Some Interesting Crawfordsville People and Their Homes by JULIA LECLERCKNOX, Crawfordsville, Ind

Some Interesting Crawfordsville People and Their Homes By JULIA LECLERCKNOX, Crawfordsville, Ind.

Crawfordsville, one of the best looking cities of its size and age, to be found anywhere, has long prided itself on being called the “Athens” of Indiana. It claims this honor by virtue of the fact that it was once the home of both General Lew Wal- lace and Maurice Thompson ; Misses Mary Hannah and Caro- line Krout have lived here all their lives; Meredith Nicholson was born in Crawfordsville as was also Kenyon Nicholson, a rising young playwright, who has collaborated some with his cousin, Meredith. General Wallace’s only child, Henry, preserves his residence here though he spends much of his time elsewhere and the grandson, the general’s namesake, comes occasionally with his young family on visits. Maurice Thompson’s only surviving daughter and her husband, Mr. Long, are residents of this place also. The Maurice Thompson home, a most picturesque old building on the outskirts of the city, has recently been reduced to a pile of brick, no one seems to know why. It stood on a rising knoll, facing the north. A veranda with an iron railing skirted the upper front story but there was none on the ground floor. This gave an essentially distinctive appearance. The house extended back quite a bit in a diminishing scale as to width until it sort of “petered out” just at the downward slope. A little brick spring house humbly brought up the rear like a maid servant. It was in an October gloaming, long after the place had been unoccupied that the writer, accompanied by a friend of the Thompson family, approached the spot, once the home of this versatile Hoosier who had been poet, novelist, essayist, historian and naturalist. 285 286 Indiana Magazine of History

In some unexplainable way the House of a Thousand Can- dles was suggested. As we reached the spring-house coming up from the rear, mysterious sounds assailed our ears, inter- rupting my friend’s reminiscences of the pleasant times she had spent in the former hospitality of this interesting family. A certain uncanniness thrilled us as if we were living a few pages out of one of Anna Katherine Green’s best sellers. But when we reached the side porch we saw carpenter’s, not bur- glar’s tools and found Mr. Long superintending the repairs on the door locks. He said the house had been rifled of much of its copper equipment. When my companion introduced me as an admirer of Mr. Thompson, the son-in-law kindly uouch- safed us a peep at the within but as it was growing dark, only a dim recollection of a confused, dust-covered library remains. Mr. Long presented us with copies of Alice of Old Vincennes from a stack of books on the shelves. It would, indeed, be a stolid sort of person who could not get a thrill out of this contact, slight, though it was, with a spot hallowed by the one time presence of Maurice Thompson, an experience bound in gold. We planned to explore further at a future time but the old house passed, as one might say, to the Button Moulder before another opportunity presented itself. The show place of Crawfordsville is the studio of General Lew Wallace. It is the Mecca of all visitors to the city. The premises are owned and maintained by the Wallace family and are free to the public. The tome-like guest-book regis- ters names widely separated, geographically but here united by the common tie of doing reverence to a great man. The studio is beautifully situated, a wide stretch of ground surrounding, with dimples here and there in the velvety sward and majestic old trees, lending their dignity. Immediately at the side and rear is the flower garden as it was made by General Wallace. The birds come here earliest and remain the longest. The entrance gate is designed after that of the Abbey of the Church of St. Pierre (eleventh century) Vezelay, France. The building was planned and its erection personally superintended by the General. It is of red brick with one room and an alcove and the closet like Kmx: Crawfordsville People and Homes 287

apartment which he used as a sculptor’s studio. The mosque- like dome and the unusual shape give it a Turkish appearance. The sculptured frieze represents the Prince of India and the mother and sister of Ben Hur. In this building are preserved many interesting memen- toes of the General and his wife, Susan B. Wallace, also a writer of some note, together with the war souvenirs of the grandson, William Noble Wallace, who at twenty-three gave his life for the nation in the World War. He left Yale in 1916 to enlist and after being severely wounded in action was once more in the trench when he volunteered to sketch the enemy’s front line, a very daring deed. He accomplished the undertaking but was killed by a shell as he was returning. Lieutenant Wallace was awarded the American Field Service Medal and posthumously given the Distinguished Service Cross and also the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism. He evidently caught the torch his grandsire tossed to him. A wide variety of relics fill the room. In revolving fix- tures are letters of distinguished individuals. Three presi- dents of the U. S. are represented. There is one from Gov. David Wallace, the father of the author, one from Richard Gatling, inventor of the first rapid fire gun, one from the Turkish minister, written at the request of the Sultan, urging General Wallace to return to Turkey. There are many com- missions and proclamations of historical interest. The framed original MSS. of Fair God, the first copy (in pencil) of the Ben Hur MSS. as well as the raised letter edition for the blind are of special fascination. Here is the private library of the General just as he left it. Some of Mrs. Wallace’s scrap books add that personal, intimate touch characteristic of scrap books. A lovely portrait of her in oil, by A. Benziger hangs on the west wall. It is taken from an old daguerreotype. The face is full of strength and sweet- ness. His violin and her guitar, linked together with a frag- ment of one of her wedding dresses (May, 1852) furnish a touching bit of sentiment and suggests what must have been a wonderful congeniality of these kindred spirits. There is a water color of General Wallace by Will P. No- ble of the period of the siege of Cincinnati. Near it is a wood 288 Indiana Magazine of History engraving presented by Benson J. Lossing, the historian, be- cause of its remarkable likeness to the general. The bronze bust of him on the west mantel was cast from the clay mod- elled by Randolph Rogers, the sculptor, a parting souvenir of the siege of Cincinnati, 1862, where he was a member of Gen- eral Wallace’s military staff together with James E. Murdock, the actor, and Thomas Buchanan Read, the poet and artist. This bust is said to be a perfect likeness. Rogers is famous for the bronze doors of the Capitol at Washington and his statue of “Nydia”, the blind girl in Bulwer-lytton’s Lust Days of Pompeii. A study in oil, “Old Age”, by Thomas Buchanan, was presented by him to his military commander whom he greatly admired. A number of paintings by Wallace himselif are on the walls. The most striking is a large, unfinished oil, entitled “The Conspirators”. The picture of Booth is instantly recog- nizable. (General Wallace was a member of the commission that convcted Lincoln’s assassins.) Among the various pictures is one of a Turkish princess, presented by the Sultan of Turkey. The eyes of the Oriental flapper seem to follow one all around the room in true vamp style. Some of the art treasures picked up abroad are : an antique chair from the Imperial City, a censor from a Roman cathe- dral and a Carrara marble copy of Angelo’s “Lorenzo de Medici” brought from Florence by the General. There is a gavel used in the Lincoln-Douglas debates, flags and military equipment of all kinds, a shoe from John, the old war horse, fishing outfits, mixed with oriental pipes, etc. In a glass case are several pencil sketches, studies in clay and plaster, illustrative of the wide variety of interests of this remarkable man. Here also his pen rack, paper weight, pens and scissors give an intimate personal glimpse. A bronze statue of the General on the grounds just west of the study, was cast in Paris from the model made for the Carrara marble statue by Andrew O’Conner, presented to the United States Congress by the state of Indiana, for the Hall of Fame in the U. S. Capitol. The pedestal is inscribed with the words-“Author, Diplomat, Soldier”. To these might be Knox: Crawf ordsville People and Homes 289

added artist, sculptor, musician. This life-size statue marks the spot where the Ben-Hur beech offered its protection to Lew Wallace when he was writing. Go when you will to this literary and historical shrine, there are always others there, moving about in admiring reverence. Adjoining the study but now separated by a high brick wall, is the one time residence of the Wallaces. The house is frame and is uninteresting and ordinary and Victorian now that the soul of it has departed along with the furnishings, the outward expression of the gifted personalities of the former owners. In the front room is the old desk and chair of the General and on the mantel is the plaster cast of him made by himself. The silver closet, private dressing room and den of Mrs. Wallace is shown the visitor but none of the furniture remains. A short distance away is the stately old home of Senator Henry S. Lane. He and General Wallace both married daugh- ters of Majdr Isaac Elston who originally owned all the land on which these houses are built and from whom it descended to his children. The Lane mansion is an unusually interesting and picturesque place and the citizens of Crawfordsville are justly very proud of it. The present owner, Miss Helen Els- ton Smith, a niece of both Senator Lane’s and Gen. Lew Wal- lace’s wife, is a most gracious hostess, unselfishly sharing her lovely home with all who are interested in what it represents, thus making this historical treasure house a community asset. The place occupies four acres and while one may see old colonial mansions that may compare with this especial one, it is very seldom indeed, that one is found with such an exquisite setting. The house is situated half a block from the street and is approached by a paved path through an avenue of dignified trees of not quite as many varieties as those of the forest in Spenser’s Faerie Queene. The grounds are remarkable for natural beauty and are a delight to the eye at all seasons of the year. The architecture of the house is pure colonial of the south- ern rather than the eastern type. A terrace runs across the entire front and half way round the sides. Ionic columns pre- 290 Indinna Magazine of History vail. On the north side there are two Romeo-and-Juliet-like balconies opening from an upper room. There is a lion’s head knocker on the front hall door which one feels is just as it should be. The house, a brick, was built by the Senator just before the Mexican War in which he served as Major of Volunteers. His framed commission, signed by James Whitcomb, then governor of this state, hangs in the hall does the sword he used and a Mexican blanket, of a wonderful texture, is thrown as a drape over the door in the living room. Senator Lane was prominent in politics. An interesting reminder of this is a framed Republican state ticket that hangs on the wall. The following notables were candidates on the same ticket: Governor: Henry S. Lane. Lieut. Governor : Oliver P. Morton. Reporter of Supreme Court : Benj. Harrison. Congressman for the Ninth District : Schuyler Colfax. Near is a portrait of the senator painted by his brother-in- law, Lew Wallace. The house, itself, is very interesting and reminds one very much of the Van Courtlandt Mansion of New York City. The latter is owned and exhibited by the Colonial Dames. The ground plan of the Lane home is that of all houses of its kind and period. A central hall has rooms on each side and a stairway leading upward. Although she has added greatly to the original beauty, Miss Smith has carefully preserved the intrinsic harmony and everything is in keeping. The old velvet carpets have not been replaced, the old rose- wood piano, the onyx topped tables, the quaint foot-stools, brass fenders, and andirons and the wonderful silver candle sticks, inherited from Miss Smith’s grandfather, remain in their rightful, accustomed places in parlor and living rooms. A remarkable old hat rack in the hall is carved in gro- tesque tree shaped fashion, somehow suggesting Dore’s sketches. Cherry and mahogany pedestal and drop leaf tables meet the eye at every turn. Some are inlaid and one dating back to 1830, is topped with Italian marble. An uncut velvet settee occupies a conspicuous place in the living room. Knox: Crawfmdsville People and Homes 291

Full length engravings of Napoleon I11 and Eugenie are hung on opposite sides of the mantel piece in the front parlor. Tall gilt framed pier glasses of the style of the Empire, in every direction, reflect present day situations, one might fancy, with an air of indignity that they should have fallen upon these times. The dining room intrigues the imagination. One can eas- ily picture Washington’s being entertained in this picturesque room. A saucer, once the property of “the father of our coun- try”, is shown us. To handle it seems to destroy the interven- ing time and condition between us and the immortal George. We almost feel as if we had shaken the hand that made us a nation and, as man to man, wished our first president good day. An antique sideboard, with a history, wonderful old china, silver tea urns and a miraculous revolving, silver caster crown the picture. A great copy of Raphael’s “Transfiguration” hangs on the wall at the first landing of the front stair case. We can imagine we are looking at the original. True to old colonial form, very few of the upper rooms are on the same floor, there are either a few steps down or a few steps up. In these rooms further delights await the student of things antique. On either side of the front hall are two large, airy bed rooms. In the one on the left is a great mahogany four poster with a foot stool by which to mount it, a highboy with glass knobs, a Shearaton dressing table and chair, a gate-legged table, etc. Wonderful to the eye of the artist are the lines of the old Windsor chair in which Miss’ Smith’s grandmother was resting when her final summons came. Bohemian perfume bottles and quaint old dresser orna- ments are in rare profusion. An old bureau in the hall has the traditional secret drawer. The guest room opposite is more modern in appointment. Here are an Austrian writing desk, Japanese inlaid and lac- quered tables and boxes and many art treasures picked up on Miss Smith’s frequent trips abroad. A small framed piece of the Alhambra among these must not be overlooked. One of the first things to strike the eye on entering this room is an original Audztbon,. Think of it!! It is quite large and occu- 292 IndicCna Magazine of History pies a plat &e of honor over the mantel. A bath room is reached by a doo;. fr that appears to be a panel in the wall. It gives one the th6r:illy sensation of a secret spring, etc. V1dnere are many other apartments opening off in unex- pec Tied ways. You suddenly find yourself in den, library, bed- rfi%om or bath, with a closet here and there, each having a c piquancy of its own. There are porches galore, sleeping and otherwise, and on one lives a nesting dove. Two of the most interesting women in Crawfordsville are the real, live authoresses, Misses Mary Hannah and Caroline Krout. They have both written quite a bit but are, perhaps, best known by the poem “Little Brown Hands” and Knights in Fustian.. These two ladies are very approachable and through a mutual friend the writer was accorded a couple of interviews. After several years of teaching Miss Mary Hannah entered the field of journalism and was employed on the editorial staff of the Chicago Inter Ocean. She was sent to Indianapolis as political correspondent during the presidential candidacy of General Harrison, a warm friend of her family. After the abdication of Queen Liliukalana she was sent to Hawaii where she remained until after the establishment of the provisional government, writing of political and economic conditions. When an effort was made to reinstate the Queen, she returned to the Islands. After finishing her work there she went on to New Zealand and Australia, visiting Samoa and Tasmania en route. She was accorded a cordial welcome everywhere by the officials of the various governments. She served on the Board of Women Commissianers during the World’s Fair at Chicago and soon afterwards was sent to London as staff correspondent for the Chicago Inter Ocean. Here she remained for three years. With London as headquarters she traveled in Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia. She also visited Paris and made a trip to Switzerland. The two most important events of the London commission were the Jameson trial which she witnessed throughout and the Jubilee celebration of Victoria. Before leaving London her first book was written and accepted by John Murray and a second, A Lookel. On In London was completed. She again Knox: Crawfordsville People and Homes 293 re-visited New Zealand and Australia, writing for the Aus- tralian press and lecturing on American affairs. Later she spent a year in China and made a trip to Japan. She brought back a veritable museum of souvenirs from the lands she saw. Amongst there are: a wooden calabash, presented by a lady in waiting to Queen Liliukalana, tapa dra- peries from Samoa, hand turned brass candle sticks from Benares, a sacred dragon from Pekin, a picture of kittens made out of cotton. This strange work of art was given her at a feast in her honor by the mother of the Imperial Treas- urer at Pekin. (Miss Krout modestly hastened to explain that this was brought about in deference to her friend, an Ameri- can woman physician at the Methodist Mission.) There is also an embroidered visiting card of a Chinese grandee; a stone from the Great Wall of China, picked up by herself; a decoration from a royal Chinese tomb, presumably that of the Emperor Ming who dates back to 1403 ; a lantern made from a real fish from Honolulu; a seed pod that she gathered from an Australian forest; Indian pottery from New Zealand; a statue of a wind god from Japan and so many other unusual souvenirs that the memory of the writer became so thoroughly waterlogged as to utterly refuse to function further. Yet a lovely German print of the Sphynx, the present of a friend in Kaui, can not be forgotten. Through her friend, Harriet Hosmer, the sculptress, she established wonderful contacts with people of world renown. She enjoyed a tete-a-te'te with Sir Frederick Leighton in his studio. She had a personal friendship with Madam Albani from whom she received a program of a musicale, given by the prima donna before the Queen at Balmoral Castle. Accom- panying the program was a friendly, little personal note, thanking Miss Krout for some Scotch heather she had sent the singer. An autographed photo of Olga Nethersole, also a personal friend, decorates the wall of her boudoir. Near by is a picture of George Eliot, given to Miss Krout by Frances E. Willard. A likeness of her cousin George Brown, Rear Admiral in com- mand of our Asiatic fleet and ranking admiral of our navy at the time of his retirement, bears a resemblance to the poet, Browning. 294 Indirtna Magazine of History

A glimpse of Ibsen in his accustomed window in his favor- ite restaurant in Christiana, must be recorded as one of her foreign experiences. The Misses Krout come of both scholarly and soldierly line. Their grandfather, Dr. Ryland Brown, professor of natural science at Butler college, wrote a text-book on physiology, used in the schools of the U. S. His father was a Revolutionary soldier who served with Washington and married Mary Ball, niece of the wife of Augustus Washington, brother of George. The father of these ladies was a graduate of Wabash and some of his writings in Greek, done at an advanced age, testifies the born scholar. He collected a rare old library and probably a still rarer lot of old English prints and engravings which have a frieze-like arrangement around the book encircled walls. They are likenesses of the world’s heroes along different lines : Livingston, Garibaldi, Cardigan, leader of the famous “Six Hundred” ; Duke of Cambridge, once seen by Miss Krout ; our own Washington, Franklin, Webster and Clay. The latter was a friend of the Krout family. A large engraving of Lin- coln from a photograph by the government photographer during the Civil War, has the distinction of having been borrowed for the services held in honor of the martyred president at Crawf ordsville. There are volumes in the library to tempt even an honest bibliophile into a hardened kleptomaniac, for instance a copy of Dante’s Inferno with Flaxman’s illustrations ; a rare old edition of Homer of 1790, brought by Miss Krout from Ox- ford, England. A bas relief of Lincoln in plaster, given by the sculptress, Vinnie Ream, to Mrs. Lew Wallace and, in turn, presented by her to Miss Caroline Krout, has associations of interest. A powder horn, used by a relative at Lundy Lane and some brass candle snuffers engage attention. Miss Caroline is equally as interesting as her sister but in a different way. Her experiences have been along other lines. There is a humorous, almost mischievous glint in her kindly eyes which reflect a very human attitude towards life, The two sisters remind one, in personality of what we read of Alice and Phoebe Cary. Knox: Crawfordsville People and Homes 295

On Grant Avenue, opposite the clock tower of the Wabash college campus, is the home of Dr. E. H. Cowan. The house, itself, is modern (save the wide, comfortable veranda and the stair case transplanted from a sixteen room residence, built by Dr. Cowan’s father in 1865, on the present site of the Big Four R. R. Station) yet it has been planned to make a harmo- nious setting for the interesting old furniture of which it is full. Much of it which was brought from Mrs. Cowan’s girl- hood home in Kentucky, has been handed down through several generations. Now, since her recent death it is all inex- pressibly more precious to her only surviving child, Miss Elizabeth. Miss Cowan has the honor of being a descendant, on both sides of the family, from ancestors identified with the early history of Crawfordsville. Her grandmother’s aunt, a south- ern lady, while on a visit to Vincennes, met Major Whitlock whom she afterwards married. In 1822 he founded Craw- fordsville. At the same time her father’s grandfather, John Cowan, entered land a little to the southwest of the same city. As might be expected, the house is filled with heirlooms from the union of two of the oldest families in the county. Deep, sleepy hollow chairs whose backs are oval instead of square like those of the present day; tables, drop leaf, pedestal, round and square, inlaid, marble topped and what you will; gilt framed mirrors, picturesque old china of three generations back, etc., each with an individual history, delight and confuse the antiquary with an “embarrassment of riches”. In the reception room is a clock, made by S. Hoadley in Plymouth, Mass., before the time of the Seth Thomas ; an old settee with swan carved arms, brought from New Jersey to Kentucky, in 1821, by a great grandfather of Miss Cowan. Over its aristocratic old back is one of those priceless, old coverlids. Major Whitlock’s cane, cut from a hickory on the Tippe- canoe Battle Ground, hangs in a prominent place on the wall, near his portait. On a curious old escritoire are brass snuffers and a whale oil lamp that makes us think of our envied old friend, Aladdin. Family portraits and rare old steel engravings abound and there is an exquisite miniature on ivory of a 296 Indiana Magazine of History

great grandsire. An ormulu clock with especially fine lines, bridges the time between the pioneer and the present. The dining room is especially delightful with its mahogany sideboard and chairs with horse-hair cushions. In a corner cupboard are the wedding dishes of a great-grandmother whose bridal dates back to 1813. A pair of cut glass pitchers, brought to Jefferson County, Kentucky, from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1790, make the span of human life look small and a soup tureen of that alluring old, grandmoth- ery looking blue china completely outvies the pitchers in se- niority. We can imagine them exchanging confidences about their long, rich and varied experiences. The several upper chambers are replete with interest. There are old four-posters in mahogany and cherry, glass- knobbed old dressing-cases of the time of George Washington ; brass fenders and andirons ; an Italian chair or two ; a lovely carved dower chest that suggests Samuel Rogers’ “Ginevra” of old McGuffey fame and crowning all a BANDBOX ! Shades of our ancestors! What a key to the past a bandbox furnishes to the imagination! The word opens a vision of old attics, rich with years of accumulation and the faint rich perfume of yesterday, like the memory of those who have left so far behind these once-valued laces, silks and velvets, overpowers and attunes us with the ancestors, generations removed, who wotted not of us as of individuals but simply as a vague and possible posterity. We seem to have slipped back a century or so in visiting this interesting home. Dr. Cowan, scholarly, retired physician, and his daughter, a prominent business woman, con- nected with all social affairs of importance in her native city, are very hospitable and unselfish with their home. These are but a few of the historic homes of Crawfords- ville and the families of importance.