USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I > Part 45
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THE POSTAL TELEGRAPH SYSTEM.
The local office of the Postal Telegraph and Cable company was opened in 1890. It brought Fort Wayne into close touch with many new sections of outlying territory and created a healthy com- petition in the telegraphic field.
THE CHOLERA SCOURGE.
The people of Fort Wayne, in the midst of their prosperity and progress toward better material things, were striken with alarm and horror when, in the summer of 1849, the deadly cholera crept within its borders and claimed six hundred of its people before the close of the year 1854.
The disease made its appearance first in Lahore, in India, in 1845, spread to Europe, and found its way to New York and New Orleans in 1848. Alarm spread to the cities of the Mississippi and Wabash valleys, and Fort Wayne commenced early in the spring of 1849 to prepare for the coming of the dread visitor from the orient. With a view of "adopting stringent measures to prevent the ravages of the approaching cholera," the city council met in special session, April 12. and took action to establish a hospital at the county farm. A log house, which formerly was a soap and candle factory, belonging to Asa Fairfield, was hastily taken to the farm and made ready for the care of victims who were in need of its accommodations all too soon. A log house at the corner of Calhoun and Berry streets, owned by James Barnett, also was fitted up to receive patients. The council appointed a representa- tive citizen in each ward "to examine the streets, alleys, stables, pig sties, cellars, standing pools of water, slaughter houses and other places," with power to wipe out every "nuisance" which might invite the disease to Fort Wayne. The council caused handbills to be placed in every house instructing the people in their personal conduct and in the use of lime and other disinfectants which were provided liberally.
With appalling rapidity and certainty, the disease crept in from the east and south, claiming hundreds of victims in unfortu- nate towns. At a meeting held in the courthouse "in view of the rapid approach of the malignant epidemic, threatening us and devastating many of our large towns," a special appeal was made for a more earnest co-operation, and in response to this the council not only redoubled its activities but appointed Friday, August 2,
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TELEGRAPH SERVICE-CHOLERA SCOURGE
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as "a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, during which time no secular work was to be allowed." Every citizen was requested to attend divine services in the churches on that day, and the ministers led the people in earnest prayers for deliverance from the pestilence.
Directly after the announcement of the dreadful truth that the disease had claimed its first victim in Fort Wayne-a canal laborer -Rev. Julian Benoit, of St. Augustine's church (the Cathedral), offered the use of the schoolhouse for a hospital. The Sisters of
Plank Road LETTING.
The undersigned will receive Sealed Proposals at the House of J. B. Hanna, in Huntertown, until the 29th of March,next, for the
Grading of 26 Miles of the Fort Wayne & Lima Turn- pike Road.
Persons bidding for the above work will state the price per rod for. Grading, including the Grubbing, Bridging, Draining, and laying of the Plank, ex- cept the large' hills, which .will be bid for by the yard; and for the delivery of the plank by the thon- sand feet, board measure.
Jobs will be let in sections of five miles, to commence at the Saw Mills. ' Any information in regard to. the above works can be had of the undersigned, or at the Office of S. Hanna, in Fort Wayne.
Employment. can be given to any number of. Hands Wm. MITCHELL, Supi. F. W. & L. T. Co. February 26, 1849.
A PLANK ROAD POSTER OF 1849.
The reproduction is from a larger poster printed in February, 1849, adver- tising for bids for the construction of the Lima "plank" road. The highway was constructed by the Fort Wayne and Lima Plank Road Company, of which Judge Samuel Hanna was the president and O. W. Jefferds was the secretary. Long ago, the planks disappeared, but the improved Lima road is one of the favorite automobile routes of today.
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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
Charity became immediately of great service as nurses, for now were many homes, chiefly on East Washington, East Jefferson and East Wayne streets, afflicted. An August 22, the council appointed a committee to procure "three strong, stout-hearted, able-bodied men to attend to the sick and suffering." The committee reported its success, but the names of the heroes of the hour do not appear in the record.
Many fled from the afflicted community. Medical treatment seemed to be ineffectual. "Drs. C. E. Sturgis and H. Wehmer worked together during this epidemic in every stricken home,"
JUDGE JAMES L. WORDEN.
James L. Worden, following his ad- mittance to the supreme court of Ohio, practiced law at Lancaster and Tiffin, and removed in 1844 to Columbia City, Ind., and from there to Albion, where he remained until his removal to Fort Wayne in 1849. The chief events of his active life until his death in 1884 may be stated briefly as follows: In 1850 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Twelfth judicial circuit. In 1855 he was appointed by Governor Wright to serve as judge of the newly-formed Tenth judicial circuit, a place to which he was afterward elected. He was nom- inated as a candidate for congress in 1857, and in the following year resigned his position as circuit judge to accept the appointment by Governor Willard as judge of the supreme court. Upon his return to Fort Wayne in 1865, Judge Worden was elected mayor of the city, but he resigned the office in 1866. Again in 1870 and in 1876 he was elected a member of the supreme court, a position he occupied during a period of nineteen years. In 1882 he was elected judge of the superior court of Allen county; his death occurred while serving in this capacity. Judge Worden was a native of Sandisfield, Massachusetts, where he was born May 10, 1819, the son of John Worden, representative of a family of sturdy New England stock founded in America in the early days of colonial history.
CHARLES CASE.
Charles Case served as prosecuting attorney of the court of common pleas of Allen county. He was twice elected to congress, his opponents being Judge James L. Worden and Judge Reuben J. Dawson. Mr. Case was active in many of the public affairs of the '50s and '60s.
MUNSON VAN GEISEN. Munson Van Geisen served as fire chief of the Fort Wayne department for several years.
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TELEGRAPH SERVICE-CHOLERA SCOURGE
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says the late Dr. B. S. Woodworth, who also gave of his whole efforts to the relief of the sufferers. "The favorite remedy was tremendous doses of calomel, the panacea of that age, and cayenne pepper. * * * During each of the years 1849, 1852 and 1854 there were about two hundred deaths here."
A. G. Barnett, in 1916, referring to this dark period, tells of his experience in 1852. He says :
"My father and my mother, with two sisters and a brother, took refuge from the cholera by going to the home of Thomas Hamilton, north of Leo. I stayed to care for matters at home. We lived then on West Berry street, where the Wolf and Dessauer store is today, and where a peach orchard occupied the back yard. I remember watching the many funerals at the Methodist church across the street, where the Anthony hotel stands."
THE RUSH TO THE GOLD FIELDS.
Simultaneously with the movement of many in their departure from the plague stricken town came the inducement to hasten to the Pacific coast, from whence came exciting stories of the discovery of gold.
Among those who bade a temporary or final farewell to Fort Wayne to seek their fortunes in the west were George W. Sutten- field, Madison Sweetser, L. G. Jones, Charles F. Colerick, Charles Lamb, George E. Smith, Dr. John M. Kitchen, Samuel Ballow, Joseph W. Whitaker, William Pratt, John Aveline, J. A. Bartlett, C. R. Bartlett, Sabina Wallace, Lucien Martin, S. A. Herrington, H. D. Bartlett, Myron F. Barbour, B. Cocanour, Louis T. Bourie, Dr. William Shelden, Joseph P. Dugan, James T. Shelden and Wm. Van Alstine. A local company was formed to exploit holdings in the gold fields, and many a hard-earned dollar was given a fond farewell. Frederick Becker, who arrived from Europe the preced- ing year, made a large number of wagons of the "prairie schooner" type for the Forty-niners who departed from Fort Wayne.
WILLIAM STEWART, MAYOR.
In 1849, the voters elected William Stewart1 to serve as mayor for one year. His services proved so entirely agreeable that he was honored with a re-election for two successive terms, and then, in 1855 and 1856, he was again elected, following the administrations of Dr. Philip G. Jones and Charles Whitmore.
A NEW JAIL.
In spite of the destruction by fire of the old log jail and debtors' prison on the courthouse square in 1847, no official action toward the building of another jail appears to have been taken until the spring of 1849, when, on the 7th of April, the city council ordered that "the mayor [William Stewart] procure a building to be used as a jail" to be placed on "the city's lot," the site of the present Anthony hotel. A council committee subsequently was appointed to "prepare plans and specifications for said jail, and let the con- tract to some efficient, energetic mechanic." The contract was awarded to John Grimes, who completed the work early in July and received $270 for his labor and material. During 1849 and
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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
1850 a fund, raised throughout the county, through a special tax levy, was applied to the construction of a larger building. In the latter year, a contract let to Charles G. French, John B. Cocanour and Aaron J. Mershon resulted in the erection of a jail and sheriff's residence on the site of the present jail. The new building cost $4,955.34. With the completion of the jail in 1852. the people of Allen county were rightly aroused over the delivery of two notorious horsethieves-Laertes B. Dean and George Pierce-who were placed
1
A Sketch- July, '14
RUINS OF LOCKS OF WABASH AND ERIE CANAL.
The sketch shows the present condition of the ruins of the important locks of the Wabash and Erie canal between Huntington and Lagro, Ind. The large stones, raised into position three-quarters of a century ago, present a massive, seemingly imperishable monument to the memory of the great waterway. Two sets of locks remain in the town of Lagro. The ruins of another set of locks are to be found a short distance east of Fort Wayne.
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TELEGRAPH SERVICE-CHOLERA SCOURGE
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in the new building for safe keeping. "The jail was broken into by a gang of desperadoes," says one of the newspapers. "Unless some plan is adopted to render it more secure than it now seems to be, the cost of construction would appear to be just that much thrown away." In the following year three men' escaped from the jail by burrowing through a wall of the basement into a cistern, and then through the cistern wall into the basement of an adjoining dwelling. This jail served until 1872.
ACTIVITIES OF 1848.
About thirty German families connected with St. Augustine's Catholic church (the Cathedral), established St. Mary's church, in 1848, at the intersection of Lafayette and Jefferson streets. Rev. Edward M. Faller was the first pastor. Succeeding pastors were R. Weurtz, Joseph Rademacher and J. H. Oechtering. . . The Achduth Veshalom congregation of B'nai Israel was formed in 1848, and Rabbi Solomon chosen pastor. Among the original mem- bers were A. Oppenheim, Sigismund Redelsheimer, I. Lauferty and F. Nirdlinger. Succeeding pastors have been Rabbis Rosenthal, E. Rubin, Israel Aaron, T. Shanfarber, A. Guttmacher, Samuel Hirsch- berg, Fred Cohn, Harry W. Ettelson, Joseph Rauch, William Rice, Meyer Lovitch and Aaron R. Weinstein. The present synagogue was erected in 1916-1917. William H. Coombs and Samuel Edsall established a steam sawmill on the north side of the canal. The firm of Hill and Orbison (John E. Hill and A. M. Orbison), commission merchants, was formed. The city council re- solved that "the limits of the city are extended one mile in every direction from the chartered limits of said city, for judicial pur- poses." Ochmig Bird was elected state senator. · Warren H. Withers, born at Vincennes, Indiana, in 1824, removed to Fort Wayne from Muncie and purchased the Fort Wayne Times and Press from George W. Wood. Mr. Withers acted as editor during the Taylor presidential campaign, and then sold the paper to Mr. Wood in order to engage in the practice of law, in which profession he rose to a position of distinction. The city council passed an ordinance prohibiting the operation of distilleries within the city limits. County commissioners elected were W. M. Walker, James S. Hamilton and Henry Rudisill.
Among the well-known men to locate in Fort Wayne during the year was Sion S. Bass (born in Salem, Kentucky, in 1827), who became a prominent manufacturer and a colonel in the civil war. The memory of Mr. Bass is preserved by his comrades in arms in the naming of one of Fort Wayne's posts of the Grand Army of the Republic. David Wallace, attorney, who already had served as governor of Indiana, settled here in 1848. Governor Wal- lace made his home, while a resident of Fort Wayne, with Mrs. Samuel Lewis, a relative. Several business ventures in which he engaged while here proved disastrous, and after two years' residence he removed from the city. Governor Wallace was the father of General Lew Wallace. Others who came in 1848 were Conrad Neireiter, from Germany, merchant; Joseph Singmaster, a tanner, from Pennsylvania; Joseph R. Fox, confectioner and restau- rant proprietor, from Germany ; Solomon Bash (born in Starke county,
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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
Ohio, in 1827), miller and grain dealer; B. H. Bueter, miller; Rev. Wolfgang Stubnatzy (born in Bavaria, in 1829), later a prominent Lu- theran minister; Chester Scarlet (born near Springfield, Ohio, in 1832), justice of the peace; Henry Stoll (born in Echzal, Germany, in 1840) ; Henry Hilgemann (born in Germany, in 1828), township trustee and councilman ; Charles L. Hill (born in Chautauqua county, New York), Fort Wayne's earliest music dealer; David Kelsey, from southern Indiana; Francis Boley, from France, and Chester By a division of the First Methodist Chapman, from Ohio.
THE METHODIST COLLEGE.
The drawings show two views of the famous Methodist college founded in 1846, which stood at the west end of West Wayne street, fronting College street. The upper picture is from a lithograph printed in 1855. The lower view is from' a photograph made in 1889, after the main building had been remodeled and enlarged.
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1848 1850 TELEGRAPH SERVICE-CHOLERA SCOURGE
Episcopal church (known as the Maumee Mission and later as the Berry Street church), the present Wayne Street church was organ- ized, with Rev. F. A. Conwell, pastor. At this year's session of the conference, Rev. F. A. Johnson was sent to Fort Wayne for the benefit of the "watermen" (the workmen on the canal). Succeed- ing pastors of Wayne Street Methodist Episcopal church have been William Wilson, T. H. Sinex, F. A. Hardin, J. Beswick, A. S. Kinnan, Charles Martindale, Reuben Toby, F. W. Hemenway, M. H. Mendenhall, A. Marine, N. R. McKeag, A. E. Mahin, W. O. Pierce, A. W. Lampfort, C. H. Murray, F. G. Brown, R. M. Barns, G. N. Eldridge, H. W. Bennett, W. D. Parr, Asher S. Preston, M. E. Neth- ercutt, Frank Lenig and C. Claud Travis. The congrega- tion of St. Paul's Lutheran church purchased "Woodlawn," the beautiful country estate of Colonel Marshall S. Wines; it forms the present Concordia college grounds.
ACTIVITIES OF 1849.
One of the interesting canal events was the arrival of the steam packet, Niagara, Captain W. Dale, which had come from Cincinnati to Toledo and thence to Fort Wayne. The fame of the craft had long preceded its appearance, which accounts for this comment in the Times: "This celebrated craft has been here and gone again. On Monday afternoon she made a pleasure trip crowded with ladies and gentlemen-the elite of the city. As an equinoctial storm was
C
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CHARLES A. ZOLLINGER.
Colonel Zollinger, previous to assum- ing the office of mayor beginning in 1873, had served as county sheriff. He en- listed in the civil war as a member of Company E, Ninth regiment, and on the expiration of the enlistment period he proceeded to organize a company (D) which became a part of the Thirtieth regiment. Later he became the colonel of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth regiment. Returning to Fort Wayne, Colonel Zollinger entered at once into the upbuilding of the interests of his home city.
DAVID WALLACE.
Former Governor David Wallace, who made his home in Fort Wayne and prac- ticed law during 1848 and 1849, first appears in the history of Fort Wayne as a special prosecutor for the Allen circuit court in 1828. He served as gov- ernor of Indiana from 1837 to 1840. His resdience in Fort Wayne was brief owing to the failure of important in- vestments which cost him his entire estate, and he removed in 1850 to In- dianapolis. Governor Wallace while here made his home with a relative, the wife of Major Samuel Lewis, for whom his son, General "Lew" Wallace, was named. He was a native of Pennsyl- vania, born in 1799.
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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
sweeping over the 'raging canawl,' it is not to be wondered at that some of the former became terribly seasick. Weak stomachs should never venture upon 'deep water.' " The most destructive fire experienced by the town of Fort Wayne up to 1849, laid waste fifteen buildings in the business section. The afflicted area extended along the west side of Calhoun street between Main and Columbia, and for a considerable distance westward on the latter streets. · In 1849 Samuel Stophlet received the appointment of post- master of Fort Wayne, to serve under President Taylor. The post- office was located in a frame building on the east side of Calhoun street, north of Main, but it later was removed to the southwest corner of the same streets, into a building which occupied the site of the present Alter cigar store. The year brought to Fort Wayne many substantial citizens. Among these were Judge James L. Worden (born at Sandisfield, Massachusetts, in 1819), who for twenty-seven years served with honor in judicial and other positions of importance in the state; William Moellering (born in Prussia in 1832), contractor; Peter Moran (born in Ireland), the first ice dealer; August F. Siemon (born in Saxony, in 1821), prominent in commercial circles; Ferd C. Boltz (born in Prussia, in 1848), manu- facturer and contractor ; Henry Volland (born in Bavaria, in 1827), miller; John I. White (born in Batavia, New York, in 1842), hard- ware merchant and manufacturer; Aimee Racine (born in Switzer- land, in 1834), manufacturer of saddlery; William T. Pratt (born in Maryland, in 1825), sheriff and commission merchant; Michael Humbert (born in Filsberg, Germany, in 1824), owner of a trucking business ; Francis A. Voirol (born in Switzerland, in 1820), jeweler; B. H. Schnieders (born in Feren, Germany, in 1819), landlord of the American hotel; Horatio N. Ward (born in Manchester, Eng- land, in 1823), merchant; Michael Bruecker, Louis Hazzard and Peter Veith, from Germany, and M. V. Metcalf, from Ohio.
Samuel Brenton was appointed register of the government land office. Townley Brothers, through the purchase of the Hartman and Jones general store, established the business which developed into the present George De Wald Company, wholesale dry goods. Philo Rumsey opened the Vermilyea house fourteen miles southwest of Fort Wayne; he returned later to manage the Rockhill house. George Phillips established a stage line between Fort Wayne and Maysville.
ACTIVITIES OF 1850.
Fort Wayne's pioneer dentist, Dr. Von Bonhurst, came in 1850. I. D. G. Nelson was elected to the state legislature. · The Lutherans purchased the tract which developed into the present Concordia cemetery. Among the prominent men who set- tled in Fort Wayne in 1850 were Sol D. Bayless (born in Butler county, Ohio, in 1814), attorney, who rose to high honors in Masonic circles; Captain Charles Reese (born in Westersoda, Germany, in 1834), city weighmaster for many years; Charles Case, attorney and member of congress; Gustave Spiegel (born in Prussia), retail boot and shoe merchant; Charles Pape (born in Minden, Germany, in 1837), manufacturer and city councilman; John Lillie (born in Scotland, in 1819) ; Charles F. Diether (born in Germany), who,
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TELEGRAPH SERVICE-CHOLERA SCOURGE
407
with his sons, Louis and John H., engaged in the lumber trade; Henry Tons (born in Bremen, Germany), a veteran of the Mexican war, who engaged in the insurance business; John and Joseph Mom- mer, from Pennsylvania, and Samuel F. Swayne from southern Indiana. . Fort Wayne presented an amended charter to the legislature, providing for a revision of the duties of city officers.
NOTE ON CHAPTER XXXII.
(1) Minor officers elected in 1849 were Oliver P. Morgan; treasurer, N. P. Stockbridge; fire chief, John B. Coca- nour; marshal, collector and street com- missioner, S. C. Freeman (succeeded by John B. Griffith and John Spencer) ; assessor, Charles G. French; council- men, Charles Muhler, P. P. Bailey, James Humphrey, Michael Hedekin, B. W. Oakley and Alexander McJunkin. J. M. Wilt succeeded H. J. Rudisill as county surveyor; the county commis- sioners elected were Noah Clem, Wil- liam Robinson and Henry Rudisill.
The 1850 minor city officers were: Clerk, O. P. Morgan; treasurer, George Wilson; high constable and street com- missioner, Jacob Lewis; assessor, Hen- ry R. Colerick; councilmen, Henry Sharp, W. C. Bryant, James Humphrey,
Calvin Anderson, B. W. Oakley and Alexander McJunkin. The board of health was composed of I. D. G. Nel- son, John Cochrane and D. W. Bur- roughs. County officers elected in 1850 were: Auditor, R. Starkweather; treas. urer, Thomas T. DeKay; sheriff, W. H. McDonald; recorder, E. F. Colerick; surveyor, J. M. Wilt; commissioners, Simeon Biggs, William Robinson and Henry Rudisill; coroner, D. Kiser; pros- ecuting attorney, James L. Worden.
Minor city officers of 1851 were: Chief engineer, high constable and street commissioner, Morris Cody; treasurer, Thomas DeKay; councilmen, Oliver W. Jefferds, Ochmig Bird, James Howe, Peter Kiser, D. P. Hartman and Robert Armstrong.
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CHAPTER XXXIII-1851-1852.
The Building of the First Railroad-A Plea for Immigration.
Jesse L. Williams suggests a great railroad project-The beginning of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago railroad-Allen county votes financial aid-Construction work begins-The first locomotive-Discouraging fail- ures-Tribute to Judge Hanna-A line west from Fort Wayne-Subscrip- tions paid in land and labor-The first railroad excursion to Fort Wayne -Banquet and speechmaking-Railroading before the war-The launch- ing of the "H. H. Stout"-A plea for immigration-The vote to exclude the negroes-Dr. Philip G. Jones, mayor-"Egging" the anti-slavery editor -Court of common pleas-The earliest "bloomers" cause a near-riot.
T HE FICKLENESS of towns is like unto the caprices of the humans who inhabit them. We have seen the warmth of the greeting of Fort Wayne to the great waterway which, in the words of General Cass, should flow for "centuries hence." Now, we are to behold this same city, casting off its first love and gazing with inviting mien toward the distant eastern horizon whence, it was said, the locomotive would one day come, if properly en- couraged. It was properly encouraged. And it came.
In 1847, Jesse L. Williams, chief engineer of the canal, who was later strongly identified with railroad construction, urged the building of a railroad to Chicago, "which should connect with a road to Pittsburgh." He pointed to Chicago as the city destined to be "the great commercial center of the northwest." A scrapbook of Mr. Williams, in which is preserved a newspaper contribution dealing with the subject, contains this notation in the engineer's handwriting: "To my knowledge, this is the first suggestion of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago railroad."
Three years passed, and Mr. Williams saw the beginning of the fulfillment of his dream. When, on the Fourth of July, 1849, the ground was broken for the construction of the Ohio and Pennsyl- vania railroad at the boundary line of the states of Ohio and Penn- sylvania, Fort Wayne became the center of activity in the movement to promote a line of railway connecting therewith and creating a continuous route from New York to Chicago. The Ohio and Penn- sylvania Railroad company determined that although its charter provided for the construction of a road westward to the Ohio- Indiana line, it would terminate its line at Crestline, Ohio, for the reason that interested parties, including several Fort Wayne citizens, had suggested the formation of separate corporations to construct the western end of the system.
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