The announcement that the major railroad companies are asking to abandon their "feeder lines" causes the historians of American folklore to wonder why those roads were created, what towns and villages sprang up along these feeder railroads, what will happen to them, and why they were created in the particular spot each one occupies. My mojor concern is a small town in Southern Indiana on the railroad whose terminus is Madison, a historic town on the Ohio River. My town was named Dupont and "therein hangs a tale".
    Dupont owes its origin to at least four widely scattered and seemingly unrelated great movements in our history: the building of the first railroad west of the Allegheny Mountains, the great Irish immigration caused by the Potatoe Famine in Ireland, the Educational Movement to found centers of learning in the "unspoiled American Wilderness", and the erection of the great gunpowder works of the DuPont de Nemours in the town of Wilmington, Delaware. Perhaps the shipwreck of the "Marquis de Lafayette" on the Indiana side of the Ohio River may have interested his fellow compatriot, Eleuthere Irenee DuPont in the friendly settlers of the Southern Indiana timberland. However, this last is only based on speculation. The rest of my conclusions are based upon fact and tradition.
    The beginning and chief reason for Dupont was the railroad. In 1838 Governor Noble signed  a huge internal improvement bill for Indiana which provided, among other things, for a railroad to be constructed from Madison through Columbus to Indianapolis. By 1841 this railroad reached only to Queensville, 27 miles from Madison. The project had run out of funds and the railroad was not completed until 1848. One of the most expensive bottlenecks was the cut through the hills from North Madison to the city of Madison. Plans were made and discarded to run the track around natural watersheds. At last a bold engineering feat was decided upon to consturct the steepest grade ever known to enable a locomotive to run under its own power. This grade was cut through solid livestone; and the only material which could blast out this rock was gunpowder.
    When the DuPont Powder factory was constructed during World War II to provide amunition to be tested in the Proving Ground in Jefferson County before sending supplies to the battlefront, a member of the DuPont family expressed interest in the fact that it was the second factory his family had located in the vicinity. He asked that he might talk to a person from Dupont, Indiana, and Mr. Graston Graham was chosen for the interview. Mr. DuPont stated that the early railroad was one of the customers of the DuPont de Nemours Powder factory, and to supply it they had build a factory near the proposed railroad cut.
    Another local project was completed in 1848. Ten years earlier an organization called the Neil's Creek Abolitionist Society had been formed to help mistreated slaves to escape from their cruel masters. A group of teachers trained at Hanover College proposed that an institution should be established in which blacks and whites could be educated together on equal terms. This movement was in line with a general trend in the United States in the early part of the Nineteenth Century, that and ideal educational situation could only be constructed in the "Unspoiled Wilderness" among fresh unspoiled wilderness people. Some settlements of this kind were also built in such local places as the Moravian Settlement at Hope, and the New Harmony Movement, Shakertown in Kentucky, and similar attempts throughout mid-America.
    The movement which affects Dupont was known as Eleutherian College which was located two miles from that small villiage. It seems hardly a coincidence that the college and town were named for the founder of the Dupont de Nemours powder company, especially when the Encyclopedia Britannica informs us that Eleuthere Irenee DuPont de Nemours had left his native France to provide educational opportunities to people in America. It further states that all his projects were doomed to failure. The corner stone of the old college building records only that it was founded by Thomas Craven in 1848 to provide equal opportunities for education to all.
    One of the shameful practices of slavery which aroused people for the need for education for slaves was the birth of so-called "yard children". When the wife of a plantation owner found herself pregnant, her husband promptly bred himself a strong, healthy young slave girl. The black mother provided milk for the white child as well as her own, and the slave half-breed child became a special servant to the white household, especially to his half-brother or sister. These children were usually very intelligent, and there was a wide-spread demand that they should be educated. These were the students sent to the Eleutherian College. Many of their names have been preserved in the writings of the period, such as "In the Twilight Zone", a novel written by Thomas Craven about 1870. Among the students listed were Lucy and Sarah Jefferson, said to be the grand daughters of Thomas Jefferson, whose slave son, Tom, was sold when Jefferson's estate was insolvent. Another student was Theodore Johnson, the natural son of Col. Richard M. Johnson, vice-president under Martin VanBuren.
    The town of Dupont was laid out in 1848 by Dr. James Tilton, who was a close friend of the DuPont de Nemours family in Wilmington, Delaware. He is reported to have left his practice in Wilmington after a terrible explosion in the factory there. It seems possible that he chose the site a rail terminus for a large university which was to grow from Eleutherian College two miles away, on College Hill. The site of Dupont was well chosen for that period of development. Madison was thirteen miles away, and Madison was the pork-packing capitol of the world. The newly-built railroad needed maintenance. The contour of southern Indiana is peculiar in that the streams do not flow into the Ohio River, but through many waterways into the Wabash. There is a 75 foot drop from the hill leading into Madison, now called North Madison, to Dupont, making a natural means of filling water tanks  which supplied the engines' steamboilers at needed intervals. From artificial lakes, called ponds, water could flow about half a mile north and fill a tank high enough to enable gravity to run the water into the railroad engines' boiler. Dr. Tilton bought the land for his railroad town between the pond and the water tank. To provide citizens for his new town he persuaded Irish immigrants who had come to America in hordes driven from Ireland by the Potatoe Famine of 1846 and had found work on the railroad.
    Many of these Irish were Roman Catholics and their memory is preserved in St. Patrick's Church in Madison which they constructed from the road rock excavated from the Madison Railway Cut. However, some were from North Ireland and were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. These prodestants were easily persuaded to settle in the newly organized town of Dupont, especially when they were given a church site, and a burying ground of their own just outside the estimated limits of the hoped-for city. The United Methodist Church owns both parcels of land today, although the burying-ground has not been used for about a hundred years. It lies near the railroad in a corner of the farm now owned by Mr. Graston Graham, and is not accessable from the road. However, the deed is still valid. The present members of the United Methodist Church number descendents of the original pioneers, and their Irish names are significent: Lockridge, O'Neal, Donnelly, Terwillager, McConnell being a few of those remaining. I remember in my childhood such names as Yost, Faulkner, Darby, Downs, Cooley, McNutt, Hedrick and Callicut. The Callicut brothers formed and Irish band with which they used to entertain the town on the morning of every holliday. We would be awakened to the strains of gay music and know it was time to prepare for a picnic in the woods adjoining the Railroad Pond. We played and feasted all day long and could always call for Irish gigs played by Newt and Ben Callicut.
    These Irish men and their descendents labored with great pride maintaining the railroad. In my childhood there were two crews, one located near the pond and the other near the water tower. It was their ambition that no weeds should ever infest their right-of-way and not a cross tie should show any signs of rot. Derailments were unknown for a hundred years. When we see the condition of the roadbed today with its hazards, and the many derailments and accidents in spite of a five-mile-per-hour speed limit we long for the spirit of the fierce Irish workmen whose pride was in the maintenance of a solid, save road bed and whose joy was in the long trains that sped upon it with no thought of an accident.
    Another industry attracted citizens to Dupont. Madison only thirteen miles away to the south, was the pork processing center of the world; and great droves of hogs traveled by thousands down dusty roads daily to the pork-processing plants of Madison. A Mr. Abbott, whose farm lay between the railroad and the highway, also divided his farm into lots called the Abbott addition; and this, added to the Tilton addition, constitures the modern town of Dupont. In this addition were erected the industries of the town industries connected with pork processing. A cooperage shop operated by the Hoyt family was built near Mr. Abbotts home, now owned by Mr. Grover Bear and considered the old home of the town.
    A day's drive for the hogs was ten miles, so Dupont was one of the final stops before arrival at Madison. Inns were constructed along the way and one of them remains as a large pile of stones near Middlefork Creek. The oak forests which surrounded Dupont were materials for the barrels needed to ship the cured pork by rail to markets in the East. A tan yards was also built to provide the acid needed for processing hides. Mr. Vincent Rwlings operated this plant and built a large brick house which still stands at the south edge of Dupont.
    Dr. Tilton did not take up the practice of medicine in Dupont, which emphasixes that the object of his arrival was the development of the Eleutherian College. He persuaded Dr. Levi Butler to become the practicing physician and Dr. Butler employed the well-known Madison architect, Costigan, to build a home for him in the Greek Revival style so favored in the 1840's. This home is featured by Wilbur D. Peat in his book Indiana Houses of the Nineteenth Century. Mr. Peat considered this home the loveliest small home in Indiana. It consists of eight rooms, all on the ground floor, and its Greek portico is supported by four large Doric columns.
    In 1851 Dr. Butler sold his home and practice to a young physician, Dr. George Brown Lewis, who had just been graduated from Indiana University Medical College, then located at Evansville . Dr. Lewis and his wife Patience McGannon Lewis, wanted to settle near his two older brothers: an attorney James Lewis, and a publisher Benjamin Lewis, both of whom resided in Vernon, a thriving county seat of Jennings County, ten miles north of Dupont, and also located on the J.M. & I. railroad as the Madison-Indianapolis railroad was called. Dr. Lewis engaged a cabinet maker in Vernon to build their furniture to fit the dimensions of their Dupont home, and also probably employed the local cabinet maker, Sam Maxwell. This furniture remains in the possession of the Lewis family and is an example of the fine workmanship of the period.
    As Dr. Lewis was the grandfather of this writer, the article will become rather personal. Soon after the arrival of Dr. Lewis and the birth of their six children, rumors arose of trouble between North and South, part of Jefferson County were sympathizers of the South, but the fiery Irish of Dupont were strongly anti-slavery and pro-union. My father, who was six years old at the outbreak of The War Between the States, told many stories of these differences. He told of boys laying chips on their shoulders and daring Southern sympathizing children to knock them off. The Southern children would retaliate by placing butternuts on their shoulders for my father and his friends to try to knock them off.
    Churches were also involved in the trouble. The Dupont Baptist Church was orgainized in 1848 to break away from a Baptist Church near the Middlefork community where there was a very strong Knights of the Golden Circle a Southern sympathizers' organization. Most of the loyal Irish joined the Northern anrm and twenty Civil War veterans are buried in the Dupont cemetery, most of them revealing their Irish ancestry: Wafford, McNabb, McCaslin as well as others previously mentioned.
    The historical highlight of Dupont came on the even of July 11, 1863, when the Confederate general, John Morgan quarted his troops to spend the night in Dupont. Many stories are told which have lost nothing in the telling of experiences of our citizens. I know these four to be true.
    My father, James F. Lewis, always said he was the youngest prisoner of the Civil War. The first deed of Morgan's men was to gather up all the men of Dupont and quarter them in Mr. Thomas Mayfield's large smoke house which they had stripped of the cured hams and bacon. My father, a curious eight year old, found himself imprisoned among the men. He said it was fun for awhile, but when he became homesick and hungry. The guard stationed at the door heard him and this conversation followed:
           "How did you get here?"
           "You locked me in.' 
           "What is your name?"
           "Frank Lewis."
           "Where do you live?"
           "Over there in that white house with the big posts."
           "While I watch you, I want to see how fast you can run home. Now get moving."
     Needless to say, Dad did not let any grass grow under his feet, but he had been a prisoner about two hours. While busily setting fire to the railway depot, one of the prides of Dupont. A young school teacher, Miss Sally Truesdale a beautiful girl with bright red hair, had come to the front door of her home, the house now occupied by Mr. Kenneth Lockridge. A trooper called to her: "Hi, Redhead, what is the name of this town?"
     "Since you've come, its name is Firetown," retorted Miss Sally as she slammed the door. Miss Sally never married, and often visited our family, once in later life staying an entire winter.
    On the north bank of Camp Creek stood a two-story frame house with a combined flour mill and lumber yard owned by Thomas Stout. Here General John Morgan made his headquarters for the night and forced the miller to grind all the grain he owned into flour, which General Morgan distributed to the village women to bake into bread for his troops. The handsome, daring raider, John Morgan, was the pride of the Confederate army, but he was not very popular with the women of Dupont. His men scouted the countryside for horses, cows and hogs. The horses were sometime exchanged for their own jaded mounts and Dupont citizens in later years traced the ancestry of their horses to the Morgan strain.
    South of town stood a handsome two-story brick residence built by Mr. Vincent Rawlings, and Englishman who entered a piece of land during the opening of the Northwest. His daughter, Miss Sophronia, used to tell the story of how her father had determined to save his pet horse by stabling it in the cellar under the kitchen. When a Confederate soldier brought flour and ham for Mrs. Rawlings to cook, and remained at the house all night to be sure the food was prepared as ordered, he did not know that a fine horse was secreted just under the activity.
    My fourth Morgan Raid story is a romance. In the course of the occupation of Dupont, a fatigued young confederate soldier rode his tired horse to the south end of town where lived the family of Thomas Mayfield (in census records I find Josie in the home of a Francis F. Mayfield in both the 1860 & 1870 census, can anyone enlighten us as to who her parents actually were? Josephine Mayfield and Harry Snook were married December 19, 1878 in Jefferson County according to county records. It appears from census records Harry Snook was born in Shelby County, Kentucky. ) one of the most prosperous citizens. Josie Mayfield, a young girl, was playing in her front yard when the soldier called to her, asking for a drink of cold water for himself and his horse. He looked so young and tired that she brought the water and stood talking to him while he drank it. As he left reluctantly, he said, "My name is Harry Snook. If this war ever ends and when you grow up, I'm coming back to marry you. You are the nicest little girl I've ever seen." Several years after the end of the war, Harry Snook came back. Josie had never forgotten him; and when he left, he took her as his bride to Chicago, where he had secured good employment. Like a true romance, they "lived happily ever after." Their two children often visited their Dupont grandparents and were playmates of my two oldest sisters.
    At the beginning of the outbreak of hostilities, teachers and male students alike left the Eleutherian College to join the Northern army. The college never re-opened and so Dupont was destined not to be a part of the great humanitarian campus dreamed of by its founders. Eleutherian College building became a part of the grade school system; and of its two large dormitories, one has been destroyed by fire and the other incorporated into a dwelling complex. The College and College Hill have been well preserved by the Jefferson County Historical Society and a few public-spirited citizens, led by Mr. Clarence Dryden, Mr. Joseph Officer and Mr. Major Jester. (Now the Historic Eleutherian College  Historic Site-privately maintained by dedicated volunteers).
    During this period immediately before and after the Civil War, English names began to appear in Dupont and the surrounding countryside. In addition to the names Tilton, Abbott, Butler, and Lewis came the names Guthrie, Smith, Dryden, Richardson, Nichols, Walker, Reeves, Flanders, Rayburn, Bland and Wood. These probably immigrated into Indiana from Virginia by way of Kentucky or through southern Ohio after Indiana became a state in 1816, and the land was opened for farming. The Great Refusal of 1848 in Germany probably brought in a few German emigrants, because we began to have such names as Yeager, VonOyen, Graston, Bear and Uebel. These people brought industry to the village., and by the turn of the century Dupont was a thriving little community. Items copied from newspapers dated September 3, 1855, and July 26, 1856, give news of interest about Dupont. On two occasions fugitive slaves were arrested on the J. M. & I. train on their way to Dupont. The slaves were freed, re-caught, and freed again and set at liberty in Dupont.
    Advertisements show the following industries before the Civil War; a tan yard operated by Henry Tull, a cooperage owned by Greenup Fish, a wagon shop operated by William Houghton, a cobinet shop where fine furniture was made owned by Sam Maxwell, two smithies owned by Ben and Garrett Williams, a bootery where Charles Faulkner made fine boots and shoes. (His son used to tell of putting goose quills inside the soles of shoes for the young men of the town. The squeak which the quill produced made the young ladies think their escorts were wearing new shoes.) A tin shop was operated by James Wallace. Thomas Stout operated a flour mill which he later sold to Frank Landon, who sold it to George Graston. Mr. Mayfield operated a pork-packing plant, andit was from his smoke house that General Morgan stole all his meat.
    In 1870 there were six log houses still inhabited in Dupont; but there were also that many architectural show places, including the Butler-Lewis beautiful home.
    By the census of 1870 many of the Irish had moved to other occupations. The O'Neals and McConnels had become prosperous merchants; the Lockmans operated a thriving blacksmithy and welding shop; there were a butcher shop, bakery, a newspaper and printing shop, two milineries, seven general stores which included harware, drugs, groceries and dry goods.
    A high school opened at about the turn of the century and a thriving town band gave a concert every Saturday night on the square where the post office now stands. For the occasion the two churches alternated entertaining the audience with pie and box suppers., ice cream socials, and even a community products display, the forerunner of the County Fair.  Each community reserved a woodland to hold a Civil War celebration yearly, and the Dupont picnic woods bordered the big railroad pond to the south, now owned by Mr. Guy Read. The only surviving industry of the period still owned by the same family is the Bear Funeral Home, now operated by its third generation.
    The little town of Dupont now entered into a period of quiet growth, its dream of becoming the threshold of a huge university town entirely forgotten. But the railroad was still there. There were big excursion trains nearly every weekend, allowing merrymakers to take trips combining rail and river travel for a delightful holiday. But nature has a way of ending the plans of men. The sudden freeze of 1918 caught the river boats unprepared, and scores of luxury liners wer ice-locked in a winter such as had not been known before and has not occurred again. All winter the ice grew thicker and thicker around the helpless boats. A traveler from Kentucky to Madison, walked across the ice, and goods were carried back and forth in heavy wagons. It was not until spring that the thick ice broke up. Sightseers ran down to the river banks to see huge, beautiful boats being swept with the current and ground to bits by great blocks of ice. A few hearty pilots kept their boilers alive and tried to steer to safety. Among the successful were the Delta Queen and the Belle of Louisville. But the days of river luxury travel with their profitable passenger train tourism was dealt a death blow by the ice in 1918. Dupont which depended  so heavily on the Pennsylvania Railraod, (as the J.M. & I. was now called) began to decline. The prosperous village now became isolated and no truck line has been able to restore its prosperity. Pride in the maintenace of the railroad bed began to deteriorate. Weeds grow and crossties rotted. Tools rusted and decayed.
    However, by the time following World War I, Dupont had a group of energetic young men and women who had dreamed of seeing Dupont develop into a city. Many of the young men had seen war action in France and had seen life in parts of the United States other than Southern Indiana. These young people led by Arlie Rea and John McConnell strove for the conveniences of city life; and in 1921 Dupont had its first electrical service, a branch line from Madison which is still in use. For the first time Dupont women enjoyed  freedom from kerosene lamps and sod irons heated on a wood burning stove. Because no one could look forward to more than lights, carpet sweeper, and electric iron, much of this early wiring has become dangerous from the strain of our many home and business appliances. But 1921 marked a revolution in home living in Dupont.
    World War II brought a severe shift in population to the village of Dupont. A government proving ground for testing ammunition before it was sent into battle was constructed, occupying nearly the entire eastern part of Jefferson County. The westerb edge of the proving ground lies just two miles east of Dupont. Since all residents of that section of the county were forced to vacate their homes, it was inevitable that this should make a great shift in the Dupont population. Soaring prices of property tempted long-time residents to sell their homes, and the new comers such as Cardinals, Adams, Smart, Sullivan were names now often heard. Also men skilled in handling ammunition moved into Dupont, and the names Ison, Frazier, Cosby, Whittaker, Halcomb, Scroggins, Hewitt and Sparkman added to the names of English derivation already there. These new people were interested in education, and besides providing many teachers for the county schools, they headed a movement for consolidation with the Madison School System, an amalgamation which was completed in 1965. Since that time an elementery branch of the Madison School system has been maintained at Dupont, and all school transportation has been by buses.
    And what is the future for Dupont? With the railroad for which it was built now fallen into disuse, the location of Dupont does not seem encouraging for growth; also the nearly abandoned proving ground presents a gloomy picture. However, our fields are fertile and our farmers prosperous; our roads are paved for the caravans of trucks which supplant the railroad; river traffic is increasing; and our children are learning to treasure the furniture and possessions of our ancestors and to present them to tourists interested in life in pioneer days. Perhaps Dupont has a future growth. Who knows?