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“Where the West Began: Environment, Transportation, and Capitalism in Marion County, Indiana, 1820-1860” Kelly Stephen Wenig Iowa State University

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“Where the West Began: Environment, Transportation, and Capitalism in Marion County, Indiana, 1820-1860” Kelly Stephen Wenig Iowa State University Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2017 “Where the west began: Environment, transportation, and capitalism in Marion County, Indiana, 1820-1860” Kelly Stephen Wenig Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the Economic History Commons, Transportation Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Wenig, Kelly Stephen, "“Where the west began: Environment, transportation, and capitalism in Marion County, Indiana, 1820-1860”" (2017). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 15641. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/15641 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “Where the west began: Environment, transportation, and capitalism in Marion County, Indiana, 1820-1860” by Kelly Wenig A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: History Program of Study Committee: Kathleen Hilliard, Major Professor Pamela Riney-Kehrberg Julie Courtwright James T. Andrews John Monroe The student author and the program of study committee are solely responsible for the content of this dissertation. The Graduate College will ensure this dissertation is globally accessible and will not permit alteration after a degree is conferred. Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2017 Copyright © Kelly Wenig, 2017. All rights reserved. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ASTRACT vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: THERE WERE NO ROADS: TRANSPORTATION, ECONOMY, AND COMMUNITY IN MARION COUNTY, 1819-1828 26 CHAPTER 3: SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH: ESTABLISHING A LOCAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM, 1828-1833 61 CHAPTER 4: ONE BIG BILL AND A DREAM: THE MAMMOTH INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS ACT IN MARION COUNTY, 1833-1837 86 CHAPTER 5: THE PRESENT APPROACHING CRISIS: THE PANIC OF 1837 AND INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN MARION COUNTY, 1837- 1843 119 CHAPTER 6: THE RAILROAD ARRIVES: BEGINNINGS OF TELESCOPED GROWTH, 1844-1852 147 CHAPTER 7: “THE PLACE WHERE THE WAYS MEET”: INDIANAPOLIS DEVELOPS A HINTERLAND, 1853-1860 185 CHAPTER 8: ECONOMIC INTEGRATION: CIVIL WAR, REGION, AND THE END OF TELESCOPED GROWTH DURING THE 1860S 219 APPENDIX A: SELECTED AGRICULTURAL CENSUS DATA FOR 1850 248 APPENDIX B: SELECTED AGRICULTURAL CENSUS DATA, 1850-1860 259 APPENDIX C: SELECTED AGRICULTURAL CENSUS DATA, 1860-1870 286 BIBLIOGRAPHY 311 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dissertations are difficult. They are the first book length exercise that scholars undertake, take years to complete, and are always rigorous enough to make someone want to rip out their hair and lay on the floor, desperate and fuming with rage. These emotions require that any dissertation be a group effort, and this one is no different. My dissertation was possible because of the large number of people and institutions that supported my struggle to make this work possible. I would like to thank the various institutions that have contributed to the success of this project. First, and foremost, Iowa State University has provided me with institutional support throughout my studies via teaching assistantships, research funding, and travel grants. My work, which focuses on a region hundreds of miles from our campus, would not be possible without your support. I would also like to thank the Indiana State Library, Indiana State Archives, and the Indiana Historical Society for your support in research. I would like to especially thank Suzanne Hahn of the Indiana Historical Society for her continued support and interest over years of research. Her patience and willingness to help was a crucial part of completing this project. The Agricultural History Society and Indiana University provided me with travel funding and ample opportunities to express the ideas put forth in this dissertation. I would also like to thank the history faculties at the University of Wisconsin- Green Bay, University of Cincinnati, and Iowa State University. You have all contributed to this work by teaching me how to read and think critically and by supporting me through the good times and bad. I would like to especially thank Clif Ganyard, Andrew Kersten, Peter Kellogg, John K. Alexander, Chris Phillips, Tracy iv Teslow, Isaac Campos-Costero, Paul Griffiths, Amy Bix, Larry McDonnell, Tim Wolters, Simon Cordery, and Stacy Cordery. Scholars from outside institutions have also played a vital role in shaping my work via conference and correspondence and include, Elliott West, Donald Pisani, Alan Olmstead, James C. Scott, Peter Coclanis, Joe Anderson, Dave Danbom, and Jon Lauck. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee: Julie Courtwright, Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, James T. Andrews, and John Warne Monroe. You were unwavering colleagues who challenged me to push the limits of my endurance and forced me to consider new perspectives on my ideas at all stages of this work. Last, but not least, I would like to thank my advisor, Kathleen Hilliard. Your support undergirds this work laid bare. Its successes are ours, its failures are mine. Thank you. There are also a great number of personal gratitudes to extend. I have many friends that I hold in deep regard both professionally and personally. Friends from Chilton, Green Bay, Cincinnati, and Ames should all take great pride knowing that they have helped me more than they will ever know. A few stand out for their particular roles in this work. I would like to thank Matt Stanley for helping me conceive of this dissertation in its earliest stages. I probably would have never come up with this topic if we didn’t stare at that map in my living room. Pete Noll, Sara Egge, Rachel Kleinschmidt, Andria Pooley-Ebert, Mike Craft, Larissa Pires, Garret Wilson, Mark Barlett, Nick Sherman, Wil Hunt, Matt Margis, Matt Walsh, Maggie Weber, Maria Howe, Mark Howe, Hope Craft, Lindsay Bell, Josh Skipworth, Nick Waldrop, Aaron Benson, Fred Lloyd, Jack Seitz, Mickey Belding, Brandon Duxbury, Joe Otto, Larry Kessler, Wayne Anderson, David Vail, Tim Gresham, and Sue Patrick have all helped me slog through the dissertation process over the years and are all close friends. There are v also a number of people unconnected with the historical profession that have helped keep my authorial eye on my audience. Brian and Cori Hauser, Adam and Andrea Cmejla, Adam and Rachel Guenzel, Mike Cornehls, Jeremy and Jenna Hau, Dave and Lori Lemke, Derek Neumann, Anjeline Ramirez, Ann Creasey, and Jerry Vasquez have all listened to me bluster about various topics over the years. I would like to extend special thanks to a friend from outside the historical profession, Andrew Hugo, for reading a complete version of this work and offering keen insights that I would have otherwise missed. His perspective forced me to think about critical issues and challenged me to keep an eye on academia’s most important task—making the field of history relevant to all parts of society so that we can take the abstract knowledge we possess and use it to create tangible social change rather than keep it hidden in our ivory tower. I would also like to thank Hope Earls and Jennifer Rivera. Anyone who has ever completed a dissertation knows the significant role that secretaries play. You are both are exceptional people and have been exceptionally kind to me. My final thanks go to my family. They have supported me throughout my life and I owe them a debt of gratitude that I will never be able to repay. Harold and Agnes, Norb and Gert, and especially to Mom and Dad, Chris and Britt, Renee, Bob and Eddie, and Andy and Marissa, I love you all. To Ron, Jeff, Cindy, Jen, Mike, Claire and Ellis, I am excited to become a part of your family and love you all too. Finally, to Anna, thank you for standing by me while I worked on this project. I love you and am so excited to spend my life with you. This dissertation is dedicated to all of these people for helping me accomplish this goal. vi ABSTRACT This dissertation examines Midwestern development and focuses on the early development of Marion County, Indiana, through the end of the Civil War and examines the ways that the region’s overwhelmingly rural residents adapted to the challenges and successes of the urban growth and market interconnectivity that they sought from the moment of settlement. Starting with initial meetings of the Marion County Commissioners and examining major municipal turning points including the passage of the Mammoth Internal Improvements Bill, the Panic of 1837, the arrival of the first railroad a decade later, and the onset of the Civil War, it argues that Hoosiers, rather than trying to remain disconnected from external markets as proposed by some historians, immediately pushed for market participation but had difficulty dealing with the unforeseen consequences of their actions. It ultimately demonstrates that Americans had a powerful desire to foster market capitalism in the early republic but lacked the foresight to critically examine the potential for negative externalities. This dissertation has two goals. First, it reorients the history of the transition to capitalism toward the Old Northwest, a region relatively ignored by historians interested in the onset of the so-called “market revolution” along the eastern seaboard. This timely re-examination of Midwestern economic and social change allies itself with the “New History of Capitalism,” and challenges historians to expand their focus beyond the Northeast to engage with the rest of the American experience during the long nineteenth century. Second, it engages a small but growing movement to reorient the history of American Western development east of the Mississippi River.
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