﻿Indiana University Studies 



No. 15 BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA April 15, 19 1 2 



Prefatory Note 



This paper is the result of several years' study on the part of 

 Mr. Esarey in the financial history of Indiana during the middle 

 period of the nineteenth century. It covers in time almost two 

 generations of Indiana's statehood, from 1814 to 1870. A part of 

 this study was used as the author's thesis upon which, together 

 with his other graduate work, he was awarded the Master's degree 

 from Indiana University in 1909. This thesis related to the ''Old 

 Vincern 3 Bank", which became the First State Bank. The find- 

 ings and con:lusions of that thesis have been substantially incor- 

 porated in this bulletin. The paper is written entirely from the 

 sources, such as the Documentary Journal of the Indiana Legislature, 

 the Jouri.a s of the Senate and House, the Laws of Indiana, and the 

 official reports of the State banks. When the subject was first 

 assigned and undertaken in the graduate work of the Department 

 of History, it was the purpose to use a limited survey of Indiana 

 history as a field for training in historical research, and to show 

 the connection between local and national history, while at the 

 same time indicating some of the achievements of the State which 

 in themselves are w^orthy of historical record and preservation. 



I believe that Mr. Esarey in this study has performed a valuable 

 service to Indiana history. He will soon publish, also, in the pub- 

 lications of the Indiana Historical Society, a study on 'Tnternal 

 Improvements in Indiana". These studies represent a part of the 

 work that is being attempted in the history of the State by the 

 Indiana Historical Survey, organized under the direction of the 

 Department of History and Political Science of the University. 



James A. Woodeuen, 

 Professor of American History and Politics, 



