The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-04
RACE MODS.
Some Of the Early Troubles in Indianapolis
-Ludicrous Ending Of One of the MOhs.

Something of the race antipathies that appear
so conspicuouslv in Yazoo and Danville, and
other scattered spots of the South, used to show
themselves in this city when it was little
country town. A considerable proportion of the
! first settlers came from Kentucky. Virginia and
North Carolina, and mustered in force enough
at the first election, April l. 1922, to run can
didate of their own against the Whitewater, or
Yankee settlers. 1t was Kentucky, with Morris
Morris, father of the General against White
| water, with James NJ Ray, for county clerk,
and Whitewater won by a large majority. but
still, showing heavy force Of slave State settlers
and sentiment. This sentiment was much
what it has been in the South and the Democrat
ic sections Of the North ever SINCE tersely ex-
| pressed in the Democratic shibboleth: Damn a
niger, anyhow
! After the completion of the First Episcopal
| Church, site of Christ Church, on the Circle in
1888, young lady from the East was brought
here as organist--the second in the place. the
/ first being the first wife of the late W. II. Nor
rison-and with her came her sister. They had
not been here long-it was probably in the
! spring or summer of 1839-when the sister, it
was rumored through the town, proposed to
d
case of miscegenation a mob led by Bill Bal
lenger, who afterwards killed a negro named
John Tucker on the 4th of July, 1845, and a
young man named Josiah Simcox, surrounded
the house and captured the bride and groom
She was dismissed with no worse infection than
a good deal of rough and dirty talk and coarse
| names. but he was decorated with little appli
cation Of tar and feathers-though this has been
denied-and ridden on rail till he promised to
leave the place at once a promise that he re-
ligiously and instantly kept His wife joined
| him in his departure and the organist sister fol
! lowed Very little disturbance made, and
| most of the townspeople knew nothing of the
affair till the next day or later Ballenger and
Simcox thought it best to Withdraw from
| public admiration for few days. The latter
never returned, except secretly and for few
| hours to visit his mother and her family. The
! former came back, kept bar in Bill Langsdale' s
| saloon, and ended, as before remarked, by kill
| ing colOred man on the 4th of July. He was
an ardent Democrat, and proved his faith by his
] works, like the gentleman who shot Prent Mat
thews for voting the Republican ticket in Mis-
| Sissippi.
| It was not far from the time of this mob that
| a feud sprang up between colored family by
the name of Overall, living on what was then
the open ground west of the canal or the site of
it, near the Military Ground" on West street,
then lane used a race-track for quarter
races and gang of roughs known as the
| ''chain-g gang" 1t was composed of the hands
left out of employment here by the abandon
ment of the national road for want of con-
gressonal appropriation, and of the canal by the
States lack of money, preceding the virtual
bankruptcy and hard times" of 40 to AZ. They
were under the lead of .old Dave
Buekhart," who usually went barefooted
in summer, without coat or vest, and
frequently without hat-the fellow said
by popular but exaggerated tradition to have
been thrashed by the Rev. James Ravens,
'Old Sorrel, +" for disturbing camp meeting in
the Military Ground"-and their occupation.
when they had any, was digging or cleaning
wells and moving houses. The Overal!s were
not considered highly respectable family.
The boys were reputed thieves and the girls
strumpets. So the contest was one of entire
equality in moral characteristics for the chain
gang lived on stolen pigs, chickens, pumpkins,
roasting-ears and fruit when they couldn't earn
enough to buy food as well as whisky. There
were good many collisions between the belliger-
ents, all of whom lived on the west side of
the canal or in its vicinity, and met frequently.
The feud was brought to an end by a deliber-
ately planned attack of the ''gang" on Overall's
house. 1t was strenuously defended with rife
and brick bat and the gang was ingloriously
defeated and driven Off The contest was never
renewed, at least to an extent to make public
| disturbance.
| mob had rather ludicrous as well as very
| sudden origin on Meridian street one day some
forty years ago. 1t was not a race mob, how
| ever, and does not legitimately belong in this
connections but it may as we'll be noted now
and dismissed On the east side of Meridian
street. corner of Washington, south SIDE was
| frame building of one story belonging to Judge
Blackford. in which were three business houses:
James Sulgrove's saddlery establishment at the
/ east end Samuel Wainwright's tinware factory
IN f1ov, Hla and Nv hoy1
store at the corner, with shed or porch cover
ing the whole sidewalk to the curb the full
length of the building. Under this porch, one
day about noon, fellow was seen holding on
to another who was pretty drunk, tugging at
his breaches pocket which he had pulled out,
and resisting at the same time the victims
drunken efforts to get loose and get away. "A
crowd of dozen gathered around in minute,
and asked what the trouble was The drunken
| fellow had sense enough to understand and an
swer. and he said the other fellow was trying to
rob him of So he had in his pocket. HE lies, =
said the thief; 'he owes me So for work
on his farm, aud he won't pay me-" He never
worked fer me in his life" replied the victim; II
never saw him till this morning when 1 treated
him, and he saw my money" The crowd be-
Iieved in the old MAXIM lin vino veritas, and
accepted the drunken fellows story-a fact at
tested on the instant by a rotten turnip from
the gutter that took the other fellow in the face
with binding and plastering splash that made
him let 60 of his victim. In two minutes the
crowd could have been counted by hundreds, and
eggs began to fly thick and fast, some breaking
on the fellows head and body and some against
the wall of Growers store. No harm was done
beyond egging the thief and covering him with
mud, but this was thoroughly done, and dirtier
human being never seen in Indianapolis
than he was in two minutes after the first turnip
hit him. He was arrested but let go as he had not
done any robbery, whatever he meant to do.
The other fellow was led off by some friend, and
no doubt soon got rid of his three dollars as
effectualy as if the thief had taken it.
The Quality of EIection-Ticke Paper.
The decision in the case Of Eli Heiny vs. W.
G. WATSON. which involved the question of the
of alo