1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Indiana
INDIANA, a north-central state of the United States of America, the second state to be erected from the old North-West Territory; popularly known as the “Hoosier State.” It is located between latitudes 37° 47′ and 41° 50′ N. and longitudes 84° 49′ and 88° 2′ W. It is bounded on the N. by Michigan and Lake Michigan, on the E. by Ohio, on the S. by Kentucky from which it is separated by the Ohio river, and on the W. by Illinois. Its total area is 36,350 sq. m., of which 440 sq. m. are water surface.
Physiography.—Topographically, Indiana is similar to Ohio and Illinois, the greater part of its surface being undulating prairie land, with a range of sand-hills in the N. and a chain of picturesque and rocky hills, known as “Knobs,” some of which rise to a height of 500 ft., in the southern counties along the Ohio river. This southern border of hills is the edge of the “Cumberland Plateau” physiographic province. In the northern portion of the state there are a number of lakes, of glacial origin, of which the largest are English Lake in Stark county, James Lake and Crooked Lake in Steuben county, Turkey Lake and Tippecanoe Lake in Kosciusko county and Lake Maxinkuckee in Marshall county. In the limestone region of the south there are numerous caves, the most notable being Wyandotte Cave in Crawford county, next to Mammoth Cave the largest in the United States. In the southern and south-central part of the state, particularly in Orange county, there are many mineral springs, of which the best known are those at French Lick and West Baden. The larger streams flow in a general south-westerly direction, and the greater part of the state is drained into the Ohio through the Wabash river and its tributaries. The Wabash, which has a total length of more than 500 m., has its headwaters in the western part of Ohio, and flows in a north-west, south-west, and south direction across the state, emptying into the Ohio river and forming for a considerable distance the boundary between Indiana and Illinois. It is navigable for river steamboats at high water for about 350 m. of its course. Its principal tributaries are the Salamanie, Mississinewa, Wild Cat, Tippecanoe and White rivers. Of these the White river is by far the most important, being second only to the Wabash itself in extent of territory drained. It is formed by the confluence of its East and West Forks, almost 50 m. above its entrance into the Wabash, which it joins about 100 m. above the Ohio. Other portions of the state are drained by the Kankakee, a tributary of the Illinois, the St Joseph and its principal branch, the Elkhart, which flow north through the south-west corner of Michigan and empty into Lake Michigan; the St Mary’s and another St Joseph, whose confluence forms the Maumee, which empties into Lake Erie; and the White Water, which drains a considerable portion of the south-west part of the state into the Ohio.
Flora and Fauna.—The flora of the state is varied, between 1400 and 1500 species of flowering plants being found. Among its native fruits are the persimmon, the paw-paw, the goose plum and the fox grape. Cultivated fruits, such as apples, pears, peaches, plums, grapes and berries, are raised in large quantities for the market. The economic value of the forests was originally great, but there has been reckless cutting, and the timber-bearing forests are rapidly disappearing. As late as 1880 Indiana was an important timber-producing state, but in 1900 less than 30% of the total acreage of the state—only about 10,800 sq. m.—was woodland, and on very little of this land were there forests of commercial importance. There are about 110 species of trees in the state, the commonest being the oak. The bald cypress, a southern tree, seems to be an anomalous growth. Blue grass is valuable for grazing and hay-making. The principal crops include Indian corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, buckwheat, rye and clover.
The fauna originally included buffalo, elk, deer, wolves, bear, lynx, beaver, otter, porcupine and puma, but civilization has driven them all out entirely. Rattlesnakes and copperheads were formerly common in the south. The game birds include quail (Bob White), ruffed grouse and a few pinnated grouse (once very plentiful, then nearly exterminated, but now apparently reappearing under strict protection), and such water birds as the mallard duck, wood duck, blue- and green-winged teals, Wilson’s snipe, and greater and lesser yellow legs (snipe). The song birds and insectivorous birds include the cardinal grosbeak, scarlet and summer tanagers, meadow lark, song sparrow, catbird, brown thrasher, wood thrush, house wren, robin, blue bird, goldfinch, red-headed woodpecker, flicker (golden-winged woodpecker), and several species of warblers. The game fish include the bass (small-mouth and large-mouth), brook trout, pike, pickerel, and muskallonge, and there are many other large and small food fishes.
Climate.—The climate of Indiana is unusually equable. The mean annual temperature is about 52° F., ranging from 49° F. in the north to 54° in the south. The mean monthly temperature varies from 25° in the months of December and January to 77°-79° in July and August. Cold winds from the Great Lakes region frequently cause a fall in temperature to an extreme of −25° F. in the north and north central parts of the state. The mean annual rainfall for the entire state is about 43 in., varying from 35 in. in the north to 46 in. in the Ohio Valley.
The soil of the greater part of the state consists of a drift deposit of loose calcareous loam, which extends to a considerable depth, and which is exceedingly fertile. In the Ohio and White Water river valleys a sandstone and limestone formation predominates. The north and north central portions of the state, formerly rather swampy, have become since the clearing of the forests as productive as the south central. The most fertile part of the state is the Wabash valley; the least fertile the sandy region, of small extent, immediately south of Lake Michigan.
Industry and Manufactures.—Agriculture has always been and still is the chief industry of the state of Indiana. According to the census of 1900, 94.1% of the land area was included in farms, and of this 77.2% was improved. The proportion of farms rented comprised 28.6% of the whole number, four-fifths of these being rented on a share basis. The average size of farms, which in 1850 was 136.2 acres, had decreased to 105.3 acres in 1880 and to 97.4 acres in 1900. The value of the farm property increased from $726,781,857 in 1880 to $978,616,471 in 1900. The farms are commonly cultivated on the three-crop rotation system. The proximity of such good markets as Chicago, Cincinnati, St Louis and Louisville, in addition to the local markets, and the unusual opportunities afforded by the railways that traverse every portion of the state, have been important factors in the rapid agricultural advance which has enabled Indiana to keep pace with the newly developed states farther west. Indiana was ninth in the value of its agricultural products in 1889, and retained the same relative rank in 1899, although the value had considerably more than doubled, increasing from $94,759,262 in 1889 to $204,450,196 in 1899. The principal crops in which the state has maintained a high relative rank are Indian corn, wheat and hay; the acreage devoted to each of these increased considerably in the decade 1890–1900. In 1907, according to the Department of Agriculture, the acreage of Indian corn was 4,690,000 acres (7th of the states), and the yield was 168,840,000 bushels (5th of the states); of wheat, 2,362,000 acres (6th of the states) was planted, and the crop was 34,013,000 bushels (7th of the states); and 2,328,000 acres of hay (the 8th largest acreage among the states of the United States) produced 3,143,000 tons (the 8th largest crop). Other important staple crops are oats, rye and potatoes, of which the crops in 1907 were respectively 36,683,000 bushels, 961,000 bushels, and 7,308,000 bushels. There are no well-defined crop belts, the production of the various crops being general throughout the state, except in the case of potatoes, most of which are raised in the sandy regions of the north. The value of the orchard products is large, and is steadily increasing: in the decade 1890–1900 the number of pear trees increased from 204,579 to 868,184, and between 1889 and 1899 the crop increased from 157,707 to 231,713 bushels. Of apple trees, which surpass all other orchard trees in number, there were more than 8,600,000 in 1900. The total value of the state’s orchard products in 1899 was $3,166,338, and the value of small fruits was $1,113,527. The canning industry both for fruits and small vegetables has become one of much importance since 1890.
Stock-raising is an industry of growing importance, the value of the live stock in the state increasing from $71,068,758 in 1880 to $93,361,422 in 1890 and $109,550,761 in 1900. Sheep-raising, however, which is confined largely to the north and east portions of the state, decreased slightly in importance between 1890 and 1900. The value of the dairy products sold in 1899 (census of 1900) was $8,027,370, nearly one-half of which was represented by butter; and the total value of dairy products was $15,739,594.
In the value, extent and producing power of her manufacturing industries Indiana has made remarkable advance since 1880. This increase, which more than kept pace with that of the country as a whole, was due largely to local causes, among which may be mentioned the unusual shipping facilities afforded by the network of railways, the discovery and development of natural gas, and the proximity of coal fields, the gas and the coal together furnishing an ample supply of cheap fuel. The number of manufacturing establishments (under the “factory” system) within the state was 7128 in 1900, 7044 in 1905; their invested capital was $219,321,080 in 1900 and $312,071,234 in 1905, an increase of 42.3%; and the value of their total product was $337,071,630 in 1900 and $393,954,405 in 1905, an increase of 16.9%. The most important manufactured products in 1905 were flour and grist mill products, valued at $36,473,543; in 1900, when they were second in importance to slaughter-house products and packed meats, they were valued at $29,037,843. Next in importance in 1905 was the slaughtering and meat-packing industry, of which the total product was valued at $29,352,593; in 1900 it was valued at $43,862,273. Other important manufactured products were: those of machine shops and foundries, the value of which increased from $17,228,096 in 1900 to $23,108,516 in 1905, or 34.1%; distilled liquors, the value of which had increased from $16,961,058 in 1900 to $20,520,261 in 1905, an increase of 21%; iron and steel, valued at $19,338,481 in 1900 and at $16,920,326 in 1905; carriages and wagons, valued at $12,661,217 in 1900 and at $15,228,337 in 1905; lumber and timber products, valued at $19,979,971 in 1900 and at $14,559,662 in 1905; and glass, valued at $14,757,883 in 1900 and at $14,706,929 in 1905—this being 3.7% of the product value of all manufactures in the state in 1905, and 18.5% of the value of glass produced in the United States in that year. The growth in the preceding decade of the iron and steel industry, the products of which increased in value from $4,742,760 in 1890 to $19,338,481 in 1900 (307.7%), and of the manufacture of glass, the value of which increased from $2,995,409 in 1890 to $14,757,883 in 1900 (392.7%), is directly attributable to the development of natural gas as fuel; the decrease in the value of the products of these same industries in 1900–1905 is partly due to the growing scarcity of the natural gas supply. As compared with the other states of the United States in value of manufactured products, Indiana ranked second in 1900 and in 1905 in carriages and wagons, glass and distilled liquors; was seventh in 1900 and fourth in 1905 in furniture; was fourth in 1900 and seventh in 1905 in wholesale slaughtering and meat-packing; was fifth in 1900 and sixth in 1905 in agricultural implements; and in iron and steel and flour and grist mill products was fifth in 1900 and eighth in 1905. The most important manufacturing centres are Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Evansville, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Anderson, Hammond, Richmond, Muncie, Michigan City and Elwood, each having a gross annual product of more than $6,000,000.
According to the annual report on Mineral Resources of the United States for 1906, Indiana ranked fifth in the Union in the value of natural gas produced, sixth in petroleum, and sixth in coal. Natural gas was discovered in 1886 in the east-central part of the state, and its general application to manufacturing purposes caused an industrial revolution in the immediate region. Pipe lines carried it to various manufacturing centres within the state and to Chicago, Ill., and Dayton, Ohio. During the early years an enormous amount was wasted; this was soon prohibited by law, and a realization that the supply was not unlimited resulted in a better appreciation of its great value. The gas, which is found in the Trenton limestone, had an initial pressure at the point of discovery of 325 ℔; this pressure had decreased in the field centre by January 1896 to 230 ℔, and by January 1901 to 115 ℔, the general average of pressure at the latter date being 80 ℔. The gas field extends over Hancock, Henry, Hamilton, Tipton, Madison, Grant and Delaware counties. The value of the output fell from $7,254,539 in 1900 to $1,750,715 in 1906, when the state’s product was only 4.2% of that of the entire country. On the 1st of January 1909 there were 3223 wells in operation, some of which were 1200 ft. deep. It has been found that “dead” gas wells, if drilled somewhat deeper, generally become active oil wells. The development of the petroleum field, which extends over Adams, Wells, Jay, Blackford and Grant counties, was rapid up to 1904. The annual output increased from 33,375 barrels in 1889 to 11,339,124 barrels in 1904, the latter amount being valued at $12,235,674 and being 12.09% of the value of the product of the entire country. In 1906 there was an output of only 7,673,477 barrels, valued at $6,770,066, being 7.3% of the product value of the entire country. The Indiana coal fields, which cover an area of between 7000 and 7500 sq. m. in the west and south-west, chiefly in Clay, Vigo, Sullivan, Vermilion and Greene counties, yielded in 1902 9,446,424 tons, valued at $10,399,660; in 1907, 13,985,713 tons, valued at $15,114,300; the production more than trebled since 1896, when it was 3,905,779 tons. The deposits consist of workable veins, 50 to 220 ft. in depth, and averaging 80 ft. below the surface. It is a high grade block, or “splint” coal, remarkably free from sulphur and rich in carbon, peculiarly adapted to blast furnace use. The quarries and clay beds of the state are of great value. The quarries of sandstone and limestone are chiefly in the south and south-central portions of the state. The value of the limestone quarried in 1908 was $3,643,261, as compared with $2,553,502 in 1902. The Bedford oolitic limestone quarries in Owen, Monroe, Lawrence, Washington and Crawford counties furnish one of the most valuable and widely used building stones in the United States, the value of the product in 1905 being $2,492,960, of which $2,393,475 was from Lawrence and Monroe counties and $1,550,076 from Lawrence county alone. Beds of brick-clays and potters’ clay are widely distributed throughout the state, the total value of pottery products in 1902 being $5,283,733 and in 1906 $7,158,234. Marls adapted to the manufacture of Portland cement are found along the Ohio river, and in the lake region in the north. In 1905 and 1906 Indiana ranked third among the states in the production of Portland cement, which in 1908 was 6,478,165 barrels, valued at $5,386,563—an enormous advance over 1903, when the product was 1,077,137 barrels, valued at $1,347,797. The production of natural rock cement, chiefly in Clark county, is one of the two oldest industries in the state, but in Indiana as elsewhere it is falling off—from an output in 1903 of about 1,350,000 barrels to 212,901 barrels (valued at $240,000) in 1908. There are many mineral springs in the state, and there are famous resorts at French Lick and West Baden in Orange county. A large part of the water bottled is medicinal: hence the high average price per gallon ($0.99 in 1907 when 514,366 gallons were sold, valued at $507,746, only 2% being table waters). In 1907 19 springs were reported at which mineral waters were bottled and sold; they were in Allen, Hendricks, Pike, Bartholomew, Warren, Clark, Martin, Brown, Gibson, Wayne, Orange, Vigo and Dearborn counties. A law of 1909 prohibited the pumping of certain mineral waters if such pumping diminished the flow or injured the quality of the water of any spring.
Communications.—During the early period, the settlement of the northern and central portions of the state was greatly retarded by the lack of highways or navigable waterways. The Wabash and Erie canal (1843), which connected Lake Erie with the Ohio river, entering the state in Allen county, east of Fort Wayne, and following the Wabash river to Terre Haute and the western fork of the White river from Worthington, Greene county, to Petersburg, Pike county, whence it ran south-south-west to Evansville; and the White Water canal from Hagerstown, Wayne county, mostly along the course of the White Water river, to Lawrenceburg, on the Ohio river, in the south-eastern corner of the state, although now abandoned, served an important purpose in their day. The completion (about 1850) of the National Road, which traversed the state, still further aided the internal development. With the beginning of railway construction (about 1847), however, a new era was opened. Indiana is unusually well served with railways, which form a veritable network of track in every part of the state. It is traversed by nearly all the great transcontinental trunk line systems, and also by important north and south lines. The total railway mileage in January 1909 was 7286.20 m. There has been a great development also in interurban electric lines, which have been adapted both to passenger and to light freight and express traffic; in 1908 there were 31 interurban electric lines within the state with a mileage of 1500 m. Indianapolis is the centre of this interurban network. The first trolley sleeping cars were those used on the Ohio and Indiana interurban railways. The deepening of the channel of the Wabash river was begun in 1872. Below Vincennes before 1885 boats of 3-ft. draft could navigate the river, but after work was concentrated in 1885 on the lock at Grand Rapids, near Mt Carmel, Ill., the channel was soon clogged again, and in 1909 it was impossible for boats with a greater draft than 20 in. to go from Mt Carmel to Vincennes, although up to June 1909 about $810,000 had been spent by the Federal government on improving this river. In 1879 an appropriation was made for the improvement of the channel of the White river, but no work was done here between 1895 and 1909, and although the lower 13 m. of the river was navigable for boats with a draft of 3 ft. or less, there was practically no traffic up to 1909 on the White, because there was no outlet for it by the Wabash river.
Population.—The population of Indiana, according to the Federal Census of 1910, was 2,700,876, and the rank of the state in the Union as regards population was ninth. In 1810, the year following the erection of the western part of Indiana into Illinois Territory, the population was 24,520, in 1820 it had increased to 147,178, in 1850 to 988,416, in 1870 to 1,680,637, in 1890 to 2,192,404, and in 1900 to 2,516,462. In 1900 34.3% was urban, i.e. lived in places of 2500 inhabitants and over. The foreign-born population in the same year amounted to 142,121, or 5.6% of the whole, and the negro population to 57,505, or 2.3%. There were in 1900 five cities with a population of more than 35,000, viz. Indianapolis (169,164), Evansville (59,007), Fort Wayne (45,115), Terre Haute (36,673), and South Bend (35,999). In the same year there were 14 cities with a population of less than 35,000 (all less than 21,000) and more than 10,000; and there were 21 places with a population of less than 10,000 and more than 5000. In 1906 it was estimated that there were 938,405 members of different religious denominations; of this total 233,443 were Methodists (210,593 of the Northern Church), 174,849 were Roman Catholics, 108,188 were Disciples of Christ (and 10,259 members of the Churches of Christ), 92,705 were Baptists (60,203 of the Northern Convention, 13,526 of the National (Colored) Convention, 8132 Primitive Baptists, and 6671 General Baptists), 58,633 were Presbyterians (49,041 of the Northern Church, and 6376 of the Cumberland Church—since united with the Northern), 55,768 were Lutherans (34,028 of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference, 8310 of the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and other states), 52,700 were United Brethren (48,059 of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ; the others of the “Old Constitution”) and 21,624 of the German Evangelical Synod.
Constitution.—Indiana is governed under a constitution adopted in 1851, which superseded the original state constitution of 1816. An amendment to the constitution may be proposed by either branch of the General Assembly; if a majority of both houses votes in favour of an amendment and it is favourably voted upon by the General Assembly chosen by the next general election, the amendment is submitted to popular vote and a majority vote is necessary for its ratification. The constitution of 1816 had conferred the suffrage upon all “white male citizens of the United States of the age of twenty-one and upward,” had prohibited slavery, and had provided that no alteration of the constitution should ever introduce it. The new constitution contained similar suffrage restrictions, and further by Article XIII., which was voted upon separately, prohibited the entrance of negroes or mulattoes into the state and made the encouragement of their immigration or employment an indictable offence. This prohibition was held by the United States Supreme Court in 1866 to be in conflict with the Federal Constitution and therefore null and void. It was not until 1881 that the restriction of the suffrage to “white” males, which was in conflict with the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) to the Federal Constitution, was removed by constitutional amendment. Since that date those who may vote have been all male citizens twenty-one years old and upward who have lived in Indiana six months immediately preceding the election, and every foreign-born male of the requisite age who has lived in the United States one year and in Indiana six months immediately preceding the election, and who has declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States; but the General Assembly has the power to deprive of the suffrage any person convicted of an infamous crime. The Australian ballot was adopted in 1889. The general state election (up to 1881, held in October) takes place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years. The governor and lieutenant-governor (minimum age, 30 years) and the clerk of the Supreme Court are chosen in presidential years for a term of four years,[1] the other state officers—secretary of state, attorney-general, auditor, treasurer and superintendent of public instruction—every two years. The state legislature, known as the General Assembly, which meets biennially in odd-numbered years and in special session summoned by the governor, consists of a Senate of fifty members (minimum age, 25 years) elected for four years, and a House of Representatives of one hundred members (minimum age, 21 years) elected for two years. Two-thirds of each house constitute a quorum to do business. The governor has the veto power, but the provision that a bill may be passed over his veto by a majority of all elected members renders it little more than an expression of opinion.
Law.—The judiciary consists of a Supreme Court of five members elected for districts by the state at large for a term of six years, an appellate court (first constituted in 1891), and a system of circuit and minor criminal and county courts. The system of local government has undergone radical changes in recent years. A law of 1899, aimed to separate the legislative and executive functions, provided for the election of legislative bodies in every township and county. These bodies have control of the local expenditures and tax levies, and without their consent the local administrative officers cannot contract debts. In 1905 a new municipal code, probably the most elaborate and complete local government act in the United States, providing for a uniform system of government in all cities and towns, went into effect. It was constructed on the lines of the Indianapolis city charter, adopted in 1891, and repealed all individual charters and special corporation acts. Its controlling principle is the more complete separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers. For this purpose all cities are divided into five classes according to population, the powers being concentrated and simplified by degrees in the case of the smaller cities, and reaching a maximum of separation and completeness in class 1, i.e. cities of 100,000 and over, which includes only Indianapolis. In all classes the executive officer is a mayor elected for four years and ineligible to succeed himself. There are six administrative departments (the number is often less in cities of the lower classes, where several departments may be combined under one head)—departments of public works, public safety, public health and charities, law, finance, and collection and assessment. There is a city court with elected judge or judges, and an elected common council, which may authorize the municipal ownership of public utilities by ordinance, and can pass legislation over the mayor’s veto by a two-thirds vote. Communities under 2500 in population are regarded as towns, and have a separate form of government by a board of trustees.
Until 1908 the state had a prohibition law “by remonstrance,” under which if a majority of the legal voters of a township or city ward remonstrated against the granting of licences for the sale of liquor, no licence could be granted by the county commissioners in that township or ward. Under this system 800 out of 1016 townships and more than 30 entire counties were in 1908 without saloons. In 1908, when the Republican party had declared in favour of county option and the Democratic party favoured township and ward option, a special session of the legislature, called by the Republican governor, passed the Cox Bill for county options.
Education.—Indiana has a well-organized free public school system. Provision was made for such a system in the first state constitution, to utilize the school lands set aside in all the North-West Territory by the Ordinance of 1787, but the existing system is of late growth. The first step toward such a system was a law of 1824 which provided for the election of school trustees in every township and for the erection of school buildings, but made no provision for support. Therefore, before 1850 what schools there were were not free. The constitution of 1851 made further and more complete provisions for a uniform system, and on that basis the general school law of 1852 erected the framework of the existing system. It provided, for the organization of free schools, supported by a property tax, and for county and township control. The movement, however, was retarded in 1858 by a decision of the supreme court holding that under the law of 1852 the system was not “uniform” as provided for by the constitution. In 1865 a new and more satisfactory law was passed, which with supplemental legislation is still in force. Under the existing system supreme administrative control is vested in a state superintendent elected biennially. County superintendents, county boards, and township trustees are also chosen, the latter possessing the important power of issuing school bonds. Teachers’ institutes are regularly held, and a state normal school, established in 1870, is maintained at Terre Haute. There are normal schools at Valparaiso, Angola, Marion and Danville, and a Teachers’ College at Indianapolis, which are on the state’s “accredited” list and belong to the normal school system. In 1897 a compulsory education law was enacted. In 1906–1907 the state school tax was increased from 11.6 cents per $100 to 13.6 cents per $100; an educational standard was provided, coming into effect in August 1908, for public school teachers, in addition to the previous requirement of a written test; a regular system of normal training was authorized; uniform courses were provided for the public high schools; and small township schools with twelve pupils or less were discontinued, and transportation supplied for pupils in such abandoned schools to central school houses. The proportion of illiterates is very small, in 1900, 95.4% of the population (of 10 years old or over) being able to read and write. The total school revenue from state and local sources in 1905 amounted to $10,642,638, or $13.85 per capita of enumeration ($19.34 per capita of enrolment). In 1824 a state college was opened at Bloomington; it was re-chartered in 1838 as the State University. Purdue University (1874) at Lafayette, maintained under state control, received the benefit of the Federal grant under the Morrill Act. Other educational institutions of college rank include Vincennes University (non-sectarian), at Vincennes; Hanover College (1833, Presbyterian), at Hanover; Wabash College (1832, non-sectarian), at Crawfordsville; Franklin College (1837, Baptist), at Franklin; De Pauw University (1837, Methodist Episcopal), at Greencastle; Butler University (1855, Christian), at Indianapolis; Earlham College (1847, Friends), at Richmond; Notre Dame University (1842, Roman Catholic), at Notre Dame; Moore’s Hill College (1856, Methodist Episcopal), at Moore’s Hill; the University of Indianapolis (non-sectarian), a loosely affiliated series of schools at Indianapolis, centring around Butler University; and Rose Polytechnic Institute (1883, non-sectarian), at Terre Haute.
The charitable and correctional institutions of Indiana are well administered in accordance with the most improved modern methods, and form one of the most complete and adequate systems possessed by any state in the Union. The state was one of the first to establish schools for the deaf and the blind. Its Institution for the Education of the Deaf was established in 1844, and its Institution for the Education of the Blind in 1847, both being in Indianapolis. The first State Hospital for the Insane was opened in Indianapolis in 1848 and became the Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane in 1883; other similar institutions are the Northern Indiana Hospital at Logansport (1888), the Eastern at Richmond (1890), the Southern at Evansville (1890), and the South-eastern at North Madison (1905). There are a Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphans’ Home at Knightstown (1868), and a State Soldiers’ Home at Lafayette (1896); a School for Feeble-Minded Youth (1879), removed from Knightstown to Fort Wayne in 1890; a village for epileptics at New Castle (1907); and a hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis, authorized in 1907, for which a site at Rockville was purchased in 1908. There are five state penal and correctional institutions: the Indiana Boys’ School (1868–1883, the House of Refuge; 1883–1903, the Reform School for Boys), at Plainfield; the Indiana Girls’ School, established at Indianapolis (1873), and removed to Clermont in 1907; a woman’s prison (the first in the United States, authorized in 1869 and opened in 1873 at Indianapolis), which is entirely under the control of women (as is also the Indiana Girls’ School) and has a correctional department (1908), in reality a state workhouse for women, formed with a view to removing as far as possible sentenced women from the county jails; a reformatory (1897), at Jeffersonville, conducted upon a modification of the “Elmira plan,” formerly the State Prison (1822), later (1860) the State Prison South, so called to distinguish it from the State Prison North (1860) at Michigan City; and the prison at Michigan City, which became the Indiana State Prison in 1897. The old State Prison at Jeffersonville was at first conducted on the lease system, but public opinion compelled the abandonment of that system some years before the Civil War. The prisoners of the reformatory work under a law providing for trade schools; the product of the work is sold to the state institutions and to the civil and political divisions of the state, the surplus being disposed of on the market. At the State Prison practically one half the prisoners are employed on contracts. Not more than 100 may be employed on any one contract, and the day’s work is limited to eight hours. The remainder of the population of the prison is employed on state account. The policy of indeterminate sentence and paroles was adopted in 1897 in the two prisons and the reformatory. Prisoners released upon parole are carefully supervised by state agents. Indiana has an habitual-criminal law, and a law providing for the sterilization of mental degenerates, confirmed criminals, and rapists. There are also an adult probation law and a juvenile court law, the latter applying to every county in the state. Each of the state institutions mentioned above is under the control of a separate bi-partisan board of four members. The whole system of public charities is under the supervision of a bi-partisan Board of State Charities (1889), which is appointed by the governor, and to which the excellent condition of state institutions is largely due. In the counties there are unsalaried boards of county charities and correction and county boards of children’s guardians, appointed by the circuit judges. The township trustees, 1016 in number, are ex-officio overseers of the poor. They dispense official outdoor relief. Nowhere else have the principles of organized charities in the administration of public outdoor relief been applied to an entire state. Each county provides for the indoor care of the poor in poor asylums and children’s homes, and for local prisoners in county jails. Provision is made for truant, dependent, neglected and delinquent children. No child can be made a public ward except upon order of the juvenile court, and all such children may be placed in family homes by agents of the Board of State Charities.
Finance.—The total true value of taxable property in the state was, according to the tax levy of 1907, $1,767,815,487, and the total taxes, including delinquencies, in the same year amounted to $38,880,257. The total net receipts for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1908, were $4,771,628, and the total net expenditure $5,259,002, the cash balance in the treasury for the year ending September 30, 1907, amounted to $1,096,459, leaving a cash balance on September 30, 1908, of $609,085. The total state debt on September 30, 1908, was $1,389,615.
History.—Of the prehistoric inhabitants of Indiana little is known, but extensive remains in the form of mounds and fortifications abound in every part of the state, being particularly numerous in Knox and Sullivan counties. Along the Ohio river are remnants of several interesting stone forts. Upon the earliest arrival of Europeans the state was inhabited chiefly by the various tribes of the Miami Confederacy, a league of Algonquian Indians formed to oppose the advance of the Iroquois. The first Europeans to visit the state were probably French coureurs des bois or Jesuit missionaries. La Salle, the explorer, it is contended, must have passed through parts of Indiana during his journeys of 1669 and the succeeding years. Apparently a French trading post was in existence on the St Joseph river of Michigan about 1672, but it was in no sense a permanent settlement and seems soon to have been abandoned. It seems probable that the Wabash-Maumee portage was known to Father Claude Jean Allouez as early as 1680. When, a few years later, this portage came to be generally used by traders, the necessity of establishing a base on the upper Wabash as a defence against the Carolina and Pennsylvania traders, who had already reached the lower Wabash and incited the Indians to hostility against the French, became evident; but it was not, apparently, until the second decade of the 18th century that any permanent settlement was made. About 1720 a French post was probably established at Ouiatenon (about 5 m. S.W. of the present city of Lafayette), the headquarters of the Wea branch of the Miami, on the upper Wabash. The military post at Vincennes was founded about 1731 by François Margane, Sieur de Vincennes (or Vincent), but it was not until about 1735 that eight French families were settled there. Vincennes, which thus became the first actual white settlement in Indiana, remained the only one until after the War of Independence, although military posts were maintained at Ouiatenon and at the head of the Maumee, the site of the present Fort Wayne, where there was a French trading post (1680) and later Fort Miami. After the fall of Quebec the British took possession of the other forts, but not at once of Vincennes, which remained for several years under the jurisdiction of New Orleans, both under French and Spanish rule. The British garrisons at Ouiatenon and Fort Miami (near the site of the later Fort Wayne) on the Maumee were captured by the Indians as a result of the Pontiac conspiracy. All Indiana was united with Canada by the Quebec Act (1774), but it was not until three years later that the forts and Vincennes were occupied by the British, who then realized the necessity of ensuring possession of the Mississippi Valley to prevent its falling into the hands of the rebellious colonies. Nevertheless, in 1778 Vincennes fell an easy prey to agents sent to occupy it by George Rogers Clark, and although again occupied a few months later by General Henry Hamilton, the lieutenant-governor at Detroit, it passed finally into American control in February 1779 as a result of Clark’s remarkable march from Kaskaskia. Fort Miami remained in British hands until the close of the war.
The first American settlement was made at Clarksville, between the present cities of Jeffersonville and New Albany, at the Falls of the Ohio (opposite Louisville), in 1784. The decade following the close of the war was one of ceaseless Indian warfare. The disastrous defeats of General Josiah Harmar (1753–1813) in October 1790 on the Miami river in Ohio, and of Governor Arthur St Clair on the 4th of November 1791 near Fort Recovery, Ohio, were followed in 1792 by the appointment of General Anthony Wayne to the command of the frontier. By him the Indians were signally defeated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers (or Maumee Rapids) on the 20th of August 1794, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, was erected on the Maumee river. On the 3rd of August 1795, at Greenville, Ohio, a treaty was concluded between Wayne and twelve Indian tribes, and a narrow slice of the east-south-eastern part of the present state (the disputed lands in the valley of the Maumee) and various other small but not unimportant tracts were ceded to the United States. Then came several years’ respite from Indian war, and settlers began at once to pour into the region. The claims of Virginia (1784) and the other eastern states having been extinguished, a clear field existed for the establishment of Federal jurisdiction in the “Territory North-West of the Ohio,” but it was not until 1787 that by the celebrated Ordinance of that year such jurisdiction became an actuality. The North-West Territory was governed by its first governor, Arthur St Clair, until 1799, when it was accorded a representative government. In 1800 it was divided, and from its western part (including the present states of Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, the north-east part of Minnesota, and a large part—from 1803 to 1805 all—of the present state of Michigan) Indiana Territory was erected, with General William Henry Harrison—who had been secretary of the North-West Territory since 1798—as its first governor, and with Vincennes as the seat of government. Harrison made many treaties with the Indians, the most important being that signed at Fort Wayne on the 7th of June 1803, defining the Vincennes tract transferred to the United States by the Treaty of Greenville; those signed at Vincennes on the 18th and the 27th of August 1804, transferring to the United States a strip north of the Ohio river and south of the Vincennes tract; that concluded at Grouseland on the 21st of August 1805, procuring from the Delawares and others a tract along the Ohio river between the parcels of 1795 and 1804; and the treaties of Fort Wayne, signed on the 30th of September 1809, and securing one tract immediately west of that of 1795 and another north of the Vincennes tract defined in 1803. In January 1805 Michigan Territory was erected from the northern part of Indiana Territory, and in July following the first General Assembly of Indiana Territory met at Vincennes. In March 1809 the Territory was again divided, Illinois Territory being established from its western portion; Indiana was then reduced to its present limits. In 1810 began the last great Indian war in Indiana, in which the confederated Indians were led by Tecumseh, the celebrated Shawnee chief; it terminated with their defeat at Tippecanoe (the present Battle Ground) by Governor Harrison on the 7th of November 1811. After the close of the second war with Great Britain, immigration began again to flow rapidly into the Territory, and, having attained a sufficient population, Indiana was admitted to the Union as a state by joint resolution of Congress on the 11th of December 1816. The seat of government was established at Corydon, whither it had been removed from Vincennes in 1813. In 1820 the site of the present Indianapolis was selected for a new capital, but the seat of government was not removed thither until 1825.
The first great political problem presenting itself was that of slavery, and for a decade or more the only party divisions were on pro-slavery and anti-slavery lines. Although the Ordinance of 1787 actually prohibited slavery, it did not abolish that already in existence. Slavery had been introduced by the French, and was readily accepted and perpetuated by the early American settlers, almost all of whom were natives of Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia or the Carolinas. According to the census of 1800 there were 175 slaves in the Territory. The population of settlers from slave states was considerably larger than in Illinois, the proportion being 20% as late as 1850. It was but natural, therefore, that efforts should at once have been made to establish the institution of slavery on Indiana soil, and as early as 1802 a convention called to consider the expediency of slavery asked Congress to suspend the prohibitory clause of the Ordinance for ten years, but a committee of which John Randolph of Virginia was chairman reported against such action. Within the Territory there were several attempts to escape, by means of legislation, the effects of the Ordinance. These efforts consisted in (1) a law regulating the status of “servants,” by which it was sought to establish a legal relation between master and slave; (2) a law by which it was sought to establish practical slavery by a system of indenture. By 1808 the opponents of slavery, found chiefly among the Quaker settlers in the south-eastern counties, began to awake to the danger that confronted them, and in 1809 elected their candidate, Jonathan Jennings (1776–1834) to Congress on an anti-slavery platform. In 1810, by which year the number of slaves had increased to 237, the anti-slavery party was strong enough to secure the repeal of the indenture law, which had received the unwilling acquiescence of Governor Harrison. Jennings was re-elected in 1811, and subsequently was chosen first governor of the state on the same issue, and the state constitution of 1816 pronounced strongly against slavery. The liberation of most of the slaves in the eastern counties followed; and some slave-holders removed to Kentucky. In 1830 there were only three slaves in the state, and the danger of the establishment of slavery as an institution on a large scale was long past.
The problem of “internal improvements” came to be of paramount importance in the decade 1820–1830. In 1827 Congress granted land to aid in the construction of a canal to connect Lake Erie and the Ohio river. This canal was completed from the St Joseph river to the Wabash in 1835, opened in 1843, and later abandoned. In 1836 the state legislature passed a law providing for an elaborate system of public improvements, consisting largely of canals and railways. The state issued bonds to the value of $10,000,000, a period of wild speculation followed, and the financial panic of 1837 forced the abandonment of the proposed plan and the sale to private persons of that part already completed. The legislature authorized the issue of $1,500,000 in treasury bonds, which by 1842 had fallen in value to 40 or 50% of their face value. A new constitution was adopted in February 1851 by a vote of 109,319 against 26,755.
Despite its large Southern population, Indiana’s answer to President Lincoln’s first call for volunteers at the outbreak of the Civil War was prompt and spirited. From first to last the state furnished 208,000 officers and men for the Union armies, besides a home legion of some 50,000, organized to protect the state against possible invasion. The efficiency of the state military organization, as well as that of the civil administration during the trying years of the war, was largely due to the extraordinary ability and energy of Governor Oliver P. Morton, one of the greatest of the “war governors” of the North. The problems met and solved by Governor Morton, however, were not only the comparatively simple ones of furnishing troops as required. The legislature of 1863 and the state officers were opposed to him politically, and did everything in their power to thwart him and deprive him of his control of the militia. The Republican members seceded, legislative appropriations were blocked, and Governor Morton was compelled to take the extraconstitutional step of arranging with a New York banking house for the payment of the interest on the state debt, of borrowing money for state expenditure on his own responsibility, and of constituting an unofficial financial bureau, which disbursed money in disregard of the state officers. Furthermore Indiana was the principal centre of activity of the disloyal association known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, or Sons of Liberty, which found a ready growth among the large Southern population. Prominent among Southern sympathisers was Senator Jesse D. Bright (1812–1875), who on the 5th of February 1862 was expelled from the United States Senate for writing a letter addressed to Jefferson Davis, as President of the Confederacy, in which he recommended a friend who had an improvement in fire-arms to dispose of. The Knights of the Golden Circle at first confined their activities to the encouragement of desertion, and resistance to the draft, but in 1864 a plot to overthrow the state government was discovered, and Governor Morton’s prompt action resulted in the seizure of a large quantity of arms and ammunition, and the arrest, trial and conviction of several of the leaders. In June 1863 the state was invaded by Confederate cavalry under General John H. Morgan, but most of his men were captured in Indiana and he was taken in Ohio. There were other attempts at invasion, but the expected rising, on which the invaders had counted, did not take place, and in every case the home legion was able to capture or drive out the hostile bands.
Politically Indiana has been rather evenly divided between the great political parties. Before the Civil War, except when William Henry Harrison was a candidate for the presidency, its electoral vote was generally given to the Democratic party, to which also most of its governors belonged. After the war the control of the state alternated with considerable regularity between the Republican and Democratic parties, until 1896, between which time and 1904 the former were continuously successful. In 1908 a Democratic governor was elected, but Republican presidential electors were chosen.
| Governors of Indiana | ||
| Territorial. | ||
| Arthur St Clair (North-West Territory) | 1787–1800 | |
| John Gibson, Territorial Secretary (acting) | 1800–1801 | |
| William Henry Harrison | 1801–1812 | |
| John Gibson, Territorial Secretary (acting) | 1812–1813 | |
| Thomas Posey | 1813–1816 | |
| State. | ||
| Jonathan Jennings | 1816–1822 | Democratic- Republican |
| Ratliff Boone (acting) | 1822 | ” |
| William Hendricks | 1822–1825 | ” |
| James B. Ray, President of Senate (acting) | 1825 | ” |
| James B. Ray | 1825–1831 | ” |
| Noah Noble | 1831–1837 | ” |
| David Wallace | 1837–1840 | Whig |
| Samuel Bigger | 1840–1843 | ” |
| James Whitcomb | 1843–1848 | Democrat |
| Paris C. Dunning, Lt.-Gov. (acting) | 1848–1849 | ” |
| Joseph A. Wright | 1849–1857 | ” |
| Ashbel P. Willard | 1857–1860 | ” |
| Abram A. Hammond, Lt.-Gov. (acting) | 1860–1861 | ” |
| Henry S. Lane | 1861 | Republican |
| Oliver P. Morton, Lt.-Gov. (acting) | 1861–1865 | ” |
| Oliver P. Morton | 1865–1867 | ” |
| Conrad Baker, Lt-Gov. (acting) | 1867–1869 | ” |
| Conrad Baker | 1869–1873 | ” |
| Thomas A. Hendricks | 1873–1877 | Democrat |
| James D. Williams | 1877–1880 | ” |
| Isaac P. Gray, Lt.-Gov. (acting) | 1880–1881 | ” |
| Albert G. Porter | 1881–1885 | Republican |
| Isaac P. Gray | 1885–1889 | Democrat |
| Alvin P. Hovey | 1889–1891 | Republican |
| Ira J. Chase, Lt.-Gov. (acting) | 1891–1893 | ” |
| Claude Matthews | 1893–1897 | Democrat |
| James A. Mount | 1897–1901 | Republican |
| Winfield T. Durbin | 1901–1905 | ” |
| J. Frank Hanly | 1905–1909 | ” |
| Thomas R. Marshall | 1909– | Democrat |
Bibliography.—There is a bibliography of Indiana history, by Isaac S. Bradley, in the Proceedings of the Wisconsin State Historical Society for 1897. The History of Indiana by William Henry Smith (2 vols., Indianapolis, 1897) is the best general account of Indiana history and institutions. J. B. Dillon’s History of Indiana (Indianapolis, 1859) is the most authoritative account of the early history to 1816. J. P. Dunn’s Indiana, a Redemption from Slavery (Boston, 1888) in the “American Commonwealth” series, as its secondary title indicates, is devoted principally to the struggle over the provision in the Ordinance of 1787 prohibiting slavery. For the Civil War period consult J. A. Woodburn, “Party Politics in Indiana during the Civil War” in Annual Report of the American Historical Association (Washington, 1902); W. H. H. Terrell, “Indiana in the War of the Rebellion” (Official Report of the Adjutant-General Indianapolis, 1869); and E. B. Pitman, Trials for Treason at Indianapolis (Indianapolis, 1865). See also De W. C. Goodrich and C. R. Tuttle, Illustrated History of the State of Indiana (Chicago, 1875); the same, revised and enlarged by W. S. Haymond (Indianapolis, 1879); O. H. Smith, Early Indiana Trials and Sketches (Indianapolis, 1858); and Nathaniel Bolton, “Early History of Indianapolis and Central Indiana,” in Indiana Historical Society Publications, No. 5. “The Executive Journal of Indiana Territory” has been reprinted in the Indiana Historical Society’s Publications, vol. iii., 1900. For government and administration see E. L. Hendricks, History and Government of Indiana (New York, 1908), The Legislative and State Manual of Indiana (Indianapolis, published biennially by the State librarian), Constitutions of 1816 and 1851 of the State of Indiana with Amendments (Indianapolis, 1897), School Law of Indiana, with Annotations (Indianapolis, 1904), and Wm. A. Rawles, Centralizing Tendencies in the Administration of Indiana (New York and London, 1903), Columbia Univ. Press. “The New Municipal Code of Indiana” is explained in an article by H. O. Stechhan in the Forum (October-December, 1905). For education see Fassett A. Cotton’s Education in Indiana (Indianapolis, 1905), and James A. Woodburn, Higher Education in Indiana (Washington, 1891), U.S. Documents, Bureau of Education, Circulars of Information, No. 1. For resources, industries, &c., consult the Reports of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of Indiana (biennial, Indianapolis, 1886 to date), Annual Report of the Department of Geology and Natural Resources (Indianapolis, 1869 to date), and Reports of the State Agricultural Society. See also the Reports of the Twelfth Federal Census for detailed statistical matter as to production, industries and population.
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| Emery Walker sc. |
- ↑ No man can serve as governor for more than four years in any period of eight years.