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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00094 6746
Gc 977.201 H83m v.1 Morrow, Jackson. History of Howard County , Indiana
CHIEF KOKOMOKO.
HISTORY
OF
HOWARD COUNTY
INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. I
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
1408938
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
Soon after beginning the editing of the History of Howard County, at the request of B. F. Bowen & Company, two facts became very prominent. The first was that the undertaking was greater than at first appeared and the other was that there are now very, very few of the pioneers remaining to rehearse the beginnings of Howard County history. It is largely now the verifying and arranging such historical matter as has heretofore been published, supplemented by matters already known by the writer, and others, gathered from old newspapers and the few survivors of a far away time.
In preparing this work it has seemed very unfair and short sighted to assume that all this magnificent country should have re- mained idle and unused by man for thousands of years until seventy years ago, for the coming of the white man, and so I have devoted a chapter to the Mound Builders and another to their successors- the Indians. Since the coming of the white man I have tried to describe conditions as they were in the beginning and the many changes he has wrought along the various lines of life.
This work has been largely along general lines. The limits of this work have precluded the going into the purely local and individ- ual. There have been certain individual schools of more than pass- ing importance, as the Old Normal and some out township schools, of which it would have been a real pleasure to have written. Beau- tiful Crown Point Cemetery is another instance and the Old Ceme-
tery, where lie the unmarked graves of many of the early pioneers of Kokomo and vicinity whose memory should especially be cher- ished as the real founders of our goodly heritage; and too, our de- lightful City Park.
I have consulted and drawn freely from the Kingman County Atlas of 1876 and the History of Howard and Tipton County of 1883. Mr. Otis C. Pollard has rendered much valuable assistance ; the chapters prepared by him are accredited to him. Mr. Milton Garrigus has prepared a very valuable history of early financial con- ditions, a compact statement of facts difficult to find, especially interesting in our pioneer history as the Blue Dog and White Dog and the Wild Cat currencies. Posterity is under a real debt to Mr. Garrigus for this chapter.
JACKSON MORROW.
INDEX
Able Jurist 380
Armstrong-Landon Company. Stock of. 224
Automobiles 248
Abolitionists 355
Account of St. Clair's Defeat
40
Agricultural Implements
74
Apples in Kokomo, First.
324
Bank, Citizen's National
278 266
Banks
Bank of Russiaville, First National 281
Bank, First National of Kokomo. 277
Bank, Kokomo National 279
Bank, Indian Reserve 327 226
Buggies, Manufactured
Bennett, Dan
408
Brouse, Judge Henry A 397
Biddle, Judge Horace P. 377
Bell, Lewis Cass, Reminiscences 425
Blanche, Willis
16.4
Brewer, James, Assassination of
285 218
Bench and Bar
362
Bee Hive
227 206
Business House, First
Bounties
176
Bounties in 1865
178
Block & Thalman 227
Banks 276
Bit Works
2.12
Brick, Making
229
Bee Hunter
6
INDEX
Buildings, Public 11I
Calamities, Some Early 330
Commissioners, Board of. 60
Clothing 22
Convention of Delegates
262
Commercial Development
331
Combination Mill
212
Courtship
51
Contempt of Court.
372 282
Cabin Furnishings
72
Clearing the Land
73
Corn
75
Conditions, Present Day
98
Court, Probate and Common Pleas
421
Chills and Fever
84
County Boards
97
Court House and Surroundings
115
Counterfeiters, Arrest of. 333
Civil War. Close of. 183
201
Civil War, Howard in the.
130
Cooper and Robinson
106
Churches 429
City and Township Life
320
Circuit Judge, First
373
Carnegie's Gift
467
Drafts
182
Domestic Life
52
Doxey's Factory 257
Doxey Factory, Committee's Report on. 259
Davis, Judge John 399
Drains, Public 78
Debating Society, First 325
Democrat, Radical 309
Donations
152
Enlistment, Final 174
Crimes and Casualties
Conditions are Changing
7
INDEX
Extensive Improvements 14
Eighty-ninth Regiment 167
Exciting Times 346
Ervin, Judge
368
Elections, First
58
Eleventh Cavalry. Company E
170
Early Roads
80
Education
81
Fairfield Steam Flouring Mill
21I
Factories, Canning
246
Free Soil Supporters
352
Floriculture 252
Foster. David
319
First to Fall
150
Fort Sumpter, News of
147
Friday, D.
227
Farms, Development of
198
Financial History 260
Ford & Donnelly .
251
Fifty-seventh Regiment 164
Free Public School System 87
Garrigus, Milton
395
Greentown Gem
316
Glass Company, Pittsburg Plate
249
Green, Judge
423
Gazette, Kokomo
312
Garver, Judge William
424
Government Disappointed
248
Government Among the Indians
49
Gravel Roads, First IO3
Hardships and Privations
165
Hanged by a Mob 288
Hopkins, John B. 367
Hawkins, Reuben 21I
Hanged from a Bridge. 296
Hardware Business, Head of the 222
Glass Factory. Opalescent
8
INDEX
Heading and Stave Business 226
Interurban Lines 121
Independent, Kokomo
307
Institutions, Strong Financial 281
Indian Villages 426
Indiana Near Bankruptcy
273
Infirmary, County
I18
Indiana Tumbler and Goblet Company
243
Industrial History
196
Invaders
26
Indians Give Up Land
45
Indians
28
Jails
116
Jealousy Leads to Crime
292
Journal, Kokomo 309
Kern, John W.
401
Kokomo Bale Tie Company
252
Kokomo, Early Days in.
318
Kokomo Steel and Wire Works
250
Knerr Board and Paper Company
251
Kokomo Rubber Company.
244
Kokomo Wood Enameling Company
244
Kokomoko, Chief
48
Kokomo Canning Company.
216
Kokomo Library
463
Leach, J. M. & Company.
231
Lincoln to the Kentuckians
1.42
Little Turtle's Idea
27
Licensed to Teach
93
Local History
30
Log Court House
370
Long, Judge 368
Lewis, Joe 394
Linsday, Judge N. R. 324
Little Turtle 36
Lumbering
197
9
INDEX
Milroy, Judge R. H.
383
Miller, John I27
Maple Sugar Industry 220
Money Was Scarce
220
Molihan Gang
299
Malaria
321
Morgan's Raid
1.75
Memory of Soldiers Revered. 187 Modern Methods 199
Mercantile Life
202
Mound Builders
I7
Mound Remains
18
Military History, Addenda
468
Medical Society, First
360
Modes of Worship
19
Mounds, Various Kinds of
20
Miamis
34
Miamis in Howard
48
Military History
125
Militia Companies
159
Mail in Pioneer Days.
8.1
Morning Times, Kokomo. 315
National Road 269
Nation, David 396
Name Changed to Howard. 63
Ninetieth Regiment 193
Number of Men Sent from Howard in the Civil War 196
Newspapers 304
New London
335
Newman Paper Company
2.41
National Mint
263
Nursery, the First
216
News, Kokomo 317
National Bank, Howard 277
Natural Gas, Search for. 234
One House in Kokomo 57
Oil, Exploring for 329
IO
INDEX
O'Brien, Judge James 400
Overman, Judge N. R. 412
Other Banks 280
One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment IZI
One Hundred Day Men 173
One Hundred Thirty-fifth and One Hundred Thirty-Seventh Regiments 173
Organization and Early History
55
Orphans' Home I20
Oath 155
Old System 86
One Hundred and Forty-second Regiment, Company I 348
174
One Cent Reward
Pre-emption Law 68
Pioneer Life in Howard County 70
Paths of Early Days. 71
Public Road Sentiment 107
Preacher and the Corner Stone II3
President Lincoln's Message I35
Peace Party Fails
146
Public Sentiment in Howard
14I
Picture Writing
54
Pottawattomies 32
Pay of Petit Jurors. 364
Pollard. Judge Clark N 4II
Pettit. Judge John U 386
Purdum, Nelson 394
Pioneer Lawyers, Leading 370
Pumping Stations 239
Planing Mill Business 225
Paper Mills 240
Pipe Lines
237
Pottery Company, Great Western 245
Report, County Treasurer's 64
Rich, Experience of Thomas. 345
Representatives, House of. 137
II
INDEX
Richardville, Chief
55
Richardville, County of. 56
Real Estate, Boom in
235
Railroad Bonds, Trouble Over
255
Richmond, Col. N. P. 407
Richmond, Corydon, M. D.
321, 364
Robinson, James W
390
Religion
53
Railroads
416
Roller, Mills, Greentown
213
Rule or Ruin Policy
138 23
Roads in Howard County
IOI
Shiloh, Relief Sent to
166
Spanish-American War
414
St. Clair's Army
38
Stone, Judge E. S.
422
Steward, John
290
Sutton-Yager Mystery 301
Seventy-fifth Regiment 166
Specie, Great Demand for
271
Soldiers Who Died in the Service 188
85
State Road, Howard's First
102
School System, Changes in
91
Social Gatherings
322
Saw Mills Becoming Scarce
209
Star Machine Works
251
Slave-holders, Views of
145
Secession and Disunion
139
Stove Works, Globe 245
State Road, First 95
Sympathizers, Southern 132
State Supt. of Public Instruction 94
Stores, Various Kinds of 227
Surveys 66
Race, Industrious
Streets, First Macadam 230
Schools, Howard County
12
INDEX
Town, Incorporating the 326
Traveling on Horseback 8I
Trading Points 204
Thirteenth Regiment 157
Tribune, Howard
304
Thirty-fourth Regiment
160
Total Mileage 108
Treaty of Greenville.
44
Trust Company, Kokomo
280
Thirty-ninth Regiment
162
Trading Centers
342
Tanneries
215
Traveling Shoemakers
216
Trapping and Hunting
217
Tumato Growing
2.16
Traction Company
253
Turpin, William H. 313
160
Volunteers, First Call for 149
Vaile, J. Fred
40I
Vaile, Rawson
394
Volunteers, Families of the
163
Volapuck
317
Water Mill Flour Popular
213
Women Helped
77
West Middleton Steam Flouring Mill 210
Wild Game
83
War with Mexico
129
Walked in His Sleep.
378
Wouldn't Pay Office Rent
112
Want Law Repealed
III
When the Europeans Came.
24
Warriors
29
Western Indians
37
Wayne's Victory
43
Union Tigers
13
INDEX
Welcome Home
185
Water Cure Era 316
Wallace, Judge John M. 38
Wright, Judge John W.
373
Workmen, Skilled 21
Woven Wire, Making
250
Warehouse, First
208
Wickersham, Moses R.
349
THE MOUND BUILDERS.
In writing the history of Howard county we must not omit the people who dwelt in the country of which it is now a part before the coming of the Europeans.
An ancient race, entirely distinct from the Indians, inhabited all that vast, fertile valley system extending from western New York on the east to Nebraska on the west, and from the great lakes on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south.
These people possessed a modified degree of civilization. They tilled the soil and grew corn, potatoes, tobacco and other products of this western hemisphere of that early time. They carried on commerce, both domestic and foreign, not so extensively perhaps as do the present modern inhabitants. They had made considerable progress in the arts; their pottery wares especially displayed skill and finish. Their sculptors reached a high degree of perfection. They were an industrious race. Many of their public works were massive and required the labor of many men for months or perhaps years to construct. They were evidently a people of fixed habita- tion and settled and organized government, and were given rather to the pursuits of peace than war.
Who these people were we have no means of knowing; by what name or names they were known to themselves or their con- temporaries we know not. So far as we know they left no written records. Tradition is absolutely silent concerning them. Many centuries of past time have entirely extinguished the memory of
2
18
MORROW'S HISTORY
them. They are to us a lost race. We know them as Mound Builders, but this term has no real significance. So far as we know they never built a mound. Time has been the real Mound Builder, converting the buildings and .structures of this ancient people into the various mounds as we know them today. All that we know of them is gathered from the monuments that remain of them, consisting of mounds, inclosures, implements, works of art, etc. These remains have been carefully examined, and after long and patient investigation the archaeolo- gist has arrived at certain definite conclusions, and so apparently accurate are they that we may safely say that we are well acquainted with this lost race.
MOUND REMAINS.
These remains are very numerous and widely distributed. In Ohio more than twelve hundred inclosures and ten thousand mounds have been counted. Indiana has probably as many, and the various implements that have been found are almost countless. The mound remains of Ohio have been much more thoroughly and carefully examined than those of any other state, hence they are better known and more frequent reference made to them. These works are chiefly found in the river valleys, and are only occasionally met with in the hilly or broken country, and are there small in size. They are irreg- ularly distributed, being dense in places and sparse in others, indi- cating thickly settled localities and scattered settlements. The fact that their remains are found chiefly in the river valleys and along the watercourses would suggest that they used the streams of water as their highways, transporting themselves and their commerce in canoes or rude boats, fashioned from the giant trees growing then as at the coming of the white man in the forests of these fertile valleys.
19
OF HOWARD COUNTY.
These ancient works were constructed sometimes of earth alone, at other times of earth and stone together, and were of two classes-enclosures and mounds proper. The enclosures were mas- sive walls and sometimes of great dimensions, ranging from three feet to thirty feet in height and enclosing areas of from one acre to four hundred acres in extent. Many of them evidently were con- structed for fortifications or defensive purposes and some were ad- mirably chosen as natural strongholds. Others were sacred en- closures, protecting their altars and holy places of worship from un- hallowed intrusion, and perhaps affording homes for the priesthood, for it is known that these people had their places of worship and a regular priesthood. Altars have been found within these enclosures, presenting positive evidence of sacrifice.
MODES OF WORSHIP.
In some respects the ceremonials of their worship seem to have been very like the Jewish as set out in the book of Exodus. The location of bodies of numerous mounds indicates that the Mound Builders were influenced by the same motives in selecting sites for their cities and towns which influenced their European succes- sors. Practically the same natural conditions existed when this numerous population of bygone times lived and made homes as those that fascinated the European when he came-an attractive country, broad, alluvial terraces overlooking flowing rivers and the same capabilities for development.
It has been said that nearly every town of importance in the valleys of the Ohio and Missisippi and their tributaries. is founded upon the ruins of this ancient people. The city of St. Louis was a city of mounds, and is known as the "Mound City," while on the opposite side of the river more than two hundred were counted.
20
MORROW'S HISTORY
among which was the great Cahokia, the mammoth mound of the Mississippi valley. Before the desecrating hand of the white man had despoiled this magnificent temple it rose in height ninety feet. In shape it was at the base a parallelogram, the sides at the base measuring seven hundred by five hundred feet. On the southwest there was a terrace one hundred and sixty feet by three hundred feet, the top being level and constituting a platform two hundred feet wide by four hundred feet long, upon which could congregate many thousands of people at an elevation of nearly one hundred feet above the surrounding country.
VARIOUS KINDS OF MOUNDS.
Other important mound centers now occupied by towns and cities are Grave Creek, Marietta, Miami and Vincennes. Of the one at Vincennes Professor Collett says: "Perhaps the seat of a royal priesthood, their efforts essayed to build a series of temples which constituted at once capital and 'holy city,' the Heliopolis of the West. Three sacred mounds thrown upon or against the sides of the second terrace or bluff east and southeast of Vincennes are the result and in size, symmetry and grandeur of aspect rival, if not excel any prehistoric remains in the United States."
Another class of mounds were the sepulchral mounds where they buried their illustrious dead. Skeletons have been unearthed in these mounds and with them have been found personal ornaments, such as bracelets, perforated plates of copper and beads of bone, ivory, shell or metal. Few weapons such as spear or arrow points are found. Stone implements are common. Plates of mica are fre- quently met with, and of such size as to almost completely cover the skeleton. Vases of pottery are occasionally found. These mounds are the principal depositories of ancient art. The implements and
21
OF HOWARD COUNTY.
ornaments found in these mounds are made of minerals, clay, bones, fossils and shells. The first implements used by them were made of stone. Among the Mound Builders we find many and various implements of stone, having a great variety of form and used for different purposes. Their arrow and spearheads were made of flint, ninety-five per cent. of them being made of the different varieties of chert. Many points made of obsidian have been found. Chalcedony occurs, but not in abundance. Knives and other cutting instruments made of obsidian and flint have been taken from the mounds. Axes fashioned with great skill out of rare and beau- tiful materials, mostly of the granitic series of minerals, are found in great abundance in the valleys, but rarely in the mounds, many of them with grooves for the adjustment of handles, and varying in weight from one pound to sixteen pounds. Their hatchets, de- signed for use in war as well as domestic use, weighed from one to two pounds, and had no grooves. Some had holes for the in- sertion of handles. These instruments for the most part were pol- ished. Some were ground and polished with great care. Many stone mauls and chisels have been found. Quartz pestles and mor- tars or boulders with platter-shaped depressions for grinding the grain are found in great numbers. An interesting feature of their works of art is the pottery ware, comprising kettles, water jugs, cups, vases, urns, etc. In this they attained to a considerable de- gree of perfection, exhibiting a variety of forms and elegance of finish. They made these wares of fine clay. In the finer specimens they worked the clay pure. In some of the coarser specimens they intermixed the clay with quartz, in others with salmon-colored mica in small flakes, giving it a rather brilliant appearance.
SKILLED WORKMEN.
The surface was ornamented, some with curved lines, others
22
MORROW'S HISTORY
have the images of birds, quadrupeds and the human form molded upon them. They were all moulded by hand and there is no evi- dence that they had any knowledge of the potter's wheel. None of their vessels were glazed. The stone pipes found in the mounds display the most elaborate skill.
The workmen portrayed the object sought to be represented with great faithfulness, the more elaborate ones delineating the squirrel, opossum, beaver, otter, wildcat, bear, elk, wolf, panther, grouse, duck, raven and also the human head and form. Their high- est grade of art is found in their sculptures. They accurately ex- hibited the general form and features of the object intended to be represented. In all of their work there is a remarkable avoidance of obscenity. Their largest instruments made out of quartz or chert are the spade and hoe.
The Mound Builders were acquainted with several of the metals. They had implements and ornaments of copper. Silver is found occasionally in, the form of ornaments. There is nothing to indicate that it was ever used as money. Galena is found in consid- erable quantities, but there is no trace of iron. They made knives, axes, chisels, awls, spearheads and arrowheads out of copper. These were hammered out cold for the most part, though some show evi- dence of having been molded. Hence the conclusion is warranted that the art of smelting was known to them in their later times. They made for themselves awls or needles of the bones of the deer and elk, which they used in the sewing of the hides of animals.
CLOTHING.
The Mound Builders used for clothing sometimes the skins of wild animals, but for the most part their clothing was made from a cloth regularly spun with a uniform thread and woven with warp
23
OF HOWARD COUNTY.
and woof. In making a railroad grade through a mound near Mid- dletown, Ohio, among other things found was cloth connected with tassels and ornaments. The cloth was in thick folds and very much charred. It appeared to be of some material allied to hemp, and the separation of wood and fiber was as thorough as at this day by rotting and hackeling. The thread is coarse, uniform in size and regularly spun. Their process of spinning and weaving is un- known. The fact that large numbers of copper implements and ornaments have been found in the mounds, the fact also that the Mound Builders used galena, obsidian, mica and some silver, sug- gest that they either engaged in mining or traded with people who did. Considerable quantities of galena have been found in the mounds of Ohio. It is of frequent occurrence on the sacrificial al- tars. Plumb bobs and net sinkers are found made out of this ma- terial, and yet no original deposits are known in the state of Ohio. Obsidian, a peculiar glass-like stone of volcanic origin, is obtained from some of the mounds in the form of arrowheads, spearheads and cutting instruments, yet this material is not found in its nat- ural state north of Mexico nor east of the Rocky mountains in the United States. Mica is found in large quantities in and about the mounds. It was used for mirrors, ornaments and often for the cov- ering of their dead. There were no mica mines nearer than New Hampshire or North Carolina. The mines of North Carolina give conclusive evidence of having been worked in long past times. It is a fair inference that these people of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys journeyed either as miners or traders to the mines of Caro- lina and thus obtained the mica now found. In the copper mines of the Lake Superior region excavations have been found which appear to be very ancient.
AN INDUSTROUS RACE.
In these ancient excavations numerous stone hammers are found. Here again the inference seems fair that the Mound Build-
2.4
MORROW'S HISTORY
ers of the Ohio valley journeyed to these far-away copper mines as miners, going in the springtime, taking a store of provisions with them, and returning in the autumn to their homes. The cold of the Lake Superior region was such as to forbid their growing their food there. The wide distribution of copper implements shows that an extensive business was carried on in this metal. From the valley of the Ohio it was a journey of a thousand miles. There is no evidence of settled life at that time in the copper regions. The people who did this were energetic and enterprising. The same must be said of a people who journeyed to far-away Mexico for a supply of obsidian.
It appears to be indisputable that the Mound Builders were an industrious people, well settled, extensively engaged in mining operations and various mechanical pursuits, well skilled and far from a state of barbarism. They were somewhat advanced in the arts and sciences and occupied no mean position in life. For their times and surroundings they had made great strides towards a per- manent civilization and must be ranked as one of the great people of ancient times.
Who were the Mound Builders? Where did they come from? When were they here? When did they leave here? What was the manner of their going? Who occupied this country at their going ? are questions naturally suggested.
To the first two questions we must frankly admit that we are in absolute ignorance.
WHEN THE EUROPEANS CAME.
When the Europeans first came here they found the Indians without a trace of a tradition of the people who dwelt here before them. The people themselves left no written records whose authen-
25
OF HOWARD COUNTY.
ticity may be said to be unquestioned. The darkness of the past has completely enveloped them. What we do know is that there now remain here the ruins of the works of a prehistoric people whose only history we can interpret from these ruins.
The next two questions admit of a somewhat more satisfactory reply. We know that many centuries have passed since the Mound Builders went out from their homes here. When the earliest Euro- pean explorers visited these mounds time had completed their wreck- ing. Mounds only remained of great buildings and massive walls. Forests of giant trees, centuries old, had grown upon the ruins and had fallen to decay, probably many times repeated.
The ruins of the new world may be as ancient as those of the old. May we not safely say that the Mound Builders of America were contemporaneous with the great peoples of antiquity in the old world? While the Pharaohs of Egypt were erecting their pyra- mids and building magnificent temples to their gods and were en- gaging in great national enterprises; while Abraham of Ur of the Chaldees, at the command of the living God, and imbued with the spirit of enterprise of his age, was going out to found a new home and nation of his own; while Nineveh and Babylon were growing up to be mighty cities through the enterprise of their citizens, may not this people have been engaged in the building of their temples to the Great Spirit and in the construction of other great works whose ruins yet remain ?
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