proved. The company referred to, that laid out the town, deeded to the county eighty lots, besides the public square, and paid into the county treasurer four thousand dollars in cash and mortgage bonds. These liberal inducements secured the location of the county seat at Terre Haute. The spirit of liberality, as well as the location of the county seat at Terre Haute, was instrumental in creating a new feeling of enterprise.

The first settlers of Terre Haute were Dr. C. B. Modesitt, Lewis Hodge, Henry Reedford, Robert Carr, John Earle, Abner Scott, Ezekiel Buxton, and William Ramage. These pioneers settled in 1816, and built the first cabins in the town. The settlement grew very slow, at first, from the causes noted in the previous chapter; but, in 1823-4, it took a new start, and has prospered until the present.

Terre Haute was incorporated as a town in 1832. The town was divided into five wards, and one trustee elected from each. These trustees elected the first municipal officers of the town as follows: James B. McCall, president; James T. Moffat, clerk; Charles B. Taylor, assessor; Samuel Crawford, treasurer; William Mars, constable and collector.

In 1838, a new charter was granted to the town by the Legislature, which provided for the election of a mayor and ten councilmen. This charter was adopted by the inhabitants in March, 1838, and, in the May following, an election was held, which resulted in the election of Elijah Tillotson as the first mayor of the town.

In 1853, Terre Haute was incorporated as a city under the general laws of the State, and the first city election was held in May, 1853, at which William K. Edwards was chosen the first mayor.

PRESENT CONDITION.-A popular city directory, of recent date, gives the population of Terre Haute at 28,000. This is, probably, a little too high. It is about 23,500, or, perhaps, 24,000. The census of 1870 places it at a little more than 16,000 at that date. The growth since then, however, has been marvelous. No city in Indiana has made greater progress in all material interests. Only ten years ago Terre Haute was

but an agricultural town, "and had," says a recent writer, "reached about the height in population and business usually attained by towns whose chief dependence is on the farming interests immediately around them; but, by a system of expansion through railroads, manufacturing interests, and wholesale business, the area of its influence and resources has been greatly extended, so that now Terre Haute draws its sustenance and wealth from a wide extent of country, and from many cities connected with it by its numerous railroads. As the country itself is inexhaustible, and the channels of trade and communication are already fixed, like the veins and arteries which circulate the blood through the human system, we may expect no premature decay or death of a city which has become the vital center of so extensive a commercial and business system." The business interests of the city are increasing every year. Some of the largest wholesale houses are located there. The manufacturing interest of the city is represented by blast furnaces, with a capacity of fifty tons of iron daily; nail works, 3,000 kegs, weekly; water works, 3,000,000 gallons, daily; a successful rolling mill, and other very extensive establishments. Terre Haute is fast becoming one of the leading manufacturing cities of the west.

The schools and churches of Terre Haute, and, indeed, the whole of Vigo county, are in a high and efficient condition. In the various professions are found men of superior talent and education, under whose care the schools and churches have attained the highest degree of usefulness.

The State Normal School is located there. The building is one of the finest in the United States, having a capacity of accommodating over a thousand pupils. This institution has already achieved a national good name, and is fast becoming the pride of Indiana.

Another educational institution is now being established in Terre Haute, which has already elicited the attention of the philanthropic citizens of half the world. We refer to the "Terre Haute School of Industrial Sciences," in support of which the Hon. Chauncey Rose is devoting his immense fortune. In short, Terre Haute lacks none of those higher phases

of material and intellectual enterprise that characterize the modern American city, while, on the other hand, it excels in many of them.

IN

CHAPTER LI.

KNOX COUNTY HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.

N a view of Knox county, historically, our attention must at once centre round Vincennes, one of the oldest-and possibly the oldest-settlements in the State of Indiana. This city-once a French trading post and military station-is situated on the east bank of the Wabash river, about one hundred and ten miles southwest of Indianapolis, and, of course, is the county seat of Knox county. It was on this spot where a French Jesuit missionary from Canada, or New France, said mass before astonished savages in the year 1702.* This act may be regarded as the very beginning of French civilization in Indiana, for, although missionaries had been in the habit of visiting the territory during the fifteen years preceding, and notwithstanding Robert de La Salle passed through it on the old Wabash and Maumee route, erecting some temporary stockades in 1680, there was no permanent mission established within the limits of Indiana until 1702. This was one year after the establishment of Detroit by La Motte Cadillic; and the French records show that this missionary came from that post, or from some point in Michigan. Three years later, or in 1705, the date at which the French fort at the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers, where the city of Fort Wayne now stands, was erected, a French trading post and stockade were established at Vincennes. Thus it will be

* Quebec Annals. + Quebec Records.

seen that Fort Wayne and Vincennes stand ing in the important point of antiquity. more properly stockade, was established at same year, and it is said by the same man.

on an equal footThe first fort, or both places in the

There was not, however, any considerable settlement around Post Vincennes until 1745. In the latter year quite a number of traders were found there, who, under the protection of the slight garrison, conducted a profitable commerce with the Indians, rum and tobacco being the chief articles of merchandise on the one side, and peltries on the other.

There is no authentic record of the affairs at Vincennes from its first settlement down to 1749-a period of about forty years-outside of the government records at Quebec. From the latter date, however, a very complete record has been preserved by the Catholics of the place.

While Vincennes may be regarded as one of the first settlements in Indiana, Knox county must be looked upon as the oldest county. As Virginia has been called the mother of States, so may Knox county be called the mother of Indiana counties. Its organization dates back to a period anterior to the territorial government, and finds a place among the earliest acts of the government formed for the territory northwest of the Ohio river. Its original boundaries extended from the Ohio river on the south to the lakes on the north, and from the Wabash river on the west eastwardly to a line bisecting the State cast and west. Its original area embraced one-third the territory of the entire State, and from it have been carved, from time to time, thirty of the richest and most prosperous counties of the State.

The site of the present city of Vincennes was for a long time only a trading post, and improved but slowly in wealth and population, as the traders were generally transient parties, permanently investing the means elsewhere acquired at this point. The organization of the territorial government and the location of its capital at Vincennes, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, added greatly, for a time, to its prosperity, and from that time down to a period as late as 1818 it promised to become one of the great centres of trade and

wealth and population in the Northwest. But the removal of the territorial capital to Corydon, prematurely and unexpectedly, was a fatal blow, for the time, to its progress. Although it lost the stimulating impetus of political favor and the expenditure of public money the creative powers of trade and commerce of late years from its own intrinsic resources it has more than met the hopes of its people, and fully demonstrated the sagacity of the early French, who years ago visited its site in the then wilderness, and with prophetic vision marked it as a future seat of empire, wealth and power.

Although the name of Vincennes is a household word throughout the State, and even the whole land, and in a his torical sense it is an old place, yet the present city of Vincennes is but the child of yesterday, and is just springing into vigorous and active life. The mud-thatched hut and the twowheeled cart of the early settlers, both constructed without the use of any metal implement whatever, have entirely disappeared within a very few years before the advancing wave of civilized progress, and the material appearance of Vincennes to-day will compare with that of any city in the State. The old-time business houses have all given place to fine business blocks, three and four stories high, of brick and stone, and of improved architecture. And only a few old-time residences remain as landmarks, as it were, to remind us of the days of yore. The private residences of the citizens are among the finest in the State. Among them we may mention the splendid and costly mansions of Dr. Robb, Captain Ross and Mr. Pollock, built of wood, in a magnificent style, and those of Messrs. McKinney, Bayard and Wise, of brick and stone. The residence of General William H. Harrison, the first Governor of the territory, is still standing, and is one of the most substantial buildings in the State. It is built of brick, and was constructed in 1804, and its walls and inside finish are as good and perfect in all respects as when first put up.

The public buildings of Vincennes are numerous, and some of them are fine specimens of architecture. Among them may be mentioned the city hall, a substantial brick building,