The sound of improvement can be heard in every quarter of the city. The “splendid” additions taking place on South Meridian Street where the city’s main wholesale business will be carried on and the new buildings “springing up” along Massachusetts Avenue that “before long . . . will be another of the business thoroughfares,” are some of the improvements valued at over $4,000,000 (2013: $58,774,105.07) being erected during the present season. A “splendid new mill for the manufacture of linseed oil” has been built by Messrs. J. P. Evans & Co at 124 S. Delaware. The mill will be “very successful” in lessening our dependency on the oil from England. The male members of Wesley Chapel on the corner of Meridian and Circle Streets have resolved to sell the property to a company that proposes to build a first class hotel on the site. However, in the western part of the city, saloons “are springing up like fungus growths” and stricter patrols will be needed to keep that area respectable. The Indianapolis retail grocers are going to a cash only system because the wholesale grocers are refusing to sell to them on credit.
With the unprecedented wheat crop in the state, farmers are having a difficult time finding enough hands to garner it and are employing women at $3 (2013: $44.08) a day to go into the fields. Independence Day excursions were offered by the Indianapolis & Madison Railroad to any point along the railroad. Tickets sold at full fare leaving Indianapolis on July 4 were good for a free return later that day or the morning of July 5. The army camps about the Circle City fired an artillery national salute at noon on the Fourth, and an enjoyable grand matinee performance by Duprez & Green’s New Orleans Minstrels was featured at Masonic Hall in the afternoon.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, on Georgia between Canal and Mississippi, was so badly damaged by fire that a new building will have to be put up. It is supposed the fire was the malicious work of an incendiary. Unfortunately, the insurance on the property expired a few days ago, but a subscription paper is being circulated to help with the rebuilding. Since many of the church men are in the army, some of the “best female members” of the congregation are soliciting agents and Pastor W. R. Revels hopes “a generous Christian public will pity and help us out of this fiery calamity.” The mattress factory of Mrs. A. L. Tilford on the square bounded by Ohio and Market streets and Mississippi Street and the canal was entirely consumed by “one of the largest and most destructive fires” the city has seen. The fire department could not render much assistance due to the scarcity of water in the canal. “We have very poor protection against fires” and more cisterns are needed in the absence of a water works.
A number of destitute Union refugee families in need of comforts arrived in the city from Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama and were quartered at the Fremont Barracks. The men wish work. Daily newspaper columns carried the LATEST WAR NEWS with the fate of Hoosier soldiers – LIST of KILLED – WOUNDED and MISSING of the 35TH REGIMENT INDIANA VETERAN VOLUNTEERS in the ENGAGEMENTS at BIG SHANTY STATION, GA; CASUALTIES in the 10TH INDIANA; SICK and WOUNDED INDIANA SOLDIERS from SHERMAN’S ARMY TRANSFERRED from CHATTANOOGA to NASHVILLE; WOUNDED in BATTLE before MARIETTE, GA; CASUALTIES IN THE 130TH INDIANA; INDIANA SOLDIERS KILLED and WOUNDED in GA – 40TH INDIANA; 57TH INDIANA; ADMISSIONS to FIELD HOSPITAL – 22ND INDIANA; 32ND INDIANA, 2ND DIVISION, 14TH ARMY CORPS; DEATHS OF INDIANA SOLDIERS AT DANVILLE, VA PRISON; CASUALTIES in the 53RD INDIANA – KENESAW MOUNTAIN, GA; CASUALTIES in INDIANA REGIMENTS before ATLANTA. At mid-month 325 rebel prisoners from the battlefields in Georgia entered Camp Morton. Two soldier suicides occurred a day apart; Private Knerl Kettleson, a native of Norway, Co. F, 5th Regiment Veterans Reserve Corps, “a victim of melancholy,” shot himself through the heart at Camp Burnside, and Lewis (Lorenz) Schmidt, a native of Germany, Co. D, 28th Ohio, now at Camp Morton, “in a fit of insanity” cut his throat. Indiana Adjutant General Noble issued general orders on July 28 in connection with the President’s call for 500,000 volunteers. Indiana’s quota has been fixed at 35,732 “subject to a credit of about 12,000 . . . excess of men furnished on former calls.”
The Democratic State Convention met at Metropolitan Hall on Tuesday, July 12. The name of Lambdin P. Milligan of Huntington County, “a pillar of the secret conclave of the followers of Jeff Davis,” was put in nomination for governor, but Joseph E. McDonald dealt him a “stunning defeat,” 1,097 to 196. David Turpie was nominated for lieutenant governor, and all of the present state officers and judges of the Supreme Court were re-nominated. Only two candidates of the “extreme peace men” were nominated – Ethelbert C. Hibben of Rush County for clerk of the Supreme Court and Dr. James S. Athon for secretary of state. A proposed resolution “sustaining that champion of liberty Clement L. Vallandingham” was “emasculated” to “simply a declaration in favor of preserving civil and personal liberty” and passed by acclamation.
A subscription campaign began to enclose University Park with a fence, lay sod, plant shade and ornamental trees, “and otherwise beautify it” for a city park. $2,100 (2013: $30,856.41) has been obtained so far. “Encourage the beautiful; the useful will encourage itself.” — Goethe.
