I F 526 |.U87 Copy 1 SKETCHES OF IN INDIANA. ''QUORUM P^APS-\f\UI}'^: SIT REV. AARON WOOD, D.D. INDIANAPOLIS: J. M. OLCOTT, Publisher, 1883- ^ 3 OO^ INTRODUCTION. It affords me great pleasure to contribute a few words by way of introduction to Dr, Wood's Sketches of. Things and Peoples. This kind of book, the subject matter of which is woven largely out of the personal experiences of the writer, is, in the nature of the case, full of interest. It lives. Dr. Wood says truthfully on his title page, that of these things he has been a part. It was only modesty that required the omission of magna from the Virgilian quotation. Dr. Aaron Wood is one of the pioneers of Indiana. He has personally witnessed the entire transformation by which this great Commonwealth, with its telephone, its electric light, and its sixty millions of wheat, has been in three score years evolved from a dark wilderness, whose Grendel was fever and ague. He has virtually seen our whole history enacted year by year, and has had a personal interest or actual part in every important event since our admission into the Union. To this extraordinary breadth of observation among the growing populations and institutions of our State, must be added the Doctor's natural genius for seeing things, without which travel is folly, years barren, and eyes useless. He who sees and sees and sees nothing, would better never write. When in the autumn of 1635 a colony of Massachusetts people made their toilsome way westward to lay the foundations of the future in the valley of the Connecticut, it is said that the voice of the resolute Hooker made the woods of every camping station ring with his psalmody and preaching. Aaron Wood has been the Hooker of the Indiana forests — the voice of one crying in the wilderness. To be sure, ttiis brief monograph is a genuine product. It has the im- \ress of its authorship on every page. That strong and unique personality fich has made Dr. Wood one and indivisible is stamped, as it should be, on 4 INTRODUCTION. all his work. This quality, instead of detracting from the value of these Sketches, will add to their interest and acceptability. As to the general merit and worth of this historical essay by our veterar» friend, it is sufficient to say that such brochures form the "real presence" in the history that is to be. Happy is that State whose founders and apostles, recite their own story for the ear of posterity. I trust that this contribution of Dr. Wood's to the growing historical literature of Indiana will receive — as it deserves — a hearty welcome, not only from the many who have been honored by personal acquaintance with the author, but also by that other many who have known him "not. May he live long to enjoy in common with the other fathers of our people the grateful fruitions of a well-spent life. May many years of useful achievement stilli intervene between us and that day when we shall have to say — O, good, gray head, that all men knew ! O, fallen at length our tower of strength ; That stood four-square to all the winds that blew. John Clark Ridpath. Indiana Asbury University, October, 1882. PREFACE. TO THE READER : I was brought up in the western part of Ohio, in a family- keeping entertainment, for travellers and movers and was accus- tomed to read the newspapers of Cincinnati, Chillicothe and Urbanna during the years from i8i2 to 1823. In this manner I became acquainted with many emigrants who were on their way to Indiana, and also with many Indiana men when they were traveling eastward. This will account for my personal knowledge of "Things and Peoples" in Indiana previous to the time of my coming to the State. In September of 1823 — when in my 21st year — I came to Indiana as an Itinerant Preacher, since which time I have traveled over the entire State. At the solicitation of many friends I offer to the public these sketches. And, in defiance of a profound maxim of C. C. Cokes, author of "Lacon," which says, "He who cannot throw fire into his book, "Ought to throw his book into the fire," I adopt the couplet of his relative, the Rev. Walter Colter : "Go, little book, I will not hum thee, "And tell thy tale, whoe'er may spurn thee." Aaron Wood. Lafayette, hid., October \i^, 1882. (My 80th birthday.) SKETCHES OIF THINGS AND PEOPLES, CHAPTER I. NATURAL ADVANTAGES. The State of Indiana covers an area of 34,000 square miles, over which there is a distribution, by aqueous influences, of lime, sand, clay, coal and iron, not only of sufficient abundance to fertilize the soil, but furnishing abundant material for employ- ing those engaged in the useful arts. Were it not for the rivers which pass through this State it would be one vast level, varying from 500 to 1,000 feet above the sea. The streams have worn for themselves channels and sunk below the general plane ; yet, we have no mountain and scarcely anything which may be called a hill. The headlands which appear along the banks of our rivers are not above the plane, which extends far as the eye can behold. The State is bounded on the north by Michigan 41°, 4.6'' north latitude ; extends south on the Ohio river to 37°, 50' ; commences on the west line of Ohio at 7°, 47' west from Washington City, and reaches west to Illinois, being about 276 miles long, and 145 wide, making 23 millions of acres. Situated in the middle of the great valley which gradually rises from the Ohio river until it reaches its summit near the 8 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND great lakes of the north, it furnishes civiHzed man those three great means of comfort : food, raiment, and shelter. The geology of Indiana opens a wide field not only for the student, but the practical mechanic and industrious agricul- turist, who, like Hugh Miller, amid the rocks of Cromorty, "toiled that he might eat, and ate that he might be able to toil." Although we may not find near the surface any of the primitive formations containing the precious metals, nor be able to penetrate so deep into the bowels of the earth, as in coun- tries subject to volcanic action ; yet the deposition if not the crystalization of all the formations composing the surface of this country, require to be well and carefully studied. The mountain limestone, red sandstone, fire-clay and fields of coal and iron, should not only be known to the student of nature, but be overcome by the hand of the patient artisan. The uniform marks of some power which has since ceased to de- posit where once it carried on its waves "primeval forests and 'rocks of a pre-Adamite age," cry out to us: "Up! get you away to the fields that you may find the ripple-marks of that old ocean, or grooved passage of the moving bowlder, carried by the glacier." From personal observation I am able to inform the reader that there is in the State of Indiana a better distribution of soil, rock, water and timber than in any other of our western States. Not only is timber more abundant, but the greatest variety of forest trees may be found in Indiana. Through this State passes the boundary line between the Appalachian and Campestrain provinces of North American forests, as described by Dr. Cooper in the patent office reports of i860; the most of the State being in what is called the Ohio Division, or western portion of the Appalachian province. I have myself seen 52 PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 9 varieties of native growth that attained the size of a tree. And it is a fact that those trees planted from the north or south, not indigenous, soon become acchmated and do well in our soil. The evergreens of the Alleghany or Canadian regions are our choice ornamental trees. However objectionable our climate, by extreme heat in summer, and extreme cold in winter, yet for all the purposes of horticulture and agriculture, producing fruit, grain and grass, it is comparatively the very best, by its abundant, seasonable moisture, occasioned by the rain-bearing winds from the gulf of Mexico, which seem to be turned east near us when they have met the cold condensing currents from the Cascade moun- tains. And the coincidence between the western limits of dis- tribution of these rains and the boundary of continued forests, may be one cause of the prevalence of woodless prairies on our west. Be that as it may, one thing is true : for the past fifty years the farmers in the forests have not suffered by drouth, as they do who cultivate the prairie region; and whatever advantage did exist in a new country in favor of the prarie, it does not exist now. In many places the timber is the best crop on our Indiana lands. This great plane of the earth's surface, not only in the center of the great grain-growing valley of the north temper- ate zone, but also in the latitude of all historic nations, with all its resources, remained uncultivated until the present century. lO SKETCHES OF THINGS AND CHAPTER II. MOUNDS, INDIAN AND FRENCH VILLAGES. The mounds found in Rush, Franklin, Vanderburgh, Knox, Green, Vigo and Tippecanoe, were either fortifications or sepulchres, nor do they reveal to us their origin or end. Whether built by pie-Adamites, Phoenicians, Toltecks, Astecks, Shoshones, Hunting Indians, or perhaps Mongolians. The villages of the Indians known as Piankishaivs of the south west, in Knox County ; the Kickapoos of Warren and Vermillion ; the Weatenons of Wea ; the Eelrivers of Logans- port and Thorntown; the Delawares, of White river, near Muncie; the Miamis of Wabash, Miami and Allen, and the Pottawattamies of the St. Joseph, were all hunters, not agricul- turists or herdsmen. And Indiana was more a hunting ground than a home — often dark and bloody in war with the Iroquois, the French, English and Virginians. Here in these forests for ages roamed the happy Indian. By this I mean to advance the idea that of savage life the huntsman is the happiest. The rich soil of the small prairies skirting the clear streams enabled the squaws and papooses to raise, by a simple primitive form of tillage, a supply of grain and vegetables. The adjoining maple grove furnished sugar; and hence along the border of PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 1 1 the dense forests, were found the Indian fields. If this frugal family had a true huntsman as its head, all he had to do was to furnish meat and clothes for his dependent ones. The white-tailed deer, brown bear and black turkey, were so abundant that it was not difficult to find a supply ; and the experienced hunter gave his attention to these animals as the means of home stores, relieved as they were, by fish and aquatic fowls which were often caught by the squaws and boys. The beaver, otter, muskrat, and raccoon furnished peltries ample to purchase all the articles procured of civilized man. From all that now appears, or that tradition has furnished, Indiana never was the permanent home — only the hunting ground — of the North American Indian. If hunting is the happiest state of savage life, then it was here the Indian passed his most delightful days. Before the Indian was removed, came the French, and settled at St. Joseph, Bertran, Wea, Maumee, Terre Haute and Vincennes. But they were only traders and trappers — none of them farmers. These Canadian-French, instead of elevating the Indian, sunk be- low European civilization — nearer the habits of the savages. The schools of the Jesuites only trained their devotees in the forms of superstition. The isolated immigrants were many of them fugitives from justice in Europe and the older States of America. At the begin- ning of the century, very few persons had land, except the French and Indian donations, or soldiers' claims in Clark's grant, as the first land office was opened in 1804, after the treaty of 1803. 12 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND CHAPTER III. ANGLO-AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS FORTIFICATIONS DURING WAR. The settlers near the Ohio river, from Kentucky, were hunt- ers, Hving on congress land. The following, from Rev. George K. Hester's Diary, will il- lustrate their improvidence : "In 1820 I was appointed to Mt. Sterling circuit, in Crawford county, which was then one of the most gloomy regions in the State. This circuit embraced a very poor and broken part of the State. Many of the people were destitute of the necessaries of life, and, of course, I had to share with them in this matter. On one occasion I recollect to have visited a family, preached, and remanied twenty-four hours, and left, without breaking my fast. They had nothing, the man having gone a distance to get bread- stuff, and failing to return while I remained. This was a four- week's circuit. The number of attempts to preach must have aver- aged with the number of days in the year, and I must have trav- eled 3,000 miles, and this without any quarterage, except a few dollars' worth of sugar for my family. " The first colony in Indiana was from Western Pennsylvania and Northwest Virginia, who fled from the United States troops sent by Washington to support the collectors of revenue, and suppress the whisky insurrection. PEOPLES IN INDIANA. I 3 In 1 796 they came in boats down the Ohio and up the Wa- bash and settled in Knox county. Next came the Quakers from North Carolina, and settled Wayne, Washington and Orange counties, and a large immigra- tion of Methodists from North Carolina, in Daviss county. After the organization of the Territorial Government, came the officers, civil, judicial and military, from Virginia and Mary- land, bringing their slaves. About this time there were adven- turers of Scotch, Irish, English and Germans, from Europe. Next a colony of Germans from Pennsylvania settled in Harrison coun- ty. There was also a colony of. Swiss in Switzerland county, and in 18 17 a colony of Western New Yorkers, from Olean, settled in Dearborn. There were settlements from England in Dearborn, Franklin and Vanderburgh, and a settlement from South Carolina in Gibson county. Among all these were a few from Jersey, and New York and Philadelphia, with occasionally a stray Yankee. When the territory was attached to the state of Virginia it was all Knox county. Illinois was St. Clair; Michigan was Wayne. The seats of military and civil government were Kaskaskia, Vin- cennes and Detroit, retaining their French names. We have the geology of history in the names. Many of the streams are Indian, the towns French and the counties American — seventy of these perpetuate the names of honored American heroes, statesmen and scholars. It is worthy of remark that the French and CelticTrish settle in clans, even in a new country. It is owing to the immense resources and location of Indiana that prosperity now marks her so highly among the States of the great grain-growing valley. A large portion of western travel must pass across, situated as it is between the lakes on the north, and the Ohio river on the south. We may well apply the Dutch proverb, "God sends meat, devil sends cook," for much of the improvements by State and National legislation have been a 14 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND poor hash at the expense of the treasury. IlHnois and Michigan, by the power of such men as Edwards, Cook, Cass and Chandler, received much larger appropriations for utilizing their resources than did Indiana. Much more is due to the labors of "the meek," who in- herit this fertile part of the earth, than the wisdom of her states- men in the national government. Separated from Michigan in 1805, and Illinois in 1809, Indiana was admitted as a State in 1 8 16. At this date the Indians claimed all the land west of a line from Fort Recovery in Fort Recovery, in Ohio, to the falls of the Ohio river, and all north of a line commencing at the mouth of Raccoon Creek, on the Wabash, running south and east until it intersected the above line. Not one-third the territory, and that the least fertile, was owned by the State when admitted to the Union. The second decade of this century was an eventful period. I. Indian hostilities, led by Tecumseh and his brother Temsquatawa, producing battles at Tippecanoe, Vallonia, Eel river, Wild-Cat, Fort Wayne, Fort Harrison, and Missisinewa. II. Erecting and guarding fortresses, called "block houses," by "rangers" employed by the United States at the Wabash Rapids at Fort Knox, at Busroan, at Fort Harrison, at Stafford's, at Bono, at Vallonia, at Napolean, at Bryson's, at Garretson's and White- water, near Milton. These posts continued to be occupied by soldiers until 18 15. PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 1 5 CHAPTER IV. NEW PURCHASE NEW IMMIGRANTS. The treaties of 1816 and 1818 ceded large quantities of land from the old boundary west to Illinois, and embraced what is now Rush, Decatur, Henry, Shelby, Hancock, Madison, Noble, Hendricks, Putnam, Park, Vermillion, Fountain, Montgomery, Warren, Tippecanoe,! Carroll, Clinton and Cass. This was called "the New Purchase," and brought a new class of set- tlers into the territory. Into Decatur, Shelby, Rush, Marion and Putnam, came the better class of Kentuckians. Many of them sold their slaves and turned the money into land and cattle. A few brought their slaves with [them and set them free. There was, however, a sufficient immigration from Ohio and Pennsylvania to build mills and lay off towns, and scramble for office. In the new counties the electioneering between the Virginians and Pennsylvanians, the Ohioans and Kentuckians was sharply contested and increased during the third decade, especially after the legislation removed from Corydon to Indian- apoHs. From 18 15 to 1820 the old counties increased in population and the value of town property. Speculation in real estate which had gone up to fabulous prices in the old counties, was checked by the reports of the rich farm lands of the New 1 6 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND Purchase, and those who could sell their possessions in Wayne Franklin, Jefferson, Clark, Harrison, Lawrence and Monroe, moved to the western and northern level lands, settling on not only what was in the market, but encroaching on the reser- vations of the Miami and Pottawattamie Indians. The uncom- monly fatal sickness of 1820, though it increased the desire to leave the river towns of the lower Wabash, crippled the means of emigration, checked immigration, and lowered the price of land, so that for years improved farms and town lots could not be sold for what they had cost. These changes operated seriously on the improvements of all the older parts of Indiana. And the malarial fever in the new, as well as the old settlements, for ten years prevented immigration. In many places people only stayed because they could not sell and get away. During the third decade there were abundant crops of grain and fruit; but much sickness and little money. Banks and merchants failed, and business was dull until 1843, when the State Bank was organized. PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 1/ CHAPTER V. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS EDUCATION. The first general public improvements were the grading of the National road by the United States funds, and the opening of the Michigan road with lands donated by the In- dians.* These roads not only "opened a way through the forest, but enabled laborers to procure land. The moving of the Indians from the St. Joseph and upper Wabash, brought that part of the State into market, and hence another immigration. This was comparatively the best, coming from New England, New York, Ohio, Kentucky and Southern Indiana. They had what Washington said o^ Marietta at the beginning of that settlement, the three essential elements of civilization: "property, education and religion." In 1838 the entire country from St. Louis, in Missouri, to Detroit, in Michigan, was visited with malarial fever, not so fatal as in 1820, but equally general, and produced a panic which checked emigration from all the mountain regions in the older States. Again, as in 1820, there was in 1840, .great failures and derangement in currency. The accumulation of surplus by the increased cultivation of a large area of fertile lands, made a demand for channels of commerce, and produced canals in parts *See Chamberlands, 126. (2) 1 8 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND of the State. This brought the Irish canal-diggers as useful laborers. The donation to the State of land, issuing scrip for labor, which became a land currency, did much to improve the marshy part of the prairie lands. We do not call them lozv lands, for our lakes and marshes have the highest altitude, and are easily drained. This has destroyed many of our original mill-seats, requiring the substitution of steam, and its adaptation to the use of machinery has brought an immigration of skilled mechanics into our towns and cities which have increased the pop- ulation of the inland towns far beyond what was contemplated by the founders. A large portion of these mechanics were from Sweeden and the North German provinces, and, like the Irish, brought only their skill as experts in labor, sending more money to bring relatives than they brought from the Fatherland. The few who brought money vested it in breweries and wholesale liquor manufactories for the retailing saloons, and these have sunk parts of our cities lower than the pot Jwiise of Scotland, club house of London, hotel of France, or American bar. In all our farming neighborhoods, free from the European influence, the American moral reforms of temperance, Sab- bath observance, schools and churches, have attained a high state of advancement. It is only in the attempt of these later immigrants from other governments and customs, that our cities become sinks of vice and crime. Congregated idleness is the hot-bed of vice, fertilized by intemperance, producing crime ; requiring a vigorous police to enforce compulsory attendance at school over all parents who neglect voluntary opportunities for the education of their chil- dren, not only in the lessons of school books but in the habits of thinking, labor and economy. All boys by nature are lazy, and this is only cured by necessity, discipline, or ambition, and should be applied when they are young. PEOPLES IN INDIANA. I9 Riding, swimming, chopping, plowing, spelling, reading, writing, praying, and thinking, learned young, are never for- gotten ; but neglected in youth, are never obtained. Though two distinct nations if not races of men have already occupied this part of the globe, neither the construc- tion of mounds nor traditions of Indians give us history, until it was settled by the Anglo-American, commencing with the nineteenth century. These brought with them the antag- onistic elements uttered by the European theorists in the fol- lowing quotations. In the year sixteen hundred and seventy the Governor of Virginia said: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing presses among us. Learning has brought dis- obedience, and heresy, and sects, into.the world, and printing has divulged them." There have been, and are now, among our statesmen, faithful representatives of this false and fooHsh sen- timent. The Plymouth Colony adopted the opposite theory, and in sixteen hundred and forty-seven provided by law for the education of the people. These antagonistic theories brought from Europe to America, have for centuries been working out their own results. Unfortunately for us, Indiana has had more than a due proportion of the former, not only drifted from older settlements in other States, but stratified over much of her native population, now hardened into petrifactions of ignorance, super- stition and vice, demonstrating the converse of the noble senti- ment uttered by the patriot-statesman of this Union in the ar- ticle of compact receiving land from Virginia, pledging every sixteenth section for public schools, and declaring, as Congress did on July 13, 1787 : "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good governments and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." This national act asserts a great vital principle which was responded 20 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND to by the territorial legislature of Indiana in the year 1807, by the act of incorporation, forming the Vincennes University, with the following preamble : "The independence, happiness and energy of every re- public depends upon the wisdom, virtue, talents and energy of its citizens and rulers, and that science, literature and the lib- eral arts contributed in an eminent degree to improve those qualities and acquirements, and that learning has ever been the ablest advocate of genuine liberty, the best supporter of national religion and the source of the only solid and imper- ishable glory which nations can acquire." The old constitution of the State, in 18 16, required the Legislature to provide by law for a general system of educa- tion, from the township school to the State University. The new constitution of 1852 says nothing about a university, but provides for a "uniform system of common schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge and equally open to all." Education has had loyal friends and devout soldiers fight- ing its battles here on our own soil for seventy-five years. The records of the courts would furnish a long list of suits growing out of opposition to liberal means for education, from John Linch's subscription to Judge Perkins' decisions. The journal of the Legislature would furnish volumes of school laws and amendments and repeals, and a report of the speeches in the House of Representatives, would furnish examples of elocution with more variety than Porter or Quackenbos ever published, as the following example will illustrate. Joseph A, Wright, when a representative from Park county, closed a speech in favor of "free schools" supported by the State, with the following clas- sic peroration : "I hope the day will come when every mother in Indiana, like the mother of Gracchi, will be able to say, 'these are my jewels!'" PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 21 There was an uneducated member from Green county, who whispered to Tom DowHng, of Vigo, "Who does he mean, Tom?" who answered, "Its an old woman on Raccoon, who has twelve sons, all great scholars. Answer him." Up jumped Joe Storms, of Green, and said, "Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker ! the gentleman from Parke need not think he has all the educated people. We have as good scholars as old Mrs. Gracchie!" It would seem at first sight to be an easy thing for the rep- resentatives of a free people to frame statutes to carry out the design of our organic law as expressed in the constitution, but facts prove this to be a mistake. The first draft, as pr'nted in open form for the members of the Legislature, drawn by Col. Bryant in 1852, was the best, but could not pass. That which did pass has been amended and changed at every session for the last thirty years, until it, with our school fund, is the boast of Indiana. The State and denomi- national colleges each have their own history. So I say no more on education. 22 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND CHAPTER VI. RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. The most inexplicable part of the history of Indiana, is found in the professed religious condition and character of its early inhabitants and the expressed infidelity of its age. I write as a historian, and give the facts as I know them. The papal priests had schools among the Indians and kept up the forms of the Catholic church in all French fam- ilies and villages. These were sincere and devout until cor- rupted by infidels from France and Scotland, who were edu- cated and polished in manners. One was the famed traveler and infidel writer, Voltaire. Another was a brother of Sir James Mcintosh, with whom I was personally acquainted. The priest, "John Champommere, " who built their first brick church in Vincennes, had been a French grenadier in Napoleon's army; and Henry Shaw, who organized the Pro- testant Episcopal church, had been a cavalier in Wellington's army. Both professed to have been at Waterloo. They were men of great energy and remarkable eloquence. Among the American Protestants the Southern Baptists were most numerous until the division on missions ; one led by McCoy, the Indian missionary, and the other by Daniel Par- ker, author of "Two Seeds," printed by Stout, in Vincennes, PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 23 of which book George Waller, editor of a Baptist paper, said, "It took spellers, writers, readers, compositors and pressmen to make it passable nonsense." It was, however, an attempt of an antinomian to revise the old Manachean dogma of two natures, claiming the elect as God's children, and the reprobates as springing from the devil by natural birth. From 1804 to 1812 there was, through all the Southwest, an unusual excitement on the subject of religion, and the Bap- tists, Presbyterians and Methodists participated. The Presby- terians, as an organization, v/ere supplied with ministers and the best educated men in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. And yet, two things existed — disputes on doctrine among the preachers, and the jerks among the people.* The following is from the Rev. B. W. Stone, who saw it first among the Presbyterians, and last among the New Lights. (See Stone's Life, pp. 60-66) : ' ' The Brethern, elders, and deacons came together on this subject; for we had agreed previously with one another to act in concert, and not to adventure on anything new without advice from one another. At this meeting we took up the matter in a brotherly spirit, and concluded that every brother and sister should act freely, and according to their conviction of right — and that we should cultivate the long-neglected grace of forbearance towards each other — they who should be immersed, should not despise those who were not, and vice versa. Now the question arose, who will baptize us ? The Baptists would not, except w^e united with them; and there were no elders among us, who had been immersed. It was finally concluded among us, that if we were authorized to preach, we were also authorized to baptize. The work then commenced, the preachers baptized one another, * A nervous agitation of the voluntary muscles. 24 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND and crowds came, and were also baptized. My congregations very generally submitted to it, and it soon obtained generally, and yet the pulpit was silent on the subject. In Brother Mar- shall's congregation there were many who wished baptism. As Brother Marshall had not faith in the ordinance, I was called upon to administer. This displeased him and a few others. "The subject of Baptism now engaged the attention of the peo- ple very generally, and some, with myself, began to conclude that it was ordained for the remission of sin, and ought to be administered in the name of Jesus to all beheving penitents. I remember once about this time we had a great meeting at Concord. Mourners were invited every day to collect before the stand, in order for prayers, (this being the custom of the times.) The brethren were praying daily for the same people, and none seemed to be comforted. I was considering in my mind, what could be the cause. The words of Peter, at Pentecost, rolled through my mind : 'Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.' I thought, were Peter here, he would thus address these mourn- ers. I quickly arose, and addressed them in the same language, and urged them to comply. Into the spirit of the doctrine I was never fully led, until it was revived by Brother Alexander Campbell, some years after. "The churches and preachers grew and were multiplied ; we began to be puffed up at our prosperity. A law of Synod, or Presbytery, forbade their people to associate with us in our wor- ship, on pain ' of censure, or exclusion from their communion. This influenced many of them to join us. But this pride of ours was soon humbled by a very extraordinary incident. Three mis- sionary Shakers from the East came amongst us — Bates, Mitchum and Young. They were eminently qualified for their mission. Their appearance was prepossessing — their dress was plain and PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 2$ neat — they were grave and unassuming at first in their manners — very intelligent and ready in the Scriptures, and of great boldness in their faith. "They informed us that they had heard of us in the East, and greatly rejoiced in the work of God amongst us — that as far as we had gone we were right ; but we had not gone far enough into the work — that they were sent by their brethren to teach the way of God more perfectly, by obedience to which we should be led into perfect holiness. They seemed to understand all the springs and avenues of the human heart. They delivered their testimony, and labored to confirm it by the Scriptures — promised the greatest blessings to the obedient, but certain damnation to the disobedi- ent. They urged the people to confess their sins to them, especially the sin of matrimony, and to forsake them all imme- diately — husbands must forsake their wives, and wives their hus- bands. This was the burden of their testimony. They said they could perform miracles, and related many as done among them, but we never could persuade them to try to work miracles among us. "Many such things they preached, the consequence of which was similar to that of Simon Magus. Many said they were the great power of God. Many confessed their sins to them, and forsook the marriage state ; among whom were three of our preachers, Matthew Houston, Richard M'Nemar and John Dun- lavy. Several more of our preachers and pupils, alarmed, fled from us, and joined the different sects around us. The sects triumphed at our distress, and watched for our fall, as Jonah watched the fall of Ninevah under the shadow of his gourd. But a worm at the root of Jonah's gourd killed it, and deprived him of its shade, and brought on him great distress. So the worm of Shakerism was busy at the root of all the sects, and brought on them great- distress ; for multitudes of them, both preachers and 26 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND common people, also joined the Shakers. Our reproach was rolled away. "Never did I exert myself more than at this time, to save the people from this vortex of ruin. I yielded to no discourage- ment, but labored night and day, far and near, among the churches where the Shakers went. By this means their influence was happily checked in many places, I labored so hard and con- stantly that a profuse spitting of blood ensued. Our broken ranks were once more rallied under the standard of heaven, and were soon led on once more to victory. In answer to constant prayer, the Lord visited us and comforted us after this severe trial. The cause again revived, and former scenes were renewed. "The Shakers now became our bitter enemies, and united with the sects in their opposition to us. They denied the literal resurrection of the body from the grave ; they said the resurrec- tion meant the resurrection of Christ's body, meaning the church. They, the elders, had constant communication with angels and all the departed saints. They looked for no other or better heaven than that on earth. Their worship, if worthy of the name, con- sisted in voluntary dancing together. They lived together, and had all things common, entirely under the direction and control of the elders. They flourished greatly for some years, and built several superb villages ; but afterwards began to dwindle till they became nearly extinct. John Dunlavy, who had left us, and joined them, was a man of penetrating mind, wrote and published much for them, and was one of their elders in high repute by them. He died in Indiana, raving in desperation for his folly in forsaking the truth for an old woman's fables. Richard M'Nemar was, before his death, excluded by the Shakers from their society, in a miserable, penniless condition, as I was informed by good authority. The reason of his expulsion I never heard particularly; but from what was heard, it appears that he had become convinced PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 2/ of his error. The Shakers had a revelation given them to remove him from their village, and take him to Lebanon, in Ohio, and to set him down in the streets, and leave him there in his old age, without friends or money. Soon after he died. Matthew Houston is yet alive, and continues among them. "Their doctrine was, that the Christ appeared first in a male, and through life was preparing the way of salvation, which he could not accomplish till his second appearance in a woman, Anne Lees, who was now the Christ, and had full power to save. They had new revelations, superior to the Scriptures, which they called the old record, which were true, but super- seded by the new. When they preached to the world they used the old record, and preached a pure gospel, as a bait to catch the unwary ; but in the close of their discourse they artfully introduced their testimony. In this way they captivated hundreds, and ensnared them in ruin. Their coming was at a most inauspicious time. Some of us were verging on fanaticism ; some were so disgusted at the spirit of opposition against us, and the evil of division, that they were almost led to doubt the truth of religion in toto; and some were earnestly breating after perfection in holiness, of which attainment they were almost despairing, by reason of remaining depravity. The Shakers well knew how to accommodate each of these classes, and decoy them into the trap set for them. They misrepresented our views, and the truth ; and they had not the sacred regard to truth telling which becomes honest Christians. I ' speak advisedly. •'Soon after this shock had passed off, and the churches were in a prosperous, growing condition (for many excrescences had been looped off from our body) another dark cloud was gathering, and threatened our entire overthrow. But three of the elders now remained of those that left the Presbyterians, and who had banded together to support the truth. Robert 28 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND Marshall, John Thompson and myself. I plainly saw that the two former, Marshall and Thompson were about to forsake us, and return to the house from whence they had come, and to draw as many after them as they could. They began to speak privately that the Bible was too latitudinarian for a creed; that there was a necessity at this time, to embody a few fun- damental truths, and to make a permanent and final stand upon them. One of those brethren had written considerably - on the points or doctrines to be received, and on those to be rejected by us. He brought the written piece with him to a conference previously appointed, in order to read it to them. It was thought better not to read it at that time, as too premature, but to postpone it to another appointment, which was made at Mount Tabor, near Lexington, at which a general attendance was required. "I made but little opposition then, but requested him to loan me the written piece till our general meeting at Mount Tabor, that I might in the iterim study his doctrines accurately. To this he willingly consented, and I availed myself of the permission, and wrote a particular reply to his arguments, which was the foundation of my 'Address,' afterwards published. " The general meeting at Mount Tabor came on, numerously attended. The piece written by Brother Thompson was read pub- licly, and Brother Hugh Andrews read also a piece of his own composition on the sarne side of the question. I read mine also, and Brother David Purviance, in the same faith, spoke forcibly. Marshall Thompson and Andrews labored hard to bring us back to the ground from which we had departed, and to form a system of doctrines from which we should not recede. This scheme was almost universally opposed by a large conference of preachers and people. Those brethren, seeing they could effect nothing, bade us farewell, and withdrew from us. Soon afterwards, Marshall PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 29 and Thompson joined the Presbyterians, receiving their con- fession again professedly ex aninio ; and charity hopes they did as they professed. They became our most zealous opposers ; Mar- shall was required by the Presbytery to visit all our churches, where he had formerly preached his errors, and renounce them publicly, and preach to them the pure doctrine. These two brothers were great and good men. Their memory is dear to me, and their fellowship I hope to enjoy in a better world. Marshall has been dead for some years. He never could I'egain his former standing, nor the confidence of the people, after he left us. Thompson yet lives (1843) respected, and a zealous preacher of the New School Presbyterians, in Crawfordsville, In- diana. Not long since I had several very friendly interviews with him. Old things appeared to be forgotten by us both, and cast off by brotherly, kind affection. Hugh Andrews joined the Meth- odists, and long since sleeps in death. Of all the five of us that left the Presbyterians, I only was left, and they sought my life." During this time there was an attempt to correct error in doctrine, which had infested all three of these churches — that of Arius among the Presbyterians ; Socinius among the Bap- tists, and Pelagius among the Methodists. This produced a new organization, who assumed the name Christian, but were called "New Lights," led off by such scholars as Stone, Monfort, Thompson, Marshall, Dunlavy, McNemar, Houston, Ireland, and Pervaines. It made a great breach in the Presbyterian church. For a time these prospered, and en- croached on the Baptists, as they adopted baptism by immer- sion ; and as educators, did a good work in a new country, as polemics in doctrine,' with all their errors. Had these first seceders of the Springfield Presbytery in 1804, continued united, it would have made a strong Congre- 30 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND gational church. But strange to tell, the best scholars went to the 'Shakers.' Marshall, Thompson and Monfort returned, leaving Stone and Pervaines. For a time, gifted young men joined them, and held camp-meetings, and made faithful visits among the frontier, especially in those parts of the settle- ments where the people supported the preacher only by their hospitalities. Entertaining strangers, and especially "a preach- er," was common in all new settlements. "The preaching place" was known to a stranger by seeing benches in the door-yard of a cabin by the wayside. I knew one old man who was a New Light. He boasted that he paid no bill for lodging on an entire journey to Kentucky, "by stopping over night where he saw benches." As the Baptists of that day were extreme Antinomians, and the Presbyterians were Hopkinsians, the more liberal teach- ing of the New Lights, even extreme Pelagianism, led the people to reading and thinking on the great question of Divine Sovereignty, and human responsibility. On these doctrines there was not only difference of opinion, but sharp debate and denominational divisions, suspension of ministers, and expulsions for heresy. I knew one case where the final vote, sustaining the charge, was after the man was dead. These controversies resulted in the organizing of Hop- kinsians, Presbyterians, Antinomian Baptists, Missionary Bap- tists, New Light Baptists and Cumberland Presbyterians, leaving a small part of the people for Methodists and Quakers. And these were immigrants from the older States. The Friends (Quakers) were not aggressive ; scarcely held their own members of birthright, as those who married out of the society were dis- owned ; and the Methodists were despised by all the others. In those days, previous to the war, the Methodist preach- ers who had families had to support them on their own means, PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 3 1 (as you see from Hester,) or by the liberality of friends. Hence, most of the preachers were single men, who left for other parts at the end of the year. If they married in the territory, they located and engaged in some secular business — some in office, some in medicine, some in merchandise, but most, and best, in farming. These last were useful in the vicin- ity in which they lived, and in many parts of Indiana the Methodists owe much to the located preachers who formed the first societies. I could give the names of many who lived long, worked hard, supporting their families, preaching without pay, who have gone to rest, and their works do follow them. But to be true to history, I must say that during the war of 1812 some fell away, and at the close of the second decade of this nineteenth century, the Methodist societies were a feeble folk in Indiana. In 1815 there were but five preach- ers, five circuits and sixteen hundred members. The church was greatly embarrassed with the backslidings of preachers — Jonathan Kidwell, William Hunt, John Baldwin, Thomas King, Henry Merrick and William Merrick. The last three were all in jail at one time, in Vincennes, not for right- eousness sake. The most talented who remained in the State, were. Sparks, of Dearborn, and Judge Floyd, of Harrison. The latter was damaged in his influence by his connection with the traitor Burr, and confessed he was backslidden. When a dying sol- dier asked him to pray for him, at the battle of Tippecanoe, he called on Elijah Hurst, the class-leader, to pray, for "he was backslidden." (This I learned from Hurst himself, in 1829.) An impression has- gone out, and has been oft reported (since Joseph Wright was elected governor), that the Method- 32 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND ists had the start in Indiana. This is a mistake, at all time previous to 1832, when the entire State was organized into one conference, since which, by immigration and conversion, they have increased. Nor were the Presbyterians of the Gen- eral Assembly numerous or strong previous to 1823, when Illinois and Indiana formed the first Presbytery. At all times previous to 1825, the Baptists, New Lights and Cumberland Presbyterians outnumbered Presbyterians, Methodists and Quakers. In Gibson county there was a church of Covenanters who moved with Parson Kell from South Carolina; and in Harrison county a society of United Brethren, with Dr. Pfremmer. The Protestant Episcopal church members employed H. Shaw, of Vincennes, and he claimed to have organized the first parish of that denomination; yet Bishop Kumper, who was Missionary Bishop, told me that "the Diocese never recog- nized Shaw's organization." He quit preaching, and was elect- ed to the Legislature from Knox county. In many of those old towns there were influential men who were outspoken infidels. Kidwell, an apostate Methodist preacher, published an infidel paper in Philometh, in Wayne county. Abel Sargeant. an apostate Baptist preacher, published an infidel pamphlet in Madison. The editors of county papers permitted articles of ridicule on the forms of worship. Sometimes there were rude disturbances at religious meet- ings. There was also an infatuation for organizing communi- ties. The Shakers from Kentucky established a community in Knox county, and proselyted from the Methodists and Bap- tists, until suspected of treason, having been intimate with Elkswatawa, the Shawnee prophet, and their first village was destroyed by Gen. Hopkins in 1812. They rebuilt on the prai- rie, which bears the name of Shaker Prairie, where they were PEOPLES 1 INDIANA. 33, distinguished as agriculturists. Here I saw a large field of rye all reaped and shocked in May, 1826. Frederick Rapp brought a number of German mechanics and built New Harmony, forming a manufacturing community; but being discouraged by the sickness of 1820, so fatal in all the river towns, he sold to Owen and McClure and moved to Economy, in Pennsylvania. Owen's views pleased the skeptics,, and many moved to Harmony, hoping to practice Atheism. I have read R. D. Owen ; heard J. Jennings and Fanny- Wright lecture ; have talked with Jeff Evans, Martin Wines and Dr. Patten, who made the experiment as above charged, to their sorrow. But this did not stop the infatuation. Some wealthy farmers in Posey county united their several farms and moved to a village called "Goshen," to improve on Owenism by a "Methodist community" of farmers. The New Lights established a village of mechanics in Mon- roe county, called the Blue Spring community. A colony fromi Chillicothe, Ohio, bought a large body of land on the Wabash and obtained from the Territorial Legislature of Illinois, a char- ter for an incorporated city called "Mount Carmel," as an edu- cational community ; there were choice lots of land purchased by European capitalists — by Baubean, Mcintosh, Currie, Flow- ers and Burbeck (the two latter from Yorkshire, England) — -• who brought their tenants and servants and established a commu_- nity near New Harmony, called "Oneborough," in Illinois,. All these experiments, under different ethics and aims, failed; and an uneducated generation grew up in the segregated fami- lies not connected with the communities or religious denomina- tions. The highest aims of the young men were to go on a flat- boat to New Orleans ; to push a keelboat ; and tolearnto be a pilot on a steamboat ; to read the advertures of Murrell, the le- 34 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND gends of the Rock and Cave, and that Jackson fought the British at New Orleans. During the war the presence of idle soldiers, garrisoned near the settlers, many families were dis- graced by the seducing influences of impure men. A circum- stance of this character was the cause why Zachary Taylor was in command at the seige of Fort Harrison. Captain Shultz was in command of the garrison. Having seduced the wife of Wil- liam Medford, he left the place through fear lest Medford would * 'shoot him," as he threatened. Hence Lieutenant Taylor was an command. The delinquency of the civil magistrate, and feebleness of the churches were not sufficient to restrain the currents of evil which arose from war, boating, drinking. Sabbath- desecration and sexual bundling of the uneducated youth of that dark •day. It is well known that the infidel, W. Mcintosh, of the Grand Rapids of the Wabash, was the father of illegitimate mulatto children by old Lydia, his black housekeeper. I saw liim carried to his grave, and Lydia, her two daughters and one son, were left poor, and others got his land. His son became a distinguished preacher in the "African Methodist Epis- copal church;" for it is due to Col. Mcintosh to say that he gave him a good education in the English and Latin languages and mathematics, so that he was, in his time, among the few educated men of his church. This is an organization which commenced in Philadelphia in the year 1814, but did not reach Indiana until 1834, when the colored people joined them; es- pecially the colored preachers of the Methodist Episcopal church, of whom were: Daniel Brown, Jonathan Broady, Ben Cole, Wesley Bass, George Bushnell and ''Misraim Ham,'' the campmeeting hero described in Hall's "New Purchase, " a book ■written by Professor Hall, once of Bloomington. Though a PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 35 caricature, yet there is much truth in his pen-portraiture of law- yers and preachers, teachers and legislators. And here I may suggest to the students of Indiana history and biography, the sources of information beginning with Jefferson's Notes, Burnett's Notes, Butler's History of Kentucky, Dawson's Life of Harri- son, Hall's (of Cincinnati) Sketches, Hall's (of Bloomington) New Purchase, Stewart's Highways and Hedges, Dillon's His- tory, Chamberlain's Gazetteer, O. H. Smith's and other Smith's "Recollections," Holliday's History of Methodism, Tuttle's In- diana, and Packard's "Laporte County." It will be difficult for any person to form a correct opin- ion of the men who were the efficient leaders in Church or State by reading the partial biographies published ; especially such as portray character from hear-say. As none of them had a Boswell, succeeding generations must scan their original poems and essays. As before stated, the settlers in the "New Purchase," in the central part of the State, were more enterprising, so also were they more homogeneous; and yet the religious denominations zealously organized societies, and established worship in private houses, school houses, and in court houses, in advance of church buildings. The lines of division were well defined, yet the per- sonal intercourse of neighbors improved the charity between de- nominations. This so improved the moral sense of the entire population that for many years all united in questions of moral reform. It also influenced the location of the denominational colleges in the rich counties of Jefferson, Montgomery, Putnam, Marion and Johnson, which has built up a prosperous rivalry in higher education ; outstripping the State institutions of Vincennes and Bloomington. The upper Wabash and St. Joseph and Kankakee were the last to settle. These brought with them ample means for con- 36 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND tinuing the social, devotional and educational conveniences with which they were familiar in the older States from whence they came. Comparatively much more wealth came with this last im- migration than was brought with the former. And, as it occurred at a time of financial prosperity in the commiCrcial world, and the immigrants were an educated people, society was sifted, and the flower of the States came here. The author has had some knowl- edge of the character of immigrants to Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Southern Indiana, and does not hesi- tate to say, none of them were equal to those who came to North- ern Indiana during the years between 1835 and 1855. And now, having in these sketches passed over the entire State, and written of good men and bad men, I will write of families, for in all these settlements there were pure and pious families who were the light of the neighborhood and seed of the church ; and each denomination prospered, as it had an influential layman and a pious woman as a home for the preacher, and an example of consistent piety ; for in all the well regulated families, much is due to the discretion of the wife and mother, and of these there were many who not only restrained their sons, but in- fluenced their husbands, composing a large majority of church members. The author may claim to know this, having slept in more than eight hundred different houses in Indiana, and shared the hospitality of those Christian women — welcome to the cabin and the stately mansion — and he knows full well how this cheerful hospitality has advanced the Christian civilization of the present population. Providence has especially blessed those families of all religious denominations which have supported their large con- vocations, and has withheld success from those stingy, selfish souls who neglect to entertain the prophet and the stranger. On this subject the author has made extensive observation, and it is a great truth, worthy of all confidence, that all who work for God, PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 37 in things temporal, will be paid by Him in kind. "The earth is His and the fullness thereof." He pays all who work to advance His cause. "Known unto God are all His works." And the family is the first organization of known society ; social but not gregarious ; under special covenant from the Creator; and renewed by promise of blessings from the Redeemer. The frontier isolated families were Scotch, Welsh or Germans, the French and Irish settling in clans. Even in a free state, the African is a voluntary slave or village drudge. Hence, the rural districts were first occupied, by the peculiar independent tendencies of the descendants of the highest type of European Christian civilization. However far from the village or the church, these families had the Christian Scriptures, and respect- ed the sanctity of the Sabbath as holy time, as well in the family as in the sanctuary. Whatever of vice was in the fort, the boat or the village, there was a nursery of morals in those families, prepar- ing for the future prosperity of this garden of the church of Jesus Christ. It is not for the historian to decide what constitutes "the true church," but to give facts, McNally's Atlas of the World gives the following relative dia- gram of numbers in Indiana : I. The Papists. II. The Bap- tist. III. The Methodist, IV, Presbyterian, Each has an influence, as the families demonstrate the ethics of morality. And, notwithstanding the varied views of their teaching on eschatology, all train society to the same civilization ; and all acknowledge the supernatural agency in forming a true religious character ; and all venerate instituted ordiances as the means of Divine favor. So that conventional devotion is reverently observed and universally respected. 38 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND The incidents of apostacy, of immorality, infidelity, ignorance and border ruffian life, as mentioned in the above pages, as well as in "Cartwright's Life," and Eggleston's" School Master, and Circuit Preacher," all fail to give an idea of the under cunrnt that flowed out from the pure families and religious societies first settled in this part — the inheritance of "the meek." Those were but the surface ripples and eddies of individual eccentricity, or abnormal experiments of pessimists in social theology. And there was in the rebound from the failures of all those experiments a lesson to the families and the churches, resulting in an increased regard for law, order, and religious devotion, which attained a normal vigor at the beginning of the third decade of the present century. Previous to 1830, society was not homogeneous, but in scraps, made so by the electric affinity of race, tastes, sects, and interest. There was a wide difference in the domestic habits of families peculiar to the provincial gossip, dialect and tastes of the older States from which they had emigrated. The Virginians and Marylanders were polished, hospitable, skillful in preparing a dinner and entertaining guests. So were the South Carolinians. The North Carolinians, Tennesseeans and mountain Kentuckians were poor cooks. But the New Jersyans could make the best appearance on small means, and the Yankee the most fuss. At first he was critical to have everything ''just so," but so plyable that he soon yielded to the self-indulgence of surroundings, seeking "the main chance" and adopting the very things of which he had first complained. Illustration : When Dr. Larabee came to Greencastle he found fault with those who " did not build farm houses near the high- ways, and those who in town, building in the center of the lot away from the street." But he afterwards petitioned the town trustees to vacate the street and two alleys to get his cottage in the center of his lot away from the street. PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 39s When a preacher or introduced stranger was received by an old Virginia householder, the host gave his time to his guest. No mat- ter what his domestic demands, he made the visitor feel he was present at the proper time when the host had leisure to entertain him. Not so with the Yankee. If he had been idle all day he would soon begin to talk of his work and go at his "chores," and if you did not know this was to show you his smartness, the- uninitiated would feel he had come at the wrong time. From 1832 to 1852 the fountains of Indiana civilization were in the families and churches — introducing not only a large increase of ministerial and financial resources, but also an influence over the legislation whereby there has grown up liberal charters, and grants for educational and eleemosynary institutions, since which, under the new Constitution, our School System has grown to its present magnificence ; and railroads, telegraphs and telephones, annihilating time and space, are making of Indianians ^;^^ people The former cant names, originating in local habits, or personal inci- dents, must soon pass away, by the force of a national policy^ and cosmos education. The word "Hoosier," with its origin and', meaning, will be clustered in history with Robin Hood's Barn,. Jack Kades' Palfry, and Guy Faulk's Powder Plot. But a truce to prediction, where I should narrate. And, groop- ing the results of family, church, school and railroad, as living forces, available, I would say to the coming men, women, fam- ilies and churches, "Despise not the day of small things." In, this fast age, some good old ways are forsaken. The vesper, Ave Maria, of the young Papist is not now observed as I have seen the. Indian and French family observe it, sixty years ago; the long chap- ter in Romans, and the Psalms of Rouse and Watts, and the old Scotch) prayer, are not in the Presbyterian family as of old, nor are the hymns of Wesley and prayer at meals three times a day, as once were with the Methodists; the third chapter of Matthew, and Gano's hymns 40 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND and vocal prayer of the good old Baptist has no place now, I fear, in this fast age, the family has ran away from prayer. I repeat, "The family is the true nursery of morals." Everybody should belong to a family, and in each there should be prayer. I maintain that it was in those Bible-reading, psalm-singing. Sabbath-keeping, praying families that settled in this wilderness, where were sprouted the morals of our civilization. And it was the conversion of pious young men of such famiHes that furnished the churches with successful evangelists — Hargrave, Debruler, David McDonald and Eiljah Goodwin among the New Lights ; McCoy, Daviss, Crabb and French among the Bap- tists ; Carnehan, Hunter, Hays, the Aliens, Thompsons and others among the two branches of Presbyterians; Beggs, Fisher, Miller, Xerns, Daily, Wiley and the Smiths and Hesters of the Methodists. The self-sacrifice apparent to a young man of gifts in that day, required a consecration intensifying his moral power. There was during the years from '33 to '43 an unusual number who entered the ministery. From 1833 to 1843 there were received and appointed to cir- cuits 250 young men. And I suppose the other churches increased in about the same proportion. I place this in the chapter on families. For our successful evangelists came from the pious family. As before stated, the north part oflndianawas largely occupied by the descendants of those old English colonies first planted by Cecil and Penn, in which the Cavalier, the Puritan, the Huguenot, the Baptist, Quaker and Papist were all tolerated and protected. Their descendants, of the third generation, settling in Indiana, not only gives us the best families, but also the best church laymen — im- proved by the energy of the "York State" descendant of the Yankee. In conclusion I may give my opinion of the changes wrought on the smaller class of emigrants. PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 4I The German Jews remain exclusive, retaining their pecuHar distinct individuahty. The north Germans will be American and English as are now the Palatinates and Hessians. The Menenites and Dunkers will not hold their children to their distinction. The Indian has gone to stay ; the French and Swiss are lost by inter- marriage ; the African cannot bleach, nor make a history with us, while he has his tastes and we have our prejudices. And yet, those who were first brought and emancipated and left free, in the old countries, with all the opportunities of a new country, have not become farmers nor herdsmen ; nor do they avail themselves of the opportunity to be free and independent, choosing, rather, to be hostlers, barbers and waiters than tillers of the soil, spending their wages in toys and amusements instead of homes and lands, flocks and herds— inventing nothing for the elevation of his family or his race. It is doubtful whether the island Mongolian can have health in our climate, nor need the Jap or Chinese remain longer than to learn our civilization as he may adapt it to his own country and return. 24 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND CHAPTER VII. WILD ANIMALS MINISTER MARKSMANSHIP. I close by a chapter on wild animals. From the Ohio river on the East to the Mississippi on the West, there was great uni- formity in the fauna found wild in this wilderness. The buffalo had but gone, so that I did not see them ; yet there were old men who told me they had witnessed hundreds of them drinking water in the Ohio river near where Louisville now stands, as it was then a village on the banks of Beargrass Creek. The elk had not all gone, for I ate of the beef of a wild elk shot by John Mysinhamer as late as 1827. The bear did not winter in this country, but only traveled through it during the season of ripe nuts. It was the home of the beaver, leaving his work across the Swale as the bridge utilized by the early settlers for roads. The otter, mink and muskrat were abundant, burrowing and building in the grassy marshes. The panther and varieties of "wild cat," were so numerous that I knew one man who killed sixty in one winter. I shot one myself The large grey wolf and small prairie wolf were so numerous that the first settlers could not save any sheep ; and pigs, calves and colts were devoured by them. The raccoon, fox and grey squirrel were very abundant. The porcupine, opossum, skunk and weasel were annoying, especially PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 43 destroying poultry. The most valuable was the white tailed deer, furnishing venison, and skins for leather. Rabbits were scarce previous to white settlement. So also were quails and turtle doves. These have increased by human protec- tion against wolves and hawks. The supply of meat in the flesh of the ruminantia and rodentia of these native quadrupeds, to which could be added the meat of many birds, from the snipe to the black turkey, not only sup- ported the Indian, but provided for the white settlers provision for their families, and the demand for fur-bearing pelts enabled them to purchase the necessary stores, and the dressed skins, suitable leather for garments ; substituted for woollen goods. But it required some knowledge of the habits and haunts of the animals to be able to find them. But this was learned from the trapping experience of the Indian and by the observation of the hunter himself. Instead of gambling on the price of grain, we took stock in a "deer lick," or "premium on scalps," or "choice cuts at a shooting match. " The practice of shooting a rifle bullet so as only to hit a squir- rel's head was the test of a good marksman, and to know what part of the buck or bear would be a deadly hit was essential knowledge for the hunter. Nor did this skill damage the reputation of a preacher with the back-woods congregations. I knew a circuit preacher, Presiding Elder and a Bishop who went into a sugar orchard to shoot squirrels, with a small bore rifle, who brought to the cook eight squirrels with nine shots — all shot in the head. It was better to miss than to hit the body or legs. As above stated it was not disparaging to a preacher with the settlers of the wilder- ness to be a good shot at wild game, but I witnessed how it shocked the conscience of a Scotchman, just arrived from England, when, at the house of his nephew, I described the catching of a wild-cat with the dogs of my host, where I stopped that morning. 44 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND He was a devout Baptist, despising the "sporting clergy" of the EstabHshed Church of England, and when I was absent he inquired of his nephew, who was a Methodist: "Are yer ministers fox hunters in this country?" It is to be regretted that we have failed to domesticate not only the profitable animals but also the native birds found here. The white swan is seldom seen ; the wild goose does not remain in our lakes and rivers ; the sand hill crane is leaving our swamps ; the prairie grouse are few and wild ; nor do we hear the thundering pheasant or chattering paroquet. The lamb-stealing eagle and egg- sucking raven have left our heards to the vulture, hawk and crow. The swarms of pigeons, eating beach nuts, and swarms of black-birds we no longer see in clouds as once we did. The "pigeon roost" is a relic of the past. Legislation attempts to remedy a wanton de- struction, but it is too late. Many of the associates oi my rides through grove and prairie are gone, leaving only the boulder of the glacier on which they prowled or pearched. But these do not speak of death or emigration. The native sylva, too, has changed its trees, grasses, plants and shrubs, as well as the fauna. The majestic tulip, iron oak and elastic ash have fallen by the wood- man's ax. Where now can we see the fields of cane that covered the lowlands of the Wabash and Ohio rivers? Who digs the Jin- sang, Columbo and Wahoo roots for Chinese trade? Our cooks now know nothing about spicewood, sassafras and syckamore for tea; nettles for greens and elderberries for pies. But of this I may not complain. All these changes are for the bettering of the con- dition of those who come after us. PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 45 CHAPTER VIII. MISCELLANEOUS REMINISCENCES. The name "Hoosier" originated as follows: When the young men of the Indiana side of the Ohio river went to Louisville, the Kentucky men boasted over them, calling them "New Purchase Greenies," claiming to be a superior race, composed of "half horse, half alligator, and tipped off with snapping-turtle." These taunts produced fights in the market-house and streets of Louisville. On one occasion a stout bully from Indiana was victor in a fist fight, and having heard Col. Leminousky lecture on the "Wars of Europe," who always gave martial prowess to the German Hus- sars in a fight with the Russian Cossacks, pronouncing Hussars "Hoosiers," the Indianian, when the Kentuckian cried 'enough,' jumped up and said, "I amx a Hoosier." And hence the Indi- anaians were called by that name. This was its true origin. I was in the State when it occurred. In domestic life, comedy and tragedy occurred. On one occasion, in Knox county, a Frenchman who had mar- ried a woman from Kentucky, being in altercation with her, and having but a limited knowledge of English, he said, "You be one dog's wife." "Yes," she replied, "I know that to my sorrow." 46 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND He had not the word "bitch." In the same county, during the raising of the first meeting house attempted by the Methodists in the territory, two men had a bloody fight, because the wife of one was seduced to leave her first husband and marry the other. The house was never finished — not even covered — and the walls remained a monument of folly. There was a divorce by the Leg- islature, and F. married B.'s wife and B. married another woman. Vincennes and Corydon, while they were seats of legislative assem- blies, during the winter, were places of dissipation. Drunkeness and gambling were practiced by men in office. I dare not men- tion the names of reputed natural sons of men in office. In 1829, a thief stole a Methodist preacher's horse, and was pursued across Indiana and Kentucky into Tennessee, where he was captured, and brought back to Indiana. He was tied to a tree by the "Regulators" and, after receiving a number of lashes, was sent out of the State. This summary punishment of thieves often prevailed, and was more of a terror to evil-doers than the slow prosecution by officers of the law. The disturbance of religious assemblies was prevented through fear of the muscular power of some of the preachers, so that the facts as they occurred with Finley, Raper, Cartiwright, Havens and Farmer fully justify Eggleston's "Circuit Preacher." There was no need of fiction. If Eggleston had written the veritable bi- ography of his own relatives — the Craigs, Egglestons and Terrells — it would have facts stranger than fiction. His "School Master" had but few examples, and is not a pen-portraiture oi general educa- tion. It may have had an example at "Craig's Bar," near the bend of the Ohio ; but that was a dark place in literature. It is to be regretted that from some cause the best men and wisest statesmen of both national parties have not been chosen to PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 47 important positions, either by the people or the legislature. There was truth in what old Henry Hurst said, when he quoted i I Corinthians, 27, as proof of Indiana's "imitation of providence," as to him a new discovery when he heard an old anti-nomian preach on the weakness of man and thes oveteignty of Providence : "I knew Indiana had taken her weak men to govern her, but did not know it was the order of the Divine government until I heard that sermon." Hurst and the preacher, were both in the Leg- islature at the time. The men who practiced law in the courts in those counties had some strange ways. One of them pointed out to me the grounds under an elm where they ran foot races by moonlight. At the first session of the Putnam County court, Farington, Dewey and Judah slept on a bed made on the floor of the clerk's house. Judah and Dewey had blankets — overcoats — but Farington had a swallow-tail dress coat of broadcloth, which he pulled off and laid at the head of his bed. In the night Farington became alarmed, supposing a snake was in the bed. Old Mack, the clerk, came to the rescue with his candle, when they discovered Dewey's dog on Farington's coat, having switched his tail in Farington's face. This Judah told me himself. I could give the names of successful and unsuccessful teachers, preachers, doctors, lawyers, judges, governors and senators who have had their ingress andegress on the stage of office since first I voted for Isaac Blackford for governor, which was my first vote and on the temperance question. But we were beat by J. B. Ray, who was liberal with whisky drank with tin cups. Blackford was too temperate or too stingy to treat. And now a word as to temperance, or the drinking of those days. There was, in 1824. a volunteer society, pledged not to furnish whisky' at raisings and log rollings. This was the first organized temperance society in the State. In 1828 other L'.??^y "^CONCRESS 48 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND PEOI Q «Y'il'''"''''''''''''W''W/i//i//////// '^^'* 751 830 4 1 parts of the State organized county societies. In 1829 there was a united effort at IndianapoHs, which has, in some form, been kept up ever since. And now, having witnessed its good results for 60 years — and having attained the age of 80 years without using any in- toxicants — I say to young and old men, keep sober. Errata. — The name "Colters" appears in the Preface of this book. It shouhl be "Colten." Al»r> on page 16 read "business was dull until 18:j4," instead of "l»i4:i."