- Martinsville Republican, 1898 Industrial Edition -

     Martinsville's origin dates from the act of the state legislature which brought the County of Morgan into existence, and which was approved by the governor on December 31, 1921. This act provided that James Barland, of Monroe county; Thomas Beasley, of Lawrence county; Phillip Hart, of Owen county; John Milroy, of Washington county, and John Martin, also of Washington county, should meet at the house of John Gray on the first day of March, 1822, to locate permanently the new county seat. After some opposition on the part of two or more rival locations contesting for the prize, the locating commissioners permanently fixed the seat of justice at Martinsville. Up to this period, there was no sign of a town at this point, the land being covered with a rich growth of native forestry, numerous pits and holes dotting the surface. An old Delaware trail ran across the town site from north east to southwest, passing near the southeast corner of the public square, and, also, the large spring of water in the hills northeast of town.
     The name "Martinsville" was given to the town by those appointed to locate the site and in honor of the surveyor, whose name was John Martin-- supposed to be John Martin, one of the men appointed to locate the site. John Gray also presided as judge at the first session of court held in the city, and this court also convened at his residence. He was the grandfather of Mrs. Mary Alexander, now of 2103 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, Ills., in whose possession are some of the oldest instruments concerning the transfers of property belonging to Martinsville.
     The log house of Jacob Miller [Cutler], erected a short distance north of the northeast corner of the public square, was the first on the town site, and was built in 1820. This became the first county court house, and was the office of the first clerk and recorder of the county.
     About six families located in town in 1822. In the fall of that year a tavern was erected; and in the spring of 1823 a store was opened with a stock worth probably less than $100. In the autumn of 1824, a general merchandise store, with about $600 worth of stock, was opened. The town then contained about sixteen families, and was in a thriving condition.  Carpenters, coopers, blacksmiths, and other useful artisans and mechanics were on the ground, plying their trades. Mail was received daily, a school was started, preachers were there teaching the gospel, and a county jail and courthouse had been built. In 1825, several men engaged in the liquor traffic and distilleries increased with time, bringing paying results to their owners. In 1835, Martinsville boasted of several merchants whose names are prominently interwoven with her later prosperity. From that year until 1850, the town did a large business shipping pork and grain to New Orleans and other Southern points. The names of Sims, Craig, Hite & Parks, Cunningham, J. M. and S. M. Mitchell, Scott, Sheerer and Dawson were written high on her com mercial scroll in those early days.
     The growth of the town was quite rapid during the 40's, the population being over 400 in 1848. A small news sheet was printed early in the 50's. The Gazette, under Mr. Callis in 1856, was an important factor in the development of Martinsville.   The early manufactories included asheries, cooper shops, distilleries, saw mills, wagon shops, hatteries, harness and saddle shops, furniture shops and woolen factories. Martinsville was not incorporated as a town until 1863, although several unsuccessful attempts had been made, previously.
     The first secret society was established here as early as 1849, several following it in the train of the years. 1860 finds the town in possession of its first bank, founded by P. M. Parks & Co.
      A small class of Methodists was organized in 1827; the Cumberland Presbyterians following in 1841; the Christians in 1846; the Baptists in 1850. In 1823 there were ten families in Martinsville; in 1880 we have record of 1,943 citizens. An autograph letter kindly furnished by our esteemed fellow-townsman, Mr. Amos Thornburgh, is here appended and will briefly state the condition of our city as he found it twenty years ago.
     "When I came to Martinsville twenty years ago it was a nice village of about fifteen-hundred inhabitants, but was lacking in all the elements that go to make a prosperous town. Aside from the two saw and planing mills and one planing mill, the manufactories did not amount to much.  The largest industry was in timber in some forms among which were railroad ties, staves and hoop poles, the receipts of the two latter amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, yearly, for eight or ten years; and the receipts of ties for that time was immense. The pork house and Mitchell's woolen factory were closed a short time afterwards. The retail business was all done on the public square except one or two groceries on East Morgan street. On the south side of the square there was only one grocery, a feed store and a millinery establishment. There was not a paved sidewalk away from the square and but little of that of a substantial kind on the square. There was not a strictly classified store in town--except possibly a few small groceries--and each carried as large an assortment as possible except the clothing business. There were only a few first-class residence houses and these were all in the outskirts of town, with but very few exceptions. And, if my memory serves me right, there was not a plate glass front in all the business part of town. Only two men are now doing business of the same kind and at the same places that they were then, and but few others are in the same business that they were then. There was only one public school building which supplied the needs for school purposes fairly well. The churches, of which there were but three, were most of them first class. The Methodist was the largest and newest but incomplete, the congregation worshiping in the basement. The Christian church was a fairly good brick situated on Pike Street one square north of the public square, while the C. Ps worshiped in the church now occupied by the Baptists.  There are four or five physicians here now that were here then and, from present indications, are good for twenty years more of service."

MARTINSVILLE OF TODAY
  Martinsville, today, is an active, enterprising city of about 5,000 inhabitants. Its business blocks are solid and substantial brick structures, its churches are flattering monuments to the zeal of this truly Christian city; and its educational system is perfect, being among the very best in the state.
  The Morgan County Court House is a creditable building and stands in the center of the city, and from which all branches of business radiate. The public square makes an artistic site and is a fitting location for our temple of justice.

THOROUGHLY LIGHTED.
  Martinsville is blessed with a fine system of waterworks, and is proud in its possession. It is complete in all its equipments, and reflects credit upon our city, as well as affording most perfect service.  The plant cost the city the sum of $25,000, and affords the best protection from fire.  There are 60 fire plugs, all examined at stated intervals, and kept in perfect order. There are seven and one half miles of mains reaching over the city....

RAILROAD ACCOMMODATIONS.
  The Indianapolis & Vincennes branch of the Pennsylvania system and the F. F & M. branch of the Big Four place Martinsville in easy connection with Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis and Indianapolis, it being only thirty miles.

BANKING FACILITIES.
  Martinsville, among other things, is known for the solidity of her banks. Many rich men make it their home, and its reputation will never fade so long as the present shrewd, energetic business men have the banks in charge. There is plenty of money here, at all seasons of the year, for any enterprise, old or new. The First National and the Citizens National are the banking houses of the city.

COMMERCIAL STATUS.
  Glancing over the commerce of the city in a general introductory way, the pertinent fact is unavoidable that whatever Martinsville pretends to do, she does it in a substantial manner. There is no mushroom element--there is no sentiment to play brass band music on a tin whistle--and if she has a fault, it is her conservatism, but it is to this she owes her solidity. Her important manufacturing concerns, her retail establishments compare favorably with any city of similar size in the country.
  To sum up, briefly, Martinsville's climate is all that can be said, in a complimentary manner, about any climate; her market is as cheap as any in the world, her municipal government, the splendid water, its public lights and its fire department are models. She is a distributor to a large territory of manufactured goods of various characters; she shelters hundreds of mechanics and tradesmen; her rich men are many, her tributary agricultural wealth is unbounded; her railway accommodations are the best; her banking facilities unlimited; her schools afford superior training; she has every public convenience and adornment that a populous, thriving city should have; she is prominent in Indiana, the state of fertile fields, vast forests, natural gas and oil belts, and of men and women whose history proves them sturdy and capable of great things.
  Over and above all things she is the fountain spring of health, her mineral water making her a mecca for afflicted humanity from all parts of the globe. She is a city of artesian wells flowing every here and there where enterprise has sought for and sunk them.
  The future--what of it? No city in the country has reason to expect more, proportionately. More people are wanted, more factories would be welcome. There is support here for a quadrupled population in every walk of life! Martinsville's gates are always open to the weak and suffering of every dime; and, to all such, she says--"Come, my friends, ere it is too late and drink of my fountains and secure health and rest!"

     At 6:00 in the morning on March 25, 1913, the White River swept into Martinsville, submerging homes and businesses and stranding nearly 3,000 families living west of Main Street for a stretch of two miles north and south. The older residents who survived the Great Flood of 1875 pronounced the flood of 1913 to be its repeat, equal to it in magnitude and in its capacity to induce fright.
     The evening before, reports came from Indianapolis that 48 hours of continuous rain was causing the White River to raise at the rate of four feet an hour. In some places the river's width was measured at over a mile.  Shortly after midnight, the banks at Centerton gave way, sending a torrent of muddy water to join the flood already swirling and swishing down the White River.
     Although people were warned to gather their most valued belongings and retreat to high ground, many did not heed the advice. When the rolling waters came, carpets and furniture were hastily placed on top of tables and chairs. Cellars filled quickly with water, ruining produce and household items that were stored there. Outside, chickens were snatched up and brought to places of safety, with many seeking refuge on porches of the houses.
 The flood continued into the next day, and on March 26th, the city assessed the damage.   The railroad and interurban tracks were severely damaged, and neither steam nor electric trains were able to reach the city. Bridges were washed out and telephone lines were down. The Gas and Electric Company, also a victim of the flood, was forced to cut off power to the city about 10:00 p.m. The Barnard and Martinsville Sanitariums were submerged and guests were later taken to the sanitariums that had been spared.   Over one hundred families were left homeless.
     Cleanup and repairs took months. In Martinsville's history, no natural tragedy has equaled the Great Flood of 1875, and the one that followed in 1913.

View of Martinsville following the “Great Flood” of 1875. No one in 1875 could have known that the city would again endure a flood of equal size in 1913.

A view of the Martinsville Sanitarium from West Pike Street during the flood of March 1913. The men on the sidewalk must have paddled in from drier ground to survey the scene. A second group of men are disembarking from a canoe in from to the sanitarium. Not the Vandalia Depot at the right of the picture postcard.

We've all heard it. We've all had to live with it. How does that old familiar yarn go? Martinsville, Indiana, the headquarters of the modern Ku Klux Klan ... a community of rednecks and Black haters ... race riots on the high school football field and basketball court ... mobs, lynchings, cross burnings .... BUNK!      Rumors, like insensitive ethnic jokes, reveal more about the teller than they do about their subject. Curiosity, disbelief, even repulsion characterize the fascination Americans have for the Ku Klux Klan, the political organization with a platform of patriotism, Protestantism, and Angloism that once thrived throughout the southern United States. In southern Indiana, the KKK was particularly strong in the 1920s, buoyed by the magnetism and business and political savvy of Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson. His fall from power following the death of Madge Oberholtzer, whom he had kidnaped and brutalized, led to the dissolution of the Klan in Indiana.

     That Martinsville--or any town--should become the scapegoat for America's painful sensitivity about its racist and supremacist past--is not so unusual. But why Martinsville?
     Martinsville's history has often been used to provide an explanation for the "Martinsville as KKK headquarters" rumor. It is true that Morgan County saw heavy Klan activity during the  1920s, but no more than other Indiana counties; in fact, the Klan was popular and strong throughout southern Indiana at this time because it promoted "One Hundred Percent Americanism."  Following the First World War, this was a potent antidote to further threats to democracy worldwide.
     In Morgan County during the 1920s, the Klan consisted of many thousand members, including women and children. An October 1923 rally--"an imposing demonstration"-on the courthouse square in Martinsville drew a tremendous crowd from Morgan and other counties, including a large delegation from Indianapolis.  Among the crowd were banners reading "White Supremacy," "Protect Womanhood," "Free public schools," and "Pure Americanism," with many others of a similar character.
     This successful rally in Martinsville was not unusual for the time, and every city of its size or larger experienced similar demonstrations of its own. It is true that the KKK was strong in Morgan County, but this does not in itself explain why Martinsville has been victimized by a baseless legend when other communities have not.
     A second popular explanation for the persistence of the rumor is that Martinsville does not have a history of African American citizenship. The pages of the early newspapers simply do not support this. Historian Coy D. Robbins, in African Heritage in Morgan County, Indiana, cites an 1879 column titled "Our Colored People" that details the social, business, and personal news of selected Martinsville Blacks. A brief 1901 article and a 1902 advertisement reveal that among Martinsville's sanitariums was one specifically for Blacks owned by Willis Clark, who was himself a Black. Others among the African American community who were highly esteemed were Nick Hood, an employee at Adams Brick, and his son Orestes, an electrician; Blandell Hutson, who operated a shoeshine stand for some 30 years; and Albert Merritt, beloved founder of the Boys' Club and porter at the Martinsville Sanitarium.
     Yet another persistent element of the rumor is that Martinsville has a history of racial incidents, including some that have supposedly occurred on the high school football field and basketball court. Far from ordinary, a few incidents did, sadly, occur. In 1943, a crowd gathered on the courthouse square to oppose the use of Jamaican migrant workers in the county's apple orchards. The newspaper reports indicate that only a few members of the crowd of hundreds were serious agitators; the rest were curious onlookers. The "disgusting" incident ended when the crowd disbanded upon learning that the State Police was on its way.
     On January 27, 1962, in the midst of the Civil Rights fermentation, an "affair" occurred on the west side of the square. Only a brief mention of it appeared in the newspaper, with the writer chastising "the potential thugs" for heckling and threatening the Black followers of the Crispus Attucks basketball team. The author's tone is clearly one of abhorrence. The rumors about Martinsville make it seem that altercations involving high school athletic contests are common, when in truth, almost no reports have been verified. Yet the rumor persists; in January 1991, a sports writer for the Hammond Times vilified the Martinsville basketball fans at the Hall of Fame Classic, making them look like racists again.
     Finally, two incidents that most strongly fuel the rumor are the 1968 slaying of Black encyclopedia saleswoman, Carol Jenkins, which occurred 18 months after a July 1967 Klan gathering on the square. Despite "an extraordinary amount of highly skilled professional attention," the mystery of Jenkins's "deplorable" stabbing was never solved. No evidence was ever found to support the belief of the Indianapolis chapter of the NCAAP that the crime was racially motivated; to the contrary, police investigators believed the stabbing was sexually motivated. The case attracted national attention, making Martinsville familiar to people from coast to coast.
     Jenkins's murder followed a July 21, 1967, Klan gathering on the courthouse square. It was not a rally as it has so frequently been described by the media. Mayor James Gardner and the city council banned the Klan from holding a parade, rally, or "streetwalk" in Martinsville but were legally unable to prevent them from stopping during a motorcade. Gardner urged the public to keep Martinsville a peaceful city free from racial troubles by ignoring the Klan. A writer of a letter to the editor echoed Gardner's suggestion, asking, "Why should the people of Martinsville put the responsibility of maintaining peace and control of adverse parades on one man, the mayor? ... I say let [the Klansmen] march to an empty street." As an alternative to the public's attendance at the parade, the writer suggested a city-wide "Do-Good Bazaar" that could be held at the fairgrounds.
     The Do-Good Bazaar never materialized, and neither did a crowd of local Klan sympathizers on the square; in fact, newspaper reports indicated that of the approximately 90 cars in town for the ineffective demonstration, only one or two was from Morgan County. The boastful claim of the KKK that in 1967 its organization was strongest in Morgan County is bunk. They weren't our boys.
     Historically, the last racial incident that may contribute to the persistence of the rumor occurred in July 1975, when Black 4-H leader Demorse Smith was accosted by a verbally threatening, pistol-waving local man, Lowell Clifton. Smith's charges against Clifton were heard in court in September 1976, but not before Judge Philip Smith received notice that Klan leaders might show up at the trial. Indeed, one of the onlookers was Grand Dragon William Chaney of Marion County. No incident occurred, and the jurors convicted Clifton, sending him to prison for 1-3 years.
     At the conclusion of the trial, the Reporter editorialized:

      A Morgan County Superior Court jury yesterday proved that Martinsville's
reputation as a haven of race hatred does not necessarily apply to the situation.

      Twelve people selected at random from the population agreed that it's wrong
for a white man from Martinsville to threaten a black man from outside Martinsville.

      This verdict will no doubt be overlooked by the national media, who made
such a carnival over the Carol Jenkins murder investigation; but no matter.

      What does matter is that the jury proved that Martinsville is a community
where all Americans who behave themselves can have some reasonable hope
of personal security, whatever their creed or color.

     Martinsville is not the modern day headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan, and it is very doubtful that there is any significant Klan activity in Morgan County. Yet the rumor persists. In a story about Larry Bird in January 1992, Esquire magazine reports it as true. Sammy Davis Junior is said to have believed the story, as does the mother of basketball star Isaiah Thomas. On a local level, people throughout Indiana identify Martinsville as a "redneck" town and warn their African American friends never to stop here for gas when traveling on Highway 37. Bunk.
     In response to the national rumor about Martinsville, a group of local citizens organized Citizens for Cultural Enhancement in 1989. Believing that the rumor is constantly upheld by Indiana University professors in their classes, this group challenged the educators and other professionals to objectively examine the accuracy and impact of their stories. Bringing experts in race relations to Martinsville, the group organized sessions designed to educate people about discouraging the varying degrees of racial prejudice. In the process, it became evident that Martinsville itself was a minority victim: a small, all-white central Indiana town maligned for its supposed racism just as minorities themselves are maligned. Citizens for Cultural Enhancement dissipated a few years after it began.