The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-07-06
HOME TOWNS SAD CHANGE
REVERSE SIDE OF THE sHIELD OF
INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.
Bijou Theater the Substitute for In
nocent shows Given in the Old
Hotel Dining Room.

-a ENAN1@S SOD
emigrated from Lancaster. Pa. with his
wife. seven children ard all his possessions.
in three wagons. or prairie schooners. as
they were called. They had been on the
road many weeks. camping by night and
travelling by day and had about reached
the center of the Territory of Indiana when
one OF the children was stricken with a
fever. The family being much fatigued by
their primitive form of travel had camped
at the side of the wagon road. near a
spring. where the child died and was
buried. They had intended as a destination
the fertile lands of the Illinoy," but the
grave of their child at the spring, the
beauty OF the country. and the rich black
soil around determined them TO remain.
John turned in with his ak, felled trees
and built a log cabin for his family. There
were other trains of wagons going through,
the occupants Of which invariably camped
at the spring. Through the earnest appeal
Of John and his family many settled with
them and after forming a little community
they built a blockhouse for protection
from the Indians. They had arrived In time
to plant only a small crop which was taken
the following spring by John Balestier and
fellow-pioneers on horseback to John
Corners mill in the Whitewater
valley where 1t was ground. The set
Element around Corners mill was after
wards named Connersville. They proceeded
TO Brookville, where the land office was
situated, and took. up legal claim to the
land which they occupied. A month later
John returned from Cincinnati with a
wagorlosd Of supplies and implements used
by pioneers and opened a general store.
Another one Of the party returned with an
anvil and bellows and established a forge
In the forest. The following year a saw and
grist mill was built. later the tavern. for
the ccommodation Of the strangers who
had formerly camped around the mill where
the grist was being ground and in a few
years the settlement was known as Bales
tier. The families intermarried, other emf
grants along the wagon road bound for
the nlinoy'' remained and it was soon a
thriving community.
When Indiana was taken into the Union
Balestier was made A county seat. A log
courthouse was built. followed by a log
Jail, as crime was springing up. AS the
forests were cleared and the swamp lands
reclaimed by drainage the settlers ceasing
to be woodsmen became agriculturists and
SHS community ndu It's SeCOnQ DTedQln Oh
prosperity. Years later the railroad was
built, schoolhouses and churches sprang
up. the log courthouse was replaced by a
brick one. The tow became the center of
a large and fertile agricultural district
and grew into a place of 1000 inhabitants.
For a generation the population was dor
mant, but at the discovery of natural gas.
some fourteen years ago. it had another
boom. Factories rose on every hand. farms
were laid off into town lots and the popu-
lation grew TO an extent that changed the
towns whole aspect, physical, social and
moral.
REMARKABLE TRANSFORMATION.
No one can realize the transformation of
one of these towns unless it has been your
boyhood home and you have returned after
many years of life in a metropolis. When
you get off a train in front of a handsome
stone station, you recall the old lead-col-
ored wooden one, with the brawny, sun
burnt boys standing about the platform in
riveted overalls and broad-brimmed straw
hats. which served chiefly as weapons
against bumblebees. You find welI-paved
streets lined on each side with pressed brick
buildings as far as the hotel-the New
Alkaline" As you go through the balconied
entrance into the cool marble, Mosaic
foored lobby, and approach the desk you
are met by a well-groomed, diamond
studded clerk. After registering YOU sit
in one OF the riChly-carved davenports. up-
holstered in purple velvet. The frescoed
walls and ceiling, the vanished artificial
palms. opalescent shades. of the silvered
electroliers, the art metal work of the desk
and elevator inclOSI1ro arc III IN a poono,.
light cast from the afterglow OF the sun.
through the soft tints of the stained-glass
windows and 'skylight. The clerk is sorting
the last mail while the cigar-stand man
folds and stamps the evening papers. The
oell-boys, on a bench under the stairway
balcony, ~sneakingly scufle with each other
with an eye on the clerk and the telegraph
operator is reading a novel.
Contrast this with the Ross House. the
hotel of your day. You passed it coming
up from the station. 1t has degenerated
into a boarding house for tinplate workers
and glass blowers. who sit out in front.
their chairs Titled back and their feet
against the trees along the walk, revealing
their tattooed shins. You remember the old
shows that were given in the dining room
of this house, for in your day it was the
only place in town which approached in
size an auditorium. Occasionally a strolIing
company of transformers would arrive.
billing" the most elaborate of classic and
dramas. The leading man, who
usually had a game leg, circulated hand
bills through the town stating while in
Balestier will accept a limited amount of
piano tuning and melodeon repairing"
Often a man appeared with an educated
pig. He would arrange cards on the floor
of the improvised stage and ask such cues
tons as o what day does the next
Fourth of July Gomez Who was the first
Of the United States?'' The mig
would grope among the cards, pick UP one
his mouth bearing the answer and give
IT TO his master. Then there was a sleight-
of-hand man who would fire a pistol in the
air and walk out in the audience and nick
a horses tail from under the vest of a
prominent citizen. Another man ate burn
ing cotton and made a hole in his cheek.
Of which he pulled yards OF baby-biue
afterwards clipping ii up and dis
10 little girls in the audience.
In the evening as you stand In the hotel
entry you see visions OF the old mover
wagons on that very street, twenty or thir-
ty of them in a train. A big suburban car.
will go numbering past and the spell is
broken, and you mediate on the changes
time and condition have wrought.