Marion County, Indiana - Chapter 11, 1884 (part 2 of 2)

Restaurants. - The first restaurant of any considerable pretension was kept by a half-J)lood by the name of John Crowder, somewhere about the time that the first theatre made its appearance in OUaman's wagon-shop, in 1838 or thereabouts. It was at the height of its reputation while located in one of the rooms of Blackford's row of one-story frames, where the present palatial Blackford's Block stands. Here he was succeeded in two or three years by John Hodgkins, an Englishman, who kept a confectionery establishment with it, and made his own candies, the first of that class of manufactures in the place. He also built, or dug, the first ice-house to store ice for sale, as well as the manufacture of cream. It was at the corner of the two alleys where the rear of St. John's Cathedral stands, and the remainder of the quarter of a square, or one acre, which had formerly been the residence of George Smith, the first newspaper founder, was covered with an orchard which was filled up with seats and arbors, and graveled walks and flower-beds, and made the first pleasuregarden in the city, as has been elsewhere related. It was not till the completion of the Madison Railroad, however, that eating-houses became a permanent feature of business, and even then it required the impulse of the war to give them the importance they have since attained. Now there are over forty, chiefly located in the vicinity of the Union Depot and along Illinois Street.

James Blake, it is said, but for years only the " pickled" could bear transportation even in winter. The pioneers did not take kindly to the luxury. Its looks were against it, and the oyster was sneeringly compared to a nasal excretion. But settlers from the East gradually brought it into general favor, and by the time the railroads could bring it in good condition in the legitimate months (with an " r" in the name) it was a general favorite. The tomato, or " love-apple," as it was called, was not considered fit for anything but hog feed for the first twenty years or so of the settlement. It was grown as an ornament or curiosity, but as an edible was not ranked even so high as the " ground cherry," which was rather popular with children, and not nearly so high as the " May-apple." Celery was unknown till oysters had become an established addition to the primitive bill of fare. The pheasant, once a common game bird in the woods, disappeared as the oyster advanced in favor, and now is never seen near the city, and rarely anywhere in the county. The quail, however, has been preserved in considerable abundance by the game laws, as has the " prairie chicken," or grouse.

Fish, especially game fish, - the " bass" and " redeye" chiefly, - were nearly swept away by reckless processes, like seining and trapping, till a statute enacted some fifteen years or so ago checked the evil, and succeeding amendments, coupled with systematic, though not yet extensive, efforts at replacing them, have begun to restore something of the former better condition of our streams. Pork-houses and manufactories have driven off the good fish from the vicinity of the city, and few are left but the scavengers of the river, " cats" and " suckers." A few miles away, though, up or down the river, the fishing is sometimes pretty good. In early times all the streams were full of fish, including the game fish we now have, and the pike, salmon occasionally, and " buffalo" frequently, which are now rarely seen. The abundance of game and fish in the New Purchase was doubtless the reason the Indians held to it so tenaciously, and retained possession even after they had sold it by treaty. At this time the offal of porkhouses makes a profusion of food for the poorer vari- eties of fish, and in the season - at almost any season when there is no ice - fishermen crowd the banks of the river, from the water-works to the lower Bell Road bridge, to catch the " cat" and " sucker." They are coarse, but wholesome, and save many a dollar to the poor, who have more time than money, and always appetite enough for what is not bad eating for anybody. The bulk of all the fish food consumed here, however, both in restaurants and families, comes from the lakes, with occasional considerable additions from the sea-board. Fresh codfish were brought here on ice before the war, and so were shell-oysters, but not in any considerable quantities. The latter are now one of the constant imports from the East, and, with lobsters and other food of salt-water cultivation, form a large item of the city's business. The oldest restaurant in continuous existence is the Crystal Palace, established first about 1858 by Edwin Beck, and, after several changes since his death, is now in the hands of his brother-in-law, Ferdinand Christman. The others are all of the post-war period. The Women's Christian Temperance Union keeps one of the best dining-halls in the city, and uses the profits for benevolent purposes.

The visits of Vice-President R. M. Johnson, in 1840, and ex-President Van Buren and Mr. Clay, in 1842, have been referred to in the general history. There are a few others of historical interest that may be noticed here as appropriately as anywhere. On the 28th of May, 1850, while the Union was undergoing the periodical process of being " saved" by concessions to slavery. Governor Wright, who was an ardent " Union saver," invited Governor John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, to make an oflBcial visit here in the interest of Union. He did so, and was hospitably received, regaled with Union speeches and resolutions in the State-House yard, and made a fine speech himself. On the 20th of December, 1851, the Legislature invited the Hungarian patriot and exile, Kossuth, to visit the city, and a public meeting of citizens appointed a committee of fifty to receive and take care of him and his rather extensive and troublesome suite. They met him at Cincinnati on the 26th of February, 1852, accompanied him here by way of Madison, arriving about noon at the Madison

Railroad Depot on South Street in one of the largest crowds ever seen here. The boys pressed upon some of his suite, and were treated with a harshness that made those who saw it detest them heartily. A procession marched to the State-House yard, where Kossuth spoke for more than an hour, reading a speech he had written on the cars as he came up, it was said at the time. The party were provided for at the " Capital House" at the State's expense, and they made it pretty expensive by a liberal use of wines and liquors, so said current report. At night a reception was held at the Governor's residence, and a good deal of money given the exile by admiring Hoosiers. His " bonds" were kept as curiosities by some of the donors. The next day (Saturday) he was received by the two houses of the Legislature, and met delegations of sympathizers, - there was no one in the State who was not a sympathizer with Hungary, - and took in a considerable amount of contributions, in all about one thousand dollars. He attended church at Roberts' Chapel on Sunday morning and some of the Sunday-schools in the afternoon. On Monday he received more delegations and money, and delivered an address in Masonic Hall to the " friends of Hungary." He left on Tuesday, making one marked and prominent change of fashion here. The " Kossuth" soft felt hat became the general male wear, instead of the stiff, ugly plug, and it has remained so ever since. »

Two or three years later Governor Powell, of Kentucky paid Governor Wright an official visit, accompanied by some of the other State ofiicers, by Mr. Hodges, editor of the Whig State organ, the Frankfort Commonwealth, and by Capt. John Russell, a brother of Col. A. W. Russell, and noted all over the West as the strongest man of his day. He was said, when a boy of twenty, to have knocked down Lafitte, the noted pirate of the Gulf, and to have had in his prime the strength of four ordinary men. He was the father of Mr. W. H. Russell, of this city. In 18b9, on the 5th of May, Richard Cobden, the celebrated English " anti-corn law" leader and free-trade statesman, was in the city a few hours. Mr. Lincoln was here twice before his death. He spoke in Masonic Hall on the 19th of September, 1859, and from the balcony of the Bates House on the afternoon of the 12th of February, 1861, while on his way to his inauguration. In this speech he first developed the course he proposed to take with the seceded States. When it was learned that his body would be brought through the city on the way to Springfield, 111., the city authorities and citizens made extensive and appropriate preparations to receive it. A superb funeral arch was erected at the State-House gate, and a platform prepared for the corpse in the lower hall, in the rotunda. There was a parade of military and citizens on the 30tli of April when the funeral train arrived here, but greatly reduced from what it would have been by the rainy, dismal weather.