Public meetings in the Marion County townships were scheduled, “attended by able speakers for the discussion of the political issues of the times,” during the first week of October. Warren Township’s meeting was at Bethel Meeting House on Thursday evening, October 6. Crowds pouring in by most of the railroads began forming early each day at the State Fair filling the grounds by noon. About 7,000 persons enjoyed the daily demonstrations throughout the exhibition space that included innovative devices for home and farm like the Florence Sewing Machine with its reversible motion and power to “stitch in leather as well as paper;” the Self-Adjusting Clothes Wringer with “no iron screws or wheels to rust and tear the clothes”; the Portable Grist Mills, that “will make 75 barrels of flour per day,” manufactured by James Bradford & Co of Cincinnati; and Wood & Fowler’s Hay Pitcher and Stacker with its “revolving head the stacks or ricks may be built thirty feet long and twenty-five feet wide.” There were performances by the beautiful rope walker Mademoiselle Calista, and Prof. J. J. Dinsmore of Purdy’s Mercantile College exhibited beautiful “specimens of ornamental and artistic penmanship.” Davlin & Kaler’s Museum of the War with its thirty-five photographs of battlefield scenes viewed through a lens that made them “appear large as life and true to nature” attracted many visitors. At Metropolitan Hall, a pair of comedies, Naval Engagements and Married Life, provided a treat to the “hundreds who attended from abroad.”
The list of Hoosier killed, wounded, and missing in the Battle of Chickamauga began to appear in the Journal columns. “Fully one-half the effective strength” of the 29th Regiment was lost; the 87th Regiment “suffered frightfully;” the depleted condition of the 31st Regiment showed “that it was placed where the fighting was no child’s play;” the 44th Regiment “is one of hardest fighting and most thoroughly cut up regiments in the service;” and the 84th Regiment “sustained quite a heavy loss” as the men “fought like ‘old veterans’ after the first fire.” In a letter to Gov. Morton, Robert R. Corson, Indiana State Military Agent, provided a list of Indiana soldiers with marked graves on the Gettysburg battlefield whose bodies were to be removed to the National Cemetery which is “beautifully situated …commanding a splendid view of the valley, the town and the battlefield.” Caroline Reynolds was arrested at Camp Morton for wearing a military uniform. She had been in camp several days before her sex was discovered, and claimed to have been in several battles as a soldier with the 51st Regiment “in which she has a lover.” The eleven new regiments that Gov. Morton was authorized to raise “are filling-up rapidly,” and putting Indiana well ahead in fulfilling its quota under the President’s recent call for 300,000 more volunteers. About 500 prisoners arrived at Camp Morton from Chattanooga.
The Indianapolis city council appropriated $5,000 (2012: $91,925.02) for the purchase of wood for soldier’s families and the poor. Obtaining a fuel supply for the winter will be more difficult because wood choppers have never been as scarce. Many households can ill afford to pay the present price of $7 (2012: $128.70) per cord and indications are that prices will go $2 or $3 higher. Coal also is in short supply because of “a great scarcity of miners.” In an effort to “keep the Mayor’s office looking respectable and comfortable,” the city marshal has posted “No Smoking” cards on all of the walls.
While the recent school enumeration showed 6,853 children in the city, only 1,442 are enrolled in the city schools and another 500 are probably enrolled in the private schools. Some are learning trades, but the number ungoverned at home and idle on the streets “getting an education in vice…is far too great.” The business committee of Northwestern Christian University announced that “indigent young men who may have been…permanently disabled in the military service of the country during the present war” can attend the school free of charge. Meetings were held to “perfect the organization of the proposed Library Association” to provide a reading room in the city where young men can pass the long evenings of the winter “with both profit and pleasure.” Tuesday, October 13 was election-day for three county offices – auditor, county commissioner, and real estate appraiser. The triumph of the Unconditional Union Ticket greeted the arrival of Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, who received an escort of troops, public officials, and citizens from the Union Depot to the Bates House. The “Father of Greenbacks” attended a reception and addressed an “enormous” crowd on the State House yard.
Arrangements have been completed for a rural cemetery located on 242 acres of the beautiful Strawberry Hill farm along the Michigan Road north of the city. Thirty of our citizens formed the Crown Hill Cemetery association and asked John Chislett, the superintendent of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Cemetery, to select the site. It is being laid out by John Chislett, Jr. and will open next spring with a suitable dedication. A large black bear escaped from its exhibition cage on South Illinois Street and wandered into saloons and stores frightening proprietors and patrons as tables and chairs, boxes and displays were toppled in its mischievous wake. A crowd formed in pursuit of the beast and eventually it was lassoed as it descended from a locust tree and a hundred hands grasped the rope and dragged him to his cage.
