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 43
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day. And doubtless some have thought that such a thing could only exist in the fertile brain of the author, but such is not the case. It was customary in the early days of the west for the larger boys of the school to demand a holiday on Christmas, and if the teacher refused to grant the holiday or treat the school to candy, nuts, etc., the larger boys would get to the school-house early on Christmas morning and bar the door with benches or wood-locks. They would then refuse to open the door until the teacher complied with their request, either to give a holiday or treat. The writer recollects a case of this kind occurred in the first school he ever attended. Arriving at the school-house Christmas morning he found the door barricaded and the teacher on the outside of the house demanding admission. The besieged held the fort against all assaults of the besieger, who tried to beat the door open with fence rails, but his batteriug was of no avail against the barricaded door. He then climed upon the roof of the house and strove to gain admittance through the capacious chim- ney, but the besieged guarded every point effectually and threw water into the fire so that the steam and hot ashes drove the assailant from the chimney in a hurry. Finding that he could not carry the fort he agreed to treat the school if the boys would open the door. The be- sieged accepted the terms and the door was thrown open. The writer does not desire to surprise the school-boards of this advanced age, nor to shock the nerves of the votaries of temperance, neither does he wish to be accused of Mark Twaining, when he states that the treat promised by the teacher consisted of a half gallon of whiskey and a pound of sugar. The circumstances in the boyish days of Moses left a lasting impression on his mind. The death of his mother, which occurred when he was six years old, in 1838. This was an event that he still remembers with sadness. He was far too young to remember it with any degree of certainty and probably at the time he did not appreciate his great loss. Death had come and taken away the best friend and protector a child could have. Too young to understand the mystery of death he waited and watched for his mother to speak to him and caress him, and when they placed her in the coffin and carried her to the grave-yard his childish heart sank within him for he was told that he would never see her dear face again. Vivacity of spirits, usually called fun, seemed to be a characteristic of his nature. He was always noted for his pranks and love of fun. When his sister, Sarah, visited him in California, in 1883, she said to a friend that "Mose would never be anything but an overgrown boy, for he was just as full of pranks as when he was a little urchin." His
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love of fun sometimes led him into difficulties. One instance here related will be an example of scores of similar ones : A heavy snow- drift had formed by the side of the house in which the family lived, and he amused himself by throwing the cats and dogs into the snow, and enjoyed the fun of seeing them scramble out. Finally he plunged his little brother, head foremost, into the soft drift, but the little fellow did not enjoy the fun at all, and raised a ery that brought his father to the scene. Mose, anticipating trouble, started to climb up the corner of the house onto the roof, but could not get up on account of the snow on the housetop. Just at this time his father eame around the corner of the house, and seeing little John's feet sticking out of the snow and Mose up the corner of the house, he understood the situation in a moment. Picking up a switch, (switches were always convenient when Mose was a boy) and having the perpetrator of the fun at a disadvan- tage, for he eould elimb no higher and was too high to jump, the father administered a castigation that was remembered for a lifetime. Mose's excessive love of fun was the chief cause of the other sad event of his . life. His stepmother, like many of the old ladies of the west, was an inveterate smoker. So wedded was she to the habit, that when her pipe was lost or mislaid her happiness was gone, and any one who meddled with her pipe was sure to gain her displeasure. Some evil genius prompted little Mose, then eight years old, to put gunpowder in the bottom of her pipe, and fill the space left with tobacco. The family was sitting around the fire, among them the perpetrator of the joke, when the pipe went off with a flash. The stepmother first went over backwards on the floor, and then went for little Mose. Without making any inquiry as to who did the unpardonable deed, she gave him sueli a "trouneing" as made him wish that tobaeco pipes had never been invented. Soon after this occurrenee, one morning before his stepmother was out of bed, he was playing "cireus" by trying to make a chair balance on its back legs while he sat in it. Finally the chair went over backwards and he with it. But, oh! horrors! his step- mother's pocket which contained her pipe and tobacco had been hang- ing on the back of the chair, and the pipe (the self-same one that had been the eause of his trouble a few days before) was broken into a hundred pieces. The breaking was purely accidental; but the pipe was broken and aeeidents were not to be taken into consideration. The enormity of the offense deserved a worse penalty than whipping. He must be banished from home. There was. no safety for pipes while he was about, and he must leave. A few hours later the child, with his extra shirt tied up in a handkerchief, was wending his way, bare-
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foot and alone, to his sister Rachel's home, which was nine miles away. The road or path led through the woods most of the way, and it was during this walk that he felt his loneliness and sadness for a second time. As he trudged along his solitary way his heart seemed to be a lump of lead in his breast, and he had to stop often to wipe the tears from his eyes. He thought of Hagar, of whom he had heard his father read, turned out into the wilderness to die. He thought how sweet a punishment a flogging would have been when compared to this. Forty-three years have passed, and the subject of this sketch has not been a stranger to sorrow, for his foot prints through life have led him through many trials, but this one seems, at this late day of life, to have been the keenest, because it was the first of the kind he ever experienced. After a stay of eight months with his dear sister, who received him with the greatest kindness, he returned home, but forever after that he evaded tobacco pipes as he would rattlesnakes. When he was about three years old he accidently fell, head foremost, into a kettle of soft soap. Had he not been discovered immediately, his life could not have been saved. When the subject of this sketch was fourteen years of age, the whole care of the family devolved upon him and his brother, George. So at that age, when school is of most advantage to the young, he had the care of a family npon his hands. Thongh deprived of the privileges of gaining an education, he read at home all books that he could get, and at the age of nineteen, he was solicited to take charge of a country school. He accepted, and taught one term of three months. The compensation was $20 a month and without board. Out of this he paid $5 every month for board and lodging. Thinking to better his condition, he concluded to emigrate to California, and accordingly left home on the 29th day of January, 1854, for the " Land of Gold." It is rather a strange coincidence, that this page is being written thirty years to the day and hour after the time when the steamer " Ohio," on which he was a passenger, pushed off the wharf at Evansville, Indiana, bound for New Orleans, where he was to embark for California.
Arriving at New Orleans his chum, who was to accompany him, backed out and took the next steamer for home, leaving him to make his journey with strangers. He bought a steerage ticket for $100, which left him just $15 for all incidentals. On the 6th day of February, 1844, he went on board of the Pampero, whose destination was Grey- town, where the boat arrived in dne time and the passengers embarked on small steamers for Niearangua. The voyage up the San Francisco river and across the lake (250 miles) was a very pleasant one. Arriv-
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ing at Virgin Bay the passengers disembarked and a ride of twelve miles brought them to San Juan Del Sur, on the Pacific, where the steamer Cortez, which was to take the passengers to San Francisco, was awaiting them. These with the New Orleans passengers, num- bered 1,300, and when they all got aboard of the Cortez, which was a small boat, there was scarcely standing room. They were huddled together like sheep in a pen. Nothing of interest occured on the voyage to San Francisco, where the steamer arrived on the 4th of March, after a passage of twenty-seven days from New Orleans. The land of promise was reached at last, but not the end of the journey. He had just $7 in his pocket. With $6.75 he bought a ticket for Saere- mento, where he arrived the next morning. He bought some bread with the last two bits he had in the world and started afoot across the plains and mountains for Nevada City, where his brother was mining. The first night he found it pretty cool lodging by the side of a rock near Auburn, with nothing but half of a blanket for a bed. In the morning he made a meal of the remainder of his bread and started on his journey over the mountains. He found some raw potatoes in the road, and was trudging along munching them when he met a man driving a team of oxen, and the following conversation ensued :
Teamster-"Young feller, you're jest come to the country, ain't you ? "
" Yes, arrived on the last steamer."
" Look like you'd been sick, young feller."
" Yes, I was sick before I left home, and sick all the way, and half starved, too."
" Broke, I guess, from your looks ?"
" It looks that way, or I wouldn' be making a meal of raw pota- toes."
" Young feller, I live jest a little way from here, and have plenty to eat. Now I'll tell you what to do. You ain't able to work, and you jest git on this wagon and go home with me and stay a week or two, until you recruit up; it shan't cost you a cent."
He thanked the kind stranger for his offer, aud told him that he expected to get to his journey's end before night, where he would meet his brother and would then be all right. This circumstance taught him that men must not be taken for what they appear, for in the bosom of that unshaven, rough-clad teamster beat a true and sympathizing heart, and that was the only time in his life that he was forced to make a meal of raw potatoes. Before night he arrived at Nevada City, and in a short time found his brother, who had been in California two years.
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The half-wild and excited life of the gold hunter was now before him. The miner in those early days was totally deprived of the pleasures of society. A cabin of logs or boards was built near the claim they were working, and the partners of the claim all lived together in the same cabin, taking turns in cooking. A turn was a week, sometimes it was reduced to a day. The fare, of course, was not the daintiest, but they always had plenty when it could be had. Sometimes a camp would get snowed in and then "grub" (the name given to the provisions) became scarcc and consequently very dear. When the flour and "spuds" (potatoes) failed, the hardy miner fell back upon Chili beans, which were always plentiful in the early days of California and were the main stay of the miners. During the ten years that the subject of this sketch was in the mines he worked in the counties of Nevada, Sierra and Plumas, but mostly in Nevada county, which he considered his home. Although he did not make a fortune in the mines he always had ample means for his own support and laid by a little besides, but he looks back upon the ten years spent there as the most independent and happy of his life. The pure air, the wild scenery of the mountains, with their lofty peaks and madly rushing rivers, the majestic forests and beautiful valleys, and the free life of the hardy mountaineers were congenial to his nature, and " like a thing of beauty," were a joy for- ever and a feast for his mind. On the 16th day of October, 1862, he was married to Mary Newell in Nevada City. Mary Newell was an orphan girl without a known relative in the world. She was born in Australia and came to California when she was but two years old. When she was nine years old her mother died, and as her father had died some years before, she was left at that tender age without a rela- tive or guardian and among strangers to fight the hard battles of life alone. The subject of this sketch, then a young man in his twenties, learned of her lonely situation. His sympathies were enlisted in her behalf, and he procured a good home for her in the family of a busi- ness man in Nevada City, where she was sent to a private school, he (Moses) paying for her books and tuition. She remained with the family until she was nearly fifteen years old, when by some plot of the intriguing Cupid they found themselves in love and a wedding was the natural consequence. He lived in the mines one year after his mar- riage, after which he sold out his mining interests and bought a farm in Colusa county, in the Sacramento valley. Ten children were born to them : Edua May, born August 4, 1864; George Edward, Novem- ber 21, 1865; Albert Sidney, January 30, 1867; Frank, November 26, 1868; Clande, May 8, 1870, died June 13, 1870; Emma Luta, May 8, 28
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1871; Will Elmer, March 18, 1874; Bnrdah, June 19, 1878; Stephen, November 13, 1880; died May 23, 1881, and Loe, May 13, 1882. Mary Newell was born in Australia on the 1st day of January, 1848. She is small in statue, has dark eyes which are large and expressive, and her head is adorned with an abundance of long black hair. Her sympathy for the distressed is unbounded and her self-denial prover- bial. Moses Stinchfield is the largest of any of the family of Daniel Stinchfield. He is five feet and eleven inches in height and weighs 180 pounds. He has dark-brown hair and hazel eyes, is full chested and of compact build, and he appears smaller than his weight indicates. Like his father he is active and a great walker. He thought nothing, while in the mines, of walking forty or fifty miles in a day over the rough mountains without experiencing fatigue. His suavity and buoy- ancy of spirits make him a great favorite, especially with the young. In 1873 he allowed his name to be used for the office of county treas- urer, on an independent ticket, and he was elected by a handsome majority, notwithstanding the county was strongly democratic. After serving two years he was nominated for a second term, but was defeated, although he ran nearly 500 votes ahead of his ticket. He has held other offices of trust in the county, and has given satisfaction in all that he administered. For twenty-eight years he has been a leading member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having joined the order in Nevada City in 1856, and he has considerable pop- ularity in the state as a society man. He served as D. D. Grand Master in the order of Odd Fellows for eleven years, and instituted several lodges of that order. He first entered the grand lodge of Cal- ifornia as a representative in 1861, and has been returned several times. Several of the orations that he has delivered in that order have been published. He is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and now holds the office of D. D. Grand Master of Colusa county. In politics he is a conservative democrat, having always supported the national democratic ticket, with one exception-he voted for Lincoln for president in 1864. Being a disbeliever in creeds, he never united with any church. He strives to live up to the "Golden Rule," does not take the name of God in vain, and cannot bring his mind down to the standard of creedism that would damn a soul down to eternal punishment because the body that it inhabited in life had not been sprinkled with holy water, baptized or had its feet washed in the manner that sectarianism prescribes; yet he is a firm believer in that religion that teaches love to our fellow-man as the foundation of love to God. Moses Stinchfield was married twice; the second time,
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August 21, 1887, to Annie Stinchfield, the daughter of his second cousin, Jeremiah Stinchfield. The children by this marriage were Harriet Asenath, born April 8, 1890, and Roxana Judkins, April 13, 1895.
John, the sixth son of Daniel Stinchfield, was born near Evansville, Ind., on the 27th day of November, 1834. Like the other members of the family, he only acquired a limited education, and never attended any school but the common or public schools of the country. He too was raised on the farm, performing such labor as usnally falls to the lot of a farmer boy. John, as a boy, was of slight build, but as tough as a hickory withe. He was a sober, old-fashioned appearing boy, and for this reason his brothers nicknamed him "old dad." In 1860 he was married at Evansville, Ind., to Ann Eliza Neel. When Fort Sumter was fired upon, and the cry of war was raised throughout the land, calling the loyal sons of the country to arms to defend the Union, John was one of the first to enlist. The company in which he had enlisted formed part of the 25th Indiana. This regiment was in continued active service until the close of the war. The regiment was ordered to Missouri, where it was in active operation until Grant massed his forces for the attack on Forts Henry and Donaldson. The 25th Indiana, under General Smith, led the attack at the storming of the latter fort, and was the first to plant its flag on the enemy's works. Johu won the praise of being the "bravest of the brave" in that hard- fought battle. Soon after the capture of Fort Donaldson, he was taken sick, and went to Mound City, Ill. He remained in the hospital some time, before he was ready for duty, and not until after the desperate battle of Shiloh was fought, did he join his regiment.
When the army marched south to Atlanta, the 25th Indiana was placed under General Hurlburt, and assigned to provost duty in Tennessee with Memphis for headquarters; but previous to this it had been in some severe engagements, Hatchie and Stone River being among the number. The duty assigned the 25th was the most ardn- ous in the service. While out on duty with a small squad of soldiers he and his comrades were surrounded by a band of rebels and taken prisoners. They were marched to Andersonville prison, where John remained for seven or eight months, when he was exchanged. But the terrible suffering that he endured from disease and starvation in that inhuman prison-pen left him a wreck in health. He never re- covered from the effects of that awful confinement. After he was ex- changed he returned home, where he remained until his health was somewhat improved when he rejoined his regiment. Lee soon after
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laid down his sword and the war was ended. The army was disbanded and John returned to his home, having served from the commence- ment to the close of the war. His officers speak of him as trusty, honest, brave, never guilty of any insubordination and always ready for a soldier's duty. The seeds of the disease he contracted in that black blot upon the history of the rebellion-Andersonville prison- took a deeper root when he was no longer under the excitement inci- dent to a soldier's life, and he died at Evansville, Indiana, in 1865, at the age of thirty years.
John was of slight build, but the deficiency in weight was counter- balanced by an unyielding energy. His height was five feet nine inches; his hair was a dark brown and his eyes, which twinkled with fun or sparkled with excitement, were blue. He is the only son of Daniel Stinchfield who attained manhood and died without issue.
Harriet, the fourth daughter and youngest child of Daniel, was born in Vanderburgh county, Indiana, on the 19th day of December, 1835. Being only three years old when her mother died she was placed under her sister Sarah's care. When Sarah married in 1840 she took her little sister home with her and kept her until she was fifteen years old, when she went home to live with her father. She was married at Evansville, Indiana, to Thomas P. Henning on the 6th day of April, 1854. Following are the names of their children: Mary Jane, born October 11, 1855; Edward, November 5, 1857; Moses, December 12, 1859; Samuel S., November 14, 1861; George T., February 1, 1864; David R., October 28, 1866; Elizabeth, January 29, 1869; Charles S., July 14, 1874; Frank Otis, January 29, 1880. They were all born in Indiana.
Samuel Henning was married to Carrie Woolsey April 10, 1887. His family consists of four children: Bertha, born May 11, 1888; Virgil, February 7, 1890; Leah Gertrude, September 18, 1891; Clesta, April 5, 1893. ,
Edward Henning died January 29, 1860.
Moses Henning was married to Cora B. Tevault at Stendal, June 12, 1887. They have three children: Belva, born June 22, 1888; Amelia, October 21, 1889, and Ralph, February 14, 1892.
George T. Henning was married to Mrs. Sachie P. Holleman at Humboldt, Tennessee, May 23, 1892. He has no children of his own. One step-son, Matthew Holleman, born January 9, 1889.
David Henning was married to Miranda A. Wilson at Scalesville, Indiana, November 19, 1891. They have two children: Bella Har-
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riet, born September 22, 1892, died August 15, 1893, and Harl Edgar, July 26, 1894.
Elizabeth Henning married Richard Bass at Stendal, Indiana, August 21, 1887. Her family consists of four children: Tempa Gertrude, born Jnly 29, 1888; Mary Victoria, March 10, 1890, died July 23, 1890; Cassie Estelle, July 6, 1891, and Ofa Merle, September 28,1894.
Margaret Victoria Henning was married to William H. Tevault near Stendal, Indiana, December 23, 1888. She has three children: Leona, born April 21, 1890; Wiley, May 6, 1892, and Walter, May 30, 1894.
Mary J. Henning was married to David H. Loyd, in Pike county, Indiana, on the 20th day of July, 1873. She with her husband lives in Kentucky. They have four children. Her husband is engaged in farming.
Harriet, daughter of Daniel Stinchfield, died June 7, 1880.
Mr. Henning is a Baptist minister. He served as a soldier in an Indiana regiment.
Early in life Harriet united with the Baptist church and lived a spotless Christian life. She was smaller in size than either of her sisters, yet she was above the average size of women. Her complexion was fair, her hair was light and her eyes were a delicate blue. She had an amiable, loving disposition, and it was said of her that she had not an enemy iu the world. Her epitaph if truly written would be "She paved a pathway in life that led to heaven."
THE AKIN FAMILY.
As was the father before him, William Merchant Akin has been a merchant. He whole life has been devoted to selling and buying upon a large and small scale, and to trading in the "busy marts of men." And at no time in his long business career has he ever smutched his conscience by stooping to dishonorable and unfair methods to gain an advantage in any transaction, however large or small.
The grandfather, Josiah Akin, came from Virginia to Kentucky in the early pioneer times, when Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton and others were battling for homes with the treacherous red men of the forest and were beating them back to save their lives and their families from the horrors of the tomahawk and the scalping knife. He some-
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time afterward removed to Indiana, in the vicinity of New Albany, and there he settled upon a farm. His death occurred at the ad- vanced age of eighty-three years. He was the father of three sons: William Merchant Akin, Isaac N. Akin and Ransom Wallace Akin. William M., in the course of his active life, was at one time sheriff of Floyd county, Indiana. Isaac N. was clerk of the court and also a lawyer. They were men whose public services and sterling character- istics are so intimately interwoven with the history of their country that their memory survives above the ravaging hand of time and they are esteemed for their worth and long usefulness.
Ransom Wallace Akin, the youngest son of Josiah, was born on his father's farm near New Albany, in 1806. After his marriage to Miss Martha Jacobs he removed to New Albany, about 1832, and started in the grocery business. A man of keen perception and excellent business qualities and honest instincts, he succeeded almost from the first. It was a principle with him, amounting almost to the dignity of a moral precept, to be first above all competitors in what he under- took, or not at all. Another doctrine of trade with him was to follow but one business throughout life, and follow it well. In no other way did he believe Success, that elusive goddess of affairs, could be made to dwell at the top and bottom of every page of the ledger. All his life he was an active business man, preferring to be a merchant in a country town rather than a worried and harrassed business man in the city.
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