20 Proceedings op Indiana Academy of Science 



The canal continued to operate through many vicissitudes on ac- 

 count of floods and dams washing out until 1866, when it was compelled 

 to give way to the railroad. 



Brookville has had its ups and downs, gaining slowly in population 

 at the rate of about 150 each decade during the last one-half century. 



Brookville has had many prominent men live in it. In fact it was 

 not uncommon for its citizens to speak in rather a boastful way of the 

 great men who have gone out from Brookville. One day one of our 

 citizens was telling a prominent Cincinnati banker the names of the 

 prominent men who had gone out from Brookville. The banker said: 

 "Well, Chai^lie, the great men all left Brookville, didn't they." In later 

 years the people of Brookville and Franklin County began to minimize 

 their importance; at least that is what the state tax board seemed to 

 think when it added 30 per cent to the taxable property of the county. 



So many names of prominent men have been attributed to Brook- 

 ville, many of whom lived in Brookville for so short a time they could 

 scarcely be called residents and others never lived there. But there are 

 many who unquestionably lived in and were a part of the daily life of 

 Brookville. 



When Indiana became a state in 1816, there were three men living 

 in Brookville who were destined to become governors of the state. They 

 were James B. Ray, 1825 to 1831; Noah Noble, 1831 to 1837; David 

 Wallace, 1837 to 1840; so Brookville furnished the state with governors 

 for fifteen consecutive years. Abram A. Hammond, lieutenant governor 

 was acting governor from 1860 to 1861. Will Cumback, born in Mt. 

 Carmel, was lieutenant governor from 1867 to 1869. General Lew 

 Wallace was at one time governor of the Territory of New Mexico. 

 John P. St. John, Governor of Kansas; William Henson Wallace, Gov- 

 ernor of Idaho; Steven S. Harding, Governor of Utah; James Noble, 

 a brother of Governor Noble, became a United States Senator, he served 

 in the Territorial Legislature, in the Constitutional Convention of 1816, 

 and was elected to the first Legislature from Franklin County, he was 

 elected at the first session of the legislature to a seat in the United 

 States Senate, which he held until his death in 1831. Robert Hanna 

 of Franklin County was appointed by Governor Ray to fill the vacancy 

 in the Senate caused by the death of Noble. John Henderson was 

 United States Senator from Mississippi. 



James N. Tyner was Postmaster General under President Grant, 

 and James Clarkson was selected as his assistant. Later Clarkson be- 

 came the Collector of the Port of New York and Chairman of the 

 Republican National Committee. Charles F. Jones was United States 

 Attorney before the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission following the 

 Spanish-American War, in which position he saved the United States 

 many millions of dollars. He is now the first Assistant to the Attorney 

 General of the United States. Dr. John R. Goodwin was Chief Dis- 

 bursing Officer of the United States Treasury. George E. Downey, 

 once editor of the Brookville Democrat, was Comptroller of the United 

 States Treasury. General Lew Wallace was Minister to Turkey; Edwin 

 Terrell Minister to Belgium, and George C. Hitt was Consul to London. 



Franklin County furnished three judges on the Supreme Bench of 



