INDIANA JIOKTICUI.TUKAL SOCIETY, 



547 



With all these traveling charms, we left Indiauapolis, 10 o'clock a. m. 

 Tiu'sd.iy. via rrMiiiciiu. ("(>huiil)us. Kockfovd. r.rowustown. Salom. Pntvi- 

 dence. and reached Jeftcrsoiiville at 3 o'clock p. in., Friday, and were con- 

 fjratnlated over our remarkably qnick trip. Aljout 125 miles we traveled. 

 There were then no railroads in llie State. Now the same cities are 108 

 miles apai't. The time employed by the fastest train is three hours. 



Tlie State of Indiana in 1835 asked the United States government to 

 detail army officers competent to the task, whose duty Avas to survey and 

 locate a route from Indianapolis to the most feasible point on the Ohio 

 River, where a railroad could be most speedily and economically built. 

 This was bringing into practice an insane utterance of Gov. James Brown 

 Ray who. in a Fourth of July speech in 1831. ventured to say, "Before 

 twenty years are past, freight would be brought by steam wagons to 

 Indianapolis from the Ohio Rivei'." That remark sealed Gov. Ray's sanity. 

 He never recovered from the taint of an unsound mind. 



The detail was made from the army. Madison, on the Ohio River, had 

 brainy men in Governor William Hendricks, Joseph G. Marshall, Jere- 

 miah Sullivan, Micliael G. Bright, William McKee Dunn and others in- 

 fluential in the politics and commerce of the State. Madison went wild 

 over the men detailed for the survey: dinners, balls, all the round of 

 hospitalities weie lavished upon the otficeis. 



The survey embraced Lawrenceburg and Madison from Indianapolis, 

 and from Columbus to Jeffersonville. When completed the officer in 

 chai'ge reported tliat Madison was the most feasible point on the Ohio 

 Ri\er tiiat was available as a railroad route, uotwithstanding the "big 

 hill" that must be excavated to let the railroad down to the river. The 

 report of the officers was taken a little like the laws of the Medes and 

 rersi:ins, "not to be broken or amended." 



Samuel T. Gillette lived in Madison. He was a Lieutenant in the 

 United States Navy. Influences were brought to bear at Washington, and 

 Gillette was detailed as surveyor in charge of the railroad from Madison 

 to Indianai)olis. A long acquaintance with the county around Madison 

 made him especially adapted for his duties as engineer in charge. Taking 

 the notes and reports of the army officers, after careful study, Gillette 

 knew of a cieek that would cross the contemplated survey a short distance 

 iinrtli of the hill toil, and by following the creek, reach the river bottoms, 

 two or three miles west of Madison, from which point Madison could be 

 reach(>d on a level with the town. He reported his survey to the Board 

 of Directors, but they overruled his sui'vey and insisted in following the 

 survey of the army officers. This conclusion made, Mr. Gillette promptly 

 resigned as engineer, saying. "Gentlemen. I won't be n party to a scheme 

 for swindling the State of Indiana out of at least one hundred thousand 

 dollars." 



He resigned, went back to the navy, and in 1837 he went on a cruise In 

 the Meditteranean Sea had leave to go to Jerusalem, where the teachings 



