County Played Role in “Hoosier Schoolmaster”

Smiley Fowler

The two years -1851-52 - when the Eggleston family resided in Decatur County were productive of literature that entertained millions of readers and did much to advance interest and an understanding of the Middlewest.

Contrary to current criticism of “The Hoosier Schoolmaster” when it became a literary sensation in the early ‘seventies (that it exaggerated the crudities of Indiana pioneer life) the story really brought about such reformations in the American Midwest as Dickens’ “Nicholas Nickleby” had achieved in England’s boarding school system.

The Eggleston brothers, Edward and George Cary, were born at Vevay. Their father, a young lawyer, died in 1848. Relatives of the widow, living in Decatur County, urged her to come here so that they could assist her in rearing her four children. She accepted that invitation and was surrounded by the Barger, Welsh, Craig, Lowry and other well-to-do Clay Township families. Here she met and married the Rev. Williamson Terrell, a Methodist circuit-rider.

The family settled in Milford (Clifty postoffice), occupying a house on the north side of the main street with a stone wall in front. Improved at various times, the house is well preserved to this day.

Fond of Stepfather

When they came to Milford, Edward, a red-haired, rather frail boy, was 14 and George was a husky youngster of 12. Edward was inclined toward religion, and George was impressed by the intellectual agnosticism current in that period. Both were avid readers, and the smattering of education imparted to him in the village school was supplemented by their mother, a cultured woman of 38. They were taught also by their stepfather, of whom they grew to be quite fond.

Their mother’s cousin, Merit C. Welsh, lately returned from army service on the Mexican border, kept a grocery store and tavern and served as a constable in the justice of peace court of A. H. Underwood.

(Ten years after this eventful year of 1851, Welsh was an active figure in his second war and was promoted to a colonelcy. After the war, he moved to Greensburg and lived on North Broadway for many years. He is well known by all elder residents.)

In that mid-century interval, Welsh was concerned in the stirring events which formed the plot of The Hoosier Schoolmaster.

The home of Caleb Stark on the Vandalia Road, two miles northeast of Milford - the farm occupied in 1959 by Leonard Stagge - was robbed, and another robbery occurred the next night at the home of John Dronberger near the village of Old St. Louis 12 miles northwest of Milford.

Dr. Henry Smalley was arrested on suspicion, and after a brief hearing in the Milford court his case was sent to the JP court of Samuel Bryan in Greensburg. Smalley was released on bail provided by his father.

Greenwood Harrison, a young medical student in Smalley’s office, was also arrested, and he turned state’s evidence, fixing the crimes on Smalley.

Case Dismissed

Stark and Dronberger provided bond for Harrison to secure his evidence against Smalley. But Harrison jumped bail and disappeared. By a slick move, the Smalleys appeared in Bryan’s court and demanded immediate trial. The case had to be dismissed.

However, public sentiment against the doctor was so strong that Merit Welsh was sent to his home near Old St. Louis to search for evidence. There, without a search warrant, he broke open a trunk and found what he considered good evidence.

Welsh was prosecuted in a Bartholemew County court on a charge of illegal search, and the evidence thus obtained was not allowed in prosecution of Smalley. Welsh was found guilty and fined one cent.

Harrison’s forfeited bail bond was never collected from the robbery victims.

These events kept the Milford community in a state of agitation during the Eggleston Family’s residence there and left a deep impression on Edward’s mind.

School Teachers

The stepfather was transferred in the fall of 1852 to a Methodist church at New Albany, later to Madison and to Vevay.

Edward and George became school teachers and their joint experiences contributed to the complex plot of Edward’s famous novel, which was published in 1871. Many of the real names of Decatur County persons were carried in the story, some with slight changes. Smalley, for example, was Dr. Small in the story. Some names and plot incidents were composites of later remembered Vevay experiences.

Mrs. Eggleston’s Craig relatives in Virginia were persons of wealth, and George, while on visit there, was induced to stay and pursue his education in the state university. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the medical division on the Confederate side. After the way, he joined Edward in New York City, and both became famous journalists, historians and novelists. Edward was credited with promoting the present international copyright system.

Milford and Greensburg are central points in George’s “Jack Shelby” novel, published in 1906, and in which I gave some collaboration. Edward’s “Hoosier Schoolboy” also embraced some Decatur County experiences.

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