A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 7

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273

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in transporting A. P. Andrew's steam engine and mill from Lafayette, as related further on. In this year also Thomas W. Sale and Mr. Melville became settlers.

The Black Hawk war was now coming on, and, like distant mutterings before a storm, there were several Indian scares. The Sac Indians had never been friendly with the United States. In the war of 1812 they joined sides with the British. As a recompense they were receiving an annuity in Canada, whither they went every year and re- turned laden with arms and ammunition. They crossed the border at Detroit, and their trail lay through LaPorte county. Black Hawk, the powerful chief of the Sacs and Foxes, had con- ceived the idea that the several Indian tribes by combining might be powerful enough to resist the whites; though after being captured and taken east to see the white man's populous towns and cities, he returned and told his braves that resistance was useless. Years before this, the Sacs by treaty had ceded their lands east of the Mississippi to the United States, but had still remained upon them. When required to conform to their treaty they resisted. Early in 1832, in ugly mood, a large number of their braves went to Canada. They crossed the land where Hon. C. W. Cathcart had located, in New Durham township, and one day when he stood in their path, one old giant chief with a grunt rudely jostled him aside. Several others lifted the cover of their rifle locks that he might see that the priming was dry. He saw them return laden as usual, but it was their last journey through the county. As they came back he happened to meet them again, at the house of Mr. Nichols, some six miles east of LaPorte. There was no one at home but Mrs. Nichols and her children. The Indians boisterously demanded that she give them whiskey, but if she had any it was hid. Some of the rascals went and got switches and asked Cathcart to whip the squaw until she produced the fire-water, and when he refused they rudely hustled him about. They could not understand English, but he could speak Spanish and he made them understand enough of that to quiet them. When they reached Illinois the fiends began their work of slaughter by murdering an old man, which was the first bloodshed in the memorable Sac and Fox war.

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

When the news came that they had com- menced hostilities in Illinois, the settlers of LaPorte county feared that they would retreat into Canada instead of going to their own lands beyond the Mississippi. Hence they took meas- ures to defend themselves. Word was sent over the prairie and a large number of people assem- bled at Door Village. They hurried in during the night, and in the morning a meeting was held to determine upon the best means of protection, when from some cause there was a confusion, the people became alarmed and a stampede followed. About half the assembly started their teams east- ward, some not stopping except for rest and meals until they reached Cincinnati. Some did not re- turn until the following year, and some not at all. Forty-two men remained and built defensive works consisting of a ditch, earth works and a palisade one hundred and twenty-five feet square. On two diagonally opposite corners there were block houses which commanded the sides. This fort was built under the direction of Peter White, who had been in the war of 1812 and had ob- tained a knowledge of such matters. It was com- pleted in three days and the occupants felt com- paratively safe. It was located about half a mile east of Door Village near the road on the lands of Lewis Shirley. After the scare was over the people of course returned to their homes.

But through it all there were at least two persons who possessed cool heads and were un- terrified. One was Mrs. Arba Heald. With defiant air which gained for her the reputation of heroine, she took rifles, axes and pitchforks and barricaded herself in the cabin on her hus- band's farm, and declared that she would kill a number of Indians before they took possession of her home. Probably if the Indians had attacked her they would have been somewhat surprised. Neither threats nor persuasions could induce her to go into the fort.

Another cool-headed person was Henly Cly- burn. He took his family into the fort, and then he went and remained in his cabin. He was not afraid of the Indians. They liked him, and he had great influence over them. When they were finally removed to the west he entertained five hundred of them at one time, and seven hun- dred at another, in a grove just west of West- ville. When the Black Hawk war really began,

the regular mail carrier, on a bob-tailed horse, arrived in LaPorte county from the east, on his way to Fort Dearborn. But hearing of the bloody work of the Indians in Illinois he was afraid to proceed, and so Henly Clyburn changed work with him. The mail carrier remained at work on the farm, and Clyburn saddled his horse and carried the mail bags to the west. There was only one place which he feared and that was at Calumet river, which he had to ford in the dark. Crossing the river, there was one narrow ridge on either side of which there was very deep water, and Clyburn was apprehensive that in the dark- ness he might miss the ridge. But being a man of wonderful nerve he went on and reached Fort Dearborn in safety, which at that time was crowded with refugees. Nearing the fort he shouted his arrival, which produced great con- sternation as the inmates supposed it was an Indian attack; but when they learned who it was they received him with expressions of joy.

During this war the Hon. C. W. Cathcart, then a young man, took a load of ammunition from Niles, Michigan, through LaPorte county to Fort Dearborn. He settled in New Durham township; but as that is contiguous to Scipio a word from him may not be amiss, as giving a glimpse of pioneer life. He says,

"In the fall of 1832, hearing that my eldest living brother was in Boston, I wrote to him, and he joined me. We worked together about Niles for a while, then came out here, put up a log cabin and went to keeping, as we called it, 'Bachelor's deviltry.' I well remember one win- ter night, going over to the widow Benedict's to give the mail carrier a letter, that on my return I found our cabin surrounded by a pack of prairie wolves which were snarling and making the night hideous over the bones, etc., that we had thrown out. We had an old dog belonging to the elder Mr. Garwood, which had stayed with brother for company. For safety's sake they had both taken shelter in our bunk. The wolves in their fight over the bones had knocked the door down, which was made of shakes and put to- gether with nails, and held possession until I by throwing clubs at them started them off."

After the Black Hawk war the settlers began to come more numerously. It is very remarkable that this beautiful region of country should re-

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

main absolutely unsettled until the year 1828-9, and that settlers from different parts of the United States, without any preconcerted action or communication with each other, should begin to pour in at just that time; but so it was. Here, different families for the first time met each other, and here their lives were first united in the same community, and in many cases by marriage in the same home.

Hardly any of those early settlers remain. On the long and weary march they have been drop- ping out one by one until, of the pioneer warfare, only a few veterans are left. It would be im- possible in a work like this to trace the life his-

tory and describe the end of each one of them, and for this there would not be sufficient space. But when we see a notice like the following, from the LaPorte Republican of January 15, 1904, it makes us connect the present with the past.

"Mrs. Levi J. Benedict, whose husband came with Mr. Clyburn's family to this county in March, 1829, and settled near Westville, where he resided until his death near thirty years ago, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Stewart Barnett, in Indianapolis last Saturday, aged eighty-three years. Her funeral was held at Westville on Tuesday."

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CHAPTER IV.

EARLY SETTLEMENT - CENTER, KANKAKEE, WILLS, AND OTHER TOWNSHIPS.

"Clear the brown path to meet his coulter's gleam ; Lo! on he comes behind his smoking team, With toil's bright dewdrops on his sunburnt brow, The lord of earth, the hero of the plough." -OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

Let us turn now to a locality which became Center township and the city of LaPorte. The Michigan Road lands had been put upon the market. This was a state road extending from Madison on the Ohio river to Michigan City. Certain lands selected in the counties through which the road passed had been granted by Con- gress to the state of Indiana, the sale of which was to defray the expense of building the road. Captain A. P. and James Andrew, then living in the vicinity of Cincinnati, took the contract of making twenty miles of the southern end of this road. They filled their contract, and took their pay in land scrip which the state would either convert into cash or receive in payment for the lands. The Andrews chose to purchase land, and thought of purchasing it in LaPorte county ; but before doing so they wisely concluded to look it over. Accordingly a party of ten men visited the locality on a prospecting tour. Among them were General Walter Wilson, of Logans- port, Captain A. P. and James Andrew, John Walker and Dr. Hiram Todd. A daughter of one of the party, not with them at the time, says that there were also among them two brothers by the name of Barcloe from Dearborn county. It is probable that this is the party which, according to history, General Joseph Orr and Major J. C. Elston joined at Crawfordsville. The party em- ployed a guide by the name of Joe Truckee, a half-breed Indian. The Michigan Road had been

surveyed and, though not completed, had already become a traveled route. The party followed this road through Rochester, Plymouth and South Bend, and then westward to Rolling Prairie, en- tering the county from the east to avoid the Kan- kakee swamps. They arrived here in October, 1831, and found that several settlers had already entered claims and built cabins. John Stanton had settled not far from where the Lake Erie and Western now crosses the Lake Shore Rail- road. Aaron Stanton had settled north of John, and Amos Stanton west of John. In the same year David Pagin and John Miller had settled near Miller's Lake, which probably took its name from the latter, but is now dry. Jacob Miller and William Clark had settled in the vicinity of what was afterwards the Lewis Cutler place, and Joseph Pagin had settled on the east of Clear Lake. None of these were within the present limits of LaPorte, though all were within about two miles, and some quite near. In LaPorte it- self there were only three houses, and these were built of logs. They belonged to George Thomas, Richard Harris and Wilson Malone. Burr oaks and wild flowers grew in the streets of the future city.

After prospecting to their entire satisfaction, the visiting party went away. The sales of the Michigan Road lands occurred at Logansport, in October, 1831. Those of this prospecting party who desired to purchase land for the building of

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the city of LaPorte, would not bid against each other ; they had bid against each other as to the outlying purchases, but they would not now. Ac- cordingly, by previous arrangement, General Wil- son bid in the land for them. This was with a view to laying out a town which would be the capital of the new county.

The prospecting party broke up and its mem- bers returned to their homes. Captain A. P. An- drew brought his wife Abigail and her niece to LaPorte county, and at first settled on section ten, not far from where the county farm now is.

Meantime Daniel Andrew, a half uncle of A. P. and James, had come from Ohio to purchase land. One night as he was sitting in the cabin of A. P. Andrew, a man by the name of John Coleman rode up and informed them that the In- dians were about to rise. Word had been sent from Fort Dearborn to warn the settlers. The family were too startled to sleep. They made preparations to remove the women, and the next day Daniel Andrew started with Mrs. A. P. An- drew and her niece to return to Cincinnati. This was in May, 1832. The Indian scare was quite extensive throughout the county. It was the same scare that induced the settlers to build works of defense at Door Village.

Daniel Andrew returned to the county, but his career was a short one. He died on Terre Coupee prairie in St. Joseph county, on Friday, March 15, 1838, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. His remains were buried on Sunday, the 17th, from the Methodist church in LaPorte, with services conducted by Rev. W. K. Marshall.

After the Indian scare was over, A. P. An- drew went to Dearborn county, near Cincinnati, and brought his wife back with him, accompanied by his brother James. During this trip to the east the Captain had bought a steam engine and the machinery for a saw mill. He saw the necessity for such an adjunct in settling and developing the country which he had chosen for his new home. He shipped his purchase down the Ohio and up the Wabash river to Lafayette. This was in the summer of 1832. Even before this A. P. Andrew had seen the utility and feasability of a railroad between Lafayette and Michigan City, to connect the water transportation of Lake Michigan with that of the Wabash river. By act of the state leg- islature approved February 2, 1832, the Wabash

and Michigan railroad was incorporated. The incorporators were William C. Linton, of Vigo county, Israel T. Canby, Isaac C. Elston and Jonathan W. Powers, of Montgomery county, Samuel Milroy, of Car- roll county, John Taylor and Thomas T. Benbridge, of Tippecanoe county, James Blair, of Vermillion county, James Armstrong and William Crumpton, of Fountain county, Abram P. Andrew, of Dearborn county, John Egbert and Charles Vail, of St. Joseph county, and Daniel Sigler and Joseph Orr then of Putnam county. The act empowered the corporation or their agents to "have full power from time to time to examine, survey, mark and locate the route for a railroad for a single or double track commencing at or near the town of Lafayette in Tippecanoe county, and running on the best ground for the interest of the corporation and the convenience of the public, to the mouth of Dismaugh or Trail creek in LaPorte county, with full power in all cases to diverge from a direct line where more favorable ground can be had for the construction of the road, the same to be not more than eighty feet in width." This was certainly a very early, if not the first, attempt to build a railroad through La- Porte county. The act of incorporation is a long and specific document and was evidently secured in good faith. Three of the incorporators-Elston, Andrew and Orr, afterwards had to do intimately with the history of the county, and probably were the prime movers in the project, which however, was not to be realized for twenty years; though we know not what efforts were made in surveying and construction work, even at that early day.

But we may see from all this that A. P. An- drew thought the route from Lafayette to La- Porte quite practicable. Accordingly he decided to bring his new engine and sawmill machinery over that route. He made a mutually advantage- ous agreement with Peter White, to whom we referred in the last chapter in connection with the early settlement of Scipio, to truck the engine and machinery from Lafayette. White desired to buy some oxen. There was a man by the name of Smoots, living in Tippecanoe county, who dealt in cattle. White went down to Lafayette light- handed, but came back hauling the engine and machinery, with several yoke of oxen. A de- scendant of one of the parties says that there

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

were twenty-seven yoke. Whether that is the correct number or not, it is certain that the load was hauled from Lafayette to LaPorte with a long line of yokes of oxen. They crossed the Kankakee river at Tassinong in Porter county, and it is said that the water was so deep in the middle of the river that the forward oxen helped pull the others through; and that the engine boil- er, being air tight, buoyed up the wagon and lightened the load. However these things may be, the engine and all the machinery arrived in LaPorte safely in the early part of July, 1832.

A. P. Andrew set up the engine and mill near what is now known as Camp Colfax, on the shore of a little lake which, like scores of others, long since became dry. This was outside of the orig- inal plat of LaPorte. There 'he began to saw lumber even before the mill was' roofed over. People were in such a hurry for their work that for some time the Captain could not get time to house himself comfortably, and the mill was kept running night and day.

After making suitable preparations James An- drew returned to the vicinity of Cincinnati for his family. On the journey back to LaPorte the party consisted of James Andrew, his wife, his little daughter Catharine, and William P., after- wards Judge Andrew; who at this present writing still lives, at the age of over ninety-four years. He was then a young school teacher. He accompan- ied the party back to LaPorte for the purpose of taking charge of little Catharine on the way. He had a cushion on the saddle just in front of him where she sat, but becoming weary of this posi- tion she stood up much of the time. A part of the time she stood in front and a part of the time behind him, clinging to him for support, and as she did so she could just see over his shoulders. The uncle passed the hours away by telling stories and encouraged her to do the same, and when his stock of these became exhausted he was com- pelled to invent others. Such was the overland journey of the emigrants who settled in this new country, and the benefit of whose labors and hard- ships we enjoy.

When the family arrived in LaPorte they found A. P. Andrew and family comfortably housed not far from his mill. In one end of his house he had established a store which as yet had

no floor but the earth. During his stay William P. Andrew slept on the counter of that store.

How the goods for this store were brought to LaPorte, whether from Lafayette at the same time with the engine, or from Niles, Michigan, is a point concerning which descendants of equal authority do not agree; nor do they agree on some other points. It is probable that there was a store somewhere near LaPorte before the ad- vent of the Andrews ; for by the fall of 1831 about a hundred pioneer families had located within a dozen miles of LaPorte, to say nothing of the Indians, a sufficient patronage certainly to sus- tain a store. The old Sac trail from Niles seems to have been the usual route for the importation of goods. Higgins Belden & Company's his- tory says that Stephen and William Clement came in the fall of 1831 and opened a store, and the first load of goods was drawn from Niles by Benajah Stanton for them. We know from the county records that the Stantons came in 1830.

James Andrew and his party arrived at the sawmill on Friday, September 21, 1832. On Sunday, the 23rd, some of the men at the mill told them to go to the top of a knoll near by and look off upon the prairie. They did so and saw a long line of white covered wagons slowly moving east- ward; there were forty of them, a military train returning from the Black Hawk war. It was a picturesque scene ; and on that quiet Sunday, the first in their new home, the minds of the new set- tlers were in just the condition to be impressed with it.

On Monday, the 24th, word came that two boys were lost. All the men for miles around turned out and joined in a search for them. To facilitate this, A. P. Andrew took tin horns from the store and distributed them among the men that they might signal each other. The boys were found on the afternoon of the third day, and one of them was so exhausted from wandering about. and from hunger and loss of sleep, that he could not stand. They had a dog with them which had kept them warm in the chilly autumn nights by lying near and almost hovering them. The bark- ing of the dog led to their being discovered. The boys were the sons of Rev. James Armstrong. They had gone for the cows at night and become lost, the father was out on the big circuit, and the

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

mother was sick at home. But the whole county as we might say came to her aid, and her sons were restored to her. Through all the trials, dangers and sufferings of pioneer life, the early settlers helped and sympathized with each other.

There is so much confusion in the reminis- cences given of these early times, that it is not safe to state anything on the authority of these reminiscences unless it is confirmed by documen- tary evidence. But as nearly as we can make out from a careful sifting of accounts, Aaron Stanton, his son Benajah and Richard Harris, from Union county, Indiana, arrived in Center township in February, 1830, and put up a cabin on the farm afterward occupied by Moses Stan- ton, where they all lived together. On March 28, Stanton, who had brought two hired men with him, withdrew from the company and built a cabin and settled on section twenty-four, about two miles north of the eastern boundary of La- Porte. After harvest he returned to Union coun- ty for his family, which he brought back with him the same year. On his return trip he was ac- companied by Philip Fail and wife, who abode in Stanton's cabin for a time and then located in Kankakee township, not far away. Stanton's cabin was probably the first one built in Center township. William and Stephen Clement, Will- iam Clark, Adam Smith, Jesse Morgan, William Thomas, a Mr. Richardson and William and Jesse Bond, are mentioned as arriving in 1830 and '31, and Brainard Goff and Colonel W. A. Place in 1832. The Blakes, Landon Wheeler, the Balls, John B. and Charles Fravel, William Stan- ton and family and Alfred Stanton were all early settlers.

Among the early settlers were Seth Way and Charles Ladd. They had married sisters and lived in cabins on Pine Lake. James Andrew estab- lished himself on a large farm south of LaPorte, and Way took the contract of fencing his land. He worked all winter splitting the rails, and, that they might be near their work, Way and Ladd moved their cabins. Both were strong, able workers. They would work until 12 o'clock at night, fanning their wheat and preparing it for market. Early in the morning they would take a load of it to Michigan City, the next day they would repeat the process, and so on until their wheat was disposed of. Then they would go with

equal energy at something else. This is an in- stance of the arduous labor and earnest persever- ance necessary to success in pioneer life.

But the party of prospectors are the center around which the early affairs of the township revolve. With their advent dawned a new era. They were the ones who bought the land for the purpose of locating the future capital of the coun- ty. Fortunately A. P. Andrew, a river steam- boat captain, understood the running of engines, and it was he who brought and set up the mill which soon gave another aspect to the settle- ments ; for frame houses began to appear instead of log cabins. It was the first step away from pioneer life.

The first cabin built in Kankakee township was put up on section eighteen, by Philip Fail, in the fall of 1830. On October 30, Benajah S. Fail was born. It has been claimed that he was the first male white child born in the county, but if the above dates are correct Elizabeth M. Cly- burn and Lewis Shirley preceded him. On May 24, 1831, Ezekiel Provolt, David Stoner, Arthur Irving and a man named Willets arrived in the township, with their families, from the vicinity of Lafayette. They were on the road eighteen days, and as an incident of emigrant life, on one occasion when the party had finished a day's jour- ney, Mrs. Provolt rode back to the previous camp- ing place that she might procure fire with which to cook the evening meal. The first night after their arrival they encamped upon the land after- ward occupied by A. J. Bowell, about one-half mile north of Rolling Prairie railroad station. The next day the party moved to the present site of that town, where Ezekiel Provolt put up a cabin and his family moved into it. Jesse West and Arthur Irving built cabins near by. In the same year Daniel Murray, Chapel W. Brown, Emery Brown, Jacob Miller, John Garret, James Hiley and Myron Ives moved into the township. In 1832 Alexander Blackburn, Solomon Aldrich, and Charles Ives with their families settled in the township and began to make improvements. In 1832 also Bird McLane came with his father's family and settled on Rolling Prairie.

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A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 7

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1273

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273