the Vincennes University, the first educational institution established in this State, through and by its Territorial Legislature, endowed by Congress with one or more townships of land, by the establishment of a free school in this county under the title of the "Knox County Seminary." But as it appropriated the proceeds of the sale of the University lands to establish Bloomington College, the effort proved an utter failure, and the "Knox County Seminary" died of inanition, the Legislature having failed to provide for the school's support. Hence for nearly a half century, and not until the State grudgingly had been compelled, after long and expensive legislation, to make a partial restitution to the University, was there an effective revival of education in this town.

In 1853 the public school system was fully inaugurated here by and through the trustees elected by the people, composed of George D. Hay, John W. Canon and Lambert Burrois. For lack of funds the schools were inefficient, and even in 1855 only three months' tuition was vouchsafed to the pupils. In 1857 the duration of the school year was extended to five months, with Anson W. Jones as principal, at a salary of only $50 per month. In 1860 the first school building was erected (now known as the Central School) at the corner of Buntin and Seventh streets, at a cost of $19,000, under the supervision of Trustees John D. Lander, William Williamson and G. H. Deusterberg. Professor A. W. Jones was elected superintendent, succeeding himself in 1863, and retaining this position until his death in 1873. This building has for its principal at the present writing, M. R. Kirk, with nine assistants. Another building was erected on the south side of this city in 1878.

E. A. Quigie is now principal, with three assistants. The third building was erected on the north side in 1885, and is now conducted by Miss Josephine Crotts, as principal, with five assistants. The building on the east side was erected in 1891, and is now conducted by Miss Melvina Keith, as principal, and four assistants. The present High School building was erected in 1897, at a cost of $30,000, on the corner of Buntin and Fifth streets, and is a beautiful modern structure. All of the buildings are of brick, substantial, commodious, well equipped and furnished.

To the Central School there is attached a kindergarten department which is conducted by Miss Caroline Pelham with Mrs. Flora Andrus Curtis as assistant.

The building for colored pupils was erected about thirty years ago, on the corner of Thirteenth and Hart streets, with B. L. Anthony as principal, and two assistants as present instructors. The enrollment of pupils in the public schools of this city in the last report was 1,900. The High School has a faculty of ten teachers, including Professor E. A. Humpkie, the present superintendent.

The epithet applied to this region by Provisional Governor Arthur Sinclair, of the Northwest Territory, in his first report to the United States Congress in 1780, to wit, "The Wabash Valley has the most ignorant people on earth, and not a fiftieth man can read or write", has long since ceased to have any foundation in truth. When this expression was uttered, only one year had elapsed after the Wabash Valley had passed from the hands of Great Britain into those of Uncle Sam, and but few white persons, except soldiers, occupied it. The schoolmaster has been abroad in the land and the Vincennes University

did much in the early part of the last century to dispel the clouds of ignorance that had brooded over the Wabash Valley from time immemorial, and to make this place the radiating center whence the first streams of knowledge flowed over the great Northwest.

The common schools of Indiana, the sequence of advanced education, are now the pride, not only of the State, but of the Nation, and illiteracy is the exception and not the rule. Could good old Governor Sinclair but awaken from his Rip Van Winkle slumbers and view our colleges and white school houses, which dot hill and valley like the cattle on a thousand hills, he would be astounded and constrained to exclaim, "Great is Hoosierdom; and her knowledge enlighteneth as the rays of the morning sun." Indiana claims to have the largest common school fund of any State in the Union, and possibly has, with the single exception of the State of Texas, which, upon its admission to the sisterhood of States, retained all her public domain for the use and maintenance of her public free schools.

Τ

Chapter VI.

CHURCHES-CATHOLIC.

O THE CATHOLICS belong the honor of doing the first Christian missionary work in Indiana, at

the Piankeshaw village, the site of the city of Vincennes, and the erection of the first house of worship dedicated to God.

It has been said that a Jesuit missionary Father visited the Indian village Che-pe-ko-ke, on the Wabash river, as early as 1702, but it has been shown in discussing the early settlement of this place that this statement is incorrect, and the mistake arose from an inaccuracy of some of the earlier explorers of the Mississippi Valley. For a long time the Ohio and Wabash rivers were confounded, they believing the former emptied into the latter, hence the name Ouabache was used for the Ohio. It is not probable that a mission was established here very much earlier than the advent of Morgan de Vincennes in 1731 or 1732. From that time on a priest was here occasionally until a church organization was effected and a house of worship erected, about the year 1749, the resident priest being the Reverend Louis Meurin. The first entry in the church records is dated April 21, 1749,* and embraces the following marriage certificate: "Julian Trotier, of Montreal, Canada, and Josie Marie, the daughter of a Frenchman and Indian woman." His last record was made in 1756.

*Law's Hist. Vincennes, p. 145. W. H. Smith's Hist. Ind., p. 255.