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THE  INDIANA  QUARTERLY 
MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 


VOLUME  II 
1906 


GEO.  S.  COTTMAN 

EDITOR  AND  PUBLISHER 

INDIANAPOLIS 


by  the  late  Ig-natius  Brown. 


THE  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Vol.  II  MARCH,  1906  No.   1 

THE  OLD  INDIAN  TRADERS  OF  INDIANA 

BY  CHARLES  B.  LASSELLE 

[This  account  of  the  early  traders  of  Indiana  was  written  nearly  fifty 
years  ago  by  Charles  B.  Lasselle,  of  Log-ansport,  now  eighty-five  years 
old.  He  is  of  a  French  family  of  traders  that  has  been  identified  with  the 
Wabash  valley  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years,  and  has 
himself  been  a  life-long  student  of  the  earlier  history  of  the  valley  and  a 
collectpr  of  documents  bearing  upon  the  same;  hence  he  speaks  as  an  au- 
thority upon  this  all-but-forgotten  early  trade. — Editor.'] 

OF  the  early  pioneers  of  our  State,  there  is  no  class  whose  his- 
tory, if  known,  would  be  more  interesting-  than  that  of  the 
old  Indian  traders.  Par  in  advance  of  the  prog-ress,  chang-es  and 
improvements  of  civilization,  they  beheld  our  country  in  all  the 
wildness,  g-randeur  and  solitude  in  which  the  God  of  nature 
placed  it;  and  they  comming-led  freely  and  familiarly  with  the 
aborig-inal  owners  who  have  forever  disappeared  from  its  face. 
In  point  of  time,  they  were  among-  the  first,  if  not  themselves 
the  first,  of  the  explorers  of  the  country,  and  are  known  to  have 
visited  and  traded  with  the  Indians  within  our  borders  about  a 
centur}'  previous  to  our  Revolutionary  War.  They  have  alwaj^s 
occupied  a  prominent  position  in  the  early  historical  events  of 
the  country,  as  a  controlling-  medium  in  the  relations  betv/een 
the  whites  and  Indians.  But  althoug-h — whether  French, 
Eng-lish  or  Americans — they  have  g-enerally  been  men  of  educa- 
tion and  g-eneral  intellig-ence,  yet  such  have  been  the  peculiar 
nature  and  vicissitudes  of  their  calling,  that  they  have  left  us 
very  few  records  of  their  experience. 

The  earliest  traders  were  French,  and  came  mostly  from  Mont- 
real, in  Canada.  From  this  place  they  transported  their  mer- 
chandise up  the  St.  Lawrence  and  across  the  shores  of  the  Lakes, 
to  their  posts  in  the  West,  by  means  of  the  simple  canoe.  At 
first,  and  before  the  introduction  of  horses,  the  difficulties  of 
passing-  Niag-ara  Falls  and  the  portage  between  the  head  waters 


THE  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Vol.  II  MARCH,  1906  No.  1 

THE  OLD  INDIAN  TRADERS  OF  INDIANA 

BY  CHARLES  B.  LASSELLE 

[This  account  of  the  early  traders  of  Indiana  was  written  nearly  fifty 
years  ag-o  by  Charles  B.  Lasselle,  of  Log-ansport,  now  eig-hty-five  years 
old.  He  is  of  a  French  family  of  traders  that  has  been  identified  with  the 
Wabash  valley  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years,  and  has 
himself  been  a  life-long-  student  of  the  earlier  history  of  the  valley  and  a 
collectpr  of  documents  bearing-  upon  the  same;  hence  he  speaks  as  an  au- 
thority upon  this  all-but-forgotten  early  trade. — Editor.'] 

OF  the  early  pioneers  of  our  State,  there  is  no  class  whose  his- 
tory, if  known,  would  be  more  interesting-  than  that  of  the 
old  Indian  traders.  Far  in  advance  of  the  prog-ress,  chang-es  and 
improvements  of  civilization,  they  beheld  our  country  in  all  the 
wildness,  g-randeur  and  solitude  in  which  the  God  of  nature 
placed  it;  and  they  comming-led  freely  and  familiarly  with  the 
aborig-inal  owners  who  have  forever  disappeared  from  its  face. 
In  point  of  time,  they  were  among-  the  first,  if  not  themselves 
the  first,  of  the  explorers  of  the  country,  and  are  known  to  have 
visited  and  traded  with  the  Indians  within  our  borders  about  a 
century  previous  to  our  Revolutionary  War.  They  have  always 
occupied  a  prominent  position  in  the  early  historical  events  of 
the  country,  as  a  controlling-  medium  in  the  relations  betv/een 
the  whites  and  Indians.  But  althoug-h — whether  French, 
Eng-lish  or  Americans — they  have  g-enerally  been  men  of  educa- 
tion and  g-eneral  intellig-ence,  yet  such  have  been  the  peculiar 
nature  and  vicissitudes  of  their  calling-,  that  they  have  left  us 
very  few  records  of  their  experience. 

The  earliest  traders  were  French,  and  came  mostly  from  Mont- 
real, in  Canada.  From  this  place  they  transported  their  mer- 
chandise up  the  St.  Lawrence  and  across  the  shores  of  the  Lakes, 
to  their  posts  in  the  West,  by  means  of  the  simple  canoe.  At 
first,  and  before  the  introduction  of  horses,  the  difiiculties  of 
passing-  Niag-ara  Falls  and  the  portage  between  the  head  waters 


2  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

of  the  streams  running-  into  the  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi  were 
surmounted  by  carrying-  the  canoes  and  merchandise  by  means  of 
the  men  employed  in  the  voyag-e.  The  Normandy  horse,  whose 
descendents  have  long-  been  known  as  the  Canadian  and  Indian 
ponies,  having-  been  introduced  into  Canada,  was  afterwards,  and 
probably  about  1720,  brought  to  the  West,  and  made  to  serve  as 
pack-horses  for  all  land  transportation.  And  such  were  the 
principal  modes  of  transportation  in  the  West,  at  least  in  Indiana, 
from  about  1680  to  about  1812.  The  Canadian  cart,  samples  of 
which  are  yet  to  be  seen  about  the  old  French  settlements,  had 
indeed  been  used  about  the  villag-es  in  the  early  day;  but  there 
being-  no  roads  of  any  leng-th,  other  than  the  narrow  Indian 
trail,  they  could  not  be  used  for  distant  transportation. 

We  can  scarcely  realize,  at  this  day,  the  extent  to  which  the 
Indian  trade  was  carried  on,  both  in  the  amount  of  g-oods  sold, 
and  the  furs  and  the  peltries  received  in  exchang-e.  When  the 
country  was  first  visited  by  the  traders,  the  animals  affording- 
these  commodities  were  found  in  g-reat  abundance.  The  Buffalo 
rang-ed  in  larg-e  numbers  over  the  prairies  of  Illinois  and  those 
of  our  own  State  bordering-  on  the  Wabash,  as  well  as  in  the 
forests  in  the  vicinity  of  the  salt  spring-s.  The  Beaver,  the  re- 
mains of  whose  dams  are  yet  to  be  found  in  many  parts  of  the 
State,  especially  in  the  northern  portion,  was  to  be  found  in 
many  of  the  northern  streams.  The  Bear,  Elk,  Deer,  Panther, 
Otter,  Wolf,  Wildcat,  Fox  and  Raccoon,  were  also  to  be  found 
in  considerable  numbers  in  various  portions  of  the  State.  The 
Indians  not  having-  any  weapons  with  which  to  take  these  ani- 
mals but  the  simple  stone-headed  arrow,  nor  any  clothing-  but 
the  rude  elk  or  deer  skin,  the  introduction  of  the  g-un  and  mer- 
chandise by  the  traders,  soon  afforded  both  parties  a  rich  har- 
vest. And  althoug-h  the  amount  of  furs  produced  was  after- 
wards very  much  diminished  by  the  destruction  of  g-ame,  yet  it 
still  continued  larg-e  for  a  long-  time;  and  the  trade  yet  yielded 
the  traders  larg-e  g-ains  so  late  as  about  the  year  1838,  when  the 
principal  body  of  the  Pottawattamie  tribe  of  Indians  emig-rated 
west  of  the  Mississippi. 

It  is  perhaps  impossible  to  state,  at  this  distance  of  time,  who 
was  the  first  trader  within  the  limits  of  our  State,  or  when  or 
where  he  traded.     It  is  quite  probable,  however,  that  the  northern 


INDIAN  TRADERS  OF  INDIANA  3 

portion  was  traversed  by  some  of  their  clerks,  called  ^'couriers 
des  bois'^  (woods  rang-ers, )  between  the  years  1660-70;  and  it 
is  certain  that  some  of  La  Salle's  men  traded  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  St.  Joseph  of  Lake  Michig-an,  in  the  year  1680.  But  the 
first  of  whom  we  have  any  definite  account  was  the  Sieur 
Juchereau,  Lieutenant  General  of  Montreal,  who,  we  are  told, 
established  a  trading-  post  "on  the  Wabash,"  in  the  name  of  a 
company,  for  the  collection  of  buffalo  skins.  There  has  indeed 
been  some  doubt  as  to  the  locality  of  this  spot;  but,  coinciding- 
with  Judg-e  Law  in  his  address  to  the  Vincennes  Historical 
Society,  1839,  for  the  reasons  therein  g-iven,  together  with 
others,  and  especially  the  coincidence  of  its  date  of  settlement 
with  that  of  Vincennes,  as  g-iven  by  its  ancient  inhabitants,* 
the  writer  deems  it  conclusive  that  the  town  of^ymcennes  is  the 
site  of  this  trading-  post.  ^^  «r'  sJ^OO 

The  Sieur  Juchereau  arrived  at  this  spot,  at  the  head  of  thir- 
ty-four Canadians,  on  the  28th  of  October,  1702,  for  the  purpose, 
as  mentioned,  of  trafficking-  for  buffalo  skins,  and  such  was  his 
success  in  the  trade  that  in  a  little  over  two  years  afterwards 
there  were  collected  at  the  post,  at  one  time,  upwards  of  thir- 
teen thousand  of  those  skins. t  How  many  had  been  collected  in 
the  meantime  and  shipped  off,  is  unknown.  The  establishment, 
however,  soon  met  with  disasters.  Juchereau  died ;  and,  al- 
thoug-h  he  was  succeeded  by  another,  a  Mr.  Lambert,  yet  the 
hostilities  of  the  Indians  forced  them  to  abandon  it  as  a  trading- 
post,  and  Lambert  with  forty  men  descended  to  Mobile — then  the 
headquarters  of  Louisiana — in  the  winter  of  1705.  The  above 
mentioned  number  of  skins  having-  been  left  at  that  post,  they 
were  neg-lected  by  the  ag-ents  of  that  company,  and  were  event- 
ually lost.  I 

For  a  long-  while  after  Juchereau's  settlement  at  Vincennes, 
we  have  no  particular  account  of  any  other;  althoug-h  there 
must  have  been  traders  soon  afterwards — at  least  by  1721 
— at  the  villag-e  of  St.  Joseph,!  Ke-ki-ong--a,  We-ah-ta-non 
and  Vincennes;    as  the  three  former  places  were  well  known  to 

♦Dillon's  Historical  Notes,  p.  100. 

tCortainly  a  very  interesting  statement,  in  view  of  our  meager  knowledge  of  the  buffalo 
in  Indiana.— ^di^or. 

tLa  Harpa's  Historical  Journal,  pp.  7.5,  88-89. 
§Near  the  present  town  of  South  Bend. 


4  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

the  early  French  writers,*  and  the  latter  had  also  become  a  mili- 
tary post  in  1716. t 

Of  those  who  traded  at  the  above  named  and  other  points, 
from  Juchereau's  time  until  the  date  of  Governor  Harrison's  list 
of  1801-2,  the  following-  only  are  known  to  the  writer: — 

At  ViNCENNES,  Antoine  Drouet  de  Richardville  traded  previ- 
ous to  the  year  1764;  but  how  long-  before  is  unknown.  He  had 
also  traded,  many  years  before,  at  Kaskaskia;  and  a  promissory 
note,  in  the  possession  of  the  writer,  which  was  g-iven  to  him  in 
the  manner  of  those  times,  mig-ht  be  produced  here  as  an  ancient 
writing-,  and  as  the  earliest  specimen  of  the  commercial  paper  of 
of  the  West,  known,  it  is  believed,  to  the  public.     It  reads  thus: 

"I,  the  undersig-ned,  under  my  ordinary  mark,  owe  to  Sir 
de  Drouet  Richardville  the  sum  of  thirteen  livres  in  beaver  or 
other  peltries,  which  I  promise  to  pay  in  the  course  of  the  year 
seventeen  hundred  and  thirty-nine.  At  Kaskaskia,  April  21, 
1738.  his 

Witness:  Dela  X  Vigoiek. 

M.  P.  Beaubien."  mark. 

John  Bt.  Bosseron  traded  at  the  same  place  (Vincennes) 
about  1760  to  1780;  Francis  Bosseron  and  Ambrose  Dag-enet 
from  about  1775  to  about  1790,  and  John  M.  P.  Leg-ralle, 
Adhemer  St.  Martin  and  Lawrence  Bazadone,  at  times  embraced 
in  the  latter  periods.  Two  of  these  traders.  Major  Francis 
Bosseron  and  Col.  J.  M.  P.  Leg-ralle  (usually  spelled  Legras), 
also  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  Revolutionary  scenes  about 
Vincennes  in  1778-9,  and  rendered  very  valuable  services  in  the 
American  cause.  There  was  a  Piankashaw  villag-e  adjoining- 
this  place,  but  the  trade  also  extended  to  other  tribes. 

At  Ke-ki-ong-a,  ;{:  Joseph  Drouet  de  Richardville,  the  father 
of  the  late  Chief  of  the  tribe,  traded  from  about  1750  to  about 
1770;  Peter  F.  La  Fontain  traded  from  about  1775  to 
1795;  John  Beaubien  traded  during-  the  same  period;  James 
Lasselle  traded  from  1776  to  1780.  This  individual  having-  been 
an  officer  in  the  Canadian  militia,  was  appointed  to  the  superin- 
tendency  of  this  "post"  as  an   ag-ent   of   Indian  affairs,    and  re- 

*Charlovoix,  p.  189. 
fLa  Harpe,  p.  1"23. 
tWhere  Ft.  Wayne  stands 


INDIAN  TRADERS  OF  INDIANA  5 

sided  here  with  his  family;  but  he  was  forced  to  abandon  it  pre- 
cipitately on  La  Balme's  expedition  in  the  fall  of  1780.  David 
Gray,  as  one  of  a  company,  also  traded  here  about  the  year  1786. 

At  We-ah-TA-non,  Francis,  Peter  and  Nicholas  Berthelet, 
three  brothers,  traded  from  about  1776  to  1780.  A  Mr.  Piett 
also  traded  here  at  an  early  period,  but  the  precise  time  is  un- 
known. This  place  is  said  to  have  been  a  very  early  trading- 
point,  and  Captain  Crog-han,  who  visited  it  in  1765,  says  of  it  in 
his  journal,  that  "the  g-reat  plenty  of  furs  taken  in  this  country, 
induced  the  French  to  establish  this  post,  which  was  the  first  on 
the  Wabash;  and  by  a  very  advantageous  trade,  they  have  been 
richly  recompensed  for  their  labor." 

At  Ke-na-pe-ka-me-kong-a,  or  Eel  River  town,  an  old  Miami 
villag-e  on  Eel  River,  about  six  miles  above  the  present  town  of 
Logansport,  there  were  also  traders  at  an  early  period.  But  the 
only  one  now  known  was  James  Godfrey  (father  of  the  late 
War  Chief  of  the  tribe),  who  traded  from  about  1775  to  1791, 
when  the  village  was  destroyed  by  General  Wilkinson. 

Besides  those  above  mentioned  there  were  many  other  traders 
at  these  and  other  places,  and  at  other  periods  of  time;  but  per- 
haps the  above  meager  list  is  all  that  can  now  be  furnished  of  the 
individuals. 

TRADERS    LICENSED    BY   GOVERNOR    HARRISON. 

I  have  in  my  possession  a  list  of  Indian  traders  that  were 
licensed  by  Governor  Harrison  in  1801-2.  The  original  docu- 
ment is  in  the  handwriting  of  John  Rice  Jones,  who  acted  as 
amanuensis  for  John  Gibson,  then  Secretary  of  the  Territory. 

Nearly  all  in  this  list  had  traded  with  the  Indians  previous  to 
this  date  and  continued  to  do  so  afterwards.  They  are  as  fol- 
lows, as  given  in  the  orig-inal: 

Licenses  granted  by  the  Governor  to  Indian  traders: 

1801— November    — .     One  to  Todd  to  trade  with  the 

Dela wares  on  Blue  River,  where  the  road  to  Louisville  crosses 
that  river,  (Note  1). 

20th.  One  to  Ambrose  Dagenet  to  trade  with  the  Miami  na- 
tion at  their  town  of  Terrehaute,  (2). 

26th.     One  to  L'Espagnol    to    trade  with  the  Delaware 

nation  at  their  town  of  Packang-ahelis,  (3). 


6  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

27th.  One  to  Henry  Mayrans  to  trade  with  the  Miami  nation 
at  their  town  of  Terrehaute. 

27th.  One  to Le  Claire  to  trade  with  the  Kickapoo  na- 
tion of  Indians  at  their  town,  (4). 

27th.  One  to  Francis  Bonins  to  trade  with  the  Potawatimie 
nation  at  their  town  of  Quinquiqui,  (5). 

27th.  One  to  Thos.  Lusby  to  trade  with  the  Kikapoes  at 
their  town. 

27th.  One  to  Jno.  Bt.  Petrimean  to  trade  with  the  Delaware 
nation  at  their  town  of  Mississippi,  (6). 

27th.  One  to  Francis  Lafantazie  to  trade  with  the  Potawat- 
imie nation  at  their  town  of  Chipaille,  (7). 

28th.  One  to  William  Morrison  to  trade  with  the  Indians  in 
the  neig-hborhood  of  Kaskaskia,  (8). 

30th.  One  to  Etienne  Bisayon  to  trade  with  the  Delaware 
nation  at  their  town  of  Telipockshy,  (9). 

30th.  One  to  Antoine  Lasselle  to  trade  with  the  Delaware 
nation  at  their  town  of  Nantico,  (10). 

30th.  One  to  Antoine  Lasselle  to  trade  with  the  Delaware 
nation  at  their  town  of  Grand  Marias,  (iO). 

30th.  One  to  Louis  Boure  to  trade  with  the  Potawatimie 
nation  at  their  town  of  Coeur  de  Serf,  (11). 

30th.  One  to  Hyacinth  Lasselle  to  trade  with  the  Miami 
nation  at  their  town  of  Massissinoui,  (12). 

30th.  One  to  Baptiste  Boismier  to  trade  with  the  Delaware 
nation  at  their  town  of  Chatag-nier,  (13). 

30th.  One  to  Benoit  Besayon  to  trade  with  the  Potawatimie 
nation  at  their  town  of  Kel  Creek,  (14). 

30th.  One  to  John  and  William  Conner  to  trade  with  the 
Delaware  nation  at  their  town  of  Petchepencues,  (15). 

30th.  One  to  John  and  William  Conner  to  trade  with  the 
Delaware  nation  at  their  town  of  Buckengelaus,  (15). 

December  4th.  One  to  Baptiste  Bino  to  trade  with  the  Pota- 
watimie nation  at  their  town  of  Tippiconou,  (16). 

4th.  One  to  Baptiste  Toupin  to  trade  with  the  Kikapoe 
nation  at  their  town. 

4th.  One  to  Francis  Meilleur  to  trade  with  the  Kikapoe 
nation  at  their  town  of  Vermillion. 

5th.  One  to  Charles  Johnson  to  trade  with  the  Miami  nation 
at  their  town  of  Terrehaute. 


INDIAN  TRADERS  OF  INDIANA  7 

8th.  One  to  Peter  Thorn  to  trade  with  the  Delaware  nation 
at  their  town  on  the  Ohio  river,  opposite  the  town  of  Henderson, 
in  the  State  of  Kentucky, 

12th.  One  to  Frederick  Fisher  to  trade  with  the  Delaware 
nation  at  their  town  of  Buckeng-elis. 

12th.  One  to  Frederick  Fisher  to  trade  with  the  Shawnee 
nation  at  their  Old  Town,  (17). 

12th.  One  to  Samuel  Harrison  to  trade  with  the  Cherokee 
nation  at  their  town  of  Massac,  (18). 

12th.  One  to  Michael  Brouillet  to  trade  with  the  Miami 
nation  at  their  town  of  Renaud,  (19). 

12th.  One  to  Louis  Severs  to  trade  with  the  Miami  nation 
at  their  town  of  Little  Wabash,  (20). 

12th.  One  with  Jos.  Dumay  to  trade  with  the  Delaware  na- 
tion at  their  town  of  White  River  Ferry. 

15th.  One  to  Germain  Charbonneau  to  trade  with  the  Miami 
nation  at  their  town  of  Chipaille. 

15th.  One  to  Jannet  Fillet  to  trade  with  the  Delaware  nation 
at  their  town  of  White  River. 

i802 — January  7th.  One  to  Joseph  Numonville  to  trade  with 
the  Ottowa  nation  at  their  town  of  Machekig-on,  (21). 

7th.  One  to  Joseph  Bailey,  to  trade  with  the  Ottowa  nation 
at  their  town  on  the  Grand  River,  (22). 

7th.  One  to  Joseph  Pirig-aure,  to  trade  with  the  Potawatimie 
nation  at  their  town  of  Kiakiki,  (23). 

7th.  One  to  Joseph  Machard,  to  trade  with  the  Potawatimie 
nation  at  their  town  of  Kiakiki,  (24). 

7th.  One  to  Joseph  Ricard,  to  trade  with  the  Ottowa  nation 
at  their  town  of  Grand  River,  (24). 

7th.  One  to  Ktienne  Lamorandiere  to  trade  with  the  Pota- 
watimie nation  at  their  town  Kickalimazo,  (24). 

7th.  One  to  Peter  Prejan,  to  trade  with  the  Potawatimie  and 
Ottowa  nations  at  their  town  on  the  River  St.  Joseph,  (25). 

7th.  One  to  John  Griffin  to  trade  with  the  Potawatimie  na- 
tion at  their  town  of  Kiakiki,  (25). 

The  above  list  comprises  the  most  of  those  who  traded  within 
the  present  limits  of  the  State,  for  some  years  previous  to  its  ter- 
ritorial date  and  until  the  commencement  of  hostilities  in  1811;  al- 
thoug-h  there  were  some  others  afterwards  licensed  by  Governor 


8  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Harrison  and  b}^  the  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  at  Detroit. 
The  war  of  course  put  a  stop  to  the  trade  during-  its  continuance; 
but  on  its  close  in  1815,  it  was  resumed — g-enerally  bj  new  traders 
— to  a  much  less  extent.  The  old  traders,  as  before  remarked, 
having-  with  great  unanimity  taken  up  arms  for  the  protection 
of  the  frontiers  ag-ainst  the  Indians,  the  survivors  had  too 
much  lost  the  confidence  of  the  Indians  to  make  it  pleasant  or 
profitable  to  resume  the  business. 

At  Fort  Harrison  it  was  resumed  in  1815,  mostly  with  the  Del- 
awares,  Pottawattamies,  Shawnees  and  Kickapoos,  and  was  con- 
tinued at  that  point  until  about  1820.  The  principal  traders  here 
at  that  period  were  Pierre  La  Plante,  Etienne  Bisayon, Wal- 
lace,  Anthony  Lafons,   Gilbert,   Rollon    and  Michael 

Brouillet.  About  this  period  the  Shawnees,  Kickapoos  and  Del- 
awares  removed  from  the  limits  of  the  State,  except  a  few  of  the 
latter  near  the  eastern  boundary,  leaving-  only  the  Pottawattamies 
and  Miamis,  with  whom  the  trade  was  continued  in  the  north- 
ern portion  of  the  State — the  former  mostly  inhabiting-  the  coun- 
try on  the  Tippecanoe,  the  Kankakee  and  the  St.  Joseph  rivers; 
the  latter  that  on  the  Wabash,  Kel,  the  little  St.  Joseph  and  the 
the  St.  Mary  rivers. 

John  B.  Richardville,  the  late  Chief  of  the  Miamis,  traded 
with  that  tribe,  at  Fort  Wayne,  from  about  1815  to  1836. 

David  Conner  traded  mostly  with  the  same  tribe,  at  the  villag-e 
on  the  Mississinnewa,  from  about  1815  to  1846. 

Alexis  Coquillard  and  John  E.  Swartz  traded  with  the  Miamis 
and  Pottawattamies,  on  the  Little  St.  Joseph,  about  forty  miles 
from  Ft.  Wayne,  from  1817  to  1821. 

Coquillard  and  Francis  Comparet  traded — the  former  at  South 
Bend  with  the  Pottawattamies;  the  latter  at  Ft.  Wayne  with  the 
Miamis— from  1821  to  1835. 

John  B.  Duret,  as  ag-ent  of  the  American  Fur  Company,  trad- 
ed, mostly  with  the  Pottawattamies,  at  a  spot  on  the  southern 
bank  of  the  Wabash,  a  short  distance  above  the  mouth  of  Rock 
Creek,  in  Carroll  county,  from  1820  to  1823. 

Georg-e  Cicott  traded  with  the  Pottaw^attamies,  at  a  villag-e  of 
that  tribe  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Wabash,  nearly  opposite  the 
last  named  place,  from  1820  to  1823,  and  then  till  1827  on  his  re- 
serve near  Georg-etown. 


INDIAN  TRADERS  OF  INDIANA  9 

Edward  McCartney  traded  with  both  tribes,  on  the  north  and 
south  banks  of  the  Wabash,  about  a  mile  below  the  present 
town  of  Log-ansport,  from  about  1820  to  1828. 

Hollister  and  Hunt  traded,  mostly  with  the  Miamis,  at  Ft. 
Wayne,  from  about  1820  to  1828. 

John  B.  Godfrey  and  James  Peltier  traded  at  the  same  place, 
during-  about  the  same  period,  as  the  last  named. 

William  G.  and  Georg-e  W.  Ewing-,  brothers,  traded  at  the 
same  place,  from  1822  to  1828,  and  continued  the  trade  after- 
wards— the  former  at  Fort  Wayne  till  1845,  and  the  latter  at 
Log-ansport  till  1838. 

John  D.  Doure  traded  at  Fort  Wayne  from  1822  to  1838. 

Barnet  and  Hanna  traded  at  the  same  place  from  1824  to  1828. 

Hanna  and  Hamilton  traded  at  the  same  place  from  1825  to 
1830. 

John  B.  Jutrace  traded  with  the  Pottawattamies  at  a  spot  about 
three  miles  southwardly  of  the  present  town  of  Plymouth,  from 
about  1825  to  about  1835. 

David  Burr  traded,  mostly  with  the  Miamis,  at  the  site  of  the 
present  town  of  Wabash,  from  1826  to  1839. 

John  McGregor,  with  the  same  tribe,  at  Miamisport,  near  the 
present  town  of  Peru,  from  1827  to  1834. 

Jesse  Vermilya,  with  the  same  tribe,  at  the  river  Aboite,  in 
Allen  county,  from  1827  to  1844. 

Hug-h  B.  McKeen,  with  both  tribes,  at  the  present  town  of  Lo- 
g-ansport, from  1827  to  1828. 

Antoine  Gamelin  and  Richard  Chabert,  mostly  with  the  Pot- 
tawattamies, about  a  mile  below  the  same  place,  on  the  north 
bank  of  the  Wabash,  during-  about  the  same  period. 

Joseph  Barron,  mostly  with  the  same  tribe,  a  short  distance 
below  Log-ansport,  from  1827  to  1838.  This  trader  had  com- 
menced life  among-  the  Indians  on  the  Wabash,  mostly  as  a  clerk 
for  the  traders  at  an  early  day,  and  acted  as  an  able  interpreter  for 
the  Government  for  a  period  of  more  than  forty  years.  He  was 
one  of  the  interpreters  at  the  celebrated  council  at  Vincennes, 
in  1810,  between  Tecumseh  and  Governor  Harrison,  and  is  said 
to  have  contributed  much  to  their  reconciliation  by  correctly 
g-iving-  the  lang-uage  of  Tecumseh,  which  had  been  misinter- 
preted by  another.     His  biog-raphy  alone,  if  fully  written,  would 


10  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

furnish  a  very  interesting-  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  country, 
as  would  indeed  many  of  those  already  named;  but  a  brief  ref- 
erence, only,  can  be  made  of  them  in  this  short  sketch. 

Chauncy  Carter  traded  with  both  tribes  at  Log-ansport  from 
1828  to  1830. 

Francis  D.  Lasselle  traded  Vv^ith  the  Miamis  on  White  River, 
and  at  Ft.  Wayne,  from  1828  to  1836. 

Allen  Hamilton  and  Cyrus  Taber — the  former  at  Fort  Wayne, 
the  latter  at  Log-ansport — traded  with  both  tribes  from  about 
1828  to  1838.  This  firm,  and  that  of  W.  G.  &  G.  W.  Ewing-,  above 
mentioned,  carried  on  the  trade  much  more  extensively  than 
any  other  of  the  modern  traders,  and  by  means  of  its  profits 
and  dealing-s  in  lands  amassed  much  wealth. 

Charles  Conway  traded  with  the  Miamis,  at  Miamisport, 
near  the  present  site  of  Peru,  from  1829  to  1832. 

Henry  Ossem  and  Richard  Chabret  traded  with  the  Potta- 
wattamies  at  Turkey-creek  Prairie,  in  Kosciusko  county,  from 
1830  to  1835. 

William  S.  Edsall,  with  the  Miamis,  at  Huntington,  from 
1834  to  1837. 

Alexander  Wilson  with  the  same  tribe,  at  Peru,  from  1834  to 
1845. 

Daniel  R.  Bearss,  with  the  same  tribe,  at  the  same  place,  from 
1834  to  1857. 

Moses  Folk,  with  the  same  tribe,  at  the  same  place,  from  1839 
to  1857. 

James  T.  Miller,  with  the  same  tribe,  at  the  same  place,  from 
1836  to  1857. 

The  Pottawattamies  having  been  removed  to  the  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  in  the  year  1838,  and  the  main  part  of  the  Miamis 
in  1845,  the  trade  has  been  gradually  diminishing  since  the  for- 
mer period,  so  that  now  it  is,  confined  in  a  limited  extent  to  the 
Miamis,  who  inhabit  their  reservations  in  the  country  lying 
south  of  the  Wabash,  between  the  towns  of  Peru  and  Fort 
Wayne.  Indeed  it  may  be  said  that  the  Indian  trade  proper, 
that  is,  the  trafi&c  with  them  for  furs  and  peltries,  has  ceased  to 
exist  since  the  part  removal  of  the  Miamis, — a  tribe  which,  as 
they  were  the  first  known  inhabitants  of  the  country  embraced 
within  the  limits  of  the   State,    are   the   latest  survivors   of  all 


INDIAN  TRADERS  OF  INDIANA  11 

their  red  cotemporaries,  and  which,  by  their  g-eneral  g-ood  char- 
acter and  condition,  bear  testimony  that  they  have  not  materially 
deg-enerated  by  a  long-  intercourse  with  their  ancient  friends  and 
patrons,  the  old  Indian  Traders. 


1.  Nothing-  known  of  this  trader.  The  locality  of  his  trad- 
ing- place  would  be  in  Washington  county,  near  the  town  of 
Fredericksburg-. 

2.  This  Terrehaute  was  inhabited  by  the  Weah  branch  of 
the  Miamis,  and  was  situated  near  the  present  town  of  Terre 
Haute,  which  was  named  after  it. 

3.  Properly  Buck-ong--a-he-las,  so  called  after  the  chief  of 
the  Delawares,  on  the  head  waters  of  White  river,  and  probably 
near  the  present  town  of  Muncietown.  The  true  name  of  this 
trader  is  believed  to  be Simon;  that  of  L'Kspag-nol  [Span- 
iard] being-  a  nickname. 

4.  Nothing  known  of  this  trader.  The  Kickapoos  had  several 
villages  on  and  near  the  Vermillion  rivers  in  Vermillion  county. 
This  was  probably  the  principal  one,  in  which  the  Chief  resided, 
who  was  called  by  the  traders  Jose  Renard  [Joe  the  Fox],  the 
same  who  led  the  attack  on  Ft.  Harrison  in  1812. 

5.  Kankakee,  on  the  river  of  that  name;  but  its  location 
unknown. 

6.  This  place  is  supposed  to  have  been  on  the  Mississippi,  in 
Lower  Illinois,  as  the  Delawares  also  inhabited  that  part  of  the 
country.     This  trader  afterwards  traded  at  Chepaille. 

7.  This  trader  continued  to  trade  here  until  his  death  in  1806. 
This  place,  pronounced  Shepoy,  was  on  the  V/abash  river,  in 
Warren  county,  about  a  mile  above  the  present  town  of  Indepen- 
dence. 

8.  Kaskaskia,  Illinois. 

9.  The  locality  of  this  place  is  unknown.  He  afterwards 
traded  at  Fort  Harrison  in  1815-20. 

10.  An  old  trader  on  the  Miami  of  the  Lake.  These  places 
were  in  Ohio. 

11.  This  trader  afterwards  (from  about  1803  to  1809)  traded 
at  Ft.  Wayne,  and  kept  pack  horses  and  a  warehouse  for  the  de- 
posit and  transportation  of  merchandise  and  peltries  in  transit 
at  the  portage  between  the  Miami  and  the  Wabash.     The  local- 


12  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

ity  of  Coeur  de  Serf,  properly  Coeur  de  Cerf  [elk's  heart],  was 
on  the  Elkhart  river. 

12.  This  trader  (late  Gen.  H.  L.,  of  Log-ansport),  was  born 
at  the  villag-e  of  Ke-ki-ong--a  in  1777,  from  which,  as  before  men- 
tioned, his  father  was  oblig-ed  to  flee  on  La  Balme's  expedition 
in  1780.  He  returned  to  the  Wabash  in  1795,  and  traded  at  Che- 
paille,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Little  Vermillion,  at  Mississinnewa, 
and  at  Vincennes.  This  trading-  place  (Mississinnewa)  was  at 
the  settlement  or  villag-e  of  the  late  Chief  Godfrey,  a  few  miles 
above  Peru. 

13.  This  trader  and  his  trading-  place  are  both  unknown  to 
the  writer. 

14.  An  old  trader;  he  also  traded  with  the  Miamis  in  1807. 
When  the  hostilities  commenced  with  the  Indians  in  1811,  nearly 
all  the  traders  offered  their  valuable  services  as  scouts  or  soldiers 
in  the  defense  of  the  country.  Mr.  Besayon,  having-  with  others 
joined  Colonel  Hopkin's  expedition  up  the  Wabash  in  1812,  was 
in  the'detachment  of  about  seventy  mounted  men  which  fell  into 
the  ambuscade  of  about  500  Indians  in  the  ravines  of  the  Wild 
Cat,  called  by  the  survivors  "Spur's  Defeat"  (about  seven  miles 
northeastwardly  from  the  present  town  of  Lafayette).  He  was 
captured  in  the  retreat  by  the  Indians,  who,  well  knowing-  him, 
and  reg-arding-  him  as  a  kind  of  traitor  to  them,  condemned  him 
at  once  to  the  most  cruel  of  deaths — the  fag-g-ot  and  stake. 
They  bound  him  to  a  tree,  piled  combustible  material  about  him, 
to  which  they  set  fire,  and  were  proceeding-  to  enact  the  scenes  of 
triumph  and  torture  usual  upon  such  occasions;  but  a  young-  war- 
rior who  yet  reg-arded  him  with  affection,  and  desiring-  to  relieve 
him  from  so  horrid  a  fate,  hastily  snatched  up  a  rifle  and  shot 
him  dead.  Eel  creek,  on  which  he  traded,  is  now  the  Eel  river 
which  empties  into  White  river,  but  the  locality  of  his  trading- 
place  is  unknown. 

15.  John  and  William  Conner,  brothers,  were  old  traders,  and 
were  prominent  men  in  their  day.  William,  especially,  rendered 
much  service  as  interpreter  and  otherwise  at  several  treaties 
with  the  Indians.  Petchepencues  was  probably  intended  for 
Ponceaupichou,  or,  as  sometimes  called,  Ponce-passu,  the  old 
name  of  Wild  Cat  creek,  on  the  head  waters  of  which  some  of 


WILD  ANIMALS  OF  INDIANA  13 

the  Delawares  lived.*  The  other  villag-e  is,  properly,  Buck-ong-- 
a-he-las,  before  mentioned. 

16.  This  villag-e  of  Tippecanoe  was  on  the  Wabash,  a  few 
miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Tippecanoe  river. 

i7.  The  site  of  the  present  Shawneetown,  on  the  Ohio,  in 
Illinois. 

18.  In  Massac  county,  Illinois. 

19.  This  trader  traded  in  1804  with  the  Kickapoos  on  the 
Vermillion,  and  at  Fort  Harrison  after  the  war.  It  is  sug-gfested 
that  the  name  of  this  trading-  place  thus  given  is  a  mistake, 
and  should  read  Renard,  a  Kickapoo  village,  so  called  after  their 
Chief,  [Note  4.] 

20.  Nothing-  known  of  this  trader.  His  trading-  place  was 
on  what  is  now  called  Little  river,  a  head  stream  of  the  Wabash. 

21.  In  the  present  State  of  Michig-an. 

22.  Also  in  Michigan. 

23.  Kankakee. 

24.  In  Michigan. 

25.  The  St.  Joseph  of  Lake  Michigan. 


WILD  ANIMALS  OF  INDIANA. 

Apropos  to  Mr.  Lasselle's  article  on  the  old  fur  traders,  the 
editor  recalls  a  small  account  book  and  a  number  of  other  papers 
that  came  to  his  notice  some  time  since.  These  records,  dated 
1859,  were  left  by  A.  B.  Cole,  of  Noblesville,  an  agent  who  pur- 
chased of  local  trappers  and  transferred  his  peltries  to  the 
Ewing-  fur  company,  of  Port  Wayne.  What  animals  contrib- 
uted to  this  branch  of  commerce,  tog-ether  with  their  compara- 
tive numbers  and  values,  is  shown  by  these  old  leaflets,  of  which 
the  following-  is  a  sample: 

Invoice  of  furs  and  peltries  sold  Ewing-,  Walker  &  Co.,  by 
Conner,  Stevenson  &  Cole: 

*Mr.  Lasselle  errs  here.  The  Conner  trading  post  was  on  White  river,  four  miles  below 
the  present  site  of  Noblesville.— ^rfi?o?-. 


14  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

2795  First  lot  raccoon  skins $1,871  00 

184  Second  lot  raccoon  skins 89  00 

259  Third  lot  raccoon  skins 46  62 

102  First  lot  fox  skins 76  50 

18  Second  lot  fox  skins 7  00 

48  First  lot  wildcat  skins 36  00 

3  First  lot  wolf  skins 1  50 

943  First  lot  deer  skins 707  25 

112  Winter  and  towhead  skins 35  00 

75  Spotted  fawn  skin  s 15  00 

802   First  lot  mink  skins 601  50 

182  Second  lot  mink  skins 68  25 

142  Third  lot  mink  skins 17  75 

1  Cub  bear  skin 2  50 

1  Second  quality  fisher  skin 1  00 

13  Otter  (best)  skins 104  00 

Total $3,679  87 

According-  to  this  invoice,  raccoon,  deer  and  mink  skins  were 
considerably  in  excess  of  any  other  kind.  The  deer  hair  was  of 
little  use,  the  value  being-  in  the  skin,  which  was  extensively 
utilized  for  wearing-  apparel  and  other  purposes.  The  raccoon 
and  similar  furs  were  largely  made  into  felt  and  used  for  a 
species  of  hat  which  went  by  the  name  of  beaver. 

How  abundantly  our  forests  teemed  with  fur-bearing  animals 
will  be  apparent  when  we  reflect  that  for  nearly  a  century  and  a 
half  the  fur  trade,  with  its  insatiable  demands,  invaded  the  ter- 
ritory and  carried  on  the  process  of  extermination.  During-  the 
French  occupancy  pirog-ues  of  the  Canadian  wood-rangers  car- 
ried hence  untold  thousands  of  bales  of  skins.  After  them  the 
Mackinaw  Company,  the  American  Fur  Company  and  John 
Jacob  Astor  extended  their  traffic  into  this  region,  drawing-  to 
Detroit  and  Canada,  by  way  of  the  Wabash,  vast  quantities  of 
beaver,  otter  and  other  less  valuable  peltries.  Yet  later  (in  the 
twenties)  the  houses  of  G.  W.  and  W.  G.  Kwing  were  estab- 
lished at  Fort  Wayne  and  Log-ansport,  and  these  houses,  extend- 
ing- their  agencies  throug-h  the  State,  assumed  considerable  pro- 
portions. These  two  brothers  are  said  to  have  amassed  fortunes 
that  aggregated  about  two  million  dollars. 

The  persistency  with  which  many  of  the  native  fauna  clung- 
to  their  once  wild  haunts  long-  after  civilization  supplanted  the 


WILD  ANIMALS  OF  INDIANA  15 

wilderness  is  worthy  of  note.  In  Indiana  wolves  have  been 
reported  from  various  localities  within  the  last  few  years;  the 
Canadian  lynx  has  been  killed  in  Tippecanoe  and  Montg-omery 
counties  within  the  last  twenty  years;  wildcats  were  occasionally 
seen  in  Franklin  county  as  late  as  1869,  and  doubtless  much 
later  in  some  parts  of  the  State;  a  bear  was  found  in  LaGrang-e 
county  in  1876,  and  deer  have  been  seen  much  later.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  otter  and  the  badg-er.     The  red  fox  is  still  hunted. 

The  late  Georg-e  W.  Pitts,  of  Indianapolis,  who  during-  the 
thirties  and  forties  trapped  and  hunted  extensively  along-  White 
river,  has  stated  to  the  writer  that  the  larg-er  and  rarer  animals 
were  driven  out  of  Marion  county  and  the  adjoining-  territory  at 
a  comparatively  early  date.  Wolves,  he  said,  had  disappeared 
by  1835;  the  latest  bear  he  knew  of  was  seen  in  1838;  his  father 
shot  a  catamount  about  1828.  The  latter  animal  was  very  rare 
at  that  date,  but  wildcats  remained  until  the  early  forties.  Deer 
were  shot  as  late  as  1847;  porcupines  he  remembered  seeing-  in 
1835;  beavers,  once  plentiful  here,  according-  to  him,  were  ex- 
tinct by  1830.  Beaver  at  that  time  led  all  other  pelts  in  value, 
being-  worth  from  $6  to  $10.  Otter  came  next,  bring-ing-  $2.50  to 
$3;  but  a  decade  or  so  later  otter  rose  to  $10  or  $12,  by  reason  of 
the  Russian  demand  for  our  best  furs. 

An  odd  and  somewhat  ludicrous  wolf  trap  was  described  to  the 
writer  by  Mr.  Pitts.  A  hollow  shell  of  a  tree  was  selected  and 
a  hole  larg-e  enough  to  admit  a  wolf's  head  cut  three  or  four  feet 
from  the  g-round.  From  the  hole  downward  a  slot  was  made 
wide  enough  for  the  animal's  neck  to  slip  down.  By  way  of  bait, 
blood  was  smeared  about  the  opening  and  a  pieceof  meat  placed 
in  the  hollow  of  the  tree.  The  wolf,  in  his  efforts  to  get  at  the 
meat,  thrust  his  head  in  at  the  hole,  and,  his  neck  slipping  down 
the  slot,  was  held  as  if  in  a  stanchion.  The  rearing  up  again 
with  his  head  in  the  tree  was  a  difficult  if  not  impossible  feat. 

Another  trap,  much  used  by  the  Indians,  was  made  of  such 
materials  as  the  woods  afforded,  and  was  at  once  simple  and 
effective.  A  number  of  sticks  were  driven  in  the  ground  to 
form  a  semi-circular  pen,  at  the  open  end  of  which  were  placed 
two  forks  or  crotches,  one  on  either  side.  A  pole  was  laid  on 
these  forks  and  another  on  the  ground  directly  beneath,  forming 
a  kind  of  sill  across  the  entrance  to  the  pen.     The  next  feature 


16  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

was  a  heavy  pole,  or  small  log,  for  a  deadfall.  This  was  sus- 
pended from  a  piece  of  grapevine  or  strip  of  linden  bark,  which, 
passing  up  over  the  pole  in  the  forks,  was  looped  over  a  trigger. 
This  trigger  was  simply  a  light  stick,  which  reached  down  to  a 
third  small  pole  placed  against  the  sides  of  the  forked  posts  near 
the  ground,  which,  preventing  the  weights  from  pulling  the  trig- 
ger over  the  top  pole,  was  in  turn  held  in  place  by  the  pressure 
of  the  trigger.  The  bait  was  placed  in  the  pen.  The  game, 
venturing  in  at  the  entrance,  his  foot  or  body  pressed  down  the 
small  pole  over  which  he  must  step;  the  trigger  was  released 
and  the  deadfall  quickly  pinned  him  to  the  sill  on  the  ground. 
These  traps  would  be  made  of  any  dimensions,  and  for  all  sizes 
of  game,  from  rabbits  to  bears. 


SQUIRREL  ''BURGOO/ 


^"'HE  following  description  of  an  old-time  squirrel  "burgoo" 
was  gleaned  by  a  newspaper  reporter  some  years  since  from 
Samuel  Corbaley,  of  Indianapolis: 

"I  was  born  in  Wayne  township  in  1834,  and  can  remember 
when,  in  the  early  forties,  the  squirrels  (black  and  gray)  were 
so  plentiful  they  almost  destroyed  the  j^oung  corn.  I  think  it 
was  the  spring  of  '43  that  my  father's  neighbors  proposed  to  kill 
all  the  squirrels  around  his  farm  if  he  would  furnish  the  bread 
for  a  burgoo.  A  day  was  appointed,  and  corn  bread  enough 
for  a  small  army  baked  by  my  mother  and  the  neighbor  women. 
Three  large  iron  sugar  kettles,  filled  with  water,  were  hung  up 
near  a  spring.  Beverly  Ballard,  a  Kentuckian,  was  appointed 
chief  cook.  The  neighbors,  with  rifles,  approached  the  farm 
from  every  direction,  and  there  was  a  continuous  fusillade  until 
10  o'clock,  when,  by  agreement,  the  hunters  met,  and  threw 
down  not  less  than  two  hundred  squirrels.  As  they  were  skin- 
ned and  washed,  they  were  handed  over  to  the  cook  for  boiling. 
Then  followed  a  feast.  Soup  was  served  in  tin  cups;  squirrels 
were  taken  out  whole  with  pointed  sticks,  and  corn  pone  was 
served  with  soup  made  hot  with  home-raised  pepper. 

"After  dinner  the  targets  were  set  up  and  there  was  a  test  as 
to  the  best  shot ;  and  many  times  the  center  was  hit  at  a  dis- 
tance of  twenty,  forty  and  fifty  yards." 


MEMOIR  OF  DA  VID  HOO  VER  17 


MEMOIR  OF  DAVID  HOOVER. 

[David  Hoover  was  one  of  the  first  and  best  known  of  the  pioneers  of 
the  upper  Whitewater.  As  is  related  below,  he  penetrated  to  the  spot 
where  Richmond  now  stands  and  settled  there  in  1806;  was  the  original 
surveyor  of  the  town  when  it  was  founded,  and  g-ave  the  place  its  name. 
It  may  be  added  that  he  was  a  citizen  of  the  county  for  sixty  years,  and 
occupied  various  public  trusts,  being-  successively  justice  of  the  peace,  as- 
sociate judg-e  of  the  Wayne  County  Circuit  Court,  and  clerk  of  that  court. 
•The  latter  office  he  held  nearly  fourteen  years.  His  memoir,  not  intended 
for  publication  originally,  was  printed  in  pamphlet  form  in  1857,  by  Mr. 
Isaac  H.  Julian.  Very  few  of  these  pamphlets  are  now  in  existence  and  a 
special  interest  may  attach  to  the  reprinting  of  the  memoir  by  reason  of 
the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Wayne  county,  which  oc- 
curs this  spring. — Editor. A, 

I  THINK  it  is  Lawrence  Sterne  who  says  that — among-  other 
thing-s  which  he  mentions— every  person  should  write  a  book; 
and  as  I  have  not  yet  done  that,  I  am  now  g'oing-  to  write  one. 
As  it  has  always  been  interesting-  to  me  to  read  biog-raphical 
sketches,  and  historical  reminiscences  of  byg-one  days,  I  have 
concluded  that  some  information  concerning-  myself  and  family, 
mig-ht,  perhaps,  amuse  some  of  my  descendants,  at  least.  The 
name  is  pretty  extensively  scattered  throug-hout  this  country; 
such  information  may  therefore  be  of  some  interest  to  them,  as 
it  may  enable  them  to  trace  back  their  g-enealog-y  to  the  orig-inal 
stock, 

I  was  born  on  a  small  water-course,  called  Huwaree,  a  branch 
of  the  Yadkin  river,  in  Randolph  county.  North  Carolina,  on  the 
14th  day  of  April,  1781;  and  am  now  in  the  seventy-third  year 
of  my  ag-e.  It  is  customary,  in  personal  sketches  of  this  kind, 
to  say  something-  of  one's  parents  and  education.  I  can  only  say, 
that  my  parents  were  always  considered  very  exemplary  in  all 
their  walk  throug-h  life.  As  to  education,  my  opportunities  were 
exceeding-ly  limited;  and  had  it  not  been  for  my  inclination  and 
perseverance,  I  should,  in  all  probability,  at  this  day  be  number- 
ed among-  those  who  can  scarcely  write  their  names,  or  perhaps 
should  only  be  able  to  make  a  "X,"  in  placing-  my  sig^nature  to 
a  written  instrument.  In  order  to  show  the  state  of  society  in 
my    early    youth,    as    an    evidence  of    the  intellig-ence  of  the 


18  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

circle  in  which  I  was  raised,  I  can  say  of  a  truth,  that  I  never 
had  an  opportunity  of  reading-  a  newspaper,  nor  did  I  ever  see  a 
bank-note,  until  after  I  was  a  man  g-rown. 

As  to  my  ancestors,  I  know  but  little.  If  my  information  is 
correct,  my  grandfather,  Andrew  Hoover,  left  Germany  when  a 
boy;  married  Margaret  Fonts,  in  Pennsylvania;  and  settled  on 
Pipe  creek  in  Maryland.  There  my  father  was  born;  and  from 
thence,  now  about  one  hundred  years  ag-o,  he  removed  to  North 
Carolina,  then  a  new  country.  He  left  eight  sons  and  five  daugh- 
ters, all  of  whom  had  large  families.  Their  descendants  are 
mostly  scattered  through  what  we  call  the  Western  country. 
Rudolph  Waymire,  my  g-randfather  on  my  mother's  side,  emigrat- 
ed from  Hanover  in  Germany,  after  he  had  several  children. 
He  used  to  brag-  that  he  was  a  soldier  under  His  Britannic  Maj- 
esty, and  that  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  battle  of  Detting-en  in 
1743.  He  left  one  son  and  seven  daughters  by  his  first  wife. 
Their  descendants  are  also  mostly  to  be  found  in  this  country. 

My  father  had  a  family  of  ten  children,  four  sons  and  six 
daughters.  In  order  to  better  our  circumstances,  he  came  to  the 
conclusion  of  moving  to  a  new  country,  and  sold  his  possessions 
accordingly.  He  was  then  worth  rising*  of  two  thousand  dol- 
lars; which  at  that  time,  and  in  that  country,  was  considered 
very  considerably  over  an  averag-e  in  point  of  wealth.  On  the 
19th  of  September,  1802,  we  loaded  our  wag-on,  and  wended  our 
way  toward  that  portion  of  what  was  then  called  the  North- 
western Territory  which  constitutes  the  present   State  of  Ohio. 

Here  permit  me  to  make  a  passing  remark.  I  was  then  in  the 
twenty-second  year  of  my  age.  I  had  formed  an  acquaintance 
and  brought  myself  into  notice  perhaps  rather  more  extensively 
than  falls  to  the  lot  of  most  country  boys.  Did  lang-uag-e  afford 
terras  adequate  to  describe  my  sensations  on  shaking  hands 
with  my  youthful  compeers,  and  giving  them  a  final  farewell,  I 
would  gladly  do  so.  Sufl&ce  it  to  say,  that  those  only  who  have 
been  placed  in  like  circumstances,  can  appreciate  my  feeling-s  on 
that  occasion.  And  althoug-h  I  have  lived  to  be  an  old  man,  and 
experienced  the  various  vicissitudes  attendant  on  a  journey 
through  life  thus  far,  I  yet  look  back  to  that  time  as  the  most 
interesting  scene  through  which  I  have  passed.  My  mind  at  this 
day  is  carried  back  to  my  early  associations  and  school-boy  days, 


MEMOIR  OF  DA  VID  HOO  VER  19 

to  my  native  hills  and  pine  forests;  and  I  can  say  that  there  is 
a  kind  of  indescribable  charm  in  the  very  name  of  my  natal 
spot,  very  different  from  aug-ht  that  pertains  to  any  other  place 
on  the  g-lobe. 

After  about  five  weeks'  journeying-,  we  crossed  the  Ohio  river 
at  Cincinnati,  then  a  mere  villag-e,  composed  mostly  of  log- 
houses.  I  think  it  was  the  day  after  an  election  had  been  held 
at  that  place  for  delegates  to  the  convention  to  form  a  Constitu- 
tion; at  any  rate  a  Constitution  was  formed  the  following-  win- 
ter, which  was  amended  only  within  the  last  few  years.  After 
crossing-  the  river,  we  pushed  on  to  Stillwater,  about  twelve 
miles  north  of  Dayton,  in  what  is  now  the  county  of  Montgom- 
ery. A  number  of  our  acquaintances  had  located  themselves 
there  the  previous  spring.  There  we  encamped  in  the  woods 
the  first  winter.  The  place  had  proved  so  unhealthy  that  we 
felt  discouraged  and  much  dissatisfied,  and  concluded  not  to 
locate  there.  My  father  then  purchased  two  hundred  acres  of 
land,  not  far  from  Lebanon,  in  Warren  county,  as  a  home,  until 
we  could  make  further  examinations.  John  Smith,  afterward 
one  of  the  proprietors  of  Richmond,  purchased  one  hundred  acres 
in  the  same  neighborhood,  with  similar  views.  Our  object  was 
to  find  a  suitable  place  for  making-  a  settlement,  and  where  but 
few  or  no  entries  had  been  made.  But  a  small  portion  of  the 
land  lying-  west  of  the  Great  Miami,  or  east  of  the  Little  Miami, 
was  settled  at  that  time.  We  were  hard  to  please.  We  Caro- 
linians would  scarcely  look  at  the  best  land  where  spring-  water 
was  lacking-.  Among-  other  considerations,  we  wished  to  g-et 
further  south.  We  examined  divers  sections  of  the  unsettled 
parts  of  Ohio,  without  finding-  any  location  that  would  please 
us.  John  Smith,  Robert  Hill  and  myself  partially  examined  the 
country  between  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  and  Vincennes,  before 
there  was  a  line  run  in  that  part  of  the  Territory;  and  returned 
much  discouraged,  as  we  found  nothing  inviting  in  that  quarter. 

Thus  time  passed  on  until  the  spring-  of  1806,  when  myself 
and  four  others,  rather  accidentally,  took  a  section  line  some  eight 
or  ten  miles  north  of  Dayton,  and  traced  it  a  distance  of  more 
than  thirty  miles,  throug-h  an  unbroken  forest,  to  where  I  am 
now  writing.  It  was  the  last  of  February,  or  the  first  of  March, 
when  I  first  saw  Whitewater.     On  my  return  to  my  father's,  I 


20  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

informed  him  that  I  thought  I  had  found  the  country  we  had 
been  in  search  of.  Spring-  water,  timber,  and  building-  rock 
appeared  to  be  abundant,  and  the  face  of  the  country  looked  de- 
lightful. In  about  three  weeks  after  this,  my  father,  with  sev- 
eral others,  accompanied  me  to  this  "land  of  promise."  As  a 
military  man  would  say,  we  made  a  reccmnoissa^ice ,  but  returned 
rather  discouraged,  as  it  appeared  at  that  time  too  far  from 
home.  Were  it  necessary,  I  might  here  state  some  of  our  views 
at  that  time,  which  would  show  up  our  extreme  ignorance  of 
what  has  since  taken  place.  On  returning  from  this  trip,  we 
saw  stakes  sticking  among  the  beech  trees  where  Eaton  now 
stands,  which  was  among  the  nearest  approaches  of  the  white 
man  to  this  place.  With  the  exception  of  George  Holman  and 
a  few  others,  who  settled  some  miles  south  of  this,  in  the 
spring  of  1805,  there  were  but  few  families  within  twenty  miles 
of  this  place. 

It  was  not  until  the  last  of  May  or  the  first  of  June  that  the 
first  entries  were  made.  John  Smith  then  entered  south  of 
Main  street,  where  Richmond  now  stands,  and  several  other 
tracts.  My  father  entered  the  land  upon  which  I  now  live,  I  hav- 
ing selected  it  on  my  first  trip,  and  several  other  quarter  sections. 
About  harvest  of  this  same  year,  Jeremiah  Cox  reached  here 
from  good  old  North  Carolina,  and  purchased  where  the  north 
part  of  Richmond  now  stands.  If  I  mistake  not,  it  had  been 
previously  entered  by  John  Meek,  the  father  of  Jesse  Meek,  and 
had  been  transferred  to  Joseph  Woodkirk,  of  whom  J.  Cox  made 
the  purchase.  Said  Cox  also  entered  several  other  tracts.  Jere- 
miah Cox,  John  Smith,  and  my  father,  were  then  looked  upon  as 
rather  leaders  in  the  Society  of  Friends.  Their  location  here 
had  a  tendency  of  drawing  others,  and  soon  caused  a  great  rush 
to  Whitewater;  and  land  that  I  thought  would  never  be  settled 
was  rapidly  taken  up  and  improved.  Had  I  a  little  more  vanity, 
I  might  almost  claim  the  credit  (if  credit  it  be)  of  having  been 
the  pioneer  of  the  great  body  of  Friends  now  to  be  found  in  this 
region;  as  I  think  it  very  doubtful  whether  three  Yearly  Meet- 
ings would  convene  in  this  county,  had  I  not  traced  the  line  be- 
fore mentioned. 

I  was  now  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  my  age,  and  thus  far 
had  been  rather  a  wayfaring  disciple,  not  doing  much  for  my- 


MEMOIR  OF  DA  VI D  HOO  VER  21 

self  or  any  other  person.  Having-  now  selected  a  spot  for  a 
home,  I  thoug-ht  the  time  had  come  to  be  up  and  doing-.  I  there- 
fore married  a  g-irl  named  Catharine  Yount,  near  the  Great 
Miami;  and  on  the  last  day  of  March,  1807,  reached  with  our 
little  plunder  the  hill  where  I  am  now  living-.  It  may  not  be 
uninteresting-  here  to  name  some  of  the  first  settlers  in  the  dif- 
ferent neig-hborhoods.  On  the  East  Fork  were  the  Fleming-s, 
Irelands,  Hills,  Wassons,  Maxwells,  etc.  At  the  mouth  of  Klk- 
horn  were  the  Hunts,  Whiteheads  and  Endsleys.  In  this  neig-h- 
borhood  were  the  Smiths,  Coxes,  Wrig-hts  and  Hoovers,  several 
of  whom  commenced  operations  in  the  woods  in  the  spring-  and 
summer  of  1806.  This  may  emphatically  be  said  to  have  been 
the  day  of  "log--cabins"  and  log--rolling-s;  and,  althoug-h  we  were 
in  an  unbroken  forest,  without  even  a  blazed  pathway  from  one 
settlement  to  another,  we  yet  enjoyed  a  friendship,  and  a  neig-h- 
borly  interchang-e  of  kind  offices,  which  are  unknown  at  this 
time.  Althoug-h  we  had  to  step  on  puncheon  floors,  and  eat  our 
corn-bread  and  venison,  or  turkey,  off  of  broad  pieces  of  split 
timber,  and  drive  forks  in  one  corner  of  our  cabins,  with  cross 
timbers  driven  into  the  walls,  for  bedsteads,  there  was  no 
g-rumbling-  or  complaining-  of  low  markets  and  hard  times.  The 
questions  of  Tariff  and  National  Bank  were  truly  "obsolete 
ideas"  in  those  days.  It  was  the  first  week  in  April  before  some 
of  us  commenced  operations  in  the  woods;  but  we  mostly  raised 
corn  enoug-h  to  do  us.  There  was,  however,  no  mill  to  g-rind  it, 
and  for  some  weeks  we  g-rated  all  the  meal  we  made  use  of. 
About  Christmas,  Charles  Hunt  started  a  mill,  on  a  cheap  scale, 
near  the  mouth  of  Elkhorn,  which  did  our  g-rinding-  until  J.  Cox 
established  one  near  to  where  Richmond  now  stands,  and  which 
novv^  belong-s  to  Basil  Brig-htwell. 

The  Indian  boundary  was  at  this  time  about  three  miles  west 
of  us.  The  Indians  lived  on  White  river,  and  were  frequently 
among-  us.  They  at  one  time  packed  off  400  bushels  of  shelled 
corn,  which  they  purchased  of  John  Smith.  In  1809  a  purchase 
was  made,  called  the  "Twelve  Mile  Purchase,  "^  and  a  g-oodly 
number  settled  on  it  before  it  was  surveyed;  but  the  war  of  1812 
coming-  on,  the  settlers  mostly  left  their  locations,  and  removed 
to  places  of  more  security.  Those  who  remained  built  forts  and 
"block  houses."     The  settlers  in  this  neig-hborhood  mostly  stood 


22  INDIA  NA  MA  GAZINE  OF  HIS  TOR  Y 

their  ground,  but  suffered  considerably  with  fear.  Georg-e 
Shug-art  then  lived  where  Newport  now  stands,  some  miles  from 
any  other  inhabitant.  In  the  language  of  the  Friends,  he  "did 
not  feel  clear"  in  leaving-  his  home,  and  he  manfully  stood  his 
g-round  unmolested,  except  by  those  whom  we  then  styled  the 
"Rangers,"  from  whom  he  received  some  abuse  for  his  boldness. 
The  Indians  took  three  scalps  out  of  this  county,  and  stole  a 
number  of  horses.  Candor,  however,  compels  me  to  say  that, 
as  is  usually  the  case,  we  Christians  were  the  aggressors.  After 
peace  was  made,  in  1814,  the  twelve  mile  purchase  settled  very 
rapidly. 

It  will  not  be  amiss,  at  this  stage  of  our  narrative,  to  state 
that  when  we  first  settled  here,  the  now  State  of  Indiana  was 
called  Indiana  Territory,  and  we  belonged  to  Dearborn  county, 
which  embraced  all  the  territory  purchased  from  the  Indians  at 
the  treaty  of  Greenville,  extending  from  the  mouth  of  the  Ken- 
tucky river  to  Fort  Recovery.  The  counties  of  Wayne  and  Frank- 
lin were  afterwards  formed  out  of  the  northern  part  of  this  ter- 
ritory. Although  Governor  Harrison  had  the  appointing  power, 
he  gave  the  people  the  privilege  of  choosing  their  own  officers. 
An  election  was  accordingly  held,  when  it  was  found  that  Peter 
Fleming,  Jeremiah  Meek  and  Aaron  Martin  were  elected  Judges, 
George  Hunt,  Clerk,  and  John  Turner,  Sheriff.  County  courts 
were  then  held  by  three  associate  judges,  and  county  business 
was  done  before  them.  One  of  the  first  courts  held  in  this  coun- 
ty, under  the  Territorial  government,  convened  under  the  shade 
of  a  tree,  on  the  premises  then  belonging  to  Richard  Rue,  Esq., 
Judge  Park  presiding  and  James  Noble  prosecutor.  In  order  to 
show  the  legal  knowledge  we  backwoodsmen  were  then  in  pos- 
session of,  I  will  relate  the  following  case.  A  boy  was  indicted 
for  stealing  a  knife,  a  traverse  jury  was  empaneled,  and  took 
their  seats  upon  a  log.  The  indictment  was  read,  and,  as  usu- 
ual,  set  out  that  the  offender,  with/t>ra'  and  arms,  did  feloniously 
steal,  take,  and  carry  away,  etc.  After  hearing  the  case,  the 
jury  retired  to  another  log  to  make  up  their  verdict.  Jeremiah 
Cox,  one  of  the  jurors,  and  afterwards  a  member  of  the  conven- 
tion to  frame  a  Constitution,  and  of  the  Legislature,  concluded 
they  must  find  the  defendant  guilty,  but  he  thought  the  indict- 
ment "was  rather  too  bad  for  so  small  an  offense."    I  suppose  he 


MEMOIR  OF  DA  VI D  HOO  VER  23 

thoug-ht  the  words  "with  force  and  arms"  uncalled  for,  and 
thoug-ht  rig-htly  enough,  too. 

Some  further  illustration  of  our  leg-al  knowledg-e  and  the  spirit 
of  our  leg-islation  at  this  time  may  be  interesting".  Althoug-h 
the  Friends  constituted  a  larg-e  portion  of  the  inhabitants  in  this 
quarter,  there  were  in  other  parts  of  the  county  men  in  whose 
craniums  the  military  spirit  was  pretty  strong-ly  developed,  be- 
fore the  war  of  1812  was  declared.  When  that  came  on,  this 
spirit  manifested  itself  in  all  its  rig-or.  The  Friends  were  much 
harassed  on  account  of  their  refusal  to  do  military  duty.  Some 
were  drafted,  and  had  their  property  sacrificed,  and  at  the  next 
call  were  ag-ain  drafted,  and  fined.  Four  young-  men  were 
thrown  into  the  county  jail  during-  the  most  inclement  cold 
weather;  fire  was  denied  them  until  they  should  comply;  and 
had  it  not  been  for  the  humane  feeling-  of  David  F.  Sackett,  who 
handed  them  hot  bricks  throug-h  the  g-rates,  they  must  have  suf- 
fered severely.  Suits  were  subsequently  broug-ht  ag-ainst  the 
officers  for  false  imprisonment.  The  trials  were  had  at  Brook- 
ville,  in  Franklin  count3\  They  all  recovered  damag-es,  but  I 
have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  whole  of  the  damag-es  and 
costs  was  paid  out  of  the  moneys  extorted  from  others  of  the 
Friends.  To  cap  the  climax  of  absurdity  and  outrag-e,  the  g-en- 
tlemen  ofi&cers  arrested  an  old  man  named  Jacob  Elliott,  and 
tried  him  by  a  court-martial,  for  treason,  found  him  g-uilty,  and 
sentenced  him  to  be  shot!  but  g-ave  him  a  chance  to  run  away 
in  the  dark,  they  firing-  off  their  g-uns  at  the  same  time.  It  would 
fill  a  considerable  volume  to  gfive  a  detailed  history  of  the  noble 
patriots  of  those  days,  and  of  their  wisdom  and  valorous  exploits; 
but  this  must  sufi&ce. 

Connected  with  this  subject,  permit  me  a  word  respecting-  my 
own  course.  I  think  it  is  well  known  that  from  first  to  last  I 
stood  by  the  Friends  like  a  brother  (as  I  would  ag-ain  do  under 
similar  circumstances),  and  used  my  influence  in  their  favor;  yet 
from  some  cause,  best  known  to  themselves,  I  have  apparently 
lost  the  confidence  and  friendship  of  a  g-ood  number  of  them. 
The  most  serious  charg-e  which  has  yet  reached  me,  is  that  I 
have  not  g-ot  "the  true  faith,"  and  not  that  I  have  done  any- 
thing- wrong-.  Of  this  I  do  not  complain;  but  must  be  permit- 
ted to  say  that  their  course  towards  me  was  rather  g-ratuitous. 


24  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

I  feel  confident  that  they  can  not  in  truth  say  that  they  have 
at  any  time  received  aug-ht  but  disinterested  friendship  from  me; 
and  if  some  of  them  can  reconcile  their  course  toward  me  with 
a  sense  of  duty,  and  of  doing-  by  me  as  I  have  at  all  times  done 
by  them,  I  shall  therewith  be  content. 

In  1816  we  elected  deleg-ates  to  the  convention  which  formed 
our  late  Constitution,  and  named  the  State  Indiana.  On  the 
third  day  of  February  following-,  I  was  elected  Clerk  of  Wayne 
Circuit  Court,  and  by  favor  of  the  voters  of  the  county,  held  the 
office  nearly  fourteen  years.  I  was  prevented  from  serving-  out 
my  full  constitutional  term  of  of&ce,  by  a  deceptive  ruling-  of  the 
Court,  which  I  have  no  fears  will  ever  be  hunted  up  as  a  prece- 
dent in  a  similar  or  any  other  case. 

I  was  almost  the  first  man  who  set  foot  in  this  part  of  Wayne 
county,  and  have  been  an  actor  in  it  for  more  than  forty  ^'^ears. 
It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  for  me  to  say,  that  I  feel  con- 
scious I  often  erred  throug-h  ig-norance,  and  perhaps  throug-h  wil- 
fulness. Yet  (and  with  g-ratitude  be  it  spoken),  it  has  fallen  to 
the  lot  of  few  men  to  retain  so  long-  the  standing-  which  I  think  I 
still  have  among-  all  classes  of  my  fellow  citizens.  I  believe  it  is 
a  privileg-e  conceded  to  old  men  to  boast  of  what  they  have  been, 
and  what  they  have  done.  I  shall  therefore  take  the  liberty  of 
saying-,  that  I  have  now  seven  commissions  by  me,  for  ofi&ces 
which  I  have  held,  besides  having-  had  a  seat  in  the  Senate  of 
this  State  for  six  years. 

I  will  add,  that  in  the  employ  and  under  the  direction  of  John 
Smith  and  Jeremiah  Cox,  I  laid  off  the  city  of  Richmond,  did  all 
their  clerkingf,  wrote  their  deeds,  etc.  If  I  recollect  rig-htly,  it 
was  first  named  Smithville,  after  one  of  the  properietors;  but 
that  name  did  not  g-ive  g-eneral  satisfaction.  Thomas  Robbards, 
James  Peg-g-,  and  myself,  were  then  chosen  to  select  a  name  for 
the  place.  Robbards  proposed  Waterford,  Peg-g-,  Plainfield,  and 
I  made  choice  of  Richmond,  which  latter  name  received  the  pref- 
erence of  the  lot-holders. 

I  have  some  fears  that  the  preceding-  remarks  may  be  looked 
upon  as  betraying-  the  vanity  of  an  old  man;  but  I  wish  it  dis- 
tinctly understood,  that  I  ascribe  the  little  favors  which  I  have 
received,  more  to  surrounding-  circumstances,  and  the  partiality 
of  my  friends,  than  to  any  qualification  or  merits  in  myself. 


MEMOIR  OF  DA  VID  HOO  VER  %^ 

There  are  several  other  subjects  connected  with  the  early  his- 
tory of  Wayne  county,  on  which  I  could  dwell  at  some  leng-th. 
I  could  refer  to  the  first  dominant  party,  their  arbitrary  proceed- 
ing- in  fixing-  the  county  seat  at  Salisbury,  the  seven  years'  war 
and  contention  which  followed,  ending-  with  the  final  location  of 
the  shiretown  at  Centreville.^  But  as  the  rival  parties  in  that 
contest  have  mostly  left  the  stag-e,  and  the  subject  is  almost 
forgotten,  I  think  it  unnecessary  to  disturb  it. 

A  leng-thy  chapter  might  be  written  on  the  improvements 
which  have  been  made  within  the  last  fifty  years  in  Wayne  coun- 
ty (to  say  nothing  of  the  rest  of  the  world),  in  the  arts  and 
sciences  generally,  but  as  I  do  not  feel  myself  competent  to  the 
task,  I  shall  not  attempt  it. 

And  now,  in  bringing  this  crude  and  undigested  account  of  my 
experience  to  a  close,  short  as  it  is,  it  gives  rise  to  many  serious 
reflections.  When  I  look  back  upon  the  number  of  those  who 
set  out  in  life  with  me,  full  of  hope,  and  who  have  fallen  by  the 
way,  and  gone  to  that  bourne  from  whence  there  is  no  return- 
ing, with  not  even  a  rude  stone  to  mark  the  spot  where  their 
mortal  remains  are  deposited,  language  fails  me,  and  indeed 
there  is  no  language  adequate  to  the  expression  of  my  feelings. 
I  shall  therefore  drop  the  subject,  leaving  the  reader  to  fill  up 
the  blank  in  his  own  way. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  say  a  word  about  my  politics  and  re- 
ligion. In  politics,  I  profess  to  belong  to  the  Jeffersonian 
school.  I  view  Thomas  Jefferson  as  decidedl}^  the  greatest 
statesman  that  America  has  yet  produced.  He  was  the  chief 
apostle  of  both  Political  and  Religious  Liberty.  My  motto  is 
taken  from  his  first  Inaugural:  "Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all 
men" — and  I  will  add — without  calling  in  question  their  political 
or  religious  faith,  country,  or  color. 

And  here  I  wish  it  distinctly  understood,  and  remembered, 
that  I  stood  almost  alone  in  this  section  of  the  State,  in  opposi- 
tion to  our  ruinous  system  of  internal  improvements,  concocted 
and  brought  about  at  the  sessions  of  the  Legislature  in  the  years 
1835  to  1836;  which  resulted  in  the  creation  of  a  State  debt 
which  the  present  generation  will  not  see  paid;  and  which  has 
verified  the  text  in  the  old  Book  to  the  very  letter,  which  says 
that  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  are  visited  upon  their  children 
to  the  third  and  fourth  generations. 


26  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

As  to  religion: 

Happy  is  he,  the  only  happy  man, 

Who,  from  choice,  does  all  the  g-ood  he  can. 

"The  world  is  mj  country,  and  my  relig-ion  is  to  do  right."  I 
am  a  firm  believer  in  the  Christian  religion,  though  not  as  lived 
up  to  by  most  of  its  professors  of  the  present  day.  In  the  language 
of  Jefferson,  I  look  upon  the  "Christian  philosophy  as  the  most 
sublime  and  benevolent,  but  most  perverted  system  that  ever 
shone  on  man."  I  have  no  use  for  the  priesthood,  nor  can  I 
abide  the  shackles  of  sectarian  dogmas.  I  see  no  necessity  for 
confessions  of  faith,  creeds,  forms  and  ceremonies.  In  the  most 
comprehensive  sense  of  the  word,  I  am  opposed  to  all  wars, 
and  to  slavery;  and  trust  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  they 
will  be  numbered  among  the  things  that  were,  and  viewed  as 
we  now  look  back  upon  some  of  the  doings  of  what  we  are 
pleased  to  style  the  dark  ages. 

Note  1. — Among  the  first  settlers  of  the  twelve  mile  purchase, 
rather  in  the  vicinity  of  Centreville,  were  Danial  Noland,  Henry 
Bryan,  Isaac  Julian,  William  Harvey,  Nathan  Overman,  George 
Grimes,  etc.  Other  pioneers,  whose  names  I  can  not  now  recall, 
were  thinly  scattered  over  other  portions  of  the  "purchase." — I. 
H.  J. 

Note  2. — The  county  seat  was  finally  established  at  Centre- 
ville in  April,  1820.  The  first  court  held  in  Wayne  county,  as 
appears  from  the  records,  met  at  the  home  of  Richard  Rue,  Feb- 
ruary, 1811.     Wayne  county  was  organized   in  November,  1810. 


JUDGE    HOOVER  S    RECORD  AS   TO    LIBERTY    OF    CONSCIENCE,   PEACE 
AND    FREEDOM. 

Appended  to  his  Memoir,  Judge  Hoover  copied  the  following 
Memorial  and  postscript,  prepared  and  subscribed  by  him  at  an 
early  period  of  our  history,  which  he  seemed  to  think  should  go 
with  it,  as  showing  more  positively  his  position  in  regard  to  the 
matters  referred  to  in  the  same.  It  may  with  propriety  be  add- 
ed, that  at  an  early  day  in  this  county,  Anti-Slavery  and  Peace 
Societies  were  formed,  of  which  Judge  Hoover,  Elder  David 
Purviance,  and  other  prominent  citizens  in  various  parts  of  the 
county,  were  leading  members: 


MEMOIR  OF  DA  VI D  HOO  VER  27 

To  William  Henry  Harrisoft,  Governor  of  the  Indiana  Territory^  the 
Legislative  Cou7icil,  and  House  of  Representatives,  at  Vincenyies 
met: 

The  Memorial  of  the  Society  of  Friends  of  the  said  Territory 
respectfully  represents: 

That  few  if  any  of  the  present  members  of  the  Leg-islature, 
we  presume,  are  altog-ether  unacquainted  with  the  conscientious 
scruples  of  Friends  ag-ainst  bearing-  arms,  or  acting-  in  any  man- 
ner as  military  men,  ever  since  they  became  a  relig-ious  society. 
And  considering-  the  penalties  and  suffering-s  they  have  hereto- 
fore been  subject  to  on  that  account,  there  is  no  room  left  to 
suppose  that  their  declining-  to  act  in  that  capacity  proceeded 
from  obstinacy,  or  a  disreg-ard  to  the  laws  of  their  country. 
They  conceive  that,  notwithstanding-  they  have  always  declined 
the  use  of  the  sword,  they  have  not  been  useless  citizens;  and 
that  the  indulg-ence  which  has  been  granted  to  conscientious 
people  in  other  governments,  has  not  in  any  manner  been  prej- 
udicial to  the  real  interest  of  those  countries,  but  rather  that 
it  has  been  a  means  of  inducing-  useful  citizens  to  settle  and  im- 
prove various  parts  thereof.  Nor  does  it  admit  of  a  doubt,  that 
penal  laws,  designed  to  force  people  to  act  in  violation  of  what 
they  believe  to  be  their  duty  to  their  Maker,  never  did  and 
never  will  promote  the  true  interest  and  safety  of  any  country. 
And  although  heavy  fines  have  heretofore  in  some  cases  been 
impressed  for  non-attendance  of  musters,  and  often  doubled  by 
unreasonable  seizures,  to  the  great  distress  of  some  poor  families; 
yet  it  seems  hardly  probable  that  the  public  have  been  much,  if 
at  all,  benefited  by  these  extortions.  Your  memorialists,  there- 
fore, can  not  suppose  that  it  can  be  a  desirable  object  with  a 
free  and  enlig-htened  people,  to  subject  any  denomination  of 
Christians  to  penalties  and  sufferings,  either  in  their  persons  or 
property,  on  account  of  their  religious  opinions,  which  can  never 
be  injurious  to  the  country  at  large,  or  to  any  individual.  All 
of  which  we  submit  to  the  Legislature,  that  they  may  make 
such  amendment  of  the  present  militia  laws  as  to  them  may  seem 
reasonable  and  just. 

And  your  Memorialists,  etc. 

P.  S. — The  laws  subjecting-  the  Quakers  to  fines  for  not  mus- 
tering were  repealed;  but  after  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe,  they 
wpre  re-enacted  with  a  veng-eance. 


2^  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 


OLD  SETTLERS'  MEETING. 

[Extract  from  an  account  of  the  first  Settlers'  Meeting-  in  Wayne  coun- 
ty, and  probably  the  first  in  the  State,  taken  from  the  Richmond  Jeffer- 
sonian  of  September  13,  1855,] 

PRESIDENT,  David  Hoover;  vice-presidents.  Smith  Hunt  and 
John  Peele.  After  prayer,  some  interesting-  portions  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  first  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Wayne  coun- 
ty, dating-  as  far  back  as  1817,  were  read,  vi^hich  were  illustrat- 
ed by  relations  of  divers  incidents  of  those  early  days  by  Messrs. 
Rariden,  Test,  Newman,  and  others. 

John  Beard,  of  Milton,  was  then  called  on  for  his  "experi- 
ence." He  gave  an  account  of  his  removal  to  this  region,  and 
the  gratification  he  felt  in  exchanging  the  red  soil,  full  of  flint 
stones,  of  his  native  Carolina,  for  the  black  and  fertile  lands  of 
Indiana.  In  the  vigor  of  youth,  he  regarded  not  the  Herculean 
labors  and  hardships  which  then  rose  before  him,  for,  to  use  his 
own  words,  he  "felt  that  he  had  a  fortune  in  his  own  bones." 
He  declared  that,  although  looking  back  from  the  present  time 
the  lives  of  the  pioneers  might  appear  by  no  means  enviable,  yet 
they  did  not  so  seem  to  these  who  experienced  them.  Mr.  Beard 
added,  among  other  interesting  facts,  that  a  little  daughter  of 
his  own  was  the  first  white  person  who  died  in  the  present  limits 
of  Wayne  county-|in  1807);  and  that  the  first  settlers  had  to  go 
either  to  Lawrenceburg  or  Hamilton  to  mill. 

Mr.  Beard  was  followed  in  similar  details  of  experience  by 
Smith  Hunt,  Henry  and  Frederick  Hoover,  John  Peele,  Jeremiah 
L.  Meek,  and  others. 

Perhaps  both  the  oldest  man  and  theoldest  settler  present  was 
Hugh  Cull. 

The  next  meeting  is  appointed  for  the  last  Sunday  in  Septem- 
ber, 1856,  at  Centreville.  The  idea  of  such  meetings  is  highly 
laudable,  and  we  trust  that  hereafter,  due  efforts  will  be  made 
to  enlist  the  interest  and  presence  of  as  many  of  the  early  set- 
tlers as  possible,  so  as  the  more  effectually  to  further  the  objects 
proposed  by  these  social  reunions  of  the  rapidly  diminishing  rem- 
nant of  the  men  and  women  to  whom  the  present  generation 
are  so  much  indebted. 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS. 


EARLY  INDIANAPOLIS. 

THE  FLETCHER  PAPERS. 

[In  1879  there  was  published  in  The  Indianapolis  News  a  series  of 
articles  by  the  Rev.  J.  C.  Fletcher  on  Early  Days  in  Indianapolis.  These 
papers,  some  twenty-five  in  number,  were  printed  at  intervals  from  March 
to  September,  making-,  in  the  ag-gregate,  an  amount  of  matter  wholly 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  space  to  be  spared  in  this  magazine.  Much  of 
this  matter  was  second-hand,  and  a  repetition  of  facts  that  had  already 
been  published  in  the  city  histories.  On  the  other  hand,  not  a  little  of  it 
was  based  upon  two  documents  of  antiquarian  value,  which  are  to  the 
present  day  kept  in  private  possession  as  being,  in  the  main,  of  family 
interest  only.  These  are  the  journals  of  Mr.  Calvin  Fletcher,  the  elder, 
and  his  wife,  which  record  happening's  in  the  new  capital  at  a  very  early 
day.  These  journals,  where  quoted  directly  or  where  drawn  upon,  afford 
glimpses  of  life,  society,  conditions  and  events  that  are  wholly  fresh  and 
a  distinct  contribution  to  the  source  material  of  Indianapolis  history. 
Such  matter  as  has,  in  my  judg-ment,  this  distinct  value,  I  have  selected 
from  the  series,  making  free  with  the  text  in  the  matter  of  abridgement. 
The  student  who  may  wish  to  make  use  of  the  full  text,  may  do  so  by 
aid  of  the  references  given.  The  full  series  may  be  found  in  issues  of 
the  above  paper  for  March  10,  15,  22,  29;  April  4,  12,  19,  26;  May  10,  17,  24; 
June  7,  14,  21,  28;  July  5,  12,  19,  26;  August  2,  9,  16,  25;  September  10,  19. 
The  portions  selected  will  probably  run  throughout  this  year. — Editor.^ 

First  Religious  Items — First  Sale  of  Lots — First  Frame  House — First 
Private  Libraries — The  ''Collins  Axe" — Judge  Mcllvaine' s  Cot- 
ton Crop — Pioneer  Industry —  Tallow  and  Culture — Social  Life — 
Christmas  Party  and  Barrel  of  Cider — New  Year''s  Ball,  the  First 
Great  Social  Event. 

From  the  News  of  March  lo,  i8jg. 

IN  perusing-,  recently,  a  brief  diary  kept  by  my  mother  (who 
died  in  1854)  I  found  several  interesting-  relig-ious  facts  and 
data  in  connection  with  the  history  of  Indianapolis. 

My  father  was  married  to  Sarah  Hill,  in  Urbana,  O.,  May  1, 
1821.  He  made  a  preliminary  visit  to  Indianapolis  in  Aug-ust  of 
that  year.  On  September  19,  accompanied  by  my  mother,  he 
began  his  second  journey  to  Indianapolis,  arriving-  here  in  nine 
days.  On  the  first  day  of  October  he  rented  a  log-  cabin  on 
block  70,  lot  No.  2.  In  my  father's  journal,  date  of  Dec.  31, 
1821,  I  find  this  entry: 


30  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

"I  am  now  situated  on  block  70,  lot  No.  2,  in  a  little  cabin, 
16  X  l7  feet,  belong-ing-  to  a  Mr.  Cap,  of  Cincinnati." 

It  was  here  that  mj  mother  beg-an  the  brief  diary  referred  to. 
The  persons  most  frequently  mentioned  in  the  diary  are  Mr. 
James  Blake,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Paxton,  Dr.  Coe,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Now- 
land,  Mrs.  Bates,  the  Hawkins's,  B.  F.  Morris,  Dr.  Dunlap,  the 
Bradleys,  the  Yandes's,  and  Judg-e  and  Mrs.  Wick. 

These  are  the  relig^ious  data  I  have  spoken  of: 

"Sunday,  Nov.  18,  1821.  I  attended  prayer-meeting-  at  Mr. 
Stevens'. 

"Sunday,  Nov.  25.  I  attended  preaching-  at  Mr.  Hawkins', 
where  I  heard  a  very  g-ood  sermon  by  a  Newlig-ht  minister.  The 
text  was:  'See  that  ye  walk  circumspectly,  not  as  fools  but  as 
wise,  redeeming-  the  time,  because  the  days  are  evil.' 

"Sunday,  Dec.  30.  I  heard  a  sermon  delivered  by  a  Newlig-ht 
minister  which  I  did  not  think  commendable,  but  we  must  al- 
low for  it,  as  it  has  not  been  but  about  three  months  since  he  be- 
g-an to  speak  in  public. 

"Sunday,  May  12,  1822.  I  attended  preaching-  in  the  Gov- 
ernor's Circle.  It  was  the  first  sermon  ever  delivered  at  that 
place.  Rev.  Mr.  Proctor  took  his  text  from  the  30th  chapter  of 
Proverbs,  and  17th  verse:  'Her  ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness, 
and  all  her  paths  are  peace.'  In  the  afternoon  he  delivered  an- 
other sermon  from  Luke  XV :7:  'I  say  unto  you  that  likewise 
joy  shall  be  in  heaven  over  one  sinner  who  repenteth.'  The 
preacher  is  a  Presbyterian  and  a  very  g-ood  orator. 

"Tuesday,  14th.  In  the  morning-  it  rained  and  in  the  afternoon 
it  was  clear  but  muddy.  Mr.  Fletcher  attended  preaching-  at 
the  schoolhouse.  The  sermon  was  delivered  by  Mr.  Proctor, 
who  took  for  his  text  Ps.  42,  1st  verse:  'As  the  hart  panteth 
after  the  water  brook,  so  panteth  my  soul  after  thee,  O  God!' 

"Monday,  the  20th  of  May.  Rainy  and  disagreeable.  Rev. 
Mr.  Proctor,  Dr.  Coe,  Mr.  Linton,  Mr.  Fletcher  and  myself  all 
dined  at  Mr.  Nowland's. 

"Tuesday,  21st.  I  rode  (horseback)  out  in  the  country  about 
two  miles  to  Mr.  Burton's  with  Mr.  Paxton  and  Mrs.  Nowland. 

May  28th.  This  day  we  moved  into  Mr.  Blake's  house*  and 
took  possession  for  one  year. 

*0n  Washington  street  west  of  Illinois. 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS  31 

"Friday,  31st.  This  day  Mr.  Fletcher  started  on  the  circuit.* 
We  arose  early  in  the  morning-.  It  was  quite  pleasing-  to  hear 
the  birds.  How  cheerfully  they  sung-!  Their  notes  were  so 
mingled  that  a  person  could  not  distinguish  one  bird  from  an- 
other. This  day  Mr.  Rice,  a  Presbyterian  preacher,  and  Dr. 
Coe  dined  with  Mr.  Blake  and  myself. 

"Sunday,  9th  June.  Mrs.  Wick  and  I  attended  Methodist 
preaching. 

"Sunday,  16th  June.  In  the  morning  Mr.  Blake  went  to  Sab- 
bath school. t 

"Sunday,  12th  July.  This  day  attended  Baptist  preaching-  at 
the  schoolhouse.  *  *  *  Camp  meeting-  commenced  the  13th 
day  of  September  and  held  four  days.| 

"Sunday,  April  15th,  1823.  Our  school  commenced,  which,  I 
hope,  will  be  of  great  benefit  to  the  children  of  our  town."§ 

I  find  three  funerals  recorded  in  my  mother's  journal,  as  fol- 
lows: 

"Sunday,  March  24,  1822.  Attended  a  funeral  and  a  bur- 
ial. ||  I  did  not  see  a  single  tear  shed  in  the  whole  assemblage, 
except  by  Mrs.  Nowland,  when  she  showed  me  where  her  child 
was  buried. 

"Sunday,  12th  of  July,  1822.  This  day  Mr.  Jones  departed 
this  life,  about  8  o'clock  in  the  morning-.  *  *  *  He  is  to  be 
buried  this  afternoon. 

"Monday,  November  11,  ('22).  About  two  o'clock  p.  m.  Mr. 
Nowland  departed  this  life,  and,  it  was  said,  very  happily.  He 
said  he  'had  made  his  peace  with  God,  and  was  willing  to  g-o.' 

"Tuesday,  November  12.  Rev.  Mr.  Proctor  delivered  a  very 
pathetic  sermon  on  the  occasion  [of  Mr.  Nowland's  burial]. 
His  text  was:  'It  is  better  to  go  to  the  house  of  mourning-  than 
to  the  house  of  feasting.'  " 

♦Under  the  old  constitution,  the  president  circiiit  judge  held  courts  over  an  extensive 
territory,  and  it  was  a  custom  of  the  lawyers  to  travel  with  him  throughout  the  judicial  cir- 
cuit.—£'df?or. 

tThe  first  mention  of  a  Sabbath  school  in  Indianapolis.— J".  C.  F. 

JWas  not  this  the  first  camp  meeting  held  in  Marion  county?— J".  C.  F. 

§This  doubtless  refers  to  the  re-commencing  of  the  Sunday-school  begun  June  26, 1822.— 
J.  C.  F. 

IjWho  the  person  buried  was  I  have  no  means  of  knowing.— iT.  C.  F. 


32  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

From  the  News  of  April  4. 

On  the  8th  of  October,  1821,  Indianapolis  was  to  have  her  first 
great  g-athering".  It  was  on  that  day  that  the  sale  of  lots  of  the 
newly  laid  out  capital  took  place.  Carter's  and  Hawkins'  tavern, 
Nowland's  and  other  boarding-  houses  were  crowded.  In  her 
journal  Mrs.  Calvin  Fletcher  wrote: 

"October  8,  1821.  The  sale  of  lots  commenced  near  our  house. 
A  large  concourse  of  people  were  present." 

This  could  not  have  been  far  from  Washington  and  Missouri 
streets,  as  block  70,  lot  2,  is  west  of  Missouri,  on  the  south  side 
of  Washing"ton.  The  sale,  as  my  father  once  informed  me,  be- 
gan upon  a  day  that  was  overcast  and  gloomy.  The  wind  was 
high,  and  while  the  auctioneer  was  urging  the  bidding  a  limb 
was  wrenched  from  its  place  in  the  trees  overhead,  and  one  of 
the  bystanders  came  near  being  killed.  The  sales  continued  for 
a  week,  and  no  less  than  313  lots  were  disposed  of.  The  total 
which  these  slices  of  Indianapolis  amounted  to  was  $35,596.25, 
but  the  cash  payment  received  at  the  time  by  the  agent  was  only 
20  per  cent.,  the  remaining  four-fifths  to  be  paid  in  four  annual 
instalments.  The  average  price  of  lots  was  about  $113.  The 
highest  priced  one  was  that  on  the  northwest  corner  of  Wash- 
ington and  Delaware  streets,  which  broug-ht  $500.  It  is  probable 
that  the  price  paid  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  court  house 
was  to  be  built  on  the  opposite  square  and  it  would  be  valuable 
as  a  tavern  or  dram  shop  site.* 

In  his  journal,  date  of  October  1,  1821,  my  father  says:  "I 
found  the  place  very  sickly,"  but  it  appears  that  after  the  week 
of  the  sale  everything  put  on  a  better  face.  My  mother  speaks 
of  the  beauty  of  the  Indian  summer.  Much  of  the  bright  foli- 
age, however,  was  not  to  be  stripped  by  the  blasts,  for  the  woods 
were  resounding  with  the  stroke  of  the  ax  and  the  crash  of 
falling  trees. 

The  favorite  ax  of  those  days  was  the  "Collins  ax,"  manufac- 
tured at  Hartford,  Conn.  It  seemad  to  me  very  strange  in  after 
years  to  find  in  the  great  valley  of  the  Amazon  that  there  was 
one  American  manufacture  which  Shefiield  and  Birmingham 
could  not  drive  out.  The  Indian  of  the  Amazon  cleaves  his  way 
through  matted  jungles  with  a  "machete"  made  by  Collins  &  Co., 

*Ignatius  Brown  says  $560  for  this  lot.  The  site  has  been  for  years  and  is  now  occupied 
by  a  saloon. — Editor. 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS  33 

while  the  knife  and  hatchet,  and  the  instrument  with  which  he 
grubs  up  the  ipecacuanha,  are  all  manufactured  by  the  same 
house  which,  more  than  a  half-century  ag-o,  furnished  the  axes 
that  chopped  down  the  trees  in  the  streets  of  Indianapolis. 

Cabins  arose  as  if  by  magic,  and  one  man,  Colonel  Paxton,  had 
the  audacity  to  begin  a  frame  house  on  the  south  side  of  Wash- 
ington street  (near  Illinois),  This  building,  before  it  was  finish- 
ed, was  sold  to  Mr.  James  Blake.  My  father  and  mother  were 
to  be  the  first  occupants,  and  here  my  brothers,  Elijah  and  Miles, 
and  myself  were  born.  The  main  body  of  this  magnificent  resi- 
dence was  one  story  high,  and  consisted  of  two  rooms,  neither  of 
which  could  have  been  more  than  fifteen  feet  square,  connected 
by  a  covered  space  with  a  kitchen.  My  mother  in  her  journal 
speaks  of  moving  from  their  smoky  cabin  to  this  frame  house  in 
May,  1822,  while  my  father  has  left  in  his  diary  a  copy  of  the 
agreement  by  which  he  rented  the  house  from  Mr.  Blake.  As  it 
illustrates  the  prices  of  board  and  rent  at  that  day  I  copy  the 
contract.     It  sets  forth  that: 

"The  said  Blake  convenants  and  agrees  to  give  to  the  said 
Fletcher  possession  of  the  frame  house  standing  on  block  67,  lot 
12,  as  soon  as  it  shall  be  fixed  convenient  for  a  family  to  dwell 
therein,  together  with  the  said  lot,  which  the  said  Fletcher  is  to 
have  and  enjoy  for  the  term  of  one  year  from  and  after  the  time 
he  takes  possession.  In  consideration  of  the  above  premises  he, 
the  said  Fletcher,  is  to  board  the  said  Blake  during  the  year,  * 
*  *  and  the  said  Blake  is  to  give  the  said  Fletcher  ten  bushels 
of  corn  as  a  further  consideration  of  board;  and  the  said  Blake 
is  to  have  the  privilege  of  the  east  room  of  said  house  in  com- 
mon with  said  Fletcher,  together  with  the  stable  and  said  lot." 

Colonel  Blake  was  the  first  in  Indianapolis  to  have  a  non-pro- 
fessional collection  of  miscellaneous  works  that  might  be  called 
a  library.  My  father  and  Mr.  Merrill  were  next  in  the  list  with 
literary  works,  Mr.  Merrill's  collection  being  the  larger.  Gold- 
smith's "Animated  Nature"  and  the  "Arabian  Nights'  Enter- 
tainments" were  the  first  books,  except  the  Bible,  read  to  me  by 
my  mother,  that  made  an  impression  upon  me. 
From  the  News  of  April  12. 

In  October,  1821,  there  were  three  weeks  of  beautiful  weath- 
er, and  my  mother  says  in  her  journal,  under  the  date  of  Octo- 
ber 27: 


34  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

"This  day  is  very  pleasant  and  rather  smoky.  It  appears 
like  Indian  summer.  We  have  had  very  little  rain  in  this  place 
for  about  three  weeks.  This  has  made  it  very  favorable  for 
those  who  have  moved  in  and  are  building-." 

Under  such  circumstances  Indianapolis  may  be  said  to  have 
beg-un  her  existence.  The  sale  of  more  than  three  hundred  lots, 
but  few  of  which  were  purchased  on  speculation,  broug-ht  hith- 
er those  who  were  to  be  permanent  settlers.  There  seemed  to  be 
a  most  kindly  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  people  toward  each 
other.  Visits  were  the  order  of  the  day  and  mutual  aid  was 
never  withheld.  There  was  not  a  capitalist  in  Indianapolis — 
but  few  were  even  with  the  world — and  there  was  not  a  man  or 
woman,  however  exalted  their  social  position  in  the  land  w^hence 
they  came,  but  put  his  or  her  hand  to  work  in  the  frontier  life 
of  the  New  Purchase.  In  her  journal  I  find  my  mother  writing- 
on  the  1st  day  of  November,  as  follows. 

"This  day  I  was  spinning-  wool  at  Mr.  Mcllvain's." 

This  Mr.  Mcllvain  was  the  earliest  justice  of  the  peace  in 
Indianapolis.  He  was  an  uprig-ht,  Christian  man,  who  had  been 
associate  justice  in  Ohio  and  was  afterward  elected  one  of  the 
associate  judg-es  for  Marion  county.  His  log-  cabin  stood  not  far 
from  the  present  site  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church.  One 
of  my  earliest  recollections  is  that  of  a  visit  to  Judg-e  Mc- 
llvain's. He  cultivated  the  ground  that  is  around  the  church, 
and  produced  the  usual  crop  of  corn  and  potatoes.  He  also  was 
the  first  to  raise  poultry  on  an  extended  scale.  There  was  one 
crop  that  was  unusual,  and  which,  I  presume,  he  was  the  first 
and  the  last  to  raise  in  Indianapolis.  My  father  informed  me 
that  when  he  first  came  here,  in  the  summer  of  1821,  he  found 
Judg-e  James  Mcllvain  living-  at  the  place  I  have  indicated,  and 
that,  among-st  other  thing-s  he  had  planted,  was  quite  a  larg-e 
patch  of  cotton.  This  cotton  came  to  maturity  in  the  autumn, 
and  served  the  purpose,  when  spun,  of  candle  wicking-. 

I  spoke  of  the  alacrity  with  which  new  Indianapolitans  aided 
each  other  and  turned  their  hands  to  everything-.  I  g-ive  a  few 
instances,  quoting-  from  my  mother's  journal: 

"November  5,  1821.  Mr.  Fletcher  has  been  helping-  Mr. 
Blake  husk  corn."  Again:  "Friday,  December  7.  We  killed  a 
beef.  Mr.  Paxton  and  Mr.  Blake  helped  to  butcher  it."  Again, 
under  the  date  of  November  24:     "Mrs.  Nowland  was  making  a 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS  35 

bonnet.  She  came  to  me  to  know  whether  I  could  make  it.  I 
did  not  understand  it,  but  g-ave  her  all  the  instruction  I  possibly 
could."  Other  entries  are:  "I  was  very  much  eng-ag-ed  in  try- 
ing- out  my  tallow;"  "To-day  I  dipped  candles;"  "To-day  I 
finished  the  'Vicar  of  Wakefield';"  and,  "I  commenced  to  read 
the  Life  of  Washing-ton."  There  was  also  an  inkling-  of  a  sing-- 
ing--school  in  "I  borrowed  of  Mr.  Blake  a  sin g-ing- book."  There 
are  afterwards  notices  of  the  sing-ing--school,  where  all  that 
could  sing-  joined  for  mutual  improvement.  One  of  the  leading- 
sing-ers  was  Henry  Bradley,  who  was  one  of  the  early  pillars 
of  the  Baptist  church  in  Indianapolis. 

The  reference  in  this  journal  to  dinner  parties,  teas,  quilting-s, 
etc.,  are  exceeding-ly  numerous.  Good  feeling-  pervaded  the 
whole  community.  While  there  was  g-enuine  western  hospital- 
ity, there  were  some  other  motives  at  the  bottom  for  such  con- 
stant courtesy  on  the  part  of  many  of  the  new-comers  toward  the 
rank  and  file.  There  was  to  be  an  election  of  county  officers  in 
the  spring-  and  hence  the  endeavor  on  the  side  of  certain  g-entle- 
men  to  win  over  by  politeness  and  attention  every  voter  and  his 

wife.  _  687355 

The  first  mention  of  any  musical  instrument  in  the  journal  is 
in  an  entry  of  December  27,  1821: 

"I  was  sitting-  by  the  fire  and  Mr.  Fletcher  was  reading-  Rob- 
ertson's history  of  America  when  the  news  came  that  Mr.  Blake 
had  returned  from  Corydon.  Mr.  P.  has  g-one  to  see  him,  and 
when  I  write  a  few  more  lines  I  will  go  also,  althoug-h  I  feel 
very  much  fatig-ued,  for  it  is  a  long-  time  since  I  have  heard  the 
fiddle  played.  I  think  it  will  seem  very  melodious,  and  I  am 
just  about  to  start  to  hear  it." 

But  while  there  were  plenty  of  calls,  visits,  etc.,  the  g-reat 
social  events  of  the  winter  were  the  Christmas  and  New  Year's 
parties.  The  former  was  a  "stag-"  party,  and  the  latter  was  a 
ball.  My  father's  journal  is  more  full  in  reg-ard  to  Christmas, 
1821: 

"This  day  I  g-ot  up  at  sunrise.  I  visited  several  of  my  neig-h- 
bors,  who  all  appeared  friendly.  About  ten  o'clock  I  went  to  the 
river"  [on  the  banks  of  which  there  were  then  more  cabins  than 
elsewhere].  "I  found  at  Mr.  McGeorg-e's  a  larg-e  collection  of 
men,  principally  the  candidates  for  the  new  county  offices.     The 


36  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

county  is  just  being-  laid  off.  McGeorg-e  had  the  only  barrel  of 
cider  in  town.  I  suppose  it  to  have  cost  him  about  seven  dol- 
lars. In  the  liberality  of  the  candidates  the  barrel  was  unhead- 
ed,  and  all  promiscuously  drank.  But  as  the  cider  was  frozen, 
the  dogf-irons  were  put  red-hot  into  the  barrel.  After  having- 
drank  heartily  of  the  cider  they  took  brandy,  which  soon  pro- 
duced intoxication.  A  friend  of  mine,  having-  in  some  way 
made  a  mistake  as  to  its  inebriating-  qualities,  took  too  much. 
I  therefore  left  the  company  and  came  home  with  him.  I  found 
a  g-reat  deg-ree  of  accommodation  and  courtesy  used  among-  all 
classes.  The  candidates  led  the  concourse  from  one  place  to  an- 
other till  sundown." 

The  ladies  on  that  Christmas  appeared  to  have  had  a  very  un- 
ostentatious time  of  it,  for  they  spent  the  daj'  in  much  quiet 
visiting-. 

"Tuesday,  Christmas,"  writes  my  mother,  "Mrs.  Bradley  and 
Mrs.  Paxton  came  and  spent  the  day  with  me.  They  dined  v/ith 
me.  Then  Mrs.  B.  and  I  went  to  Mrs.  Paxton's,  where  we  both 
took  tea.  After  remaining-  a  while  I  returned  home,  and  then 
went  to  the  Nowland's.  I  then  came  home  ag-ain  and  read  a 
chapter  in  the  Bible,  etc." 

The  crowning-  social  occasion  of  the  season  was  a  New  Year's 
party  g-iven  at  Mr.  Wyant's  cabin,  of  which  occasion  Colonel 
Blake  was  the  master,  as  he  was  of  most  public  assemblies. 
I  have  now  before  me  the  invitation  to  that  first  party  of  a 
ceremonious  kind  ever  g-iven  in  the  New  Purchase.  This  is  the 
first  invitation  of  a  formal  nature  ever  penned  here.  There  was 
no  printing-  press  at  that  time  in  Indianapolis,  and  there  was 
evidently  but  very  little  writing-  paper.  The  paper  is  four  by 
two  and  three-quarter  inches,  and  the  invitation,  written  in  a 
clear  hand,  reads: 

"The  company  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fletcher  is  requested  to  a 
party  at  J.  Wyant's,  Tuesday,  the  first  day  of  January,  1822,  at 
3  o'clock  p.  m.  Manag-ers,  A.  W.  Russkll, 

K.   A.   SCUDDER." 
"Indianapolis,  December  28,  1821." 

We  can  see  how  democratic  were  the  hours  in  those  primitive 

days.     This  party  or  ball  beg-an  at  three  p.  m.  and  concluded  at 

midnig-ht. 

\_To  be  continued, \ 


SOME  OLD  INDIANAPOLIS  DOCUMENTS  37 


SOME  OLD  INDIANAPOLIS  DOCUMENTS. 

R.  ALBERT  JOHNSON,  of  Irvington,  has  in  his  posses- 
iVi  sion  a  mass  of  papers  dating-  back  to  the  early  twenties, 
and  belong-ing-  orig-inallj  to  his  father  and  grandfather,  who 
came  to  Indianapolis  soon  after  its  founding-.  These  are  leg-al 
documents,  receipts,  orders  and  miscellaneous  scraps,  which,  be- 
sides the  many  autog-raphs,  have  an  interest  because  of  little 
sidelig-hts  they  throw  on  the  transactions  and  primitive  business 
methods  of  our  earlier  days  when  money  was  scarce  and  a  system 
of  payment  in  commodities  more  or  less  necessary.  The  fol- 
lowing- are  samples: 

"On  demand,  I  promise  to  make  for  Jeremiah  Johnson,  or  or- 
der, four  pair  of  g-ood  shoes,  two  pair  of  coarse,  strong-  shoes, 
two  pair,  if  wished,  fine  shoes — (?)  and  bound.  Witness  my 
hand  and  seal,  this  21st  day  of  September,  1824. 

"Samuel  Johns." 
"Mr.    James    Cooley    please    pay    to   Jeremiah    Johnson,    the 
bearer  of  this,  ten  pairs  of  coarse  shoes  ag-reeable  to  our  ag-ree- 
ment.     *     *     *  William  Kennard." 

"June  21,  1822." 

"Mr.  William  Bay — Sir:  You  will  please  to  pay  to  Jeremiah 
Johnson  157  bushels  of  sound  corn  on  my  account. 

"John  E.  Bary." 
"Ten  days  after  date  I  promise  to  pay  to  Jeremiah  Johnson 
100  pounds  of  g-ood  merchantable  wheat  flour. 

"Isaac  Cool." 
The  following-  itemized  bill  g-ives  an  idea  of  the  then  market 
prices  of  various  commodities: 

4  lbs.  coflFee $1  00 

X  lb.  tea 0  31X 

4  lbs.  sugar 0  50 

1  lb.  wroug-ht  nails 0  7A% 

200  seg-ars 0  50 

50  lbs.  biscuit 2  50 

1  bushel  meal 0  25 

3  lbs.  butter 0  18^ 

1  peck  salt 0  25 

1  augur 0  50 

2  lbs.  nail 0  25 

Cable  (boat  rope) 1  32 


38  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

The  leg-al  instruments  and  forms  were  pretty  nearly  as  crude 
as  those  used  in  private  business.  The  official  reports  of  the 
county  officers  were  written  on  ordinary  sheets  of  writing-  paper, 
disting-uished  only  by  a  faint,  half-leg-ible  seal,  and  the  tax  re- 
ceipts were  on  rag-g-ed  scraps  of  sheets,  printed,  when  printed  at 
all,  in  a  style  that  would,  at  the  present  day,  excite  the  derision 
of  an  apprentice  in  a  country  office.  A  manuscript  tax  notice 
written  by  Jeremiah  Johnson  when  he  was  collector  for  Marion 
county  states  that  "I  will  receive  taxes  at  my  house  on  Penn- 
sylvania street,  in  Indianapolis,  until  the  first  day  of  July  next," 
after  which  date  "two  per  centum  commission  will  be  added  to 
the  amount  of  each  person's  tax."  An  interesting-  g-limpse  of 
the  county  revenue  from  taxables  is  g-iven  by  a  document  which 
is  worth  g-iving  in  full: 

"The  State  of  Indiana,  Marion  County. 

"This  certifies  to  the  treasurer  of  Marion  county  that  Asa  B. 
Strong-,  collector  of  the  revenue  of  said  county  for  the  j^ear  1833, 
is  charg-eable  for  county  purposes  with — 

1,740  polls  at  ZlYi.  cents  each $  652  50 

1,839  horses  at  YlVz   cents  each 229  87.5 

564  oxen  at  6X  cents  each 35  25 

86  silver  watches 21  50 

4  g-old  watches 2  00 

25  brass  clocks 12  50 

1  two-wheeled  pleasure  carriage 1  00 

4  four-wheeled  pleasure  carriages 6  00 

Stud  horses 51  00 

Resident  town  lots 165  65.5 

Non-resident  town   lots 57  83 

6,325  82-100  acres  first-rate  (resident)  land  at  (40) . .  25  30.3 

80,132  80-100  acres  second-rate  (resident)  land  at  (30)  204  39.8 

10,814  .06-100  acres  third-rate  (resident)  land  at  (20)  21  62.8 
1,538    95-100   acres    first-rate    (non-resident)    land 

at  (40) 6  15.5 

26,694  78-100  acres  second-rate  (non-resident)  land 

at  (30) 80  08.02 

782  acres  third-rate  (non-resident)  land  at  (20) 1  56.4 

Road  tax  on  non-resident  land 87  80.1 

Total $1,689  94.1 

"In  testimony  whereof,  I,  James  M.  Ray,  clerk  of  the  Marion 
Circuit  Court,  do  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  of  ofl&ce  this 
May  15,  A.  D.  1833.  James  M.  Ray,  Clerk:' 


REMINISCENSES  OF  AMOS  HANWA  Y  39 

An  amusing-  sample  from  the  collection  is  an  invitation  to  a 
social  function  sent  out  by  Governor  Noah  Noble.  Typography 
as  an  esthetic  art  seems  to  have  been  unknown  in  the  West  in  those 
days,  and  this,  set  up  in  big-  body  type,  is  printed  haphazard 
somewhere  near  the  middle  of  a  g-enerous  sheet  out  of  all  propor- 
tion as  to  size  and  margin.  It  evidently  was  an  eatablished 
form  with  the  Governor,  for  his  name  is  affixed  in  type  instead  of 
chirography  and  the  blanks  left  for  date  and  hour  are  filled  in 
by  his  hand.     It  reads: 

"Indianapolis,  December  16,  1834. 

"Sir — You  are  requested  to  unite  with  gentlemen  of  the  Leg- 
islature and  others  in  a  social  party  at  my  house  on  Wednesday 
evening,  5  o'clock.  N.  Noble." 


REMINISCENCES  OF  AMOS  HANWA Y. 

From  Paper  read  before  the  Indiana  Centennial  Association,  July  4,  igoo. 

I  CAME  to  Indianapolis  with  my  father's  family  on  the  21st  of 
June,  1821,  being  then  a  boy  in  my  fifth  year.  The  family 
had  lived  in  Vincennes  several  years  before  that  time.  Our 
voyage  here  was  in  an  Olean  Point  flatboat.  We  went  down  the 
Wabash  to  the  mouth  of  White  river  and  came  up  to  Indianap- 
olis, the  boat  being-  poled  along-  up  the  stream  the  entire  way. 
I  think,  from  what  I  have  heard,  that  as  much  as  three  weeks 
were  occupied  in  the  journey  from  Vincennes.  My  father  and 
Mr,  Burke  pushed  the  boat  up-stream. 

There  were  eighteen  houses  here  at  that  time,  all  cabins. 
They  were  built  along-  the  bank  of  White  river,  extending  about 
from  the  place  of  our  landing  to  a  point  near  where  the  Vanda- 
lia  railroad  bridg-e  is  situated.  Among-  these  eig-hteen  famlies  I 
remember  John  and  Michael  and  David  Van  Blaricum,  Daniel 
Yandes,  Dr.  Isaac  Coe,  John  McCormick,  Isaac  Wilson,  a  Mr. 
Concord,  Bethuel  Dunning,  the  ferr^-man,  Obadiah  Harris,  a 
Mr.  Frazier,  Jeremiah  Collins  and  a  Mr.  Keeler. 

The  White  river  bridge  was  built  in  1832  and  1833.  The  fine 
poplar  timbers  of  this  bridge  where  whip-sawed   on  the  bank 


40  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

where  the  bridg^e  was  to  be,  on  a  frame,  reaching-  out  from  the 
bank  there.  The  timber  was  got  up  the  river  eight  miles  and 
hewed  about  square,  from  a  foot  to  three  feet  square,  in  the 
woods,  and  I  rafted  it  down  to  the  place  where  it  was  whip- 
sawed  into  proper  shapes. 

I  saw  the  Delaware  and  Miami  tribes  of  Indians  pass  through, 
g-oing  West.  They  camped  by  the  river,  and  in  the  morning 
all  of  them  went  in  swimming.  They  said  they  never  swam  in 
the  evening  or  at  night.  There  was  a  large  tribe  of  them,  over 
a  thousand,  I  think,  all  friendly. 

Camp  meetings  were  held  by  the  Methodists  every  year.  The 
first  one  was  south  of  town,  on  the  Three-notch  Line  (now  South 
Meridian  street).  It  was  on  Kelly's  farm,  and  a  great  crowd 
attended.  The  Methodist  preachers  were  g-reat  enthusiasts, 
men  of  power,  eloquence  and  earnestness.  They  did  important 
work  in  bringing  the  people  to  the  support  of  good  government, 
morality  and  religion.  Among-  the  great  men  who  preached 
there  were  John  Strange,  Edwin  Ray,  Jaraes  Havens,  Edwin 
Ames  and  James  Armstrong.  The  next  camp  meetings  were 
held  for  years  on  the  Military  Park  ground,  near  the  canal. 
Afterward  the  meeting  was  on  the  land  occupied  by  the  Deaf 
and  Dumb  Asylum,  and  next  it  was  in  the  grove  on  the  land  at 
the  then  north  end  of  Illinois  street,  at  old  First  street. 

The  National  road  was  g-raded  through  Indianapolis  in  the 
year  1832,  I  believe,  and  some  years  after  the  grading  the  road 
from  East  street  to  Big  Eagle  creek,  west  of  town,  was  macad- 
amized. The  broken  stone  was  put  on  in  strata  of  three  inches 
at  a  time,  three  times,  nine  inches  in  all.  Each  layer  was  set- 
tled by  use  for  a  time,  and  then  the  next  was  put  on.  After  this 
little  patch  of  macadam  stone  was  put  on,  Jackson  and  Van 
Buren  vetoed  all  the  National  road  bills,  so  it  was  a  very  bad 
road  till  the  State  g-ave  it  to  a  plank-road  company,  and  the 
people  soon  rode  on  a  plank  floor,  which  was  good  till  it  rotted 
or  wore  out. 


THE  EARL  V  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  41 

THE  EARLY  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA. 

FROM  THE  PAPERS  OF  D.  D.  BANTA. 

[The  most  ambitious  and  best  known  work  on  education  in  Indiana  is  that 
by  Prof.  Richard  G.  Boone,  which  appeared  in  1892.  The  same  year,  but 
prior  to  the  printing-  of  Mr.  Boone's  book,  Judge  D.  D.  Banta,  then  of  the 
Indiana  University  Law  School,  an  old-time  resident  of  Johnson  county, 
and  author  of  a  history  of  that  county,  published  in  The  Indianapolis 
News  a  series  of  papers  on  this  important  subject.  Judge  Banta's  style  of 
treatment  and  the  ground  he  covers  are  so  widely  different  from  those  of 
Professor  Boone  that  it  is  so  much  new  matter  to  one  familiar  with  Boone. 
The  articles,  largely  anecdotal  and  revealing  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
pioneer  life  and  early  happenings,  give  a  graphic  view  of  conditions 
not  to  be  gleaned  from  a  more  formal  work  based  wholly  upon  scholarship. 
They  have  a  value  all  their  own,  and  should  be  of  interest  to  all  educators. 
The  series  contains  too  much  matter  to  be  reprinted  entire  in  this  maga- 
zine, but  I  have  taken  the  liberty  to  preserve  the  substance  of  them  and 
those  parts  that  seem  to  me  most  valuable  as  real  contributions  to  our 
school  history.  By  the  references  given  the  reader  who  wishes  can  consult 
the  original,  to  be  found  in  files  in  either  the  State  Library  or  the  City 
Library  in  Indianapolis.  There  are  ten  of  the  articles,  which  appear  in 
The  News  of  1892,  under  date  of  January  6,  13,  20,  27;  February  3,  10,  17, 
24;  March  16,  23.  The  articles  will  run  in  these  pages  throughout  the 
year. — Editor.] 

Educational  Status  of  the  Pioneers — First  Schools  in  the  State — Dis- 
tances to  the  School — Private  Houses,  Barns.,  Mills,  etc. ,  as  School- 
houses — Rudeness  of  the  First  Houses  Built — Curious  Styles  of 
Building. 

THKRE  is  a  class  which  entertains  the  belief  that  the  early 
settlers  of  Indiana  were  not  as  well  educated  as  were  the 
early  settlers  of  her  sister  States.  I  think  this  belief  was  quite 
g-enerally  entertained  a  half  century  ag-o,  and,  perhaps,  even 
later  by  the  people  of  these  sister  States.  I  do  not  know  why 
this  belief  should  be  held  by  any  one  to-day.  I  know  of  no  rea- 
son why  the  Indiana  pioneers  should  not  be  considered  as  the 
equals  in  every  respect  of  the  pioneer  settlers  of  any  of  the 
other  States  at  that  period. 


42  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

It  is  stated  by  Gilmore,  in  "The  Advance  Guard  of  Western 
Civilization,"  that  of  the  256  settlers  who  moved  in  1779-80  to 
the  after  site  of  Nashville,  all  but  one  could  write  his  name. 
Of  thirty-six  settlers  on  the  north  side  of  the  Ohio,  within  the 
present  boundaries  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  who  sig-ned  the  petition 
directed  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Harmer,  in  i765,  one  only  sig-ned 
by  his  mark.  Mr.  Roosevelt,  in  writing-  "The  Winning-  of  the 
West,"  had  occasion  to  examine  a  g-reat  many  documents  written 
and  signed  by  the  pioneer  Tennesseeans  and  Kentuckians,  and 
he  g-ives  testimony  as  following-: 

"In  examining-  orig-inal  drafts  of  petitions  and  the  like,  sig-ned 
by  the  hundreds  of  orig-inal  settlers  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky, 
I  have  been  struck  by  the  small  proportion — not  much  over 
three  or  four  per  cent,  at  the  outside — of  men  who  made  their 
mark  instead  of  sig-ning-." 

I  have  no  doubt  that  the  same  fact  would  appear  from  an 
examination  on  as  larg-e  a  scale  of  orig-inal  documents  signed 
by  the  Indiana  pioneers.  I  have  done  a  little  of  that  kind  of 
work  myself  and  have  found  the  same  result  that  Mr.  Roosevelt 
did. 

Of  course,  all  the  schools  of  the  pioneering-  period  were  infe- 
rior to  the  schools  of  to-day.  In  methods  and  appliances  the 
schools  of  the  two  periods  were  as  wide  asunder  as  the  poles, 
but  in  results,  take  it  school  for  school  and  month  for  month,  I 
am  inclined  to  think  the  difference  was  not  so  very  marked. 
Dr.  Boone,  in  his  "History  of  Education  in  Indiana,"*  does  not, 
as  I  remember,  discuss  this  question,  but  if  he  did  he  would 
hardly  ag-ree  with  me.  Nevertheless,  the  evidence  is  abundant 
that  the  pioneer  schoolmasters  were,  in  g-eneral,  fairl}^  efficient 
workers  in  the  schoolroom. 

However  much  or  little  of  school  training-  the  Indiana  pio- 
neers had,  of  two  facts,  I  think,  we  may  be  assured:  1.  They 
differed,  as  a  class,  in  no  respect  as  to  their  education,  from  the 
pioneer  settlers  of  any  other  State  of  that  period.  2.  The  sen- 
timent quite  g-enerally  prevailed  among-  them,  as  it  did  with  the 
people  of  all  other  States,  of  an  earnest  desire  that  their  chil- 
dren should  enjoy  far  more  excellent  educational  privileg-es  than 

♦This  allusion  is  to  Dr.  Boone's  MS. 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  43 

had  fallen  to  their  own  lot.  Or,  in  other  words,  they  enter- 
tained, in  common  with  all  the  United  States  people  of  their  day, 
the  American  idea  of  the  g-reat  value  of  school  training-.  Of  the 
truth  of  these  two  propositions  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
Dr.  Boone,  in  his  history,  makes  it  quite  plain  that  later  on  in 
Indiana  there  came  a  time  when  there  was  a  seeming-  indiffer- 
ence in  educational  affairs  that  was  not  at  all  creditable  to  the 
people  of  the  State,  but  that  charg-e  can  not  in  justice  be  laid  to 
the  door  of  the  first  comers.  The  truth  is,  that  long-  before  any 
steps  had  been  taken  in  Massachusetts  or  New  York,  or  anywhere 
else  in  the  western  world,  looking-  to  a  free-school  system  to  be  sup- 
ported by  the  State,  Indiana,  in  her  org-anic  law,  had  made  pro- 
vision for  a  system  of  free  education,  commencing-  in  the  town- 
ship schools  and  ending-  in  the  State  University,  and  but  for  the 
g-reat  poverty  of  the  people,  which  rendered  the  scheme  abso- 
lutely impracticable,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  would 
have  been  a  free-school  system  in  active  operation  in  this  State 
twenty  years  or  more  before  the  first  blundering-  steps  were  tak- 
en toward  it  in  any  other  State. 

If  one  would  take  the  time  for  it  he  mig-ht  secure  quite  a 
varied  and  extensive  assortment  of  "first  schools"  in  the  State. 
Mr.  Randall  Yarbro,  who  came  to  Clark  county  in  1810,  said: 
"What  was  probably  the  first  school  in  Indiana  was  opened  in 
1811  in  Jeffersonville,  near  the  river  bank."  From  a  work  en- 
titled "Indiana  Methodism"  I  quote:  "The  first  school  of  any 
kind  in  the  territory  of  Indiana  was  taug-ht  one  and  a  half  miles 
south  of  Charlestown,  in  1803."  In  the  summer  of  1796  Volney 
visited  Vincennes,  and  declared  that  nobody  ever  opened, a  school 
among-  the  French  there  till  it  was  done  by  the  Abbe  R.  [Rivet], 
a  missionary  banished  hither  by  the  French  Revolution;  and  he 
adds  the  further  statement  that  "out  of  nine  of  the  French  scarce- 
ly six  could  read  or  write,  whereas  nine-tenths  of  the  American 
emig-rants  from  the  east  could  do  both."  From  the  testimony  of 
John  Tipton,  a  capital-site  commissioner,  we  are  warranted  in 
believing-  that  a  Frenchman  taug-ht  school  in  an  Indian  villag-e, 
situated  on  what  is  now  the  northwest  corner  of  Johnson  county, 
before  M.  Rivet's  day.* 

*For  what  Tipton  says,  see  Vol.  I,  No.  1,  p.  13,  of  this  magazine. 


44  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

The  first  school  within  the  present  borders  of  the  State  was 
a  French  school,  probably  at  Vincennes,  and  the  first  Ang-lo- 
American  school  was  taug-ht  in  Clarksville,  whose  settlement 
was  beg-un  not  later  than  1785,  and  probably  two  or  three  years 
before  that.  At  any  rate,  the  place  was  a  "small  town"  in  1789, 
and  althoug-h  it  was  never  a  place  of  more  than  a  few  log-  houses, 
we  mig-ht  safely  assume  that  schools  of  some  sort  were  provided 
for  the  children  of  the  settlement,  for  this  would  accord  with 
what  I  believe  to  have  been  the  unvarying-  American  practice. 
After  the  peace  of  Greenville,  in  1795,  the  Clark's  Grant  settle- 
ment naturally  g-rew  faster  than  it  did  before,  and  in  1800  its  pop- 
ulation numbered  929.  Surely  there  must  have  been  schools 
maintained  by  this  time.  But  we  are  not  left  to  conjecture 
merely.  Prom  the  old  records  of  Clarksville,  kept  from  the  first, 
there  are  frequent  entries  relating- to  the  schoolhouses  and  school- 
masters almost  from  the  very  first. 

The  presumption  is  next  to  conclusive  that  a  school  was  opened 
in  Dearborn  county  prior  to  1802.  In  the  spring-  of  1796  six- 
teen families  moved  across  the  Big-  Miami  and  became  the  first 
settlers  of  Dearborn  county.  They  had  settled  on  the  Ohio  side 
of  the  Miami  three  years  before,  and  during-  their  three  years' 
sojourn  there  they  org-anized  a  school  and  broug-ht  in  the  first 
schoolmaster  known  to  that  part  of  the  country,  one  Isaac  Polk, 
who  "was  known  far  and  near  as  Master  Polk."  What  these  six- 
teen families  who  moved  on  southeastern  Indiana  soil  in  the 
spring-  of  1796,  and  who  were  joined  by  four  or  five  of  the  fami- 
lies of  the  Ohio  neig-hborhood  the  same  year,  did  in  the  matter 
of  schools,  the  muse  of  history,  unfortunately,  has  not  seen  fit 
to  say.  We  are  left  to  conjecture,  but  with  the  record  made 
during-  the  three  years  of  their  residence  in  Ohio,  we  may  feel 
very  confident  that  the  year  of  their  moving-,  or  at  farthest  the 
following-  one,  marked  the  advent  of  the  schoolhouse  in  southern 
Indiana. 
From  The  News  of  January  20,  iSg2. 

Without  further  discussion,  we  may  accept  that  in  g-eneral, 
whenever  and  wherever  a  neig-hborhood  contained  enoug-h  chil- 
dren to  warrant  the  enterprise,  a  schoolmaster  was  secured  and 
a  school  was  opened.     But  it  must  be  remembered  that  neig-hbor- 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  45 

hoods  in  the  early  days  covered  far  wider  reaches  of  country 
than  is  g-enerally  the  case  now.  To  that  schoolhouse  south  of 
Charlestown  referred  to  in  the  "History  of  Methodism  in  Indi- 
ana," D.  W.  Daily,  of  Clark  county,  went  when  a  small  boy, 
walking-  a  distance  of  three  miles  through  the  woods.  Young- 
Daily's  school  path,  like  thousands  of  others,  was  not  very 
plain,  and  was  sometimes  crossed  by  wild  and  savag-e  beasts. 
His  devoted  mother,  realizing-  the  dang-ers  that  beset  her  boy, 
went  with  him  part  of  the  way  every  morning-,  carrying-  her 
young-est  born  in  her  arms,  and  every  evening-  she  met  him  on 
the  way  as  he  returned  to  his  home.  One  of  the  first  schools 
taug-ht  in  Spencer  county  drew  children  to  it  from  a  distance  of 
four  miles  in  every  direction;  and  it  was  by  no  means  uncommon 
for  school  children  to  trudg-e,  morning-  and  evening-,  three  and 
four  and  even  more  miles  to  attend  their  schools. 

In  the  beg-inning-,  houses  were  not  built  exclusively  for  school 
uses,  if  an  unoccupied  cabin  or  other  place  v/as  found  available 
for  the  purpose.  The  first  school  taug-ht  in  Martinsville,  certain 
chroniclers  say,  was  a  summer  school  on  a  g-entleman's  porch, 
by  Dr.  John  Morrison.  There  are  others,  however,  who  insist 
that  the  first  school  was  taug-ht  in  a  barn  by  James  Conway. 
Barns  were  not  infrequently  turned  into  summer  schoolhouses 
during-  the  pioneer  educational  period.  The  first  school  taug-ht 
in  Newburg-,  Warrick  county,  was  in  John  Sprinkle's  barn,  and 
many  other  barns  were  g-iven  up  during-  part  of  the  temperate 
season  to  the  pedag-og-ue  and  his  pupils.  Mills  were  also  utilized 
on  occasions.  The  first  school  ever  taug-ht  in  the  Eng-lish  lan- 
g-uag-e  in  the  town  of  Vevay  was  by  John  Wilson,  a  Baptist  min- 
ister, in  a  horse  mill.  An  early  school  in  Waynesville,  Barthol- 
omew county,  was  taug-ht  by  a  retired  distiller  in  a  blacksmith 
shop,  which  school,  for  reasons  not  stated,  was  attended  by 
young-  men  and  boys  only.  In  Spencer  county  a  deserted  tan- 
nery was  utilized.  In  Knox,  in  Jackson,  and  perhaps  elsewhere, 
the  old  forts,  after  the  close  of  the  Indian  wars,  were  turned 
into  schoolhouses.  In  the  towns  of  Franklin,  Brownstown,  and 
some  others,  the  log-  court-houses  were  occupied  between  courts. 
In  Dubois  county  Simon  Morg-an,  the  county  recorder,  kept 
school  for  many  years  in  the  recorder's  office.     John  Godlove, 


46  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

of  Delaware  county,  taug-ht  one  of  the  first  schools  in  the  pre- 
cincts of  his  own  kitchen,  while  in  every  county  south  of  the 
Wabash,  and,  doubtless,  north  of  it  also,  abandoned  cabins  of 
one  kind  or  another,  were  quite  frequently  used  for  school 
purposes.* 

The  appropriating  of  the  mills  and  the  forts,  of  the  barns  and 
old  cabins  for  schools  was,  however,  the  exception  and  not  the 
rule.  The  rule  was  that  if  a  house  of  some  kind  was  not  found 
ready-made  when  the  time  for  org-anizing-  a  school  came  around, 
those  expecting-  to  be  its  patrons  usually  made  short  work  of  build- 
ing- one.  The  first  were  the  plainest  and  cheapest  form  of  log- 
cabin.  The  neig-hbors  of  the  Stotts  settlement  on  White  river, 
in  Morg-an  county,  beg-an  and  finished  ready  for  occupancy  their 
schoolhouse  in  one  day.  Of  course,  it  was  the  rudest  of  log- cab- 
ins, but  it  may  well  be  supposed  that  there  were  hundreds  of  not 
much  if  any  better  in  Indiana  from  first  to  last.  I  have  been 
told  of  one  such  that  was  built  and  occupied  in  White  River 
township,  in  Jackson  county,  at  a  very  early  day.  It  was  a  pole 
cabin  without  window,  floor  or  chimney.  The  fire  was  kindled 
on  a  raised  clay  platform  or  hearth  in  the  center,  and  the  sparks 
and  smoke  escaped  throug-h  a  larg-e  opening-  in  the  roof.  The 
children  sat  on  benches  next  the  walls,  facing-  the  center,  and 
studied  their  lessons  by  the  lig-ht  that  came  whence  the  smoke 
escaped.  The  house  was  modeled,  evidently,  after  a  hunters' 
camp.  In  another  part  of  the  same  county,  a  first  temple  of 
learning-  was  erected  and  finished  without  windows  or  opening-s 
for  the  lig-ht  to  come  in  save  at  the  door  and  the  wide  throat  of 
the  enormous  chimney.  A  similar  one  was  a  schoolhouse  in 
Nashville,  this  State.  We  usually  associate  with  the  primitive 
schoolhouses  the  "g-reased  paper  windows,"  but  the  truth  is, 
"paper  g-lass"  marked  a  step  in  the  process  of  the  evolution  of 
these  structures.  In  the  history  of  Spencer  county  the  statement 
is  made  that  the  first  schoolhouses  had  uncovered  opening-s 
throug-h  which  the  lig-ht  entered.  There  were  first  schoolhouses 
elsewhere  in  the  State  that  w^ere  without  windows.  The  paper 
covering-,  made  translucent  by  a  free  use   of  hog-'s  lard  or  bear's 

♦Apropos,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  Hanover  College  had  its  beginning  in  the  little  three- 
room  residence  of  Dr.  John  Finley  Crowe.  When  Mrs.  Crowe's  domestic  duties  made  it 
necessary,  the  class  of  six  boys  repaired  to  the  loom-house,  a  log  structure  of  one  room  de- 
voted to  the  family  weaving.— i'diior. 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  47 

oil,  had  not  yet  been  thoug-ht  of,  but  was  to  come  as  an  improve- 
ment and  mark  an  era  in  the  improvement  of  schoolhouse  archi- 
tecture. The  settlement  of  Spencer  county  was  beg-un  as  early 
as  about  1812,  and  the  statement  may  well  be  true,  for  its 
earliest-built  schoolhouse  belonged  to  the  first  of  the  Territory. 
In  Blue  River  township,  Hancock  county,  the  first  one  was 
built  of  log-s  and  had  five  corners.  It  was  not  chinked  and 
daubed,  had  no  windows,  and  but  one  door.  This  must  have 
been  as  late  as  1830.  The  uncovered  opening's  of  the  Spencer 
county  houses  are  sug-g-estive  of  the  portholes  in  the  blockhouses 
built  during-  the  early  days  as  a  protection  against  the  Indians. 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  after  the  final  cessation  of  Indian 
hostilities  the  old  forts  were  in  some  instances  converted  into 
schoolhouses,  and  I  find  it  recorded  that  a  school  was  taught  in 
1808  in  the  dwelling  house  of  John  Widner,  "which  house  was 
almost  a  fort,"  having  been  constructed  with  special  reference 
to  making  resistance  against  attacks  of  Indians.  Indeed,  there 
is  direct  authority  for  the  statement  that  schoolhouses  were  con- 
structed in  Washington  county  with  portholes  for  shooting  at 
the  Indians,  and  if  in  Washington  county,  we  have  good  reason 
to  suppose  that  they  were  likewise  so  constructed  elsewhere  at 
the  same  time.  I  have  not  come  across  any  record  or  tradition 
to  show  that  a  cabin  full  of  school  children  was  ever  beleaguered 
in  Indiana,  or  even  that  the  schoolmasters  of  the  State  ever  at  any 
time  carried  rifles  to  their  schools  with  which  to  defend  their 
scholars  in  case  of  attack;  but  when  we  remember  how  very 
few  of  the  specific  acts  of  a  man  or  of  men,  which  belong  to 
every-day  life  and  are  not  required  by  some  law  to  be  entered  of 
record,  find  their  way  into  history  books,  we  can  see  that  school- 
masters may  have  gone  armed  to  their  schools  here  in  Indiana, 
and  the  fact  remain  unknown;    and  I  have  no  doubt  they  did. 

While  the  old  schoolhouses  were,  whatever  their  dimensions, 
generally  rectangular  in  shape,  this  was  not  always  true.  I 
find  an  account  of  two  in  Orange  county,  in  Northwest  and 
Southeast  townships  respectively,  that  seem  to  have  been  five- 
sided,  one  end  being  built  "in  the  shape  of  a  fence  corner  for 
a  fireplace."  This  unique  style  of  architecture  may  have  been 
practiced  elsewhere.  In  fact,  a  five-cornered  schoolhouse  was 
erected  in  Hancock  county  as  late  as  1830. 


48  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Can  those  who  attended  the  old  cabin  schoolhouses  ever  forg-et 
the  total  want  of  everything"  connected  with  them  that  was  cal- 
culated to  cheer  and  comfort  the  young-ster  in  his  ascent  of  the 
hill  of  knowledg-e?  No  attempt,  whatever,  was  ever  made  by 
the  men  who  constructed  these  houses  toward  beautifying-  them 
in  any  deg-ree,  and,  judg-ed  by  the  standards  of  to-day,  not  much 
was  done  with  a  view  to  securing-  the  comfort  of  the  children. 

The  following-  description  of  an  old  time  schoolhouse  and  its 
furnishing-s  is  taken  from  "Recollections  of  the  Early  Settlement 
of  the  Wabash  Valley,"  by  Sanford  C.  Cox: 

"The  schoolhouse  was  g-enerally  a  log-  cabin  with  puncheon 
floor,  'cat  and  clay'  chimney,  and  a  part  of  two  log-s  chopped 
away  on  each  side  of  the  house  for  windows,  over  which  g-reased 
newspapers  or  foolscap  was  pasted  to  admit  the  light  and  keep 
out  the  cold.  The  house  was  generally  furnished  with  a  split 
[splint]  bottom  chair  for  the  teacher,  and  rude  benches  made  out 
of  slabs  or  puncheons  for  the  children  to  sit  upon,  so  arrangied 
as  to  g-et  the  benefit  of  the  hug-e  log-  fire  in  the  winter  time,  and 
the  lig-ht  from  the  windows.  To  these  add  a  broom,  a  water- 
bucket,  and  a  tin  cup  or  gourd,  and  the  furniture  list  will  be 
complete." 

The  writer  omits  one  important  adjunct,  viz.,  the  writing- 
table  or  bench,  as  it  was  in  some  schoolhouses  not  inappropriate- 
ly called.  This  usually  consisted  of  a  broad  board,  sawed  or 
sometimes  rived,  nailed  to  stout  pins  driven  into  holes  bored  in 
the  logs  at  a  proper  slant  upward  beneath  the  long  window. 
In  the  absence  of  a  suitable  board,  a  puncheon  hewn  to  a  smooth 
face,  or  even  a  half-log  so  hewn  and  mounted  upon  pins  driven 
into  the  wall  or  upon  stakes  driven  into  the  earth,  was  made  to 
serve  the  purpose  of  a  lighter  writing  table. 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  words  to  point  out  the  squalor  and  dis- 
comfort of  the  old  cabin  schoolhouses.  Most  of  us,  however, 
who  caught  glimpses  of  learning  within  their  portals  in  our 
younger  days,  think  we  treasure  very  tender  recollections  of 
them,  but  I  suspect  the  tender  recollections  are  of  the  youthful 
friendships  we  then  formed,  and  of  the  surrounding  woods  and 
streams  that  witnessed  indulgence  in  all  manner  of  lawful  sports, 
without  a  shadow  of  fear  of  trespassing  on  the  rights  of  others. 
\To  be  continuedJl 


INDIANA  QUARTERLY  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Published  at  Indianapolis,  Indiana. 
George  S.  Cottman,  Editor  and  Proprietor. 

EDITORIAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS. 

THE  RICHMOND  CENTENNIAL. 

Just  now  there  is,  perhaps,  more  local  history  interest  in  Rich- 
mond and  Wayne  county  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  State, 
because  of  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  that 
locality.  The  following-  brief  statement  from  Mr.  Cyrus  W. 
Hodg-in,  president  of  the  Centennial  Association,  will  g-ive  an 
idea  of  the  movement: 

"The  first  white  settlers  on  the  site  of  Richmond  came  there 
in  1806.  This  year,  1906,  is  therefore  the  one  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  event.  At  its  meeting-  in  November,  1905,  the 
Wayne  County  Historical  Society  appointed  a  committee  to  con- 
sult with  the  City  Council  and  a  number  of  other  org-anizations 
concerning-  an  appropriate  celebration  of  the  centennial  of  the 
beg-inning-  of  the  town.  The  Council  approved,  and  appointed  a 
cooperating-  committee.  A  Centennial  Association  has  been 
org-anized,  consisting-  of  representatives  chosen  by  nearly  one 
hundred  fraternal  societies,  churches,  and  literary,  charitable 
and  business  org-anizations.  A  number  of  standing-  committees 
have  been  appointed  to  promote  various  phases  of  the  plan,  and 
the  work  of  preparation  for  the  event  is  now  well  under  way. 

"There  will  be  six  days  devoted  to  the  celebration,  beg-inning 
September  11,  and  closing-  on  Sunday,  the  16th.  It  will  be  a 
time  of  home-coming  for  former  residents,  and  a  program  of  ex- 
cellent variety  and  high  character  will  be  presented  for  the  en- 
joyment of  all.  Old  Richmondites  are  invited  to  send  for  an- 
nouncements." 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  promise  of  a  general 
awakening  in  Richmond  along  this  line.  Indeed,  the  editor  will 
personally  testify  to  this,  for  in  a  recent  visit  to  "The  Queen  of 
all  the  Hoosier  Plain"  he  found  not  a  few  citizens  deeply  en- 
grossed in  the  past  story  of  their  community,  and  all  available 
sources  are  being  drawn  upon.     Old  newspaper  files  are  being 


50  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

hunted  up,  and  the  people  are  urg-ed  to  ransack  their  chests  and 
attics  in  search  of  papers  and  relics.  The  first  Richmond  direc- 
tory, published  in  1857,  contains  a  history  of  the  place,  by  John 
T.  Plummer,  which,  like  Ig-natius  Brown's  directory  history  of 
Indianapolis,  is  the  one  upon  which  all  the  subsequent  histories 
have  been  based.  If  any  one  in  or  out  of  the  county  has  one  of 
those  directories,  now  is  the  time  to  find  a  market  for  it.  The 
press,  particularly  Tne  Su7i-  Telegravi,  is  pushing-  the  movement 
along-  with  enthusiasm,  and  will  be  an  effective  instrument  in 
promoting-  popular  interest  by  its  publication  throug-h  the  sum- 
mer of  reminiscences  and  history  papers  g-leaned  from  old  res- 
idents and  students  of  the  earlier  day. 

WHAT  THEY  ARE  DOING  IN  IOWA. 

Iowa  is  one  of  the  States  young-er  than  Indiana  where  they 
have  come  to  perceive  the  value  of  their  own  history  and  have 
taken  steps  to  preserve  it.  In  connection  with  their  State  Li- 
brary they  have  a  Historical  Department,  and  to  these  are  de- 
voted a  handsome  edifice  of  imposing-  proportions.  Moreover, 
from  this  Historical  Department  is  issued  a  quarterly  historical 
mag-azine  {A7inals  of  Iowa) ^  which  is  one  of  the  best  of  its  kind 
published  in  the  country.  With  the  State  support  back  of  it,  it 
is  enabled  to  add  to  its  letter-press  many  illustrations  and  charts 
— a  very  desirable  feature  which,  so  far,  this  mag-azine  has  not 
been  able  to  do,  except  in  a  very  limited  way.  A  letter  to  the 
editor  of  Annals,  Mr.  Charles  Aldrich,  relative  to  the  local  his- 
tory interest  there,  has  elicited  the  following- reply: 

"Your  letter  of  the  28th  ult.,  came  yesterday.  You  asked  me 
how  I  started  this  work.  It  was  simply  by  g-iving-  a  boy's  auto- 
g-raph  collection,  and  being-  oblig-ed  to  come  here  and  see  that  it 
was  taken  care  of,  where  it  woilld  otherwise  have  been  utterly 
wasted.  In  order  to  g-et  a  case  for  its  reception,  I  had  to  'hang- 
around'  the  capitol  some  little  time  at  my  own  expense.  It  did 
not  seem  that  I  could  leave  the  collection  ung-uarded  without  dan- 
g-er  of  its  destruction,  so  I  stayed  and  stayed.  A  little  investi- 
g^ation  showed  me  that  the  State  was  doing-  nothing-  at  that  time 
to  preserve  the  materials  of  its  history,  so  in  a  small  way  I  be- 
g-an  to  'beg-'  files  of  newspapers,  books,  pamphlets  and  public 
documents  which  were  out  of  print,  and  which  were  not  other- 


EDITORIAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  51 

wise  much  esteemed,  but  which  contained  some  of  the  materials 
that  a  State  historian  would  require.  I  found  that  Wisconsin 
had  the  histories  of  seventy  Iowa  counties,  while  our  State  Li- 
brary contained  but  half  that  number,  with  only  one  dilapidated 
volume  on  North  American  Indians,  and  on  several  tribes  that 
had  made  their  homes  in  what  is  now  Iowa. 

"Gradually,  these  ideas  forced  themselves  upon  me,  and  before 
I  was  hardly  aware  of  it,  I  became  a  collector.  I  soon  begfan  to 
receive  prehistoric  stone  implements,  arms  which  were  in  use  in 
the  civil  war,  specimens  of  birds  and  animals,  minerals,  fossils, 
ancient  implements  and  furniture,  etc.,  etc.  Seeing-  what  I  was 
doing-,  the  Leg-islature  finally  g-ave  me  the  use  of  three  vacant 
rooms  in  the  basement  of  the  capitol  building-.  Looking-  back 
upon  those  days  it  seems  an  incomparably  short  time  until  the 
rooms  were  filled  to  overflowing-.  Then,  g-radually  the  idea  of  a 
building-  for  this  special  purpose  seemed  to  be  evolved,  and  mat- 
ters prog-ressed  in  the  usual  way  until  June  17,  1899,  when  the 
cornerstone  of  the  present  edifice  was  laid  by  Governor  Shaw. 
Since  then,  our  prog-ress  has  been  quite  rapid.  Our  museum  has 
developed  until  it  has  become  an  object  of  State-wide  attrac- 
tion, not  to  the  people  of  wealth  and  to  those  who  travel 
widely,  but  to  the  common  people  of  Iowa. 

"If  I  can  do  anything-  further  to  assist  you,  it  will  afford  me 
very  g-reat  pleasure." 

"P.  S,  I  had  almost  forg-otten  to  mention  your  admirable 
uxag-azine.  You  are  doing-  splendidly  and  it  oug-ht  to  command 
support.  If  you  can  continue  it  as  you  have  started,  it  will  be 
a  g-reat  help  to  your  other  work.  In  fact,  I  am  of  the  opinion 
that  our  Aimals  of  Iowa  has  done  more  to  develop  and  expand 
this  work  than  almost  any  other  instrumentality  except  the 
museum.  It  bring-s  to  us  exchang-es  with  more  than  three  hund- 
red newspapers  and  historical  mag-azines,  not  only  throug-hout 
the  United  States,  but  in  foreig-n  countries.  It  serves  to  preserve 
many  of  the  materials  of  history,  and  we  now  have  a  constant 
demand  for  back  numbers  from  schools,  colleges  and  libraries, 
as  well  as  individuals,  all  over  the  country.  I  have  been  com- 
pelled to  reprint  several  numbers.  I  think  I  mentioned  your 
magazine  when  it  was  first  started,  for  I  have  a  distinct  recol- 
lection that  it  greatly  pleased  me." 


52  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

WORK  OF  THE  MONROE  COUNTY  SOCIETY. 

The  Monroe  County  Historical  Society,  org-anized  but  a  year 
ag-o,  has  maintained  the  vig-or  with  which  it  started  out,  and 
in  a  prog-ram  recently  issued  for  1905-1906  we  find  an  admira- 
ble showing-.  The  meeting-s  are  held  monthly  throug-hout  the 
year  except  Aug-ust,  and  at  present  not  less  than  fifteen  papers 
have  been  prepared  or  are  promised.  Those  that  have  been  read 
are:  ''Reminiscences  of  Indiana  University  Forty  Years  Ag-o" 
(published  in  Vol.  1,  No.  3,  of  this  mag-azine);  "Hon.  James 
Hug-hes,"  by  Henry  C.  Duncan;  "The  History  of  the  Blooming-- 
ton  Water-Works,"  by  Ira  C.  Batman;  "James  Parks,  Pioneer," 
by  Jonathan  W.  Ray;  "Old  Water  Mills  in  Monroe  County,"  by 
Williamson  B.  Seward;  "My  Grandmother  Seward's  Stories  of 
Pioneer  Times,"  by  Miss  Marg-aret  McCulloug-h;  "Early  Elec- 
tions in  Monroe  County,"  by  Frank  C.  Duncan;  "Sketch  of 
Dudley  Chase  Smith,  of  Vermont,"  by  his  son,  Dudley  F.  Smith; 
"The  Rog-ers  Family  in  Monroe  County,"  by  Leonidas  D.  Rog-ers; 
"My  Grandmother  Elizabeth  Grundy  Dunn,"  by  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Dunn  Leg-g-. 

Those  on  the  prog-ram  yet  to  be  read  are,  dates  and  subjects, 
as  follows: 

March  16,  "The  Blooming-ton  Christian  Church,"  by  Amzi  At- 
water;  April  20,  "Notes  from  the  Journal  of  Dr.  Theophilus  A. 
Wylie,"  by  Mrs.  Louise  Wylie  Boisen;  May  18,  "The  Univer- 
sity in  the  Later  Fifties,"  by  Judg-e  John  C.  Robinson;  June  15, 
"A  Sketch  of  Austin  Seward,"  by  Henry  C.  Duncan;  July  20, 
"Monroe  County  Stone  Quarries,"  by  Williamson  B.  Seward. 

To  quote  from  the  prog-ram: 

"A  number  of  subjects  are  in  contemplation  from  which  the 
prog-ram  for  the  year  1906-1907  will  be  made  up.  Among-  these 
are  'The  Monon  Railroad,'  by  Mr.  Carter  Perring-;  'The  Blooming-- 
ton  Public  Schools  from  the  Records  of  the  School  Board,'  by  Mr. 
W.  A.  Rawles;  'The  Immig-ration  of  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyteri- 
ans to  Monroe  County,'  by  Mr.  J.  A.  Woodburn;  'The  Old  Monroe 
County  Female  Seminary,'  by  Mr.  Amzi  Atwater;  'The  History 
of  Org-anized  Charities  in  Blooming-ton,'  by  Mrs.  Minnie  B.  Wal- 
dron;  'Company  K,  14th  Indiana  Volunteers  in  the  Civil  War,' 
by  Miss  Mary  Kelly;  'The  Beg-inning-s  of  the  City  Hospital,'  by 
Mrs.  Maude  Showers. 


EDITORIAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  S3 

"The  society  hopes  to  secure  in  time,  a  history  of  each  re- 
ligious denomination  in  the  county  and  of  individual  congre- 
g-atious.  It  seeks  the  cooperation  of  clerks  of  sessions  and  of 
cong-reg-ational  secretaries  and  pastors  to  this  end. 

"It  is  the  intention  of  the  society  to  preserve  typewritten  cop- 
ies of  all  the  papers  read  before  the  society,  to  be  bound  in  an- 
nual volumes. 

LOCAL   HISTORY   CONTRIBUTIONS. 

POST   VINCENNES — A   SUMMARY   OF    THE   EVIDENCE    RELATING  TO 
ITS   ESTABLISHMENT. 

A  pamphlet  of  some  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  words  bearing- 
this  title  has  recently  been  issued  by  F.  A.  Myers,  of  Evansville. 
As  the  sub-title  implies,  it  is  a  study  in  the  sources  that  touch 
upon  the  old  post,  and  particularly  upon  the  date  of  its  establish- 
ment. There  is  ample  evidence  in  the  text  that  the  study  has 
been  searching-  and  painstaking-,  and  it  has  much  collateral  in- 
formation that  is  of  interest.  Just  what  it  adds  to  the  subject 
only  an  expert  could  tell.  We  frankly  confess  ourselves  some- 
what stupid  in  the  attempt  to  ^^i  at  the  merits  of  this  particular 
kind  of  a  question.  The  date  of  the  establishment  of  Vincennes 
is  involved  in  much  haze,  and  the  probabilities  are  that  it  will 
never  be  less  hazy.  The  evidence  at  best  but  affords  grounds 
for  surmise,  and  the  surmising  varies  with  the  ingenuity  of  the 
investigator,  just  as,  in  the  contentions  that  spring  up,  the  most 
ingenious  reasoner  triumphs  quite  regardless,  perhaps,  of  the 
actual  facts  in  the  case.  Mr.  Myers  takes  vigorous  exceptions 
to  certain  conclusions  of  Mr.  J.  P.  Dunn  on  this  subject,  but  we 
think  he  might  have  presented  a  clearer  summary  of  his  own  ar- 
gument, the  exact  scope  of  which  is  uncertain  on  a  casual  read- 
ing. The  pamphlet,  nevertheless,  we  repeat,  is  a  careful  and 
lengthy  study  of  the  question  from  such  data  as  exist,  and  as 
such  should  be  in  the  collection  of  every  one  who  is  gathering 
Indiana  material.  The  author's  address  is  724  Upper  Third 
street,  Evansville,  Ind. 

Newspaper  Articles.  There  is  much,  in  fact,  a  surprising 
amount,  of  valuable  history  material  being  continually  publish- 
ed by  the  local  papers  throughout  the  State.     Very  often  this  is 


$4  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

riot  preserved,  even  by  the  publishing-  papers,  and  in  a  short 
time  passes  into  utter  oblivion.  We  shall  be  g-lad  to  receive 
for  notice  in  these  pag"es  any  articles  of  note  that  have  been  so 
published,  either  recently  or  at  any  previous  period.  Some  have 
been  received  and  we  here  give  them  space. 

The  True  Site  of  Fort  Knox,  by  Dr.  Hubbard  M.  Smith,  in  the 
Sunday  Commercial^  of  Vincennes,  January  7,  1906.  In  this  article 
Dr.  Smith  proves  by  good  documentary  evidence  that  Fort  Knox 
(the  American  fort  in  that  locality  that  succeeded  to  Fort  Sack- 
ville)  Wcis  located  at  Vincennes,  about  two  hundred  yards  below 
the  present  foot  of  Hart  street.  It  has  been  generally  believed 
that  this  fort  stood  at  a  point  some  three  miles  up  the  river, 
but  Mr,  Smith  makes  it  tolerably  clear  that  the  establishment 
located  there  was  not  the  fort,  but  a  garrison,  and  that  there  has 
arisen  a  confusion  respecting  the  two.  He  makes  an  appeal  to 
the  Daughters  of  the  Revolution  to  place  a  marker  at  this  site, 
as  they  have  already  marked  old  Fort  Sackville. 

TJie  George  Lay  Raid,  a  series  of  ten  papers  by  John  T. 
Campbell,  in  the  Rockville  Republican,  May  9  to  July  11,  1894. 
This  series  makes  an  interesting  chapter  in  our  civil  war  his- 
tory and  recounts  Mr.  Campbell's  experiences  as  an  of&cer  with 
the  disaffected  element  in  Parke  county.  The  articles  give  a 
graphic  idea  of  the  spirit  of  the  times  and  the  serious  proportions 
of  organized  rebellion  in  that  locality.  Some  of  these  papers, 
we  believe,  may  still  be  procured.  Mr.  Campbell's  address  is 
The  Soldiers'  Home,  Lafayette. 

The  Unnamed  Anti-Slavery  Heroes  of  Old  Nezaport,  by  Dr.  O.  N. 
Huff,  in  the  Richmond  Sun-  Telegram,  December  25,  1905.  This 
rather  lengthy  paper  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  anti-slavery 
history  of  Wayne  county,  in  that  it  preserves  a  record  of  the 
names  and  services  of  active  workers  in  that  cause  who  have 
received  little  or  no  credit  in  the  histories  previously  written. 
There  is  quite  a  list  of  these  names,  and  the  part  some  of  them 
played  makes  an  interesting  story. 

The  New  Harmony  Papers.  The  New  Harynony  Times  is  doing 
a  good  work  by  giving  to  the  public  documentary  material  from 
the  rich  collection  in  the  New  Harmony  Library.  The  journals 
of  William  Owen  and  William  Pelham,  from  the  original  manu- 
scripts,   have  been  running  for  some  months,  and  the  reminis- 


EDITORIAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  55 

cences  of  the  late  Victor  Duclos  have  been  recently  begun.  All  of 
these  papers  deal  with  the  famous  Rappite  and  Owen  commun'- 
ities  and  have  a  far  more  than  local  interest.  The  Duclos  ar- 
ticles will  be  followed  by  a  diary  of  James  Bennett,  who  went  to 
California  across  the  plains  in  1849,  and  Mr.  Wolfe,  the  editor, 
promises  that  it  will  offer  '*a  rare  addition  to  the  information 
that  has  been  left  of  the  once  unknown  West." 

The  Genesis  of  Methodism  in  Richmond,  by  the  Rev.  O.  S.  Har^ 
rison,  in  the  Sun-  Telegram,  February  14,  1906,  is,  as  the  title  im- 
plies, a  local  contribution  to  the  history  of  the  State,  and  as 
such  will  be  of  interest  to  the  student  of  that  subject. 

Edward  Swanson^  the  romantic  story  of  a  strange  character  who 
was  hang-ed  for  murder  in  Rushville,  in  1829 — a  series  of  arti- 
cles by  Dr.  John  Arnold,  in  the  Rushville  Graphic^  in  August 
and  September,  1897.  These  papers  contain  considerable  lore  of 
Rush  county.  Dr.  Arnold  also  published  a  series  of  '•Reminis- 
cences" in  the  Rushville  Republican^  beginning  January,  1875. 

INDIAN   MOUNDS    IN    DEKALB   COUNTY. 
Editor  the  Indiana  Magazine  of  History: — 

References  in  the  December  number  of  the  Indiana  Quarterly 
Magazine  of  History,  to  the  old  Indiana  Torture  Stake  near 
Muncie,  have  suggested  to  me  an  explanation  of  a  discovery 
made  by  me  while  examining  some  of  the  mounds  in  DeKalb 
county.  I  examined  a  great  many  of  these  mounds.  Most  of 
them  contained  human  bones,  fragments  of  pottery,  and  an  oc- 
casional arrow-head,  stone  hammer,  or  stone  flesher. 

Two  of  these  mounds  were  on  the  bank  of  Cedar  creek,  about 
one-half  mile  northwest  of  Waterloo.  Large  trees  were  grow- 
ing around  them,  and  quite  a  large  tree  grew  about  in  the  cen- 
ter of  one  of  them, — the  smaller  of  the  two.  The  large  mound 
was  about  twelve  feet  in  diameter,  and  about  four  and  one-half 
or  five  feet  in  hight.  It  contained  the  skeleton  of  one  person, 
apparently  buried  in  a  sitting  posture.  The  other  contained 
the  remains  of  a  number  of  persons.  The  bodies  had  apparently 
been  placed  in  a  heap  on  the  ground,  and  covered  with  earth. 
Fractures  of  some  of  the  skulls  indicated  violent  deaths.  Above 
the  earth  covering  the  bodies  was  a  layer  of  stone  and  over  this 
more  earth  and  a  thick  layer  of  charcoal  mingled  with  charred 


56  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

frag-ments  of  human  bones.  At  that  time,  after  a  careful  ex- 
amination, I  concluded  that  these  mounds  marked  the  site  of  a 
battle;  that  the  victors  of  those  left  in  possession  of  the  field 
had  made  these  mounds  the  burial  place  of  their  dead,  and  had 
burned  the  bodies  of  their  dead  enemies  on  the  mound  above 
them.  The  description  of  the  old  torture  stake  at  Muncie  sug-- 
g-ests  that  instead  of  the  bodies  of  their  dead  enemies,  they  may 
have  burned  living-  victims.  Very  respectfully, 

Robert  W.  McBridk. 

Indianapolis,  Januai"}'  10,  1906. 

STATE   TKACHKRS'   HISTORY  SECTION. 

The  ninth  annual  meeting  of  the  History  Section  of  the  In- 
diana State  Teachers'  Association  will  meet  at  the  Claypool 
Hotel,  in  Indianapolis,  on  Friday  and  Saturday,  April  27  and  28, 
1906.     Following  is  the  program: 

Friday,  2:00  p.  m. — Report  of  committee  on  local  history,  C.  W,  Hodgin, 
chairman;  discussion  opened  by  Prof.  W.  S.  Davis,  Richmond  Hig-h 
School  (Professor  Davis  is  chairman  of  the  History  Committee  of  the 
Richmond  Centennial  Association,  and  will  show  what  may  be  done, 
by  what  Richmond  is  preparing-  for  her  Centennial  next  September); 
report  of  committee  on  history  in  the  grades.  Prof.  E.  W.  Kemp, 
chairman;  general  discussion;  appointment  of  committees. 
6:00  P.  M. — Dine  together  at  the  Claypool. 

8:00  p.  M. — Joint  session  of  the  History  Section  and  the  Indiana  Histori- 
cal Society;  paper,  "Making  a  Capital  in  the  Wilderness,"  by  Judge 
Daniel  Waite  Howe,  president  of  the  Historical  Society;  talk,  "Work 
of  the  Historical  Society,"  by  Hon.  J.  P.  Dunn,  its  secretary;  talk, 
"Aims  of  the  History  Section,  and  Possible  Ways  of  Cooperation 
Between  the  Two  Societies,"  by  Dr.  James  A.  Woodburn;  general  dis- 
cussion. 

Saturday,  9:00  a.  m.  Address,  "An  Experiment  with  History  in  the 
Grades,"  by  Prof.  Henry  Johnson,  of  the  Eastern  Illinois  State  Nor- 
mal School;  general  discussion;  address,  "Evolution  of  the  Present 
Wave  of  Reform,"  by  Hon.  E.  B.  Swift;  election  of  officers;  miscel- 
laneous business. 
Headquarters  at  the  Claypool,  which   furnishes  free  Assembly  Room, 

and  offers  a  $2.50  rate,  two  in  a  room;   S3.00,  one  in  a  room. 
All  teachers  of  history  and  related  subjects  are  cordially  invited  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  pleasure  and  profit  of  all  the  sessions. 


GEORGE  W.  JULIAN,  W17-1899 


THE  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Vol.  II  JUNE,  1906  No.  2 

GEORGE  W.  JULIAN:    SOME  IMPRESSIONS. 

BY  HIS  DAUGHTER,  MRS.  GRACE  JULIAN  CLARKE. 

"The  dear  and  g-ood  paternal  imag-e." 

— Dante. 

OF  my  father's  political  career  I  could  have  no  knowledg-e  at 
first  hand,  because  it  was  mainly  finished  before  I  was  old 
enoug-h  to  remember.  I  knew  him  only  as  an  old  man  and  a 
semi-invalid;  but  these  two  facts,  coupled  with  the  sudden  death 
of  my  mother  in  1884,  brought  me  into  very  close  and  intimate 
relations  with  him.  And  it  is  my  conviction  that  his  public 
services,  valuable  and  disinterested  as  they  were,  were  yet  not 
so  remarkable  as  was  the  man  himself,  which  prompts  me  to  g-ive 
to  his  friends  this  little  sketch  of  my  father  as  he  appeared  to  me, 
supplemented  by  a  few  facts  gathered  from  him  and  from  others. 

Life  was  truly  a  boon  to  him,  increasing-  in  value  with  the 
years.  It  was,  moreover,  a  momentous  reality,  an  experience 
not  to  be  idly  or  carelessly  passed  throug-h,  but  a  privileg-e  into 
which  should  be  crowded  as  much  of  useful  achievement  as 
possible.  It  was  not  mere  existence  that  he  loved.  Activity 
was  his  delig"ht,  and  he  fretted  under  enforced  idleness.  He 
dreaded  unspeakably  the  loss  of  his  faculties,  and  during-  the 
last  few  years  the  words  of  John  Quincy  Adams  about  his 
"shaking-  hand,  darkening-  eye  and  drowsy  brain"  seemed  to 
possess  new  meaning-  for  him.  Ever  on  the  alert  for  sig-ns  of 
failing- mental  power,  he  was  a  severe  task-master  to  himself,  for 
he  believed  that  he  could  at  least  hinder  the  ravag-es  of  time  by 
keeping-  his  mind  employed.  It  is  probable  that  the  final  catas- 
trophe was  precipitated  by  the  continuous  strain,  during-  exces- 
sively warm  weather,  occasioned  in  the  preparation  of  a  book  re- 
view for  The  Dial.  This  meant  double  work  for  the  brain  g-rown 
slug-g-ish  with  ag-e  and  supported  by  an  increasing-ly  feeble  body. 

Althoug-h   stinted  in   sleep  for  more  than  thirty  years,    and 


58  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

bowed  down  by  growing-  infirmities,  my  father  manifested  a 
certain  pug-nacity  in  facing-  distressing-  conditions  that  not  only 
made  them  bearable,  but  lent  a  sort  of  color  to  life.  It  was  not 
a  part  of  his  philosophy  to  ignore  evil  and  unfortunate  circum- 
stances, as  it  has  become  fashionable  nowadays  to  do,  but  rather 
to  face  them  in  all  their  might  and  ug-liness,  and  then  set  to 
work  to  overcome  them.  Among  the  lines  that  he  repeated 
oftenest  were  these  from  Browning's  Easter  Day: 

"A.nd.  so  I  live,  you  see. 
Go  throug-h  the  world,  ti'y,  prove,  reject, 
Prefer,  still  striving-  to  effect 
My  warfare;    happy  that  I  can 
Be  crossed  and  thwarted  as  a  uian, 
Not  left  in  God's  contempt  apart, 
With  ghastly  smooth  life,  dead  at  heart," 

When  attacked  by  the  grippe,  which  occurred  quite  regularly 
during  the  last  few  years,  he  would  keep  his  room  at  first  with 
rather  a  bad  grace,  for  he  loved  to  be  down  among  his  books, 
where  he  could  see  people;  but  presently,  having  become  ad- 
justed to  the  situation,  he  would  set  himself  to  pointing  out  its 
pleasant  features — the  east  and  south  windows,  the  open  fire, 
the  pictures  on  the  walls, — pictures  of  the  capitol  and  of  the 
Thirty-first  Congress,  of  Horace  Greeley,  Thaddeus  Stevens  and 
others.  Sunshine  was  a  perpetual  delight  to  him,  and  the  fleet- 
ing- g-lory  of  the  dawn  was  worth  a  g-reat  effort  to  behold. 
Once,  when  he  was  recovering-  from  pneumonia,  I  was  shocked 
and  a  bit  provoked,  on  g-oing-  into  his  room  very  early  in  the 
morning,  to  find  him  standing-  at  the  window  g-azing-  out,  al- 
though it  was  quite  cold  and  he  was  not  dressed;  but  he  won 
forgiveness  by  hurrying-  back  to  bed,  saying  g-aily:  "I  had  to 
get  up  to  see  'jocund  day  standing  tiptoe  upon  the  misty  mountain 
tops'!"  The  branches  of  the  maples  as  they  swayed  to  and  fro 
outside  his  window  spoke  a  languag-e  very  sweet  and  quieting, 
and  the  birds  were  a  constant  source  of  pleasure  to  him.  The 
sight  of  a  storm  seemed  to  fascinate  him,  and  he  would  g-o  from 
one  room  to  another  to  g-et  new  views  of  it,  his  face  wearing  a 
look  of  mingled  aw^e  and  delight.  The  twilight  hour  was  a 
precious  time;  he  liked  then  to  have  a  loved  one  beside  him,  by 
the  fire  in  winter  and  under  the  trees  in  summer,  and  to  sit  in 


GEORGE   IV.  JULIAN:     SOME  IMPRESS  10 1\  S        59 

silent  meditation,  or  repeating-  poetry,  or  talking-  of  the  day's 
doings  and  the  morrow's  plans.  Always  a  great  walker,  he 
rather  prided  himself  on  his  three  miles  a  day  at  eig-hty,  and 
his  figure  was  a  familiar  one  in  all  parts  of  the  villag-e.  But  al- 
though "the  old  perfections  of  the  earth"  appealed  to  him  more 
and  more  with  the  passing-  years,  they  never  took  the  place  of 
human  society.  "What  should  we  do  without  people?"  he  mur- 
mured, g-azing-  out  at  neighbors  passing-  by,  on  the  day  before 
he  laid  him  down  for  the  last  time.  Unfailing-  courage,  and 
ever-fresh  enjoyment  of  nature  and  of  the  varying-  phases  of  hu- 
man experience,  were  among  his  most  pronounced  characteristics. 

Children  came  very  close  to  him,  and  he  had  the  art  of  enter- 
taining them  without  apparent  effort.  He  had  a  fund  of  bear 
stories,  and  there  was  a  favorite  tale  about  Captain  Scott  and  the 
Coons.  General  Putnam  and  the  Wolf  was  another  thrilling-  re- 
cital. In  relating-  these  there  was  more  or  less  dramatic  acces- 
sory, and  when  the  gun  went  off,  "she-bang-!"  was  alwa3's  the 
climax. 

Whatever  my  father  did  he  put  his  v/hole  heart  into.  He 
worked  impetuously  and  indefatigably,  and  he  played  as  he 
worked.  In  his  youth  he  had  enjoyed  the  g-ameof  Town  Ball, 
and  his  special  delight  always  as  a  recreation  from  intellectual 
labor  was  to  toss  a  rubber  ball  against  the  house,  keeping-  it  on 
the  bound  sometimes  ten  or  fifteen  hundred  times.  The  g-ames 
of  Base,  and  Hide  and  Seek,  and  Blind  Man's  Buff  were  also 
favorites;  but  it  was  largely  his  own  enthusiasm  and  the  aban- 
don with  which  he  entered  into  them  that  made  them  fascinat- 
ing. This  it  was  that  made  his  society  so  engaging, — the  en- 
thusiasm he  felt  for  people  and  thing-s,  coupled  with  an  air  of 
wisdom,  as  of  one  having-  a  horizon  much  wider  than  the  av- 
erage, every-day  horizon. 

His  opinions  were  uttered  with  a  freedom  and  spontaneity  that 
were  refreshing,  and  yet  with  a  seriousness  and  tone  of  authori- 
ty that  were  the  fruit  of  deep  thinking  and  long-  experience.  It 
was  Miss  Catharine  Merrill,  for  fifty  years  a  teacher  of  English, 
who  said  that  he  talked  in  such  complete  sentences  that  they 
had  the  quality  of  literature.  I  believe  he  never  spoke  without 
previous  thought. 

In  all  his  talk  there  was  a  deep  relig-ious  vein,  a  spirit  of  faith 


60  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

in  the  Eternal  Goodness,  that  was  tonic  in  effect.  In  his  article 
entitled  "A  Search  After  Truth"  he  called  himself  a  Theist, 
and  expressed  his  belief  in  personal  immortality  on  the  strength 
of  the  human  affections  and  because  he  could  not  think  that  "the 
unappeasable  hunger  of  the  soul  for  so  priceless  a  blessing  was 
implanted  to  be  ungratified."  He  believed  in  the  simple  hu- 
manity of  Jesus  and  in  the  renovating-  and  ever-uplifting  power 
of  his  life  and  teachings  in  raising  the  world  to  higher  and  yet 
higher  conditions.  The  life  and  suif  erings  of  the  Nazarene  were 
habitually  in  his  thovights,  and  the  story  of  the  crucifixion  al- 
ways brought  tears  to  his  eyes.  Perhaps  the  most  touching  and 
terrible  passage  in  literature,  to  him,  was  the  sentence,  "My  God, 
my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  This  picture  of  awful 
agony  and  utter  loneliness  was  one  not  to  be  dwelt  on,  that  yet 
laid  hold  of  the  heart  and  imagination. 

Reverence  was  a  marked  characteristic  of  my  father — rever- 
ence for  God,  and  Truth,  and  Duty.  He  was  a  good  deal  of  a 
hero-worshiper,  too,  and  certain  names  were  always  spoken  with 
tender  regard  and  a  glow  of  pride.  Among  these  were  Plato, 
Dante,  Bruno,  Milton,  Mazzini.  But  all  his  heroes  did  not  belong 
to  the  past.  He  had  numerous  idols  among  the  men  of  his  own 
time.  Over  the  mantel  in  his  library  hung  portraits  of  William 
Ellery  Channing,  Theodore  Parker  and  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson, 
saint,  reformer  and  seer,  as  he  called  them.  It  was  not  his  priv- 
ilege to  have  known  John  Quincy  Adams,  the  latter  having 
died  the  year  before  my  father  entered  Congress.  But  Mr. 
Adams's  character  impressed  him  as  few  others  did,  and  he  was 
almost  as  familiar  with  his  career  as  with  the  alphabet. 
Charles  Sumner  was  another  statesman  of  Abdiel-like  propor- 
tions, whose  greatness  seemed  to  tower  higher  with  the  reced- 
ing years. 

Deference  to  old  people  was  a  trait  always  observed  in  my 
father, — so  I  am  told  by  his  surviving  cousins.  The  loneliness 
of  the  aged,  even  in  the  most  favored  conditions,  appealed  to  him; 
and  the  sight  of  age  coupled  with  want  caused  him  a  pang  only 
equaled  perhaps  by  the  spectacle  of  a  mind  in  ruins.  To  see 
one  whom  he  had  known  in  the  vigor  of  manhood  fallen  into  a 
condition  of  mental  decay  was  not  only  unspeakably  sad,  but  it 
seemed  to  fill  him  with  a  sort  of  awe. 


GEORGE   W.  JULIAN:     SOME  IMPRESSIOAS        61 

My  father  was  fond  of  the  theater,  particularly  in  middle  life, 
when  he  went  as  a  relaxation  from  the  work  and  worry  connected 
with  the  war  period.  Joseph  Jefferson  as  Rip  Van  Winkle  he 
went  to  see  annually,  if  possible,  and  he  liked  to  repeat  Rip's 
farewell  as  he  departed  in  the  storm,  and  his  beseeching-  words 
to  his  new-made  friends  in  the  mountains:  "Boys,  do  not  leave 
me."  The  elder  Sothern  as  Lord  Dundreary  pleased  him  infi- 
nitely, and  he  imitated  to  perfection  the  puzzled  look  of  Dun- 
dreary when  the  latter  attempted  to  repeat  proverbs.  The  fun- 
ny little  hop,  or  skip,  that  v/as  also  characteristic  of  Sothern  in 
this  part,  he  could  rehearse  capitally,  and  did  so  during-  the  last 
weeks  of  his  life.  The  Booths,  father  and  son,  and  Fanny 
Kemble,  were  favorites.  Edwin  Forrest  as  King-  Lear  he  never 
missed  an  opportunity  of  seeing-,  and  I  think  he  felt  real  pity  for 
the  man  or  woman  who  had  never  heard  Forrest's  tone  when  he 
called  on  the  dead  Cordelia  to  "stay  a  little."  To  the  end  of  his 
life  he  spoke  with  enthusiastic  delight  of  Jenny  Lind  and  Christine 
Nillson.  He  had  not  what  is  called  a  cultivated  ear,  his  taste 
being-  for  simple  thing-s,  especially  for  the  Scotch  ballads.  His 
voice  was  sweet  and  melodious,  and  he  sang-  almost  every  day. 
Sometimes  it  was  a  hymn  that  he  had  learned  in  childhood,  but 
more  often  it  was  one  of  Burns's  song-s, — the  Banks  o'  Doon,  Auld 
Lang-  Syne,  or  Hig-hland  Mary;  and  his  voice  rang-  out  with 
peculiar  fervor  to  the  thrilling-  strains  of  Bannockburn. 

In  his  youth  he  had  committed  to  memory  a  g-reat  deal  of  poet- 
ry, and  this  he  retained  in  large  measure  to  the  last,  while  he 
reg-ularly  added  to  his  stock  from  the  g-ood  thing-s  that  appeared 
from  time  to  time.  As  he  lay  awake  at  nig-ht  he  would  repeat 
pag-e  after  page  of  Paradise  Lost,  and  occasionally  some  frag- 
ment that  he  had  learned  some  fifty  or  sixty  years  before  would 
come  floating  across  his  memory,  called  from  its  hiding  place 
none  knew  how.  Until  within  the  last  fifteen  years,  if  asked 
who  was  his  favorite  poet  after  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  he  would 
probably  have  said  Tennyson;  but  about  1885  he  became  inter- 
ested in  the  poetry  of  Robert  Browning,  from  which  he  derived 
great  pleasure,  and  he  repeated  more  of  Browning,  I  think,  than 
of  Tennyson  thereafter.  "In  Memoriam"  remained  without  a 
rival  in  his  regard,  but  there  was  a  certain  strength,  a  tone  of 
courage,  about  much  of  Browning's  work  that  touched  in  him  a 
responsive  chord. 


62  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

He  had  a  peculiar  regard  for  books.  They  almost  seemed  to 
possess  sentient  life,  and  he  could  not  endure  to  see  them  tum- 
bled about  carelessly.  In  the  primitive  society  of  his  young- 
days  books  were  very  rare  and  precious,  and  he  never  ceased  to 
regard  them  in  that  light.  He  cared  greatly  for  philosophy, 
history,  biography,  and  sermons  of  men  like  Martineau  and 
Channing.  Novels  he  knew  little  about,  and  he  used  to  say  that 
his  early  education  along  this  line  had  been  neglected;  but  I 
fancy  he  did  not  realize  how  vast  and  important  was  the  field 
from  which  he  was  thus  excluded.  He  had,  of  course,  read  cer- 
tain classics,  such  as  Tristram  Shandy,  Don  Quixote,  Les  Mis- 
erables,  Consuelo,  and  a  number  of  George  Eliot's,  and  he  did 
not  forget  them,  as  habitual  fiction  readers  do. 

With  his  tall  figure,  which  attracted  attention  wherever  he 
went,  there  was  a  remarkable  dignit}^  of  mein,  and  also  a  frank- 
ness of  manner  that,  as  was  said  of  Uncle  Toby,  "let  you  at  once 
into  his  soul."  Like  Uncle  Toby,  too,  there  was  something  about 
him,  at  least  in  later  life,  that  seemed  to  make  a  special  appeal 
to  the  unfortunate  and  unhappy.  I  often  regretted  this,  because 
it  added  to  the  burdens  on  his  heart.  People  used  to  come  to 
him  for  counsel  and  advice  on  all  sorts  of  topics,  even  those  who 
did  not  know  him  well,  feeling  instinctively  his  friendly  spirit. 
Perhaps  one  reason  for  this  was  his  manifest  sincerity  and 
earnestness.  He  had  no  patience  with  vain,  silly  people,  and 
when  they  endeavored  to  talk  with  him,  it  was  apt  to  be  a  very 
one-sided  affair,  for  his  part  of  the  conversation  consisted  large- 
ly of  monosyllables  and  grunts.  But  he  always  sought  to  intro- 
duce higher  and  worthier  themes  than  the  ordinary  chit-chat. 
He  often  read  to  a  caller  an  extract  from  a  book  he  was  perus- 
ing, or  something  timely  from  a  magazine  or  newspaper.  He 
nevermade  people  feel  small;  he  was  tookindly  and  gracious  for 
that.  There  was,  however,  a  reserve  about  him  that  made  him 
appear  austere  and  unbending  to  those  who  did  not  really  know 
him.  This  was  chiefly  due  to  a  native  shyness  that  he  never 
outgrew, — a  timidity  against  which  he  always  struggled,  but 
which  was,  in  fact,  one  of  his  most  winning  qualities. 

In  his  prime  his  hair  and  beard  were  black,  but  they  began  to 
whiten  rather  early.  His  eyes  were  hazel,  remarkably  clear, 
and  they  retained  their  yomig  look  to  the  very  last      His  smile 


GEORGE  IV.  JULIAN:     SOME  IMPRESSIONS       63 

was  the  most  unclouded  I  have  ever  seen,  beg-inning-  with  the 
eyes,  and  then  all  at  once  suffusing-  the  whole  face  with  sunshine. 

A  more  agreeable  household  companion  than  my  father  it  is 
impossible  for  me  to  imagine.  There  was  a  bird  in  his  bosom 
whose  song-  could  not  be  quenched.  Pain  aad  sorrow  did  some- 
times silence  it,  but  n<:)t  for  long.  He  had  that  attribute  com- 
monly possessed  by  the  young-,  the  ability  to  lose  himself  in  a 
ray  of  fancy  at  any  moment.  He  took  great  delig-ht  in  words, 
and  the  dictionary  was  consulted  many  times  every  day,  up  to  the 
last  three  or  four  days  of  his  life.  He  had  a  fashion  of  appl)nng- 
a  g-reat  variety  of  proper  names  to  me,  and  when  I  entered  his 
room  each  morning  I  was  playfully  addressed  by  a  different  ap- 
pellation,— almost  any  name,  from  "Pio  Nono"  down  to  that  of 
the  Washing-ton  printer  v^ho  used  to  print  his  speeches  and 
whose  un-euphonious  palronymn  was  "Pokenhorn."  The  nu- 
merous little  attentions  which  his  weakness  rendered  necessary 
were  always  kept  from  being-  irksome  by  the  relation  of  an  amus- 
ing anecdote  or  reminiscence.  Sometimes  he  would  imitate  the 
tone  and  manner  of  Henry  Clay  as  he  addressed  the  Senate,  or  of 
an  old  Virginia  planter  whom  he  had  once  known;  ag-ain,  he 
would  be  Hamlet,  or  Lear,  or  one  of  Milton's  devils.  It  was 
something  different  each  time,  so  that  there  was  the  temptation 
frequently  to  prolong  the  task  for  the  sake  of  the  entertainment. 

His  sense  of  humor  was  of  the  keenest,  and  his  laugh  was 
hearty  and  contagious.  As  he  grew  older,  people  became  more 
and  more  attentive  to  him,  and  he  was  sometimes  much  enter- 
tained by  the  superlative  exertions  of  street-car  conductors  and 
other  kind  persons  who  evidently  thoug-ht  him  even  more  frail 
than  he  really  was.  The  old  gentleman  up  at  Catawba  Island 
who  carefully  lifted  his  foot  for  him  when  he  was  about  to  step 
aboard  the  boat  was  never  forgotten,  and  the  laugh  occasioned 
by  that  performance  betokened  no  lack  of  g-ratitude  for  the  intend- 
ed service. 

He  was  everywhere  a  favorite  with  servants,  because  he  en- 
deavored to  make  as  little  trouble  as  possible  and  never  omitted  a 
"Thank  you"  or  a  word  of  appreciation  where  it  was  due.  The 
maid  who  waited  upon  him  at  breakfast  was  as  sure  of  a  cheery 
"Good-morning"  as  was  the  guest  who  sat  at  table.  His  tastes 
in  the  matter  of  food  were  simple  in  the   extreme,  bread  and 


64  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

milk  forming-  the  basis  of  each  meal.  He  never  used  tobacco, 
and  while  not  pledged  to  total  abstinence  as  to  spirituous  liquors, 
his  use  of  them  was  almost  wholly  medicinal.  Coming  of  a 
Quaker  ancestry,  all  display  of  whatever  sort  was  distasteful 
to  him,  and  to  be  in  debt  was  a  condition  he  could  not  endure. 
I  think  he  was  peculiarly  free  from  little  eccentricities,  such  as 
characterize  many  old  people,  a  sound  common-sense  being-  one 
of  his  chief  endowments. 

Laundresses  were  the  objects  of  his  particular  consideration 
and  pity,  and  although  very  fastidious  about  his  wearing  ap- 
parel, I  believe  he  never  threw  aside  a  garment  without  a  sig"h 
at  thought  of  the  work  he  was  making-  necessary.  He  liked  to 
listen  to  the  sound  as  the  clothes  were  rubbed  up  and  down  in 
the  tub;  it  carried  him  back  to  the  days  when  his  mother  did 
the  washing-  for  her  little  family. 

His  father  died  when  he  was  too  young-  to  have  really  known 
him,  and  with  his  strong  affections  he  lavished  a  double  love 
upon  the  parent  who  was  left  to  bear  the  burden  of  life  alone. 
His  face  glowed  with  filial  pride  when  he  spoke  of  her  struggles 
and  sacrifices,  and  I  am  sure  that  one  of  the  chief  pleasures 
of  his  life  was  the  satisfaction  she  took  in  his  success.  His  first 
g-reat  sorrow  was  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  John  M.  Julian, 
the  g-ifted  brother  whose  early  taking--off  cast  a  shadow  that 
never  vanished  from  my  father's  path.  His  own  immediate 
family  was  four  times  visited  by  death,  in  the  loss  of  his  first 
wife  and  two  children  and  of  my  mother.  I  saw  him  in  one  of 
these  bereavements,  and  the  unselfish  heroism  of  his  attitude 
was  a  lesson  for  a  lifetime.  He  liked  sometimes  to  talk  to  a 
sympathetic  listener  of  the  loved  ones  gone,  and  so  I  came  to 
know  very  well  his  brother  so  long-  lost,  and  the  wife  of  his 
youth,  as  he  called  her;  and  it  is  hard  to  realize  that  I  never 
actually  saw  "Louie,"  the  little  son  who  died  when  only  nine 
years  old,  so  habitually  was  he  in  my  father's  thoug-hts  and  con- 
versation. With  his  larg-e  heart  and  sensitive  nature  he  felt 
keenly  the  sorrows  of  others,  and  his  words  of  condolence  were 
always  fitting-  and  full  of  meaning-. 

It  was  his  custom  to  take  note  of  anniversaries.  The  19th  of 
April,  the  17th  of  June,  and  such  dates  were  always  observed  in 
some  way.     Anniversaries  of  events  in  his  own  life  he  would  also 


GEORGE  W.  JULIAN:     SOME  IMPRESSIONS        65 

call  attention  to,  as,  for  instance:  "My  child,  sixty  years  ag-o 
to-day  my  brother  John  died,"  and  then  he  would  talk  of  his 
brother's  character,  or  describe  his  appearance.  Ag-ain  he  would 
say:  "Fifty  years  ag-o  to-day  I  was  first  married,"  and  he  would 
g-o  on  and  tell  about  the  wedding-, — how  "Father  Hoshour"  of- 
ficiated, how  his  girl  wife  looked,  in  her  white  frock,  and  how, 
of  the  gay  company  then  assembled,  all  but  two  or  three  had 
passed  to  the  Great  Beyond. 

It  has  been  said,  and  I  think  truly,  that  a  man's  relations  to 
woman,  how  he  reg-ards  her  and  how  he  acts  toward  her,  are  the 
most  sig-nificant  things  about  him.  My  father  certainly  drew 
to  him  g-ood  women  wherever  he  went,  and  his  "five  hundred 
lovers"  were  the  subject  of  inexhaustible  raillery  on  the  part  of 
my  mother,  who  thoroughly  enjoyed  this  side  of  his  make-up. 
It  was  no  show  of  gallantry  on  his  part  that  won  the  favor  of 
the  other  sex;  but  there  was  about  him  a  certain  indefinable  air 
of  g-oodness,  together  with  the  artlessness  of  a  child,  and  an 
ever-ready  and  boundless  sympathy  or  fellow-feeling-,  that  ap- 
pealed at  once  to  some  men,  but  more  often  to  the  finer  intui- 
tions of  women.  One  of  these  friends  writes:  "I  can  never 
forg-et  the  culture  tone  that  characterized  him  as  one  met  him  in 
society  and  in  his  home, — the  absolute  lack  of  that  coarseness 
that  is  so  much  a  part  of  our  modern  politician.  Without  know- 
ing his  history,  I  could  as  easily  have  said  that  he  was  a  poet  or 
litterateur.^^  His  daug-hter's  friends  felt  for  him  a  g-enuine  af- 
fection, and  he  was  seldom  too  absorbed  in  any  task  to  stop  and 
chat  with  them.  "He  seemed  so  much  more  than  father,"  said 
one  of  them;  "no,  not  that,  but  all  that  a  father  could  be — the 
fullness  of  fatherhood." 

His  ideal  of  womanhood  was  the  highest;  yet  it  was  not  sen- 
timentally rose-colored.  He  was  fortunate  in  being-  all  his  life 
associated  with  hig-h-minded,  self-reliant,  g-entle  woman,  and 
it  was  this  association,  reinforcing-  his  own  best  judgment,  that 
early  convinced  him  of  the  right  and  duty  of  woman  to  share 
equally  with  man  in  the  civil  and  political  life  of  society.  He 
carried  on  a  most  interesting  correspondence  with  Lydia  Maria 
Child,  chiefly  on  political  topics,  during  the  years  from  1862  to 
1878.  He  was  a  g-reat  admirer  of  Lucretia  Mott,  seeking-  her 
council  in  early  manhood  and  enjoying-  her  friendship  until  her 


66  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

death  in  1880.  Besides  these  well-knovv'n  names,  there  was  a 
long-  list  of  women  friends  with  whom  he  was  on  terms  of  de- 
lig-htful  intimacy  and  comradeship.  He  liked  to  make  social 
calls,  and  this  was  a  practice  kept  up  till  the  last,  especially  in 
his  own  neighborhood. 

A  word  in  regard  to  the  two  women  most  closely  associated 
with  my  father.  He  was  first  married  at  the  ag-e  of  twenty- 
eight  to  Miss  Anne  E.  Pinch,  who  was  ten  years  young-er. 
She  is  said  to  have  been  very  beautiful,  of  the  blond  type,  g-ay 
and  impulsive  in  disposition,  with  a  certain  shy  winsomeness 
that  made  for  her  friends  wherever  she  went.  She  was 
thoroug-hly  interested  in  public  affairs,  and  accompanied  him  to 
Washing-ton  during-  his  first  term  in  Cong-ress,  where  she  enjoyed 
meeting-  and  hearing-  the  g-reat  men  of  the  day.  She  died  of 
consumption  in  1860.  It  is  interesting-  to  note  that  the  friend 
to  whom  my  father  turned  most  frequently  in  his  sorrow  was 
Mr.  Gidding-s  of  Ohio  (whose  daug-hter  was  afterwards  to  be- 
come his  wife) — "Father  Giddings,"  as  he  always  called  him, 
between  whom  and  himself  there  was  a  strong-  bond  of  sympa- 
thy dating  from  their  first  meeting-,  at  the  Buffalo  Convention 
of  1848.  Giddings  was  a  believer  in  spiritualism,  and  he  tried 
to  enlist  my  father  in  this,  to  him,  satisfying-  and  comforting- 
faith.  He  had  known  and  admired  Mrs.  Julian,  and  hence  he 
felt  a  certain  near  and  personal  interest  in  the  case.  But  my 
father  was  so  constituted  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  ac- 
cept anything-  bordering-  on  the  mystical  and  supernatural, 
his  practical  mind  instinctively  turning-  away  from  the  "twi- 
lig-hts  of  thoug-ht"  to  the  clear  sunshine  of  reason,  and  resting 
in  an  abiding  trust  that  steadily  grew  throughout  the  years.  In 
regard  to  the  various  so-called  demonstrations  of  spiritual  me- 
diums, I  have  heard  him  quote  Emerson's  words:  "Shun  them  as 
you  would  the  secrets  of  the  undertaker  and  the  butcher.  *  *  * 
The  whole  world  is  an  omen  and  a  sign.  Why  look  so  wistfully 
in  a  corner?  Man  is  the  image  of  God.  Why  run  after  a  ghost 
or  a  dream?" 

His  consolation  had  to  come  through  the  softening  effect  of 
time  and  by  plunging  with  all  his  might  into  the  duties  of  his 
public  position.  The  war  was  coming  on,  and  he  gave  his  days 
and  nights  to  Congressional  labors.     One  thing  he  never  learned, 


GEORGE   W.  JULIAN:     SOME  IMPRESSIONS        67 

and  that  was  to  work  in  moderation.  It  was  during-  these  years 
that  he  laid  the  foundation  for  the  sleeplessness  and  other  mala- 
dies that  pursued  him  to  the  end  of  his  days.  From  scrap-books 
I  find  that  newspapers  began  to  note  his  break-down  in  1865, 
and  soon  afterwards  he  entered  upon  those  persistent  and  weary 
efforts  to  repair  his  once  hardy  and  robust  constitution. 

A  little  more  than  three  years  after  the  death  of  his  first  wife 
he  was  married  to  Miss  Laura  A.  Giddings,  whom  he  met  for 
the  first  time  in  1862  in  Washington.  She  was  the  youngest 
daughter  of  his  old  friend,  and  was  twenty-two  years  my  fa- 
ther's junior.  But  there  did  not  seem  so  great  a  disparity  of  age, 
because  my  mother  was  very  tall  and  had  a  marked  dig-nity  of 
bearing.  This  at  once  impressed  everyone  who  met  lier,^a 
stateliness  that  was  as  native  to  her  as  the  air  she  breathed,  but 
that  seemed  somehow  to  set  her  apart  from  all  other  women. 
She  had  dark  eyes  and  hair,  her  face  being  one  that  depended 
largely  for  its  beauty  on  the  play  of  expression.  She  had  been 
educated  at  Oberlin  and  x\ntioch  Colleges,  and  had  spent  a  num- 
ber of  seasons  with  her  father  in  Washington  and  Montreal, 
thus  receiving-  a  training  in  political  affairs  that  was  quite  un- 
usual at  that  time  among  women.  On  account  of  her  father's 
ill  health  she  had  also  learned  to  look  after  his  physical  comfort 
and  to  save  his  strength  in  all  possible  ways.  This  tender  care 
she  transferred  to  her  husband,  and  for  twenty  years  was  his 
constant  companion  and  his  trusted  advisor  on  all  questions, 
public  and  private.  She  read  to  him,  wrote  at  his  dictation, 
looked  up  authorities,  and  was  completely  a  part  of  himself. 
Like  my  father,  she  cared  greatly  for  society,  and  the  deafness 
that  came  upon  her  within  the  last  ten  years  of  her  life  was  a 
severe  trial.  But  her  husband's  gifts  as  a  reporter  went  far  to 
atone  for  what  she  had  thus  missed,  and  his  efforts  along  this 
line  were  richly  rewarded  by  her  manifest  delight  in  the  narra- 
tions. She  died,  as  her  father  had  done,  of  angina  pectoris, 
which  came  without  any  warning. 

As  a  public  speaker,  my  father  had  the  advantage  of  a  full, 
rich  voice  and  a  remarkable  fJow  of  language.  He  spoke  slowly, 
with  little  gesture,  but  always  earnestly.  He  never  ranted, 
his  style  and  manner  being  those  of  familiar,  friendly  con- 
versation.    The  log-ical    faculty  was    well    developed    in    him. 


68  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

and  all  who  have  described  his  speaking  bear  witness  to  his  mas- 
tery of  the  weapons  of  irony,  sarcasm  and  invective,  as  well  as 
a  certain  sly  humor  that  was  quite  irresistible.  This  last  is  the 
quality  that  most  impressed  me  as  I  listened  to  him  during  three 
presidential  campaigns, — humor,  and  an  air  as  if  he  were  talk- 
ing with  friends  at  the  fireside.  In  reading  his  speeches  I 
think  one  would  infer  his  familiarity  with  the  Bible,  Milton 
and  Carlyle,  his  style  somehow  suggesting  these  models. 

His  last  sure  grasp  of  things  was  on  Wednesday,  July  5,  1899, 
when  he  was  about  the  house  as  usual,  only  seeming  very  tired 
and  lying  down  a  great  deal.  The  next  day  he  did  not  leave  his 
bed,  and  on  Friday,  the  7th,  at  a  few  minutes  before  eleven  he 
breathed  his  last,  his  age  being  eighty-two  years,  two  months 
and  two  days.  Death  came  to  him  not  unkindly,  but  as  a  friend 
whom  he  welcomed.  In  his  rambling  talk  the  day  before,  his 
mind  had  rapidly  gone  over  his  whole  life, — the  early  years  on 
his  mother's  farm,  political  conditions  in  the  old  Burnt  District, 
the  war  and  reconstruction,  etc.  He  frequently  spoke  of  the 
beautiful  day,  and  asked  if  I  were  "a  spirit  from  another  world." 
About  noon,  as  he  lay  looking  at  me,  I  began  to  repeat  a  favor- 
ite verse  from  Browning's  Earth's  Immortalities: 

"So,  the  year's  done  with! 

(Love  me  forever!) 
All  March  begun  with, 

April's  endeavor; 
May-wreaths  that  bound  me 

June  needs  must  sever! 
Now  snows  fall  round  me, 

Quenching  June's  fever — 

(Love  me  forever!)" 

He  gave  the  alternate  lines,  joining  in  faintly  with  the  "for- 
ever" at  the  close.  He  became  quite  unconscious  towards  eve- 
ning, and  remained  so  till  the  end,  when  a  look  of  recognition 
came  into  his  eyes  and  he  was  gone. 

At  the  funeral,  three  days  later,  he  lay  on  the  library  couch, 
as  friends  were  wont  to  see  him,  and  there  was  naught  to  in- 
dicate anything  unusual  but  the  flowers  that  were  everywhere, 
and  the  stillness.  Frederic  E.  Dewhurst,  of  Plymouth  Church, 
Indianapolis,  spoke  briefly  and  fittingly  of  his  life  and  character. 


GEORGE  W.  JULIAN:     SOME  IMPRESSIONS       69 

and  two  hymns,  "Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee,"  and  Chad  wick's 
"Song-  of  the  Silent  Ones,"  were  rendered.  It  was  regretted 
that  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  of  Chicag-o,  who  had  been  invited  to 
assist  in  the  services,  was  unable  to  come. 

The  actual  presence  of  death  has  an  impressiveness  all  its  own. 
But  the  hush  that  fell  upon  us  when  we  realized  that  his  spirit 
had  departed  was  sweetened  with  gratitude,  not  only  for  the 
long  and  dedicated  life,  but  for  the  manner  of  its  close.  After 
a  full,  rich  day,  the  sunset  was  unclouded.  One  of  the  saddest 
spectacles,  my  father  thoug-ht,  was  that  of  an  aged  man  whose 
work  was  finished,  lingering  on  and  long-ing-  for  release.  In  1890 
Stephen  S.  Harding,  then  eighty-three  and  blind  for  years, 
wrote  him  a  most  pathetic  letter,  which  he  closed  as  follows: 
"When  you  hear  of  my  demise,  which  will  be  before  long-,  strike 
hands  with  some  old  friend  and  thank  God  it  is  all  over!"  So 
we  were  g-rateful  that  in  his  case  the  summons  came  in  the 
midst  of  activity  and  cong-enial  surrounding's,  when  life,  thoug-h 
complete,  had  not  lost  its  relish.  But  it  is  not  strang-e,  so  tire- 
less and  irrepressible  was  his  spirit,  that  to  those  who  loved  him 
the  idea  of  death  is  lost  sig-ht  of  in  the  thought  of  continuing 
growth  and  development.  As  Emerson  said  of  his  brother,  "I 
read  now  his  pages,  I  remember  all  his  words  and  motives,  with- 
out any  pang,  so  healthy  and  human  a  life  it  was." 


70  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 


MR.  JULIANAS  AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

The  subject  of  the  foreg-oing-  "Impressions"  left  in  the  pos- 
session of  his  daug-hter,  Mrs.  Clark,  a  manuscript  autobiog-raphy 
which  affords  some  intimate  g-limpses  of  an  interesting-  career. 
Mr.  Julian's  progress  from  the  humblest  estate  to  eminence  by 
the  sheer  force  of  a  conquering-  will  and  strong  personality  makes 
a  life  story  that  is  inspiring-  and  stimulating-.  When  he  was 
about  six  years  old  his  father  died  and  his  mother  was  left,  all 
but  penniless,  with  a  family  of  children  to  provide  for.  The 
autobiog-raphy  describes  the  battle  of  life  at  this  period  as  a 
battle  for  life.  The  family  wrung-  such  support  as  they  could 
out  of  a  barren  farm.  They  wove  their  own  cloth  for  the  home- 
made g-arments  and  eked  out  their  slender  income  by  weaving- 
for  the  neig-hbors,  while  the  boys  occupied  the  rainy  days  weav- 
ing- straw  hats.  In  the  spring-  the  sug-ar  g-rove  was  made  to 
yield  sweets  for  their  table  and  as  much  additional  revenue  as 
possible. 

In  such  a  life  there  was  little  to  foster  an  interest  in  books, 
and  small  chance  to  g-ratify  such  an  interest  if  aroused.  Never- 
theless, the  interest  was  nourished  in  this  family,*  and  the  di- 
vine spark  found  fuel  to  feed  upon.  The  MS.  tells  us  how 
young- Georg-e  raised  his  first  funds  for  the  indulg-ence  of  a  g-row- 
ing-  passion.  "I  g-athered  each  year,"  it  says,  "a  larg-e  crop  of 
walnuts — one  fall  as  many  as  sixteen  bushels — and  sold  the  hulls 
at  Nathan  Bond's  carding-  and  fulling-  mills,  at  six  cents  per 
bushel,  for  money  with  which  to  buy  books  and  stationery."  He 
attended  the  country  school  of  winters,  and  thoug-h  he  speaks  of 
himself  as  an  unpromising-  dullard,  yet  by  virtue  of  a  "dog-g-ed 
perseverance"  he  applied  himself  to  his  studies  with  an  assiduity 
that  soon  broug-ht  him  abreast  of  his  teachers.  "I  renounced," 
he  says,  "the  society  of  my  playmates  and  g-ave  myself  wholly 
to  my  books.  My  Sundays  were  especially  set  apart  for  study, 
and  I  was  up  till  a  late  hour  in  the  nig-ht  poring-  over  my  tasks 

*It  should  be  noted  that  these  aspirations  were  not  contined  to  George.  John,  the  eldest 
brother,  evinced  unusual  endowments ;  Jacob  became  a  jurist,  and  Isaac,  still  living,  a 
journalist  and  writer  of  both  prose  and  verse. 


MR.  JULIAN'S  A  UTOBIOGRAPHY  71 

by  the  light  of  a  fire  kept  up  by  'kindling's,'  which  I  reg-ularly 
prepared  as  a  substitute  for  the  candles  we  could  not  afford." 

At  the  ag-e  of  eig-hteen  he  taug-ht  school,  and  was,  doubtless, 
far  more  proficient  than  the  averag-e  country  teacher  of  that 
day.  Having-  no  instructor,  he  studied  by  himself,  as  best  he 
could,  rhetoric  and  log-ic,  natural  philosophy,  chemistry,  astrono- 
my, mathematics  and  surveying-,  and  seems  to  have  made  con- 
siderable prog-ress  in  these  abstruse  branches.  A  list  of  his 
g-eneral  reading-,  also,  reveals  the  solidity  of  his  acquirements. 
Among-  those  enumerated  are:  Russell's  History  of  Modern 
Europe,  Hume's  History  of  Eng-land,  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  Goldsmith's  histories  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
Plutarch's  Lives,  the  Eng-lish  poets,  Locke's  Essays,  Aber- 
crombie  on  the  Intellectual  Powers,  Watts  on  the  Mind,  Combe 
on  the  Constitution  of  Man,  Dr.  Spurzheim's  works  on  phrenolo- 
g-y  and  education,  Paine's  political  works,  Godwin's  Political 
Justice,  Sterne's  v^^orks,  Don  Quixote,  Fielding-'s  novels,  Ossian's 
poems,  etc. 

Mr.  Julian  repeatedly  speaks  of  an  abnormal  timorousness  and 
self-distrust  that  seemed  an  almost  insuperable  obstacle  to  his 
advancement.  The  assertiveness  and  efficiency  as  a  public 
speaker  that  disting-uished  him  in  later  years  was  acquired  only 
by  the  most  rig-orous  training-  and  persistent  self-conquest. 
When,  by  the  advice  of  a  friend,  he  turned  to  the  study  of  law, 
it  was  with  so  little  faith  that  he  pursued  his  reading-  secretly 
and  half  ashamed.  To  pass  an  examination  and  secure  a  license 
to  practice  was  the  easiest  part.  In  the  assurance  necessary  to 
the  young-  lawyer  he  was  utterly  lacking-.  By  way  of  cultivat- 
ing- it  he  hung-  about  the  courts  at  Centerville,  trying-  to  famil- 
iarize himself  with  the  customs  of  the  profession,  and  a  litttle 
later  on,  after  he  had  removed  to  Greenfield,  he  tells  of  a  "dark 
lyceum" — an  altog-ether  novel  institution  consisting-  solely  of 
himself  and  one  other  bashful  young-  man  who  soug-ht  to  eng-en- 
der  courag-e  by  making-  speeches  at  each  other,  which  forensic 
efforts  were  carried  on  in  a  dark  room  so  as  to  reduce  the  em- 
barassment.  By  way  of  adding-  dignity  and  impressiveness  to 
these  meeting-s  they  were  presided  over  by  a  "premier,"  whose 
duty  it  was  to  "preserve  order  and  decide  the  debated  questions." 
Each   speaker,   after  his  turn  on  the  floor,  would  become   the 


72  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

premier  and  let  the  other  descend  from  the  chair  and  make  his 
argument.  The  progress  attained  by  these  half  ludicrous,  half 
pathetic  and  wholly  earnest  efforts  was  so  slight  that  the  auto- 
biographer  is  moved  to  speak  of  it  as  "all  in  vain,"  and  he  adds: 
"Sometimes,  in  my  despair,  I  felt  that  I  must  break  the  chains 
which  bound  me,  but  I  was  powerless  to  do  so,  and  no  word  of 
encouragement  from  any  quarter  cheered  me.  If  I  had  had  a 
single  trusted  friend  to  say  to  me,  'Be  of  courage;  fear  not;  you 
can  conquer,'  it  would  have  lifted  a  great  weight  from  my  heart 
and  opened  the  pathway  to  my  deliverance." 

His  first  case  in  court  is  described  by  Mr.  Julian.  "It  was 
tried,"  he  says,  "before  a  country  justice  of  the  peace,  and  N. 
W.  Miner,  of  Dublin,  was  the  opposing  counsel.  We  were  both 
frightened  as  if  panic-stricken,  and  it  now  seems  to  me  so  ri- 
diculous that  I  almost  doubt  my  own  recollection.  The  justice 
was  a  good-natured  old  farmer  who  knew  less  law  than  either 
of  us  and  whose  judgment  of  our  rhetoric  was  quite  indifferent. 
The  amount  involved  was  only  a  few  dollars,  and  in  no  case 
could  there  be  serious  consequences  to  body  or  soul;  and  yet,  in 
opening  our  case  and  making  our  speeches  we  fairly  quaked 
with  nervous  fear." 

Mr.  Julian's  career,  from  his  entrance  into  politics,  in  1840,  is 
traced  in  his  published  volume,  "Political  Recollections."  The 
autobiography,  dealing  with  personal  matters  prior  to  that  date, 
is  chiefly  valuable  as  a  record  of  a  self-made  man,  and  as  show- 
ing how  such  a  man,  gifted  with  native  force  and  strong  will, 
can,  in  the  face  of  many  handicaps,  hew  his  way  grimly  to 
a  place  in  the  front  ranks.  Dealing  with  the  development  of  a 
man  who  accomplished  things,  it  has  the  germaine  biographical 
value,  and  if  published  (especially  if  edited  with  reference  to 
matter  already  published)  would  make  a  desirable  addition  to 
the  biographical  literature  of  the  State.  G.  S.  C. 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS  73 

EARLY  INDIANAPOLIS. 

THE  FLETCHER  PAPERS— SECOND  INSTALMENT. 

The  First  Wedding  Celebration  ajid  the  First  ''Poem" — The  First 
Campaign:  Whitewater  vs.  Kentucky — Nnmerozis  Candidates — 
First  Political  Pamphlets  and  ''Handbills'' — Voting  Precincts — 
Flection  and  Successful  Candidates — Citizens'  Resolutio7is  Against 
Campaign  Methods. 

From  the  Indianapolis  News  of  April  ig,  i8jg. 

THE  earliest  marriag-e  in  or  around  Indianapolis  was  undoubt- 
edly that  of  Jeremiah  Johnson  and  Miss  Jane  Reag-an,  which 
took  place  early  in  1821.  In  this  case  Johnson  walked  all  the 
way  to  Connersville  and  back — about  120  miles — for  his  license, 
and  then  the  lovers  had  to  wait  weary  weeks  before  the  first 
clerg-yman  (Rev.  Mr.  McClung-)  came  along-.  The  second  mar- 
riag-e has  been  more  fully  recorded.  One  of  the  early  settlers 
here  was  Mr.  Thomas  Chinn,  from  Virg-inia,  who  was  the  first 
person  that  imported  blooded  stock  into  Indianapolis.  All  the 
old  boys  will  recall  his  fine  stallion,  "Black  Hawk,"  and  his 
g-ig-antic  bull,  "Walk-in-the-Water."  Mr,  Chinn  built  him  a 
log-  cabin  on  the  bank  of  Pog-ue's  Run,  on  what  was  afterward 
called  "Noble's  pasture."  That  log-  cabin,  with  its  g-reat  split 
puncheon  floor,  I  remember  was  still  standing-,  thoug-h  unin- 
habited, in  1834.  Now,  Mr.  Chinn  had  a  smart,  brig-ht-eyed 
daug-hter,  named  Patsy.  One  of  the  young-  men  who  came  to 
settle  in  Indianapolis  was  Uriah  Gates.  He  and  Miss  Patsy 
soon  found  that  their  "hearts  beat  as  one,"  and  on  the  22d  of 
January,  1822,  the  second  wedding-  in  Indianapolis  came  off. 
Justice  Mcllvain  tying-  the  nuptial  knot.  The  town  was  so 
small  that  everybody  was  invited.  My  mother  in  her  journal 
says: 

"Tuesday,  January  22,  1822.  Mr.  Gates  was  to-day  wedded 
to  Miss  Patsy  Chinn,  both  of  Indianapolis.  I  attended  the  wed- 
ding-. It  was  a  very  disagreeable  day,  but  notwithstanding- 
there  was  a  g-reat  concourse  of  people  present.  Wednesday,  23d, 
I  attended  a  party  at  Mr.  Reag-an's,  for  Mr.  R.  g-ave  the  newly- 


74  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

married  couple  an  infare.  We  danced  until  ten  o'clock,  and 
then  came  home."  This  wedding-  was  described  to  me  by  my 
father  as  a  great  affair.  There  was  plenty  to  eat  and  drink, 
and  what  the  French  call  the  piece  de  resistance  consisted  of  a 
g-ood-sized  porker  roasted  whole,  mounted  on  the  table  with  a 
large  apple  in  its  mouth.*  The  first  copy  of  the  Indianapolis 
Gazette  appeared  January  28,  1822,  and  contains  the  wedding 
announcement  and  an  original  poem  written  for  the  occasion. 
[See  note  at  end  of  this  instalment.] 
From  the  News  of  April  26. 

At  the  first  election  in  Indianapolis  there  was  an  army  of 
ofl&ce-seekers.  That  they  began  skirmishing  a  long  time  in 
advance  can  be  seen  by  the  account  which  I  gave  of  the  Christ- 
mas of  1821,  when  candidates  bought  the  only  barrel  of  cider 
in  town  and  treated  the  sovereigns,  who  afterward  anchored  the 
cider  down  with  brandy  and  "bald-face."  The  "ball"  at  Wyant's 
(on  New  Year's  day)  was  a  social  affair  nominally,  but  there, 
too,  were  many  of  the  candidates  with  their  most  affable  smiles. 
In  a  recent  interview  with  Mrs.  Martin  (daughter  of  George 
Smith,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Indianapolis  Gazette)  I  ascer- 
tained that  she  was  present  on  that  occasion  and  took  her  part 
in  the  dance.  Mrs.  Martin  says  that  she  went  to  Wyant's  in  Hog- 
den's  "carriage."  This  last  she  describes  as  a  great  "lumbering 
thing,"  like  the  "mud  wagons"  employed  by  the  old  stage  com- 
panies in  the  spring  and  winter.  The  supper  prepared  on  this 
New  Year's  day,  1822,  for  the  robust  ancestors  of  many  of  the 
present  Indianapolitans  was  also  described  by  her.  There  was, 
she  said,  in  the  open  fireplace  an  immense  kettle  or  cauldron, 
which  contained  no  less  than  sixteen  gallons  of  coffee,  and  there 
were  pans,  skillets  and  other  vessels  in  which  were  biscuits, 
sweet  bread  and  that  best  of  all  cakes,  the  real  old  pound-cake. 
That  New  Year's  party  was  composed  of  every  grade  in  society, 
so  that  the  candidates  had  an  excellent  opportunity  to  see  the 
people,  for  my  father  told  me  that  invitations  were  extended  to 
everybody,  down  to  the  humblest  inhabitant  of  the  meanest  log 
cabin  on  the  donation. 

On  that  memorable  Christmas,  1821,  a  number  of  the  candi- 
dates had  already  declared  themselves,  and  my  father  records 
the  following: 

•See  Nowland's  "Early  Reminiscences,"  pp.  128-130. 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS  75 

"I  will  here  mention  the  names  of  some  of  the  candidates  for 
office  in  our  new  county.  For  associate  judg-es,  James  Mcll- 
vain  and  Mr.  Patterson;  county  clerk,  James  M.  Ray,  Milo  R. 
Davis,  J.  Hawkins,  et  al.;  for  county  commissioners,  Messrs. 
Hog-den,  Osburn  and  Morrow." 

In  his  journal  for  the  3d  day  of  January,  1822,  my  father 
writes: 

"Kept  close  in  the  morning  and  wrote  letters.  In  the  after- 
noon visited  the  river  (the  larg-est  part  of  the  population  was  on 
the  east  bank  of  the  river).  I  find  the  people  much  ag-itated 
about  the  approaching-  election."  The  candidates,  it  seems, 
were  not  the  only  canvassers.  The  people  were  in  that  business, 
for  my  father  continues:  "There  is  much  canvassing-  of  the 
character  of  the  candidates  and  their  elig-ibility.  There  is 
hardly  a  man  in  town  but  offers  himself  for  some  office,  either 
civil  or  military." 

The  divisions  were  not  according  to  the  political  parties  of 
the  day.  They  were  local,  or,  rather,  geographical.  My  fath- 
er informed  me  that  the  combatants  were  ranged  under  the 
titles  of  "Whitewater"  and  "Kentucky."  The  emigration  from 
those  two  sections  was  simultaneous.  The  people  from  White- 
water were  as  clannish  as  those  from  Kentucky,  and  each  wish- 
ed to  have  the  distribution  of  the  public  loaves  and  fishes.  The 
Whitewater  party  had  some  advantage  over  Kentucky,  in  that 
it  had  received  some  accessions  from  people  from  Ohio  and 
Pennsylvania  who  had  resided  long  enough  in  the  eastern  part 
of  the  State  to  qualify  them  as  voters,  while  many  of  the  Ken- 
tuckians  had  not  resided  a  year  in  the  State.  The  Whitewater 
people  were  consummate  politicians.  They  had  been  led  and  dis- 
ciplined by  such  men  as  Jonathan  Jennings,  the  two  Nobles  and 
Jesse  B,  Thomas  previous  to  their  arrival  in  the  New  Purchase. 
My  father  informed  me  that  these  were  men  of  talent,  and  that 
greater  adepts  at  political  warfare  never  lived. 

From  the  News  of  May  lo. 

The  politicial  war-horses  of  Whitewater  and  Kentucky  did  a 
great  deal  of  vigorous  pawing  in  February,  1822.  The  pro- 
prietors of  the  Indiana  Gazette  wisely  considered  that  they  would 
not  be  too  partisan.  They  decided  that  both  parties,  if  they 
wished  the  benefit  of  the  art  of  printing,  must  pay   the  printer. 


76  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

It  was  the  fashion  of  the  day  in  the  east  and  in  the  newer  States 
of  the  west  to  issue  pamphlets.  The  first  author  of  a  pamphlet 
or  of  any  other  publication  (except  the  Gazette)  in  Indianapolis 
was  not  from  New  England  or  from  New  York,  but  from  Ken- 
tucky. The  late  Morris  Morris  was  our  first  author.  The 
g-reatest  battle  to  be  fought  at  the  election  of  1822  was,  with- 
out doubt,  to  be  over  the  clerkship  for  the  new  county.  White- 
water and  Kentucky  chose  their  best  men.  The  first  selected  a 
young  man  from  New  Jersey.  He  was  of  undoubted  gifts;  he 
had  studied  at  Columbia  College,  New  York;  he  was  a  fine  pen- 
man, and  had  a  neatness  of  dress  and  address  not  often  found 
on  the  frontier.  He  had  resided  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
State,  and  had  been  deputy  clerk  at  Lawrenceburg  and  Conners- 
ville.  This  was  James  M.  Ray,  a  quiet  young  man  but  a 
famous  "still  hunter."  The  Kentucky  party  also  selected  a 
strong  man.  One  of  nature's  noblemen  was  Morris  Morris,  who 
came  to  Indianapolis  from  Carlisle,  Kentucky,  in  October,  1821. 
It  seems  that  the  battle  must  have  been  already  sharp  long  be- 
fore Sheriff  Hervey  Bates  issued,  on  the  22d  of  February,  the 
proclamation  for  the  election,  for  I  find  in  my  mother's  journal 
the  following  entry,  telling  of  an  evening  of  a  busy  day.  Under 
date  of  January  30  she  says: 

"Mr.  Morris  has  written  a  pamphlet  and  had  it  put  in  print. 
Mr.  Fletcher  has  just  jeft  me  to  write  an  answer  to  it,  and  I  am 
all  alone  this  evening."     Again  she  writes: 

"Saturday,  February  2.  Mrs.  Buckner  dined  with  us,  and 
after  she  went  away  Mr.  Osburn  came  and  staid  all  night." 
The  husband  of  Mrs.  Buckner  was  one  of  the  candidates  for 
county  commissioner.  The  Mr.  Osburn  mentioned  was  another 
of  the  candidates  for  commissioner.  He  was  a  mercnant  and 
quite  a  politician,  and  no  doubt  was  at  my  father's  that  evening 
to  consult  on  the  reply  to  Morris  Morris's  "pamphlet."  This 
reply  appeared  in  the  shape  of  a  handbill,  for  my  mother  writes 
the  next  day: 

"Sunday,  3d  of  February.  The  handbill  came  out  in  opposi- 
tion to  what  Mr.  Morris  wrote." 

While  my  father  was  never  a  violent  partisan,  he  had  decided 
opinions.  In  this  election  he  was  a  Whitewater  man,  and  took 
a  deep  interest  in  the  formation  of  the  county,  but    he  sought 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS  77 

no  ofl&ce,  and  as  earlj  as  November  8th,  1821,  he  writes:  "I 
find  there  are  much  strife  and  contention  among-st  the  citizens  of 
this  place.  I  sincerely  hope  to  escape  all  censure  by  asking-  no 
favors  for  myself." 

In  those  days  it  is  evident  that  the  Sunday  was  not  observed 
as  strictly  as  at  present.  On  several  occasions  in  the  campaig-n 
I  learn  from  my  mother's  journal  that  the  "printing-  office  was 
visited  by  her  in  company  with  her  husband  on  that  day."  On 
February  15  she  writes:  "Mr.  Morris's  second  handbill  came 
out."  "Handbill"  can  not  be  taken  in  the  usual  acceptation  of  the 
term.  It  was  larg-er  than  what  we  as  present  understand  as 
such,  and  is  used  indiscriminately  with  the  word  pamphlet.  It 
was  half  the  size  of  the  Gazette,  printed  on  one  side,  and  was 
usually  nailed  up  in  a  public  place.  On  the  same  date  the 
journal  continues  as  follows:  "I  went  to  bed  early,  but  Mr.  F, 
was  writing-  an  answer  to  the  handbill,  and  did  not  g-o  to  bed 
that  nig-ht.  Sunday  Mr.  F.  went  to  bed  early  in  the  afternoon 
and  slept  till  8  P.  M.,  when  I  awakened  him  and  we  both  went 
to  the  printing- office  and  staid  until  2  o'clock  in  the  morning-." 
The  dairy  further  reads: 

"Monday,  18th  February,  1822.  In  the  morning- the  handbills 
came  out,  and  great  was  the  mystery.  Curiosity  was  aroused  to 
know  who  the  'Leg-al  Voter'  [doubtless  the  sig-nature]  alluded 
to  when  he  mentioned  'Col.  Puff-back,  Captain  Swell-back  and 
myself.'  " 

Skipping-  over  many  pag-es  which  refer  to  long-  consultations 
and  threatened  suits  for  slander,  I  come  to  Sunday,  March  31st, 
the  day  before  the  election,  when  my  mother  records:  I  spent 
the  day  very  unsatisfactorily,  for  there  were  so  many  candidates 
coming-  in  that  I  could  neither  read  nor  write  nor  do  anything- 
else." 

On  April  1st  came  the  shock  of  battle.  There  were  thirty- 
three  candidates  recorded  in  the  Gazette,  but  in  the  journals  I 
find  there  are  others  mentioned  which  would  make  up  the  num- 
ber to  nearly  forty,  In  1846  I  had  an  interview  with  Mrs.  Pax- 
ton  on  this  election,  and  she  remarked:  "I  wondered  at  that 
time  where  all  the  voters  were  to  come  from,  for  it  seemed  to  me 
that  almost  every  man  in  Indianapolis  was  a  candidate  for  of- 
fice."    There  were  five  for  county  clerk  alone  (the  clerkship 


78  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

was  for  seven  years).  It  will  be  remembered  that  Marion 
county  was  then  five  times  its  present  size,  comprehending-  the 
present  county,  with  the  addition  of  Johnson,  Hamilton,  and 
parts  of  Boone,  Madison  and  Hancock.  The  voting-  precincts 
were  announced  in  the  proclamation  to  be  at  Indianapolis, 
Finch's  (near  Noblesville),  Page's  (Strawtown),  Anderson  and 
Pendleton. 

It  is  thirty-three  years  since  [in  1846]  after  a  conversation 
with  my  father,  I  published  in  the  Indiana  Journal  on  account  of 
this  first  election,  and  in  that  communiction  I  used  this  descrip- 
tion of  the  place  where  the  election  was  held  in  Indianapolis, 
viz.:  "The  election  was  held  in  the  house  of  General  John  Carr, 
which  stands  in  the  rear  of  Beck's  g-unsmith  shop,  nearly  op- 
posite the  of&ce  of  H.  P.  Coburn,  Esq."*  That  description  would 
not  answer  for  the  present  g-eneration,  but  when  I  state  that  the 
double  hewed-log  cabin  of  General  Carr  stood  on  Delaware 
street  nearly  opposite  the  west  end  of  the  court-house,  all  can 
understand. 

If  whisky  plajed  its  part  at  McGeorge's,  down  at  the  river, 
in  1821,  it  performed  a  greater  part  on  the  1st  of  April,  1822, 
when,  it  is  computed,  the  quantities  drank  must  be  reckoned  in 
barrels.  Kentucky  was  not  to  be  outdone  by  Whitewater  in  the 
matter  of  political  hospitality.  The  political  issues  were  en- 
tirely geographical  and  liquid,  and  Whitewater  and  whisky 
carried  the  day  against  Kentucky  and  whisky.  The  successful 
candidates  were  overwhelmingly  Whitewater.  James  Mcllvain 
and  Eliakim  Harding  were  chosen  associate  judges;  James  M. 
Ray  was  elected  clerk;  Joseph  C.  Reed,  recorder;  Messrs.  Os- 
burn,  McCormick  and  McCartney  became  the  first  commissioners. 
James  M.  Ray  received  the  highest  vote  in  the  wide  district, 
viz.,  217  votes  out  of  336.  In  the  Indianapolis  district  (an  area 
as  great  as  the  present  county)  the  number  of  votes  was  224, 
which  shows  that  the  population  of  what  we  now  understand  as 
Marion  county  was  but  little  more  than  1000.  The  party  lines 
of  Kentucky  and  Whitewater  were  kept  up  about  three  years, 
but  were  then  harmoniously  fused. 

Among  the  defeated  candidates  for  recorder  was  Alexander 

♦This  reveals  the  authorship  of  an  anonymous  series  to  be  found  in  the  Journul  of  the 
date  mentioned.    See  note  at  end  of  this  instalment. 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS  79 

Ralston,  to  whom,  more  than  any  other  person,  we  owe  the  beau- 
tiful plan  of  Indianapolis.  While  there  are  many  of  our  streets 
bearing-  the  names  of  individuals,  there  is  not  even  an  alley 
named  in  memory  of  the  man  who  planned  the  city. 

Note. — The  earliest  historical  account  of  Indianapolis  known 
to  us  appears  as  a  series  of  unsigned  articles  in  the  Indianapolis 
Journal.  These  contributions,  under  the  heading-  of  "Indian- 
apolis a  Quarter  of  a  Century  Agfo,"  appeared  irreg-ularly  in  both 
the  weekly  and  the  tri- weekly  editions  from  November  4,  1846,  to 
March  23,  1847.  Sundry  correspondences  between  that  series  and 
the  one  here  published  identifies  Mr.  J.  C.  Fletcher  as  the  author 
of  the  earlier  one.  Most  that  is  in  that  series  is  comprehended  in 
this,  but  in  the  former  are  at  least  two  items  that  we  reg-ard  as 
rather  a  "find."  The  first  of  these,  taken  from  the  Indiana  Ga- 
zette^ is  of  considerable  interest  in  connection  with  the  strenuous 
Kentucky  and  Whitewater  campaign  and  the  accompanying- 
candidate  nuisance.  It  is  an  account  of  "a  meeting-  of  the  in- 
habitants of  this  county,  over  which  Dr.  S.  G.  Mitchell  presided 
and  Dr.  Coe  acted  as  secretary."  At  this  meeting  "sunday  res- 
olutions were  passed  condemning  the  soliciting-  of  votes  of  elec- 
tions by  the  candidates  for  public  of&ces,  either  from  favor,  flat- 
tery, promises,  entertainments,  treats  or  rewards,  as  anti-repub- 
lican in  its  principles,  injurious  to  the  public  peace,  interests 
and  morals,  troublesome,  deg-rading-  and  corrupting  to  the  candi- 
date. And,"  concludes  this  presumably  disgusted  conclave,  "we 
do  resolve  that  we  will  withhold  our  support  from  all  who  in  the 
future  resort  to  such  practices."  [See  tri- weekly /i?z^r;za/  of  No- 
vember 27,  1846.] 

The  other  historical  bit  is  of  literary  interest,  as  it  is  the 
first  "poem"  written,  or  at  least  published,  in  Indianapolis.  It 
celebrated  the  Gates-Chinn  wedding-  described  by  Mr.  Fletcher 
and  Mr.  Nowland,  and  appeared  in  the  first  number  of  the  Gazette. 
As  a  literary  curiosity  it  speaks  for  itself: 

"Come  Hymen,  now,  and  bear  thy  sway 
In  Indianapolis, 
And  hasten  on  the  wished-for  day 
That  crowns  the  nuptial  bliss. 


80  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

May  conquering-  love  lend  his  aid, 

And  lead  direct  to  thy  altar 
The  sacred  virg-in,  the  experienced  maid, 

The  trembling  youth  and  batchelor. 

But  all  ye  powers  of  mortal  joy. 

Come  bless  the  wedded  pair; 
Give  them  bliss  without  alloy, 

Peace  and  health  and  pleasing-  care." 

It  may  be  added  that  the  second  output  of  the  muse  was  also 
inspired  by  Hymen,  for  some  months  later,  in  connection  with 
the  wedding-  announcement  of  William  C.  McDoug-al  and  Cyn- 
titha  Reagan,  appeared  the  following: 

"Hail,  g-enerous  youth,  and  hail  thou  lovely  fair, 
Love,  joy  and  peace  be  now  your  only  care. 
The  wished-for  day  hath  fixed  the  sacred  tie. 
And  g-iven  you  mutual,  full  felicity. 

Long-  may  Aurora  shine  amid  the  spheres, 
And  see  your  joys  increase  through  length  of  years. 
When  sweet  reflection  views  the  day  that's  past. 
Be  each  succeeding  happier  than  the  last." 

There  was  no  relation,  seemingly,  between  the  quality  of  the 
poetry  and  the  after  happiness  invoked  by  the  poets,  for  though 
this  second  effusion  limped  much  less  painfully  over  the  metrical 
road,  Cyntitba,  in  due  course,  left  McDougal's  bed  and  board, 
and  he  advertised  her,  warning  the  public  not  to  trust  her  on 
his  account.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gates,  on  the  other  hand,  journeyed 
amicably  together  through  their  lives,  leaving  children  and 
their  children's  children,  who  at  the  present  day  make  part  of 
our  population. 

Who  these  first  versifiers  were  is  forever  lost  to  history. — Edi- 
tor. 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  81 

THE  EARLY  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA, 

FROM  THE  PAPERS  OF  D.  D.  BANT  A -SECOND  INSTALMENT. 

The  Pioneer  School  Childre?i —  Winter  Schools  aiid  Hardships  of  the 
Little  Folks — Early  Teachers — Their  Character  and  Inefficiency 
—  Their  Status  with  the  People — Their  Pay — Queer  Characters 
and  Customs. 

From  the  Indianapolis  News  of  February  3,  i8g2. 

BEFORK  advancing-  upon  the  "masters,"  the  books,  the  meth- 
ods, the  manners  and  the  customs  of  the  pioneer  schools, 
something-  oug-ht  to  be  said  of  the  pioneer  children  who  made 
these  schools  a  necessity. 

Let  me  recall  the  reader's  attention  to  the  long-  paths  that 
ofttimes  stretched  their  serpentine  ways  between  the  cabin  homes 
and  the  cabin  schoolhouses — two,  three  and  even  four  miles 
long,  they  sometimes  were.  In  g-eneral  it  was  a  fall  or  winter 
school  that  was  kept — most  generally  a  winter,  for  every  child 
big-  enough  to  work  was  required  at  home  to  aid  in  the  support 
of  the  family.  We  of  to-day,  with  our  farms  all  made  and  with  a 
superabundance  of  farm  machinery,  can  scarcely  conceive  of  the 
extremities  to  which  the  pioneer  farmers  were  often  driven  to 
secure  the  planting-,  tilling  and  harvesting  of  the  crops.  And 
so  the  children,  in  the  beg-inning,  could  be  spared  best  in  the 
winter  seasons,  and  in  consequence  the  country  schools  were  in 
g-eneral,  winter  schools. 

Happy  were  those  children  who  had  a  fall  school  to  attend! 
The  long-  and  winding  school-paths  threaded  a  region  of  de- 
lights. What  schoolboy  or  schoolgirl  of  those  far-off  days  can 
ever  forget  the  autumnal  wood  with  its  many-hued  foliage,  its 
frag-rant  and  nutty  odors,  its  red,  ripe  haws,  and  its  clusters  of 
wild  grapes;  its  chinquapins  [acorns  of  the  'pin  oak]  and  its 
hickory  nuts?  And  think  of  the  wild  life  that  was  part  of  it  all! 
Gray  squirrels  barked  and  chattered  from  tree  to  tree,  while  the 
voices  of  glad  birds  were  heard  amid  the  branches  from  sun  to 
sun.  And  the  school-paths  themselves!  Were  there  ever  such 
paths  as  those  winding  over  hill  and  throug-h  hollow,  and  filled, 


82  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

as  they  were,  with  dainty,  rustling-  leaves  that  were  as  cool  and 
soft  to  schoolboy  foot  as  silken  carpet? 

But  how  different  the  winter  school!  When  the  snow  came, 
blockading  the  paths,  how  it  tried  the  temper  of  the  young  folk 
who  were  limited  to  one  pair  of  shoes  per  winter.  And  how  in- 
finitely worse  was  it  when  the  winter  rains  came.  The  whole 
face  of  the  Indiana  earth,  whether  along  the  country  roads,  in 
the  cleared  fields  or  in  the  woods,  was  filled  with  water  like  a 
sponge,  and  the  most  careful  of  school  children  seldom  failed  to 
reach  school  or  home  with  feet  soaking  wet.  Fifty  years  ago  it 
was  not  the  fashion  for  boys  to  wear  boots.  For  that  matter 
there  were  few  men  in  the  country  places  that  wore  them,  while 
boot  or  bootee  for  girl  or  woman  was  not  even  to  be  thought  of. 
Riding  astride  or  making  a  speech  would  have  been  no  more 
shocking,  and  so  boots  were  seldom  or  never  seen  in  the  school- 
room, but  it  was  the  custom  of  both  boys  and  girls,  on  occasion, 
to  draw  over  the  ankle  and  the  top  of  the  shoe  a  sock  or  stocking 
leg,  or  a  piece  of  cloth,  which,  being  v\^ell  tied  to  shoe  and  ankle„ 
kept  the  dry  snow  out  of  the  shoe  fairly  well. 

I  have  known  boys  and  girls  to  attend  school  in  the  fall  long- 
after  the  hard  frosts  came,  and  even  after  the  ice  began  to  form, 
with  their  feet  encased  in  old  socks  or  stockings  so  badly  worn 
at  the  toe  and  heel  as  to  be  fit  for  no  other  purpose  than  wearing 
in  this  manner,  and  so  common  a'n  occurrence  was  it  that  no  one 
thought  it  worthy  of  special  attention.  Sanford  Cox,  in  his 
"Wabash  Valley,"  draws  a  graphic  word  picture  of  the  town  of 
Lafayette,  as  it  appeared  to  him  about  1825,  in  which  he  tells 
us  that  he  had  "often"  seen  the  Lafayette  juveniles  skating  upon 
the  ice,  "some  with  skates,  some  with  shoes,  and  some  bare- 
footed." It  would  seem  that  if  the  boys  of  Lafayette  were  of 
such  hardy  nature  we  might  expect  to  find  in  some  other  places 
satisfactory  evidence  that  the  winter  weather  did  not  deter  the 
barefooted  from  attending  school.  I  have,  accordingly,  care- 
fully looked  through  such  records  as  have  fallen  in  my  way,  and 
candor  compels  me  to  say  that  I  have  found  only  one  other  in- 
stance. This  is  related  by  the  author  of  the  "History  of  Monroe 
County,"  who  says: 

"It  was  then  the  custom  to  go  to  school,  winter  and  summer, 
barefoot.     That  seems  unreasonable,  but  it  was  done,  and  how? 


THE  EARL  V  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  83 

The  barefooted  child,  to  beg-in  with,  had  g-one  thus  so  long-  that 
his  feet  were  hardened  and  calloused  to  resist  the  cold  by  several 
extra  layers  of  epidermis.  He  could  stand  a  degree  of  cold 
which  would  apparently  chill  him  to  the  bone,  and  could  walk 
for  some  time  in  the  snow  and  frost  without  suffering-  more  than 
he  could  bear  with  reasonable  fortitude.  When  he  had  to  do 
extra  duty  in  the  snow  and  cold,  however,  he  would  take  a  small 
piece  of  board,  say  a  foot  wide  and  two  feet  long-,  which  had 
been  seasoned  and  partially  scorched  by  the  fire,  and  after 
heating-  it  till  it  was  on  the  point  of  burning-,  he  would  start  on 
the  run  toward  the  schoolhouse,  with  the  hot  board  in  his  hand, 
and  when  his  feet  became  too  cold  to  bear  any  long-er,  he  would 
place  the  board  upon  the  ground  and  stand  upon  it  till  the 
numbness  and  cold  had  been  partly  overcome,  when  he  would 
again  take  his  'stove'  in  his  hand  and  make  another  dash  for 
the  schoolhouse.  *  *  *  Sometimes  a  flat,  light  piece  of  rock 
was  substituted  for  the  board  and  was  much  better,  as  it  re- 
tained heat  long-er." 

While  we  may  feel  assured  that  there  never  was  a  time  when 
it  was  the  fashion  in  Indiana  generally  for  the  children  to  attend 
school  in  the  winter-time  barefoot,  nevertheless  I  have  no  doubt 
that  during-  the  territorial  and  early  State  periods  it  so  frequent- 
ly occurred  as  to  occasion  little  or  no  remark. 

I  find  but  one  reference  as  to  the  buckskin  clothing  worn  by 
school  children  during  the  earlier  periods  mentioned.  In  the 
early  schools  of  Vanderburg  county  the  local  historian  tells  us 
that  the  boys  wore  buckskin  breeches  and  the  girls  wore  buck- 
skin aprons.  Though  this  is  the  only  statement  found  by  me, 
yet  there  was  a  time  when  buckskin  clothing  must  have  been  as 
common  with  school  children,  especially  boys,  as  it  was  with 
their  fathers. 

From  the  News  of  February  lo. 

One  of  the  greatest  drawbacks  to  the  efficiency  of  the  pioneer 
schools  was  the  want  of  competent  teachers.  This  want  was 
felt  from  the  very  beginning-  and  continued  on  down  for  many 
years.  "The  pioneer  teachers  were  g-enerally  adventurers  from 
the  East,  or  from  England,  Scotland  or  Ireland,  who  soug-ht 
temporary  employment  during^  winter,  while  waiting-  for  an 
opening  for  business,"  said  Barnabas  C.  Hobbs  on  one  occasion. 


84  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

The  Southern  States  furnished  their  quota,  and  western  Penn- 
sylvania was  not  behind  any  section  of  equal  area  in  the  num- 
ber sent  forth  to  become  educators  of  the  youth  of  the  land.  Of 
course  there  were  many  of  the  old-time  teachers  who  were  ad- 
mirably equipped  for  their  work,  and  who  did  it  so  well  that  they 
found  a  place  in  the  lasting-  remembrance  of  their  pupils;  but 
while  this  is  true,  it  is,  on  the  other  hand,  equally  true  that  the 
admirably  equipped  teachers  were  the  exception.  So  loud  were 
the  complaints  of  the  inefficiency  of  the  school  teachers  throug-h- 
out  the  State  that  they  reached  the  ears  of  the  Governor,  In  his 
annual  messag-e  to  the  leg-islature,  in  1833,  Governor  Noble  thus 
calls  attention  to  the  subject: 

"The  want  of  competent  teachers  to  instruct  in  the  township 
schools  is  a  cause  of  complaint  in  many  sections  of  the  State, 
and  it  is  to  be  reg-retted  that  in  employing-  transient  persons  from 
other  States,  containing-  but  little  qualification  or  moral  charac- 
ter, the  profession  is  not  in  that  repute  it  should  be.  Teachers 
permanently  interested  in  the  institutions  of  the  country,  pos- 
sessing- a  knowledg-e  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  our  extended 
population,  and  ming-ling-  with  it,  would  be  more  calculated  to 
render  essential  service  and  be  better  received  than  those 
who  come  in  search  of  employment."  And  he  proposes  as  a 
remedy  for  the  evil  the  establishment  of  a  seminary  for  the  spe- 
cial training-  of  our  native  teachers,  or  the  incorporation  of  the 
manual  labor  system  with  the  preparatory  department  of  the  In- 
diana Colleg-e  at  Blooming-ton. 

In  the  begfinning-  of  our  State's  history  and  for  many  years 
thereafter  the  people  held  in  slig-ht  esteem  the  vocation  of  the 
pedag-og-ue.  Not  because  he  was  a  pedag-og-ue,  but  because  he 
did  not  labor  with  his  hands.  Lawyers  and  ministers  and  even 
doctors  who  did  not  show  their  mettle  now  and  then  by  acts  of 
manual  labor  were  very  apt  to  receive  less  favor  at  the  hands  of 
the  people  than  otherwise.  An  Indiana  Secretary  of  State  once, 
while  in  office,  kept  a  jack  for  breeding-  purposes,  and  he  caused 
the  announcement  to  be  made  throug-h  the  newspapers  that  he 
g-ave  to  the  business  his  personal  attention.  It  was  considered 
a  very  proper  thing-  for  a  Secretary  of  State  to  do.  This  one 
was  an  invincible  politician  before  the  people.  It  is  related  of 
an  early  Posey  county  teacher,  one  Henry  W.  Hunt,  that  when 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  85 

he  first  applied  for  a  school  the  people  looked  upon  him  as  a  "lazy, 
trifling-,  g-ood-for-nothing-  fellow  who  wanted  to  make  his  liv- 
ing without  work."  What  was  true  in  Posey  in  pedagog-ue 
Hunt's  case  was  generally  true  in  every  pedag-og-ue's  case  through- 
out the  State. 

Teachers  quite  often  in  those  days  went  on  the  hunt  for  their 
schools.  They  were  a  kind  of  tramp — homeless  fellows,  who 
went  from  place  to  place  hunting-  for  a  job.  When  the  prospect 
seemed  good  the  candidate  would  write  an  "article  of  agree- 
ment," wherein  he  would  propose  to  teach  a  quarter's  school  at 
so  much  per  scholar.  With  that  in  hand  he  tramped  the  neig-h- 
borhood  over,  soliciting-  subscribers,  and,  if  a  stranger,  usually 
meeting  with  more  scorn  than  g-ood-will.  He  was  too  often  es- 
teemed a  g-ood-for-nothing  who  was  too  lazy  to  work.  "The 
teachers  were,  as  a  rule,"  says  the  historian  of  Miami  county, 
"illiterate  and  incompetent,  and  selected  not  because  of  any 
special  qualifications,  but  because  they  had  no  other  business." 
The  only  requirements  were  that  the  teachers  should  be  able  to 
teach  reading-,  writing-  and  ciphering.  The  teacher  who  could 
cipher  all  the  sums  in  Pike's  arithmetic,  up  to  and  including-  the 
rule  of  three,  was  considered  a  mathematician  of  no  mean  ability. 

The  wages  paid  the  ordinary  teacher  were  not  usually  such  as 
to  give  respect  to  the  profession.  One  of  the  curious  chapters 
of  the  times  is  the  low  wages  paid  for  all  manner  of  intellectual 
labor.  The  Governor  received  only  $1000  per  year,  and  a  judg-e 
of  the  Circuit  Court  but  $700.  Teachers  were  by  no  means  an 
exception  to  the  rule.  Rev.  Baynard  R.  Hall,  the  first  principal 
of  the  State  Seminary,  at  Bloomington,  came  all  the  way  from 
Philadelphia  to  accept  of  the  place  at  a  salary  of  $250  a  year, 
and  John  M.  Harney,  who  subsequently  made  such  a  fig-ure  as 
editor  of  the  Louisville  Democrat,  walked  all  the  way  from  Ox- 
ford, O.,  to  apply  for  the  chair  of  mathematics  at  a  like  salary, 
also,  of  $250  per  annum.  Jesse  Titus,  an  early  schoomaster  in 
Johnson  county,  taught  a  school  during-  the  winter  of  1826-'07  at 
$1  per  scholar,  which  yielded  him  $6  per  month,  out  of  which  he 
paid  his  board  of  $1  per  month.  The  first  school  taught  on  the 
present  site  of  Moore's  Hill  was  by  Sanford  Rhodes,  in  1820,  at 
seventy-five  cents  per  quarter  for  each  pupil,  which  was  paid 
mostly  in  trade.     In  1830  John  Martin  taught  in  Cass  county  at 


86  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

$8  per  month.  Seventj-five  cents  per  quarter  was  a  price  quite 
commonly  met  with  as  late  as  1825,  or  even  later,  but  the  price 
varied.  In  some  sections  $1  per  scholar  seems  to  have  been  the 
ruling- price,  in  others  $1.50,  while  in  a  very  few  instances  $2  was 
paid.  In  many  cases,  probably  a  majority,  the  teacher  was 
oblig-ed  to  take  part  of  his  pay  in  produce.  I  find  wheat,  corn, 
bacon,  venison  hams,  dried  pumpkin,  flour,  buckwheat  flour,  la- 
bor, whisky,  leather,  coon  skins  and  other  articles  mentioned  as 
thing's  g-iven  in  exchang-e  for  teaching-.  "At  the  expiration  of 
the  three-months'  term,"  says  one  writer,  "the  teacher  would  col- 
lect the  tuition  in  wheat,  corn,  pork  or  furs,  and  take  a  wag-on- 
load to  the  nearest  market  and  exchang-e  it  for  such  articles  as 
he  needed.  Very  little  tuition  was  paid  in  cash."  One  school- 
master of  the  time  contracted  to  receive  his  entire  pay  in  corn, 
which,  when  delivered,  he  sent  in  a  flat-boat  to  the  New  Orleans 
market  Another,  an  Orang-e  county  schoolmaster,  of  a  some- 
what later  period,  contracted  to  teach  a  three-months'  term  for 
$36.50,  to  be  paid  as  follows:  $25  in  State  scrip,  $2  in  Illinois 
money,  and  $9.50  in  currency."  This  was  as  late  as  1842,  and 
there  were  seventy  school  children  in  his  district. 

A  larg-e  per  cent,  of  the  unmarried  teachers  "boarded  around," 
and  thus  took  part  of  their  pay  in  board.  The  custom  in  such 
cases  was  for  the  teachers  to  ascertain  by  computation  the  time 
he  was  entitled  to  board  from  each  scholar,  and  usually  he  se- 
lected his  own  time  for  quartering-  himself  upon  the  family.  In 
most  instances,  it  is  believed,  the  teacher's  presence  in  the  fam- 
ily was  very  acceptable.  The  late  A.  B.  Hunter,  of  Franklin, 
once  taug^ht  a  school  under  an  ag-reement  to  board  around,  but 
one  of  his  best  patrons  was  so  delig-hted  with  his  society  that  he 
invited  him  to  make  his  house  his  home  during-  the  term,  which 
invitation  the  young-  man  g-ratefully  accepted.  It  was  not  the 
practice  for  the  married  teachers  to  board  around.  If  not  per- 
manent residents  of  the  neig-hborhood,  they  either  found  quar- 
ters in  the  "master's  house,"  or  in  an  abandoned  cabin  of  the 
neig-hborhood.  Quite  common  was  it  to  find  a  "schoolmaster's 
house,"  which  had  been  erected  by  the  district,  hard  by  the 
schoolhouse,  for  the  use  of  the  married  masters. 

The  school  terms  were  usually  called  "quarters."  There  were 
two  kinds  of  quarters  known  in  some  localities —  the  "long-  quar- 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  87 

ter"  and  the  "short  quarter."  The  long-  quarter  consisted  of 
thirteen  weeks,  and  the  short  quarter  of  twelve  weeks. 

Notwithstanding-  the  people  were  inclined  to  look  upon  the 
pioneer  schoolmasters  as  a  lazy  class,  yet  they  were  looked  up  to 
perhaps  as  much  if  not  more,  than  in  these  days.  I  have  already 
said  that  the  presence  of  the  schoolmaster  as  a  boarder  in  the 
family  of  his  patron  was  welcome,  for  he  was  generally  a  man 
of  some  reading,  and  his  conversation  was  eagerly  listened  to  by 
all.  Books  and  newspapers  were  scarce  in  those  days,  and  so 
conversation  was  esteemed  more  than  it  is  now. 

A  few  years  ago  I  had  occasion  to  look  into  the  standing  and 
qualifications  of  the  early  teachers  of  my  own  county,  and  on 
looking  over  my  notes  I  find  this  statement:  "All  sorts  of 
teachers  were  employed  in  Johnson  county.  There  was  the 
'one-eyed  teacher,'  the  'one-legged  teacher,'  the  'lame  teacher,' 
the  'teacher  who  had  fits,'  the  'teacher  who  had  been  educated 
for  the  ministry  but,  owing  to  his  habits  of  hard  drink,  had 
turned  pedagogue,'  and  'the  teacher  who  got  drunk  on  Satur- 
day and  whipped  the  entire  school  on  Monday.'  "  A  paragraph 
something  like  this  might  be  truthfully  written  of  every  county 
south  of  the  National  road,  and  doubtless  of  every  one  north  of 
it,  but  as  to  that  I  speak  with  less  certainty,  for  want  of  knowl- 
edge. The  lesson  the  paragraph  points  to  is  that  whenever  a 
man  was  rendered  unfit  for  making  his  living  any  other  way,  he 
took  to  teaching.  Mr.  Hobbs,  I  believe,  states  that  one  of  his 
first  teachers  was  an  ex-liquor  dealer  who,  having  grown  too  fat 
to  successfully  conduct  that  business  any  longer,  turned  school- 
master. It  is  related  of  the  first  teacher  of  the  first  school  in 
Clay  township,  in  Morgan  county,  that  he  was  afflicted  with 
phthisic  to  such  a  degree  that  he  was  unable  to  perform  manual 
labor;  but  he  was  a  fairly  good  teacher,  save  when  he  felt  an  at- 
tack of  his  malady  coming  on.  "That  was  the  signal  for  an  in- 
discriminate whipping."  The  first  schoolmaster  of  Vanderburg 
county  lived  the  life  of  a  hermit,  and  is  described  as  a  "rude, 
eccentric  individual,  who  lived  alone  and  gained  a  subsistence 
by  hunting,  trapping  and  trading."  John  Malone,  a  Jackson 
county  schoolmaster,  was  given  to  tippling  to  such  excess  that 
he  could  not  restrain  himself  from  drinking  ardent  spirits  during 
school  hours.     He  carried  his  bottle  with  him  to  school  but  he 


88  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

seems  to  have  had  reg-ard  enoug-h  for  the  proprieties  not  to 
take  it  into  the  schoolhouse,  but  hid  it  out.  Once  a  certain 
Jacob  Brown  and  a  playmate  stole  the  bottle  and  drank  till  they 
came  to  g^rief.  The  master  was,  of  course,  properly  indig-nant, 
and  "for  setting-  such  an  example,"  the  record  quaintly  says, 
"the  boys  were  soundly  whipped."  Wesley  Hopkins,  a  Warrick 
county  teacher,  carried  his  whisky  to  school  in  a  jug-.  Owen 
Davis,  a  Spencer  county  teacher,  took  to  the  fiddle.  He  taug-ht 
what  was  known  as  a  "loud  school,"  and  while  his  scholars 
roared  at  the  top  of  their  voices  the  g-entle  pedag-og-ue  drew 
forth  his  trusty  fiddle  and  played  "Old  Zip  Coon,"  "The  Devil's 
Dream,"  and  other  inspiring-  profane  airs  with  all  the  raig-ht  and 
main  that  was  in  him.  Thomas  Ayres,  a  Revolutionary  vet- 
eran, who  taug-ht  in  Switzerland  county,  reg-ularly  took  his 
afternoon  nap  during-  school  hours,  "while  his  pupils,"  says  the 
historian,  "were  supposed  to  be  preparing-  their  lessons,  but  in 
reality  were  amusing-  themselves  by  catching-  flies  and  tossing- 
them  into  his  open  mouth."  One  of  Orang-e  county's  early 
schoolmasters  was  an  old  sailor  who  had  wandered  out  to  the 
Indiana  woods.  Under  his  encourag-ement  his  pupils,  it  is  said, 
"spent  a  larg-e  part  of  their  time  roasting- potatoes."  About  the 
same  time  William  Grimes,  a  teacher  still  further  southwest, 
"employed  his  time  between  recitations  by  cracking-  hickorynuts 
on  one  of  the  puncheon  benches  with  a  bench  leg-." 
\To  be  continued.^ 


RIVER  A  A  VIGATION  I  A  INDIANA  89 


RIVER  NAVIGATION  IN  INDIANA. 

I'^HE  story  of  transportation  in  Indiana  properly  begins  with  a 
consideration  of  the  rivers,  for  though  their  uses  in  this  con- 
nection was  but  a  passing  phase  (barring  the  Ohio),  and  "navi- 
gation in  Indiana"  now  sounds  oddly  to  us,  they  were  at  one  time 
of  considerable  importance  in  our  export  trade.  They  certainly 
occupied  a  large  space  in  the  hopes  of  the  pioneer  fathers. 
Prospectors  who  traversed  and  reported  upon  the  country  before 
the  coming  of  the  settler  dwelt  upon  the  question  of  the  streams 
and  their  navigability  as  a  very  important  factor  in  the  coming 
occupancy;  and  for  some  years  after  the  occupancy  the  stren- 
uous insistence  in  considering  "navigable"  streams  that 
would  seem  hopelessly  useless  for  such  purpose  ofttimes  ap- 
proached the  ludicrous.  For  example,  Indianapolis  for  nearly 
two  decades  after  its  founding,  would  have  White  river  a  high- 
way of  commerce  in  spite  of  nature  and  the  inability  of  craft  to 
get  over  ripples,  sandbars  and  drifts.  As  early  as  1820  it  was 
ofl&cially  declared  "navigable;"  in  1825  Alexander  Ralston,  the 
surveyor,  was  appointed  to  make  a  thorough  inspection  of  the 
river  and  to  report  in  detail  at  the  next  session  of  the  legislature. 
The  sanguine  hopes  that  were  nourished  at  the  young  capital 
are  evidenced  by  existing  records.  An  editorial  in  the  hidiana 
Journal  oi  March  26,  1831,  says: 

"For  three  or  four  years  past  efforts  have  been  made  by  Noah 
Noble  to  induce  steamboats  to  ascend  the  river,  and  *  *  * 
very  liberal  ofifers  have  been  made  by  that  gentleman  to  the  first 
steamboat  captain  who  would  ascend  the  river  as  far  as  this 
place.  *  *  *  As  early  as  February,  1827,  he  offered  the  Ka- 
nawha Salt  Company  $150  as  an  inducement  to  send  a  load 
of  salt,  agreeing  to  sell  the  salt  without  charge." 

In  1830  Noble  offered  a  Capt.  Stephen  Butler  $200  to  come  to 
Indianapolis,  and  $100  in  addition  if  Noblesville  and  Anderson 
were  reached,  though  what  efforts  were  made  to  earn  these 
bonuses  is  not  known.     From  time  to  time  the  newspapers  made 


m  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

mention  of  boats  which,  according^  to  rumor,  g-ot  "almost"  to 
the  capital,  and  eventually  one  made  for  itself  a  historic  repu- 
tation by  performing-  the  much-desired  feat.  This  one  was  the 
"General  Hanna,"  a  craft  which  Robert  Hanna,  a  well-known 
character  in  early  politics,  had  purchased  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing-  stones  up  the  river  for  the  old  National  road  bridg-e. 
The  Hanna,  which  in  addition  to  its  own  loading-,  towed  up  a 
heavily-laden  keel-boat,  arrived  April  11,  1831,  and,  according- 
to  a,  contemporary  chronicle,  "every  man,  woman  and  child 
who  could  possibly  leave  home  availed  themselves  of  this  op- 
portunity of  g-ratifying  a  laudable  curiosity  to  see  a  steamboat. 
*  *  *  On  Monday  evening-  and  during  the  most  of  the  suc- 
ceeding- day  the  river  bank  was  filled  with  delig-hted  spectators." 
Captain  Blythe  and  the  artillery  company  marched  down  and 
fired  salutes.  The  leading-  citizens  and  the  boat's  crew  peppered 
each  other  with  eleg-ant,  formal  compliments,  and  the  former,  in 
approved  parliamentary  style,  "Resolved,  That  the  arrival  at 
Indianapolis  of  the  steamboat  General  Hanna,  from  Cincinnati, 
should  be  viewed  by  the  citizens  of  the  White  river  country  and 
of  our  State  at  larg-e,  as  a  proud  triumph,  and  as  a  fair  and  un- 
answerable demonstration  of  the  fact  that  our  beautiful  river  is 
susceptible  of  safe  navig-ation." 

A  public  banquet  in  honor  of  the  occasion  was  arrang-ed,  and 
the  visiting-  navig-ators  invited  to  attend,  but  they  were  in  haste 
to  g-et  out  of  the  woods  while  the  water  mig-ht  permit,  and  so 
declined  with  reg-rets.  Legend  has  it  that  the  boat  ran  ag-round 
on  an  island  a  short  distance  down  river,  and  lay  there  ig-nomini- 
ously  for  six  weeks,  and  that  was  the  last  of  the  "proud  triumph" 
and  White  river  "navig-ation." 

Many  are  familiar,  throug-h  Maurice  Thompson's  "Stories  of 
Indiana,"  with  the  Wabash  river  craft  that  attempted  to  es- 
tablish a  "head  of  navig-ation"  above  Lafayette,  and,  after 
heroic  strug-g-ling-s,  was  finally  hauled  ing-loriously  up  to  Lo- 
g-ansport  by  a  hawser  and  a  dozen  yoke  of  oxen.'^  In  a  book 
descriptive  of  the  West,  written  by  Jacob  Ferris,  as  late  as 
1856,  is  the  following-  account:  "The  river  navigation  of  Indi- 
ana is  rendered  difficult  by  frequent  shallows.  The  boats  are 
of  light    draft,    flat-bottomed,    with    paddles  placed   across  the 

*For  original  account,  see  Cox's  "Recollections  of  tho  Wabash  Valley." 


RIVER  NA  VIGA  TION  IN  INDIANA  ^1 

stern.  *  *  *  j^  ha.s  been  said  of  the  Indiana  boats  that,  in 
making-  headway  down  stream,  they  contrive  to  keep  up  with 
the  current.  They  draw  about  as  much  water  as  a  sap  trough. 
When  they  get  stuck  in  the  sand  all  hands  will  jump  out  and 
push  them  off.  It  is  related  of  an  exasperated  Hoosier,  who  had 
refused  to  pay  his  fare  till  there  should  be  some  prospect  of  get- 
ting- somewhere  or  other,  that,  being-  ordered  ashore  from  the 
middle  of  the  river,  he  stepped  into  the  water,  seized  the  craft 
by  the  bows,  and  g-ave  it  a  shove  down  stream,  stern  foremost^ 
When  it  worked  back  to  the  point  he  held  it  there,  puffing  and 
fluttering-,  the  captain  'cussing,'  till  a  compromise  was  effected, 
and  the  Hoosier  hired  for  the  rest  of  the  trip  to  help  the  engi- 
neer." 

But  despite  these  and  many  similar  absurdities,  the  Indiana 
streams  were  a  factor,  and  an  important  one,  in  our  earlier  com- 
merce. The  number  of  rivers  and  creeks  that  have  been  de*- 
clared  "public  hig-hways"  by  our  legislators  is  a  matter  for  sur- 
prise. An  examination  of  the  statutes  through  the  twenties  and 
thirties  discloses  from  thirty  to  forty.  According  to  Timothy 
Flint,  who  wrote  in  1833,  the  navig-able  waters  of  the  State  had 
been  rated  at  2500  miles,  and  this  estimate  he  thought  moder- 
ate. These  streams  rang-ed  in  size  from  the  Wabash  to  insig- 
nificant hill  drains  that  run  down  the  short  water-shed  into  the 
Ohio,  some  of  which,  at  the  present  day  at  least,  would  scarce 
float  a  plank.  Such  streams  were,  however,  supposed  to  have 
sufi&cient  volume  during  high  water  to  float  flatboats,  and  the 
purpose  of  the  legislation  was  to  interdict  impeding  of  the  water- 
way by  dams  or  otherwise,  and  the  clearing  of  the  channel  was 
under  State  law.  To  this  end  many  of  these  streams  were  divid- 
ed into  districts,  as  were  the  roads,  and  "worked"— i.  e.,  cleared 
of  drifts  and  other  obstructions  by  the  male  residents  living-  ad- 
jacent to  either  shore.  This  service  varied  with  various  localities 
and  ranged  from  one  to  three  days'  labor  a  year  from  citizens 
residing-  one,  two  and  three  miles  back.  These  workmen  were 
exempt  from  road  duty.  By  an  act  of  January  4,  1828,  $1,000 
was  appropriated  for  the  improvement  of  the  two  forks  of  White 
river,  and  they  were  to  be  "worked"  by  the  various  counties 
throug-h  which  they  ran.  Boards  of  justices  were  to  appoint 
supervisors  and  establish  districts,  and  citizens  within  two  miles 
on  either  side  were  to  work  the  rivers  three  days  in  each  year. 


92  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

It  is  probable  that  most  of  those  declared  navig-able  bore  on 
their  swollen  tides  at  one  time  or  another  boats  laden  with  the 
produce  of  the  country,  and  an  examination  of  the  various  his- 
tories reveals  that  very  many  of  our  counties  thus  found,  thoug-h 
irregularly,  an  important  outlet  for  their  exports. 

The  "Emigrant's  and  Traveler's  Guide"  a  book  published  in 
1832,  gives  some  information  on  this  point.  "Hundreds  of  fiat- 
boats,"  we  are  told,  "annually  descended  the  Wabash  and  White 
rivers.  *  *  *  The  trade  of  this  river  (the  Wabash)  is  be- 
coming immense.  In  1831,  during  the  period  which  elapsed  from 
the  5th  of  March  to  the  16th  of  April,  fifty-four  steamboats  ar- 
rived and  departed  at  and  from  Vincennes  alone.  It  is  also  esti- 
mated that  at  least  1000  flatboats  entered  the  Ohio  from  the 
Wabash  in  the  same  time.  *  *  ♦  in  February,  March  and 
April  of  this  year  there  were  sixty  arrivals  of  steamboats  at 
Lafayette." 

This  showing  of  a  thousand  flatboats  in  less  than  a  month 
and  a  half,  is  no  mean  one,  and  shows  conclusively  the  value  of 
the  rivers  in  the  early  stages  of  our  commerce.  Not  less  inter- 
esting is  the  g-limpse  which  this  writer  gives  us  of  the  character 
of  the  commerce.  One-tenth  of  the  flatboats,  he  tells  us,  was 
estimated  to  be  "loaded  with  pork  at  the  rate  of  300  barrels  to 
the  boat."  Another  tenth  is  said  to  have  been  loaded  with  lard, 
cattle,  horses,  oats,  cornmeal,  etc.,  and  the  remainder,  making 
by  far  the  largest  export,  with  corn  in  the  ear.  Sometimes  we 
hear  of  more  curious  cargoes.  The  inhabitants  of  Posey  coun- 
ty seem  to  have  had  a  reputation  among  the  facetious  river 
men  for  "hoop-poles  and  punkins,"  and  in  the  history  of  Jack- 
son county  we  learn  that  the  first  flatboat  cargo  from  Medora, 
in  that  county,  was  hickory-nuts,  walnuts  and  venison  hams. 
The  value  of  produce  and  stock  sent  annually  to  market  from 
the  valley  of  the  Wabash  by  flatboats  was  estimated  by  Ferris 
at  nearly  $1,000,000. 

While  there  were  other  kinds  of  boats,  the  flatboat  was  by 
far  the  best  craft  for  the  Indiana  rivers,  by  reason  of  its  light 
draft,  its  carrying  capacity  and  its  cheapness  of  construction. 
The  huge  tulip  poplars  that  abounded  in  our  forests,  easily 
worked  with  the  ax,  afforded  slabs  long  and  broad  enough  for 
the  sides,  and  the  simple  attaching  of  planks  to  these  for  the 


RIVER  NA  VIGA  TION  IN  INDIANA  93 

bottom,  ends  and  deck  could  be  readily  accomplished  by  the 
pioneer  with  such  tools  as  were  at  his  command.  When  finished, 
it  was  a  mere  float,  or  lig-hter,  flat-bottomed  and  strong-  enough 
to  stand  any  amount  of  ordinary  thumping-  as  it  drifted  down 
with  the  current. 

An  individual,  or  often  several  individuals,  would  knock  to- 
gether one  of  these,  load  it  with  the  surplus  produce  of  a 
neighborhood,  and  ride  down  with  the  freshets.  The  port  was 
usually  far-away  New  Orleans,  from  whence  the  boat  was  not 
supposed  to  return.  After  the  disposal  of  its  cargo  it  was  sold 
for  whatever  it  might  bring,  and  the  merchant  returned  by 
steamboat,  usually  to  the  Ohio  river  port  nearest  his  home, 
thence  across  country.  Sometimes,  however,  boats  came  up  our 
rivers  laden  with  imports.  These  seem  mostly  to  have  been  keel- 
boats,  a  long,  narrow  craft  with  a  keel,  much  lighter  than  the 
flatboat.  The  ascent,  a  most  arduous  and  snail-like  task,  was 
effected  by  poling,  where  the  current  permitted,  and  by  "cor- 
delling"  where  it  was  swift,  the  latter  process  being  a  towing  by 
hand,  one  end  of  the  hawser  being  secured  to  a  tree,  to  make 
sure  of  the  distance  gained.  Two  or  three  of  these  keel  boats 
are  recorded  as  finding  their  way  to  Indianapolis  soon  after  its 
founding,  the  principal  part  of  the  cargoes  being  salt  and  whisky 
— two  very  precious  articles. 

The  late  Mr.  Alexander  Conduitt,  of  Indianapolis,  who  as  a 
young  man  was  a  "sailor"  on  White  river,  has  described  to  the 
writer  the  flatboats  common  on  that  stream.  They  were  about 
fifteen  feet  wide;  those  built  at  and  below  Spencer  were  eighty 
feet  long,  and  those  for  the  river  above  Spencer  were  sixty  feet 
long.     A  sixty-foot  boat  would  carry  500  dressed  hogs. 

THE    WABASH    RIVER. 

Such  part  as  was  played  in  Indiana's  commercial  development 
by  the  steamboat  was  confined  virtually  to  the  Wabash  and  Ohio 
rivers.  This  at  one  time  was  of  considerable  importance  to  the 
northern  and  western  portions  of  the  State.  Lafayette  was 
practically  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Wabash;  and,  prior  to 
the  construction  to  that  point,  in  1843,  of  the  Wabash  and  Erie 
Canal,  it  depended  much  upon  the  river  for  an  outlet.  The 
"Traveler's  Guide,"  quoted  above,  speaks  of  sixty  arrivals  of 


94  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

steam  craft  there  within  three  months  in  the  year  1832,  and  one 
writer  tells  us  of  sixteen  steamboats  lying-  at  the  wharves  there 
at  one  time. 

With  the  opening  of  the  Wabash  Canal,  however,  the  trade  of 
the  valley  was  diverted  eastward  and  the  importance  of  the  riv- 
er waned.  Neither  then  nor  thereafter,  however,  even  to  the 
present  day,  has  the  agitation  for  its  improvement  ceased.  In  a 
report  on  the  subject  in  the  Documentary  Journal  of  1837  men- 
tion is  made  of  the  loss  annually  suffered  on  the  river.  During- 
the  preceding  season,  it  is  stated  that  not  less  than  fourteen  flat- 
boats  with  valuable  cargoes  had  been  wrecked  by  snags,  and  be- 
cause of  the  damages  the  high  rate  of  insurance  and  of  pilotage 
was  a  heavy  tax.  The  impediment  known  as  the  ' 'Grand  Rapids, " 
above  the  mouth  of  White  River  was,  in  particular,  a  menace  to 
navigation.  For  the  improvement  of  these  rapids  Indiana  and 
Illinois  have  legislated  conjointly,  and  of  appropriations,  both 
State  and  Federal,  many  thousands  of  dollars  have  been  expend- 
ed upon  the  river.  Since  1872  more  than  $800,000  has  been  ap- 
propriated and  more  than  $200,000  expended  upon  the  locks  at 
Mt.  Carmel.  In  1890  an  examination  of  the  channel  between 
Lafayette  and  Terre  Haute,  with  a  view  to  reestablishing  navi- 
gation, was  made  under  direction  of  the  United  States  Engineer's 
oflBce,  but  it  was  found  that  part  of  the  stream  was  "not  worthy 
of  improvement,  as  at  low  water  navigation  was  impracticable;" 
at  high  water  the  numerous  low  bridges  were  "complete  obstruc- 
tions to  any  navigation,"  and  the  probable  benefits  to  commerce 
were  "too  slight  to  be  worthy  of  consideration." 

Note. — Appended  is  a  list  (probably  only  partial),  compiled 
from  our  statutes,  of  streams  that  have,  at  one  time  or  another, 
been  declared  navigable  by  the  Indiana  legislature: 

White  river  from  its  mouth  to  the  main  forks;  the  west  fork 
to  the  Delaware  towns  (Muncie);  the  east  fork  to  the  main  fork 
above  the  mouth  of  Flatrock. 

Muscatatuck,  from  the  mouth  to  main  forks;  the  north  fork  to 
Vernon,  and  the  south  fork  to  the  mouth  of  Graham's  fork. 

Big  Blue  river  from  mouth  to  Fredericksburg. 

Whitewater,  from  State  line,  and  the  west  fork  to  northern 
boundary  of  Fayette  county. 

Loughery  creek,  from  mouth  to  Hartford. 


RIVER  J\A  VIGATION  IN  INDIANA  95 

Anderson  creek,  from  mouth  to  forks. 

Poison  creek,  from  mouth  to  Cummin's  mills. 

Oil  creek,  from  mouth  to  Aaron  Cunning-ham's  mills. 

Raccoon  creek,  from  the  Wabash  to  the  mills  of  Brooks,  Rob- 
bins  and  Rose. 

Big-  creek,  from  mouth  to  Black's  mill. 

Patoka  river,  from  mouth  to  Moseley's  mill. 

Indian  creek,  from  mouth  to  Dickerson's  mill. 

Indian  Kentucky  creek,  from  mouth  to  Brooks's  mill. 

Little  Pig-eon  creek  to  Barker's  mill. 

Big-  Pig-eon  creek  to  Fairchild's  mill. 

Big-  Sand  Creek,  from  the  Driftwood  to  forks. 

Sug-ar  creek,  from  Blue  river  to  Houg-h's  mill. 

Busseron  creek  to  Eaton's  mills. 

Lick  creek  to  Lost  river,  and  Lost  river  to  Sherley's  mill. 

Mississinewa  river  to  Lewallen's  mill,  in  Randolph  county. 

All  of  Blue  river  in  Shelby  county.  Sug-ar  Creek,  in  Shelby 
county.  Brushy  Fork,  of  the  Muscatatuck.  Eel  river  to  Gray's 
mill  in  Putnam  county.  Fourteen  Mile  creek.  Black,  Beanblos- 
som.  Twin,  Cliffy,  Salt,  Log-  Lick,  Plum  and  Big-  Indian  creeks. 

Anyone  erecting-  dams  or  otherwise  impeding-  navig-ation  on 
these  streams  was  subject  to  a  fine  from  SIO  to  $500. 

The  locations  of  the  mills  named  being-  in  larg-e  part  lost  to 
memory,  the  actual  mileag-e  declared  navig-able  is  now  past 
determining-.  G.  S.  C. 


THE  FIRST  STEAMBOAT  ON  WHITE  RIVER. 

FROM  THE  JOURNAL  OF  AN  OLD  PILOT. 

AN  old  pilot's  journal  written  in  the  seventies  by  John  Scott 
Elder,  an  Ohio  river  pilot  who  was  born  in  Lexing-ton,  Ky., 
in  1802,  g-ives  the  following-  interesting-  account  of  the  first 
steamboat  trip  made  on  the  waters  of  White  river: 

"In  1829,  I  continued  on  the  steamboat  'Victory,'  running-  up 
and  down  the  Ohio  river  until  near  the  last  of  Aug-ust;  then  the 
'Victory'  laid  up  to  repair.  I  then  went  aboard  of  the  steam- 
boat 'Traveler,' William  Sanders,  master,  bound  for  New  Orleans. 


96  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Yellow  fever  was  rag-ing-  in  New  Orleans  at  this  time.  After 
our  safe  return  from  New  Orleans,  I  asked  Captain  Sanders  for 
my  discharg-e:  he  would  not  hear  of  it,  and  went  up  to  Louisville 
— our  boat  was  lying-  at  Shippingsport.  When  he  returned  he 
said:  'I  have  g"ot  a  full  load  to  g-o  up  White  river  to  Spencer.' 
White  river  empties  into  the  Wabash  river  near  Mt.  Carmel, 
through  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river;  Spencer  is  in  Indiana. 
So  we  loaded  the  boat  with  salt,  and  went  on  our  way,  Henry 
Christopher  was  still  my  pardner,  and  neither  of  us  was  ever 
up  White  river,  but  we  went  on  our  way  up  the  Wabash  to  Mt. 
Carmel,  then  up  the  White  river.  White  river  is  a  small  stream 
and  very  crooked;  we  went  over  mill-dams,  though  the  water 
was  hig-h,  and  we  finally  arrived  at  Spencer.  The  steamboat 
'Traveler'  was  the  first  steamboat  that  ever  turned  a  wheel  on 
White  river;   William  Sanders,  master. 

"The  water  commenced  falling  so  we  had  to  hurry  out  our 
load  of  salt,  and  g-o  out  of  the  river  as  soon  as  possible.  Cap- 
tain Sanders  said  we  would  run  down  the  river  about  thirty 
miles,  land  some  passeng-ers,  and  stay  there  all  nig-ht,  as  we  had 
told  him  we  could  not  run  in  the  nig-ht.  It  was  Christopher's 
first  watch.  We  went  on  down  White  river  and  landed  the  pas- 
seng-ers, some  time  in  the  fore  part  of  the  nig-ht.  The  Captain 
then  said,  'We  will  g-o  on  to-nig-ht.  Christopher  said  nothing,' 
and  away  we  went.  I  told  Christopher  if  he  could  stand  it,  I 
could.  So  my  pardner  stood  watch  until  twelve  o'clock  and 
then  called  me  up.  When  I  took  hold  of  the  wheel  I  do  not 
think  I  was  ever  in  such  a  bad  fix  in  my  life,  for  a  man  that  is  a 
pilot  can  generally  see  the  river  all  the  way  ahead  of  him. 
However,  I  told  my  pardner  that  I  would  go  it  blind,  if  there 
was  ever  any  one  time  in  my  life  when  I  longed  for  the  light  of 
day  that  was  the  time.  So  we  continued  on  down  and  I  heard 
the  chickens  crow,  then  I  knew  it  was  not  long  until  daylight. 
The  first  thing  I  knew  we  went  into  the  Wabash  river,  then  I 
was  all  right.  The  Wabash,  after  White  river,  appeared  to  be 
as  wide  as  the  Mississippi  and  we  went  on  our  way  rejoicing  to 
Louisville,  without  accident."  Emma  Carleton. 


GRA  VES  OF  REVOLUTIONARY  SOLDIERS 


GRAVES  OF  REVOLUTIONARY  SOLDIERS. 

IN  Vol.  I,  Nos.  2  and  3,  of  this  mag-azine,  were  published  lists 
i  of  Revolutionary  graves  located  in  Putnam  and  Floyd  coun- 
ties. The  following-  list  is  the  fullest,  up  to  date,  of  these 
g-raves  as  located  in  various  parts  of  the  State  by  members  and 
chapters  of  the  D.  A.  R.  It  is  taken  from  the  First  Annual  Re- 
port of  the  D.  A.  R.  State  Historian,  Miss  Eliza  G.  Browning-: 

Aivi^EN  County.  The  Mary  Penrose  Wayne  Chapter  reports 
a  larg-e  number  of  Revolutionary  soldiers  buried  at  Harmersford, 
but  is  unable  to  g-ive  the  names. 

Floyd  County — 6.  Located  by  Piankeshaw  Chapter.  Jos- 
eph Bell,  Joshua  Fowler,  Richard  Lord  Jones  and  Benjamin 
Buckman,  all  in  the  New  Albany  cemetery;  Jacob  Garrison, 
Galena;  Gabriel  Poindexter,  Floyd  Knobs. 

Crawford  County — 1.  Piankeshaw  Chapter.  Jeremiah 
Wrig-ht,  Fredona  cemetery. 

Clark  County — 20.     Twelve  located  by  Piankeshaw  Chapter. 

Harrison  County — 18.  Piankeshaw  Chapter.  Charles  Dyer, 
Bethlehem  cemetery,  near  Crandall;  Joshua  Bennett,  Samuel 
Raug-h  and  Patrick  Hunter,  Presbyterian  cemetery  at  Rebobeth; 
Hinson  Johnson,  Blunk's  cemetery,  Webster  township;  Peter 
Deatrich,  George  Krone  and  Charles  Georg-e,  family  burying- 
g-round  one  mile  south  of  Elizabeth.  David  Trout,  Luther's 
Chapel;    John  Williams,  Goldsbury  farm,  three  miles  south  of 

Fredricksburg-;    John    Smith,  near  Corydon;    Cooper,  near 

Hancock's  Chapel;  Henry  Funk  and  Daniel  Funk,  west  bank 
of  Big-  Indian  Creek,  near  New  Amsterdam;  Abraham  Harmar 
and  Joseph  Harmar,  Thompson's  burial  lot;  John  Long,  High- 
fill  farm,  near  Corydon;    Philip  P.  Stine,  near  same  place. 

Huntington  County — 1.  Huntington  Chapter.  Elijah  Mitch- 
ell, Good  cemetery,  Warren  township. 

Jennings  County — 1.  Mrs.  W.  A.  Guthrie,  of  John  Paul 
Chapter.  Darby  McGannon,  family  burial  ground  on  McGannon 
farm. 

Marion  County — 8.  Caroline  Scott  Harrison  Chapter.  John 
Morrow,  Crown  Hill  cemetery;    Isaac  Wilson,  family  yard,  Indi- 


98  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

aoapolis;    Oliver,  Taffe,  John  Georg-e  and  Edmund  C. 

Johnson  (see  Indianapolis  News,  Aug-ust  10,  1878).  Robert  Dick- 
erson  (see  Indianapolis  Joiirnal,  April  2,  1829;  Thomas  Hanna, 
Greenlawn  cemetery. 

Jefferson  County — 19.  John  Paul  Chapter,  Madison.  Col. 
John  Paul,  George  Benefield,  Jacob  Bishop,  Georg-e  Kenneth 
Blake,  Arnold  Custer,  Alexander  Chambers,  William  Campbell, 
John  Dickerson,  James  Jackson,  David  Jones,  Thomas  Jame- 
son,        McMullen,     William     Rog-ers,     Thomas     Rowland, 

Thomas  Ramsey,  Jesse  Spann,  Jesse  Vawter,  Remembrance 
Williams  and  William  Hall.  Biog-raphies  of  each  of  these  com- 
piled. 

Monroe  County — 5.  Blooming-ton  Chapter.  William  Burch 
and  Henry  Barber,  near  Stamford;  Isaac  Van  Buskirk,  near 
Gosport;  John  Campbell  and  Andrew  Ferg-uson  (latter  colored), 
Blooming-ton  cemetery. 

Montgomery  County — 12.  Dorothy  Q.  Chapter.  Jacob 
Miller,  Sebastian  Stonebraker,  Samuel  Greg-ory,  William  Mason, 
James  McArther,  Robert  Gott,  Alexander  Foster,  Presly  Sims, 
John  Hardee,  John  McNulty,  Samuel  Newell  and  John    Snoddy. 

Noble  County — 2.     (Names  not  sent  in). 

Orange  County — 2.  Information  furnished  by  Blooming-ton 
Chapter.  John  Riley,  Paoli  cemetery;  William  Moore,  Livonia 
cemetery.  William  Moore's  g-rave  was  located  by  the  Piankeshaw 
Chapter. 

Owen  County — 7.  Spencer  Chapter.  James  Bryant  and 
Peter  Witham,  Spencer  cemetery;  Joshua  Kelley,  two  miles 
north  of  Spencer;  Ninian  Steele,  four  and  a  half  miles  north- 
west of  Gosport;  Andrew  Evans,  Asher  farm,  near  Gosport; 
John  Snoddy,  four  miles  north  of  Gosport;  Thomas  Ashbrook, 
Secrest   cemetery  near   Ramona.         John    McCulloug-h,    James 

Carpenter, Little, Nye  and Witham  are  names  of 

men  buried  in  Owen  county  who  are  said  to  have  been  Revolu- 
tionary soldiers,  but  this  is  tradition  and  no  proof  is  had  of  their 
services. 

Porter  County — 2.  Valparaiso  Chapter.  Henry  Bolton  and 
Jones. 

Rush  County — 2.  Mrs.  W.  A.  Guthrie,  of  John  Paul  Chap- 
ter, and  Miss  Eliza  G.  Browning,    of  Caroline  Scott  Harrison 


GRA  VES  OF  RE  VOL  UTIONAR  Y  SOLDIERS         99 

Chapter.  John  Riley  and  Georg-e  Brown,  family  burial  lot,  Rich- 
mond township. 

Scott  County — 1.  Piankeshaw  Chapter.  Amosa  Mitchell, 
Friendship  g-raveyard,  below  New  Frankfort. 

■Tippecanoe  County — 5.  Gen.  de  La  Fayette  Chapter. 
Jacob  Lane,  Nathin  White,  Georg-e  Rank,  Georg-e  Stoner  and 
Jacob  Kaiser,  Greenbush  cemetery. 

Washington  County — Piankeshaw  Chapter.  Jacob  Doan, 
near  Hardinsburg.     Total,  117.* 

Of  further  D.  A.  R.  work  in  Indiana  the  report  says: 

"Lafayette,  Spencer  and  Crawfordsville  Chapters  have  erect- 
ed monuments  to  the  Revolutionary  dead  in  their  counties;  to 
the  efforts  of  Piankeshaw  and  Ann  Rog-ers  Clark  chapters  we 
owe  the  tall  shaft  that  marks  the  scene  of  the  Pig-eon  Roost 
massacre;  the  John  Paul  Chapter,  of  Madison,  has  rescued  the 
old  cemetery  in  their  city,  and  converted  it  into  a  beautiful  park; 
the  Lafayette  Chapter  gfave  to  the  battleship  Indiana  a  hand- 
some silver  loving-  cup.  Of  the  efforts  of  the  chapters  to  stimu- 
late patriotism  and  the  study  of  history,  here  are  some  of  the  re- 
sults: Evans ville  has  g-iven  medal  and  books  as  prizes  for  es- 
says on  historical  subjects;  for  the  same  purpose  Lafayette  has 
g-iven  books,  a  steel  eng-raving-  of  Gen.  de  Lafayette,  and  a  flag-; 
Crawfordsville  has  awarded  medals;  Hunting-ton  has  g-iven  a 
money  prize,  pictures  and  a  flag-,  and  books  to  their  city  library; 
John  Paul  Chapter  has  erected  a  flag-staff  and  presented  to  each 
of  the  eig-ht  hig-h  schools  in  their  county  a  framed  copy  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence;  Rensselaer  has  g-iven  a  picture  to 
a  school;  Paul  Revere  Chapter  has  g-iven  a  framed  copy  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  to  the  Muncie  Public  Library;  the 
the  Caroline  Scott  Harrison  Chapter  has  bent  its  energ-ies  toward 
raising-  larg-e  sums  for  Continental  Hall;  the  General  Arthur 
St.  Clair  Chapter,  remembering-  that  our  motto  is  'home  and 
country,'  has  contributed  a  substantial  sum  of  money  to  the 
new  Methodist  hospital  in  Indianapolis,  in  addition  to  their  work 
for  Continental  Hall.  In  this  hospital  will  be  a  room  named  the 
'General  Arthur  St.  Clair'  room,  and  in  this  way  they  have  erect- 
ed a  monument  to  the  hero  whose   name  the  chapter  bears." 

*To  the  above  list  we  would  add  the  name  of  William  Crawford,  buried  in  the  Bryan 
graveyard,  near  Centerville.  For  sketch  of  Crawford  see  Young's  History  of  Wayne  County, 
p.  176. 


INDIANA  QUARTERLY  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Published  at  Indianapolis,  Indiana. 
George  S.  Cottman,  Editor  and  Proprietor. 

EDITORIAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS. 

A  DELAYED  ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 

An  acknowledg-ment  of  favors  received  should  have  appeared 
in  the  last  number  of  this  magazine,  but  was  unintentionally 
omitted.  The  magazine  last  year  barely  paid  expenses,  and, 
much  as  the  publisher  desired  to  keep  it  up,  its  continuance 
seemed  impracticable.  That  it  has  continued  to  exist  is  larg-ely 
due  to  the  friendly  aid  of  several  well-wishers  who  added  to 
their  personal  subscriptions  a  number  of  extra  ones,  thus  swell- 
ing the  subscription  list  very  materially  and  putting-  in  the 
hands  of  the  publisher  a  fund  sufficient,  in  addition  to  the  reg-u- 
lar  list,  to  defray  the  publishing  expenses  for  the  current  year. 
This  was  done  without  any  soliciting  on  the  part  of  the  publish- 
er, and  that  men  of  such  character  should  have  thought  the 
publication  worthy  of  their  voluntary  support  and  endorsement 
is  the  most  gratifying  result,  so  far,  of  our  effort  to  promote 
an  interest  along  this  line.  We  here  make  mention  of  the  gen- 
tlemen to  whom  our  thanks  are  due: 

Messrs.  A.  W.  Butler,  W.  E-  Henry,  J.  Frank  Hanly,  Charles 
J.  Buchanan,  Geo.  W.  Benton,  Daniel  Wait  Howe,  John  H.  Hol- 
liday,  C.  B.  Coleman  and  T.  E.  Hibben,  Indianapolis;  Mrs.  Mil- 
ton Shirk,  Peru;  Mr.  Fremont  Goodwine,  Williamsport;  Mr.  J. 
A.  Woodburn  and  the  Monroe  County  Historical  Society,  Bloom- 
ing-ton; Mr.  Cyrus  W.  Hodgin,  Richmond;  Mr.  F.  B.  Shutts,  Au- 
rora; Mr.  Robt.  S.  Taylor,  Fort  Wayne,  and  Mr.  Geo.  B.  Lock- 
wood,  Winona  Lake. 

To  Messrs.  W.  E.  Henry  and  A.  W.  Butler  we  are  especially 
indebted. 

THE  RICHMOND  CENTENNIAL. 

The  plans  for  the  Richmond  Centennial  anniversary,  to  be  ob- 
served next  September,  still  go  enthusiastically  on.  The  pro- 
gram has  been  arranged,  and  committees  for  the  many  branches 
of  work  organized,   while   the  local  press    from  time  to    time 


GRA  VES  OF  RE  VOL  UTIONAR  Y  SOLDIERS        101 

publishes  historical  matter  calculated  to  arouse  the  public  in- 
terest in  the  movement,  and  the  town,  seeming-ly,  is  being- 
searched  for  relics,  historical  documents  and  all  kinds  of  tribu- 
tary material.  An  important  feature  of  the  occasion  will  be  a 
"Centennial  History"  of  the  city,  under  the  charg-e  of  a  History 
Committee,  in  which  the  various  phases  of  development  will 
be  carefully  dealt  with  by  those  most  competent  for  the 
tasks.  With  the  effort  that  is  being-  made  to  g-et  at  all  existing- 
material,  it  is  probable  that  the  book  will  contain  much  of  real 
historic  value  hitherto  unused. 

LOCAL  HISTORICAL  SOCIETIES  IN  INDIANA. 

By  request  Prof.  Cyrus  Vv''.  Hodg-in,  of  Richmond,  supplies 
us  with  the  following-  information: 

"The  local  historical  societies  in  this  State  that  are  at  present 
active,  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  learn,  are  located  in  the 
following-  counties:  Elkhart,  Grant,  Henry,  Kosciusko,  Mon- 
roe, St.  Joseph,  Wabash  and  Wayne.  The  facts  of  the  history 
of  the  Klkhart,  Grant  and  Kosciusko  societies  are  wanting-. 
The  Wayne  county  society  was  org-anized  first  in  1882  within 
the  Old  Settlers'  org-anization.  It  was  reorg-anized  in  1901  and 
incorporated  in  1902.  It  has  rooms  in  the  court-house  at  Rich- 
mond, assig-ned  to  it  by  the  county  commissioners,  who  recently 
appropriated  $250  to  furnish  suitable  cases  for  its  collection. 
Its  collection  of  books,  files  of  papers,  volumes  of  mag-azines  and 
various  relics,  numbers  between  six  and  seven  hundred.  This 
does  not  include  the  papers  that  have  been  read  before  it.  Its 
meeting-s  are  held  quarterly,  that  in  November  being-  called  the 
annual  meeting-.     It  is  supported  by  membership  fees. 

"The  Henry  county  society  was  org-anized  in  1887  and  incor- 
porated in  1901.  It  is  housed  in  a  valuable  property  purchased 
for  the  purpose  by  the  county  commissioners  at  a  cost  of  $5000. 
It  is  supported,  however,  by  membership  fees  and  special  con- 
tributions.    It  has  a  valuable  collection. 

"The  society  in  St.  Joseph  county  is  known  as  the  Northern 
Indiana  Historical  Society.  It  aims  to  work  the  field  of  the 
entire  State.  It  has  for  its  quarters  the  entire  second  floor  of 
the  public  library  building-  in  South  Bend.  Its  collection  is  said 
to  contain  the  larg-est  number  of  historical  publications  and  the 


102  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

most  interesting-  historical  relics  in  the  State.  The  annual  meet- 
ing occurs  in  February. 

"The  Wabash  society  was  org-anized  and  incorporated  in 
1901.  It  has  been  g-iven  the  use,  by  the  county  commission- 
ers, of  Memorial  Building  in  the  city  of  Wabash,  where  it  has 
beg-un  a  collection  of  historical  materials.  This  society  does 
not  collect  membership  fees,  but  each  member  must  'pay  for  one 
share  of  stock  in  the  association.'  Among-  its  officers  are  a 
historian  and  an  archaeologist.  The  annual  meeting-  is  held  in 
Wabash  in  October.  Special  meeting-s  may  be  held  at  such 
times  and  places  as  the  board  of  directors  may  desig-nate. 

"The  Monroe  county  society  was  organized  in  1905.  It  is 
maintained  by  a  membership  fee.  The  meetings  are  held 
monthly  in  the  lecture-room  of  the  Kirkwood  Avenue  Chris- 
tain  Church  in  Blooming-ton.  The  topics  in  its  programs  indi- 
cate that  much  good  investigation  is  being-  made  in  the  history 
and  biography  of  the  county." 

PRESERVATION  OF  THE    FRIGATE   "CONSTITUTION," 

Since  our  last  issue  the  Northern  Indiana  Historical  Societ}" 
has  put  into  circulation  the  following  circular  which  we  are 
glad  to  reprint.     All  local  societies  should  indorse  the  memorial: 

"  Zb  the  Senators  a7id  Representatives  from  hidiana: 

"The  Northern  Indiana  Historical  Society  at  a  special  meet- 
ing- of  its  executive  committee  held  this  day,  unanimously  adopt- 
ed the  following-  memorial: 

"The  members  of  the  Northern  Indiana  Historical  Society 
hereby  strongly  indorse  the  movement  for  the  preservation  of 
the  U.  S.  Frigate  'Constitution,'  now  lying- at  the  Navy  Yard  at 
Charlestown,  Massachusetts, — a  war  vessel  around  which  cluster 
many  memories  of  the  early  days  of  the  Republic, — the  vessel 
which,  by  its  destruction  of  the  British  warship  'Guerriere,  g-ave 
to  the  war  of  1812  its  first  victory,  and  encouraged  the  nation  to 
renewed  and  ultimately  successful  efforts,  after  the  early  and 
discouraging  events  of  the  war. 

"The  society  urges  that  the  members  of  Congress  from  Indi- 
ana favor  the  appropriation  added  by  the  Senate  to  the  naval 
appropriation  bill  for  the  repair  or  rebuilding  of  the  famous  frig- 
ate, that  it  may  be  an  object  lesson,  showing  what  in  1812  was 


LOCAL  HISTORY  CONTRIBUTIONS  103 

considered  a  well-equipped  vessel  of  war,  thus  illustrating-  the 
marvelous  progress  which  steam  and  steel  have  wrought  in  na- 
val architecture  in  a  sing-le  century.  The  frigate  'Constitution,' 
so  long  as  she  is  afloat,  will  serve  to  recall  a  naval  victory  which, 
small  in  itself  when  won,  was  the  foundation  of  the  maritime 
power  of  the  nation. 

"And,  said  society  earnestly  requests  and  urg-ently  petitions 
the  members  of  Cong-ress  from  Indiana  to  use  every  honorable 
effort  and  influence  within  their  control  to  secure  so  liberal  an 
appropriation  as  may  be  necessary  to  fitting-ly  restore  and  per- 
manently preserve  the  frig-ate  'Constitution'  for  the  purpose 
above  set  forth,  and  as  an  inspiration  of  patriotism  to  the  youth 
of  our  country.  Timothy  E.  Howard,  President. 

"George  A.  Baker,  Secretary y 

LOCAL    HISTORY    CONTRIBUTIONS. 

The  Moravian  Missio?i  on  White  River. — In  the  Indiayiapolis  News 
for  March  17,  1906,  Mr.  J.  P.  Dunn  has  an  interesting- contribution 
in  which  he  discusses  the  martyrdom  of  Christian  Indians  among 
the  Delawares  of  White  river,  under  the  instigation  of  the  nefari- 
ous "Prophet,"  and  the  Moravian  Mission  that  was  established 
among  these  people  early  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Hitherto 
the  chief,  if  not  the  sole  authorities,  touching  upon  these 
matters  have  been  John  B.  Dillon,  the  Indiana  historian,  and 
John  Heck  welder,  the  Moravian  missionary.  To  these  have 
recently  been  added  the  original  reports  of  the  mission,  which 
were  discovered  in  the  archives  of  the  Moravian  church,  and 
which  it  is  the  intention  of  the  Indiana  Historical  Society  to 
publish.  That  they  will  add  new  information  to  our  rather 
meager  knowledge  of  the  Indians  of  Indiana  is  to  be  expected. 

The  site  of  the  old  Moravian  mission,  like  that  of  Ouiatenon,  is 
somewhat  uncertain,  though  tradition  places  it  on  White  river 
about  two  miles  east  of  Anderson.  A  witchcraft  craze,  inaugu- 
rated by  the  Prophet,  who,  with  his  brother  Tecumseh,  was 
then  located  among  the  Delawares,  so  discouraged  the  mission- 
aries that  their  establishment  was  discontinued  in  1806.  In 
subsequent  history  so  little  mention  is  made  of  it  that  its  ex- 
istence is  practically  forgotten. 

In  this  connection,  it  may  be  said  that  such  authorities  as  we 


104  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

have  upon  the  subject  seem  to  be  quite  uncertain  as  to  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  Indians  along  White  river.  Chief  Anderson's 
town  and  the  Munsee  town,  at  or  near  where  Anderson  and 
Muncie  now  stand,  are  frequently  spoken  of  in  local  chronicles, 
but  to  most  of  the  others  there  is  very  little  allusion.  Accord- 
ing- to  a  United  States  survey  map  made  in  1821  there  was  a  Lit- 
tle Munsee  1'own,  near  Anderson's  villag-e,  and  a  Buck  Town  a 
little  farther  up  the  river.  In  a  former  number  of  this  maga- 
zine (see  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  p.  176)  were  published  some  communica- 
tions reminiscent  of  an  old  Indian  torture  stake  that  stood  for 
a  number  of  years  after  the  whites  came  into  the  country.  This 
was  on  the  river,  about  three  miles  southeast  of  Muncie.  Prom 
one  of  these  letters,  written  by  Samuel  Cecil,  who  for  many 
years  owned  the  land,  it  is  pretty  conclusive  that  an  Indian 
town  of  some  permanence  stood  at  that  place,  and  that  a  stake 
for  torturing  prisoners  was  a  notable  feature  of  it.  Mr.  Cecil 
says  that  the  villege  was  known  as  Old  Munsey,  or  Old  Town 
Hill,  and  that  it  antedated  the  Munsey  that  stood  just  across 
the  river  from  the  present  city  of  Muncie.  In  Henry  county  they 
have  a  tradition  of  a  town  that  stood  not  far  from  the  site  of 
New  Castle,  and  which  remained  there  for  some  time  after  the 
coming  of  the  whites.  Judge  Martin  L.  Bundy  who,  we  believe, 
has  a  personal  recollection  of  them,  af&rms  that  they  were  Sen- 
ecas.  The  Indians  who  were  murdered  near  Pendleton,  in  1824, 
are  also  said  to  have  been  Senecas.  The  Senecas  belonged  to 
the  Iroquois  confederacy,  and  this  dual  tradition  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  Iroquois  were  to  be  found  among  the  Algonquins 
of  this  section.  Strawtown,  in  Hamilton  county,  is  also  said  to 
have  been  originally  "a  flourishing  Indian  town,"  and  there  are 
vague  reports  of  others  on  the  river  at  the  north  and  south  boun- 
dary lines  of  Marion  county. 

The  Union  Literary  Society. — We  are  in  receipt  of  an  interest- 
ing article  with  this  caption,  written  by  Philander  Outland,  of 
Richmond,  and  published  in  the  Sun-Telegram  for  November  22, 
1902.  The  Union  Literary  Society,  or  Institute,  more  properly 
speaking,  was  a  school  in  Randolph  county,  established  by  the 
Friends  in  1845,  and  was,  perhaps,  the  first  institution  of  the 
kind  in  the  State  to  throw  open  its  doors  alike  to  white  and  col- 


THE  SNOWFALL  IN  OCTOBER,  1869  105 

ored  pupils.  It  was  commenced  in  a  two-story  hewed-log-  build- 
ing-, "located  in  a  dense  forest,"  and  in  this  primitive  seat  of 
learning-  many  a  youth  of  the  under  race  was  g^uided  toward  a 
broader  life.  An  account  of  the  school,  written  by  Professor 
Ebenezer  Tucker,  its  principal,  may  be  found  in  the  History  of 
Randolph  County,  but  Mr.  Outland,  a  colored  man  who  was  ed- 
ucated there,  deals  freshly  and  more  at  leng-th  with  its  special 
service  to  the  colored  race.  Neg-ro  pupils  attended  the  school 
not  only  from  the  territory  immediately  surrounding-,  but  from 
Richmond,  Log-ansport  and  Indianapolis,  this  State,  and  from 
Dayton,  Piqua,  Cincinnati,  and  Shelby  and  Mercer  counties, 
Ohio,  while  some  came  from  Mississippi  and  Tennessee. 

Baber'' s  History  of  Green  Co7inty.—M.r.  Henry  Baker,  of  Worth- 
ington,  sends  us  a  copy  of  the  little  paper-bound  History  of 
Greene  County,  the  authorship  of  which  is  accredited  to  "Uncle 
Jack  Baber,"  and  which  was  published  at  Worthington  in  1875. 
Some  of  the  best  local  history  we  have  is  to  be  found  in  pam- 
phlets or  small,  unpretentious  volumes  published  by  the  authors, 
and  Baber's  is  one  of  this  class.  It  is  evidently  written  by  a 
reminiscent  who  is  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  community  in 
which  he  has  long-  lived,  and  the  text,  which  rambles  along  in  a 
g-ossipy  style,  contains  many  minor  incidents  and  anecdotes 
that  bring-  the  people  of  Greene  county  close  to  the  reader.  The 
book  is  now  hard  to  find. 


THE  SNOWFALL  IN  OCTOBER,  1869. 

Frotn  Indiana  Farmer,  November  11,  1905- 

I  SEE  in  the  last  issue  of  the  Farmer,  C.  H.,  of  Ohio,  wants  to 
know  the  exact  date  of  the  deep  snow  that  fell  in  October  of 
1868  or  1869.  As  I  have  been  keeping-  a  record  only  since  1872, 
I  can  rely  only  on  my  memory  for  the  information  wanted, 
which  was  in  1869,  the  day  of  the  week  or  month  not  remem- 
bered. If  I  knew  the  day  of  the  month  I  could  tell  the  day  of 
the  week.  I  well  recollect  a  snow  in  1843,  when  I  was  just 
turned  into  my  twelfth  year,  that  for  severity  has  perhaps  never 


106  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

been  equalled.  The  day  of  the  month  or  week  I  fail  to  recollect, 
but  from  an  old  man  of  my  acquaintance  and  several  years  my 
senior,  I  learned  it  was  the  4th.  I  have  a  vivid  recollection  that 
will  remain  with  me  as  to  snow  while  the  trees  were  in  full  leaf. 
From  my  diary  of  1880  I  see  that  two  inches  of  snow  fell  on  the 
forenoon  of  October  19th  (Tuesday),  and  that  at  noon  the  sun 
came  out  and  the  snow  went  like  a  white  frost.  I  reg-ret  that 
I  didn't  keep  a  diary  of  my  school  days,  just  as  every  young-  man 
should.  I  find  it  a  g-reat  source  of  satisfaction  now  in  my  old 
ag-e  for  reference.  Henry  Baker. 

Worthington.  ^ 


THE  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Vol.  II  SEPTEMBER,  1906  No.  3 

THE  EARLY  NEWSPAPERS  OF  INDIANA, 

BEGINNINGS    AND    DEVELOPMENT    OF    JOURNALISM. 

IN  view  of  the  illiteracy  with  which  early  Indiana  has  (justly 
or  unjustly)  been  accredited,  the  ubiquity  of  the  newspaper 
press,  almost  from  the  beg-inning-,  is  a  matter  for  surprise.  We 
have  abundant  evidence  that  in  our  pioneer  population  there 
was  a  larg-e  element  of  intellig-ent  and  thinking-  men.  The  man 
of  this  type,  with  the  alert  American  sense  of  citizenship  and 
with  a  lively  curiosity  about  the  news  of  the  world  (whetted, 
perhaps,  by  his  isolation),  tog-ether  with  his  zeal  for  local  de- 
velopment, demanded  an  org-an  to  promote  his  political  opinions, 
to  keep  him  in  touch,  in  some  fashion,  with  the  outside  world, 
and  to  advocate  the  public  wants.  As  a  consequence,  g-enerall}^ 
speaking-,  wherever  he  went  and  established  his  rude  beg-inning-s 
of  a  civil  and  social  life,  the  printing-  press  followed  hard  after. 

These  journalistic  beg-inning-s  are  very  difficult  to  trace 
because  of  the  meag-erness  and  uncertainty  of  the  records. 
Many  a  paper  that  had  its  little  day  and  was  once  part  of  the 
history  of  its  community  has  passed  utterly  away,  leaving-  not  a 
number  nor  even  a  memory  in  the  minds  of  men  to  tell  that  it 
ever  existed;  and  the  only  proof  of  its  existence  often  is  indirect 
and  obscure.  Others  have  chang-ed  their  names,  sometimes 
repeatedly,  while  still  retaining-  their  newspaper  identity,  and  in 
a  study  of  the  subject  this  is  confusing-. 

The  sources  for  such  a  study  are,  mainly,  the  newspaper 
directories,  local  histories.  United  States  census  reports,  old 
g-azetteers  and  nev/spaper  files.  The  first  of  these  are  of  little 
historical  value,  and  the  local  histories  are  not  always  reliable 
and  sometimes  wholly  silent  as  to  the  papers  of  their  localities. 
The  most  valuable  of  these  sources  are  old  newspaper  files,  for 
in  them,  thoug-h  frag-mentary  and  incomplete,  we  find  not  only 
many  of  the  publications  themselves,  but  allusions  to  and  adver- 


108  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

tisements  of  other  contemporaneous  papers.  From  these  various 
authorities  I  have  compiled  a  list  of  about  250  periodicals, 
mostly  newspapers,  published  in  this  State  prior  to  1850.  The 
list  is,  probably,  not  complete,  nor  always  accurate  as  to  dates, 
etc.,  but  is,  I  think,  about  as  trustworthy  as  it  can  be  made 
from  the  source  material  available.  To  g-ive  anything-  like 
detailed  information  about  these  many  ventures  is,  of  course, 
out  of  the  question  here,  but  their  chronological  and,  in  some 
cases,  g^eographical  distribution  ma}^  be  briefly  g^iven.  For 
convenience  they  may  be  considered  by  decades. 

First  Decade. — From  1800  to  1810  the  only  publication  in 
the  Territory  of  Indiana  was  the  bidiana  Gazette  and  its  succes- 
sor, the  Western  Sun,  of  Vincennes.  This  paper  was  established 
in  1804  by  Elihu  Stout,  who  shipped  a  printing-  outfit  from 
Frankfort,  Ky.,  by  way  of  the  Kentucky,  Ohio  and  Wabash 
rivers.  This  sheet  antedated  the  first  one  in  St.  Louis  by  four 
years,  and  seems  to  contest  the  claim  to  priority  with  the  first 
in  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  as  the  earliest  New  Orleans  papers 
were  in  1804.  These  were  Le  Monite^ir,  a  French  publication, 
and  i\\G:_ Louisiana  Gazette.  Of  the  first  I  have  not  found  the  ex- 
act date;  the  latter  was  first  issued  in  July  of  the  year  g-iven. 
The  Indiana  Gazette  was  burned  out  and  re-established  as  the 
Western  Sun.  Subsequently  it  became  The  Western  Sun  a?id 
General  Advertiser,  Jones'  Vincennes  Sentinel,  The  Viyicennes  Indi- 
ana Patriot,  The  Courant  a7id  Patriot,  and,  finally.  The  Western 
Sun  again,  which  name  it  still  bears.  Two  or  three  in  Ohio 
preceded  this  one. 

Second  Decade. — By  1810  the  St.  Louis  paper,  and  ten  in 
the  Eng-lish,  French  and  Spanish  lang-uag-es  that  had  been  start- 
ed in  New  Orleans,  had  all  suspended.  The  one  in  Indiana 
Territory  sturdily  persisted  in  living-,  in  spite  of  the  disaster  b}' 
fire  that  overtook  it  almost  in  the  start,  and  during  the  second 
decade  others  came  to  keep  it  company.  The  record  we  have  of 
them  is  scant,  but  the  following-  are  mentioned  in  local  histories 
and  elsewhere: 

The  Corydon  Gazette,  1814;  The  Plaindealer  and  Gazette,  Brook- 
ville,  1815  or  1816;  The  Republican  Banner  and  The  Indiana  Re- 
publican, Madison,   1815  and  1816;    The  Indiana  Register,  Vevay, 


THE  EARL  Y  NEWSPAPERS  OF  INDIANA         109 

1816;  The  Centinel,  Vincennes,  about  1817  (partial  file  in  State 
Library);  The  Vevay  Reveille^  i8ij;  The  Indiana  Oracle,  Law- 
renceburg-,  1817  or  1819;  The  Intelligencer,  Clark  County  (prob- 
ably Charlestown),  1818;  The  E7iquirer  and  Indiana  Telegraph, 
Brookville,  1819.  There  is  also  vag-ue  mention  of  one,  name  not 
given,  conducted  at  Jeffersonville  in  1820  by  Georg-e  Smith  and 
Nathaniel  Bolton,  who  a  little  later  founded  the  first  Indianap- 
olis paper,  the  Gazette;  and  one  at  New  Albany  by  Ebenezer 
Patrick. 

Third  and  Fourth  Decades. — At  the  beg-inning-  of  this  ar- 
ticle I  said  that  wherever  the  pioneer  went  the  printing-  press  fol- 
lowed hard  after.  This,  perhaps,  is  an  over  emphasis  of  the  ar- 
gument if  we  construe  "hard  after"  as  immediately.  Just  at 
this  point  we  have  an  interesting  revelation  as  to  the  time  nec- 
essary for  the  creating  of  a  journalistic  field.  It  should  be 
noted  that  the  dozen  or  so  papers  above  given  were  confined  to 
the  south  third  of  the  State.  In  1820,  the  whole  central  portion 
of  our  Territory  was  thrown  open  to  settlers  and  there  was  an 
influx  of  population  that  spread  as  far  north  as  the  Wabash. 
There  seem  reasons  why  the  newspaper  press  should  spread  ac- 
cording-ly,  but  by  my  notes  I  find  that  while  during  the  third  dec- 
ade the  number  of  papers  was  trebled,  only  four  of  them  were 
in  the  "New  Purchase,"  as  the  newly  opened  country  was  called. 
These  were  the  Indiayiapolis  Gazette  (see  Note  1),  The  Western 
Ceiisor  and  Emigrant' s  Guide,  which  became  the  Indianapolis  Jour- 
nal, the  Lafayette  Journal,  and  the  Pottawattomie  and  Miami 
Times,  of  Logansport  (Note  2).  During  these  ten  years  many 
thousands  of  settlers  had  come  in,  and  there  are  reasons  for  be- 
lieving that  many  papers  were  taken  and  read,  but  for  some 
reason  the  conditions  seem  not  to  have  invited  journalistic  ven- 
tures until  the  beginning  of  the  next  decade.  In  the  early  thir- 
ties they  began  to  spring  up  and  during  these  ten  years  one  hun- 
dred new  papers  came  into  existence,  by  far  the  larger  part  of 
which  were  in  the  central  and  northern  localities,  and  scattered 
pretty  well  over  these  portions  from  Columbus  to  Michigan  City, 
and  from  Henry  to  Parke  counties.  From  1840  to  1850  I  find 
added  to  the  list  at  least  one  hundred  and  fourteen  more,  and  of 
these  comparatively  few  are  located  in  the  older  parts  of  the 
State  (Note  3). 


110  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

As  stated  above,  the  number  of  periodicals  that  I  have  found 
trace  of  as  existing-  in  the  State  prior  to  1850  is  something-  like 
250.  There  were  certainly  some  in  addition  to  these  that  have 
quite  disappeared  from  mortal  ken.  Many  were  ephemeral,  and 
the  mortality  among  them  is  indicated  by  a  comparison  of  the 
number  I  find  with  those  g-iven  on  the  United  States  census. 
This  comparison  can  not  be  made  throug-h  that  medium  until 
1840,  when  the  census  first  deals  with  the  periodicals  of  the 
country.  Up  to  that  period,  according  to  my  research,  at  least 
134  had  been  established,  but  the  total  number  existing-  in  the 
year  mentioned  is  reported  in  the  census  as  79,  while  against 
the  250  that  had  been  in  1850  only  107  remained. 

Drawing-  still  further  upon  these  census  reports,  we  find  some 
interesting-  figures  touching  the  output  of  the  press,  not  only  as 
to  increase  but  as  to  character.  In  the  beginning  all  periodicals 
were  weekly  newspapers.  By  1840  a  differentiation  had  begun, 
and  along-  with  69  weeklies  there  were  4  semi-  and  tri-weeklies 
and  3  classified  as  "periodicals,"  presumably  literary.  In  the 
following-  decade  the  daily  makes  its  appearance,  and  by  1850 
there  are  9  of  these,  along  with  95  weeklies,  2  tri-weeklies  and 
1  semi-monthly,  with  a  total  circulation  of  63,138.  In  1860  there 
were  186,  with  the  political  weekly  still  in  the  ascendancy,  but 
showing  an  intrusion  into  the  field  of  6  religious  and  5  literary 
weeklies  and  monthlies,  and  with  an  aggregate  circulation  of 
159,381.  During  the  sixties  there  was  a  much  heavier  rate  of 
increase,  the  census  of  1870  showing-  293  and  a  circulation  of 
363,542.  The  next  ten  years  the  advance  was  more  marked  yet, 
and  by  1880  had  reached  the  number  of  467,  with  a  circulation 
of  661,111.  By  this  time  the  dailies  had  increased  to  40,  and 
the  monthlies  to  27.  The  tables  of  1890  show  680  newspapers 
and  periodicals,  with  a  circulation  of  1,292,418;  those  of  1900, 
887,  and  a  circulation  of  210,805,  or  an  output  during  the  entire 
year  of  175,432,092  copies. 

One  of  the  interesting-  phases  of  journalistic  history  is  the 
differentiating  process  above  referred  to,  one  aspect  of  which  af- 
fords an  important  sociolog-ical  datum  as  indicating  chang-es  in 
the  attitude  of  the  public.  Not  only  has  the  weekly,  in  large 
measure,  g-iven  place  to  the  daily,  and  the  daily  fallen  into 
classes,  as  morning-  and  evening,  but  there  have  been  chang-es 


THE  EARL  Y  NEWSPAPERS  OF  INDIANA         111 

of  a  deeper  sig-nificance.  In  the  earlier  times  the  journal  was, 
first  of  all,  a  party  org-an,  with  all  the  rabid  partizanship  that 
that  implies  when  the  party  org-an  is  in  its  worst  estate.  Even 
the  news,  where  possible,  it  seemed,  was  twisted  to  subserve 
party  ends,  and  as  a  concomitant,  savag-e  political  rancor  was 
the  order  of  the  day.  The  modern  newspaper  is  not  all  sweet- 
ness and  ligrht,  but  one  could  hardly  imag-ine,  for  example,  the 
hidianapolis  Journal  in  its  latter  days  admitting-  to  its  columns, 
as  it  does  in  the  issue  of  November  3,  1836,  an  open  letter  ad- 
dressed to  "the  Lying-,  Hireling-  Scoundels  who  do  the  dirty  work 
as  Editors  of  the  Democrat.''''  The  pioneer  reader  was  nothing- 
if  not  a  partisan,  and  the  acrimony  with  which  both  editors  and 
contributors  expressed  themselves  is  an  index  to  the  moral  spirit 
of  the  times.  Not  only  political  differences  but  personal  animos- 
ities were  aired  in  the  public  columns  with  a  brutal  rancor  and 
ferocious  hate  based,  so  far  as  one  can  see  in  the  controversies, 
on  little  cause.* 

So  little  was  the  old  journal  a  newspaper,  in  the  modern 
sense,  that  local  news,  or,  indeed,  any  kind  of  news  other  than 
political  was  hardly  thoug-ht  worth  the  space.  The  thing-s  that 
would  now  have  peculiar  historical  value,  had  the  papers 
chronicled  them,  are  provoking-ly  scant.  What  local  matter 
there  was  had  no  separate  department,  but  was  usually 
scattered  down  the  editorial  column,  and  matters  that  we  now 
reg-ard  as  of  interest  and  importance  often  had  little  or  no 
mention.  For  example,  one  would  think  that  the  people,  and, 
as  a  consequence,  the  press,  would  have  been  very  much 
interested  in  the  admission  of  the  State  to  the  Union,  and  in  the 
convention  that  framed  the  first  Constitution,  at  Corj^don;  but 
in  the  files  of  the  Wester7i  Sun  of  that  period  (the  only  paper  of 
that  date  available)  very  little  is  said  about  the  convention,  and 
the  first  conspicuous  indication  of  statehood  is  the  budding- 
forth,  more  than  a  month  after  the  convention,  of  notices  of 
candidates  inaug-urating-  the  g-rand  rush  for  office.  The 
startling-  earthquake  shocks  of  1811-'12,  the  equally  startling- 
star  shower  of  1833,  and  other  notable  occurrences  are  dismissed 

•Governor  James  B.  Ray  was  a  past-master  at  this  gentle  art  of  vituperation,  and  an  open 
letter  of  his  to  James  Noble,  then  United  States  Sonator,  published  in  the  Indianapolis 
Journal  of  March  3,  1830,  is  a  good  example  of  the  fierceness  I  speak  of. 


1 12  INDIA  NA  MA  GAZINE  OF  HIS  TOR  Y 

with  little  more  than  a  mere  mention,  though  they  unquestion- 
ably occupied  a  large  place  in  the  public  mind  at  the  times. 

The  first  venture,  perhaps,  in  the  local  field  was  The  Loco- 
motive, a  little  weekly,  unique  for  that  day,  which  was  launched 
in  1845  as  an  amateur  performance  by  three  apprentices  in  the 
bidiana  Journal  office,  of  Indianapolis.  It  died  a  couple  of 
times,  but  was  revived,  enlarged  a  little,  more  maturely  edited, 
perhaps,  and  proved  a  "go."  It  was  wholly  local  and  literary, 
with  much  of  the  society  column  feature,  and,  according  to 
Berry  Sulgrove,  "covered  so  well  a  field  completely  neglected  by 
the  grave  political  organs  that  it  soon  began  to  pay."  It  was, 
he  adds,  "the  first  paper  that  the  women  and  girls  wanted  to 
read  regularly." 

The  early  newspaper  did  not,  however,  wholly  neglect  litera- 
ture. Indeed,  it  sometimes  filled  in  with  a  disproportionate 
amount  of  reading  matter  of  this  sort,  not  only  from  the  writers 
of  the  day,  but  from  those  of  the  past,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Ripley  Cotinty  Index,  which  published  in  a  serial  form  the 
whole  of  "Pilgrim's  Progress."  Love  stories,  often  serials,  not 
unfrequently  occupied  the  first  page.  There  was  also,  usually, 
the  time-honored  Poets'  Corner,  affording  a  chance  to  budding 
rhymsters,  and  showing  that  the  muse,  though  humbly  subordi- 
nate, was  not  quite  forgotten.  In  The  Western  Sun,  of 
Vincennes,  this  latter  department  was  headed  the  "Poetical 
Asylum." 

THE    INDEPENDENT   PRESS. 

The  development  of  the  independent  newspaper  during  the 
last  third  of  a  century  is  one  of  the  interesting  journalistic 
phenomena.  Prior  to  that  period  there  were  in  this  State 
several  so-called  independent  sheets,  but  these  were,  without 
exception,  I  believe,  simply  neutral  and  not  aggressively  inde- 
pendent, as  the  modern  usage  of  that  term  implies.  The  most 
noteworthy  of  these  was  the  hidependent  Press,  established  at 
Lawrenceburg  in  1850,  by  Henry  L.  Brown  and  James  E.  Goble, 
and  edited  by  Oliver  B.  Torbett.  From  the  salutatory  and  a 
long  communication  to  the  editor  in  the  first  number  on  the 
needs  of  an  independent  press,  one  would  think  that  the  paper 
had  naturally  risen  out  of  a  growing  demand  for  such;  but  Mr. 
Brown,  one  of  the  founders,  now  (or   until    recently)    living   in 


THE  EARL  V  NE  WSPAPERS  OF  INDIANA         1 1 3 

Indianapolis,  explains  that  the  independence  of  the  new  paper 
was  larg-ely  accidental.  The  Democratic  field  was  already 
occupied;  there  was  no  encourag-ement  for  a  Whig-  org-an  in 
that  county,  and  hence  the  remaining-  alternative.  This  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting-  papers  of  its  period,  and  its  superiority 
over  the  majority  of  its  contemporaries  alike  in  the  matter  of 
news,  literature  and  miscellany,  doubtless  accounted  for  the 
measure  of  success  to  which  it  attained. 

The  independent  movement  which  avowedly  takes  an  active 
part  in  all  political  issues  and  makes  a  virtue  of  the  "flopping-" 
which  so  excites  the  scorn  of  the  staunch  partizan,  was  inaug-- 
urated  in  this  State  by  John  H.  Holliday  who,  in  1869,  es- 
tablished the  Indianapolis  News.  Beingf  a  man  of  ideas,  and 
with  the  boldness  to  experiment  with  these,  he  launched  a  paper 
that  in  several  respects  occupied  its  own  field.  It  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  only  two-cent  paper,  outside,  possibly,  of 
Chicag'o,  that  existed  west  of  the  Alleg-heny  mountains.  Prior 
to  the  war  cheap  papers  had  sprung-  up,  but  the  advance  in  cost 
of  material,  particularly  of  white  paper,  in  the  war  period,  had 
driven  them  out.  It  was  made  an  afternoon  paper  because  day 
labor  cost  less  than  nig-ht  work;  and,  finally,  it  was  made  an 
independent  paper  because  Mr.  Holliday  preferred  and  believed 
in  that  kind  of  a  newspaper.  It  may  be  added  that  the 
proprietor  secured  for  it  the  Associated  Press  dispatches,  which 
advantag-e  no  previous  evening-  publication  here  had  enjoyed. 

Just  how  far  the  well-known  success  of  the  News  is  attributable 
to  its  political  independence  and  how  much  to  g-ood  business 
manag-ement  is  not  obvious,  but  its  success  in  the  independent 
field  has  doubtless  been  a  strong-  influence  in  developing-  the 
movement.  Others  followed  the  lead  of  this  pioneer  in  its 
venture,  and  that  they  met  a  "felt  want"  would  seem  to  be 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  by  1903,  according-  to  Lord  &  Thomas's 
Pocket  Directory  of  that  year,  there  were  in  the  State  no  less 
than  219  independent  journals,  not  counting-  those  that  professed 
a  qualified  independence,  such  as  "Republican-Independent" 
and  "Democratic-Independent."  These  are  scattered  pretty 
well  over  the  State,  and  185  of  them  (34  not  being-  returned)  had 
an  ag-gregate  circulation  of  266,103. 


114  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

OTHER    CHANGES    AND    INDUSTRIAL   STATISTICS. 

Other  notable  chang-es  in  the  journalistic  character  and  tone 
have  grown  up,  revealing-  chang-es  in  the  modes  of  thought  of 
the  people  and  a  broader  development.  Whatever  other  objec- 
tionable elements  have  come  to  the  fore  in  modern  newspapers 
of  a  certain  type,  politics  as  a  controlling-  force  and  as  an 
excuse  for  the  existence  of  an  org-an  no  long-er  occupies  the 
prominence  that  it  once  did.  The  function  of  the  political 
journal  is  subordinate  to  that  of  the  newspaper,  and  along-  with 
this  chang-e  goes  a  marked  melioration  of  the  political  rancor. 
As  a  purveyor  of  news  and  of  opinion  the  journal  of  to-day  in 
its  influence  undoubtedly  outweig-hs  all  other  literary  ag-encies 
in  the  g-eneral  effect  upon  public  thoug-ht — which  certainly  will 
not  seem  an  over-statement  when  we  consider  that  the  aggreg-ate 
circulation  of  the  newspaper  in  Indiana  at  the  last  census 
amounted  to  one  paper  for  each  1.19  persons.* 

Another  side  of  the  newspaper  business  may  be  referred  to. 
By  the  census  of  1900  the  887  publications  mentioned  were 
represented  by  4,084  wage-earners,  whose  ag-g-regate  wag-es  for 
the  year  amounted  to  $1,784,059.  There  was  a  further 
investment  in  25,546,899  pounds  of  paper,  and  the  total  income 
from  advertisements,  subscriptions  and  sales  was  $3,912,514. 
Add  to  this,  as  the  value  of  land,  building-s,  printing-  material, 
etc.,  $4,792,139,  and  we  get  an  approximate  idea  of  the  in- 
dustrial importance  of  this  branch  of  the  publishing-  business. 
These  fig-ures  also  include  the  class  of  publications  called  peri- 
odicals, but  these,  by  comparison  with  the  newspapers,  are  incon- 
siderable.    They  do  not  include  book  or  job  printing-. 

HUMORS    OF    PIONEER    JOURNALISM. 

The  introduction  of  the  pioneer  press  into  the  wilderness  was 
marked  by  peculiar  hardships  owing-  to  the  remoteness  from 
sources  of  supplies  and  g-eneral  lack  of  facilities.  The  trans- 
porting- hither  of  a  printing-  plant  was  of  itself  no  small  under- 
taking-, and  stories  of  mishaps  and  difficulties  have  survived. 
When  The  Westeryi  Register  came  to  Terre  Haute  in  1825,  it  was 
by  wag-on    over   primitive  roads,  and   the  whole  kit,  press,  type 

*In  newspaper  reading,  as  given  by  the  census  tables  of  1900,  Indiana  ranks  sixteenth  In 
the  Union. 


THE  EARL  Y  NEWSPAPERS  OF  INDIANA         115 

and  paper  for  the  first  issue,  was  upset  in  fording-  a  stream. 
The  consequent  delay  in  the  paper's  initial  appearance  was 
explained  as  due  to  "circumstances  beyond  our  control" — a 
comprehensive  and  oft-used  excuse  which  the  first  printers 
probably  kept  "standing-."  This  was  only  the  beg-inning-  of  this 
journal's  difficulties.  Often  the  stores  and  shops  of  the  town 
had  to  be  ransacked  for  ordinary  wrapping-  paper  to  print  on; 
sometimes  only  a  half  sheet  was  sent  out,  and  sometimes  no 
paper  could  be  issued  at  all.  The  first  paper  in  Martinsville, 
printed  on  a  small  wooden  press,  also  frequently  depended  upon 
store  paper.*  When  Milton  Greg-g-  boug-ht  a  second-hand  print- 
shop  at  Brookville  to  start  The  Western  Statesjnan  at  Lawrence- 
burg-,  he  sent  "a  wild  Hoosier  teamster"  for  the  outfit,  and  the 
latter,  laying  a  quilt  upon  the  floor,  emptied  thereon  in  one  pile 
the  various  cases  of  type,  both  body  and  job.  It  was  three  weeks 
before  Greg-g^'s  printers  g-ot  the  pi  distributed.  The  first  paper 
in  Rushville,  The  Dog-Fennel  Ga2ette{\),  published  by  one  Wick- 
ham  in  1832,  seems,  from  the  unique  name  bestowed  upon  it,  to 
have  been  consciously  g-rotesque.  What  the  eccentric  father  of 
it  used  as  bed  for  his  press  we  are  not  told,  but  it  is  affirmed 
that  for  his  pressing-  power  he  utilized  a  heavy  pole,  one  end  of 
which  was  attached  to  a  tree.  Placing-  the  form  under  the  pole 
near  the  tree,  so  as  to  g-et  a  g-ood  leverag-e,  he  would  squeeze  off 
his  impressions.  The  sheets  were  distributed  printed  on  one 
side,  and  his  patrons,  after  reading-,  would  return  the  paper  to  be 
printed  on  the  other  side  for  another  issue.  This  quite  equals 
the  old  jest  among-  the  fraternity  about  sheets  that  are  worked 
with  swamp  mud  on  a  cider  press.  A  copy  of  The  Dog-Fennel 
Gazette  would  be  an  interesting-  find. 

That  these  early  ventures  in  the  journalistic  field  should  have 
exercised  their  function  in  a  primitive  manner  and  made  a 
rather  sorry  shift  g-enerally  is  not  surprising-,  the  wonder,  indeed, 
being-  that  the  mortality  among-  them  was  not  g-reater.  In  The 
Bloomingto7i    Post    for  Aug-ust    30,   1832,   nearly  three    editorial 

•In  the  Indianapolis  Journal  of  May  8,  1K28,  I  fiud  mention  of  a  paper  mill  at  Madison. 
A  futile  attempt  to  establish  one  in  Richmond  in  1S2S  was  followed  in  1830  by  a  successful 
venture.  (Young's  Wayne  County,  p.  389.)  The  United  States  Census  returns  of  1840  report 
three  of  these  mills  in  the  State— in  Jefferson,  Franklin  and  Wayne  counties  (Madison, 
Brookville  and  Richmond.)  The  aggregate  capital  invested  is  given  as  .$68,739,  and  the 
value  of  production  for  the  last  year  as  .$86,4.57. 


116  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

columns  are  g-iven  to  the  status  of  the  press.  It  is  bitterly 
complained  that  "interlopers,"  not  practical  printers  but  "quack 
doctors,  half-read  lawyers  and  pretended  literary  characters," 
had  invaded  the  journalistic  field  to  the  demoralization  alike  of 
the  journal  and  of  the  leg-itimate  printers'  chances,  which  latter 
are  represented  as  slim  at  best. 

To  beg-in  with,  the  munitions  of  war  for  their  crusade  ag-ainst 
darkness  was  an  exceeding-ly  uncertain  quantity,  for  thoug-h 
their  subscription  rates  were  hig-h  compared  with  the  news 
weekly  of  to-day,  and  the  advertising-  patronag-e  was  often 
liberal,  the  editor  shared  with  business  men  at  larg-e  the 
embarrassments  of  scant  cash  and  delayed  payments.  Indeed, 
the  sentiment  seemed  to  prevail  that  the  newspaper  man  and 
the  doctor  could  wait  for  their  pay  a  little  long-er  than  any  one 
else.  We  find  that  rather  extraordinary  inducements  were 
offered  for  advance  payments,  and  the  clause  as  to  arrearag-es  is 
one  of  the  proofs  of  the  frequency  of  arrearag-es.  The 
acceptance  of  all  sorts  of  produce,  from  cordwood  to  maple 
sug-ar,  was  common,  and  if  we  may  judg-e  by  the  long- 
continuance  of  the  custom,  yet  more  in  vog-ue  with  printers  than 
with  merchants.  A  notice  to  be  found  in  an  old  number  of  the 
Brookville  Indiana  American  announced  that  it  will  accept  "the 
following-  currency  at  par,  for  subscription  or  advertising,  to- 
wit:  Maple  Sug-ar,  Molasses,  Country  Linen,  Jeans,  Chickens, 
Butter,  Cheese,  Wood,  Dried  Apples,  Dried  Peaches,  Corn, 
Wheat,  Flour,  Cornmeal,  Pork,  Beef,  Oats,  Hay,  Bacon,  or  most 
any  other  mechanical  production,"  and  The  Bloomington  Post  of 
October  26,  1838,  advertises  that  "persons  expecting-  to  pay  for 
their  papers  in  produce  must  do  so  soon,  or  the  cash  will  be  ex- 
acted. Pork,  Flour,  Corn  and  Meal  will  be  taken  at  the  market 
prices.  Also,  those  who  expect  to  pay  us  in  firewood  must  do  so 
immediately — we  must  have  our  wood  laid  in  for  the  winter 
before  the  roads  g-et  bad."  The  same  paper  for  July  6,  1838, 
after  repeated  appeals  to  creditors,  resorts  to  this  heroic  measure: 

"The  Black  List. — We  have  forwarded  accounts  to  several 
persons  indebted  to  us  for  Job  Work,  Subscriptions,  etc.,  and  we 
are  sorry  to  say  that  they  pay  little  or  no  attention  to  them. 
We  take  this  opportunity  to  inform  those  g-entleraen  that  if  they 
any  long-er  neglect  to  remit  to  us  the  amount  of  our  accounts  we 


THE  EARL  Y  NE  WSPAPERS  OF  INDIANA         117 

will  forthwith  place  their  names    in    bold  capitals  on    the  'black 
list,''  as  scoundrels  and  swindlers." 

Three  weeks  later  the  editor  began  his  black  list,  but  whether 
or  not  it  had  the  desired  effect  is  a  matter  lost  to  history. 

Akin  to  this  is  the  wail  of  the  Madison  Indiana  Republica?i  for 
July  26,  1817,  which  says: 

"Mr.  Clerk,  I  wish  you  to  discontinue  my  dunning  adver- 
tisement. My  debtors  pay  no  attention  to  it.  Be  so  g-ood  as  to 
inform  the  Sheriff  that  I  wish  to  see  him.      Yours  truly, 

"B.  Young." 

Nor  was  this  all,  nor,  perhaps,  the  most  serious  of  the  printer's 
troubles.  His  most  avowed  function  was  to  suppl}'  people  with 
the  news,  and  the  difficulties  in  obtaining-  the  news  were  most 
discouraging.  For  example,  when  the  Indianapolis  Gazette  was 
started  there  was  no  regular  mail  to  the  town,  and  for  the  first 
three  or  four  months  of  its  existence  it  had  to  appear  irregularly 
and  as  it  could  secure  matter.  Its  launching,  indeed,  seems  to 
have  been  a  cause  in  determining  the  first  mail  line,  for  soon 
thereafter  the  citizens  of  the  place  held  a  meeting  to  consider 
the  situation,  decided  upon  establishing  a  route  to  Connersville, 
sixty  miles  away  (there  to  connect  with  the  government  service), 
and  themselves  employed  a  man  to  carry  the  mail  and  open  a 
post-office.  After  the  government  established  a  regular  route  the 
delays  necessitated  by  bad  roads  were  multiplied  by  indirect  and 
circuitous  carriage.  An  editorial  in  the  Western  Censor  and  Emi- 
grant's Guide  about  that  time  complains  that  its  exchanges, 
instead  of  coining  as  directly  as  possible,  were  carried  by  round- 
about routes  and  got  to  their  destination  usually  two  weeks 
later  than  need  be,  and  this  fortnight,  added  to  the  several 
days  that  "need  be"  by  the  best  possible  service  of  the  day,  gives 
an  idea  of  the  antiquity  of  most  of  the  "news"  when  it  reached 
the  readers.  The  great  source  of  the  foreign  intelligence  was, 
of  course,  the  exchange  which  had  already  served  its  readers  at 
points  farther  east  or  south,  and  so  the  interior  readers  were  a 
stage  further  removed  from  the  actual  events  of  the  world. 

Of  the  exchanges  drawn  upon,  that  most  frequently  quoted  is 
Niles''  Weekly  Register,  a  most  excellent  and  valuable  compendium 
of  news  and  history,  which  comprised  a  wide  range  of  subjects. 
This  periodical,  a  weekly  publication  of  sixteen  octavo  pages. 


118  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

was  issued  at  Baltimore  from  September  7,  1811,  to  August  27, 
1836,  by  Hezekiah  Niles,  and  from  that  date  to  June  27,  1849, 
was  continued  by  a  son,  W.  O.  Niles.  Among-  the  journals  of 
that  day  it  stood  alone  as  a  repository  of  all  sorts  of  information 
proper  to  a  paper  of  its  kind.  It  is  to-day  one  of  our  most  val- 
uable collections  of  records,  and  as  such  is  prized  by  historians. 
Fifty  bound  volumes  of  the  work  may  be  found  in  the  State 
Library. 

NAMES    OF    PAPERS. 

The  names  of  papers  in  Indiana  have  been  exceedingly  varied, 
but  a  dozen  or  so  have  been  distinct  favorites.  Of  these,  Herald 
and  Gazette  are  perhaps  most  in  evidence,  with  Democrat, 
Times,  Sentinel,  Journal,  and  (a  little  later)  Republican,  fol- 
lowing- hard  after.  Banner,  Register,  Chronicle,  Courier,  States- 
man and  Observer  also  make  something  of  a  showing.  The 
name  Telegraph  appears  at  least  three  years  before  the  introduc- 
tion of  Morse's  method  of  telegraphy,  and  a  number  of  Re- 
publicans were  in  the  field  years  before  the  birth  of  the  Re- 
publican party,  which  in  turn  gave  name  to  so  many  papers. 
Of  unusual  names  a  list  might  be  given,  a  few  of  which  are  The 
Comet,  The  Westetn  Constellation,  The  Corkscrew,  The  Dog-Fennel 
Gazette,  The  Bridget  of  Fu?i,  The  Whig  Rifle,  The  Coon-Skin7ier, 
The  Loco77iotive ,  The  Busy  World,  The  hidiana  Blade,  The  Chrono- 
lype.  The  Broad  Axe  of  Freedom,  The  People's  Friend  and  The  Hoo- 
sier.  The  first  one  with  the  last-mentioned  name  was  launched 
at  Greencastle  by  ex-Governor  James  B.  Ray  and  W.  M.  Tanne- 
hill,  as  early  as  1833. 

NOTES. 

1. — The  Indianapolis  Sentinel  is  often  referred  back  to  the  Ga- 
zette of  1822  as  its  beginning,  but  this  is  certainly  by  a  liberal 
construction  as  to  what  constitutes  newspaper  identity.  The 
Indiana  Democrat,  which  immediately  succeeded  the  Gazette,  was 
not  a  continuance  of  the  latter  sheet.  Smith  and  Bolton,  of  the 
Gazette,  dissolved  partnership  in  1829,  and  a  letter  from  each  in 
the  issue  of  July  23,  sets  forth  the  reason.  Smith  wished  to 
support  Andrew  Jackson.  The  Gazette  had  from  the  beginning 
been  non-partizan,  and  Bolton  wished  to  continue  this  policy. 
Smith  further  announces  himself  as  one  of  several  who  proposed 


THE  EARL  Y  NEWSPAPERS  OF  INDIANA         119 

to  establish  '■^iw  this  place"  a  new  paper,  to  be  called  The  Jack- 
sonian.  No  paper  by  this  name  appeared,  but  The  Indiatia  Dem^ 
oeraf,  occupying  the  proposed  field,  did  appear  in  1830,  and  at 
once  swallowed  up  the  Gazette.  It  thus  had  a  separate  origin 
and  was  brought  into  existence  for  a  new  purpose.  Bolton  was 
subsequently  one  of  the  proprietors  of  this  paper.  Even  the 
relationship  between  the  Democrat  and  the  Sentinel,  which  suc- 
ceeded it  in  1841,  is  by  no  means  so  clear  as  is  generally  supposed, 
for  the  first  issue  of  the  Sentinel  is  Vol.  I,  No.  1,  and  in  the 
* 'prolegomena"  of  that  number  it  is  evidently  regarded  as  the 
launching  of  a  new  paper. 

2. — The  Northwestern  Pioneer,  established  at  South  Bend  in 
1831  by  John  D.  and  Joseph  H.  Defrees,  is  often  cited  as  the  first 
paper  north  of  the  Wabash  river.  It  should  be  noted  that  the 
Pottawattomie  and  Miami  Times,  started  at  Logansport  by  John 
Scott  in  1829,  was  north  of,  or  at  least  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
Wabash.  There  are  various  loose  statements  as  to  the  dates  of 
founding  of  several  papers  now  existing.  The  Richmo7id  Palla- 
dium, dating  back  to  1831,  claims  to  be  the  oldest,  barring  the 
Western  Sun,  Earlier  dates  are  claimed  by  the  Vevay  RevielU, 
1817;  the  Terre  Haute  Express,  1823;  ihe  Lafayette  Journal,  1829; 
and  perhaps  by  others.  It  may  be  noted  that  of  the  three  papers 
last  mentioned,  none  is  included  by  those  names  in  the  list  of 
1833,  given  below.  The  Western  Register,  of  Terre  Haute,  was 
established  in  1823,  but  had  either  ceased  to  be  or  had  changed 
to  The  Wabash  Courier  hy  1833,  as  that  is  the  only  Terre  Haute 
paper  given  in  said  list.  The  Courier  probably  became  the  Express 
in  1840,  as  the  name  of  Thomas  Bowling  is  connected  with  both 
of  them.  T/iQ  Register,  of  1823,  was  founded  by  John  W.  Osborne, 
one  of  the  most  notable  of  the  early  journalists  of  Indiana. 

3. — What  is  probably  the  first  directory  of  Indiana  newspapers 
ever  compiled  is  to  be  found  in  a  gazetteer  of  1833,  published  by 
Douglass  &  Maguire,  proprietors  of  the  hidiana  Journal.  This 
table,  compiled  by  newspaper  men,  whose  exchange  list  seems 
to  have  included  all  the  papers  of  the  State  as  they  appeared, 
was  doubtless  not  only  correct  but  practically  a  full  list  of  the 
publications  then  in  existence.  As  such  it  is  a  document  of 
value,  and  I  give  it  in  full: 


120  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

A  TABLE  CONTAINING  A  LIST  OF  NEWSPAPERS  IN  THE  STATE  OF 
INDIANA,  PLACES  WHERE  PUBLISHED,  AND  THE  NAMES  OF 
THE   PUBLISHERS. 

Indiana  J mmial^  Indianapolis,  Douglass  &  Mag-uire. 
Indiana  Democrat,  Indianapolis,  Morrison  &  Bolton. 

Wester7i  Titnes,  Centre ville,  Hall  &  Boon. 
Fort  Wayne  Sentinel,  Fort  Wayne,  Tig-ar  &  Noel. 
Richmond  Palladizim,  Richmond,  D.  P.  Holloway. 
Liberty  Portfolio,  Liberty,  Leviston  &  Walters. 
Star  and  Senti7iel,  Philomath,  S.  Tizzard. 
Indiana  American,  Brookville,  C.  F.  Clarkson. 
Indiaiia  Palladium,  Lawrenceburg",  D.  V.  Cully, 

Westerti  Statesman,  Lawrenceburg-,  D.  S.  Major. 
Switzerland  Monitor,  Vevay,  R.  Ransdall. 

Weekly  Messenger,  Printer's  Retreat,  Keen  &  Child.. 
hidiana  Republican,  Madison,  Arion  &  Lodg^e. 
New  Albany  Gazette,  New  Albany,  Henry  Collins. 

Western  Coura?it,  Corydon,  Ladd  &  Jones. 
Paoli  Times,  Paoli,  W.  A.  Bowles. 
Annotator,  Salem,  Allen  &  May. 
Far  West,  Bloomington,  Brandon  &  Deal. 
Columbus  Chro?iicle,  Columbus,  L.  L.  Dunkin. 

Western  Sun,  Vincennes,  Elihu  Stout. 

Vincennes  Gazette,  Vincennes,  R.   Y.  Cadding-ton, 

Wabash  Courier,  Terre  Haute,  Thomas  Dowling. 

Wabash  Herald,  Rock  ville,  Marts  &  Comingore. 
Lafayette  Free  Press,  Lafayette,  J.  B.  Semans. 

Wabash  Mercury,  Lafayette,  R.  R.  Houston. 

Cass  County  Times,  Log"ansport,  Scott  &  Burns. 

Record,  Crawfordsville,  I.  F.  Woods. 

Federal  Union,  Knigfhtstown,  James  Silver. 

Democratic  Republicayi,  Shelbyville,  Churchman  &  KendalL 

ADDENDA. 

Since  writing-  the  above  I  have  found  a  copy  of  the  Western 
Eagle,  Madison.  This  paper  dates  back  to  1813,  and  probabh- 
was  the  second  one  established  in  Indiana  Territory. 

Perhaps  the  only  copy  in  existence  of  the  first  paper  issued  in 
Indianapolis   (No.  1  of   the  Indianapolis  Gazette^,  is  in   the  pos- 


THE  FIRST  PRINTERS  IN  INDIANAPOLIS        121 

session  of  Mr.  Georg-e  T.  Porter,  of  Indianapolis.  In  the  hidi- 
anapolis  Press,  December  19,  1899,  is  an  interesting-  account  of 
this  pioneer  sheet,  with  matter  quoted  from  its  columns. 

The  Indianapolis  Gazette  from  1824  to  its  period  of  ceasing-,  and 
also  the  Western  Censor  ayid  EmigranV s  Guide  (complete),  the 
forerunner  of  the  Indiana  Journal,  are  in  the  City  Library  of  Indi- 
anapolis. This  library  has  by  far  the  fullest  collection  in  ex- 
istence of  Indianapolis  newspapers.  Locked  in  these  files  is 
matter  of  inestimable  value  in  its  relation  to  the  development  of 
the  city.  Unfortunately,  the  incomplete  and  wholly  inadequate 
catalog-ue  furnished  by  the  library  is  practically  no  g-uide  to  the 
collection,  and  does  not  even  indicate  the  presence  in  it  of  some 
of  its  rarest  possessions;  hence  the  usefulness  of  the  collection 
is  by  no  means  what  it  mig-ht  be. 

George  S.  Cottman. 


THE  FIRST  PRINTERS  IN  INDIANAPOLIS. 

GEORGE  SMITH  AND  NATHANIEL  BOLTON. 

From  The  Indianapolis  Sentinel,  August  27,  iSgg. 

GEORGE  SMITH  was  born  in  Lancaster,  Pa.,  and  while  quite 
young-  learned  the  printing-  trade  with  one  of  the  Bradfords, 
the  colonial  printers  in  Pennsylvania.  In  the  earlier  part  of 
this  century  he  removed  from  Philadelphia  to  Chillicothe,  O., 
and  while  living-  there  married  Mrs.  Nancy  Bolton,  a  widow, 
whose  maiden  name  was  Cox.  She  was  a  sister  of  Nathaniel 
Cox,  one  of  the  early  pioneers  and  hunters  of  Indianapolis. 
"Uncle  Nat  Cox,"  as  he  was  familiarly  called,  was  a  carpenter 
by  trade,  but  was  excessively  fond  of  hunting-,  and  in  his  day 
had  no  equal  in  central  Indiana  as  a  first-class  "shot''  with  the 
rifle,  the  only  species  of  firearms  then  in  use  in  the  West. 

Mrs.  Bolton's  only  child  by  her  first  husband  was  Nathaniel 
Bolton,  who  was  born  in  Chillicothe,  O.,  July  25,  1803.  Eliza- 
beth Smith,  his  half-sister,  was  born  in  the  same  town  February 
17,  1809.  Her  father  had  become  the  owner  of  a  printing  office, 
which  was,  almost  always,  in  the  same  house  in  which  they 
lived.     Mr.  Smith  was  a  man  of  fair  education,  very  industrious. 


122  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

a  master  of  the  art  of  printing-,  a  g-ood  writer,  of  untiring  energy, 
and  was  well  liked  by  all  of  his  acquaintance.  Like  all  printers 
of  that  period  and  some  of  later  years,  he  was  by  force  of  circum- 
stances and  disposition  unsettled  as  to  location,  often  going  from 
one  town  to  another,  not  only  as  a  mere  journeyman  printer,  but 
as  the  owner  and  publisher  of  his  own  newspaper. 

The  daughter  Klizabeth  grew  up  to  be  a  remarkably  intelli- 
gent and  observing  woman,  of  clear  memory,  full  of  wit  and 
humor,  whose  conversations  relating  to  the  early  settlement  of 
Indianapolis  were  always  interesting  to  listeners.  A  short  time 
before  her  death  she  noted  down  in  a  book  many  interesting  par- 
ticulars of  her  earlier  life,  and  it  is  from  this  book,  now  in 
possession  of  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Maria  Goldsberry  Tanner,  of 
this  city,  widow  of  the  late  Major  Gordon  Tanner,  and  mother  of 
George  G.  Tanner,  of  the  firm  of  Tanner  &  Sullivan  and  late 
surveyor  of  customs  at  Indianapolis,  that  many  of  the  incidents 
herein  related  have  been  obtained  by  the  kind  permission  of  Mrs. 
Tanner.  Elizabeth's  earliest  recollections  were  of  the  printing- 
office,  wherein  most  of  her  childhood  was  spent.  She  was  prob- 
ably the  first  female  typesetter  in  all  the  western  country.  When 
she  was  about  three  or  four  years  old  her  father  moved  to  Worth- 
ington,  a  small  place  near  Columbus,  O.,  and  then  back  again 
to  Chillicothe.  At  this  place  the  famil}'  lived  quite  a  while, 
Nathaniel  going-  to  school  to  a  Presbyterian  minister,  receiving 
some  instruction.  His  practical  education,  however,  was  in  the 
printing  office.  The  little  girl  took  great  delig-ht  in  helping 
her  father  and  brother  in  the  printing  office  as  much  as  her  age 
would  permit. 

In  1820  Mr.  Smith  caught  the  emigration  fever.  The  "new 
purchase"  of  land  from  the  Indians  in  the  neighboring  State  of 
Indiana  was  then  attracting  much  attention,  and  Mr.  Smith  de- 
termined to  leave  Ohio  and  try  his  fortune  in  the  Hoosier  State. 
At  Cincinnati  he  arranged  for  passage  down  the  Ohio  river  on 
the  steam  packet  General  Pike,  but  was  compelled  to  cancel  the 
contract  and  change  his  plans  of  travel  by  reason  of  the  timidity 
of  Mrs.  Smith,  who,  on  first  seeing  a  steamboat,  declared  she 
would  not  go  aboard  of  what  seemed  to  her  a  dangerous  craft. 
While  there  they  all  visited  Wells's  type  foundry,  which  was  a 
novelty  and  a  great  object  of  interest  to  Nathaniel  and  Elizabeth, 


THE  EARL  Y  NEWSPAPERS  OF  INDIANA         123 

they  witnessing-  for  the  first  time  the  process  of  making-  moveable 
types. 

Other  means  of  transportation  than  that  of  steamboat  was 
obtained,  Mr.  Smith  arrang-ing  for  the  accommodation  of  his 
own  and  another  family  on  an  Allegheny  river  timber  boat  from 
Olean,  N.  Y.,  and  on  this  they  floated  down  the  river  quite  com- 
fortably. The  rude  craft  had  fireplaces  at  each  end  large  enough 
to  do  their  cooking-.  Uncle  Nat  Cox  steered  the  vessel.  On 
reaching-  Ghent,  Ky.,  the  rough  weather  compelled  a  "tie  up," 
and  the  occupants  went  ashore,  where  they  were  entertained  a 
few  days  by  a  family  of  former  acquaintance  in  Chillicothe.  The 
storm  abating-,  they  returned  to  the  boat  and  floated  down  to 
Jeffersonville  without  further  delay  or  trouble. 

At  Jeffersonville  a  wag-on  was  hired  in  which  they  proceeded 
to  Corydon,  the  then  seat  of  g-overnment  of  the  new  State.  Not 
liking-  the  place,  Mr.  Smith  arranged  for  a  partnership  with  a 
Mr.  Brandon,  and,  returning-  to  Jeffersonville,  they  opened  a  book 
and  job  printing-  office,  in  which  Mr.  Smith  made  more  than  ex- 
penses. His  objective  point  on  first  coming  to  Indiana  was  the 
capital  of  the  State,  the  location  of  which  had  in  1820  been  set- 
tled by  the  commissioners  fixing  it  at  the  junction  of  Fall  creek 
and  White  river,  and  naming-  the  town  Indianapolis.  The  family 
remained  in  Jeffersonville  during-  the  summer  of  1821,  awaiting- 
the  announcement  of  the  first  sale  of  lots  at  the  capital.  The 
lots  having-  been  surveyed  and  laid  out,  the  first  sale  was  held 
in  October,  1821.  Mr.  Smith  attended  this  sale,  walking-  all  the 
way  there  and  back.  He  purchased  two  lots,  on  one  of  which 
stood  a  buckeye  cabin  built  by  a  squatter,  who,  g-etting-  home- 
sick, deserted  it  and  returned  to  his  home  in  Kentucky. 

Some  weeks  after  Mr.  Smith's  return  he  removed  the  family 
and  his  little  printing-  office  and  some  "plunder"  to  Indianapolis, 
the  journey  being-  a  remarkable  one.  Inside  of  a  large  four-horse 
wagon  was  stored  the  type,  cases,  stands,  press  and  other  ma- 
terials of  a  primitive  printing-  office,  a  meag-er  lot  of  household 
effects  and  wearing-  apparel,  and  the  family,  or  rather  such  of 
them  as  rode,  the  male  members  walking-  most  of  the  way. 
The  route  was  over  a  "blazed  trail."  The  only  towns  they 
passed  throug-h  were  Paoli,  Bedford  and  Brownstown.  The  re- 
maining portion  of  the  journey  was  made  through  an  unbroken 


124  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

wilderness  of  dense  growth,  wholly  unsettled.  They  camped  out 
two  nig-hts  during-  a  heavy  snowstorm  and  suifered  other  pri- 
vations. 

Late  one  cold,  stormy  night,  about  two  weeks  before  Christmas, 
they  drew  up  in  front  of  their  cabin  and  took  possession.  With 
plenty  of  wood,  they  soon  had  a  good  lire  and  their  first  supper 
in  Indianapolis.  This  was  served  on  a  store  g-oods  box  for  a 
table,  with  smaller  boxes  for  seats,  there  being  but  one  chair  in 
the  house.  The  little  cabin  had  but  one  room,  which  served  for 
the  printing  office,  bed-room,  dining-room  and  kitchen,  Eliza- 
beth describes  her  bedstead  as  having  been  made  of  two  old  sugar 
troughs  with  rails  and  short  boards  laid  crossways,  on  which  was 
placed  a  g-ood  feather  bed  "made  up  nice."  The  father  and 
mother's  bed  was  composed  of  tw^o  buckeye  log's  and  rails,  over- 
laid with  brush.  With  the  printing  press  and  stands  for  two  sets 
of  type  cases  but  little  room  w^as  left  for  lodg-ing-,  cooking-  and 
eating;  but  they  managed  to  make  themselves  comfortable, 
though  compactly  housed.  A  Dr.  Scudder,  who  had  his  office 
in  a  near-by  cabin,  kindly  let  them  fix  up  a  bed  there  for  Uncle 
Nat  Cox  and  a  journeyman  printer  who  had  been  hired  for  a 
while. 

Thus  was  inaugurated  the  first  printing  oflice  from  which  was 
issued  the  hidianapolis  Gazette,  the  first  newspaper  ever  published 
in  the  new  town  of  Indianapolis,  the  proprietor  of  which  was  the 
editor,  publisher  and  printer  all  combined  in  himself.  Writing- 
his  own  editorials,  he  would  then  set  them  up  in  type,  make  up 
the  forms  and  work  off  the  paper  on  a  tw^o-puU  Ramage  hand 
press.  The  forms  were  inked  by  hand  with  buckskin  balls 
stuffed  with  wool  and  gfreased  with  coon  oil  to  soften  them  when 
not  in  use.  The  composition  rollers  were  then  unknown.  The 
first  or  outside  forms  of  two  pages  were  printed  the  first  part  of 
the  week  and  the  corresponding-  inside  forms  were  struck  off 
usually  on  Friday  and  the  paper  circulated   Saturday  morning-. 

Nathaniel  Bolton  had  remained  in  New  Albany  to  finish  some 
work  on  printing  the  law^s  of  the  State.  After  completing-  this 
job,  he  found  a  man  g-oing  to  Indianapolis  with  a  lot  of  horses, 
who  allowed  him  to  ride  one,  and  on  reaching-  there  he  joined 
Mr.  Smith  in  the  work  of  the  publication  of  the  Gazette,  and 
afterward  became  first  a  partner  and  then  sole  proprietor. 


THE  FIRST  PRINTERS  IN  INDIANAPOLIS        125 

The  first  residence  and  printing-  office  herein  described  was  on 
Maryland  street,  just  below  the  crossing-  of  Missouri  street,  and  be- 
tween that  place  and  the  old  cemetery  Mr.  Smith  opened  up  a 
fine  sugar  camp. 

During  the  winter  of  1821-'22  Elizabeth  Smith,  then  about 
thirteen  years  old,  learned  to  set  type,  and  did  considerable  work 
in  assisting  her  father  and  brother  in  getting-  out  the  paper.  In 
1824  her  father  bought  a  lot  cornering-  on  Georg-ia  and  Tennessee 
streets,  on  which  now  stands  St.  John's  Cathedral  and  other 
buildings  connected  with  that  parish.  On  this  lot  he  built  a 
house  into  which  he  moved  the  printing  office  and  residence. 
After  this  removal  Elizabeth  quit  typesetting. 

This  same  year  Washington  and  Meridian  streets  were  opened 
and  the  trees,  stumps  and  undergrowth  removed.  The  first  court- 
house was  built  about  the  same  time,  and  in  it  was  held  the  first 
legislative  session  at  the  new  capital. 

Mr.  Smith  soon  after  became  a  judg-e  of  the  Marion  circuit 
court,  retiring  from  the  printing-  business  and  surrendering-  the 
proprietorship  of  the  Gazette  to  his  step-son,  Nathaniel  Bolton. 
As  a  judicial  officer  he  served  with  great  ability  and  fairness. 
Mr.  Smith  died  April  10,  1836,  after  a  lingering-  illness,  aged 
fifty-two.  According-  to  his  last  request  he  was  buried  at  Mt. 
Jackson,  the  name  g-iven  to  the  farm  on  which  he  last  resided. 
The  remains  were  afterv/ard  removed  to  Greenlawn  cemetery. 

Mr.  Bolton  succeeded  to  the  ownership  of  this  farm,  and  here 
he  and  his  wife,  Mrs.  Sarah  T.  Bolton,  kept  a  tavern  for  nine 
years.  At  the  same  time  Mr.  Bolton  kept  up  his  journalistic 
work,  while  Mrs.  Bolton  wrote  many  of  her  earliest  poems  during- 
the  leisure  hours  from  the  labors  incident  to  the  farm  and  tavern. 
In  the  fall  of  1845  Mr.  Bolton  sold  to  the  State  the  farm  as  a  site 
for  the  Indiana  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  the  selling  price  being- 
$5,300. 

The  difficulties  of  obtaining-  news  at  the  commencement  of  Mr. 
Smith's  newspaper  enterprise  were  g-reat.  The  nearest  post-office 
was  Connersville,  sixty  miles  away.  The  enterprising-  publisher 
however,  established  a  private  mail,  employing-  a  man  to  g^o  there 
every  four  weeks  to  bring  the  letters  and  newspapers. 

In  December,  1822,  President  James  Monroe  sent  to  Congress 
one  of  his  short  messages,  a  copy  of  which  reached  Indianapolis 


126  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

in  February,  1823,  and  was  published  in  instalments  in  two  or 
three  succeeding-  numbers  of  the  Gazette. 

Soon  after  a  regular  United  States  mail  route  was  established, 
and  then  mails  reached  Indianapolis  from  the  East  every  two 
weeks,  unless  detained  by  hig-h  waters. 

Mr.  Smith's  father  broug-ht  in  a  wag-on  from  Spring-field,  O., 
driven  by  himself,  the  white  paper  on  which  the  first  issues  of 
the  Gazette  were  printed.  After  Mr.  Bolton  became  sole  proprie- 
tor in  1824  the  Gazette  office  was  removed,  first  to  a  house  on  the 
corner  of  Washington  and  Tennessee  streets  on  the  State  House 
square,  and  then  to  the  south  side  of  Washington  street  a  few 
doors  west  of  the  court-house. 

When  I  came  to  Indianapolis  in  1837,  a  boy  of  nine  years  of 
age,  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Bolton  and  his  partner, 
John  Livingston,  the  proprietors  of  the  Democrat,  and  for  a 
few  years  worked  in  their  printing  office  as  a  roller  boy,  printer's 
devil  and  carrier  of  the  paper.  At  that  time  the  old  double-pull 
Ramage  press  was  still  in  the  office,  and  many  a  time  have  I 
inked  the  forms  thereon,  as  a  roller  boy.  This  work  was  then 
done  with  rollers  make  of  glue  and  molasses,  in  the  molding  of 
which  I  always  had  a  hand.  During  my  employment  I  made 
several  trips  to  the  Mt.  Jackson  farm,  on  foot,  for  "copy"  and 
"corrected  proofs." 

The  Indiayia  Democrat  was  continued  by  that  name  until  1841, 
when  George  A.  Chapman,  publisher  of  a  paper  at  Terre  Haute, 
and  Jacob  Page  Chapman,  his  brother,  publisher  of  a  paper  at 
Evansville,  purchased  the  Democrat,  adding  to  its  material  all  of 
their  types  and  presses,  and  changing  the  name  of  the  paper  to 
The  Indiana  State  Sentinel.  They  continued  to  own  and  publish 
the  paper  until  1850,  when  I  became  the  purchaser  of  the  name 
and  good  will  of  the  paper,  for  which  I  purchased  an  entirely 
new  plant  of  presses,  types  and  printing  materials. 

Austin  H.  Brown. 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS  127 

EARLY  INDIANAPOLIS. 

THE  FLETCHER  PAPERS— THIRD  INSTALMENT. 

Character  of  the  Early  Settlers;  High  Standard  of  hitelligence — Mu- 
tual Helpfulness — Intellectical  a?id  Social  Culture — Hinting  In- 
cident; George  Smith's  White  Swan — Sugar-Making — Daniel 
Yandes' s  Big  Log  Contract, 

From  the  Indianapolis  Neivs  of  Jiuie  2,  iSjq. 

WHAT  society  was  in  Indianapolis  in  1822-23  I  mig-ht  illus- 
trate very  fully  from  the  letters  and  journals  of  my  parents. 
In  a  letter  written  to  a  lady  in  Virg-inia  under  date  of  January 
17,  1822,  my  father  defends  Indianapolis  from  the  exaggerated 
reports  of  a  few  disappointed  ones — reports  which  for  many  a 
day  gave  a  bad  name  to  Indianapolis — and  he  afterwards  speaks 
of  the  character  of  the  early  settlers.  "You  have  been  informed," 
he  writes,  "that  we  have  a  large  swamp  in  the  rear  of  our  town. 
I  am  happy  to  inform  you  that  this  is  not  exact  information. 
Our  town,  like  all  newly-settled  places,  requires  seasoning  before 
a  person  can  be  strictly  healthy.  I  am  much  pleased  with  the 
inhabitants  of  this  new  purchase.  As  I  told  you  in  one  of  my 
letters,  we  have  none  here  but  independent  free-holders,  and  a 
much  more  enlightened  set  of  people  than  any  other  I  have  seen 
in  the  western  country.  We  have  all  the  emancipators  from 
Kentucky,  who  are  of  the  sober  class.  We  have  likewise  the 
industry  of  the  State,  such  as  never  owned  slaves,  either  from 
poverty  or  conscientious  scruples,  and  we  have  the  thrift  of  Ohio. 
Our  laws  and  constitution  are  truly  Republican.  Debts  are  easily 
collected;  all  fines  on  military  delinquents  and  for  misdemeanors 
are  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  county  seminaries  in  this  State." 
My  father's  judgment  of  the  class  of  people  who  first  settled 
here  was  an  intelligent  one,  for  he  was  well  acquainted  with  new 
towns  in  Virginia,  some  of  the  old  towns  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
with  the  people  of  Ohio  in  such  places  as  Urbana,  Columbus, 
Dayton  and  Bellefontaine.  He  therefore,  when  he  wrote,  had 
in  mind  a  comparison  between  the  inhabitants  of  the  above- 
named  towns  in  Ohio,  and  the  early  Indianapolitans  when  he 


128  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

places  the  latter  as  "a  much  more  enlig-htened  set  of  people  than 
any  other  I  have  seen  in  the  west."  There  must  have  been  a 
certain  intellectual  activity  and  a  moral  bent  at  the  very  outset 
which  manifested  itself  not  merely  in  political  meetings  but  in 
town  meeting-s  for  the  promotion  of  civil  affairs;  in  debating- 
clubs  for  exercising-,  if  I  may  so  say,  in  mental  gymnastics;  in 
religious  meetings,  and  in  a  class  for  the  study  of  the  Bible 
before  a  regular  minister  settled  down  to  parish  duties.  These 
things  make  up  the  staple  of  my  mother's  journal.  Already  I 
have  recorded  the  inauguration  of  the  new  year  (1822)  by  the 
party  al  Wyant's.  Now  we  are  told  how,  on  January  26,  "Mrs. 
Henry  Bradley  came  and  staid  with  me  until  eleven  o'clock,  while 
Mr.  Bradley  and  Mr.  Fletcher  went  to  the  debating  society." 
Again:  "On  Tuesday,  the  29th  of  January,  I  attended  a  quilting 
party  at  Mr.  Buckner's,  and  there  met  a  number  of  ladies  who 
were  formerly  from  Kentucky."  Individual  neighborly  help,  as 
well  as  combined  aid,  was  the  order  of  the  day,  as  we  may  see 
from  the  entry  of  January  20,  viz:  "Arranged  some  candle  wick 
for  Mrs.  Foote,"  and,  at  a  later  date:  "Had  Mr.  Blake  get  me 
some  bean  poles." 

Not  only  were  there  practical  mutual  aid  societies,  but  mutual 
improvement  societies.  February  18,  1822,  my  mother  writes: 
"I  went  to  Mrs.  Buckner's  and  assisted  her  in  finishing  her  quilt;" 
and,  on  Saturday,  9th  of  February,  "Went  to  the  singing  school." 
The  debating  club  is  mentioned  again.  Then  the  social  visits: 
"Monday,  February  11.  Took  tea  at  Mr.  Steven's,  who  will 
move  to-morrow  two  miles  into  the  country."  "Tuesday,  12. 
I  have  had  a  very  pressing  invitation  to-day  to  go  a-visiting  with 
Mrs.  Nowland  and  Mrs.  Bradley  to  Mrs.  Yandes's;  but  I  do  not 
feel  well  enough  to  go."  "Wednesday,  the  13th  of  February.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Paxton  came  and  took  tea  with  us,  and  then  Mr.  P.  and 
Mr.  F.  went  out  hunting,  returning  at  ten  o'clock." 

I  suppose  from  the  hour  these  pioneers  went  out  hunting  and 
from  the  shortness  of  their  stay  that  they  must  have  gone  coon 
hunting.  Coons  could  then  be  "treed"  at  a  good  many  places 
within  the  limits  of  our  solid  blocks  on  Washington,  Market, 
Maryland,  Missouri  and  Meridian  streets. 

Among  the  curious  hunting  incidents  of  those  days  was  the 
shooting  of  a  swan  by  George  Smith  (our  first  printer).     One 


EARLY  INDIANAPOLIS  129 

morning-  in  the  spring-  of  1822  he  started  for  the  wild  woods  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  present  King-an's  pork-house,  and  following- 
down  the  left  bank  of  the  river  he  saw  in  the  water  a  flock  of 
white  swans.  Mr.  Smith  succeeded  in  bag-g-ing-  the  larg-est  of 
the  flock.  My  father  informed  me  that  this  magnificent  bird 
was  of  the  most  beautiful  plumag-e  and  of  wonderful  size.  This 
is  the  only  visit  of  swans  to  Indianapolis  that  I  ever  heard  of. 

Among-  other  of  the  earlier  recreations  must  be  counted  the 
fishing-  excursions  in  the  spring-time,  rambles  after  raspberries  in 
the  summer,  and  g-athering-  of  wild  g-rapes  in  autumn.  More  like 
work  were  sug-ar-making-,  g-ardening-,  and  the  drying-  of  pump- 
kins.    My  mother  writes: 

"Monday,  March  10,  1822.     I  beg-an  sug-ar-making-." 

This  was  in  the  vicinity  of  Missouri  street  and  south  of  Wash- 
ing-ton. Some  at  that  time  tapped  the  maple  trees  in  the  very 
heart  of  our  present  city,  and  others  went  into  the  dense  woods 
north,  east  and  south.  "March  24,  1822,"  is  the  date  recorded 
by  my  mother  when  she  "walked  more  than  a  mile  to  a  sug-ar- 
camp."  This  probably  refers  to  a  sug-ar-camp  in  the  vicinity  of 
Fletcher  Place  Church,  on  Virg-inia  avenue.  Here  it  was,  ac- 
cording- to  Mr.  John  H.  B.  Nowland,  that  his  father  first  "made 
sug-ar  at  an  old  Indian  sug-ar-camp,"  in  the  spring- of  the  previous 
year.  In  1846  I  took  notes  of  my  father  in  reg-ard  to  the  spring- 
of  1822,  and  he  informed  me  that  the  fine  sug-ar  g-rove  that  occu- 
pied in  and  around  what  is  now  known  as  the  Governor's  Circle 
was,  in  1822,  used  as  a  sug-ar  camp,  and  that  the  trees  were 
tapped  some  five  or  six  feet  from  the  g-round,  and  the  troug-hs 
for  catching-  the  sug-ar  water  were  scaffolded  up  by  poles  to  keep 
the  hog-s  from  drinking-  nature's  nectar.  Mrs.  Paxton,  he  said, 
made  sug-ar  from  the  primeval  forest  trees  that  occupied  the 
site  of  our  State  House  and  contig-uous  portions  of  Washing-ton 
street,  while  Mr.  Nowland's  camp  was  further  out  in  the  country, 
and  they  were  busily  eng-ag-ed  in  boiling-  the  water  down  to  syrup 
in  a  g-rove  not  far  from  where  Judg-e  Stevens  at  present  resides.* 

Sug-ar-making-  and  g-ardening-  did  not  prevent  social  visiting-, 
which  seemed  to  be  g"oing-  on  every  day,  in  the  forenoon  as  well 
as  the  afternoon  and  evening-.  Everybody  at  that  time  called 
the  whole  of  the  afternoon  evening-. 

*This  probably  means  the  old  Stevens  residence  on  New  Jersey  street  below  South.— ^dtto/-. 


130  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

On  the  13th  of  April  my  mother  writes:  "The  waters  are  very 
hig-h  at  this  time,  and  have  been  for  a  week  back.  Mr.  Leving-ton 
and  many  other  men  have  been  ten  miles  up  the  river,  on  the 
public  lands,  cutting-  saw-log"s  for  several  weeks.  They  made 
a  contract  with  Daniel  Yandes  to  deliver  him  2,000  log-s  at  one 
dollar  per  piece,  and  since  the  rain  the  saw-logs  are  coming-  down 
the  river."  This,  I  presume,  was  the  big-g-est  contract  up  to 
that  time  made  in  Indianapolis.  The  log-s  were  doubtless  for 
the  most  part  poplar  and  walnut. 

The  waters  continued  hig-h  for  a  week  or  more,  for  on  the  first 
of  April  it  is  written  that  "Mrs.  Wick  and  Miss  Carter  went  with 
me  to  the  river.  We  had  the  pleasure  of  riding-  up  to  the  mouth 
of  Fall  creek  and  back  ag-ain  to  the  ford  on  a  flatboat."  The 
"ford"  was  not  far  from  the  Vincennes  railroad  bridg-e.*  The 
flatboat  was  the  larg-est  vessel  seen  on  our  river  at  this  point. 
I  can  remember  the  fiatboats  that  went  from  here  with  produce 
to  "Orleans."  The  last  that  I  can  recall  was  navig-ated  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  by  "old  Van  Blaricum,"  the  father  of 
"Mike"  and  "Bill."  When  he  returned  he  brought  with  him  the 
first  oranges  and  cocoanuts  that  ever  came  to  Indianapolis.  Old 
V.  B.  was  a  kind  man  to  little  children,  and  on  his  return  from 
"Orleans"  he  took  delight  in  inviting  them  to  his  house  to  show 
them  his  stock  of  tropical  fruits  and  to  gladden  their  child-hearts 
with  presents. 

*Berry  Sulgrove  speaks  of  this  ford  and  also  of  one  where  the  Lafayette  road  crosses  the 
river  (see  History  of  Marion  County,  p.  13).  J.  H.  B.  Nowland  (see  "Prominent  Citizens,"  p. 
10)  says  that  the  mouth  of  Fall  creek  was  the  crossing-place  of  White  river,  long  used  by  the 
Indians,  and  he  has  described  to  me  personally  a  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  creek  at  which 
various  Indian  trails  converged.  From  this  convergence  one  might  reasonably  infer  that 
the  Fall  creek  bar  was  the  only  fordable  spot  in  this  locality,  at  a  day  when  the  river  flowed 
much  more  water  than  at  present,  but  the  using  of  others  by  our  first-comers  somewhat  nega- 
tives this  theory.    Which  illustrates  the  difficulty  of  getting  at  historical  ''facts." — Editor. 

[  To  be  continued.} 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  131 

THE  EARLY  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA. 

FROM  PAPERS  OF  D,  D.  BANTA-THIRD  INSTALMENT. 

The  Book  Famine  i?i  Pioneer  Days — Scarcity  of  School-books;  Those 
Used — Preemineyice  of  Spelling —  The  McGuffey  Readers;  Their 
Excellence — Home-made  Writing  Materials — The  Difficulties  of 
Arithmetic — Popular  Opinion  of  Grammar — ''''Loud  Schools''^- — 
The  Reign  of  the  Switch — A  Few  Anecdotes. 

Front  the  hidianapolis  News  of  February  24.,  i8g2. 

HOW  hungry  did  some  who  were  boys  here  in  Indiana  fifty 
years  ag-o  become  for  something-  fresh  and  entertaining-  to 
read!  Often  have  I  heard  that  lover  of  good  books,  the  late  A. 
B.  Hunter,  of  Franklin,  tell  the  story  of  a  book  that  was  owned 
by  a  man  living-  on  the  outskirts  of  his  neig-hborhood.  He  had 
read  everything  owned  by  the  neighbors  that  he  cared  to  read, 
and  now  came  the  story  of  a  new  book — one  unlike  anything- 
that  he  had  thus  far  seen,  and  he  was  wild  to  get  hold  of  it.  At 
last  there  came  a  day  when  his  father  could  spare  a  horse  from 
the  plow,  and  young  Hunter  went  in  pursuit  of  the  new  book^ 
which  was  found,  borrowed,  and  subsequently  read  with  a  zest 
almost  unknown  up  to  that  time,  for  it  was  one  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott's  immortal  stories. 

It  seems  to  me  that  scarcely  any  other  thing  so  distinctly  marks 
the  difference  between  the  present  and  the  past  of  which  I  am 
writing,  as  the  great  scarcity  of  reading  matter  in  that  past  com- 
pared with  its  great  abundance  now.  I  think  it  not  too  much  to 
say  that  in  my  own  "Shiloh  neighborhood,"  all  the  books,  ex- 
cluding Bibles,  hymn-books  and  spelling-books,  owned  by  the 
neighborhood,  could  have  been  packed  in  a  bushel  basket.  I  call 
to  mind  '*Hozzy's  Life  of  Marion,"  "Trumbull's  Indians," 
"Carey's  Olive  Branch,"  a  "Natural  History,"  "Western  Ad- 
venture," a  *  'Life  of  Selkirk, "  '  'Young's  Night  Thoughts, "  ' ' Jose- 
phus,"  and  "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  and  that  was  about  all.  No 
wonder  if  a  boy  living  in  that  neighborhood  would  become  so 
hungry  for  something  to  read  that  he  had  recourse  to  the  inside 
of  the  lid  of  a  certain  big  box  in  which  was  stored  the  family 
linen,  that  he  might  read  the  two  exposed  pages  of  a  copy  of  the 


132  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Western  Lumi?iary  that  had  been  pasted  thereon.  The  story 
may  seem  incredible,  but  that  boy  thus  read  the  two  pag-es  of 
that  old  luminary  many  a  time,  and  every  time  he  did  so  he  im- 
ag-ined  he  found  a  freshness  in  it  that  was  charming-. 

But  it  is  to  the  school-books,  or  rather  want  of  school-books, 
of  that  time  that  I  wish  to  call  attention.  There  were  compara- 
tively^ few  school-books  published  in  those  days.  Every  school 
child,  at  least  after  learning-  the  letters,  was  expected  to  have  a 
spelling--book,  and  Dillworth's  and  Webster's  American  were 
used  in  the  beg-inning-.  The  child  who  had  not  been  taug-ht  his 
letters  out  of  a  Bible  or  hymn-book  at  home,  usually  broug-ht 
a  primer.  I  have,  however,  seen  a  paddle  with  the  alphabet 
pasted  thereon  used  instead  of  a  primer  or  spelling-book.  I 
never  saw  Dillworth's.  Webster's  elementary  spelling--book,  the 
most  wonderfully  successful  strictly  educational  book  that  was 
ever  published  in  America,  at  an  early  day  occupied  the  entire 
field  in  Indiana,  and  practically  held  it  until  the  appearance  of 
McGuffey's  Eclectic  Speller,  which  was  published  somewhere 
about  1850.  The  elementary  served  the  double  purpose  of  spelling-- 
book  and  reading--book.  The  old  schoolmasters  placed  g-reat 
stress  on  spelling-.  The  custom,  it  is  believed,  existed  universally 
in  the  country  schools,  at  least  up  to  and  for  some  time  after  1850, 
for  the  whole  school  to  stand  up  twice  a  day  and  spell  for  head, 
A  half-day  in  every  week  was  gfiven  to  a  spelling--match,  besides 
which  nig-ht  spelling--schools  were  of  frequent  occurrence.  No 
one  ever  g-rew  so  larg-e  or  so  learned  that  he  was  exempted  from 
the  duty  of  spellingf.  I  have  known  the  head  man  of  a  long- row 
of  pupils  to  spell  the  first  word  without  dictation,  after  which 
the  next  in  line  would  spell  the  next  word,  and  so  on  down  to 
the  foot,  and  then  from  the  head  on  down  ag-ain.  The  words  in 
the  elementary  spelling--book  were  g-enerally  written  in  a  sort  of 
rhythmical  order  which  made  them  easy  to  memorize.  There 
were  spellers  who  claimed  to  know  the  book  by  heart,  and  there 
were  still  more  who  claimed  to  be  able  to  spell  correctl}^  every 
word  in  it. 

I  have  said  the  elementary  spelling--book  was  used  as  a  reader 
as  well  as  a  speller,  and  so  it  was.  On  nearly  every  page  was 
reading-  matter  made  up  of  moral  sentences  in  each  of  which  was 
usually  found  one  or  more  words  belong-ing-  to  the  annexed  spell- 


THE  EARLY  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  133 

ing-  lesson.  It  was  the  practice  to  teach  a  pupil  to  spell  first, 
after  which  he  mig-ht  read.  Some  teachers,  after  the  scholar 
had  learned  to  spell  sufl&ciently  well,  required  him  to  pronounce 
the  words  in  the  book  at  sig-ht,  and  after  he  was  able  to  do  this 
sufficiently  well  he  was  formally  set  to  reading-.  The  "pro- 
nouncing- lesson,"  as  it  was  called,  may  have  had  its  uses,  but  I 
have  no  doubt  that  many  a  pupil  was  reading- quite  well  at  home 
before  being-  allowed  to  read  at  school.  Do  I  not  remember  the 
first  reading--lesson  in  the  elementary  spelling--book?  No  matter 
if  the  pupil  could  pronounce  at  sig-ht  all  the  words  in  the  book, 
Charles  Disbrow,  of  blessed  memory  (my  old  teacher),  insisted 
that  he  who  was  g-oing  to  take  the  long-  leap  into  the  reading- 
world  should  read  the  first  lesson.  As  the  boy  who  could  read 
the  Testament  at  home  and  pronounce  all  the  words  of  the  spell- 
ing--book  at  school  stepped  up  to  read  his  first  and  formal  lesson, 
consisting-  of  words  of  three  letters,  how  silent  that  hitherto  loud 
school  would  become,  and  how  loud  his  own  voice  would  sound 
as  he  read: 

"She  fed  the  hen. 

"The  old  hen  was  fed  by  her. 

"See  how  the  hen  can  run." 

Was  ever  ordeal  worse  than  that?  After  the  book  had  been 
read  throug-h  and  through,  say  half  a  dozen  times,  another  reader 
was  in  order,  provided  it  could  be  had.  There  were  few  school 
readers  in  those  days.  Here  and  there  was  to  be  found  an  old 
copy  of  the  "English  Reader"  or  the  "Columbian  Orator."  Rev. 
George  K.  Hester  tells  us  that  he  read  a  dream  book  and  "Gulli- 
ver's Travels."  I  have  seen  Gulliver  myself  in  the  schoolroom; 
and  so  of  the  "Life  of  Marion,"  "Pilg-rim's  Prog-ress,"  histories, 
sermon  books  and  the  Holy  Bible.  Henry  Eaves,  a  pioneer 
schoolmaster  of  Switzerland  county,  in  his  extremity,  took  the 
Frankfort  Argus  into  his  school,  which  served  the  uses  of  a 
"reader."  About  1835  B.  T.  Emerson's  readers  came  into  use 
to  a  limited  extent.  Somewhat  later — five  years,  perhaps^ — 
McGuffey's  Eclectic  Series  appeared  and  ultimately  occupied  the 
field  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others.  The  introduction  of  this 
series  marked  an  era  in  the  schools  of  the  State.  They  were  of 
incalculable  benefit  to  the  people  of  the  western  country.  I  think 
it  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  hig-her  readers  of  the  series  did 


134  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

more  to  cultivate  a  taste  for  the  better  American  literature  than 
any  other  books  of  that  day.  But  for  them  the  names  of  Perci- 
val,  Bryant,  Long-fellow,  Hawthorne,  Irving-,  Paulding  and  other 
American  authors  of  the  first  half-century  would  have  been  known 
to  few  indeed  of  the  school  children  of  Indiana  of  thirty  and  forty- 
years  ago. 

The  pupil  having  learned  to  read  sufficiently  well,  he  v»ras  next 
set  to  writing.  The  mothers  usually  made  the  copy-books  by 
sewing  a  few  sheets  of  foolscap  together.  The  geese  furnished 
the  quills  that  were  fashioned  into  pens,  and  the  ink  was  home- 
made. Maple  bark,  sumach  and  oak  balls  and  vineg-ar  were  the 
materials  out  of  which  most  of  the  ink  of  that  period  was  made. 
In  its  season  pokeberry  juice  was  sometimes  used,  but,  notwith- 
standing itsornamental  capabilities,  its  use  was  never  very  gener- 
al. It  was  too  apt  to  sour.  The  inkstands  were  generaly  home- 
made also.  A  favorite  inkstand  was  a  section  of  a  cow's  horn, 
sawed  off  and  fitted  with  a  wooden  water-tight  bottom.  Another 
favorite  one  was  made  of  lead  or  pewter.  Many  of  the  boys  of 
the  old  school  days  understood  the  art  of  casting  inkstands.  The 
pupil's  first  exercise  in  writing  was  the  making  of  "pot-hooks 
and  hangers."  In  the  fulness  of  time  his  teacher  would  set  him, 
his  best  round-hand  copy,  and  in  doing  so  he  never  failed  of 
placing  before  the  eyes  of  the  scholar  some  moral  or  patriotic 
precept  worthy  of  his  remembrance,  such  as,  "Commandments  ten 
God  gave  to  men;"  "Eternal  viligance  is  the  price  of  Liberty;'' 
"Washington  was  the  father  of  his  country;"  "Evil  communi- 
cations corrupt  good  manners." 

:  The  next  thing  in  order  for  the  boys  was  arithmetic.  Not 
many  girls  gave  any  attention  to  this  study.  Not  much  was 
ever  said  about  it  as  a  girls'  study,  but  I  think  it  was  generally 
considered  that  the  girls  did  not  have  "heads  for  figures."  In- 
stead of  arithmetic  they  took  to  geog-raphy  and  grammar,  when 
they  took  to  anything.  It  was  the  practice  with  a  good  many 
teachers  to  require  their  arithmetical  scholars  to  copy  all  the 
"sums"  in  a  "ciphering  book."  Mr.  George  Adams,  who  attend- 
ed school  in  Johnson  county  away  back  in  the  twenties,  had,  a 
few  years  ago,  such  a  book,  and  judging  from  it  the  writer  must 
have  understood  fairly  well  his  subject.  Students  in  arithmetic 
never  recited — they  simply  "ciphered."    The  teacher  seldom  paid 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  135 

any  attention  to  them  unasked.  The  boys  usually  helped  each 
other,  but  when  help  failed  in  that  quarter  the  teacher  would, 
on  request,  "work  the  sum."  The  majority  of  teachers  thoug"ht 
they  had  done  all  that  was  necessary  when  that  much  was  done. 
Sometimes  a  boy  would  "sneak"  his  arithmetic  and  slate  into 
the  school  and  "cipher"  for  a  considerable  time  before  the  teach- 
er discovered  it.  I  did  this  myself,  and  traveled  over  addition, 
subtraction,  multiplication  and  short  division,  before  my  teach- 
er let  on  that  he  knew  what  I  was  about.  I  had  reached  long- 
division,  which  I  found  so  very  hard  that  I  broke  down  at  it  in 
despair.  Washing-ton  Miller,  my  old  teacher,  seeing-  my  trouble, 
came  to  me,  and  without  any  reproaching-  g-ave  the  needed  as- 
sistance, and  thence  on  I  was  recognized  as  an  arithmetical  stu- 
dent. My  friend,  Mr.  Hunter,  who  is  mentioned  above,  went 
to  school  to  a  teacher  who  did  not  pretend  to  teach  arithmetic 
beyond  the  "sing-le  rule  of  three."  Young-  Hunter  had  ad- 
vanced beyond  that.  He  took  his  seat  in  the  schoolhouse,  how- 
ever, and  ciphered  away  till  he  went  throug-h  the  book.  There 
was  a  greater  variety  of  arithmetics  than  any  other  school-book. 
Pike's  was  the  one  most  generally  in  use.  The  familiar  pag-es 
of  a  copy  of  this  old  veteran  are  now  before  me.  Their  matter 
consists  of  abstract  rules  and  of  examples.  I  am  not  much  sur- 
prised that  I  stalled  on  the  lon;^  division  hill  on  that  school  day 
so  long-  past.  "Take  for  the  first  dividend  as  few  of  the  left 
hand  fig-ures  of  the  dividend  as  will  contain  the  divisor,  try  how 
often  they  will  contain  it,  and  set  the  number  of  times  on  the 
rig-ht  of  the  dividend,"  and  so  on.  Not  a  word  of  explanation; 
no  development  of  the  process;  nothing  but  the  abstract  rule. 
The  other  arithmetics  of  the  time  were  Smiley's,  Bennett's, 
Jess's,  Dillworth's,  Western  Calculator,  and  probably  some  others. 
Smith's  and  Ray's  appeared  shortly  before  1840,  and  in  five  or 
six  years  the  latter  had  the  field. 

The  geog-raphies  used  were  Moore's,  Woodbridg-e's,  Smith's 
and  Olney's.  These  were  the  only  school-books  illustrated  save 
the  few  pictures  in  the  spelling--books,  and  there  were  very  few 
children  who  did  not  delig-ht  to  turn  the  leaves  of  a  g-eography 
and  look  at  its  pictures.  Lindley  Murray's  English  grammar 
was  the  first  in  the  field;  after  that  came  Kirkham's.  There 
was  not  much  studying-  of  either  g-eography  or  grammar  in  the 


136  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

early  days.  As  to  the  former,  it  was  considered  a  proper  enough 
study  if  one  had  the  time  to  spare  for  it,  but  by  some  the  study 
of  the  latter  was  deemed  useless  waste  of  time.  As  late  as  1845 
the  trustees  of  Vevay  in  employing-  a  teacher  required  in  the 
written  contract  that  he  should  "not  teach  grammar." 
From  the  News  of  March  i6. 

The  first  schools  I  attended  were  "loud  schools."  Ivoud  schools 
were  the  rule  in  the  beginning  here  in  Indiana;  silent  ones  were 
the  exception.  The  odds  in  the  argument  were  believed  to  be  in 
favor  of  the  loud  school.  A  celebrated  Scotch  teacher,  Alexander 
Kinmont,  of  Cincinnati,  as  late  as  1837,  would  conduct  school 
by  no  other  method.  He  claimed  that  it  is  the  practical,  philo- 
sophical system  by  which  boys  can  be  trained  for  business  on  a 
steamboat  wharf  or  any  other  place.  Both  boys  and  girls  spelled 
and  read  at  the  tops  of  their  voices,  on  occasion,  and  sometimes  the 
roar  of  their  lesson-getting  could  be  heard  for  a  half  to  three-quar- 
ters of  a  mile.  It  is  not  much  wonder  that  Owen  Davis  took  his 
fiddle  to  school  and  solaced  himself  by  playing  airs  while  his 
scholars  were  shouting  over  their  lessons.  The  teacher  of  a  loud 
school  who  would  keep  his  pupils  at  work  labored  under  a  great 
disadvantage.  The  idler  who  was  roaring  at  one  word,  or  over  a 
line  of  poetry,  or  trumpeting  through  his  nose,  was,  for  aught 
the  teacher  knew,  committing  his  lesson.  It  was  said  of  one  boy 
in  an  Orange  county  school  that  he  "repeated  the  one  word 
'heptorpy'  from  morning-  till  noon  and  from  noon  till  night  in 
order  to  make  the  teacher  believe  that  he  was  studying  his  lesson. '" 

Fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago  the  swishing  of  the  switch  was 
heard  everywhere,  in  the  family  circle  and  in  the  schoolhouse, 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  laud.  The  fathers 
made  their  children  "mind."  The  switch  was  the  usual  instru- 
ment, and  its  prompt  and  free  use  doubtless  gave  birth  to  such 
expressive  phrases  as  "a  lick  and  a  promise,"  "the  word  with 
the  bark  on,"  and  "tan  your  jacket."  The  schoolmaster,  stand- 
ing in  the  place  of  the  parent,  punished  as  freely  and  savagely, 
and  usually  with  the  full  approval  of  the  parent.  One  of  the 
most  curious  phases  of  the  flagellating  period  was  the  almost 
universal  prevalence  of  the  sentiment  that  the  schoolmaster  who 
neglected  the  frequent  use  of  the  rod  was  a  failure  as  a  teacher. 
I  had  a  friend  who,  much  less  than  fifty  years  ago,  was  in  the 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  137 

habit  of  occasionally  playing-  pedag-og-ue.  In  one  of  his  schools 
he  had  a  nice  company  of  country  urchins,  between  whom  and 
himself  there  was  the  very  best  of  feeling.  After  the  school  had 
run  smoothly  for  a  month  or  six  weeks  and  no  whipping  done, 
his  patrons  began  to  think  something  was  wrong.  One  morning 
one  of  them  met  him  and  bluntly  told  him  that  he  was  making 
a  mistake — that  he  was  "not  whipping  anybody."  "Why,  who'll 
I  whip?"  he  asked.  "Whip  Sam,"  was  the  prompt  answer. 
"What  for?  He's  lazy,  I  know;  but  I  can't  whip  him  for  laziness, 
can  I?"  asked  the  pedagogue.  "Yes,  give  it  to  him,  Sara's  my 
boy  and  I  know  he  needs  it  every  day." 

Now  and  then  the  circumstances  were  so  ludicrous  that  the 
master's  punishment,  instead  of  inspiring  terror,  provoked  laugh- 
ter. I  once  heard  a  story  told  on  a  Johnson  county  teacher  to  this 
effect:  He  was  in  the  habit  of  opening  his  school  with  prayer. 
His  pupils,  for  some  reason  distrusting  his  sincerity,  sometimes 
during  the  services  would  wink  and  smile  and  even  snicker  out. 
One  morning  he  carried  an  empty  flour  sack  to  school  which  he 
put  on  the  seat  beside  him,  and  while  he  was  praying  that  morn- 
ing, the  irreverent  conduct  of  two  or  three  of  the  larg-er  boys 
attracting  his  attention,  he  broke  off  his  prayer  and,  seizing  the 
empty  sack,  he  struck  each  of  the  misbehaving  lads  over  the 
shoulders,  powdering-  them  all  over  with  the  white  flour,  after 
which  he  concluded  his  prayer.  Mr.  Chute  was  an  eminent 
schoolmaster  in  Evansville  at  an  early  day,  who  opened  his 
school  with  prayer.  He  always  stood,  with  a  "long  fishing  cane 
in  his  hand,"  and  prayed  with  his  eyes  open.  "When  he  caught 
a  boj  in  mischief  during  prayer  he  would  stop  short  and  call  out: 
'Woe  be  to  you,  John,'  and  strike  him  over  the  shoulder  with  his 
long  cane,  and  then  resume  his  prayer."  Another  and  similar 
but  better  story  than  either  of  the  others  comes  from  Pleasant 
township  in  Switzerland  county.  An  old  gentleman  by  the  name 
of  Curry  taught  in  that  township  for  several  years.  "He  was  a 
widower  and  married  man  by  turns."  Once  when  in  the  former 
state  he  went  to  the  schoolhouse  early  in  the  morning  to 
write  a  love-letter.  When  the  pupils  came  he  carelessly  left  it 
on  his  desk  and  proceeded  to  open  school  with  prayer.  Kneeling 
down  he  prayed  with  his  "whip  in  his  right  hand  and  his  right 
eye  open."     One  of  the  boys,  stealing  up  to  the  desk  where  the 


138  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

love-letter  lay,  began  reading-  it;  but  ere  he  was  aware  the  old 
man  broke  off  in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  and,  collaring  him, 
gave  him  a  sound  thrashing,  after  which,  adds  the  historian,  "he 
resumed  his  devotions  with  equanimity. 

It  was  the  custom  to  whip  on  the  slightest  provocation,  and 
not  infrequently  without  any  provocation  at  all.  There  is 
scarcely  a  county  in  the  State  that  has  not  had,  at  one  time  or 
another,  its  teacher  v/ho  would  drink  to  intoxication  on  Satur- 
day and  soundly  thrash  every  scholar  in  the  school  on  Monday. 
The  neighborhoods  are  full  of  the  traditions  of  the  savagery 
of  the  old  schoolmasters.  The  schoolhouses  fairly  bristled  with 
switches  cut  from  the  neighboring  thickets.  According  to  the 
historian  of  Morgan  county,  "these  old  instruments  of  punish- 
ment were  always  present  and  usually  hung  on  wooden  hooks 
over  the  old  fireplace,  so  that  they  became  so  hardened  by  sea- 
soning from  the  heat  that  they  resisted  the  severest  exercise  of 
the  teacher  in  an  application  on  some  offending  pupil,  and  even 
cut  the  wooden  benches  as  the  teacher  in  his  fervor  pursued  round 
and  round  the  howling  culprit."  I  read  of  a  Bartholomew  coun- 
ty schoolmaster  who  "kept  his  switches  standing  in  the  corner 
or  lying  on  pegs  in  the  wall,  but  the  cat-o'-nine-tails  lay  in  the 
desk.  He  punished  with  the  former  and  terrified  with  the  lat- 
ter." A  Martinsville  schoolmaster  flogged  his  pupils,  it  is  said, 
on  the  least  provocation,  with  a  "long  hickor}^  g^d,  well-sea- 
soned in  the  hot  embers  of  the  fire." 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  infer  that  there  were  no  other 
punishments,  save  corporal,  given  in  those  days.  The  "dunce 
block,"  the  "fool's  cap,"  the  "leather  spectacles,"  "bringing  up 
the  switch,"  "standing  in  the  corner,"  "standing  on  one  foot," 
"sitting  on  the  girls'  side,"  and  any  and  all  other  schemes  the 
wit  of  the  old  schoolmaster  could  devise  were  tried.  I  remem- 
ber to  have  seen  a  teacher  remove  a  puncheon  from  its  place  in 
the  floor  and  incarcerate  a  big  girl  in  the  "hole  under  the  floor," 
which  had  been  dug  for  clay  to  make  the  hearth,  jambs  and 
backwalls  of  the  fireplace.  I  shall  never  forget  how  he  pushed 
her  fingers  off  the  edges  of  the  floor  when  he  fitted  the  pun- 
cheon back  in  its  place. 

[To  be  contimied.^ 


BERRY  R.  SULGROVE,  JOURNALIST  139 


BERRY  R.  SULGROVE,  JOURNALIST. 

[These  sketches  from  the  Journal  a.n6.  News,  of  Indianapolis,  were  pub- 
lished at  the  time  of  Mr.  Sulg^rove's  death,  which  occurred  February  20, 
1890.] 

From  the  Journal. 

BERRY  R.  SULGROVE  was  born  in  Indianapolis  March  16, 
1827,  and  was  the  oldest  child  of  James  and  Katherine  Sul- 
grove.  His  first  schooling-  was  at  the  ag"e  of  five  years,  Miss  Clar- 
issa Ellick,  who  taug"ht  in  the  old  Baptist  Church  at  the  corner  of 
Meridian  and  Maryland  streets,  being-  his  teacher.  He  received 
the  rudiments  of  his  education  in  the  different  private  schools  of 
the  city,  there  being-  at  that  time  no  public  schools  here.  In  1839 
he  entered  the  old  County  Seminary,  on  University  Square,  which 
was  conducted  by  James  S.  Kemper,  and  continued  his  studies 
there  five  years.  He  then  entered  his  father's  harness  and 
saddlery  shop,  and  learned  that  trade.  This  was  in  1844,  when 
Henry  Clay  and  James  K.  Polk  were  opposing-  candidates  for  the 
presidency.  In  1847  Mr.  Sulgrove  entered  Bethany  Colleg-e,  West 
Virginia,  then  under  the  presidency  of  Alexander  Campbell. 
His  principal  colleg-iate  course  covered  branches  which  he  had 
studied  at  the  old  seminary,  and  he  was  enabled  to  g-raduate  in 
one  year,  notwithstanding-  the  fact  that  three  months  of  that 
period  were  devoted  to  teaching.  There  were  five  departments 
in  the  colleg-e,  and  he  secured  first  and  second  honor  in  each. 
He  was  "first  honor  man"  of  the  colleg-e,  taking-  those  of  all 
departments — the  first  time  such  a  circumstance  had  ever 
happened  in  that  institution.  He  made  his  g-raduating-  speech 
in  Greek. 

In  1848,  returning-  to  his  home  in  this  city,  he  beg-an  the  study 
of  law,  with  the  late  Oliver  H,  Smith  and  Simon  Yandes.  After 
three  years  he  formed  a  partnership  with  John  Caven,  after- 
wards mayor  of  the  city,  and  they  practised  tog-ether  until  the 
winter  of  18S4-'5.  He  then,  with  the  late  John  D.  Defrees,  took 
editorial  charg-e  of  The  Indianapolis  Journal.  He  had  previously 
written  much  for  the  press,  having-  contributed  considerable 
matter  over  the  Jiom  de  plume  of   "Timothy  Tug-mutton"  to  vari- 


140  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

ous  publications.  In  1850  he  wrote  sketches  of  the  constitutional 
convention  for  The  Locomotive^  then  published  in  this  city.  He 
next  contributed  to  The  Hoosier  City,  a  small  paper  published  by 
young-  men  then  connected  with  the  Journal,  and  also  wrote 
considerable  matter  for  the  columns  of  the  last-named  paper. 
This  preceded  the  time  of  his  reg-ular  connection  with  the  paper. 

When  Mr.  Sulg-rove  first  became  connected  with  the  Journal 
he  did  work  now  divided  into  a  number  of  departments — writing- 
leaders,  g-eneral  news  items,  local  matter,  convention  and  meeting- 
reports,  as  well  as  copying-  teleg-raph  news  after  the  old  style. 
He  inaug-urated  the  system  of  covering-  the  nig-ht's  news  for  the 
paper  of  the  following-  morning-,  and  introduced  the  first  verbatim 
reports  ever  used  by  the  local  papers.  At  this  time  he  frequently 
worked  nineteen  out  of  twenty-four  hours.  In  1856  he  boug-ht 
sufficient  stock  in  the  paper  to  g-ive  him  a  majority  of  the  shares. 
He  sold  out  in  1863,  intending-  tog-o  to  Europe,  but  was  prevented 
and  continued  as  editor  of  ih^  Journal.  In  1864  he  accompanied 
Morton  and  McDonald  throug-h  the  State  in  their  joint  canvass 
for  Governor,  reporting-  the  discussions  for  the  Jouryial.  He 
served  later  as  Governor  Morton's  private  secretary.  In  1866  he 
returned  to  the  editorial  charg-e  of  tht  Jour?ial,  in  which  he  con- 
tinued for  several  years  afterward,  and  with  intervals  he  had 
been  connected  with  the  paper  nearly  twenty-five  years.  He 
took  service  with  the  Neivs  when  that  paper  was  established, 
and  continued  with  it  until  ill-health  precluded  his  doing-  further 
literary  work. 

Mr.  Sulg-rove  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  this  city 
and  State  have  ever  known.  As  an  editorial  writer  during-  the 
war  he  wielded  an  influence  in  the  West  that  was  second  to  none, 
and  he  was  from  first  to  last  the  mainstay  and  adviser  of  the 
g-reat  War  Governor  of  Indiana.  While  modestly  keeping-  him- 
self in  the  backg-round,  he  was  ready  with  his  opinion  and  counsel 
when  asked,  and  they  were  always  weig-hty.  He  was  sometimes 
likened  to  Horace  Greeley  as  a  journalist,  but  the  compari- 
son hardly  did  Mr.  Sulg-rove  justice,  for,  with  the  brilliancy  of 
Mr.  Greeley,  he  was  never  eccentric,  but  always  steady  and 
mature,  no  politician  ever  being-  led  into  blunders  by  following- 
his  counsel  or  leadership.  In  his  youth  he  was  a  Whig-,  but  on 
the  foundation  of  the  Republican  party  was  one  of  the  first  to 


BERR  Y  R.  S  UL  GRO  VE,  JO  URN  A  LIS  T  141 

lift  the  standard  of  the  new  party,  and,  with  his  ready  pen,  g-ave 
utterance  to  the  sublime  sentiments  of  freedom. 

While  in  his  later  years  Mr.  Sulgrove  wrote  for  several  papers, 
and  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  it  was  a  noticeable  fact  that  he 
would  never  write  anything-  he  did  not  thoroug-hly  believe,  and 
especially  was  he  conscientious  upon  political  topics,  and  never 
at  any  time  would  he  write  except  from  a  Republican  standpoint. 
As  to  versatility,  he  could,  at  a  moment's  notice,  write  upon 
almost  any  topic.  A  publisher  once  had  a  cut  representing-  a 
covey  of  quails.  Mr.  Sulg-rove  was  shown  the  eng-raving-  and 
asked  if  he  could  write  something-  to  "fit  it."  He  at  once  sat 
down  and  wrote  an  article  upon  the  quail  and  its  habits,  g-athered 
from  his  own  observation,  tog-ether  with  a  number  of  anecdotes 
and  incidents  of  this  bird,  that  would  have  done  credit  to  the 
research  of  a  Wilson  or  an  Audubon.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  no 
naturalist  has,  in  the  same  number  of  lines,  ever  written  so 
entertaining-ly  and,  at  the  same  time,  so  instructively,  and  the 
article,  or  pieces  of  it,  were  for  years  floating-  about  in  the  vari- 
ous papers  and  mag-azines  of  the  land. 

Prom  his  earliest  childhood  his  powers  of  observation  were 
wonderfully  keen,  and  continued  in  full  exercise  all  his  life.  He 
was  a  g-reat  walker,  a  close  student  of  nature,  and  was  always 
seeing-  thing-s  in  the  fields  and  woods.  As  a  boy  he  was  full  of 
life,  a  rover  of  the  woods  and  a  saunterer  by  the  streams.  He 
and  General  Lew  Wallace  were  boys  tog-ether,  and  it  is  said  that 
they  lay  in  White  river  all  summer.  From  the  time  that  he 
beg-an  to  g-o  to  school,  throug-h  the  old  Marion  County  Seminary 
and  at  Bethany  Colleg-e,  he  was  looked  upon  as  an  Admirable 
Crichton,  knowing- everything-,  able  to  do  anything-.  In  the  early 
days  of  Indianapolis  he  was  looked  upon  as  the  orator  of  the 
town;  at  the  same  time  he  was  the  head  of  a  company  of  Thes- 
pians of  no  mean  merit,  and  a  little  later  on  was  the  captain  of 
the  Marion  fire  company,  in  the  days  of  the  old  volunteer  service. 

There  seemed  no  limit  to  his  knowledg-e,  and  his  acquisitions 
were  in  all  manner  of  fields.  His  memory  has  for  nearly  half  a 
century  been  the  talk  of  the  town.  It  was  said  that  he  never 
forg-ot  anything-  he  had  ever  seen  or  heard.  He  carried  tables  of 
election  returns  about  in  his  head  and  when  called  upon  could 
tell  how  any  county  went  and  frequently  could  surprise  a  ques- 


142  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

tioner  by  g-iving-  the  exact  vote  in  some  obscure  precinct.  One 
of  his  feats  of  memory  quite  surprised  Professor  Mitchell,  the  not- 
ed astronomer,  who  delivered  a  lecture  here  when  this  place  was 
young-.  Mr.  Sulgrove  was  present,  heard  the  lecture  and  gave 
the  Journal  a  full  report  of  it.  He  did  not  have  a  scrap  of  pa- 
per to  take  a  note,  and  the  fig-ures  of  the  lecture  wer^  given 
with  absolute  accuracy.  This  was  before  the  art  of  stenogra- 
phy had  come  to  the  West,  but  with  such  a  verbatim  memory 
short-hand  would  appear  to  be  unnecessary. 

Mr.  SulgTove  went  to  Europe  with  Governor  Morton  in  1866. 
At  Paris,  sitting-  at  dinner  with  a  number  of  disting-uished  g-en- 
tlemen  who  had  called  upon  Governor  Morton,  a  discussion  arose 
about  a  quotation  from  Horace.  Governor  Morton  himself  was 
not  interested,  as  he  made  no  pretentions  to  scholarship  of  that 
character,  but  a  couple  of  British  gentlemen  were  much  in  ear- 
nest about  the  matter.  As  the  discussion  did  not  seem  like  coming- 
to  an  end,  Mr.  Sulg-rove,  begging-  their  pardon,  asked  to  set 
them  right.  He  not  only  g-ave  the  quotation,  but  quoted  a  half 
a  pag-e  or  more  of  the  matter  of  which  it  was  a  part,  and  the 
Britons  looked  upon  the  quiet  gentleman,  who  had  so  unexpect- 
edly displayed  such  scholarship  and  memory,  in  wonder.  At 
Rome,  where  he  made  a  long-  sojourn,  he  was  known  as  "the 
learned  American."  He  appeared  to  acquire  the  Italian  lan- 
g'uag-e  in  a  few  weeks,  and  spoke  it  readily,  even  with  the  rab- 
ble of  the  place,  mastering-  even  the  patois  of  the  fruit-sellers, 
fishermen  and  beg-g-ars.  The  sculptor,  Rog-ers,  who  had  lived  in 
Rome  twenty  years,  met  Mr.  Sulg-rove  there.  Speakings  of  the 
wonderful  acquirements  of  the  man,  he  said  he  found  Mr.  Sul- 
g-rove, who  had  just  arrived,  knew  a  g-reat  deal  more  of  Rome, 
both  ancient  and  modern,  than  he  did. 

There  was  a  vein  of  humor  in  Mr.  Svilgrove's  conversation, 
which  at  times  appeared  in  his  writing.  One  of  the  best  exam- 
ples of  this,  coupled  with  satire,  a  weapon  he  seldom  used,  was 
given  in  an  editorial,  many  years  ag-o,  the  Jour^ial,  in  which  he 
dissected  a  then  recent  speech  of  Hon.  Daniel  W.  Voorhees. 
The  article  bore  the  heading-,  "The  Oratorical  Rooster,"  and 
the  writer  began  with  narrating  that  in  his  youth  he  was  the 
happy  possessor  of  a  most  remarkable  rooster.  This  chanticleer 
was  possessed  of  two  leg-s  of  unequal  leng-th,  one  being-  a  pre- 


BERRY  R.  SULGROVE,  JOURNALIST  143 

ternaturally  short  leg-  and  the  other  a  supernaturally  long-  leg-. 
"When  he  stood  upon  his  long-  leg  and  scratched  with  his  short 
leg-,"  the  article  continued,  "he  fell  short  of  the  object  scratched 
for;  when  he  stood  upon  his  short  leg  and  scratched  with  his 
long-  leg  he  went  beyond  the  object  scratched  for."  With  this 
beginning-,  he  took  up  Mr.  Voorhees's  speech  and  dissected  it, 
parag-raph  after  paragraph,  with  running  comments,  adding-  here 
and  there,  "Here  he  scratched  with  his  short  leg-"  and  "there  he 
scratched  with  his  long-  leg^,"  making-  the  application  in  a  way 
that  caused  the  article  to  g-o  throug-h  the  party  press  from  one 
end  of  the  State  to  the  other.  Mr.  Sulgrove  dearly  delighted  to 
have  a  foeman  worthy  of  his  steel,  and  for  that  reason,  in  the 
days  when  personal  journalism  was  indulged  to  greater  length 
than  now,  he  was  always  more  than  pleased  to  have  a  tilt  at  Mr. 
Hendricks  or  Mr.  McDonald.  Withal,  he  was  so  genial  and  bore 
so  little  personal  rancor  that  not  the  bitterest  Democrat  held  any 
abiding  enmity  toward  him.  He  was,  despite  of  his  great  attain- 
ments, perhaps  because  of  them,  the  most  modest  of  men,  firm  i» 
his  friendship,  and  of  the  finest  and  tenderest  sensibility.  The 
death  of  George  C.  Harding,  ten  years  ago,  struck  him  with 
great  force.  He  could  not  nerve  himself  to  go  to  the  funeral, 
nor  even  to  come  to  the  office  where  they  had  so  often  met  and 
talked,  for  many  days  afterward. 

From  the  News. 

Mr.  Sulgrove  was  the  first  editor  to  appreciate  the  value  of 
news.  It  was  the  custom  when  he  took  charge  of  the  Journal  to 
set  up  all  the  matter  during  the  day,  lock  up  the  forms  by  6  o'clock 
and  leave  them  ready  for  the  pressman  to  work  off  the  next  morn- 
ing. An  event  occurring  after  4  or  5  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
no  matter  how  important,  never  was  mentioned  in  the  paper  until 
the  second  day.  One  night  a  fire  occurred  that  was  large  for  the 
town,  and  Mr.  Sulgrove,  procuring  a  printer  or  two,  wrote  an 
account  of  it,  got  it  into  the  form,  and  the  readers  the  next  morn- 
ing were  amazed  to  see  the  report.  This  led  to  other  work  of  the 
same  kind,  and  from  that  time  on  people  were  not  compelled  to 
wait  thirty-six  hour^  to  hear  of  important  events. 

In  1869,  when  the  News  was  started,  he  became  a  member  of 
the  staff  and  has  served  as  such  ever  since.  He  was  also  a  con- 
tributor, more  or  less  regularly,  to  other  papers  both  here  and 


144  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

elsewhere,  and  did  a  great  deal  of  work  for  individuals,  including- 
the  writing  of  much  of  "Holloway's  Indianapolis,"  and  the  entire 
authorship  of  "The  History  of  Indianapolis  and  Marion  County," 
published  in  1884.  On  all  subjects  pertaining-  to  the  history, 
growth  and  appearance  of  Indianapolis  and  vicinity,  as  well  as 
of  the  people  who  made  the  city,  he  was  a  great  reservoir  of 
knowledg-e,  and  to  his  pen  we  owe  it  that  much  that  would  soon 
be  forgotten  has  been  put  into  permanent  form. 

RECOLLECTIONS    OF    D,    L-    PAINE. 

Mr.  D.  L.  Paine,  long  an  associate  of  Mr.  Sulgrove,  contributes 
this  sketch: 

,;  I  have  known  Berry  R.  Sulgrove  somewhat  intimately  for  thirty 
years,  having  been  brought  into  close  contact  with  him  as  com- 
positor, proof-reader  and  associate  in  editorial  work  a  large  part 
of  that  time.  He  was  a  man  of  great  force,  of  character  and 
quaint  originality.  While  not  profoundly  learned  in  any  direc- 
tion, his  available  knowledge  of  almost  everything  was  wonder- 
ful. In  mind,  as  in  personal  appearance,  he  was  unique.  His 
friends  were  among  all  classes.  He  would  chat  pleasantly  with 
the  ignorant  or  vicious  denizen  of  hell's  half-acre,  or  discuss  the 
precession  of  the  equinoxes  with  the  learned  savant;  sing  a  song 
to  kindred  company  in  a  lounging-room,  or  coddle  his  dear  old 
violin  in  his  own  study.  He  was  the  counselerof  governors  and 
statesmen,  and  the  friend  and  associate  of  vagrants.  He  could 
invest  a  story  with  absorbing  interest  simply  by  his  manner  of 
telling  it,  or  dismiss  an  absurd  proposition  in  too  forceful  and 
not  always  polite  words.  The  boyish,  eager  look  in  his  roundly 
opened  eyes  when  a  matter  of  interest  came  to  him,  the  comic 
expression  which  overspread  his  whole  countenance  in  relating  a 
joke,  his  quick  staccato  movements  and  nervous  utterances,  will 
be  recalled  by  those  who  knew  him  in  his  prime.  He  was  careless 
of  personal  appearance  and  brusque  in  manner,  but  genial,  and 
even  playful,  with  his  intimates.  Given  to  wide  and  lonely 
wanderings,  he  knew  every  stranded  log  on  the  river  bank,  and 
every  lichen  and  fern-frond  for  miles  around  as  familiar  ac- 
quaintances. 

Seated  at  his  desk  in  his  earlier  editorial  days,  his  knees  wide 
apart,  with  his  toes  touching  the  floor  in  the  rear  of  his  chair, 


BERR  Y  R.  SULGRO  VE,  JO URNALIST  145 

displaying-  the  soles  of  his  feet,  his  shoulders  rounded  up  Atlas- 
like, looking-  over  his  spectacles  with  his  forehead  nearly  touchy 
ing-  the  sheet  upon  which  he  was  tracing*  microscopic  characters, 
perhaps  humming  a  tune  or  whistling-  softly,  he  presented  an 
appearance  quite  striking  if  not  g-rotesque.  His  handwriting 
was  peculiar.  In  the  old  days,  when  he  edited  thQ  Journal,  but 
two  compositors  in  the  office  could  decipher  his  chirography,  and 
a  list  of  the  laughable  blunders  they  often  made  hung  upon  the 
wall.  He  was  given  to  outlandish  expressions,  as  for  instance, 
a  valueless  thing  "was  not  worth  the  butt-cut  of  a  hog--weed." 
In  his  best  days  his  list  of  correspondents  contained  many  names 
known  to  science,  politics  and  society.  He  traveled  for  a  time 
in  Europe,  and  his  letters,  if  collected,  would  make  an  interesting 
volume.  Taken  in  every  respect,  he  was  the  most  striking-  fig-ure 
in  the  list  of  Indiana  journalists. 

OTHKR  STORIES. 

Mr.  Sulgrove  was  constantly  giving  away  something-  from  his 
prodig-ious  store  of  knowledge  that  was  worth  knowing.  His 
acquaintances  are  full  of  stories  illustrating  his  characteristics., 
Colonel  Holloway,  in  speaking  of  him,  said  that  there  was  noth- 
ing he  couldn't  do.  "I  can  beat  you  shooting.  Berry,"  he  said 
to  him  once  in  New  York,  as  the}^  approached  a  shooting  stand. 
But  Berry  hit  the  bull's  eye  three  times  in  succession,  though  he 
shot  with  glasses.  "Where  did  you  learn  to  shoot?"  the  colonel 
asked.  "I  picked  it  up  when  I  was  a  boy."  He  had  knowledge 
of  music  and  played  the  flute  and  the  violin  well. 

Once  the  force  at  ihe.  Journal,  early  in  the  fifties,  decided  to  go 
fishing  on  Sunday,  and,  that  there  might  be  no  interruption  with 
the  program,  closed  the  forms  and  ran  off  Monday's  paper  at  4 
o'clock  Saturday  afternoon.  Sulgrove  was  in  a  barber-shop 
getting  shaved  when  the  carrier  came  along  crying  out  the  pa- 
per and  delivering  the  Monday  edition.  "See  here,  Mr.  Sul- 
grove," said  some  one  present,  "what  kind  of  a  paper  is  this 
that  purports  to  give  the  Monday  news  in  Saturday's  edition?" 
"What's  that,"  exclaimed  the  editor,  and  on  finding  what  was 
being  done  he  ran  out  into  the  street  with  the  barber's  tools 
clinging  to  him,  overtook  the  carrier  and  compelled  him  to  go 
back  and  gather  up  all  the  papers  distributed.  The  fishing  par- 
ty was  broken  up. 


146  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

It  never  seemed  to  be  necessary  for  Mr.  Sulgrove  to  consult 
authorities.  He  had  ever^-thing-  in  his  head.  Judg^e  Chapman 
once  had  the  editors  arrested  for  contempt  in  publishing-  forbid- 
den evidence  in  the  Clem  case.  An  able  lawyer  was  employed 
by  the  Court  to  defend  its  course.  The  lawyer  cited  the  author- 
ities ad  libitum  and  was  very  profound.  Late  at  night  Colonel 
Holloway  sent  for  Mr.  Sulgrove,  had  the  lawyer's  voluminous 
address  read  to  him  from  short-hand  notes,  and  asked  for  an  edi- 
torial in  refutation.  This  Sulg-rove  wrote  promptly— nearly  two 
columns — "skinning"  the  attorney  so  effectually  that  he  came  to 
the  y<3?/r«a/ next  day  and  admitted  that  he  had  been  beautifully, 
thoroughly  and  legally  flayed.  The  accuracy  of  his  memory 
has  been  often  tested.  When  he  was  in  Paris  he  confounded 
the  sexton  of  a  certain  burial  place  by  telling  him  that  a  cer- 
tain noted  character  was  buried  next  to  such  and  such  a  tomb. 
'^'I  read  the  description  years  ago,"  said  he,  and  when  the  sexton 
looked,  the  grave  was  found. 

Said  Mr.  E.  H.  Perkins,  foreman  of  the  News  composing  room: 
"Mr.  Sulgrove  was  known  by  the  printers  all  over  the  country. 
He  had  the  reputation  of  writing  almost  as  bad  a  hand  as 
Horace  Greeley,  but  this  •■eputation  was  not  due  him.  On  the 
contrary  he  wrote  the  best  'copy'  that  ever  came  to  me.  It  had 
its  peculiarities,  but  these  were  offset  by  the  absolute  accuracy 
and  infinite  pains  with  which  it  had  been  prepared.  In  all  my 
years  of  acquaintance  with  his  writing-  I  do  not  remember  to 
have  seen  one  mispelled  word.  He  was  thorough.  All  the 
printer  had  to  do  was  to  'follow  copy.'  It  was  always  properly 
capitalized,  punctuated  and  paragraphed.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  agreeable  men  the  printers  had  to  do  with.  He  never  be- 
came impatient  nor  quarreled  over  mistakes.  His  copy  was  pe- 
culiar, as  he  wrote  a  very  fine  hand  and  scorned  good  paper.  He 
would  write  on  backs  of  envelopes,  on  election  tickets  of  twenty 
years  standing-,  on  circulars  and  bits  of  brown  paper.  Some- 
times he  would  write  across  the  face  of  printed  matter  and  this 
would  make  the  copy  hard  on  the  eye  for  old  men,  but  the  young- 
er men  never  had  any  trouble  in  deciphering-  him,  and  proof  of 
his  matter  was  generally  the  cleanest  in  the  ofi&ce.  Of  late,  he 
has  been  writing  on  slips  eight  or  ten  inches  long^  by  about  one 
or  two  wide.  He  would  write  a  heavy  leader  on  a  bit  of  waste 
paper  and  never  cause  the  printer  to  frown. 


JOHN  D.  DEFREES  147 

"I  remember  an  incident  told  me  by  a  Mr.  P.  When  Sulgrove 
was  editor  of  \.\\^  Journal  lAx.  P.  was  a  frequent  but  somewhat 
unsuccessful  contributor.  One  day  he  went  to  the  editor  and  re- 
marked, 'Mr.  Sulg-rove,  I  have  prepared  with  g-reat  care  an  article 
that  I  think  will  interest  everybody,  and  I  hope  you  will  find 
room  for  it.' 

"  'Why,  yes;  that's  all  rig-ht,'  replied  Sulgrove,  who  had  a 
cig-ar  in  his  mouth.  He  didn't  even  look  at  the  article,  but 
crumpling-  it  up,  made  a  torch  of  it  in  the  g-as  jet  and  quietly 
applied  the  flame  to  his  cigar.  Mr.  P.  was  so  annoyed  that  he 
said  nothing  and  neither  did  the  editor.  'I  never  could  tell 
whether  it  was  absent-mindedness  or  intentional  rebuff,'  concluded 
Mr.  P.,  'but  I  incline  to  the  belief  that  it  was  not  intended  for 
an  affront.' " 


JOHN  D.  DEFREES. 

[Obituary  sketch  by  Berry  R.  Sulgrove,  written  at  the  time  of  Mr.  De- 
frees's  death,  October  19,  1892.]    , 

A  LIFE  falling  short  a  few  days  of  seventy-three  years,  the  al- 
lotted span  of  "three  score  and  ten"  spent  in  the  busiest 
activity,  a  year  or  two  of  restraint  by  reason  of  failing  powers, 
eight  or  nine  months  of  suffering  pitiful  to  think  of,  and  the 
record  of  John  D.  Defrees's  life  is  closed.  The  outlines  which 
marked  it  for  the  world  may  be  briefly  told.  Born  at  Sparta, 
Tennessee,  November  8,  1810,  he  was  eight  years  old  when  his 
father  moved  to  Piqua,  Ohio.  In  his  fourteenth  year  he  was 
apprenticed  to  the  printers'  trade.  After  serving  his  time  he 
studied  law  in  the  office  of  "Tom"  Corwin,  at  Lebanon,  Ohio. 
In  1831  he  moved  to  South  Bend,  Indiana,  where  with  his  younger 
brother,  Joseph  H.  Defrees,  he  began  the  publication  of  a  news- 
paper. He  became  prominent  in  politics  as  a  Whig,  and  was 
several  times  elected  to  the  legislature.  In  1844  he  sold  his 
South  Bend  newspaper  to  Schuyler  Colfax,  whom  he  had  given 
a  start  in  life,  and  moving  to  this  city  the  next  year,  bought  the 
Indiana  State  Joiirnal,  which  he  edited  until  he  sold  it  ten  years 
afterward.  Of  his  connection  with  the  Atlas  newspaper,  which 
was  established  with  an  eye  to  political  rather  than  pecuniary 


148  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

results,  with  the  Central  Bank  and  the  stave  factory  he  and  his 
brother  Anthony  started,  now  owned  by  Mr.  Carey,  and  his  part 
in  the  manag-ement  of  the  Peru  railroad,  as  it  was  then  called, 
little  need  be  said,  as  they  illustrate  merely  the  uncontrollable 
energ-y  of  his  nature. 

In  1861  he  was  appointed  by  President  Lincoln  g-overnment 
printer.  He  held  the  office  until  Johnson,  angered  at  some  criti- 
cism of  his,  removed  him.  Congress  made  it  a  senate  office,  and  he 
was  reappointed  in  thirty  days.  He  held  it  until  1869,  when  his 
opposition  to  Grant  and  enmity  to  the  late  Senator  Morton  af- 
forded them  an  occasion  which  they  improved  by  turning-  him 
out.  At  the  coming  in  of  President  Hayes  he  was  appointed 
again  to  the  same  place,  which  he  held  until  about  last  February, 
declining-  health  compelling-  his  resignation. 

This  framework  of  a  life  seems  plain  enoug-h,  but  as  every 
one's  skeleton  is  the  same,  the  difference  in  appearance  being-  the 
filling  in  of  the  flesh,  so  in  this  life  there  was  a  side,  which  those 
who  knew  him  best  saw  most  of,  that  made  it  an  inspiration. 
It  was  all  the  difference  there  is  between  an  existence  which 
floats  with  the  current  of  affairs  and  a  life  driven  by  the  force  of 
an  unconquerable  will  toward  the  g-oal  of  a  lofty  ambition.  He 
was  a  natural  political  student  and  had  the  gift  of  political 
manag-ement,  and  the  associates  of  his  early  days  speak  of  his 
rare  sagacity  and  his  untiring  energy.  He  was  a  general  business 
man  for  his  party  here,  which,  during  the  whole  time  of  his 
editorship  of  the  State  organ,  the  Journal^  was  in  the  minority. 
He  was  chairman  of  the  State  committee  at  one  time,  and  always, 
those  who  worked  with  him  say.  the  adviser  and  g-eneral  conduct- 
or of  affairs.  He  could  unite  two  or  three  antag-onisms  into  a 
common  purpose,  and  when  there  were  factional  or  personal  dif- 
ferences Defrees  was  called  in  to  smooth  them  out  and  restore 
good  feeling.  He  had  the  keeenest  sense  of  humor,  which  his 
pluck  and  ceaseless  activity  were  ever  ready  to  carry  into  anecdote 
or  practical  joke.  When  the  three  hundred  volunteers  went  to 
the  Black  Hawk  war,  arriving  at  the  scene  of  action  only  to  find 
the  war  ended,  Defrees,  then  editing  his  paper  at  South  Bend, 
saw  the  comical  side  of  it,  and  came  out  with  a  sketch  of  what 
they  didn't  do,  calling-  them  the  "Bloody  Three  Hundred."  The 
fun  hit  so  hard  that  most  of  the  three  hundred  were  ready  for 


JOHN  D.  DEFREES  149 

blood  indeed,  and  they  went  to  the  young-  editor's  home  and  call- 
ed him  out  for  the  purpose  of  ducking-  him  in  a  pond.  He  came, 
but  instead  of  apologizing-,  ridiculed  and  defied  them  without 
stint,  until  in  admiration  of  his  pluck,  and  in  shame  for  a  hundred 
or  two  ag-ainst  one,  they  withdrew. 

His  energ-y  from  his  earliest  days  was  remarkable.  His  news- 
paper at  South  Bend  was  the  first  one  in  northern  Indiana,  and 
at  every  turn  of  affairs  he  was  seeking  something  new,  some 
improvement.  "Progress"  seemed  to  be  his  watchword.  He 
was  the  first  man  in  Indiana  to  use  steam  to  drive  a  printing  press; 
the  first  to  use  a  caloric  engine  for  the  same  purpose;  the  first 
to  see  the  value  of  the  Bullock  printing  press  and  encourage  the 
inventor;  the  first  to  use  the  metallic  stitching  machine  for 
book-binders;    the  first  to  use  the  Edison  electric  light. 

His  faith  in  progress  and  human  kind,  and  his  restless  en- 
ergy which  halted  at  nothing,  permeated  and  colored  his  whole 
life.  It  supplied  for  himself  the  deficiencies  of  early  systemat- 
ic training.  What  the  experience  of  the  printers'  trade  and  the 
acquisitions  of  a  young  law  student  might  give  in  the  way  of 
knowledge,  it  may  be  imagined  were  of  themselves  barren 
enough.  But  to  him  these  were  the  keys  with  which  he  might 
unlock  learning's  storehouse.  Books  were  his  delight.  He  over- 
came the  lack  of  a  classical  education  by  a  thorough  study  of 
translations,  and  the  lore  of  Greece  and  Rome  was  his  familiar 
acquaintance.  He  was  especially  fond  of  histor}^  and  there 
were  few  classical  works  in  this  line,  ancient  or  modern,  which 
he  did  not  know.  He  was  a  deep  political  student  and  partici*- 
larly  knew  the  political  history  of  his  own  country  as  few  know 
it.  He  was  an  unwearied  student  and  thus  as  the  years  went  on 
he  became  equipped  with  all  the  mental  outfit  of  a  gentleman. 
He  had  a  correct  literary  taste  and  was  as  quick  to  discern  gen- 
ius or  special  talent  here  as  in  other  things.  He  wrote  with  a 
perspicuity  almost  such  as  Horace  Greeley's  was,  and  with  a 
terse  Saxon  force  and  direct  "drive"  at  the  purpose  in  hand,  rare 
in  these  days.  Those  who  were  near  to  him,  or  came  in  contact 
with  him  in  the  direction  of  affairs,  he  acted  upon  with  the 
characteristic  qualities  of  his  nature.  He  left  his  impress.  He 
was  an  influence,  and  many  there  are  who  can  rise  up  and  call 


150  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

him  blessed,  in  the  memory  of  the  chaste  and  elevating-  force 
that  influence  was. 

He  was  a  man  of  the  rarest  courage;  a  courag-e  that  seemed 
to  have  no  weak  side,  mental,  moral  or  physicial.  The  furthest 
possible  remove  from  a  brawler  in  his  nature,  an  acquaintance 
with  him  never  failed  to  make  it  plain  that  he  would  fight  on 
call.  This  coupled  with  the  knowledge  that  he  was  a  "dead  shot" 
with  a  rifle,  perhaps  conspired  to  make  a  career  among  the  tur- 
bulent scenes  of  politics  singularly  free  from  personal  disturb- 
ances. Of  his  mental  courag-e,  his  never  failing  faith  in  the  power 
of  attainments  has  already  spoken.  His  moral  courage,  as  is 
shown  forth  in  a  life  free  of  dross  as  few  lives  are,  was  rare  in- 
deed. He  had  the  loftiest  sense  of  honor,  and  the  hottest  ang-er 
and  bitterest  contempt  for  a  dishonorable,  dishonest  or  mean 
thing;  and  condemnation  of  such  leaped  to  his  lips  in  a  mo- 
ment, for  he  had  all  the  "quickness"  of  the  nervous  tempera- 
ment. But  so  patiently  did  he  work  for  its  control,  so  thorough- 
ly did  he  conquer  himself,  that  in  his  later  life  few  knew  from 
the  calm  exterior  the  rag-e  that  took  hold  of  him  at  the  sight  of 
a  wrong- or  meanness.  His  integ-rity  was  flawless.  He  had  not 
merely  the  heart  to  mean  rig-htly,  but  the  head  to  do  rightly, 
and  in  his  daily  walk  and  conversation  he  was  truth  and  hon- 
esty incarnate.  This  is  the  testimony  of  those  who  knew  him 
as  he  lived  among  them.  The  writer  knew  him  in  a  personal 
and  household  way  also,  and  so  knowing  him  he  knows  of  his 
unvarying  sweetness,  his  cheeriness  that  brightened  intercourse 
and  his  encouragement  constantly  to  lofty  ideals  and  noble  deeds. 

All  his  life  Mr.  Defrees  had  not  been  a  professor  of  religion, 
but  if  religion  is  a  life  he  was  one  of  its  noblest  exemplars.  Last 
June  he  joined  the  Cong-regational  Church  at  Washington, 
and  took  the  sacrament.  He  was  then  unable  to  leave  his  room. 
Before  and  since  then  he  was  afflicted  in  a  way  that  no  medical 
skill  could  control,  and  for  months  he  suffered  as  let  us  hope  few 
of  us  may  suffer.  There  was  little  bitterness  of  physical  agony 
that  he  did  not  endure.     His  prayer  was  to  die. 


A  NEWSPAPER  INDEX  151 


A  NEWSPAPER  INDEX. 

"WESTERN  CENSOR'^  AND  "JOURNAL,"  OF  INDIANAPOLIS,  1823  TO 
1827,  INCLUSIVE— FIRST  INSTALMENT. 

[The  Western  Censor  and  EtnigranV s  Guide,  the  second  paper  launched 
in  Indianapolis,  and  its  successor,  the  Indiana  Journal,  are  the  only  early 
papers  of  which  there  are  complete  files  accessible  to  the  public.  For  that 
reason  they  have  a  particular  value,  and  the  following  index  may  prove  of 
interest  and  service  to  many  of  our  readers.  The  classification  of  news- 
paper matter  is  difficult  owing  to  its  heterogeneous  character.  In  this  index 
we  have,  with  a  few  exceptions,  confined  ourselves  to  such  matter  as  bears, 
directly  or  indirectly,  upon  the  history  of  Indianapolis,  or  which  reflects 
phases  of  early  life  there.  We  have  deemed  the  chronological  arrangement 
preferable  to  the  alphabetical  scheme.  The  first  issue  of  The  Western 
Censor  appeared  March  7,  1823.  January  11,  1825,  it  became  The  Indiana 
Jourftal.  The  bound  files  may  be  found  in  the  Indianapolis  Public  Library.] 

1823— Western  Censor. 

First  issue,  reasons  for  delay  of. — March  7. 

Indianapolis,  description  of. — March  7. 

Communications,  excess  of. — April  2. 

Sunday-school,  first  meeting-  of,  to  be  held  at  Scudder's  cabinet- 
shop. — April  2.  (Other  matter  pertaining  to  Sunday-school 
throughout  early  numbers.) 

Roads,  State.— May  14. 

Squirrel  killing. — May  14. 

Divorce  cases. — May  14. 

Northern  Indiana. — May  21. 

Advertisement  for  books  loaned. — May  21. 

Trees,  law  affecting  the  cutting  of  in  Indianapolis. — June  4. 

Mails. — June  11. 

Presbyterian  church,  the  first. — June  11.     (See  also  June  18.) 

Indians  on  White  river,  and  white  woman  captive. — June  11. 

White  river. — June  18. 

Contribution:  "Humphrey  Ploughshare's"  criticism  of  town 
ways. — June  18. 

Fourth  of  July  barbecue  (ad.) — June  25. 

Merchandise:     New  store  and  list  of  articles  kept. — July  2. 

Letters  advertised. — July  2.  [Lists  of  letters  of  considerable 
length  were  periodically  published,  and  the  custom  seems  curious. 


IBt  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF ///STORY 

Why,  in  a  backwoods  village  of  six  hundred  people,  should  the 
advertising-  of  unclaimed  letters  be  necessary?] 

Fourth  of  July  oration,  by  Morris  Morris. — July  9. 

Advertisement:     "Attention  to  Borrowers!" — July  9. 

Candidates  for  office,  list  of. — July  16. 

Rattlesnakes  in  Marion  county. — Aug.   18. 

Indianapolis,  population  of,  600  or   700   people    (editorial). — 
Sept.  22. 

■  Contribution:     "Conduct  to  be  Observed  on  Entering  a  Store" 
(satirical).— Sept.  29. 

Indianapolis  and  the  New  Purchase. — Oct.  6. 

Roads.— Oct.  20.     (See  also  Dec.  15.) 

Apple  trees  and  nursery. — Oct.  20. 

Delinquent  taxes,    sale    of  lots    for  in  Indianapolis. — Dec.   1. 
(Christopher  Harrison,  commissioner,  a  lot  holder). 
1824— 

Tavern:     Thomas  Chinn's  "Traveller's  Hall." — Jan.  5. 

Prices  of  corn,  pork  and  potatoes  (ad.) — Jan.  5. 

Population,  influx  of  in  anticipation  of  coming  legislature. — 
Feb.  16. 
'  Donation  lands,  advertisement  for  leasing. — Feb.  16. 

Furs  and  tallow  for  subscriptions,  etc.  (ad.) — Feb.  16. 

Social  supper. — Feb.  24. 

Public  Meeting  "to  consult  on  the  propriet}^  of  taking  care  of 
the  graveyard." — March  8.     (Also  March  16.) 

Mails;    six  weeks  to  Bloomington. — March  22. 

Tan-yard  near  Pogue's  run. — March  22. 

Potatoes,  varieties  of;    Early  Whites,  Large  Red,  Long  Pale 
Red,  Large  Early  Blue.— March  22. 

School,  teachers,  etc. — April  5  (first  column.) 

Indian    murders  at   Pendleton    (differing  somewhat   from  the 
oMinary  account).— April  5. 

Plasterer,  advertisement  of;    probably  the  first. — April  5. 
-^  Chairs  for  legislative  halls,  advertisement  for. — April  19. 

Commodities    for    currency:      Merchandise    in    exchange    for 
"ginseng,  beeswax,  honey,  sugar,  deer  and  fur  skins,  or  almost 
anything  else  in  preference  to  promises.     For  cash  only,  powder, 
■shot,  whisky,  salt."     (John  Givan's  ad.) — April  26. 
•1  Sunday-school,  long  report  about;    also  editorial. — May  3. 


A  NE  WSPAPER  INDEX  ^53 

Importation:     Arrival  of  keel-boat,  "Dandy,"  with  28  tons  of 
salt  and  whisky. — May  17.  ; 

Danville,  locating- of . — July  20.     (Also  Aug-.  31), 

School  examination. — July  13.      (School  matter  in  July  27.) 

Captain  Riley,   famous  traveler,  located  on  St.  Mary's  river. 
Advocate  of  Wabash  canal.— Aug-.  31.  •  -.: 

Emig-ration  to  Indianapolis. — Oct.  19.  ■     ' 

Sale  of  Donation  out-lots  (ad.) — Nov.  16.  •.,.. 

Military  election. — Dec.  7.     (Also  Dec.  14.  ,, 

1825 — Indiana  Journal. 

Leg-islature:     Coming-  of  the  legislators,  etc.     First  meeting-. 
—Jan.  11. 

Mails,  arrival  of. — Jan.  18. 

Land  office,  James  B,  Ray  on  removal  of  to  Indianapolis. — 
Jan.  25. 

Leg-islators,  nativity  of. — Feb.  1. 

Indianapolis,  letter  about. — Feb.  1.     (Also  Feb.  8). 

WhetzelFs  trace:     Petition  of  Jacob  Whetzell  praying- compen- 
sation for  cutting-  trace  (in  Senate  proceedings). — Feb.  15. 

Female  Bible  Society  formed. — April  19.  \ 

Manufacture  of  g-lass  at  New  Albany. — April  26. 

Lots  in  Indianapolis,  prices  of. — May  3.  i,; 

Sabbath  school.— May  3. 

James  B.  Ray,  campaig-n  letter  to  the  public. — June  7.     (For 
burlesque  on  Ray,  see  July  19). 

Agricultural  Society. — July  26.     (See    also,  for  formation  of 
society,  Sept.  6). 

Land  office,  coming  of,  to  Indianapolis.— Sept.  27. 

Settlers,  coming  of;  prospects  of  Indianapolis. — Sept.  27. 

Road  to  Fort  Wayne,  laying  out  of;  mention  of  Indian  trace. 
—Oct.  11. 

Bible  Society,  forming  of. — Nov.  29. 
1826— 

Sabbath  school  for  adults. — April  16. 

John  Conner,  death  of. — April  25.     (For  W.  H.  Harrison  on 
John  Conner  see  July  20,  1824.     Conner's  estate,  Nov.  28). 

Population  of  Indianapolis. — March  7.      (760  people;  200  vot- 
ers;   61  unmarried  men;    48  unmarried  women). 

National  Road. — Nov.  14. 

Bible  Society,  Marion  county. — Nov.  21. 


154  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

1827— 

Leg-islature  and  State  conditions. — Jan.  2. 
Alexander  Ralston,  death  of;  with  sketch. — Jan.  9. 
Indianapolis  in  1827. — Feb.  20. 
Leasing-s  on  the  Donation. — Feb.  20. 

Female  Bible  Society. — March  20.  j 

Indian  treaty.— March  27.     (Treaty  of  Oct.  16,   1826,  secur-         j 
ing-  Michig-an  road  lands,  and  sig-ned  by  all  concerned.     These        j 
sig-natures  not  appended  to  the  official  report  in  American  State 
Papers.     Also,  "reserves"  specified.)  \ 

lyots,  sale  of  in  Indianapolis  (ad.)^April  3.     (Also  May  15). 
Mail  routes. — May  1.     (Also  Aug-.  7).  \ 

White  river,  description  of. — May  1.  ; 

Rattlesnake  oil,  advertisement  for.— June  5.  j 

Internal  improvement. — June  19.  (Also  June  26,  Nov.  13).  j 

Indiana,  description  of. — June  19.  | 

Wolves,  bounty  on. — June  19.  j 

Railroads. — July  3.  | 

Church  worker  in  Indiana,  letter  from. — Jul}-  3.  i 

Jacob  Whetzell,  death  of  and  short  sketch. — July  3.  '' 

Indians,  the  Delawares. — July  17.  I 

Morristown,  first  sale  of  lots  in. — Aug-.  21.  -; 

Vocal  music  society,  meeting-  in  Indianapolis  to  establish  one.         \ 
—Aug-.  28.  i 

Educational:     Private    teaching-  of  g-rammar  (ad.) — Sept.  18.          \ 
"Muncytown,"  sale  of  lots  in. — Sept.  18.  ! 

Imports  to  Indianapolis  (editorial). — Oct.  2.  \ 

Methodist  ministers  and  stations.— Oct.  2. 

Indianapolis  Academy,  "commencement"  of. — Oct.  9.  | 

Indiana,  north  boundary  of. — Nov.  6.     (Also  March  27). 
Indians,  attitude  toward. — Nov.  6. 
Public  lands,  kind  of  pay  accepted  for. — Nov.  13. 
Indianapolis,  improvements  in. — Nov.  20. 
Emig-ration  to  northern  Indiana. — Nov.  20. 
Lumber,  Caleb  Scudder's  advertisement  for  25,000  feet  of  cher- 
ry and  poplar. — Dec.  4. 

Map  of  Indiana  (ad.)— Dec.  4.     (Also  Jan.  10). 


DEPAR  TMENT  OF  GENE  A  LOG  V  155 


DEPARTMENT  OF  GENEALOGY  AND  FAMILY  HISTORY. 

EDITED  BY  MARY  E.  CARDWILL, 

318  East  Fifth  Street,  New  Albany,  Indiana. 

[Queries  and  answers  concerning-  ancestors  and  family  history  will  be 
g-ladly  received.] 

The  Poindexter   Family. 

THE  earliest  known  records  of  this  family  reach  back  to  about 
1250  when  Geoffrey  and  Raoul  Poing-destre  are  listed  as 
Norman  Hugfuenot  land-owners  in  the  Isle  of  Jersey. 

The  founder  of  the  house  of  Granville  was  Georg-e  Poing-destre, 
who  married  Geritte,  niece  of  Sir  Thomas  Ahier.  Georg-e  Poing-- 
destre  died  in  1544,  and  his  eldest  son,  Edward,  married  Mar- 
g-aret,  daug-hter  of  Clement  Messeroy,  in  1562.  Their  eldest  son, 
Thomas,  born  in  1581,  married  Elizabeth  Effard.  Their  chil- 
dren were  Philip,  Jacob,  Georg-e  and  Rachel. 

Georg-e  settled  in  Virg-inia,  1640  or  '50,  in  the  present  New  Kent 
or  Charles  City  counties.  A  missing-  link  leaves  a  blank  in  the 
family  history  until  about  1700  when  John  Poindexter  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  Governor  of  Virg-inia  one  of  the  Commissioners 
to  org-anize  Louisa  county  from  a  part  of  Hanover  county.  He 
was  also  a  justice  of  the  peace  and  a  vestryman  in  Fredricks- 
ville  church,   and  a  captain  of  cavalry.     He  married  Christine 

,  and  had  six  children:    John^,  Thomas-,  William'-,  Joseph^, 

Ann^  who  married Slaug-hter,  and  Sarah^  who  married  — — 

Tyron.  Thomas-  married  Lucy  Jones,  daug-hter  of  Gabriel 
Jones,  of  Culpepper  county.  Thomas's''^  will,  probated  July  15, 
1796,  names  the  following-  children:  John*^,  Gabriel'^  Thomas^, 
Robert^,  James-^,  Richard^  Georg-e-^  Elizabeth^,  Lucy^  and  Molly^. 
John^  married  three  times,  became  a  celebrated  Baptist  preacher 
and  was  clerk  of  Louisa  county,  Virg-inia,  for  thirty  years. 
James^  a  farmer  in  Louisa  county,  married  twice  and  left  one 
son.  Dr.  James*  Poindexter,  of  Charlottesville.  Thomas^,  a  farm- 
er at  Green  Springes,  Virginia,  married  and  left  many  children. 
Richard^  married  a  Miss  Maer,  and  moved  to  North  Carolina, 
where  he  became  a  most  disting-uished  Baptist  minister.  He 
left  one  son,  Abraham*  Maer  Poindexter.         Robert^  settled  in 


156  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Kentucky.  Some  of  his  descendents  are  found  in  Vevaj,  Indiana. 
Georg-e'^  moved  to  Mississippi,  soon  became  prominent  as  a  law- 
yer, was  a  member  of  the  Territorial  Leg-islature,  Delegate  to 
Cong-ress  and  Judg-e  of  Supreme  Court.  In  1820  he  was  elected 
Governor  of  the  State  and  later  was  United  States  Senator  for 
many  years.  Gabriel'^  ancestor  of  most  of  the  Indiana  Poin- 
dexters,  was  born  in  Louisa  county,  Virg-inia,  May  8,  1758,  and 
died  in  Clark  county,  Indiana,  Aug-ust  28,  1831.  He  was  a  soldier 
of  the  Revolution,  Virginia  Line,  Continental  Establishment. 
He  married  Mary  Swift,  said  to  have  been  a  relative  of  Dean 
Swift,  and  some  years  later,  about  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth centur}^  emigrated  to  Kentucky,  where  he  lived  near 
Lexington  for  ten  or  twelve  years, when  he  moved  to  New  Al- 
bany, Indiana,  in  which  place  his  wife  died  in  1820.  The  fami- 
ly then  moved  to  Clark  county,  Indiana,  near  Sellersburg. 

The  children  of  Gabriel^  Poindexter  and  Mary  Swift  Poin- 
dexter  were  Merriwether',  born  — — ;  killed  in  the  battle  of  the 
River  Raisin.  Cleviars^  born  1797,  in  Virginia;  married  Nan- 
cy Holland,  May  22, 1823.  Elizabeth^,  born  1801,  in  Kentucky; 
married  John  Adams,  of  Clark  county,  Indiana,  December  1, 
1827;  died  March  23,  1866.  Moses\  died  young.  Lucy^, 
married  Mr.  Underwood,  of  Kentuck}-.  Harriet^  married  Felix 
Lane.  Margaret^  married  John  Hancock,  October  20,  1839. 
Polly*,  married  John  Greene.  John*,  died  young.  Catherine*, 
died  young. 

Cleviars*  married  Nancy  Holland,  born  in  Virginia,  May  22, 
1823.  Their  children  were:  Moses'\  born  1824.  Married  (1) 
Sally  Littell,  August  22,  1844;  ^2)  Anna  Littell,  November 
19,  1864.  Died  1895;  left  five  children.  He  was  a  man  of  ability 
and  prominence  and  was  State  Senator.  Elizabeth'',  born 
1825.  Married  David  Hay,  September  4,  1844.  Gabriel^  born 
1827.  Married  Mary  F.  Willey,  February  5,  1851.  He  was 
Captain  of  Company  H,  Thirty-eighth  Indiana  Regiment,  in 
the  Civil  War.  He  died  in  1890.  His  children  were  Fountin^ 
Charles^  Harryt',  Bertha^  Mary^  and  Franks  all  prominent  peo- 
ple in  Jeffersonville  and  vicinity.  George^',  born  1829.  Mar- 
ried   Amanda    Anson.          RandalF\    born    1831.      Married      (1) 

Helen  Root;    (2)  Julia .     Was  a  surg-eon  in   the  Civil  War. 

Died  1890.         John\  born  1833.     Married  Margaret .     Was 


TAYLOR'S  STEAM  PRINTING  MACHINE  157 

also  a  surg-eon  in  the  Civil  War.  Marg-aret^  born  1836. 
Married  (1)  Absalom  Sellers,  November  13,  1854;  (2)  John 
Eisman.     Died  1892. 

Elizabeth^,  daughter  of  Gabriel  Poindexter,  married  John 
Adams,  December  21,  1827,  in  Clark  county,  but  soon  after 
moved  to  New  Albany,  where  she  died.  Children  of  John  and 
Elizabeth  Adams  were:  John  Quincey'',  born  March  31,  1829;  died 
April  19,  1903.  Albert^  born  December  11,  1830;  died  De- 
cember 15,  .         Thomas'\  born  September  7.  1832;    married 

Marg-aret  Hansborough.  Died  August,  1895.  Had  two  daugh- 
ters: Molly^  married  George  Slaughter,  of  Kentucky;  and 
Bessie*^.  Mary^  born  May  7,  1834;  married  Jacob  Miller. 
Vv^illiam  Newton\  born  1836;  died  1837.  Elizabeth^  born 
November  23,  1838;  married  John  O.  Greene;  has  one  child, 
Alice*5.         George  Wesley^  born  July  16,  1842. 


TAYLOR'S  STEAM  PRINTING  MACHINE. 

THIS  number  of  the  Jo2ir7ial  is  printed  on  an  eleg-ant  Steam 
Printing  Machine  just  put  up  for  us  by  Mr.  A.  B.  Taylor, 
of  New  York— the  patentee.  The  machine  and  the  engine  by 
which  it  is  propelled  (which,  in  fact,  is  a  part  of  the  machine 
itself),  is  the  most  complete  of  the  kind  now  in  use.  The  boiler 
which  supplies  the  engine  with  steam  is  about  the  size  of  a  pork 
barrel,  and  only  requires  an  eighth  of  a  cord  of  wood  to  run  it 
ten  hours!  The  machine  itself  is  capable  of  throwing  off  three 
thousand  sheets  per  hour,  though  the  usual  rate  of  working  it 
at  our  office  will  be  at  the  rate  of  two  thousand  an  hour,  requir- 
ing but  one  hand  to  feed  it!  It  has  attracted  g-reat  attention, 
and  we  invite  all  who  ma}-  wish  to  see  it  to  call  at  our  Press 
room  and  g-ratify  their  curiosity. 

This  extraordinary  facility  will  enable  us  to  keep  our  columns 
open  much  longer  than  heretofore,  so  that  our  subscribers  will 
get  all  the  news  received  by  us  up  to  the  hour  of  publication. 

This  enterprise  has  been  accomplished  at  a  great  expense,  and 
we  confidently  look  to  the  Whigs  of  the  State  to  increase  our  cir- 
culation in  such  manner  as  will  afford  us  ample  remuneration. — 
Frojn  Indiana  State  Journal  {weekly  cd.)^  Ju7ie  22,  184.J. 


INDIANA  QUARTERLY  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Published  at  Indianapolis,  Indiana. 
George  S.  Cottman,  Editor  and  Publisher. 

EDITORIAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS. 

PUBLIC    LIBRARIES  AND  NEWSPAPERS. 

That  librarianship  as  a  science  is  now  but  in  its  infancy  is 
a  fact  that  is  recog-nized,  doubtless,  by  most  modern  librarians. 
When  library  work  shall  have  developed  more  fully  along-  the 
many  lines  that  are  destined  to  come  within  its  scope,  not  its 
least  important  function  will  be  the  indexing-  and  org-anizing-  of 
the  great  mass  of  valuable  material  that  is  continually  passing- 
throug-h  the  newspaper  press.  There  is  g-reat  need  to  empha- 
size the  importance  of  this  task,  which,  up  to  the  present,  seems 
to  have  received  little  attention.  It  is,  we  presume,  a  quite  safe 
proposition  that  the  library  aims  to  be  a  school  for  the  people — 
a  promoter  of  information,  and  one  kind  of  information  of  con- 
siderable importance  is  a  knowledg-e  of  the  character  of  a  society 
by  the  people  who  form  it.  The  g-reat  source  of  such  informa- 
tion is  the  newspapers,  which  reflect  the  community  life  and 
spirit  as  nothing-  else  does.  A  newspaper  index,  intellig-ently 
compiled,  would  be  a  record  or  synopsis  of  the  forces  that  have 
made  a  community  what  it  is,  whether  for  g-ood  or  bad.  It 
would  be  a  chronolog-ical  list  of  social  movements,  of  the  nota- 
ble performances  of  men,  and  of  a  g-reat  variety  of  facts,  valua- 
ble, interesting-  and  curious,  which,  without  such  g-uide,  are 
speedily  swallowed  up  in  oblivion  and  their  lessons  lost.  To  be 
specific,  Terre  Haute  has,  during-  the  last  half-year,  been  sub- 
jected to  an  experience  that  is  of  State-wide  interest.  In  the 
lig-ht  ag-ainst  that  threatening-  depravity  which  "is  continually 
showing-  its  head  everywhere,  she  affords  an  object-lesson  that  is 
worthy  of  elaborate  study.  In  another  year's  time  the  whole 
chapter  will  be  buried  away  so  completely  as  to  be  practically 
forg-otten,  significant  thoug-h  it  is.  He  who  wishes  to  investi- 
gate that  crusade  ag-ainst  unrig-hteousness  should  be  able  to  g-o 
to  the  Terre  Haute  library  and  by  its  index  be  g-uided  readily  to 
all  the  salient  points  of  the  case  as  chronicled  by  the  contempo- 
rary papers.     As  with  Terre  Haute,  so,  in  varying-  deg-ree,  with 


EDITORIAL  AND   MISCELLANEOUS  159 

every  town  in  the  State.  The  laws  of  growth  and  retrogres- 
sion are  g"oing-  on  always  and  everywhere,  and  wherever  the 
newspaper  exists  it  is  holding-  the  mirror  up  to  nature — if  we 
but  know  how  to  interpret  the  newspaper.  As  its  contents  lie 
scattered  throug-h  the  columns,  they  are  little  more  than  waste 
matter,  but  selected  and  org-anized,  the  inconsequential  elimi- 
nated, they  present  the  very  texture  of  our  civilization.  The 
first  step  toward  a  history  of  our  State  that  shall  be  worthy  the 
name  must  be  this  cooperative  org-anizing"  of  a  mass  of  material 
too  extensive  for  the  individual  to  compass.  The  work  done  by 
the  local  libraries  should  be  a  stimulus  and  aid  to  the  minor  stu- 
dents, and  these  students  will  prepare  the  way  for  the  historian 
proper.  At  the  present  stag-e  it  is  all-essential  that  the  vig-orous 
and  phenomenal  library  movement,  now  asserting-  itself  throug-h- 
out  our  State,  recog-nize  in  a  broad  way  its  relation  to  current 
history  and  its  opportunities  as  a  conserver  of  the  same. 

If  we  are  rig-htly  informed,  there  are  but  three  of  the  larg-er 
libraries  of  the  country  that  are  doing-  newspaper  indexing-.  Of 
these,  one  is  the  Indiana  State  Library,  which  has  listed  the 
more  important  contents  of  the  leading-  Indianapolis  papers  from 
1898  to  the  present  time.  This  g-uide  to  the  files,  as  people 
learn  of  it,  is  coming-  more  and  more  into  popular  use,  the  news- 
papers themselves  being-  among-  the  most  frequent  patrons. 
The  State  Library  scheme  is,  of  course,  much  more  extensive 
than  a  local  library  would  adopt,  and  yet  an  hour  or  two  a  day 
suffices  for  the  work.  In  the  averag-e  local  library  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes  a  day  would  doubtless  be  ample  time  for  indexing-  a 
mass  of  reference  material  that  would  have  an  abiding-  interest 
and  value. 

MORE  REVOLUTIONARY  GRAVES. 

Brazil,  Ind.,  July  12,  1906. 
Editor  hidiana  Magazine  of  History. 

Sir:- — You  have  g-iven  information  reg'arding-  Revolutionary 
soldiers'  g-raves  in  several  counties,  which  proves  interesting-  to 
many  people.  I  desire  to  report  for  Clay  county  the  following^ 
Revolutionary  soldiers  and  the  location  of  their  g-raves: 

Lawrence  Thompson  and  Amos  Kelley  are  buried  in  the  Ze- 
nor  cemetery,  on  Birch  creek,  six  miles  south  of  Brazil.     Thomp- 


160  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

son  served  in  a  North  Carolina  reg-iment.  Some  time  after  the 
close  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  he  settled  in  Harrison  county, 
Indiana;  thence  to  Clay  county,  where  he  died  some  time  in  the 
forties,  ag-ed  about  108.  Numerous  descendants  still  live  in  this 
county.  Kelley  has  no  known  descendants  in  the  county,  and 
little  is  known  of  his  history  other  than  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
soldier  of  the  Revolution.  The  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Clay 
county,  with  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  County  Council,  at 
the  sug-g-estion  of  a  few  citizens,  made  an  appropriation  of  two 
hundred  dollars  for  a  monument  to  each  of  their  graves.  The 
monuments  were  lettered  and  set  up  several  months  ag-o,  and 
on  July  4,  1906,  a  meeting-  was  held  at  the  cemetery,  and  the 
monuments  duly  dedicated. 

John  Yocom,  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  is  buried  in  a  private 
family  g-raveyard,  two  miles  south  of  Brazil,  which  has  long- 
been  in  disuse. 

John  Hopper  and  Benjamin  Wheeler,  are  buried  in  another 
Zenor  cemetery  a  short  distance  south  of  Bowling-  Green,  the 
old  county  seat. 

This  makes  five  buried  in  Clay  county.  There  may  be  one  or 
two  more,  but  the  above  list  includes  all  that  are  positively 
known.  Yours  truly, 

F.  W.  Robertson. 

In  addition  to  the  above  Miss  Mary  K.  Cardwill,  of  New  Al- 
bany, reports  David  Benton,  and  Arthur  Parr,  buried  respect- 
ively in  Jackson  and  Washington  counties.  There  are  some 
Revolutionary  graves  in  Bartholomew  county,  but  we  have  not 
been  able  to  ascertain  the  names.  We  also  find  mention  of 
Samuel  Boyd,  who  died  in  Wayne  couoty  in  1835.  Boyd  was 
the  maternal  g-randfather  of  Judg-e  E.  B.  Martindale,  of  Indian- 
apolis. We  would  be  g-lad  to  receive  information  of  this  char- 
acter from  other  readers. 

LOCAL    HISTORY    CONTRIBUTIONS. 

Reminiscences  of  an  Indianian. — Capt.  J.  A.  Lemcke,  now  of  In- 
dianapolis, a  man  of  wide  experience  and  varied  fortunes,  has 
published  under  this  title  a  private  edition  volume  which  nar- 
rates the  ups  and  downs  of  a  somewhat  checkered  life.  It  is,  in 
part,  the  story  of  a  young-  man  making-  his  way  fifty  or  sixty 


EDITORIAL  AND   MISCELLANEOUS  161 

years  ag-o.  Of  those  times  we  have  many  intimate  g-limpses 
of  life  and  conditions  that  are  a  real  contribution  to  our  his- 
tory. His  experiences  as  a  river  man  on  the  Mississippi,  Ohio, 
Tennessee,  Wabash  and  White  rivers  are  especially  interesting-. 
In  more  recent  years  Captain  Lemcke  was  a  man  of  some  promi- 
nence in  Indiana  (Republican)  politics.  In  1886  he  was  elected 
State  Treasurer,  and  during-  President  Harrison's  administration 
the  ofl&ce  of  United  States  Treasurer  was  tendered  him.  His  de- 
clining-of  this  tempting-  offer  was  so  unusual  that,  as  Mr.  Lemcke 
says,  "Frank  Leslie,  among-  others,  published  my  picture  with 
the  humorously  satirical  remark:  'This  is  the  portrait  of  a 
man  who  refused  office,  and  he  from  Indiana.''''  A  wide  acquaint- 
ance with  men  of  note  adds  not  a  little  to  the  interest  of  Mr. 
Lemcke's  recollections,  and  the  whole  narrated  with  a  pervasive 
strain  of  g-enuine  humor  makes  the  book  exceeding-ly  readable, 
and  one  deserving-  of  a  fuller  review  than  we  have  space  for. 

Reminiscences  of  Early  Indianapolis. — The  Indianapolis  News, 
in  its  Saturday  editions,  has  for  some  months  been  running-  a 
series  of  papers,  "Reminiscences  of  an  Old  Reporter,"  which 
deal  with  the  Indianapolis  of  an  earlier  day.  They  are  written 
by  Charles  Dennis,  for  many  years  one  of  the  best-known 
newspaper  men  in  the  city.  His  personal  recollections  g-o  back 
to  a  period  antedating-  the  war,  and  his  long-  experience  in  the 
reportorial  field  has  broug-ht  him  in  wide  contact  with  persons 
and  g-iven  him  an  intimate  knowledg-e  of  events,  which  he  sets 
forth  graphically  with  the  pen  of  a  trained  writer.  So  far  as 
his  sketches  present  actual  recollections  they  are  of  distinct  in- 
terest and  value,  and  the  more  so  because  they  deal  with  thing-s 
about  which  little  or  no  information  can  be  had  from  our  writ- 
ten histories. 

Early  Newspapers  of  Richmond. — In  the  Richmond  Su7i- Telegram 
of  February  26,  1906,  is  published  a  list  of  the  Richmond  news- 
papers from  1820  to  the  present  time,  compiled  by  B.  F.  Wissler. 
Twenty-eig-ht  papers  are  specified  as  existing-  in  that  time. 
The  list,  Mr.  Wissler  tells  us,  is  not  absolutely  complete,  as 
even  within  that  comparatively  narrow  field  some  have  passed 
wholly  into  oblivion.  We  are  further  told  that  more  than 
seventy-live  papers  have  been  published  in  Wayne  county.     In 


162  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Mr.  Wissler's  list  we  note  such  odd  names  as  The  Family  School- 
master, The  Lily,  The  Broad  Axe  of  Freedom  and  Grubbing  Hoe 
of  Truth  and  The  Humming  Bird. 

Tippecayioe  Battle  Document. — In  the  Lafayette  Morning  fourna I 
of  June  23,  1906,  is  published  a  newly  found  document  relating- 
to  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe.  This  is  an  account  of  the  fight  by 
Judg-e  Isaac  Naylor,  who  was  a  participant  in  it.  The  paper 
was  found  among-  the  effects  of  Judg-e  Naylor,  now  in  posses- 
sion of  his  daug-hter,  Mrs.  Mary  Naylor  Whiteford,  who  was  re- 
cently visiting^  in  Lafayette.  The  account  has  in  it  a  number 
of  points  not,  we  believe,  to  be  found  elsewhere.  We  will,  if 
possible,  publish  it  in  full  in  our  next  issue. 

Old  Fort  near  Richmond. — In  the  Richmond  Sun-Telegram  of  July 
4,  1906,  O.  S.  Harrison  publishes  an  interview  with  Isaac  Lamb, 
an  old  citizen  of  Richmond,  who  remembered  and  described  to 
the  interviewer  the  blockhouse  built  in  1812,  near  the  present 
site  of  Richmond.  According  to  Mr.  Lamb,  the  fort  was  about 
thirty  feet  square  and  built  of  hewn  logs  fitted  very  closely  to- 
gether. The  lower  part  of  the  building  was  used  for  living  pur- 
poses, and  the  second  story,  which  overhung  the  first,  was  sup- 
plied with  port-holes,  cut  about  waist  high,  that  commanded  the 
surroundings.  In  its  latter  years  the  structure  was  used  as  a 
tool-house  and  granary  by  Thomas  Lamb,  father  of  Isaac,  who 
burned  it  down  in  1830.  Mr.  Harrison  states  that  "Port  Smith," 
as  he  calls  it,  was  on  the  old  Jacob  Smith  farm,  but  omits  to  lo- 
cate it  more  definitely.*  There  were  many  of  these  old  block- 
houses located  throughout  southern  Indiana,  and  a  record  oj 
them  would  be  an  interesting  addition  to  our  frontier  histor}^. 

♦Since  the  above  was  put  in  type  we  find  in  another  article  by  Mr.  Harrison  on  tlie  same 
subject  {Sun-Telegram,  June  2)  that  the  bloclfhouse  ''was  on  the  river  about  one  mile  and 
a  half  west  and  north  of  where  the  court-house  now  stands,  on  the  place  now  occupied  by 
Nathan  P.  Wilson,  and  near  where  his  house  stands."  It  was  built  in  1812  by  George  Smith, 
Jesse  Bond,  Valentine  Pegg,  Cornelius  Katliff  and  others  of  the  neighborhood. 


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GENERAL  HARRISON'S  LINE  OF  MARCH 

From  Vincennes  to  the  Prophet's  Town,  in  1811.     Chart  prepared  by  Prof.  W.  D. 

Pence,  of  Purdue  University. 


THE  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Vol.  II  DECEMBER,  1906  No.  4 


THE  BATTLE  OF  TIPPECANOE. 

AS  DESCRIBED    BY   JUDGE  ISAAC   NAYLOR,  A  PARTICIPANT-A 
RECENTLY  DISCOVERED  ACCOUNT. 

Fi'om  the  Lafayette  Morning  Journal,  June  2j,  rgo6. 

JUDGE  ISAAC  NAYLOR  was  quite  a  prominent  fig-ure  in  the 
early  history  of  Indiana.  He  was  born  in  Rockingham 
county,  in  the  State  of  Virginia,  July  30,  1790.  He  emigrat- 
ed with  his  parents  to  Kentucky  in  1793,  and  in  1805  moved  to 
Clark  county,  this  State,  taking  up  his  wilderness  home  near 
Charlestown,  which,  at  that  time,  was  a  pioneer  settlement. 
After  his  fighting  career  he  became  a  circuit  judge,  traveling  on 
horseback  and  holding  court  in  the  counties  of  Montgomery, 
Tippecanoe,  White,  Benton,  Fountain  and  Jasper,  serving 
twenty  years  in  that  capacity.  During  these  years  only  three 
cases  tried  by  him  suffered  reversal  by  the  Supreme  Court.  The 
last  forty  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  Crawfordsville. 

Both  Judge  Naylor  and  his  brother  took  part  in  the  battle  of 
Tippecanoe.  The  former  also  took  part  in  the  finish  of  the 
fight  at  Pigeon  Roost  massacre,  when  a  very  young-  man,  and 
after  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe  was  a  soldier  in  the  war  of  1812. 
In  later  years  he  delivered  many  addresses  on  the  Tippecanoe 
battle,  and  he  ardently  urged  the  erection  of  a  monument  on  the 
battlefield.  He  was  the  first  treasurer  appointed  to  receive 
funds  for  this  purpose,  but  not  receiving  any  contributions,  gave 
up  the  task  several  years  before  his  death,  which  took  place  on 
April  26,  1873. 

Mrs.  Mary  Naylor  Whiteford,  a  daughter  of  Isaac  Naylor,  re- 
cently unearthed,  among  her  father's  effects,  an  article  about 
the  battle.  It  gives  many  interesting  points  that  are  new,  and 
is  here  printed  for  the  first  time. 

THE    ACCOUNT. 

"I  became  a  volunteer  member  of  a  company  of  riflemen,  and 
on    the    12th    of  September,  1811,  we    commenced    our    march 


164  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

toward  Vincennes,  and  arrived  there  m  about  six  days,  marcfi- 
ing  about  120  miles.  We  remained  there  about  a  week  and  took 
up  the  raarcb  ta  a  point  on  the  Wabash  river  sixty  miles  above^ 
on  the  ea&t  bank  o-f  the  river,  where  we  erected  a  stockade  fort^ 
which  we  named  Fort  Harrison.  This  was  three  miles  below 
where  the  city  of  Terre  Haute  now  stands.  Colonel  Joseph  H. 
Davies,  who  commanded  the  dragoons,  named  the  I'ort.  The 
glorious  defense  of  this  fort  nine  months  after  bj  Captain 
Zachary  Taylor  was  the  first  step  in  his  brilliant  career  that 
afterwards  made  him  President  of  the  United  States.  A  few 
days  later  we  took  up  the  march  again  for  the  seat  of  Indian 
warfare,  where  we  arrived  on  the  evening  of  November  6,  1811. 

"When  the  army  arrived  in  view  of  the  Prophet's  town,  an  In- 
dian was  seen  coming  toward  General  Harrison  with  a  white  flag 
suspended  on  a  pole.  Here  the  army  halted,  and  a  parley  was  had 
between  General  Harrison  and  an  Indian  delegation,  who  assured 
the  General  that  they  desired  peace,  and  solemnly  promised  to 
meet  him  next  day  in  council,  to  settle  the  terms-  of  peace  and 
friendship  between  them  and  the  United  States. 

"General  Marston  G.  Clark,  who  was  then  brigade  major,  and 
Waller  Taylor,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  General  Court  of  the 
Territory  of  Indiana,  and  afterwards  a  Senator  of  the  United 
States  from  Indiana  (one  of  the  General's  aides)^  were  ordered  to 
select  a  place  for  the  encampment,  which  they  did.  The  army 
then  marched  to  thg  ground  selected  about  sunset.  A  strong 
guard  was  placed  arotind  the  encampment,  commanded  by  Cap- 
tain James  Bigger  and  three  lieutenants.  The  troops  were  or- 
dered to  sleep  on  their  arms.  The  night  being  cold,  large  fires 
were  made  along  the  lines  of  encampment  and  each  soldier  re- 
tired to  rest,  sleeping  on  his  arms. 

"Having  seen  a  number  of  squaws  and  children  at  the  town, 
I  thought  the  Indians  were  not  disposed  to  fight.  About  ten 
o'clock  at  night  Joseph  Warnock  and  myself  retired  to  rest,  he 
taking  one  side  of  the  fire  and  I  the  other,  the  other  members 
of  our  company  being  all  asleep.  My  friend  Warnock  had 
dreamed,  the  night  before,  a  bad  dream  which  foreboded  some- 
thing fatal  to  him  or  to  some  of  his  family,  as  he  told  me. 
Having  myself  no   confidence  in  dreams,    I  thought   but  little 


THE  BA  TTLE  OF  TIPPECANOE  165 

about  the  matter,  althoug-h  I  observed  that  he  never  smiled  after- 
wards. 

*'I  awoke  about  four  o''ciock  the  next  mornino-,  after  a  sound 
and  refreshing-  sleep,  having-  heard  in  a  dream  the  firing-  of 
guns  and  the  whistling-  of  bullets  just  before  I  awoke  from  my 
slumber.  A  drizzling-  rain  was  falling-  and  all  things  were  still 
and  quiet  throughout  the  camp,  I  was  engaged  in  making-  a 
calculation  when  I  should  arrive  at  home. 

"In  a  few  moments  I  heard  the  crack  of  a  rifle  in  the  direction 
of  the  point  where  now  stands  the  Battle  Ground  house,  which 
is  occupied  by  Captain  DuTiel  as  a  tavern.  I  had  just  time  to 
think  that  some  sentinel  was  alarmed  and  had  fired  his  rifle  with- 
out a  real  cause,  when  I  heard  the  crack  of  another  rifle,  fol- 
lowed by  an  awful  Indian  yell  all  around  the  encampment.  In 
less  than  a  minute  I  saw  the  Indians  charging  our  line  most 
furiously  and  shooting  a  great  many  rifle  balls  into  our  camp  fires, 
throwing-  the  live  coals  into  the  air  three  or  four  feet  high, 

"At  this  moment  my  friend  Warnock  was  shot  by  a  rifle  ball 
through  his  body.  He  ran  a  few  yards  and  fell  dead  on  the 
ground.  Our  lines  were  broken  and  a  few  Indians  were  found 
on  the  inside  of  the  encampment.  In  a  few  moments  they  were 
all  killed.  Our  lines  closed  up  and  our  men  in  their  proper  places. 
One  Indian  was  killed  in  the  back  part  of  Captain  Geiger's  tent, 
while  he  was  attempting  to  tomahawk  the  Captain. 

"The  sentinels,  closely  pursued  by  the  j^ndians,  came  to  the 
lines  of  the  encampment  in  haste  and  confusion.  My  brother, 
William  Naylor,  was  on  g-uard.  He  was  pursued  so  rapidly  and 
furiously  that  he  ran  to  the  nearest  point  on  the  left  flank,  where 
he  remained  with  a  company  of  regular  soldiers  until  the  battle 
was  near  its  termination.  A  young-  man,  whose  name  was 
Daniel  Pettit,  was  pursued  so  closely  and  furiousl-^  by  an  Indian 
as  he  was  running-  from  the  g-uard  fire  to  our  lines,  that  to  save 
his  life  he  cocked  his  rifle  as  he  ran  and  turning-  suddenly  round, 
placed  the  muzzle  of  his  gun  against  the  body  of  the  Indian  and 
shot  an  ounce  ball  throug-h  him.  The  Indian  fired  his  gun  at 
the  same  instant,  but  it  being  longer  than  Pettit's  the  muzzle 
passed  by  him  and  set  fire  to  a  handkerchief  which  he  had  tied 
round  his  head.  The  Indians  made  four  or  five  most  fierce 
charges  on  our  lines,  yelling  and  screaming-  as  thej'^  advanced, 


166  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

shooting-  balls  and  arrows  into  our  ranks.  At  each,  charge  they 
were  driven  back  in  confusion,  carrying  off  their  dead  and  wound- 
ed as  they  retreated. 

"Colonel  Owen,  of  Shelby  county,  Kentucky,  one  of  General 
Harrison's  volunteer  aides,  fell  early  in  action  by  the  side  of  the 
General.  He  was  a  member  of  the  leg-islature  at  the  time  of  his 
death.  Colonel  Davies  was  mortally  wounded  early  in  the  bat- 
tle, gallantly  charging  the  Indians  on  foot  with  his  sword  and 
pistols,  according  to  his  own  request.  He  made  this  request 
three  times  of  General  Harrison,  before  he  permitted  him  to 
make  the  charge.  This  charge  was  made  by  himself  and  eight 
dragoons  on  foot  near  the  angle  formed  by  the  left  flank  and 
front  line  of  the  encampment.  Colonel  Davies  lived  about  thirty- 
six  hours  after  he  was  wounded,  manifesting  his  ruling-  passions 
in  life — ambition,  patriotism  and  an  ardent  love  of  military 
glory.  During-  the  last  hours  of  his  life  he  said  to  his  friends 
around  him  that  he  had  but  one  thing  to  regret — that  he  had 
military  talents;  that  he  was  about  to  be  cut  down  in  the  merid- 
ian of  life  without  having-  an  opportunity  of  displaying-  them 
for  his  own  honor,  and  the  g-ood  of  his  country.  He  was  buried 
alone  with  the  honors  of  war  near  the  rig-lit  flank  of  the  army, 
inside  of  the  lines  of  the  encampment,  between  two  trees.  On 
one  of  these  trees  the  letter  'D'  is  now  visible.  Nothing  but 
the  stump  of  the  other  remains.  His  g-rave  was  made  here,  to 
conceal  it  from  the  Indians.  It  was  filled  up  to  the  top  with 
earth  and  then  covered  with  oak  leaves.  I  presume  the  Indians 
never  found  it.  This  precautionary  act  was  performed  as  a 
mark  of  peculiar  respect  for  a  distinguished  hero  and  patriot  of 
Kentucky. 

"Captain  Spencer's  company  of  mounted  riflemen  composed 
the  right  flank  of  the  army.  Captain  Spencer  and  both  his 
lieutenants  were  killed.  John  Tipton  was  elected  and  commis- 
sioned as  captain  of  this  company  in  one  hour  after  the  battle, 
as  a  reward  for  his  cool  and  deliberate  heroism  displayed  during- 
the  action.  He  died  at  Log-ansport  in  1839,  having-  been  twice 
elected  Senator  of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of  Indiana. 

"The  clear,  calm  voice  of  General  Harrison  was  heard  in  words 
of  heroism  in  every  part  of  the  encampment  during  the  action. 
Colonel  Boyd  behaved  very  bravely  after  repeating-  these  words: 


THE  BATTLE  OF  TIPPECANOE  167 

•Huzza!     My  sons  of  gold,  a  few  more  fires  and  victory  will  be 
ours!' 

"Just  after  daylight  the  Indians  retreated  across  the  prairie 
toward  their  town,  carrying  off  their  wounded.  This  retreat 
was  from  the  right  flank  of  the  encampment,  commanded  by 
Captains  Spencer  and  Robb,  having  retreated  from  the  other 
portions  of  the  encampment  a  few  minutes  before.  As  their  re- 
treat became  visible,  an  almost  deafening  and  universal  shout 
was  raised  by  our  men.  'Huzza!  Huzza!  Huzza!'  This  shout 
was  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  savages  at  the  commencement  of 
the  battle;  ours  was  the  shout  of  victory,  theirs  was  the  shout  of 
ferocious  but  disappointed  hope. 

"The  morning  light  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  killed  and 
wounded  of  our  army,  numbering  between  eight  and  nine  hun- 
dred men,  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  eight.  Thirty-six  In- 
dians were  found  near  our  lines.  Many  of  their  dead  were  car- 
ried off  during  the  battle.  This  fact  was  proved  by  the  discov- 
ery of  many  Indian  graves  recently  made  near  their  town.  Ours 
was  a  bloody  victory,  theirs  a  bloody  defeat. 

"Soon  after  breakfast  an  Indian  chief  was  discovered  on  the 
prairie,  about  eighty  yards  from  our  front  line,  wrapped  in  a 
piece  of  white  cloth.  He  was  found  by  a  soldier  by  the  name 
of  Miller,  a  resident  of  Jeffersonville,  Indiana.  The  Indian 
was  wounded  in  one  of  his  legs,  the  ball  having  penetrated 
his  knee  and  passed  down  his  leg,  breaking  the  bone  as  it  passed. 
Miller  put  his  foot  against  him  and  he  raised  up  his  head  and 
said:  'Don't  kill  me,  don't  kill  me.'  At  the  same  time  five  or 
six  regular  soldiers  tried  to  shoot  him,  but  their  muskets  snapped 
and  missed  fire.  Major  Davis  Floyd  came  riding  toward  him 
with  dragoon  sword  and  pistols  and  said  he  'would  show 
them  how  to  kill  Indians,'  when  a  messenger  came  from  General 
Harrison  commanding  that  he  should  be  taken  prisoner.  He 
was  taken  into  camp,  where  the  surgeons  dressed  his  wounds. 
Here  he  refused  to  speak  a  word  of  English  or  tell  a  word  of 
truth.  Through  the  medium  of  an  interpreter  he  said  that  he 
was  a  friend  to  the  white  people  and  that  the  Indians  shot  him, 
while  he  was  coming  to  the  camp  to  tell  General  Harrison  that 
they  were  about  to  attack  the  army.  He  refused  to  have  his 
leg  amputated,   though  he  was  told  that    amputation  was   the 


168  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

only  means  of  saving-  his  life.  One  dog-ma  of  Indian  supersti- 
tion is  that  all  good  and  brave  Indians,  when  they  die,  go  to  a 
delightful  region,  abounding-  with  deer  and  other  game,  and 
to  be  a  successful  hunter,  he  should  have  all  his  limbs,  his  gun 
and  his  dog-.  He  therefore  preferred  death  with  all  his  limbs 
to  life  without  them.  In  accordance  with  his  request  he  wa? 
left  to  die,  in  company  with  an  old  squaw,  who  was  found  in  the 
Indian  town  the  next  day  after  he  was  taken  prisoner.  They 
were  left  in  one  of  our  tents. 

"At  the  time  this  Indian  was  taken  prisoner,  another  Indian, 
wbo  was  wounded  in  the  body,  rose  to  his  feet  in  the  middle  of 
the  prairie,  and  began  to  walk  towards  the  woods  on  the  opposite 
side.  A  number  of  regular  soldiers  shot  at  him  but  missed  him. 
A  man  who  was  a  member  of  the  same  company  with  me,  Hen- 
ry Huckleberry,  ran  a  few  steps  into  the  prairie  and  shot  an  ounce 
ball  through  his  body  and  he  fell  dead  near  the  margin  of  the 
woods.  Some  Kentucky  volunteers  went  across  the  prairie  im- 
mediately and  scalped  him,  dividiag  his  scalp  into  four  pieces, 
each  one  cutting  a  hole  in  each  piece,  putting  his  ramrod 
through  the  hole,  and  placing-  his  part  of  the  scalp  just  behind 
the  first  thimble  of  his  gun,  near  its  muzzle.  Such  was  the  fate 
of  nearly  all  of  the  Indians  found  dead  on  the  battle-ground, 
and  such  was  the  disposition  of  their  scalps. 

"The  death  of  Owen,  and  the  fact  that  Davies  was  mortally 
wounded,  with  the  remembrance  also  that  a  large  portion  of 
Kentucky's  best  blood  had  been  shed  by  the  Indians,  must  be 
their  apology  for  this  barbarous  conduct.  Such  conduct  will  be 
excused  by  all  who  witnessed  the  treachery  of  the  Indians,  and 
saw  the  bloody  scenes  of  this  battle. 

"Tecumseh  being  absent  at  the  time  of  battle,  a  chief  called 
White  Loon  was  the  chief  commander  of  the  Indians.  He  was 
seen  in  the  morning-  after  the  battle,  riding  a  large  white  horse 
in  the  woods  across  the  prairie,  where  he  was  shot  at  by  a  volun- 
teer named  Montgomery,  who  is  now  living  in  the  southwest 
part  of  this  State.  At  the  crack  of  his  rifle  the  horse  jumped  as 
if  the  ball  had  hit  him.  The  Indian  rode  off  toward  the  town 
and  we  saw  him  no  more.  During  the  battle  the  prophet  was 
safely  located  on  a  hill,  beyond  the  reach  of  our  balls,  praying 
to  the  Great  Spirit  to  give  the  victory  to  the  Indians,  having 


THE  BATTLE  OF  TIPPECANOE  169 

previously  assured  them  that  the  Great  Spirit  would  chang-e  our 
powder  into  ashes  and  sand. 

"We  had  about  forty  head  of.  beef  cattle  when  we  came  to  the 
battle.  They  all  ran  oif  the  nig-ht  of  the  battle,  or  they  were 
driven  off  by  the  Indians,  so  that  they  were  all  lost.  We  re- 
ipived  rations  for  two  days  on  the  morning-  after  the  action. 
We  received  no  more  rations  until  the  next  Tuesday  evening,  be- 
ing- six  days  afterwards.  The  Indians  having  retreated  to  their 
town,  we  performed  the  solemn  dut^^  of  consig-ning  to  their 
graves  our  dead  soldiers,  without  shrouds  or  coffins.  They  were 
placed  in  graves  about  two  feet  deep,  from  five  to  ten  in  each 
grave. 

"General  Harrison  having  learned  that  Tecumseh  was  ex- 
pected to  return  fro^i  the  south  with  a  number  of  Indians  whom 
he  had  enlisted  in  his  cause,  called  a  council  of  his  officers,  who 
advised  him  to  remain  on  the  battlefield  and  fortify  his  camp  by 
a  breastwork  of  logs  around,  about  four  feet  high.  This  work 
was  completed  during  the  day  and  all  the  troops  were  placed  im- 
mediately behind  each  line  of  the  work  when  they  were  ordered 
to  pass  the  watchword  from  right  to  left  every  five  minutes,  so 
that  no  man  was  permitted  to  sleep  during-  the  night.  The 
watchword  on  the  nig-ht  before  the  battle  was  'Wide  awake,' 
'Wide  awake.'     To  me  it  was  a  long-,  cold,  cheerless  nig-ht. 

"On  the  next  day  the  dragoons  went  to  Prophet's  town,  which 
they  found  deserted  by  all  the  Indians,  except  an  old  squaw, 
whom  they  brought  into  the  camp  and  left  her  with  the  wound- 
ed chief  before  mentioned.  The  drag-oons  set  fire  to  the  town 
and  it  was  all  consumed,  casting  up  a  brilliant  light  amid  the 
darkness  of  the  ensuing  nig-ht.  I  arrived  at  the  town  when  it 
was  about  half  on  fire.  I  found  larg-e  quantities  of  corn,  beans 
and  peas.  I  filled  my  knapsack  with  these  articles  and  carried 
them  to  the  camp  and  divided  them  with  the  members  of  our 
mess,  consisting-  of  six  men.  Having-  these  articles  of  food,  we 
declined  eating  horse-flesh,  which  was  eaten  by  a  larg-e  portion 
of  our  men." 


170  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 


JOHN  TIPTON'S  TIPPECANOE  JOURNAL. 

[John  Tipton's  Journal  of  the  Tippecanoe  campaig-n  is,  we  believe,  the 
only  circumstantial  account  left  us  of  an  event  memorable  in  the  military 
history  of  Indiana.  It  is  practically  inaccessible  to  the  student,  as  it  has 
been  published  in  newspaper  form  only  [htdiatiapolis  News  of  May  5,  1879). 
The  original  manuscript  of  the  journal,  together  with  that  of  Tipton's  jour- 
nal as  a  commissioner  to  locate  the  State  capital  in  1820,  and  a  minor  Indian 
campaign  in  1813,  are  in  the  possession  of  John  H.  HoUiday,  of  Indianap- 
olis. Eventually  these  journals,  carefully  annotated  by  Mr.  Holliday,  will 
probably  be  published  in  the  collections  of  the  Indiana  Historical  Society. 
Pending  that  more  permanent  form  we  here  print  the  Tippecanoe  docu- 
ment as  a  companion  article  to  Judge  Naylor's  account,  and  to  the  com- 
missioner's journal,  which  appeared  in  Vol.  I,  Nos.  1  and  2  of  this  maga- 
zine. —^(/zYor. 

An  accompt  of  the  majxh  and  encampment  of  the  riflemen  of  harrison 
cou7ity  I.  T.  \_Indiana  Territory]  comma7ided  by  Capt.  Spencer, 
consisting  of  ^j  men  besides  officers  in  Company  with  Capt.  R  M 
heath.,  with  22  me?i. 

Thursday  12  of  September,  1811—  Left  Corydon  at  3  o'clock, 
march  six  miles  to  g-overnor  harrison's  mill  and  encampt.  had 
our  horses  in  g-ood  pasture. 

13th.  Marched  24  miles  and  on  the  way  was  join  by  Capt 
Berry  with  20  men  and  Encampt  at  a  good  spring. 

14th.  Marched  3  miles  and  encampt  at  half  moon  spring. 
Was  joined  by  Capt  bagg-s  with  a  troop  of  horse,  and  in  the  eve- 
ning by  Col  bartholomew,  with  120  of  melitia  from  Clark 
County. 

Sunday  15  two  horses  missing  the  millitia  and  Capts  heath 
and  Berry  and  Capt  Bagg-s  left  us.  One  of  our  horses  soon  found 
the  other  being  astray  was  stolen  [?]  b}-  the  oner  and  one  man 
left  on  foot  but  shortly  got  to  ride  to  White  river  and  we  moove 
on  15  miles  and  overtook  the  army  encampt  at  a  branch  which 
was  the  first  time  I  ever  saw  g^ard  set  out. 

Monday  the  16  we  set  out  early.  Crosst  one  fork  of  White 
River  and  went  through  the  Barrens  to  a  branch  and  encamped 
3  miles  from  the  main  fork. 

tuesday  17  marchd  to  Big  Prairie  and  camped  at  a  Lake  one 
mile  from  the  wabash. 


JOHN  TIPTON'S  TIPPECANOE  JOURNAL         171 

Wed.  18  it  Rained  hard  in  the  morning-  and  I  went  to  vin- 
cennis  [Vincennes]  and  came  back  to  the  Lake  in  the  Evening 
and  found  the  companj  had  moved  to  Bass  Roe  Creek  seven 
mile  up  the  River. 

thursday  19.  I  moved  on  early  with  orders  from  the  Capt  for 
the  company  to  move  to  vincennis,  but  the  mayjor  would  not 
consent  thereto,  we  did  not  g-o  this  day.  myself  and  others 
lost  money  shooting-.     I  was  g-oosed. 

friday  20  staid  all  day  in  camp  and  cut  out*  a  g-un  and  in  the 
evening-  went  to  shooting-  and  win  some  money. 

Saturday  21st  I  cut  out  a  g-un  and  went  to  Shakertown  and 
g-ot  my  mare  shod,  the  men  was  Paraded  and  marched  to  the  big- 
Prairie  and  mustered  till  late  and  in  the  time  mutinized  [?]  with 
some  of  Capt  heath's  men,  but  marched  back  at  sunset  and  dis- 
'  misst  in  order. 

Sunday  22d. — The  Capt  with  three  men  from  each  mess  went 
to  Shakertown  to  meeting-,  and  in  the  evening-  returned  and 
took  dinner,  when  orders  came  for  us  to  lie  in  vincennis  by  ten 
o'clock  next  day  and  we  were  ordered  to  march  fifteen  minutes. 
We  according-ly  mooved  seven  miles,  and  lay  without  fire  this 
evening-. 

Monday  the  23d. — We  moovd  on  early  to  meteaii  [?]  creek  and 
took  breckfast,  and  moovd  thence  to  vincennis  where  we  had  a 
general  Parade,  and  in  the  Evening-  myself  and  three  others  got 
Parted  from  the  Company  and  lay  all  night  by  ourselves  only 
with  too  of  Capt  heath's  men. 

Tuesday  the  24th.  we  moovd  Early  and  soon  found  our 
company.  Campt  at  a  cornfield  two  miles  from  vincennis.  I 
staid  in  camp  and  shot  several  guns  and  mended  them  and  at 
dark  it  Began  to  rain  and  rained  all  night  hard  my  Capt  came 
to  camp  and  informd  us  that  several  Indians  ware  in  town  talk- 
ing to  the  governor. 

Wednesday  25th  a  fine  day  I  went  to  a  shop  and  came  back 
and  mended  gunlock  then  went  to  shooting  and  win  whisky 
and  lego's  [leggings?] . 

Thursday  26th  we  mooved  after  Breckfast  into  town  and  our 
Capt  treated  and  also  a  tavern  keeper.  We  crosst  the  Wabash 
and  fired  two  Platoons,  and  then  went  up  to  Capt   Jubaus  [Du 

*To  cut  lead  from  rifles  in  the  barrel. 


172  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Bois?]  and  fired  ag-ain  and  too  [took?]  Dinner,  much  whisky 
drank  which  caused  quarreling-,  moved  ag-ain  thro  a  Prairie  six 
miles  -wide  and  campd  and  Drawd  corn  and  potatoes,  our  Pilot 
left  us  and  went  home,     we  lay  ten  miles  from  town. 

Friday  the  27th  we  marched  at  12  o'clock  through  a  Small 
Prairie:  went  four  miles  and  campd.  I  went  to  hunt  and  killed 
two  Squirls  and  a  hawk. 

Saturday  28th  it  Began  to  Rain  at  Day  Brake;  myself  and 
two  others  went  to  hunt  and  staid  out  till  two  o'clock  came  to 
camp  and  found  the  men  had  left  us  we  took  their  trail  found 
two  men  waiting-  with  our  horses  and  took  Breckfast  as  we  rode 
and  went  through  g-ood  land  and  a  Beautifull  Prairie  Seven  miles 
wide  called  Deniot  and  a  Creek  of  the  same  name  overtook  the 
company  after  sixteen  miles  just  as  they  stopt  we  also  Passt  a 
blockhouse  in  the  Prairie. 

Sunday  29th  we  mooved  at  ten  stopt  at  a  house  bought  a 
horse  for  our  footman,  too  seargeants  that  had  been  sent  to  stock 
a  gun  that  got  broke  on  the  26th  came  up.  we  went  6  miles 
Part  Prairie  and  Part  Barrens.  Croost  Birch  Creek  and  came  to 
the  River  and  campd  near  a  Prairie  and  some  men  went  to  hunt 
and  found  three  Bee  trees  in  an  hour.  Spent  the  evening  in 
cutting-  them  got  9  or  10  gallons  of  honey.  I  stood  guard,  the 
Boat  we  were  to  guard  came  up.  we  Drawd  whisky  and  salt 
they  went  on,  our  men  set  hooks  and  caught  two  fish. 

Monday  the  30th  we  mooved  after  Breckfast  throug  good 
land  Passt  a  g-ood  spring  and  the  Creek  St.  myri  [St.  Mary?] 
and  through  a  beautifull  Prairie  four  miles  long-  and  two  Broad 
with  a  cabin  in  it.  frost  this  day  in  the  prairie,  went  to  the 
river  at  an  oald  Camp.  Passt  a  handsome  Barr[en?]  "'  then  went 
up  and  crosst  a  muddy  Creek  one  of  our  horses  miered  we 
went  throug-  a  rich  bottom  to  the  Plaice  of  meeting  the  armey 
and  they  ware  g-one  and  the  Boat  left  to  wait  for  us  as  we  found 
a  Bee  tree  as  we  marcht  three  Deers  Run  along  ,the  Line  and  a 
number  of  guns  fired  But  one  killed  Stopt  ip  the  eyening", 
went  to  hunt  found  two  Bee  trees  Campt  on  tb^  River  .near  a 
Prairie  with  the  boat  after  comeing- 10  miles.         j^ir   ,  ,,\        f 

tuesday  the  first  of  October     we  were  alarn;ed  by  tt»«(Centt|j|5jti\| 
firing-  his  gun  he  said  at  an  indian.     but  we  soon  [fouHid?]  to  tljbQ; 
contrary     we  mooved  through  a  Prairie  3  miles  and  I  went  to 


JOHN  TIPTON'S  TIPPECANOE  JOURNAL         173 

hunt  rode  all  Day  throug  a  g-ood  bottom  land  to  the  Companey 
at  twelve  and  then  went  on;  the  men  found  a  bee  tree  while 
marching  and  two  at  noon  cut  one  down  and  left  the  rest.  I 
hunted  till  night.  Crosst  two  beautifull  Creeks  killed  two 
Pigeons  one  of  our  horses  sick  and  left  by  the  way.  we  went 
19  miles  and  campd  with  the  boat;  we  past  a  Prairie  on  the 
other  side  Drawd  whisky  and  fioir  but  no  corn  Since  29  of 
last  mo. 

Wed  the  2d  we  moved  earley  through  a  Rich  bottom  all  day 
I  went  to  hunt  kild  a  Pheasant  we  found  two  bee  trees  as  we 
marchd  but  could  not  cut  them  we  came  up  with  the  Boat  fast 
on  the  Barr,  and  went  to  help  them  off  here  we  crosst  the  River 
and  campt  after  Coming  16  m  one  of  our  men  had  agua 
yesterday, 

Thursday  3d  marchd  at  9  four  of  our  horses  missing  three 
men  left  to  hunt  them  marchd  one  mile  came  to  tare  holt 
[terre  haute — high  land?]  an  oald  indian  village  on  the  East 
side  of  Wabash  on  high  laud  near  a  Large  Prairie  Peach  and 
aple  trees  growing  the  huts  torn  down  by  the  armey  that 
campd  here  on  the  2d  two  miles  further  came  up  with  the 
armey.  horses  found.  Campd  on  the  river  on  beautifull  high 
ground  to  build  a  garison. 

friday  4th  a  fine  day  I  went  to  hunt  came  to  camp  at  three 
found  thirty  men  comanded  by  Lieut  mcmahon  was  to  guard  a 
boat  going  to  the  vermillian  river  for  coal  I  went  with  them 
we  went  5  miles  Part  Prairie  and  Part  timbered  crosst  a  fine 
creek     came  to  another  and  campd. 

Saturday  5th  we  moved  early  through  good  land.  Passt  three 
springs.  Some  Beautifull  prairie  some  timber.  Crost  a  fine  larg 
creek  went  throug  a  fine  Prairie  found  a  Bee  tree  and  stopt 
to  Dine  and  cut  it  this  morning  one  of  our  men  took  a  swoling 
in  his  face  and  went  Back.  All  the  fore  part  of  this  day  we  had 
a  ridg  on  our  right  and  good  land  good  springs  on  the  left  in 
the  Evening  we  marchd  hard  crossed  four  creeks  Broken  land 
high  timber  came  up  with  our  spies  and  camp  with  them  at  a 
large  creek  this  Day  I  found  land  that  is  the  Best  I  have  seen 
we  crosst  the  Purchase  Line     we  traveled  30  miles  N.  N.  West. 

Sunday  6th  we  moovd  earley  one  mile  came  to  the  river  at 
Coal  bank     found  it  was  Below  the  Vermilian  [river]  half  a  mile 


174  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

we  took  coffey  moovd  after  the  Boat  started  down,  the  coal 
Bank  is  on  the  east  side  of  wabash.  we  went  throug-h  a  small 
Prairie,  crosst  the  river  to  the  west  side  went  in  on  the  head  of 
a  barr  and  came  out  on  the  lower  end  of  another  on  the  west 
side  went  through  a  small  Prairie  then  came  to  big  Prairie 
where  the  oald  vermillion  town  was.  we  crosst  the  wabash  half 
a  mile  above  the  mouth  of  vermillian  river  Before  we  came  to 
the  above  town  crosst  vermilian  river  took  a  south  course 
throng  a  Prairie  with  a  g-ood  spring-  and  an  oald  indian  hutt 
then  throug-h  a  beautiful!  timbered  ground  to  a  small  creek  and 
stopt  to  let  our  horses  g-raze  then  went  through  g-ood  land  with 
a  ridg  on  our  rig-ht  out  of  which  came  four  springs  and  for  two 
miles  nothing-  But  larg-e  sug-ar  and  walnut.  The  hill  and  the 
river  came  close  tog-ether,  we  found  a  good  coal  Bank  14  miles 
below  vermilian.  we  then  crosst  to  the  east  side  went  3  miles 
and  campd  with  the  Boat,  after  coming  20  m  and  finding-  two 
Bee  trees     left  them. 

Monday  the  7th  we  mooved  earley  three  miles  and  crosst 
Raccoon  Creek  to  the  Purchase  line  thence  15  miles  to  the  g-rari- 
son  [g-arrison].  found  Capt  heath's  men  Dismisst  and  him  sick 
and  Capt  Berry  at  home  to.  our  company  which  lay  on  the  River 
above  the  garrison.  The  men  on  the  Last  Rout  Draw  Corn 
which  caused  murmuring-.     Some  men  wants  to  go  home. 

tuesday  8th  I  staid  in  camp  we  ware  Parrade  at  twelve 
treated  by  L,t.  mcmahan  and  mustered  and  had  a  sham  fight,  Dis- 
misst in  order  Drawd  whisky  for  the  time  we  had  been  out  the 
men  all  throwd  in  their  hats  and  wrestled.  Some  men  was  sent 
to  the  Cornfield  to  Pull  Corn. 

Wednesday  the  9th  I  staid  in  Camp  Cut  out  a  gun  and  went 
to  shooting-,  a  Lt.  and  20  men  was  ordered  to  Scout,  we  covered 
our  camp  with  grass  it  Rained  hard  at  two  the  Scouting- 
Party  came  in  took  Dinner  went  out  again  it  Rained  ag-ain 
hard  at  sunset. 

thursdaylOth  we  had  a  wet  night.  I  cut  out  a  g-un  and  went 
over  the  river  and  got  Powder,  a  seargeant  and  ten  men  was  sent 
out  to  scout  along-  the  lines,  we  were  alarmed  at  8  by  the  centi- 
nel  being-  shot  and  badly  wounded  we  were  ordered  to  arms. 
An  officer  was  sent  from  our  Part  of  the  Camp  to  know  the  alarm, 
g-eneral  orders  was  for  all  to  g-it  their  horses,     a  g-uard  was  to 


JOHN  TIPTON'S  TIPPECANOE  JOURNAL        17^ 

bee  left  at  our  Camp.  I  was  set  out  post  till  the  horses  was 
found,  we  then  left  our  camp  and  joined  the  line.  Stood  to 
arms  all  night  till  Brake  of  Day. 

friday  11.  mounted  and  went  to  the  Prairie  in  Company  with 
the  light  horse  to  look  for  indians.  we  took  up  the  river  crosst 
a  creek  went  through  a  Prairie  then  crosst  the  same  creek  again 
let  our  horses  feed  half  an  hour  and  after  traveling  15  miles 
came  to  camp  at  twelve  then  Drawd  flour  whisky  and  Pickled 
Pork  got  breckfast  at  four  in  the  evening  5  of  the  Delaware 
indians  came  and  took  protection.  Verj'  high  wind  a  tree  fell 
close  to  camp  while  Ritiug  and  a  gun  heard  at  the  general  Camp 
also  the  Drum  beat,     a  strong  guard  set  out. 

Satturday  12th  we  were  parded  [paraded]  at  day  Brake 
went  to  the  Prairie  a  seargeant  and  to  men  was  sent  to  stay. 
I  was  one.  we  could  find  no  sine  came  to  the  camp  in  our 
rout  we  found  too  of  the  Delaware  chiefs  they  had  Came  to 
Camp  the  day  Before  to  join  us  we  brought  them  to  Camp  one 
spoke  good  English  Plaid  Cards  with  our  men  and  informed 
that  thirty  of  his  young  men  was  comeing  to  join  us.  I  cut  a 
gun  and  went  to  shooting. 

Sunday  the  13  fine  day.  I  stocked  a  gun  at  dark  we  heard 
a  gun  fire  at  the  general  Camp  but  a  thing  so  often  Repeated 
could  not  alarm  us  anymore,  yesterday  we  drawd  corn  Beef 
whisky  and  flour  soap  and  candles  today  salt  also  this  day  the 
governor  sends  for  more  men. 

Monday  the  14  a  cloudy  day  I  cut  a  gun  and  we  moovd  to 
the  general  Camp  I  helped  make  Boards  to  cover  our  Camp.  In 
the  Evening  three  companies  six  men  each  was  to  go  out  and 
ly  all  night  by  three  roads  to  kill  indians  should  they  Come  I 
went  we  sat  all  night  none  came  we  heard  a  gun  it  rained 
two  showers  in  the  night. 

tuesday  the  15  we  returned  to  Camp  at  da}'  the  Companies 
of  horse  and  our  company  had  gone  to  the  Prairie  to  muster,  the 
Day  cloudy  all  the  spies  came  in  nothing  seen  I  went  with 
another  man  down  to  tare  holt  to  look  for  indians.  we  had  whis- 
ky. Stopt  at  tare  holt  found  no  indians  went  down  to  drink, 
it  rained  some  of  the  indians  got  drunk  we  staid  2  hours. 
Lost  our  horses  found  them  a  mile  down  the  river  then  went 
to   Drink     Lost   two   horses    again     found   them   half   a   mile 


176  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

off  went  2  miles  through  the  Prairie  to  an  oald  villag-  thence 
one  mile  to  another  village  and  cornfield  then  Returned  to 
Camp  was  alarmed  at  the  fire  of  a  gun  at  11  o'clock  was  or- 
dered to  He  with  our  guns  in  hand  the  wind  blew  hard  it  Be- 
gan to  Rain  at  12  we  had  to  git  up  and  cover  our  Camp  one  of 
our  men  Deserted  today  while  I  was  out. 

Wednesday  the  16th  Could  cloudy  and  windy  was  mustered 
as  usual.  I  was  sent  with  2  men  to  spy  saw  no  sign  came  in. 
I  staid  in  Camp  was  put  under  guard  By  mistake  took  to  the 
governor  set  at  Liberty  and  the  Right  man  got.  Dragoons  sent 
after  three  men  that  Deserted  last  night. 

thursday  17— a  hard  frost  but  a  fine  day  we  musterd  as  usu- 
al. I  then  cut  out  a  gun  at  3  in  the  evening  an  ensign  and 
three  men  went  to  hunt  Capt  heath's  horses.  I  was  one.  We 
went  8  miles  most  of  the  way  Prairie  land  a  south  course  and 
campd  on  the  Bed  of  a  large  Dry  creek. 

Friday  18th — a  cloudy  and  windy  day  we  left  Camp  early  and 
went  to  hunt  one  of  our  [horses?]  we  killed  a  Deer  we  came 
to  the  army  at  2  found  the  men  that  had  been  sent  to  let  the 
horses  graze  had  Lost  4  men  sent  to  hunt  them  this  morning. 
a  number  of  the  Wea  indians  came  to  Camp     I  cut  a  gun. 

Saturday  the  19 — Musterd  as  usual.  Come  to  Camp  Drawd 
Beef,  Salt,  whisky  and  flour  then  was  Paraded  while  the  gover- 
nor informed  us  that  our  ration  was  reduced  to  ^  of  a  pound  of 
flour  [?]  of  the  contractor  failing.  He  also  told  us  that  we 
should  have  to  fight  the  indians.  it  Began  to  Rain,  we  ware 
Dismisst  it  Rained  hard  till  sunset,  our  men  that  went  out  to 
hunt  the  lost  horses  came  in  had  not  found  them.  I  turned  out 
my  mare  this  morning  went  to  hunt  her  killed  a  turkey  it 
stopt  Raining  and  Began  to  Snow  and  Blow  hard  our  Camps 
smoked  it  was  the  Disagreeablest  night  I  ever  saw  the  men 
that  went  to  the  corn  field  Lost  Capt  Spencer's  mare. 

Sunday  20th  a  very  cold  cloudy  day  the  ground  Covered  with 
Snow  we  Did  not  muster  as  usuel.  Capt  Spencer's  mare  came 
to  camp  an  Ensign  and  thirteen  men  went  to  hunt  the  horses 
that  were  lost  on  the  18th  we  went  through  the  Prairie.  Came 
to  an  indian  Camp  then  we  parted  into  three  Companies  and 
our  Company   went  up  to  the  Creek  4  miles  and  camped  at  an 


JOHN  TIPTON'S  TIPPECANOE  JOURNAL  177 

oald  Indian  Camp  this  morning-  our  Capt  and  Searg-eant  quar- 
relled but  soon  Dropt.     this  nig-ht  verry  cold. 

monday  21st  the  morning  clier  and  cold  six  of  us  went  to 
hunt  two  of  our  men  and  an  indian  killed  a  deer  I  wounded  a 
deer  we  supt  last  night  on  a  bit  of  bread  about  as  big  as  a  man's 
two  fingers  and  this  morning  on  vennison  without  bread  we 
then  went  to  hunt  the  horses.  Came  to  where  50  indians  was 
campd.  Lost  one  of  our  men.  Came  to  Camp  found  our  hunt- 
ers had  killed  two  Deer  and  our  2d  Lieutenant  Resigned  and 
gone  home. 

tuesday  the  22d  a  fine  day  I  went  to  work  on  the  garrison 
till  12  I  then  went  to  let  my  mare  graze  when  an  alarm  came 
20  men  was  ordered  to  march  in  5  minutes,  we  found  it  a  false 
Report     we  Returned     held  an  Election  for  2d  Lieut  and  Ensign. 

Wednesday  the  23d  a  cold  windy  and  cloudy  day.  I  went  out 
with  7  men  to  hunt  the  horses  Lost  on  the  18th  we  found  three 
horses  belonging  to  the  military  oficers.  I  Rode  one  of  them 
we  parted  into  4  companies  the  man  with  me  killed  a  turkey. 
Came  to  the  Camp  at  dark  found  the  indians  had  brought  in 
the  horses  and  one  of  our  men  killed  a  deer. 

thursday  24th  a  verry  cold  morning  and  mustered  as  usual.. 
I  staid  in  camp  washed  my  cloths  for  the  first  time,  went  to 
shooting  this  morning  a  Seargeant  and  eight  men  was  sent  with 
the  spies  and  men  sent  to  the  corn  field  to  Pull  corn.  10  indians 
seen  to  day  and  in  the  evening  a  man  drumed  out  of  camp  with 
his  head  Shaved  and  Powdered  while  Looking  at  that  Capt 
Spencer's  tent  burnt  general  orders  read  to  march  on  the  27th 
Instant. 

friday  the  25  a  Cold  morning  we  mustered  as  usuel.  I  staid 
in  camp  cut  out  three  guns  a  Seargeant  and  six  men  went  out 
with  the  spies  on  the  west  side  of  the  wabash  the  men  that 
went  out  yesterday  came  in  had  killed  two  Deer  and  two  Rac- 
coons but  seen  no  sine.  6  men  run  away  and  6  men  Came  to 
Camp  to  Day. 

Saturday  the  26  mustered  as  usuel  marched  one  mile  up  the 
River  then  Came  to  Camp  and  left  our  horses  went  out  and  had 
a  sham  fight.  I  cut  a  gun  the  men  that  went  out  yesterday 
Came  in  seed  no  sine  had  killed  2  deer,  the  men  killed  an 
owl  and  had  much  sport  tonight. 


178  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Sunday  the  27  a  fine  clier  warm  day  mustered  as  usual 
marched  up  the  Prairie  then  into  the  woods  had  a  sham  battle 
thence  to  Camp.  I  staid  in  Camp  the  men  went  to  the  Prairie 
to  Run  their  horses  the  g-arrison  Christened  and  Extra  whisky 
issued. 
•  monday  the  28  a  fine  day  mustered  as  usual  found  the 
Prairie  burnt  over  with  fire.  Came  to  Camp.  Cut  out  a  g-un 
and  went  to  the  talk  with  the  Indians  then  came  to  my  tent 
was  ordered  to  parade  the  Company  for  to  see  a  man  whipt. 
We  was  drawd  in  a  hollo  square,  three  g"uns  got  up  the  man 
broug-ht  in  ordered  to  [be]  stript  then  pardoned.  We  came  to 
Camp  Re  d  [received]  money  for  back  ration  this  day  came  up 
[on]  Maj  Rob  with  a  Company  of  mounted  Riflemen  and  three 
boats  and  two  Perodues  [pirogues]  with  Corn  flour  and  arms 
and  ammunition,  the  above  talk  was  with  the  miami  Chiefs. 
orders  to  march  tomorrow,     this  day  I  got  one  gallon  of  whisky. 

tuesday29  we  mustered  as  usuel.  Came  to  Camp  was  order- 
ed to  march  in  30  minutes  20  men  Commanded  by  Capt.  Berry 
went  to  guard  the  Boats  that  Carried  our  Provision  and  a  Sear- 
geant  with  8  men  to  guard  the  gov'r.  we  mooved  to  the  Prairie 
stopt  till  the  Baggage  all  Came  up.  I  sent  Back  for  whisky  we 
then  mooved  olf  with  the  whole  army  Consisting  of  about  640 
foot  270  mounted  men  19  wagons  and  one  Cart.  Passt  one  Creek 
and  Camped  after  5  miles  on  the  same  Creek  where  we  Camped 
on  the  4th  Inst,  maid  us  moove  Close  to  the  army  one  horse 
killed  and  a  wagon  Broke  by  falling  a  tree  a  gueard  set  out  of 
our  Company. 

Wednesday  the  30  it  Began  to  Rain  at  4  in  the  morning. 
Raind  till  Day  Brake  then  quit  it  was  a  Cold  Cloud}^  and  windy 
Day.  our  Company  in  front  of  the  Road  broke  in  four  Lines 
we  marched  8  miles  and  campd  at  a  Spring  which  I  saw  on  the 
5  instant  which  is  my  choice  of  the  western  Country  it  Being 
near  a  small  prairie  with  good  timber  and  First  Rate  land  2  miles 
Below  the  line  [of  the  "purchase,"  and  on  the  Wabash  river, 
about  17  miles  above  where  Terre  Haute  now  stands]  and  13 
above  fort  harrison. 

thursday  the  31st  we  mooved  earley  too  of  the  oxen  missing 
three  of  our  men  sent  to  hunt  them  we  Crosst  Raccoon  Creek 
saw  our  men  that  went  to  guard  the  Boats  on   the  29th     they 


JOHN  TIPTON'S  TIPPECANOE  JOURNAL         179 

Left  us  we  Catne  to  the  River  where  we  Campd  on  our  Return 
from  vermillian  on  the  nig^ht  of  the  6  thence  up  to  the  ford.  Saw 
our  above  mentioned  boat  g-uard  crossing-  the  River  we  halted 
till  the  armj'  came  up  then  Rode  the  river  which  was  very  Deep 
and  then  Campd  our  Boat  g-uard  and  the  men  that  went  to  hunt 
the  oxen  Came  up  when  we  left  the  guards  we  took  a  north 
Cours  up  the  East  side  of  the  Wabash  and  Crosst  to  the  west 
with  orders  to  kill  all  the  Indians  we  saw.  fine  news.  The 
governor's  wagon  Beeing  left  this  morning  in  consiquens  of  the 
oxen  being  lost  Came  up  and  all  the  armj  crosst  in  3  hours  We 
Drawd  Corn. 

Friday  the  first  of  November.  I  was  sent  with  18  men  to 
Look  for  a  way  for  the  armey  to  Cross  the  Littell  vermillian 
marched  at  Day  Brake  came  to  Creek  found  and  marked  the 
road,  waited  till  the  armey  came  up  went  on  and  campd  on 
the  River  2  miles  Below  the  Big  vermillian.  Capt.  Spencer  my- 
self and  3  others  went  up  the  Big  vermillian.  Returned  to  camp 
genl  [general]  Wells  with  40  men  had  came  up  and  Capt  Berry 
with  9  men  had  came  up.  our  company  raarchd  in  front  today 
as  usuel  which  now  consisted  of  87  men  in  Consequence  of  Capt 
Lindley  Been  attached  to  it. 

Saturday  the  2d  a  fine  day  Capt  Spencer  with  ten  men  went 
out  on  a  Scout,  our  Company  not  Parading  as  usuel  the  gov- 
ernor threatened  to  brake  [?]  the  officers.  I  staid  in  Camp  the 
army  staid  here  to  build  a  block  house  on  the  Bank  of  the  wa- 
bash  3  miles  Below  vermillian  in  a  small  Prairie  the  house  25 
feet  square  and  a  breast  work  from  each  corner  next  the  River 
down  to  the  water.  Took  horses  and  Drawd  Brush  over  the 
Prairie  to  Break  Down  the  weeds,  this  Kveniag  a  man  Come 
from  the  garrison  said  last  night  his  boat  was  fired  on  one 
man  that  was  asleep  killed  Dead,  three  boats  Came  up  and  un- 
loaded went  back  took  a  sick  man  with  them.  One  of  Capt 
Robs  men  died  tonight     Capt  Spencer  Came  in  Late  tonight. 

Sunday  the  3d.  a  Cloudy  day  we  moved  Earley  our  Com- 
pany marched  on  the  Right  wing  today.  Crosst  the  Big  ver- 
millian through  a  Prairie  six  miles  3  miles  through  timber  then 
through  a  wet  Prairie  with  groves  of  timber  in  it.  after  18 
miles  camped  in  Rich  grove  of  timber  in  the  Prairie.  Capt  Spen- 
cer   verry    sick   today     at   10  oclock   tonight  the   aid  Came   to 


ISO  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Camp  ordered  a  subbaton  [subaltern?]  and  ten  men  to  Paradi 
at  the  g-overnors-  tent  at  4  in  the  m.orning.  I  was  ordered  out 
my  Company  made  up-,  a  gun  fired  while  I  am  riting-  at  Eleven,' 
©clock. 

monday  tke  4  I  went  ou?t  with  my  scouts.  Joined  by  Capt 
Prince  went  18  miles  through  a  Prairie.  Cam.e  to  Pine  Creek 
a  fine  L-airge  Creek  th^n  turned  Back  the  Day  Beeing  Cold  Cloudy 
and  windy.  Began  to  rain  at  11.  we  stopt  to  make  fire  But  the 
armey  Carec  and  we  had  to  Leave  it.  we  crosst  Pine  Creek  and 
Campt  tv70  guns  fired  at  8.  Continued  rain  at  inter villes.  I 
had  one  quart  of  whisky  yesterday  and  one  to  Day  of  the  Con- 
tractors. 

tuesday  the  5  Cloudy  day  we  mooved  earley  a  Lieutenant 
and  5  men  sent  to  Scout,  Came  to  the  armey  no  sine  seed  we 
went  6  miles- through  timber  then  Prairie  with  groves  of  timber 
and  a  number  of  small  lakes  in  it — an  alarm  made.  I  was  sent 
out  with  17  men  to  scout  seed  nothing  a  deer  and  a  wolf  killed 
in  the  line,  camped  on  a  Small  Branch  after  18  miles,  the 
guns  fired  last  night  wounded  a  horse. 

Wednesday  the  6  a  verry  Cold  day.  we  mooved  earley  a 
scout  sent  out  they  Came  back  had  seed  indian  sines,  we 
marched  as  usuel  till  12  our  spies  caught  four  h^orses  and  seed 
some  indians.  found  we  were  near  the  Celebrated  Prophets 
town.  Stopt  in  a  prairie  the  foot  throwd  all  their  napsacks 
in  the  waggons,  we  formed  in  order  for  Battle — marched  2 
miles  then  formed  the  line  of  Battle  v/e  marched  in  5  lines  on 
the  extrem  Right,  went  into  a  Cornfield  then  up  to  the  above 
town  and  surrounded  it  they  met  us  Pled  for  Peace  they  said 
they  would  give  us  satisfaction  in  the  morning.  All  the  time  we 
ware  there  they  [were]  hallowing.  This  town  is  on  the  west  side 
of  wabash  [blank]  miles  above  Vincinnis  on  the  Second  Bank 
neat  built  about  2  hundred  yards  from  the  river.  This  is  the 
main  town,  but  it  is  scattering  a  mile  long  all  the  way  a  fine 
Cornfield,  after  the  above  moovement  we  mooved  one  mile  fur- 
ther up.  Campd  in  timber  between  a  Creek  and  Prairie  after 
Crossing  a  fine  Creek  and  marching  11[?]  miles. 

Thursday  the  7  agreeable  to  their  promise  [?]  Last  night  we 
ware  awakened  by  the  firing  of  guns  and  the  Shawnies  Braking 
into  our  tents     a  blood  [y]   Combat  Took  Place  at  Precisely  15 


JOHN  TIPTON'S  TIPPECANOE  JOURNAL         IBl 

tiiiiuutes  before  5  in  the  morning-  which  lasted  two  hours  and  20 
aninutes  of  a  contiuewel  firing-  while  many  times  mixed  among 
the  Indians  so  that  we  Could  not  tell  the  indians  and  o'ar  men 
apart,  they  kept  up  a  firing  on  three  sides  of  us  took  our  tent 
ffrom  the  g-ueard  fire,  our  iiien  fought  Brave  and  By  the  timely 
3ielp  of  Capt  Cook  with  a  Company^  of  infantry  v/e:  maid  a  Charge 
and  Drove  them  out  of  the  timber  across  the  prairie,  our  Losst 
in  killed  and  wounded  was  179  and  theires  graiter  than  ours» 
■among  the  dead  was  our  Capt  Spier  Spencer  and  first  Lieutenant 
mcmahan  and  Capt  Berry  that  had  Been  attached  to  our  company 
•and  5  more  killed  Dead  and  15  wounded,  after  the  indians  gave 
g-round  we  Burried  our  Dead.  Among  the  Kentuckians  was 
killed  mayj  Davis  [Daviess]  badly  wounded  and  a  number  of 
others  in  all  killed  and  wounded  was  179  but  no  company  suffer- 
ed like  ours,  we  then  held  an  Election  for  officers.  I  was  elected 
Capt.  Saml  Flanagan  first  Lieut  and  Jacob  Zenor  second  Lieut 
and  Philip  Bell  Ensign,  we  then  built  Breast-works  our  men 
in  much  Confusion,  our  flower  [flour]  been  too  small  and  our 
beeve  last.  Last  night  onley  half  Rations  of  whisky  and  no  corn 
for  our  horses,  my  horse  killed  I  got  mcmahons  to  Ride  37 
of  them  had  Been  killed  wounded  and  lost  last  night.  I  had  one 
quart  of  whisky. 

friday  the  8th  a  cloudy  Da^'  and  Last  nig-ht  was  also  wet  and 
Cold,  we  Lay  all  night  at  our  Breastwork  without  fire  in  the 
morning  Spies  sent  out  found  the  indians  had  left  their  town, 
the  horsemen  was  all  sent  to  burn  their  town.  We  went  and 
found  grait  Deal  of  Corn  and  Some  Dead  indians  in  the  houses, 
loaded  6  waggons  with  Corn  and  Burnt  what  was  Estimated  at 
2  thousand  Bushels  and  9  of  our  men  Died  last  night. 

Saturday  the  9  a  cold  cloudy  day  we  maid  all  things  Ready 
to  march  got  all  our  wounded  in  the  waggons,  mooved  at  one 
movd  8  m  [miles]  and  Campd,  Caught  some  Indian  horses,  to- 
day one  man  Died,  Some  indians  said  to  Bee  Seen  my  men 
and  some  dragoons  was  sent  out  we  Caught  4  horses  more  Be- 
longing to  the  indians  all  my  men  that  had  Lost  their  horses 
Except  myself  was  sent  to  march  with  the  militia,  yesterday 
we  drawed  one  half  Pound  of  Beef  4-3  [^?]  of  a  Pound  of  flour 
to  last  us  5  Days, 

Sunday  the  10.     a  Cold  Cloudy  Day     we  mooved  Earley  trav- 


182  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

ailing-  hard,  one  of  my  men  had  the  ag-ue  and  two  more  sick 
besides  14  that  is  wounded  and  yet  livin^^  which  gives  me  much 
trouble,  we  marchd  15  m.  Stopt  and  maid  Breast  work  marchd 
in  front  Boath  Days. 

Monday  the  11  a  Cold  Cloudy  Day  we  moved  Earley  4  miles 
crosst  Pine  Creek  where  we  had  Camped  on  the  4  inst  thence  22 
miles  and  Camped  in  a  grove  of  Timber  in  a  Prairie  where  we 
had  a  camp  on  the  3  inst.     lived  today  Chiefly  on  Parched  Corn, 

Tuesday  the  12  a  Clier  cold  night  and  this  morning-  very  cold 
we  moved  Early  throug-h  wet  Prairie  all  the  water  frozen  over 
with  ice  which  maid  it  very  bad  for  our  foot  men.  we  stopt  and 
maid  a  lire  to  warm  thence  mooved  to  the  Block  house  Just  as 
we  arrived  the  boat  came  up  with  Provisions  we  Drawd  beef, 
flour  and  whisky  found  two  men  here  that  had  run  off  in  time  of 
the  battle  on  the  7  instant.  Boats  cleard  and  Preparations  mr.id 
for  to  Embark  our  sick  in  the  morning.  I  drawd  tents  had  my 
sick  all  laid  in  them  went  to  the  D.)ctor  had  all  my  wounds 
Dresst    2  men  sick  and  fourteen  wounded. 

Wednesday  the  13  a  fine  warm  day.  we  put  as  many  of  our 
sick  on  board  as  the  boats  would  hold  and  then  I  sent  two  of  my 
men  to  git  the  waggons  the  Drivers  would  not  let  them  in.  I 
went  to  the  governor  and  he  had  them  Put  in  and  threatened  to 
Put  the  Drivers  under  guard,  we  moved  on.  Crosst  Littell 
vermillian.  Came  to  the  River  at  tow  [two?]  at  the  same  place 
where  we  campd  on  the  31st  of  Last  month,  my  Company 
Crosst  first  then  the  waggons  Crosst  we  drawd  them  up  the  Bank 
the  Boats  Came  Down  Brought  over  our  foot  they  then  took 
in  some  of  the  worst  wounded  and  mooved  off  at  Dark. 

thursday  the  14  a  very  Cold  Day  I  was  sent  on  with  my 
Company  to  search  the  ford  of  Raccoon  Creek,  we  m^  ^ved  on 
Passt  w^here  we  Campd  on  the  30th  of  Last  month  thence  on 
Passt  the  Creek  where  we  had  Campd  on  the  29th  of  last  month 
thence  to  the  next  Creek  3  miles  and  Camped  3  miles  from  the 
garrison,     a  man  died  yesterday  and  buried  to  Day. 

friday  the  15  a  Cold  Day.  I  had  orders  to  g-o  with  my  Com- 
pany to  the  garrison.  Could  not  find  our  horses  till  sunrise, 
the  mounted  men  all  left  us  we  came  to  the  garrison  saluted 
it  with  a  fire,  g-ot  8  Ears  of  Corn  a  piece  for  our  horses.  Drawd 
Provision.  I  had  a  gallon  of  whisky  a  seargeant  and  4  men 
Left  to  g-ueard  the  governor,     we  moovd  8  miles  and  Campd  at 


JOHN  TIPTON'S  TIPPECANOE  JOURNAL  183 

honey  Creek  the  gov.  and  my  men  Came  up.  I  was  Capt  of 
the  g-ueard  tonig-ht. 

Saturday  the  16th  a  very  Cold  Day  my  horse  Lost  my  Com- 
pany Did  not  march  till  after  the  armey.  my  horse  found.  I 
went  through  the  train  [trail?]  ten  miles.  Crosst  a  Creek 
thence  through  timbered  Land  10  miles  the  horse  and  men 
went  to  the  tirst  house,  got  corn  then  went  and  campd  on  a  fine 
Creek. 

Sunday  the  17  a  very  Cold  Day.  The  governor  Came  to  my 
Camp  ordered  me  to  take  10  men  and  go  with  him  to  Shaker- 
town  to  make  out  muster  Rolls  for  to  Dismiss  my  Company  this 
day  we  arrived  at  11.  I  got  Ready  mustered  my  Company  at 
Sunset  fired  to  [two]  Rounds  we  then  Campd.  my  Lieuten- 
ant and  myself  went  to  a  house  found  the  people  kind  Beyond 
expectation.  Supt  on  Chicken,  Butter  and  tea  the  first  time  I 
Dind  in  a  house  since  the  18  of  Septem.  Returned  to  Camp 
Passt  a  fine  night.     I  had  one  gallon  of  whisky. 

Monday  the  18th  a  verry  Cold  Day.  we  Drawd  six  Days  Ra- 
tions for  all  my  men  that  went  home  from  here.  Staid  till  11. 
the  gov  Returned  thanks  for  our  good  conduct.  I  went  7  miles 
and  put  up  at  a  house  had  with  me  my  2d  Lieut  and  3  men 
Supt  on  Pork,  Butter  and  Honey,     my  horse  lame. 

tuesday  the  19th:  I  had  a  good  Breckfast  before  Day.  a 
Cold  Cloudy  Day  2  of  my  men  brought  horses  we  moovd  for 
vincinnis.  I  settled  with  the  Quartermaster  and  maid  out  ray 
muster  Rolls,  it  Began  to  rain  at  12.  I  had  got  to  town 
found  that  2  of  my  men  that  Came  Down  in  the  Boat  had  Died 
one  on  the  16th  and  the  other  on  the  18th  the  Latter  Beeing  Geo 
Spencer  my  Perticuler  friend,  my  other  2  men  very  Bad  three 
men  that  Came  Down  to  attend  the  sick  informed  me  they  had  no 
Provisions.  I  immediately  furnished  them,  the  Evening  Being 
Bad  I  staid  in  town  had  good  Company.  Partook  of  an  indif- 
ferent Supper  and  Lay  By  the  fire,  my  horse  that  I  Rode  gave 
up  one  of  my  wounded  men  gave  me  his  to  Rid[e]  and  I  got  a 
publick  horse  for  him  to  Ride  home. 

Wednesday  the  20  a  very  Cloudy  Day  I  was  busily  Engaged 
setling  with  the  Contractor  till  Late,  he  would  not  Pay  me.  I 
then  went  to  the  gov.  I  staid  till  after  supper  he  wrote  to  the 
Contractor.  I  found  him  he  told  me  to  Call  in  the  morning. 
I  then  went  to  my  lodgn. 


184  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

thursday  21st.  a  Cloudy  day.  I  went  to  the  Contractor,  he 
paid  me  the  money  he  was  Due  my  Company.  I  then  left  town 
at  Eleven  one  of  my  company  sick  we  went  16  miles.  Came 
to  White  River  my  sick  man  staid  and  one  man  with  him.  my- 
self and  four  more  went  to  the  next  house.  Staid  there  g-ot 
g-ood  Supper  and  our  horses  fed  at  a  moderate  Price. 

fridaythe22  a  cold  morning-  we  staid  till  our  two  men  Came 
up.  Passt  our  Camp  of  the  15  at  7.  we  moved  on  and  at  8 
Passt  where  we  Campd  on  the  16  of  September,  went  on  18 
miles  at  1  Came  to  Drift  river  [west  fork  of  White  river]  fed 
our  horses  and  found  one  man  who  had  g-one  on  and  walked, 
fed  our  horses  and  took  Dinner  at  2  went  on  at  Sunset  Crosst 
Lick  Creek  and  at  half  Past  10  Came  to  the  french  lick,  we  had 
our  horses  fed  at  our  sick  mans  brothers. 

Saturday  'the  23d  a  Cloudy  Day  we  moved  early  10  miles 
and  at  10  stopt  took  breckfast  then  went  on.  Crosst  Patoka 
one  of  our  men  left  behind  yesterday.  I  found  a  militia  man 
g-ave  out  walking-  and  I  walked  and  let  him  Ride  my  horse. 
Passed  a  bad  falling-  [of  timber?]  Stopt  to  let  our  horses  graze 
moved  ag-ain  Crosst  Blue  River  at  Sunset  went  one  mile  my 
Lt  [Lieutenant]  and  sick  man  stopt  myself  and  one  man  went 
one  mile  further  and  stopt  our  man  that  we  had  left  Came  up 
late  at  nig-ht. 

Sunday  the  24th  a  Cloudy  and  Rainy  morning-  we  niooved 
Earley  Came  to  Corrydon  at  half  past  ten.  I  staid  two  hours 
and  half  took  Breckfast  mooved  up  to  Coonrods  found  my 
Lt  and  sick  man.  Staid  2  hours  had  my  horses  fed  got  some 
whisky,  met  one  of  my  neighbors.  mooved  again  and  at  2 
oclock  got  safe  Home  after  a  Campaign  of  74  days. 

John  Tipton. 

Note — Appended  to  the  journal  is  the  following,  written  in 
Tipton's  hand: 

This  Day  Book  Kept  During  the  Campane  in  the  year  1811 
wherein  his  Excellency  Governor  Harrison  was  Commander  in 
Chief  and  Col.  J.  B.  Boyd  of  the  4th  united  States  Riegement 
was  Second  in  Command  Everything  herein  Stated  the  Sub- 
scriber holds  himself  Ready  to  make  appear  to  Bee  fact  from  the 
best  information  could  be  Had  as  it  was  duly  kept  By  himself. 


A  MILITARY  CIRCULAR  OF  1812  185 


A  MILITARY  CIRCULAR  OF   I8I2. 

[A  copy  of  the  following-  circular,  issued  by  Governor  Harrison  a  few 
months  after  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe,  was  found  a  few  years  since  among- 
some  papers  of  John  B.  Dillon.  Mr.  Dillon,  in  his  history  of  Indiana,  makes 
use  of  extracts  from  it,  but  does  not  publish  it  in  full. — Editor.] 

GENERAL  ORDERS  FOR  THE  MILITIA. 

Headquarters,  Vincennes, 

16th  April,  1812. 

As  the  late  murders  upon  the  frontiers  of  this  and  the  neig-h- 
boring-  Territories  leave  us  little  to  hope  of  our  being-  able  to 
avoid  a  war  with  the  neighboring-  tribes  of  Indians,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief directs  that  the  colonels  and  other  commandants 
of  corps  should  take  immediate  measures  to  put  their  commands 
in  the  best  possible  state  for  active  service.  The  field  officers 
who  command  battalions  will  visit  and  critically  inspect  the  sev- 
eral companies  which  compose  them  and  make  a  report  in  de- 
tail of  their  situation,  particularly  noting  the  deficiencies  in 
arms,  ammunition  and  accoutrements,  and  such  measures  as  the 
laws  authorize  must  be  immediately  taken  to  remedy  those  defi- 
ciencies. The  commander-in-chief  informs  the  officers  that  the 
most  prompt  obedience  and  the  most  unremitting-  attention  to 
their  duty  will  be  required  of  them — the  situation  of  the  country 
calls  for  exertion  on  the  part  of  the  militia,  and  the  officers  must 
set  the  example  to  their  men.  If  there  are  among-st  them  any  who 
have  accepted  appointments  for  the  mere  motive  of  g-ratifying 
their  vanity  by  the  possession  of  a  commission  to  which  a  title  is 
annexed,  without  having- the  ability  or  the  inclination  to  encoun- 
ter arduous  service,  in  justice  to  their  country  and  to  their  own 
fame  they  should  now  retire  and  not  stand  in  the  way  of  those 
who  are  more  able  or  more  willing-  to  encounter  the  fatigue  and 
dangers  incident  to  actual  service  in  the  Indian  war.  From  the 
specimen  which  the  commander-in-chief  has  had  of  their  conduct 
in  the  field  he  has  every  reason  to  be  proud  of  them,  nor  does  he 
believe  that  there  are  better  militia  officers  to  be  found  anywhere 
those  of  Indiana,  but  in  a  crisis  like  the  present  they  should  be 
all  good. 

The  field  officers   are  to   see  that  proper  places  are  appointed 


186  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

for  the  rendezvous  of  the  companies  upon  an  alarm  or  the  ap- 
pearance of  dang-er,  and  will  give  orders  relatively  to  ihe  mode 
of  their  proceeding-  in  such  exigencies  as  the  situation  of  the 
companies  respectively  call  for.  When  mischief  is  done  by  the 
Indians  in  any  of  the  settlements,  they  must  be  pursued,  aod  the 
officer  nearest  to  the  spot,  if  the  number  of  men  under  his  com- 
mand is  not  inferior  to  the  supposed  number  of  the  enemy,  is  to 
commence  it  as  soon  as  he  can  collect  his  men.  If  his  force 
should  be  too  small  he  is  to  send  for  aid  to  the  next  officer  to  him, 
and  in  the  meantime  take  a  position  capable  of  beings  defended, 
or  watch  the  motions  of  the  enemy,  as  circumstances  require. 
The  pursuit  must  be  conducted  with  vig-or,  and  the  officer  com- 
manding- will  be  held  responsible  for  making-  every  exertion  in 
his  power  to  overtake  the  enemy.  Upon  his  return,  whether 
successful  or  not,  a  particular  account  of  his  proceedings  must 
be  transmitted  to  the  commander-in-chief  and  a  copy  of  it  to  the 
colonel  of  the  reg-iment. 

The  commander-in-chief  recommends  it  to  the  citizens  on  the 
frontiers  of  Knox  county,  from  the  Wabash  eastwardly  across 
the  two  branches  of  the  White  river,  those  on  the  northwest  of 
the  Wabash  and  those  in  the  Driftwood  settlement  in  Harrison, 
to  erect  blocked  houses  or  picketed  forts.  It  will  depend  upon 
the  disposition  of  the  Delawares  whether  measures  of  this  kind 
will  be  necessary  or  not  upon  the  frontiers  of  Clark,  Jefferson, 
Dearborn,  Franklin  or  Wayne.  Means  will- be  taken  to  ascertain 
this  as  soon  as  possible  and  the  result  communicated.  The  In- 
dians who  profess  to  be  friendly  have  been  warned  to  keep  clear 
of  the  settlements,  and  the  commander-in-chief  is  far  from  wish- 
ing- that  the  citizens  should  run  any  risk  by  admitting-  any  In- 
dians to  come  amongst  them  whose  desig-ns  are  in  the  least  equiv- 
ocal. He  recommends,  however,  to  those  settlements  which  the 
Delawares  have  frequented  as  much  forbearance  as  possible  to- 
wards that  tribe,  because  they  have  ever  performed  with  punctu- 
ality and  good  faith  their  engagements  with  the  United  States, 
and  as  yet  there  is  not  the  least  reason  to  doubt  their  fidelity. 
It  is  also  certain  that  if  they  should  be  forced  to  join  the  other 
tribes  in  war,  from  their  intimate  knowledge  of  the  settlements 
upon  the  frontiers  they  would  be  enabled  to  do  more  mischief 
than  any  other  tribe. 

By  the  commander-in-chief.  A.  Hurst,  Aid-de-camp. 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS  187 


EARLY  INDIANAPOLIS. 

THE  FLETCHER  PAPERS— THIRD  INSTALMENT. 
The  First  Lazvyer  in  Indianapolis — Brief  Sketches  of  Some  Forgotten 
Men;    Obed  Foote,  Judge  IV.    W.    Wick,   and  Harvey  Gregg — 
An  A^iecdode  of  Hiram  Brown. 

From  the  Indianapolis  News  of  May  rj,  iSjg. 

Mr.  Nowland,  Mr.  Ig-natius  Brown  and  Mr.  Holloway  credit 
Calvin  Fletcher  with  being-  the  first  lawyer  in  town.  I  had 
thoug-ht  that  this  was  the  fact  until  recently  when  I  examined 
my  father's  journal  and  letters.  In  a  letter  written  to  a  lady 
friend  in  Virg-inia  he  says:  "You  may  wish  to  have  me  make  some 
remarks  respecting-'  my  professional  prospects.  We  have  two 
attorneys  here  besides  myself — one  was  here  when  I  came  and 
one  has  come  since."  Who  this  first  one  was  I  have  no  means 
of  knowing  to  a  certainty.  The  first  three  who  were  admitted 
in  the  first  circuit  court,  held  on  September  26,  1822,  appear  on 
the  record  as  "Calvin  Fletcher,  Hiram  M.  Curry  and  Obed  Foote." 
If  any  one  preceded  my  father  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  must 
have  been  Curry. 

Obed  Foote  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  characters  that 
early  settled  in  Indianapolis.  Although  a  man  of  kindly  heart, 
he  let  the  g-ruff  side  of  his  nature  appear  uppermost.  That  he 
was  a  kindly  man  I  know,  because  he  was  kindly  to  children; 
but  for  conceited  men  or  men  of  shams  he  had  no  consideration 
whatever.  He  blurted  out  just  what  he  thoug-ht  of  ignoramuses 
or  asses,  and  he  was  not  merely  a  man  of  words—  he  was  ready 
to  give  satisfaction  physically.  Yet  he  proved  himself  a  just 
man,  with  clear  ideas  of  law,  occupying-  as  he  did  until  the  day 
of  his  death  (in  1833)  the  place  of  the  principal  justice  in  Indian- 
apolis. 

News  of  May  24. 

Judg-e  W.  W.  Wick  came  to  Indianapolis  from  Whitewater.    He 

'had  a  sing-ular  combination  in  his  character.     When  a  young-  man 

he  had  a  fine  presence.     He  was  at  times  dig-nified,  and  then 


188  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

ag-ain  he  seemed  to  care  nothing-  for  personal  dig-nity  and  was,  if 
anything-,  too  familiar.  He  was  eloquent  as  a  lawyer,  and  yet 
he  sometimes  mingled  the  sublime  and  the  ridiculous  in  the  most 
preposterous  manner.  It  was  said  of  him  that  he  had  in  an  ex- 
traordinary degree  the  gifts  of  wisdom  and  unwisdom,  but  so 
curiously  mixed  them  that  one  often  neutralized  the  other.  He 
was  acceptable  as  a  presiding  officer,  but  finally  returned  to  the 
bar.  He  entered  politics  and  was  representative  in  Congress 
from  the  fifth  district,  but  it  can  not  be  said  that  he  was  suc- 
cessful as  a  politician. 

Harvey  Gregg  came  to  Indianapolis  in  December,  1821.  He 
would  have  been  a  marked  character  in  any  community.  A 
Kentuckian  by  birth,  he  had  the  greatest  admiration  for  English 
people — for  their  thoroughness,  system  and  education.  He  had 
traveled  extensively  in  Mexico  and  Central  America,  and  I  recall 
with  the  greatest  pleasure  a  day  spent  at  my  father's  house  in 
which  he  narrated  to  us  his  adventures  among  the  mountains 
and  volcanoes  of  the  tropics.  He  was  full  of  fun  and  practical 
jokes,  and  many  are  the  anecdotes  which  a  few  of  our  older  citi- 
zens preserve  of  him.  He  was  a  studious  man,  and  I  remember 
how  my  child-eyes  were  filled  with  astonishment  at  his  library 
of  beautifully-bound  books.  He  had,  perhaps,  more  dr}^  humor 
and  prankishness  than  any  other  man  of  his  time  in  Indianapolis. 
As  he  would  saunter  from  his  office  down  Washington  street  he 
generally  wore  a  large  white,  old-fashioned  castor  hat,  and  his 
coat  was  a  long  frock  reaching  below  his  knees — a  fashion  intro- 
duced by  Charles  X  of  France,  who  was  bow-legged.  He  al- 
ways went  humming  or  singing.  If  he  saw  movers  passing  west- 
ward he  was  sure  to  hail  them,  and  if,  as  he  judged  from  the 
skeleton  horses  and  the  ramshackle  vehicle,  with  wheels  tied  up 
with  hickory  withes,  they  were  from  North  Carolina,  he  would 
begin  drawlingly:  "Carliner?"  "Ya-as,"  the  person  questioned 
would  reply,  astonished  that  anybody  should  know  him.  The 
astonishment  would  give  way  to  a  friendly  smile  as  Gregg  con- 
tinued in  the  "Carliner"  tone:  "Come  from  Beard's  Hatter 
Shop,  or  the  three  fish  traps,  or  by  Dobson's  cross  roads?"  By 
this  time  Carliner  reckoned  that  Gregg  was  from  "them  parts," 


EARL  Y  INDIANAPOLIS  189 

and  felt  sure  of  it  when  Greg-g-  asked  if  they  had  come  "throug-h 
the  crab  orchard."     Greg-g-  had  never  been  in  North  Carolina. 

I  remember  in  1831,  when  I  was  eight  years  of  age,  I  printed 
with  pen  and  ink  Mr.  Gregg's  name  and  asked  my  father  to 
g-ive  it  to  him  to  paste  in  his  big  white  hat.  About  ten  days 
after,  to  my  g-reat  surprise,  I  received  from  Charles  I.  Hand,  our 
chief  hatter,  a  castor  for  me  exactly  in  style  as  that  worn  by 
Mr.  Greg-g-,  and  accompanying-  this  hat  were  several  foolscap 
sheets  on  which  were  written  all  the  chapters  and  verses  con- 
taining- the  paragraphs  [?]  of  the  Bible.  These  foolscap  lessons 
were  to  train  my  memory.  He  could  tell  by  heart  where  each 
paragraph  was.  With  all  his  waggishness  he  had  a  very  serious 
side  to  his  nature.  My  father  said  that  often  when  sleeping-  in 
the  same  room  with  him  when  on  the  circuit  he  would  be  aroused 
in  the  small  hours  of  the  nig-ht  by  Gregg-  speaking-  to  him: 
*'Wakeup,  Fletcher;  wake  up!  How  you  sleep!  I  can  not;  I 
have  been  thinking-  of  the  awfulness  of  eternity."  On  one  oc- 
casion, at  Danville,  he  awoke  my  father  at  midnig-ht,  saying: 
"Fletcher,  I  can  not  sleep,  my  daug-hter  is  dying-  at  Indianap- 
olis." He  aroused  the  landlord,  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  to 
Indianapolis  to  find  his  daug-hter,  a  most  sweet  and  attractive 
child,  just  dead.  On  March  23,  1833,  he  was  taken  seriously  ill 
at  Franklin,  but  insisted  upon  gfoing  to  Indianapolis.  The  dis- 
ease affected  the  head,  and  after  a  few  days  of  intense  sufferings 
he  passed  away,  on  the  3d  of  April,  in  a  state  of  unconscious- 
ness, and  was  two  days  afterwards  buried  by  the  side  of  his  be- 
loved daug-hter,  in  out-lot  No.  4,  on  Walnut  street,  known  to  old 
citizens  as  the  Frazer  property.  [Gregg-  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  "Western Censor  and Emig-rant's  Guide,"  the  second  paper 
in  Indianapolis.] 

News  of  August  25. 

I  often  heard  my  father  narrate  a  circumstance  which  occurred 
in  the  early  days  of  circuit  riding-.  Judge  Wick,  William  Quarles, 
Hiram  Brown  and  my  father,  when  riding-  to  court  to  be  held  at 
Danville,  had  reached  the  last  cabin  on  the  road  at  a  late  hour 
in  the  afternoon.  Heavy  clouds  threatened  rain;  the  air  was 
cold  and  raw;  the  road  a  mere  path  throug-h  the  dense  beech 
woods.     Wick  and  Quarles  proposed  to  stay  at  the  house,  but  Mr. 


190  INDIANA  MA GAZINE  OF  HISTOR  V 

Brown  and  my  father,  by  way  of  trying-  Quarles,  who  had  dis- 
g-usted  them  with  his  boastings,  dashed  on,  and  the  others  fol- 
lowed, Quarles  with  muttered  curses.  Night  rapidly  overtook 
them,  a  cold  rain  saturated  everything-,  and  in  the  Egyptian 
blackness  of  the  forest  they  became  hopelessly  lost.  Quarles, 
after  exhausting-  his  supply  of  oaths,  became  silent  through  sheer 
inability  to  do  anything-  like  justice  to  the  subject.  All  secured 
their  horses  and  prepared  to  bivouack  for  the  night.  Brown, 
who  had  no  blanket,  found  Quarles'  upon  the  ground  and  seized 
upon  it.  Missing-  his  blanket,  Quarles  charged  first  my  father 
and  then  Wick  with  the  abstraction,  and  then  attacked  Brown, 
who,  aroused  with  some  difficulty  from  a  deep  and  sudden  slum- 
ber, calmly  admitted  the  possession  of  a  blanket  found  by  him 
in  the  wilderness  without  an  owner,  and  until  a  claimant  ap- 
peared with  a  better  title  than  himself— which,  in  the  absence 
of  all  lig-ht  on  the  subject  could  not  possibly  happen  before 
morning — he  certainly  should  keep  and  enjoy  the  g-ood  the  gods 
had  provided.  Judge  Wick  and  my  father  gravely  assented  to 
Brown's  right  in  the  matter,  to  the  intense  wrath  of  Quarles, 
who  bitterly  denounced  the  whole  company  as  a  pack  of  blank 
thieves,  and  threatened  the  most  g-rievous  consequences  to  Brown 
if  the  blanket  was  not  at  once  turned  over.  One  of  the  party 
now  professed  to  be  convinced  of  Quarles'  rights  and  urged  him 
to  immediate  and  vigorous  measures.  Throughout  the  oaths  and 
threats  of  Quarles  could  be  heard  the  bland  sentences  of  Brown: 
"Colonel  Quarles,  self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of  nature.  A 
wife  and  small  children  depend  upon  me  for  support  while  you 
are  a  bachelor  and  no  one  cares  whether  you  live  or  die.  iMy 
death  would  be  a  loss  to  the  community  while  yours  would  be  un- 
noticed or,  perhaps,  regarded  as  a  benefit,"  etc.  This  was  kept 
up  until  consciousness  left  all  the  party  except  Quarles,  who  sat 
all  night,  wet  and  wretched,  at  the  foot  of  a  tree. 

[Here  ends  our  reprint  of  this  series.  For  the  fuller  text  the 
reader  is  referred  to  the  Indianapolis  News.  Dates  complete  are 
given  in  this  magazine,  Vol.  II,  No.  1,  p.  29.] 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  191 


THE  EARLY  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA. 

FROM  PAPERS  OF  D.  D.  BANTA-FOURTH  INSTALMENT. 

^^ Barring  Ouf\-    The  Tables  Turned  07i  the  Autocrat  of  the  Rod — In- 
stances of  a  Rude  Custom  Once  General. 

Among-  the  school  customs  of  early  days  which  have  entirely 
disappeared  was  that  described  as  "turning  out"  or  "barring- 
out"  the  teacher — a  sport  that  was  never  indulged  in  in  Indiana 
at  any  other  than  Christmas  time. 

The  ostensible  object  in  barring  out  a  teacher  was  to  compel 
him  to  treat  his  school.  It  was  a  sort  of  legalized  rebellion  of 
the  scholars  against  the  master's  authority,  accompanied  by  a 
forced  levy  with  which  to  purchase  the  particular  article  that 
was  to  compose  the  treat,  or  else  to  furnish  the  treat  outright 
himself.  Usually  the  deposed  monarch  furnished  the  money 
and  the  rebels  bought  the  treat." 

The  "treat"  here  in  Indiana,  as  far  as  I  have  seen,  always 
consisted  of  something  to  eat  or  drink.  In  western  Pennsyl- 
vania, according  to  Breckinridge's  "Recollections  of  the  West," 
the  object  was  to  compel  a  vacation.  In  all  cases  the  barring 
out  was  made  the  occasion  of  more  or  less  revelry  and  disorder. 
According  to  a  statement  made  in  the  "Life  of  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson Fisher,"  a  Kentucky  preacher,  barring  out  was  observed 
"on  the  first  holiday  that  came,  or  at  the  end  of  the  session." 
I  find  no  evidence  of  its  observance  in  this  State  at  the  end  of 
the  session,  although  some  teachers  were  in  the  habit  of  making 
presents  to  their  scholars  at  that  time.  Such  presents  were 
always  voluntarily  made,  however,  and  as  far  as  my  observations 
went,  always  consisted  of  something  else  than  articles  of  food 
or  drink. 

I  find  but  two  instances  recorded  of  the  use  of  whisky  in  this 
State  with  which  to  treat  the  school.  One  of  these  was  in  a 
school  in  Jefferson  county,  and  the  other  in  Morgan.  The  episode 
in  the  last-named  county  is  reported  to  have  occurred  at   Christ- 


192  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

mas  of  the  cold  winter  of  1825-'26.  When  the  teacher  reached 
the  schoolhouse  on  that  extraordinarily  cold  morning-  he  found 
the  door  barred  and  all  the  big-  boys  inside.  Of  course  the  ped- 
ag-og-ue  wanted  in,  but  the  boys  declared  that  it  would  take  a 
"treat"  to  open  the  door  that  morning-.  According-ly,  Mr.  Con- 
duitt,  the  teacher,  went  to  the  nearest  "g-rocery"  and  purchased 
about  a  g-allon  of  whisky,  with  which  he  returned  and  ag-ain 
applied  for  admittance.  The  door  was  at  once  unbarred  and  the 
man  with  the  jug-  admitted,  whereupon  a  season  of  "hig-h  jinks" 
followed.  The  master  dealt  out  the  liquor  liberally,  it  would 
seem,  for  some  of  the  boys,  becoming-  "too  full  for  utterance," 
had  to  be  "sent  home  in  disg-race."  One  of  these  boys,  it  is  re- 
corded, "went  home  swag-g-ering-,  happy  as  a  lark,  loaded  to  the 
muzzle  with  a  ceaseless  fire  of  talk,  but  his  father  quietly  took 
down  the  big-  g-ad  and  g-ave  the  boy  a  dressing-  that  he  remembers 
to  the  present." 

The  following-  account  of  a  "turning-  out"  will  prove  of  interest 
in  this  connection.  It  occurred  in  Nashville,  in  this  State.  "The 
custom,"  says  the  historian,"  "was  so  universal  that  the  scholars 
demanded  their  rig-ht  to  it,  and  were  upheld  by  their  parents. 
Christmas  came,  and  Mr.  Gould  was  informed  that  he  must  treat. 
The  scholars  refused  to  come  to  order  when  called  and  the  teacher 
refused  to  treat.  After  a  short  time  the  larg-er  boys  forcibly 
captured  the  teacher,  bound  him  hand  and  foot,  and  carried  him 
down  to  Greasy  creek  to  be  severely  ducked  in  cold  water  unless 
he  surrendered  and  treated.  Several  men  of  the  town  accom- 
panied this  novel  expedition.  The  stubborn  teacher  was  carried 
out  into  the  stream  by  the  larg-er  boys,  who  took  off  their  shoes 
and  rolled  up  their  pants  and  waded  out.  A  parley  was  held, 
but  the  teacher  was  obstinate  and  was  on  the  point  of  being-  un- 
ceremoniously baptised,  when  W.  S.  Roberts  interceded,  and  after 
some  sharp  words,  pro  and  con,  secured  from  the  teacher  the 
promise  to  treat  on  candy  and  apples.  He  was  then  released, 
and  the  cavalcade  marched  up  to  the  store,  where  all  were  g-iven 
a  taste  of  the  above-named  delicacies. 

Stubborn  teachers  did  not  always  come  out  as  well  as  did  this 
Brown  county  man.  The  school  boys  of  a  certain  district  in 
Posey  county,  having-  determined  to  compel  their  teacher  to  treat, 
"upon  his  refusal  he  was  promptly  sat  upon  by  the  boys,  who 


THE  EARL  Y  SCHOOLS  OF  INDIANA  193 

soon  overcame  him  and  carried  him  down  to  the  creek  and 
broke  the  ice.  The  alternative  was  once  more  g-iven  him,  but  he 
was  stubborn  and  held  out.  Without  ceremony  he  was  plunged 
beneath  the  icy  water,  and,  yet  holding-  out,  his  tormenters 
placed  chunks  of  ice  on  his  bare  bosom,  and  but  for  the  arrival 
of  outsiders  who  rescued  him,  serious  consequences  would  doubt- 
less have  been  the  result."  It  is  more  than  probable  in  this  case 
that  the  victim  had  been  a  hard  master,  and  his  pupils  took  ad- 
vantag-e  of  their  opportunity  to  get  reveng-e.  Jacob  Powers,  a 
Hancock  county  teacher,  fared  worse.  He  had  recently  had  a 
tooth  extracted,  and,  despite  his  warning-  as  to  the  risk,  was 
plung-ed  in  the  cold  waters  of  a  creek.  The  result  was  lock-jaw, 
from  which  he  died. 

While  the  teachers,  as  a  g-eneral  rule,  resisted  the  demand  to 
their  uttermost,  there  were  others,  however,  who  fell  in  with  the 
humor  of  the  occasion  and  found  as  much  fun  in  it  as  the  boys 
themselves.  Indeed,  if  the  teacher  resisted  in  good  earnest,  even 
to  the  point  of  being  ducked  in  the  ice-cold  water,  he  was,  never- 
theless, "expected  to  forgive  his  enemies,"  and  I  do  not  remember 
to  have  come  across  an  instance  of  a  teacher  ever  being  accused 
of  subsequently  holding  malice  against  any  one  who  had 
wronged  him  in  a  Christmas  frolic. 

It  must  be  said  that  those  teachers  who  looked  on  the  bright 
side  of  the  custom,  and  gave  in  after  a  brief  show  of  resistance, 
usually  came  out  the  best.  On  one  occasion  the  big  boys  of  one 
William  Surface's  school  barred  the  school  door  against  him. 
On  reaching  the  schoolhouse  he  was,  of  course,  refused  entrance 
except  on  the  usual  condition.  But  the  teacher  declined  answer- 
ing their  oral  demands,  because  he  said,  "some  dispute  might 
arise  as  to  what  was  said."  If  they  had  terms  to  propose  they 
must  present  them  in  writing.  This  seemed  reasonable,  and  so 
the  boys  put  their  demand  on  paper,  which,  together  with  pen 
and  ink,  was  handed  to  the  diplomat  on  the  outside.  Beneath 
the  boys'  scrawl  he  wrote,  "I  except  to  the  above  proposition — 
William  Surface,"  and  passed  the  writing  back.  The  boys  were 
satisfied,  and  at  once  opened  the  door.  "You  had  better  read 
with  care  what  I  have  written,"  said  the  master  to  the  scholars, 
when  safe  within.  "It  is  one  thing  to  accept  a  proposition  and 
quite  another  to  except  to  it."     The  boys,  now  crestfallen,  ac- 


194  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

knowledg-ed  their  mistake,  but  the  teacher,  after  "improving- the 
occasion  by  warning*  them  ag-ainst  the  evil  of  carelessness  in  the 
business  transactions  of  life,"  g-enerouslj  treated,  and  was  there- 
after loved  better  than  ever  before. 

A  teacher  by  the  name  of  Groves,  who  taug-ht  in  a  district 
close  up  to  the  Marion  county  line,  found  himself  barred  out  one 
Christmas  morning-.  Living-  in  "the  schoolmaster's  cabin"  hard 
by,  he  called  in  his  wife  to  assist  him.  The  weather  was  ex- 
tremely cold,  and  it  occurred  to  him  that  if  he  could  drown  out 
the  fire  he  could  freeze  out  the  rebellion,  and  so,  ascending-  the 
roof  to  the  top  of  the  chimney,  his  wife  handed  up  buckets  of 
water,  which  he  poured  down  on  the  school  fire.  But  it  was 
all  in  vain.  The  boys,  raking-  the  coals  out  upon  the  broad 
hearth,  defied  him.  His  next  thoug-ht  was  to  smoke  them  out, 
and  to  that  end  he  laid  boards  over  the  chimney  top.  But  the 
boys  had  thoug-ht  of  that  and  provided  themselves  with  a  long- 
pole  with  which  to  remove  the  boards.  Not  to  be  outdone. 
Groves  replaced  the  boards  over  the  chimney  and  calling-  upon 
his  wife,  who  seems  to  have  entered  with  spirit  into  all  his  plans, 
she  g-allantly  mounted  to  the  comb  of  the  roof  and  took  her  seat 
on  the  boards  to  hold  them  down  while  her  husband  stationed 
himself  at  the  door  below.  But  the  boys  tried  the  pole  ag-ain, 
and  with  such  vig-or  that  they  overthrew  the  master's  dame,  who, 
at  the  risk  of  her  life  and  limb,  came  tumbling-  to  the  g-round. 
Picking-  herself  up,  she  retired  to  her  own  domicile,  leaving-  her 
lord  to  fig-ht  the  battle  out  as  best  he  could.  As  the  g-irls  and 
smaller  children  arrived  he  sent  them  to  his  own  cabin,  where 
his  wife  ag-reed  to  keep  watch  and  ward  over  them.  One  by  one 
the  g-arrison  became  captive  to  the  vig^ilant  master,  who  stood 
g-uard  at  the  door,  and  was  sent  to  the  other  house.  By  the 
time  for  dismissing-  in  the  afternoon  every  rebellious  boy  had 
been  taken  in  and  the  school  was  in  full  blast  in  the  master's 
cabin. 

[End  of  series.     For  g-uide  to  full  text  see  Vol.  II,  No.  1,  p.  41.] 


GENERAL  LAFA  YETTE  IN  INDIANA  195 


GENERAL  LAFAYETTE  IN  INDIANA. 

[From  Paper  by  Capt.  L.  C.  Baird,  prepared  for  the  Clark  County  Histori- 
cal  Society.] 

[Lafayette's  visit  to  America  in  1824-'25  was  a  series  of  ovations  in  which 
the  cities  of  the  nation  along  the  route  of  his  tour  vied  with  each  other  in 
doing-  honor  to  the  patriot.  His  trip  westward  by  the  Ohio  river  brought 
the  southern  border  of  Indiana  within  his  circuit.  Some  months  before 
this  western  trip  the  Indiana  legislature,  in  anticipation,  passed  elaborate 
resolutions  expressive  of  cordiality  and  hospitality,  and  on  his  arrival  at 
Louisville,  in  May,  1825,  a  committee  waited  upon  him  with  official  con- 
gratulations and  an  invitation  to  Indiana  soil.  The  distinguished  visitor 
accepted  the  proffered  hospitality  and  the  next  day.  May  11,  he  was  a  guest 
at  Jeffersonville.  Captain  Baird's  paper  in  its  entirety  is  too  long  for  our 
limited  space,  but  so  much  of  it  as  deals  directly  with  the  reception  we 
here  print. — Ediior.] 

A  T  11  o'clock  A.  M.  on  Thursday  the  committee  (Messrs. 
1\.  Farnham,  Gwathmey,  Merriwether,  Beach  and  Burnett) 
waited  upon  General  Lafayette  on  board  the  steamboat  General 
Pike,  to  which  he  was  escorted  by  the  Committee  of  Arrang-e- 
ments  and  Marshals  of  Louisville  and  Jefferson  county.  The 
General  was  g-reeted  on  the  Indiana  shore  by  a  salute  of  thrice 
twenty-four  g'uns,  discharged  from  three  pieces  of  artillery, 
stationed  on  the  river  bank  beside  three  flag-staffs,  each  seventy 
feet  in  heig-ht,  bearing-  flag-s  with  appropriate  mottos.  He  was 
received  by  General  Marston  G.  Clark,  of  Jeffersonville,  and 
General  John  Carr,  of  Charlestown,  Marshal  of  the  Day,  and  es- 
corted by  a  detachment  of  three  artillery  companies,  com- 
manded by  Captains  Lemon,  Melford  and  Booth,  to  the  pleasant 
mansion  house  of  the  late  Governor  Posey  on  the  west  corner  of 
Front  and  Fort  streets  overlooking  the  river  and  the  city  of 
Louisville  beyond.  His  progress  down  Front  street  from  the 
place  of  debarkation  near  the  present  Ferry  landing-  was  a  spec- 
tacle the  like  of  which  the  city  had  never  seen  before.  Officials, 
both  State  and  local,  tog-ether  with  many  other  men  of  State 
and  national  renown  from  our  sister  commonwealths,  vied  with 
the  vast  concourse  of  the  "common  people"  to  add  to  the  g-ener- 
ous  expression  of  gratitude  and  esteem  for  the  guest  of  honor. 


196  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Besides  the  many  visitors  from  throug-hout  the  State,  the  people 
from  the  surrounding-  country  had  made  this  a  holiday  that  all 
might  be  g-iven  an  opportunity  to  participate  in  the  reception. 
In  addition  to  the  three  artillery  companies  and  Captain  Parker's 
infantry  company  from  Charlestown,  there  were  other  military 
org-anizations  present,  but  the  absence  of  any  records  concern- 
ing- the  Indiana  militia  at  this  period  of  our  history,  and  in  fact 
for  many  years  afterward,  makes  it  impossible  to  discover  who 
they  were  or  whence  they  came. 

The  g-uest  was  met  at  the  Posey  mansion  by  his  excellency, 
Governor  James  B.  Ray,  who  delivered  an  address  of  welcome, 
and  to  this  he  made  a  brief  and  fitting-  response.  These 
speeches  were  exchang-ed  out  of  doors,  and  while  the  General 
was  still  speaking-  the  long-threatened  rain  began  to  fall,  and 
his  remarks  had  to  be  finished  while  standing  under  the  shelter 
of  an  umbrella  proudly  held  by  Mr.  Charles  Applegate,  one  of 
the  older  citizens  present. 

The  General  was  then  conducted  to  chambers,  provided  with 
refreshments,  and  presented  to  a  numerous  company  of  ladies 
assembled  to  welcome  him  and  to  several  hundreds  of  citizens, 
including  a  few  venerable  relics  of  the  "times  that  tried  men's 
souls." 

Among  the  old  residents  of  the  city  who  were  presented  at  the 
reception  was  Solomon  Burritt.  He  lived  and  died  in  the  small 
brick  house  on  lower  Market  street  about  opposite  the  end  of 
Clark  street.  During  the  war  of  the  Revolution  he  served  under 
Lafayette,  and  when  it  came  Burritt's  time  to  be  presented  to 
his  old  commanding  officer,  they  fell  into  each  other's  arms  and 
kissed  and  shed  tears  of  joy  and  comradeship. 

One  incident  occurred  during  the  reception  that  served  to  re- 
lieve the  proceedings  of  any  stiffness  which  might  have  appeared. 
Captain  JohnC.  Parker,  of  Charlestown,  had  brought  his  militia 
company  down  to  Jeffersonville  to  form  part  of  the  large  military 
escort.  During  the  presentation  he  took  several  of  his  men  up 
to  be  introduced.  One  strapping  young  miltiaman  stepped  for- 
ward to  shake  the  General's  hand  and  politely  raised  his  hat, 
when  out  fell  several  large  crackers  which  he  had  thoughtfully 
provided  for  a  lunch.     The  General  adroitly  relieved  him  of  his 


GENERAL  LAFA  YETTE  IN  INDIANA  197 

embarrassment  and  mortification  bj  congratulating-  him  as  a 
g-ood  soldier  who  carried  his  rations  with  him. 

At  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  Lafayette  was  conducted  to 
dinner  under  a  military  escort  accompanied  by  a  band  of  music. 
The  table  was  handsomely  prepared  under  an  arbor,  about  220 
feet  in  length,  well  covered  and  ornamented  throug-hout  with 
the  verdure  and  foliage  of  the  forests,  among-  which  roses  and 
other  flowers  were  tastefully  interwoven  by  the  ladies  of  Jeffer- 
sonville.  This  table  was  set  in  the  woods  just  above  the 
Governor's  house,  about  100  feet  above  Fort  street,  and  in  con- 
structing the  arbor  or  covering,  as  was  usual  at  that  day  on 
such  occasions,  the  branches  of  the  surrounding-  beech  trees  were 
used.  Mr.  Burdette  C.  Pile,  later  Mayor  of  Jeffersonville,  then 
a  3'oung-  man  and  the  owner  of  a  fine  yoke  of  oxen,  used  his  ox 
rig-  in  transporting  the  brush  from  the  near  woodlands  to  the 
scene  of  festivity,  an  incident  which  he  was  proud  of  relating 
to  the  day  of  his  death. 

At  the  head  of  the  table  was  hung-  a  transparent  painting-  on 
which  was  inscribed,  "Indiana  welcomes  Lafayette,  the  champi- 
on of  liberty  in  both  hemispheres,"  over  which  was  a  flag  bear- 
ing the  arms  of  the  United  States.  At  the  foot  of  the  table 
was  a  similar  painting-  with  the  following  inscription:  "Indiana 
— in  1776  a  wilderness;  in  1825  a  civilized  community.  Thanks 
to  Lafayette  and  the  soldiers  of  the  Revolution."  The  company 
was  honored  by  the' presence  of  many  disting-uished  g-entlemen 
from  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  other  States,  among  whom  were, 
Governor  Carroll  and  suite,  Hon.  C.  A.  WicklifPe,  Judg-es  Barry 
and  Bledsoe,  Attorney  General  Sharp,  Colonel  Anderson,  the 
Honorable  John  Rowan,  with  the  Committee  of  Arrang-ements  of 
Louisville  and  Jefferson  county.  Major  Wash,  Mr.  Neilson,  etc. 
The  dinner  was  followed  by  a  long  list  of  toasts  which  con- 
tinued until  six  o'clock,  at  which  hour  Lafayette  left  the  table 
and  was  re-escorted  to  the  General  Pike.  Here  the  committee 
of  arrangements  from  Kentuky  resumed  the  honor  of  their  spe- 
cial attendance,  in  which  they  were  joined  by  the  Governor  of  In- 
diana and  suite,  the  Marshals,  and  the  Indiana  committee  of 
arrangements,  who  accompanied  the  guest  to  Louisville. 


198 


INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 


A  FAMOUS  CAMPAIGN  SONG, 

[For  the  now-forg-otten  music  of  this  most  famous  of  the  old  campaig-a 
song-s  of  1840  we  are  indebted  to  Messrs.  Alva  O.  Reser  and  J.  S.  Berg-en, 
of  Lafayette.  The  former  found  a  venerable  inmate  of  the  Soldiers' 
Home,  near  Lafayette,  who  remembered  the  air,  and  from  his  rendition  of 
it  the  notes  were  secured  and  the  song- reproduced  on  a  phonograph  record. 
From  this  record  the  music  was  kindly  re-written  for  this  mag-azine  by  Pro- 
fessor Berg-en.  It  is,  perhaps,  superfluous  to  explain  that  the  "Tippe- 
canoe" of  the  song-  was  W.  H.  Harrison,  the  hero  of  Tippecanoe  battle, 
who  in  1840  was  the  presidential  candidate,  and  that  "little  Van"  was  the 
opposing-  candidate,  Martin  Van  Buren.  The  "hard  cider"  campaign, 
unique  in  its  character,  was  one  of  frolic  and  songs,  and  this  song,  with 
others,  was  roared  by  untold  thousands  of  Whigs  from  one  end  of  the 
country  to  the  other. — Editor J\ 

TIPPECANOE   AND   TYLER  TOO. 


P 


J     J    ; 


^ — ^ 


-^  ^        4 


\Nhot    ha^    caused    th/o     great    com  •  mo  -  Lion 


^S 


4=j 


^ 


mo-tion,    mo-tion,     Our   country    through     ft 


^^ 


^ 


» 


IS    the   ball   Q-roll-/ng    on,    For    77p  -  pe  -  ca 


pir-l— 1. 1 1    V±'\'i  \  I   1    I 


noe    and     Ty-ler    too.      T/p-pe-ca    r?oe    and    , -^ 


gt 


^ 


We^ 


-^       ^' 


^ 


7J/-/er   too-    And    with    them    sA^e'/i     bQat 


-iW— 


^ 


^ 


lit 'tie    l/an,    l/on,    Van   /s    a    usee/     up    man; 


^ 


^ 


-?^F=^- 


^ 


-aih 


And      \A/ith    then     we'll   beat     lit-t/e     l/an. 


A  FAMOUS  CAMPAIGN  SONG  199 

Like  the  rushing-  of  mighty  waters,  waters,  waters, 

On  it  will  g"0, 
And  in  its  course  will  clear  the  way 

For  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too. 
And  with  them  we'll  beat  little  Van,  Van! 
Van  is  a  used-up  man; 
And  with  them  we"ll  beat  little  Vanl 

Don't  you  hear  from  every  quarter,  quarter,  quarter, 

Good  news  and  true — 
That  swift  the  ball  is  rolling  on  for 

Tippecanoe,  etc. 

Now  you  hear  the  Van  jacks  whispering,  whispering,  whis- 
pering, 

Things  look  quite  blue. 
For  all  the  world  seems  turning  round  for 
Tippecanoe,  etc. 

Let  them  talk  about  hard  cider,  cider,  cider. 

Log  cabins  too; 
'Twill  only  help  to  speed  the  ball  for 

Tippecanoe,  etc. 

Little  Matty's  days  are  numbered,  numbered,  numbered. 

Out  he  must  go. 
And  in  the  chair  we'll  put  the  good  old 

Tippecanoe,  etc. 

Who,  then,  shall  we  send  to  Congress,  Congress,  Congress? 

Who,  tell  me  who? 
Why,  honest  freemen,  sound,  true  friends  of 

Tippecanoe,  etc. 

And  when  they  get  there,  I  can  tell  you,  tell  you,  tell  you, 

What  they  will  do— 
They'll  make  good  laws  and  have  them  sealed  with 

Tippecanoe,  etc. 


INDIANA  QUARTERLY  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Published  at  Indianapolis,  Indiana. 
George  S.  Coxtman,  Editor  and  Publisher. 

EDITORIAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS. 

ERRORS  CORRECTED. 

An  article  on  John  D.  Defrees  in  our  last  issue  was  there  ac- 
credited to  Mr.  Berry  Sulg-rove  as  the  author.  This  we  inferred, 
and  the  inference  was  reasonable  from  the  material  in  our  pos- 
session, but  it  was  an  error.  The  article  from  which  we  drew, 
anonymously  published  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Defrees'  death,  was 
written  by  Mr.  Morris  Ross,  of  the  Indianapolis  News.  The  date 
of  Mr.  Defrees'  death,  given  as  1892,  should  have  read  1882. 
This  simply  was  a  typographical  error  that  escaped  in  the  proof 
reading.  Our  attenion  is  called,  also,  to  a  sentence  in  the 
article  on  "Early  Newspapers"  which  seems  to  question  the  date 
of  founding  of  the  Richmond  Palladium.  We  did  not  mean  to 
discredit  the  claim  that  it  was  founded  in  1831,  but  the  claim 
that  it  was  the  oldest  now  existing  in  the  State,  barring  the 
Vincennes  Sun.     Others  claim  dates  earlier  than  1831. 

LAPORTE  COUNTY  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

Mr.  R.  B.  Oglesbee,  of  Laporte,  Ind.,  writes: 

"By  the  formation  in  Januar}',  1906,  of  the  Laporte  County 
Historical  Society  there  is  one  more  to  add  to  your  list  of  local 
historical  associations  in  this  State.  We  are  holding  interest- 
ing monthly  meetings  and  a  good  collection  of  local  historical 
matter  is  being  accumulated." 

REVOLUTIONARY  SOLDIERS. 

The  above  correspondent  also  supplies  us  with  the  names  of 
several  Revolutionary  soldiers  buried  in  Laporte  county.  These 
are:  Hezekiah  Smith,  Door  Village;  Clark  Burlingame,  Door 
Village;  Henry  Van  Dalsem,  Kankakee  township;  Abijah  Bige- 
low,  Michigan  City;  Simon  Wheeler,  Law's  cemetery.  Cool 
Spring  township. 


EDITORIAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  201 

We  are  in  receipt  of  two  anonymous  communications,  one,  and 
probably  both  of  which,  come  from  the  Lafayette  Post  of  the 
D.  A.  R.  These,  covering-  the  same  g-round,  state  that  Nathaniel 
Richmond,  father  of  Dr.  John  L.  Richmond,  one  of  the  pioneer 
physicians  of  Indianapolis,  is  buried  in  a  private  family  g-rave- 
yard  on  his  own  farm  at  Pendleton,  Ind.  He  was  born  in  Taun- 
ton, Mass.,  in  1760;  enlisted  at  the  age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  and 
served  in  the  2d  Massachusetts  Volunteers.  He  married  Susan- 
nah Lambert.  After  the  war  he  moved  to  Chesterfield,  Mass., 
and  later  to  Herkimer,  N.  Y.,  finally  coming-  to  the  new  State 
of  Indiana,  where  he  took  up  land  at  Pendleton.  He  died  Sept. 
1,  1829.  His  discharge  from  the  army  was  signed  by  George 
Washington,  1783.  Another  son  was  Rev.  Nathaniel  Richmond, 
and  a  grandson  was  Dr.  Corydon  Richmond,  surgeon  from  Indi- 
ana in  the  Civil  war,  who  recently  died  at  Kokomo,  Ind.,  at  the 
age  of  ninety-eight  years. 

LOCAL    HISTORY    CONTRIBUTIONS. 

William  Wells,  Indian  Captive. — In  the  Fort  Wayne  Journal- 
Gazette  for  August  12,  1906,  Frank  Dildine  tells  the  romantic 
story  of  William  Wells  who,  taken  captive  by  the  Indians  when 
a  small  boy,  was  reared  among  the  Miamis.  He  and  the  famous 
Little  Turtle  grew  up  together  as  close  friends;  he  married  the 
sister  of  Little  Turtle,  and  when  the  latter  became  chief  he  made 
his  friend  his  trusted  lieutenant  in  the  warfare  with  the  whites 
preceding  Wayne's  campaign.  Before  Wayne's  incursion  Wells 
went  back  to  his  people  in  Kentucky,  parting  amicably  with  his 
foster  brethren,  and  he  joined  the  expedition  against  them  that 
resulted  in  their  subjugation.  After  the  treaty  of  Greenville  he 
remained  at  Fort  Wayne,  resuming  relations  with  his  Indian 
family  and  their  people.  He  was  massacred  by  hostile  Indians 
near  Fort  Dearborn,  in  1812.  A  letter  describing  the  affair, 
written  by  one  of  Wells'  companions  and  but  recently  made  pub- 
lic, is  published  in  Mr.  Dildine's  article. 

The  Betrayal  of  Ensign  Holmes. — The  above  writer  in  the  same 
publication,  date  July  22,  1906,  narrates  another  romance  of 
Indian  life — that  of  ensign  Holmes,  the  young  English  of&cer  in 
command  of  Fort  Miami  (where  Fort  Wayne  stands)   in  1763, 


202  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

and  who  was  decoyed  to  his  death  and  his  g-arrison  captured 
throug-h  the  ag-ency  of  his  Indian  mistress.  The  story  in  its  sub- 
stance is  not  new,  but  Mr.  Dildine  dwells  upon  it  more  circum- 
stantially than  preceding  historians,  one  of  his  sources  of  infor- 
mation being-  an  ag-ed  resident  of  Fort  Wayne,  Mrs.  Laura  Sut- 
tenfield,  who  saw  and  talked  to  the  Indian  woman  in  the  case, 
when  the  latter  was  very  old.  She  disclaimed  being-  a  guilty 
party  to  the  plot  and  implied  that  she  had  been  avenged  on  the 
slayers  of  her  lover. 

HISTORICAI.  INTEREST  IN  WHITLEY  COUNTY. 

An  intended  notice  of  the  historical  interest  manifested  in 
Whitley  county  was  crowded  out  of  our  last  issue.  This  interest 
expresses  itself  in  an  annual  "Old  Settlers'  Day"  in  which  the 
county  at  large  seems  to  participate.  The  occasion  in  1905  drew 
together  something  like  6000  people,  and  while  the  meeting  last 
summer  (Aug.  16)  was  not  so  large,  the  county  seat,  Columbia 
City,  was  given  over  to  it.  One  feature  was  the  presence,  as 
guests  of  honor,  of  the  granddaughter  and  great-grandson  of 
the  famous  Miami  Indian,  Little  Turtle.  The  former,  Mrs. 
Anthony  Revarre,  is  now  ninety-six  years  old,  and  she  and  her 
son  Anthony  Revarre,  respectively  named,  in  their  own  lan- 
guage, "Kil-so-quah"  and  "White  Loon,"  belong  to  the  few  lin- 
gering representatives  of  an  almost  vanished  race,  and  their 
neighbors  of  the  succeeding  race  have  done  well  to  honor  them. 
Kilsoquah,  it  is  affirmed,  is  the  last  full-blood  Miami  Indian  in 
the  State,  all  others  having  a  strain  of  Caucasian  blood. 

The  interest  in  this  direction  among  the  Whitley  county  people 
was  still  more  strikingly  exemplified  the  past  summer  by  a  com- 
pany of  more  than  one  hundred  devoting  a  day  and  going  in  a 
body  on  an  exploring  expedition  to  establish,  if  possible,  certain 
land  marks,  and  verify  cert^iin  traditions  of  Indian  times  in  a  re- 
gion rich  with  Indian  history.  This,  we  understand,  was  in  the 
interest  of  a  history  of  Whitley  county  now  in  course  of  prepar- 
ation. Space  permitting,  we  would  be  glad  to  reprint  the  local 
account  of  this  expedition,  but  we  can  only  note  and  call  atten- 
tion to  the  veiy  commendable  spirit  in  Whitley  county,  which 
we  trust  will  "grow  by  what  it  feeds  upon." 


NEWSPAPER  INDEX  203 


NEWSPAPER  INDEX. 
INDIANA  JOURNAL— SECOND  INSTALMENT. 

1828— 

Bad  roads  and  mails. — Jan.  3. 

Art:     First  portrait  painter  (R.  Terrell). — March  27. 

Paper  mill  at  Madison. — May  8. 

White  river,  navig-ability  of. — May  15. 

Indians,  treaty  with  "Thornton  band." — June  S. 

Library  movement. — June  12.     (Also  July  3). 

Roads  and  highways  (series,  beginning) — June  12. 

Abel  C.  Pepper,  sketch  of. — July  17. 

Canals  (series,  beginning) — Aug.  28. 

Emigration  to  Wabash  county. — Oct.  2. 

Pire  company,  first. — Oct.  23. 

Bible  society;    annual  report. — Nov.  20. 

Governor  James  B.  Ray,  inaugural  speech. — Dec.  13. 

Temperance  Society  (ad.) — Dec.  17. 

Agent  of  State  for  Indianapolis,  report  of.— Dec.  20. 
1829— 

State  House,  proposed  location  of  (communication). — Jan.  21. 

Sunday  mails.— Feb.  12. 

Nomenclature:     Lafayette    and    Indian     names     of     several 
streams.— March  5. 

Grape  culture. — April  16. 

Indian  lands,  disposition  of,  etc. — April  16. 

Sabbath  schools  in  Marion  county. — May  14. 

"Message"  to  the  "Indianapolis  legislature." — May  21. 

Tract  Society,  report  of. — May  21. 

Fourth  of  July,    Sabbath  school  celebration  and  address  by 
Jas.  Morrison. — July  9. 

Sale  of  pews  (ad.) — July  9. 

Astronomy:    "Anti-Newtonian"  system;  lecture  by  John  Rich- 
ardson, endorsed  by  James  B.  Ray  and  W.  W.  Wick. — July  30. 

Female  school;  terms  per  quarter.— July  30. 


204  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

Cumberland  (National)  Road;  advertisement  for  proposals, 
with  names  of  those  who  had  not  relinquished  land. — Sept.  3. 
(Much  discussion  of  this  road  about  this  time.) 

Log-ansport,  description  of,  and  first  newspaper. — Sept.  10. 

Immigration  to  New  Purchase  (ed. ) — Sept.  17. 

Temperance  Society, — Dec.  3.     (Also  Dec.  8.) 

Tippecanoe  Battleground,  contemplated  sale  of. — Dec.  3. 
1S30— 

Indian  affairs;    address  by  Milton  Stapp. — Feb.   17. 

Indian  affairs;    address  by Graham  (Subject:    Extending- 

the  laws  of  the  State  over  the  Indian  tribes.) — Feb.  24. 

"Indianapolis  Leg-islature,"  oration  by  Samuel  Merrill. — 
March  3. 

"Indianapolis  Leg-islature." — Feb.  17. 

Bible  Society,  address  before  by  Dr.  Coe. — May  12. 

Indians,  removal  of  and  cost  to  States. — July  7. 

First  menag-erie,  advertising-  the  "kinkajou,"  etc. — July  21. 

"Grand  menag-erie,"  with  a  "rompo." — Aug-.  18. 

Colonization  Society. — Sept.  1.     (Also  Sept.  8). 

Immigration. — Sept.  8. 

James  B.  Ray,  communication  from,  with  punctuation,  etc., 
as  it  left  the  writer's  hand;  literary  curiosity. — Sept.  22. 

Tippecanoe  Battleg-round,  re-interring*  of  dead. — Sept.  29. 
(Also  Nov.  3.) 

Indiana  Historical  Society. — Dec.  15.     (Also  Dec.  25.) 

Sales  of  lots  for  a  number  of  new  towns  advertised  this  year. 
1831— 

Sale  of  Indianapolis  lots  by  lottery  (ad.) — Jan.  1. 

Colonization  Society. — Jan.  26. 

Medical  Society. — Jan.  26. 

Portrait  painter  at  Indianapolis  (ad.) — Feb.  2. 

Wild  Man:     g-ood  story. — Feb.  5. 

"Indianapolis  Legislature." — March  12. 

James  Noble,  death  of. — March  12.     (Also  March  19). 

White  River,  navigation  of. — March  26.  (Arrival  of  steam- 
boat, "General  Hanna.") 

Donation  land,  sale  of. — April  30. 

Noah  Noble,  circular  announcing  candidacy  for  Governor's  of- 
fice.— May  7. 


NEWSPAPER  INDEX  205 

State  House,  plans  advertised  for. — May  21. 
Literary  Society. — June  4. 

National  Road  bridg-e,  bids  advertised  for. — June  11. 
Ray,  James  B.,  letter  from. — June  18. 
Cumberland  Road,  proposals  for  (ad.) — June  18. 
Cumberland  Road,  sale  of  lots  advertised. — June  18. 
Ryland  T.  Brown,  oration  by. — July  23. 
Michig-an  Road  lands,  sale  of  (ad.) — July  23. 
Soda  fountain,  first. — July  23. 

National  Road  bridg-e,  letting-  of  contract. — Aug-.  6. 
Court  House  square,  enclosing-  of.— Sept.  17. 
Market  House,  ad.  for  meeting-  to  consider. — Sept.  24. 
Temperance  Society. — Oct.  15. 
Historical  Society. — Dec.  14. 
Michig-an  Road  lands,  sale  of. — Aug-.  13. 
State  House,  plans  submitted  for  (ed.) — Dec.  31. 
1832— 

Canal  Bill.— Jan.  11. 

Canal  Bill,  debate  on. — Jan.  18. 

State  House.— Feb.  25. 

Railroad  meeting-.— March  10. 

Lyceum  of  Indianapolis. — March  17. 

Market  House  meeting-. — March  24. 

Lyceum. — April  7. 

Market  House. — April  7. 

Lyceum. — May  26. 

Indian  War,  rumor  of  (Black  Hawk.) — June  3. 

Indian  scare,  call  for  Indiana  company. — June  9. 

Indian  War. — June  16,  June  23. 

Colonization  Society. — June  23. 

Indian  War. — June  30. 

Michig-an  Road. — June  30. 

Indian  War,  return  of  soldiers. — July  7. 

Market  House,  finished.— Aug-.  11. 

Canal  lands,  sale  of. — Sept.  1. 

Wabash,  improvement  of. — Sept.  8,  Sept.  15,  Sept.  22. 

Cumberland  Road. — Oct.  6. 


206  INDIANA  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY 

1833— 

Indianapolis  Leg-islature. — Jan.  2. 
Colonization  Society,  address. — Jan.  5,  Jan.  12. 
"Indianapolis  Leg-islature." — Feb.  16. 
Wabash  Canal. — April  6. 

Drowning-  of  McPherson  by  Van  Blaricum  (first  homicide.  )- 
May  11. 

Remarkable  g-irl  (medium.) — May  25. 

Colonization  Society. — June  22. 

Wabash  Canal. — July  13. 

Thompson,  R.  W.,  4th  of  July  Oration.— July  20. 

Michig-an  Road  (ad.) — Aug-.  10. 

Books,  list  of  sold  (ad.) — Aug.  10. 

Star  shower. — Nov.  16. 

"New  Novels"  (ad.) — Nov.  23. 

Far  West,  village  of  (ad.)— Dec.  14. 

Wabash  Canal.— Dec.  21. 


INDEX. 

INDIANA  QUARTERLY  MAGAZINE  OF  HISTORY. 
VOLUME  II. 

Page. 

Animals,  Wild,  of  Indiana 13 

Banta,  D.  D.     (See  Schools.) 

Bolton,  Nathaniel,  and  George  Smith 121 

Brown,  Austin  H.:     "The  First  Printers  in  Indianapolis 121 

Defrees,  John  D.,  Sketch  of 147 

Documents,  Some  Old  Indianapolis 37 

Fletcher  Journals.     (Series,  See  Early  Indianapolis.) 

Friends'  Memorial  Against  Bearing  Arms 27 

Frigate  Constitution,  Preservation  of 102 

Furs,  Prices  of 14 

Fur  Traders,  Early,  of  Indiana 1 

Genealogy:     The  Poindexter  Family 155 

Hanway ,  Amos,  Reminiscences  of 39 

Historical  Societies,  Local 52,  101,  201 

Hoover,  David,  Memoir  of 17 

Index  of  Indiana  Journal 151,  203 

Indianapolis,  Old  Documents  of 37 

Indianapolis,  Early  (Series  from  Fletcher  Journals) 29,  73, 127,  187 

Indianapolis,  Population  Chart  of.  Frontispiece  for  March  number. 

Iowa,  What  They  Are  Doing  in 50 

Indian  Mounds  in  DeKalb  County 55 

Julian,  George  W.,  Sketch  of  by  his  Daughter 57 

Julian,  George  W.,  Autobiography  of , 70 

Local  History  Contributions — pp.  53-55:  Post  Vincennes,  The  True  Site 
of  Fort  Knox,  The  George  Lay  Raid,  Anti-Slavery  Heroes  of  Old  New- 
port, New  Harmony  Documents,  Genesis  of  Methodism  in  Richmond, 
The  Story  of  Edward  Swanson;  pp.  103-105:  Moravian  Mission  on 
White  River,  Union  Literary  Society,  Baber's  History  of  Green 
County;  pp.  160-162:  Reminiscences  of  an  Indianian,  Reminiscences 
of  Early  Indianapolis,  Early  Newspapers  of  Richmond,  Old  Fort  near 
Richmond;  p.  201:  William  Wells,  Indian  Captive;  The  Betrayal  of 
Ensign  Holmes. 

Lafayette,  General,  in  Indiana 195 

Lasselle,  C.  B.:     "Old  Fur  Traders  of  Indiana" 1 

Military  Circular  of  1812 185 

National  Road  Bridge  at  Indianapolis,  Building  of 39 


208  INDEX 

National  Road,  Early  Work  On 40 

Navigable  Streams,  List  of 94 

Newspapers,  Early  Indiana 107 

Newspapers  and  Public  Libraries 158 

Newspaper  Index 151,  203 

Printers,  First  in  Indianapolis 121 

Printing  Press,  First  Steam  in  Indianapolis  (With  Frontispiece  for  Sep- 
tember number) 157 

Reminiscences  of  Amos  Hanway 39 

Revolutionary  Soldiers,  Graves  of,  in  Indiana 97,  159,  200 

Richmond  Laid  Off  and  Named  by  David  Hoover 24 

River  Navigation  in  Indiana 89 

Schools,  Early,  of  Indiana  (Series  by  D.  D.  Banta) 41,  81,  131,  191 

Settlers'  Meeting,  First 28 

Snow  Fall  in  1869 105 

Squirrel  Burgoo 16 

Sulgrove,  Berry,  Sketch  of 139 

Tippecanoe,  Battle  of  (Account  of  Isaac  Naylor) 163 

Tippecanoe  Battleground,  Map  of  (Frontispiece  for  December  number). 

Tippecanoe  Campaign  (Journal  of  John  Tipton) 170 

Tippecanoe,  Line  of  March  to.     Map.     (Frontispiece  for  December  num- 
ber.) 

Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  Too  (Song,  with  music) 198 

Tipton,  John,  Tippecanoe  Journal  of ...  170 

Twelve-Mile  Purchase,  First  Settlers  in 26 

Wabash  River,  Navigation  on ...  93 

Wayne  County,  First  Old  Settlers'  Meeting  in 21