Clark County, Indiana - Chapter 7: The Fourth Decade - 1830-1840, 1909

Chapter 7: The Fourth Decade - 1830-1840

From the accounts of the various phases of hfe in Clark county during this decade, we learn that it was a period of prosperity. Townships and towns were laid out and the reports of travelers are bright with prophecies. In 1833 both Charlestown and Jeffersonville received favorable notices in the State Gazetteer, as follows :

"Charlestown. a post-town and seat of justice of Clark county, situated on a high table-land between the waters of Fourteen-mile creek and those of Silver creek, about two and a half miles from M'Donald's ferry, on the Ohio river, from which there is a direct road ari'd well improved to the town, thirteen miles from the Falls of the Ohio and one hundred and six miles southeast of Indianapolis. It is surrounded by a body of excellent fanning- land, in a high state of cultivation. Charlestown contains about eight hundred inhabitants, seven mercantile stores, one tavern, six lawyers, four physicians, three preachers of the gospel, and craftsmen of almost all descriptions. The public buildings are a court-house, a jail, an office for the Clerk and Recorder, and a market-house, all of brick : in addition to which the Episcopal Methodists, the Reformed Methodists, the Baptists, and the Presbyterians have meeting-houses, all of brick, and an extensive brick building has lately been erected for the purpose of a county seminary. In the immediate vicinity of the town a fiouring-mill and oil-mill have been recently erected, which are propelled by steam power. The situation is healthy, and supplied with several springs of excellent water. There are in Charlestown ab(iut sixty-five brick dwelling-houses, and about one hundred of wood. There are also cardingmachines, propelled by horse or ox-power.

"JefTferson\-ille. a town on the Ohio river, in Clark county. It is a beautiful situation, on a high bank above the highest water-mark, and extends from the head of the Falls up the river, so as to include a deep eddy, where boats of the largest size can approach, at all stages of the water, within cablelength of the shore. From this town there is a delightful \\e\\- of Louisville and of the landing at the mouth of Beargrass. It also affords the most advantageous landing for boats descending the river and intending to pass the Falls through the Indiana chute. It is laid out on a large and liberal plan, and must, from its local advantages, become a place of great commercial imjiortance. The state prison is located at this place; and there are in its immediate vicinity two steam mills, a ship-yard, an iron foundry; and in tlie town tliere are six mercantile stores, tiiree taverns, and a steam grist and saw mill, and numerous mechanics of all trades. * * * Its present population amounts to six hundred or seven hundred inhabitants, three of whom are physicans."

"Bethlehem, a pleasant village on the bank of the Ohio river, in the county of Clark, about fifteen miles northeast of Charlestown. It contains about three hundred inhabitants, amongst whom are mechanics of various kintls.

''Utica. a pleasant, thri\-ing post-village in Clark cnunty. It is situated on the bank of the Ohio ri\-er, about eight miles south of Charlestown. It contains about two hundred inliabitants, three mercantile stores, and a wariety of mechanics.

"^^'ashingt(lP. is a post-tmvn in Clark CDuntv, abr)Ut twelve miles nnrtlieast from Charlestown. It has about one hundred and fiftv inhabitants, two taverns, three mercantile stores, and several mechanics of various trades.'"

In 1 83 1 the old hand ferry at JetTersonville was discontinued and the first steam ferryboat began to run. This l:)oat ran but a short while, its boiler ex- ]3loding in 1832, killing seven nien. The company soon replaced this boat by another and better one, and continued the business. W'athan and Gilmore, who were the proprietors of the ferry at this time, sold out to Sliallcross, Strader & Thompson in 1838. The ferryboats at this time ran from the foot of Spring street directly across the river to a place called Keiger's landing, the island not ha\-ing attained its present size, offering no obstacle.

The township of Utica was established November 7. 1831. the line adjoining Jeft'ersonville being as follows: "Commencing on the Ohio river on the line (li^-iding Xos. 5 and 6: thence on a straight direction to the line of No. 13. at the corners of Nos. 22 and 23: thence on the line dividing said Nos. 22 and 2Ty, and on the line between Nos. 33 and 36, 49 and 50, and 67 and 68 to Silver creek," etc.

The ^.'illage of Hibernia sprang up in the early thirties, David Hostetler being one of the earliest settlers. The Charlestown and Bethlehem road crossed the Boyer's landing and Otisco road at the corner of his property. The northeast boundary of the grant passes through the village, and its principal street is on this line.

Hostetler came here in 1828 and bought land of Daniel Kester from tract number one hundred and five. Thomas Applegate and William Pangborn were neighbors. W'illiam Pangborn was from New Jersey and emigrated to Indiana after serving throughout the Revolutionary war. After a few years others gathered here, and hence the place naturally took the form of a village. Hostetler soon opened a store, and was the first to carry on this branch of industry in the village. He was also the first postmaster, as the mails were carried to Bethlehem from Charlestown. His store was used many years as the voting-place for Owen township. John Roland, James Lee Strieker, and Isaac Crunini were storekeepers during the early experience of Hibernia.

Hamburg, the oldest village in Silver Creek township, is located on Grant No. io8. It was laid (ait in 1837 by Aliram Littell and Thomas Cunningham, and had thirty-one lots of various sizes. The original plat resembles a triangle, and the ordinary size of the lots is sixty b)' one hundred and twenty feet. "Lot number three, on School street and in the forks of the same, is donated to the Christian congregation, or the Church of Jesus Christ, for a meeting-house, and for that use forever, never to be transferred. Lot number four is donated for school purposes, and for that use forever, the same given by Absalom Littell." The proprietors also donated land for a markethouse - a good idea, but never realized; they also gave land for school purposes, "and for that use forever".

Mr. Littell. who was a Christian minister and who owned quite a large tract of land in this vicinity, a man of considerable foresight and remarkable energy, was the first to bring the idea of founding a town at this point to a successful termination. A combination of influences decided the matter. The old stage route between Jettersonville and Salem, established as early as 1830, had for a stopping place John A. Smith's, two miles above the present site of Hamburg. This line made three trips each way every week. Four horses were used, and the business done was considerable.

These circumstances induced ^Ir. Littell to lay off the tiiwn. But previous to 1837 the post-office had been established, with William Wells as first postmaster. His office was in a little log house on "Jeff street," as it was generally called by the people. Sometime after he kept the office in a frame building on the southwest corner of the cross-roads. The year the town was laid out David Young served as postmaster. His place of doing business was in a small log house on Jeft' street. William Thompson came next, keeping the office in Well's old place. Then came John W. Jenkins, in the same building. Reuben Hart followed Jenkins in a frame house on the northwest corner of the cross-roads.

In 1837 all that part of Grant No. i not being in Jeft'ersonville, and belonging to the Jeft'ersonville Association, was platted by a Mr. Barnum, of Cincinnati. The association rejected all of that part of his map north from Court avenue and east of Spring- street, and employed Edmund F. Lee to replat it. It was replatted by Lee, lithographed by T. Campbell, of Louisville, and printed by C. R. Milne, of the same city, and erroneously called Milne's map. This plat consists of blocks, not lots, or squares numbered from one to

154. and also of Coinmercial Square at the south end of Broadway : of Central Park, laying on both sides (jf Broadway, between Indiana avenue and Illinois a\'enue. and bounded on the north and south by Xorth and South Fourth streets. Rose Hill school occupied one part of Central Park, and Rader Park the other part. The Milne map also has Washington Scpiare on each side of Broadway, between North and South Eighth streets, and from alley to alley ; also Franklin Square, just above the Court House lot ; also Jefferson Square, bounded on the north by Vernon ( Sparks) avenue, nn the east by Canal (Meigs) street, on the south l^y Eleventh street, and on the west by \\'att street.

This public square is now the northwest quarter of the United States quarter-master depot. Milne's map also calls for Market Square, which is bounded by New Market (Court avenue) street, Wall street, and the alley east of Kentucky avenue. It includes Park street, and Park, and the triangle where the engine house and the police station are now located. That part of Market Square lying east of Spring street is now divided up into Park street. Warder Park. Flynn avenue, and the Plaza. No other city in the state has a "Plaza." Shallcross Block, or Shipyard Block, lying east of Meigs avenue, to a point sixty feet east of Mechanic street, and from the river to the alley north of Market street is also a separate unnumbered part on Milne's map. The fact that the land adjacent to Jeffersonville was platted, was no sign that there had been a great influx of settlers. In 1840 there were only five hundred voters in the city.

In 1839, Dr. Nathaniel Field, who then represented Clark county in the Legislature, introduced a resolution authorizing the incorporation of Jeffersonville as a city, and an act in conformity to this resolution was passed. In April of this year an election was held and Isaac Heiskell was elected the first Mayor. The first Councilmen of the city were: First ward, L. B. Hall and James G. Read : Second ward. John D. Shryer and Samuel Alerriw^eather ; Third ward, A. \\'athen and J. B. McHolland ; Fourth ward, Nathaniel Field and James Slider; Fifth ward, Daniel Trotter and C. W. Magill. John Mitchell was the first Treasurer, and Thomas Wilson was the first Clerk. Jackson Hulse was the first Marshal. The population of the city at this time was five hundred and eighteen.

Two events in the year 1832 are worthy of note. The great flood came that year, the greatest ever known up to that time. Havoc was wrou,ght along the river by the w'ashing away of property. One account of the damage done to this locality as related by a Louisville historian, is as follows:

"In 1832 a new calamity came upon the city\ This was an unparalleled flood in the Ohio. It commenced on the loth of February and continued until the 2 1 St of that month, having risen to the extraordinary height of fifty-one feet above low-water mark. The destruction of property by this flood was im- niense. Nearl}- all the frame buildings near the river were either floated off or turned over and destroyed. An almost total cessation in business was the necessary consequence: even farmers from the neigliborhood were unable to get to the markets, the flood having so afTectetl the smaller streams as to render them impassable, 'idie description of the sufferings by this flood is appalling. This calamity, iiowever, great as it was. could have but a temporary effect on the progress of the city, as will be seen hereafter."

The height of fifty-one feet given here does not tally with the official record. The water reached its greatest height on February 19th - forty-five and four-tenths feet. The Hughes-Palmer mill, in Clarksville, was swept away by this flood.

Cholera was epidemic in 1S3-2. W'hWe jjeople were succumbing to the disease everywhere. Clark county lost very few, if any. They died by scores in Louisville, but we were almost completely immune from it. At Salem there were sixtv deaths in one night. In 1833 the disease was veiw bad, but there was none in 1S34; in 1835, however, it was worse than ever before and there were many deaths. Besides the great flood of 1832. the county was subjected to a great drouth during the summer months. It remained the worst on record until that of 1854. In 1834. James Howard built his first steamboat in Teffersonville, the first of a vast fleet of water craft turned out from these yards since that time. In 1832 the first foundry was started by Robert C. Green, who came from Cincinnati. Charles C. Anderson, who had learned the foundrv business with Mr. Green, in Cincinnati, started a small machine shop, which he operated successfully on a growing scale up to the time of his death. In this year also a project for a bridge across the river was inaugurated and James Guthrie. Samuel Gwathmey and Daniel McAllister, of Louisville, went to Indianapolis to recei\-e the incorporation of a company by the Indiana Legislature to aid in the building. One charter had already been granted by the Kentucky Legislature, but another one seemed necessary to \n\>h th.e scheme to completion. This project made apparent progress.

The Kentucky charter was deemed sufficient and contracts for the construction of the bridge were let. The corner stone on the Kentucky side was laid September 7. 1836, with great solemnity and ceremony near the foot of Twelfth street, two squares above the present Pennsylvania bridge. On the Jeffersonville side the abutments were commenced also, but financial difficulty arose, the contractor failed to proceed with the work and the project finally fell through and forty years elapsed before it was broached again.

The first fair in Clark county was held in 1836, in Charlestown. on Denny's lots, southeast of the court-house. Thomas J. Henly, John Denny, and John W. Long were instrumental in its success. Nothing was exhibited of special attraction, except Dr. James Taggart's Durham bull, the first in the county. Avery Long was their president, and Campbell Hay, treasurer.

July 26, 1834, ex-Governor Jonathan Jennings died at liis home on the picturesque banks of Sinking Fork surrounded by his family and friends, and beloved by all. His body was taken to Charlestown for interment and laid in an unmarked grave. During the pioneer age schools were imperfectiv managed and even down to later days this is true in some parts of the countv. In Bethlehem township the school antedated the church.

Before the Antioch church had been thought of. a school was carried on near where the church now stands. The house was sixteen by eig'hteen feet, and had a door which swung to the outside - a very rare thing, even in those backwoods days. Cyrus Crosby was the first teacher. After him came Thomas J. Glover: Dr. Solomon Davis, Rev. Benjamin Davis, a local Methodist preacher; and perhaps a few others. In 1832 Mr. Martin Stucker taught in a new hewed-log house. Then came Charles Smith, of New York state; Samuel C. Jones, of Kentucky, but at this time a citizen of the county, and who had been here as one of the very earliest teachers. Joel M. Smith came soon after Jones : he was a native of Xew York, but came with his father's family when a boy and settled near Charlestown. Thomas S. Simington taught in 1839 and 1840, and it was during his term that the old school-house burned down. Very soon thereafter another building was ]3ut up, in which George Matthews acted as teacher. After the new school law came into force a new district was created, and another building erected in a different place.

Although the town of Bethlehem was on the mail route from Jefifersonville to Vevay, she had no postmaster. This route was begun about 1827, and was continued until 1840. George Monroe carried the mail o\-er the route in 1834-1838. William G. Armstrong was the first postmaster and he was succeeded in 1835, by Asa Abbott.

Bennettsville. in Carr township, is the <inly place in that township which claims to be a village, and its population is not so seething that you would notice it. It was laid off in September, 1838, by H. O. Hedgecoxe, county surveyor, for Baily ]\Iann. The first name given to the newborn village was New Town. After several years the name was changed, Bennettsville being thought preferable to the name of Xew Town. Benedict Nugent, who was the first store-keeper in the village, probably had much to do indirectly with the changing of the name. The evidence is that Mr. Mann removed to some other locality, and that IMr. Nugent being the most prominent man in the place, the citizens, for some reasons peculiar to a pioneer people, almost unawares gave it the name of Bennettsville, a prolongation of Mr. Nugent's lan

The original plat does not give the width of the streets and avenues. In finding the direction which \\'asliington street takes with reference to section lines, subtract the variation five degrees and fifty minutes from field note north thirty degrees and forty-five minutes west.

Tlie village of Xew Market was laid out by Robert Henthorn in 1839. The streets are si.xty feet wide, avenues thirty feet, alleys ten feet. It is situated in the southern part of survey or tract numl)er one hundred and ninety-six on the west bank of Fourteen-mile creek. In 1850 Gabriel Phillippi made an addition of twenty-two lots on the southeast comer of the original plat. Round about the \'illag"e the country is rolling. In the northern part of the first plat the ground is broken and not well adapted for a thriving business place. The eastern half of the village juts out on the high banks of Fourteen-mile creek. Here the road leads up the liluffs as it follows up the dividing line between the tracts.

For many years previous to 1839 New ]\Iarket was a rendezvous for market wagons, which made it a stopping point on their way to the towns on the Falls. People soon learned to bring their produce here - eggs, butter, poultry, calves and dressed hog.s - and to receive in e.xchange groceries and d\y goods. From this fact the village derived its name of New Market. The first man who engaged in buying and selling country produce, and who lived in New Market and sold all the articles common in country stores, was Anderson Ross. After him came W^esley Bottorff. Mr. Garner. J. W. Haymaker. Dr. Benson and Alexander Ruddell. Between 1840 and 1850 there were three stores in the town at the same time. There was an old-fashioned saloon here about 1845. which dealt out all kinds of drinks, from hard cider to Kentucky "Bourbon." A prosperous blacksmith and cooper shop about the same time gave the village an appearance of considerable business. In the place now there is but one store.

The resort known as the Jeffersonville Springs was in the heyday of its existence at this time. Its patronage came from all points of the South and West. In 1838 the management built a large and handsome hotel at the foot of Broadway and the street out to the resort was graded and became a highway for the ecjuipage of fashion and wealth.

Jefifersonville had never been satisfied with the manner in which the county seat had been taken away and removed to Charlestown. There had been no controversy upon the county seat question in the election of the Representatives to the Legislature, and they had acted wholly upon their own personal feelings and wishes in the matter. The people of Jeffersonville bided their time to take back the county seat and get their revenge at the same time. In 1838 the county seat removal question was raised again, and both sides to the question prepared for a pitched battle. A Senator and two Representatives of the Legislature were to be elected and the candidates were chosen on that issue.

Baird S History Of Clark Co., Inu

jamin Ferguson, and for the Lower House Col. John S. Simonson and Thomas J. Henl}-. Those in favor of removal to JeiTersonville put forward William G. Armstrong for the Senate, and Dr. Nathaniel Field and Major Henr_\' Hurst for Representati\'es. This was a noted contest in the political history of Clark county as the nominees were all men of ability and of great personal popularity. The canvass was hot and the contest, as it always is on questions of county seat remo\-als, was bitter. The removalists, the JefYersonville part}', elected their candidates, but the victory was barren of fruits ; the Legislature refusing to the people of Clark county their wishes on that subject, and Charlestown still retained her hold upon the county seat. But the strength of the removal feeling had been tested and it showed that a majority of the people were in favor of it. They were defeated but not discouraged. After a lapse of forty years the fight was renewed.

The Hon. James G. Howard gi\-es a measure of the period as follows : "At that time school-houses were not very plentiful. The only one that we had in Jeiifersnn\-ille was a little old unused clerk's office. They had the courthouse here then, but the county seat was at Charlestown ; and the first school I went to when I came here was to that little clerk's office. The people did not have many opportunities for an education those days. Tliev were not generally well educated ; but there was a class of men here at that early day - quite a number of them, that with all the disadvantages that surrounded them w'ould compare favorably with any I have ever met. So far as the morals of the community at that time are concerned, I do not think the period between 1830 and 1850 has ever been surpassed. It is astonishing that the intelligence, the judgment and stamina that constitute vigorous manhood shcjuld have been consolidated in men of those days of hardship and few advantages : and when I undertake to compare the present with the past, I think that the men of those days would compare most favorably with those of our present time. I believe that every man, so far as I can remember, was a church-going citizen. There was a stability of character pervading the community at that time that almost astonishes me when I think of it. And more especially was this true of the farmers: nearly every fanner was a church-going man." The population of Clark county in 1840 was fourteen thousand five hundred ninetyfive.