USA > Indiana > Harrison County > Corydon > The Corydon state house : a Hoosier shrine > Part 2
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The meaning of this, as pieced out by other existing data, is that the land where the major part of Corydon stands was entered by Harrison. This much is shown by the entry records, the date being July 11, 1807, but before the ground was paid for and the patent given the tract was transferred to Heth, who is credited with being the original proprietor of the town. An advertisement of the first sale of lots may be found in a number of issues of the Vincennes Sun for 1808, but the name of the proprietor is not there given. Heth, apparently, as anchorage for the county seat, proffered the two lots mentioned as a court house site and for other public uses, but was unable to give title until the land entered was wholly paid for. Meanwhile Harrison's continued interest in it would seem to be indicated by his appearance as a guaran- tor of the conveyance to the county, as above shown. As a matter of fact the ground in question was not conveyed to the county till July 28, 1813, when we find by another docu- ment that Hervey Heth and Rebecca, his wife "granted, bargained and sold unto Patrick Shield, Moses Boon and Peter McIntosh, judges of the Court of Common Pleas, two certain lots or parcels of land, one acre and four perches each, for one dollar paid in hand;" said land (nw. quarter of section 31, township 3 south, range 4 east) being patented to Heth under date of June 4, 1813. This was the year of the coming of the capital, and whether there was any con- nection between the two events can only be guessed at.
Nor does it appear just what the facts regarding the court house were at this time. On the one hand it seems hardly likely that the county would erect a permanent build- ing on ground that it did not yet own, and yet the record book already quoted from shows that as early as April 25, 1811, there was a specific movement for such a building in the form of two separate court orders. One of these was to the effect that the Harrison County sheriff should "advertise the letting out the building of a court house in said county, in the town of Corydon," the same to be published one week in the Louisville Gazette. The other "Ordered that Eli Wright, William Branham and Henry Rice be appointed commis- sioners to employ a workman to build a stone court house in Corydon." Incorporated in these are specific plans which tally closely with those adopted in the structure as after-
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wards built. At the same time it was provided that the public grounds be cleared off and a little later an order authorizes the payment of fifteen dollars for that work.
This truly looks like the beginning of things, and it is doubtless the basis for the traditional statement that the capitol-to-be was built in 1811-12. Unfortunately for the accuracy of this we find in the same records under date of June 7, 1811, this lone and brief entry :
Ordered that the order appointing the commissioner to superintend the building a court house in Corydon be rescinded and that said commissioners present their bill to the next county court.
On the same day are other entries, somewhat mystifying at first, but which on close study seem to throw light on the rescinding order. They are as follows:
A bond from George F. Pope to the judge of the Court of Common Pleas to convey lot No. 12 in Corydon, acknowledged in court.
Ordered that the treasurer of Harrison County pay to George F. Pope [from] the levy of this year three hun- dred dollars, and that the treasurer of said county pay in the year of 1812, agreeably to law, to said Pope the sum of two hundred dollars out of the treasury of the county.
Henry Rice came into court and undertook to finish the present house purchased from G. F. Pope by the judges for a court house, in a plain, workmanlike man- ner, and present his bill to the court * * *
Ordered that the treasurer pay Henry Rice out of this year's levy fifty dollars, to purchase nails, glass, etc., for the court house.
The construction I venture to put upon this is that the court concluded to forego, or at least postpone, the building of a new court house as proposed, instead of which plan it purchased of George F. Pope, for five hundred dollars, in two payments, lot No. 12, and with it an unfinished house, this to be completed and used as a court house. That this was contiguous to the quarters then occupied by the county busi- ness is indicated by two other entries, as follows :
Ordered that William Bradley proceed to extend the roof of the office in Corydon to the court house, ** and that said Branham [?] lay the floor in the passage between the court house and office, and make steps lead- ing from said office into the court house, and present his bill as allowed.
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Ordered that the treasurer pay Henry Rice one hun- dred and fifty-five dollars and twenty-five cents in part of his-account for completing the court house in Corydon.
This is the last entry referring to the court house in the first record book of the county, and the document shows be- yond doubt that the present building was not begun until after 1811. It may even be doubted if it was begun in 1812 in view of the evidence that the county business was estab- lished in other, newly-purchased quarters, as above indicated.
It is a matter for keen regret that the second book of county records, covering from early 1812 to the close of the territorial period, is missing. This, undoubtedly, would furn- ish much data concerning the building of the so-called state house, and there is a suspicion in Corydon that because of this the book has been deliberately purloined some time in the past, along with detached documents, such as bills, re- ceipts and other papers pertaining to this particular con- struction, now gone but once in the archives.
The next glimpse we get of the court house question is in the county commissioner's records, which began with the state system of government. Here is evidence that the pres- ent building was not finished before 1816, for bills of that year from H. Rice, George Jones and William Hunt are for va- rious materials and services, such as "to making two chim- ney pieces [mantels];" "to running two partitions;" "to weatherboarding for cupola;" "to making and hanging a double door and casing same," and other items including steps to the judges' seat, lumber for inside finishing, two hundred turned banisters and "216 window lights." This looks very much as if the building was then for the first time be- ing made usable, and it seems not improbable that delayed work was being pushed forward for the accommodation of the newly created state. In support of this the state docu- ments already cited show, or at least indicate, that the ter- ritorial legislature was renting quarters for its sessions two years after it came to Corydon (p. 14), and in 1815 it passed a resolution for the relief of Dennis Pennington, who had undertaken the erection of the court house and been finan- cially embarrassed because he had not received moneys "as contracted to be paid" (p. 14). Nor is this the only proof that the construction was a slow and intermittent process
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which was not finished even in 1816, for in the commissioner's records, under date of February 3, 1821, it is "ordered that James Holiday, George Armstrong and William Hamrick be appointed viewers to view the court house in Corydon to judge whether it is done in conformity with bond which has been given by Dennis Pennington and others for the build- ing of said court house, and that the said viewers meet at the court house in Corydon on the second Saturday in April next, and that they report to the best of their opinion the insuf- ficiency in the work, if any there be, and what might be the expense of finishing such court house agreeable to the tenor of said bond." This order is repeated on May 3, and the fol- lowing August the committee reported that "we are of the opinion that said court house is not done agreeable to the bond given, and that in our judgment the whole expense of finishing said house agreeable to said bond would be forty- seven dollars and fifty cents." . Following this rather inter- esting report is a court order to the effect that "Mr. Penning- ton and others concerned in said bond are requested to come forward and finish the said court house on or before the November term of this court. If they do not complete the same within the above mentioned time they may depend on being prosecuted on said bond, and that Pennington have a copy of this order." Presumably Mr. Pennington responded to this threat to the satisfaction of the court for there is no further evidence of trouble about the original contract. By way of recapitulation it may be noted that what evidence I have cited shows that the time of construction from start to finish was at least six years, and probably longer, since we do not know the exact date of beginning; while other evidence (see Miss Cleland's findings, (p. 13) indicates that the legislative occupancy of the building began in 1816 and not in the territorial period. On what terms the state took possession of the county's property is not known. The state auditor's reports of that period shown no payments for rent.
To many these things may seem inconsequential and not commensurate with the trouble taken to establish them, but on the other hand, since the interest that attaches to the old Capitol is largely an historical one and loose statements about it have long passed current it is held that here is a proper place to present the question as thoroughly as may be.
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THE SHIFTING CAPITAL
The story of Indiana's capital in its relation to Corydon is not complete without a survey of its history elsewhere as well as there.
J. P. Dunn introduces his Indiana, A Redemption From Slavery, by reminding us of the various seats of government that at different times exercised jurisdiction over our ter- ritory. Says Mr. Dunn :
Indiana had no capital within her boundaries for one hundred and thirty years after white men had been upon her soil. She was but a part of a province of a province. For ninety years her provincial seat of government vacil- lated between Quebec, New Orleans and Montreal, with intermediate authority at Ft. Chartres and Detroit, and the ultimate power at Paris. Then her capital was whisked away to London, without the slightest regard to the wishes of her scattered inhabitants, by the treaty of Paris. Sixteen years later it came over the Atlantic to Richmond on the James, by conquest; and after a tarry of five years at that point it shifted to New York City, then the national seat of government, by cession. In 1788 it reached Marietta, Ohio, on its progress toward its final location. In 1800 it came within the limits of the state.
With the formation of Indiana Territory the only logi- cal location for the governing place was Vincennes, the chief settlement then existing in the zone that was opening for settlement, and the most central. Since the first government was a quite primitive one, the governing body consisting simply of the governor and three judges, the question of a capitol building was as yet hardly born, but with the adoption of the second grade, in 1805, there was introduced a terri- torial house of representatives and a legislative council. Very little has been said about the home of this enlarged body, but to the present day there is in Vincennes a little frame two- storied residence which is preserved as the first territorial capitol. That the territory did not own this is indicated by the fact that at the last legislative session held there an ap- propriation was made "for rent of two rooms for the use of both houses of legislature during the present session".
In 1809 occurred events which made Vincennes no longer the best place for the capital. This was the setting off of Illinois as a separate territory, and the purchase by Indian
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treaty of some 3,000,000 acres of land which carried the white man's possession much farther to the north. The next year there was a movement for the selection of a permanent capi- tal site, but for several reasons this was premature and came to nothing. It was not until 1813 that the move was finally made, one reason that probably operated at that time be- ing the war with England and the danger to the town on the Wabash from Indian attacks. Just why Corydon was select- ed one wonders, since there were other bids for the distinc- tion by towns that were more conveniently located. As late as three months before the removal a memorial was submit- ted to the legislature praying that Jeffersonville be made the seat, and there is evidence that then and thereafter there was a lively rivalry among the various towns to capture the capi- tal. There are reasons for surmising that Governor Harri- son may have been a determining influence, which reasons will be discussed in another place.
The capital remained at Corydon until 1825, or, more accurately, until the latter part of 1824, that length of stay being fixed by the first constitution. Meantime, in 1820, a second attempt was made toward a permanent location, an- other Indian treaty having secured all the central part of the state, and the federal government having, when admitting the state into the Union, donated four sections of land for a capital site, with the privilege of locating it wherever de- sired in the country still to be acquired. The spot where Indianapolis now stands, at the center of the state, was cho- sen; a year later the town for the final capital was founded, and on the expiration of the period fixed for the Corydon occupancy the nomadic seat of government made its last shift. Of this moving two or three first-hand accounts have been handed down to us, and it was a picturesque adventure. An imposing cavalcade of four great four-horse wagons laden with the state's effects and the printing outfit of the state printer took about ten days to travel the 125 miles to In- dianapolis.
At Indianapolis history repeated itself in the matter of housing the state's governmental establishment. As at Cory- don, there was no state house other than a new court house, and, as at Corydon, again, this was proffered to the state pending the materialization of a real capitol. It was used
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by the legislature and some of the state offices for eleven years, at the end of which time a $60,000 building erected on the square donated for that purpose was ready to receive them, and the government for the first time owned its own home. This structure was used for about fifty years, when the present one was built.
THE STATE'S BEGINNING
In the long series of migrations just outlined Corydon, of course, is but one of several places claiming recognition as Indiana's capital, but its special distinction is that here the foundations were laid for the state government, and that event is an inseparable part of the town's history. For that reason the story of the state's beginning is in order here.
To get the proper slant on it one must realize that the state-making process is not a sudden and swift accomplish- ment but a succession of steps leading up to the consumma- tion. The arguments for and against statehood were, on the one hand, a desire for democratic independence and opposi- tion to too much power lodged with a governor who was a federal appointee; and, on the other, a fear of the burden that would be imposed by new responsibilities and increased tax- ation, which was a perfectly valid fear if the territory were not yet populous enough to carry those burdens. The first movement in the direction of statehood for Indiana was as far back as November 11, 1811, when a petition was pre- sented to Congress asking for admission to the Union. Evi- dently, however, public sentiment for the change was not quite ripe yet, and the question dragged along with occasion- al resuscitations until 1815, when an official census was taken to settle the uncertainty as to population. The latter, it was found, exceeded the number required by the Ordinances of 1787 by nearly four thousand, and that effectually cleared the way for further action. During these four years reasons against admission had, of course, been growing less, and on the heels of the census things began to move. Another me- morial was submitted to Congress asking for admission and for certain grants for educational and other purposes, includ- ing thirty-six square miles as aid to a permanent seat of state government .* This went through the legislative mill
*Instead of the entire township asked for four square miles were granted.
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with reasonable promptness, and by April 19, 1816, an "enabling" act was passed, conceding with a few modifica- tions what the memorialists had asked for. This was for ac- ceptance or rejection by the territory through delegates whose election was provided for in the Enabling Act, and whose office it was to frame the constitution if statehood were decided upon. These elected delegates-forty-three of them less one who was delayed-representing the thirteen counties then existing, met at Corydon on June 10, 1816, and by a vote of 34 to 8 decided to accept the provisions of the En- abling Act and to proceed forthwith to the framing of a con- stitution. Then followed the work of shaping the instru- ment that was to serve as the new state's fundamental law, this occupying them till June 29, and after that there was the transmission of copies of the new constitution to the Presi- dent and Congress of the United States. Finally there was the formality of admitting the state to the Union by a resolu- tion of Congress to the effect that, the State of Indiana, hav- ing fulfilled all the requirements, "is hereby declared to be one of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever."
It may be said that in this instance the making of a state took just one year, beginning with the submitting of the memorial to Congress on December 11, 1815, and finish- ing with the formal admission by Congress on December 11, 1816.
The Constitutional Convention
We may imagine it was a big occasion for Corydon when the delegates for the constitutional convention came trailing their various ways to the little town among the hills to inaugurate a new departure in governmental affairs. To be sure the place had for three years been the scene of the territorial business, legislative and otherwise, but this new step was something more stirring. The question of state- hood was the live issue of the day, over which the prospective state was a-buzz, what with the aroused activities of politi- cians and the widespread interest of the people in the possi- bilities ahead of them, particularly in the matter of slavery. This was by no means a settled question as yet, despite the
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provision against it in the Ordinance governing the country north of the Ohio, and the political partizanship of the day rallied to the anti- and pro-slavery standards. Thus Cory- don was in the public eye, so far as that could be in a land of isolated little towns and rural communities where informa- tion traveled slowly; and the new stone court house there was the focal point as the forty-three delegates sat there day after day hammering out the foundation on which the state should rest .* If one interested in the process will turn to the Journal of the convention or to Charles Kettleborough's very thorough study, Constitution Making In Indiana, he may there trace the growth of the instrument, step by step and find much to stimulate his thinking in certain directions.
It is the general opinion of our historians that the framers did their task well. They were not learned men, eminent in statesmanship; some, even, were illiterate in the modern sense of that word, but they were men of action, of rugged common sense, and acquainted with pioneer needs. At least a few were educated, on the other hand, and, as in the case of Jonathan Jennings, William Hendricks and James Noble, represented a capable leadership. Such is the verdict of history.
CORYDON AS THE STATE CAPITAL
Just to what extent and what way Corydon was affected by its nine years' possession of the state capital cannot be got at directly and clearly. The new situation soon en- gendered two newspapers-the Indiana Gazette and the In- diana Herald-but unfortunately they, like all papers of that period, were provokingly lacking in local items, so that any attempt to reconstruct local color is at best a tantalizing pro- cess, though indirect glimpses are often furnished by ad- vertisements of various kinds. Even these sources of infor- mation in Corydon's case, however, are locally unavailable, barring a little typewritten book of excerpts preserved in the State Library, the only known copies of the publications being carefully treasured in the Library of Congress. The only person known to me who has made a study of these rare
*A colorful tradition that helps out the picture is that the constitution- makers occasionally repaired to the shade of a large elm tree about two squares away where they pursued their labors. Of this elm tree there is more in another place (p. 42).
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files in search of light on early Corydon was the late Charles W. Moores, who as a result contributed a sprightly article on "Old Corydon" to the Indiana Magazine of History for March, 1917. Mr. Moores' findings and inferences are inter- esting and I re-present some of them here. For one thing he gathered that there was an oft-recurring fight for the removal of the capital to one or another of the rival towns, one argument for it being that there were insufficient accom- modations in Corydon for the visiting law makers and others, and that the boarding house keepers were disposed to profit- teer off the situation. Supplementary to this Mr. Moores quotes from his grandfather, Samuel Merrill, compiler of Chamberlain's Gazetteer, to the effect that the town had in 1816 not to exceed a hundred houses, mostly log ones, and that during the legislative sessions there were often large crowds, the provisioning of which was not easy, the nearest source of supplies (Louisville) being twenty-five miles away with bad roads to be negotiated.
Apropos, and drawing from another source, Edmund Dana, a traveler who visited the town in 1819 describes it as having "eight or ten neat buildings, besides many others that are ordinary, and a spacious courthouse of stone which is occupied by the legislature during their sessions," and he adds that fixing the temporary seat of government there "has not so much contributed to the prosperity of the town as was expected," one reason assigned being the distance of the site from the Ohio River, which was the great highway of travel. Samuel R. Brown, another traveling visitor, speaks of the great dissatisfaction prevailing in other parts of the state be- cause of the retention of the capital here, and all in all these things must have militated against the growth of the hill town, for the census of 1820 shows that up to that time its population was only 334. It is a fact often cited that the last territorial governor, Thomas Posey, would not make his residence in the town, to the great inconvenience of the territory's business, his excuse being that he was in poor health and could not receive proper medical attention in Corydon.
But if Coydon did not grow physically its character was undoubtedly affected during those years the capital was located there. After 1816, especially, the place must have become
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cosmopolitan in a small way, what with the general segrega- tion of government officials, annual legislatures and those who came and went because of the state's business. Such men as Jonathan Jennings, William Hendricks, Isaac Blackford, Benjamin Parke, Samuel Merrill and others of that class be- came indentified with the town in addition to such permanent citizens as John Tipton, Dennis Pennington, Thomas Posey, Jr.,* the Heth's, etc. An aggregation of such men in that day of small, semi-rustic towns, was something unusual, and there are evidences that these introduced into this one sundry elegancies, literary, artistic and social. Miss Angie Leslie, in a fugitive newspaper article (see Harrison County scrapbook in State Library) tells of a Mrs. Jameson whose home was the housing place of a circulating library for the use of mem- bers of the legislature and others. These books, says Miss Les- lie, were selected with a view to liberal culture, that definition being broad enough to include education in democratic govern- ment as well as in Shakespear, Milton, Burns and other clas- sics. Evidently the collection was not very large, for it was kept in a "secretary" or combined desk and bookcase which piece of furniture, the writer tells us, is still preserved in Corydon. The smallness of the library, however, was com- pensated for by its quality, and the book lovers of the commun- ity presumably made the most of their modest wealth, for we are further informed that "their minds were stored with melodious expressions of high thoughts and beautiful imag- ery," and that "quotations were used quite freely in their speeches." It is gratifying to learn that Mrs. Jameson, who served as librarian and custodian of the books, was appreciat- ed, as appears from the statement that when she became a bride, in 1820, the legislators, of whom Judge Jeremiah Sulli- van was one, sent to a Cincinnati silversmith and had a set of table spoons made from silver coins, which token of esteem was presented to her with great ceremony. These spoons, along with other relics of the capital period are still treasured, or were at the time Miss Leslie wrote, by a niece of Mrs. Jameson's living at Georgetown, Harrison County.
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