INFLUENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL 235 



Indiana, as worked out under the direction of the Rev. Oscar 

 C. McCuUoch of the Charity Organization Society, Indian- 

 apolis. The progenitor of this tribe, Ben Ishmael, was in 

 Kentucky as far back as 1790, having come from Maryland 

 through Kentucky. One of his sons, John, married a half- 

 breed woman and came into Marion County, Indiana, about 

 1840. His three sons who figure in this history married three 

 sisters from a pauper family named Smith. They had alto- 

 gether 14 children that survived, 60 grandchildren and 30 

 great-grandchildren living in 1888. "Since 1840 this family 

 has had a pauper record. They have been in the almshouse, 

 the House of Refuge, the Woman's Reformatory, the peni- 

 tentiaries and have received continuous aid from the town- 

 ships. They are intermarried with the other members of 

 this group, — and with over two hundred other families. In 

 this family history are murderers, a large number of illegiti- 

 macies and of prostitutes. They are generally diseased. 

 The children die young. They live by petty stealing, begging 

 and ash-gathering. In summer they "Gipsy" or travel in 

 wagons, east or west. We hear of them in Illinois about 

 Decatur and in Ohio about Columbus. In the fall they re- 

 turn. They have been known to live in hollow trees on the 

 river bottoms or in empty houses. Strangely enough, they 

 are not intemperate to excess." 



"A second tj^^ical case is that of the Owens family, also 

 from Kentucky. There were originally four children, of 

 whom two have been traced, William and Brook. William 

 had three children, who raised pauper famihes. One son 

 of the third generation died in the penitentiary; his two sons 

 in the fourth generation have been in the penitentiary; a 

 daughter in the fourth generation was a prostitute with two 

 illegitimate children. Another son in the third generation 

 had a penitentiary record and died of delirium tremens." 

 An illegitimate half-breed Canadian woman enters this 



