Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/819

 INDIANA

741

INDIANA

rapidly. In the ten years between 1S40 and 1850 the counties bordering the canal increased in population 397 per cent; those more fertile, but more remote, 190 per cent. The tide of trade, which had been heretofore to New Orleans, was reversed and went east. The canal also facilitated and brought emigration from Ohio, New York, and New England, in the newly established counties in the northern two-thirds area of the State. The foreign immigration was mostly from Ireland and Germany. Later, this great canal fell into disuse, and finally very unwisely was aban- doned, as railway mileage increased. In the next ten years, by 1840, of the public domain 9,122,688 acres had been sold. But the State was still heavily in debt, although growing rapidly. In 1851 a new constitution (now in force) was adopted. The first constitution was adopted at a convention assembled at Corydon, which had been the seat of government since December, 1813. The original state house, built of blue lime.stone, still stands; but in 1821 the site of the present capital (Indianapolis) was selected by the legislature; it was in the wilds, sixty miles from civilization; to-day it is a city of 225,000 inhaljitants and the largest inland steam and electric railroad centre without navigation in the United States. Yet no railroad reached it be- fore 1847.

The State sent three regiments to the Mexican war. Lew Wallace (afterwards general in the rebellion and the author of "Ben Hur") was a second lieutenant. All her regiments were officeretl by vohmteer officers. During the war between the States, Oliver P. Morton (later U. S. senator) was the war governor and lent the full force of his strong character to the demand made upon this State, which furnished to the Civil War 208,000 soldiers. In addition to the sums ex- pended by the State, the counties and townships gave, in bounties, .$15,492,876; for the relief of soldiers and their families, .$4,566,898; and for other expenses, $198,866. Her total loss from battle and the inci- dents of war was 24,416. Her troops saw service in every Southern State. There is a National Soldiers' Home at Marion, established by Congress in 1890, and a State Soldiers' Home near Lafayette, created by the legislature in 1895. Benjamin Harrison, twenty- third President of the United States, had been a resident of the State since his twenty-first year and was the grandson of her first territorial governor, who was later elected ninth President of the LTnited States. Thomas A. Hendricks, Vice-President of the United States, was elected with Grover Cleveland in 1884; both Harrison and Hendricks were lawyers of national reputation.

Religion. — Historij. — The first religion of Indiana, after its emergence into the daylight of history, was that of the Roman Catholic Church, brought thither by those missionaries of New France who followed the lakes and watercourses leading to the valley of the Wabash. The earliest of these priests was the Jesuit .\llouez, whose rude mission-house stood on the St. Joseph River, within the present limits of Indiana, in close neighbourhood to the present site of Notre Dame University. The ground on which this mission stood is the earliest recorded land grant in the terri- tory comprising the State's present limits. It was made in 1686 to the Jesuit Missions on condition of their erecting a house antl chapel there within three years. Here the founder of the church in Indiana died in 1689. His place was taken by Father Claude Aveneau, who for many years ministered to the Christian Indians and the flitting coureurs des bois, who passed back and forth over this portage, which transferred their canoes from the waters of the Great Lake basin to those of the Great Valley. The mission was suspended by trouble with the Miamis for a few years, but in 1706 was restored under Father James Gravier. In 1711 he was succeeded

by Father Peter F. X. Chardon, but Charlevoix found it deserted in 1721.

Until 17.34 Father St. Pe was in charge and his successor was Father Du Jaunay. In 1719 at Fort Ouiatenon on the Wabash below the present La- fayette, then at Fort Miami where Fort Wayne now stands, and finally in 1733 at Poste au Ouabache (later and still known as Vincennes), Jesuit mission- aries were established almost continuously down to 1763. On 22 July, 1741, at Fort Ouiatenon was born a child, Anthony Foucher, who was destined to be the first native of the State to receive Holy orders. Ouiatenon was the head of navigation for the largest pirogues. Here all peltries destined for Canada were transferred to canoes. This made it an important rendezvous. As many as 20,000 skins a year are said to have been shipped from Ouiatenon in 1720 and the decade following. Yet not a vestige of this post remains — not even a stone upon a stone. From that point of time, until the battle of Tippecanoe (1811) marked the close of serious Indian warfare, there were only visiting priests at Vincennes and Fort Wayne. Confirmation was first administered at Vincennes about 1814 by the Bishop of Bards- town. Communicants were mostly of French origin, remnants of the early days of French sovereignty.

Dioceses. — (a) Diocese of Vincennes. This included the whole State, was established in 1834, and its first bishop was Simon Gabriel Brut6. At the time he was named for this diocese he was president of Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, to which he had donated his library of 5000 volumes. He died after incredible hardships in 1839, a veritable martyr to his zeal for the faith. There were only two priests besides in the State at the time of his consecration. Celestine de la Hailandiere succeeded him. He at- tracted the Eudists to establish a theological seminary at Vincennes, drew Father Sorin and the Fathers of the Holy Cross to begin the work now flourishing at Notre Dame, and the Sisters of Providence whose house adjoins Terre Haute. He resigned (1847) and was followed by Bishop Bazin, who died in six months and was followed by Maurice de St. Palais, who had laboured many years on the frontier. To him the State owes the first orphan asylum and the Benedictine monks, whose house is at St. Meinrad. Bishop St. Palais died in June, 1877, rich in labours accomplished and much beloved. He had been offered the Archbishopric of Toulouse, but refused. His successor is the present Bishop Francis Silas Chatard, formerly at the head of the American Col- lege in Rome, now resident at Indianapolis. His jurisdiction is now known and designated as the Diocese of Indianapolis.

(b) Diocese of Fort Wayne. Erected in 1857, it comprises the northern half of the State. Its first bishop, John Henry Luers, a tireless labourer, was the founder of an association to care for infirm priests, and did much to extend the church imder his care. There were only three schools and one college when he came. When he died there were forty schools and a university. His successor (1872) was Joseph Dwenger, founder of the St. Joseph's Orphan Home at Lafayette, and one for girls at Fort Wayne, who did much to extend the work of his predecessor in establishing parochial schools. He was also in- strumental in the establishment of St. Joseph's College, near Rensselaer, by the Community of the Precious Blood. He was followed (1893) by Joseph Rademacher, who was transferred from Nashville, Tennessee, where he was consecrated (1883). This zealous administrator died in 1900, and was succeeded by the present incumbent, Herman Jo.seph Alerding.

Principal Religious Denominations. — Few states (if any) of the Federal Union present such a variety of religious denominations as the State of Indiana. This is due to the varied racial elements of its pop-