USA > Indiana > Perry County > Perry County: A History > Part 13
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At this term Judge Ballard Smith, whom his con- temporaries pronounced one of the most polished and brilliant men ever occupying the bench of the Third Circuit, but who had declined to stand for re-election,
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was succeeded by Judge M. F. Burke, of Daviess County. Of Irish parentage, he possessed many sterl- ing qualities of his race, a ready mind, abundant re- source, free and impetuous eloquence. His promptness of decision received favourable comment in all cases during his short term of service, and the most import- ant point adjudicated in the first term he held in Perry County was the re-location issue. The appeal of Elijah B. Huckeby et al vs. Ballard Smith et al, was dismissed, the court ruling that no appeal might be taken from the interlocutory action of the Commis- sioners, thus officially closing an incident most memor- able.
In June contracts were let, to William P. Beacon for building the jail at a cost of $2,000, and to William McKinley, Sr., for re-modeling the school-house at $435; Eben Dow having prepared the plans at a fee of $10; the Coal Company making their own arrange- ments for the stone office building. These operations consumed the summer and in the autumn Charles H. Mason,-Joseph M. Gest superintending work-as an appointed committee, purchased all furniture and fittings.
They, with others, appeared December 7, in Rome, before the Commissioners in session, James Hardin, Joseph Cassidy and Michael Dusch, filing their detailed report which showed full compliance with every re- quirement of the act. Upon motion of Ballard Smith, the Board passed an order directing immediate removal of the records to Cannelton and appointing William P. Beacon to superintend the same. Some slight delay occurred through petition from Rome to have imme- diate transfer of the county property there to a board of seminary trustees, Elijah B. Huckeby, John C. Shoemaker and Job Hatfield, but the Commissioners deferred such action until their March session, holding that the transfer could not legally be made until the county seat was removed de facto.
Daniel L. Armstrong, Auditor; Joseph M. Gest,
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Clerk; Henry Groves, Recorder; Job Hatfield, Treas- urer; and George W. Patterson, Sheriff, thereupon re- moved all their respective records, books, papers and furniture, with the assistance of William P. Beacon, to a barge at the Rome landing, towed by the steamer Wave, which brought all to Cannelton on Thursday, December 7, 1859, and when safely lodged in the new buildings re-location became an accomplished fact.
The first term of court held in Cannelton convened Tuesday morning, January 3, 1860, Judge Ballard Smith presiding pro tem in the absence of Judge Lem- ueu Q. De Bruler, who did not arrive until the after- noon. The first motion was by Charles H. Mason, for the admission of William Mckinley, Jr., to the bar. That night was celebrated by a "Perry County Ball and Supper," given in Mozart Hall by the Ladies of Can- nelton-according to an original invitation still in existence-"on the occasion of holding the first court at the new county seat." Five hundred people were reported by the following week's paper as having par- ticipated in the gaiety which demonstrated universal rejoicing over a victory hard-fought and long-delayed, in which Cannelton's high-minded women were a factor of no slight importance.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
COUNTY BANKS, NEWSPAPER CHANGES, ETC.
THE population of Cannelton, which in August, 1849, numbered 812 souls by actual count of a local census taker, had more than doubled by the spring of 1851, when a second enumeration showed over 1,600 resi- dents, of whom 408 were of school age. Two sawmills, the coal mines and cotton mill were in active operation, and in the autumn of that year the first foundry and machine establishment opened its doors, James Lees, Samuel T. Platt, George C. Beebe, A. H. Cole and J. F. Abdell forming the company. It continued, through many changes of management, for nearly half a cen- tury, its last owners being under the firm title of James Lees' Sons.
James Lees, for many years a valuable citizen, was born July 15, 1824, in Ireland though of purely Eng- lish parentage, his father, John Lees, being a soldier in the Royal Army and having received a medal of honour (yet in possession of his descendants) for serv- ice under Wellington in the battle of Waterloo. Brought with the regiment to British America when four years of age, he returned when twelve years old to England, where he completed his school education. In 1842 he entered on the machinist's trade in Dukin- field, Cheshire, (a few miles from the city of Man- chester), where April 18, 1849, he married Mary Sharples, coming soon afterward to the United States.
A year was spent in the eastern states, and in the autumn of 1850 he was placed in charge of the Cannel- ton Cotton Mills' repair shops. This position he filled until made engineer-in-chief, August, 1860, remaining such for a quarter of a century. Meanwhile he had
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made other investments which enabled him to retire from active labour and, while retaining supervision of the extensive works bearing his name, to enjoy in his closing years that quiet ease of a well-ordered home so dear to the English temperament of which he was a typical example.
The growth of the community made it evident that legal control was necessary for maintaining proper order, so in September, 1852, a petition signed by two- thirds of the voters, asking that the place be incor- porated, was presented to Board of Commissioners by Burwell B. Lea. An election for deciding the question was held on September 18, 1852, when 171 votes were cast, with a result favourable to incorporatiton. Five trustees were chosen from the wards into which the town had been divided; William Knights, Dwight New- comb, Frederick Boyd, Hamilton Smith and William P. Beacon.
The Board met for organization September 28, at the Coal Company's office, when Frederick Boyd was appointed Treasurer and John L. Jones, Jr., Clerk. Later in the autumn the usual town ordinances were adopted and published.
A volunteer fire company was organized under the name "Torrent No. I," for whose benefit $150 was ap- propriated providing that not less than twenty men enlisted and that the Indiana Cotton Mills furnished the engine and apparatus. All conditions were com- plied with, and the original engine house, built in Washington street on the mill premises, remained in use until the summer of 1915, when the property was removed to other quarters and the alarm bell placed on the City Hall.
In January, 1853, Joshua B. Huckeby was appointed town clerk; Daniel Curry, assessor; and James P. Mc- Gregor, marshal. Hamilton Smith was authorized to erect a corporation lock-up, or calaboose, and in Febru- ary William A. Wandell was chosen town attorney. Hamilton Smith, Frederick Boyd and William H.
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Mason became the first board of school trustees, and an ordinance was passed requiring the treasurer and marshal to receive only specie in payment of obliga- tions due the town.
The degree of growth and material prosperity which the early 'fifties witnessed in Cannelton naturally drew wide attention to its financial possibilities, so that 1854 saw the establishment of the Perry County Bank, the first to carry on actual operations in the county, although among the fourteen branches planned for the Vincennes State Bank, chartered by the Territorial Legislature sitting in 1814 at Corydon and confirmed under the Constitution of 1816, Troy was designated as the seat of one such bank.
This system was well planned and its depositories excellently distributed, each to serve three counties, but there was not enough money in all Indiana to finance the scheme. A subscription equalling some $30 per capita would have been required merely to float the stock which the state reserved for itself, so only three branches-at Corydon, Vevay and Brookville- were ever opened.
Some of the notes issued by the Perry County Bank are yet in existence, preserved as mere curios without monetary value. Nearly if not all the capital stock of $100,000 was owned by W. H. Marston, an Eastern capitalist who was president; with R. R. Hunt, vice- president, and L. A. Smith, cashier. An office was rented in the large hotel building and for about one year a general banking business was carried on, re- ceiving deposits, discounting notes, buying and selling exchange. It was also a bank of issue, and its printed semi-annual statement showed some $70,000 worth of bills put into circulation, probably an issue made else- where before removal of their capital to Cannelton.
Four years later, in the spring of 1858, another at- tempt was made by James M. Monroe and Levi Scobey, both strangers, who engaged quarters for a business under the style "Orleans Bank of Cannelton," whereof
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they were respectively president and cashier, with an alleged capital of $20,000. Many banks appear to have been undertaken by these men for the purpose of cir- culating 'wild-cat' issues. A total of near $14,000 is said to have been put out by these branches and several thousand dollars worth from Cannelton were disposed of in the East, eventually coming back for a redemp- tion which was never contemplated.
Although Monroe and Scobey shrewdly published a pretended official bank-bill detector, wherein their own issues were rated at three per cent discount, their in- stitution gained no confidence from the start, so at the expiration of the month for which quarters had been engaged, the projectors (after selling their safe and office fixtures) decamped for fresh fields and pastures new.
The earliest burying ground in Cannelton was on the rising ground to the eastward of Casselberry Creek's original course, close to the old log schoolhouse, but that it was inadequate for growth soon became apparent and other plans were made. In January, 1854, a new organization was effected under the name Cliff Cemetery Association, with Francis Y. Carlile, Hamilton' Smith, Charles H. Mason, John James Key, John Mason, William P. Beacon, Jacob B. Maynard, William Mckinley, Sr., George Minto, Sr., Samuel T. Platt, Ballard Smith, Frederick Boyd, Joseph H. Kolb, Joseph Whittaker, George Crehore, James A. Burkett, George C. Beebe and Dr. Charles L. Soyez as its first members.
A donation of land in extent between seven and eight acres, crowning the lofty cliffs east of town when its appropriate name was derived, was made by the American Cannel Coal Company and suitably laid out by Hamilton Smith, Jr. For some years, however, there was no good road leading up the hill and occasional interments were still made in the old grave- yard. After its final disuse as such, the title reverted to the Coal Company, and a portion of the ground near
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the corner of Fourth and Congress streets was given in 1893 to the Baptists, who erected their church edifice thereon. That it probably covers some of the earliest graves was shown in the summer of 1915, when in excavating for a new water conduit to the baptistery pool a metallic casket of ponderous weight and elabor- ate design was unearthed. That it must have con- tained the remains of some well-to-do person was evident, as the body was that of a man clad in expen- sive garb of old-time fashion, but no means of identi- fication presented themselves, though countless theories were advanced, so the coffin was again buried near the same spot.
Farther south along Fourth street another part of the grounds was given, in 1907, to the African Method- ists, in exchange for the site at Fourth and Adams streets originally owned by the Presbyterians, and in the rear of the church and parsonage removed thither, a few crumbling monuments and leaning markers still indicate where once 'the rude forefathers of the hamlet slept.' Many ailanthus ("Heaven") trees, long ago regarded as particularly desirable for ornamental planting, remain in token that the spot was once tended by careful hands, but most of the bodies were removed to the hill during the 'sixties.
The Cliff Cemetery Association was reorganized about 1869-70 by the lot owners, who elected a manag- ing board of trustees, one from each of the Protestant congregations in Cannelton. Additional ground was granted them by the Coal Company, and surveyed to coincide with the first avenues and walks. When the first St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church was built in 1850 in Seventh street at the head of Madison, its churchyard was used as "God's Acre," but soon be- came insufficient and a new cementery tract, still in use and later enlarged, was given in 1854, to the congrega- tion, situate on the ridge road leading past Cliff Cemetery, a quarter-mile farther from town.
The decade of the 'fifties witnessed many organiza-
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tions in Cannelton and the county at large ;- fire com- panies, hose, hook-and-ladder companies, etc., temper- ance and benevolent societies, most of which lasted only a few years.
While itself of brief duration, one to be mentioned should be the Perry County Medical Society, the first of its kind, formed in response to a call published May 27, 1854, in the Cannelton Reporter. On the appointed day, Doctor Clark, of Cannelton, was chosen president; Doctor Gage, of Troy, secretary; Doctors Gest, Soyez and Sugg, a committee to draft a constitution and by- laws for the society. This, apparently, was the extent of its activity, as nothing further concerning it is any- where on record, and other similar organizations of later dates were equally temporary.
One known as the General Council of Physicians of Perry County existed during the middle 'sixties, and in November, 1881, the Perry Medical Association was formed. Its officers were J. M. Butler, president; Mathias M. Howard, vice-president; J. R. Webb, secre- tary; L. B. Lucas, treasurer; A. J. Smith, Charles M. Brucker and Isaac Lucas, censors. Jesse D. Bacon and J. W. Lucas were also members.
Dr. Harmon Strong Clark was easily Cannelton's first leading physician, an eminently successful prac- titioner and a man of notable personality whose influ- ence and example were powerfully felt in building up all that made a good community. Born, May 26, 1820, at Huntsburg, Geauga County, Ohio, he was the son of Abner and Olive (Strong) Clark, both of whom sprang from old Colonial families of Massachusetts, running back to the day of the "Mayflower" and the Pilgrim Fathers, and still represented in the original homesteads.
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After attaining his twenty-first birthday he came into Hancock County, Kentucky, where he taught three terms of school, meanwhile studying medicine for two years with Doctor Stopp, of Lewisport. The new community in Indiana which was growing up on
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the site of old Coal Haven offered a promising field for a young medical man, hence he located at Cannelton on Sunday, June 20, 1847. As early as 1849 he had a drug store in connection with his practice and after- ward expanded this by adding a large general store which met with handsome financial success, besides another in Troy where he also owned a large pork- packing house.
November 3, 1850, he married Hester Ann Rogers, daughter of Dr. Robert G. and Louisa (Protzman) Cot- ton, of Troy, and a while later they established their home in the "Willow Cottage" formerly owned by James Boyd on the river front at Cannelton. Three children were born to them, of whom a son and a daughter survive, and in the same house Dr. Clark's lamented death occurred May 5, 1863. His funeral, conducted by the Masonic order of which he was a leading member, was one of the largest ever in Can- nelton, a spontaneous tribute of esteem to one of her foremost citizens.
A professional contemporary, some few years Doc- tor Clark's junior yet whose early career had been more thrillingly picturesque, was Dr. Magnus Brucker who located in 1849 at Troy. Born September 6, 1828, at Haslach, in Kinzigthale, in Baden, he prepared for college at famous "alt Heidelberg' and was graduated from the French University of Strasburg in Alsace- Lorraine. The enthusiasm of youth and patriotism enlisted him in the rebellion of 1848, and when the revolutionists were put down he came by way of Italy as a refugee to America.
From the beginning of his practice in Troy success seemed to wait upon him, and he was serving his adopted county as representative in the Legislature of 1861 when war again broke about him. Immedi- ately enlisting as Regimental Surgeon in the Twenty- third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, he served out his full time with patriotic devotion to the cause he had espoused. The appreciative admiration of Perry
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County's citizens took form in electing him again in 1866 to the same office he had unselfishly quitted for the battle-field in 1861. He lived in the county until his death October 23, 1874, a man of professional emi- nence and personal nobility.
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CHAPTER XIX
RIVER TRAFFIC AND FAMOUS STEAMBOATS
FOR three-quarters of a century Perry County's only commercial connection with the outside world was by means of river transportation, and steamboating on the Ohio reached its zenith between 1850 and 1860. The magnitude it attained seems fairly incredible now, when only occasional sternwheelers of moderate ca- pacity are seen, varied by powerful towboats from Pittsburg, or countless small gasoline craft. Of such Oriental luxury was the exterior and interior of many famous steamers in the olden time that detailed de- scription might be reckoned an Arabian Nights' tale.
A lithographed drawing of Cannelton about 1850, showing six steamboats in sight at once, is not to be regarded as an artist's exaggeration, since not less than two-score packets were in regular trades below the Falls, passing Cannelton at stated intervals, and from eight to eighteen vessels lying at the landing at the same time was an ordinary occurrence at Louis- ville.
The Belle Key, shown in the picture of Cannelton, was a popular New Orleans liner out of Louisville where her owner and master, Captain Key, resided. Many men then commanded their own boats, just as at sea, and as the enlarged canal around the Falls was not yet in operation, Louisville was a point of portage between upper and lower river freight or passengers. At a good stage of water boats went over the Falls with perfect safety, but during a part of each year Portland was the practical head of navigation and a scene of amazing activity.
One trip of the Belle Key from Louisville to New
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Orleans became historic in steamboat annals from the circumstance that every passenger and the last pound of freight was booked clear through, absolutely no way business having been accepted.
Captain Key had arrived from the South to find at Louisville two boats ahead of him, loading to leave for New Orleans within the next thirty-six hours. As another boat was right behind him, he considered that his chances were small for a profitable trip, so de- cided, after consulting with his agent, to make a swift run down and bring everything he could carry on his upward trip, expecting to find no other boats in the way at New Orleans.
Announcements were immediately posted in all ho- tels and public places that the Belle Key would leave at 5 p. m. without any way freight, but with all the passengers she could get, promising to put them in New Orleans inside of five days. When noised about town, hurried dray-loads of freight for New Orleans commenced rolling down the levee, besides supply wagons bearing all kinds of stores. Passengers al- ready booked for the other laden steamers cancelled their reservations, engaging staterooms on the Belle Key, so that all was bustle on the wharf.
Many predictions of failure were uttered, as such a thing as a New Orleans boat leaving without a big freight cargo was unprecedented. But the captain be- came only more sanguine, arguing that a rising river and powerful current gave him great advantage for the entire distance, because if he did not lose time by accident or bad weather he would be moving at small expense compared with feeding passengers and burning fuel against the bank.
With over a hundred tons of freight and her cabin full of long-distance passengers, the Key left on time, cheers and whistles saluting her departure "flying light" in shipping parlance. All the way down she was reported as "splitting the river wide open." and her commander's optimism was fully justified. He not
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only made a trip unequalled in speed for the distance, but found no other Louisville boat in harbour at the Crescent City, so got all the freight he could stem the Mississippi with coming north, and his subsequent trips south were always with a cabin-load of contented passengers.
In the spring of 1853 the Reindeer, built a year be- fore by Captain Montgomery for the New Orleans trade, was placed in line between Louisville and St. Louis, passing Cannelton on her down trip Thursday evening, and on Tuesday morning going up. She was a swift vessel, her hull a model of symmetry and the upper works tinseled with elaborate scroll-work both inside and out.
On all the boats stopping at the Cannelton wharf for coal or other business it was a custom among the pas- sengers to take advantage of the delay by walking about the town, so that many public individuals of na- tional importance were mentioned from time to time in the local paper as having stopped off from such and such a boat. Henry Clay honoured the village April 18, 1851, while the Peytona was briefly at the landing. Julia Dean, described as "a good-looking popular ac- tress," whose name is all but forgotten, was on board the Fashion, May 7, 1852.
James E. Murdock, the masterly tragedian and Shaksperean reader, was another tourist-visitor later, while the somewhat notorious Lola Montes, the beautiful Spaniard whose liaison with the King of Bavaria had been flagrantly flaunted all over Europe, attracted her usual attention when in Cannelton on St. Patrick's Day, 1853. She was en route to St. Louis to appear on the stage and had been put off the Eclipse some few days before for refusing to take her meals with the other passengers, sending instead her maid and lapdog to occupy the seat reserved for her at Cap- tain Sturgeon's table.
Just one year later, March 16, 1854, the Reindeer was again at Cannelton bound for St. Louis when both flues
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of her starboard boiler exploded as she was rounding out into the river from Boyd's wharfboat about ten o'clock at night. The report of the explosion was most startling and caused a general rush of citizens to the scene, which was at once frightful and heartrending. Despite the cries for help and the harrowing screams of the scalded sufferers, immediate assistance could not be rendered, as the high stage of water made it haz- ardous to approach the crippled steamer in small boats.
The Europa, however, chanced to be coming up and succeeded in getting the Reindeer under control, land- ing her some distance below. Citizens and physicians from both Cannelton and Hawesville hastened to the relief of the victims, most of whom were deck passen- gers and members of the boat's crew. Everything pos- sible was done to alleviate the agony of the wounded, but all were fearfully injured, some having arms or legs broken, besides terrible burns, and the flesh of some was so scalded that it literally fell from the bones in attempting to remove their clothing.
Toward morning the steamer Magnolia took the Reindeer across to Hawesville, where on the following day the bodies of the deceased were given reverent interment in one huge grave which is still pointed out in the Hawesville cemetery. Inspection which fol- lowed developed the fact that pure lead had been used in the flues instead of the alloy prescribed by govern- ment regulations.
Another accident, less fatal but far more spectacu- lar, occurred at one o'clock in the morning of Satur- day, March 30, 1860, when the steamer Kate May took fire at the Cannelton landing and burned to the water's edge. She was bound for Cincinnati on her return trip from the Arkansas River, under command of Cap- tain J. L. Bruce, and carried among her cargo seven hundred bales of cotton, a part of which was consigned to the Indiana Cotton Mills. ,
The officers and crew were all forward, engaged in
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taking two coal flats in tow when the fire, which had originated in the under tier of bales, was discovered. The flames spread with such rapidity around the stair- ways it became evident that efforts to save the boat would be only desperate folly, so Captain Bruce hast- ened to arouse the imperiled passengers, directing them to means of escape. His example of coolness and courage prevented any disorder, and the only life lost was that of the negro chambermaid. She had been one of the earliest awakened in the cabin, but was seen running to the forward end of the boat, whence it was supposed that she became terrified at the flames and leaped overboard into the water, thus drowning, un- observed. But little baggage was saved and the Can- nelton people proved their liberal kindness by making up to the passengers much that they had lost in the way of clothes and other personal belongings.
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