The Time Machine is waiting to take you back to Terre Haute as it was 160 years ago. The year is 1842. Welcome aboard!

The nation was in the throes of recession and money was scarce. Terre Haute was a town, not a city, of about 3,000 people. Elected town officials were unsalaried.

Mayor Britton M. Harrison asked the Terre Haute Common Council for $100 a year, but he was denied. Total town income from Jan. 1, 1842, to Dec. 19, 1842, was $1,202.52

As a compromise, the council agreed to pay Harrison $22 for preparing graveyard deeds at Woodlawn Cemetery during three years of his administration, $19.14 for grading Third Street opposite Court House Square, $20 for inspecting fire houses and grading sidewalks and another $20 for work on wells, distributing ordinances and painting his office

He also was reimbursed $2.50 for books and paper and $12.50 purchasing trot lines, a spade, levels and other utensils for use in his work.

Town Attorney Cromwell Woolsey Barbour, earning an annual salary of $50, was embroiled in several lawsuits. Market master Zachariah Gapin, responsible for renting and maintaining the Town Market House at the northwest corner of Fourth and Walnut streets, was paid $60 a year.

Charles Wood and John Britton were paid $23.87 in 1842 for engineering services. Despite the tight budget, town treasurer Samuel Crawford was able to reduce the principal on the town's debt by $400 to $2,739. During 1842, $85.54 was paid in interest.

Revenue was received for issuing auction licenses ($25), tavern and spirits licences ($144.70), dray licenses ($25), shows and exhibitions licenses ($18), market house rents ($65), sale of grave lots at Woodlawn Cemetery ($133) and renting of the town hearse ($7). Property taxes, poll taxes and income derived from ordinance violations totaled $733.68.

In late December 1842, a committee consisting of councilmen David S. Danaldson, James S. Wallace and John Boudinot prepared an extensive report of the year's transactions. Woodlawn Cemetery received considerable attention. The council repaired fences and installed painted oak posts at corners of lots along the cemetery's "streets and alleys." Revenue from the sale of lots since the cemetery opened in 1839 nearly equalled the cost of the land. By 1844, the council anticipated being able to spend funds for beautification.

By reducing the rent charged for stalls and decreasing the market master's salary, the Market House yielded a small profit for the first time since no repairs were mandated.

Town attorney Barbour was defending litigation brought by a "Mr. Donovan of Vincennes" contesting the validity of the town's title to the lot upon which the Market House was situated.

The council thanked brothers John and Samuel Crawford for keeping the town's only fire engine in "good and serviceable condition."

On Feb. 14, 1842, upon recommendation of an inspection committee, the council passed a ordinance to repair Third and Fourth streets, "in wretched repair," to "make them of safe passage for vehicles . . . ."

Under the town charter, the council had the power to grade and pave any street and charge the expense to owners of lots fronting the improvement. The charter also authorized lot owners to make improvements under the supervision of the mayor.

Lacking funds, the council initially urged landowners to grade and pave the streets. On Sept. 5, much work had not been done so the mayor was directed to carry out the intentions of ordinance. Before the work was finished, freezing weather intervened.

Mayor Harrison "abated the nuisance" by grading Third Street near Court Square. He also graded a portion of "National Road Street," now Wabash Avenue, near the river and a small portion of Second Street. On Aug. 8, 1842, the council passed an ordinance "for the suppression of vice and immorality," declaring "all houses of ill fame, all houses of assignation, and all assemblages at such houses" a nuisance and imposing a daily $5 fine on "the keeper or keepers."

Moreover, any person who harbored a "lewd, baudy (sic) or dissolute woman who . . . obtains her living by prostitution" was subject to an identical fine. The ordinance also imposed a fine upon anyone who knowingly rented or leased "a house, room or building," which was used as a "disorderly or baudy house."

Mike McCormick is the Vigo County Historian.