>26 342 JV 1 To the School Children of Indiana The Foundation The Company our forefathers laid tor this great common- We are building on the foundation laid wealth of Indiana has given a superstruc- for us — we are making a creditable co- ture we should all be proud of. operative business concern. Study the history of your State — then study the history of this company. You can be proud of both. MERCHANTS HEAT & LIGHT CO. THE DAYLIGHT CORNER Washington and Meridian Streets "UNDER THREE FLAGS" INDIANA EDITED AND COMPILED BY GEORGE s'f COTTMAN MAX RtTTVMAN ADAPTED FROM COTTMAN-HYMAN CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF INDIANA PUBLISHED BY M. R. HYMAN PUBLISHING CO. INDIANAPOLIS PRICE 15 CENTS. COPYRIGHTED 1916 GOD BLESS OLD INDIANA GOD BLESS OLD INDIANA, child of the pioneers, GOD BLESS OLD INDIANA, wherever the Flag in the solitude of swamp and wood they builded for future years; braving the dangers of track- less wilds, patient to work and wait, till the clearings about their cabins merged into a mighty State. has gone in the roaring hell of shot and shell, her soldiers have followed on ; she has yielded her blood and treasure, and whatever the sacrifice, needful to prove her devotion, she has willinelv paid the price. GOD BLESS OLD INDIANA, hers is no heritage of blood-bought glory of kingly lines come down from another age; but hers is the glory of empire won for the happiness of men. of cities builded, and harvests reaped, where once there were bog and fen. GOD BLESS OLD INDIANA, hers are no cities great, where criine and poverty cast the shadow of suffering turned to hate; but hers is a country of open skies, and of open heart and hand, where God's own sunshine unhindered falls on another Promised Land. GOD BLESS OLD INDIANA, and let us lovingly toast a land where the Home is highly enthroned ; a country whose highest boast is not of the deeds of a distant past, of riches or martial fame, but that happiness, like the sunshine, falls on all her homes the same. GOD BLESS OLD INDIANA, and keep her a happy State: give to her sons of the years to come tlie spirit tliat-made her great. Deep and serene as her forests, and strong as their mighty trees — such were the old-time Hoosiers. O God, give us men like these! — Giorgt 8. Lockwooti. MAY 26 1916 HISTORICAL An Outline of the State's Development The Mound Builders. — That the territory now occupied by Indiana was inhabited by pre- historic people is evidenced by their work, silent yet indisputable evidence of their for- mer occupancy, which still remains. These works, notable in the southern part of the State, are in the form of mounds, memorial pillars, fortifications, weapons and domestic utensils that furnish "abundant evidence to show that at one time, long anterior to the coming of the red man, Indiana was quite densely populated by a race that lived, flour- ished and passed awa},"* leaving no other traces of their existence. They have been classed as the Mound Builders. •Smith's Histoly of Indiana, p. 42 Under Three Flags. — The territory which is now included within the present boundaries of Indiana was formerly owned by the Miami Confederacy of Indians. It was first explored by La Salle in the latter part of the seven- teenth century, about 1670. when he is said to have descended the Ohio river as far as the Louisville rapids. It is well established that he traversed the region of the Kankakee and St. Joseph rivers in the northwestern part of the State in 167Q. Father Allouez, the French missionari,'. accompanied by Dablon, visited this vicinity in 1675-80.t and French trappers appeared at the end of the seventeenth cen- tury. tHIstory ,)f .\..tr.- Icune. p. SO. It was under the domination of France! from the time of the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi by La Salle, in 1682, until 1763, when it was ceded to Great Britain after the French and Indian war. From 1763 to 1779 it was held nominally by Great Britain as a part of her colonial possessions in North America and the jurisdiction of the State of Virginia was formally extended over it from 1779 to 1784. In 1778, during the Revolution, Vincennes and Kaskaskia were captured from the British by a force of Virginians' under George Rogers Clark and later in the same year the region northwest of the Ohio was made the county of Illinois by the Virginia Legislature. In 1783 the British claims to all territory east of the Mississippi and north of Florida were relinquished in favor of the United States. The States which claimed title to lands northwest of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi ceded their rights to the United States before 1787, and in that year this re- gion was organized as the Northwest Terri- tory. Indiana Territory. — In 1800 that part of the Northwest Territory lying between the Mis- sissippi river and a line extending from a point tJacob Pi.ntt Dunn, in his Hl.stor.v of Indiana, sii.v "Indiana had no capital within her boundaries for one h dred and thirty years after white men hart been upon soil. She was but part of a province of a province ninety years her provincial seat of government vncilla between Quebec. .New Orleans and Montreal, with inter diate authority at Fort ("hartres and Detroit and the u mate power at Paris 'I'beii lier capital was wliisked av to London, without the slightest lesanl to the wishes of her scattered inhabitants, by the treaty of Paris. Sixteen years later. It came over the Atlantic to Richmond, on the James, by conquest : and after a tarry of five years at that poii>t. It shifted to .New Tork City, then the national seat of Kovernment. by cession In 1788 It reached Marietta. Ohio, on its proKress toward Its flnal location In ISOfl It came within the limits of the State" on the Ohio river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky to Fort Recovery and thence to the Canadian hne was organized as the Territory of Indiana. The new territory thus comprised nearly all of the present State of Indiana, to- gether with the area now constituting Illinois, Wisconsin, northeastern Minnesota and west- ern Michigan. Two years later, by a clause in the enabling act for Ohio, the boundary be- tween Indiana and Ohio was fixed in its pres- ent location and b\- the same act the region north of Ohio was added to Indiana. In 1804 the form of territorial government was changed from the first to the second grade, thus giving Indiana a Legislature and a Dele- gate in Congress. The organization of Michi- gan Territory in 1805, and Illinois Territor}' in 1809, left Indiana with its present boun- daries, and in December. 1816, the State of Indiana was admitted to the L^nion. SEUTTEBI'S MAP OF 1720. Matthse Seutteri's map showing the political divisions of America in 1720, is one of a valuable collection of French charts possessed by the Indiana State Library. The series is of interest as showing not only the political changes from time to time, but also the development of the geographical knowledge of the country, the earli- est ones revealing many errors, particularly in the locating of lakes and water courses. Seutteri's map has been selected for reproduc- tion as the one best showing the English and French possessions in the days of "New Prance," and also the boundary line between the two vast French provinces, Canada and Louisiana. As a matter of fact the exact location of this boundary running east and west has been a debatable point, but it lay somewhat north of the line drawn by Seutteri, for Vincennes lay south of it, being in the Louisiana province. Ouiatanon lay in Canada, so the boundary crossed Indiana somewhere l)etweeu these posts. Assuming that Seutteri's lines are even ap- proximately correct, the resultant appearance of an animal monstrosity is a curious coincidence. A section on "Early French Maps" may be found in the Cottman-Hyman Centennial History of Indiana, p. 15. ifei^H^^fe &^m0^^. ^ ...J SeutleriV Map of 1720. THE ORIGINAL INDIANA. To those who never heard of any Indiana other than the one we live in the map here presented will, at first glance, be an enigma. This tri- angular tract approximately enclosed by the Ohio river, the Little Kanawha river and the western ranges of the Appalachian mountains, lies m what is now West Virginia. Few maps present it, and none other so well as this, published in 177S, by Thomas Hutchins, one of the first Amer- ican cartographers. The original "Indiana" was recognized by that name from about 1768 to the latter part of the eighteenth century. Soon after the passing of the French possessions into the hands of England the tract, consisting of about 5.000 square miles, was given by the Iroquois Indians to a trading company that had been organized in Philadelphia, as indemnity for goods that had been forcibly seized by some predatory bands. The recipients of this rather generous restitution honored the donors by naming the tract "Indiana," or the land of the Indians. After the Revolutionary war both Virginia and the United States refused to recognize the title claimed by the company; Virginia took over the land, and the name applied to it ceased to exist. When Indiana Territory was formed in ISOO, the name was probably borrowed from the previous tract, though why or by whom is not known. Map of Original Indii CORYUON'S FAMOUS ELM TREE The most famous tree in Indiana is the "Con- stitutional Elm" at Corydon. Its celebrity Is borrowed from the tradition that during the pro- i-eedings of the constitutional convention, held June 10 to June 29, 1S16, the delegates preferred the shade of this great spreading tree to the shelter of a building. The tradition is pictur- esque and there is no reason to doubt it. As the picture shows, the tree lends itself splendidly to the dignity of fame. Its dimen- sions, as given by Charles C. Deam, former State Forester, are: Circumference of trunk, about four feet from the ground, 13 feet, 1 inch ; greatest width of crown, 113 feet; shortest width of crown, 97 feet. From the picture some idea may he had of the area of its shade. The Constitutional Elm. Cor>don. THE CORYDON CAPITOt. The famous old Capitol at Corydon, occupied by the Territorial and State Legislatures from 1S13 to 182-t. was never the property of the State The particulars of its earliest history are largely traditional. It is said to have been built for the county of Harrison by Dennis Pennington, in 1811-12, the contract having been let on the 9th day of March, 1S09. It has also been said that it was built in anticipation of the capital coming to Corydon, and that the character of its con- struction was somewhat determined by that anticipation and by the suggestions of General Harrison, who was favorable to the removal from Vincennes. Tradition also says, confirmatory of this, that Harrison owned large tracts of land in Harrison county, and was the founder of Corydon. The scant records that exist on the subject indicate that in 1S14 the Legislature rented quar- ters other than the court house. The privilege of occupying the latter was not settled at once, but in 1816 the associate judges of Harrison county ordered that it "be tendered to the Legislature for their use as a state house so long as Corydon shall remain the seat of government." .\ movement for the purchase of the old build- ing by the State as a relic was agitated in 1013. STATE SEAL OF INDIANA. The origin of the State Seal of Indiana is in- volved in obscurity. In tbe first lonstitutiou provision was made for a seal, and the Governor was authorized to secure one together with a "press," at a cost not to exceed one hundred dollars, which sum was appropriated for the purpose. The design of it was also described as "A forest and a woodman felling a tree, a buffalo leaving the forest and fleeing through the plain to a distant forest, and the sun setting in the west, with the word 'Indiana.'" No mountains, however, are mentioned. In lieu of further data this might be considered the origin of the ideas embodied in the seal; but the same general features have been found on a seal of Indiana Territor.v imprinted on a docu- ment at Washington, which bears the date of 1802. In this imprint are the woodnian, l)uffalo, sun and mountain, with the word "Indiana." So it dates back at least to early territorial days, and may. it has been argued, have been brought in the beginning by either Governor Harrison or .^iecretary John Gil)Son. riKST PUIiLISIIKD MAP OF INDIANA. The first pnlilished map of Indiana, by ,Tohn Melish, appeared in 1817. At that lu-rind there were bnt nineteen counties in th. si m Sullivan, Knox, Gibson, Posey, W.-iiii ■ "•' ! ' . \ less. Orange, Perry, Harrison, AV:^ i ■ kson, Clark, Jefferson, Jennings, Si> ii ^ i i; i,.i Kipley, Dearborn and Wayne. It will lie n.iled that in this map Lake Michigan is shown to be in the central part of the northern boundary of the State. '^"'f^ryi ^HE NORTHWEST TERRITORY AND INDIANA TERRITORY. What is known in liistory as the "Northwest Territory," which tame into the possession of Virginia by the conquest of George Rogers Clarlj. was transferred by Virginia- to the United States in 17S4 It was organized under the oflScial name of "Tlie Territory of the United States North- west of the River Oliio" and its general govern- ment determined by the famous "Ordinance of 17S7," a distinctive feature of which was the provision against slavery in the territory. Until 1800 the whole territory was under the .iurisdiction of Governor St. Clair, but in 1800 a division was made. All east of a line coinciding with the Western boundary of Ohio and extend- ing through Michigan to Canada still retained the name of the Northwest Territory, but all to the west, including the present States of Indiana. Illinois, Wisconsin, and parts of Michigan and .Minnesota, took the name "Indiana Territory." In 1802 the State of Ohio was formed with its present boundaries, and this threw all of Michi- gan into Indiana Territory. In 1805 Michigan Territory was cut off. In 1S09 Illinois Territory was created, and this re- duced Indiana to its present boundaries, with the exception of one or two slight changes. The original Indiana Territory had three counties, and one of these, Knox, included all of the present State: hence the saying that Knox is the mother of Indiana counties. J THE THIKD STATE CAPITOL OF INDIANA. The first structure that was intended as a per- manent capitol, and which occupied the site set apart for that purpose in the original plan of Indianapolis, was begun in 1S32 and finished In 1835. The work was put in the hands of Gov- ernor Noah Noble. James BlaUe, Samuel Merrill and Morris Morris, and the contract was let for $58,000 to Ithiel Town and I. J. Davis, the former of New York and one of the best-known Amer- ican architects of the day. The actual cost was $00,000. In dimensions the building was 200 feet long by 100 feet wide, and was two stories in height. In style it was a combination of the Greek Parthenon and a dome that was foreign to the Greek architecture, and it offered, in that respect, an unintentional parallel to the incon- gruous linguistic elements of Greek and Indian in the name Indianapolis. The building was not a creditable product of the noted architect, as it was constructed In a "shoddy" manner, and forty years' wear and tear made a dilapidated ruin of it. It was razed to make way for the present building in 1878. It occupied but one square, the grounds being bounded on the north side by Market street. >urinf LiDroln's Fu FOBi WAYNE. Fort Wayne, the military post, occupied a point of great importance at an early day, commanding, as it did. one of the routes of travel between the great lakes and the Mississippi valley. The Miami Indians held the place before the white men ; then the French built Fort Miami there, and by the Indian treaty of 1795, following the conquest of the northwestern tribes by Anthony Wayne, the United States seized upon the Wabash-Maumee portage as a desirable strategic military point. A fort was built there by Wayne's force soon after his decisive victory at the rapids of the JIaumee, and named in honor of the conqueror, and in the above-mentioned treaty it was one of the few spots on Indiana soil that was reserved to the whites. Early in the war of 1812 Port Wayne, then garrisoned by about one hundred men, many of whom were unfit for duty, and commanded by an officer who was incapacitated by intemper- ance, was invested by a force of Indians num- bering five to one. Even at that the besiegers resorted to treachery, the plan being to invite a conference at which the chiefs should carry weapons concealed beneath their blankets. At the opportune moment they were to attack the officers with whom they were conferring and then throw open the fort gates to their followers. Fortunately this scheme did not carry, and after seven days more of vigorous siege General Har- rison at the head of a large force arrived and relieved the garrison. HARMONIE AND NEW HARMONY. The two communities in Posey county, "Har- monie" and "New Harmony," are distinctive fe;i- tures in the State's history and have an abidin;; interest for the students of social experiments. The first of these. Harmonie, was established in 1815 by George Rapp and his followers, a German religious sect. These purchased a tract of something like thirty thousand acres on the Wabash, lived there for ten years, built a sub- stantial village and literally made "the wilderness to blossom as the rose." They were industrious, simple minded, intensely religious and docile to their leader. One of their tenets was the abol- ishment of sex relations and the marriage tie. All property was held in common. In 1S24 the "Rappites," as they are called, sold out their holdings to Robert Owen, a notable Scotch philanthropist, whose aspiration was to establish a new social order involving the prin- ciple of comrauniara. He re-named the place New Harmony. Owen drew to him a large but hetero- geneous following, and the history of his experi- meut is a sharp contrast to that of the Rappites. There were erratic divergences of opinion and general dissension, in the midst of which the idea of a harmonious community working to common ends w^ent to wreck. Owen and his chief co-worker, William Maclure, whose dream it was to establish a great school, soon left the community in the hands of others. It failed utterly of the original intentions, but the able men who continued to reside there gave the town a character that is unique in our annals. Marmonie, 1816. THE "CAPITAL IN THE WOODS." Indianapolis, in its earlier days, was appro- priately called tbe "Capital in the Woods." be- cause it was planted in the heart of the wilder- ness sixty miles from tbe nearest other settle- ment. Towns usually are founded with some reference to surrounding settlements and exist- ing social needs. Indianapolis was founded with the distinct idea of a future need — that of a properly located capital, which must be some- where near the center of the State. The United States had given to Indiana four square miles of land for its capital, with the privilege of locating it anywhere in territory yet unsold. As soon as the central portion of the State was thrown open the legislature ap- pointed ten commissioners from various counties to locate the site. Nine of these served, and three places are mentioned as having received consid- eration. One of these was the trading post of William Conner, four miles south of the site of Noblesville; one was the mouth of Pall creek, where several "sciuatters" had made a settlement, and the third was another squatter settlement at the bluffs of White river where the village of Waverly now stands, in Morgan county. The Fall creek site was chosen. The town was founded in 1821, under the supervision of Chris- topher Harrison, but it did not become the cap- ital in reality until 1S25, when the State. offices were removed from Corydon. 'I'lie litUe frame bouse liere presented, still standing in Vincennes, is i-eputed by tradition to have been the first "capitoI" ot Indiana, or the building wherein the territorial leylslatnre held its sessions. Beyond that bare fact little is known or affirmed about it. It is now privately owned and occupied, and has been proposed that the city purchase it. move it into Harrison I'arli. near by. and convert it into a museum building— a happy idea which, it is to be hoped, will, nni- terialiy.e this centennial year. The first Territorial J^esislature met .7uly ,29. ISO.""!. It consisted of two houses; a House of Representatives and a Council. Seven members composed the House of Representativ.'s and were elected by the voters of the counties. JIa.i.-C.pn. Arthur St. Clair was the lirst iiovernor of Indiana Territory. THE "CNDEBGROUND RAILROAD." The "Underground Railroad" was a system of secret routes that existed north of the Ohio river, prior to the Civil War. over which fugitive slaves were furtively conveyed northward to the Cana- dian line, being passed ou from one "agent" to another, who carried them over stages or by relay. This work was a monument to the moral zeal of a large element whose protest against an iniquitous evil amounted to a defiance of that law of the nation which forbade any aid to fugitive slaves. The routes extended northward from certain crossing places of the Ohio river, but. though charts of them have been published, it is safe to say none of these is complete. In Indiana the most famous route ran up the east side of the State where the Quaker element was strong- est, those people being conspicuous in their oppo- sition to slavery. A recent book by Col. W. M. Cockruui shows that many escaping slaves passed through sections of southwest Indiana and the history of the conflicts between slave and anti- slave advocates presents many a thrilling story. The "stations" were the friendly points where the fugitives were received, concealed and cared for, then secretly forwarded. Neal's mill near Clay City is said to have been one of these sta- tions s Mill. ("Vnderground Kailroad" Station on Kei Ki^er iii I la BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. So far as is known Indiana tooli no actual fare of its defectives and dependents, other than pan- pers. nntil the early, and middle forties, when separate taxes were authorized for the aid of the deaf and dumb, the blind and the insane. -As early as 1827. however, the legislature set aside square No. 22 in the nriirinal plat of Indianapolis for a State hospital an