Vigo County, Indiana - Chapter 15: The Wabash River; Its Ferries: Its Bridges; Its, 1908

Locomotive And The Rise Of The The Net Work Of Rails

As earlv as 1699 DTberville conducted a colony of Canadians from Quebec to Louisiana by way of the Maumee and Wabash. The route was used bv all classes, but the fur-trader made it historic. Along its course the French and British contended for strategic advantage,, and the chain of French posts from Detroit to \'incennes were a valuable resource to the former. I'.ut with the beginning of the wars of 1754 between the French and English, and ending with the peace which followed the victories of Mad Anthony Wayne in 1794. there was a collapse of the fur trade, and a general decline of the frontier posts and settlements along the Wabash. During this time the French settlers of \Mncennes '"had nothing to live on but their fruit, vegetables, potatoes. Indian corn and now and then a little game. No wonder they became as lean as .\rabs."

When the Wabash route came under the jurisdiction of the L'nited States it lost its importance as a connecting highway between the two divisions of empire - the valley of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi basin, - and that part of its history really passed with the old French regime. But when from the American colonies the movement began toward the west, all the available transportation routes between the east and the west were utilized, and though the Ohio river route afforded the way by which most of the settlers of southern Indiana reached their homes, a certain per centi of the pioneers came to the state by means of the old hig-hwav of the Maumee and Wabash, opened up by the French over a hundred years before.

In 1825 the Erie canal, after eight years in buildins;. was opened to traffic, and the waters of Lake Erie flowed across the state of Xew York into the Hudson river. The land-bound commerce of the Atlantic seaboard found, in this direction, outlet to the eager west. and. borne along the same channel, the grain harvests of the inland were brought to the markets of the world. It was no uncommon thing for fifty ark-like boats, loaded with passengers and freight, to depart from the eastern terminus of the Erie canal in a single day. passing to the west at the rate of four miles an hour. Before the waters were turned into the "Big Ditch." the toilsome urging of creaking wagon had not carried a fraction of the commerce that passed along this waterway.

The Erie canal not only gave a tremendous impetus to western expansion and development, but it partly changed its direction. Before 1825 the trend of western emigration had been down the Ohio valley, the great water courses were fringed with settlements, when the inland country was still an unbroken wilderness. The regions bordering the riverways and great lakes were populous before a tree had been felled for a settler's cabin on the fertile prairies and woodland of northern Indiana and southern Michigan. A map of the highways of traffic of the United States in the year 1825 shows a network of routes along the Ohio valley, but very few north of the watershed into the great lakes. The homeseekers who traveled across Lake Erie to its western end would, on their arrival at Detroit, find one generally used road to the west. That led southwest to Monroe, up the valley of the ]\Iaumee, past Defiance, Ohio, to Fort \\'ayne. Indiana. Fort Wayne, built on the site of the old Indian trading post. Kekionga, had been a recognized station and meeting point for a century, and was, in 1825, the converging point for several other roads leading from different points along the Ohio river.

After the opening of the Erie canal, and with increased demand for transportation facilities between the east and west, the popularity of the old Wabash route revived, and government and commercial interests directed their influence and energies to making the route by water complete from the lakes to the gulf.

reminders of the Wabash and Erie canal, once so great a factor in the growth and commerce of this city, as well as of the state of Indiana. ?ileandering through the city from its entrance at the extreme northwest to its exit at the farthest southeast, the canal was once a scene of varied activities. Bridges crossed it at the intersection of streets, and in the shelter of the bridges were many swimming holes in which the former youth of Terre Haute spent many careless hours. Around the basin, in which the canal boats docked and discharged and received their freight, all was a scene of bustle and confusion that made it the busiest center of Terre Haute during the canal era. After understanding the great importance of this transportation highway during the fifties, it seems hardlv credible that the canal has practically passed into oblivion, that modern progress should have advanced so rapidlv as to render this institution obsolete almost before it was finished. The course of the old canal in Terre Haute needs to be indicated in history, lest it pass from the knowledge of men even as it has disappeared from the topographv of the city.

The Wabash and Erie canal entered Terre Haute from the north, at a little distance from the Wabash river, but coming close to the river"s edge at Locust street and following it to Sycamore street. The river now covers the bed of the former canal. The canal then passed close to the west line of the old cemetery, known as Old Indian Orchard, and swept around a piece of high grour.d, now the site of the rebuilt Hudnut hominy mill, to enter the basin, which extended from the river bank to JMrst street. A narrow stream across First connected this basin with the upper basin, that extended nearly to Second street. Another narrowbasin extended at right angles to the north for about a block, forming a dock and harbor for canal boats. From the upper basin the canal turned to the north, climbing the hill, as it were, by the locks near the present northeast corner of Second and Chestnut. The boats entered the lower lock, in which the water flowed to raise them to the upper lock, the ascent being about fifteen feet. The canal proceeded north to Canal street, west of Second street, and turning east followed to Seventh street on what is now the right of way of the Vandalia Railroad. It curved to the south along what is now Nine and One-Half street, to Poplar, where it inclined to the southeast on its way to Lockport (now Riley), thence to the reservoir and on to Evansville. The canal was crossed at First, Chestnut, Third, Fourth, Lafayette road. Fifth, Sixth and Seventh, W^abash and Poplar streets, by wooden bridges, high enough to allow the canal boats to pass under, with the exception of a low bridge, nearl\ on a level with the street,, at Lafayette, which swung on a pivot.

The canal days had many interesting features. In the fifties, when it was the only means of transportation to and from the north, the arrival of the packet boats was one of the interesting sights, and people went to see them come in, as they went later to the railroad station. The one or two omnibuses of the town made the boats. The first signal of arrival was the pleasing strains from the long horn on the boat. Then would appear the three-horse team, tandem, from behind the little elevation at the curve, trotting their best to give a good motion to the packet, which next approached, its deck covered with jiassengers. At that moment the long tow-rope was cast loose, and the boat would of its own headway float diagonally across the basin to the old Britton warehouse, which was its landing place and pier. To those who recall those times it seems that some of the sweetest music ever heard was that produced by the boatmen on the long horns as they approached town or signaled the lock-tenders.

Traveling by canal packet w'as really pleasant and picturesque. There was then neither knowledge nor desire of great speed and frantic haste in traveling, and during the days spent on the decks and in the cabins of the smoothly-gliding packets, in the midst of pleasant company, new friends were made, games were played, politics discussed, aiid even romances begun. The best packets made about eight miles an hour, and the driver kept his tandem team of three on a sharp trot,, the horses being changed often enough along the route to be always fresh. As towns en route were approached, the mellow notes from the horn rang out, and if it was a way station the passengers could alight and become sociable with the townsmen or seek the tavern, which provided "refreshment for man and beast," tarrying until the warning horn sounded all aboard. The canal offered that near-at-hand view of the country which now is vaunted as one of the charms of travel by automobile and the interurban. It wound through the farms, meadows and fields, by long stretches of dense forest, giving views of hills and valleys and far-stretching prairies.

The government recognized the value of the route by the Wabash and Maumee by securing the portage between the two rivers in the Ordinance of 1787 as a common highway free from any tax or duty, making it a national roadway. It was the middle of the nineteenth century before Terre Haute witnessed the completion of the Wabash and Erie canal, but the ideas at the foundation of such improvements date back to the confederate colonies. Washington is said to have suggested in 1784 a canal to connect Lake Erie and the Potomac, and also prophesied the connection of the waters of Lake Erie with the Mississippi. Thenceforward canals and other internal improvements were subjects of more or less general discussion. Governor Jennings, of Indiana, in 1818 urged the construction of a system of canals and roads to promote the general intercourse which "would remove the jealousies of local interests and the embittered violence of political feuds." In 1822 Indiana and Illinois jointly made provision for the improvement of the grand rapids of the/ Wabash, and in 1823 the legislatures of both states considered the matter of connecting the Maumee and Wabash by canal. The subject came before Congress in 1822 with the introduction of a bill providing for the survey of routes for canals and roads, which was the beginning of a decade of discussion of internal improvements by federal aid, and the "American system of Clay, Calhoun and Adams" finally won. In these discussions the Wabash and Erie canal had a prominent part. In 1824 Congress passed a bill providing for the survey of a canal, but placed the expense of the survey as also of construction on the state. The .state being entitled to three per cent, of the net proceeds of ])ublic lands for making roads and canals, Indiana appropriated some of the first monevs from this source to the improvement of the Wabash in 1824.

Finally in 1827 Congress gave practical impetus to the building of the canal by granting alternate sections on each side of the proposed route, and in 1830 the ways and means of con.struction were taken up by the state legislature. The first ground was broken at Fort Wayne on February 22, 1832; the first canal boat was launched there in 1834, and the first section of the canal - thirty-two miles in length - was opened July 4. 1835.

Governor Xoble recommended and the legislature authorized the expenditure of ten million dollars by the state for canals, railroads and turnpikes, with the Wabash and Erie canal and the Ohio river as the main arteries. This indicates how water transportation still held foremost importance among the highways of commerce and communication. By the same act of legislature, the canal route was extended from the Tippecanoe river to Terre Haute (1836-37). Also a section known as the cross-cut canal was planned to connect the Wabash and Erie with the Central canal on White river. The Central canal was designed to run from Peru on the Wabash and Erie, via Indianapolis, to Evansville. These extraordinary plans of internal improvements were the outgrowth of the expansive, speculative period of the early thirties, when the entire American people were possessed with the spirit of building and development of the resources of the nation. It was the era of inordinate land speculation and inflated "wildcat" money. Canal-building and all forms of internal improvements were very popular in Indiana as elsewhere.

navigable at all seasons of the _\ear up to this point. This suggests the comment that already was oljservable the decreasing volume of the Indiana rivers caused bv the removal of the forests and the breaking of the soil and subsoil drainage, causing the rajiid drainage of rainfall.

Beginning at the height of an era of public confidence, the state plunged into the improvements by starting all of the different parts of the scheme at once. The market was tlooded with bends; the price of labor, provisions and material exceeded estimates. Most of the bonds we-'e sold on credit. \\'ith the series of failures that marked the panic of 1837. '^li^ iNI orris Canal and Banking Company of Xew York, holders of a large part of the bonds for this canal, went into bankruptcy, owing the state over two million dollars for bonds it had purchased on credit.

Altogether, the state lost over three million dollars for bonds sold on credit. The canal had been completed as far as Logansport in 1838, but in the following year the whole system of public improvements was paralyzed, and eitorts to complete the work were suspended. In 1840 the state debt was $i.vi5i.j.S.S. of which over nine millions was for internal improvements, for which had been actually completed 202 miles of canals and two short railroad lines, \-ielding altogether an income of $31,000 annually. Interest-bearing notes were issued for a million and a half dollars to meet balances due contractors, and in the following year an issue of bonds could not be sold. Land scrip and treasurv notes were issued, receivable for canal tolls and water rents on the Wabash and P>ie, and manv expedients were tried, and failed. Some of the work \\'as abandoned, some was sold to private companies, but the Wabash and Erie canal remained a state enterprise u'ntil its completion. In 1843 ^'""^ canal, as far as Lafavette, was earning $60,000 a year. The following year a disastrous flood closed it to general use, and it never became a profitable route.

In this perifjd of embarrassment, which affected other states as well as Indian-', there can^ie a demand from certain sources that the pavment of 'nterest be stopped and that the debt resulting from bonds sold on credit, and for which the state never received payment, should be repudiated. As is well known, repudiation was the point over which waged the fiercest political and economic controversies of that period. The European and American holders of the bonds and notes of ]\Iichigan and Indiana appointed Charles Butler as their agent to secure some settlement from these stptes. He succeeded in making a partiallv favorable adjustment in Michigan in 1842. and then came to Indiana. He began his campaign in Terre Haute in May. 1845, where he suggested. "Pay us by your state tax and otherwise a portion of the interest on vour public debt ar.d we shall be willing to lock to the revenues of the canal for the balance." It was felt to be a matter of first importance that the canal should be completed, not only for the bondholders but the public generally, and in Terre Haute the prevailing sentiment was for payment of state obligations and the completion of the canal. The legislature which assembled in December. 1845, was to decide the momentous question of repudiation. Butler had been untiring in his efforts to arouse the dormant public conscience. In a letter to his wife he said, "The prospects are altogether discouraging. It is really amazing to see what a paralysis hangs upon the people.'" Interest had been unpaid for five years, and there was no assurance how or when the bondholders could expect relief. The revenues from the canal did not suffice to pay the interest.

The act of settlement when finally passed was a strictly non-partisan measure. The Butler bill, as it was called, divided the debt into two parts, the state agreeing to pay the interest and principal of the first half out of general taxation, while the creditors consented to secure the interest and principal of the second half from the income of the Wabash and Erie canal. The canal was state property, but for the benefit of the creditors Avas placed in the hands of two trustees - Charles Butler and Thomas H. Blake. Although the opponents of the Butler measure flung at its supporters such epithets as "British brokers," "British lawyers," "Tory agents,"' and "lobbv influence," etc., the action of the legislature was very popular through the state at large, and at Indianapolis, when the bill was finallv approved, "the cannon fired, the bells rang, the city was illuminated, and all was joy and hilarity at the capital for weeks afterward."

It was an honest and equitable settlement, as it included even those bonds obtained by the !\Iorris company and never paid for. The result was seen in the immediate strengthening of the state credit, and the increase in the value of its lands and taxable property. The stigma of repudiation and financial dishonor was forever removed.

During the debate on the bill. General Joseph Lane said in the senate that he would cut cord-wood to pay his share of the public debt rather than see Indiana dishonored. Butler, the chief advocate of the bill, was a strict observer of the Sabbath. When a rough Hoosier senator came in one Sundav to ^iscuss the subject, Butler refused to talk, whereupon the senator expressed his opinion that the matter was "like lifting the o.x out of the gutter, and that it was a work of necessity and mercy." Next Sundav Butler had a conference with Governor Whitcomb on the moral aspects of the situation.

In May, 1847, owing to the lowness of the water in the Wabash river the steamboats could not pass the rapids, some miles below A^incennes and several hundred tons of freight destined for Terre Haute were unloaded on the bank. The \'incennes Gazette of the time contained a sarcastic skit on this town, under the headline. "Terre Haute Waking Up." whicli was amusing, coining from the Rip \'an Winkle of the Wabash. It went on to say that the blockade in the transportation had caused the gathering of a great mass-meeting of citizens in the court house yard at Terre Haute, to consider what should be done to open transportation, and it was determined to raise money by individual subscription and give the proceeds to the Indiana bondholders of the Wabash and Erie canal to aid in completing the canal. Great enthusiasm prevailed and on closing the books it was found that six and a quarter cents had been raised. It was said the amount woukl have been as much as a dime, but for the fact that a railroad project was up, that would soon require money.

The board of trustees who were to administer the affairs of the canal in trust for the state and the creditors took possession July i, 1847, with general offices at Terre Haute. Jesse Williams, of Fort Wayne, was the chief engineer, and W. J. Ball, of Terre Haute, was resident engineer.

The canal was opened to Evansvillc in the spring of 1853, for a total length of 458 miles. It had been completed to Covington in 1846. to Coal Creek in 1847, and to Terre Haute in 1849. The first line boat to arrive in Terre Haute was the lolus, which is said to have come to town in June. 1850. carrying a large company of canal officials and prominent citizens, and the occasion was celebrated with due festivity.

The most prosperous years of the canal were during 1847-56. The tolls and rents during the best year. 1852. were $193,400, but from that time the revenues declined. The railroad had become a competitor, and the extension from Terre Haute south to the Ohio was used scarcelv ten years. The income fell to $65,173 in i860, to $17,086 in 1873, and to $7,179 by 1874. In 1858 the holders of canal certificates petitioned that the canal south of Terre Haute be abandoned, and the canal lands sold in order to take up the certificates. During 1859-60 a part of the canal was kept in operation by private parties, who made repairs and took the tolls and rents as their security. In 1862 it became necessarv to abandon rhe entire course south from Terre Haute. In the same vear a companv headed by Hugh McCulloch. A. P. Edgerton and Pliny Hoagland made a contract to keep up the canal from Terre Haute to the Ohio line until 1873, but they gave it up in 1866. and were followed by a stock company which did fairly well for a few years, but after 1869 lost money. One year the city of Terre Haute gave a firm one thousand dollars and the tolls to keep open the section between this city and Eel river. The decline of business is illustrated in the decreased number of boats in service at different years. In 1854 there were 300; in 1858. 175 : and in 1861. 100. Finally in 1873 the legislature authorized the subscription of funds for the maintenance of the rapidly fell into complete ruin. On suit of the bond holders, a court ordered a sale of the canal, and after the final settlement it was estimated that the creditors got about nine and a half per cent, of their original investment. The fiscal summary, however, shows that the expenditures from first to last on this great work of internal improvement were $8,259,244, while the receipts from lands and revenues were $5,477,238.

"The Emigrants and Travelers' Guide (1832)" said: "Hundreds of flat-boats annually descend the Wabash and White rivers. * ''' * The trade of the Wabash river is becoming immense. In 1831, during the period between March 5th and April i6th, fifty-four steamboats arrived and departed from Vinccnnes. It is also estimated that at least one thousand flat-boats entered the Ohio from the Wabash in the same time. In Februarv, March and April of this year there were sixty arrivals of steamboats at Lafayette." This writer tells us that one-tenth of the flat-boats, according to estimate, were "loaded with pork at the rate of 300 barrels to the boat" - another tenth said to be loaded with lard, cattle, horses, oats, cornmeal, etc., and the remainder with corn on the ear. The value of produce and stock sent annually to market from the valley of the Wabash by fiat-boats was estimated by one authority at nearly $1,000,000.

The flat-boat was an ideal craft for the times and pu.rpose for the Indiana rivers, from its light draft, its capacity and cheapness. The large poplars that abounded in the forests were easilv worked with the ax into slabs, or "gunwales," long and Ijroad for the sides, planks for the bottom. The ends and deck were easily built by the pioneer with the tools at his command. P.enjamin McKeen ( father of W. R. McKeen) used to build flat-boats on Greenfield bayou, pack them with pork and grain for Xew Orleans, and act as captain and pilot of them to the Crescent city. The long gunwales and bottoms were fastened to the large timbers by wooden ])ins instead of by iron spikes. At least this was true of the boats made by the McKeens ; who as boys made many of these pins. The girders and gunwales were hewed out in the forest, while the siding and roofing were cut at a near-bv .sawmill. The flat-boats were usually 60 to 80 feet long, and one of the smaller size would carry five hundred dressed hogs. About 1848 James Johnson (grandfather of Frank McKeen) killed and cut up 10,000 hogs in a small building near the river below Ohio street. It was a favorable season because the water was high all winter and the pork

George Grigsby, sixty years ago, when a small boy went on his father's boat (loaded with his corn ) to New Orleans, as an assistant cook. About fifty years ago he went on a boat he helped to build, loaded with pork. It was 100 by 18 feet ; built on the bar at the "bend" above the water works. Tlie long and heav\' pieces were hewed out and the planks came from the sawmills. The bottom or hull was built bottom up at the water's edge, or partly in the water. To turn or tilt it over into the water, sand or soil from the bank was carried and piled on the side of the boat nearest the water until the weight depressed it and raised the other enough to make it easy to turn the boat over, when the superstructure was built on it. The boats had one or two pair of long sweeps, according to the size, a rudder oar and another oar or fender at the bow to assist in making a quick turn. It took from four to six weeks to make the trip to New Orleans, where the boats were sold to the planters, for $75 to $100 as lumber, and the crew returned home by steamboat to Evansville or St. Louis. Corn sold at T2i'_, at New Orleans. Pork was often loaded here at $2.00 or $2.50.

In 1847 the agricultural products shipped south from Terre Haute were valued at $499,030, while from river points above Terre Haute the total was estimated at $730,000. In the same period the shipments north by canal, from statistics furnished by Engineer J. L. Williams of the Wabash and Erie canal, from Lafayette up, amounted to $1,915,267.

In September, 1903, the Wabash River Improvement Association was formed. Fifteen hundred delegates assembled at Terre Haute, comprising some of the most prominent men of the vallc}', who gathered to inaugurate the work of improvement. Among th(jse in attendance were James A. Hemenway, Robert Williams, E. 'S. Holliday, Robert Miers, James Crawley. Samuel ^lurdock, J. Frank Hanly, ex-governor W. S. Haggard, Frank B. Posey, G. V. Menzies, Frank Havill, Manuel Cronbach, James W. Emison, T. H. Adams. Edward Watson, and Mayor Rou.sch of Vincennes. There is a low water-shed between Lake Michigan and the headwaters of the Wabash river, and surveys have shown that the construction of a canal between them is both practical and feasible. The Wabash River Improvement Association was organized for the construction of a ship canal from Michigan City to the- Wabash river. The' length of the proposed waterway is forty-five miles, extending from Michigan City to the Wabash near Lafa^-ette.

An editorial in the spring of 1908 shows that the navigation of the Wabash is still a task for the present or next generation, and. also indicates some of the future possibilities that are considered likelv to follow such improvement of the great waterway.

The Young Business Men's Club took up enthusiastically the matter of securing an appropriation for the improvement of the Wabash river. In some manner that seems to have been allowed to drop. There isn't anything of more importance to Terre Haute than tp secure a government appropriation for the improvement of the Wabash river.

Ask an.y United States engineer who knows the two rivers, and is familiar with their condition, and he will tell you that the Wabash is a much better river at Terre Haute than the Ohio is at Pittsburg, without the improvement that has been done on the Ohio at that point by the federal government.

Terre Haute on the Wabash - in the center of the coal field of Indiana, and the oil field of Illinois and Indiana - is more than 1,200 miles nearer than Pittsburg to the great cities of the Mississippi valley, to the Panama canal. South American countries, and ultimately to the Orient, by an all-water route.

With the Wabash improved so that our manufactured products could be shipped out by an all-water route, we could supply all the Mississippi valley. South American countries, Mexico, and when the Panama canal is open, the Orient, with the bulk of their manufactured goods.

There isn't a city in America with superior food and water supply to that possessed by Terre Haute. With such enormous supplies of both fuel and pure water there isn't a limit that can be placed on the possibilities of what Terre Haute may do. The greatest inducements that can be offered factories to get them to locate in a city is plenty of cheap fuel, plenty of potable water, a good location as a distributing point, and low freight rates. Terre Haute cannot be excelled on the first three great points, and with the Wabash improved so that large boats could run to Terre Haute the year round, there would be nothing in the way of this city's offering to manufacturers inducements that would bring them more quickly than a large factory fund - and with the factory fund and the river improved, there would be nothing in the way of Terre Haute becoming the greatest city in Indiana in a decade. This city would soon replace Indianapolis as the Indiana metropolis were the Wabash improved so that we might have navigation the year round.

A bridge over the Wabash at Terre Haute opened in December, 1846, and was freelv used for bringing over wood, hogs, etc., from west side. Christmas was quite a gala day, the bridge being visited by a large number, and at one time at least 500 were there, marching back and forth keeping time to the martial music in front. Tolls - four-horse wagon, 25 cents ; two-horse wagon, 15 cents; one-horse buggy, 12^ cents; dray or cart, 10 cents; four-horse pleasure carriage, 373^ cents; two-horse, 25 cents; man on horse, 6% cents ; horses and cattle on foot, 3 and 2 cents.

Before 1858 the bridge was an open, uncovered wooden structure^ supported by trestles resting on sills and piles. The Macksville grade, on the west side of the river was constructed in 1855-56, but during the great freshet of 1858 a part of this grade was swept away. It was replaced by a trestle, and the present embankment dates from about 1902. The same flood carried away most of the bridge, and in October, on a stormy Sunday, when three spans of the bridge were up., the steamer Crescent was blown against the outer span, tearing it away and causing a damage of several thousand dollars. The bridge company recovered damages from the owners of the boat. During the sixties the draw of the bridge gave way under the weight of a drove of cattle, and several persons were drowned.

Some features of transportation seventy years ago are illustrated in a curious bill of lading that until a few years ago at least was preserved in Terre Haute. It reads from New York to Terre Haute and is dated August 21, 1839. In these days of fast freights and low rates it is of especial interest, as showing the changes wdiich have taken place since that time. In 1839, Terre Haute was but little more than a hamlet, and its freight communication was almost entirelv by river and wagons. The bill of lading was made out by "Bingham's Transportation Line," and addressed to "R. H. & J- Ross, Terre Haute, Inda." The shipment consisted of some dry goods, shoes and axes, and the freight rates were $2.30 per hundred pounds. The goods were sent from Xew York to Pittsburg by wagons, and from there to Terre Haute, down the Ohio to Evansville and up the Wabash. The bill guarantees shipment in twelve days from Xew York to Pittsburg, not including Sundays, and accidental delays. The trip down the Ohio and up the Wabash doubtless occupied twice' that length of time, making altogether over a month. Today the same shipment would reach here in five days at the most.

An advertisement in the Courier of July 12, 1845, reads as follows : A new ferry is now open at Fort Harrison, two and one-half miles above Terre Haute, la., and the proprietor proposes to cross travelers from bank to bank, so that they shall not have a foot of bottom land to pass over after leaving the boat. The landing on the west of the river is at Pottsville during high water ; on the east bank, it is at old Fort Harrison. A firstrate new boat, with an experienced and accomodating ferryman, will be found at one or the other banks. \'ery respectfully, John Adair,

It is said that when Congress first met after the war for independence, under the new constitution, the lack of good roads was much commented upon b}^ congressmen and the citizens generally, and various schemes suggested to meet the want. The settlers of Kentucky and Tennessee on leaving Virginia had plunged into the wilderness and had followed Indian traces across the mountains to their new homes. With the acquistion of the Northwest Territory, extending the territory of the United States to the Mississippi, it was recognized that in order to make this region an integral part of the nation, efifective communication must be estabHshed between all parts. This necessity was emphasized when, owing to the absence of water communication over the mountains, the Kentucky settlements were practically isolated from the eastern states and threatened to secede from the Union because the government was about to allow Spain to close up the mouth of the Mississippi to American commerce. Before any definite steps had been taken by the government toward connecting the east and west by roads, the Louisiana purchase had widened our boundaries to the Pacific, and. with an energetic and farseeing statesman like Jefferson as president, the matter of binding these vast areas closely together became a vital question. In the act of congress, in 1802, by which Ohio was permitted to enter the union, it was provided that two per cent, of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands within her limits should be held and applied in the construction of a public high way "from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic," to a point on the Ohio river and within the state of Ohio. A like provision was made in the act admitting Indiana to the Union.

The proposition for a National road first took practical shape in 1806, when an act passed Congress authorizing the appointment of three commissioners to lay out a road from Cumberland, at the headwaters of the Potomac in Maryland, to the state of Ohio. This was the beginning of the old Cumberland or National road, the only highway of its kind ever wholly constructed by the government of the United States, and a road of wonderful significance in the development of the west and the greatest and one of the most romantic highways of America. The existence of this road, and the part it played in directing and distributing emigrants, should be thoroughly understood and constantly kept in mind in the discussion of the earlv settlement of the county. The detailed history of the "Old Pike" has been told, in a most interesting way, by T. B. Searight, under the title given. He generalizes the importance of the highway in the following language. "It was a highway at once so grand and imposing, an artery so largely instrumental in promoting the early growth and development of our countrv's wonderful resources, so influential in strengthening the bonds of the American Union, and at the same time so replete with important events and interesting incidents, that the writer of these pages has long cherished a hope that some capable hand would write its history and collect and preserve its legends. * * * From the time it was thrown open to the public, in the year 1818, until the coming of railroads west of the Alleghany mountains in 1852, the National road was one great highway over which passed the bulk of trade and travel, and the mails between the east and west. Its numerous and stately stone bridges with hand- soinely turned arches, its iron mile posts and its old iron gates, attest the skill of the workmen engaged in its construction, and to this day remain enduring monuments of its grandeur and solidity."' For most parts of the west and a great part of the southwest, this was the most direct route to Washington city. For this reason all classes' of people from this part of the country having business at the national capital made it their highway to and from Washington. The stage coaches for the carrying of the mails and passengers were taxed to their utmost capacity, and their numbers were constantly increased. So great was the travel that it is said as many as twenty-five coaches could be seen leaving Wheeling at one time for Cumberland, and as many would leave Cumberland for the west. The freight traffic was even greater. Long and almost interminable lines of huge Conestoga wagons, drawn li\' four, si.x and sometimes eight horses, with their loads of flour, bacon, tobacco, whisky, butter and other produce, on their eastward wa}', or with loads of everv imaginable kind of merchandise when bound for the west, might be seen at all times. Then, too, there might be seen similar trains of wagons laden with the household effects of those seeking new homes in the west. Thousands of cattle, horses and hogs were wending their wav to the eastern markets. "From morning till night," is the description given by another observer, ''there was a continual rumble of wheels, and when the rush was greatest there was never a minute that wagons were not in sight, and as a rule one company of wagons was closely followed by another.'' By dav the eve could follow the route from horizon to horizon by the clouds of dust raised by the crowding caravans, and by night the camp fires blazed at brief intervals as far as one could see.

Here was the great avenue bv which the western expansion that began after the war of 1812 advanced into all the fertile places of the west. For some years the National road carried the travelers only to the eastern borders of Ohio, and thence they followed the course of the Ohio to their destination, usuallv continuing the journe\' bv boats but also bv overland journeys. "It is estimated," says Mr. Searight, "that two-fifths of the trade and travel of the road were diverted at Brownsville [in southwest Pennsylvania, near Pittsburg], and fell into the channel furnished at that point by the slack water improvement of the Monongahela river, and a like proportion descended the Ohio river from Wheeling, and the remaining fifth continued on the road to Columbus, Ohio, and points further west. * * Before the era of railroads Columbus derived its chief business from the National road."

In 1829 Congress appropriated money for opening the road, eighty feet wide, east and west from IndianapoHs, and in the course of the next few years about a miUion dollars was appropriated for continuing the road in Indiana. But before the road was completed through this state, and could assume such importance as it enjoyed along the eastern sections, the railroad era had come and the decline of overland travel was rapid. A rhetorical picture of this change was drawn by Mr. Yancey in Congress in 1846, when he spoke of the road as follows: "When the project of the Cumberland road was first conceived, it was needed as a great highway for the trade and produce of the fertile west to find an outlet on the x'Vtlantic coast. The mountains intervened between the Ohio valley and the Atlantic coast. Steam, not then in such general use as now, had not rendered the upper Ohio navigable ; railroads had not clamped as now wjth iron bands the trembling earth. The rich produce of the soil found its way to market over the rough roads upon the lumbering wagons, and the traveler when jolted over them at the rate of sixty miles a day considered himself as doing a good day's work. How different now ! The broad Ohio is navigable by hundreds of floating palaces, propelled against its current bv fire-breathing engines. The mountains are pierced by railroads and canals. * Why, sir. men are behind the time with this old road. The spirit of the age is onward. Thirty miles an hour on land; a thousand miles a minute on Professor ^lorse's wires is deemed ordinary speed. C)n this road, mv friend from Indiana (Mr. Owen), informs me that during the parts of the year he has been able to make but two miles an hour on horseback."

State Geologist Blatchley, of Indiana, relates what became of the Indiana division of the road. 'Tn 1848 the road was turned over to the respective states through which it passed. In 1850 the Wayne County Turnpike Compan\- was organized and took over, under a charter granted bv the state, that portion of the road,, twenty-two miles in length, within that countv. The companv then graveled the road and operated it as a toll road until 1890-94, when it was purchased by several townships through which it passed and made free from tolls. From Wayne county westward the road passed through Henry, Hancock, ?vlarion, Hendricks, Putnam, Clav and Vigo counties. That portion in Henry county was secured bv a private corporation, graveled, and made a toll road about 1853. In 1849 t''"^ Central Plank Road Company, composed of prominent citizens of Marion and Hendricks counties, was granted that portion of the road extending from the east line of Hancock county to the west line of Putnam countv, for the purpose of constructing a ])lank road. With the granting of it to these several corporations the old National road as a public institution, fostered by the nation or the state, ceased to be. It had fulfilled its high purpose, -and was superseded by better things which owed to it their coming." As a final tribute to this old highway, it "carried thousands of population and millions of wealth into the west, and more than any other material structure in the land served to harmonize and strengthen, if not save, the Union."

A Cumberland road convention was held in 1839 at Terre Haute, the delegates from \igo county being Colonel T. H. Blake, Judge Deming, J. T. Jenckes. William Wines. William Ray, Janies Barnes, James Farrington, E. Paddock, John Hodges. S. AIcQuilkin. James Wasson, E. Tillotson, A. Kinney, N. Dickenson.

The government work on the National road in Vigo county was done during the middle thirties, and was the means of bringing much capital and a considerable number of workmen to Terre Haute. Included among those connected with the enterprise were several men whose families have since been prominently indentified with the city.

Charles Wood ( 1810-1866) from Baltimore accompanied Major Ogden to Mobile, and in companv with him came to Terre Haute in 1834, being first engaged in the office of the superintendent of the National road,. Major Ogden being that official. When the work was suspended, ^Ir. Wood opened a drug store. He was among the founders of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad, being elected secretary at the first meeting of the directors, and for some time afterward the office of the road was at his store west of the square. At Mr. Rose"s retirement he -was the most important man of the road. The great success of the road from its inception was proof of the ability of all its officials. Like so many of the earh" settlers. }ilr. Wood was a gentleman of spotless integrity and of a high sense of honor.

Concerning Major Ogden, the following information furnished by the war department will be of interest: "It is shown by the official records that one Cornelius A. Ogden, of New Jersey, was appointed second lieutenant of engineers, U. .S. A., July i, 1819, that he ' was promoted to be first lieutenant July I, 1824: captain. ]\Iay 15, 1835, and major, December 7. 1838, and that he died August 2^, 1856, at Brandon, \'ermont. It is possible that this officer was the one concerning whom inquiry is made, but in this connection it is deemed proper to state that nothing has been found of record to show that he was ever on dutv in Indiana."

In ]\Iarch. 1903, one hundred and twenty-five dollars in gold was found on the site of the old stage-coach stable on the Paris road, eight miles west of Terre Haute, the money consisting of four twenty-dollar coins and five five-dollar pieces, bearing dates from 1834 to 1844. Years before at this point was a station for change of horses kept by John Eliot. The stable is gone, but the old log inn, with porch, is still standing on the .A-rcher farm.

A large, illuminated placard, printed in three colors, was issued in 1852 to show the traveling facilities offered by the Madison & Indianapolis and the Terre Haute Railroads, running in connection with the Madison & Cincinnati packet line, which was the most direct route for Terre Haute travelers going east. "The above routes," said the poster, "constitute a through line of travel between Cincinnati and Terre Haute. The splendid, first-class steam packets Wisconsin and Hoosier State leave Cincinnati daily (Sunday excepted) at 12 o'clock m. ; arrive at Madison at 7 p. m. Indianapolis trains leave at 7 a. m. ; arrive at Indianapolis at 12 o'clock m. Trains for Terre Haute leave Indianapolis at i 130 o'clock p. m., and arrive at Terre Haute at 6 p. m. '' '* * The boats and cars are of the first order; every attention paid to the comfort of travelers."

This card, printed in colors and with an ornamental border, was signed by John Brough, president of the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad, and Chauncey Rose, president of the Terre Haute & Richmond Railroad. John Brough, who was afterwards the governor of Ohio, was associated with Mr. Rose in the attempt to extend the Terre Haute road to St. Louis, which failed because the legislattire of Illinois refused to grant a charter, giving the preference to the St. Louis & Alton road. It will be noticed that the time required to travel between Terre Haute and Cincinnati by the once favorite "through route" was thirtv hours.

Such were the railroad facilities and some of the men at the head of them fifty-five years ago. Following the era of river and canal transportation came the railroads. During the stirring epoch of internal improvements of the early thirties, railroads and canals were planned to supplement each other. Eight railroads were chartered by the Indiana legislature in 1832, and during the next five years twenty-eight charters in all were granted for proposed lines. But for the time the canals were pushed with greater energy, and the era of railroads in Indiana begins with the middle of the century. The first railroad was a mile and a half long, at Shelbyville, as part of the Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis line It cost $1,500 a mile,, and was opened July 4, 1834. Its traction equipment was one horse, which "was found able to draw forty or fifty persons at the rate of nine miles an hour." .\ few miles of the line from Madison toward Indianapolis was opened in 1838, and marked the real beginning of the railroad system by which now all parts of the state are linked with the capital. At that time there were only two other roads in the west - from Lexington to Louisville and from Toledo, Ohio, a part of the distance toward Detroit.

After the collapse of state enterprise in promoting internal improvements, the Madison road was turned over to a private company. The first train steamed into Indianapolis on October i. 1847, and at this date the Madison & Indianapolis was the only railroad of importance in the state. The progress of railroad building during the next few years is indicated in the figures for 1850, when five short roads comprised only 212 miles in aggregate, and for 1852-53, when twenty roads were in operation in the state. Railroads ruined the canal enterprises, and it is also noteworthy that the towns which grew during the second half of the nineteenth century were those located on railroad lines.

The general railroad situation in Indiana in 1848 as it aflfected Terre Haute is well explained in the following extract from the Indiana Signal of September 30. 1848 (published in Muncie). The Bellefontaine line, as the older citizens will recall, was the eastern half of what is now the Big Four Railroad :

"By an advertisement in today's paper, it will be seen that a new and direct route of communication from central and western Indiana, with our eastern cities, is about being opened, by means of a railroad from Indianapolis to Bellefontaine, at which latter place it intersects the road from Sandusky to Cincinnati, now doing so much to divert the trade of the west to the north. Bv means of the road now being constructed from Pittsburg to Bellefontaine, the entire trade of this fertile region, the products of which have been sent south, may be secured to Philadelphia. It is quite certain, that if it be not thus secured, it must inevitably go to New York and Boston.

"Bv reference to the map, it will be seen that the line is almost a direct one from Philadelphia, by Harrisburgh, Pittsburgh and Bellefontaine, to Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, - the total distance being six hundred and seventv miles. The distance from Pittsburg to Bellefontaine is two hundred and five miles ; from Bellefontaine to Indianapolis, one hundred and thirty-five. From Indianapolis to Madison, on the Ohio river, a distance of eighty miles, there is a road completed (and yielding a profit of fourteen per cent.), the stock of which is mostly owned in New York and Boston. From Indianapolis to Terre Haute, on the Wabash river, the distance is seventy miles ; and a company is now constructing a road between these points. Thus it will be perceived that there are now four railroad companies actively engaged on this great Central Western or 'Backbone' route from Pittsburgh to Terre Haute. - thus making the entire railroad distance from Philadelphia to St. Louis only 825 miles.

The pioneer railroad of Terre Haute was the line between this city and Indianapolis which is now the \^andalia. but which has been known under several names in the course of its history. The original plan was to build from Terre Haute to Richmond, to establish a link in the road which should reach from St. Louis to Cincinnati. A railroad convention was held in Indianapolis in 1847, attended by delegates from Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, productive of important results in railway construction in this state. Hut already, in January, 1847, ^ petition had been presented in the legislature for incorporation of a railroad to connect Richmond and Terre Haute, passing through Indianapolis. A bill was presented with names of C. Rose, S. Crawford, E. M. Huntington, J. H. Turner, W. W. Reynolds, J. M. r\iulliken, J. Farrington, T. J. Brown and R. W. Thompson as first incorporators, and the bill passed both houses. The first meeting of the directors of this road was held March 4th, at which Chauncey Rose was elected president. Mr. Rose was indefatigable in his efiforts for the road, and it was largely due to his enterprise that the line was soon built. The promoters of the Richmond end failed to build their share, but Mr. Rose, with some co-operation from Indianapolis, succeeded in the face of many obstacles. The country between Terre Haute and Indianapolis then was almost an unbroken wilderness. Extensive and gloomy forests separated the settlements, and a few small villages straggled along the old National road, along which route the Vandalia line was built. The location of the route in itself was a tedious process, several surveys being made. It was more difficult to secure right of way then than now, and many of the annoying curves in the road were due to litigious and obstreperous landowners. £. J. Peck (later president of the road) was the man who successfully accomplished this part of the work.

The financing of the road was largely the work of Mr. Rose, assisted by his brother John, a man of wealth in New York, who proved of great aid in ]ilacing the stock, a considerable part of which was sold in England and France. The stock subscription amounted to $1,800,000. This is said to have been the first road in the state to issue bonds, $200,000 being raised from this source. The bonds were taken by the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company of New York, with the option of changing the bonds for the stock, which the trust company was glad to do when the bonds came due, since stock was then at a premium. In about ten years the stockholders had received in dividends an amount equal to their investment, and the company had a cash surplus of half a million dollars. During the first year, after the opennig of the railroad in February, 1852,

The progress of transportation during those early years is well illustrated in some extracts from the local papers. In 1848 an item announces that the "stage leaves Indianapolis at 10 a. m. and generally, not always, arrives at Terre Haute at 2 o'clock in the night." A schedule of mails and coaches for 1831. announced by J- T. Aloffatt, postmaster, is as follows :

Coach leaves with St. Louis and Springfield mail once a day; Indianapolis, once a day; Vincennes, once a day (except Sunday); Lafayette, three times a week, and by packet three times a week, making daily service; Crawfordsville, twice a week: Bloomington. twice a week; Bedford, once a week; Carlisle, once a week; Portland Mills, once a week.

The canal was the popuhir rcjute to the north, there being tri-weekly service between Lafayette and Terre Haute during the winter of 185 1, and one announcement reads : "Canal boat Tom Dowling will run between Terre Haute and Lafayette twice a week during the season, first trip ^londay, Nov. 17, starting from the basin at 9 a. m."

The activity of the builders of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis is shown in a newspaper of November. 185 1, among the river news, in which it is announced that a barge load of iron arrived at Madison from New Orleans, for the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad. The steamer Elephant also arrived at Madison with 1,618 bars, and G. W. Kendall was on the way with 3,300 bars. The construction of the railroad had proceeded both from Terre Haute and Indianapolis, and for a time the gap between the two ends was connected by stage. The first passengers bv rail arrived at Terre Haute Fridav evening, December 5, 11831. Mail and passengers were carried by railroads as far as Greencastle, thence the Western Stage Companv took them over the gap of ten or twelve miles to the eastern end of the line, whence another train took them into Indianapolis. It required about ten hours to make the trip between this city and the capital. December 9th. the Daily Courier referred to the growth of railroad travel : "Between twenty and thirty passengers came in last night, and as many went out this morning. As yet there is no regular service, and no regular passenger cars on the road."

Constant W. Mancourt (who died May 19, 1908, aged 79) came here from Madison as locomotive engineer to run an engine on the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad. He found the rails under fourteen feet of water at the foot of Wabash avenue, and a few wheels and axles on the bank of the canal, where thev had been unloaded from a canal boat, but no railroad. The rails were brought from Liverpool via the Ohio river and canal, and two small four-wheel engines were received. During the following rear everyone was busy in construction work - with long hours, night and Sundav work, and no one was paid for extra hours. Mr. Rose, though just, was a hard master and pushed all hands to the utmost to complete this one of his cherished enterprises. The first passenger car was a box-car, with seats around the side as in an omnibus. Mr. Mancourt sold the first through tickets when the railroad travel was open from St. Louis to Boston (1854), tickets being put on sale here before they were ready for St. Louis. He also delivered the construction engines to the Evansville & Terre Haute line, which began building in 1 85 1. One engine was sent to Evansville by canal and brought up the Wabash to \'incennes.

The first depot in Terre Haute was a small frame building on the south side of Wabash street, near Tenth, and for a time this served as joint station of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis, Terre Haute & Evansville, and the Alton. The present union depot was opened August 15, 1893.

The first man killed in Terre Haute by a railroad locomotive was Gideon Burton. He was conductor on the work train of the Terre Haute & Richmond, and it was the first locomotive and at the time the only railroad engine in town.

The beginning of the extension of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis to Rockville was made the occasion of great ceremony. The construction of this branch was eiTected mainly by the enterprise of General George K. Steele. The road had been graded in 1855, but its completion was not assured until the Terre Haute & Indianapolis offered to furnish rails if money to finish the grading and bridging should be raised among Parke county people. These negotiations were made in 1859, and in July, i860, work was begun at Terre Haute in the presence of a great concourse of people ; speeches were made, and festivity was general. The first train to Rockville was run November 24, i860.

In the third annual report of the Terre Haute & Richmond Railroad Companv, published January 5, 1852, just before its completion, Air. Rose stated that the road would open with seven engines, three passenger cars, one baggage and one mail car, forty box cars, thirty platform cars, seventy gravel cars. "We shall want a large number of coal cars, as we anticipate the transportation of coal will be a heavy part of the business. L'p to this time, at the urgent request of the people, a box car for passengers has been attached to each iron train, bringing in $100 a day."

When the Terre Haute & Indianapolis line was completed, Mr. Rose turned his attention to a St. Louis connection, and with John Brough organized a company for that purpose. The Terre Haute & Alton held

A railroad built from Evansville to \'incennes halted there for lack of means. Rose saw the value of a southern connection, had the line surveyed, raised funds, and W. D. Griswold built it, and was given control of it. Tlie earnings for several years were so small that Mr. Rose had to pay the interest on the bonds from his own resources,, but it eventually became a good property. He was interested in extending the Evansville & Terre Haute to Rockville. He also took up the Danville road to give Terre Haute a short and direct route to Chicago, but gave up the active work to Joseph Collett.

X'igo county did not inherit from the old toll turnpike system a fine length of improved roads. In Delaware county, for instance, in the eastern part of the state, with three-fourths of the public highways improved with gravel, none of these roads have been built under the present law, but are township roads or abandoned toll roads. In \'igo county thirty per cent, of the roads were improved (graveled) at the close of 1905. But the first improved roads were built as late as 1898. According to a report to the state geologist in 1905 there are 725 miles of highway in this county, of which 220 miles were represented as improved. The average original cost per mile was $1,414. Taking the figures for some of the adjacent counties for comparison, we find that Clav county began improving its roads in 1892, that its total of improved roads was 218 miles, a somewhat smaller per cent, of the total than in Vigo. In Sullivan county, out of a total of 974 miles of highway, 332 miles, or thirty-four per cent., were improved. In Parke county there are 1,200 miles of public roads, of which one-half, or 600 miles, were reported improved in 1905. Here road improvement had begun in 1867.