Vermillion County, Indiana - The whole text, 1888 (part 4 of 15)

Indiana is making rapid progress in the various manufacturing industries. She has one of the largest wagon and carriage manufactories in the world, and nearly her entire wheat product is manufactured into flour within the State. In 1880 the population

Ixteenal Impeovejients

This subject began to be agitated as early as 1818, and continued to increase in favor until 1830, when the people became much excited over the question of railroads.

In 1832 the work of internal improvements fairly commenced. Public roads and canals were begun during tliis year, the "Wabash and Erie Canal being the largest undertaking.

During 1830 many other projected works were started, and in 1837, when Governor Wallace took the executive chair, he found a reaction among the people in regard to the gigantic plans for public improvements. The people feared a State debt was being incurred from which they could never be extricated.

The State liad borrowed $3,827,000 for internal improvements, of which $1,327,000 was for the Wabash and Erie Canal, the remainder for other works.

The State had annually to pay $200,000 interest on the public debt, and the revenue derived which could be thus applied amounted to only $45,000 in 1838.

In 1839 all work ceased on these improvements, with one or two exceptions, and the contracts were surrendered to the State, in consequence of an act of the Legislature providing for the compensation of contractors by the issue of treasury notes.

In 1840 the system of improvements embraced ten different works, the most important of which was the Wabash and Erie Canal. The aggregate length of the lines embraced in this system v,-as 1,289 miles, lu 1840 the State debt amounted to $18,- 469,146; her resources for payment were such as to place her in an unfavorable liglit before the world, but be it recorded to her credit, she did not repudiate, as some other States of the Union have done. In 1850, the State having abandoned public improvements, private capital and enterprise pushed forward public work, and although the caiuil has served its day and age, and served it well, yet Indiana has one of the finest systems of water-ways of any State in the Union, and her railroad facilities compare favorably with the majority of States, and far in advance of many of her elder sisters in the family of States. lu 1884 there were 5,521 miles of railroad in operation in the State, and new roads being built and projected where the demand justified.

In 1869 the development of mineral resources in the State attracted considerable attention. Near Brooklyn, twenty miles from Indianapolis, is a fine sandstone formation, yielding an unlimited quantity of the best building material. The limestone formation at and surrounding Gosport is of great variety, including some of the best building stone in the world.

Men of enterprise worked hard and long to induce the State to have a survey made to determine tlio quality and extent of the mineral resources of the State.

In 1869 Professor Edward T. Cox was appointed State Geologist, to M'hom the citizens of Indiana are indebted for the exhaustive report on minerals, and the agrrcultural as well as manufacturing resources of the State.

southwestern part of the State, and extend from Warren County on the north to the Ohio River on the south, a distance of 150 miles, comprising the counties of Warren, Fountain, Parke, Vermillion, Vigo, Clay, Sullivan, Greene, Knox, Daviess, Martin, Gibson, Pike, Dubois, Vanderburg, Warwick, Spencer, Perry and a portion of Crawford, Monroe, Putnam and Montgomery.

This coal is all bituminous, but is divisable into three well-marked varieties; caking coal, non-caking coal, or block coal, and cannel coal. The total depth of the seams or measures is from 600 to 800 feet. The caking coal is in the western portion of the area described, ranging from three to eleven feet in thickness. The block coal prevails in the eastern pa; t of the field, and has an area of 450 square miles; this coal is excellent in its raw state for making pig-iron.

The great Indiana coal field is within 150 miles of Chicago or Michigan City by railroad, from which ports the valuable Superior iron ores are loaded from vessels that run direct from the ore banks.

Of the cannel coal, one of the finest seams to be found in the country is in Daviess County, this State. Here it is three and a half feet thick, underlaid by one and a half feet of block caking coal. Cannel coal is also found in great abundance in Perry, Greene, Parke and Fountain counties.

Numerous deposits of bog-iron ore arc found in the northern part of the State, and clay iron-stones and impure carbonates are found scattered in the vicinity of the coal field. In some places the deposits are oi considerable commercial value. An abundance of excellent lime is also found in Indiana, especially in Huntington County, where it is manufactured extensively.

In 1852 tlie Legislature authorized the organization of county and district agricultural societies, and also established a State Eoard of Agriculture, and made suitable provisions for maintaining the same, the holding of State fairs, etc.

In 1873 suitable buildings were erected at Indianapolis, for a State exposition, which was formally opened September 10, of that year. The exhibits there displayed showed that Indiana was not behind her sister States in agriculture as well as in many other industrial branches.

In 1842 Henry Ward Beecher resided in Indianapolis, and exercised a power for good aside from his ministerial work. He edited the Indiana Farmer and Gardener, and through that medium wielded an influence toward organizing a society, which was accomplished that year. Among Rev. Beecher's co-laborers were Judge Coburn, Aaron Aldridge, James Sigarson, D. V. CuUey, Eeuben Ragan, Stephen Hampton, Cornelius Eatlift", Joshua Lindley, Abner Pope and many others. The society gave great encouragement to the introduction of new varieties of fruit, but the sudden appearance of noxious insects, and the want of shipping

In 1860 there was organized at Indianap olis the Indiana Pomological Society, with Reuben Ragan as President, and William II. Loomis as Secretary.

From tliis date interest began to expand, but, owing to the M-ar, but little was done, and in January, 1864, the title of the society was changed to that of the Indiana Horticultural Society.

The society has had a steady growth, and produced grand results throughout the State, the product of apples alone in the State for the year 1884 being 4,181,147 bushels.

Education

The subject of education is the all-important subject to any and all communities, and the early settlers of Indiana builded greater than they then knew, when they laid the foundation for future growth of the educational facilities in the State.

To detail the educational resources, its accomplishments from its incipiency to the present date, would require a number of large volumes; but as space in this work will not permit, and as the people have access to annual State reports of the school system in detail, we will here give only the leading features and enormous growth, as well as flourishing condition of Indiana's school system to the present time.

The free-school system was fully established in 1852, which has resulted in placing Indiana in the lead of this great nation in educational progress. In 1854 the available common school fund consisted of the congressional township fund, the surplus revenue

This amount was increased from various sources, and entrusted to the care of the several counties of the State, and by them loaned to citizens of the county in sums not exceeding $300, secured by real estate.

In 1884 there were in the State children of school age, 722,846. Number of white children in attendance at school during the year, 461,831; number of colored children in school during the year, 7,285; total attendance, 469,116 ; number of teachers employed, 13,615, of whom 145 were colored.

And lastly we are pleased to say that Indiana has a larger school fund than any other State in the Union. The citizens may well be proud of their system of schools, as well as the judicious management of its funds, which have been steadily increased, notwithstanding the rapid increase of population, which has demande(5 an increased expenditure in various ways, which have all been promptly met, and the educational facilities steadily enlarged where any advancement could be made.

In 1802 Congress granted lands and a charter to the people residing at Vinceunes, for the erection and maintenance of a seminary of learning; and five years thereafter an act incorporating the Vincennes University asked the Legislature to appoint a Board of Trustees and empower them to sell a township of land in Gibson County, granted by Congress for the benefit of the university. The sale of the land was slow and the proceeds small; the members of the board were apathetic, and failing to meet, the institution fell out of existence and out of memory.

act for a State University. Bloomington was selected as the site for locating the institution. The buildings were completed and the institution formally opened in 1825. The name was changed to that of the " Indiana Academy," and subsequentlj', in 1828, to the " Indiana College." The institution prospered until 1854, when it was destroyed by fire, and 9,000 volumes, with all the apparatus, were consumed. The new college, with its additions, was completed in 1873, and the routine of studies continued.

The university may now be considered on a fixed basis, carrying out the intention of the president, who aimed at scholarship rather than numbers. The university receives from the State annually $15,000, and promises, with the aid of other public grants and private donations, to vie with any other State university within the republic.

In 1862 Congress passed an act granting to each State for college purposes public lands to the amount of 30,000 acres for each Senator and Representative in Congress. Indiana having in Congress at that time thirteen members, became entitled to 390,000 acres; but as there was no Congress land in the State at that time, scrip was instituted, under the conditions that the sum of the proceeds of the lands should be invested in Government stocks, or other equally safe investment, drawing not less than five per centum on the par value of said stock, the principal to stand undiminished. The institution to be thus founded was to teach agricultural and the mechanical arts as its leading features. It was further provided by Congress that should the principal of the fund be diminished in any way, it should be replaced by the State to which it belongs, so that the capital of the fund shall remain forever undiminished; and further, that in order to avail themselves of the benefits of this act, States must comply with the provisos of the act within live years after it became a law, viz., to erect suitable buildings for such school.

March, 1865, the Legislature accepted of the national gift, and appointed a board of trustees to sell the land. The amount realized from land sales was $212,238.50, which sum was increased to $400,000.

May, 1869, John Purdue, of La Fayette, offered $150,000, and Tippecanoe County $50,000 more, and the title of the institution was established - "Purdue University."

The building was located on a 100-acre tract, near Cliauncey, which Purdue gave in addition to his magnificent donation, and to which eighty-six and one half acres more have since .been added. The university was formally opened March, 1874, and has made rapid advances to the present time.

The principal design of this institution was to prepare thorough and competent teachers for teaching the schools of the State, and the anticipations of its founders have been fully realized, as proven by the able corjDS of teachers annually graduating from the institution, and entering upon their responsible missions in Indiana, as well as other States of the Union.

The Northern Indiana Kormal School and Business Institute, at Valparaiso, was organized in September, 1873. The school occupied the building known as the Valparaiso Male and Female College building. This institution has had a wonderful growth; the first year's attendance was tliirty-five. At this time every State in the Union is represented, the number enrolled being over 3,000. All branches necessary to qualify students for teaching, or engaging in any line of bueiness, are taught. The Commercial College connected with tlie school is of itself a great institution.

In addition to the public schools and State institutions there are a number of denominational and private schools, some of which have a national as well as a local reputation.

Notre Dame University, near South Bend, is the most noted Catholic institution in the United States. It was founded by Father Sorin, in 1842. It has a bell weighing 13,000 pounds, the largest in the United States, and one of the finest in the world.

Benevolent And Penal Institctions

By the year 1830 the influx of paupers and invalid persons was so great as to demand legislation tending to make provisions for tlie care of such persons. The Legislature was at first slow to act on the matter. At the present time, however, there is no State in the Union which can boast a better system of benevolent institutions.

In behalf of the blind, the first efibrt was made by James M. Ray in 1846. Through his eflbrts William H. Churchman came from Kentucky with blind pupils, and gave exhibitions in Mr. Beecher's church in Indianapolis. These entertainments were attended by members of the L^islature, and had the desired effect. That body passed an act for founding an institution for the blind in 1847. The buildings occupy a space of eight acres at the State capital, and is now in a flourishing condition.

Tlie first to awaken an interest in the State for the deaf and dumb was William Willard, himself a mute, who visited Indianapolis in 1843. He opened a school for mutes on his own account with sixteen pupils. The next year tlie Legislature adopted this school as a a State institution, and appointed a board of trustees for its management. The present buildings were completed in 1850, situated east of the city of Indianapolis. The grounds comprise 105 acres, devoted to pleasure grounds, agriculture, fruits, vegetables, flowers and pasture.

The question in regard to taking action in the matter of providing for the care of the insane, began to be agitated in 1832-"83. Iso definite action was taken, however, until 1844, when a tax was levied, and in 1845 a commission was appointed to obtain a site for a building. Said commission selected Mount Jackson, near the State capitol.

Other buildings have been erected from time to time, as needed to accommodate the increased demand, and at the present time Indiana has an institution for the insane equal to any in the West.

The State hospital not afl'ordiiig sufficient accommodations for her insane, March 7, 1883, an act providing for the location and erection of " Additional Hospitals for the Insane " was passed by the Legislature, and March 21 commissioners were appointed. After careful consideration three sites were located, one at Evansville, one at Logansport and one at Richmond, called respectively the Southern, Northern and Eastern hospitals. The Southern Indiana Hospital for Insane is located four miles east of Evansville, and is built on the corridor plan. The buildings are situated near the center of the hospital domain, which consists of 160 acres of highly improved land. The structure proper consists of a central oblong block, which is practically the vestibule of the entire hospital. From the first floor and the two galleries above, entrance is had into the four lateral wings. The total capacity is 162 patients. This building has been erected at a cost of $391,887.49.

The Korthern Indiana Hospital for the Insane is located a mile and a half west of Logansport, on a tract of land including 281 acres, lying on the south bank of the Wabash River, and is built on the pavilion plan. At the center of the ridge, in the maple grove, is situated the administration house. This is flanked on each side by tire pavilions, arranged in a straight line, which are intended and designed for the accommodation of the sick and infirm. On either side of the above named group, 205 feet distant, are located two pavilions, alike in every particular, intended for quiet patients. This hospital has a capacity for 342 patients, and was erected at a cost of $417,992.98.

The Eastern Indiana Hospital for the Insane is located on a tract of 306 acres, two miles west of Richmond, and is constructed on the cottage plan. The buildings, seventeen in number, are arranged in and around three sides of a quadrangle, 1,000 feet long, by 700 feet broad, near the center of the farm, the third, or northern side, being closed in by a grove. The southern front contains the administration house; the eastern front, five houses for female patients, and the western front, similar houses for male patients. This hospital has a capacity of 448 patients, and was erected at a cost of §409,867.88.

The first penal institution established in the State, known as the State Prison South, is located at Jeifersouville. It was established in 1821, and was the only prison until 1859. Before this prison was established, it was customary to resort to the old-time punishment of the whipping-post. For a time the prisoners were hired to contractors ; later, they were employed constructing new prison buildings, which stand on si.xteen acres of ground. From 1857 to 1871, they were employed manufacturing wagons and farm implements. In 1871 the Southwestern Car Company leased of the State all convicts capable of performing labor pertaining to the manufacture of cars. This business ceased to be profitable to the company in 1873, and in 1876 all the convicts were again idle.

In 1859 the Legislature passed an act authorizing the construction of a State prison in the north part of the State, and appropriated $50,000 for that purpose: Michigan City, on Lake Michigan, was the site selected, and a large number of convicts from the prison South, were moved to that point and began the work which has produced one of the best prisons in the country. It difi'ers widely from the Southern, in so much as its sanitary condition has been above the average of similar institutions.

The prison reform agitation, which in this State attained telling proportions in 1869, caused a legislative measure to be brought forward which would have a tendency to ameliorate the condition of female convicts.

The Legislature of 1873 voted $50,000 for the erection of suitable buildings, which was carried into effect, and the building declared ready in September, 1873, located at the State capital, and known as the Indiana Heformatory Institution for "Women and Girls. To this institution all female convicts in other prisons in the State were immediately reinoved, and the institution is one of the most commendable for good results to be found in any State.

In 1867 the Legislature appropriated $50,- 000, for the purpose of founding an institution for the correction and reformation of juvenile offenders. A Board of Control was appointed by the Governor, who assembled in Indianapolis, April 3, 1867, and elected Charles F. Coffin as President. Governor Baker selected the site, fourteen miles from Indianapolis, near Plainfield, where a fertile farm of 225 acres was purchased.

January 1, 1868, a few buildings were ready to receive occupants; the main building was completed in 1869. Everything is constructed upon modern principles, ' and with a view to health and comfort. The institution is in a prosperous condition, and the good eflects of the training received there by the young well repays the tax-payers, in the way of improving society and elevating the minds of those who would otherwise be wrecked on life's stream befoi'e attaining to years of maturity.

Oliver Peiuit Morton

LIVEE PEERT MOETOX, the War Governor of Indiana, and one of the most eminent United States Senators, was born j-,,^ '2^'<>2 in Salisbury, Wayne -^ County, til is State, August 4, 1823. The name, which is of _. ,,. ^ English origin, was originally 'o'lSj^ Throckmorton. When young Oli- ^ iTvO" ^^''' ^^came a lad he attended the l\^(^ academy of Professor Hoshour at Q_^'j\^ Centreville, in his native county, r" \) but could not continue long there, as the family was too poor to defray his expenses. At the age of fifteen, therefore, he was placed with anolder brother to learn the hatter's trade, at which he worked four years. Determining then to enter the profession of law, he began to qualify himself by attending the Miami University, in 1843, where he remained two years. Eeturning to Centreville, he entered the study of law with the late Judge Newman. Succeeding well, he soon secured for himself an independent practice, a good clientage, and rapidly I'ose to prominence. In 1852 he was elected circuit judge; but at the end of a year he resigned, preferring to practice as an advocate. Up to 1854 Mr. Morton was a Democrat in his party preferences; but the repeal of the Missouri Compromise caused him to secede, and join the incoming Republican party, in which he became a leader from its beginning. lie was a delegate to the Pittsburg Convention in 1856, where he so exhibited his abilities that at the next Republican State Convention he was nominated for Governor against Ashbel P. Willard, the Democratic nominee. His party being still young and in the minority, was defeated; but Mr. Morton came out of the contest with greatly increased notoriety and popularity.

In 1860 Judge Morton received the nomination for Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana, on the ticket with Henry S. Lane, and they were elected; but only two days after their inauguration Governor Lane was elected to the United States Senate, and Mr. Morton became Governor. It was while filling this position that he did his best public work, and created for himself a fame as lasting as the State itself. He opposed all compromise with the Rebellion, and when the Legislature passed a joint resolution providing for the appointment of peace commissioners, he selected men who were publicly known to be opposed to any compromise.

During the dark and tedious days of the war, in 1864, Governor Morton defeated Joseph E. McDonald, in the race for Governor, by a majority of 20,883 votes. The next summer lie had a stroke of partial paralysis, from which he never fully recovered. The disease so aifected the lower part of his body and his limbs, that he was never afterward able to walk without the assistance of canes; but otherwise he enjoyed a high degree of physical and mental vigor. In December following he made a voyage to Europe, where he consulted eminent physicians and received medical treatment, but only partially recovered. In March, 1866, he returned to the executive chair to resume his official duties.

In January, 1867, Governor Morton was elected to the United States Senate, being succeeded in his State duties by Lieutenant- Governor Baker. In 1873 Senator Morton was re-elected, and he continued a member of that body while he lived. In that position Mr. Morton ranked among the ablest statesmen, was one of the four or five chiefs of his party, and, being Chairman of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, he did more in determining the policy of the Senate and of the Kepublican party than any other member of the Senate. It was during this period that the many vexed questions of the reconstruction period came up, and with reference to all of them he favored radical and repressive measures in dealing with the rebellious States.

In the spring of 1877 Senator Morton went to Oregon as Chairman of a Senate Committee to investigate the election of Senator Grover, of that State, and while there he delivered, at Salem, the last political speech of his life. During his return, by way of San Francisco, he suffered another paralytic stroke, and he was brought East on a special car, taken to the residence of his mother-inlaw, Mrs. Burbanks, at Richmond, this State, and passed the remainder of his days there, dying November 1, 1877. The death of no man, with the exception of that of President r>incoln, ever created so much grief in Indiana as did that of Senator Morton. The lamentation, indeed, was national. The President of the United States directed the flags on public buildings to be placed at half-mast, and also that the Government departments be closed on the day of the funeral. The remains of the great statesman were interred at the spot in Crown Hill Cemetery where he stood on Soldiers' Decoration Day, in May, 1876, when he delivered a great speech to a large assemblage. Never before did so many distinguished men attend the funeral of a citizen of Indiana.

Personally, Senator Morton was characterized by great tenacity of purpose and shrewd foresight. Taking his aim, he ceased not until he attained it, without compromise and without conciliation, if not by the means first adopted, then by another. As Governor of Indiana he exhibited wonderful energy, tact and forethought. He distanced all other Governors in putting troops in the field, and he also excelled them all in providing for their wants while there. His State pride was intense, and in respect to tlie general character of the people of his State he brought Indiana "out of the wilderness" to the front, since which time the Hoosier State has been more favorably known. In the great civil war which tried the mettle and patriotism of the people, Indiana came to the front under his guidance, yea, to the forei'ront of the line. As a legislator, he originated and accomplished much, being naturally, as well as by self-discipline, the most aggressive, bold and clear-headed Eepublican politician of his time. He was also well versed in the sciences, especially geology; and even in theology he knew more than many whose province it is to teach it, although he was not a member of any church.

nOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS, elected Vice-President of the United States in 1884, was born in Muskingum County, Oliio, near the city of Zanesville, September 7, 1819. The following spiing the family moved to Madison, this State, and in 1S22 to Shelby County, where they opened up a farm in a spaisely settled region near the center of the county. It was here that Thom.as grew to manhood. After the completion of his education at Hanover College he studied law in the office of his uncle. Judge Thomson, at Chanibersburg, Pennsylvania, and in due time was admitted to the bar.

In 1848 he was elected to the Legislature; in 1850, to the convention which framed the present Constitution of the State, being an active participant in the deliberations of that body; in 1851 and 1852, to Congress; in 1855, was appointed Commissioner of the

General Land Office, which he resigned in 1859; 1863-'69, United States Senator; 1872- '77, Governor of Indiana; and finally, July 12, 1884, he was nominated by tlie Democratic National Convention at Chicago a-; second on the ticket with Grover Cleveland, which was successful in the ensuing campaign; but a few days before he should begin to serve as Speaker of the Senate, November, 1885, he suddenly died at his home in Indianapolis.

Going back for particulars, we should state that in 1860 he was candidate for Governor of Indiana against Henry S. Lane, and was defeated by 9,757 votes, while the Republican majority of the State on the national ticket was 23,524, showing his immense popularity. Again, in 1868, Conrad Baker defeated him by 1,161 votes, when Grant's majority over Seymour in the State was 9,579, and this, too, after he had so bitterly opposed the policy of Lincoln's administration, and thereby lost from his constituency luaiiy Union sympathizers. And finally, in 1872, his majority for Governor over General Thomas M. Brown was 1,148; the same year Grant's majority in the State over Greeley was 22,924. Governor Hendricks was the only man elected on his ticket that year, excepting Professor Hopkins, who was chosen to a non-political office.

In 1876 Governor Hendricks was a conspicious candidate for the Presidency, being the favorite of the Western Democracy; but the East proved too powerful, and nominated Tilden, giving Hendricks the second place on the national ticket, thereby strengthening it greatly in the "West.

During the intervals of official life, Mr. Hendricks practiced law with eminent success, being equally at home before court or jury, and not easily disturbed by unforeseen turns in a case. He had no specialty as an advocate, being alike efficient in the civil and criminal court, and in all kinds and forms of actions. "When out of office his voice was frequently heard on the political questions of the day. Indiana regarded him with pride, and among a large class he was looked upon as the leader of the Democracy of the "West. His adherents rallied around him in 1880, and his name was again prominent for the Presidential nomination, and might have been carried were it not for the opposition of the friends of Mr. McDonald.

As his views on governmental affairs were critical, definite and positive, he had many political enemies, but none of them have ever charged him with malfeasance in offi.ce, or incompetency in any of his public positions. He was a man of convictions, conservative, eloquent in public address, careful of his utterances, and exceedingly earnest.

Mr. Hendricks belonged to a family noted in the history of Indiana. His uncle, "William Hendricks, was secretary of the convention that formed the first Constitution of the State; was Indiana's first Eepresentative in Congress, her second Governor, and for two full terms represented it in the Senate of the United States. A cousin, John Abram Hendricks, fell at the battle of Pea Eidge while leading his regiment against the enemy; and another cousin, Thomas Hendricks, was killed in the Teche country while serving in the Union army. Mr. Hendricks' father was an elder in the Presbyterian church, and he himself %yas baptized and brought up under the auspices of that denomination. He never joined any church until 1867, when he became a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, retaining his Calvinistic views. In person Mr. Hendricks was five feet nine inches high, weighed about 185 pounds; his eyes gray, hair of a sandy hue, nose largo and prominent, complexion fair and inclined to freckle, and his mouth and chin were expressive of determination and tenacity. He wore no beard except a little near the ear. He was a man of good habits, health good, step firm and prompt, and voice resonant and steady.

After his nomination for the Yice-Prcsidency he took an active part in the campaign, delivering a number of powerful addresses, and while waiting for his term of official service to begin, death ended his days and cast an indescribable shade of gloom over his family. State and nation.

'HIS eminent statesman was born in New York Citj, March 23, 1823, the only son of his widowed inother; was taught in the common schooL of tlie city, finished his education at a high-school on Ci'Obby street, and at ten years of age he had received all the school t''aining he e\er had. Alter clerking in a store for three years, he removed to Indiana with his mother and V^V\^ stepfather, Mr. Mathews, set- ^ ^ tling in St. Joseph Connty.

Here, in the village of New Carlisle, the j^oiith served four years more as clerk in a store; then, at the age of seventeen years, he was appointed deputy county auditor, and to fulfill his duties he moved to the county seat. South Bend, where he remained a resident until his death.

Like almost every Western citizen of any mental activity, young Colfax took a practical hold of political matters about as soon as he could vote. He talked and thought, and began to publish his views, from time to time, in the local newspaper of the place. His peculiar faculty of dealing fairly, and at the same time pleasantly, with men of all sorts, his natural sobriety and common sense, and his power of stating things plainly and correctly, made him a natural newspaper man. He was employed during several sessions of the Legislature, to report the proceedings of the Senate for the Indianapolis Journal, and in this position made many friends. In 1845 he became proprietor and editor of the St. Joseph Valley Eegister, the South Bend newspaper, which then had but 250 subscribers; but the youthful editor had hope and energy, and after struggling through many disappointments, including the loss of his ofiice by fire, he succeeded in making a comfortable living out of the enterprise.

Mr- Colfax was a Whig so long as that party existed. In 1848 he was a delegate to the convention which nominated General Taylor for President, and was one of the secretaries of that body. The next year he was a member of the State Constitutional Convention, being elected thereto from a Democratic district. Soon afterward he was nominated for the State Senate, but declined because he could not be spared from his business. His first nomination for Congress was in 1851, but was beaten by 200 votes, which was less than the real Democratic majority in his district. His successful competitor was Dr. Graham N. Fitch, who, along wi^-h Mr. Bright, became so conspicuous in the ^ujiport of Buchanan. In 1852 he was a delegate to the Whig National Convention that nominated General Scott, and was again secretary.

Franklin Pierce, the Democratic nominee, was elected President, and during his term the Wliig party was dissolved upon the issue of slavery, and, naturally enough, Mr. Colfax drifted m with the party of freedom. So did the people of his Congressional district; for, after having given their Democratic representative 1,000 majority two years before, tliey now nominated and elected Mr. Colfax to succeed him by about 2,000 majority.

The Congress towhicli he was thus elected is noted for the tedious struggle in the election of a Speaker of the House, resulting, February 2, 1856, in the choice of N. P. Banks. Mr. Colfax, who was second in the race for the Speakership, exhibited wonderful parliamentary tact in staving off the Southerners, who at times seemed on the point ot success. As to parties at this time, they considerably broken np, comprising "Anti-Nebraska" (Eepublican), Democrats, Know-Nothings and nondescripts. During tliis and the succeeding Congress, to which Mr. Colfax was elected, he delivered several telling speeches, some of which were printed almost by the million and distributed tu the voters throughout the North. These speeches were full of solid facts and figures with reference to the Pro-Slavery party, especially in Kansas, so that, by a sort of play upon his name, the people often referred to him as "Cold-facts."

In 1860 Mr. Colfax was elected to Congress the third time, and in 1862 the fourth time. In December, 1863, he was chosen Speaker of the House, which position he retained to the end of the term for which Lincoln and Johnson were elected, exhibiting pre-eminent jiarliamentary skill and an obliging disposition. Equally polite to all, he was ever a gentleman worthy of the highest honor.

The favorable notoriety gained by his " cold facts " against slavery, parliamentary ability, his power of debate, and his suavity of manner, led the Eepublican party in IStls to place him on the national ticket, secf.nd only to the leading soldier of the Union, U. S. Grant. Being elected, he served as President of the Senate with characteristic ability throughout his term. Then, retiring from political life, he devoted the remaining years of his life to lectures upon miscellaneous topics; and it was during a lecturing tour in Minnesota that he was stricken down v,'ith his final illness. He died at Mankato, that State, January 13, 1885.

James D. Williams

ERE have present- 3d a practical illustration of the type of man pi educed by a young and vigorons republic, wlucb had, but a few ears preceding his buth, a-^&eited, with justice, and successful]) maintained, her claim to assume her rightful position as one of the nations of the earth. James D.Williams was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, January 8, 1808, soon after that State had assumed her place among that galaxy of stars destined to become tlie greatest nation in the world.

In cliildhood he removed with his parents to Knox County, Indiana, where he received a common-school education, and grew to manhood a tiller of the soil.

He entered the theater of life at a time when the stage scenery was of the most gigantic grandeur ever beheld by the eye of man. Nature in her stupendous splendor was around and about the young actor, and he readily imbibed the spirit of his surroundings, and was filled with enthusiastic hope for tlie future greatness of the vast and beautiful conntry, which but awaited the call of the husbandman to answer in bountiful harvests to his many demands. With young Williams the grandeur of the scene tilled his soul with a hopeful determination to act well his part in the great drama before him, as the reader will find wJiile following him down life's pathway.

Wlien he attained to manhood he engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock-raising, and became widely known as a practical and successful Indiana farmer.

He had closely observed the passing events in tlie clash and conflict of political parties, and his fellow citizens saw in him the qualified elements of a representative man, and he was frequently elected as a Democrat to represent his county in the Lower House of the Legislature, M'here he discharged the duties devolving upon him with marked ability and even beyond the expectations of his constituents. The sagacity and ability with which he dealt with public measures in the Lower House opened the avenue to higher honors and more weighty responsibilities.

In 1859 he was elected to the State Senate, where he continuously served his constituency until 1867, maintaining the reputation he had gained in the LoM'er House for ability and the faithful performance of duty, and still developing a capacity for a wider field of operations.

Prominent Men Of Indiana

He was not permitted to long live in the home life which he so much enjoyed. The able and faithful manner in which he had discharged his duties as a public servant, his common sense and social manner, made him i'riends even among his political opponents, lie bore honors conferred upon him nobly but meekly, never ceasing to gratefully remember those to whom gratitude was due for the positions of honor and trust to which they had called him.

He was destined to spend his life as a public servant. His fellow citizens again elected him to the State Senate in 1871, and in 1874 he was again crowned with higher honors, and was elected to rejjresent his district in the Congress of the United States, where he displayed the same ability in dealing with public questions that he had in the legislative body of his State. During his term in Congress he served in tlie important position of chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts.

He was a prominent and leading member of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture for seventeen years, and served as its president for three years. ISTo one citizen of Indiana was more deeply interested and active in developing and promoting the agricultural and other industrial resources of his State than lie. One leading feature of his ambition was to be in the front rank of progress, and to place his State on a plane with the sister States of the prosperous Union. He was equally active in the educational interest of his fellow citizens, and advocated facilities for diffusing knowledge among the masses, placing an education within the reach of children of the most humble citizen.

He gathered happiness while promoting the welfare of others, and step by step, year by year, his friends increased in numbers und warmed in devotion to their trusted, faithful and grateful servant. He was rapidly growing in State popularity, as he had long enjoyed the confidence of his own county and district, and in his quiet, unassuming way was building larger than he knew. His plain manner of dress, commonly " blue jeans," caused him to become widely known by the sobriquet of " Blue Jeans," of which his admirers were as proud as M-ere those of " Old Hickory " as applied to Andrew Jackson, or " Eough and Eeady " as applied to General Zachariah Taylor.

The civil war had made fearful inroads in party lines; the public questions to be settled immediately following the close of the war involved problems which many leading men, who had previously acted with the Democratic party, could not solve satisfactorily to themselves from a Democratic standpoint; hence they cast their fortunes with the popular party, the Eepublican.

The Democratic party had been impatient ly but energetically seeking State supremacy. James D. Williams, so far as tried, had led the column to success, why not make him their Moses to lead them to possess the promised land. State Supremacy?

The centennial anniversary of American independence, 1876, seemed to them the auspicious period to marshal their forces under an indomitable leader and go forth to conquer.

They accordingly in that year nominated the Hon. James D. "Williams for Governor, and the Eepublicans nominated General Benjamin Harrison, a military hero and a lineal descendant of General W. II. Harrison. Tlie contest will stand m history as the most exciting campaign In the political history of the United States, and resulted in the election of the Democratic leader. His services as Governor of the State were characteristic of his past public life. He died, full of honors, on November 20, 1880.

Robert Dale Owe I,'

)OKING outside of the realm of statesmen, we find that the most eminent citizen of Indiana not now living ^ci,' '' '-'^^-^"* was the learned Scotchman named at the head of this sketch. Eobert Owen, his father, was a great theorist in social and religious reforms. He was born in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, North AVales, March 14, 1771, where he died November 19, 1858.

He (the father) entered npon a commercial life at an early age, and subsequently engaged in the cotton manufacture at New Lanark, Scotland, where he introduced important reforms, having for their object the improvement of the condition of tlie laborers in his employ; afterward he directed his attention to social questions on a broader scale, publishing in 1812 " New Yiews of Society, or Essays upon the Formation of the Human Character," and subsequently the " Book of the New Moral "World,' ' in which he advocated doctrines of human equality and the abolition of class distinctions. Having won a large fortune in his business, he M-as able to give his views a wide circulation, and his followers became numerous; but, being outspoken against maiiy of the generally received theological dogmas of the time, a zealous opposition was also aroused against him. After the death of his patron, the Duke of Kent, he emigrated to this country, in 1823, and at his own expense founded the celebrated communistic society at New Harmony, this State. The scheme proving a failure he returned to England, where he tried several similar experiments with the same result; but in spite of all his failures he was universally esteemed for his integrity and benevolence. His later years were spent in efforts to promote a religion of reason, and to improve the condition of the working classes.

His eldest son, the subject of this biographical sketch, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, November 7, 1801 ; was educated at Fellensberg's College, near Berne, Switzerland ; came with his father to the United States in 1823, and assisted him in his efforts to found the colony of New Harmony. On the failure of that experiment he visited France and England, but returned to this country in 1827 and became a citizen. In 1828, in partnership with Miss Frances Wright, he founded "The Free Enquirer," a weekly journal devoted to socialistic ideas, and to opposition to the supernatural origin and claims of Christianity. The paper was discontinued after an existence of three years. In 1832 he married Mary Jane Kobinson, of JS'ew York, who died in 1871. After marriage he settled again in New Harmony, where for three successive years (1835-'38) he was elected a member of the Legislature. It was through his influence that one-half of the surplus revenue of the United States appropriated to the State of Indiana was devoted to the support of public schools. From 1843 to 1847 he represented the First District of Indiana in Congress, acting with the Democratic party; took an active paat in the settlement of the northwestern boundary question, serving as a member of the committee of conference on that subject, and introduced the bill organizing the Smithsonian Institute, and served for a time as one of the regents. In 1850 he was a member of the Indiana Constitutional Convention, in which he took a prominent part. It was through his efforts that Indiana conferred independent property rights upon women. In 1853 he went to Naples, Italy, as United States Charge cV Affaires, and from 1855 to 1858 he held the position of Minister.

In 1860, in the New York Tribune, he discussed the subject of divorce with Horace Greeley, and a pamphlet edition of the controversy afterward obtained a wide circulation.

After the breaking out of the Rebellion, Mr. Owen was a warm champion of the policy of emancipation, and the letters which he addressed to members of the cabinet and the President on that subject were widely disseminated. "When the proposition was made by certain influential politicians to reconstruct the Union with New England <' left out in the cold," Mr. Owen addressed a letter to the people of Indiana exposing the dangerous character of the scheme, which the Union Leagues of New York and Philadelphia published and circulated extensively. In 1862 he served as a member of the Commisson on Ordnance Stores, and in 1863 was Chairman of the American Freedmen's Commission, which rendered valuable service to the country.

Mr. Owen was a prominent Spiritualist in his philosophical views, and publislied several remarkable works inculcating them. His mind, in his later years, beginning to totter, he was often too credulous. He also published many other works, mostly of a political nature. To enumerate: he published at Glasgow, in 1824, " Outlines of System of Education at New Lanark ;" at New York, in 1831, "Moral Physiology;" the next year, "Discussion with Origen Bachelor on the Personality of God and the Authenticity of the Bible;" and subsequently, "Pocahontas," an historical drama; " Hints on Public Architecture," illustrated ; " Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World," probably his most wonderful work; "The Wrong of Slavery, and the Right of Freedom;" "Beyond the Breakers," a novel; "The Debatable Land between this World and the Next," and "Threading My Way," an autobiography.

The giant intellect of Mr. Owen being linked to a large and tender heart, his sympathies were constantly rasped by witnessing the boundless but apparently needless amount of sufi'ering in the world, and chafed by the opposition of conservatism to all efforts at alleviation, so that in old age he was literally worn out. He died at an advanced age.

I Story Topography

EKMILLION, spelled witli two Z's, is from the French vermilion, spelled with one Z, and signiiies, according to "Webster, " a bright red sulplmret of mercury, ^' consisting of sixteen parts of sul- ^\ phur and one hundred parts of mercury." This substance, he remarks, is sometimes found na- ^ tive, of a red or brown color, and is then called cinnabar. Used as a pigment. The word is a literal translation of the Miami Indian word pe-auk-e-shaw, which was given to the Vermillion Eivers on account of the red earth or "keel" found along their banks. This substance was produced by the burning of the shale overlying the outcrops of coal, the latter igniting from tlie autumnal tires set by the aborigines. From the rivers the county was named.

the county seat, which is near the middle of the county. This point is 39° 55' north of the ecjuator of the earth, and therefore the north star appears to the observer here at that angle above the horizon. Newport is also 87° 10' west longitude from Greenwich (London, England), and railroad standard time, which is here conformed to that of tlie ninetieth meridian, is about eleven minutes slower than local, or sun-time. Newport is also about 520 feet above the level of the ocean, and fifty feet above the low- water mark of the Wabash River opposite.

The beautiful, picturesque scenery of Vermillion County, Indiana, is equal to that of any otlier in the State. The modest meanderings of the classic old "Wabash, which ever and anon are hiding their silvery waters away amid the luxurious foliage of the forest trees, give to its eastern border a lineal presentation of romantic beauty such as attracts universal attention, while the long range of bench hills which skirt the western boi-der of this garden valley throw along its railroad line a continued display of panoramic rural beauty wliich even without any coloring, might be termed " the lovely valley of the West." Tlie county, stretching its narrow length along the river for thirty-seven miles, is wholly made up of beautiful scenery.

All the minor streams draining Vermillion County ai-e of course tributary to the Wabash, and most of them have a general southeasterly direction. Spring Brancli, or Creek, flows southwesterly through the northeast corner of Highland Township. Coal Brancli flows south near the western border. Big Yerniillion River winds southeasterly through the sonthwest corner of Highland and the northern portion of Eugene. Little Vermillion River wends its way through t he southwestern corner of Eugene, and empties into the Wabash near the middle of the east side of Vermillion Township. Jonathan Creek, in the western part of Vermillion Township, flows northeasterly into the Little Vermillion. Bi-ouillet's (pronounced in American style, IvH-lefs) Creek is wholly in Clinton Township, running at first southeasterly and then east, into the Wabash; and the Little Raccoon Creek, in Helt Township, runs southeasterly, rather toward the northeastern corner of the township, into the Wabash between Highland and Alta.

Geology

GEOLOGY. From one-fourth to one-third of Vermillion Connty consists of the rich bottoms and terraces of the valleys of the Wabash and its affluents, the Big and Little Vermillion Rivers and Norton's Creek. The main terrace, or " second bottom," is especially developed in the region between Perrysv'ille and Newport, a fact probably resulting from the combined action of the two main tributaries in this county. The terrace is from one to four miles wide, furnishing a broad stretch of rich, well drained farming lands, having an average elevation of about forty feet above the present (or " first") bottoms. Below Newport the blnfts approach the r-iver so closely that the terrace is nearly obliterated, and the immediate bottoms become very narrow. At the mouth of Little Raccoon Creek the bottoms are considerably widened; but the terrace has no considerable extent until we reach the head of Helt Prairie, about si.x miles north of Clinton, whence it stretches southward, with an average width of one to three miles. About three miles below Clinton it narrows again as we approach the month of Brouillet's Creek and the county line.

At the first settlement of the country the bottoms were heavily timbered, but a large proportion of the terrace was devoid of timber. We are scarcely permitted to believe that these timberless tracts were originally prairie, as, on account of their nature and fav^orable situation, we should presume tluit they were grounds cleared and cultivated hy the same aboriginal race, possibly the Mound- Builders, for mounds abound in this region, and the annual tires prevented a re-occupation by trees or shrubbery.

Rising from the upper bottom lands we find bhiffs, more or less abrupt, which attain a general level of 120 to 130 feet above the river, and form the slightly elevated border of Grand Prairie. The most gradual ascent is to the westward from Perrysville, favorable for the construction of the present railroad. South of the Big Vermillion the blufl's are much steeper, where a moderate grade for a railroad can be found only by tracing one of the smaller streams. These blufts, being too steep for cultivation, are still covered with timber, which consists principally of oak, hickory, maple and walnut, and toward the soutiiern end of the county, beech. In many of the ravines, and along the foot of the blufl's.

Introductory

there are large groves of sugar maple. Near the principal streams this timbered region extends westward to the State line. The nortliern and middle portions of the county are in great part a portion of the Grand Prairie, which covers all eastern Illinois, from the forest of the Little Wabash to Lake Michigan.

Yermillion County is singularly blessed with spj-ings, bursting forth from below the boulder clay of the drift period. Some of these springs are very strong.

The alluvium of the river bottoms have the common features of river deposits. A'egetable remains are mingled with find sand and mud washed from the drift beds higher up the streams, and occasional deposits of small stones and gravel, derived either from the drift or from the rock formations into which the rivers have cut their winding ways. The only definite knowledge obtained as to the depth of these beds refers to the prairie between Eugene and Perrysville, where wells have been sunk si.vty feet through alluvial sand, and then encountered six to ten feet of a soft, sticky, blui.h mud filled with leaves, twigs and trunks of trees, and occasionally small masses of what appears to have been stable manure. This stratum is sometimes called "Noah's Barnyard." The lake-bottom deposits, of corresponding age, which commonly underlie the soil of the Grand Prairie, have been found west of the State line, consisting of marly-clays and brick-clay subsoil, and probably exist equally under such portions of the prairie as extend into this county.

The boulder-clay referred to above, which forms the mass of the drift formation, is a tough, bluish drab, unlaminated clay, more or less thoroughly filled with fine and coarse gravel, and including many small boulders. On the bluff west of Perrysville this bed was penetrated to a depth of about 100 feet before reaching the water-bearing quicksand commonly found beneath it. Out-crops of 110 feet have been measured, and the bed very probably attains a thickness of 125 feet or more where it has not been worn away. It is much thinner in the southern part of the county. From the difference in character of the included boulders at different levels, we are led to the conclusion that the currents which brought the materials composing these beds flowed in different directions at diilerent times.

Illustrating the above remarks we give a section from a brancli of Johnson's Creek, in Eugene Township: Boulder clay, with pebbles of Silurian limestone and trap, thirty feet; yellow clay, with fragments of coal, shale, sand-stone, etc., four inches; boulder clay, with pebbles of Silurian limestone, twentylive feet; ferruginous sand, a streak; boulder clay from the northwest, with pebbles of various metamorphic rocks and trap, and nuggets of native copper, fifty feet.

The section of rocks exposed at the Horseshoe of the Little Vermillion exhibits the following strata: Black, slaty shale; coal, two and a half to four feet; fire-clay and softclay shales, with iron-stones, fifteen feet; argillaceous (clayey) limestone, one to two feet; dark drab clay shale, one foot; coal, four to live feet; light-colored fire-clay, two f<.et; dark-colored lire-clay, one foot; soft, drab shale, with iron-stones, ten to fifteen feet; fossiliferous, l)lack slaty shale, often pyritous, with many large iron-stone nudides, two to three feet.

A considerable portion of the boulders and pebbles of these beds, especially those consisting of limestone and the metamorphic rocks, are finely polished and striated on one or more of their sides, showing the power of the forces which were engaged in their transportation from their original beds. Nuggets of galena (suljihide of lead) and of native copper are occasionally met with, and have had the usual effect of exciting the imaginations of those who are ignorant of the fact that the rocks which contain these metals do not occur nearer than the galena region of Nortliern Illinois.

The "coal measures," as given in the paragraph preceding the last, furnish the only rock formations to be found in the county. There seem to be no outcrop of beds overlying this section. The first, or uppermost, vein of coal is covered by a few feet of soil only. The argillaceous limestone below it is very thinly laminated, being mingled with much clay; but the shales covering the next vein constitute a fair working roof.

The sandy iron-stones areinteresting to the fossil hunter, as they contain numerous fragmentary remains of lishes, insects, etc. Fossiliferous strata of an interestiiig character continue exposed along the Little Veriuillion to its mouth and down the Wabash. Outcrops of the above mentioned strata are found along the principal streams throughout the county.

In ascending the Big Vermillion we find on its south bank, a mile below Eugene, a bluff of banks of from twenty-tive to thirty feet of irregularly bedded, highly ferruginous, coarse-grained sandstone, often containing comminuted plant remains, with some large fragments of trees, etc. Some of the beds are sutticiently solid to make good building stone. In quarrying them many fine trunks and branches of Lepidodendron and Sigillaria have been found, with a few fruits of Trigonocarpum. In the vicinity are some fine large stems of Syringodendron Porteri.

Wells sunk below the limestone at Perrysville, to a reported depth of ninety feet, are said to have encountered no coal; but coal may be found in the vicinity, in consequence of the irregular dip of the strata.

Good coal underlies most of the surface of Vermillion County, and is now mined abundantly at various points. A total thickness of eight feet would probably be a small enough estimate for the coal underlying every square mile of the county. Since the advent of railroads many large coal mines have been opened and worked, although some have been wholly or in part abandoned, either on account of competition in other parts of the country or of finding better mines in the vicinity.

The principal iron ore found in the county is an impure carbonate, occurring in nodules and irregular layers or bands. These nodules once were supplied to a furnace on Brouillet's Creek, where they yielded thirty-tliree per cent, of iron. The ore in the county varies from twenty-five to forty-five per cent, of iron. Along the bottoms of Norton's Creek, near the head of Plelt's Prairie, a bed of bog iron ore, said to be three feet thick and covering six to eight acres, has been discovered.

Zinc blende (sulphide of zinc), frequently occurs, in small quantities, in the cracks and cavities of some of the iron-stone nodules. Its appearance at one place on the Little Vermillion gave rise to the so-called " Silver Mine."

The second bottoms, or terrace prairies, in Vermillion County, in order from the north, are named Walnut Mound, Eugene or Sand, Newport and Kelt's. The soil is a black, sandy loam, producing the richest crops. These terraces comprise about three-tenths of the county, and are from tliirty-five to sixtyfive feet above low-water mark, while the higher portions of the county are from 250 to 270 feet above low- water.

Keport for 1880: " Remains of the maimnotli have been discovered in nearly all sections of of Indiana. They have consisted, as a rule, of the most compact bones of these animals, as the teeth, tusks, jaws and thigh-bones. Some of the best preserved teeth of the mammoth were found in the counties of Vigo, Parke, Yermillion, AVayne, Putnam and Vanderbiirg. Thirty individual specimens of the remains of the mastodon have been found in tliis State," etc.

Reading the above report inspired a waggish son of the Muse, Judge Buskirk, formerly Attorney-General of the State, to indict the following warning:

It thus appears that Professor Collett, Our State geologist And paleontologist, Is digging up for his learned wallet Every colossal Dirty old fossil In the shape of jaw-bones, tusk and teeth. He is able to find our swamps beneath. Handed down from the old heroic Ages, named the Paleozoic. When he strikes a huge nasty one Named Giganteus Mastodon,

Now allow me as a friend, Professor Collett, To advise you to put up your learned wallet. Until the present Legislature has adjourned ; Or else by misadventure it might come to pass Some day you'd strike the bones of a mammoth

Mound-Builders

HE following sketches of the Mound-Builders, Indians, etc., are compiled from data furnished l>y lion. John Collett. When tirst explored hy the white race, this county was occupied by savage Indians, without fi.xed habitation, averse to labor and delighting only in war and the cliase. Their misty traditions did not reach i^^JX^^ Ji^ liack to any previous people or age, but numerous earthworks are found in this region of such extent as to require for their construction much time and the persistent labor of many people. Situated on river bluffs, their location combines picturesque scenery, adaptability for defense, convenience for transportation by water, and productive lands. These are not requisites in the nomadic life of red men, and identifies the Mound-Builders as a partially civilized people. Their mounds and other works are ot such extent tliat it required years of labor.

with basket and shovel, to erect, and such coordination of labor as to indicate the rule of priestly government or regal authority; they were certainly to that extent civilized. The vastness of their work indicates a large community of people, so that governments were necessary, which must have had civil power to request and require the necessary labor. The implements found in the graves, mounds and tombs, were more often domestic and agricultural, and indicate a peaceful, obedient race. Tlieir temples were defended by bulwarks of loving hearts rather than by warrior braves. Many of the religious emblems and articles of utility made of stone, point back to the earliest forms of sentiment represented by the fire and sun worshipers of Central Asia, and give a clue to the reason why their favorite habitations and mounds were as a rule never placed beneath the eastern blufl's of streams, but on the other hand were so located in elevated positions or on the western bluifs, that when the timber was cleared away and the land reduced to cultivation, a long outlook was given to the east and to the sunrise, from which direction their expected

Traditions intimate that the tribes were driven southward from the northern portion of the continent, and these traditions are corroborated bj the discovery of relics in this region made from material found only far to the nortli.

Clusters of mounds are found in Yermiilion County on Mound Prairie, near the Shelby battle-ground, and nearly all along the tract between Eugene and Newport, many of them twenty to forty feet in diameter, four, five or six feet high, and the clusters containing from ten to eigiity mounds. One memorable mound is situated in the northern part of the town of Clinton, from which earth was removed for road building about 1830. In it were found stone implements of the Mound-Builders, accompanied with copper lieads, five copper rods, half an inch in diameter and eighteen inches long, showing that it one of the earliest of the Mound-Builder's works, whilst they were also accompanied with other implements imported from the north.

Another, on the Head farm near Newport, had copper rods or spear heads and smaller stone implements. These were probably burial mounds. A majority of them contained no relics, but were simply abandoned mounds of habitation. Mr. Pigeon in his volume called " Dacoudah," says he noticed figured mounds of men and beasts on the south bank of the Little Vermillion, three or four miles from its mouth. A burial mound near the northeast corner contains a chief in a sitting position at the center. Radiating from his body like the spokes of a wheel were five persons, slaves or wives, to wait upon him in the other world. His useful implements for the other world were a great number of copper beads, from a half inch to an inch and a quarter in diameter, seven copper axes, one of which contained unmelted virgin silver as it occurs at Lake Superior, varying in weight from two to eight pounds, and seven copper rods, (spear-heads), with pots and crocks containing black mold as if it were food. The streams near their homes afforded fish for food, and the implements found indicated that they were skilled in handling fish spears and gigs. The soil sur-* rounding their homes was always the choicest, with the addition of beautiful and engaging scenery. The relics found in their mounds show that in their more northern homes in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, the common northern material, the striped slate and copper, was abundant. In Vermillion County relics of this character, were scarce and precious, if not holy. At more southern points striped-slate implements of northern stone are very rare, while the precious copper could no longer be used in implement-making, but was beaten into the finest of sheets and bent over ornamental pendants. All these, and the customs of their burial, indicate an Asiatic origin, and prove conclusively that in their migration to this region they pass by more northern regions, including Lake Superior.

Afterward the northern barbarian came, of an intermediate race between the Mound- Builder and the red man. The Mound- Builders were driven away by this irruption, their property seized, many of their wives made captive and adopted by the new people. Many of the customs of the old people consequently remained with the new comers, and the latter also deposited their dead in the old mounds, ovei' the remains of the more ancient people. The number of individuals thus found buried together number from five to 2,000 or 3,000. Their graves and relics from the tombs are the only story of their lives.

Throughout all these a deep spirit of religious devotion is indicated, as well as a belief in the existence of another world, and that implements of a domestic nature were necessary to the comfort of the departed.

On the Moore farm, three miles nortliwest of Eugene, Mr. Zeke Sheward, in making an underground " dug-out," for the storing of vegetables, on a small mound surrounded by giants of the original forest, found at a depth of three feet, and at least one foot below the surface of the surrounding soil, some pieces of metal about the size of a teaspoon handle, and one coin. On analysis they were found to be made of lead, antimony and tin. The coin had in relief easily identified figures of a worshiped crocodile of Egypt or a holy water-dog of America, and word characters much resembling those of China or Ilindostan. Prof. W. D. Wiiitney, of Yale College, one of the most thorough linguists of America, believed the characters to be Arabic, but of so ancient a date that the Oriental Society was unable to read them. The director of the British Museum in London determined them to be ancient Hindostanee, but of so ancient a date that no scholar in England could read the inscription. Trees and their remains indicate an age of over 2,000 years for these mounds.

In March, 1880, while a company of gravelroad workers were excavating gravel from the bank on the ridge at the southwest corner of the Newport fair-ground, live human skeletons were found, supposed to be tlie remains of fndians buried at that point in an early day. In the gravel bank along the railroad, at the southeast corner of the fairground, another skeleton was found. No implements of war were found with the bones, but ashes were perceivable, which would indicate that they were the remains of Indians. Aftei' burying the dead it was their custom, in some parts of the country, to build a fire over the corpse. Many of the skeletons thus discovered, as well as a large portion of the bones of the lower animals, on exposure to the air crumble away so easily that it becomes impossible to preserve them for exhibition.

A collection of a dozen skeletons shows, by measurements of the thigh l)ones found, that the warriors, including a few women, average over six feet and two inches in height. Without animals for transportation, their bones were made wonderfully strong by the constant carrying of heavy burdens, and their joints heavily articulated, and the troclianters forming the attachments of muscles show that they were a race not only of giant stature but also of more than giant strength.

Manyj-elics from these mounds, as well as from the surface of the earth elsewhere, have been collected by old resident physicians and others, especially Professor John Collett, late State Geologist, and Josephus Collett; and an interesting museum may here and there be found presenting great variety of arrow points, spear-heads, stone axes, tomahawks, pestles, mortars, aboriginal pottery, pipes, ornaments, bones of Indian skeletons, etc. These collections also generally include an odd variety of geological and anatomical specimens.

INDIANS. At the advent of the wbite man to the Wabash Valley, the Indians had ceased from their long warfare and were living in a state of quietude. They had no fixed villages or places of residence. For a few months their homes were at some point for summer, and at another location for winter; and their wigwams, made of deer-skins and bufi'alo hides, could be easily removed, or be suljstituted by others made from the bark of trees. Many of the older settlers can remember seeing trees the bark of which had beeu torn off in zigzag fashion seven or eight feet from the ground for the construction of wigwams. All along the banks of creeks and rivers were circular fire holes in which they cooked their food, and at night would sleep upon the ground with their feet hanging down in the warm places thus made.

The Wabash River was by them called Wahbahshikka; by the French, Ouabache; the Vermillion was called Osanamon, but by the French a name which signifies Yellow, lied or Vermillion afterward translated into English as Yellow Kiver.

The Miamis occupied a portion of the county, but their general territory was east of the AValjash. They were a tall straight race, of handsome countenance, - especially the girls - brave and terrible as enemies, kind and faithful as friends, and chivalrous in disposition.

The Kickapoos, or Mosquitans, originally from the north and northwest, occupied the regions south and southwest of the Big Vermillion River, but occasionally, by comity of neighbors, camped for a greater or less time north of the Vermillion, on their neighbor's territory. The Pottawatomies, also of northern origin, owned the territory, and their rights were recognized by the Government in treaties. The county was at times the home of each of these tribes, who at the zenith of their power had their headquarters at the Big Springs, a half rnile south of Eugene, and the place was known among the whites as Springfield. There the councils of their confederacy were lield, decisions as to wars and other difficulties determined, the great treaty with the British merchants made, and the Governor of Virginia took possession of immense tracts of land on the Lower Wabash. Many of the early settlers, as Esquire James Armour. Samuel Groenendyke, Sr., and Irvin

Uigby, can recollect meetings held there comprising 800 to 1,000 individuals. The Bottawatomies were of a rather subdued disposition, somewhat stoop-shouldered and of unpleasant countenance; the Kickapoos, on the other hand, were a warlike race, quarrelsome in disposition, addicted to controversy and happy only in giving and receiving blows.

It is believed that the early explorers and the French missionaries passed down or up the Wabash as early as 1702, - or even as early as 1670. The missionaries, being Jesuits, were very successful by their winning methods in making converts among tlie savages. Near the Indian village on section 16, township 17 north, 9 west, on cutting down a white oak tree, the rings of growth over the scar made by a white man's ax showed that the incision was made not later than 1720.

In 1790, or later, General Hamtramck led an expedition of Indiana volunteers and militia from Vincennes to attack the nonaggressive Indians and their village on the Shelby farm near the' mouth of the Vermillion. These were the remnants of tlie now weakened Pottawatomie and Kickapoo tribes. This was their favorite camping ground; the confluence of tiie rivers gave them opportunities for taking fish, which were then very abundant; the adjoining terrace lands were filled M'ith thousands of the greatest variety of plum bushes and grape-vines, and it was known as the great plum patch. The expedition, in two columns, crossed the Indian ford at Eugene, just north of the present mill-dam, where stepping stones were placed for crossing the stream at low water. Thence they marched in a circuitous manner to attack the village in the rear, when the direct division should attack it at the same time from the south. The warriors and braves were off on a hunting expedition, and there were none to molest or make afraid these "gallant" soldiers except the broken-down old men, the women and tlie children, and these were unmercifnlly slaughtered in the coldest of cold blood! It is not a matter of wonder, therefore, that the Indians of this region snbseqnently took part in the battles of Fallen Timbers and Tippecanoe.

A portion of the Indians of this county became connected with the confederacy that fought the battle of Fallen Timbers near Fort Recovery, Ohio, and participated in the treaty of Greenville, which they tried to observe; but later a smaller division of tliem were compelled to join the confederacy of Tecumseh at Tippecanoe. i

La Chappelle is tlie name of the tirst j French trading post established at the Vermillion village, near Hamtramck's battle ground, the northwest quarter of section 33, 18 north, 9 west, by M. Laselle, fatlier of Hon. Charles Laselle, one of the distinguished lawyers of Logansport, this State. Another trading post was subsequently established by an Englishman on the John Collett farm, sections 9 and 16. It was the custom of the French traders here to strike small lead medals, in siz3 a little less than a silver quarter of a dollar, with a few figures and initial letters upon them, and tack them upon trees at the mouths of the tributaries claimed, as a sign of possession.

The Indians of the southern end of tlie county did their trading at stockades in Sullivan and Kno.x counties. Among the earliest traders were two brothers. Frenchmen, named I3rouillet, which was generally pronounced by the Americans, Bruriet. For some reason the Indians of that region entertained a strong enmity toward one of these brothers. He was captured and brought to their village, near the mouth of a creek south of Clinton, tiiat now liears liis name. At once it was decided to burn him at the stake; and to the stake he was fastened, with buckskin thongs. After the men had ceased talking, the squaws, according to Indian custom, had a right to be heard. An aged squaw, who had had a son killed in warfare, demanded the right to adopt the prisoner as a substitute for her lost son; and, whilst this privilege was generally granted, on this occasion the demand was refused, although she pleaded earnestly ainl long. In her wild but heroic determination, she seized a butcher-knife, and before any one could interfere, cut the prisoner loose, pointed to a canoe on the sandy shore of the Wabash, and told liim to run and save his life if he could. He did run. Pushing the canoe out into the water as far as possible, and giving it directive force toward the middle of the river he sprang aboard, and, lying flat in its bottom, paddled it into the stream ))eyond the reach of the Indians' rifles and escaped. This incident gave name to Brouillet's Creek.

The Brouillets took wives from the Miami tribe. The wife of the elder Brouillet belonged to a family in the line of promotion to the chieftianship. On his death the mother returned to her people, and the children were entitled, according to Indian law, to her jjropeihome and position among her people. Her eldest son grew up an athletic and vigorous young man, and became one of the chiefs of the Miamis. He was equitable in his dealings, and energetic in his duties, and chivalrous as a commander. His prudence served to avoid in a great measure any difiiculties with his wliite neighbors, wlio were constantly encroaching upon his territory and often inflicting injustice upon his people. Frequently the young men desired to avenge their wrongs, but he was able to prevent the butchering episodes of Indian warfare and retaliation.

Aboriginal

through the then swampy grounds of Hendricks and Montgomery Counties, found that his camp was without sufficient provisions, and all, including himself, were more or less sick. On the return march of Harrison's army to Fort Harrison, now Terre Haute, he directed the others to go on and secure food, and leave him on the bank of Raccoon Creek in a little tent. Chief Brouillet came to him, offered his services to kill game and to dress and cook it for him, and to care for him, M'hich he did as carefully and gently as could a woman. Fifty years afterward, when an old man of eighty, Mr. Collett only could recall the scene with tears in his eyes, and declared that Chief Brouillet was the best looking man that ever trod the banks of the Wabash, and was as kind hearted as he was brave.

In the march to Tippecanoe, the confederate Indians had prepared an ambuscade for Harrison's army at the narrow pass between the high rocky bluffs and the Wabash River, at Vicksburg, near Ferrysville. The army forded the river near Montezuma and marched up on the west side of the river and thus avoided that ambuscade. They crossed the Little Vermillion near the present railroad bridge, passed up the hollow just back of Joe Morehead's residence. Remnants of their corduroy bridge may be seen in the miry bottom of Spring Branch, near the brick house on the Head farm. On that march the useless shooting of a gun was prohibited, and even loud talking, under penalty of death. Judge Naylor, of Crawfordsville, who was one of the volunteers, tells the incident that on Oak Island, on S. S. CoUett's farm, a frightened deer jumped over the outer rank of men, and finding himself hemmed in, ran in various directions over the enclosed space; and, although the soldiers needed fresh meat, they were not permitted to shoot the animal. It was allowed to get away in safety. On

The army marched as close to the river bank as possible for the protection of the pirogues and keel-boats, which carried corn for their horses and provisions for the men. Spies reported that on account of low water, further navigation was impracticable at Coal Creek bar. The boats were landed near where Gardner's old ferry was once established, on the John Collett farm, until a reconnoisance could be made and a site for a stockade reconnoisance could be selected. It was determined to build the stockade on the farm of the late J. W. Forter, at a point known as Porter's eddy, and that it should partially overhang the river so as to protect the boats and their stores. Such a fqrt could usually have been built in one day, but in the bnstle and hurry of handling they lost half their axes in the water. One of these was a long time afterward found, and it was considered curious that a new axe, unused, and mounted with an unused handle, should be found tliere, nntil Judge Naylor explained the fact that many axes were there lost on the occasion just referred to, while the men were busily engaged in building the blockade. Fersons are now living who remember having seen parts of the stockade.

The Kentuckians and the mounted rifiemen recruited their horses on the rich bluegrass pastures in the river valley bottoms, on the Forter and Collett farms.

A sergeant and eight men were left toguard the stockade. About seven days afterward a wild looking soldier returned, reporting a disastrous battle at Tippecanoe, the defeat and destruction of the whole army, that he alone was left to tell the story, and that they must quickly destroy the post and retreat to a safe place. The sergeant's reply was, " I was ordered to hold this post; I shall do so; and as for yon, deserter and coward, my men will pnt you upon the ridge-pole of the stockade, and tie your feet together. If the Indians come you will catch the first bullet and shall be the first to die. We will die at our post of dut}^"

The army marched through the prairie regions west of Perrysville to where State Line City now stands, and near which place they pass the north boundary of the county.

Major James Blair and Judge J. M. Coleman settled on section 16, township 17 north, 9 west, between Eugene and Newport, before the land in that region was offered for sale by the Government. The prairie was known as Little Vermillion, or Coleman's Prairie. These two men had always been pioneers. Blair had been one of the heroes of Perry's victories on Lake Erie, and afterward held conspicuous positions of honor and trust in the community and State; but at this time he and Coleman were })eacemakers between the Indians, whose confidence they had; and they knew that Indians, if properly treated, could be trusted.

Se-Seep, or Siie-Sheep. a small, Ijow-legged, stoop-shouldered, white-haired man, 110 years old, was chief of the Pottawatomies and their allied Kickapoos. Their territory ranged from the Little Vermillion to Pine Creek, including the north-half of Vermillion County, all of "Warren, and the west-half of Fountain. Se-Seep had been a gallant fighter in the defense of his people and coimtry at the battle of Fallen Timbers (Wayne's Victory), and afterward in the terrible defeat of his people at Tippecanoe. Brave and heroic in battle, after signing the treaties of peace with the American authorities, he was faithful and trustworthy, and finally became a reliable friend of the white people. He. became the liero of a serio-comic incident wherein Noah I

Hubbard, who settled on Indian land where Cayuga now stands, became the butt of ridicule. Hubbard was cultivating a portion of a ten acre tract. One day the Indians crossed at the army ford and " stole " roasting ears and squashes as rental. Hubbard found Se-Seep with some ears of corn and two squashes within the folds of his blanket, and he undertook to castigate the chief with a cane. Se-Seep did " not scare worth a cent," but, dropping the squashes and corn, chased Hubbard out of the field with a stick. Then Hubbard went to Blair and Coleman and demanded that they should call out the rangers and the mounted riflemen, declaring that the Indians were destroying liis property and that they should be dealt with and punished. They refused to call out the rangers, but said he might notify them to assemble at their house the next morning. He did so, and the next morning some of the riflemen also assembled and commenced practice, shooting at a mark. The Indians had camped for the night a mile north, at the famous Bufi'alo spring near the residence of the late John W. Porter. Blair introduced to the Indians the matters of difi'erence, and concluded to have an imitation Indian pow-wow. Accordingly, he and Coleman, who had been chosen as arbitrators, rejiaircd to a plum thicket with a well worn testament, a wooden-covered spelling-book, a dilapidated almanac, and a remnant of an old law book, as authorities. Here they held a sham court, chattering gibberish, and gesticulating like Indians, and finally rendered the following verdict: That the two litigants settle the whole matter by a fist fight. The decision was no sooner announced than the little old Indian chief, who was dressed only with a blanket belt, threw it off and made rapidly for Hubbard. Of course the latter ran, and ran as fast as he could, mounted his pony and was soon out of sight. The

Se-Seep was finally murdered, in a foul manner, at Nebnker's Springs, Fountain County, at the age of 110 years, by a lazy, vicious renegade Indian named Namqua. He had a splendid son, who at the of seventeen years was killed by falling fifty feet from a tree while fighting a bear, near the residence of John Collett.

Although no battles nor skirmishes in connection with the war of 1812 took place in this county, the " Vermillion country" was two or three times crossed by belligerents. From a copy of General John Tipton's journal, kindly lent us by Stephen S. Collett, Esq., of Newport, we extract the following paragraphs.

Tipton was an illiterate man but a daring fighter, and in the autumn of 1811, he, as a private in Captain Spencer's Harrison County Riflemen, journeyed from Corydon, that county, down the Wabash to Fort Harrison, four miles north of Terre Haute, and up the same stream again, in the Indian campaign which ended in the hloody battle of Tippecanoe. The company compi-ised forty-seven men, besides oflicers, and these were joined by Captain Heath and twenty-two men. In going down]tlie river they guarded a keel-boat of provisions for Camp Harrison, and concerning this trip we quote:

"October 6. - We moved early; one mile, came to the river at the coal bank; found it was below the Vermillion half a mile; we took coffee; moved after the boat started down. The coal bank is on the east side of the Wabash. We went through a small prairie; crossed the river to the west side; went in on the head of a bar and came out on the lower end of another on the west side; went through a small prairie, then came to a big prairie, where the old Vermillion town was. We crossed the Wabash half a mile above the mouth of the Vermillion River before we came to the above town. Crossed the Vermillion River, took a south course through timbered land, and then through a prairie with a good spring and an old Indian hut; then tlirougli a beautiful timbered ground to a small creek, and stopped to let our horses graze; then went through a good land with a ridge on our right, out of which came four springs, and for two miles nothing but large sugar and walnut. The hill and the river came close together. We found a good coal bank fourteen miles below Vermillion. AV^e then crossed to the east side, went three miles and camped with the boat; after coming twenty miles and finding two bee trees, left them."

" We moved early. Two of the oxen missing. Three of our men sent to hunt them. We crossed Raccoon Creek. Saw our men who went to guard the boats on the 29th; they left us. We came to the river where we camped on our return fi-om Vermillion on the night of the sixth; thence up to the ford. Saw our boat guard just crossing the river. We halted until the army came up, then rode the river, which was very deep, then ca:nped. Our boat guard and the men who went to hunt the oxen came up, when we left the guards. We took a north course up the east side of the Wabash and crossed to the west, witli orders to kill all the Indians we saw. Fine news. The Governor's wagon was left this morning in consequence of the oxen being lost. All the army crossed in three hours. We drew corn.

" Friday, November 1. - I was sent with eighteen men to look for a way for the army to cross the Little Vermillion. Marched at daybreak; canje to the creek; found and marked tlie road: waited till the army-came np; went on and camped on the river two miles below the Big Vermillion. Captain Spencer, myself and three others went np to the Big Vermillion; retnrned to camp. General Wells, with forty men, and Captain Berry with nine men, had come up. Our camp marched in front to-day, as usual, which now consisted of thirty-seven men, in consequence of Captain Berry and Lindley being attached to it.

" Saturday, November 2. - A fine day. Captain Spencer, M'ith ten men went out on a scout. Onr company not parading as usual, the Uovernor threatened to brake the officers. I staid in camp. The army staid here to bnild a block house on the bank of the Wabash three miles below Vermillion, in a small prairie. The house, twenty-five feet square, and a breast-work from each corner next the river down to the water. Took horses and drew brush over the prairie to break down the weeds. This evening a man came from the garrison: said last niglit his was boat llred upon. One man who was asleep, was killed. Three boats came up, unloaded; went back taking a sick man with them. One of Captain Bobb's men died to-night."

" Sunday, the 3d. - A cloudy day. We moved early. Our company marched on the right wing to-day. Crossed the Big Vermillion, through a prairie six miles, through timber, then through a wet prairie with groves of timber in it," etc.

Thus we have quoted all of General Tipton's journal that pertains] to Vermillion County. Under date of November 7, 1811, he gives an account of the battle of Tippecanoe, in a paragraph scarcely longer than tiie average in his journal, as if unaware that the action was of any greater importance than an insignificant skirmish. Tipton was promoted from rank to rank tintil he was finally made General, His orthography, punctuation, etc., were so bad that we concluded not to follow it in the above extracts. Nearly every entry in his jonrnal not quoted above opens with the statement that the weather was very cold. He also makes occasional mentions of the soldiers' drawing their rations of whisky, - from one to three or four quarts at a time.

In Harrison's march to Tippecanoe his boats (pirogues) could not pass Coal Creek bar, spoken of under date of October 31 above and for their protection he built a stockade fort at the head of Porter's eddy, the precise locality being the northeast quarter of section 9, 17 north, 9 west. Here he left the sergeant and ten men to guard them. The remains of the heavy timbers were still to be seen in 1888. Corduroy or pole bridges buried in mud may yet be seen on the spring branches on the farms of Hon. John Collett, S. S. Collett and the Head family, - sections 9, and 15, 17 north, 9 west.

According to one of the treaties, General Harrison made a purchase for the Government, the northern line of which, west of the AVabash, extended from a point directly opposite the mouth of the Big Eaccoon Creek northwesterly. This tract was opened for white settlement long before the northern portion of the county was, which i-emained in the possession of the Kickapoos and Pottawatomies for a few years longer.

Fikst White Settler

In the year 1816, John Vannest, a man who was not afraid of the Indians, in company with a man named Hunter, who was also a hunter by occupation, ventured west of the Wabash to select land for a permanent home. Arriving at a point aboiit a mile north of where Clinton now stands, - the e}(act spot being the southeast corner of sec- tioii 9, township 14 north, range 9 west, they halted for the night. Hunter soon seared up a deer, which was killed, and thus they liad a choice supper of fresh venison. After the night's rest Mr. Vannest looked about a little, and without tramping around further concluded that tiiat spot was about as good as any he would likely find. Keturning to his temporary home at Fort Harrison, about four miles this side of Terre Haute, he waited a short time for the day of the Government land sales to arrive at Vincennes. Repairing thither, he entered three quarters of section 9. Subsequently he bought the remaining quarter of William Bales. This land is on the second batton, very high and beautifully undulating, but originally covered with timber. Had he proceeded a little further north he would have found a beautiful little prairie, which would be land already cleared for him ; but that point was either unknown to him, or it was too near or over the line between Government land and the Indians. Besides, at the stage of the country's development existing at that time it was not believed that the prairies could be cultivated, or dwelt upon with comfort, on account of the greater and more constant cold winds.

On the beautiful timbered land above described, Mr. Yannest, settled bringing with him his wife and several children. Erecting lirst a log cabin on the west side of his land, he cocupied it for a long period, when he built a large brick residence, from bricks he had made near by. It was the first brick building in the county. The mason employed upon it was a Mr. Jones, residing toward Newport. This house finally became unsafe and was torn away.

The land which Mr. Vannest obtained remains mostly in the possession of his descendants to this day; and it is a remarkable fact that from this tract no less than forty-five

John Vannest, Sr., died September 28, 184:2, at age of sixty-two years, and liis wife Mary, August 29, 1824, aged forty years, and they lie buried in the Clinton cemetery, north of the village. A daughter, Mrs. Sarah, widow of Scott Malone, stilloccupies the old homestead, being the oldest female resident of Clinton County. She well remembers the time when the girls, as well as the boys, had to " go to meeting " and to school barefoot, sometimes walking and sometimes on horseback. The school and the meetings were held in the characteristic pioneer log school-house, with puncheon floor, raud-and-stick chimney, flat rails for benches, a slab pinned up for a writing desk, and greased-paper windows. These and otlier pioneer customs are described in detail elsewhere in this volume.