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Biennial Report of the Department of Statistics for 1887-88.
By Indiana Department of Statistics
Published by The Department, 1888

JENNINGS COUNTY.

VERNON

The incorporated town of Vernon is the county seat of Jennings County, located on the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad, sixty-four miles southeast of the State Capital It contains a population of 1,000, and is surrounded by a fairly good hay and corn-producing district. The chief source of wealth, however, is an excellent quality of building stone, which underlies the entire surface, and which is extensively quarried. The stone is used principally in foundations for buildings and abutments for bridges. Vernon has real estate assessed for taxation at $62,515, personal property assessed at $91,305, eighty-seven polls listed for taxation, and the tax rate on each 8100 of property is thirty cents. The bonded debt is but $250 and it has no floating debt. There are twenty business houses engaged in the retail trade, thirty persons engaged in commercial pursuits, and the sales in 1887 were estimated at $120,000. The town is lighted with gas. One weekly newspaper is published.

The manufacturing industries here operated include one flouring mill, one hub and spoke factory, one hay-rake factory, one pump factory, one foundry, one plow factory, and one planning mill, the whole employing sixty hands, at average wages of $I.50 per day.

The public school property of Vernon is valued at $3,000, the schools being graded in their several departments, and four teachers are engaged in the work of instruction. In 1887 there were 163 pupils enrolled.

NORTH VERNON

North Vernon is a city of 3,000 inhabitants, located at the crossing of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis and Ohio & Mississippi railroads, and is the southern terminus of the Greensburg branch of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St Louis & Chicago railroad, being two miles north of the county seat. The city is prosperous and is steadily improving, having substantial business blocks and residences, good churches and school buildings, and well paved streets Its real estate is assessed for taxation at $234.670, its personal property at $142,285, and the rate of taxation on each $100 of property is $1.25 The city has a bonded debt of $5,000, but no floating debt, and the number of polls listed for taxation in 1887, and including all voters between the ages of twenty-one and fifty years, was 270. A fire department is maintained and two weekly newspapers are published. The commercial interests are represented by general and special stores, sixty persons are engaged in commercial pursuits, and the sales in 1887 were estimated at $175,000.

The manufacturing industries are growing in number and importance, and now comprise two planing mills, one foundry, two spoke factories, one cooper shop, one tile factory, one furniture factory, one cigar factory, one hub factory, one neck-yoke factory, one marble shop and one sawmill. These employ a total of seventy-five hands, with wages averaging 81.40 per day. Two stone quarries, employing fifty men, are operated here.

The school property of North Vernon is valued at $9,000. Eleven teachers are engaged in the work of instruction, and 473 pupils were enrolled in 1887. The schools are well graded in all their departments.