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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02308 4657 REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Gc 977.201 SUSH
7075238
THE HISTORY OF JACKSON TOWNSHIP SULLIVAN COUNTY, INDIANA
by The Senior English Class Hymera High School 1915
Eunice Asbury - English Teacher
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
7075236
HYMERA EIGH SCHOOL BUILDING.
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icholsu ..
The History of Jackson Township Sullivan County , Indiana By The Senior English Class 1915 Hymera High School
Eunice asbury - English Teacher
ERRATA
Chapter 1, . page 2,Forty-four square miles in the township instead of fifty-four.
Chapter 1, page 2. Property of the township is assessed at about $1,800,000 instead of $1,000,800.
Chapter .. 1, page 3. Henry R. Wal- lace was at one time trustee of the township. Name omitted in the list."
Chapter 2, page 14.2 George. T. Duckworth, civil war veteran is liv- ing in the state of Oklahoma.
DEDICATION
To those pioneers who came to our township when it was a wilder- ness and braved the hardships of life at that time, in order to establish homes here; to those who have lived before us and made it possible for us to enjoy the blessinbs of life that we have today; and to our fathers and mothers whose untiring sacrifice has made it possible for us to be here in school today, we the Senior English Class of the Hymera High School, lovingly dedicate this little book. 1
Hymera, Ind., April 8, 1915. Dear Reader :-
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No doubt you have noticed that the old pioneers of our township are passing away and that the link be- tween the long ago and now will soon be severed. We are very busy with today, so busy that we often forget that today is only made pos- us to enjoy the blessings of life that that we enjoy today was made pos- sible by those who labored before us. In the business and commercial world we discard all things that have lived past their usefulness and some- times we show the same neglect and ingratitude toward the old people that are left with us. They have traveled a great distance along the road we call life and have seen much in passing. They have gathered much which they will gladly give us for the asking and yet we pass them .. day after day without thinking of this. Out over the country are old landmarks that are passing, too. Soon there will be nothing left to call to us from the time when the country was new. In order to pre- serve some of the stories and tra- ditions of the long ago and arouse Interest in the collection and preser- vation of records that pertain to the history of our township, we have compiled this little volume. You will perhaps find it very meagre and often inaccurate. This is due to our mistakes and in part to the fact that the people who have helped us have dicagreed as to dates and names, 40
we trust that you will read with a generous spirit. Yet if our little volume inspires one person who reads it to be more thoughtful of our old people or to take more care of our old landmarks and relics of the past; if it inspires just one to make record of our time before it passes, for those who come later, we shall feel that we have labored in a good cause. In this little volume we have made only a beginning but later we may be able to correct, re- vise, and enlarge this history. In regard to the biographies we would like to say that on account of the lack of space it was necessary to lim- it the number to include only the very oldest residents of the town- ship, excepting the biographies of Mr. Nead and Mr. Williams. Their biographies are here by virtue of their offices. Mr. Nead was trustee during the first half of the school year when the history was written and helped us very much in many ways, and Mr. Williams has been our trustee during the last half of the year while we were getting it ready for the publishers. It may be that in collecting the biographies we have omitted some that should have been given. If this is true it has not been done purposely. We certainly appre- ciate the encouragement and assis- tance that has been given us and have elsewhere made mention of the people who have rendered it.
THE SENIOR ENGLISH CLASS,
Hymera High School.
In gathering material for history, we found the people of the township ever Ready to give assistance in ev- ery way they could. In ac ; wledge- ment of their service and ou. grati- tude to them, we give the'r names below:
F. M. Nead, Nathan Hinkle, S. II. Nicholson, Self. Kenneth Self, John Halberstadt, William. Mahan, Charles Mahal .{allie MeAnally, C. J. McAnally, D.Y. Thralls, Joe Tip- ton, Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Asbury, James B. MeCammon, Wesley Ma-
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han, Mrs. James Biggs, Miss Maggie Biggs, Edward Stewart, J. W. Zink, Henry Barnhart, Nathaniel Nelson, Mrs. Jane Halberstadt, Ben Brid- well, Frank Bolt, Charles McGarvey, Mrs. Mary Peterson, Mamie Shep- herd, Nellie Shepherd, Frank Curry, Joe Curry, John Curry, Mrs. Jane Curry, W. T. Nelson, George Shep- herd, Martin Badders, Clarke Rich- ardson, W. A. Stewart, R. L. Ladd, I. E. Gouckenour, A. L. Somer, A. B. Gouckenour, A. P. Asbury, Rev. M.
0. Robbins, James Shoemaker, Susan Beckett, Samuel G. Mahan, Mrs. Mary Crawford, Albert Zink, Dr. Plew, James Nicholson, E. A. Marratta, Harlow Slack, Mr. and Mrs., Samuel Cole, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Asbury, Icy Strahle, Myrtle Nicholson, Chas. Bennett, Mary J. Beckett, R. P. Beckett, Mrs. John H. Mahan, Mrs. R. P. Beckett, Lottie Burris, Chester Bosstick. Charles VanArsdall, Katherine Nead, Gilbert Beckett, Robert Hinkle, Cary Little- jolın, James Luzader, J. R. Sharp, S. R. Brown, G. T. Brunker, Albert Cramer, John G. Barnett, Wm. Har- vey, Isaac Mahan, James Barnett, Dale Watts, Mrs. Vick Tipton, Mrs. Sarah Jane Asbury.
Chapter 1. JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
Jackson Township is located in the northeast corner of Sullivan County and contains fifty-four square miles. This tract was organized into a town- ship about 1825 during Jackson's administration and was named in honor of the President. At that time the township was almost an un- broken forest excepting a small tract of flat clay prairie in the southeas- tern part known as the "Tennis Prairie." With the exception of a tract of land in the east central por- tion known as the "Hickory Flats", the land in the township is rolling. The soil is principally clay, and the drainage is good. The principal In the early days the school and civil affairs of the township wore creeks are Busseron, which enters the northern part of township and . managed by a board of three trus- flows south through the township; tees. In 1856 these trustees were Nathan Hinkle, Samuel Patton and Hosea Payne. In 1863 a single trustee took the place of the three. and Shepherd Creek which enters the northeastern part, and flows southwest across the township.
In the pioneer days. farming was the principal industry of the town- 7 ship, but within the last twenty-f years farming has given preceden + to coal mining. Within the last TOUR years however a number of mines have been worked out and aban- doned, and for that reason farm ww q is again coming into more prom'- neuce. The farmers are beginning to look more towards the scientific side of farming and their labors are being rewarded. In 1912 the farm - ers of the township held their First township institute. The second was held in 1913 and the last in Nov of 1914. So far, the institute has Not been able to accomplish a great deal but as the organization grows. both in numbers and in age it will NO doubt be able to reach and help er ery farmer in the township. A w. Hayes, the County Agent of Agri Cul ture, says that since the mining , 7 - dustry is on the wane that there is a great promise for farming in the future. His article found elsewhere in this history, tells how Jackson Township may climb to the fron: agriculture.
Besides the farming and mir in 9 our township also has within its borders a powder mill for the man u- facture of explosives, the history of which is given elsewhere.
In the early days there were plac tically no roads, but Jackson To w/- ship today has thirty miles of um proved stone roads, and about some enty miles of clay roads.
The population of the township i.s about forty-five hundred. It is made up chiefly of Americans, although there are several French, HungaY+ - ans, Russians and Germans.
There are eleven districts in the township, and in all over a thous- and school children enrolled. The property of the township is aa- sessed at one-million, eight hundred dollars.
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Some of the trustees of township since 863 are Nathan Hinkle, John- ston homas, Boylston Ladd, James Plew V. D. Cummins, Sr., Thomas Stark, T. J. Scott, Joe Asbury, Sam- uel , Mahan, James Sanders, F. M. Read and W. J. Williams.
T . township was first settled in the early part of the last century. The: imes of some of the first fami- fres to find homes here were Pitt, m Common, Plew, Brown, Hugh- banks Cochran, Hinkle, Manwar- herey Ring, Payne , Shepherd, As- burg Zink, Nicholson, Halberstadt, Love Biggs, Wence,
Sills, Mc- Clary and Neff.
The first settlement of the . vi: hip, in each household every nd miry was represented, but later i: came to be more of a division v for and then there were be- Ail < farmers, many tanners, car- s, wagon-makers, coopers, akers, and blacksmiths. Some first coopers were John John- ston, William Breetlove, John Wood. W: //am Mahan, Thomas Mahan and Walter Asbury. One of the early Tanner was Mr. Heck. Some of the shoemakers were Frank Stock,' Av. Story and John Wilson. Some :i :!. , early carpenters were John- stor Thomas, John Ford, Walter As- bary and George Barnett. At first " were no sawmills and every of timber that went into a ", had to be made by a carpen- The first boards were sawed by ; of a whipsaw which was op- t by two men. The piece of .. r to be sawed was placed on a old and one man stood above Det one man below and sawed to a fit ' narked on either side of the 1. In the early days no finished hver could be purchased so that piece of lumber had to be Une ved by a carpenter by means of id plane. The buildings put to- go'l. r by the old time carpenters 1 much better than they do to- Nails at that time were very e so all joints were mortised the roofs were often fastened & weight poles. Later some of the roofs were made in the style Known as the "lap shingle roof" 1
which lasted much better than the roofs of today. There are through the township some old buildings with roofs of this sort. Perhaps the first frame house in the township was Mr. William Pitt's, the house in which Nathan Hinkle lives at pres- ent. Mr. Pitt sawed with a hand saw, each piece of weather boarding on this house. The shingles were made of walnut. They were re- moved only a few years ago, having been on the house for seventy-five years. Another old house and one of the first frame houses of the township is Mr. Isaac Mahan's house. Each piece of timber used in this house was made by the carpenter: Other phases of the life in the ear days is best described in a story i.S told by a pioneer resident of the township. It is as follows:
A STORY OF PIONEER LIFE IN JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
In the good old days, as they are often wrongly called, there were no comforts and very few necessities as we consider them today. The first settlers who came to this town- ship found a wilderness in which they constructed rude log huts from round logs. Later, however, almost all the settlers had houses built of hewed logs. The roofs were covered with clapboards and the chimneys were made of sticks and clay. The chinks between the logs, both inside and out, were daubed with coarse plaster made of clay and lime and the walls were whitewashed.
It was in just such a house that I was born-a house composed of one immense room. In the center of one side of this room was a large fire- place, four feet high and five feet across, Into this. on cold winter evenings, the wood was piled high and the evenings we spent about it are a part of the joyous side of the long ago. But when we tell of the old fireplaces we forget how much chopping it took to supply them with wood.
It was at th's same fireplace that we cooked our meals. I was a large girl before we owned a stove, yet we did not mind, for our neighbors had
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none. either. . The fireplace had a crane upon which we hung an iron teakettle in which we boiled water; or an iron pot in which we prepared our boiled dinners.
The baking and frying of food were done in large skillets or ovens, under which and over which, live coals were placed. A great many people who are living today have seen the old covered skillets in which corn-dodger was baked. This, with a crock of good sweet milk, made an excellent supper. I have never since those days tasted any- thing so good as the corn-dodger and milk that we used to eat about the fire on cold winter evenings. There was also the Johnny-cake that we baked on boards especially pre- pared for that purpose. This kind of bread has aften been lauded in - stories of the olden times, but it was not nearly so delicious as the dodger.
We did not have such a variety of food in those days as we do now, but there was always plenty of it and it was genuine. In those days we never heard of adulterations and substitutes for good wholesome food, so we did not need pure food laws and food inspectors. Meat, which today is about to pass from a necessary diet to a luxury, could then be produced in plenty by every family. There were always pork, smoked beef, venison and small game in every larder. There were no canned goods. I was a woman grown before I ever saw a fruit can, yet we had plenty of pies in the winter, for every housewife during the summer dried a sufficient quan- tity of apples, peaches, cherries and pumpkin to last through the winter. I imagine you are wondering where such fruit was to be found in the old pioneer days. Every family which came into this new country carried with them fruit-tree sprouts and fruit seeds which they planted out around their cabins in the wil- derness. They did not have the fine varieties of budded fruit that we have now, but the seedling trees, as they were called, brought forth fruit that surpassed in flavor any we
have today. Fruit then was never sold but was freely given by those who had orchards, to their less for- tunate neighbors. Many of the old settlers had cider mills which sup- plied the homes with cider and vine- gar.
We also had all kinds of vege- tables with the exception of toma- toes, which we did not know were good for food. I can remember very well the first tomatoes we ever ate . and how sparingly we ate of them at first. Our vegetables such as cab- bage, potatoes, turnips, parsnips and beets we buried in mounds in the garden from which we took them as we needed them during the winter. -
We did not have very many things to drink with our. food. Children usually drank milk but the : older people drank coffee except during the war when it was so high priced that they could not afford it. They then made a substitute for coffee by using parched corn, wheat, and other grain. It tasted very much like the Postum of today.
The crop of hazel and hickory nuts was much larger than it is now so that we always had plenty to eat as we sat about the fire on winter evenings telling riddles and singing songs. We did not have any piano. Indeed we did not know there was such an instrument, but we sang the old ballads, folk songs and hymns without any accompaniment except the crackling of the fire in the old fireplace.
We often told stories but we did not read much, for our library was sm.all .. It consisted of the Bible, Pil- grim's Progress, and the Almanac. When I was almost grown we sub- scribed for the Cincinnati Inquirer, a newspaper which came with each mail which was once a week. These we read by the light of a candle for we did not even have kerosene lamps until later and then we were almost afraid to use them.
We made all our own candles. We had a candle mold which made a dozen candles at one time. Into these molds we put wicks and then filled the molds with melted tallow
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which soon hardened and the candles were then ready for use.
1 imagine I can hear some child who reads this say that he wishes he could have lived in those good old days. It does seem good as we tell of the joyous side, but there was another side-a hard, struggling, pinching, dark side that you would not want to go back to, after having enjoyed the comforts and opportuni- ties of nineteen hundred and fifteen.
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When bedtime came we went to our bedrooms which were just op- posite the fireplace on the other side of the big room. Here were two im- mense four poster bedsteads so large that I could not climb into bed un- til I was a large girl, without first climbing upon a chair or stool. The springs of these beds were made of cords that creaked as the sleeper moved about. Upon these cords were mattresses of straw and im- mense feather beds and pillows. We slept beneath heavy woolen blankets and comforts. On top were curious- ly woven coverlids. Yet we never once dreamed as we slept that a day would come when money could not buy one of these same coverlids. We just dived into these soft beds and knew nothing till morning. You young people may have your mat- tresses and boards if you like but give me an old fashioned feather bed to really rest upon.
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I know you are wondering where we all slept, for there were a great many of us as there always were in every family in those days. Well, beneath those high four posters were trundle beds that were drawn out at night and with the help of these a large family could be accommodated in small quarters.
How would you like to climb out of this warm bed on a cold morn- ing, upon a floor made of boards with great cracks through which the cold came, and find it covered with snow that had sifted through the chinks of the wall during the night? No doubt you would do just as we did, run up to the fire as quickly as pos- sible and get what comfort it could give.
The question of dress was hardly
the problem then that it is now. The girls wore homespun flannel dresses in winter and calico dresses in sum- mer; while the boys wore jeans suits In winter and linen suits in summer. The shoes they wore were not made especially for beauty; in fact, beauty was entirely overshad- owed by the question of service. Each fall father purchased a side of leather and took it to the shoemaker of the nieghborhood and had boots and shoes made for the whole fam- . ily. The lasts he used were not triple A's, the heels were not French and the flexibility of the sole was never thought of. Indeed, after wearing them for awhile they be- came as hard and set in shape as if they had been made of rock. Yet the shoes of those times never hurt the feet of the wearer, for the cus- tom was never to make a shoe the size of the foot but at least one num- ber longer and wider. This left room for the coarse yarn stockings that were worn in winter and also for the shrinking and hardening of the leather caused by exposure to the water, for we never heard of overshoes in those days. The boots often got so hard and stiff that it took a great deal of kicking and stamping to get them on and after. getting them on it was almost impos- sible to get them off. It was to remedy this difficulty that the boot- jack was invented. It became the boy's best friend at night time.
Would you like to take another look into the old house of the long ago? I can see it just as if it were only yesterday that I had come from there. The walls were whitewashed and in the early spring at house- cleaning time looked very white, but during the following winter they be- came streaked with yellow by the rain and snow that were blown
through the chinks
between the logs.
On the mantle above the big fire- place was a large old Seth Thomas eight-day clock which was about the only ornament in the room. Beside it on the wall hung the almanac. On either side of the mantle beside the clock were candle sticks.
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The furniture in this room was all home-made, that is, made by cabinet makers of the neighborhood, and much of it was unpainted. The
chairs were made of maple with split bottoms. Some of the splits were of hickory bark, some of oak, and some of willow. We also had baskets made of these materials. The chairs were not painted and it was my painful duty to scrub them with sand and soap every Saturday. " They were very white when I had finished, but it was a long, tiresome job. The floor, on which we never had any carpet until I was grown, also had to be cleaned with sand and soap.
We had school during the months of December, January and February, which we attended when we could be spared from other work. I reached the fifth grade as the schools were graded then. During the first year I studied the spelling book only, and during the rest of my school days, I spent the greater part of the time on Reading, Writing,
Spelling and Arithmetic.
I wish I could take your Senior Class from your beautiful high school building with all its accomo- dations and comforts, back sixty years to the little log school house which I entered on my first day of school. It was built of logs, bad a large open fireplace, and was very much like the dwelling houses ex- cept that it had a puncheon floor and was filled with puncheon seats, that is, seats made of logs split through the middle and placed down smooth on the split surface which became the seat. These seats had no backs and when I first entered school my feet would not reach the floor. You can scarcely imagine how tired I became before the day was over. I was always very glad when . our class was called to recite or when it came our turn to take our writing lesson. There were ben- ches placed along the side of the wall, just high enough to write upon by standing. It was here that we made our copies of the perfect !:
SENIOR CLASS, HYMERA HIGH SCHOOL.
From left to right, top row- Thomas Brunker, Reba Nicholson, Cecile Case, Daisy Mahan. Second row-Lucile Beckett, Effie Mahan, Hobart Gritton. Hilda Chapman. Brouds Lang. Donna Gouckenour.
Third row-Nellie Farley. Beulah Slack. Elizabeth Bailey, Mable Brit- ton, Pauline Beckett. Fern Clark. Ruby Neal. ! Fourth row-Chloe Syster. John. Halberstadt. Flos"ie McAnally, Dick Bennett. Sylvia Chapman. Jack Tipton. .
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HIYMERA HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS.
From left to right, top row-W. V. Payne, Superintendent of Schools, J. P. Curry, Manual Training. Lower row-Eunice Asbury, English, R. C. Shields, Latin and German, Mary E. Sheridan, Domestic Science, Na- omi Laue, Supervisor of Music and Drawing. :
formed letters that the teacher gave us. We used quill pens and home made ink.
I think you will agree with me that the hill of learning was rather long and steep, yet we climbed it. as joyfully as you do today. As I look back on these days, I think school was made up principally of spelling, arithmetic and discipline. I cannot remember of ever once being called upon to explain a passage in read- ing. The prose selections we read as fast as we could until we happen- ed to bump up against a hard word. The teacher helped us over it and on we went, caring nothing about anything but reaching the goal. the end of the paragraph, as soon as pos- sible. Yet I think our reading of poetry was rather more wonderful than this. When I arose to read a poem I stood on one foot, braced myself with the other, and began to read. I read the lines just as you scan poetry except that I swayed back and forth in perfect harmony with the rhythm. Oh, but I was great in reading poetry and reciting it. too, but I never dreamed of its hay- ing a meaning! I was never asked to explain the meaning of a single line. But when it comes to spelling
you Seniors fall far short of the grades in the long ago. I will war- rant you that any one of our old fifth grade could spell down your whole high school and you teachers, too, for that matter. Perhaps the reason we were better spellers than you are today is due to a single fact. We studied spelling and spelled sev- eral hours during the day. At cer- tain times we were allowed to study our spelling lessons aloud and it was then we gained our wonderful pow- er of concentration. If any one of the rabble should forget just once and cease his study aloud, the noise would overcome him and he would be lost. But if he kept ahead and felt continually the movement of his lips and the sensation of his own voice in his ears, he could make himself perfectly oblivious of his. surroundings and feel as the stran- ger in a . crowded thoroughfare, "alone in a crowd".
There were some bright moments in the long tedious hours. These were when we were allowed to sing the capitals and boundaries of the states, and the multiplication table. The following is part of the song of the capitals -- the verses for the New England States.
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No. 1.
State of Maine, Augusta On the Kennebec River State of Maine, Augusta On the Kennebec River. No. 2. Vermont, Montpelier On the Onion River Vermont, Montpelier On the Onion River. No. 3.
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