USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II > Part 42
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Indiana. As agent for the county he surveyed, platted, and sold the lots in Salem and purchased four acres of the high ground on the west side upon which the family mansion was erected.
He was by profession an attorney at law, and became a judge. He was also a general of militia. No man in his day enjoyed more of the confidence and good-will of his fellow-men than General John De Pauw. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Batist (the mother of W. C. De Pauw), was a woman of superior mind, and a strong and vigorous constitution. She died in 1878, at the advanced age of ninety- two years.
At the age of sixteen Mr. De Pauw was thrown upon his own resources by the death of his father. He had only the meagre education which that period and the surrounding circum- stances would allow his parents to give. But though young he desired to be independent of relatives and friends and accordingly set to work. He worked for two dollars a week, and when that was wanting worked for nothing rather than be idie.
That energy and industry allied with character and ability bring friends proved true in his case. Major Eli W. Malott, the leading merchant of Salem, became interested in the young man. At the age of nineteen he entered the office of the county clerk, and by his energy and faithfulness he gained confidence, and soon had virtual con- trol of the office. When he attained his major- ity he was elected clerk of Washington county without opposition. To this office was joined, by an act of the Legislature, that of auditor. Mr. DePauw filled both of these positions until close application and the consequent severe mental strain impaired his health. After several prostrations, and through fear of apoplexy, he acted on the advice of his physicians and gave up his sedentary pursuits.
His extraordinary memory, quick but accurate judgment and clear mental faculties fitted him for a successful life. His early business career was like his political one. He was true and faithful, and constantly gained friends. His first investment was in a saw- and grist-mill. With this business he combined farming, merchandis- ing, and banking, at the same time investing largely in the grain trade. It is hardly necessary to state that he was fortunate in each investment,
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and his means rapidly increased until on the break- ing out of the war he had a large mercantile in- terest and a well established bank. He was at the same time one of the largest grain dealers in the State of Indiana, and his knowledge of his trade and his command of means, rendered him able to materially assist in furnishing the Govern- ment with supplies. His patriotism and confi- dence in the success of the Union armies were such that he also invested a large amount in Government securities. Here again he was suc- cessful, and at the close of the war had materi- ally augmented his already large fortune. Mr. DePauw has used his wealth freely to encourage manufactories and to build up the city of New Al- bany. He has made many improvements, and is largely interested in the rolling mills and iron foundries of that city. He is now the proprie- tor of DePauw's American Plate-glass works. This is a new and valuable industry, and the in- terest of our country requires that it should be carried to success. It is a matter of national concern that American glass should surpass in quality and take the place of the French article in the markets of the world. Mr. DePauw is now doing all in his power to promote this great end, and at present everything points to the suc- cess of the undertaking. He has about two millions of dollars invested in manufacturing en- terprises in the city of New Albany.
Mr. DePauw has taken but a small part in State affairs for many years, having devoted his time to his business, and to his home interests, to the advancement of education, and to religion. He has been often forced to decline positions which his party were ready to give him, and in 1872 he was assured by many prominent Demo- crats that the nomination for Governor was at his disposal. In the convention he was nomi. nated for Lieutenant-governor. In order to show the purpose and character of the man, let us quote a few words from his letter declining the nomination :
My early business life was spent in an intensely earnest struggle for success as a manufacturer, grain dealer, and banker. Since then I have found full work endeavoring to assist in promoting the religious, benevolent, and educational interests of Indiana, and in helping to extend those advan- tages to the South and West. Hence I have neither time nor inclination for politics. In these chosen fields of labor 1 find congenial spirits whom I love and understand. My long experience gives me hope that I may accomplish some- thing, perhaps much, for religion and humanity.
These are noble words and a true index of Mr. DePauw's character. He has expended thousands of dollars in building churches and in endowing benevolent institutions throughout this and neighboring States. He has assisted many worthy young men to obtain an education, and has founded and kept in operation DePauw college, a seminary of a high order for young ladies, at New Albany.
Mr. DePauw was for years a trustee of the State university at Bloomington, Indiana, and is at present a trustee of the Indiana Asbury uni- versity, the leading Methodist college of the West. He is a member of the Methodist church and has served as a delegate of the church in 1872 and 1876. He is a member of the Ma- sonic and the Odd Fellows orders, and is beloved and respected in both. The part of his life most satisfactory to himself is that spent in his work for Christ in the church, in the Sunday- school, in the prayer-meeting, and in the every day walks of life.
He has been throughout life a thorough busi- ness man, full of honesty and integrity. He sought a fortune within himself and found it in an earnest will and vast industry. He is emi- nently a self-made man, and stands out promi- nent to-day as one who amid the cares of busi- ness has ever preserved his reputation for honesty, integrity and morality ; who has never neglected the cause of religion but has valued it and still values it above all others.
CHAPTER XIII. NOTICES OF NEW ALBANY.
IT may reasonably be supposed that this flourishing village, and afterwards city, received a full share of attention from visitors to the Falls of the Ohio, and in the gazetteers as well as books of travel. The first printed observation we have found concerning it is embraced in Mr. Palmer's Journal of Travels in the United States, published in 1817, and is not over-compli- mentary. It is merely the following:
New Albany, a short distance below Clarksville, has been puffed through the Union, but has not yet realized the anticipations of the proprietors.
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Two years afterwards many and better things were said of New Albany. Morse's American Universal Geography of 1819 says: "It has had a rapid growth, and is still increasing." Its front "commands a most beautiful view of the river."
The Geographical Sketches of the Western Country, published by Mr. E. Dana the same year, gives New Albany a good notice, from which we extract only the following:
From the first settlement of this town, its progress was rather slow, until within Iwo or three of the last years, since which period it has flourished greatly. The front street is more than three-fourths of a mile in length, the number of houses, of which several are spacious and elegant, are sup- posed to exceed one hundred and fifty; a steam gris !- and saw-mill, each of which performs extensive business, are a greal advantage to the town and surrounding country. A spirit of enterprise and industry seems generally to animate the inhabitants, and to exhibit the appearance of a brisk, business-doing place.
Mr. W. Faux, who wrote his book of Memorial Days in America as "an English farmer," turned a disgusted back upon the opposite shore more than sixty years ago, but had some good things to say of this point :
'27th [October, 1819] .- At sunrise I left Louisville, in Col- onel Johnson's carriage and pair, for Vincennes, in Indiana, well pleased to turn my back on all the spitting, gouging, dirking, dueling, swearing, and starving of old Kentucky.
I crossed the Ohio at Portland, and landed al New Albion [Albany ], a young rising village, to breakfast, where, for the first time in America I found fine, sweet, while, home-baked bread. The staff of life is generally sour, and, though light and spongy, very ill-favored, either from bad leaven or Ihe flour sweating and turning sour in the barrel.
He had previously mentioned this place, which he mistakenly calls "Albion," as a flourishing new town on the other side.
Dr. McMurtrie's Sketches of Louisville was also published this year, and he takes the oppor- tunity to give the following kindly notice to the rising young rival on the other shore, below the falls :
It is built upon the second bank of the river, from which it presents a very interesting appearance, many of the houses being whitened, and one, belong to Mr. Paxson, built of brick and designed with considerable taste, meeting the eye in a most conspicuous situation. The bottom, or first bank, is rarely overflowed, and the one on which the Iown stands being twenty feet higher, there hardly exists the possi- bility of its ever meeting that fate.
For some time after it was laid out, New Albany, like other places in the neighborhood, increased but slowly, conflicting opinions and clashing interests retarding its growth. The many natural advantages it possesses, however, have at length surmounted every difficulty, and its progress of late has been unequalled by any lown on the Ohio of so modern a date. The good health generally enjoyed by the inhabit- ants (which 1 think is partly owing to excellent water made
use of which is found in natural springs," to the number of fifteen or twenty, within the town-plat, and which can any- where be obtained at the depth of twenty-five feet), the great road from this State to Vincennes passing through it, and the quantity and quality of the ship timber which abounds in the neighborhood, are the principal causes which have con- Iributed Io ils advancement.
lI contains at present one hundred and fifty dwelling houses, which are generally of wood, it being impossible lo procure brick in quantities suited to the demand. The num- ber of inhabitants amounts to one thousand, and, from the influx of population occasioned by the demand for workmen at the ship-yards, etc., il must necessarily increase in a much greater ratio than heretofore. The only public works of any description thal are worth notice, is the steam grist- and saw- mill belonging Io Messrs. Paxton & Smith. Three steam- boats have been launched from the yards, and there are three more on the stocks. The inhabitants are all either Method- ists or Presbyterians, the former having a meeting-house, and the latter have contracted for a church, which is to be built immediately. There is a free school in this place, which has been partially supported by the interest of $5,000, a donation from the original proprietors for that purpose; bul increasing population requiring more extensive modes of education, other institutions are projected. Upon the whole, New Albany bids fair to be a wealthy and important Iown, as it is becom- ing a depot wherein the inhabitants of the interior of In- diana draw their supplies of dry goods and groceries, and consequently lo which they send their produce in return.
A Massachusetts traveler, Mr. George W. Og- den, who was here in the late summer of 1821, left this memorandum in his book of Letters from the West:
The town of New Albany, al the foot of the rapids, on the west side of the river, is in Indiana, and bids fair to be- come a place of some importance.
The thriving village seems to have deserved a place in Darby's edition of Brooks' Universal Gazetteer, published at Philadelphia in 1823, which included the following notice :
New Albany-handsomely situated town, and seal of jus- tice of Floyd county, Indiana. It is situated on the right bank of Ohio river, four miles below Louisville and two be- low Shippingport in Kentucky. It contains about two hun- dred houses and one thousand inhabitants, a steam saw- and grist-mill, and a ship-yard.
Five years later Mr Flint's second volume of Geography and History of the Western States, added this notice :
New Albany is the seat of justice for Floyd county, and is four and one-half miles below Jeffersonville. The front street is three-quarters of a mile in length, and makes a respectable appearance from the river. Many steamboats that cannot pass the falls are laid up for repair al this place during the
4 Dr. McMurtrie's foot-note : At a little distance from the town, issuing from under a stratum of greenstone, is a spring of water containing a large quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen, which inflames on being brought into contact with a candle, and if the spring be covered with a close box, furnished with a pipe and stop-cock, so as to condense the gas, it continues to burn until it is purposely ex. tinguished.
Robert Redman was born in Louisville, jefferson county, Kentucky, December 5, 1822. He located with his parents in Floyd county, Indiana, when he was but four years old. His father, Isaac Redman, was a farmer of note, and owned one of the finest farms in Floyd county; he also owned a tannery and grist-mill at Greenville, Floyd county. Robert Redman entered college at Greenville, Indiana, at the age of fifteen years. After taking a thorough course, he returned to Greenville and commenced his apprenticeship with Captain John B. Ford, as a saddler. After learning his trade he went to Salem, Indiana, and was there employed as a journeyman in a large establishment. Then going to Mount Vernon he worked at the same business for Mr. Floyd. He afterwards
gave up this business and was employed at different times as clerk on some of the largest steamers on the Ohio and Mis- sissipi rivers. Mr. Redman loved to travel, and was very fond of fishing and hunting. He visited the East and West Indies. In 1854 his father died, leaving him sole manager of his affairs.
Mr. Redman married Miss America Avery, July 5, 1860. In politics Mr. Redman was a Republican, and well posted on the issues of the day, being a highly cultivated and well- read man.
Mr. Redman, after being an invalid for ten years, died September 7, 1878, at Greenville, Indiana.
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summer. It has a convenient ship-yard for building boats. It is a thriving and busy village.
The second edition of Flint, in 1832, adds, "containing nineteen hundred inhabitants."
In Flint's Geography and History of the Mis- sissippi Valley, published in 1832, the following paragraph is devoted to this place:
New Albany, the seat of justice for Floyd county, is four and one-half miles below Jeffersonville. The front street is three- quarters of a mile in length, and makes a respectable appear- ance from the river. Many steamboats that cannot pass the falls are laid up for repair at this place during the summer. It has a convenient ship-yard for building steamboats, and is a thriving and busy village, containing nineteen hundred in- habitants.
The State Gazetteer, or Topographical Dic- tionary, for 1833, says of this place :
NEW ALBANY, a large and flourishing post-town, and the seat of justice of Floyd county. . . This town contains about two thousand five hundred inhabitants, and has been, for some years past, increasing in population at the rate of about one hundred and fifty annually. It has a printing office, sixteen dry goods stores, nine grocery stores, a ship chandlery store, two drug-stores, a hardware store, twenty liquor stores, an ashery, a rope-walk, three ship-yards, two boat-yards, two iron-foundries, a brass-foundry, a steam engine manufactory and finishing shop, and a merchant mill, on an extensive plan, propelled by steam-power, capable of manufacturing one hundred barrels of flour in twenty-four hours. A public school is established in this town, to which a donation was made by the original proprietors of $5,000, the annual interest of which is applied to the support of the school; in addition to which there are five private schools, de- signed to be permanent establishments. A charter for a col- lege has recently been procured at this place, which is desig- nated by the name of University college. A lyceum is es- tablished and in operation, consisting of about sixty mem- bers, with a library of one hundred volumes of valuable books, and the necessary apparatus for illustrating the dif- ferent sciences. There are also in the town three meeting- houses, which are regularly attended by the Baptists, Meth- odists, and Presbyterians.
New Albany has a good paragraph upon its location and conditions of health in Dr. Daniel Drake's Treatise on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America. He says:
The position ot this town is below the falls, nearly opposite Portland. Silver creek enters the river between New Albany and Jeffersonville, which are about six miles apart. Of this stream Doctor Clapp (by whom I have been favored with facts for this description) says: "It presents no ponds or marshes within ten miles of New Albany, except mill-ponds, and they canse but little overflow of the surface." As to the town site, a narrow strip near the river, not very much built upon, it has been entirely overflowed but twice in thirty years. The upper terrace is fifteen feet above the highest freshets, and four hundred and twenty-six above the sea. Immediately to its west is a small stream called Falling run, up which the back-water of the river ascends a short distance and about once in four or five years overflows a few acres. The bed of this stream is rocky and its descent rapid. It
flows at the base of the bold rampart called Silver creek hills, which rises to an altitude of nine hundred feet over the sea, and four hundred and eighty feet above the terrace on which the town is built. This terrace consists of a bed of alluvion thirty feet deep, resting on black or Devonian slate, which emerges from underneath the hills.
Of all the towns around the falls, New Albany is the least exposed to the topographical causes of autumnal fever, and from the best data I have been able to collect it suffers least. From 1817 to 1822, the first five years of Dr. Clapp's resi- dence in it, those fevers prevailed extensively, but have ever since been diminishing.
In 1848 the first directory of New Albany was published by Gabriel Collins, of Louisville, in connection with the directory of that city. About fifteen hundred names appear in it, which, at the estimate made by the compiler in calculating the population of Louisville, of five persons to each name, would give a population this year of 7,500. The churches of the city were the Baptist, Rev. George Webster, Lower Third street, between Main and Market, with 196 members; Methodist Wesley chapel, Market, between State and Lower First, Rev. James Hill, 390 members; Methodist Episcopal church Centenary, on Spring street, between Upper Third and Fourth, Rev. Thomas H. Rucker, 404 members; Presbyterian, State, between Market and Spring, Rev. Daniel Stew- art, 150 members; Presbyterian, Upper Third, between Main and Market, Rev. J. M. Bishop, 140 members; Episcopalian, Market, between Upper Third and Fourth, Rev. Francis Laird, 46 members; Christian, Lower Third, corner Market, Rev. E. Noyes and Dr. Stewart, 180 members; Lutheran, State, corner Oak street, Rev. C. H. Bleeken, 75 members; Catholic, Upper Seventh, between Market and Spring, Rev. Edward Nixon, membership not enumer- ated. The Masons had a lodge, with Stephen Bear as master; the Odd Fellows, New Albany lodge, No. 1, meeting at their hall on the north side of Main, between State and Pearl, Alexan- der McCarty, N. G .; and the Sons of Temper- ance had two divisions, with a Temple of Honor and a Union of the Daughters of Temperance. The branch of the State Bank of Indiana had Mason C. Fitch for president, and James R. Shields cashier; the New Albany Insurance com- pany, William Plummer, president, and T. Dan- forth, secretary; and the New Albany & Salem Railroad company, James Brooks, president, George Lyman secretary, and L. B. Wilson, resi- dent engineer.
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
Later notices of New Albany in general pos- sess too little interest to make their insertion here desirable.
CHAPTER XIV. NEW ALBANY TOWNSHIP. ORGANIZATION.
The following appears on record as part of the business of the first meeting of the county commissioners, February 8, 1819:
At a meeting of the Board of County Commissioners for the County of Floyd, began and held at New Albany, State of Indiana, at the House of Mr. Seth Woodruff, agreeably to law, this the 8th day of February, 1819. Present
Clement Nance, Jr., Jacob Piersol.
ORDERED, that all that part of Floyd County, beginning at the mouth of Falling Run, running with the line which formerly divided the counties of Harrison and Clark to the top of the Knobs, thence northeasterly with the meanders of the same to the line which divides Floyd and Clark Counties, thence with said line southeast to Silver creek, thence with said creek to the Ohio river, thence down said river to the place of beginning, be set apart for one township in said county, to be known and designated by the name of New Albany Township; and that the elections in said township be held at the house of Seth Woodruff, Esq.
At the same meeting it was
ORDERED, that Seth Woodruff, Esq., be appointed In- spector of Elections for New Albany township for the term of one year.
Mr. Woodruff thus became one of the first officers in the new county, after the commission- ers, and the first inspector ot elections.
OTHER TRANSACTIONS OF THE COMMISSIONERS.
It seems to be proper here to give the first proceedings of the commissioners, who appeared for some time to be the only lawgivers of the new county. They seem to have been clothed with considerable power and discretion, and went rapidly forward putting the machinery of the new county in motion. Fortunately, the records of the commissioners for several of the first years of the existence of the county are leg- ibly and beautifully written in clear cut characters by Joel Scribner, and in language of unusual ex- cellence. He seems to have been a gentleman of education, and able to express his meaning clearly and forcibly in the records.
At the first meeting of the commissioners the county was divided into three townships, after which appears the following:
ORDERED, that the Sheriff of Floyd County issue writs of election to be holden on the 22d day of this month in the several townships of the county, for the purpose of electing Justices of the Peace as follows, to wit: Three in New Al- bany Township, two in Greenville Township, and two in the township of Franklin.
ORDERED, that James Scribner be appointed Treasurer for the County of Floyd, by his complying with the law in that case made and provided.
This ends the first day's proceedings. The next day, February 9, 1819, the following busi- ness was transacted :
ORDERED, that Isaac Stewart, of Greenville, be appointed Lister for the County of Floyd, by complying with the law in that case made and provided.
ORDERED, that Caleb Newman be appointed Superintend- ent of the school section numbered sixteen, in township number three south of range number five east, for the term of two years, and that he take the oath required by law.
ORDERED, that Thomas Pierce be appointed Superintend- ent of school section numbered sixteen, in township number two, south of Range - East for the term of two years, and that he take the oath required by law previous to entering upon the duties of the office.
ORDERED, that Stephen Beers and Charles Woodruff be appointed Overseers of the Poor for the County of Floyd for the term of one year, for New Albany township.
ORDERED, that Sammel Kendall and Frederick Leather- man be appointed Overseers of the Poor for Greenville town- ship.
ORDERED, that Josiah Akin, Gabriel Poindexter, and Jeremiah Jacobs be appointed fence viewers for the township of New Albany, in said County, for one year.
The next entry appoints Jacob. Yenawine, Thomas Smith, and Joseph Benton fence viewers for Franklin township, and John Irvin, David Edwards, and Isaac Wood for Greenville town- ship.
ORDERED, that Samuel Kendall be appointed Supervisor, until the May term, of all the public roads passing through Floyd county, beginning at the line dividing townships one and two, at the corner of Harrison County east of Green- ville, thence north to the County line, including all the roads westwardly in said County; and that all hands in said County in the above-mentiond bounds assist the said super- visor in keeping said roads under repair.
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