of Indiana, and the shortest route from Louisville to St. Louis by forty-six miles. This is one of the most important railroads in Indiana. The Lake Erie, Louisville and New Albany road will, when completed, give to New Albany an almost air line road to the great pineries and famous iron mines of Michigan. The New Albany and Cincinnati road is projected along the north bank of the Ohio river, via Madison to Cincinnati. The New Albany and Terre Haute road is projected by way of the coal fields and iron mines of Owen, Clay, Greene and Vigo counties to Terre Haute, on the Wabash river, at the western limit of the State. Thus it will be seen that the railroad interests of New Albany are of vast magnitude, and promise to make her one of the first cities of Indiana."

The manufacturing interests of New Albany are foremost. The most extensive glass works in the United States are located there. These works are organized under the name and style of the Star Glass Company. They cover an area of fifteen acres with the buildings and necessary grounds, and manufacture the very best quality of plate glass, in all respects equal to the best French and English plate, and also window glass, fruit jars, and bottles. The manufacture of plate glass in America is as yet an experiment so far as relates to profitable returns upon the very large investment of capital it requires to operate such works. There can, however, be little cause to doubt that the experiment now making at New Albany in the manufacture of a first quality of plate glass will prove successful, inasmuch as the capital employed, the extent of the buildings, and the amount and superiority of the machinery used, will compare favorably with the like conditions in the extensive plate glass works of Europe. The commercial interests of the city are very extensive and constantly expanding.

The people of New Albany boast, and perhaps justly, that they have the most efficient system of free schools, in the State. "Their claim in this regard," says Mr. Cotton, "is well founded, as the carefully collated official statistics of the schools will show. There are in the city ten elegant and very large brick school buildings, and one frame school building.

The value of these buildings is about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and they furnish accommodations for fully three thousand pupils. Eight of the buildings are used for the primary, intermediate, and grammar schools, and one as a. male high school, and one as a female high school. The system of grading is a most perfect one, and works admirably and efficiently. Tuition is absolutely free in all departments; and the pupils who pass all the grades and graduate through the high school receive a thorough English and scientific education, and are competent for any department of business, or for any of the professions. The city has erected a first-class brick edifice as a school house for the colored inhabitants of the city, who have the same rights to admission into their own schools as the whites have into theirs-the same law governing both. Forty-five white and two colored teachers are employed in these public schools, while the average attendance of pupils is about two thousand three hundred. The annual cost of the schools is not far from thirty thousand dollars, and the total number of school children in the city entitled to the privi leges of the schools is seven thousand one hundred and thirty. The schools are managed by a board of three school trustees, elected by the city council, which secures to them permanency, and the best educators in the way of teachers. These public schools afford the poor man, the mechanic, laborer, and small dealer or trader, superior facilities for giving his children an excellent education free of all expense; so that no man who lives in New Albany can have the least excuse for permitting his sons or daughters to grow up in ignorance. It is doubtful if a better system of public free schools can be found in any section of the Union than the one now in operation, with the most eminent success, at New Albany.

The Depauw college for young ladies is one of the best and most popular female colleges in Indiana. The institution is the property of the Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For the last six years, or since its reorganization in 1866, it has been under the direction of Rev. Erastus Rowley, D. D., as president, who has been recently re-elected to the same position for the next three years. This college

occupies one of the most pleasant and commanding situations in the most beautiful portion of the city of New Albany. This city has long enjoyed a high reputation for its educational advantages, as well as for the high moral and religious tone of its inhabitants. It is noted for its healthfulness, and is accessible in all directions by various railroads and by the Ohio river. The college building, originally erected for a ladies' boarding school, has been enlarged and improved within the past six years, at an expense of near twenty thousand dollars, and now other improvements, embracing the entire renovation of the interior of the building, are just completed. The rooms for the boarding pupils and teachers are all carpeted and well furnished. The capacity of the building is sufficient to accommodate seventy-five boarding and an equal number of day pupils. This college affords very superior facilities to those desiring to educate and accomplish their daughters The faculty embraces six experienced and successful educators besides the president. The college year opens September eleventh and closes June fourteenth. The institution confers upon its graduates the degrees of Mistress of English Literature and Mistress of Liberal Arts. Every valuable improvement in method of instruction will be adopted, and the great aim will be to develop the mental and moral powers of the pupil, and to educate the mind to habits of thought and investigation. The college is furnished with globes, maps, charts, and apparatus to illustrate natural philosophy, chemistry, electricity, and astronomy. The music department embraces instruction on the piano, organ, guitar, and in vocalization, while the French and German languages are taught by competent teachers. The graduating class in 1872 numbered nine young ladies.

The St. Mary's female academy is a first-class one, under the care of the Sisters of St. Francis (Catholic,) and with Sister Veronica as Lady Superior. The building is one among the largest and best adapted educational edifices in the State, having accommodations for eight hundred pupils. All the branches of a thorough and accomplished education are taught, including music, the modern languages, painting, needle-work,

flowers, etc. There is probably no better Catholic academy in the west than St. Mary's, and it is the pride of the Catholics of southern Indiana.

The Morse academy is a high school of the best grade, under the supervision of Prof. F. L. Morse, in which the education of the two sexes together is a leading feature. This academy possesses all the advantages of a college in apparatus, and the high character of its board of instruction. The marked success that has attended it, and enabled Prof. Morse to erect the most commodious and convenient buildings, indicates its high character.

Besides those schools already named, there are five Catholic parochial schools; German Protestant parochial school; German Methodist parochial school; and seven private schools. Add these private and parochial schools, colleges, and academies to the grand system of public free schools, and it will readily be seen that the educational advantages of New Albany are unrivaled.

The churches and benevolent institutions of the city are equal to the educational facilities in every respect. The New Albany Society of Natural History is well organized, and evinces the high culture of the citizens

CHAPTER LXV111.

OLARKE COUNTY

HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.

N 1784, the legislature of the State of Virginia, in consid

IN

eration of the important and valuable services rendered to that commonwealth by General George Rogers Clarke, donated to him large tracts of land in that part of the Indian territory which he had nominally placed under its government. Among these lands was a tract comprising a portion of the site of the