USA > Indiana > Newton County > Newton County a collection of historical facts and personal recollections concerning Newton County, Indiana, from 1853 to 1911 > Part 1
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PUBLIC LIBRARY FORT WAYNE & ALLEN NO MIN
M.
REFERENCE
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02308 2776
JUN 4 1941
٠
NEWTON COUNTY
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017
https://archive.org/details/newtoncountycoll00adej_0
Imerely 1
NEWTON COUNTY. Ind.
By JOHN ADE
A COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL FACTS AND PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS CONCERNING NEWTON COUNTY, INDIANA, FROM 1853 TO 1911
INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT 1911 JOHN ADE
THE HOLLENBECK PRESS INDIANAPOLIS PRINTERS AND BINDERS
zene 175
475864
THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ADALINE W. ADE
MY WIFE, IN SUNSHINE AND STORM, FOR NEARLY FIFTY-SIX YEARS, WHO, I THINK, KNEW ME FAR BETTER THAN I KNOW MYSELF
JUN 7 1341
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER
I. INDIAN OCCUPATION
I
II. THE POTTAWATTAMIES .
II
III. THE FIRST MURDER TRIAL
15
IV. AN EARLY TRADITION
19
V. MOROCCO IN 1853
26
VI. BEAVER LAKE
41
VII. THE FIRST BANK
46
VIII. ORGANIZING NEWTON COUNTY
54 66
IX. STORMS ON THE PRAIRIE
77
XI. POPULATION
90 96
XIII. SOME EARLY SETTLERS
IOI
XIV. ROADS AND MARKETS
108
XV. A FEW STORIES
123
XVII. THE OLD COURT HOUSE
I34
XIX. THE COUNTY SEAT FIGHT
14I
XX. OFFICIALS OF NEWTON COUNTY XXI. SCHOOLS .
I68
XXII. CHURCHES AND PREACHERS
.
XXIII. TOWNS .
19I
XXIV. KENTLAND NEWSPAPERS
196
XXV. RAILROADS 202
. 205
XXVI. NEWTON COUNTY SOLDIERS
. 233
XXVII. DURING WAR TIMES
. 239
XXVIII. A TRIP TO VICKSBURG
.
245
XXIX. A TRIP TO CHATTANOOGA XXX. INGERSOLL'S TRIBUTE
256 260
XXXI. KENTLAND FIRES
267
XXXII. DOUBLE FATALITIES
282
XXXIII. RECENT CELEBRATIONS
299
XXXIV. PAST AND PRESENT
XXXV. IN CONCLUSION
3II
.
129
XVIII. THE NEW COURT HOUSE
.
163
X. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION
83
XII. THE BRANDON TRIAL
XVI. JUSTIFIABLE LARCENY
17I
PREFACE
On April 21, 1910, there was held at Kentland, Indiana, a celebration to commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the organization of Newton county, Indiana.
As I was permitted to assist in the work of organ- izing the county, and have resided for a period of nearly sixty years within what are now the boun- daries of Newton county, I feel that I may perform a service to the present generation, and to future ones, by setting down some of the facts that have come under my observation. Most of the subject- matter offered herewith was prepared during the year 1910 and was written, partly because I had been requested by friends so to do, but principally be- cause I wished to occupy my mind and fill in the time.
I am supposed to be too old to engage in actual business, but having been accustomed to constant employment of some kind ever since I was twelve years of age, it naturally goes hard with me to sit around and do nothing. "A man is as old as he feels," and I find it difficult to convince myself that I am in my eighty-third year. Having been closely connected with many of the events making up the
early history of Newton county, it seems to me im- portant that these events should be truthfully re- corded. It is easy for fiction to take the place of fact. Much that I tell will be based upon personal knowledge. Other facts have been taken from the records, or reported to me by trustworthy persons.
When I began writing I had no intention of pub- lishing a book, but since completing the work I have been requested by many to turn it over to the printer ; and this is the only excuse I have for join- ing the long procession of Indiana authors.
Also it will explain why much that I have written relates to happenings that may seem to be largely of neighborhood or family interest.
This volume does not pretend to be a complete and accurate history of Newton county, but merely a record of certain facts which may have some value for those who dwell in this favored region.
JOHN ADE.
Kentland, Indiana, March 1, 19II.
NEWTON COUNTY
NEWTON COUNTY
INDIAN OCCUPATION
N EWTON COUNTY is the youngest of the ninety-two counties in the state of Indiana. It has much in its history to prove of local interest to those who may come after us, and which would be entirely lost to the world if not made a matter of record during the lives of those who were conversant with the facts which go to make up this history.
It lies almost in the northwest corner of the state, the line dividing the states of Indiana and Illinois forming its western boundary, with only one county, Lake county, between it and the northern limit of the state.
Directly to the south lies Benton county, the banner corn county of Indiana, and a con- tinuation of the rich black belt of central Il- linois.
To the east is Jasper county, of which the
I
2
NEWTON COUNTY
county-seat, Rensselaer, was one of the early settlements of northern Indiana and is now a most attractive little city.
Perhaps never before, within the span of one human life, have such marvelous changes taken place along a new and unpromising fron- tier, as some of us older settlers have witnessed here in northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana.
I was a resident of Chicago during the sum- mer of 1849. It was then a pretentious country town. Only a few years before that, the region surrounding it had been an unbroken wilder- ness. Now it is one of the great commercial capitals of the world, with a population ex- ceeding two millions and a trade so stupendous that the figures are beyond comprehension.
Where, less than a century ago, the only roads were the narrow trails of the red man, now in every direction long railroad trains are distributing the commerce of the world, and the work of material development seems to have just begun.
3
INDIAN OCCUPATION
For instance, in the northern portion of Lake county, where, three years ago, was a vast expanse of sand ridges and sloughs, to-day is in operation the largest steel industry in the world, around which has grown up the city of Gary with its paved streets, concrete side- walks, electric lights, water and drainage sys- tems, and a population of some twenty thou- sand and increasing rapidly.
Going back eighty-four years-in July, 1827, what is now the city of Chicago was a settlement of six or seven American families, a number of half-breeds, and a few vagabond Indians. At that time the Winnebago Indians were gathering in the neighborhood of Green Bay, threatening to attack and destroy the few white settlements established along the lakes. Gurdon S. Hubbard was a resident of Chi- cago and the owner of trading posts, estab- lished along the Iroquois river where the towns of Middleport and Bunkum were after- ward located, and also of a trading post on the Kankakee river in Newton county, after-
4
NEWTON COUNTY
ward known as Blue Grass, near the present site of the town of Thayer.
At that time Mr. Hubbard had an Indian wife by the name of Watseka, from whom the now thriving city of Iroquois county, Illinois, derived its name.
Realizing their danger, the settlers at Chi- cago appealed to Mr. Hubbard to hurry to Danville, Illinois, and secure volunteers to as- sist them in defending their homes.
He started from Chicago one morning and the same night reached the trading post near Bunkum, on the Iroquois river, about two miles from the Indiana state line. Procuring a fresh horse, he rode on to Danville, Ver- milion county.
At that time all inhabitants of the county, capable of bearing arms, were enrolled under the militia law of the state, and organized as a battalion. The officers of the battalion noti- fied their men to meet at a designated point, and on a call for volunteers fifty men offered their services and were accepted. Archibald Morgan was chosen as captain. Many of the
5
INDIAN OCCUPATION
men were without horses, and the neighbors who did not go loaned their horses to the vol- unteers. After being mustered in they dis- banded with orders to prepare five days' ra- tions and report at Danville the following day. Starting from Danville they passed the cabin of Seymour Treat, three miles north of Dan- ville, which was the last habitation until they reached Hubbard's trading post on the north bank of the Iroquois river about a mile above the point where the town of Bunkum was aft- erward located. From this point there was no other habitation, except Indian wigwams, un- til they reached Fort Dearborn. It was a prai- rie wilderness all the way, except for a little timber near Sugar creek and at the Iroquois river.
On arriving at the Hubbard post a lot of Indians, some of them half naked, were lying and lounging about the river bank. When it was proposed to swim the horses over, the men objected, fearing the Indians might do some mischief, such as opening fire on them while they were in mid-stream, but Mr. Hubbard as-
2
6
NEWTON COUNTY
sured them these were friendly Indians. Later, they learned they were Pottawattamies, and friendly to the whites.
In regard to their arms it is said they were very deficient. They had gathered up squirrel rifles, old flint-lock muskets, in fact anything like a gun that they could lay hands on. Some had no guns whatever and were afterward sup- plied by Mr. Hubbard. He also furnished them with flour and salt pork. They remained at Hubbard's post all night, the next morning again moving forward, swimming Beaver creek and crossing the Kankakee river at the rapids, the present site of the city of Momence. Pushing on, they reached Yellow Heads that day. Next morning they set out again, cross- ing a branch of the Calumet, west of Blue Island. All the way from Danville they fol- lowed an Indian trail, known as Hubbard's Trail. There was no sign of road and, but for the knowledge which Mr. Hubbard had of the country, they could not have found their way, as the entire country was crossed and re- crossed by Indian trails. It had been raining
7
INDIAN OCCUPATION
some days before they left home and it rained almost all the time they were on the route.
They reached Chicago about four o'clock on the evening of the fourth day after leaving Danville, in the midst of a very severe rain- storm accompanied by thunder and vicious lightning. The people of Chicago were glad indeed to receive them, as they had been ex- pecting an attack every hour since Hubbard had left them. They had organized a com- pany of forty or fifty men, composed mostly of Canadian half-breeds, with a few Americans, under the command of Captain Beaubien. They kept guard day and night for some ten days, when a man came in from Green Bay bringing word that General Cass had con- cluded a treaty with the Winnebagoes, conse- quently the danger was over. The citizens were overjoyed at the news and in their glad- ness turned out one barrel of gin, one barrel of brandy and one barrel of whisky. Knock- ing in the heads of the barrels, everybody was invited to take a few drinks, and it is said everybody did drink. Captain Morgan, with
.
8
NEWTON COUNTY
his company of volunteers, started on the re- turn trip, camping out at night and reaching home the evening of the third day.
The citizens of Chicago had every reason to fear the Indians, inasmuch as the original set- tlement had been practically wiped out by what is known in history as the Fort Dearborn massacre, on the spot now marked by a beauti- ful stone memorial.
In 1804 Fort Chicago was established on the south bank of the river, about the spot where State street joins the river and on the same ground where Fort Dearborn was erected in 1817. About the time of the establishment of Fort Chicago, the American Fur Company es- tablished a station under the protection of the fort. For the first eight years there was little of interest to be noted. In 1812, however, the war broke out with England, and the conse- quences were peculiarly disastrous to all the western settlements exposed to the hostility of neighboring tribes of Indians.
Chicago being then an extreme frontier
9
INDIAN OCCUPATION
post, and the country around it full of hostile Indians, on the 9th day of August, 1812, Cap- tain Heald, the officer in command at the time, received an order to abandon the fort and pro- ceed with the troops to Fort Wayne. The evacuation of the fort took place on the 15th day of August, 1812, six days after the order had been received from General Hull. About nine o'clock on the morning of that day the party, composed of fifty-four regulars, twelve militia, and several families, left the fort un- der the escort of Captain Wells. Their route lay south along the beach of the lake and after proceeding about a mile and a half they were fired upon by the Indians, and in fifteen min- utes almost the entire party was killed or wounded. The survivors were made prisoners and marched back to the Indian encampment near the fort, where some of the wounded prisoners were murdered in the most shocking manner by the squaws, the small number sur- viving being distributed among the different members of the tribe. The day following this
IO
NEWTON COUNTY
action, the Indians burned the fort and dis- persed.
The fort was rebuilt in 1817, when it took the name of Fort Dearborn. It was occupied, except at short intervals, by a garrison, until 1837, when the Indians having generally left the country, it was finally evacuated.
The preceding pages are merely prelimi- nary to the history of Newton county. They will indicate, by contrast, the wonderful changes that have overtaken us within two or three generations. While the changes within the boundaries of Newton county are not so revolutionary or startling as those that have made Chicago one of the seven wonders of the world, they are sufficiently remarkable to be of interest to all who reside within its borders.
THE POTTAWATTAMIES
O RIGINALLY the Pottawattamie tribe of Indians had exclusive control over this part of the country, their territory ex- tending from the Rock river in the west to the Scioto river in the east, and from the lakes on the north to the Ohio river on the south, now embraced in the states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Later, owing to the fact that other In- dian tribes were being pressed westward by the encroachment of the whites, they were con- fined very largely to northern Indiana and Il- linois. They were a bold and warlike race of people and for many years maintained a hos- tile attitude toward the white pioneer. They joined with the French against the Iroquois and the English; and afterward joined with the English against the Americans, only yield- ing to the inevitable in the general pacifica-
II
12
NEWTON COUNTY
tion which closed the war of 1812. From this time they were faithful friends of the Amer- icans and are entitled to very much credit in assisting to defeat the Winnebagoes' outbreak in 1827, and also the one under Black Hawk in 1832.
The state of Indiana, and especially the northwestern part, was their last place of abode east of the Mississippi, and although they assumed an attitude of tribal freedom, they accepted the position of ward toward the national government.
The section of the state of which Newton county now forms a part was held by the In- dians long after the whites had begun to domi- nate central and southern Indiana. Here they trapped and hunted, and, indeed, this portion of our country at that time was a perfect In- dian paradise, abounding in fish and wild game, together with all kinds of fur-bearing animals which they sold to the white traders or exchanged for supplies.
The encroachment of the whites increased so rapidly that it became necessary for the gov-
13
THE POTTAWATTAMIES
ernment to remove the Indians to a new home in what was then our far western territory. The Pottawattamies owned extensive tracts of land on the Wabash and its western tributaries and also in northwestern Indiana, but the titles gradually passed from them, notwithstanding government restrictions placed upon their dis- posal of lands. There were several partial re- movals of the Pottawattamies, the final and principal one taking place during the summer of 1838, under the charge of General Tipton. Doctor Fitch, then of Logansport, acted under appointment by the government as medical director. This large emigration, numbering about one thousand of all ages, started reluc- tantly toward the setting sun. It is said they formed a mournful spectacle, these children of the forest, slowly retiring from the homes of their childhood and the graves of their an- cestors. They knew they were bidding a last farewell to the hills, to the valleys and the streams of their childhood, the hunting grounds of their youth, and the stern and bloody battlefields of their ripened manhood
14
NEWTON COUNTY
-all these they were leaving behind to be desecrated by the plowshare of the white man. Every few miles one of the throng would strike out from the procession, into the woods, and retrace his steps back to the old encampments, declaring he would die there sooner than be banished from the country, and it was several years before these stragglers could be induced to join their brethren west of the Mississippi. This body, on their western journey, passed within a few miles of Lafayette and on through Danville, Illinois, where they halted for sev- eral days, being in want of food. They were without tents or other shelter and many of the women carried young babes in their arms. All were compelled to travel on foot. Thus the mournful procession passed across the state of Illinois, toward their future home in the west, one hundred and fifty of their number dying on the way. They finally reached their new home on the Missouri.
THE FIRST MURDER TRIAL
A LTHOUGH the celebrated criminal trial to which I would call attention, was held at Bunkum, across the state line, it deserves mention as a part of local history. Several of the persons actually participating in the trial afterward became citizens of Newton county. Furthermore, county and state lines did not form arbitrary divisions as they do at present. Bunkum was the center of a community of which Newton county was only a part.
Strange as it may seem, the first person ar- rested for murder in Cook county, Illinois (the county in which Chicago is situated), was brought to Bunkum under a change of venue. In the month of May, 1836, a man was found dead near the roadside a few miles west of Chicago. A knife wound in the body showed that the man had been murdered. A few days after the discovery of the body, a man
15
16
NEWTON COUNTY
calling himself Joseph L. Morris was arrested and indicted by the grand jury. The feeling in Cook county was so strong against him that his counsel took a change of venue to Iroquois county. The trial came up at the May term, 1836, of the Iroquois circuit court, and was held at the house of Richard Montgomery. Those present were: Stephen S. Logan, judge; James Grant, state's attorney; Hugh Newell, clerk, and Samuel M. Dunn, sheriff. The prisoner's counsel asked for a continu- ance, which was refused, and the prisoner pleading "not guilty," a jury was impaneled, consisting of Benjamin Fry, Jacob W. White- man, Samuel Rush, Alexander Wilson, James Frame, Jacob Morgan, Wesley Spitler, Wil- liam A. Cole, Ira Lindsey and Isaac Fry.
The evidence was that the prisoner had been seen in the company of the deceased, that a knife found upon the person of the prisoner was identified as one belonging to the mur- dered man. These and other facts presented caused the jury to bring in the following ver- dict:
17
THE FIRST MURDER TRIAL
"We, the jury, find the defendant guilty in manner and form, as charged in the indict- ment."
On May 19, 1836, a motion for a new trial being overruled, the court passed sentence as follows :
"It is ordered and adjudged by the court that the said defendant be taken hence by the sheriff of Iroquois county, and confined and safely kept by said sheriff until Friday, the Ioth day of June next, on which day the said defendant shall be taken by said sheriff to some convenient place in said county and then and there, between the hours of ten o'clock in the morning and three o'clock in the afternoon of the said day, by the said sheriff hanged by the neck until he shall be dead."
The prisoner was ironed and confined in one of the houses near by until the day of his exe- cution, which took place at the appointed time. He was placed in a wagon and a rope was looped around his neck, the other end of the rope being fastened to the limb of a large wal- nut tree. This tree stood in the bottoms, on
18
NEWTON COUNTY
the north side of the Iroquois river, about half way between the present wagon bridge and the bluff. The wagon was driven out from under him and he was left hanging until dead. His guards, during the time between his sentence and execution, were Samuel M. Dunn, sheriff, and George Courtright. A large crowd of people came from long distances to witness the execution. The day was one of rain and storm. The prisoner, on his way to execution, smoked a cigar with great fortitude and, on arriving at the place of execution, made a short speech, justifying his past life. When life was extinct the body was buried at a point a little south- east of Bunkum.
AN EARLY TRADITION
D URING the time the Indians held pos- session of this country, but only a short time before the whites began to crowd in on them, two of the Indians, one named Turkey Foot and the other Bull Foot, got into a fight, caused, it is said, by a drunken brawl, in which one or both were killed-tradition says both. They were placed in a sitting posture, facing each other, and a log pen built around them to keep away the wolves. My impression is that there was but one in the pen, as John Myers, who came to this country in 1836, informed me that soon after he came, while on a hunt- ing expedition, he saw the pen and went up to it, and while leaning against the log pen, his dog got his head through the crack and got hold of the dead Indian's foot and gave Mr. Myers quite a scare for an instant. This pen,
19
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NEWTON COUNTY
he told me, was in a grove about two and one- half miles southwest from where the town of Morocco was afterward located. In the same grove Silas Johnson built his house and re- sided until his death.
Dempsey Johnson, one of the early settlers of the county, has given to me his version of the interesting tradition, as he gathered it from the first residents of this region. I shall insert Mr. Johnson's story, just as he turned it over to me.
THE TWO INDIANS
In Beaver township, Newton county, In- diana, there were two groves of timber, one called Turkey Foot Grove and the other Bull Foot Grove, the latter being located in the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 30, township 29 north, in range 9 west, and Turkey Foot Grove being located in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter and the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 32 in said township and range afore-
21
AN EARLY TRADITION
said. These two groves were about a mile and a half apart.
It is reported that Turkey Foot went over to visit Bull Foot, that they had a quarrel over some matter and Turkey Foot killed Bull Foot. Then, for revenge, Bull Foot's son killed Turkey Foot, after which he stood the two bodies upright against two trees standing close together, with their faces toward each other. He then cut poles and built a pen around them. When the white men began to settle in that neighborhood they gathered up the bones of these two Indians and buried them near where they were found.
The above information was given me by the early settlers. Jacob Ash was the first white man to live in Turkey Foot Grove. He moved there in the year 1842. His daughter, now Catherine Dearduff, is living in Morocco at this time. In said county at that time there were but two houses between Turkey Foot Grove and the town of Rensselaer, Indiana, one of which was occupied by John Murphy and the other by Philip Reynolds, both being 3
22
NEWTON COUNTY
in Beaver township. James Cuppy was the first white man that lived at Bull Foot Grove. Silas Johnson and Robert Archibald bought Cuppy out and moved there in the year 1846. The writer came with them, and saw within Bull Foot Grove a lot of poles in a thick clump of brush, and the neighbors said that this marked the resting-place of the two Indians. From the years 1846 to 1848 I was at Bull Foot Grove a number of times, and saw where the bones of the two Indians were supposed to be buried, which spot had been rooted up by the hogs, and small bones were present that had been rooted out.
Dr. Charles E. Triplett, Sr., came from Kentucky in the year 1856, and went down to Bull Foot Grove and took up quite a number of bones, among which were two thigh bones. Those thigh bones showed that one was a tall man and the other a short man. They further showed that the short man had had his thigh bone broken some time in his life, and that it had overlapped and grown together. He said that Turkey Foot was the taller of the two.
23
AN EARLY TRADITION
He got this information from a man named Sol McCullock, he, McCullock, stating that he had seen them.
Turkey Foot Grove has black oak, burr oak, elm, cherry and hackberry timber. Bull Foot Grove had the same kind of timber, excepting the elm. Turkey Foot Grove is in a good state of preservation at this time, containing about forty acres of large timber, while Bull Foot Grove has all been cleared away and the land is now used for agricultural purposes.
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