Vigo County, Indiana - Chapter 6: The Terre Haute Company and the Establishment of the City and County Seat, 1908

Terre Haute and A'igo county is both young and old. Though nearly closing the first century of its existence, there are yet men and women here whose fathers traded with the Indians in their towns on this site and along the Wabash, or whose fathers and mothers were in Fort ITarrison while it was a frontier post. The settlement of Vigo county and the founding of Terre Haute came quickly after the conclusion of the war with Great Britain, when the great era of peace and western expansion began in the American republic.

Following the Indian purchases came land companies, speculators and a rage for the establishment of towns, and many sprang up along the Wabash that were to be future great cities. At one time Clinton, Montezuma. Eugene, Newport and Covington, apparently had as bright prospects as Terre Haute, and Lafayette for many years was its equal or greater. It is of interest to recall that the pioneers, by no means assured that Terre Haute would become an important town, wavered between Fort Harrison, Old Terre Haute and the new town.

David Thomas, in July, 1816, described the settlements near Fort Harrison (see above) as, first, a few dwellings at a point four miles south of the fort, on an eminence overlooking the river and the prairie ; second, two miles nearer the fort, a "very considerable encampment," and, third, from this point on to the fort, "the cabins along the road are numerous," and "the immediate vicinity has assumed the aspect of a considerable village."

These three localities were the rival contenders for the center of settlement and population. Explanations have been ofifered why this particular site of Terre Haute was chosen, and it is generally stated that William Hoggatt, as engineer for the Terre Haute Company, taking into account the bends of the river at Fort Harrison and at the other proposed site, four miles below, decided upon the middle ground because at this point the river runs nearly straight. Without this story, we could very easily see a "natural selection" as the cause of the city's situation. Perhaps the little settlement at which David Thomas stayed aver night in 1816 was on land that had been claimed and occupied before the town company arrived on the scene. The immediate vicinity of Fort Harrison, it must be supposed, was controlled by the federal government, and could not be employed as a town site as long as the garrison remained. Certainly the location chosen by the town company was not inferior to either of the others, so that the three rivals had equal natural advantages, and the game was won bv an extremely enterprising companv of town builders. ' 1198139'

The original town of Terre Haute is located on the east fractional sections 21, containing 416.40 acres, and 28, containing 461.24 acres, in township 12 north, of range 9 west. The boundaries, as at present known, are as follows : Bounded on the north by Locust street ; on the east by Seventh street ; on the south by Hulman street (foot of Strawberry Hill) ; and on the west by the low water mark of the Wabash river.

The first plat of the town was recorded October 25, 1816, in the recorder's office of Knox county, Indiana, of which county Vigo was then a part, and comprised 268 in-lots, bounded north by Eagle street; east by Fifth street ; south by Swan street and west by Water street. An amended plat was filed for record in the recorder's office of Vigo county May 20, 1825, after the organization of said county of Vigo (Deed Record 2, page 174, dated October, 1821), by which five additional blocks of the original size were added on the south, making 308 in-lots in all.

By the plat last named, out-lot No. 3 is donated for a burying ground. Lots marked "Seminary Lots" (present site of the First Ward city school), and lot marked "Church Lot" (the present site of the Asbury M. E. church, on Fourth and Poplar streets), are also donations for the respective purposes.

The land in the plat thus described was originally entered by Joseph Kitchell September 13 and 14, 1816, at the United States land office at Vincennes. Hence, at the time Thomas visited the scene in the summer of 1816, neither the land had been entered nor a plat of the town been filed. One-fourth of the purchase money was paid by Kitchell. He soon afterward assigned his interest in this entry to Cuthbert Bullitt, Thomas Bullitt, Jonathan Lindley, Hyacinth Lasselle and Abraham Markle, who assumed the payment of the balance of the purchase money. On September 19, 1816, these assignees entered into a partnership agree- ment, in which was described the land purchased from Kitchell. The description is given to show some of the prices of land then prevailing in this part of the country :

They held the lands as tenants in common, and divided the same in twelve equal shares and set off to Cuthbert and Thomas Bullitt, twotwelfth shares ; Jonathan Lindley, four-twelfth shares ; Abraham ]\Iarkle, three-twelfth shares ; Hyacinth Lasselle, three-twelfth shares.

In an old leather-covered book (in the possession of W. E. Hendrich), entitled Sale Book Xo. i, are the sworn records of the transactions of the Terre Haute Company, showing their purchase of the land and subsequent sales, division of profits, etc., and the bargain bv which they secured the selection by the legislative committee of Terre Haute as the seat of justice. All the entries in this book have been certified to by officials of Knox and \'igo counties, and it is the book of original entry, a very valuable relic of the Terre Haute Company. On the first leaf appears the following:

ISDIAX.\ Territokt, Kxox Couxty. Be it remembered that on the 25th day of October, in the year of our Lord 1S16, personally came before me, the subscriber, a justice of the peace in and for said county, Joseph Kitchell, agent for C. T. Bullitt, Abraham Markle and Hyacinth Lasselle. proprietors of the town of Terre Haute, and made oath that the within plan is a true copy from the original plat of the said town ot Terre Haute, as he verily believes.

On the next page is a pen and ink drawing of the plat of Terre Haute, w^ith side notes. Then follows description of thirteen tracts, purchased by the Terre Haute Company from Joseph Kitchell, who had bought them at the sale of U. S. lands at Vincennes in September, 1816.

In the year 1818 the legislature of Indiana passed an act to organize Vigo county, entitled "An act for the formation of a new countv off the county of Sullivan," approved January 26, 1818; wherein Elisha Stout, M. G. Clark and John Allen were empowered to locate the seat of justice of \'igo county.

Articles of agreement, ^larch 21, 1818, between Elisha Stout, M. G. Clark and John Allen, the committee of the legislature, with the Terre Haute Company, recited that, in consideration of Terre Haute being selected for the county seat, the company gave bond of $30,000 to execute its agreement, and gave to the county commissioners, John Hamilton, Israel Lambert and Ezra Jones, for use of the county, $3,775 in bonds, bonds being those received in payment for town lots from purchasers, also 70 town lots, "the square equal to eight in-lots in the center of the town for the purpose of erecting thereon a court house and other public buildings," and a draft on its agent, payable in 60 days, for $1,000.

Lucius H. Scott was appointed agent of Vigo county on May 13, 1818, and on May 21st the county commissioners released and quitclaimed to him the lots mentioned in the agreement to locate the seat of justice at Terre Haute. On August 13, 1822. James Farrington was appointed agent as successor of Scott.

Know ye that C. and T. Bullitt. Jonathan Lindley, Hyacinth Lassell and Eleazor Aspinwall, Assignees of Joseph Kitchell, having deposited in the General Land Office a Certificate of the Register of the Land Office at Vincennes.

Whereby it appears that full payment has been made for the East fractional Section Twenty-One, in Township Twelve, North of Range Nine West, containing Four Hundred and sixteen acres and fifty hundredths of an acre of the lands directed to be sold at Vincennes by the Act of Congress entitled "An Act providing for the sale of lands of the United States in the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, and above the mouth of the Kentucky River," and of the Acts Amendatory of the same thus is granted by the United States unto the said C. and T. Bullitt, Jonathan Lindley, Hyacinth Lassell and Eleazor Aspinwall, the fractional Lot or Section of land above described.

To Have and to Hold the said fractional Lot or Section of land with the appurtenances unto the said C. and T. Bullitt, Jonathan Lindley, Hyacinth Lassell and Eleazor Aspinwall, their heirs and assigns forever as tenants in common, and not as joint tenants.

Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the second day of April, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-One, and of the Independence of the United States of America the Forty-Fifth.

As agent for the Terra Haute Company, John Owens, was a very busy man during the first months of the town's existence. Besides attending to the routine affairs of the company at Terre Haute, he was entrusted with more important missions. The success of the company's enterprise depended on the location of the county seat on the town site. According to items in the company's records, Owens was evidently busy agitating the formation of a new county, and then in directing the attention of the county seat committee to the eligibility of Terre Haute as the best site of the seat of justice. For instance, he is credited with $16.75 for expenses for 17 days iii getting subscriptions to a petition for dividing Sullivan county and doing collection work. Owens spent 44 davs, according to another expense record, in a business trip to Corydon during the winter of 1817-18, where he was active in working for the new county and for the proposed county seat. For these arduous services Mr. Owens was paid three hundred dollars a year.

By the close of 1819 the company had received for sales of lots in town $12,000 in cash, and on October 21, 1821, the company was credited with $17,027 for sale of town and out-lots, this amount being divided among the proprietors.

W. C. Linton's private record presents a candid and intimate view of his business transactions, especially in connection with the settlement of the Aspinwall estate, in which are many sidelights on the Terre Haute Company and the conditions of the time. "About the first of January, 1821," reads the record, "I took out letters of administration in conjunction with Mrs. Eliza Aspinwall upon the estate of Eleazer Aspinwall, her deceased husband." (The estate was considerable for the time, though its condition was complicated and included a share in the Terre Haute Company estimated at $5,000.) "The laws of the state suggested no mode for the settlement of insolvent estates. Administrators were liable to suit for effects in their hands at all times after one year - up to 1824 there was no law by which to settle insolvent estates. Mrs. Aspinwall executed a power of attorney authorizing me to act for her."

paid to redeem a yoke of oxen seized and sold by constable, $20." Mr. Linton resold them for $40 for benefit of the estate. "Cash paid E. Buxton, see receipt, balance on coffin, I think, $3.25." "Paid with others cash to bear expenses of sending for Judge Deming's commission as associate (judge), so as to be able to do business, $2.00." "Paid George W. Dewees for shroud, $4.06." "Paid Dr. J. D. G. McDonald's bill, $24.12." "Paid Dr. Hale, $3.00."' "Paid Dr. John Durkee, during last illness, $50.00." "I charged, and the court thought reasonable, for my services up to this time, 2 Sept., 1823, $200."

"The Terre Haute Company met October ist [1823], and held a sale of property remaining unsold from previous sales. Believing Aspinwall's estate solvent and there being evident danger that want of competition would let other proprietors bid off the property at their own prices, I was induced to become a purchaser, intending the lands and lots to go to the estate, except two. The company, however, refused to recognize me as anything but a common purchaser, and accordingly took my individual notes for the whole amount with security." The company paid Linton for Aspinwall $50 in Branch Bank notes worth fifty cents on the dollar, claiming that was the kind of money due, and presented a bill against Aspinwall for $21, demanding specie.

An old map of Terre Haute, made by Samuel Crawford in 183 1, shows the original in- and out-lots of the town of Terre Haute. The inlots laid out at that time extended from the Wabash river to Fifth street, north as far as Eagle street and south to Oak street. This map shows no subdivided lots east of Fifth street, while the out-lots or blocks are platted to Seventh street only, at that time called the county road. The town was built at that time west of Fourth street.

The map shows the old court house, the Asbury church at corner of Fourth and Poplar streets, the seminary lots on the corner of Fourth and Mulberry, and the burying ground on the river bank just south of the Vandalia railroad, known as the old Indian orchard.

These were donations for the use of the town. The Linton building on the south side of Ohio street between Fifth and Sixth streets is also shown.

The map shows the prairie line, at that time in the alley in the rear of the old Gazette office. The tree line extended north and south from this point, curving to the east slightly, in both directions, reaching to Sixth at C)ak and Eagle and then curving again toward the river. All east of this curving line to the bluffs on the east was unbroken prairie.

The fine body of land, 320 acres in extent, west of Seventh street, bought by Chauncey Rose in 1837 from Frederick Rapp, who had secured it in 1829 by foreclosure of mortgages given by Abraham Markle, was the largest piece of real estate in one block ever held by a citizen of Terre Haute, and its possession by Rose is so intimately connected with the symmetrical development of the city and of its railroad interests, that it seems appropriate to tell the details of its acquisition by Mr. Rose. We are led to do this because there has been a feeling more or less vague on the part of many that Mr. Rose had imposed on the Markle estate in gaining possession of it. The history of the deal and records do not support this, and in fact Mr. Rose's purchase of the land was legitimate beyond reproach. The land was lost to the Markle heirs through the misfortunes and early death of Abraham Markle, and if it had not been purchased by Mr. Rose it would have been parcelled out and sold to others by Frederick Rapp, who held a clear and indisputable title to it.

The land of which we speak is the 320 acres which is bounded by a line running from the First Methodist church at Poplar street, north on Seventh to Locust, thence east to the Rose Polytechnic, south to St. Patrick's church at Thirteenth and Poplar, and west to Seventh.

April 22, 1821, Abraham Markle gave to Frederick Rapp a mortgage (to secure payment of two notes held by Rapp as assignee to the sum of $6,000) on "all that certain tract or parcel of land situate and lying and being the county of Vigo and state of Indiana, containing 320 acres and known and designated on the survey of the lands of the United States ofifered for sale at Vincennes as the west half of section 22, township 12 north, of range 9 west." Also, "the northeast quarter of section 6, township 12 north, or range 8 west," and "the southwest quarter of section 32, township 13 north, of range 8 west."

Markle died early in 1826 and his estate was declared insolvent. On March 24, 1828, Rapp filed a bill against the widow and seven named heirs, alleging that neither the deceased nor his heirs or representatives since his death had kept and performed the provisions or conditions of any of the mortgages ; that Markle had paid in his lifetime only $578.06 on the notes ; "that the whole of the principal of said promissory notes, making the sum of $6,000, remains wholly unpaid, and that the interest due thereon (except above payment) is still due and unsettled." Rapp therefore demanded a decree for foreclosure on the property mentioned in the mortgages, and that a sale of said property should be made bv an officer of the court. The heirs could not "deny but that the matters and things in said complainant's bill set forth are true, nor have they aught to show why the prayer of said bill should not be granted," therefore Curtis Gilbert was appointed commissioner to take charge of the sale.

Gilbert's report, as commissioner, was delivered to the court April 18, 1829. "According to the law and said decree he exposed to sale at public auction at the court house in said county of Vigo ***** the said mortgaged premises described in said bill and mortgage," at which time Frederick Rapp being the highest bidder became the purchaser of all the "said premises, in all amounting to the sum of $2,187.02." In the following September Curtis Gilbert gave Rapp a deed for this property, which was recorded, and Rapp took possession of the land without objection from any of those concerned in the transaction.

On January 22, 1831, Rapp sold and gave deed to Chauncey Rose, for the sum of $1,800, all the southwest quarter of section 22, town 12, north of range 9 west. July 18. 1831, Rapp sold to Chauncey Rose for $1,500, all the northwest quarter of section 22, town 12 north, of range 9 west. Thus Rose became the owner by two successive purchases of 320 acres lying within the present city of Terre Haute.

Not an objection to his title was raised for nearly twenty years. Then an attempt was made to invalidate the title on a very unusual ground, and the case was one of the remarkable chancery causes of Indiana jurisprudence.

As above mentioned, in the bill filed in 1828 demanding foreclosure, Rapp had named as defendants the widow and seven children. In fact there were eight children. Frederick, the infant who was not named in the bill, now grown up to manhood, in March, 1848, filed a bill in the \*igo circuit court, in which he alleges that he had not been mentioned as one of the defendants in the former bill, and that "although he was not made a defendant to said bill, nor in any manner referred to therein, the said Rapp, by his attorney, at April term, 1828, pretended to the judges of said court that complainant was a party to said bill, and made suggestion to the court that it was shown by the return of the summons issued thereon that Nelson iMarkle, Joseph Markle, Napoleon ]\larkle and the complainant herein were infants under the age of twenty-one years, when it was well known to said Rapp that complainant herein was not made a party to said bill ; that no process was by the said bill prayed against him ; that the clerk of said court had not issued any summons against him to answer said bill, and that he was in no way whatever noticed or mentioned in the return made by the sheriff of said county to the summons issued against the defendants to said bill. That said Rapp procured said court to appoint Elisha M. Huntington guardian ad litem for him, but said guardian ad litem did not file any answer for him to said bill, nor did he pretend to confess the same for him, nor did the said court, by the decree rendered in said cause pretend in any way to foreclose the equity of redemption of complainant herein in and to the mortgaged premises, &c."

In view of the failure of Rapp to include Frederick among the heirs the latter prayed the court that he might "be let in to a redemption of all the mortgaged premises," then held and nominally owned' by several persons, chief among whom was named Chauncey Rose.

There was promise of an interesting contest, but on March 25th the court, having considered the bill, answers, exhibits and depositions, "it is ordered, adjudged and decreed that the complainant's bill be * * * dismissed for the want of equity therein," the costs to be assessed against the complainant. The. case was appealed to the supreme court, which affinned the decree of the circuit court, and on September 19, 1850, nearly a quarter of a century after Abraham Markle's death, the cause was ordered stricken from the court docket.