USA > Indiana > Pioneer history of Indiana : including stories, incidents, and customs of the early settlers > Part 42
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been reared in southwestern Indiana and had been used to false alarms about the Indians, but her brave husband had not been so accustomed to these blood-curdling scares. He was out shooting prairie chickens when a neighbor, with his wife riding behind him on horseback and a small child in arms, came hurriedly up to the chicken hunter and told him that all the country west of there was being scalped and that the Indians were headed in that direction.
Hurrying to the house, he told his wife the awful news and commenced to get things in shape to go to Lafayette. Bringing the horse and cart to the door for that purpose, he was met with the greatest surprise of his life. His wife re- fused to budge an inch, saying that she had lived all her life among just such alarming reports and had been dragged out of bed at all hours of the night and hurried, half asleep, to a fort, and all these scares had been false alarms, and that she was not going to be made a fool of in any such way. She told him if he wished to, he could go, but that he would find her at the same old cabin after he recovered from his Indian scare. The husband did not feel any of the grit his wife possessed, so taking the six oldest children, he loaded them into the chart, bidding his wife an affectionate good-bye, say- ing he felt almost certain he would never see her again alive, and if it were not for their fine children he would stay and die with her, but he felt that it was suicidal to dare danger as she was doing. She said, "You take the children and go. If I never see you again, I shall die with the satisfaction of knowing that I had a husband who thought too much of his scalp to permit any Indian to have its black glossy locks as an ornament to his helmet."
The husband and children remained away two days and nights. No Indians having been seen or heard of, he con- cluded to return. Loading his six children into the cart, he drove home, where he found everything looking much the same as he had left it. Old Bowser and Tige were there to pay the proper welcome to the home-coming family. On going into the house, he found his wife sitting by the little wheel, one foot on the treadle, while both her hands were
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busy evening the tow that she pulled from the distaff before it entered the flyers and was spun into thread. With the other foot she was rocking a sugar trough in which her small child was soundly sleeping She was singing:
Rock-a-bye, O, Baby, Your daddy's gone a-hunting To get a big Indian skin To wrap the Baby Bunting in.
Looking around the house, the brave man saw a fine, fat gobbler, dressed and ready for roasting, and on the wall was a large fresh coon skin. "Mandy. why in thunderation have you been using my powder so free?" She replied, "Never mind, Ebenezer, there is plenty left. If you hear of an Indian crossing the Mississippi river, you won't need it, for you'll be on the go to Lafayette again."
In a section of southern Indiana in Switzerland County, not far from the Ohio river, a very quiet and inoffensive man lived with his wife and two children. They owned a very nice, well-improved farm and had plenty of everything. There were persons living in that section who wanted their nice property, and attempted to drive them away from it in order that they might purchase it at a very low price.
One morning they found a bundle of switches near their door, with a notice on it from some unknown party telling the man there was one of two things that he had to do - leave that section and never return or they would whip him so that he would be convinced that he was no longer wanted in that section. This was very alarming to this inoffensive man, who could not understand why he was so treated, but as he had always been a peaceable man and wanted to avoid all trouble, he thought it would be best for them to sell their home and move to some other place.
His wife, who was made of very different sort of mettle, declared that she would not go and would live on that farm or die in the attempt. The notice gave a certain time for him to be gone. It so worried him that it was feared he would lose his mind. It was decided that he should go back
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to Ohio for awhile and leave the home with his wife and the two small children, thinking that no man would be so lost to manhood as to attack a woman. After the husband was gone, a sister of his wife's came to live with her.
The day before the time given the husband in the notice expired, there was another bundle of switches found at a spring near the house and a note threatening to whip and tar and feather the two women if they did not leave by a certain time, only a few days off. They determined to put every- thing in the best condition for defense and await the coming of the threatening fellows. They had a large dog which they kept in the house every night. The time arrived as stated in the notice and a loud knock was heard at the door. The woman warned them to go away, saying that if they at- tempted to come into the house, they would regret their ac- tions. As there were seven or eight men in the party, they laughed at her. Securing a heavy rail, they broke the batton door down. The younger woman was on the other side of a table from the door and had an old musket loaded with slugs lying across the table and pointing at the door. As several men attempted to rush into the house, this old gun was fired into their faces. There was a loud howl of pain. Two men were seen to be carried away. Soon the clatter of horses' hoofs were heard going down a nearby road and there was no further trouble. Two men were missing out of that section who, it was said, had gone down the river; but they never re- turned.
The man returned from Ohio to his family and they con- tinued to live upon the farm and raised a large family of re- spected and honest children, whose descendants today own a large amount of territory in the immediate vicinity of where this incident took place.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
CANALS - RAILROADS - STATE DEBT - TURNPIKE ROADS - WABASH RAPIDS - POTTAWATTAMIE AND MIAMI INDIANS. REMOVED FROM THE STATE.
If the wise counsel given by Governor Hendricks in his message to the Legislature in 1822 had been followed, a great misfortune to the financial interests of the State would have been averted and a great many of the attempted improve- ments would have been finished and become paying properties, from which the State would have derived a handsome revenue, as other States which were more careful in the construction of their public works, did. Instead of attempting to con- struct ten or twelve expensive works at the same time, if there had been two or three of these carried on and finished and placed in condition to be operated, all that was needed of the many which were attempted to be constructed would have been finished. It was proved to the satisfaction of all that many of these properties would have been made paying investments.
Governor Ray, in his first message, considered the con- struction of roads and canals as necessary to place the State on a financial footing equal to the old States. In 1829 he added: "This subject can never grow irksome since it must be the source of the blessing of civilized life. To secure its benefits, it is a duty enjoined upon the Legislature by the ob- ligation of the social compact."
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In 1832 internal improvement works were put under way. That year the Asiatic cholera had caused many deaths in various parts of the State and the corn crop was a partial failure all over the State. Notwithstanding these distressing circumstances, the canal commissioners completed their sur- veys and estimates and had prepared the bonds for the con- struction of the work, which they sold in the city of New York to the amount of $1,000,000.00 at a large premium. During that year there were $54,000.00 spent in improving the Michigan road and $52,000.00 was realized from the sale of land appropriated for its construction. In that year thirty- two miles of the Wabash and Erie canal were placed under contract and the work was commenced. In compliance with the request of the Legislature of the State of Indiana, where permission was asked to extend the canal from the Ohio State line to Lake Erie, the Governor of Ohio laid the sub- ject before the Legislature of that State and a resolution was passed declining to undertake the completion of the work within her limits before the time fixed by the act of Congress for the completion of the canal. She would, on just and equitable terms, enable Indiana to avail herself of the bene- fit of the lands granted by authorizing her to sell them and invest the proceeds in the stock of a company to be incor- porated by the State of Ohio and that she would give Indi- ana notice of her final determination on or before January 1, 1838.
The Legislature of Ohio authorized and invited the agent of the State of Indiana to select, survey and set apart the lands lying within the State. In keeping with this pol- icy, Governor Noble in 1834 said: "With a view of engaging in works of internal improvement, the propriety of adopting a general plan or system having reference to the several por- tions of the State and the connection of one with the other, naturally suggests itself. No work should be commenced but such as would be of acknowledged public utility. In view ot this object, the policy of organizing a board of public works is again respectfully suggested."
In 1835 the Wabash and Erie canal was being rapidly
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constructed. The middle division from St. Joseph's dam to the Wabash river, thirty-two miles, was completed at a cost of $232,000.00, including all the expenses of finishing up the work which had been washed away by the heavy rains. By the middle of the summer, boats were running on this part of the line.
In 1836 the first meeting of the Board of Internal Im- provements was convened and entered upon its responsible duties. Each member was assigned the superintendency of a portion of the work. There seemed to have been a lack of engineers, there being so many works in progress, and a number were imported from other sections of the country. Under their management the work progressed favorably. The canal was soon navigating the middle division from Ft. Wayne to Huntington. Sixteen miles of the line from Hunt- ington to LaFountain creek was filled with water this year and made ready for navigation. The remaining twenty miles, except a portion of the locks from LaFountain creek to Logansport, was under construction. From Georgetown to Lafayette the work was put under contract.
That same year about thirty miles of the Whitewater canal, from Lawrenceburg to Brookville, was placed under contract, as was twenty-three miles of the Central canal, which passed through Indianapolis; also twenty miles of a southern division of this work, extending from Evansville into the interior, was placed under contract, and the cross-cut canal from Terre Haute to where it intersected the Central canal, near the mouth of Eel river, was all under contract for construction. That same year the engineer examined the route of the Michigan and Erie canal and reported the ex- pediency of constructing the same. A party of engineers was fitted out and entered upon the field service of the Madi- son and Lafayette Railroad and contracts were let for its construction from Madison to Vernon. Contracts were let for grading and bridging the New Albany and Vincennes road from New Albany to Paoli. Other roads were also under- taken and surveyed. Indiana evidently had an immense amount of work upon her hands.
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Governor Noble said: "On these vast undertakings Indi- ana has staked her fortune and she has gone too far to retreat."
In 1837 David Wallace was inaugurated Governor of In- diana. At that time the vast amount of work in progress. and the immense amount of money needed to carry it forward was becoming a severe burden in many parts and the internal improvement scheme was being felt by all the people. The State debt was so rapidly increasing, that they had fears that it could never be paid. The Governor did all he could to keep the citizens in good cheer by explaining the astonish- ing success the State had made far surpassing the hopes of the most sanguine, and the flattering prospect for the future. This should have dispelled every fear. Governor Wallace was a very popular man, but the rumblings of the coming. disaster were too plainly heard by the sensible business peo- ple for his encouragement to have the desired effect of quell- ing all their fears.
During the several years that so much work was in progress in Indiana, wages were high and all kinds of produce, forage and provisions were bringing good prices, and the vast amount of money that was paid out for this. labor apparently made good times in all parts of the country where this work was being done, but this was a fictitious ap- pearance. The people had run into extravagance and en- gaged in many speculations for which future promissory note were given. The retail merchants contracted debts with their wholesale merchants and had sold vast quantities of goods to their customers, who were wholly depending on these works for the money to pay for them. When the crash came as it did, there was a general suspension of every sort of business.
The State's financial ruin was very great. Thousands of men who were on the road to fortune could do nothing but stand idly by and see their fond hopes in ruin. So wide was. this disaster in the country, more particularly bordering on the works of the various undertakings which the State was trying to put through, that it was indeed distressing. In 1838 there were many more individuals involved in the ruin
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which was so disheartening to all the people.
At the meeting of the Legislature that year, Governor Wallace in his message said: "Never before-I speak ad- visedly-never before have you witnessed a period in our local history which more urgently calls for the exercise of all the soundest and best attributes of grave and patriotic legis- lation than the present. The truth is, and it would be folly to conceal it, we have our hands full-full to overflowing -- and therefore, to sustain ourselves and to preserve the credit and character of the State unimpaired and to continue her hitherto unexampled march to wealth and distinction, we have not an hour of time nor a dollar of money nor a hand employed in labor to squander and dissipate upon mere ob- jects of idleness or taste or amusements."
In the last of the summer of 1839 work was suspended on. most of these improvements and the contracts were surren- dered to the State. This action was taken by the direction of an act of the Legislature providing for the compensation of the contractors by issuing treasury notes to pay them. The Legislature of 1839 had no arrangements for the pay- ment of the interest on the State debt incurred for the inter- nal improvements.
The State had borrowed $3,827,000.00 for internal im- provements; $1,327,000.00 was for the Wabash and Erie canal and the balance for the rest of the works. The five per cent interest on debts which the State had to pay, amounting to nearly $200,000.00, had become very burden- some, as it had for this purpose only two sources besides direct taxation-the interest on what was due for canal land and the proceeds of the third installment of the surplus reve- nue, both amounting in 1838 to about $45,000.00. By the the first of August, 1839, all works ceased on these improve- ments.
It had become evident to all that the State could not finish all these works. The Legislature of 1841 passed the law authorizing any private company to take charge of and complete any of the work except the Wabash and Erie canal. It was thought that by the aid of the Government the State-
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PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
could finish that in the next several years. The State had much to gain by turning these works over to private com- panies, as these corporations agreed to pay to the State in its bonds an amount equivalent to what the State had paid on the work turned over to the private companies.
The company that took the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad and completed it, after paying the State back what it had expended on that work, the second year after its com- pletion, paid to its stockholders a dividend equal to eight and a half per cent upon their investment.
When the operations ceased, the people were left, in a great measure, without any means whereby they could secure money to pay their debts. This condition of things rendered direct taxation inexpedient, hence it became the policy of Gov- ernor Bigger to provide some way to pay the interest on the State debt which would not increase the rate of taxation.
In 1840, in the internal improvement system, of which there were ten different works, by far the most important was the Wabash and Erie canal. The length of the lines em- braced in the system was 1,160 miles. Of this, all told, 140 miles were completed. The amount that had been paid out for this work was $5,600,000.00, and by estimates it would require more than $14,000,000.00 to complete the works.
In order that the reader may understand the magnitude of this immense undertaking by the State, a statement is here given showing the expenses incurred on the work and the amount completed:
1. The Wabash and Erie canal, from the State line to Tippecanoe, 129 miles in length; completed and made navi- gable the whole length at a cost of $2,041,012.00. This sum included the cost of a lock for steamboats which was after- wards completed at Delphi.
2. The extension of the Wabash and Erie canal from the mouth of the Tippecanoe river to Terre Haute, 104 miles. The estimate of this work was $1,500,000.00 and the amount expended for the same was $408,855. The work was opened from Tippecanoe down as far as Lafayette.
3. The cross-cut canal from Terre Haute to Central
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PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
canal, 49 miles in length. The estimated cost was $718,- 672.00. There was paid on this work $420.679.00.
4. The Whitewater canal from Lawrenceburg to the mouth of Nettle creek, 76 miles. The estimated cost was $1,675,738.00. The amount expended was $1,099,867.00. Thirty-one miles of the work was navigable, from the Ohio river to Brookville.
5. The Central canal from Wabash and Erie canal to Indianapolis, including the Feeder Bend at Muncie, 124 miles in length, to cost $2,299,853.00. Amount paid on con- struction, $568,046. Eight miles was completed at the date of this statement and other portions near completion.
6. Central canal, from Indianapolis to Evansville, 194 miles in length; total estimate, to cost $3,532,394.00. Amount paid on construction, $831,302.00.
7. The Erie and Michigan canal, 182 miles in length. Estimated cost, $2,624,823.00. Expended on construction, $156,394.00.
8. Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, 85 2-3 miles in
length. The estimated cost for construction was $2,046,-
600.00. Paid on construction works, $1,493,013.00.
9. Indianapolis and Lafayette turnpike road, 73 miles long. Estimated cost, $593,737. Amount paid for works, $72,118.00. The bridging and most of the grading done on 27 miles.
10. New Albany and Vincennes turnpike road, 105 miles long. Estimated to cost $1,127,295.00. Amount ex- pended, $654,411.00. Forty-one miles macadamized from Pa- oli to New Albany.
11. Jeffersonville and Crawfordsville road, 164 miles long. Estimated to cost $1,551,800.00. Amount expended, $372,737.00.
12. To improve the Wabash rapids. Work to be done jointly by Indiana and Illinois. Indiana's amount of the cost to be $102,500.00. Expended by Indiana, $9,500.00.
The length of roads and canals, 1,289 miles, 281 of which had been finished. Estimated cost of all the works, $19,914,- 400.00. Paid out for construction of the works, $8,164,528.00.
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PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
The State at that time owed in round numbers $18,500,- 000.00. On this vast sum of money the interest ranged from 4 per cent to 7 per cent.
The State made several attempts to finish the Wabash and Erie canal. In 1841 it was successfully operated from Ft. Wayne to Lafayette and paid a fair revenue to the State. Congress in that year made the second grant of lands to aid in the construction of the canal, and in 1845 made the third grant, which embraced half of the Government land which at that time remained in the Vincennes district. All these efforts were futile. There was such a vast expense with a very small income, that it was impossible to carry on the work.
Everything lay quiet until 1846, when Mr. Charles But- ler, who represented the bondholders, offered to take the canal, with its' lands granted for the construction of it, for one-half of the improvement bond debt. The State was to have the right of redemption. The canal under this manage- ment was completed to Terre Haute in 1844 and to Evansville in 1852. The entire length in Indiana was 375 miles, also it extended 84 miles into Ohio, making a total length of 459 miles. This enormous work, which cost so many millions of dollars, only lasted for a few years, owing to its being par- alleled the entire length by railroads, but it caused a large emigration to sections for many miles on both sides of it throughout its entire length and gave employment to many thousands of laborers and furnished good markets for a large. amount of produce at fair prices.
The Legislature of Indiana requested the Congress of the United States to extinguish all the Indian titles inside of the State. The request was granted and a treaty with the Pottawattamie Indians ceded to the Government of the United States six million acres of land, being all they owned. A little later the Miami Indians through the good offices of Col. A. C. Pepper, the Indian agent, sold a considerable part. of the most desirable portion of their reserve to the United States.
In July, 1837, Col. A. C. Pepper had a meeting with the
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PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
Pottawattamie Indians at Lake Kewawna for the purpose of. removing them to the west of the Mississippi river. That fall George H. Prophet, of Petersburg, Indiana, conducted to the west of the Mississippi river a portion of the Pottawatta- mie Indians. The next year Colonel Pepper and General Tipton, with a body of United States soldiers, conducted about one thousand of these Indians to the west of the Mis- sissippi river.
"It was a sad and mournful spectacle to witness these children of the forest slowly retiring from the home of their childhood, which contained not only the graves of their revered ancestors, but also many endearing scenes to which their memories would ever recur as sunny spots along their pathway through the wilderness. They felt that they were bidding farewell to the hills, valleys and streams of their infancy, the more exciting scenes on the hunting grounds of their advanced youth, as well as the sturdy battlefields where they had contended in riper manhood, on which they had re- ceived wounds and where many of their friends and loved relatives had fallen covered with gore and glory. All these they were leaving behind them to be desecrated by the plow- share of the white man. As they cast mournful glances back to these loved scenes, which were rapidly fading in the dis- tance, tears fell from the cheek of the downcast warrior, old men trembled, matrons wept, the swarthy maiden's cheek turned pale and sighs and half-suppressed sobs escaped from the motley groups as they passed along, some on horseback and some on foot and others in wagons, sad as a funeral pro- cession. Several of the aged warriors were seen to cast glances toward the sky as if they were imploring aid from the spirits of their departed heroes, who were looking down upon them from the clouds, or from the Great Spirit, who would ultimately redress the wrongs of the red man whose broken bow had fallen from his hand and whose sad heart was bleeding within him. Ever and anon one of the party would start out into the brush and break back to their old encampments on Eel river and on the Tippecanoe, declaring they would rather die than be banished from their country.
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Thus scores of discontented emigrants returned from different points on their journey, and it was several years before they could be induced to join their countrymen on the west of the Mississippi."
These two nations of Indians, the Pottawattamies and Miamis, were the proudest and most determined of all the Indians who inhabited northern Indiana.
In 1839 Pulaski County was organized, containing 342 square miles.
In 1840 Benton County was organized, containing 360 square miles.
In 1842 Whitney County was organized, containing 324 square miles.
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