1860 there was a constant warfare between the friends of education in Indi- ana, especially in the city of Lafayette, and its foes; yet louder and louder sounded the bugles of the advancing cause of education. The leaders in this
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fight in the city of Lafayette were its school board, composed of Israel Spencer, John Purdue, W. P. Heath, Jacob Casad and Samuel Hoover. The con- stitutional convention of 1850 declared for "a general and uniform system of common schools, wherein tuition should be without charge, and equally open to all." It would seem that this clause in the constitution was intended. as no doubt it was, to promote education, but the enemies of education seized upon it to defeat any attempt at local taxation. The legislature of 1852 sought to give cities power to levy a local tuition tax. in addition to the state tax. Those opposed to education resisted the payment of their local tax, and within the decade from 1850 to 1860. all over Indiana, there was injunction after injunction granted by the courts, and sustained by the supreme court, preventing the collection of a local tuition tax. W. M. Jenners. a citizen of Lafayette, resisted the payment of his local school tuition tax. He brought a suit to enjoin its collection, and the supreme court of the state, in Tenth Indiana, page 70, decided that the legislature only could impose a school tax for tuition, and any attempt by the local authorities of a city or township to levy a local tax for tuition was unconstitutional. Decision after decision was made by the supreme court along these lines, as shown by the supreme court reports from the Fifth to the Eleventh. When the supreme court would grant an injunction, the people grew only more determined, and the next session of the legislature would result in additional legislation trying to cure the defects. Act after act was passed, and decision after decision was made by the supreme court, holding these acts unconstitutional, and holding that a local tuition tax could not be made. For nearly ten years this contest waged between the friends of education and its foes. Time after time the schools of Lafayette were started, with a superintendent and corps of teachers. and then were obliged to be closed, because no funds could be levied locally to support them. However. public sentiment in favor of education grew. This was shown in legislative act after legislative act, seeking to give local communities power to levy a school tax. It was shown in a gradual change of attitude of the supreme court. and finally in a case brought from New Albany, and reported in Eleventh Indiana, the supreme court of the state, against its former declarations, and in accordance with enlightened public sentiment, held that Section 1, Article 10. of the constitution, applied to the rate of taxation for state purposes only, and that the rate of taxation must be uniform only in the locality in which the assessments for such purposes were made. Under these later decisions, with the same constitution, school cities since that time have been permitted to make a local tuition levy for school purposes. This decade from 1850 to 1860 was a crucial one in the
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history of education in the city of Lafayette and in the state of Indiana, and upon the foundations laid at that time has arisen the magnificent proportions of Indiana's splendid educational system, and the city of Lafayette contributed no small part in laying these foundations durable and strong.
The first school board in the city of Lafayette was appointed by the com- mon council, October 20. 1852, and consisted of Israel Spencer, John Purdue, W. P. Heath, Jacob Casad and Samuel Hoover, and these men and their successors led the fight in the most perilous days of the decade above men- tioned. The first official act of the new board was to require all property then owned by the township, within the city limits, to be turned over to the city school board. In 1854. the city had three new school buiklings of suffi- cient size to accommodate eight hundred pupils. One of these buildings was in the eastern part of the city at the corner of Eleventh and Elizabeth streets and was called the Eastern; one was at the corner of Sixth and Brown streets, called the Central, and one was in the southern part of the city, on the corner of Fourth and Fountain streets called the Southern.
The schools were opened free to all in June, 1854, at the Eastern build- ing. In April of the following year they were opened in all the buildings and continued until July 25th. In the fall of 1855, owing to the decision of the supreme court, that no local levy could be collected, there were no funds with which to open the schools and the buildings were rented to certain teachers who conducted private pay schools. They were opened again as free schools in February, 1856, under a new act by the legislature of 1855. But the funds again failed, the supreme court. in a case going from Lafayette, having decided against the collection of local tuition school tax. The people of the city of Lafayette now became aroused. Those were stirring times. The slavery question was looming high and that "irrepressible conflict" was impending. The battle for education in Indiana was almost as absorbing. On February 2, 1858, a public meeting was held and resolutions were passed favoring education. A spirit for education spread over the state. and finally the supreme court held that a local tax levy could be made, and the battle was won. The trustees of the Lafayette public schools opened them again in 1860. in May. They continued open until the spring of 1861 when they were closed on account of the excitement attending the Civil war. but since that time no interruption has occurred and the schools of the city have gone forward. An educational spirit was established. even during the Civil war, and when the war closed in 1865 the people of Indiana. while considering the question of re- construction and the problems growing out of the war. took up the question of education with vigor. The people, for four long years, had become used
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to overcoming obstacles and when the war closed and the soldiers came home, they went to work with the same energy along the lines of peace. Then the commanding question of public interest in Indiana was the public schools. In 1865 the applications of pupils for admission to the Lafayette city schools were so numerous that the trustees and superintendent could not furnish suffi- cient accommodations. The site of the Ford school was procured from the heirs of John Taylor for six thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, and the new building was begun in 1868. March 13, 1868, the school board adopted plans prepared by W. H. Brown. The contract was let for forty-nine thousand dollars. The trustees not having sufficient funds with which to build a building, the common council issued bonds to the amount of thirty thousand dollars, the only time in the history of the Lafayette schools that bonds were ever issued. The building was completed and ready for use September, 1869. In 1870, the Eastern school building was enlarged at a cost of eleven thousand dollars, and the name changed to Jenks school.
When Oakland Hill became a part of the city there was a district school house near the point where Kossuth street joins the Dayton gravel road. This was enlarged in 1873 by the addition of a second story. A janitor's house was provided, and the property was then valued at about eight thousand dollars: the old Oakland building was torn down in 1893 to make way for the new Oakland school building.
The Tippecanoe school building was built in the summer of 1874. The school board purchased two lots at the corner of Third and Fountain streets, of Paul Prass and Julius Cory, for which they paid six thousand four hundred dollars. John Allen prepared the plans, and Elias Max secured the contract, his bid being nineteen thousand eight hundred and twenty-five dollars. The building was first occupied for school purposes in September, 1874, at which time the Southern school was abandoned. In the fall of 1875 the Central building at the corner of Brown and Sixth streets was pronounced unsafe for use. In May, 1876, it was torn down and the Centennial building erected in its place. J. F. Alexander was the architect, and the Centennial was built by Elias Max for twenty-six thousand four hundred and twenty-five dollars. The Ford school bonds were redeemed in May, 1876.
In the fall of 1869. for the first time, in the city of Lafayette. colored children were enumerated the same as other children, and a school was opened for their benefit on Ferry street.
The first superintendent of the city schools was Benjamin F. Naylor, ap- pointed April 24, 1854. His corps of teachers-the pioneer corps-was com- posed of Ellen Merrill. Mary E. Smith, Nancy J. Skinner, C. M. Bishop,
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, IND.
Mary G. Cline. Margaret E. Hoes, Orpha Hathaway. Emma Kilbourne, Miss E. E. Flint. E. M. Campbell. Julia M. Clark, Miss N. E. Conn.
Mr. Naylor was succeeded in 1855 by A. J. Vawter, who served until 1863, when he resigned and was succeeded by James W. Moliere. The lat- ter resigned in 1867. and was followed by Jacob T. Merrill, who resigned August 15. 1890.
The record shows that since then the superintendents have been : Edward Avers, of Warren, Massachusetts, a graduate of AAmherst College, who held the position from September 1, 1890, to June 15, 1902, when he re- signed to accept a position as instructor at Purdue University. Mr. Ayers was succeeded as superintendent by Russell K. Bedgood, who served from June 15. 1902. to June 15, 1904, and Bedgood was followed by R. F. Hight, from June 15, 1904, and is still the incumbent.
The work of organizing and grading was retarded by the frequent inter- ruptions to which the schools were subjected in their early history, yet it went steadily forward. They were divided into three general divisions-primary. intermediate and grammar. The course of study embraced all the common school branches. Vocal music, German and drawing were later added.
In December, 1864, the board adopted a system of grading prepared by Superintendent Moliere. The leading feature of this system was the division of the schools into ten grades and each grade into two classes. The number of grades was later reduced to eight, and the term "year" substituted for "grade."
The Lafayette high school was organized in 1864. Prior to that time some branches called "high school studies" were pursued in the grammar division of the Central school; but there was not a sufficient number of ad- vanced scholars to warrant the establishment of a separate high school depart- ment.
THE LAFAYETTE HIGH SCHOOL.
After the opposition to primary and common school education had been met and overthrown, as heretofore shown, then the obstructionists began to war upon high schools. Before 1888 the Lafayette high school was located in different grade buildings. There was bitter opposition to the proposal of the friends of education to erect a high school, but, on the evening of March 15. 1888. the school board, which then consisted of Louis Kimmel, H. H. Lan- caster and W. H. Moore, met and considered the advisability of building a high school building at the southeast corner of Columbia and Sixth streets, on
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