Between 1829 and 1839, the federal government was responsible for constructing the Cumberland Road — also known as the National Road, the Old Pike and U.S. Highway 40 — through Indiana and Illinois.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assumed command of the work.
Terre Haute’s unique status as headquarters for the superintendent of the National Road between 1834 and 1840 is frequently overlooked.
If the federal government is applauded for conceiving the fabled national highway and building it through the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, it should bear the brunt of criticism for leaving the highway rickety and unfinished in 1840.
Jonathan Knight, for whom Knightstown is named, initiated the National Road survey at the Indiana-Ohio state line in early 1827 when only four communities were on the proposed route: Richmond, Centerville, Indianapolis and Terre Haute.
Knight and his crew reached the Jenckes distillery, then five miles east of Terre Haute at the present site of Highland Lawn Cemetery, on Oct. 13, 1827.
Three days later, Knight encountered the east end of “Wabash Street” in Terre Haute. Road Commissioner Joseph Shriver — who came to Terre Haute on June 26, 1828 — took charge of the 90-mile survey from the Indiana-Illinois state line to Vandalia. He reached his destination on Sept. 20, 1828.
By the time contracts were awarded in Indiana, the road was finished through Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and almost complete in Ohio.
A $51,600 appropriation on March 3, 1820 for the 150-mile Indiana portion permitted work to begin on an 80-foot wide path, with 30-foot center strip. Congress expected contractors to clear the route of trees and stumps, grade it, “macdamize” it with crushed rock in layers and construct stone culverts and bridges.
Bids were awarded at $121 per mile but specifications did not require removal of stumps less than 15 feet tall. “Stump-grubbing” contracts later were dispersed at $75 a mile.
The next Indiana appropriation was $60,000 on May 31, 1830. Subsequent state allotments were $75,000 in 1831, $100,000 each in 1832 and 1833, $150,000 in 1834, $100,000 in 1835, $250,000 in 1836, $100,000 in 1837 and $150,000 on May 25, 1838.
Between 1829 and 1833, contracts in Indiana were let on a mile-by-mile basis. Construction progressed slowly. Working in the winter months was almost impossible. And prairie flies were a constant nuisance during the summer.
During the early years, most work was restricted to a 25-mile stretch around Indianapolis, 12 miles to the east and 11 miles to the west. New towns sprouted up along the proposed route, awaiting the road’s arrival.
William Greenup was appointed state superintendent of the Illinois section in 1830. When Congress passed a bill June 24, 1834 providing for its annual appropriations, it included a provision authorizing the War Department to select a Corps of Engineers officer to exercise control over National Road operations in Indiana and Illinois.
Capt. Cornelius Austin Ogden, an 1819 West Point graduate, was named superintendent of the 240-mile extension between the Indiana-Ohio state line and Vandalia, Ill.
Capt. Ogden arrived in Terre Haute in August 1834 and was appalled by the highway’s dilapidated condition, particularly in Illinois. By 1835, Ogden eliminated the private contract system and hired laborers directly. Under the new method, he wrote, “what is of no little importance, it is free from all extra allowances and after claims.”
Instead of letting contracts by the mile, he divided the road into ten-mile increments and was superintendent of all operations, hiring only men who provided their own tools. He paid workers east of the Wabash River 62 cents a day, sunrise to sunset, and those west of the river 70 cents a day.
Intemperance, insulting travelers, fighting, quarreling, idleness, “want of moral character” and conspiring “to effect a purpose” were just reasons for immediate dismissal.
The 1834 statute which created his position also made the superintendent personally accountable for every disbursement of funds received from the Treasury.
As a result, Ogden refused to hire laborers at locations too far from Terre Haute, his home base. When the town was awarded a branch of the Second State Bank of Indiana on Dec. 8, 1834, it made things easier. While the branch bank building on Ohio St. was under construction, Chauncey Rose provided a structure for the bank’s temporary use.
Ogden was provided two grading supervisors in Indiana, each with an assistant, one in Illinois, as well as two carpentry inspectors and two masonry inspectors in each state.
Yet he did not have enough manpower “to attend to extended works” in Richmond, Indianapolis, several sites in Illinois and the area extending east from the Illinois state line to 13 miles east of Terre Haute.
Ogden appealed for six assistants. Gen. Charles Gratiot, Chief Engineer of the Army Corps of Engineers, endorsed the request. When help was not forthcoming, Ogden advised Gen. Gratiot that “I must, therefore, decline making further disbursements that do not immediately come under my own eye.”
By letter dated July 2, 1836, the War Department confirmed Ogden’s interpretation.
The decision to confine Cumberland Road operations to “within 30 miles of the Wabash River” drew the ire of elite Indianapolis business leaders Calvin Fletcher, Nathaniel Bolton, James Blake, Benjamin Blythe, Seton W. Norris and Bethuel F. Morris.
After Marion County citizens met at the courthouse in Indianapolis on Aug. 6, 1836, the leaders demanded a meeting with Capt. Ogden and enlisted advice from President Andrew Jackson and Congressman George L. Kinnard. But Ogden held his ground.
In 1838, funding for the road in Indiana and Illinois ended. A Cumberland Road convention convened at Terre Haute that on June 8 and 9, 1839. Memorials were dispatched to Washington pleading for continuing subsidies. None were forthcoming.
Promoted to major in 1838, Ogden stretched his final appropriations through 1840 and in late 1839. prepared mile-by-mile estimates for future work: $3,144,250 to complete the road in Indiana; $2,448,838 to finish the 90-miles from the state line to Vandalia, Ill.
In the throes of bankruptcy due to the canals, the Indiana government was unable to finish the road. Privately-owned plank road companies assumed the responsibility. The Western Plank Road Co. was founded in Vigo and Clay counties for that purpose in 1852.
History
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Terre Haute headquarters for National Road Administrator
- History
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LOOKING BACK: 1962: Terre Haute Works of Allis-Chalmers closes
Dorothy Jerse looks back at local history from 10, 25 and 50 years ago as reported in the Tribune and Tribune-Star.
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GENEALOGY: BMD website great for tracing England, Wales
If you have ancestors who trace back to England or Wales within the past 175 years, then the Free BMD website at RootsWeb, at freebmd.rootsweb.com/, is the place to visit.
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HISTORICAL TREASURE: WBOW introduced some fine Valley talent
When it first began broadcasting in 1927, station WRPI (Rose Polytechnic Institute) focused on educational programing.
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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Inventor John B. Deeds and highwayman William G. Murray
Among the many unsolved local history mysteries is the fate of master machinist and inventor John B. Deeds.
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BRUCE'S HISTORY LESSON: This little-known compromise may have saved the union
When the Constitution was signed in September of 1787 and sent to the Congress that then existed under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was instructed to send that Constitution to the states to be ratified … or not. The message to the states was clear: Accept the Constitution or reject it, but don’t try to change it.
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Traveling Civil War exhibit makes history personal
Civil War history will come alive for visitors to the Sullivan County Public Library who experience “Faces of the Civil War,” a traveling exhibition created and managed by the Indiana Historical Society.
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GENEALOGY: Virginia Historical Society takes on ambitious project
Over the past few months, the Virginia Historical Society has launched an ambitious project to scrutinize more than 8 million 17th, 18th, and 19th century documents in order to identify the enslaved population of those times.
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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: The Legacy of ‘The Old Silkworm House’
In 1837, and for several years thereafter, a gray sandstone obelisk was installed next to a one-story frame residence at the northwest corner of Sixth and Eagle streets.
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HISTORICAL TREASURE: A blast from valentines past
Valentine’s Day — it brings to mind simple paper valentines and the elaborate, fancy store-bought cards with multiple verses and glittery covers.
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LOOKING BACK: 1962: Flu outbreak forces Schulte closed
Dorothy Jerse looks back at local history from 10, 25 and 50 years ago as reported in the Tribune and Tribune-Star.
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Original copy of 13th Amendment at Lincoln Library & Museum
A fully signed and recently restored copy of the Congressional resolution for a 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the official act that would abolish slavery in the United States, will be on display in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum’s Treasures Gallery.
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BRUCE'S HISTORY LESSON: Freedom of religion — beliefs and actions
Because religious faith is, arguably, the quintessential example of our right to privacy, to say nothing of its prominent place in our First Amendment, throughout our history court cases involving the free exercise of religion have been handled with great trepidation and with particular care. One of the milestone “free exercise” religion cases, Davis v. Beason, was decided by the Supreme Court this week (Feb. 3) in 1890.
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GENEALOGY: SoCal Genealogical Jamboree coming up in June
The Southern California Genealogical Society announces its 43rd Annual Jamboree, to be staged for three days on June 8-10, at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel in Burbank, Calif.
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LOOKING BACK: 2002: Disco Ernie featured on Maury
Dorothy Jerse looks back at local history from 10, 25 and 50 years ago as reported in the Tribune and Tribune-Star.
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HISTORICAL TREASURE: Flashing the mayor's badge
This mayoral badge was presented to the Vigo County Historical Society by Elizabeth K. Schultz, the granddaughter of Samuel E. Beecher Sr., who served as mayor of Terre Haute from 1936 to 1940.
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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Deadly tornado devastates York in 1907
John T. Staff loved water and, particularly, the Wabash River.
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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Notorious Western desperado Ellsworth Wyatt captured in Clay County
In October 1892, Terre Haute police received a circular from the State of Kansas containing a description of Ellsworth Wyatt and offering a $1,200 reward for his capture.
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LOOKING BACK: 2002: ISU students honor Martin Luther King Jr.
Dorothy Jerse looks back at local history from 10, 25 and 50 years ago as reported in the Tribune and Tribune-Star.
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HISTORICAL TREASURE: News letter filled with wonderful local news
We recently received five bound volumes of copies of the “Terre Haute Onizette,” the Owen-Illinois Glass Company news letter for the Terre Haute Plant.
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GENEALOGY: Peyton, Downey, Fifer queries and a plea for help from Scotland
This week, we have several queries.
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Extension plans seminar on land use
The Purdue Extension Land Use Team is hosting a video seminar titled “Welcome to the Plan Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals” from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday.
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BRUCE'S HISTORY LESSON: Kennedy, Camelot, and other myths
This week (Jan. 20) in 1961, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as our 35th president, and his tragic death by assassination notwithstanding, his was a mediocre presidency that, undeservedly, became the stuff of legend — in part because of his assassination.
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Actor to portray Lincoln at dinner for historical society
A special program, “And Lincoln Wrote,” is coming to Harlan Hall in Marshall, Ill., with a featured presentation by Dick Benach as Abraham Lincoln and Chuck Hand as the publisher of the Prairie Beacon.
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GENEALOGY: Celebrate MLK Day with the Indiana Historical Society
On Monday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Indiana Historical Society will offer free admission to celebrate Martin Luther King Day.
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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Light Guards savor military and social experiences
Never during the Civil War was there a time when the City of Terre Haute was in danger of hosting an armed conflict involving one or more armies.
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LOOKING BACK: 1962: 87 high school hoops teams compete in 47th annual Wabash Valley Tournament
Dorothy Jerse looks back at local history from 10, 25 and 50 years ago as reported in the Tribune and Tribune-Star.
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HISTORICAL TREASURE: A bottle of clove oil at the pharmacy
The Historical Treasure for today is a bottle of Clove Oil.
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LOOKING BACK: 1987: St. Mary’s Parish congregation celebrates 150th anniversary
Dorothy Jerse looks back at local history from 10, 25 and 50 years ago as reported in the Tribune and Tribune-Star.
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HISTORICAL TREASURE: Fire up the jukebox for a great night
The jukebox existed long before Glenn Miller’s “Juke Box Saturday Night” swing version.
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GENEALOGY: 1752 is one memorable year for genealogists
The year 1752 is one to remember if you have ancestors who lived in areas controlled by Great Britain; and this includes the American colonies.
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