USA > Indiana > Cass County > Pastime sketches : scenes and events at "The Mouth of Eel" on the historic Wabash with papers read before the Cass County Indiana, Historical Society at its spring meetings, 1907 > Part 6
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During the entire time Mr. Winter supported himself by his brush, a difficult task in a new coun- try having little appreciation of art. When he came to Logansport in 1837, to use his own words, "He was allured to Indiana to be present at the councils held by Col. A. C. Pepper at the village of Kee-waw-nay in regard to the Pottawatomie im- migration west of the Mississippi." He had an ar- tist's interest in the red man of the west, and many of his paintings are of famous Pottawatomie and Miami chiefs.
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CHAPTER XIX.
A TRIP ON THE CANAL.
There is a somewhat rare work in the Horace P. Biddle collection at the city library. It is en- titled, "The Wabash, or Adventures of an Eng- lish Gentleman's Family in the Interior of Amer- ica." It was published in London in 1855 by "Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, 13 Great Marl- borough street," and is in two volumes. The au- thor is "J. Richard Beste, Esq., of London."
With the progress we have made it is hard to realize that an Englishman came to this part of the country a little over fifty years ago and wrote of us much as Henry M. Stanley and Paul du Chaillu wrote of "Darkest Africa" in more recent years.
The frontispiece in this book is a picture of Terre Haute, Indiana, and it is a rather remarkable production in that it shows Terre Haute as con- sisting of five house, six people and two dogs. The artist seems to have had an Englishman's fondness for dogs, as they occupy the foreground of the pic- ture. Two churches or school houses appear in the background.
Mr. Beste made his trip to Terre Haute in a spirit of adventure, arriving at New York on a sailing vessel and finding his way westward as best he could. He passed through Indianapolis over the National road, in a stage coach, and stopped at
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the Prairie House in Terre Haute. Death in his family, and other discouragements led him to re- turn soon and he selected the canal route by way of Logansport as better than the one he had fol- lowed in his course westward. This involved a ca- nal boat ride from Terre Haute to Toledo, Ohio, a steamboat trip on Lake Erie from Toledo to Buf- falo, railroad transportation from Buffalo to Al- bany and another steamboat ride down the Hud- son from Albany to New York city. The time consumed on this journey was something less than a month and no better realization of the great prog- ress of the country can be arrived at than by com- parison of this with the present method of getting to New York city. Many can recall the local mer- chants who went to New York to buy goods a few years ago, and thought it something to be proud of. It meant much hardship then, the trip took much time, and was very expensive, and it is not to be wondered at that the merchant advertised his special bargains in New York goods, selected by himself, "in person," for the particular wants of his customers.
Mr. Beste's book was interesting to me and might be to others, and so I have called attention to it. There is not much of value in it, in a gen- eral way, but it gives an accurate description of travel on a canal boat in early times.
When the Beste party was ready to leave Terre Haute it was delayed by a break in the canal and learned that this was of frequent occurrence. A week of waiting followed. Telegrams were sent to friends and the author goes into raptures, say- ing, "Let Europe and England take shame to itself that the electric telegraph, as yet, exists not every-
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where for the convenience of everybody. In these remote and infant communities, it is in hourly use in every village. The greatest and smallest com- mercial transactions are carried on by its means."
Mr. Beste decided "that Indianapolis and Terre Haute are not decaying, but are busy, rising, thriv- ing towns." The population of Indianapolis, he says, was 2,692 in 1840 and in 1850 had risen to 8,034. Terre Haute in the same period rose from 2,000 to 4,051.
The journey by canal to Toledo was not par- ticularly exciting. The boat made from four to five miles an hour and stops were frequent. It was an ordinary canal boat, too well remembered to re- quire description. The view, the writer says, "was naught," thick woods with partial clearings. "Af- ter tea," says the writer, "we all began a most murderous attack upon the mosquitoes that swarmed our berths in expectation of feasting upon us as soon as we should go to bed. Those upon which we made war were soon replaced by others and the more we killed the more they seemed to come to be killed. We soon resigned ourselves to pass a sleepless night. Tormented by the mosqui- toes, by heat and by thirst our onward course was very wearying."
At Lafayette was to be a "change of cars" and the writer says, "We little knew what was in store for us. We spent some time catching mosquitoes which were ten times worse than in the other boat." G. Davis was captain of this boat and W. H. Noble was agent at Lafayette. The captain refused to recognize the rights of Mr. Beste to the quarters he had paid for and a convention of passengers finally settled the matter in his favor. Mr. Beste
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was evidently not delighted with his trip for he says: "If for some reason I linger yet upon this canal, let it be remembered that those whose prop- erty is here forcibly invested, have, probably, never before heard from a countryman who had traveled with his family from the Ohio river to Lake Erie by this ditch; and that it is unlikely any one will ever do so again."
The morning ablutions had to be performed in turn. "Every third person had to dip the jug into the canal for fresh water." Then came the break- fast which was "very bad indeed," along the route were many villagers and the shops had signs, "York Fixings and Yankee Notions."
"The whole party was very much annoyed the next day by a passenger who stood on the roof, or upper deck of the boat with a fowling piece in hand and constantly fired at birds that flew across the canal. The detonation overhead was unpleas- ant, but the man was a friend of the surly animal who commanded the boat, and remonstrance was felt to be useless."
Mr. Beste did not find anything enjoyable in his trip. His last entry in his journal is as amus- ing as any paragraph in his book. It was dated Saturday and reads: "At ten o'clock this morn- ing, our hateful boat-for the wretched fare ยท and accommodation on which I had paid about forty- five dollars a head, or about double the charge per day at the Prairie House, Terre Haute-was drawn up beside a crowded wharf at Toledo. My family had found some degree of fellowship in that of Miss Ward and her children; and had been amused by the manners and the squabbles of the other female passengers. We left the boat, thankful to the Al-
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mighty that we had been able to traverse between three and four hundred miles of an infected dis- trict without further illness, and rejoiced to find ourselves once more in a comparatively civilized region. We went into the hotel at Toledo and saw a bell-rope hanging in the ladies' sitting-room. Was not this evidence of civilization, we had not seen such a luxury since we left Cincinnati. Here indeed it was a novelty; and the use of it was not known to every one, as was testified by the following notice written, in large letters on a card, and sewn on to the handle of the bell pull: "Pull straight down once, then let go suddenly."
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CHAPTER XX.
A STORY OF PROGRESS.
Less than seventy years ago, within the mem- ory of many now living, the Indian roamed the forests about the present site of Logansport and camped upon the banks of the Eel and Wabash. Picture in your fancy Logansport in 1838, a little village with a log hotel, log stores, a log postoffice and a log jail. There were perhaps a hundred and forty or fifty log and frame houses, most of them below Fifth street. The log postoffice stood just above the present Barnett hotel, the old Semin- ary faced Market street, it was of brick, and the old jail was on the present site. Scattered about were native forest trees and the streets were paved with mud several inches deep.
Workmen are now tearing down the old Hig- gins house on Market between Fifth and Sixth streets to make room for a modern flat. In those days the canal ran along the east side of the town, now Fifth street, and there were few houses east of it. Market street east of the canal was a coun- try road cut through the forest and ancient oaks adorned the hill between Sixth and Eighth streets. The original plat of Logansport ran to below Sixth street and the lots above were in the first addition to the town, made by John Tipton. The addition was laid out August 3rd, 1832, but was not im- proved rapidly. In 1838 there were few houses east
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of Fifth street, the Higgins house being one of them. The lot is number 46 in the addition. It was on the hill as it now stands and the street in front of it was the country road. John Tipton sold the lot to Cyrus Taber, he sold to Henry Chase. Philo S. Patterson appears as one of the owners, 1837. Captain Alvin W. Higgins appears as own- er of the lot by purchase in 1857. As far as it is possible to learn the house was built in 1833, or 1834. It was constructed by a millwright who was skilled only in that sort of architecture and the foundation is of double strength and the timbers are heavy wrought. There is nothing to show that it was ever intended for a mill, or was used as such but the style of architecture suggests that that may have been intended. William Chase appears as the grantor in the deed to Capt. Higgins in 1857.
East of the canal a few houses were scattered in the woods. The lot of the present Broadway Methodist church was in timber. Back of it was the home of a blacksmith named Hines and near it, toward North street, was the home of a car- . penter named Ward, father of Edward Ward. "Jimmy" Rogers had a house a few feet west of the present Broadway Presbyterian church. West of the canal the father of Charles B. Laselle had a home where the gas office is on Pearl street and he afterwards built at the corner of Broadway and Pearl. The old Seminary, of brick, stood facing Market street where Snider's queensware store stands, or a little west of it, perhaps later, and the Methodist church stood on the alley east side of Sixth street, between Broadway and North streets. The Presbyterian church still standing back of the Lewis store on Broadway below Sixth,
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and perhaps one or two other houses composed the town above the canal for many years. George C. Walker built at the corner of Ninth and Broadway, where the Sisters school stands later and Col. I. N. Partridge built where now is the residence of J. T. McNary. Thus the town grew. It does not require much flight of the imagination to picture this hill of forest trees with country roads for streets and a log or frame house here and there.
William Douglass, still living, brought Captain Higgins to Logansport with an ox team. He found him as a passenger at the "Forks of the Wabash" two miles below Huntington on his return from a trip to Fort Wayne and offered him the best to be had in those days in the way of transportation. Capt. Higgins engaged in business in Logansport, held office and died several years ago. He acquired his military title under General Tipton. When the treaty was made with the Pottawatomie Indians, Chauncey Carter and Dr. Graham N. Fitch were ap- pointed to move some of them west to their new reservation in Kansas. Capt. Higgins went along with a squad of men of which he was made cap- tain. Some of them went in wagons, some on horseback and some on foot. The Indians were brought from an Indian village in Fulton county and were in camp on the North Side, on Horney Creek, where the Custer house now stands. The chiefs were in irons under guard and the undertak- ing was not a particularly safe one. The Cass county contingent returned without loss of life and many of them lived to tell the story to their grand- children.
The first engine for the first railroad was unload- ed on the west bank of the canal between Broad-
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way and Market streets just below the Higgins home in the spring of 1855. Mr. Wat Westlake helped to celebrate the opening of the railroad on July 4th of that year. The engine had been un- loaded from the canal boat and hauled by oxen to the track on the Southside, over the wooden bridges crosing Biddle's Island, a feat which would scarcely be attempted with the engines of the pres- ent day. It was ready for its trial trip by July 4th and a few citizens were invited to a picnic two miles east of town where the Taber prairie now is. The trip was made successfully and thus is recorded the first railroad excursion out of Logansport. Mr. Westlake also remembers the opening of the Chi- cago road in 1861.
The building of the Wabash road was com- pleted through Logansport in 1856. The turn- table was at the present junction of the Wabash and Panhandle roads while the western extension was being built. The road has gone through the usual vicissitudes of railroads and has appeared un- der various names from time to time as a result of consolidations and reorganizations. The following corporate history may be of interest for historical purposes :
The Lake Erie, Wabash & St. Louis Railroad Co. was incorporated August 31, 1852, and con- structed a line through Indiana. On the 25th day of June, 1855, this company consolidated with the To- ledo & Illinois Railroad Company into the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad Company. The lat- ter road was sold on foreclosure on October 8, 1858, and the part in Indiana was sold to the Wa- bash and Western Railroad Co. On October 24, 1858, said Wabash and Western consolidated with
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the Toledo and Wabash Railway Company. On May 29, 1868, the Toledo and Wabash Railway Company consolidated with the Great Western Railway Company of 1859, the Quincy & Toledo Railroad Co., or the Illinois & Southern Iowa Rail- road Company, under the name of the Toledo, Wa- bash & Western Railway Company on foreclosure proceedings had in Toledo, Ohio. Logansport, In- diana, and Danville, Illinois. In 1875 and 1876, the Toledo, Wabash & Western Railway Company was sold and in January, 1877, became the Wabash Rail- way Company by consolidation, there having been organized a Wabash railway in each of the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
In November, 1879, the Wabash railway con- solidated with the St. Louis, Kanas City and North- ern railway and became the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company. This road went into the hands of a receiver in May, 1884, and was sold at receiver's sale in Chicago, May 21, 1889, the part in Indiana to the Wabash Eastern Railway Company of Indiana. On the 23d day of May, 1889, the Wabash Eastern Railway Company of Missouri, the Toledo & Western Railroad Com- pany of Ohio and the Detroit and State Line Wa- bash Railroad Company of Michigan were consoli- dated into the Wabash Railroad ompany, the pres- ent owner and operator of what is known as the "Wabash" line.
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CHAPTER XXI.
TWO RARE BOOKS.
An odd little volume is the property of the Lo- gansport Public Library. It would almost go into an ordinary envelope were the title, which is the biggest part of it, omitted. It is styled "The State of Indiana Delineated; Geographical, Historical, Statistical and Commercial, and a Brief View of the Internal Improvements, Geology, Education, Traveling Routes, etc." It is "Published by J. H. Colton, New York, 1838."
"The State is divided into 88 counties," it says, and their population in 1830 is given, also the num- ber of square miles in each county. Cass county has 415 square miles, and a population of 1,154. Car- roll county had about four hundred more and Allen county a hundred less than Cass county. Marion county, Indianapolis, had only a population of 7,- 181, while South Bend and St. Joseph county com- bined had only 287. This county had the smallest population in the State in 1830.
Cass county had 858 voters in 1837, the entire county and city was appraised for taxation at $323,126. The personal property assessed brought this up to $827,567 and the gross amount of rev- enue received from taxation was $1,670.95. How much of this belonged to the State as its share is not stated, but it is evident that the county officers were not living in very princely style.
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Under the caption "Sketches of Each County" appears the following: "Cass County-organized in 1829; contains 415 square miles; bounded north by Pulaski and Fulton, east by Miami, south by Car- roll county and Miami Reserve, west by Carroll and White counties. The face of the country is generally level; it abounds with springs of excel- lent water, and the streams are sufficiently rapid to furnish great facilities for mills and machinery of every description. The principal streams are the Wabash and Eel rivers, which unite at Logansport, the county seat-a large and flourishing town. The Wabash and Erie canal passes through this coun- ty."
From a table of elevations above the sea it is learned that the surface of the Wabash river at the mouth of Eel river is 562 feet above tide water in the Hudson river. It would thus appear that Logansport is in no danger from a tidal wave.
In the list of towns Amsterdam appears as be- ing in Cass county, also Lewisburg, Logansport, New Paris and West Logan.
Another interesting book is entitled, "History of Fort Wayne," being an account of the founding of the Indian fort of that name after which the city was named. It was published in 1868 and is one of the Biddle collection. It is probably the most com- plete history of the habits and customs of the Indi- ans of this locality, ever published.
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CHAPTER XXII.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY
One of the questions seriously disturbing the country in the early days was the question of slav- ery. As is remembered, it ended in a long and bit- ter civil war.
Slavery was an institution that had its origin in the greed of man. And the wonder at the present time is that it so long existed. Still, there was an apparently good side to it, the humane administra- tion of it, and sentiment was divided. Naturally, Harriet Beecher Stowe depicted the worst side, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Nevertheless, the system was indefensible from any standpornt, but having been established, was difficult to destroy. Besides this, immense sums were invested in slaves and the property rights thus acquired represented millions of dollars.
It is quite possible that the slavery question would have been settled amicably but for the Civil war, for that war was not, as is generally supposed, fought over slavery but over states' rights. The emancipation proclamation was an afterthought, a blow at the south, in rebellion.
For many years there was a bitter sectional feeling between the north and the south. The north was opposed to slavery, and naturally to "states' rights," which would give each state the power to regulate slavery, as well as all other
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questions of more or less internal concern. It is difficult to understand, however, the spirit of hatred involved. At the present time the government would buy the slaves and free them, and the settle- ment of a serious question in this way would be ap- plauded on both sides. Somehow at that time the spirit of war was in the air. In any event, for years before the war, the north was exciting the south by insidious attacks on its system of slav- ery. The people of the south were born and raised in an atmosphere of slave-ownership. The child of the south had no other thought than that slaves, ponies, dogs and other animals were property, chat- tels. There was no other thought possible, any more than it would be possible for the child of to- day to be convinced that the ownership of a pony was a crime. So that, when the north for a quarter of a century kept up an attack on the property rights of the south, as the south saw it, there was stirred up a feeling akin to that felt toward an in- cendiary gang, bent on the wilful destruction of property, or toward an organization whose object was the secret carrying off of beasts of burden.
It is not, at all times, possible to justify meth- ods. One of the frequent themes of debate in juve- nile debating societies is, "Is it right to do wrong to accomplish right?" However this may be the north irritated the south by an incessant attack on the lawful property of the south, as the law read, and furthermore, the proceedings of the constitu- tional convention of the United States, and the constitution itself, indirectly, gave to slave states. property rights in slaves.
The north was the aggressor, it spirited away the constitutional property of the south and war
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followed. It is sometimes said that "the end justi- fies the means." With that view of it the north was right. And generally the north accomplished one of the greatest reforms of any age, the abolition of slavery. No one living, north or south, today questions the methods. But it will always remain, as one of the complex problems of humanity, that the north was morally right, and the south legally right, and that, for twenty-five years the north kept up an attack on the constitutional property rights of the south by methods which would be called stealing if brute animals were involved.
But this incident is one of the peculiar features of all reforms, and there have even been religious wars to establish universal peace. Whatever the means-and there is a saying "all is fair in war"- the whole country rejoices, north and south, that the blot of slavery was removed by the brave and unselfish patriots who sought to make America "The Land of the Free."
Cass county occupied a prominent place in the noble fight against the crime of slavery, long be- fore its Civil war heroes went forth to face bullets. As early as 1835, Jacob Powell, of the present Pow- ell family, was familiar with the "Underground Railway System" known in Pennsylvania where he lived. The system was established in Cass county in 1855 or 1856. Jacob Powell was proprietor of the Seven-Mile House, a tavern on the Michigan road, seven miles north of Logansport. The Four- Mile House was conducted by Benjamin L. Camp- bell, uncle of B. F. Campbell and Lycurgus Powell had a tavern on the north side of Eel river, just west of where George Flanegan now lives. The house is not now standing. All these were stations
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on the Underground railroad. South of the city, there were stations of the Underground Railway in Carroll county, and in Howard county. The first station in Cass county was at the home of Lycurgus Powell, on the northern route, and it is unnecessary to say that none of the passengers on this railway traveled southward.
There is not much in the way of narrative to say of this railroad system, not down on any of the published maps. There was a method of communi- cation between the stations, equal, as far as times were concerned, to the present telegraphing. The slaves came north in groups of two, or three. They were secreted in the daytime, and taken north, to the next station at night. There was a station at Rochester, and at Plymouth, and some between. The slaves eventually reached Canada, where slav- ery was unknown, and became free. This was the beginning of the fight on slavery, the Civil war followed, and the United States began an era of prominence and leadership among the nations of the earth.
It must be remembered that this work was a work of patriotism. There was no charge made for board, or transportation. Once the slave crossed the Ohio river he was among friends and was sure of aid. There was danger in it, and great secrecy had to be preserved, since the slave owners were quick to follow the trail of the fugitives. There were large rewards offered tempting to officers in the North, and the officers of the Underground railroad had their share of excitement.
Thus for several years the opponents of slavery waged a warfare against it.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
SOME MILITARY HISTORY.
The advent of Memorial day suggests a com- pilation of the names of residents of the county who figured as officers in the various wars. The names of the enlisted men have been gathered by the G. A. R. under their respective companies and regiments. They will be preserved by the Historical society but the list is too long to reproduce in this brief article. Many veterans were in other than Indiana companies and have moved to the county since the war. Some of these do not belong to the G. A. R. and there is no way to enroll them. Any omission in this list of officers is accidental.
Cass county had four generals in the Indian wars, General John Tipton, General Walter Wilson, General Hyacinth Laselle and General Richard Crooks. Besides these other officers were, Col. John B. Duret, Major Daniel Bell, Capt. Spier Spencer and Capt. Cyrus Vigus.
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