USA > Indiana > Perry County > Perry County: A History > Part 22
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During his years of service as Auditor of State-an office secondary only to the Governor's in actual im- portance-his administration elicited universal praise from the outside press, no less than from all Indiana, journals of such status as the Louisville Courier-Jour- nal and the Cincinnati Enquirer terming him "a model officer for Auditor of State." After retiring, in 1873, he purchased a controlling interest in the Indianapolis Sentinel, becoming president of the company, and from the time he gave its affairs his personal attention, about 1876, its struggle against misfortune became a winning fight after years of continuous loss. Out of chaos he brought system, extravagance gave way to economy, and success took the place of disaster.
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CHAPTER XXXII
FIRST TEACHERS' INSTITUTE.
UNDER a law enacted by the Legislature of 1867 the county commissioners were required annually to ap- propriate the sum of $50 (since increased to $100) to defray the expense of a County Teachers' Institute, and the first assemblage of this character in Perry County convened on August 26 of that year, at Can- nelton, for a session of five days.
No complete record of the proceedings remains, though outline accounts published indicate an enjoy- able programme of recitations, drills, illustrations, dis- cussions and lectures. The enrollment showed a total of forty-one, scarcely one-third the average number now attending the regular sessions, but it is a note- worthy circumstance that two of the teachers then present are still (1915) active educators of the county, and hold a record of unbroken attendance.
Many more have long since heard and answered the roll-call from the life beyond. Some who were then teachers remain as residents of Perry County, others are living elsewhere and the present generation knows them under names which matrimony has changed. The officers were J. T. Martin, president; Lizzie White- head (Mrs. James J. Wheeler), secretary; Sallie Pat- terson (Mrs. Irving Jones), clerk; Mollie (Drumb) Gregory (Mrs. Andrew J. McCutchan), Viona May (Mrs. Mathias M. Howard) and John W. Lang, pro- gramme committee. The others registering were: Adeline Knights (Mrs. James McGuiney), Emeline Mc- Collum (Mrs. Alfred Vaughan), Nancy Vaughan (Mrs. Wright-Abbot), Mary H. Batson (Mrs. Howard M. Royal), Josephine Batson (Mrs. Leander Yarito),
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Elizabeth Batson (Mrs. James Daniel), Sarah Osborn (Mrs. Griffin Buchanan), Ellen W. L'Argent (Mrs. Richard Hopkins), Maggie Gregory (Mrs. Joseph Wetherell), Mary Patterson (Mrs. William H. Hack- ett), Loutora Moeller, Letitia Jarboe (Mrs. Elisha S. Weedman), Sallie Wheatley, Sallie Whitmarsh, Maggie Gregg, Maggie Wilson, Alice Graham, Jennie Brown, Bessie Wales, Ruhamah Wales, Susanna Butler, Joshua H. Groves, Samuel T. Whitmarsh, Charles H. Deen, James J. Wheeler, John Stephens, Daniel Stanley, Smith McAllister, John Lasenby, Israel L. Whitehead, Isaac W. Lyons, Heber J. May, Hiram Sanders, James S. Frakes and John S. Frakes. The sessions were esteemed of such value that the teachers expressed their interest and gratification by resolving to hold another institute the next year.
Just a fortnight after the original institute met, the cornerstone was laid for a new public school building in Cannelton, the formal exercises taking place Sep- tember 10, 1867. All the fraternal orders and local benevolent societies turned out in procession to the block lying between Taylor, Congress, Sixth and Bry streets, which the town corporation had purchased for school purposes, and the Masonic ceremonial was con- ducted in the presence of many spectators, who listened also to addresses from Hamilton Smith, Sr., and Charles H. Mason.
The edifice, a substantial and commodious two-story brick, still in use, with some interior remodelling, was an excellent structure for its day, reflecting much credit upon the board of trustees who erected it, Alfred Vaughan, Roan Clark and Joseph F. Sulzer. In the face of much opposition these virtually assumed pay- ment of the bond issue, which amounted to only $9,800 bearing six per cent. interest, and in a little over five years (April, 1873) the last was paid off, when the three trustees resigned from office, giving place to others.
The Rev. Warren N. Dunham (deacon in charge of
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St. Luke's Church at the time) was the first superin- tendent in the new building for the school year of 1868-69, and the teachers employed under him were Christian H. Dick, Misses Ruhamah Wales, Augusta Kolb (Mrs. Maurice J. McGrath), Nancy Vaughan (Mrs. Abbot) and Maggie Hollerbach (Mrs. Weth- erell).
The teachers' institute of 1868, from September 7 to 11, inclusive, was the first held in the new school- house, and its officers were Heber J. May, president; Mary H. Batson (Mrs. Royal), secretary ; John T. Pat- rick, assistant secretary. Professor D. Eckley Hunter gave instruction in normal methods, in which he was one of Indiana's foremost pioneers. Exercises in the major branches of common school were conducted with much profit. Observant critics who had been ap- pointed, indicated such omissions or commissions as were thought noteworthy and a question-box supplied its amusement together with a degree of benefit.
Up to this time each county still had its school ex- aminer, and the last but one in Perry County holding such a position, between 1868 and 1871, was Heber J. May, who had been a successful teacher and later won distinction for himself in the profession of the law.
Heber J. May was the son of David May, and was born November 28, 1846, in Pike County, whence his parents moved about 1852 to Perry County, making it a home thereafter. His education was in the common schools, supplemented by some years of advanced training in a select private school conducted in Cannel- ton by the Rev. William Louis Githens, rector of St. Luke's Church, a man of strong and admirable char- acter, whose personal influence upon the young people showed itself in many marked instances.
While still teaching school himself, Heber J. May next studied law, reading in the office of Judge Charles H. Mason, and soon after attaining his majority passed with high credit the required examination admitting him as a qualified practitioner before the bar. For
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two years he practiced law in Evansville, but in 1873 he returned to Perry County where he purchased the first English newspaper in Tell City, the Commercial, an eight-column weekly journal.
It had been founded May 3, 1873, as an independent sheet, but was changed to Democratic on passing into May's hands six months later. He continued to own and edit it until January 1, 1876, when he sold the outfit to W. P. Knight, who shortly removed the plant to Union City, Indiana, Mr. May resuming his law practice in Cannelton. The death of his first wife (Margaret Mayhall, of Hancock County, Kentucky) left him a widower for several years, with one daugh- ter, and in 1880 he was again married to Gertrude (Huntington) Bunce, daughter of the late Judge Hunt- ington, of "Mistletoe Lodge."
In 1882 he was elected Joint Senator from Perry and Spencer Counties and in 1885 his services as an active Democrat were given due recognition by Presi- dent Cleveland, who appointed him Assistant Attor- ney-General to Augustus H. Garland, of Arkansas, then in the cabinet. From the time of his removal to Washington he made the District of Columbia his home for the remainder of his life. When the Re- publicans came back into power in 1889, he formed a law partnership with Judge Garland, lasting until the latter's death, and was a trusted counsellor for several of the foreign legations.
Death came to him January 22, 1915, with distress- ing suddenness, and he passed away in the arms of his devoted wife, who still resides at the capital with their only surviving son, who is a journalist there.
Theodore Courcier, of Leopold, a son of John Cour- cier, who had fought in the War of 1812, became the last school examiner, in June 1871, serving under that title until June, 1873, when, by a new law, the office was changed to County Superintendent of Schools. He assumed the added responsibilities and carried on its duties until 1879, when he was followed by Israel
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L. Whitehead, whose successors have been Francis J. George, Logan Esarey, Harmon S. Moseby and Lee B. Mullen, the present incumbent.
In earlier years the teachers' institutes were held at various points in the county, following the same plan as was then customary with the monthly examina- tions for teachers' license. Superintendent George, however, inaugurated a system of alternation between Cannelton in the "odd" and Tell City in the "even" years, which has not been departed from, although the law now permits no examinations to be held elsewhere than at the county-seat, where the superintendent has his office in the court house, along with the auditor, treasurer, clerk, recorder and sheriff.
The press of Perry County, whose beginning dates from April 28, 1849, when Charles H. Mason founded the Cannelton Economist, was for twenty years lim- ited to two papers, one in each of the principal towns, and the Tell City Anzeiger being printed in German, there was practically but one county journal.
The Economist may be characterized as a periodical of superior literary tone, its editorials from the pen of Judge Mason being widely copied, while its zeal for home institutions was its strongest local feature. Little news that would pass as such today appeared in its columns, though its files afford illuminating glimpses of contemporaneous thought. Plate matter was then unknown. Each country editor had to com- pile his own selections, and by such should the merit of the Economist be estimated.
William H. Mason became an associate proprietor and editor in August, 1850, and the brothers continued to issue the paper until November 15, 1851. Louis Lunsford Burke and J. M. Beatty began issuing the Express from the same office December 6, 1851, but it ran through only four issues. After two months, or March 27, 1852, it reappeared as the Indiana Week- ly Express, published by J. M. Beatty and J. B. Archer. November 20, 1852, Beatty sold out to Archer, who
(19)
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continued alone until April 19, 1853, retiring then with a loss of several hundred dollars.
January 28, 1854, J. M. Beatty re entered journal- ism, using the original outfit of the Economist but printing Number 1, Volume 1, of the Cannelton Re- porter, which he published until January 13, 1855, when he sold out to J. B. Archer. All these papers in turn had been politically independent, but Archer changed both name and politics, printing as the Can- nelton Mercury a Democratic sheet whose life lasted through seven short weeks. Beatty then came back for the last time, issuing, April 21, 1855, Number 1, Volume 2, of the Reporter, resuming independent pol- itics with the old name.
Joseph M. Prior purchased the paper February 23, 1856, changing its name with the issue of May 24 to Independent Republican and again, on August 16, to Republican Banner, which lasted until its suspension, September 13.
George G. Leming and Henry Koetter soon pur- chased the outfit, and November 8, 1856, saw the name Reporter restored to the head where it remained for the next twenty years, politics becoming Democratic under the new proprietors. Jacob B. Maynard bought out Koetter March 14, 1857, and January 30, 1858, took over Leming's interest also. From this time the paper regained among Indiana periodicals the status which it had never held since Charles H. Mason pre- sided over its columns. Colonel Maynard was a writer of striking force and brilliancy, belonging to what is now termed the "Old School" of journalism whereof Henry Watterson-the beloved "Marse Henry," last and most distinguished of his type is now (1915) the only living representative.
December 25, 1858, the paper went back into the hands of George G. Leming and James M. Moffett, who sold out very soon to the Wade brothers, John C. Wade acting as editor. Colonel Maynard took the paper once more, January 7, 1860, and his editorials during the
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breathless Lincoln campaign, the period of secession, and the first months of the War between the States, were copied throughout the Union, giving the Cannel- ton Reporter a prominence such as few country news- papers attain.
Ability so pronounced wins in every case personal recognition for itself, so that Maynard was offered a position on Indiana's leading Democratic newspaper, the Indianapolis Sentinel. He had sold a half-interest in the Reporter to W. L. Moffett, December 6, 1881, and December 5, 1863, sold his remaining share to Henry Northup Wales, who became editor.
Wales bought out Moffett April 2, 1864, but October 1 sold out to Joseph W. Snow, who had been for some years a teacher in Cannelton and Rome. He was a man of classic scholarship, as the columns of his paper plainly attest, nor was there any falling off in taste or ability when he sold out, April 12, 1866, to Thomas James de la Hunt, a fellow-graduate from the same college, Genesee (now Syracuse University). Owner- ship of the Reporter was continued by Mrs. de la Hunt for a time following her husband's death, with Charles H. Mason in the editorial chair as a Republican, but in the summer. of 1876 the establishment was sold to Henderson Marcus Huff and Hiram Osborne Brazee.
June 1, 1870, the Cannelton Enquirer had been es- tablished by a stock company whose control soon passed to Edwin R. Hatfield, Sydney B. Hatfield and Elisha English Drumb, the last two being joint ed- itors of the paper, which was a Democratic sheet and founded for purposes of county politics, wherewith all its owners were actively connected.
William N. Underwood, a native of Delaware Coun- ty, New York, came in September, 1873, from Topeka, Kansas, to Cannelton, purchasing a one-third interest in the Enquirer and becoming its publisher. He was a graduate of New Berlin (New York) Academy, and had learned the printer's trade in the state of his birth, working three years in the Chenango Union
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office. For a year he lived in Wisconsin, as pressman for the Janesville Democrat, but at the age of twenty enlisted in October, 1861, in the Sixteenth New York Heavy Artillery, serving until mustered out, August, 1865. After the war, he located in Carlinville, Illinois, marrying Etta Wargensted there, but went to Topeka, where he was foreman of the State Record until com- ing to Cannelton.
Drumb and Edwin R. Hatfield retired from the paper in June, 1874, and just two years later Underwood purchased the share of Sydney B. Hatfield. William E. Knights, a Canneltonian, who had been publishing the Grandview Monitor, became associated with Un- derwood in 1877, the two buying the Reporter from Huff and Brazee and consolidating both papers June 21, 1877, under the title Cannelton Enquirer and Re- porter.
Knights remained as editor only until January 31, 1878, resuming then his work in Grandview, while the Cannelton office passed into the control of Underwood. On October 15, 1887, the name Reporter was dropped from the headline, but the sheet remained Democratic until purchased, October 12, 1892, by Thomas E. Hus- ton and Charles T. Miller, who changed its politics back to the Republican faith, Huston selling out his interest December, 1899, to Miller.
For several months in 1878 a Republican weekly, the Cannelton Advance, was published by John F. Waldo, a young journalist from Vevay, but proved an untime- ly venture. The presidential campaign of 1880 saw two other Republican papers established in Cannelton, the Journal, of which John E. Daum was proprietor, with William Clark as associate editor, and the News, published by Frederick V. Rounds and William A. Sil- verthorn. Although both were good country sheets, full of local items, their career was not much more than two years in duration. Expenses were heavy, and notwithstanding both state and national victories for the Republicans, the party had but a small share
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of patronage in Perry County printing which could be disbursed toward their own press.
Similar conditions six years later determined the fate of the Cannelton Gazette, a weekly founded dur- ing the summer of 1886, as a feature of the campaign looking toward the election of Benjamin Harrison to the United States Senate. Louis L. Burke, for twenty years resident in the District of Columbia, returned to Perry County, and established the paper which lasted less than a year, as the Republican gains were not sufficient to overcome Democratic control of local poli- tics. Burke removed his plant to Brookville, where for several years he published the American with fair success.
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
FIRST COUNTY FAIRS.
THE EARLIEST successful effort toward holding a county fair in Perry County was a three days' exhibit October 13, 14 and 15, 1867, in Tell City, when a cred- itable display of farm produce, grain, vegetables, fruit, flowers, jellies, preserves, needlework, manufactured and mechanical products, and other miscellaneous ar- ticles was assembled. The attempt was not repeated the following year, however, and it was not until 1875 that another organization was effected under the style of "Perry County Exposition." Zalmon Tousey, pres- ident; George F. Bott, secretary; August Menninger, treasurer; and James M. Combs, superintendent; were the officers.
A tract of land was secured about midway between Cannelton and Tell City, on the old "high water" hill road leading from Seventh Street in the former town into Tell Street in the latter. Here a half-mile track was laid out, and the usual grand-stand, band pavilion, floral hall, stalls, sheds, rest and refreshment houses necessary for well-equipped fair grounds were built. A liberal premium list was issued, with prizes, sweep- stakes, etc., in all departments and for some few years annual fairs were held, drawing large crowds from both Southern Indiana and neighbouring Kentucky.
At Rome, February 12, 1870, the Perry County Agricultural and Mechanical Society was organized, adopting constitution and by-laws, and electing as per- manent officers, James Hardin, president; Hiram Carr and James T. Bean, vice-presidents; Emile Longue- mare, secretary; Adam Ackarman, treasurer. Fort- nightly meetings were held, at which were discussed
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such topics as "Oat Culture," "The Crop," "Use of Manures," "Preservation of Meat from Vermin," "Onion Growing," and "Does the Moon Affect the Po- tato Crop?" Seeds and literature from the Depart- ment of Agriculture were received and distributed among the members, and the society was in its way a forerunner of the Farmers' Institutes which came into existence about twenty years later, and among whose earliest active workers was James J. Wheeler, now a resident of Chicago but long identified with Perry County.
At a very early meeting of the A. and M. Society it was suggested that a fair be held at Rome during the fall of 1870, but the plan failed to materialize, as did also an attempt to reorganize the society upon the basis of a stock company. Regular meetings were con- tinued, nevertheless, until the autumn of 1871, the membership then numbering about thirty residents of Tobin Township in the vicinity of Rome, and after prolonged deliberation it was determined to hold a fair in the fall of 1872, utilizing for the purpose the Acad- emy grounds and buildings.
In exhibits, attendance and interest the first fair was so successful that it was repeated in 1873, again using the Academy. Such was the increase along all lines that early in 1874 it was decided by the associa- tion to secure permanent quarters. Three acres of level land, lying one mile west of the village, were pur- chased of Andrew Ackarman, for $300 and during the summer were fenced in, a show ring laid off, a well dug seventy-five feet deep, and suitable buildings con- structed, at a total outlay of $1,500.
James Hardin continued as president until 1876, and was then succeeded by John Tipton Connor, but again took the office in 1880. Hiram Carr Ackarman, in 1882; James Carey, in 1883; and A. T. Wheeler, in 1884; were the next officials in succession, by which time the interest of the county at large had seriously languished, and the association had begun to decline.
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High praise, however, is due the town and neighbour- hood of Rome for their efforts in founding and main- taining so long as they did an organization which many Indiana counties of greater wealth and superior agri- cultural conditions had failed to establish successfully.
The fruit displayed was of notable excellence in the earlier years, John C. Shoemaker, the authority on pomology, making several annual trips from Indi- anapolis back to his old home to serve as one of the judges, and pronouncing Perry County apples unsur- passed by any exhibited at the State fairs. His own orchards (now "Sunnycrest") were then deteriorating, but from the Polk and Winchel nurseries near Tobins- port came specimen fruit which would have won prizes in any competition.
Nor was the fresh fruit alone of remarkable per- fection. The notable housewives of Rome brought
"_ candied apple, quince, and plums, and gourd, With jellies soother than the creamy curd.
And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon,"
whose delicacy could not be excelled, while needlework was shown of a fineness which only the patient stitchery of Belgian convents might equal. With the flagging of enthusiasm, however, it came to be a good- humoured local jest that some of the displays were kept in pantry, cellar or linen-press from year to year, and annually brought forth like rare works of art, to win new ribbons and further cash prizes.
About 1888 strenuous exertions were made to re- vive the old-time attractiveness of the fair, and fif- teen additional acres were leased, so that a half-mile race track could be laid out. Some handsome purses were offered in the hope of inducing horsemen to bring their trotting strings, but Rome was of such incon- venient access that men of the turf passed it by for points having railway connection, and only two more fairs were held.
In 1894 the property was sold for $350 to Nicholas N. Pontrich. A comfortable residence replaced the
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stalls, floral hall was changed into a barn, corn-furrows were traced across the race-track, and only the deep well remains as a relic of "the grandeur that was Rome."
For a number of years after the discontinuance of the short-lived Orleans Bank of Cannelton, Perry County was without any regular banking facilities, but in 1872 John S. Whitten came from Leavenworth to Tell City and, in co-operation with Frederick Steiner, founded the Tell City Bank as a private institution, with a capital of $30,000. Whitten was cashier and manager, Steiner being wharfmaster and otherwise occupied at the time.
After one year the concern was turned over to a partnership of twelve stockholders with a capital of $12,000, all of which could then be profitably handled. Charles Steinauer, of Tell City, was president, and Ga- briel Schmuck, of Cannelton, cashier; the other shares being held by Peter Meier and Christian Rauscher, of Cannelton; Louis Martin, of Fulda; Amand Eble, J. Wielman and John Richardt, of Troy; Gustave Huth- steiner, Ferdinand Becker, August Menninger and Michael Bettinger, of Tell City.
In November, 1874, it was changed to the Tell City National Bank, with Charles Steinauer, president; Gustave Huthsteiner, cashier, and a capital of $50,000, but in February, 1878, became a private institution again. Later reorganized as a state bank, it finally became a national bank once more, which it still re- mains, having for its cashier (1915) Walter F. Huth- steiner, a son of Gustave Huthsteiner.
While Gabriel Schmuck was not for long connected with the Tell City Bank, the services which he ren- dered the infant concern were of incalculable value, as he brought it safely through he financial panic of 1873, when it shared the fatal danger threatening other or- ganizations of its kind all over the Union, and his sound judgment steered the craft wisely in its period of critical storm.
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Gabriel Schmuck was born June 13, 1833, in Sobern- heim, Rhenish, Prussia, and was brought to America by his parents, Adam and Elisabetha (Klein) Schmuck, in the wave of emigration which left the Fatherland during 1848. Their first stop of two years, was in Pittsburg, but in June, 1850, they settled for perma- nent residence in Cannelton, where the fourth genera- tion of the name in Indiana is now represented. The family was large and-like most of the immigrants- without fortune, so the discipline of early life served to fix habits of industry and usefulness upon the six sons, Adam, Jr., Gabriel, Peter, Anton, Charles and Frederick, all of whom grew to maturity as men of strong characteristics.
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