Railroads, Creeks, and Villages

RAILROADS, CREEKS AND VILLAGES

RAILROADS

            “Oh up and down the Monon where everything is fine, It’s that rootin,’ tootin’ Monon, It’s the Hoosier line.” 

           One of the things that made Ladoga a thriving community in the early days was the arrival of the railroads.  The Monon line was built in 1853 and was routed through Ladoga because of the foresight of several businessmen.  The natural route of the Monon would have been straight down SR 43 (Now 231) on to Greencastle and then to points south.  When the RR developers were asked about taking the Monon through Ladoga, they informed the businessmen that it would cost $50,000.  Ladoga decided to invest the amount needed by selling stock and receiving donations and from 1853 to 1970, the Monon was very important to industrial Ladoga.

            Grace Denny had a good article about the importance of the Monon and the Midland RR’s to the prosperity of the growing town.  She wrote in the Sesquicentennial book of 1986:

            “Just before the Centennial, Urban Stover, one of the older citizens of Ladoga, recalled the early days of the Monon.  ‘The town of Ladoga is very much indebted to the railroad now know as the Monon, but originally called the New Albany and Salem.  This north and south railway from New Albany to Michigan City, was built through Ladoga in 1853.  To bring the railroad through Ladoga, the citizens raised $50,000 by the sale of stock, and in donations to the New Albany and Salem Company.  This was a wise investment since the natural and short route between Greencastle and Crawfordsville was through Parkersburg a town of considerable importance.  It my have been that if no rail line had been built through Ladoga, the town might have become a ‘ghost’ village.  It was on no important through highway; it might have become like Tinkersville or Carrolton that Will Anderson wrote about in the history of Early Ladoga.” 

            According to the History of the Monon on its official website, “The Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad known affectionately as the Monon, is Indiana’s own.  Monon derives from Potawatomi Indian words that sounded to the first settlers like ‘metamonong’ or ‘monong’ and seemingly meant ‘tote’ or ‘swift running’.  In 1882, the railroad started printing ‘The Monon Route’ on company maps, later naming itself ‘Monon-the Hoosier Line’ on timetables , letterheads and rolling stock.”  In April, 1865, a Monon engine pulled President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train at 5 mph per orders from Lafayette to Michigan City, one of twenty railroad lines honored to participate in the 20-day, 1,666-mile trail of sadness from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Illinois.  One of Ladoga’s citizens was a young soldier in April of 1865.    Samuel F. Tilford had also decided to attend Ford’s Theater to see the play “Our American Cousin.”  He said he saw Booth standing near the President’s box all through the first act of the play and then missed seeing him till he had shot the President and jumped to the stage.  Mr. Tilford assisted in carrying the body of Mr. Lincoln to the residence across the street where he breathed his last the following morning, April 15, 1865.

            An interesting item about the Monon and Ladoga appeared in the Montgomery Magazine of October 1977.  It reads, “Edward Brewer drew attention to Ladoga as he became the first man to learn the use of the telegraph and transmit messages by wire.”  In the early days, mills were built close to a stream or railroad.  John Hardin had a large flour mill just west of the Monon Depot.  It was torn down sometime around 1928-1930.

            Anyone who has ever lived close to a railroad (The Monon ran right behind my house) will remember the engine stopping at the water tank at the edge of town to take on water, the cloud of black smoke coming out of the smokestack, the cinders in your eyes, and the lonesome sound of the whistle as the train approached a crossing.  However you have to be a real train lover to remember the boy across the street who pretended to actually be a train.  He would run down his sidewalk making his best train imitation and would stick out his arm to snag the mail bag, then stop at the end of the sidewalk, walk back and reload the contraption that held the mail bag and repeat the process all over again for the whole morning.  (He loved trains)  In those days, much of the mail was shipped by train and the fast express didn’t stop at our little town.  They just stationed a man on the caboose and he stuck out a long pole and snagged the mail sack.  I can also remember hearing the train coming (That would have been the Old Midland which ran east and west, while the Monon ran north and south.  (They crossed nearly in my back yard).  When we heard the train coming, we rushed out and put a penny on the track so we would have a flat penny for a souvenir.  We must have made a lot of them, but what did we do with them?

            The Central Indiana Railway began on July 3, 1871.  It was reorganized into the Midland Railway Company on July 7, 1885.  At its peak, it ran from Muncie, IN to Brazil, IN.  Stations along the line of interest to Ladoga and Montgomery County folks included Lebanon, Advance, New Ross, Ladoga, Waveland and Waveland Junction.  The CIR ran a distance of 117 miles and owned eleven locomotives and a variety of rolling stock.  From 1887 to 1929, it connected with the Monon at Ladoga.  According to Bob Elliott who followed the Midland ROW in 2005, the ROW can be seen at 9307 US RTE 231 in Lapland, IN.  He also commented that between Ladoga and Lapland there is a Central Indiana (Midland) location named Pawnee, IN.  Pawnee is now one house at 1492 E Cty. Road 900S.  The Montgomery Magazine of 1977 reported the following

“The Central Indiana RR was built about 1887 and extended from Waveland where it formed a junction with the Vandalia line called the ‘Pumpkin Vine,’ northeasterly through Ladoga and New Ross and on through the state.  In the early 1900s, the line was controlled by the Vandalia.  There was a roundhouse in Waveland, which was a meeting place for all the boys, young and old.  The last tracks of the Central Indian RR or the Midland were removed in the 1920s.”  Members of the MMCC (Monday Morning Culture Club) remember the hump of the railroad grade that existed at the intersection of Nebraska and Washington Streets, which served as a launching ramp for many cars until it was leveled in the 50s.     

The Midland ran into Ladoga from the west and followed Nebraska Street through town and on past the Canning Factory to Lebanon. It ran through New Ross at the corner of SR 136 and the Ladoga-New Ross Road.  The depot in New Ross was just north of Whitecotton’s (Now Ron Wrede’s) house.  It ran right down the road just north of the highway and then straight to the east side of Ladoga where the Canning Factory was.  This connected the canning factory at Ladoga with the one at Lebanon.  The Midland then ran through Ladoga on what is now Nebraska Street.  It crossed a little  behind the David Vice property in Scotland Park.  It then continued to Lapland, Pawnee and Penobscot which are west of Ladoga on 231 north of Parkersburg on what was now the Lincoln Priebe farm. (Now owned by Morris Mills).  From there it continued on through Waveland and then to Brazil.  There were two Midland Depots in Ladoga.  Someone in the Monday Morning Culture Club suggest that they may have been used at the same time.  One may have been used for passengers and the other for freight.  It is also possible that one merely replaced the other.  The first was just south of Chester Peffley’s house on North Sycamore Street and the other was on Nebraska Street where the telephone office is now.  The water tower was behind where the Grantham house is now. (Charlie and Ethel)  The only station master that Chet Vice can remember was Fred Thompson.

In his book Ghost Trains of Indiana, Elmer Sulzer had an interesting note regarding the Midland and Montgomery County.  He wrote:

“In 1903, the new owners of the Central Indiana (Midland) made some effort to bring the railroad up to a reasonably good operating standard.  The line was reballasted and otherwise improved.  Passenger excursions continued to be scheduled, and special rates were established for these events and holiday travel.  After the coming of the electric interurban, citizens of Ladoga would crowd the trains to New Ross where they would catch the old Ben Hur traction line for Indianapolis.  Children in Boston, Eagletown, and Jolietville rode the varnish to the Westfield high school; and on the southwest end of the line, miners’ trains took the workers to and from the colleries.”  The Midland closed down in 1929.

 One of the big boys once told me that the distance between the tracks of a railroad and the distance between the wheels on your car was the same.  He concluded that you could let some air out of your tires, put the car on the tracks and drive it on the railroad tracks just like driving on the road.  I was 16, had my driver’s license, and a dark green 41 Pontiac, built like a tank, so I decided to test his theory.  It worked.  I put the car on the tracks at the intersection of Nebraska and Hickory, just north of the high school building and started east toward the intersection that led to the Canning Factory.  Everything went as planned.  I drove slowly and carefully and arrived at the next intersection.  I always wondered what would have happened if there had been a train on the tracks coming the other way.  Worse yet, I have always wondered what my Dad would have said and done if he had found out about my experiment.

            There were also a couple of train wrecks that occurred right behind my house.  We soon got used to the sound of the train going by and the slight shaking of the house.  We got so used to it, that we didn’t even hear the train wreck in 1949 or the other one in 1950.  Every summer, the RR would, bring in section hands to work on the tracks.  They were usually college students working at a summer job.  Most were athletes, because they would play football with us on Saturdays and Sundays.  The depot was just across the street from the ball diamond and their sleeping car would be parked on a siding until their work was finished; then they would go on to another town and repeat the process.

                            

                                         Monon Depot

Marietta Ronk, the Monon Belle of 1950

Marietta Ronk didn't have to have a ticket the day she became Monon Belle

     The old Midland Depot on Nebraska Street

The Midland roundhouse at Waveland

John Kessler tends the Monon pumphouse.

The Monon depot on Sycamore and Taylor.

Another view of the Monon depot.

            The Monon history website concluded by observing that:

            “The Monon served five major Universities in Indiana, Purdue University (West Lafayette), Wabash College (Crawfordsville), DePauw University (Greencastle), Indiana University (Bloomington), and Butler University (Indianapolis).  The state’s decision to put Purdue University at Lafayette in 1869 had partly to do with Monon service, there since 1852.  So important was the college traffic that the road painted its passenger rolling stock the red and white of Wabash College, and painted its freight engines black and gold of DePauw University (not Indiana University and Purdue University as is commonly thought).  In 1959, after the Indianapolis to Chicago trains were discontinued, it didn’t make sense to continue with two color schemes, and to economize, the red and white passenger scheme was slowly converted to black and gold.

When I was growing up in the 50's, we called this the Red Bridge.  It was just north of the cemetery on the Ladoga-Roachdale road.  It has been replaced by a cement bridge.

The Harshbarger Covered Bridge was replaced by a concrete bridge.

Cornstalk Bridge

Cornstalk Bridge

Cornstalk Bridge

Just around the corner from the Harshbarger Bridge is a covered bridge that spans Cornstalk Creek.

The White Covered Bridge

White Bridge was built by a Mr. Daniels in 1882 and was torn down in 1941.  It had a span of 120 feet.

The White covered bridge was replaced by a concrete bridge in 1941.  the locals still call it the White bridge.

                             An earlier view of the Red Bridge when it was called the wagon bridge.

           

CREEKS

            The little town of Ladoga began with houses built on Raccoon Creek because of the springs that were present on both side of the creek.  Big Raccoon begins at Max as an open ditch between Lebanon and Advance.  It enters Clark Township just south of New Ross on the Larry Myers farm (Now Brian Bradley) and wanders along the south side of Ladoga until it enters Putnam County and finally empties into Raccoon Lake east of Rockville.  After leaving Raccoon Lake, Raccoon Creek finally empties into the Wabash at Mecca.  The first houses almost without exception were built on the banks and streams and always by a spring.  The existence of the spring determined the location of the house because people had no time to dig wells.  Ladoga owes its existence to the number of good springs that existed on either side of the Raccoon in its vicinity.  No less than ten houses were built along the creek in this vicinity before 1830 and every one was by a spring.  This was the nucleus of the town of Ladoga which began on either bank of Raccoon Creek and moved steadily northward for seventy-five years.  This was written in 1913 by one of the early Ladoga historians.  The town was platted by John Myers on March 26, 1836 and was laid out “square with the world.”  Only six blocks were platted at that time including forty-eight lots.  This plat is included between South and Elm streets and the Monon railroad and Walnut Street.  There were four blocks east of Washington Street and two west with an equal number on either side of Main.  The original town square was at the corner of South and Washington where there were two stores, “doing a large business in general merchandise both facing on South Street and one on either side of Washington.”  In 1838, there were eight houses on the north side of South Street and two houses north of the two stores, two on the south side of South Street and five around the mill.  These seventeen buildings were what were considered the town.  The crossing at Washington and South streets continued to be the public square until the fifties when the town began to expand to the north.

            Ladoga was once noted for its flour mills, having three at one time and five altogether. .  One of the most ambitious projects was accomplished by John Meyers, Jr., in 1835 as he constructed a four story grist mill with a double set of French burrs, complete with elevators and bolting cloth.   In 1853-54, William Baldwin attempted to compete with the water mills by employing steam power. 

            Cornstalk Creek was named after the Indian chief, Peter Cornstalk.  Cornstalk Creek begins as an open ditch on a farm now owned by Wayne McCutchan, on property once owned by Cecil Stewart, just outside New Ross and meanders northeast to southwest through Clark Township until it enters Putnam County just east of Parkersburg.  It empties into Raccoon Creek just southeast of Parkersburg at a covered bridge.  It goes by the northwest corner of Harshbarger Cemetery where Chief Cornstalk’s village of about 400 Indians lived in the early days of Clark Township.  There are several differing accounts as to the influence and character  of Peter Cornstalk and so many conflicting stories that there seems to have been two or three chiefs with that name.   He has been identified as either of the Miami (Wea, Eel River, Snakefish), Shawnee, or Potawami tribe.  He is said to have been buried in Howard County, IN, in 1838 or in Kansas.  There are stories about him from Vigo, Putnam, Montgomery, Howard and Tipton.  We know this much for certain.  There was a Chief Peter Cornstalk who lived with his tribe on the creek that bears his name just north of where the Harshbarger Cemetery is now.  Many Indian artifacts and bones have been found to indicate the presence of an Indian village there and there have been first-hand accounts of Clark County people who talked with and knew the chief personally.

             Haw Creek runs well south of Ladoga almost to the Putnam County line outside of Roachdale.  It has its beginning in an open ditch just west of west of Hicks Cemetery on the farm of Don Barker at 1100south 1025 east and empties into Big Raccoon Creek on the Harlan Vaught farm just east of Parkersburg.

            Little Raccoon Creek empties into Big Raccoon south of Ladoga just above the dam.  It enters Clark Township from Hendricks County between 800 S and 900 S. 

            SMALL TOWNS AND VILLAGES

            There were two fairly large towns and several small villages around Ladoga. Three miles south of town, where the Monon Railroad now crosses the county line road, there was a thriving commercial center known as Ashby Mills and sometimes referred top as “Stumptown.” The post office called the area Ashby Mills, the railroad called it Forest Home and the residents called in Stumptown.  This would have been long before the founding of the neighboring town of Roachdale.  The Ashbys had a mill there which gave the town its name.  There was also a railway station and a general store that drew trade from many miles around.  In 1874, there were three post offices in Clark Township.  They were at Ladoga, Ashby’s Mills and Forest Home which was on the Monon line on the Montgomery and Putnam County line near Ashby’s Mills.  In earlier days there were also post offices at Pawnee in Clark Township and Penobscot and Parkersburg in Scott Township.

            Another neighboring town was Parkersburg which grew up by the big spring on the Greencastle Road.   It was called Parkersburgh until 1893 It was laid out by Christopher Shuck in 1829 and originally named Somerset, later named Shucktown.  They finally settled on Parkersburg after the postmaster Nathaniel Parker.   There were two hotels, three general stores, two boot and shoe shops, a carding factory, tailor shops and blacksmith shops.

            There were also several villages in and near Ladoga:

            Connettsville was a 28 acre area at the northwest edge of Ladoga.  It was laid out by M.A. Connett.

            Carrolton was platted by John James, son-in-law of Abraham Inlow in 1829.  It had a store and a blacksmith shop and was south and west of the Inlow Cemetery northeast of Ladoga.  

            Somerset later called Shucktown was located near where the spring now is in Parkersburg.

            Lapland and Pawnee weren’t closely connected with Ladoga and were located on 231 north of Parkersburg on what is now the Morris Mills farm.   Morris’ son now lives on the farm.  (It was formerly the Lincoln Priebe farm).  Lapland is at 9307 US Rte. 231.  Pawnee is located at 1492 E. Cty Rd. 900S.   In its heyday, Pawnee had a telegraph office, a grain mill, a saw mill, a lumber yard and a place for loading stock onto the Midland Railroad. For some reason, Lapland is the only village that still appears on Indiana highway maps.

            Jamestown was on Raccoon Creek on the back side of the Brent Poynter property, the old Otterman farm.  It is now owned by Rusty McIntire.  That would be NE of Ladoga.

            Oklahoma was where the ice cream stand (Now a filling station) is now.  It is on Oklahoma Street where the nursing home was.

            Riverside was the area where the Indiana Christian Children’s home was. (Now the Juvenile Center)

            Smoky Row was the name given to the area along South Street.  The smoke came from the tannery.

            Haw Creek was the name given to the area around Haw Creek. 
            Penobscot was west of Ladoga.  It was on the Midland line as were Pawnee and Lapland.  It is just across the township line in Brown Township.

            Stumptown was on the county line road just west of the railroad outside Roachdale.

            
Ashby Mills or Forest Home was also south of Ladoga on the Putnam County line.  It was on the Monon RR and had a post office and several businesses.  Most of the land was owned by Silas F. Kyle a prosperous Ladoga businessman in the early days of the town.  Forest Home was divided into the West Division and the East Division depending on which side of the Monon, the land lay.

 Cornstalktown was an Indian village, later a small community on Cornstalk Creek just west of Cornstalk Cemetery.  It was the site of the Cornstalk Baptist Church and the High Bluff Schoolhouse.

            Mt. Pleasant was another small community with three or four houses, a church, grocery store, and post office.  It was on 234 east of Ladoga where the Ladoga Rest Park was in the 50’s.  It was just across from Mt. Pleasant Cemetery on 1025 S to the west.