Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1905-1906, 1906-02-26
SALISBURY IS
AGAIN IN PRINT
E. 7. LEWIS WRITES ABOUT OLD
COUNTY SEAT BEING
"HooDooED."
ESTABLISHED BY TRICKERY
He Also Tells of Hindoostan and
Palestine, Which Have Also
Vanished from Earth.
ESTABLISHED BY TRICKERY

E. I. Lewis, writing in the Indian
apolis News Saturday, on "Ambi-
tious Indiana County Seats that
Have Vanished from Earth,' has
some interesting things to say about
Salisbury, once the county seat OF
Old Wayne. The other two towns
which he tells about are Hindoostan
and Palestine. Hindoostan was for
merly the county seat Of Martin.
Lewis says that it was killed by the
prevalence of sickness. Palestine,
the former county seat Of Lawrence,
he says, was built over a burial
mound, fact not known till long
after sickness had also wiped it out
of existence. Salisbury, he thinks,
was "hoodooed' by the murder of
Henry Chryst.
He gives an Introductory para
graph to Salisbury and then follows
good account of it.
ooh, yes; when we pillow In the
spring we turn up brickbats and piec-
es of broken crockery. That's all we
see left of old Salisbury Wayne coun-
tvs first county seat. Get pretty
fair corn out of this field. The
courthouse stood there near the hedge
and down there in the boiler stood
the elm tree used as the gallows for
the first legal execution in Indiana.
If they hadn It moved the county seat
away from here perhaps there would
have been no Richmond" The far
mer who owns and farms the site of
Wayne county's first county seat
looked out over snow covered field.
Salisbury was a healthy enough
place, but it seems to have been hoo
dooed out of existence. 1t is as
serted by local historians that the
county seat was located at Salisbury
in 1910, by trickery, and this alleged
trickery undoubtedly led to the long
agitation, that in 1917, resulted in
the seats being shifted over to Gen.
terville, which, half century later,
lost the courthouse to Richmond.
In the spring Of 1916, a year be-
fore the removal of the county seat
from Salisbury, a man named Henry
Chryst, convicted Of murder, was
hanged to the branch Of an old elm
tree that stood on the outskirts Of
the town. The really narrowing fea-
ture of the tragedy occurred that
night, when the son of the executed
man, lad Of only twelve years, cut
the cold body of his father down and
loading it on a sled, hauled it fifteen
miles through the forests and dark
ness to the Chryst home. The
whole affair was so horrible that it
cast a gloom over the town. Those
were days of superstition and many
thought that the execution brought
the vengeance of God on the town.
The fact that superstition existed
Just about that time is shown in the
! court records of the trial of a man
named Petit. who, "not having the
fear of God before his eyes" and
"impelled by his Statnic Majesty,
the DEVIL was charged with having
committed theft. The town, accord
ing to some, became "impelled by the
DEVIL
Salisbury, Notwithstanding these
handicaps, really did show unmis-
| ly.llo Indications &c Jaralon;pn IN
to large city. The court house and
Jail attracted population and civic
pride led the citizens to advance the
| assertion that theirs was the most
vigorous town in the eastern part of
Indiana Territory. At one time the
population was over 800 souls, which
was considerable for those days, and
| there were industries that employed
| number of men. But the decline
| came in hurry when the court house
and Jail were moved over to Center
vile. Most of the population fol-
lowed the logs to the new location
| and in 1S26-ten years later-there
were only ten families left.
It was at Salisbury that Oliver P.
Morton was born and there he served
his Apprenticeship as halter Among
the noted men who presided over and
tried eases in the court at Salisbury
| were Benjamin Park, James Noble,
Jesse L. Holman, John Watts and
Mile C. Eggleston.
The very location of the town has