USA > Indiana > Sullivan County > A history of Sullivan County, Indiana, closing of the first century's history of the county, and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth, Volume I > Part 1
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Gc 977.201 Su5w v.1 1314645
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00828 3977
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017
https://archive.org/details/historyofsulliva01wolf 0
A HISTORY 1
OF
SULLIVAN COUNTY INDIANA
CLOSING OF THE FIRST CENTURY'S HISTORY OF THE COUNTY, AND SHOWING THE GROWTH OF ITS PEOPLE, INSTI- TUTIONS, INDUSTRIES AND WEALTH
THOMAS J. WOLFE EDITOR
VOLUME I
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK CHICAGO
1909
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1314645
FOREWORD BY THE EDITOR
In assuming the position of editor of the present work we were aware of the difficulties in the way of producing such a history as that outlined in the prospectus. As the work progressed we found we had not overestimated the task, and but for the energy and perseverance of the chief historian, Mr. Hill, who has so loyally seconded all of our efforts we should certainly have come short of our own expectations.
Our readers can scarcely imagine the labor necessary to overcome the difficulties of such a work where there is so little authentic data. The original intention of giving a history of Sullivan County, for about one century, has been adhered to; but to prepare such a history where the public records have been destroyed and all those who really made the first twenty-five or fifty years of that history have ceased to speak, is a difficult task. In a country where annals are kept, and events of each year are recorded as they occur, it is an easy matter to select, group and condense those events into a general history. No such effort is at- tempted in this work. Events will not, therefore, be found in chronolo- gical order, but must be sought under the head of the subject matter under consideration. No attempt has been made to give prominence to every little neighborhood event. This would be the work of a daily newspaper, and if inserted here would make an encyclopedia instead of a history, and hence only those of general interest have been selected. Where facts have been recorded they have been consulted, where wit- nesses are living they have been examined and cross-questioned-ancient newspapers and private documents have been consulted, and even "tables of stone," "silent sentinels of the dead" have been visited and asked to give up their secrets of other years,
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1314645
FOREWORD BY THE EDITOR
In assuming the position of editor of the present work we were aware of the difficulties in the way of producing such a history as that outlined in the prospectus. As the work progressed we found we had not overestimated the task, and but for the energy and perseverance of the chief historian, Mr. Hill, who has so loyally seconded all of our efforts we should certainly have come short of our own expectations.
Our readers can scarcely imagine the labor necessary to overcome the difficulties of such a work where there is so little authentic data. The original intention of giving a history of Sullivan County, for about one century, has been adhered to; but to prepare such a history where the public records have been destroyed and all those who really made the first twenty-five or fifty years of that history have ceased to speak, is a difficult task. In a country where annals are kept, and events of each year are recorded as they occur, it is an easy matter to select, group and condense those events into a general history. No such effort is at- tempted in this work. Events will not, therefore, be found in chronolo- gical order, but must be sought under the head of the subject matter under consideration. No attempt has been made to give prominence to every little neighborhood event. This would be the work of a daily newspaper, and if inserted here would make an encyclopedia instead of a history, and hence only those of general interest have been selected. Where facts have been recorded they have been consulted, where wit- nesses are living they have been examined and cross-questioned-ancient newspapers and private documents have been consulted, and even "tables of stone," "silent sentinels of the dead" have been visited and asked to give up their secrets of other years,
(SIZ.
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FOREWORD
The chief value of a history is, not to the generation in which it is written but to their children and succeeding generations. The older readers may know many of the facts related, the next generation may have heard of them from living ancestors, and thus history degenerates into tradition and in a short time becomes hazy mythology.
The editor and his associates have made special effort to avoid any partiality or favoritism. For such errors the sources of information are most to blame. It is so natural for persons to wish to appear a little bet- ter than they are and especially a little better than their neighbors. Very few have the courage of the old battle-scarred general who, sitting for his portrait, was asked by the artist if he should not cover up some of the scars, answered "no"-and in commanding tone said "paint me as. I am."
It is to be observed, however, that there is a difference between partiality and drawing the veil of silence over the errors or mistakes of the absent or the dead-the one is justice, the other "charity, that covers a multitude of sins." There is no history, with the exception of the Bible, that has ever had the courage to rebuke the sins of an individual or nation in such unmeasured terms as were used in extolling their virtues.
These things are enumerated, not as an apology, but that the reader may have a clearer conception of the difficulties that the publishers have had to meet.
The editor has been in hearty sympathy in the effort to perpetuate as far as possible the fast departing land-marks of bygone generations that made us what we are-to pay, in some small degree, the debt we owe to them and to hand the same down to future generations. We are not vain enough to imagine that our work is perfect. We are aware of many defects. Nor do we suppose that our efforts will be appreciated in the near future ; but we do believe that it will live and will grow more valuable as our county grows older and will furnish a foundation for some future historian on which to build.
The management are indebted to the patrons who have generously aided their efforts and have made possible the success of the enterprise by
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FOREWORD
furnishing much information, and have manifested such patience for which we have endeavored to reward them by improvements which re- quired time to make. We commend the work to you as the best could be made under all of the circumstances. We trust our efforts will meet all just expectations, and realize that the nearest approach to immortal- ity, in this world, is to be embalmed in printer's ink and be laid away in history.
It is manifestly impossible to make individual acknowledgments for all the sources of historical information which have supplied the contents of this work. But in one case such acknowledgment is due from the editor and publishers. The history of the county from the beginning of the Civil war to the present time is largely based on data obtained from the files of the Sullivan Democrat. These files were loaned for the pur- pose by Mr. Paul Poynter, proprietor of the Democrat. The task of reading each issue of this paper for a period of nearly fifty years, and of collecting and classifying the historical notes was performed with much care and fidelity by Miss Julia Mason, of the Sullivan Public Library. The voluminous notes thus obtained could not all be utilized in the preparation of this work, and they are in many respects a valuable historical collection containing a digest of all matters of interest in the county's life during the past fifty years.
SULLIVAN, July 5, 1909.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE HISTORIC BACKGROUND.
I
CHAPTER II
THE OLD FORTS AND THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.
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CHAPTER III
ORGANIZATION OF SULLIVAN COUNTY.
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CHAPTER IV
THE PIONEER MEN AND WOMEN-GENESIS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS
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CHAPTER V
MILITARY ANNALS
84
CHAPTER VI
SULLIVAN COUNTY EDUCATION
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CHAPTER VII
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION-THE RIVER TRADE BY
FLATBOAT AND STEAMBOAT-DAYS OF STAGE COACH AND ROAD
WAGON
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CHAPTER VIII
THE ERA OF RAILROADS AND ELECTRICITY.
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CHAPTER IX
THE TOWN OF SULLIVAN
163
MEROM
CHAPTER X
193
CARLISLE
CHAPTER XI
198
CHAPTER XII
SHELBURN, FARMERSBURG, HYMERA, PAXTON, NEW LEBANON, GRAYSVILLE, PLEASANTVILLE, CASS, DUGGER, FAIRBANKS ..... 205
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CONTENTS
COUNTY INSTITUTIONS
CHAPTER XIV
BENCH AND BAR
220
CHAPTER XV
TIIE PROFESSION OF MEDICINE. 232
CHAPTER XVI
THE PRESS
238
CHAPTER XVII
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MINERAL WEALTH.
245
CHAPTER XVIII
MONEY AND BANKING.
267
CHAPTER XIX
THE PRINCIPAL CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS. 280
CHAPTER XX
295
FRATERNAL
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
LIBRARIES
308
DRAINAGE
CHAPTER XXIII
313
CHAPTER XXIV
FAIRS -- THE GRANGE AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS .. 318
CHAPTER XXV
TELEPHONES
323
RURAL FREE DELIVERY
CHAPTER XXVI
325
CIVIL LISTS
CHAPTER XXVII
328
CHAPTER XXVIII
A SKETCH OF INDIANA THROUGH THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD AND UP
TO ORGANIZATION AS A STATE.
335
304
TEMPERANCE
CHAPTER XIII
217
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
THE HISTORIC BACKGROUND.
During the latter half of the seventeenth century, by the discoveries and explorations of Marquette, Hennepin, Joliet and LaSalle, all the country drained by the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and their tributaries were added to the vast claims of the French empire in the new world. For nearly a century the statecraft and military power of France were tested and tried to the utmost in strengthening and maintaining the authority of the empire in the territory between New Orleans and Montreal. During LaSalle's explorations about the lower end of Lake Michigan and in his journeyings from there to the Mississippi, he penetrated northwestern Indiana, going as far east as the site of South Bend. Another result of his activities was the organization of the various Indian tribes outside of the Iroquois confederacy and the concentration of them all about a cen- tral seat in Illinois, so that in 1685 it is probable that Indiana was no longer the home of a single Indian tribe.
To secure all the country between the Mississippi and the Alle- ghanies against English aggression, the French projected and founded
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many posts that would command the rivers and the outlets of trade. Sev- eral forts were established at the lower end of the Mississippi, and a vigorous policy of commercial development and expansion begun. Other posts were established higher up the river, Kaskaskia, above the mouth of the Ohio, becoming a strategic point of much importance. The French captain, Cadillac, by anticipating the English in the settlement of Detroit, secured a post of wonderful advantage in dealing with the Indian inhabit- ants west of Lake Erie and south of Lake Michigan. The Indian tribes that had been drawn into LaSalle's Illinois confederacy were now drifting east to the Wabash, the Maumee and about Detroit. To control these tribes and prevent their being approached by the English, the French authorities in Canada, who claimed jurisdiction on the upper courses of the Wabash,* planned the re-location of the tribes and the founding of posts among them. The principal settlement of the Miamis was then at the head of the Maumee, at a place called Kekionga (the site of Fort Wayne). The Ouiatanons lived lower down on the Wabash, and about 1720 post Ouiatanon was established among them (near the site of Lafayette), this being the first military post on the Wabash. From this point controlling the Miamis and Ouiatanons, was stationed Sieur de Vincennes. The authorities of Louisiana, very much exercised by the reported encroachments of English traders within the Ohio valley, about 1726, won over Vincennes from his service with Canada, and a year or so later that intrepid pioneer of France founded on the lower course of the Wabash the post which soon became known as Vincennes. In a few years some French families from Canada settled around the post, and thus was established the first European village in Indiana.
*The lower Ohio and Wabash and Mississippi were governed as part of the Louisiana province of New France. Boisbriant, who had been appointed governor of Illinois, founded Fort Chartres (sixteen miles above Kaskaskia) for the pro- tection of the upper colony, in 1720.
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Until the close of the French occupation in 1763, Vincennes was included in the District of Illinois, which, in turn, was part of the Province of Louisiana. The dividing point between the jurisdiction of Canada and that of Louisiana was Terre Haute, "the Highlands of the Wabash."
By such means the authority of France was extended throughout all this country, including the present state of Indiana. Vincennes became a village of French soldiers and traders and their families. Where Lafayette now stands was another French post, and another at the site of Fort Wayne. The inevitable conflict between France and England, closing with the victory of Wolfe on the plains of Abraham and with the treaty of Paris in 1763 by which England became the dominant and principal territorial power in the new world, has only a remote interest in this discussion. The French and English met at the site of Pittsburg in 1754, where Fort DuQuesne was built by the former, and this meeting brought on the war which began with the disastrous defeat of Braddock by the French and their Indian allies.
After Wolfe's victory the English took possession of Detroit and the posts on the upper Wabash, but Vincennes continued part of French Louisiana until the treaty in 1763. The numerous Indian tribes north- west of the Ohio, though at first treated with much respect by the English, were later wrought upon by the brusque behavior of the English and the secret persuasion of the French who still remained in the country. A powerful confederacy of the western tribes was formed under the brilliant leadership of Pontiac, and during the spring of 1763 a general outbreak against the English posts occurred, which has since been known in history as Pontiac's war. Few of the inland posts escaped capture, the small English garrisons at Ouiatanons and Miamis (Fort Wayne) surrendering with the rest. It was not until the following year that such energetic measures were taken by the English forces as to break the Indians'
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strength and force the Delawares, Shawanees, Miamis and other bands to sue for peace. Henceforth until the American revolution, the Indian inhabitants north of the Ohio gave little trouble to the English, who maintained an easy and almost nominal jurisdiction over the posts and settlements along the Wabash and down the Mississippi.
In 1774 all the country northwest of the Ohio was put into the boundaries of the Province of Quebec, and several years later the lieu- tenant governor of Detroit assumed title of "superintendent of St. Vincennes," and took personal command there in 1777. Throughout all the years since the first exploration of her territory Indiana was but a part of a province of a province. "For ninety years her provincial seat of government vacillated between Quebec, New Orleans and Montreal, with intermediate authority at Fort Chartres and Detroit, and the ultimate power at Paris. Then her capital was whisked away to London, without the slightest regard to the wishes of her scattered inhabitants, by the treaty at Paris. Sixteen years later it came over the Atlantic to Rich- mond, on the James, by conquest ; and after a tarry of five years at that point it shifted to New York city, then the national seat of government, by cession. In 1788 it reached Marietta, Ohio, on its progress to its final location. In 1800 it came within the limits of the state."*
During the Revolutionary war, the danger most dreaded by the colonists was that which came from across the western frontier, pro- duced by the Indians and their English leaders. At this time a considerable population had crossed the mountains from the Atlantic colonies into the country along the Ohio, and the county of Kentucky had already been organized as a part of Virginia by George Rogers Clark. This young Virginian, when it became apparent that a frontier force must be maintained to subdue the Indians and check their invasions
* Dunn's Indiana.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
under English leadership into the colonies, was selected by the govern- ment of Virginia to organize and command such a force on the frontier. Owing to lack of money and supplies, the small number of settlers from whom his force was to be recruited, and the vast extent of country to be covered by his force, the success of Clark's campaign has long been a glorious addition to American annals, and his fame fitly symbolized with the designation "The Hannibal of the West." Setting out with a small force of men, recruited largely in Kentucky, and relying. on the support or at least the neutral attitude of the French settlers, he sur- prised the post at Kaskaskia, July 4, 1778, and in the course of the same month Vincennes became an American post, and the American flag was floated for the first time in Indiana, and the French residents welcomed the American invaders as friends of their nation. Vincennes was later captured by the British and again re-taken by Clark, but the details of his campaign are not here pertinent. Suffice it to say that he held the vast region of his conquest against all expeditions of the English until the close of the war, and when the treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 the conquered region became a part of the new American republic. By the Ordinance of 1787 all this country northwest of the Ohio was organ- ized as the Northwest Territory, and provided with a temporary government directed by officials appointed by Congress.
By Clark's conquest, by the Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Territory, and by ordinances, dated in 1785 and 1788, providing for the survey and disposal of the public lands of the Territory, the region now embraced in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and parts of others became a part of the United States and opened to the settlement of the pioneer homemakers who formed the first wave of western expan- sion. However, the Indian inhabitants were a factor that proved an
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obstacle to the settlement of this region for many years, and it was only when they gradually yielded, by war and treaty, their rights to the land that the white men were permitted to come in and possess the fertile regions north of the Ohio.
CHAPTER II.
THE OLD FORTS AND THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.
The first settlements in Sullivan county were made on lands that the French had obtained from the Indians during the period of the French regime. These lands were in the vicinity of Vincennes, and were later known as the Vincennes district. The treaty with the Indians for these lands was made in 1742, and the general description of the boundaries was-"lying between the point above, Pointe Coupee en haut, and the river Blanche below the village, with as much land on both sides of the Wabash as might be comprised within the said limits." Pointe Coupee was a mile or so above the mouth of Busseron creek, in the southwest corner of what is now Gill township. The village referred to in the treaty was, of course, Vincennes, and the river Blanche was White river. Thus the lands granted to the French by this treaty comprised practically all of Knox county, the southern portion of Sullivan county, besides some lands on the west side of the Wabash.
Some of this land was occupied by the residents of the country during the French and British control of the territory. After the Amer- ican conquest, and while Vincennes was commanded by governors from Virginia, further dispositions of the lands were made under the authority of the local officials. After the organization of the Northwest Territory in 1787, the disposal of the lands was regulated by Congress.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
In 1791 Congress passed a land law upon which were based subse- quent titles to the lands of this district. This law provided :
I. That 400 acres of land should be given to the head of each family residing at Vincennes or in the Illinois country in the year 1783;
2. That a tract of land containing 5,400 acres near Vincennes, which had been under fence and used as a pasture for thirty years, should be given to the inhabitants of Vincennes to be used by them as a common until otherwise disposed of by law ;
3. That the governor of the territory be authorized to donate a tract of land of 100 acres to each man who on the Ist of August, 1790, was enrolled in the militia, had done militia duty and had not received a donation ;
4. That the governor upon application should confirm to heads of families the lands which they may have possessed and which may have been allotted to them according to the usages of the government under which they had respectively settled ;
5. That where lands had been actually cultivated and improved at Vincennes or in the Illinois country, under a supposed grant of the same by any commandant or court claiming authority to make such grant, the governor might confirm such claim not exceeding 400 acres to each person.
The bodies of land described in the first section have since been known as "donations;" those in the third paragraph, as "militia dona- tions :" and the last classes are generally known as "surveys."
The status of the lands in the Vincennes district at about the time the first settlements were platted in Sullivan county is described in a letter from General Harrison to James Madison in January, 1802. He said that the governors' courts maintained at Vincennes under the author- ity of the Virginia commonwealth from 1779 on had assumed the right to grant land to all applicants ; that they did this for a time without opposition, and concluded that, as they were not interrupted, they could continue as they pleased ; that finally the whole country. to which the
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Indian title was supposed to be extinguished, was divided between the members of the court and perhaps others, the lands thus disposed of extending along the Wabash river from La Pointe Coupee to the mouth of White river and forty leagues west and thirty east, excluding only the lands surrounding Vincennes, which had been granted to the old residents. The authors of this division had later perceived that their course was illegal, and the scheme was abandoned, but was revived a few years before 1802, and portions of the land purchased by speculators and sold fraudulently to eastern settlers. Harrison stated that upward of 500 persons had settled or would soon settle upon these lands in conse- quence of these frauds, that the owners pretended that the court had ample authority from Virginia to grant the land, and that speculators had gone to Virginia, had secured a deed for a large tract, had had it recorded and duly authenticated, and had then made their fraudulent transfers to the credulous.
A large amount of litigation rose from this condition of land claims, and it was several years before the claims were investigated and settled by the government commissioners. A more complete account of the subject is not pertinent to the history of Sullivan county. But the fact that much of this land got into the hands of speculators and was offered for sale in Virginia to prospective homeseekers no doubt explains the cause that attracted some of the first settlers to the region now included in Sullivan county.
The lands about Vincennes were, as already stated, ceded by the Indians to the French in 1742. But on June 7, 1803, General Harrison concluded a treaty with the Delawares, Shawnees, Pottawatomies, Miamis, Eel River Wecas, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws and Kaskaskias, which con- firmed this cession. The northern boundary of this cession, as described in the treaty, is a matter of history in Sullivan county. Pointe Coupee on
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
the Wabash, just above the mouth of the Busseron, was the principal point on this boundary. The line did not run due east and west through this point, but at an angle of 12 degrees from this direction, its general course being from northwest to southeast. The treaty also provided that in case some of settlements and locations of land made by the citizens of the United States should fall in the Indian country, the boundary might be altered to include these settlements.
This is the origin of the "Old Indian Boundary" in Sullivan county, a line that often figures in the land descriptions of the southern portion of the county. A small portion of the southwest corners of Gill and Jefferson townships is south of this line, and the greater part of Haddon township is by this line shown to be in the cession which was confirmed by the treaty of 1803. In Haddon township the boundary leaves the straight course at right angles so as to include within the ceded area a rectangular body of land lying about three miles northeast of the general direction of the boundary. In this rectangle is the town of Carlisle. It is probable that when the survey was made this deviation from the regular course was made in accordance with the clause of the treaty above noted, in order to include some settlement or settlements that otherwise would have been left in the unceded Indian country.
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