USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 27
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"In the spring of 1832, George Holloway. David Barrett, Nathan Greene and John Rud- duek settled on the west side of the prairie. The Black Hawk Indian war in the early part of that year virtually closed emigration for the season. except as to our little colony of forty-four who had previously arranged to move that fall and who arrived and located on the prairie as already related. In the spring of 1833, the Indian scare was over, settlers came in rapidly, and in a very few years all the tillable lands of what is now Greene township were occupied and produc- ing.
"The first thing on the arrival of a new settler was the erection of a log cabin for shelter and protection. This was sometimes accomplished in one day, the neighbors turn- ing out to assist, some cutting the logs, others hauling them in and others laying them up. and still others, with saws and frows, getting out the clapboards for the roof.
"In the absence of public roads these first cabins that we called homes were located on
the edge of the timber around the border of the prairie, and of necessity were rude struc- tures. When public highways were establish- ed these homes were often found to be badly located, and in many cases required removal. or the erection of new and better houses.
"Seventy-five years of intelligent industry and unyielding courage and energy have left the stamp of change and progress everywhere. and practically on everything. Yes, how changed are the people and the scenery! The old familiar form and face of the red man, who then roamed at will over the broad acres of this beautiful valley, lord of all he sur- veved, is seen and feared no more. His old, well beaten paths have long since faded from view, and the feet that made them have been at rest. His wigwams and villages have crum- bled to dust and sunk into the kindly earth forever.
"The vast forests to the southeast of the county, and the extensive oak openings and wild prairies to the southwest and to the north, once the home of the savage. the wild beasts of prey and the timid. beautiful deer, when touched by the hand of civilization. began to blossom as the rose, and were soon dotted with comely, happy homes, fruitful grain fields and orchards, and with growing. prosperous towns and cities. The little Indian trading post of a few cabins that we found on the banks of the St. Joseph, has become one of the chief cities of a great state, and the home of many of the largest manufactories of the world. There mighty work shops are daily turning their beautiful and useful pro- duets into the lap of the world's commerce. and carrying the name of South Bend to all civilized countries and peoples.
"The successors of the Indians are the heroic pioneers of 1830, -'31, '32. and '33. who faced the dangers, endured the privations. suffered the ills and disappointments of long journeys and lives of hardship : who felled the forest and reclaimed the prairies: who ex- tended the lines of civilization and became the promoters of the mansions, towns and
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cities of today. Having done their work and done it well, leaving a noble inheritance to their more favored successors, they, too, have followed the red man to his resting place. Of the pioneers who settled in this county, south of the city, at that early day, the fol- lowing, who were then children, are all that are now (1905) left to tell the story of those early days: Ephraim Rupel and Mrs. George Rambo, of Greene township ; John B. Greene, of Warren; Daniel Rupe, of Liberty ; John Stull, of Center; the Rev. N. Greene, of Dan- ville, Indiana; Benjamin Garwood, of Iowa; Mrs. James Miller and myself, of this eity.
"So far as known, there are three other per- sons now (1905) living in the county who were here when our little colony arrived. They are Robert Cissne, formerly of Warren township, now residing in this city with his son, John D. Cissne; Mrs. Matilda Sherland ; and my wife, Mrs. Mary L. Greene, of South Bend. Mrs. Greene came here in March, 1830, before the town was laid out, and is prob- ably the oldest continuous resident of the county now living. So far as I know, there is not a man, nor any other woman, now liv- ing in South Bend who was a resident of the town or the county at the time when I came.
"The first dark cloud that came over our colony was caused by the death of Isaac Rud- duek, a worthy young man about twenty-one years of age, who died early in January, 1833, at the home of his parents, on what is now the Whiteman farm, just south of Dr. Jacob R. Brown's place, on Sumption prairie road. This death occurred about four months after the arrival of our colony. To meet the neces- sities of the sad occasion was a severe test of the abilities and resources of the settlement. Some of the older men got together to select a burial place. Mr. Sumption generously gave an aere of land in one corner of his farm. This was the beginning of the present eeme- tery that has been enlarged three times sinee. "My brother John, who had just completed a three years' apprenticeship to a carpenter, made the coffin of poplar boards which we 10
had hauled forty miles with oxen. My brother Nelson and I were sent to the thick woods to peel basswood bark, boil it and stain the coffin. The remains were taken to the grave in a lum- ber wagon. The lines of the harness were taken from the team to lower the body to its last resting place ; after which the fresh earth was filled in and the people parted in silence from the lonely grave.
"The memory of that first burial that I ever attended, with the late Colonel A. S. Baker, my boyhood companion and life-long friend, standing at my side, and the large snowflakes coming down on the little company of neighbors and mourners, is as vivid today. as is another funeral, that of my esteemed friend and neighbor, Almond Bugbee, the last that I have attended, when our fellow citizen James Oliver was at my side. These two funerals. seventy-two years apart, fittingly illustrate the changes that have taken place in the growth of our city and county.
"The first white person born in our part of the county was Andrew Bird. He was born in the summer of 1832 on what is now the John J. Rupel farm. He grew to man- hood, married and raised a family, resided all his life in Greene township and died own- ing a good farm adjoining the one on which he was born. The first marriage in what is now Greene township was that of Abijah Sumption, son of the first settler. and Rachel Rupe. The second was that of John Rudduck and Elizabeth Rupe, sister of Rachel. The third was that of Ezekiel Greene and Sarah Garwood, both members of the little colony."
See. 2 .- BY JOHN STULL .- In connection with the reminiscences of Mr. Greene may be given the substance of an interview with John Stull who, with his parents, came to the county when he was a boy nine years old. I his conversation Mr. Stull told of his attend- ing school in 1830, in the old school building in South Bend, on the site of the present Jef- ferson school, and also told how hard it was to "drum up" enough pupils, by going two
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miles in each direction, to maintain a summer session. Mr. Stull then continued :
"There was then living here Lathrop M. Taylor, who occupied a double log house on what is now Vistula avenue, one-half of which was devoted to a stock of dry goods, and the business of a general country store, while 'fire- water' was dispensed in the other half. Alexis Coquillard was also a resident and had his trading quarters on the ground long occupied by Miller & Lontz as a coal and wood yard. Center street. so called for that reason, although but an alley proper, was the divid- ing line between the Taylor and Coquillard properties, the latter trading the land south to Taylor. Coquillard did not conceal his sat- isfaction that he had got the advantage of Taylor in the division. There were but the two stores in the place. but many dwelling honses scattered through the surrounding woods.
"In 1832 the report of the uprising of the northwestern Indians spread like wildfire. The news was that the Indians were killing the people, driving off stock and burning property. The little settlement became alarm- ed and action for defense was begun by draw- ing plans for the construction of a fort to be located on what is now Vistula avenue, about where the water works stand pipe is erected. The plans for the fort were such that all lines of approach could be commanded and swept by the defenders. The fort was to be con- structed from small trees eut in such lengths that about ten feet should extend above the ground, the tops sharpened to a point. A diteh was to surround the entire structure. Luckily Black Hawk was defeated, up in Wis- consin, and his followers driven across the Mississippi, and the scare in St. Joseph county was over."
There was any quantity of big game in the woods, Mr. Stull remarking that at one time he saw no less than seven head of deer making for the springs along the river. The burning of the barrens (oak openings) was a favorite pastime with the Indians. They
could be expected to set the fire going at least once a year, and then there were occasionally exciting times; but they never could set the heavy timber on fire by reason of the damp- ness retained by the dead leaves. The only survivor of those early days of whom Mr. Stull has any knowledge is Mrs. Matilda Sherland. niece of the original Alexis Coquil- lard."
Sec. 3 .- PAPER BY WILLIAM D. BULLA .- In the winter of 1900. Mr. William D. Bulla read before the Northern Indiana Historical Society a most interesting paper detailing many of the particulars of the life of his father, Thomas P. Bulla, one of the earliest residents of what is now Clay township in this county. From this paper it appears that Thomas P. Bulla was brought by his parents from Ohio to what is now Wayne county, In- diana, in the year 1807, when he was but three years of age. Notwithstanding the privations of frontier life he became a comparatively well educated young man and prepared him- self for the professions of teaching and land surveying. in both of which he excelled. In the fall of 1832 he came to St. Joseph county to seeure for himself a home. He located on a tract immediately east of and adjoining the grounds of the present University of Notre Dame. Previous to this he had made four trips to this county, coming first some time in the year 1824. With him came his brother- in-law, Evan Chalfant, who located on a tract adjoining on the south.
In 1833, Mr. Bulla built for himself a house, the first hewed log house in Clay town- ship. It was quite a pretentious building, be- ing constructed of hewed logs, with a hard- wood floor of matched oak, a brick chimney and a pine shingle roof. It consisted of one large room, serving the quadruple purpose of kitchen, dining room, bed-room and parlor. In the center the loom was often a eonspieu- ous piece of furniture. There was a garret overhead, with matched soft-wood floor, and reached by a steep winding stair. This served as a spare bed-room in time of need, and also
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
for storing the spinning wheels, reels, swifts, spools, spool-raek, and the gears, reeds, shut- tles, quills, temple and other things belong- ing to the loom. Among the conveniences on the lower floor were the large open fire- place, containing a crane supplied with hooks of various lengths, on which were suspended, over the fire, the vessels in which the cooking was done. A trap door led to the cellar and there was a closet under the stairs and a "eat hole " near the back door.
While boarding with his brother-in-law. Mr. Bulla was employed as a teacher in his new house and also in South Bend. Amongst his pupils were Lea P. Johnson, Judge Thos. S. Stanfield and the great wagon manufac- turer, Alexis Coquillard, the younger, nephew of the founder of the city of South Bend. Mr. Bulla married Hannah. daughter of Captain Gideon Draper, another distinguished pioneer of the county. She was a worthy helpmate of Mr. Bulla, and herself made a strong im- pression for good, not only upon her five children, but upon the whole community. Mr. Bulla, besides being a teacher and farmer, was for eighteen years county surveyor, suc- eeeding Tyra W. Bray, in 1837. Among the early settlers, friends and neighbors of Mr. Bulla, living within a radius of two miles, were his brother William F. Bulla, Evan Chalfant, Pierre Navarre, Anthony Defrees. Gideon and David Draper, Asa Bennett, Eze- kiel Benton, Joseph Metzger, James Stuckey. Samuel Brooks, Louis Swearingen, James J. Lane, Stephen and Joseph Ulery, the Rever- end Edwin Sorin, Brother Lawrence, Brother Francis Xavier, Isaac Eaton, Jacob Eaton, John Eaton, Samuel R. and Jesse W. Jen- nings, John R. Thompson, Aaron Hoover,- all of whom have passed from the activities of this life to the realities of the life beyond.
Sec. 4 .- RECOLLECTIONS OF HUGH V. COMP- TON .- To cover the early history of another part of the county, we give here the recollec- tions of Hugh V. Compton as to his early life on Terre Conpee prairie.ยช In 1830, when Mr.
a. As written by him for the New Carlisle Gazette, November 16, 1906.
Compton was a child but one year old, he came with his father from Ohio to Montgom- ery county, in this state, where the family re- mained for nearly six years ; after which they made preparations to move to St. Joseph county. Mr. Compton says :
"We started for St. Joseph county about the 19th of June, 1836. I remember the neighbors coming in to bid us goodbye and also a pet deer with a bell on its neck. They would pet it for a while and then set the dogs on it to see it run. We moved in a covered wagon and I do not remember much that hap- pened on the way except when we crossed the Wabash river at Logansport. I remember that as we drove on the ferry a cow swam the river at the same time. We forded the Eel river coming out of town, there being only a footbridge. The last night before arriving at Terre Coupee we stayed the other side of South Bend, which at that time was a very small town consisting of a few houses, two or three stores, a small brick court house, a log jail and the old American hotel. I thought the road from South Bend `to the prairie would never come to an end, but about noon the 24th of June we landed at what is now the Bates farm, then owned by a widow Smith and rented by uncle Joe Ivens. My mother and family remained with aunt Sally Ivens and aunt Maria Druliner while father went to Illinois to look for a location. He went on horseback and was gone about four weeks but coneluded to remain in St. Joseph county. We moved into a eabin at Hamilton which stood back of the store and about where Isaac Faroute's house stands now. That same fall John Caskadden came and moved into a school house that stood in what is now the cemetery. At that time there were but four graves there. The ground was not fenced in and the graves were protected by log pens. Jonathan Hubbard and family lived on the south side of the road in a cabin near the pres- ent Hubbard residence. The eabin was built for a man by the name of Garwood and was the first cabin built on that side of the prairie.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
John Druliner, his brothers and Mr. Garwood had all moved from Ohio in 1830, about the time my father went to Montgomery county. Uncle John Druliner and a party first landed on the south side of the prairie and camped until they could build their log houses.
"They began cutting down trees and dig- ging wells, but found water so near the sur- face that they concluded to see what was on the other side of the prairie, and finding it higher they all moved over there. They hauled the logs that were already cut to build the Garwood home, and then each of the Druliners built a home and they all helped one another until they were completed.
"While living at Hamilton during the win- ter of '36 and '37, father went back to Mont- gomery county, to settle up his business and bring the rest of our goods. Uncle John Druliner went with him to buy horses. While father was away my two uncles, Elias and William Compton, came and stayed over night with us. They drove from near Craw- fordsville to Michigan City with loads of wheat and returned with loads of salt. The wagons were the old Ohio or freight wagons, such as were used to haul merchandise over the mountains when emigration reached west of the Alleghenies.
"At one time that winter there were five or six hundred Indians camping across the road from the church. They were on their way to Detroit to receive pay from the gov- ernment for their lands. They were a queer looking set with rings in their ears and noses. They wanted to buy everything to eat. Someone had butchered hogs and they took all that was thrown away. boiled it and made soup.
"During the winter father fixed up a sleigh and put a cow-bell on the end of the tongue. Our family, Mrs. Luther and her son George, all took a ride to Uncle John Druliner's, but the road being rough and full of stumps. and the knees of the sled being low, we got stuck several times. This was the first sleigh- ride that I remember.
"In the spring of '37 father rented a piece of land of Dick Carlisle, a field of twenty or thirty acres lying just south of the town. This was a neck of the prairie joined to the main prairie through J. H. Service's farm, back of his house. We lived in a cabin south- west of town on a road that led to the Lucos and Warren farms. Before father had fin- ished plowing, an old man by the name of Billy Pellet came and told him he had bought the land and wanted possession. He said he was going to lay it out in town lots, etc. Father told him it didn't belong to him or Dick Carlisle, as he had rented it for one year. Carlisle proposed to change and let him have some land north of town, about where the depot is and taking in a part of the Egbert farm. It was then unbroken prairie. and Carlisle proposed to furnish a team and someone to assist. He sent his brother-in-law. They broke the ground, moved the fence and raised oats on the south part of the field and corn on the north.
"New Carlisle at that time was a very small place. Where most of the town is now, it was oak grubs and woods. There were three small stores. one in what is now Fack's meat market, kept by Mr. Matthews (Schuy- ler Colfax's step-father) and a partner by the name of Ervin; a grocery on the corner east of Warner's drug store, owned by Gar- rett Morris; also one owned by Charles Egbert, near where E. C. Taylor's grocery now is; and one by Dr. Egbert, located just west of the hotel. The hotel was built by a man by the name of Chocklet Cramner and was sold to Richard Cramner before it was finished. Dick Carlisle's house stood near where Dr. VanRyper's house now stands. There were some log cabins in the yard, one occupied by Samuel Bates (known as Stubby) and the other by Chocklet Cram- ner. Across the street was Mr. Matthew's residence, a small frame house. West of this there were no buildings except a small house west of Dr. Egbert's store. occupied by Eber
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Woolman. A log blacksmith shop stood about where Granville Druliner's house now is.
"Bersaw's pole cabin, which stood near where John Hauser's home now stands, was used in the summer for a school house. An eastern woman taught the school, and I at- tended, coming from our home southwest of town, through the oak grubs. An incident I well remember was that Carlisle Egbert, Dr. Egbert's son, and I were wrestling and the boys told the teacher we were fighting. She ordered three whips, called us in and told each to whip the other. I refused to do my part of the whipping; the other boy did his part, and the teacher whipped me because I would not whip the other boy, so I received a double portion. Finally Mary Ann Ivens, my cousin, put a stop to the per- formanee. I will mention here that the first school I attended in this county was with Charles Ivens and his sisters, in a log school- house near and a little south of the present Kinney school-house. One log was removed for a window, there having been some glass in, but some of it was broken and a greased paper was put in its place. A board was put under the window for a writing desk and also a long board for a seat; so when the scholars wrote they went to the window and sat with their backs to the teacher. The boys had dug a hole in the ground, three or four feet deep, and for mischief put Henry Ranstead, then about seven years old, in it. When school was called and Henry did not put in his appearance, his sisters informed the teacher of his whereabouts and the boys received a thrashing.
"In the fall of 1837 there was a race-track built south of the town. There were, in fact. two tracks about a rod apart, and each a mile long. They started from the Burk or Garoutte farm and extended in a northwest direction to where Mrs. Jane Shank's house now stands. Each track was put in shape by Stubby Bates. He turned a large iron kettle bottom up and hitched a horse to it. got on
top and drove over the place for the track in order to cut the grass.
"In the fall of 1837, Schuyler Colfax, aft- erwards vice-president of the United States, then a boy helping in the store of his step- father, Mr. Matthews, sometimes hauled wood from the Lucos place, passing our house, and I often went with him, and as I remember him now I think of him as being both a boy and a man.
"I attended my first Sunday school in New Carlisle, Mrs. Matthews, her mother, Mrs. Stryker, and Schuyler Colfax having the management of it. What I had in the way of fine clothes were some of Schuyler's out- grown ones.
"In the summer of '37 I earned my first money, a shilling, or 1212 cents. A man, named Dawson, hired me to go to James Gilbreth's on what is now the Pidge farm for a powder horn. I bought a cap with the money and they called it seal skin, but I think it was cow hide or dog skin. I kept it in a raisin box under the bed and often crawled under to see and smell my cap. On one of these occasions my father stepped on my fingers and I have the marks yet.
"Sometime during the winter of '37 and '38 father moved to what was then the William Baldwin farm. While living on this farm my father's two sisters, Nancy and Imcy Ann Compton, and Hugh Vail (whose deceased wife was father's sister, Rebecca) and his son. Randall, came from Ohio to visit us. While here we all went to father's land, south of town (purchased of Clayborn Smith) and had a pienie. We took our dinner and used a large stump for a table.
"A small deadening and a pole eabin were the only improvements, except a log house begun the year before: and the whole coun- try from Carlisle to Sauktown was a dense forest except a few pioneers, the Parnells. Hootons and a man by the name of West. At that time there was no road laid out from Carlisle to this land. We cleared ont a road around the west end of Burk's marsh
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
in a southeast direction to our farm. At that time there was a road from Plainfield in a southwest direction to Sauktown. Father got up a petition for a county road where the road now is from New Carlisle south, but a remonstrance got up by a few who lived on the Plainfield road because they wanted the work all on their road, ete., prevented the county road from being made. But not. to be outdone. father petitioned for a state road and had it before the opposition knew it. "Late in the fall of '38, father eoneluded to finish the house on the farm. He employed a man by the name of Job Smith to do the work. I went with him for company and as a eook. The house was a cabin of one room and a loft where there were two beds. The way of getting to this part of the eabin was by large pegs put in holes in the logs. There were three windows and a door which faced the east. Smith laid the floor, put in the door and windows and built the chimney, which was made of sticks and plastered with clay mixed with straw. I was much alarmed one night when I heard an owl and thought it was a wolf. Sometimes the Parnell and Hooton boys would come over to visit us. The cabin was finally finished and we moved in on Christmas Day, 1838."
VII. OLD SETTLERS' REUNIONS.
One of the most enjoyable and profitable recreations is that of old settlers' reunions, held annually, or oftener, in some picturesque spot in the county, or some neighboring county. Here come together old friends and neighbors who have known one another from the days of the first settlements; and with them come their children and grandehildren. The old folks gather in little groups and recount the stories of other days; while the younger people engage in varied sports and games that make the woodlands happy. Afterwards young and old come together in some shady nook where the rustic feast is spread by each family upon a grassy plat ; and there the keen appetites enjoy foods
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