Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 31: Rome Academy, 1916

The same act of Legislature, approved December 22, 1858, which accomplished the re-location of the county seat at Cannelton provided for transforming the old court-house into an academy, Elijah B. Huckeby, John C. Shoemaker and Job Hatfield being named as the first board of trustees. The citizens of Rome subscribed a fund of $2,000, which was invested in first mortgage bonds, the interest to be used for keeping the building in order as a school-house.

Some necessary re-modeling, etc., v/as done during the summer following the actual removal of the county offices and records, and in October, 1860, the school was formally opened as Rome Academy, with N. V. Evans, A.M., principal, and C. W. De Bruler, assistant. The first session began with an enrollment of forty pupils, which soon increased to sixty. A course of study planned to continue forty weeks was outlined as follows: Primary Grade, - reading, writing, orthography, mental arithmetic and primary geography; tuition $6 per term. Second Grade, - arithmetic, grammar, geography, ancient and modern history, analysis and elocution, tuition, $8. Third Grade, - natural and mental philosophy, algebra, geology, hygiene and bookkeeping; tuition, $12. Fourth Grade, - higher mathematics, chemistry, rhetoric, composition and the languages; tuition, $18. Music, $20; use of piano, $4; vocal music, $2; drawing and painting, $3. Intellectual ability marked both Evans and De Bruler so that their efforts brought the academy into speedy prominence in a day which saw small institutions flourish.

upon tuition fees for their pay and such recompense was insufficient to prove satisfactory, even after augmented by interest from the mortgage fund. The Reverend William M. Daily, A.M., succeeded Evans as principal in 1861. A scholar of advanced culture, Dr. Daily was one of the foremost educators in the state, having occupied a few years earlier the president's chair of Indiana University at Bloomington. Rome Academy attained under him even higher eminence than when Evans was principal, the attendance increasing and about the same course of instruction being pursued.

One year alone, however, was the period of his service, also, and the Reverend William S. Hooper was placed at the head in 1862. Miss Susan Hooper, his sister, a woman of grace and accomplishment, was his co-worker and through their energetic efforts the institution apparently flourished, closing in June, 1883, with an attendance of ninety pupils.

Professor Joseph W. Snow, a graduate of Genesee College, took charge in the autumn of 1863, with Miss Flint as his assistant, but their year's work was less successful than their predecessors' had been, although an exceptional standard in French and music was maintained through the instruction given by Emile Longuemare. He belonged to an aristocratic old French family of St. Louis, Southern sympathizers, who had cast in their entire fortune with the Confederacy and were thus brought into reduced circumstances.

His uncle and aunt, Charles and Felicite (LeGuerrier) Longuemare, had come to Indiana after equipping at their private expense a full Missouri regiment of which their son, Charles Longuemare, Jr., v>^as captain. A romantic incident of Winston Churchill's novel "The Crisis," where a young Southers officer breaks his sword rather than yield it to an enemy, was recognized in St. Louis as an actual occurrence in the career of Captain Charles Longuemare, Jr.

ter of James and Ellen (Donnelly) Hardin, of "Hardin Grove" near Rome, where one of their daughters yet lives on her inherited portion of the old estate, the other marrying Major Harrison Jackson Price, of the Thirteenth Infantry, U. S. A. Emile Longuemare also married into a Perry County family, Josephine, daughter of Adam and Jane (Wheeler) Ackarman.

At this time the board of academy trustees was headed by William Valentine Reynolds, and through him the building was leased to St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Cannelton, the parish taking over its control and changing the name to St. Albans' Academy. As such it was managed for one year by James R. Rafter, but proved unprofitable so the lease was not renewed.

The Baptists next took charge, installing the Reverend I. W. Bruner as principal, but the attendance and resources had steadily dwindled ever since the Hoopers left, so after two years of experiment the property was returned to the Board, who then arranged to have it used as a part of the public school system.

Since that time its teachers have been paid from the public fund, except for various spring and summer normal schools, sustained by personal subscription. Perhaps the most noteworthy among these - both for the quality of instruction given and the class of pupils in attendance - was that conducted in the 'eighties by Howard M. Royal and his wife, Mary H. (Batson) Royal, whose long career as successful educators has given them unique distinction upon the muster-roll of Perry County teachers during a half-century of continuous labour.

The Reynolds family represented old Yankee stock of New England though their coming into Perry County was through Hardin and Grayson Counties in Kentucky. William Rhodes Reynolds, a son of Richard and Esther Reynolds, of Providence, Rhode Island, had there married Sarah Jane Tower, daughter of Mathew Tower, lineally descended from that John Tower, of

Hingham, Massachusetts, whose descendants are so widespread that a copious volume of family history has been written in the present generation by a member bearing the ancestral name with distinction, Charlemagne Tower, sometime ambassador to Germany.

William R, and Sarah (Tower) Reynolds removed to Indiana in 1825 with the eldest two - William Valentine and Alonzo Davis - of eight children that were born to them, living for twenty-five years in Leavenworth, but in 1851 locating at Rome, where the remainder of their lives was spent. William V. was twice married, first to Mary, a daughter of Samuel Frisbie, and second to Elizabeth Gardner, by whom he was the father of three children. Alonzo D. married Caroline Woodford, daughter of Julius and Sarah (Phelps) Woodford, (her mother belonging to that New Jersey family which William Walter Phelps represented in the diplomatic service,) and their children were several in number. One of the daughters, Sarah Phelps Reynolds, married John William Minor, of Rome, himself of the third generation in Indiana of a family name long notable in the Old Dominion.

Nicholas Minor I was an extensive landholder in Loudoun County, Virginia, who gave to the town of Leesburg the ground composing the public square upon which the court-house and county buildings are situated. His wife was Mary Spence, and their son, Nicholas Minor II, married Mary Stark, coming with her in (or about) 1780 to Nelson County, Kentucky, where several children were born to them, so the name is found in adjacent counties of that state and came early into Breckinridge County, along with the allied families of Stephens and Holt from which Stephensport and Holt Station received their titles.

Nicholas III was the pioneer Minor crossing into Indiana for permanent residence, settling in Perry County not far from his Kentucky relatives, where he married Nancy Connor (or O'Connor) by whom he was the father of six sons - William Stark, Hadley

Jefferson, George S., Robert, Spence, and Richard Connor - and two daughters - Martha Belle and Catherine. Three of these children died unmarried, although living to mature age, but the others have widely perpetuated the family stock.

William Stark Minor, who for many years carried on a water-mill on Anderson Creek, took as his wife Almerine Lamar, a member of that pioneer family from which Lamar Township, Spencer County, received its name, and their children have shown traits of heredity in entering the professions of finance, education and the law. William Guthrie Minor, now cashier of the Cannelton National Bank, was elected Clerk of Perry County in 1890, holding the office four years, and was chosen Treasurer in 1902. His brother, Oscar Curtis Minor, represented Perry and Spencer Counties as joint-Senator from 1898 to 1902, and has served several terms as prosecuting attorney.

Hadley Jefferson Minor married Eleanor, daughter of John Shoemaker, a native of Pennsylvania, by his first wife, Rachel Tabor. Adam Shoemaker, his father, was of German extraction and came through Ohio into Kentucky bringing his wife, Catherine, and the several children born to them, including John, Adam, Jacob and Stephen.

All these became pioneer settlers of Perry County, entering lands while Indiana was yet a territory and serving their fellow-citizens in various public capacities. Adam Shoemaker II was one of the commissioners appointed by Governor Ray under an act of the Thirteenth General Assembly, approved January 21, 1830, to re-locate the seat of justice in Dubois County, which resulted in removing the county seat from Portersville to Jasper. He had taught school at Troy during the 'twenties for a time while Abraham Lincoln was a pupil, Lincoln himself relating this fact to a nephew, John C. Shoemaker, whom he met in Indianapolis when on the way from Springfield to Washington for his inauguration in 1861, Shoemaker being then in the state Senate. Stephen Shoemaker was elected Justice of the Peace in 1820 ; John Shoemaker, in 1840, and Jacob Shoemaker in 1843, while John Shoemaker was Sheriff from 1828 to 1828.

John William Minor, son of Hadley J. and Eleanor (Shoemaker) Minor, was elected Auditor of Perry County in 1874, serving eight years, and removing later from Cannelton to Indianapolis where he became a prominent capitalist and a valuably influential member of the Democratic party, although never again consenting to run for office. His sister, Zerelda Minor, married Lawrence Brannon Huckeby, son of Elijah B. and Nancy (Groves) Huckeby, of Rome, afterward making their home in New Albany for many years.

From the second marriage of John Shoemaker, with Sarah Chapman, by birth a New Yorker of English lineage, was born April 8, 1826, John Chapman Shoemaker, the first of Perry County's native sons elected to a state office (Auditor of State, 1870) and than whom none attained greater success at the price of selfreliance, tenacious purpose and indefatigable effort through all the affairs of life.

Increasing knowledge of sociology and the scientific study of eugenics have completely verified what was formerly held as a mere theory - the potent influence of ancestry upon both physical and mental organisms ; so that in seeking for the elements of success and tracing intellectual endowments to their ancestral sources, it must be admitted that no better mingling of national blood could be found than the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic races which were blended in John Chapman Shoemaker.

As a mere child his quiet persistence was remarkable, and an interesting anecdote is told of his winning a Sunday School prize once offered in Rome to the pupil memorizing and reciting within a specified time the largest number of verses from the New Testament. This was a favourite spiritual exercise of an earlier generation, regarded as a stimulus to youthful piety.

and one devout lad, considered a village prodigy, outstripped all competitors at a bound by repeating four chapters. It was assumed that he had so completely distanced every rival that the contest was thought virtually over, but on the following Sunday young "John C." (as he was always called) quietly recited nine chapters in full. He had made up his mind to win, and the prize - a handsome Bible - was a lifelong cherished possession.

Reared on his father's farm, agriculture claimed his attention and he was the first to realize - far ahead of his time - the latent possibilities of Perry County hillsides, with their southern exposure toward the Ohio River, for the growing of high-grade fruit. In 1859 he purchased from various owners tracts of land in Tobin Township, aggregating several hundred acres, seven miles east of Cannelton, fronting the Ohio River between Millstone and Deer Creeks, where he planted what was then the largest fruit farm in the state.

On the highest eminence, 275 feet above high water mark, commanding a glorious view of river and fertile valley for many miles, he built the substantial wooden dwelling planned with striking originality in cruciform shape, all its first floor rooms having large fireplaces into an immense central chimney. Until his election in 1870 as Auditor of State necessitated removal with his family to Indianapolis, he made this his home, and "Shoemaker Farm" became a Mecca for pilgrims seeking wisdom in practical horticulture.

The profound research which he had done for several years, on a smaller scale as an amateur, while holding office at Rome, here found material expression in the quality of fruit he was able to grow. His apples won many first prizes at the Indiana State Fairs, and his willingness to share with others the results of his experiments soon distinguished him as a leading pomologist of the Middle West. Agricultural journals sought his contributions as authoritative, and articles from his pen published in the Cannelton Reporter during the

'sixties are still quoted as standard on many points. A sight of rare beauty were the Shoemaker orchards when in full bloom or bearing, and old steamboatmen still relate how a glimpse of them was eagerly watched for by passengers when traveling past. On river charts the name "Shoemaker's Landing" is still used to designate the stopping place thus known during three-score years.

Through frequent changes in its subsequent ownership, and and the negligence of non-residents, the estate had fallen into almost complete disintegration by 1912, but its wonderful latent possibilities caught the eye of an enthusiastic young Evansville man - Frank Igiehart Odell. His college-trained mind logically reasoned from cause to effect, and he at once set to work practically carrying out in Southern Indiana the horticultural theories he had mastered among applegrowers of the Pacific coast.

In conjunction with his father. Captain I. H. Odell, and his brothers - Harry Nicholas Odell and Robert Levi Odell - he once more brought together by purchase the original estate, with some important additions required to round out its acreage and immediately commenced a heroic rehabilitation of the entire five hundred acres. Vigourous treatment was applied the remaining trees, thousands of new trees were set out, modern scientific methods everywhere introduced, and while the work is yet too new to have attained extensive results, it is full of promise. The mansion has been restored as a centre of hospitality by Captain and Mrs. Odell (Anna Igiehart) and the name of **Sunnycrest" has already made for itself a place among Indiana orchards of note.

John C. Shoemaker, when only twenty-one, was elected county treasurer, serving six years in an office demanding not only strict business habits, but unquestionable integrity. He was married October 13, 1850, to Mahala, daughter of John Stephenson, one of Perry County's pioneer Virginian immigrants, an early associate judge and justice of the peace. Several children were born to them, but only two daughters grew to maturity and married, so the present generation of Shoemakers carrying forward the name in Perry County are his collaterals, the direct descendants of John Shoemaker I, by his first wife, Rachel Tabor.

From the Treasurer's office John C. Shoemaker was chosen Auditor in 1853, as a Whig, but on the dismemberment of that party affiliated with the Democrats, who, in 1858, elected him senator for the district comprising Perry, Spencer and Warrick Counties. From that time up to his death, December, 1905, he was an active Democrat, high in the councils of his party.

While in the Senate he introduced the bill simplifying township management by placing the business in the hands of a single trustee instead of a board - three trustees, a secretary and a treasurer, - thus abolishing much cumbersome and complicated machinery, with its resultant friction and inefficiency. The work of county auditors, also, was materially condensed through measures of his suggestion, few legislators of Indiana having displayed greater resources of usefulness than John C. Shoemaker. In 1868 he was elected from Perry County as representative, and again brought forward in the lower house his eminently practical views of legislation.

During his years of service as Auditor of State - an office secondary only to the Governor's in actual importance - his administration elicited universal praise from the outside press, no less than from all Indiana, journals of such status as the Louisville Courier- Journal and the Cincinnati Enquirer terming him "a model officer for Auditor of State." After retiring, in 1873, he purchased a controlling interest in the Indianapolis Sentinel, becoming president of the company, and from the time he gave its affairs his personal attention, about 1876, its struggle against misfortune became a winning fight after years of continuous loss. Out of chaos he brought system, extravagance gave way to economy, and success took the place of disaster.