Trevithick Engine
The development of the steam engine from simple pumping machine to the more
useful engine devised by James Watt in 1781 provided a revolutionary new
power source, as before mankind depended upon human or animal muscle to
perform its work. The new devices were soon put to work in factories and
other industrial areas to perform work for their human masters. The Watt
engine was too heavy and worked under too low a pressure to be practical
for anything but stationary work.
It was left to a man named Richard Trevithick to develop a high pressure
steam engine, and after it the first useful steam engine. His engine was
lighter and more compact. By 1803 he built the first one, dubbed the New
Castle, and on February 21, 1804 put it to its first test. It hauled ten
tons of iron ore and seventy men on a tramway for a distance of ten miles.
Two other engines were built by Trevithick from 1803 - 1808. The limiting
factor for these engines was the iron rails in use at the time which couldn't
support the heavy engines.
By 1825 George Stephenson ran the first commercial passenger train. On
September 27 of that year his locomotive, the Locomotion, pulled 450
passengers from Darlington to Stockton, England at 15 MPH. This event
marked the beginning of the steam powered railroad as a true transportation
method. In 1829, he built the Rocket, which could travel 36 MPH.
The Grouseland Treaty was signed at Grouseland, near Vincennes, Indiana.
The treaty was negotiated by Indiana Territory governor William Henry
Harrison and the Delaware, Eel River, Pottawattamie, and the Miami’s in 1805.
The compensation to the various tribes for the land ceded was contained in
Article 3d:
ART. 3d. The compensation to be given for the cession made in the first
article shall be as follows, viz: to the Delawares a permanent annuity of
five hundred dollars; to the Miamies a like annuity of five hundred dollars;
to the Eel river tribe a like annuity of two hundred and fifty dollars; and
to the Pottawatomie a like annuity of five hundred dollars
The boundary line for this treaty ran from the northwest corner of the
Vincennes Tract, an earlier acquisition from the Indians, to a point fifty
miles north of the Ohio River on the earlier Greenville Treaty line. Arthur
Henri, a United States Deputy Surveyor, began surveying this line July of
1806. This boundary line is the northwest boundary of Ripley County and
forms the border with Decatur County..
Indiana Treaty Lines
In 1816 Indiana was admitted as the sixteenth state of the Union. It was
fashioned from the southeastern section of the Indiana Territory, which had
its capitol in Vincennes. The Indiana Territory had been organized from the
much larger Northwest Territory, which was partitioned in 1800 by the US
government when the Ohio Territory was separated off. The Indiana state
capitol was established temporarily in Corydon, along the Ohio River in
the extreme southern part of the state.
A statute by the Indiana State Legislature combined Ripley County with
Jennings County until the two were able to be organized separately. The
county was named after General Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, a hero of the War of
1812. The Indiana legislature authorized John Depauw and Charles Beggs and
W.H. Eads to find a site for the seat for this newly formed county on
January 7, 1818. . Their remuneration was to be $3.00 a day each for their
labors. They selected a site overlooking the beautiful Laughery Valley in
the central part of the county. They chose the name Versailles, after the
home city of one of the three surveyors who picked the site - John DePauw of
France. Ripley County contains 450 square miles and measures 19 miles across
east to west, 27 miles south to north. The elevation above sea level ranges
from 600 to 1000 feet. Four Indian tribes called Ripley County home in
pre-settlement times - the Miami, Delaware, Potawatomi, and Shawnee each
hunted in the area.
On February 9, 1820 the town of Napoleon was laid out by William Wilson It
was the second town in Ripley County. Napoleon became the center of travel
for this area during the 1820 - 1850 period. The Michigan Road connected it
with Madison on the Ohio River. Brownstown Road, which earlier had been
known as Berry's Trace, emanated towards the west. There were also roads to
Versailles and Vevay. In 1821, the town had a weekly horseback mail route to
Vevay. There was also stage coach service on the route between Indianapolis
and Cincinnati. Napoleon was home to several inns and other vital
businesses. It was one of the principal towns of the region, and it was
growing.
Also in 1820 the first settlers began moving into the White River area in
the central part of Indiana. The first settlers here were drawn by the game
and high quality timber in the region. Delaware Indians still remained in the
area at this time. A delegation of commissioners appointed by the
legislature began scouting the area to choose the location of the state
capitol. Upon admission as a state, the Federal Government had bequeathed
the state four sections, or four square miles in any unsold federal land, to
use as a capitol. As a site near the geographic center of the state was
desired, the White River area was an ideal location. Nothing was done in the
matter of choosing a permanent location of the capitol from 1816 until 1820.
A site was chosen, after much discussion and disagreement among the
commissioners, on June 7, 1820. The legislature approved the site on
January 6, 1821. A name for the new capitol was also a subject of much
debate, and the legislature finally settled on a suggestion by Judge Jeremiah
Sullivan, to call the new city Indianapolis or "City of Indiana" as
designated by the Greek ending. Later that year, Marion County was formed
and in 1825 the capitol was moved to Indianapolis.
The B & O (Baltimore & Ohio) railroad was the first public railroad in the
United States and was chartered in 1827. It began operations in 1830 with
thirteen miles of track. The first rail cars were pulled by horses. There
were 23 total miles of rail lines in the United States in that year.
By 1848 there were 5996 miles of track, mostly linking the cities on the
east coast. During the 1850's, the average per year construction of track
was about 2000 miles. By now, the interior of the country was connected to
the east. A coast to coast railway was sorely needed. Construction was slowed
by the Civil War, but this goal was reached when the Golden Spike was driven
in at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869.
Next:
Brookville/Napoleon Road
Teunis Amack and his well
The Rail Line
Batesville Established
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