HISTORY OF FLOYD
COUNTY INDIANA
(Transcribed from the Book "A History Of The State Of Indiana"
By De Witt C. Goodrich, Charles R. Tuttle 1876)
FLOYD county was
named in honor of Colonel John Floyd, of Virginia. The surface of the
county contains some of the distinguishing physical features of the
State. A range of hills called the “knobs,” about two and a half miles
in breadth, runs through the
county from north to south, reaching the Ohio a short distance below
New Albany, the county seat. They present a very rugged surface, and
are composed of slate, clay, soft sandstone and
iron ore Above the clay and ore is a layer of freestone, valuable for
building purposes. East of the knobs, and in a portion of the country
west, the land is gently rolling, but the general character of the
county is hilly and the soil poor, with the exception of some tracts of
good land. The county was formerly quite well timbered. Much of the
county is well adapted to the cultivation of corn and grass, and to
raising cattle, hogs, horses and sheep. Any sketch of
Floyd county must be principally of New Albany. Within the limits of
that city we find concentrated most of the industry, wealth, and
materials for future greatness in the county. New Albany was
laid out in 1813, by Joel, Abner and Nathaniel Seribner. The original
plat of the town did not embrace more than one third of its present
area, the purchase of the Scribners amounting to but eight hundred and
twenty six and one half acres. The land was purchased by the Scribner
brothers of John Paul, who entered it at the government land office at
Vincennes. The lots were disposed of by public auction on the first
Tuesday and Wednesday of November, 1813, and there was a
stipulation in the advertisement of the sale
that “one fourth part of each payment upon the lots sold shall be paid
into the hands of trustees, to be chosen by the purchasers until such
payments shall amount to five thousand dollars, the interest of which
to be applied to the use of schools in the town for the use of its
inhabitants forever.” This was the manner in which the Scribner high
school of New Albany was founded, which, through the lapse of fifty
nine years, has flourished, and is now one among the most efficiently
managed and prosperous high schools in Indiana. It is connected with
the public schools of the city as the male high school. Provision was
also made by the Scribners for lots upon which to erect churches,
county buildings and for a public park, all which generous designs of
the founders of the city have been fully carried out. In 1814 a large
number of families removed to New Albany, and from that time forward,
notwithstanding the nearness of Louisville, and the start that town had
gained in population and business, the contiguity of Jeffersonville and
shipping post, and the laying off and settlement of Portland, on the
opposite side of the Ohio, with the active competition these towns
offered, New Albany had a steady and substantial, but not a rapid,
growth. There are no
thrilling incidents in the early history of New Albany. It has had a
quiet growth, and has “ever been more celebrated for its moral,
religious and educational advantages, fine climate and good health,
than as a ‘fast town,’ where vice is predominant, and the temptations
to youth numerous and alluring. In its religion, benevolent and
educational enterprises, it has always held the rank of the first city
in the State.” The location and
scenery are admirable. “It is laid out,” says Mr. Cotton, “upon a
beautiful plateau, above high water mark in the Ohio, upon two benches
or plains that sweep northward by a gentle rise from the river, with
wide streets crossing each other at right angles. To the west and
northwest is a range of hills from three to five hundred feet in
height, known to the Indians as the ‘Silver Hills,’ from the peculiarly
bright, smoky halo that ever hangs around and over them. These hills,
now called the ‘knobs,’ are crowned with
grand old forest trees, or dotted here and there with neat and often
elegant farm houses. They add greatly to the beauty of the city, giving
it a most charming and romantic appearance. From these hills a
magnificent view of New Albany, Louisville, Jeffersonville, the Falls
of the Ohio, the great Ohio river bridge at the Falls, the far-away
hills that loom up in grandeur along Salt river, in Kentucky, the
famous Muldraugh hill of that State, the entire range of knobs in
Indiana for many miles, and a long stretch of river. A more grand and
beautiful natural panorama is nowhere else unrolled in Indiana. This
range of hills protects the city from storms, and such a thing as a
hurricane is unknown at New Albany, while the violence of such storms
not infrequently falls with destructive force upon the neighboring
cities of Louisville and Jeffersonville. These ‘knobs’ afford splendid
building sites for suburban residences, and are especially celebrated
for the superior quality and abundance of the peaches, pears, plums,
apples, grapes, raspberries, strawberries, and other fruits grown upon
them. For the purposes of fruit culture the lands on these ‘knobs’ are
in great demand. Nevertheless, they sell at remarkably low prices per
acre. The city, to the west, along the line of the Ohio River,
overlooks miles of rich and highly cultivated garden lands, while to
the east and northeast large and valuable farms meet the view.” New Albany's river
navigation facilities give her natural avenues of commerce and trade
with fifteen States, having a population of over nine million. The cash
value of the farms of this population in 1870 was over $901,000,000; of
farm products, $519,876,412; of live stock, $189,301,721. This is but a
portion of the wealth of the sections penetrated by the navigable
rivers to which New Albany is directly accessible. The railroad
advantages of the city- are extensive, and there is a fair prospect of
their enlargement in the near future. The city is now
the terminus of the Louisville. New Albany and Chicago, the
Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis, and the Louisville and New
Albany Railroads. Concerning the railroads and their future, we have
the following from the pen of Mr. Cotton: “The track of the Louisville
and Cincinnatibranch
of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad will soon be extended here, (the
right of way into the city having been granted by the city council,)
making New Albany the terminus of this road. The Louisville, New Albany
and St. Louis Railway. Now being rapidly constructed, and which will be
speedily finished, also terminates here, though it connects with
Louisville by the Louisville and New Albany road. The Terre Haute and
New Albany road is projected, and the New Albany and Cincinnati road
has a bone fide subscription to its stock of over eight hundred
thousand dollars. The Lake Erie, Louisville and New Albany railroad,
(to Toledo, Ohio,) will be completed early in the summer of 1873. These
roads connect New Albany with all sections of the Union, north, south,
east and west, giving her railroad advantages possessed by few cities
in the west. The Louisville, New Albany and Chicago road runs from the
Ohio river, at this city, to Lake Michigan, at Michigan City, a
distance of nearly three hundred miles, connecting with the Ohio and
Mississippi, the Toledo, Wabash and Western; the Pittsburg, Cincinnati
and Chicago, the Michigan Southern, the Michigan Central, and a number
of other roads. The Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis road is
the southernmost link of the great Panhandle route cast via Cambridge
City, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and the Pennsylvania Central to Harrisburg,
Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore; and at Indianapolis it connects
with all the roads leading from that city east, northwest, and north.
The Louisville and New Albany road connects at Louisville with the
Louisville and Nashville, and the Louisville and New Orleans roads to
all points south; with the Chesapeake and Ohio to New York City and
Norfolk, Virginia; with the short line to Cincinnati and the Baltimore
and Ohio road east; and with all the roads in Kentucky centering, at
Louisville. The Ohio and Mississippi road will connect New Albany
directly with the Baltimore and Ohio and all the lines leading east
from Cincinnati. The Louisville, New Albany, and St. Louis Air Line
railway is, as its name indicates, an air line road to St. Louis,
connecting the two great commercial cities of Louisville and St. Louis,
passing for nearly forty miles through the coal fieldsof 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, arid 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 social
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
privileges 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 tinder 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 collegeoccupies 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 too educate and accomplish their
daughters. The facility 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,. There is probably no better Catholic
academy in than St. Mary's, and it is the pride of the Catholics in
Indiana. The Morse academy
is a high school of the best grade, under supervision of Prof. F. L.
Morse, in which the education of 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
attended it, and enabled Prof. Morse to erect the most commodious and
convenient buildings, indicates it's high character. Besides
those
schools already named, there are five Catholic parochial schools;
German Protestant parochial school; 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 the educational facilities in every
respect. The New Society of Natural History is well organized, and
evinced the high culture of the citizens.
