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CENTER TOWNSHIP

CHAPTER XX.

CENTER TOWNSHIP

Although the city of Indianapolis covers but about twelve of the forty-two sections in Centre township, the history of the city is so largely that of the township that there is little to say of the latter that will not be a repetition.  The settlements which have become little towns are merely the natural accretions of residence about a factory or mill, or an industry of some kind that belongs to the city, and they are really as much a part of it as the squares cornering on the Circle.  What history and business they have independently can be soon told.  The township was associated with Warren from its first organization, in the spring of 1822, to the 1st of May, 1826, and the records called the combination Centre-Warren township.  After this separation the township and the town were one till the independent organization of the latter, Sept. 3, 1832.  Then the outside area began to have a little consciousness of a legal existence.  It has never had much more.  The population in 1880 was five thousand five hundred and ninety-two, and is probably seven thousand now.  Of this number, Brightwood contains six hundred and seventy-nine, part of Irvington eighty-nine, and Woodruff Place twenty.  The population of West Indianapolis, formerly Belmont, is not stated, as the town was not organized when the census was taken.  Haughsville is in Wayne township, and Brookside and Indianola belong to the city, and North Indianapolis is not organized.  So there is no way to learn accurately the distribution of this outside population. 

There are four divisions of the surrounding area.  Washington and Meridian Streets are the dividing lines, and all inside of the city limits is taken off, leaving a rim of territory round each quarter of the city in the corners.  Each of these sections is divided into two precincts for voting purposes.  Each is a road district, and has its on supervisor, under the general supervision of the township trustee.  There are thirteen schools in these four sections, with about thirty teachers.  Two of these are colored schools, No. 11, in the northeast, and No. 5, in the southeast.  A colored class is taught in No. 10, North Indianapolis.  In Nos. 7 and 4 a German school is maintained in connection with the regular schools; that is, such portions of each school as wish to study German, or to pursue their general studies in that language, are given the services of a teacher, who separates them temporarily from the others and gives them instruction as he would do if they had a school wholly to themselves.  The German language is studied by a number of the colored pupils at No. 10 and other schools.  Teachers’ institutes are held monthly to assist the teachers by discussions of subjects connected with their occupation.

The churches are not numerous in these outlying sections.  The city is so convenient and so much more likely, as a rule, to have a more interesting class of services, that the church attendance of a considerable potion of the township is taken to the city, to the damage of the home influence and the depreciation of church property.  There are two churches at Brightwood, one Catholic and one Methodist; one in Belmont, or used to be; and one that may be still kept up on the Shelbyville road, near the McLaughlin place, the religious training-school of Rev. Greenly H. McLaughlin, one of the few now living who can remember Indianapolis from the year it was laid out until to-day.

In the chapter on “Charities” is a statement by the township trustee of the pauper account during the first month of this year.  The total payments on this account are nearly eighteen hundred dollars, or at the rate of over twenty-one thousand dollars a year.  This, the trustee says, is an unfair indication.  The pauper expense of January was double that of the average monthly outlay.  The year’s total will not reach ten thousand dollars.  During the winter of 1874-75 there were eighteen hundred persons, many with families, supported by the township, and the annual outlay was four times what it is now.  But that was the worst season for the extent of pauperism ever known in this country.  The township trustee takes care of several abandoned or abused children in the course of the year at the different asylums.

The following is a list of officers of Centre township from its formation in 1822 to the present time, viz.:
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.


Wilks Reagin, June 14, 1822, to April 15, 1826; resigned.
Lismund Basye, June 14, 1822, to June 7, 1827.
Obed Foote, June 14, 1822, to June 7, 1827.
Caleb Scudder, June 14, 1826, to June 14, 1831.
Obed Foote, June 13, 1827, to June 12, 1832.
Henry Bradley, June 13, 1827, to June 12, 1832.
Caleb Scudder, June 27, 1831, to June 18, 1836.
Henry Bradley, Feb. 13, 1833, to Feb. 13, 1838.
Obed Foote, Feb. 13, 1833, to November, 1833; died.
James Wingate, Feb. 13, 1833, to January, 1834; died.
Wilks Reagin, Dec. 17, 1833, to August, 1836; removed.
Samuel Jenson, March 11, 1834, to March 25, 1837; resigned.
Caleb Scudder, Sept 19, 1836, to Sept. 19, 1841.
Thomas M. Weaver, Nov. 1, 1836,, to July 12, 1841; resigned.
Joshua Stevens, April 6, 1837, to April 6, 1842.
John L. Ketcham, April 11, 1838, to June 2, 1842; resigned.
Joseph A. Levy, Aug. 13, 1841, to Aug. 13, 1846.
William Sullivan, Oct. 6, 1841, to Nov. 1, 1867.
Joshua Stevens, April 8, 1842, to April 8, 1852.
William Campbell, Aug. 10, 1842, to Dec. 9, 1845; resigned.
James G. Jordan, Jan. 27, 1846, to Sept. 28, 1848; resigned.
Caleb Scudder, Aug. 14, 1846, o Aug. 14, 1851.
James McCready, April 11, 1850, to May 6, 1854; resigned.
Charles Fisher, Aug. 18, 1851, to Nov. 1, 1875.
Christopher G. Werbe, April 20, 1852, to April 20, 1856.
John Saltmarsh, May 5, 185, to May 3, 1859.
Charles Coulon, April 21, 1856, to April 20, 1860.
Andrew Curtis, May 3, 1859, to May 3, 1863.
Frederic Stein, April 20, 160, to April 20, 1864.
Oscar H. Kendrick, May 3, 1863, to Dec. 1, 1864; resigned.
Charles Coulon, April 20, 1864, to April 20, 1868.
Alexander G. Wallace, April 18, 165, to April 17, 1869.
Andrew Curtis, April 13, 1867, to Nov. 1, 1871.
Charles Fred. Doepfner, April 20, 1868, to Dec. 30, 1870; resigned.
Henry H. Bogges, Nov. 9, 1869, to Oct. 19, 1872; resigned.
William Dietrichs, Feb. 22, 1871, to April 18, 1876.
Peter Smock, April 13, 1871, to April 13, 1875.
John G. Smith, Nov. 1, 1871, to April 9, 1875; resigned.
William H. Schmitts, Oct. 21, 1872, to Oct. 21, 1876.
Christopher C. Glass, Oct. 24, 1874, to Oct. 24, 1878.
Abel Catterson, April 9, 1875, to June 20, 1878; resigned.
Thomas P. Miller, April 13, 1875; to April 13, 1879.
Luke Walpole, Nov. 1, 1875, to Nov. 1, 1879.
William C. Newcomb, Oct. 23, 1876, to Oct. 23, 1880.
David K. Miner, Oct. 25, 1876, to Oct. 25, 1880.
Willis W. Wright, Jan. 13, 1877, to April 9, 1878.
William Whitney, April 9, 1878. To April 9, 1882.
Willis W. Wright, June 20, 1878, to Nov. 1, 1879.
Theodore W. Pease, Oct. 24, 1878, to Oct. 24, 1882.
Marquis L. Johnson, April 13, 1879, to April 13, 1882; resigned.
George M. Seibert, Nov. 1, 1879, to Nov. 1, 1883.
John W. Thompson, Nov. 1, 1879, to Nov. 1, 1883.
William H. Schmitts, Nov. 12, 1880, to April 13, 1882.
John C. Woodard, Oct. 23, 1880, to Oct. 23, 1884.
John M. Johnston, April 13, 1882, to April 13, 1886
Patrick Bennett, July 8, 1882, to Oct. 11, 1882; resigned.
David K. Miner, July 10, 1882, to June 20, 1883; resigned.
Charles B. Feibleman, July 10, 1882, to April 17, 1884.
Theodore W. Pease, Sept. 20, 1882, to April 17, 1884.
Christopher C. Glass, Oct. 11, 1882, to April 17, 1884.
Luke Walpole, Oct. 24, 1882, to Oct. 24, 1886.
John C. Hoss, June 21, 1883, to Aprl 15, 1886.


TRUSTEES.


Jacob Newman, April 14, 1859, to April 13, 1861.
James Tuner, April 13, 1861, to June 13, 1864.
James W. Brown, June 13, 1864, to June 29, 1864.
Joshua M. W. Langsdale, June 29, 1864, to ____ 1867.
Cyrus C. Heizer, ___ 1867, to Oct. 18, 1872.
Charles John, Oct. 18, 1872, to Oct. 22, 1874.
Michael Dohert, Oct. 22, 1874, to Oct. 20, 1876.
W. Smith King. Oct. 20, 1876, to April 14, 1880.
Alonzo B. Harvey, April 14, 1880, to April 14, 1882.
Ernest Kitz, April 14, 1882, for two years.

ASSESSORS.


Henry Bradley, Jan. 1, 1827, to Jan. 7, 1828.
James F. N Bradley, Jan. 7, 1828, to Jan. 3, 1831.
Daniel R. Smith, Jan. 3, 1831, to Jan. 2, 1832.
Butler K. Smith, Jan. 2, 1832, to Jan 7. 1833.
John W. Reding, Jan. 7, 1833, to Jan. 5, 1835.
Elias N. Shimer, Jan. 5 1835, to May 5, 1835.
Morris Bennett, May 5, 1835, to Jan. 4, 1836.
Charles J. Hand, Jan. 4, 1836, to Jan 2., 1837.
Morris Bennett, May 6, 1835, to Jan. 4, 1836.
Charles J. Hand, Jan. 4, 1836, to Jan. 2, 1837.
Morris Bennett, Jan. 2, 1837, to Jan. 1, 1838.
Peter Winchell, Jan. 1, 1838, to Jan. 7, 1839.
John M. Wilson, Jan. 7, 1839, to Jan.6, 1840.
Robert Hanna, Jan. 6, 1840, to Jan. 4, 1841.
Benjamin G. Yates, Jan. 4, 1841, to Dec. 6, 1841.
John Taffe, Dec. 21, 1852, to Feb. 6, 1854.
John D. Thorpe, Feb. 6, 1854, to April 7, 1855.
John B. Stumph, April 7, 1855, to Dec. 13, 1855.
John C. Baker, Dec. 13, 1855, to Nov. 29, 1856.
Andrew Curtis, Nov. 29, 1856, to Oct. 25, 1858.
Oscar H. Kendrick, Oct. 25, 1858, to Nov. 22, 1860.
Leonidas S. Phipps, Nov. 22, 1860, to Nov. 1, 1866.
William C. Phipps, Oct. 24, 1864, to April 3, 1868.
John Reynolds, April 3, 1868, to Oct. 26, 1870.
David. W. Brouse, Oct. 26, 1870, to Aug. 1, 1873.
David W. Browse, March 17, 1875, to April 12, 1880.
Bernard Raw, April 12, 1880, to April 10, 1882.
Thomas B. Messick, April 10, 1882, to April 10, 1884.


Sulgrove, B. R., History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana; Philadelphia: L.H.  Everts & Co., 1884, 785 pgs., pp. 501-503