isa-normaladvance-1913-00246

Description:	246THE NORMAL ADVANCEAeyed, and put on sale at Vincennes.32 Troopsand travellers had passed over these lands, andhad sent far and Avide gloAving accounts of thelands along the Wabash. All the west hadheard of the prairies about Fort Harrison. Indian hostilities had ceased the preceding year,and the territorys becoming a state advertisedthe neAv region all the more. So a great floodof emigration started toward the west, and alarge, part of it turned into the Wabash basin.In one day, fifty Avagons crossed the Muskingum at Zanesville, Ohio, all bound west.33Indiana afforded cheaper lands than Ohio, sothe tide of settlers floAved over and around Ohioto settle on the Wabash, and the loAver Whiteriver. It is said that 42,000 came to Indianain 1816.3* The land sales increased enormouslyat Vincennes. In 1815 the sales there had beenonly 30% as great as at Jeffersonville, but in1816, although at Jeffersonville the sales increased 30%, the sales at Vincennes weregreater than at the other office—in fact, theyhad increased 425%.35 Many people came doAvnthe Ohio, others crossed over from Kentucky,but the majority came overland. They came fnall manner of Avays. Joseph Liston came fromOhio to Vigo County, bringing his family withhim. He put his household goods on one horse,and placed his two boys on top of the goods.His wife rode the other horse and carried theyoungest child, while another was tied on behind her. Mr. Liston walked behind. Thiswas but a type of the immigrant family dailyarriving on the Wabash.36 A study of the immigration to Vigo County shows that the majority of the permanent settlers were from Kentucky, Ohio, NeAv York, and North Carolina.The nativity of neighboring counties was similar, except that the Quakers from North Carolina Avere a more prominent element in theearly settlements.Speculation in towns continued for the nexttwo* years. Richmond and Terre Haute, andmany other toAvns Avere laid out in 1816, andtheir lots were advertised for sale. In one day,$21,000 Avorth of lots were sold at Terre Haute.The best lands about Fort Harrison Avere quickly sold at five to ten dollars per acre. Duringthe fall of 1816, 906 tracts of 160 acres eachwere sold in the Vincennes district.37 Speculation was playing a good part in the sales. Bythe middle of 1818, Daviess, Sullivan, Pike,Jennings, Dubois, Randolph, Ripley, Scott,A7anderburg, Spencer, CraAvford, Vigo, andMonroe Counties had been erected. There Averein all tAventy-eight counties Avhere there Avereten counties five years before, and by the endof 1818 Oavcji and Fayette Counties had beenerected.FRUITS OF GROAVTH AND SPECULATION.Indiana had been enjoying a period of unusual growth and prosperity since 1814, butthis prosperity Avas more apparent than real.Bad banking, excessive speculation, and a misuse of credit had brought on conditionsthat Avere to check the growth of the Avest-ern states. The president of the State Bank ofIndiana, in a letter, dated January 9, 1819, andaddressed from Vincennes to the secretary ofthe United States treasury, stated the conditionas folloAvs:The present situation of the Avestern peopleis distressing they cannot get for their produce one dollar of the kind of money that willbe received in payment of their debts to theUnited States. It is not for want of a sufficientquantity of produce that the western peopledo not pay their debts, but for want of systemin bringing the products of their labor to itsproper market. The banks of the UnitedStates Avest of the mountains issue but fewnotes, and these few are immediately collectedby the merchants and sent eastAvard. The statebanks of the Avestern country have general^perverted the system of banking, and, insteadof encouarging and fostering those Avho wereemployed in collecting and exporting the pro-32See Map in Auditors Report, 1892 (Indiana), P. 276.s*Niles Register, Nov. 23, 1816, P. 208.MMcMaster, V, P. 159.^Senate Doc, Cong. 30, Sess. 1, Doc. 41, P. 67, ft.3aBeckwith, Vigo County, P. 464.37r>avid Thomass Travels Niles Register, Oct. 12, 1816,P. 107 Western Sun, Oct. 5 Nov. 9, 1816.
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34691
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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