USA > Indiana > Vanderburgh County > Evansville > A history of Evansville and Vanderburgh County, Indiana : a complete and concise account from the earliest times to the present, embracing reminiscences of the pioneers and biographical sketches of the men who have been leaders in commercial and other enterprises > Part 42
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bors their foolish, superstitious fears. He was a great pedestrian as is plainly shown by his frequent journeys from New Orleans to Cin- cinnati and from Cincinnati to Maine. He would never take the trouble to saddle a horse in going a journey but always preferred to go on foot. The land office for southwestern Indiana was located at Vincennes, fifty miles from his home. His neighbors always employed him to go to the land office to transact their business for them, more especially were his services sought after if the business required dis- patch. He would start off on foot, discarding roads and trails, and strike a bee line for the land office, neither stopping for rest nor meals; and many a speculator who started in advance on horseback for the purpose of entering land that some honest settler claimed, found on arriving that the land he coveted had been entered by Daniel Stinch- field for Mr. So-and-So, a few hours before his arrival. Had his edu- cation fitted him for the position he would have been a good astrono- mer. No man with as limited a book education was better versed in the movements of the heavenly bodies than he. The stars were his guide in traveling over the pathless country, as well as his time piece to note the hour of night, which he could do with great precision.
Soon after attaining his majority he professed religion and united with the regular or close-communion Baptists, called by those who opposed the creed " Hard Shell or Iron Clad Baptists." Though living and dying a Baptist, he was liberal in his views and could tolerate believers of other creeds. When his church ceased to have sufficient support to keep it in existence he joined the Missionary Baptists. When Daniel Stinchfield put on the armor of a Christian it was for life. No man ever strove harder to live the life of a Christian than he. The Bible was in the main his counsel. For more than half a century he was a constant reader of that volume of inspiration. Not only did he read it but he strove to live up to its teachings. During the last two years of his life he read no other books. So long a study of the Bible made him familiar with all its truths. His memory was good, every chapter of the Bible was so familiar to him that when the minister read his text, before the book or verse were announced, he could be heard by those near him naming the book, chapter and verse in a whisper. When the writer was a boy he had frequently sat up half the night listening to an animated discussion with traveling min- isters on some knotty passages of Scripture, mostly on the subject of baptism, which was the mystic cause for many a wordy battle in which the subject of this sketch was usually the conquerer. On the 9th day of March, 1852, after a brief illness, he breathed out his spirit in
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prayer. His children had been summoned to his bedside, and all were present when his soul took his departure to seek a dwelling place with his God whom be adored. A few moments before he died his lips were seen to move. A Methodist minister, who was preseut, bent over him and caught these words of the Psalmist, uttered in a faint whisper : "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me." Then the spirit, freed from the thralldom of carth, took its departure, and Daniel Stinchfield lay peacefully in the arms of death.
He was twiee married. On the 26th day of May, 1816, he was married to Roxany Judkins at Covington, Kentucky. There were ten children from this union, six boys and four girls. In the month of October, 1848, he had the misfortune to lose this estimable wife. In 1849 he was married to Mary Ann McGary, a widow with a family of five children. She is still living (1884) at Evansville, Indiana, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years.
David Stinchfield was born in Clermont county, Ohio, March 19, 1817. He was married to Mary Elliott, September 27, 1838. The issue from this union was three children : Mark, born December 13, 1839; Margaret R., January 4, 1842, and Lydia, March 22, 1844. David Stinehfield died February 17, 1847, and Mary, his widow, died August 14, 1880.
Mark, David's son, was married to Martha McPherson, January 14, 1868. The issue of this union was two girls and one boy : Isabelle, born November, 1868; Nora, June 1, 1870, and William D., April, 1873. Martha, Mark's wife, died June 6, 1873.
Mark is a successful farmer. He has never remarried and is still living on the place where he was born-1883. He is noted for his manly nature and honest dealings. Physicially, he is indeed a noble specimen of manhood, being the largest one of the descendants of Daniel Stinchfield.
Margaret, David's daughter, was married and has two boys, John, born 1868, and William, 1874.
Lydia married Robert Ellisou, and there were born to them eight children: Mary, born 1868; Albert, 1869; Amy, 1861; Robert and Lydia, (twins), 1873; Ralph, 1875; Daisy, 1877; William, 1880.
Lydia, David's daughter, died June 20, 1880, and William October 29, 1880.
David Stinchfield, son of Daniel, was a large and powerful man, his height being six feet and his weight about 170 pounds. He possessed
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great industry and endurance as well as activity, and an abundance of that principle called in western parlance "grit," which made him a dreaded competitor in the manly sports indulged in by these hardy sons of the west. He was of a literary turn of mind and delighted in reading and study.
Lydia Stinchfield, daughter of Daniel, was born in Vanderburgh county, Indiana, on the 24th day of December, 1818. She was married to John Jarred in the month of September, 1837. The following are the fruits of this nnion: Sarah Jane, born 1838; William B., August 13, 1839; Roxana, January 12, 1842; Harriet, February 15, 1844; Maria, August 16, 1846; Elvira, April 17, 1849; John, February 10, 1851; Daniel, December, 1853; Mary E., August 5, 1855; Lydia, January 18, 1857; Letitia, June 1, 1859; George, November 19, 1862.
Sarah Jane married Samuel Hayden in Posey county, Indiana. Two children were born to them, Mary and William. Sarah Jane Hayden died in October, 1861.
William Henry married Elizabeth McMillen at Mt. Vernon, Posey county, Indiana. They had seven children: Samuel, William, Walter, Mary J., Hannah and Julia, and one which died before it was named, William H's. wife, Elizabeth, died and he was married a second time, and soon after he died at Mt. Vernon, Indiana. Wm. H. was a farmer, owning farms in both Indiana and Illinois. He was noted for his in- dustry and business qualifications, and was successful in all his occu- pations.
Roxana married Christian Richter at Mt. Vernon, Indiana. She died in October, 1868. They had three children, John, Kate and George, all living.
Harriet married Jerry Allen at Mt. Vernon. Seven children were born to them. Ewing, Jerry, Charles, Maria, Daniel, Moses and John. Her husband died several years ago and she is still a widow.
Elvira married John Birks at Mt. Vernon. They had two children, Andrew and Sophia. Elvira Birks died February, 1875.
Maria married Edwin N. Cox in Wayne county, Illinois. They have two children, Lydia and Agnes. Maria, with her husband, lives at Nordhuff, Ventura county, California, having moved from Illinois in 1876.
John married Isabella Wilds at Mt. Vernon, Indiana. He is en- gaged in farming in Posey county, Indiaua. They have no children.
Latitia married J. L. Wilsher at Morganfield, Kentucky, on the 31st of December, 1872. They have three children: Florence, William
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Franklin and Herman. They reside at Uniontown, Kentucky. He is engaged in farming.
George is unmarried and lives in the state of Arkansas.
Ludia, daughter of Lydia, died February 18, 1873.
Lydia, daughter of Daniel S., died in December, 1876, at the age of fifty-nine years, having survived her husband, John Jarred, just one month. Lydia was about the average size of women, rather heavily built but not corpulent. Her eyes were hazel and her hair was as black as the raven's wing. Her life was one of toil, as the greater part of the support of her family depended upon her exertions. She was a follower of Christ and while yet a girl was baptised and united with the regular Baptist church, where she remained a member until her death.
Sarah, second daughter of Daniel Stinchfield, was born in Vander- burgh county, Ind., on the 10th day of September, 1820. She was married in Vanderburgh county in the month of Mareh, 1840, to Bryson Blackburn, a native of North Carolina. Following are the members of her family : Rachel, born February 5, 1841, married to John W. Stanford at Clay City, Ill., in 1861. They had one child, Margaret Adaline, born December 21, 1862. She is dead. About this time Rachel's husband died, and soon after she was married to Austin Stanford, a cousin of her first husband. There were born to them : Homer B., 1866; Harriet N., 1869; Hugh D., 1874; Sarah A., 1879. Rachel's death occurred in Clay county, Ill., May 7, 1879.
John Blackburn, born in Vanderburgh county, Ind., August 15, 1842, died at Mt. Erie, Ill., February 23, 1863.
Mary Ann, born in Indiana, February, 1844, married David Knight at Mt. Erie, Ill., May 8, 1863. Mary Ann's children are : Sarah E., born at Mt. Erie, Ill., 1866; Amy, 1868; Anna J., 1872; Unis Lena, 1874.
Margaret, born in Indiana, December 13, 1846, died at Mt. Erie, Ill., September, 7, 1860.
Rosetta, born September 27, 1847, died August 13, 1852.
David Franklin, born July 9, 1849, died September 10, 1860.
Sarah Amy, born September 17, 1851, married Marcus Stanford at Mt. Erie June, 1873. Her child is named Charles R., and was born in 1879. She is a widow, her husband having died in 1882, in the state of Texas, where she resides.
Harriet R., born in Illinois, July 6, 1855. She has two ehildren. Her husband was an officer in the Union army-a captain. Ever sinee the war he has been engaged in farming near Clay City, Ill.
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Letitia, born July 10, 1860, at Mt. Eric, Ill., married Lewis Floyd at Mt. Erie, August 30, 1882. She has one boy, George Henry, born 1883.
In 1860 Sarah's husband, Bryson Blackburn, died. In 1865 she was married to a Mr. Cox, of Illinois. The result of this union was one boy, Lemuel Cox, born September 29. 1866. Sarah is a widow, and lives on her farm at the head of the Little Wabash in Wayne county, Ill. She, with the assistance of her son, Lemuel Cox, man- ages the farm. Most of her children live in the vicinity, and she lives a happy and religious life. In the fall of 1882, she paid a visit to her two brothers, George and Moses, who live in Colusa county, Cal. They are the only members of her family living, and she had not seen them for thirty years ; so she started alone to pay them a visit, that she might see them onee more before her death. When she separated from them, they were beardless boys, and she found them with fami- lies growing up around them. She remained with them for six months. Then she departed for her home, 2,500 miles away, earrying with her the love and veneration of her Pacific coast relatives, which her amiable and social nature had won for her. Sarah is a very large woman, her height being five feet, eight inches, and her average weight about 160 pounds. At the age of sixty-three she is strong and aetive, and her hair, which is black, shows but few silvery threads. She looks as if she had yet a quarter of a century's lease on life. When a girl she was baptised in the regular Baptist church, and she has ever been an active member of that denomination. In all church matters, Aunt Sarah, as she is called, is always consulted, and her opinions have great weight with the members and are generally adopted. "Aunt Sarah's" social disposition makes friends of all with whom she comes in contaet, and she is loved and respected by all who know her.
Raeliel, the third daughter of Daniel Stinehfield, was born in Van- derburgh county, Ind., on the 13th day ot February, 1822. She had three children, Daniel, Ruth and Henry. Daniel died when abont three years of age. Ruth married a Mr. Jeff Wilkinson, and died two years later, without children. Henry married Amanda Cooper, in Vander- burgh county. Three children were born to them : Thomas Franklin, who died when one year old ; Joshua, born 1878, and Frances Helen, born 1881. Joshua Cavius married again after Rachel's death. He died in 1863.
Rachel was not so large as either of her sisters. Her complexion too was much lighter. Her hair was a brownish black and her eyes were blue. Her disposition was loving and amiable, and gentle as an
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angel's. She, like her sisters, was a member of the Baptist church, having joined that church when quite young, and in her daily walk she fulfilled the full measure of a Christian. If angels descend from their heavenly abode to take up their dwelling place on earth, the heart of Rachel was certainly the abode of one of these heavenly visitors, for a milder, gentler and nobler woman never lived. When the writer of this in his ninth year was banished from home by a mis- guided stepmother, he took up his abode with his loving sister Rachel and remained with her for nearly a year, and at this late day he looks back upon the days of his boyhood spent at her home as the happiest of his child life.
Hiram, the second son of Daniel Stinchfield, was born in Vander- burgh county, Indiana, on the 12th day of December, 1824. He was married to Sarah MeCrary in Vanderburgh county, Indiana, on the 30th day of September, 1841. Hiram was lost on the ill-fated steamer "Central America," which went down with her precious load of pas- sengers off Cape Hatteras on the 10th of September, 1857. Sarah, Hiram's widow, was born on the 16th day of July, 1822. She never married after her husband's death, and now lives with her mother, Daniel Stinchfield's widow, near Evansville, Indiana, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. Hiram's children were: Letitia, born near Evansville, August 7, 1842; Washington, February 3, 1844; Daniel, May 11, 1846, and died in General Sherman's army at Decatur, Alabama, July 10, 1864; Mary Ann, March 8, 1848, died June 25, 1849; Margaret, February 25, 1850, and Moses, January 3, 1852.
Letitia was married to Philip Smith. Their children are as follows: Hiram, born January 26, 1858; Alice, August 20, 1860; Washington, December 21, 1862, died August 16, 1878; Owen, September 16, 1864; John, August 22, 1866; Sarah A., April 1, 1870; Thomas, May 24, 1873, died August 15, 1884; William, January 21, 1875; George O., October 22, 1877; Hattie, March 21, 1880, and Laura M., October 19, 1882, died October 12, 1883.
Alice Smith married Gus How, October 16, 1887. Hiram Smith married Christina Wunderlich, October 2, 1879. Owen Smith married Elizabeth Brocker, January 16, 1888.
Sadie Stinchfield married William Thienes, December 23, 1891.
Mary A. Stinchfield, wife of Washington Stinchfield, died October 6, 1893. Washington Stinchfield married Alice Rheinlander, October 10, 1894.
Washington, Hiram's son, was married to Miss Mary A. Sanders at Evansville, Indiana, on the 13th day of December, 1869. Following
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are the names of the children born to them: John, born August 8, 1870, died December 9, 1870; George W., March 12, 1872, died August 26, 1879; Sarah, September 17, 1873; Caddie, December 2, 1875; Harriet, December 7, 1877; Charles Walter, February 7, 1881; Moses, September 7, 1882.
When President Lincoln called for "three hundred thousand more" Washington and his brother Daniel, enlisted in the 23d Indiana, bade goodbye to their widowed mother, shouldered their guns and took up their line of march for the stirring field of battle. They were boys, nnused to the fatigue of long marches or the rough fare of camp life, yet they took their places beside the grizzled warriors of maturer years to fulfill a duty that every free man feels is his, when the flag of his country is assailed. Daniel fell a victim to disease and died at Decatur, with no loving mother's hand to administer to his wants in his last moments. Washington followed Sherman on that memorable march "from Atlanta to the Sea," and only left the service of his country when the rebellion was crushed and peace reigned throughout the land; then, like Cincinnatns of old, when his country needed no longer the service of his sword, he returned to the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. Washington at this date is following the noble calling of a farmer, in which business he has been successful. He is a lead- ing member of the Methodist church, with which he united when a boy. His manly qualities and straight-forward dealings have won for him hosts of friends. He is a member of Rising Star lodge, I. O. O. F., being a past grand in good standing.
Moses, Hiram's youngest son, was married to Caddie Sanders at - Evansville in 1872. The fruit of this marriage is one son, John, born in Evansville in 1873. In the winter of 1875 Moses, with his wife and child, emigrated to California. He had not remained there quite a year when he returned to Evansville, Indiana, where he is engaged in business. He is an active, prosperous man and has for several years been a member of the board of public works, having been appointed . to that position by Mayor Hawkins. He has filled this position with great credit and to the satisfaction of all classes of citizens. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist church. He is frugal and industrious and possesses good business qualifications.
Hiram Stinchfield was five feet and ten inches in height and weighed 150 pounds. He was lighter in complexion than either of his brothers. He lived after his marriage in the vicinity of Evansville. He was en- gaged in different occupations until February, 1854, when he went to California, where two of his younger brothers had preceded him. He
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was engaged in mining in California, meeting with moderate suecess, till the autumn of 1857, when he started for his home in Evansville, where his family had resided during his absence. But the happiness which he cherished in his heart of meeting with his wife and children after an absence of three and a half years, was frustrated by the re- lentless deeree of fate. His wife watched for his coming and his children counted the days that must elapse before "papa" would come home, for letters had been sent that he would soon be home again. At Panama the home-bound passengers shipped on board the ill-fated steamer Central America bound for New York. Off Cape Hatteras she encountered a severe gale, and being an old vessel, unfit for seas, she became unmanageable and foundered on the 15th day of Septem- ber, 1857. Nearly all the passengers and erew were lost; among whom was Hiram Stinehfield. The last heard from him was at Panama where he wrote to a brother in California.
Hiram was a very kind hearted man. He was foremost in render- ing assistance to the needy, as one of the last acts of his life will show. At San Francisco he met a man whom he had known in Evansville in former years, and who, through the hard, wild life incident to the early settlers in California, had become deranged and was without money or friends. The few bright gleams of his intelleet were centered on home, and his heart yearned to be in the bosom of his family. Hiram paid his passage and took him on board the vessel, but in the hurry and bustle of leaving the port he was intercepted as a stowaway and the poor, demented creature, not possessing enough sense to explain the situation, was taken ashore as the vessel was leaving the port. Thus he escaped the fate of his would-be benefactor, but only to meet a death just as certain for he was never afterward heard from. While in California, Hiram mined at Nevada City, Montezuma Hill, Nevada county, on the North fork of the Yuba river, and at Eureka, Sierra county. Had he lived, he would have been a grandfather at the age . of thirty-four.
Mark, the third son of Daniel Stinehfield, was born in Vanderburgh county, on the 10th of December, 1826, and died of croup on the 2d of November, 1831.
George, the fourth son, was born on the 29th day of October, 1829, in Clermont county, Ohio, while Daniel, the father, was making that place his home tor the second time. George lived at home with his father until his (the father's) death, after which he left Indiana, on the 14th day of April, 1852. He paid a party, a Mr. Onyet, $100 for the privilege of traveling with him to the "Golden Land," agreeing to
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drive an ox team across the plains from St. Joseph, Mo., to California. The party he was with went from Evansville to St. Joe by steamboat, where they disembarked and took up their long and tiresome march across the "desert," and at last they arrived in California. Most every emigrant in that early day came for the purpose of making his "pile " at mining, and when the " pile," which meant fortune or competency, had been scraped together, he intended to return to the states for a permanent home. George's first introduction to the mines was at Soda Bar, on the north fork of the Feather river. Not meeting with the success anticipated, he went to White Rock, near where now stands the town of Oroville. He soon found that White Rock was not the place to get together the " pile " he had set his mind upon, and in the early winter of 1852, he went to Nevada City, in Nevada county, at that time a very rich and extensive district, where he went to work ; bnt his work was soon stopped by a severe attack of typhoid fever, from which he did not recover for several months. Sickness is never a welcome visitor, even when surrounded by every comfort that wealth and good nursing can give, but doubly unwelcome was it in that half civilized country, where the delicacies that the sick crave, were not to be had, and where the gentle hand of woman was unknown. Under the rough flannel shirts of the hardy miners beat warm and sympa- thetic hearts, and he received all the attention they could give. Be- fore spring he again took up the pick and shovel, and resumed the hardy toil of a miner. He continned mining in Nevada and Sierra counties for about eight years, when he sold out his mining claim and bonght a farm in Colusa county, in the Sacramento valley. In No- vember, 1869, he was married to Irene Adaline Allen, in Colusa county. She, with her parents, had emigrated to California the previous year, from the state of New Jersey. Five children were born to them : Nora, born November 20, 1870; Mercy, September 6, 1873; Robert, August 1, 1874; Daniel, October, 1877; Sadie, March, 1882. These births all occurred on his farm, near the Sacramento river, at the head of Grand Island. In 1882 George, having previously disposed of his farm on Grand Island, bought another farm in the Cast Range moun- tains, in the western portion of Colusa county, where he now resides. His farm is located in a beautiful valley, and he is comfortably situated.
Moses, the fifth son of Danicl Stinchfield, was born at the Stinchfield homestead in Vanderburgh county, Ind., on the 5th day of June, 1832. When he was six years old he attended school. The writer, if space per- mitted, would like to speak of the schools, in that early day, in the west.
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He will only say that these schools were taught three months in a year, generally commencing in November. They were kept, up by a school-tax and by subscription, and any one who could read, write and cipher was competent to teach school. No certificate was necessary. The trustees, who were appointed by the citizens of the district, had full power to employ whoever they pleased. The wages of the school master were from fifteen to twenty dollars per month and board, that is, he boarded around among the patrons of the school. The school- houses were built with an eye to economy, of rough, unhewn logs, with puncheon floors. A huge fire-place, occupying nearly the whole end of the house, gave forth a generous heat when filled with burning hickory logs. The spaces between the rough logs were chinked and daubed with mud to make the room comfortable, and the split logs turned split side down, the ends reaching on the top of the wall of the house and the cracks or spaces between them daubed with mud, made a comfortable but not very artistic ceiling. The windows for admit- ting light were indicative of backwoodism. A log was removed from the side of the house, which left a space about a foot wide the entire length of the room to admit the light. If the room was intended to be very grand the space was filled with window glass, but a board raised and lowered by means of hinges was the more common mode. The furniture was quite primitive. Logs, usually poplar, were split open, the split side hewn smooth and legs put in them to form benches or seats. The writing desk was a board placed under the window the entire length of the room. This was for the benefit of the higher grade of pupils. With Webster's Elementary Spelling Book under his arm and with a feeling of awe, inspired by the momentous undertak- ing, little Mose took his place in a house of the above description to battle for an education. His sister Rachel had previously taught him his letters, for which service her father had given her a new calico dress, which was considered a very fine gown in those days of home- spun linsey. He proved to be an industrious scholar and by the time the school closed he had three times spelled through his book, "Web- ster's Elementary," as far as the "pictures." This term and three others of the same duration, in which the subject of this sketch had learned to read, write and cipher, closed his educational career, and it may here be stated that none of the family of Rachel Stinchfield ever attained a higher grade of school education, nor did any of them attend school for a longer period, than did he. All who have read the " Hoosier Schoolmaster " are familar with the chapter that describes the turning out, or rather fastening out of the teacher on Christmas
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