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1849 Adams County Retrospect - Based on "Indiana Gazetteer," published by E. Chamberlain
Vigo County, organized in 1818, was named in honor of Colonel Francis Vigo, originally a Sardinian, the efficient friend of General Clark in the capture of Vincennes, and afterwards a most worthy and hospitable citizen there. It is bounded north by Vermillion and Parke, east by Clay, south by Sullivan, and wet by the State of Illinois. It contains about 410 square miles. The civil townships are Harrison, Sugar Creek, Prairie Creek, Otter Creek, Linton, Nevins, Pierson, Fayette, Honey Creek, Lost Creek and Riley. The population in 1830 was 5,737, in 1840, 12,076, and at this time [1849] about 16,500.
The surface of the country is either level or gently undulating, and consists principally of very timbered lands, interspersed with beautiful prairies, mostly small, though three of them, Fort Harrison, Honey Creek and Otter Creek, contain from 10,000 to 20,000 acres each, and are all in a good state of cultivation. With the exception of a few poor barrens, the whole county is rich land, and when properly farmed, produces large crops of corn, wheat, oats, grass, and all such articles as are adapted to the climate.
It is estimated that the surplus pork raised for exportation in the county amounts to $150,000 annually, the grain $70,000, cattle $20,000, besides a large amount of other articles.
There are in Vigo County 12 gristmills, 18 sawmills, 40 large retail stores, 20 others with limited assortments, three printing offices, a recently erected Seminary for a male and female school of high order, churches for the Congregationalists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists, Lutherans, Universalists and Roman Catholics, and there are 15 lawyers, 20 physicians, and 25 preachers of the Gospel, and the usual proportion of mechanics. Coal is found in abundance, and of a good quality. Freestone is found n the banks of the river and of some of the smaller streams, and limestone in the timbered lands, but there are no stone on the prairies. The fine soil and situation of the county, the opening of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and the eastern and western railroad through it, both of which are now in progress with much spirit, the enterprise of its citizens and other advantages posses there, must, at no distant day, make Vigo one of the most important points in the west. 220,200 acres of land are assessed for taxation.
1938 Adams County Retrospect - Based on "Indiana Review," published by the State Legislature
While this territory was still a part of Sullivan County, General William Henry Harrison advanced up the Wabash River with troops and selected the site of Fort Harrison on the east bank of the Wabash River two miles above the present city of Terre Haute. This was in September 1811. About 1816 a number of settlers began to locate near the fort.
An Italian, Colonel Francis Vigo, inspired the naming of the county. Vigo, who came to Vincennes about 1777, left $500 in his will to Vigo County in order that a bell for the courthouse might be bought. The money was willed with the provision that a certain claim would be collected from the government. This claim furnished the destitute army of George Rogers Clark with supplies and in 1778 was recognized by the government and paid to Vigo heirs. The money was turned over to the county and paid part of the expense of the bell now in the dome of the courthouse. The bell is inscribed with Colonel Vigo's name.
Vigo County is part of Indiana's western border and is located about centrally from north and south. Most of the surface of its territory is level and the soil is rich in clay and shale of a fine quality. Large deposits are available for manufacturing purposes with various localities. In some parts the shale is from fifteen to two hundred feet in thickness. Most outstanding, however, is the coal, which underlies every acre. In most places there are several veins, all of them workable. The county has the greatest production of coal of any in Indiana.
Riley, 260; Seeleyville, 825, and West Terre Haute, 3,588, are the incorporated towns. The latter is the state's largest incorporated town. In 1890 the county population was 50,195; 1900, 62,035; 1910, 87,930; 1920, 100,212; 1930, 98,860. It has an area of 409 square miles, embracing twelve townships.
Terre Haute, the incorporated city, with a population of 62,810, is located seventy-three miles southwest of Indianapolis, and is on the Wabash River. Four main railroads and a number of small lines provide ample facilities for the transportation of the important coal and numerous manufactured products. Included among the manufactured products are coke, glass, mine machinery, brick, drain tile, enamelware, flour and seed, advertising plates, chemicals, caskets, cutlery, and electrotypes. There are also several important foundries and metal plants. The Bituminous Materials Company is located in this city. In 1935, the city had eighty-nine manufacturing establishments employing 3,435 wage earners on payrolls totaling $3,276,968. The value of the produce was $34,736,720.
The Indiana State Normal School was organized under an act of the Legislature on December 20, 1865. This act defined the object of the school to be "the preparation of teachers for teaching in the common schools of Indiana," provided for the appointment of a number of trustees, location of buildings, the organization of a training school and the adoption of courses of study, and created the normal school fund for the maintenance of the institution. The act further required the trustees to locate the school at the town or city of the state that would obligate itself to give the largest amount in cash, or buildings and grounds to secure the school Terre haute was the only place to offer any inducements whatever and secured the location of the institution. The first annual appropriation for the maintenance was $15,000.
The school was opened January 6, 1870, thirteen young women and eight young men presenting themselves as students. At the end of the first term of three months, the number had increased to fifty-one. It had meager attendance and little popular sympathy, and began its work under very discouraging conditions. It was really at work in an environment somewhat hostile to it, with a very small maintenance fund. This, however, was increased from time to time by the Legislature, and appropriations were also made to complete the original building and to erect additional buildings. In 1888, the original building was destroyed by fire, together with all its contents, including a library that had been accumulating for eighteen years. Under its contract to meet half its expenses for repairs, the City of Terre Haute gave $50,000 in cash, with which to begin the work of rebuilding and the next General Assembly appropriated $100,000. Since 1889, three large buildings have been added and one new building for manual training and domestic science has just been completed. The school now has a library of 65,000 volumes, one of the largest of any normal school in the country, which has been collected since the fire of 1888. The books are selected with primary reference to the needs of the various lines of work represented in the curriculum and the school.
At the beginning of the school, there was organized an elementary course of two years, the instruction being limited to the common school branches, psychology, methods, observation and practice. The aim in reconsidering the common school branches was to master them more thoroughly and to organize each branch from a pedagogical viewpoint. Later, there was formed an advanced curse of study which required two additional years of work. This include the study of Latin, German, higher mathematics, science and advance work in history. After two years, this advance course was temporarily discontinued and the elementary course changed to a course of three years. Later, this course of three years was based upon a graduation from certified high schools or its equivalent. In the year 1907, a college course of four years was established. This included, along with branches belonging to a college curriculum, nine courses in professional work, consisting of general educational psychology, history and philosophy of education, observation and practice. In connection with the State Normal School, the student enters upon a period of observation and practice so as to gain actual skill in managing a school and in instructing scientifically. The schools for observation and practice consisted at this time of eight grades, a high school and a country training school. The Eight grades and the high school are in a large training school building adjacent to the Norma School building. The country training school is situated several miles east of the city. William Woods Parsons is President and Howard Sandison is Vice President of the school.
The Rose Polytechnic Institute, which was established in 1874 as the Terre haute school of industrial science, owes its existence as well as its name to Chauncey Rose, one of Indiana's greatest philanthropists, who came to Terre Haute as a young man and began his career contemporaneously with the birth of the city in 1818. For sixty years he was closely identified with the town on the banks of the Wabash, during which time he rose from a poor boy to a millionaire. His fortune, in addition to $1,500,000, inherited from his brother, was practically all bestowed ultimately upon philanthropies during his lifetime.
As he neared the close of his long live, mindful of his own struggles, his thoughts were turned to plans for helping young men. He led to the establishment in 1874 of the Terre Haute School of Industrial Science for the training of young men in "the useful and practical knowledge of some art or occupation, by which they could be better able to earn a competent living." Mr. Rose selected to cooperate with him a board of managers comprised of Barnabas C. Hobbs, Josephus Collett, Charles R. Peddle and six other trusted friends.
The erection of suitable buildings upon the ten-acre campus was begun with little delay and the cornerstone of the academic building was laid with appropriate ceremonies January 11, 1875, at which time the name was changed to Rose Polytechnic Institute over the protest of the founder.
Mr. Rose did not live to see his ambition realized, for he passed away in the summer of 1877. By his will the institute was made his residuary legatee, thus bringing his gifts to this one philanthropy to more than $500,000. Since that time the institute has received from the Rose heirs almost another half million, so that from the original estate the school has benefited through this one man to the amount of more than $1,000,000.
A tract of 125 acres near Terre Haute has been bought as a new site and plans are being made for new buildings, the present location within Terre Haute being too small. C. Leo Mees is President of Rose Polytechnic Institute.
The Terre Haute Veterinary College was organized and incorporated under the laws of Indiana in 1909 and is now entering upon its seventh annual session. Students may enter, who are graduates from recognized colleges, normal or high schools, without an examination, but all other candidates are required to pass an examination in United States history, United States geography, arithmetic, spelling, penmanship, copying from plain copy and a composition on a give subject, requiring an average of not less than 70% to pass. Negroes are not admitted. Advance standing is given students who have attended one or more terms at a recognized veterinary college, upon presentation of a certificate showing sufficient attendance and having attained the studies and grade in accordance with the curriculum of this college. The officers of the college are S. V. Ramsey, D. V. S., President; L. A. Greiner, D. S., Vice President; and C. I. Fleming, M. D. D., Dean.
St Mary of the Woods College and Academy, the pioneer of coventual establishments in Indiana, originated in the year 1840, when a sisterhood from France made a foundation in Vigo County, about four miles west of the Wabash River at a spot they named St. Mary-of-the-Woods.
The little colony consisted of six members belonging to the order of Sisters of Providence at Ruilé-sur-Loir, one of the earliest and most popular teaching organizations having birth in France after the Great Revolution.
The foundress of St. Mary-of-the-Woods was the illustrious Mother Theodore Guérin, widely celebrated on both continents for her beneficent and religious activities, her masterly qualifications and influence. Honored in her native country with medallion decorations from the French Academy, and with the plaudits of the court and ecclesiastical authorities, her fame nevertheless rest upon the magnificent institution she founded, which, in its ideals, its scope, and its attainments, perpetuated her teachings and represents the most progressive and cultured educational system of our day.
Like all our earlier institutions, St. Mary-of-the-Woods had a humble beginning. A log cabin served for a church, a rough board house, small and primitive in every sense, constituted the convent, surrounded by a few acres of uncleared land in the heart of a dense and desolate wilderness.
St. Mary-or-the-Woods today presents a scene vastly different from St. Mary's of earlier days. For fifty years, the institution grew steadily, though slowly, passing through many vicissitudes. The twenty-five years that have since followed may truly be called a period of marvelous development. Instead of the forest primeval and a poor little frame dwelling, there may new be seen an array of buildings, the massiveness, adaptability, and elegance of which are unsurpassed in our country. Enclosing within its precincts a six-hundred-acre plot, St. Mary-of-the-Woods is a little world in itself, self-governing and self-sustaining, preserving all the charm of sylvan environment and yet possessing all modern conveniences, from its railway and interurban stations to its coal mine.
The principal buildings are arranged in a semicircle, with a frontage of 1,100 feet, a magnificent white stone conventual church occupying the center of the group To the east is the convent, a large and commanding brick edifice, adjoining which, to the north, is another large three-story brick building, the Normal training school for those who are aspiring to become members of the community. West of the church is St. Agatha's Hall, a dormitory structure connecting with the academy or main building. To the southwest is the conservatory of music, and farther on, the Guérin College Hall. The main building is of white Bedford stone, in pure Renaissance architecture, four stories in height, a faithful imitation of the early Florentine palaces designed by Michael Angelo. The new college hall is also a hansom four-story edifice in Renaissance style, built of Bedford stone and light brick. Of similar style and construction is the conservatory of music, its elegant auditorium having a seating capacity of 1,000. Other buildings on the grounds are the gymnasium and natatorium; the "Woodland," an in for the accommodation of guests of the institution; the presbytery; the pharmacy and infirmary; the laundry, the bakery, and the power house, which furnishes light and heat and the power for some fifty motors used in various ways on the premises.
The hilly location of the grounds gives them a varied beauty. A mile of cement walks, affording opportunity for exercise, even in most unpropitious weather, wind around and through the parks, form which extend tennis courts and golf links; while orchards and gardens and spreading fields yield their bounty, and wooded tracts and meadow lands furnish grazing for the cattle.
Twenty-five thousand young people are now receiving instruction form the Sisters of Providence in their various schools and academies throughout Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, and at Washington, D.C. Many women of distinction in society and of prominence in the business and professional world claim St. Mary-of-the-Woods as their Alma Mater. A large and enthusiastic alumnae association evidences the attachment of the "old girls" and contributes to the further progress of the school.
Every summer the sisters return to the Motherhouse from the cities in which they are engaged during the scholastic year. A regular normal institute is conducted during the vacation, with lecture courses and studio work by eminent educators, professors, and artists. At present writing (1915) when the establishment is rounding out its seventy-fifth year of existence, more than 1,000 members of the order have just dispersed to resume their activities in the schools under their charge. The Novitiate, or training school (the recruiting station of the Sisterhood), after contributing forty-six members to the body of the professed religieux during the past year, still numbers about 100. The probationary period covers nearly three years.
While the Sisters of Providence now concentrate all their forces in the field of education, they have at times engaged in other work. During the Civil War they had charge of the military hospitals at Indianapolis and Vincennes, and the cholera epidemic that raged so violently half a century ago found them devoting themselves to the plague-stricken and forsaken. Should any other public distress claim their assistance, they will be ready to respond to humanity's need, for these women have left the world not to live for themselves alone, but that the world may be better by their service.
The library facilities for the city of Terre Haute are excellent. It has been said that not town in Indiana has been the birthplace of so many artists known nationally and internationally. Among them are Caroline Peddle Bell, a sculptress; Janet Scudder, also a sculptress; and Idelle Pidder, artistic craftsman. The miniature painter, Amelia Kuffner Condert, won international fame by painting the portraits on ivory of the crowned heads and notables of the world, including King Edward VII, the Crown Princess of Greece, the Czar of Russia, and Cecil Rhodes. Among other painters of Terre Haute were James D. Goodkins and Ada Walter Shulz. The famous architect and designer, Alfred M. Austin, noted for the Indiana Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, was a native of the city. Harriet Hofner, a sculptress, lived in the city for a few months after her retirement.
Terre Haute is one of the recognized art centers of the state, not only for its past, but because of the numerous markers, memorials, and monuments of historical and cultural significance. At the courthouse is a soldier' and sailors' monument dedicated to the memory of those men who served in the Civil War. Among the other war memorials found in the city is the one at the entrance of the library of the Indiana State Teacher's College commemorating the service of the students who served in the World War. In this school's art department is a notable collection of portraits by various Indiana painters. The Fairbanks Public Library is distinguished for its art glass dome with bust portraits of sixteen outstanding Indiana citizens including Senator Daniel Voorhees, Colonel Richard W. Thompson, James Whitcomb Riley, and General Lew Wallace.
An interesting institution is found in Terre Haute's Friendly Inn, a haven for unfortunates, founded by Delos Minshall. There is a monument erected by the Federal Government in the Woodlawn Cemetery in memory of the seven Confederate soldiers who died in the city as prisoners of war. On the National Old Trails Highway at the West End of the bridge, on the Wabash River, is a memorial to Paul Dresser, who was born in Terre Haute in 1857. It will be remembered that Dresser was the composer of the song, "On the Banks of the Wabash," which was adopted by the state song. A noteworthy monument was erected by popular subscription in memory of Claude Herbert, who lost his life in 1898 while saving several lives during a fire.
The best-preserved landmark in the city is the Creston Home, built by Major Dewees more than a century ago. Other outstanding residences are the Wood Home, which was also built more than a hundred years ago, and the Warren Residence. On the National Road is another very old estate, Butternut Hill, built in 1833. Also located in this road is the Post Road Inn, a famous hostelry. At the entrance of the Memorial Stadium, dedicated in honor of the soldiers who served in the World War, is a bronze tablet commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the soldiers who served in the World War, is a bronze tablet listing 6,000 men and women participants in the war.
Although converted to modern usage, the historic site of the old fort built in 1811 by General William Henry Harrison may be found. It is now the Fort Harrison Country Club, located two miles north of the city on the east bank of the Wabash River. The old fort is enclosed in the clubhouse. Harrison's great-grandson unveiled a bronze tablet commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the battle fought between Indians and the forces of General Zachary Taylor on September 4, 1912.
Another point of interest is to be found five miles northeast of Terre Haute, on State Road 40, at Otter Creek. This is Markle's Mill, built in 1816 by Major Abraham Markle, a soldier of the War of 1812. During the Civil War it was used as headquarters of the Home Guard. Three miles south of the city, on the Wabash River, is the Old Stone Boundary Line Marker. On its west side is inscribed "Illinois," on its east side "Indiana," and on the north side-"159 miles and 6 chains to Lake Michigan." In the Brown Cemetery, located eight miles south of the Black Hawk Road, is a monument to Joseph Liston, the first settler of Vigo County.
About eighteen southeast of the city of Terre Haute is the little town of Lewis. Here the General Crust Post No. 284 of the G. A. R. has erected a monument to the soldiers of the Civil War.
Aside from the institutions of higher education located in and around the city, Terre Haute's primary and secondary school system is excellent. All these, together with various private, parochial, and other technical, classical, and business schools and colleges, give the city a merited reputation as one of the leading seats of learning in America. The Woodrow Wilson High School and the Wiley High School are two important units of the public school system.
According to the census of 1935, Vigo County had 2,916 farms averaging 71.6 acres. The total value of these is $11,665,627. There were 37,868 head of livestock reported. A total of 108 manufacturing establishments employed 5,853 wage earners on payrolls of $5,796,635. The products were valued at $50,895,534.
Virgo, one of the richest counties in the state, had a tax valuation, according to the 1936 appraisal, of $93,484,410.
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