distinguished citizens of Vincennes, and first President of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad. He held the position only until December 20, 1861, when the office was finally closed.

In 1853 most of the public domain in Indiana had been disposed of, and that was the reason assigned for the closing of the land office here at that time; but some swamp and hilly lands were yet owned by Uncle Sam, and the office was reopened by executive order to make a final disposition of them. To facilitate the sale of these waste lands, Congress passed a special act, reducing the price of them to twelve and a half cents per acre. There were many superior small tracts scattered over the State termed "lost lands," where no owners were visible, and many swamp lands that could easily be reclaimed, hence there was soon a rush to the Vincennes Land Office. And soon there was done, in this city, truly "a land office business"; for homeseekers and speculators crowded the office in real Oklahoma style, and but a few months elapsed until all the lands in the State were entered, and Vincennes ceased to be the Mecca of land brokers. In less than fifty-five years ninetenths of the wild Indian lands of this vast Indiana Territory have been retrieved by the Caucasian race, through the hands of industry and thrift, and advanced to the present pinnacle of civilization, refinement and power, and until "Hoosierdom" is at a premium in science, literature and art.

POSTOFFICE.

Wonderful changes have occurred in the postal system since a postoffice was first established in Vincennes. The first communication between this place and the land of civilization was through armed convoys, and at long intervals; then came the "post rider" with his big saddle-bags and his tin horn, which he blew stentoriously on nearing a wayside inn, postal station or town. In the early part of the nineteenth century the post rider gave way, on main or State roads, to the old stage coach, which continued to be the vehicle of conveyance of the mail and travelers for a full half century, and until the steamboat and railroad supplanted and relegated it to the rear, much to the sorrow of many of the old inhabitants, who had been accustomed for so many years to listen to the patter of the hoofs of the horses pulling the swaying old coach, and listening to the stageman's horn music as it floated out on the summer evening's air, sounding over hill and valley. Its music was the courier bearing good news from the outer world, and tidings from the busy throngs within the hives of civilization. But progress marks the westward tide of empire, and old things and practices must sooner or later give way to the new in the process of evolution, though they, in so doing, bury forever the sweetest memories of earlier years. In the new order of things, are the people happier now than then? The elderly say that those were the happiest days of their lives, when there was an absence of conventionalism, when everybody knew everybody else, and society was untrameled, save by the laws of justice, virtue and love. In the beginning of the

nineteenth century, when regular postal communication was established with the rest of the world, it required about six weeks to send and receive a reply to a letter in the East; now they are sent and the answers received in about four days, or less time.

The first postoffice established in Vincennes was when General W. Johnson, a distinguished and able man, and who has been noticed elsewhere, was appointed postmaster, on April 1, 1800. His successors have been the following, in the order named: Henry Hurst, April 1, 1802; Wm. B. Coupeland, July 1, 1802; William Prince, January 1, 1803; General W. Johnson, July 1, 1803; William Prince, March 31, 1812; John D. Hay, July 1, 1813; George R. C. Sullivan, March 8, 1817; Samuel Hill, April 5, 1827; John Scott, September 7, 1829; James W. Greenhow, September 27, 1843; Elihu Stout, August 16, 1845; Lewis L. Watson, May 12, 1849; James Dick, March 26, 1853; John Moore, April 6, 1857; Hubbard M. Smith, March 28, 1861; William N. Denny, April 8, 1869; William D. Lewis, January 30, 1882; James E. Kackley, May 26, 1885; Allen Tindolph, June 25, 1889; Royal E. Purcell, April 8, 1893, and Thomas H. Adams, May 13, 1897, who is the present incumbent, and who was reappointed May 13, 1902.

The Vincennes office was a receiving and distributing depot for the whole Northwest for many years; it received mail matter from adjacent offices when mail packages were made up for the important cities in the East. This office continued to be a distributing one, within circumscribed boundaries, as the North and West became settled, until about 1864, and the postmaster's salary was regulated by

the amount of matter handled by him, he being allowed a per cent. for receiving and remailing the postal matter. About this time the law was changed and the office became a salaried one, the amount being regulated and based upon the local business, and that law yet obtains. During the time that Hubbard M. Smith held the position of postmaster, the money order business was established, and the postmaster was allowed a small per cent. upon the number of orders issued, this being the only perquisite additional to his salary. When the office was a per cent. one, unless the sum exceeded $5,000 per annum, the postmaster received only the per cent., let it be little or much, without any allowance for clerk hire; if the business exceeded $5,000, then he received a $5,000 salary and clerk hire. This law was unjust and inequitable, and the postmaster had to pay out sometimes almost as much for assistants as his personal salary amounted to. During the Civil War, when the mails became heavy, $300 per annum was allowed for a clerk. The business demanded two assistants, and the postmaster was expected to make up the deficiencies for clerk hire from his own pocket. During the first years of the Civil War, the postmaster paid out nearly all he received from the Government for the clerical force of the office, and a mere pittance remained for his own services. But about 1867, the postmaster, in making up his quarterly reports, added to his expense account the sum of $90 and the Department was kind and considerate enough to allow same in his annual settlement. This stretch of benevolence and justice did not show itself in all of the departments of the Government. As a matter of history, the

writer should add an additional word about "shin plasters," as our postal currency was denominated during the Civil War. Some of the old inhabitants will remember that after the war had well commenced, all gold disappeared from circulation, and soon followed the disappearance of silver coin. The people were put to such straits for small change that a few men issued personal checks, from five cents up to fifty, one Watson, at Terre Haute, and one James, at Rockport, I think, supplying the demand. The Government at last came to the rescue and issued postal currency of the denominations of five, ten, twenty-five and fifty cents. A batch of $6,000 was sent to the postmaster here and he was held responsible for same, in good money, whether it was burned or stolen. It was to be given out to business men for greenbacks, as change. It did not prove a bonanza to the postmaster. But the tale is too long to tell and I will only cite the reader to what was one of his "tales of woe" incident thereto. In those days the older citizens will remember that the only money in circulation was greenbacks and postal currency, individual promissory notes, and counterfeit bills were not infrequent; and all mutilated bills, whether treasury notes or postal bills, were required to be accepted for postage stamps by the postmaster, he being ordered so to do, and to transmit the same by mail to the Treasurer of the United States, who was to return a draft in exchange for same to the postmaster. Postmaster Smith, by order, was compelled to comply with this unjust ruling, as will be shown. He was fortunate in getting equivalents back after transmissions generally, but he was "left with the pouch to hold" on one batch sent off to the amount of $43. Although sent from his office in