The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-01
THE CITY'SEARLY HOODLUMS
"reminiscences of the First Serious
Crimes in the History of indianapolis.
Ferry-The Stodgell Brothers, and Their
Later Hoodlum Descendants.
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In it's early days our city was probably less
infested by the class of men we now call 'hood-
luns' than most towns of its size partly because
its interior situation and remoteness from routes
of general travel and trade made 1t difficult of
access, and partly because the controlling senti.
ment of the population was decidedly moral, not
to say Puritanical. II was not three years old
when "Union Sunday school, was formed. as
the name implies, by combination Of all de
nominations, and held in Squire Scudder's cabi-
netshop. near the State house square. The
superintendent was the late James Blake, and
the moral tone of the people may be judged by
the fact that he caught some dozen boys, one
Sunday morning, swimming in the creek in what
was called 'Morris's Hole" site of the Union
Depot, and, with the help Of his colored servant,
''corralled" the crowd and drove them up to the
Union School {.
The first death by violence didn't occur till the
town was twelve years DID, and eight years after
it had become the State capital. The murderer
might be called the first "hoodlum" of the city,
though the name would hardly fit well, either
as he was property holder. had regular occu
patton and family though hard one, and was
by no means loafer But he was man of bad
temper, bad character and bad associations His
name was Michael Van Blaricum and he was
sent to the penitentiary for drowning VIM. Nc
Pherson He was the ferryman Of the State
ferry at the foot Of Washington street The old
National-road bridge was very nearly completed
at that time, but the ferry was still in use. and
Van Blaricum, who had spite at Mcpherson,
upset the boat while taking him across to his
brothers foundry, at the west end Of the bridge
On this occasion Captain Blake fred our only
cannon to raise the body
The next murder was three years later, but
the murderer was no hoodlum or ruffian, but q
man of wealth and responsibility, carriage
maker named Lashly who got into furious
passion with a charcoal burner named Collins,
and killed him with a wagon spoke single
tree. He was released on bari, and escaped.
This tragic affair occurred near the site of the
postofice
Somewhere near this time the first specimens
of genuine "hoodumismr appeared, in couple
Of brothers named Dave and Bill Stodgell, loaf
ers, thieves and gamblers Another, of much
the same class of associations but not so thor
oughly depraved, preceded thems His name was
Jack Bagwell, and his father, Bill Bagwell, was
one of the first fddlers Of the settlement, and
figures in some of Mr.. Nowland's amusing anec-
dotes of early times. The paternal Bagwell
lived in little log cabin on the southwest"I
corner Of Maryland and Illinois streets,
and made cigars, to one Of which Jack treated
the reminiscent, and it left him in two minutes,
on tobacco pile, too sick to 60 to school or 60
fishing. Jack was a rough fellow-profane, not
scrupulousiy honest or mofaI but he was no
thief. The Stodgells were thoroughly bad.
They had not single good trait, either of cour-
age, truth or decency. They made no bones Of
robbing smaller boys Of their apples, or candy,
quent probationary. Some forty odd years ago
there was circus on the present site of the
Park Theater then belonging to Judge Charles
Dewey, of the Supreme Court, and used as a
show ground as frequently as the square south
of the Vandalia depot is now To this circus
the reminiscent obtained his fathers consent and
twenty five other cents to CO. He started for his
anticipated paradise with his quarter tightly |
CELL who asked, 'Wherey you goingw Proudly the |
answer came, Coin to the show" Ironically, !
"Oh yes, you're goin' TO the show heap |
how're you goin' to get inf" Got a quarter
fifty dollars; you've got enough to take all the
boys in town In Nettled out of his caution, |
Understanding the quarter in his outstretched |
hand the very thing che astute thief had been |
playing for 1t was snatched with the alacrity
usually ascribed to the attack of ga duck on |
June bug" and the triumphant thief ran off, |
shouting, "How1l you get in nowF The victim |
was not too big to cry, and he cried loudly, went
to his father crying. and the indignant gentle |
man took the bereaved boy TO The circus got the |
ticket for him, led him to the door and put him
in safely. |
don't know what ever became Of these primi- |
tive hoodlums of Indianapolis. 1t was said they |
left here and went to the Ohio river about I843 |
but whether they did or not it is pretty certain |
that they were hanged or shot somewhere. There |
could have been no reclamation or reformation /
for such ingraned scoundrels. and no possibility
of long life in the path they were travelling.
hy1f of y,ob
more respectable parentage, were the Phillips |
boys sons of Israel Phillips sheriff of the county
about 1888, and killed by being thrown from his |
buggy, near Beecher's church, soon after it was |
built At that time he lived in rather handsome /
brick house on the southeast corner of Market |
and Illinois streets; but he had previously |
lived in a two-story brick on the site of YoIn's |
Block. Until the death Of their father the boys |
were not conspicuousiy worse than some others. |
Afterwards the whole family went to the bad, |
taking after the mothers family. the LaQuatts |
who lived at the crossing of West street and |
Indiana aventie or Michigan road, when West |
street was a lane with corn-feld on one side |
and the Military Ground" on the other, and |
quarter races were run there nearly every
Saturday by sports" from town and country
The worst of the Phillips boys was Jim,
though Tom. the eldest, was more than bad |
enough. Israel, jr., was the most respectable of |
the lot but he and Merritt Young, younger
brother of the late Granville Young, became |
rivals for the favor of some handsome girl of no |
very. exalted virtue, and one night,
on Washington street. opposite the site of |
the New York store, in 1851 or whereabouts, |
the two met and quarreled, and Young stabbed |
Phillips fatally. He ran across the street to the |
south side and fell and died in front of Ross & |
Rays book store Young was defended by VIM |
Quarles and Hugh O'Neal, and given a light |
sentence. 1t was the last case that Mr. Quarles |
ever had. Within Il year or two after the death |
of Israel Jim was arrestedlat Charlottesville with
another hoodlum, named Aaron Hudson, for |
stealing horse. He had previously been ar
rested moro than once for thefts actual or sus-
pected, and had made himself conspicuously |
frightful to small boys by robbing them Of their
walnuts beechnuts, or applehaws, or any
thing they had that he wanted He had become |
every way as bad as the Stodgells a dozen or |
m ore years before. In one respect he was worse,
for he was quarrelsome ard well disposed to |