USA > Indiana > Perry County > Perry County: A History > Part 23
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Gabriel Schmuck's education was begun in the schools of his native town and his actual time in the school-room was not long, though he devoted many hours in his youth to outside study and by personal application attained versatile culture. When still in his 'teens he yielded to that wanderlust which pos- sesses many vigourous temperaments, and left Cannel- ton to seek new fields in the South and West. Having to earn his own money as he went, he worked tempo- rarily in many states, thus adding to his experience and increasing the resources upon which the require- ments of public station would later draw. No false pride prevented him from engaging in any legitimate kind of honest labour, and his active mentality soon lifted him into positions of responsibility.
Satisfied with a few years of this roving career, he returned home, finding Cannelton increased in popu- lation and Tell City installed as a new factor in Perry County's development. His accurate knowledge of the German language caused him to be much in demand as an interpreter for legal transactions of many kinds, and a step into politics was an easy transition.
In 1859 he was elected Recorder and near the close of his four years' term was chosen Clerk of the Cir- cuit Court, holding this office for six years, or until
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March 10, 1872. Six months later he was elected Rep- resentative for the Legislature in 1873, an important session wherein he was connected with measures of state-wide bearing and brought himself into notice all over Indiana. As a direct result he was nominated by the Democrats in 1876 for Clerk of the Supreme Court of Indiana, and was elected with the rest of a ticket which his name and popularity materially strength- ened.
Following this election he removed to Indianapolis with his wife, Mary F. Sanders-Talbot (an adopted daughter of Dow Talbot, of Cannelton), whom he had married December 24, 1861. With their children, they made the capital city their home thereafter, until they left Indiana for Kansas in the 'nineties, settling in Galena, where extensive mining properties demanded supervision.
The Centennial anniversary of American Inde- pendence, July 4, 1876, was universally commemorated all over Perry County with the same spontaneous en- thusiasm which marked its observance throughout the Union.
Cannelton's demonstration was in the highest de- gree creditable to the intelligent patriotism and public spirit of her citizens, being ushered in at earliest day- break by the roar of artillery and the ringing of every bell in town. At eight o'clock a parade was formed at the corner of Washington and Fourth Street, and headed by the Cannelton Cornet Band, marched through the principal streets, among buildings every- where profusely decorated with the national colours and a variety of emblematic devices. Besides all the different fraternal orders and societies in line, an am- ateur military company, organized and drilled for the occasion by Will N. Underwood, impersonated
" __ the old-time Continentals In their ragged regimentals."
And on a canopied float sat the Goddess of Liberty,
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appropriately garbed and gracefully represented by Miss Kate May, with thirteen other young ladies dressed in white, impersonating the Original Colonies.
These young women sang national airs as they drove along, and after reaching the beech grove on the hill west of Cliff Cemetery, where the formal exercises took place, were joined by additional singers, both male and female, who again rendered "The Star-Spangled Banner," and other patriotic melodies.
The Declaration of Independence was read aloud, and John B. Handy, of Boonville, delivered the princi- pal oration. The Rev. Christian Kirschman, pastor of St. John's Evangelical Church, gave an address in Ger- man, and the remainder of the day was spent in dancing, games, music and refreshments. A display of fireworks closed the celebration, with another public dance on a platform built for the occasion in "Hutch- ings Square," between Washington, Adams, Sixth and Hutchings Streets.
The boom of cannon also woke the echoes at dawn in Tell City, where the Stars and Stripes were everywhere unfurled, and a procession said to be the finest in Perry County, marched through Eighth (Main) and other streets, proceeding lastly to Camp Sherman where a programme of regulation character was carried out. Christian Uebelmesser read the Declaration, and Albert Bettinger, of Cincinnati, spoke eloquently in German, followed by a brief talk from Judge Handy. Dancing was continued all day, and at night both Turner and Union halls were thrown open for large balls.
Troy also sustained her olden spirit of patriotism, and public demonstrations drew crowds to Rome, Derby (famed for balls sometimes lasting for two days or more in O'Neill's Hall), and Leopold. In Anderson Valley six Sunday Schools united in a joint celebration, serving a basket dinner to over seven hundred persons besides singing patriotic songs and listening to a Cen- tennial address delivered by Roan Clark, of Cannelton.
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An ancestral relic dating back to
-good old Colony days When we lived under the King,"
exhibited with pride in Cannelton during this Centen- nial period, was a veritable powder-horn, owned by Mrs. Peter M. Hackett (Roselle Thompson), grand- daughter of its original possessor.
It was twenty inches long, by three-and-a-half at the base, bearing the hand-cut inscription:
"June 4, 1768. EBENEZER THOMPSON, his Horn." The ox which bore the horn had been raised by Ebenezer Thompson, one of the earliest settlers of Maine, where he had large possessions and where he died at the advanced age of over one hundred years. His wife's name was Somerset, belonging to the family for whom Somerset County, Maine, was named, and as she was the first white female child born within its limits an entire township of land was bestowed upon her by the authorities.
After its first military use in the American Revo- lution, the powder-horn saw service in the Second War with England, and again in the Mexican War. No doubt it would have served once more, during the War Between the States, save for the changes and improve- ments in soldierly accoutrements made by 1861 since its first owner slung it across his shoulder and sallied forth to meet the British regulars.
Nor was the Centennial sentiment of pageantry and symbolism wholly expended on the national anni- versary. The intensely exciting Hayes-Tilden presi- dential campaign was marked by frequent demonstra- tions in behalf of both political parties. Glee-clubs flourished, torch-light processions helped to kindle en- thusiasm, spell-binding eloquence was poured out lav- ishly all over Indiana-then an "October state"-as the crucial battle-ground.
One parade held in Cannelton, Saturday, September 16, 1876, is vividly described by one of those who fig-
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ured in it, and the circumstance that it preceded a Hayes and Wheeler pole-raising and a speech by Cur- ran A. De Bruler, Republican candidate for Congress, is purely a subordinate detail after the lapse of two- score years.
Thirty-eight little girls garbed in white were be- decked with sashes of red and blue, bearing the names of the States then in the Union. In a low and roomy basket-phaeton rode the Goddess of Liberty, Miss Margaret Gray (Mrs. Charles Oswald), dressed in white, with supporters, respectively gowned in red and blue, representing Justice-Miss Emma Moore (Mrs. Charles W. Proctor)-and Truth-Miss Lizzie May (Mrs. John Gordon, later Mrs. Henry Dickman, Sr.).
Most striking of all was the float whereon sat the "Thirteen Original Colonies" impersonated by young women in elaborately correct costumes of the Colonial period. Some of the gowns worn were genuine family heirlooms, and while the personality of all the partici- pants could not be recalled in 1915 by the narrator- herself by far the youngest and smallest of the group, hence appropriately representing Rhode Island- among them were the names of Emma Burke (Mrs. A. Kinney Hall), Sallie Lees (Mrs. Clinton C. Worrall), Jessie Lees (Mrs. William Cleaves Conway), Annie Huckeby (Mrs. John Allen Smart), Ida Moeller (Mrs. George W. Hufnagel), Rose Moore (Mrs. Charles H. Rose), Bessie Payne (Mrs. Samuel Brazee), and Lillie Richards (Mrs. George Minto).
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CHAPTER XXXIV.
FROM PLANK ROAD TO RAILWAY.
A FACTOR of verily inestimable value was the Ohio River in Perry County's development for more than half a century, as no definite system of improved high- ways within the borders of the commonwealth was even planned until four years after Indiana's admission to statehood.
The "National Road," first projected in 1802 from Washington to Wheeling, was designed to stretch clear across Ohio, when admitted as a state, in order that emigrants might readily reach the government lands farther west, and from the proceeds of all public lands sold in Ohio, five per cent. was set aside as a building fund for this great thoroughfare. As a piece of early American engineering its magnitude is scarcely real- ized in this Twentieth Century, but it compares not unfavourably with the famous Roman roads of an- tiquity, and in the center of its eighty-foot "right of way" ten inches of crushed stone macadamized a forty- foot track on which two six-horse coaches could safely pass, or race abreast, as frequently occurred. Con- gress, however, was dilatory in completing the road beyond Ohio and in 1839, only a few years after it was built to Indianapolis, abandoned it to the state of Indiana.
By an act of Legislature in 1820 no less than twen- ty-six "State roads" were planned; and the importance of making connection with the river was plainly felt, as many of these routes lay in Southern Indiana, though Perry County's recognition did not come until 1829, when an act was passed to locate a state road from Troy to Washington.
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James Carnahan, of Daviess County, Thomas Pride, of Pike County, and Jared Bowling, of Dubois County, were named commissioners to view, locate and mark the route chosen, being instructed to meet the first Monday in May (3d), 1830, at Troy, to be sworn in and begin their labours. Thirty feet was fixed as the width for the road, ordered to cross White River at Casee's Ferry, and the new highway was considered no less important to the pioneers than a railroad at the pres- ent time. Even yet a certain Daviess County thorough- fare leading southeastward from the city of Washing- ton is sometimes designated as "the old Troy road."
Besides the three per cent. fund, which was a dona- tion from the general government out of the sale of public lands, and amounted in some years (1821) to an appropriation of $100,000, there was a road tax on real estate in general, amounting to one-half the amount of state tax. Town lots were assessed an amount equal to one-half the county tax, while non-resident owners were charged with an amount equalling one-half the state tax plus one-half the county tax. This was to offset their escape from having to work the roads in person, as all other able-bodied male inhabitants be- tween the ages of twenty-one and fifty with the excep- tion of clergymen and some few others, were formally warned out for manual labour on the public roads two days in each year.
Under this state law the first roads were cut through the forests of Perry County, and with the nor- mal human tendency toward progression along the line of least resistance, the public highways ambled hither and yon wherever some previous beginning had been made by a pioneer anxious to reach a spring, a mill, a store, a smithy, a school, a church or a burying ground. It was a physical impossibility among the hills and valleys of rock-ribbed Perry to follow the rectangular section lines, as was done in more level counties such as Spencer, and in many instances mere
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by-ways and local footpaths formed the groundwork and location for permanent county roads yet in use.
Streams had to be forded or crossed by crude fer- ries such as that over Anderson River, where Lincoln worked as a hired hand. Travel was infrequent, and as days sometimes went by without a passenger to cross, the ferryman's duties were neither arduous nor confining and he could work at his other tasks until summoned by the solitary horseman or weary pedes- trian. In some instances a bell, as now, gave the sig- nal, but oftener it was the old primitive call as kept up in England:
"Ohoi, and oho, ye! It's I'm for the ferry!"
Bridge building was long retarded by the ludicrous action of the Fourth General Assembly at Corydon, January 17, 1820, which passed a combination bill under which almost every creek large enough to float a shallow pirogue or canoe was gravely declared "a nav- igable waterway," and its obstruction by mill-dams or bridges specifically prohibited.
Absurdly though it now reads, on page 59 of the Laws of Indiana for 1820, to find Anderson River from its mouth (at Troy), to the Hurricane fork (near St. Meinrad) ; Poison Creek, to Cummings' mill; and Oil Creek, to Aaron Cunningham's mill; lawfully declared "Navigable streams," along with waterways both greater and less, it must be remembered, out of respect for the practical common sense of our early law- makers, that such legislation was based upon the Or- dinance of 1787. This declared the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence and the carrying places between the same to be "common high- ways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of . said (Northwest) territory as to the citizens of the United States and those of any other State that may be admitted into the Confederacy, without any tax, impost or duty therefor." In such case "navigable" can only be interpreted as referring to the bateaux then alone used for navigation, so the legislators of
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four-year old Indiana had some official precedent for an action that would todar be regarded as a freak of questionable sanity.
The first movement toward improved roads in Perry County was in 1850, when the Cannelton, Troy and Jasper Plank Road Company was incorporated, the three towns subscribing respectively $8,000, $6,000 and $14,000 in stock. Alexander McGregor, a civil engineer, who had come from Newport, Rhode Island, to superintendent the erection of the Indiana Cotton Mills, was the first president; Charles H. Mason, secre- tary; and Frederick Boyd, treasurer. The shares were to be paid in periodical installments of $4, whenever called for by the progress of building, and several as- sessments appear to have been made. Timber of the finest character then sold at a figure almost nominal, when bought at all, as the wasteful extravagance in forest destruction recklessly cut down trees that would now be reckoned of priceless value. It was, therefore both cheap and easy to cover the road with heavy narrow oak planks which for several years afforded ex- cellent driving surface.
The route from Cannelton was a northwesterly con- tinuation of Front Street, passing the John Mason homestead, one of the first brick dwellings in the town and then still occupied by its owner and builder, although he had just sold forty-five acres of land adjoining to a German nobleman, Baron Bernard Herzeele, what was considered a high price, $400 an acre. Herzeele Street, in the addition surveyed, is the only memorial which the titled foreigner left behind him in Cannelton, and Mason Street, running parallel one block south, was a courtesy shown the original landholder.
The Mason residence was totally destroyed June 22, 1864, by a fire discovered while the funeral services of Mrs. Mason (Sarah Elkins Webb) were taking place, the remains having to be hastily removed from the blazing edifice. Owing to a dry season the flames
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spread so rapidly that little could be saved from the home in spite of the large crowd present.
Leading on past "Elm Park," the Francis Y. Car- lile home, the road crossed Dozier Creek, then closely skirted Brier Hill through the mining hamlet known under the name of Fulton, and an addition once platted as Lower Cannelton, but left toward the river "Mul- berry Park," the residence of Henry P. Brazee, Sr., familiarly known as "Squire" Brazee.
In connection with this handful of miners' cabins by the roadside it is well to explain definitely how the name of so distinguished an individual as Robert Ful- ton became associated with so humble a settlement. It adds no little interest to the history of Perry County that such a man as he, whose sagacity in matters of national concern was equalled only by his mechanical skill, should have directed his attention to this point.
Under date of Saturday, May 26, 1849, the fifth issue of the Cannelton Economist contains editorial matter worthy of copious quotation, because it may be taken as reliable authority on the question whether Robert Fulton himself was ever actually iin Perry County. The article reads :
"For the facts which we lay before our readers we are chiefly indebted to the Case of Fulton's Heirs vs. Roosevelt, reported in 5 Johnson's Chancery Reports, 174.
"It seems that Robert Fulton on the 15th day of September, 1813, entered into an agreement with Nicholas J. Roosevelt to purchase a certain tract of land lying upon the Ohio. The agreement recited that the latter had discovered a coal mine on the bank of the Ohio, in the Indian Territory, some distance above Anderson's creek, at which mine the steamboat, on her first descent, took in coal for her fuel; that the coal mine was embraced by certain land particularly de- scribed &c., and for which Fulton covenanted to pay the sum of $4,400, and also the sum of $1,000, yearly in quarterly payments, for the term of twenty years.
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The payment of this annuity, however, was con- ditional; for in case Fulton, after faithfully and scien- tifically working the mine, should find the same in- capable of producing twelve thousand chaldrons of coal, equal to 432,000 bushels, then the annuity was to cease.
"February 24, 1815, Fulton died, and soon after, his representatives were sued at law by Roosevelt, upon the covenant for the payment of the annuity. It was alleged, on the part of Fulton's heirs, that the agree- ment was entered into by Fulton 'solely from the rep- resentations of Roosevelt, which were false and decep- tive.' The weight of testimony adduced at trial sup- ported this allegation, and Roosevelt was perpetually enjoined from suing or prosecuting any suit pending at law, for the recovery of the annuity, or any part thereof."
From this report it is a clearly natural inference that Robert Fulton had never seen the 1,040 acres which he purchased from Roosevelt, or he would have known for himself what his heirs established in the trial, that the mine had been opened "on or near the line of the river; or rather, in the bed of the river, and consequently subject to frequent inundation."
In the Louisville Journal of March 13, 1850, an ar- ticle appeared suggesting that a monument should be erected to Fulton's memory, somewhere upon the tract of land which he had owned. Its tone indicated that some preliminary steps were already under way, and on March 14, in Troy, a meeting was held, with Major Taylor Basye in the chair and John P. Dunn, secretary, which resulted in organizing "The Fulton Monumental Association of Troy, Indiana," with constitution and by-laws.
A called meeting of Indiana and Kentucky citizens was held May 18th in Louisville, and the "Fulton Mon- ument Association" was formed, with a truly impres- sive board of officers and directors: President, Elisha M. Huntington, of Cannelton ; vice-presidents, the Gov-
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ernors of Indiana and Kentucky ex officio; the presi- dents of the Mechanics' Association, Boston, and the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, ex officio; and Jacob Burnet, of Cincinnati; secretary, Dr. T. S. Bell, of Louisville; directors, Robert Dale Owen, John Law, James Boyd, Henry L. Ellsworth, of Indiana; James C. Hall, Paul Anderson, Jacob Strader, Joseph Pierce, of Ohio; George D. Prentice, Henry A. Griswold, Stephen H. Long, John B. Semple, Jacob Beckwith, of Ken- tucky.
With the publication of some circulars soliciting subscriptions to a monument fund, the activity of both associations apparently spent itself, without perma- nent or material results, and the matter was forgotten except for intermittent references long afterward. At no time then, however, was any claim put forth that Robert Fulton had been more than merely a non-resi- dent owner of the land termed the "Fulton Tract," and the stories of his personal presence at Troy had their birth in subsequent years.
That portion of Fulton's lands which became "Mis- tletoe Lodge," the estate of Judge Huntington, lay between the river and the Cannelton and Jasper plank road, whose general direction through what is now Tell City followed the north and south alley between Eighth (Main) and Ninth Streets. Such location is still indicated by the quaint old stone residence of Miss Katherine Holschuh, and the home occupied until recently by Miss Katherine Eith, both of which have their front toward what was once the leading thor- oughfare of Troy Township. The plank road led due north into the frame market house which formerly stood in the center of Tell City's present beautifully shaded City Park, on the spot where the City Hall was built about 1896.
From there, or a little farther north, it appears to have turned toward the west, probably near what is now Tell Street, as it passed between the river and the home residence of Amaziah P. Hubbs, Sr., and his wife,
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Jane (Gibson) Hubbs, whose farm was the last one of importance before reaching Troy.
Great results were anticipated when some sections of this road were opened with a smooth surface of firm planking, but the grade established seriously mis- calculated the high water mark of the Ohio, and a series of freshets wrought such havoc with the incom- plete portions laid down that the subscribers refused to advance further capital and such property as the company owned passed into the hands of Henry P. Brazee, Sr., and William P. Beacon at a forced sale.
Railroad building was agitated in the early 'fifties through the Economist, but the geographical situation of Perry County was unfortunately such as to leave it outside the range of any of the important trunk lines planned to cross Indiana in either direction, a condition similarly and equally affecting the opposite tier of Ken- tucky counties between Louisville and Henderson. Prior to the construction of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad about 1851, meetings were held in Hawesville, in which Perry County citizens actively participated, seeking to induce a location of its route by way of Han- cock County, touching the river, but not all the elo- quence of Indiana and Kentucky combined could per- suade surveyors that the shortest line between the Falls of the Ohio and the capital of Tennessee lay through Hawesville. Nothing substantial, therefore, came of the effort and Hancock County was just one year behind Perry in finally procuring a railway out- let four decades later.
In the flush years following the war between the States several new routes were projected in the gen- eral vicinity of Perry County, none, however, actually penetrating the county itself. The nearest was the Rockport and Northern Central Railroad, planned to run from Rockport to Loogootee, on the Ohio and Mis- sissippi (Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern). This line approximately followed a route proposed as early as 1849 under the title of Rockport and Washington
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Railway. It is said (Goodspeed's "Spencer County," page 297) that $50,000 was voted in August, 1849, in Spencer County toward building this pioneer railroad, but the scheme never materialized.
In the autumn of 1869 Spencer County voted $97,874.24, for the R. and N. C. R. R., two levies being made, in June of 1870 and 1871, and in 1872 its con- . struction began, under the name of Cincinnati, Rock- port and Southwestern Railway, as it was designed eventually to touch Owensboro and Kentucky territory. The financial panic of 1873 came near giving the com- pany a death-blow in its infancy, but the track was laid across Spencer County, as far as Ferdinand Station (Johnsburg) in Dubois County, where it languished for a few years.
February 14, 1879, however, saw the first train run through Huntingburg into Jasper, beyond which point the road was never built along the original survey. Through successive changes of ownership and name this line became in turn part of the Louisville, New Albany and St. Louis Air Line; the Louisville, Evans- ville and St. Louis; and finally the Southern Railway, under whose last management the French Lick Springs extension was opened December 1, 1907, giving the first through northern connection to the river counties lying between Floyd and Vanderburg.
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