F 526 
 .K62 
 Copy 1 
 
 CENTENNIAL 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 INDIANA 
 
 By 
 ALECK DAVIS 
 
 Illustrations by George B. Sweitzer 
 
 1816—1916 
 
 ^pi 
 
CENTENNIAL 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 INDIANA 
 
 B, 
 
 ALECK DAVIS Miit^ 
 
 lUustrations by GEORGE B. SwEITZER 
 
 Copyright 1916 
 By John W. Kitch 
 

 / 
 
 JUL 26 1916 
 ©CI.A43556J 
 
This volume is Respectfully 
 Dedicated to the Order of 
 Hoosieroons and its First Grand 
 High Potentate, 
 
 May they suffer long, silently 
 and patiently, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 A half century ago, there was a crying need 
 for Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup among the 
 children of Indiana. To day, those of the 
 children of '66, who have survived the taking 
 ways of malaria, the White Caps and the au- 
 tomobile, are engaged in the mad rush for 
 wealthand toobusy to spend weeksandmonths 
 poring over, and wading through, the long 
 drawn-out detailed, dry facts of history as here- 
 tofore doled out to Indiana readers; hence this 
 little volume. It is designed to take the place of 
 Mother Winslow's concoction as the crying 
 need of a busy public. 
 
 This work is not intended to belittle the ef- 
 forts of such historians as have gone before. 
 They did the best they could. Many of them 
 did not have the advantage of an acquaintance 
 with the author of this work. 
 
 THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY is de- 
 signed to be a plain, truthful, delineation of 
 important events in Indiana. It is arranged 
 so that the shop-keeper, in his leisure moments 
 between sales of shirtwaists and prunes, and 
 the farmer, during the noon hours and on 
 rainy afternoons, may glean the history of 
 their native state, free from the frills, embel- 
 lishments and biased opinions of the larger 
 chronicles. All such superfluous matters as 
 Indian massacres, detailed political battles and 
 biographies of big guns have been eliminated. 
 Nobody's picture, or his own recollection of 
 the great things he has accomplished, is pub- 
 lished herein at so much per. 
 
 This work is intended to secure to the auth- 
 or, fame and riches, but no space has been 
 
farmed out to patent medicine firms or to the 
 author's competitors in the realm of fame. 
 
 The thanks of the author are due to those 
 who have assisted and made possible the com- 
 pletion of this work. Special mention is due 
 to Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who built the library 
 where the stufT was read that was put into this 
 history. Christopher Columbus also has the 
 thanks of the author for so kindly discovering 
 this country when he did and thus making 
 possible a history of this sort. Last, but by 
 no means least, Miranda and the Twins should 
 not be forgotten. It was their faithful attend- 
 ance at the shirt factory that kept up the fam- 
 ily larder while this work was being compiled 
 on the back stoop, and it was they who pro- 
 cured the scissors from the factory with which 
 many of the beautiful gems were written. 
 
 Aleck Davis. 
 
 Hobbstown, Indiana, July 4, 1916. 
 
Centennial History 
 
 of 
 
 Indiana 
 
 When the dreamer, Columbus, landed on the 
 little tropical isle of San Salvador and discov- 
 ered a new world, he had but little idea of the 
 wonderful find he had made. He did not know 
 that he was opening to the use of civilization, 
 a vast new Earth with resources never thought 
 of by the wildest of Humanity's visionaries. 
 
 Columbus died and generations of other ex- 
 plorers followed him and passed away, and 
 yet the half had not been discovered. 
 
 The rich gold lands of Mexico were exploit- 
 ed, and daring adventurers penetrated the 
 deadly sw^amps of the southern part of our 
 country in search of the fascinating yellow 
 metal. But there lay untouched, in the very 
 
center of this great empire, a land of wealth, 
 capable of yielding many times the treasure 
 to be found in the alluring lands of the south. 
 For over two hundred years after Columbus 
 had startled the world and gone almost friend- 
 less and penniless to his grave, the untutored 
 savage contended with the buffalo of the prai- 
 ries and the wilder and more ferocious beasts 
 of the dense forests for an existence, along the 
 valleys of the St. -Joe, the White, the Wabash 
 and the Ohio rivers. 
 
 At first Spain claimed all this vast, unknown 
 region, and exercised a sort of general rule 
 over it because of her early discoveries. Then 
 France sent her explorers and missionaries 
 into the Mississippi Valley and began to es- 
 tablish trading posts and missions at various 
 points. 
 
 However, the territory comprised in the 
 state of Indiana was still in its primeval con- 
 dition at the outbreak of the Revolutionary 
 War, with the exception of that occupied by 
 a small band of hardy French pioneers who 
 had a settlement on the east bank of the Wa- 
 bash River about fifty-five miles above its 
 junction with the Ohio. This point had been 
 a trading post since early in the 18th Century, 
 but for many years, it could scarcely be called a 
 settlement. Only a few daring spirits, devotees 
 of the church, surrounded by savages more to 
 be feared than wild beasts, cultivated small 
 patches of grain, hunted for game in the forests 
 and lived almost like Indians themselves. 
 
 The savages of the Indiana of that day were 
 diiTerent from those to be found in the state 
 now. 
 
 They were not so crude in their methods. 
 
When the savages of the ante-Revolutionary 
 period took up the delicate task of carving up 
 a citizen, they did it "neatly and with dis- 
 patch." There was no bungling, no hesitation, 
 no negotiating, no criminations or recrimina- 
 
 
 
 "Took up the delicate task of carving up a citizen." 
 
 tions. They simply removed the place where 
 the bald spot ought to be and traveled on to 
 greener pastures. Sometimes a mere minority 
 would control a whole convention by means of 
 the unit rule and the scalping knife. 
 
 The Pottawatamies and the Shawnees were 
 among the most energetic of the Hoosier in- 
 habitants of that day. They took the prin- 
 cipal part in the entertainment of General Har- 
 mer, Arthur St. Clair and Mad Anthony 
 Wayne in the vicinity of where Ft. Wayne 
 
 8 
 
now stands. It is possible that we would have 
 had Ed. Hoffman and the big Allen County- 
 court house long before we did, if it had not 
 been for the reckless dissipation of these red- 
 skinned gentlemen. 
 
 At the close of the last French and Indian 
 War, the territory of Indiana became a part 
 of the British possessions in America. In 
 1778 and 1779, one George Rogers Clark, with 
 an imposing army of some sixty or more men, 
 over-ran the states of Indiana and Illinois and 
 captured the principal cities of Vincennes and 
 Kaskaskia. The sum of Twelve Hundred 
 Pounds Sterling was donated to Clark as ex- 
 pense money for this expedition. It has been 
 the consensus of opinion that Clark worked 
 too cheaply. There are some slanderous 
 tongues that have even gone so far as to inti- 
 mate it has cost Bill Cullop more than that 
 sum to capture Vincennes alone in recent 
 years. 
 
 It was an important work that Clark did. 
 He made us citizens of the United States in- 
 stead of mere British subjects. If it had not 
 been for him, George Ade and Meredith Nich- 
 olson would probably be digging in the 
 trenches at Verdun today instead of trying to 
 monopolize the Centennial literature in this 
 great commonwealth, and Tom Marshall 
 would doubtless be paying tribute to one, J. 
 Bull instead of throwing the one without a 
 christian name and talking about a prepared- 
 ness that makes for peace. 
 
 We have honored Clark by naming a whole 
 county after him and putting a penitentiary 
 there where our youth may be educated. 
 
 Gen. Anthony Wayne 
 
Tecumseh 
 
 In 1787, Northwest Territory was organized 
 and Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor. 
 What is now Indiana was included in this ter- 
 ritory. Thirteen years later Indiana territory 
 was organized and William Henry Harrison 
 made first governor. Vincennes was the capi- 
 tal. It wasn't much of a place then. The de- 
 pot hotel had not even been built at that time, 
 but the streets were just as muddy as they are 
 now. It was here in 1811, that Tecumseh made 
 his famous Henry Warrum Speech that caused 
 the Battle of Tippecanoe. This was the only real 
 sure-enough battle ever fought in the state. 
 Tecumseh was badly defeated in the Battle of 
 Tippecanoe, but the Indians over in the Tenth 
 District have since re-captured the territory 
 and it is difficult for a white man to accomplish 
 anything there even now. 
 
 Indiana was admitted to the Union as a 
 state in 1816. By that time it had a consider- 
 able number of people scattered over its south- 
 ern portion engaged in the pursuit of raising 
 corn, wheat, potatoes, hades, tobacco and other 
 useful cereals. The capital of the territory had 
 been removed to Corydon in Harrison County 
 and here a state house had been built out of 
 native stone, forty feet square and two stories 
 high. The builder was a mason by the name 
 of Dennis Pennington who was afterwards 
 one of the state's first legislators. A state con- 
 stitution was drafted during the summer, most 
 of the sessions being held under an elm tree 
 a couple of blocks away from the state house. 
 This tree has been preserved and is known as 
 "The Constitutional Elm." It isn't much of 
 a tree. There is much better saw timber in 
 many less noted parts of the state. 
 
 10 
 
When Indiana became a state, Jonathan 
 Jennings became its first governor and served 
 six years. He had no whiskers. Jennings 
 County is named after him, but he couldn't 
 help it and it is understood that he did not 
 belong to either the Vernon or the North Ver- 
 non faction in the court house fight. 
 
 Corydon, Indiana's first state capital, is a 
 rather neat little village nestling down among 
 the stony hills of Harrison County. The hotel 
 landlord also acts as clerk, steward, table 
 waiter and chambermaid. He is a corpulent, 
 
 good-natured old fellow who dotes on fried state House at Corydon. 
 
 chicken, and prides himself on the quality of 
 this provender he dishes out to his guests. The 
 electric lights go out at midnight, but there is 
 a kerosene lamp in each room for the accom- 
 modation of the stranger and wayfaring man 
 who may perchance keep late hours. 
 
 A railroad extends from Corydon to Corydon 
 Junction, a distance of seven miles as the crow 
 flies. But there are no flies on the railroad. A 
 disciple of Theodore Roosevelt acts as super- 
 intendent, general manager, operator, ticket 
 agent and conductor of the train. The engine 
 on the train has a whistle with a sweet and 
 mellifluous voice that reverberates among the 
 hills and vales and scrub oaks of Harrison 
 County as it announces the passage of the train 
 to this historic spot. 
 
 About a mile and a half out of Corydon, on 
 the Louisville Pike, stands the old stone tavern 
 where Governor Jennings and the legislators 
 ate their meals and dreamed their dreams of 
 future greatness. A private family lives in it 
 now. Just back of the building, where the rain 
 barrel stood, in which the statesmen were wont nSuriVoidTiiow."*'"'^' 
 
 11 
 
The Monument 
 
 to lave their honest toil-marked faces, the 
 clothesline is fastened and there, back and 
 forth, the summer breezes whip the newly- 
 washed calicoes and ginghams of the farmer 
 and his family. The cock roaches creep in and 
 out of crevices that once resounded to the heat- 
 ed debates and quieter intrigues of the General 
 Assembly of the great state, as only intrigues 
 and debates can resound. 
 
 Indianapolis was laid out in 1820. It has 
 been thought dead several times since but they 
 didn't lay it out on those occasions. In 1825, 
 the state capital was removed from Corydon, 
 and Indianapolis, has since that time, shared 
 with French Lick, the seat of government. The 
 state treasury was moved by ox-team over the 
 mellow highways of Southern Indiana, and 
 was a slow and tedious process. Samuel Mer- 
 rill was the state treasurer at that time. He 
 was the grandfather of Congressman Merrill 
 Moores of Indianapolis. 
 
 Indianapolis is situated near the center of 
 the state, on the White River and around the 
 soldiers' monument which stands just across 
 the street from Bill English's old hotel. The 
 principal places of interest in Indianapolis are 
 the Union Depot and Pop June's oyster house. 
 
 In 1831, the first steam mill in the state was 
 erected at Indianapolis. At that time there 
 were no safety zones and the rural visitor 
 could cross one of the streets on the bias if he 
 wished to without being insulted by some big 
 Irish policeman. 
 
 The highways of that day were more pic- 
 turesque than serviceable. It is said that on 
 the site of the old trails leading to Indianapo- 
 lis, one can hardly dig a well without going 
 
 12 
 
through two or three layers of Conestoga wag- 
 ons and ox-bones. The Michigan Road was laid 
 out in 1832 from Michigan City to Cincinnati, 
 but that portion lying between Plymouth and 
 Lakeville has never been completed. As late 
 as 1848, a citizen of the state fell off of this road 
 into the cat-tail swamp where Argos now 
 
 "The highways of that day were more picturesque 
 than serviceable." 
 
 stands, and it was with difficulty that he was 
 rescued from an untimely death. The road 
 was originally laid out one hundred feet in 
 width, but the enterprising farmers along the 
 way have allowed their fences to gravitate to- 
 ward the center in many instances, and the 
 road isn't so wide any more. 
 
 One of the earlier enterprises of the state 
 was the Wabash and Erie Canal. This was 
 designed to connect the waters of Lake Erie 
 with those of the Mississippi while branches 
 were to run to Indianapolis and other points 
 forming" a net-work of water-ways over the 
 state. The advent of the railroad in the later 
 forties spoiled this plan and the completed 
 parts of the canal are now used as feeding 
 
 13 
 
grounds for bull-heads and big, warty, green 
 frogs. In connection with the Wabash and 
 Erie Canal, profanity was introduced into the 
 state. 
 
 The first railway in Indiana was built from 
 Madison to Indianapolis. It took eight years 
 to complete this road. The road-bed seems 
 to have been built on a sort of perpendicular 
 scallop style. The rolling stock is said to have 
 been repainted at one time since the road was 
 
 "Built on a sort of perpendicular scallop style." 
 
 completed, some new ties have been installed 
 and the wooden rails with iron straps have 
 been replaced by metal rails. One trip from 
 the Capital City to Madison over this road is 
 equal to a month's treatment with a modem 
 chiropractor. 
 
 Manufacturing has made great strides in In- 
 diana during the century just past. From the 
 early inhabitant sitting astride his shaving 
 horse and turning out clapboards and ax-han- 
 dles, we have grown to wonderful proportions 
 as a manufacturing people. The cotton mills 
 at Madison, tin-plate mills at Elwood, steel 
 mills at Gary and Indiana Harbor, vehicle fac- 
 tories at Auburn, South Bend, Kokomo, Indi- 
 anapolis and other cities, are only a small part 
 of our manufacturing industries. There are 
 almost numberless factories making imple- 
 
 14 
 
ments, fabrics, food products, fixtures and nov- 
 elties of every kind and description in every 
 part of the commonwealth. 
 
 The State Seal of Indiana consists of a 
 rough-looking citizen chopping down a slip- 
 pery elm tree, while a mad buffalo, with eyes 
 shut, head down and tail distended, is rushing 
 by, evidently on his way, but knowing not 
 whither he is drifting, while a very brilliant sun 
 is just coming up or going down at the north 
 end of the scene. It is suggestive of some 
 Hoosier characteristic, but no one seems to 
 know just what. 
 
 Politics is one of the main industries of the 
 state. Andrew Jackson always carried Indi- 
 ana, but he doesn't get any votes any more 
 since the Spanish American War. Formerly 
 when a man wanted to run for office, he mere- 
 ly announced himself as a candidate and made 
 a campaign to suit himself. His campaign 
 speeches were often made from nearby stumps, 
 from whence came the name, "Stump Speak- 
 er." The average man no longer runs for office 
 in that way. Those who do, don't get very far. 
 The candidate for office, today, must be named 
 as a candidate of some particular party and 
 all members of that party are in duty bound to 
 vote for him under the pains and penalties of 
 treason. We select road and pike superinten- 
 dents, not because of any knowledge on their 
 parts as to the construction or repair of high- 
 ways, but because they are faithful servants of 
 the dominant political party. A citizen may 
 be unable to read or write the English lang- 
 uage intelligently, but if he can distinguish a 
 picture of a rooster from that of an eagle, or 
 that of an eagle from some other similar em- 
 
 "It is suggestive of some 
 Hoosier characteristic." 
 
 15 
 
"From whence came the 
 name Stump Speaker." 
 
 blem, and if he is loyal with a big L, — that is 
 if he votes the ticket of his chosen party, reg- 
 ularly, continuously, unreservedly, completely, 
 and without the least equivocation or mental 
 reservation, — he is eligible, in Indiana, to any 
 office of public trust or private snap, from Gov- 
 ernor to school director or street sweeper. 
 Sometimes, under this system we get the situ- 
 ation a trifle confused and put a strong, 
 healthy, bull-necked man, who would make a 
 splendid sweeper of the streets, into the State 
 House, while we compel the weazened, little 
 chap, whose brain development has out-run 
 his physical growth, to work on the streets, 
 where he is helpless except in the matter of 
 raising a dust. 
 
 Indiana took a prominent part in the Mexi- 
 can War of the Forties, however, much she tried 
 to forget it later. It seems that some one re- 
 ported that an Indiana regiment at the Battle 
 of Buena Vista felt that the expression, "There 
 he goes," was a much happier one than, 
 "Doesn't he look natural?" All good loyal 
 Hoosiers have since found out that the report 
 was a vile slander, and since it happened so 
 long ago and since none of our folks were pres- 
 ent, let's let it go at that. 
 
 In 1850, the restless people of Indiana de- 
 cided that the state constitution needed revis- 
 ing. The constitution at that time had been 
 in use only thirty-four years and wasn't a bit 
 frayed around the edges. Besides, it had stick- 
 ing to it all the sacred memories of a scrubby 
 elm tree, and the wisdom of a lot of infallible 
 and immaculate forefathers. But the people 
 were obdurate. Addison Harris and Charles 
 Sefrit were not then engaged in saving the mob 
 
 16 
 
from itself and its follies, and the constitution 
 was revised by framing a new one. This in- 
 strument was made perfect and to fit the ex- 
 igencies of all coming ages. 
 
 The preamble to this constitution is as fol- 
 lows: — "We declare that all men are created 
 equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
 with certain unalienable rights; that among 
 these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
 ness ; that all power is inherent in the people; 
 that all free governments are, and of right 
 ought to be, founded on their authority, and 
 instituted for their peace, safety and well-be- 
 ing. For the advancement of these ends, the 
 people have, at all times, an indefeasable right 
 to alter and reform their government." 
 
 By "men" and "people" this preamble 
 means, of course, "learned men" and "leading 
 people" — folks like the author of this work 
 and Charles Warren Fairbanks and Steve 
 Fleming, and not the common herd that is al- 
 ways trying something detrimental to its own 
 interests. 
 
 A wise provision of the constitution is that 
 all lawyers must be persons of good moral 
 character. It would indeed be a calamity if 
 we allowed persons to practice law in the 
 courts when such persons were dishonest or 
 immoral in some particulars. It is consoling 
 to the people to know that they are able to 
 trust their lawyers implicitly and that they are 
 thus safe-guarded by the fundamental law of 
 the commonwealth. Another provision of this 
 constitution that we should all be grateful for, 
 is that found in Article 10, Section 1, in regard 
 to securing a just valuation for the taxing of 
 all property. What a sad commentary it 
 
 17 
 
would be on our republican form of govern- 
 ment, if some wicked men might escape a full 
 and just valuation of any part of their taxable 
 property. As it is, we can rest assured that 
 every man pays his equitable share of the bur- 
 dens of state. 
 
 When this constitution was framed, there 
 were no street or interurban railways in Indi- 
 ana; there was only one steam railroad in the 
 state ; there were no electric or gas light com- 
 panies and no telephone companies. None of 
 the great industries were even heard of at that 
 time. The population was engaged almost 
 wholly in rural pursuits. But in the minds of 
 our great men, that condition seemed to make 
 no difference in the capacity the framers had 
 for meeting every possible contingency, and 
 no difference in the perfection of the instru- 
 ment they created. These wise men of Indiana 
 now proclaim that the constitutional fathers 
 of the Fifties were able to make provision for 
 every contingency, and those wicked gentle- 
 men who think we have out-grown the consti- 
 tution adopted sixty-four years ago, should 
 hike them hence at once and learn wisdom 
 at the feet of the officers of the State Brewers' 
 Association and the eminent persons named 
 elsewhere in this connection. 
 
 When the terrible Civil War began, and 
 President Lincoln called for troops, thousands 
 of Indiana's brave and patriotic citizens hur- 
 ried to the front or to Canada. Oliver P. Mor- 
 ton was the war governor of the state. He had 
 whiskers but did not part them in the middle 
 or trim them down to the shape of a half co- 
 coanut. He was an energetic advocate of the 
 cause of the North and did more work in its be- 
 
 18 
 
half, considering the resources at his command, 
 than any other of the famous war governors. 
 
 There were more privates than generals 
 among the Indiana soldiers, and there were 
 very few engagements fought during the war 
 that did not find Hoosiers in the ranks. 
 
 General Morgan's famous raid into the 
 North extended into Indiana. Morgan and his 
 men crossed the Ohio River at Mauckport and 
 marched northward through Corydon plun- 
 dering stores and farms as he traveled. When 
 he reached Palmyra, a small hamlet in the 
 northern part of Harrison County, the yeo- 
 manry of that region had gathered to obstruct 
 his passage. The embattled farmers were 
 armed with shot guns, pistols, pitch- forks, crow- 
 bars, hand-spikes and other formidable weap- 
 ons of warfare. Morgan and his troopers got 
 away and marched to Salem in Washington 
 County, where a cannon was planted in the 
 streets, and the raider taking alarm, fled to 
 the east through Jennings, Ripley and other 
 counties into Ohio, where he was finally cap- 
 tured by the Federals. Another smaller raid 
 by guerilla bands was made into Spencer and 
 Warrick Counties earlier in the war but slight 
 damage was done. Outside of these two in- 
 vasions, Indiana was free from Southern 
 troops during the struggle. 
 
 The white population of Indiana in 1800 was 
 shown by the census to be 2517. There were 
 nearly ten times that number in 1810. Since 
 then there has been a gradual increase in in- 
 habitants until today we are stretching toward 
 the three million mark. Probably no state has 
 a greater diversity of people than has Indiana. 
 The first white settlers were French and many 
 
 19 
 
of the early French names are yet to be found 
 in the older communities. After the Revo- 
 lutionary, the southern tier of counties began 
 to fill up with emigrants from Kentucky, Vir- 
 ginia and the Carolinas. Later, came the 
 Quakers and other eastern state men to the 
 Whitewater region. A large influx of Penn- 
 sylvania Germans moved first into Ohio and 
 later into northern and central Indiana. The 
 state also received its share of the Revolution- 
 ists of 1848, and the persecuted refugees from 
 Ireland. During the past forty years, the Scan- 
 dinavians of the north and the South-of- 
 Europe hordes have moved in great numbers 
 to the more populous centers of the state, un- 
 til today there is scarcely a race of people that 
 is not to be found within the borders of Indi- 
 ana. 
 
 Many residents of Indiana fail to appreciate 
 the varied resources she possesses. Her soil is 
 the very best, and every product of the Temper- 
 ate Zone is likely to be found growing here. But 
 the agricultural possibilities are not, by any 
 means, all she has in the way of natural re- 
 sources. In the southwestern portion are great 
 coal deposits. In the central and eastern parts 
 are oil wells, and there, a few years ago, In- 
 diana's Natural Gas Belt was the wonder of 
 the age. In the later eighties and the early 
 nineties, the exuberant Hoosiers of Hamilton, 
 Tipton, Howard, Madison, Delaware and 
 other central Indiana counties thought they 
 had an inexhaustible supply of fuel and light 
 in the gas wells of that region. Flambeaus 
 burned on every corner and the people revelled 
 in a carnival of flame that would never end. 
 
 But it did end. 
 
 20 
 
Old Mother Earth differed from some of our 
 leading- citizens. Her supply of gas could be 
 estimated in cubic feet, and the time came 
 when the flow showed signs of decrease. Then 
 the pressure weakened perceptibly. It dwin- 
 dled down to a mere shadow and was practic- 
 ally gone. Of course, the iron go-devil oc- 
 casionally soars skyward in fragments even 
 yet as the oil and gas wells are shot, but most 
 of the promoters and investors and dream- 
 millionaires have shot their wads, and we must 
 either manufacture the gas we use or have it 
 pumped through our meters by Geist and his 
 minions, or have it thrust upon us during the 
 Chautauqua seasons and the biennial political 
 battles. 
 
 Indiana's stone quarries are unsurpassed. 
 The Oolitic stone deposits extend from Green- 
 castle, the home of Honorable Jackson Boyd, 
 to Salem, a distance of nearly one hundred 
 miles, with a width of from three to ten miles. 
 Blue limestone is to be found in southeastern 
 Indiana in abundance, while the southwestern 
 part of the state is rich in brown, buff and gray 
 sandstone. Whetstones are made from the 
 Orange County quarries and the politicians 
 usually go there at the beginning of each cam- 
 paign to whet up. This county is also the 
 home of Pluto Water which is used by all the 
 best families. 
 
 Some iron deposits are to be found in vari- 
 ous parts of the state, but it has not been found 
 profital)le to work them. It is easier to work 
 the inhabitants. 
 
 Small quantities of drift gold have been found 
 in Brown, Morgan and other nearby counties, 
 but most of the Indiana gold has been carried 
 
 21 
 
away by promoters of mines at the mouth of 
 the Columbia River and in Central America. 
 
 The Judicial system of Indiana consists of 
 a Supreme Court composed of five judges, an 
 Appellate Court of six judges, sixty-seven Cir- 
 cuit Courts each presided over by one judge, 
 justice courts in each township, city courts in 
 each organized city, a number of Superior 
 Courts established by special act of the legis- 
 lature and one or two criminal courts in the 
 larger counties. 
 
 Justice courts are provided for by the con- 
 stitution and are limited in their jurisdiction. 
 A justice court is usually presided over by 
 some retired farmer or shop-keeper who knows 
 no law and runs his court without fear of God, 
 man or legal precedent. If a litigant is dis- 
 pleased with the decision of a justice court, 
 he may file a bond within thirty days and ap- 
 peal to a Circuit or Superior Court, where in 
 the course of a year or two, it is tried again, — 
 this time by a court generally learned in the 
 law. 
 
 The Circuit and Superior Courts are con- 
 current in jurisdiction in most matters, the 
 Superior Court being merely a supplemental 
 court established by the legislature in coun- 
 ties where the work of the Circuit Court is too 
 heavy. Nearly all important litigation passes 
 through one or the other of these courts. Ap- 
 peals may be taken from these courts to the 
 Supreme and Appellate Courts. The Appel- 
 late Court is a sort of supplemental adjunct of 
 the Supreme Court and was established to re- 
 lieve the Supreme Court of part of its work. 
 
 Neither the Supreme or Appellate Court 
 tries cases in the sense that evidence is heard. 
 
 22 
 
They are courts of review and merely deal 
 with the errors of the lower courts and review 
 their decisions. 
 
 City Courts are courts of inferior jurisdic- 
 tion and generally of an inferior quality of leg- 
 al timber. They are usually of the "hit and 
 miss" variety of performance and are presided 
 over b)'' persons who have been admitted to 
 the bar and take that for granted as being suf- 
 ficient to make them lawyers. 
 
 The Judges of our Circuit, Superior and 
 higher courts are usually lawyers of high grade 
 and but little scandal has ever been connected 
 with the judiciary of the state. 
 
 For a number of years our people have been 
 discussing "The law's delays." It is generally 
 understood that the process of litigation is 
 slow, wearisome and oppressive in many ways. 
 This however, is not so much the fault of the 
 courts as it is the fault of the system. The prac- 
 tice act of Indiana could be made more simple 
 and expeditious without impairing its efficiency, 
 but as a rule, our legislators are too busy pass- 
 ing fishing laws and game laws and ferret bills 
 and inspection bills and other crazy creations 
 of back-woods statesmen, to pay much atten- 
 tion to the simplification of our practice act. 
 
 In an early day, it was the custom to send 
 the biggest, brainiest men of the community 
 to the General Assembly. Such men as Robert 
 Dale Owen, Judge Isaac Blackford, Jesse 
 Bright and Oliver H.Smith were in turn, mem- 
 bers. This practice of careful selection for leg- 
 islative timber was in vogue in Indiana, as late 
 as the Civil War. In the last few years, however, 
 the main qualification of a legislator seems to 
 depend upon his attitude on the liquor ques- 
 
 23 
 
tion. If he is "safe" in this particular, he can 
 easily be depended upon to vote "right" upon 
 every other question involving any of the pred- 
 atory interests. 
 
 The pay of a member of the General Assem- 
 bly is six dollars per day and mileage. States- 
 men and patriots are loath to come forward at 
 that price unless there are other emoluments 
 of office in sight. So, sometimes, it is a scrub- 
 by-looking lot that goes up to the Capital 
 building to make our laws. Not many Har- 
 risons or Turpies or McDonalds or Mortons 
 or Hendrickses sit in our legislatures now-a- 
 days. 
 
 At a recent session of the General Assembly 
 of Indiana, an allowance of Ten Dollars a day 
 was made to a colored porter out of the state 
 treasury, while the statesmen, whose coats and 
 hats and shoes he brushed and cared for, and 
 and who paid him tip-money in addition, re- 
 ceived only six dollars a day. All this goes to 
 show that a good porter is a more valuable as- 
 set to the state than a statesman. 
 
 Our legislatures have been very productive 
 of laws of varied character and description. It 
 takes a pretty good lawyer to keep up with all 
 the freak changes. One has to be on the alert 
 to know whether he can keep out of jail and at 
 the same time hunt rabbits with a ferret, or 
 whether he can sell a horse with a ring-bone 
 or spavin without first publishing the fact in 
 the local papers. 
 
 The constitution requires that before a bill 
 shall become a law it must be passed by a ma- 
 jority of both houses of the General Assembly 
 and signed by the Governor of the State, or in 
 case of his veto, to be passed by a two-thirds 
 
 24 
 
vote of each house, but the legislature referred 
 to above, improved upon the constitutional 
 idea and dispensed in some cases with the for- 
 mality of passing" the laws at all. They were 
 merely placed upon the statute books. It may 
 be that in time we can even improve upon that 
 plan. The legislators might have their pet 
 
 "Whether he can sell a horse with a ring bone or spavin without 
 first publishing the fact." 
 
 measures all ready for introduction the first 
 day of the session and drop them into a hopper. 
 Then the clerks and door-keepers and pages and 
 porters might keep open house up at the Capi- 
 tol for the amusement of the public and tele- 
 phonic communication might be had between 
 the poker rooms at the hotels in case an emerg- 
 
 25 
 
ency arose. Every time a statesman held an 
 ace-full or better, he could be allowed to go up 
 to the assembly hall and address the galleries 
 on the state of the country. At the end of the 
 sixty day session, the party leaders could pre- 
 pare the needed changes in laws for the print- 
 er, after which, each statesman could gather up 
 his share of the stationary, books and other per- 
 quisites and go on his way home. This, of 
 course, is only a suggestion and may not meet 
 the ideas of those in power and a better and 
 less irksome plan may be adopted later. 
 
 Indiana established a system of free schools 
 at the time the present state constitution was 
 adopted. In 1848, a vote was taken at the gen- 
 eral election on the question, and 78,523 votes 
 were cast for free schools and 61,887 against 
 them. At that time, a great proportion of the 
 population could not read or write. Since that 
 time, great strides have been made in educa- 
 tional matters and very few of Indiana's in- 
 habitants are now without at least a common 
 school education, while thousands of college- 
 bred men and women are engaged in various 
 pursuits over the state. There are also a num- 
 ber of men, like the author of this work, who 
 are possessed of a superior education and 
 whose fund of knowledge is practically inex- 
 haustible, thus placing Indiana in a high rank 
 in educational matters. 
 
 It has been said that every man in Indiana 
 is a politician. It isn't true. The author of 
 this standard history knows. He once took 
 it for granted that the statement was true and 
 that he was included among the politicians. 
 The things that were done to him were too 
 various and extended for the space at his com- 
 mand here. He isn't a politician. There are 
 
 26 
 
a few politicians in Indiana and a lot of indi- 
 vidiiaLs that might be designated by the scien- 
 tific name of '"dubs." The great majority of 
 the voters of this state merely look for the em- 
 blem of a rooster or an eagle on election day 
 and vote a ticket usually framed up under 
 some back stairway or in some private office 
 by a little coterie of real politicians. 
 
 The most despised individual in the state is 
 the voter who becomes nauseated with the 
 performances of his party organization, falls 
 off the band wagon and heads for the woods. 
 As he goes streaking for the tall timber, every 
 little tad-pole follower of the big noise wrig- 
 gles off in the opposite direction, and the out- 
 law is told that his performance "won't git him 
 nothin'." Not one voter in twenty has any- 
 thing to do with framing party platforms or 
 selecting party tickets, but the beautiful thing 
 about it all is that he never suspects the truth. 
 After he has marched in the glare of the Ro- 
 man candles and Greek fire and howled him- 
 self hoarse a few times, and has served faith- 
 fully as challenger at the polls and has ad- 
 dressed the assembled multitudes at Podunk 
 School House on the virtues of his party, he is 
 all the happier for not knowing that he is mere- 
 ly a button on the key-board, and not a poli- 
 tician at all. 
 
 Probably no other state in the Union has 
 furnished so many literary characters in the 
 same length of time as has Indiana. In a work 
 published sixteen years ago, poems were given 
 from one hundred forty-six Indiana authors. 
 All of these poems possess literary merit, and 
 a number of the authors have attained nation- 
 wide celebrity. The writers of prose far out- 
 number the poets in this state. 
 
 27 
 
It is not possible in this brief volume to 
 enumerate all of Indiana's Avriters or discuss 
 the merits of their productions, but a glance at 
 a few of the best known will not be out of 
 place. 
 
 Edward Eggleston has been called the "First 
 of the Hoosiers," and certainly his pictures of 
 early Indiana life in "The Hoosier School 
 Master" and "The Circuit Rider," did as much 
 as anything else to awaken an interest in In- 
 diana writings and Indiana writers. Some of 
 the dialect used in these books has been criti- 
 cised as not true to the life of the early Hoos- 
 iers, but any one who lived in a backwoods 
 settlement in Indiana, only fifty years ago, 
 would recognize the jargon of Miranda Means 
 and Bud and the rest of them as the language 
 of some of their nearest neighbors. Eggleston's 
 books were as fairly true pictures of early In- 
 diana people as were the scenes from the "Gen- 
 tleman from Indiana" pictures of another 
 phase of Indiana life in another day. Booth 
 Tarkington, the writer became famous merely 
 because he made Hoosier life interesting and 
 yet depicted scenes founded upon fact. 
 
 Among Indiana writers, probably General 
 Lew Wallace is the best known. His "Ben 
 Hur" has been read around the world. John 
 Clark Ridpath's historical works are to be 
 found in almost every library. James Whit- 
 comb Riley, the erstwhile sign-writer, became 
 famous with his quaint verses, and "The Old 
 Swimmin' Hole," "Old Aunt Mary's" and 
 "When the Frost is on the Punkin and the 
 Fodder's in the Shock" have delighted thou- 
 sands of readers who never saw Indiana. These 
 are only a few of the famous Hoosier writers. 
 Who has not read George Barr McCutcheon's 
 
 28 
 
"Graustark" or laughed over John McCutch- 
 eon's cartoons? Where is the boy, girl, man or 
 woman who does not enjoy George Ade's "Fa- 
 bles in Slang" or Kin Hubbard's foolish phil- 
 osophy? The names of Nicholson, Thompson, 
 Dillon, Jordan, Sarah Bolton, Will Carleton 
 and a large number of others are known the 
 country over as famous Indiana writers. If 
 it were not for the extreme modesty of the 
 writer of this sketch, — but. Oh ! what's the 
 use? It's time to quit anyway. 
 
 They're Coming Home. 
 
 From the West. 
 
 From the East. 
 
 From Poseyville to Polingtown 
 
 From Rising Sun to Gary, 
 The folks are hustling up and down 
 
 For our first Centenary. 
 From far and near, where'er men roam, 
 
 The Hoosier Folk are coming home. 
 
 They're gathering in at Evansville; 
 
 They've captured Old Ft. Wayne; 
 They'll celebrate at Bunker Hill, 
 
 .A.nd Muncie will raise Cain. 
 
 29 
 
From all the lands both far and near, 
 The Hoosier folk are gathering here. 
 
 And every county in the state 
 
 Has donned its Sunday coat, 
 The Century to celebrate. 
 
 From Berne to Terre Haute; 
 And railway business is not slack, 
 
 For Hoosier folk are coming back. 
 
 A hundred years we've been a state. 
 And, My! How we have grown. 
 
 'Tis fitting that we celebrate, 
 And bring back to their own 
 
 The errant folk who've strayed away. 
 So welcome, Hoosiers, come and stay. 
 
 Great as has been Indiana's progress during 
 the century of statehood, the indications are that 
 she is just entering upon her real career of pro- 
 gress. Situated far enough from the sea-board 
 to be free from the weakening influence of the 
 older east, with a land rich in almost every na- 
 tural advantage and a people just ready to 
 ripen into a real intelligent democracy of 
 thought and action, no state has brighter pros- 
 pects of the future. What the next hundred 
 years will bring forth woiild be as much of a 
 revelation to us if we could live to see it as the 
 present would be to the forefathers of 1816, 
 could they see us now. 
 
 In this, the one hundredth year of Indiana's 
 statehood, fitting celebrations are being held in 
 all parts of the state. Freckled-faced little girls 
 by the thousands and boys with stone-bruised 
 heels everywhere, are learning pieces to speak 
 and practicing Centennial odes written by the 
 local doggerel writers in each community. The 
 Sons and Daughters of the American Revolu- 
 tion, whose great, grandfathers ran tanneries 
 at Bridgeport, Connecticut during that war, 
 are busily engaged in forming committees and 
 
 30 
 
drilling imitation Indians for pageants and 
 plays. The local Demosthenes is addressing 
 immense audiences of from twelve to twenty- 
 five in each section of his county, on the im- 
 portance of observing this centennial, and the 
 marvellous feats of Indiana's citizens in war 
 and peace. There will be patriotism and red 
 fire and rejoicing all over the land before the 
 robins fly away and cold winter comes apace. 
 
 Every true Hoosier should take part and get 
 his name in the papers at least once before the 
 show is over. We will now sing the doxology 
 and be dismissed. 
 
 31 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONrDcco 
 
 liii