The town of Crawfordsville owed its existence to Maj. Ambrose Whitlock, who laid out the original plat in March, 1823, upon the S. W. 1/2 of Sec. 32, T. 19 N., E. 4 W., Terre Haute land district. The recorded survey furnishes the following particular description of the town territory: "Each street running north and south is laid parallel with the north and south line of sections thirty-one and thirty-two, and each street and alley running east and west is laid parallel with a line dividing townships eighteen and nineteen. Each street within the lots is sixty-six feet wide, except Market and Washington streets, which are ninety-nine feet wide. Each alley is ten feet wide, and a reservation of sixty feet, as a street, is made all around the town, except from the south side of Spring street to the northeast corner of the town. Each lot within the town is one hundred and sixty- five feet by eighty-two feet six inches. The town was christened in honor of Col. William Crawford, of Virginia, a distinguished soldier, who in the year 1782, while leading a volunteer force against the hostile Indians on the river Sandusky, was captured, tortured, and burned to death at the stake. During the year 1823 Crawfordsville was made the seat of government of Montgomery county, and for judicial purposes likewise over all that district of land lying north of Montgomery county to the southern shore of Lake Michigan and known as Wabash county. This fact, together with the location of a government land office at Crawfordsville in the succeeding year, gave a healthy impulse of growth to the infant community, which, at the date of Maj. Whitlock's platting of lots, consisted of not more than a dozen families. The town was situated near one of the great Indian trails, that crossing Ohio, Indiana and Illinois gave passage through the wilderness to the tide of immigration from the east. Lying just outside of the original plat were several large springs, even then famous for the purity and medicinal qualities of the water, and this fact doubtless had much to do with the choice of the location. Maj. Whitlock expressly reserved to the public the free use and access to these springs, and built his residence in the midst of a beautiful grove immediately above them.

"Of the original appearance of the town but little can be learned, as all of the hardy race of pioneers who cleared the forest from the town site and built their cabins have paid the debt of nature, and have left no permanent record behind. William Miller appears to have erected the first cabin in Crawfordsville about fifty yards north of where Brown and Watkins' flouring-mill now stands, and other cabins were sprinkled along at intervals over the territory bounded by Green and Market streets and the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago railroad tracks, extending on the north as far as the La Fayette depot.

"The land office building stood in the center of the little settlement and was located a few feet west of the mill just referred to. It was composed of the universal building material then in use logs, mortised and tenoned, and contained a primitive desk and a few slab benches, with an iron chest to hold the silver and gold paid in for land and we may here remark that the good old strong box now does duty as a powder magazine for the grocery firm of James Lee & Brother.

"Probably the only contemporaneous history of Crawfordsville ever written in those first years of the town's existence is contained in a work entitled "Old Settlers," by Sanford C. Cox, late of La Fayette, and now deceased. Mr. Cox was one of the first schoolmasters that wielded the birch in the Wabash valley, and has left a record of early times in his book bearing the above title that is of inestimable value. He kept a diary of his experiences and travels and has the following to say about Crawfordsville in the years 1824 and 1825.

"Crawfordsville is the only town between Terre Haute and Fort Wayne. The land office is held here. Maj. Whitlock is receiver and Judge Williamson Dunn, register. Maj. Ristine keeps tavern in a two-story log house, and Jonathan Powers has a little grocery. There are two stores, Smith's, near the land office, and Isaac C. Elston's, near the tavern. Thomas M. Curry and Magnus Holmes are the only physicians, and Providence M. Curry the only lawyer, in town. John Wilson is clerk of the court, and David Vance sheriff. William Nicholson carries on a tannery and shoemaker shop. Scott and Mack have cabinet shops, and George Key blows and strikes at the blacksmithing business. Old man Hill has a small mill on the south bank of Sugar river, north of town. West of town, in the country, there is a small neighborhood composed of the following persons and their families, namely: John Beard, Isaac Beeler, three of the Millers (John, Isaac and George), Joseph Cox, Joseph Hahn, John Killen, and John Stitt, who owns a little mill about two miles west of town. Southwest of town, near the Fallen Timber (result of some old-time hurricane), live Elihu Crane, John Cowan, James Scott, William Burbridge, Samuel McClung, Edmund Nutt, John Caldwell, Prentice Mitchell, and James B. McCullough. East of town resides Maj. Whitlock, Baxter, David McCullough, Ephraim Catterlin and John Dewey. Farther east are Jacob Beeler, Judge James Stitt, who owns a saw-mill, W. P. Ramey, Richard McCafferty, widow Smith, and the Elmores. Zachariah Gapen has a little tan-yard near Stitt's mill, and in the vicinity of Kenworthy and Lee. On the north side of Sugar river I know of but Abe Miller, Henry and Robert Nichalson, Samuel Brown, John Farlow, and Harshbarger.

"Besides those named there are but few others living in the town and country. I think I am safe in saying that half a dozen more families would embrace all, including hunters and trappers, within fifty miles around."

In May, 1823, the circuit court of Montgomery county was organized by Hon. Jacob Call, president judge of the first judicial circuit of Indiana, at the house of William Miller, in Crawfordsville. Judge Call presented his commission as judge, signed by William Hendricks, governor, at Corydon, on December 18, 1823, in the eighth year of the state, together with a certificate from Hon. Isaac Black- ford, one of the judges of the supreme court, that the usual oath of office and the oath against dueling had been duly administered by him to the new judge. Previous to this formal inauguration of a court of law, the sole legal transactions in the county were confined to the tribunals of justices of the peace, who were oftentimes men of no legal learning and impatient of the law's delays and chicanery, and capable only of administering a rude form of justice, without regard for precedents or paper pleas.

The court continued to hold its sessions at Miller's house until the growth of litigation and population made it necessary to erect the first regular court-house.

The building was located on lot 113 of the original plat, on the ground now covered by Dickey & Brewer's and S. H. Gregg & Son's store-rooms, on Main Street. It was twenty-six feet long by twenty feet wide, of hewed twelve-inch logs, and two stories high, having thirteen substantial joists in each story; the roof made of poplar jointed shingles and the floors of poplar planks, seven inches wide and one and one-quarter inches thick; the lower floor having two doors and four windows; the doors of good batten, hung with butts and locks such as were on the doors of the land office. In the upper story were three windows of twelve lights each. The edifice stood twelve inches above the ground, and was built by Eliakim Ashton for the contract price of $295. This is probably the only public work ever done in Montgomery county for which no " extras " above the contract were either asked or allowed, and the house stood on its original location for many years, a monument of the simple taste and solid honesty of our early builders.

In the year 1824, soon after the completion of the court-house, the commissioners of the county ordered a jail to be constructed on the northeast corner of the public square, about where J. S. Miller & Go's blacksmith shop now stands. The specifications of the work show it to have been a quaint structure, and as likely to prove interesting to the general reader. We give sufficient details to show what kind of prison walls were deemed sufficient to hold prisoners in those days: "The jail-house to be 24 feet by 20 feet from out to out; the foundation to be laid with stone sunk 18 inches under ground, and to be 12 inches above the ground, and to be 3 feet wide, on which there is to be built, with logs hewed 12 inches square, double walls with a vacancy of one foot between the walls; the vacancy between the walls to be filled with peeled poles, not more than six inches thick."

The jail contained two rooms: the " debtors' room," for the incarceration of persons unwilling or unable to pay their honest debts, had the only door opening to the outside of the building, and communicated within by a single door opening into the felons' cell; a single grated window, cut high up in each room, furnished light and air to the inmates. Abraham Griffith was the builder, and received $243 for his work.

The first inmate of this jail was Peter Smith, who was arrested for stealing a silver watch. He was awaiting trial and had been confined but a few days, when one stormy night gave him the opportunity to burn the lock off the oaken door of his cell and gain access to the debtors' room, where he easily filed the fastenings from the outer door and made his escape, leaving the building in flames. The citizens were aroused, but not in time to save the jail. Suspicion was rife that Smith had assistance from some confederate scamp outside, and finally it settled with sufficient certainty upon a worthless chicken-thief named Jack, who had long been a lazy pensioner upon the industrious little community, and a crowd of citizens, duly disguised and armed, collected to administer lynch law upon the offender. He was arrested and taken down in the ravine northwest of town, now the road running to the Sperry bridge and Blair's ford, then filled with dense thickets and clumps of briers, where he was stripped and soundly thrashed with hickory "gads" and released on a promise to leave the country for that country's good. From this circumstance the ravine was long called "Jack's Hollow." Smith, the jail burner, was soon afterward recaptured by Sheriff Maxwell and a posse, brought back, and chained to an iron staple in the court-house, where he was carefully guarded until his trial and conviction, when he was taken to the penitentiary at Jeffersonville to serve a term of three years at hard labor.

In consideration of having the county seat permanently located at Crawfordsville, Maj. Whitlock conveyed every "odd" lot in his plat to the county for school purposes. The sale of these lots was entrusted to William P. Ramey, as agent, who gave bond in the sum of $10,000. Lot 49 was reserved for a pound or stray-pen; 'and from the early records it appears that lot 11 was sold to William Warren for $25, lot 25 to James Warren for the same amount, lot 37 to Samuel Kinkade for the same amount, and lot 139 to Jacob Beeler for $20. These were the first sales made, and the proceeds formed the nucleus of the "County Seminary Fund." The commissioners ordered that all sales should be for cash, and no lot should be sold for less than $10. A building was erected for a, seminary on the premises where Chilion Johnson now resides; and if the frame shell of his present house could be lifted off it would disclose many of the old hewed logs of the original seminary building.

The land sales brought a large influx of people to Crawfordsville in 1824, many to become citizens of the town and surrounding country, and many who were "land-sharks" from the east, whose purpose was to buy up the choicest pieces of land on speculation.

Mr. Cox, from whose book we have previously quoted, gives a graphic account in his diary of these land sales, and we may profitably again use his record. He writes, under date of December 24, 1824: "The land sales commenced here today, and the town is full of strangers. The eastern and southern portions of the state are strongly represented, as well as Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. There is but little bidding against each other. The settlers, or 'squatters,' as they are called by speculators, have arranged matters among themselves to their general satisfaction. If, upon comparing numbers, it appears that two are after the same tract of land, one asks the other what he will take not to bid against him. If neither will consent to be bought off, they then retire and cast lots, and the lucky one enters the tract at congress price, $1.25 per acre, and the other enters the second choice on his list.

"If a speculator makes a bid, or shows a disposition to take a settler's claim from him, he soon sees the whites of a score of eyes snapping at him, and at the first opportunity he crawfishes out of the crowd.

"The settlers tell foreign capitalists to hold off till they enter the tracts of land they have settled on, and that they may then pitch in,—that there will be land enough, more than enough, for them all.

"The land is sold in tiers of townships, beginning at the southern part of the district and continuing north, until all has been offered at public sale. Then private entries can be made, at $1.25 per acre, of any that has been thus publicly offered. This rule, adopted by the officers, insures great regularity in the sale; but it will keep many here for several days who desire to purchase land in the northern portion of the district.

"It is a stirring, crowding time here, truly, and men are busy hunting up cousins and old acquaintances, whom they have not seen for many long years. If men have ever been to the same mill, or voted at the same election precinct, though at different times, it is sufficient for them to scrape an acquaintance upon.

"Society here, at this time, seems almost entirely free from the taint of aristocracy. The only premonitory symptoms of that disease, most prevalent generally in old-settled communities, were manifested last week, when John I. Foster bought a new pair of silver-plated spurs, and N. T. Catterlin was seen walking up street with a pair of curiously embroidered gloves on his hands."

Concerning the employment of the people in those days, and their usual amusements, Mr. Cox says: "We cleared land, rolled logs, burned brush, blazed out paths from one neighbor's cabin to another, and from one settlement to another, made and used hand- mills, and burned out hominy mortars from the ' butt-cut' of trees, hunted deer and turkeys, otter and raccoons, caught fish, dug ginseng, hunted bees and the like, and lived on the fat of the land. In the social line, we had our meetings and our singing-schools, sugar-boilings and weddings, and many a good ' hoe-down' on puncheon floors."

Maj. Henry Ristine (father of Benjamin T. Ristine Esq.) kept the first regular tavern, on the ground where Evans & Sidener's shoe store now is. It, like all the buildings of the town, was built of hewed logs. Around its capacious-throated chimneys many a weary traveler has found cheer and comfort, and many a merry song has wakened the echoes of the surrounding woods, and countless tales of hair-breadth escapes and "moving" accidents by flood and field have been rehearsed. The tavern then was a chief center of attraction, and during court times, when the attorneys who " rode the circuit" came riding up from Indianapolis, Vincennes, Terre Haute, La Porte, Richmond, and Connersville, their persons and horses liberally bespattered with the mud of the sloughs, and their huge portmanteaux surmounted with overcoat and umbrella, they received a general welcome from mine host and the entire male population. Venison, turkey, and berries from the woods, and big pike, salmon, and bass from John Stitt's fish-pond on Sugar creek, with "sweet-pone," corn "dodgers," hominy, and a tin cup of pure whiskey if desired, recompensed the traveler for leagues of weariness and hunger. The rates of tavern keepers were fixed by the county commissioners, and were not allowed to be departed from in the direction of extortion. For the year 1824 the rates were as follows:

Wine, per bottle $1.25
Oats, per gallon $.12 1/2
Brandy, per half-pint $.50
Corn, per gallon $.12 1/2
Gin, per half-pint $.25
Horse, at hay, per night. $.25
Whiskey, per half-pint $.12 1/2
Lodging per night $.12 1/2
Victualing, per meal.$.25

Taverns in town were required to pay a license fee of $10, and it may readily be inferred that the business in those days was not immensely lucrative.

The first mills in use were fitted out with overshot wheels, fed by streams conveyed in hollowed poplar logs, jointed together as an aqueduct, the water being furnished by the numerous never-failing springs of the country. Mill-stones were roughly dressed out of huge boulders, called "nigger heads." A small log-mill of this description was built at the mouth of the stream flowing into Sugar creek from the Whitlock springs. A dam was thrown across the stream some distance above, and the water was conducted to the mill-wheel by a log aqueduct supported by poles. The mill was quite difficult of access, the road leading to it being cut through a spur of the bluffs, and thence along the side down to the mill. The machinery was of the rudest description, and just sufficient to turn the stones. This mill ground cornmeal and cracked hominy for all the early inhabitants of Crawfordsville. It was a general custom to send small boys to mill, seated astraddle of a horse, with the sack of grain serving as a saddle; and the father of the writer has often told how he adventured on such expeditions in his boyhood, and the constant mental distress endured on the homeward route, perched giddily upon a lofty stack of meal and bran, fearful of toppling both himself and his grist into the road, and knowing his lack of strength to replace the load upon his horse in such an event. Boys were thus utilized because the men were too busily engaged in clearing and grubbing and log-rolling to go to mill.

Household furnishings were meager and comprised few luxuries. The ordinary necessities were held at a price too high to permit indulgence in ornament, even if the pride of the frugal pioneer had not stood in the way. A bill of the property sold at a public value in 1824, taken from the court records, furnishes an inventory of the articles and value of "plunder" considered a fair pioneer outfit. It reads as follows:.
A rifle gunn $6.75
1 bull 3.00
1 brindle cow 2.00
1 bull 1.37 1/2
1 cow skin 2.37 1/2
2 sheep 3.31 1/2
4 sows and pigs 15.37 1/2
1 wagon 30.00
7 muskrat skins 1.00
54 raccoon skins 10.00
11 fox and wild-cat skins. 1.00
4 deer skins and 1 wolf skin 1.43 3/4
1 pair hip straps (harness) 1.00
Hot pewter 1.00
3 steel traps 1.00
1 shovel plow .25
3 horseshoes .39
1 axe 3 00
1 pair saddle-bags 1.87 1/2
1 tar bucket .25
1 anger .37 1/2
1 hoe 37 1/2
2 linnen sheets 2.00
1 pieced quilt 1.50
1 white counterpin 6.00
1 double coverlit 1.00
1 wire sive .75
45 hanks yarn 9.37 1/2
1 pair of and irons 2.25
1 grid iron 1.50
1 flat iron .50
4 earthen pans .50
3 small Liverpool plates .25
4 green-edged breakfast plates (Delph) .37 1/2
5 Liverpool tea-cups and three saucers .25
1 large Delph bole .37 1/2
1 Liverpool bole .12 1/2
1 small tin bucket .37 1/2
1 coffee mill .25
1 goard of lard .31 1/4
2 crocks of tallow .25
1 red callico dress 1.00
1 blue callico dress .50
1 black silk dress (doubtless a remnant) 2.00
6 pair woolen stockings 1.50
7 pair thread stockings 1.00
1 pair cotton stockings .62 1/2
1 cotton dress .50
1 flannel dress .25
1 flannel dress, striped .37 1/2
1 petticoat (red) 1.00

The ubiquitous "Smith" had arrived in 1823, and was "keeping store " near William Miller's house, where he dickered for ginseng and peltries with whites and Indians, and had things, commercially, pretty much his own way. He seems to have been puffed up with a sense of his own wealth and importance, judging from a certain record left behind by the commissioners' court.

It appears that Smith had returned, among other property listed by the county assessor in 1824, "five hundred silver watches," and when the tax collector came around Mr. Smith swore he only owned three watches, and was forced to appeal to the commissioners for a remission of the tax upon 497 silver watches, which in a boastful moment he had claimed to possess, but never owned in fact. This appeal was granted, but Smith's feathers were effectually plucked, arid he was ever after very careful in giving in his property for taxation, and in bragging about his wealth. .

Maj. Isaac C. Elston and Jonathan Powers were engaged in merchandising at an early day, and transacted a large business. Their stores were in the immediate vicinity of Ristine's tavern.

William W. Nicholson carried on a tan-yard where James Lee & Bros' block now stands, and had a number of tanning vats in the rear. He was a very valuable artisan in that day, and made a great deal of leather for harness and foot-wear. He voyaged to Crawfordsville from Kentucky by water, floating down the Ohio to the Wabash, and poling up that stream and Sugar creek in a flat-bottomed boat styled a "pirogue." The voyage ended at the foot of Washington street, and his boat is credited with bringing the pioneers of a colony of rats that has been growing and prospering ever since that time.

The "Baptist church of Sugar creek" built the first church edifice in Crawfordsville, on lot number 100, donated to them for that purpose by good Maj. Whitlock from his original plat of the town. The dimensions of the structure were 24x30 feet. The material used was brick. It was for several years the only building used exclusively for religious services, and such was the kindly spirit of accommodation governing the brethren in those early days, that all sects and creeds represented in the infant settlement were privileged to use it. All traces of this primitive church building have long since disappeared.

The first school was held in a house that stood about where the gas works are now located, and was taught by a young man named Josiah Holbrook. This was at first a somewhat pretentious and contentious rival of the Crawfordsville Seminary, the latter being conducted by James C. Scott, beginning its sessions in October 1831.

In 1833 Rev. Caleb Mills began the work of instruction in the " Wabash Manual Labor and Teachers' Seminary," an institution which received a charter from the legislature in 1834, and has grown into the amplest proportions and wide notoriety as Wabash College. The first building occupied was located on the brow of the hill east of the Blair Pork House, and was used for recitations and as a boarding place for the students.

During the first year of its operation forty-one young men were enrolled.

On October 18, 1831, the initial number of the first newspaper was published in Crawfordsville. It was called the Crawfordsville "Record," and was edited by Bryant & Wade. Only two bound books of its files have been preserved by the veteran editor, Isaac F. Wade, covering the period from October, 1831, to June 1836. It was a folio of twenty columns, published weekly. A perusal of its pages furnishes a striking comparison of old-time conservative news-editing with the telegraphic, inquisitive and irreverent style of the present day; and while the "Record" is an admirable epitome of political history during the years of its publication, it fails to present much of the domestic and local news of the town and county, and is consequently not a mine of treasure to be worked by the historian of our city. From its advertising columns we learn the names and business of the enterprising citizens of the day, and occasionally, by seeming accident, a transaction is mentioned or some statistics given that compensates somewhat for other omissions.

At the time this paper was begun the county contained nearly 10,000 inhabitants, and a census of Crawfordsville, taken only a short time previous, showed a population of 422, while the subscription list of the paper contained less than 200 names.

The first advertising patrons of the "Record" were Isaac O. Elston, postmaster, with a long list of uncalled-for letters ; Benjamin Spader, dry-goods and general merchandise; drivers estray notices from J. P's in the county; a few legal notices from John Wilson, clerk of the circuit court; dry-goods advertised by Henry Crawford, William Binford, and Jonathan Powers; sundry tax-collectors' notices, and a prospectus of the Indiana "Journal" and the Cincinnati "Mirror."

The foreign news speaks of the war in Belgium and a rebellion in China. Home affairs comprise a report of the anti-Masonic convention held at Baltimore on September 28, where William Wirt was nominated for president, and Amos Ellmaker for vice-president. The editors express their gratification at the election of Henry Clay to the United States senate over his competitor, Richard M. John- Bon.

In their issue of November 26, 1831, the editors write as follows of the town:

" The number of houses in Crawfordsville must considerably exceed 100,— some of them splendid buildings, and would do honor to any city.

"House rent is even higher in Crawfordsville than in many old- settled towns, and much higher than in Hamilton and Lebanon in the State of Ohio, and much greater demand for houses here than in either of those towns. Some have supposed 100 houses might have been rented to applicants more than have been rented during the last summer and fall. Every house is full, and some have two and even three families in them. Our court-house is not yet up.* It is under contract, however, and is to be completed next fall. This building, being on the most elevated lot in town, will add greatly to the appearance of the place.

" Our churches, three in number, Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian, are large and commodious buildings, and the highest compliment we can pay our people is, that meetings are better attended here than in most places of our acquaintance.

"The Crawfordsville school, which at present is conducted in a manner highly creditable to the town, is kept in a spacious brick building erected solely for that purpose.

"Our houses for the accommodation of travelers and boarders are four in number, and yet, from experience, we know some of them are very much crowded, and we believe all supper and lodge a goodly number of travelers every night. Besides these houses of accommodation there are other private boarding houses, one of which we know has six boarders. The ordinary price of boarding is $1.50 per week. The tables of these houses are crowded with all the dainties of old countries to an overflowing abundance. Our chief complaint is, that we are fed on too many dainties. "When we have the exquisite pleasure of sitting down to a meal served up with corn bread, which happens but seldom, we are at the summit of epicurean joy. We are doomed, however, to live on wheat bread, which is here the staff of life. All kinds of vegetables appear upon our tables. Horticulture, ior which our soil is admirably adapted, is well understood by our citizens, many of our gardens displaying a neatness and taste that would not suffer in comparison with those of the east.

" Our town has about the usual number of professional men in places of this size. Our citizens are not very quarrelsome, and the lawyers generally follow some other business in connection with their profession. The people are seldom sick, and the doctors, though learned and skillful, have but little to do. Our mechanics are generally the best of workmen. Our hats manufactured here are good, made quite to a point at the top like they are in the east, and our boots are square-toed. The ladies dress cap-a-pie in the costume of the east, with the exception of tight lacing. About $75,000 worth of goods are sold here annually. Money, though tolerably plenty here, is worth more than at any place we have ever been. It is seldom loaned for less than fifty per cent, which shows that business is lively and the purposes of money numerous.

* The reference is to the old brick court-house, removed to make place for the present structure.

" Land is bought up here with astonishing avidity. The sales at this office for 1830 amounted to $367,146.39, and during this year the sales have been $283,164.44."

Willis Hughes kept the first livery stable, and furnished horse, saddle and bridle for fifty cents per day.

Ira Crane manufactured fashionable wedding garments for expectant grooms and cut out the clothing for all who had no female tailor at home ; John M. Fisher manufactured saddlery of all descriptions ; Thomas Messick made cabinet ware, and C. S. Bryant was the only attorney who advertised his desire for clients.

The market is reported as follows:

Hay per ton 8 00 Beef per Ib.. 2 to 3

Oats per bu 25 Pork per cwt 2 00 to 2 50

Flour per cwt 2 00 to 2 50 Butter per Ib 10 to 12

Corn meal per bu.. 37 to 50 Apples per bu 87

Corn 25 to 37 Wood per cord 75

Wheat per bu. (cash) 62

A great temperance wave swept over the country in 1831 and 1832, and having reached Crawfordsville, caused the organization of a regular society, the first officers of which were John Gilliland, president; Caleb Brown, vice-president; Francis Miller, secretary; and Benjamin Spader, James C. Scott, B. F. Irvine, C. S. Bryant and W. R. Winton, managers, with sixty-six members. This society existed for nearly ten years, and undoubtedly accomplished much good, despite a hot and bitter opposition.

The " Seventh District Medical Society," of which Samuel Fullenwider was secretary, had a flourishing existence of several years, but finally disbanded on account of scholastic differences.

The first Sabbath-school ever held in Crawfordsville met in the brick school-house on Sunday, May 6, 1832, and was organized mainly by the efforts of Rev. James Thomson, now deceased.

Books were opened at the clerk's office in Crawfordsville on July 15, 1832, for subscription to the capital stock of the Ohio & La Fayette railroad. The road was to extend from New Albany to La Fayette, on the line of what is now the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago railroad. The shares were placed at $50 each ; one dollar of which was required to be paid at the time of subscribing. This was the starting point of our present railway system, of which more will be said in another place. Beebee Booth, of Salem, was chosen president; Samuel Peck, of Salem, treasurer, and Israel T. Canby and John "Wilson, of Crawfordsville, were appointed agents to solicit subscriptions in Montgomery county for the enterprise.

From 1832 to 1834 the citizens of this county were kept in a continual state of dread and alarm by reason of the ravages of cholera, from which numerous deaths occurred in adjoining towns, but fortunately the disease never visited this county, a fact doubtless attributable to the pure water and perfect drainage to be found in all the settlements. Crawfordsville has been remarkably exempt from epidemics of every kind from the date of settlement up to the present time.

It was the custom of the merchants in those days to keep whisky for their customers, and all who traded were free, to imbibe without charge. An empty whisky barrel would be set up on end in front of the counter, having small holes bored in the head to drain the glasses. On the barrel was placed, invitingly, a large case-bottle holding a half-gallon of whisky, a bowl of maple sugar, and a pitcher of water, and, in cold weather, a tumbler of ground ginger. A stock of merchandise comprised everything from a log-chain to a cambric-needle; from a matlock to a silk dress pattern ; from a sack of coffee to a barrel of whisky; calico, jews-harps, molasses, mink- traps, gun-flints, wool-cards, dye-stuffs, and all the conceivable articles called for by the exigencies of frontier life.

The credit system prevailed to an extent that would, if allowed in these times, bankrupt a merchant within a year; but the buyer paid a price for his goods that provided large profits, and the people were generally honest, so that when settling-up time came, generally on New Year's day, the accounts were cleared up and the merchant started east to make new purchases with a pocket full of money.

Cincinnati, Buffalo and Louisville were the leading wholesale markets, and our merchants traveled thither and hither on horseback and by stage-coach, while their 'goods were conveyed in wagons. There were several grain buyers in the town whose accumulations were wagoned to Chicago and sold, when their teams brought back salt from the Saginaw country, and general merchandise.

The town was incorporated on Tuesday, October 14, 1834. The first meeting of the trustees was held at Maj. Ristine's tavern, and Henry Ristine was chosen president and Isaac Naylor secretary of the board. The trustees for the first year were Chilion Johnson, Jacob Angle, Caleb Brown, Henry Ristine, and Isaac Nay lor. Francis Miller was subsequently chosen treasurer, and required to give bond in the sum of $500.

The first ordinance passed by the board related to licenses to sell intoxicating liquors "by the small" in the town limits, and the license fee was fixed at $8.

In 1835 a census taken by order of the board of trustees shows the population of Crawfordsville to have been: Males over eighteen years of age, 269; females over eighteen years of age, 221; males under eighteen years of age, 226; females under eighteen years of age, 261; persons of color, 17 ; total population, 994.

The primitive court-house proving too small to accommodate the largely increased business of the county, the commissioners contracted with John Hughs for $3,420 to erect a two-story brick building on the lot where the present edifice stands. The building was of the prevailing style of architecture, specimens of which may yet be seen in a number of the older counties of this state. It was square, forty-five feet each side, with a square cupola in the center of the roof, with four large interior columns of stuccoed brick, having seven windows on the lower floor, eleven in the second story, with outside shutters. The building was completed in 1833. At first the county officers were domiciled in the rooms of the upper story, but eventually separate one-story brick buildings were erected, as east and north wings to the main building, and occupied by the auditor, treasurer, clerk, sheriff, and recorder.

In 1873, after several years' accumulation of a building fund by taxation, the county commissioners, James Lee, James Mclntyre, and James F. Hall, having accepted architectural plans, made a contract with McCormack & Sweeney, of Columbus, Indiana, to erect a new court-house of Berea sandstone, brick and iron, to be heated with steam, and provide a spacious court-room, with offices for all departments of the county's business and jury rooms, the whole to cost $124,000. The old buildings were at once removed, and work went forward rapidly and continuously until May 1877, when the present noble structure was completed. The extra work, together with the large clock in the tower, finally ran the cost up to $150,000. "With but a single exception (the court-house at Indianapolis) the building is probably the most elegant and convenient of any in the state used for similar purposes.

The public school building contains thirteen large rooms, furnished with modern school furniture and apparatus. The number of school children has so largely increased as will demand the erection of an additional building in the near future.

The City Hall is a strikingly beautiful structure, located on Green street between Main and Market, and furnishes ample accommodations for all departments of the municipal government.

There are eight church edifices in the city, owned by congregations as follows:

Regular Baptist, a one-story brick building, very plainly constructed after the old fashion, with the pulpit between the entrance doors, located on Walnut street, between College and Jefferson.

New School Baptist, a handsome frame, with spire and belfry, located on the northeast corner of Pike and Walnut streets.

Christian, small frame church, with belfry, on the northwest corner of Wabash avenue and Walnut streets.

Methodist, a large brick edifice standing on lot number 160 of the original plat of the town, donated by Major Whitlock to the congregation. Connected with the church is a comfortable two-story frame parsonage. This church is erected on the northwest corner of Water Street and Wabash Avenue.

Saint Bernard's Catholic, an imposing pile, after the Gothic style of architecture, built upon the southeast corner of Pike and Washington streets. The building is lighted by mullioned windows of stained glass, and, when the bell tower and spire are completed, will constitute one of the most conspicuous structures in the city.

Saint John's Episcopal, a neat frame building, situated on Green street, between Pike and Wabash avenue.

First Presbyterian, a plain brick edifice, with lecture-rooms in basement, located on Water, between Main and Pike streets. This is one of the earliest church buildings erected in Crawfordsville.

Center Presbyterian. The congregation of this church have recently completed an elegant and commodious building on the southwest corner of Wabash avenue and Washington street. The new building contains all the latest improvements in seating, heating and lighting, and with its numerous beautiful memorial windows, and graceful contour, is decidedly the finest church edifice in the city.

The leading congregations of the city, in point of numbers, may be mentioned in the following order: 1. Roman Catholic; 2. Methodist; 3. Center Presbyterian. Besides these churches above described, the colored citizens have congregations of the Baptist and Methodist faith. Nearly all the churches carry on flourishing Sabbath-schools. Religious services have been conducted every Sabbath afternoon at the college, by the college presidents, for a number of years.

In referring to these churches it has been exceedingly difficult to obtain data upon which to write an extended historical account such as they deserve. The recent removal of the Center Presbyterian congregation from their old home on the northwest corner of Pike and Washington streets, furnished occasion to Alexander Thomson, Esq., to prepare an exceedingly interesting account of Presbyte- rianism in Montgomery county, from which we excerpt the following facts:

The first sermon ever preached in Crawfordsville was by Rev. Charles Beatty, now of Steubenville, Ohio, in the year 1821, and this was likewise the first ever preached in the county; on the afternoon of the same day, the reverend gentleman solemnized the first marriage in the county, the high contracting parties being Col. Samuel D. Maxwell, the first sheriff of Montgomery county, and Miss Sarah Cowan, an aunt of the writer of this sketch.

In June, 1824, Rev. Isaac Reed organized the Presbyterian Church. In 1829 the church began to build, and in 1832 finished a church edifice. In 1838 the disruption of the Presbyterian church took place, and the " old school " branch retained possession of the present property of the First church, on Water street, while the " new school " began the erection of a large frame structure on a lot purchased of Judge James Riley, situated, as .before stated, on the corner of Washington and Pike streets, where they continued to dwell until the recent completion of their '' New Center Church."

Lest it may seem that too much prominence is given here to the history of the Presbyterian church, it will be well to remark that Crawfordsville has, from a very early day, been distinctively a Presbyterian community. The college being founded and fostered by that denomination has made the town a center of church influence and directed the faith of a large percentage of its citizens.

Source History of Montgomery County, together with historic notes on the Wabash Valley By Hiram Williams Beckwith, P. S. Kennedy, Davidson, Thomas Fleming