USA > Indiana > Pioneer history of Indiana : including stories, incidents, and customs of the early settlers > Part 43
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In 1844 the following counties were organized:
Howard County, containing 279 square miles.
Ohio County, containing 92 square miles.
Tipton County, containing 264 square miles.
Newton County was organized in 1859.
In 1840 the population of Indiana was 685,000, lacking 1,000 of doubling itself since 1830.
James Whitcomb was elected Governor in 1843.
CHAPTER XXIV.
PENAL, BENEVOLENT AND EDUCATIONAL INSTI- TUTIONS.
STATE PRISON-ASYLUM FOR DEAF AND DUMB-ASYLUM FOR BLIND-HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE-STATE UNIVER- SITIES-STATE LIBRARY.
THE STATE PRISON.
Prior to 1822 the convicts of the state for misdemeanors or violation of the law were held in the county prisons. In some desperate cases Indiana had to borrow from other states a place where they could be safely held. In 1822 the Indiana State Prison was located at Jeffersonville and four acres of ground was secured for the purpose of erecting suitable buildings. It was supposed that the labor of the convicts. could be advantageously employed in constructing a canal around the Ohio Falls and this was urged very strongly to. the committee which was appointed to select a site for the prison and had much weight in the selection of Jeffersonville for that purpose.
On this location strong buildings were erected in which secure cells for the convicts were made. The buildings were. made as near fire-proof as possible. Within the grounds sev- eral other extensive buildings were erected, such as cooper shops, wagon shops, iron foundries and shops for the manu- facture of many sorts of articles. All this material was sold in the interest of the State and applied on the prison ex- penses, thus making the violators of the law, while they
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were held in prison and securely guarded, become self sup- porting by their own labor.
ASYLUM FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.
The initiatory step toward establishing this benevolent institution was taken by the State Legislature in 1842-'43 by levying a "tax of two mills on each one hundred dollars worth of property in the State for the purpose of supporting a deaf and dumb asylum." At the same session an appropri- ation of two hundred dollars was made to James McClain, who had for several months been instructing a school of deaf and dumb in Park County. A committee was appointed and selected a location near Indianapolis, where the buildings were erected, The length of the main building, including the wing, was two hundred and sixty-three feet. There was another building erected on the ground in which the class- rooms were situated. This initiatory step of Indiana for the protection of the unfortunate mutes, by providing a fine home for them and at the same time furnishing them with a good education, was in the line of progress which has ever been the watchword of the rulers of Indiana since the organization of its territory. The great blessings to humanity and the individual blessing given to so many of its people is some- thing that every citizen of the State should feel proud of. This benevolent institution is just in its infancy, but judging the future from what has recently passed, it will prove one of the greatest blessings to the State and to thousands of its unfortunate people. Pupils are received into this institution between the ages of ten to thirty years. They are boarded, clothed and cared for by the State without charge to the pupil.
INDIANA'S INSTITUTION FOR THE EDUCATION OF ITS BLIND.
In 1847 the Legislature by an enactment resolved to erect buildings suitable for the care and education of the blind inhabitants of the State. The committee appointed lo- cated that institution at Indianapolis. This institution has for its object the moral, intellectual and physical training of the blind youths of both sexes. The building was erected
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and obedient to the requirements of the acts of the Legisla- ture, by which the trustees of the institution were appointed, they put an advertisement in the leading papers all over the State that they were ready to receive application from those who had blind youths in charge who wished to take advan- tage of this opportunity to educate them. At the same time they sent out circulars to all the county officers and to the judges of the various courts, notifying them that the institution was ready to receive pupils, setting forth the conditions, etc. Those received into this institution were educated at the ex- pense of the State. The institution was open for the recep- tion of pupils in the fall of 1847. At that opening there were nine pupils and at the next opening of the school in 1848 there were thirty pupils.
The untold blessings that the work of this noble institu- tion has brought to that unfortunate class of humanity of our State is beyond estimate. Were it not for this effort in the interest of those whose eyes are darkened to the beauties of this world, their minds would forever remain in the same darkened and benighted condition, but this institution has taught them that by one of the five senses, the touch, the mysteries of this beautiful world are unfolded to them and the history of all countries revealed to them by raised letters and figures which the fingers spell out, and they are enabled to understand the beautiful creation of all the natural things of earth and to learn of the world beyond, and all things which have been hidden from them on account of their dimmed vision are made as plain as if their eyes had been open and they could see. This noble work will go on shed- ding its great blessings to humanity in every section of our State.
THE INDIANA HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE.
In 1843 the Legislature by enactment resolved to estab- lish a hospital for the insane. Selecting a commission for the purpose of locating a site for this benevolent institution, they secured for that place one hundred and sixty acres of ground within two miles of Indianapolis, for which the State paid $5,500.00. The cost for erecting the building was $51,500.00.
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This building was designed to accommodate two hundred patients, with officers, attendants, nurses, etc., to take care of them. The applications for admission into that hospital were in four classes: First, where cases of disease had been for less than one year's standing. These should have prefer- ence before others in the county sending them. The second, chronic cases presenting the most favorable condition for re- covery. Third, the case was taken from those whose appli- cant had been longest on file. The fourth case was from counties in proportion to their population. These patients. are cared for by the State without charge.
The State, by providing for this helpless and unfortunate class of our citizens, has done credit to herself, as well as added a great blessing to many communities and to families which hitherto had to care for their own unfortunate insane. There can be no question as to the State's duty in this mat- ter. When reason is dethroned and the subject becomes in- sane, there is no security for those who come in contact with him. The unfortunate and humiliating position which so many families of the State have been placed in by being com- pelled to care for the demented members of their family, and in many cases they were ill-prepared to care for them. Many of these poor unfortunates they have been compelled to place in buildings securely erected for that purpose, where they were tied. In many cases, members of families have not shown the human sympathy they should for those of their own blood, but these unfortunates have been tied and com- pelled to remain, day in and day out, in the places prepared for them, the condition of which it is not best to mention here.
The State has the means and can care for these un- fortunates, and it should relieve the families of this burden, thereby adding a blessing to society and doing a noble act of humanity.
STATE LIBRARY.
The first appropriation for a State Library (which is in the Capitol Building of the State) was in 1825, when there was an appropriation of fifty dollars made for binding the
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records of the State. There was also a thirty dollar appro- priation to be made annually thereafter for the purchase of books.
From that small beginning the library of the State has rapidly increased in number of volumes until it has grown to such proportions as to fill a very large room, with a most ex- cellent set of reference and historical works which are a great credit to the State and is destined to become of great advantage to all literary students who are seeking informa- tion which has not been carefully preserved in the private libraries of our country. The incidents of history which are of daily occurrence taking place are regarded as of little note and as commonplace things, but when a generation has passed and these then little noticed incidents are wished to be, recalled, as a rule there is nothing but a traditional history of these occurrences except they are preserved in such places as this State Library. It is to the credit of those having this grand work in charge that they are making every effort to se- cure a complete record of the many historic and heroic actions of her people in an early period of this State's history. If this is carried out as it should be, and no doubt will be, this institution will become to all lovers of their State's history a place of resort when in search of information, second to no other in Indiana.
STATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
Soon after the organization of Indiana Territory a town- ship of land in Gibson County was granted to that territory for the establishment and endowment of a college. About four thousand acres of this land was sold by the authority of the Territorial Legislature and the proceeds applied to the bene- fit of the Vincennes University. In 1816 the second town- ship of land situated in Monroe County, Indiana, was granted by Congress to the State, which. with the unsold part of the township in Gibson County, was directed to be held by the State for the purpose of establishing a college or university. In carrying out this trust. the Legislature appointed a board of trustees and authorized them to sell a part of the land and
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erect suitable buildings and to establish a seminary of learn- ing. This was carried out in 1824, when the State Univer- sity at Bloomington first opened its doors for the reception of students, in charge of a president and two professors. From the time of its first start the institution was well patronized. In 1838 this institution was chartered as a university. In the meantime the number of professors was increased, a library and philosophical apparatus were procured and an additional building was erected. To meet these accumulated expenses. the balance of the land situated in Gibson County and that in Monroe County was sold and the surplus of the money, amounting to about $80,000.00, was put into an endowment fund, from the interest of which the expenses of the Univer- sity were to be paid. Since these institutions were author- ized and endowed by the State, the citizens in many other portions of Indiana have built and endowed many private in- stitutions of learning.
These two State institutions were created at an early period and were fostered entirely by the State. The building of the University at Bloomington and the appropriation of the township of land in Monroe County for that purpose would seem to be a just measure, but how the controlling au- thorities of this State could have so far been influenced by those in high political stations as to have taken a township of land out of the best portion of Gibson County, that is to- day worth two million dollars, and sacrificed it at a nominal price for the benefit of a State University in Monroe County and the University of Vincennes in Knox County is, at this time, hard to account for.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE MEXICAN WAR.
INDIANS IN THE MEXICAN WAR.
In 1800 Moses Austin went to Texas and from that time to 1820 was engaged in lead-mining. While at Bexar, Texas, at one time he met with the Mexican Governor of that prov- ince and they became good friends. He often applied to the Governor for concessions which amounted to a large territory of land where the city of Austin, Texas, now stands, and re- ceived permission from the Governor to colonize his new pos- sessions with people from the United States, consisting of three hundred families. Austin started this work, but before he had the settlement completed he died, and his son, Stephen Austin, was made head of the Texan colony. Though much annoyed by Indians, he was very successful in his coloniza- tion scheme and received a great many accessions, amounting to many times more families than the agreement between him and the Texas Governor specified. There were so many Americans, they concluded to form a government for them- selves, making such laws as would be suitable for their in- terest.
In the spring of 1833 they called a convention and framed a code of laws and adopted them without paying any attention to the Spanish population. They sent a com- mission to the City of Mexico, asking the Mexican Govern- ment to ratify their actions. Mexico was at that time in a revolution and paid but little attention to the commission. While in Mexico, Austin sent a letter back to Texas telling the Americans to organize all of their settlements and form a. State. For this advice the Mexican authorities made him a.
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prisoner and held him for three months in a vile prison and a much longer time than that he was held under close scrutiny of the Mexican police. He returned to Texas in 1835 and at once organized a revolutionary army. He induced Sam Houston, who had recently emigrated to that section (after having resigned his governorship in Tennessee in disgust) to take command of his army, while he (Austin) went to the United States as a commissioner for the purpose of creating an interest among the people to espouse the cause of the new Republic of Texas, which had adopted the "Lone Star" as the emblem of the Republic.
Austin did not succeed in his mission as well as he ex- pected. He returned to Texas in 1836 and died very soon af- terward.
After the death of Austin there was no head of the Texan army. The members of the provincial government held a meeting and elected Houston as Commander-in-Chief of the Texan army. Soon after this he received a letter from Travis from the Alamo notifying him that they were besieged by a large army of Mexicans. On the sixth of March a letter received from Colonel Travis was read in the convention and was the last express which ever left the Alamo. Houston, with a small force, immediately started to reinforce the besieged army, but when he arrived there, the Alamo had fired its last gun and its brave defenders had met their fate, among whom were some men of national reputation.
Soon after this, Houston, with his army, was attacked by a well-appointed army under General Santa Anna at San Jacinto. After a desperate battle, the Americans fighting the enemy ten to one, routed the Mexican army and captured Santa Anna and his chief officers. An agreement was made with Santa Anna and his officers, who were prisoners, that the Mexican army should evacuate Texas, and the independ- ence of the Republic of Texas was granted by the fallen chief of the Mexican army. The Mexican Congress ignored the action of Santa Anna and its provisions were left unratified on the part of Mexico, but the action of the Mexican Republic, after hav- ing to submit to the heroic soldiers of Texas, was recognized by
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the powers and the new Republic of Texas was recognized by many nations, and subsequently by an annexation became a part of the United States. This action enraged the Mexican people and they sought by many means to annoy the people of Texas, which had become part of the United States.
President James K. Polk, being aware of the trouble in "Texas by the threatening attitude of Mexico, sent General Zachary Taylor, in command of a small army, into the south- west and to post his army in Texas on the Mexican border. At the same time the American war vessels were sent to the Gulf of Mexico.
In November, 1846, General Taylor had taken his posi- tion at Corpus Christi, Texas, with about four thousand men. £ He was ordered to advance his force to the Rio Grande. Accordingly he proceeded and stationed himself on the north bank of that river within cannon shot of the Mexi- can town of Matamoris. General Taylor had actually in- vaded the Mexican territory.
INDIANA OFFICERS IN THE MEXICAN WAR.
First Regiment-Colonel, James P. Drake; Lieutenant- Colonels, Henry S. Lane, Christian C. Nave; Major, William Donaldson; Surgeon, Caleb V. Jones; Assistant Surgeon, Wil- liam Fosdick; Adjutant, William E. Pearsons.
Second Regiment-Colonels, William A. Bowles, Joseph Lane; Lieutenant-Colonel, William R. Haddon; Major, James A. Cravens; Surgeon, Daniel S. Lane; Assistant Surgeon, John T. Walker; Adjutants, Lucien Q. Hoggatt, David C. Shanks.
Third Regiment-Colonel, James H. Lane; Lieutenant- Colonel, William M. McCarty; Major, Willis A. Gorman; Surgeon, James S. Athon; Assistant Surgeon, John D. Dunn; Adjutants, Herman H. Barbour, Harrison Daily.
Fourth Regiment-Colonel, Willis A. Gorman; Lieuten- ant-Colonel, Ebenezer Dumont; Major, William W. McCoy; Surgeon, Isaac Finley; Assistant Surgeon, J. M. Brower; Ad- jutants, Edward Cole, Martin M. Van Deusen.
Fifth Regiment-Colonel, James H. Lane; Lieutenant-
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Colonel, Allen May; Major, John M. Myers; Assistant Sur- geons, Philip G. Jones, R. A. McClure; Adjutant, John M. Lord.
-From History of the Mexican War, By Gen. Cadmus M. Wilcox.
The brilliant career of General Taylor and his many vic- tories over the Mexicans will be left for the reader to find in the histories of the United States.
The United States declared war with Mexico in May, 1846. Placing $10,000,000.00 at the President's disposal, authorizing him to accept 50,000 volunteers. The greater part of the summer of 1846 was spent in preparations for war, it being resolved to invade Mexico at several points.
It was during Governor Whitcomb's administration that a call was made for five regiments of infantry to serve for three years or during the war. The record made by the sol- diers of Indiana in that war was honorable. General Joseph Lane, the commander of one of the regiments, was made a Brigadier-General and by brevette a Major-General for gal- lantry, and after returning home was made Governor of the State of Oregon. He was elected United States Senator from that State for one term, and in 1860 was nominated for Vice- President on the ticket with John C. Breckinridge from Ken- tucky for President. He died in 1881.
In the first of 1848, on the part of the United States, war with Mexico was brought to a close. The President of the Mexican Congress assumed provincial authority and on Feb- ruary 2d that body at Guadalupe Hidalgo concluded peace with the United States. With slight amendments, that treaty was ratified by the Senate of the United States on the 10th of March and by the Mexican Congress at Queratero on the 30th of May. President Polk on the 4th of July follow- ing proclaimed peace. The Americans, under the terms of the treaty, were to evacuate Mexico within ninety days of that date and paid the Mexican Government $3,000,000.00 in cash and $12,000,000.00 in three annual installments and as-
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sumed debts for $3,500.000.00 more, due from Mexico to American citizens. These payments were made in considera- tion of new accessions of territory, which gave the United States not only Texas, but Arizona, New Mexico and Upper California. The war had cost the United States, approxi- mately. $25,000.000.00 and 25,000 men.
While these negotiations were under way, Colonel Sutter had begun the erection of a mill at Calona, on the American branch of the Sacramento river. On the third day of Jan- uary one of his hands, named George Marshall, who was en- gaged in digging a race-way for the Colonel's mill. found a metal which he had not seen before. On testing it, he found that it was gold. This was sent to Sacramento and tested. and found to be pure gold.
As soon as these discoveries became known, throughout the country there was a great emigration started for that part of California, and in a short time after that they were arriving in vast multitudes from all parts of America and from many places in foreign countries. Many thousands crossed the great western plains and the Rocky mountains with ox teams and on foot, and yet many more thousands crossed the Isthmus of Dairen. All of these emigrants en- countered extreme difficulties before they arrived in that far-off country. While these emigrants were arriving, there was a steady procession of ships full of emigrants, provisions and supplies passing around the horn and up the coast of South America and Mexico to the Eldorado. In less than two years the population of California increased 100,000, and still they were coming in vast numbers.
During these exciting days from 1848 to 1852 there were more than 4,000 strong and sturdy men from Indiana who went to seek their fortunes in California. Many of them underwent great privations and many others lost their lives in encounters with the wild savage on the plains. In the latter part of the fifties, the old "forty-niners" who had gone to California from Indiana were found in every town, mining camp and on many ranches in California and Nevada. Many of these men were successful in their search for gold, and
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every part of Indiana has men yet or can recall those who re- turned home with a competency and invested their means in farms or business ventures, while perhaps a majority of those who went from Indiana were unsuccessful or spent their hard-earned means in dissipation or gambling, as every other house in the towns of California and Nevada in that early day was a gambling den.
This new acquisition of Territory opened the slavery question, in which Governor Whitcomb expressed himself as opposed to any further extension of slavery. Governor Whit- comb's administration was in the interest of good govern- ment, and his wise actions in the affairs of State did much to redeem the public'credit, and his management of the compro- mise where the State turned over the incomplete public works in payment for claims against the government, was so well managed that the State was again placed upon a sound finan- cial footing in the nation. Governor Whitcomb in Decem- ber, 1848, was elected to represent the State in the United States Senate, and Lieutenant-Governor Paris C. Dunning was Acting Governor until December, 1849, when Joseph A. Wright was inaugurated. During his administration the in- completed public works which the State retained were again pushed forward with vigor.
In 1850 Governor Wright indorsed the compromise meas- ure on the slavery question, and in his message that year said: "Indiana takes her stand in the ranks not of southern destiny nor yet of northern destiny. She plants herself on the basis of the Constitution and takes her stand in the ranks of American destiny."
It was during his administration that the second Consti- tutional Convention was held and a new Constitution adopted. Governor Wright's administration ranks with the best of Indiana's Governors. During the time he was Governor many important measures were placed on solid footing that have proved a great blessing to Indiana. The free school system, by enactment of the new Constitution, was started on its great mission of usefulness.
CHAPTER XXVI.
INDIAN BARBARITY AND THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN - THIS CHAPTER IS GIVEN TO SHOW ONE OF MANY SPIES THAT THE ANTI-SLAVERY PEOPLE HAD ON ALL STRANGERS DURING THE FIFTIES.
INDIAN BARBARITY.
In 1798 a party of Kickapoo Indians had been on a raid to Kentucky and captured two young men and a negro man who belonged to one of the white prisoners. On their return to the Kickapoo town, near the Wabash, they had camped at night near a small creek, which was a fork of Harvey's creek, a short distance north of where Union, Pike County, now stands, During the night a large hunting party of Shawnee Indians came into the Kickapoo camp. The next morning the Shawnees, being much stronger, demanded that the negro be turned over to them. There was a long wrangle about this. Finally the Shawnees agreed if they would burn the two white men they would let them keep the negro. This the Kickapoos consented to do, but it was stipulated that they should have charge of all the ceremony which was used when the prisoners were burned at the stake. The prisoners, by sign, were informed of the ordeal which they had to undergo. It was decided that the two men should run the gauntlet, and if they got through alive, they would then be burned. The sub-chief of the Kickapoos in charge acted as master of ceremonies.
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