USA > Indiana > Johnson County > A historical sketch of Johnson county, Indiana > Part 5
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*And I now propose to the neighborhood around Whetzel's old camp to meet and organize an arrangement whereby each shall contribute a nigger-head on this location, that it may be preserved, and that they cause a suitable inscription to be made on a smooth stone, showing that F. H. Jacob and Cyrus Whetzel here erected the first habitation toward the ingress of civilization into Johnson County.
+This was doubtless a Pottawatomie encampment on the land now owned by William Kinnick .- ED.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
game to the southward, the direction we were traveling to Loper's, on Camp Creek. The constant crack of the rifle, the crash of the brushwood caused by the troops of the flying, frightened deer as they rushed thundering on with branching horns and tails erect, widespread, grandly leaping high above the shrubbery, with heads and eyes averted as if to see the distant foe, and the widely scat- tered flock of wild turkeys as they sped on with long, outstretched necks, half on foot, half on wing, far as the eye could reach, was altogether a sight-one never to be forgotten by an old lady and a boy unused to such a wild display. In our approach to Loper's Cabin, at the camping grounds on Camp Creek, the wolf paths leading to the encampment along the side of the road were as continuous and well beaten in the soft soil as hog paths about a farm, and great plantigrade foot prints over the muddy grounds showed that Bruin often quitted his secret hiding covert in the gulf and roamed abroad. Camp Creek afforded good water, and from the time the Whetzels first erected their camp here until the trace ceased to be used as a highway, here was the emigrant's hotel. In the morning, as they moved on, the wolves entered to devour the dead animals and the garbage left in the encampment. Daniel Loper was a wild man. I could never learn whence he came, nor yet where he went when he left Johnson County. The first we knew of him was in October of 1820. Then he had crected a hut at the crossing of the Whetzel and Berry traces, on the northeast quarter of southeast quarter of Section 7, in Town- ship 13 north, and Range + east, lately owned by the Brackets. He kept a sort of entertainment there-that is, a man felt that he was not quite out of doors when he stayed in his cabin.
Nathaniel Bell came from Ohio in 1821 along the Whetzel trace, destined for the Eel River country in search of some eligible situation for a home for himself and family. He rode on horse- back with a sack under him. in which he carried his provision. His horse carried a bell around his neck, which was kept silent by day, but when night came Bell made a camp, unloosed the bell, hobbled the horse, turned him out to graze, and then lay down to sleep. Bell, having explored the Eel River lands, and not liking them, returned and called at the cabin of John Doty, who had located a camp on the school section, near the center of the present White River Township, the 8th of May, 1821. Here he disclosed his purpose, and that was to get a description of the land at the crossing of the traces and enter them at Brookville on his way home. and then settle there and keep a tavern and build a horse-mill and a distillery for whisky. Applying to Peter Doty, son of John Doty, for aid in getting a description of the land,
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
Peter agreed to furnish it for $1, but Bell declared he had no money beyond the sum necessary to enter the land. Finally, Peter agreed to accept the bell on the horse, and the desired information was thus obtained. Bell forthwith ordered Daniel Loper to leave his cabin, as the land was now his. Thus, under a threat of expulsion and a claim of ownership falsely made, Loper was driven out and retired to Whetzel's old camp, and there erected another hut and occupied it one or two years. Here Loper continued to reside for a time, and give such aid and lodg- ing as he could to emigrants. Loper, when he first came to the county, had a man living with him by the name of John Varner. Varner made several trips to White Water with an old wagon and a yoke of oxen belonging to Loper, and in exchange for the fruits of the chase received and brought back provisions, and occasionally a few gallons of bad whisky. Whether from the unhealthiness of Camp Creek, on the borders of the gulf, or other cause, John Varner took sick and suddenly died. By some means, Loper got word to John Doty to come and assist in his burial. John Doty and his son Peter responded at once, taking with them a shovel for digging the grave. When they arrived, Loper, despairing of assistance, had gone to work with a garden hoe, the only implement for digging he had, and with which he dug, throwing out the earth with his hands. The grave was soon ready. But there was no coffin, nothing except a large trough. Into this they put his body, and covered the trough with a rude slab split from a log, and thus was John Varner buried at Camp Creek.
Thus we have endeavored to snatch from oblivion the history of the beginning, the introduction of civilization into Jolinson County, and we date it back to the fall of the year of 1818, at Whetzel's camp on Camp Creek. We have shown how this camp was afterward changed to Loper's cabin, and known by that name for a distance of 100 miles. We have the strange burial here of the attache of Loper, perhaps in the year 1823. It may have been the first funeral in the north half of Johnson County. When John Varner died, Loper abandoned Whetzel's old camp and the cabin he and Varner had built, and left for parts unknown, leav- ing the bones of Varner to hold their silent vigils over the place, until the strange coffin was despoiled of the bones of the dead Varner in after years by some foolish young students of anatomy. After Loper left Camp Creek, the place continued to be known as the emigrants' hotel. During the fall season, the place at night was very seldom occupied. Several acres were trodden over by men and their animals, just as if a large army had en-
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
camped upon its grounds. Loper's pole hut was still there, but uncovered. There were scattered about many inclosures built of poles and brush to restrain the movers' stoek from wandering away during the night, and altogether it was a very public place.
And now, having finished the history of the first point in the settlement of Johnson County, and the introduction of civilization, I propose before resuming my journey westward, that the people along this little creek shall, in justice to Jacob Whetzel, restore to it its original and rightful name, Camp Creek. Camp Creek has a history. The other name has not, and to perpetuate the name of the beginner of our present prosperity. let it be Whetzel's Camp Creek.
Bidding adieu to Camp Creek with its strange associations and incidents, we continued on the Whetzel trace westward, meeting five or six men who were off for a bear hunt on the borders of the gulf. We were alarmed at the sight of these men as they ap- proached, thinking they were Indians. They were exceedingly rough, large men, with uncouth apparel, dressed in buckskin pants, bearskin caps, each with a large fire-lock on his shoulder, while six or eight great, ugly wolf-dogs were in company. These men were a party of Bell's, then a power in the land. They treated us kindly, and directed us in our travels. Seven miles from Camp Creek, in the midst of a dismal forest of trees, briars and brushwood, there broke suddenly on our view Bell's horse- mill and its surroundings. It was a quiet Sabbath evening, but the mill was in full elatter, with its unequaled humdrum pro- duced by its loose machinery. Twenty or thirty men stood around in clusters in friendly chat, and forty to fifty horses in working trim were hitched in every direction. The mill was far behind in its grinding, and was running night and day without halting for Sunday. The men were waiting for their several turns to grind, for the mill ground in the orders of their arrival, and if a man was absent when his turn came, the next succeeded to his right. The history of Nathaniel Bell and his mill and his elan of adherents around him, generally bold, bad men, would make a large volume. I shall therefore pass by him, for the pres- ent. at least. At this point, we left Whetzel's trace in a north- erly direction, and in a couple of hours found ourselves at the end of our journey in the midst of our near kindred, and so ends my first trip into and across Johnson County, nearly fifty-five years ago.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
CHAPTER IX.
CONTENDING FORCES.
TOPOGRAPHICAL.
Having thus briefly sketched the rise of the more prominent neighborhoods, and the growth of population during the early years of the county's history, we come now to a consideration of some of the obstacles which confronted the pioneer settlers of the county. Johnson County contains 320 square miles, and is a true parallelogram, being sixteen miles from east to west, and twenty from north to south. White River touches upon its northwest corner, cutting off a fraction over one thousand acres, while Blue River touches upon the southeast corner, cutting off a little over fourteen hundred acres. The general course of these rivers is to the southwest, and a glance at the map discloses the fact that the axial line of the water-shed between them begins a little west of the northeast corner of Pleasant Town- ship, and thence it runs in a southwesterly course to a point about two miles northwest of the southeast corner of White River Township, and thence south, with a meandering line, to the south boundary of the county. The county is thus divided into two unequal parts, the larger of which, being about two- thirds of the whole, is drained into Blue River, while the rain- fall from the other third runs off into White River. The county is generally quite level, and when the country was first known, and for many years after, the level lands were exceedingly wet and swampy. At Williamsburg, a range of low hills or broken land sweeps up from the South and then bears off westerly to the county line. The country, on either side of the South and Mid- dle Forks of Stott's Creek, for a short distance above the county line, is disfigured by hills and hollows. About one-twelfth of the entire county comes within the category of broken land, while the remaining eleven-twelfths ranges from a dead level, through an undulating, to a slightly rolling surface, and may be classed as level land.
PHYSICAL CONDITION.
The men and women who came here for the purpose of found- ing homes in the wilderness, found a country where Nature was arrayed against them in one of her most forbidding forms. Judge Franklin Harden, who was a contemporary of the scenes of
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
which he writes, thus graphically describes the condition of the country in the beginning, and for many years after.
" Tall trees covered the whole country with their wide-spread- ing branches, depending to the ground, and the shrubbery below arose and united with the branches of the trees. Huge grape- vines, scorning to associate with the humble shrubs, like great serpents ascended and festooned the trees to the topmost branches, and thence, spreading in every direction, crept from tree to tree, tying and uniting the tops of a dozen together into an undis- tinguishable net-work of vegetation, as if for defense against the omnipotent force of the cyclone. Here grass and tallest trees,
" ' Impenetrable To star or sunlight, spread their umbrage broad And brown as evening;'
For
" '-nature here
Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more strength Wild above rule or art.'
" In the open spaces, in the valleys, grew either prickly-ash or nettles, both equally armed with sharp, fiery prickles. The net- tles grew so thick, and were so terrible in the burning pain inflicted, that the wounded wild deer in its flight from the hounds of the hunter, although in search of a covert, would never enter. It was often necessary to cover the horses' legs while plowing fresh lands to prevent contact with the nettles. The soil, after a heavy rain, seemed to be afloat, and a deer, in its escape from the hunter, left so conspicuous a trail that he could be as readily fol- lowed as in the snow. Where the spice-wood did not grow too thickly, male fern formed a solid mass three feet in depth, cover- ing logs and pitfalls so completely that the unwary walker often found himself thrown on his head beyond the obstruction. The dry lands along the creeks and rivers were first brought into cul- tivation. The highest lands were often table-lands, and the wet- test. One-half of Johnson County was of this character. Here, long sloughs extended over the country for miles, choked with brush and logs, and often without any outlet, and seemed to be, as no doubt they were, sections of extinct rivers, many of them a half a mile in width, and, in the rainy season, except for fallen logs, might have been navigated for long distances. In passing over these wet lands in the rainy season, but little dry land would appear, except an occasional dry spot like an islet, with its crest lowly bowed as if in dread of submergence. If any attempt was made to cultivate these wet lands, by deadening the timber,
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
and also opening the drains, nothing was produced. The crop was drowned by the percolation and infiltration of water from the adjoining wet lands. It was, therefore, indispensably necessary that large bodies should be brought into cultivation at once. And so it was that for miles in extent, the lands were deadened and exposed to the action of the sun. The ground thus became drier and caused contraction on the roots of shrubbery, which had grown in a loose, wet soil, by which the whole died together. A man traveling through the woods on horseback could be heard a half-mile away crashing the brush and mowing a road for him- self and horse. When the trees and shrubbery died, the whole ground was soon covered with fallen trees and brush. The wild weeds and grass now took possession of the ground and covered it also. During a dry time, two or three men might, by merely sowing the deadening over with fire, burn up the whole superin- cumbent covering over eight or ten acres in a single day. The sloughs, which abounded, and which, except for obstructions by fallen timber, might have been navigated by small crafts for miles, were thus soon opened, and the drainage further assisted by tiling, till the whole country, in an incredibly short time, was brought into cultivation."
CONDITION OF THE ROADS.
Into this wilderness, the first comers were compelled to work their way as best they could, but in time, roads were opened out by public or private enterprise, so that movers could come in without obstruction safe from the mud and swollen streams. For many years the Indianapolis lawyers who traveled the circuit, consumed an entire day in coming from Indianapolis to Franklin to attend the spring term of court; and it was for a long time considered a hard day's journey, for a resident of the Smock neighborhood to ride on horseback to Indianapolis and return. George Kerlin moved to the county in the month of September, 1831, and so muddy were the roads at that season, that his wagons were frequently mired to the axles. Every old resident can call to mind the rails and poles lying in the vicinity of the deeper mud holes, and which had been used as levers to raise wheels from the mire. Efforts were made, as the country be- came older, to make the roads better. Rails, poles and not infrequently round logs were used in "cross-laying" the roads at the worst places; but when we remember the sparsity of pop- ulation and that road districts were necessarily large, it must be evident that not much more could be done than keep the deepest mud holes passable and the roads clear of fallen timber.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
Many of the first settlers were too poor to come to the country in wagons, but packed through on horses. Christopher Ladd, as we have seen, brought his household stuff on a sled. When John S. Miller came up from Jennings County, to mark the spot of his future home previous to his bringing his wife, he carried out a lot of peach trees on a log-sled. When George Bridges came, he fetched a load of household stuff on a wooden truck-wagon. But enough examples might be produced indefinitely. showing the straits to which the pioneers were put in getting to their destina- tions. But come as they would, bad roads, from mud and water, or other causes. ever awaited them. Mrs. Catharine Hardin moved to the county in 1827, and the following lively sketch from the pen of Judge Franklin Hardin, her son, tells the story of the difficulties which inet them on the way :
"In the year 1827, the same widow and her boy, now two years older than when they stopped overnight with the hospita- able Morgan. together with two older brothers and a sister. con- stituting a family, left Nicholas County. Ky., with the purpose of making Johnson County, Ind., their permanent home, to which a large part of the original family had emigrated three years before. When the emigrants arrived at Shelbyville, they were compelled to choose whether they would there take the road to Indianapolis and then down the Bluff road, or take the road by way of Franklin, and the Madison and Indianapolis State road as far north as to Whetzel's old trace, and thence west by Bell's. The Whetzel trace across Johnson County, was now im- passable by reason of the fallen timber across its route, killed by the emigrant wagons and teams of former years. bruising and cutting the roots. Whetzel's trace from Loper's cabin, at Camp Creek, to the Madison and Indianapolis State road, ceased to be traveled in the year 1826. being superseded by other roads and on account of fallen timber across it. It was never laid out by lawful authority and was never repaired. The road by way of Franklin was chosen, and, the weather being pleasant, the wagon rolled merrily down Blue River to the point where the road crossed that stream. It was late in the evening, when a terrible rain- storm came on. Not far from the river, in the edge of a corn- field, stood a deserted cabin; possession of it was taken, and preparation made to spend the night there. The roof of boards was mostly gone, but still enough remained to afford partial pro- tection. During the whole night the rain continued to pour down unceasingly. When the morning broke, an active move was made for Sugar Creek. thinking it might yet be possible to ford it. Blue River was in our rear, pouring down its angry
.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
waters, and Sugar Creek in front, whose condition was unknown. The road ran by the dwelling of John Webb, on the Shelby side of the line. When Sugar Creek was reached, its angry waters were foaming along. dashing out over the low grounds and filling up the bayous. It was the first rise after the summer and fall were gone. The trees had already cast their leaves and had colored the water a dark red brown. To add to our troubles the winds turned and blew from the northwest, bringing some snow. To advance or retreat was equally impossible; we were in the midst of the waters and surrounded. A few stakes were hastily driven in the ground and bedclothes nailed to them, so as to inclose a space ten feet in diameter, and a fire built in the circle, thus securing a comfortable place. An elder brother was along, a man of shifts and expedients, who had already resided in the county for three years, and who had often swain its creeks and rivers. He sent back for an auger, to Mr. Webb, who kindly lent us the largest he had, three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and also the loan of a little unsteady water-craft, a mere trough, which would carry three men only at a time, by one or two lying flat on its bottom as ballast. There stood on the bank of the stream a tall hackberry tree, dead and recently stripped of its bark by woodcocks in search of worms. In a few minutes it was cut down, falling along the shore, and was soon cut up into sec- tions of twelve or fourteen feet. These were placed side by side, and poles laid athwart them and pinned fast by boring through the poles and into the logs. Thus a raft was constructed in an hour sufficient for our purpose. 'Willis.' said Mr. Webb, to his son, on his return from watching our motions, 'what are those people doing at the creek ?' 'Well,' said Willis, 'they are going to cross the creek on a log raft.' .Nonsense,' said the old gentleman, ' it can't be done.' The wagon was unloaded in a trice, and itself pulled to pieces. Then piling on the raft all it would buoy up, two or three hundred feet of bed-cords was at- tached to the raft, and two men mounted it armed with ten-foot poles. The canoe led the way up the shore with the men and poles forcing it along, then resting against the shore the boat passed over, and now, when across, the work began in carnest. The ropes were pulled over, the poles were plied also, and the trip was soon made. and again and again repeated until all were over. The cattle and horses were forced in and swam over. There were some sixty head of sheep to be gotten across some wav; they were more troublesome than the rafting. We tried to get them to swim; we forced them into the stream, but they would return always to the same side. Finally a happy thought.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
came to our relief. The little craft was brought forth, and two shecp laid flat in the bottom and then we crossed and secured them on the opposite bank. Now began on both sides the most appealing bleatings. A little force was all that was necessary to make the flock take to the water and swim over. The wagon was soon reloaded and hastily driven westward, while the angry creek was at our heels. On the first high ground, a quarter of a mile east of William Needham's and George Hunt's cross-road, we made our camp for the night. The roads henceforward exceed belief, the wagon often sinking to the hubs all the way to Frank- lin, where the streets were no better. At one and a half miles north of Franklin, a deserted hut was occupied for the night. At Franklin the writer mounted a horse, and struck out for White River Township for assistance, by way of the Indianapolis State road. There was scarcely a dry spot of ground on the whole route. At a small stream near David Trout's, ordinarily dry. the water was mid-rib to a horse, and other small streams crossed equally deep. Leaving the State road when Whetzel's old trace was reached, a long valley, lying north and south in its length, was crossed near William Law's, a quarter of a mile in width, and which doubtless is a section of some extinct river. The water could scarcely be crossed without swimming. A faithful dog had left the wagon and followed; he had crossed so many streams and ponds by swimming, that here he could swim no more, and, getting in a dry position, refused to go further. Aft- er riding some distance to try him the writer returned and drag- ging the dog across the pommel of the saddle, carried him to a safe landing beyond. A few hours' riding over drier land brought the end of the journey. Next morning, assistance went in haste to the aid of the family."
CLEARING THE LAND.
And when the mover had reached his destination and his cabin was built, the hardships had only begun. Men had to live; food and clothing for themselves and families had to be found some- how, and the only sure source of supply was to fell the timber and till the soil. The first year or so, the Blue River and Nin- eveh inhabitants carried corn meal from Washington County and from the White Water country, while the White River people found a supply at Conner's Prairie, in Hamilton County, or at Connersville, in Fayette. With fire, ax and maul, the men went into the woods and the work of destruction was begun. The wri- ter can remember when. of a still morning in the early spring ‹lays, the sound of the ax and of the maul was heard from every
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
quarter of the compass, while the crash of falling timber was ever in the air. The trees were felled and cut into suitable lengths, and the green logs often lay so thickly upon a new field, that one could walk all over it by stepping from log to log. With great expenditure of muscular effort these logs were rolled into heaps, and were then consumed by fire. We of to-day can form no adequate idea of the toil and weariness that log-rolling and log-burning brought to the first settlers. It was the custom for men whose logs had been rolled and fired, to "right up " their burning heaps before daylight, and, after a hasty breakfast, reach the place appointed for their day's work by sun-up, and, after laboring with a handspike until sunset, then go home and "right up " their own burning-heaps until ten or eleven o'clock at night. This was the manner of the laborious lives of the pioneers for many years after the county was first settled, and from fifteen to thirty days' log-rolling was the lot of every able-bodied man during the spring season.
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