Greater Indianapolis e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. If any apology were needed for the appearance of a history of Indian apolis at this time, a sufficient one would be found in the fact that no such history has been published for more than a quarter of a century; and in that period Indianapolis has developed from an overgrown town to one of the leading cities of the country, the material growth being aecom panied by a development in government and institutions that is perhaps the most interesting feature of the history of the city as it now is. But there are other considerations that made a new history desirable. The first history of Indianapolis was prepared by Ignatius Brown, and published as part of the city directory of 1857. Mr. Brown was a patient delver in historical material, and in the course of the next decade he found so many errors in his first publication, and acquired so much additional informa tion, that he revised and enlarged his work and republished it in the city directorv of 1868. This second publication was more than four times as large as the first, and has been the basis of all the history that has since been published, being closely followed by others, errors and all, with the exception of J. H. B. Nowland, whose two books, Early Remints cences and Sketches of Prominent Citizens were on a wholly independent basis. Mr. Brown's history was more properly a chronology, the events being grouped by years. In 1870 Mr. Wm. B. Holloway published his Historical and Statistical Sketch, made an effort at topical treatment, but was still largely chronological, and therefore disconnected. In 1884, Berry R. Sulgrove, who wrote a large part of the Holloway publication, issued his History of Indianapolis and Marion County. This made a still further effort at topical treatment, but it was also biographical, and the biographies are so mixed with the historical text that it is difficult to get trace of any special subject. In both of these Mr. Brown's work is closely followed.