Indianapolis- a historical and statistical sketch, 1870,WR Holloway

50
BOLLOWATS INDIAXAPOtlS.
the streets. And as imagination saw property rising, it did rise. It had been doing'
so for a year or two. Lots had doubled in value since the first projected set of
defunct railroads had been chartered. On Washington street they were worth $69
to $75 a front foot. This was something promising; for a youth, with his first vote
to cast, may recollect when lots on Washington street, between Illinois and Meri-
dian, with buildings upon them buildings now standing as incorporated parts .of
palatial structures were sold for $120 a foot. The settlement which, since the
great ague epidemic of 1821, had been crowding eastward, began to surge back
towards the river again. Lots along the probable line of the canal became valuable,
and sold rapidly, in the proportion that the canal now impairs their value. More
than one family established itself close to the ditch, as a choice spot for a residence,
with a blindness to unsuitability that puzzles one now. Among others, William
Quarles, the lawyer, with considerable aristocratic pretensions, built a house on the
east bank of the. canal and south side of Washington street, under this strange
delusion. The fever went off, in a few years, in a prostration that came near being
fatal. This was the first speculative era in the history of the city. In the earlier
years, when lots were still sold by the State's agent, there was not money enough
to buy for speculation. Most of it was done with the purpose of holding on.
In November the Benevolent Society was organized, with very much the same
structure that it still retains. Having little to do, and appealing for support directly
to every householder by its visitors, it was kept up when more pretentious affairs
failed. No small part of its sustaining influence came from th"e character of ths
contributions it asked. Like "Bill CrowderV' charity sermon, it wanted "old
clothes, old coats, old hats, or any good-for-rrothing old thing that nobody else would
have." And these were readily given, and used with increasing benefit every year.
Money was not usually solicited at the outset, or for a number of years afterwards,
though it was often given, and of course, judiciously used.- Now it is really a very
important and indispensable institution, managing large sums of money, and vast
accumulations of clothing and other benevolent material. Its system of collection
and distribution has remained unchanged, and its management is in very much the
same Hands, except as death has removed them, that first undertook it. Visitors
a gentleman and lady of the highest respectability always are appointed t
designated portions of the city, and they apply, armed with baskets, at every house
for anything that poverty and distress can make serviceable. And these collec-
tions- are kept in charge of an officer, who gives them out on the order of the managers.
A- necessitous person has only to see any one of the score of managers and
show that there is no imposition, to get adequate relief.
A literary Society was formed this year, too, taking the place of the Lyceum.
It was a young men's affair, and devoted itself to the ordinary exercises of such
associations, debates and essays.
It was subsequently merged into, or compounded
with, the Union Literary Society, organized by the elder pupils of the Seminary,
and by the latter name it was known during its last and most important years,
when it was incorporated under the general law (1847), and had, by much solicita-
tion, obtained money to procure lecturers of celebrity. Its own members sometimes
delivered its addresses, but the ministers of the city more frequently were
the speakers, and their churches the lecture halls. Henry Ward Beecher delivered
one, Dr. Samuel Johnson, the amiable and gitted Episcopal rector, delivered two or
three, Dr. Fisher, of Cincinnati, was obtained for a course of fjur lectures in 1848.
Horace Greeley delivered one lecture in 1853, in Masonic Hall, and Rev. J. C
Fletcher, who was one of the members that had lectured before it in 1847, on his