Valerius Armitage, Canal Builder By Diana Vice Vice is an honorary regent and historian for the General de Lafayette Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Valerius Armitage first arrived in Indiana in 1830 to work on the Wabash & Erie Canal. Who was Valerius Armitage? That was a question I asked myself after being asked to look through a large collection of canal-era artifacts bearing his name. The collection contains dozens of various legal documents, letters, and diary notes from the collection of Judge Cyrus Ball, a prominent attorney and pioneer from Lafayette’s earliest days. Judge Ball had served as an attorney for Armitage and handled his final estate.   For nearly 200 years, the Armitage papers have been in possession of the Ball Family, and since it was constructed in 1876, the collection has been stored in a closet of the notorious Ball House that was built by Judge Ball for his wife, Rebecca.   The papers include historical artifacts from For...