By David Heighway, Hamilton County Historian Emeritus
September 17 will be Constitution Day, the 239th anniversary of the signing of one of our country’s founding documents. However, it will also be the anniversary of a shocking event in Noblesville that was spurred by differing interpretations of that same Constitution. On September 17, 1864, the city experienced a bloody riot. Even beyond the battles of the Civil War, politics had become so toxic that many people believed that violence was a necessary response to disagreement.
The election of 1864 led to high tensions between the Republicans – supporters of Abraham Lincoln – and the Peace Democrats – supporters of George McClellan. Noblesville was strongly abolitionist and Republican. However, the war had been dragging on, and there was a sizable movement of people who wished to end the war immediately by negotiating with the South and ignoring the issue of abolition. The Peace Democrats were called “Copperheads” and “Butternuts” for their alleged Confederate sympathy. There are stories of local clashes between the groups prior to this.
September 17 was a busy day in Noblesville. An Agricultural Sanitary Fair had been organized to raise funds for the care of wounded soldiers. This brought families to town, and there were many women and children walking through the streets. Significantly, there was also a local meeting by the Democrats to ratify the nomination of George B. McClellan to the presidency. Some local Republican had objected to this meeting, and by midday on the 17th, brawls using fists and bricks were breaking out.
It’s not totally clear what happened from the reports. Information has been gathered from contemporary news articles written by supporters of both sides. It seems that Daniel R. Brown, a veteran and Republican candidate for state senate, arrived on the courthouse square in his buggy and asked, “What is this fuss about?”. After hearing the reason, he stood up in the buggy and made a speech blaming one of his opponents for the trouble. He was followed by a speech by local minister Safety Layton who said that all Peace Democrats were traitors. At this point, Dr. Charles N. Branch yelled, “That’s a damned lie”, drew a pistol, and fired at Layton. Pistols were then brandished by several people, and general shooting began.
Dr. Israel Haines, a Republican, was shot in the back while trying to knock away Branch’s pistol. (Haines survived and lived until 1880.) The man who shot him, a Democrat named Trittipo, was also shot and was critically wounded. There is no information on what happened to him. Branch was grazed in the head by another shot and then arrested by law enforcement officers. Branch’s original shot missed Layton and flattened on the iron storefront of the J. F. Jackson grocery, one of the buildings on the west side of Eighth Street. Years later, a person remembered hearing the bell being rung in the courthouse to call up the militia. The Home Guard mustered and armed, but the Democratic meeting had broken up. Later, both sides claimed that they had chased the other side off.
Brown and Layton had spoken beside a stack of firewood in front of the Thomas Tappin photography studio, which was on the south side of the square. This was the epicenter of the fight, and people later gave the event the sarcastic nickname of “The Battle of Tappin’s Woodpile”.
However, at the time, it was viewed with terror rather than humor. A local Republican official, D. C. Chipman, recalled later that people were trying to hunt him down and kill him. Both sides claimed that their right to free speech had been violated and that the opposing side supported a tyrannical government. Angry feelings persisted long after the event.
These photographs of a woman and a young girl are anonymous, but we know they were taken at Tappin’s studio sometime between 1860 and 1866. There is a strong possibility that these were local people who were witnesses to this riot. Of course, we don’t know what they thought of it. However, while the known articles about the riot are usually partisan bragging, I suspect that there were those who wanted no part of the political violence.
One can look at the photographs and wonder if they had come to town for the Fair and were excited to be there. The little girl could possibly have even gone to Tappin’s to have her photograph taken in a new dress. Then, outside the photography studio, there would have been sounds of shouting, fighting, gunshots, and people fleeing in panic. She may have carried the trauma from that though her life, knowing that people were ready to kill each other over spoken words.
In the political battles of today, as people try to justify actions and proclaim their eagerness to fight, they should remember that there are horrible impacts on those that are too young to understand what is happening. There are always innocents in the crossfire.