Indiana State University - Sycamore Yearbook (Terre Haute, IN)

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It took most of the first year to get a small clearing made. Even on prairie land, it was a great task to get the sod broken and the soil subdued for the planting. Labor was scarce, and there was little money to pay for that which was available. All of these factors, to- gether with many others, made the task of forming a new settlement a difficult one. The capital of the west was thus used up in getting started and in investments, so that there was little left to use in getting crops to a market. It was well that the territory made the taxes as light as possible. In the meantime the ferries across the Ohio, and the roads leadiiig north from them had not been idle. Kentuckians had been crossing the Ohio at Henderson, and settling in Posey and Warrick Counties, and the western part of Gibson County. Another road led toward the interior from the crossing at Rockport. Farther up the Ohio, another road led north from the crossing at Blue river, into Washington and Harrison Counties. By 1815 enough settlers had followed this route and other routes to ju.stify the formation of two new counties. Orange County was to consist of the territory from twelve miles west of the Prinrijial le- ridian to eiglit miles cast, and uorlli i)f Perry and Harrison Counties to tlie Imlian boundary line of 1809. Jackson County was to lie east of Orange, west of range eight east, and north of the Muskatatack. to the Indian country. Both of these counties were in the basin of East Wliite river. ' STATEHOOD. The legislature followed the suggestion of the governor, and petitioned congress to be al- lowed to pass into statehood. This petition stated that the inhabitants were principally composed of emigrants from every part of the union, and as various in their customs and sen- timents as in their persons. However. South- erners still predominated in numbers, especially in the southern and western parts. The petition asked for an enumeration, which was taken. This census showed a total popu- lation of 63,897— more than the 60,000 neces- sary to pass to statehood. This census also re- vealed the fact that the population was push- ing toward the interior, and away from the Ohio. In the Whitewater basin. VA ayne and Franklin Counties (see map) ; Randolph had not yet been erected), neither of which touched the Ohio, contained a larger population than Dearborn. Switzerland and Jefferson, by 30%. The three counties. Posey. Warrick and Perry, all on the Ohio (practically same territory as comprised Warrick in 1S13). did not have a combined population equal to any one of the interior counties. Of all the eight counties on the Ohio, only Clark and Harrison had a popu- lation equal to the interior counties. More than 71% of the population was east of the Second Principal Meridian. The line between ranges five and six east would have divided the population into two almost equal groups. About one-third of the population wa in the three counties. Clark. Harrison and Wasiiiiig- ton. In this i-riisiis the newly erected counties were counted as part of the original counties out of which they were formed. This census showed two regions more densely populated than any others — the upper Whitewater and the region west and northwest of Jeflersonville. about the new capital. Corvdon. The petition asking for statehood also asked that 7% of the moneys received for the sales of public lands be granted the new state to be used as it saw fit. When Ohio became a state it was provided that 2% of the sales should be devoted to the building of the National Eoad within the state, and 3% be given to internal imj rovements and education, but Indiana asked for more. However, she got only the 5%. It was also asked that Section 16 in each township be granted the state for school pur- poses; that in counties where Section 16 had already been disposed of, other lands be given instead: that township 2 S. of R. 11 W. be =»Census of 1S16, in Cockrum, Pioneer Hist., P. 390.

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130%- The sales at Jefferson ville still re- mained about three and one-half times the sales at Vincennes, thus showing that the greater part of the settlers was stopj ing in the eastern part of the territory. Farther east, the sales at the Cincinnati ottice were also great. crnnEXCY and baxkixg. With the rise in the sales of lands arose also the demand for more money. There were no banks in the territory in which the government could di ' iiosit the money collected at the land oilicc-, X) {][ ' ] niniicy was taken east for de- po itiiig. thus (li-aining coin from the west. The ])e()ple of the west bought more goods of the east than the east bought of the west, so the balance must be paid the east in money. These two drains upon the supply of money in the west was so great that the jjeople of the west were badly in need of some form of money. They saw that the easiest way to get money was to cn alc Iiaiil . which could make money as fast as |iiiiiicr- muld print the bills. So. the legislaturi ' which met for the first time at the new capital at Curydon. in the summer of 1S14. chartered two banks, the Vincennes Bank and the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Madison, the seat of Jefferson County. This last liank was to prove a boon to the farmers in the community, and it aided the merchants in their transactions with New Orleans and the east. There were now three main ways in which money was secured for investments. The cam- paigns in the west had brought a good ileal of money to this region, as the contractors and merchants were paid for furnishing supplies for the army. The ciuuinual -trcam of immi- gration brought in money to invest. The banks could issue paper money almost without limit. Consequently, a period of active speculation in town lots began. During the year 1815. pro- prietoi-s of various towns along White river and the Wabash advertised their towns for sale. Although the Indians still were hostile along Senate Doc. Cong. 30. Sess. 1. Doc. 41, P. 67(t. 22E.sorey, L., State Banking in Indiana, P. 221ft. ' Western Sun, June 20, 1S15. the Wabash, the town of Carlisle on the Bus- seron, north of Vincennes, was advertised for sale as being in the midst of a flourishing set- tlement. ' For the next few years, speculation was so extensive that in 1819 the president ol the Vincennes bank wrote : Our banking capi- tal, here in the west, is all tied up in city im- provements, and there is none to mo ' e our produce. PEACE RESTOKED — EFFECT. In the first part of 1815 it became known in the west that peace had been decided uj on be- tween United States and Great Britain. With the return of peace, great quantities of cheap English goods were put upon the American market. The New England goods, too, found again a ready market in the west. By the mid- dle of the year the Vincennes merchants had laid in a handsome a,ssortment of New Eng- land cotton cloths. ' ® The whole country bought more goods than the needs and demands of the con.sumers warranted. With the retux-n of peace, immigration into Indiana increased. In his message, December 1, 1S15. Governor Posey said: Our emigration which is rapidly populating our fertile lands, in a little time will enable us to be admitted into the political family of the union, as an in- dependent state. Permit me to recommend to the legislature the propriety as well as the jus- tice of imposing as moderate taxes on the emi- grants to this territory, as may be compatible to the 23ublic interest. Most of them have moved from a great distance, at a considerable expense. They have to encounter many diffi- culties in opening their farms for cultivation, before they can derive a support, much more a ]n-ofit from them; and consequently their abil- ity will 1)0 lessened from contributing largely for a short time to the public exigencies. This document expresses the essence of settlers ' troubles — getting on a paying basis after ex- pending so much of their limited capital to get to the new country and to pay for their farms. s ' Amer. State Papers. Finance, III, P. 734. Western Sun. April 8, 1S15. Niles Regster, IX. P. 351.

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granted for iin academy; and that a township ))e fiiven foi- a college. All of these school lands were yranted the state, on the condition tliat jMirchasers of public lands should be free from taxation on the land purchased for five years after tlie purchase. Saline lands (lands about salt wells), not to exceed thirty-six sec- tions, were grant( d the state, and four sections were granted the state for a site for a capital. ' The state boundiuw w;is extended ten miles farther north. SETTLEKS ' RIGHTS. One of the rea.-on given for asking as much as 7% of the iu-occim1s of the lanas was that the settlers had cndiin-d many dangers and hardships to found sell Icnicnts in this wilder- ness, as a ronseiiuence of which the gmcrnment lands were enhanced in value. It was thought that this fact would justify the settlers in ask- ing for a large per cent, of the sales. These settlers had ])olitical theories almost as acute as those of the French philosojjhers. although they were ncwr displayed unless the pi(.)neers tlionght their riglii were being interfered with. At the hitter part of 1815. some of the settlers and squatters thought the general government was interfering with their rights. For about seven years the boundary of the Indian eouiilry in Indiana had been stationary, but the fron- tier line of settlement had moved onward, and many squatters could be found on Indian soil. where they had no legal right to be. So. on December 1. ). Isl. . the United States executive, throngh the proper official, issued a proclama- tion ordering all such squatters to remove from such locations, and he gave the military officers orders to remove them. A storm of protests en- sued, but it seems that perha|)s a majority of the squatters did not take the proehnnation seriously. However, one editorial writer under the name of Farmers ' and Patriots ' Rights, vigorously asserted the rights of the squatters, and manifested the high patriotism ( ? ) shown by them as they kept in awe for the last three years, a savage foe, whose tomahawks and ' Western Smu Jan. 27, 1816. sealiiing knives would otherwise have glittered in our houses. Are they, he said, ••when danger has ceased to threaten, to l)e called Kiiiiiforvied or evil disjmsed and ordered off the land their presence alone has heretofore secured? This writer maintained that the pre-emjDtion laws passed at various times by congress were as surely violations of the law for preventing squatters from settling on In- dian lands as settling there was a violation. He argued further that the president had trans- cended his power in ap])lying the law. inas- much as the law re |uired thirty days notice lie- fore the settlers could be removed. He con- tinued: Can it be contended that when con- gress and the United States executive set an act at deHanee. that the people should not? His llnal argument was that such a policy of re- moval would injure the territory by weakening the frontier, by taking away those daring men who had been keeping back the Indians. Force is given the.se arguments when it is re- membered that because of the recent hostilities, many of the settlers could not pay the final or fourth annual installment on their farms which (hey had purchased from the government. Upon this failure to make the final iiayment, the st ' ttlers were obliged to forfeit their farms back to the government, thus losing what they hail already paid down. Such losses during the hostilities w-ere comparatively great, run- ning up to several thousand dollars. In 181; more than half as much land reverted to the government as was bought. The same persons who were obliged to lose money because of the hostilities were the men who had been engaged in jn-otecting the frontier — which protection emibled the government to sell the lands at bet- ter advantage. These losses helped to unify the settlers in their expression of what they called their rights. in SII TO THE WABASH, 181C. By the summer of 181() the lands along the Wabash (as far north as Clinton), and inland for manv miles east of the Wabash, were sur- Western Sun, Ja Feb. 23. 1S16.