A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 2, Part 17

Author: Howard, Timothy Edward, 1837-1916
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 887

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In the early forties this opposition to the liquor traffic took the form of what was called the Washingtonian Movement. This move- ment at one time had a considerable follow- ing, many persons throughout the county signing the pledge. The Washingtonians were particularly active in South Bend and Mishawaka. Among the leaders were: Thom- as P. and William F. Bulla, John Brownfield, Schuyler Colfax, Johnson Horrell, James Davis and S. P. Hart. A Mr. Littlejohn, a somewhat eccentric character of the day, did very much to keep up the agitation.

Later, the Sons of Temperance were or- ganized and made quite a stir in the com- munity, and they also secured many total abstinence pledges.

At a still later day Mrs. Emma F. Molloy led a very aggressive temperance movement. She was an exceedingly earnest and eloquent pleader in the cause, and many a former heavy drinker took the little blue ribbon from

In the early eighties the Prohibition party movement was started, and has continued, with varying interest, to the present day. Notwithstanding the fact that the party has never been able to elect a candidate, except in a few cases with the aid of one of the great political parties; yet a Prohibition tick- et has been put forward in every campaign, and the interest has never abated. In this respect the party has frequently been com- pared to the Abolition party, and the Prohi- bitionists have used the illustration in con- tending that the people would yet rally to their standard, as they did in the end to that of the abolitionists. Among those who took part in the early prohibition movement were: Charles L. Murray, Mason N. Walworth, Elisha Sumption, John C. Birdsell, Almond Bugbee, and, later, Noah Shupert, Orlando Wheelock, William D. Bulla, Abraham Hunt- singer, P. C. and P. J. Perkins, Thomas C. Barnes, William H. Shontz, Benjamin F. West, D. W. Reynolds, William Maurer, Isaac N. Scoffern, Burton R. Thomas, Charles F. Holler and others. Mr. Birdsell was elected water works trustee for the city of South Bend in 1885, and served for three years. His election resulted from his own eminent

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fitness for the office, and from his endorse- ment by the Democratic party. Mr. Holler is perhaps more widely known than any other present member of the party, for the reason that he is an eloquent advocate of its princi- ples and has received many of its nomina- tions for political office. He has been a candi- date on the Prohibition state ticket for clerk of the supreme court, and attorney general, and is frequently spoken of as the probable candidate of the party for vice-president of the United States in 1908.

Not the least of the sources from which a strong temperance sentiment has grown dur- ing the last years is the following notice in the daily press of South Bend, coming from the president of the University of Notre Dame, and first issued by the distinguished Thomas E. Walsh: "I will prosecute to the utmost extent of the law all persons guilty of selling or giving liquor to the students of this institution." The force of this notice was seen in the fact that the president of the university did prosecute, and it soon became apparent that the notice was no idle threat. Father Walsh was a man who did things, not one who simply threatened to do them.

The organization of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union followed as a result of the Crusade Movement of 1873. Some of the leaders of the W. C. T. U. were: Mrs. F. R. Tutt, Mrs. Z. M. Doolittle, Mrs. Christian Foote, Mrs. Z. M. Johnson, Mrs. Martha Al- ward, Mrs. Mary E. Giddings, Mrs. Lydia A. Chord, Mrs. Eliza Murdock, Mrs. Mary John- son, Mrs. Julia E. Work, Mrs. Helen Simkins, Mrs. Lucy Towle, Mrs. Sarah Gaylor, Mrs. H. L. Rowell. Members of later prominence are: Mrs. Mary Andrews, Mrs. Ellen Baxter, Mrs. Mary P. Bugbee, Mrs. A. W. Lee, Mrs. John C. Paxon, Mrs. S. P. Barker and others. Mrs. Bugbee gave the beautiful fountain in

Leeper Park, to be cared for by the W. C. T. U. of St. Joseph county, in memory of her husband, Almond Bugbee, who was an honorary member of the society.

Those now prominently identified with the work of the W. C. T. U. are: Mrs. Christian Fassnacht, Mrs. Alfaratta Cotton, Mrs. F. L. Axtell, Mrs. Kathryn Wert Holler and Mrs. Ethel Baer. Mrs. Holler has filled almost every position in the local organization, and has for many years been state superintendent of the department of Sabbath observance and also associate national superintendent of the same department. There are now in the county six unions, with a total membership of something over one hundred. Some of the visible results of the work of the union are the founding of the Children's Orphans' Home, at Mishawaka, in 1882, of which men- tion has already been made in connection with that institution ; the passage of the cur- few ordinance by the common council of the city of South Bend; the aid given for many years to the Hadley School for Girls, at Indianapolis; and also the furnishing of a room at the Temperance Hospital in Chicago.

In the early part of the year 1901 the Pro- hibition Alliance was organized in South Bend, as an auxiliary to the national Prohibi- tion party. This alliance has held meetings regularly every two weeks since that time.

The work of the Anti-Saloon League has been very effective in this county. This or- ganization is a so-called federation of churches, but is in fact a general movement on the part of the people at large, under the leadership of a state executive committee known as the State Anti-Saloon League, with headquarters at Indianapolis. This state league is itself auxiliary to the national league of the same name.

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CHAPTER XIV.

MILITARY HISTORY.

St. Joseph county had the military spirit from the beginning. Indeed the first settlers came in with their arms in readiness, as if prepared to meet in deadly conflict with the wild denizens of the woods and the prairie s, whether man or beast. As we have se.n, there were numerous settlers in the county before the Indian title to the soil, in our distinct treaties, was finally extinguished and it was still later before the last of the Jotta- watomies left for their new homes beyond the Mississippi. The soldierly instinct was im- planted in the heart of the emigrant, or he would not have left his safer home in the south and the east, or in some foreign land, to come into the far off wilderness; and the same spirit was nurtured in his breast in his daily life after coming here. Even to go out to clear a spot of ground to plant his first crop, it was necessary to leave wife and chil- dren in the little log house where he must be prepared to run to their protection at the first indication of danger. Yet, as for genu- ine war, there never was any in St. Joseph county, or anywhere near it. The clash of arms never resounded in any part of the St. Joseph country since that winter day, in 1781, when the Spaniards from St. Louis took and destroyed old Fort St. Joseph's.

I. BLACK HAWK.

Sec. 1 .- ST. JOSEPH COUNTY TROOPS AND FORTS .-- However, in the year 1832, our brave ancestors believed for a time that they were to have a real Indian uprising. Chief

Black Hawk and his red hordes from the northwest were to come upon the frontier set- tlements and spare neither man, woman nor child. And the fear was real, however unfounded it may appear today. The re- ports of impending destruction crowded upon one another with the coming of every hunter and traveler from the west. Even the gov- ernors of the states became alarmed and hur- riedly called out the militia. Abraham Lin- coln in this way became a captain, and cap- tains and colonels survived the threatened war in every town and hamlet throughout the northwest. In St. Joseph county we have traditions handed down of no less than three forts, or stockades, constructed, or rather be- gun, in different parts of the county. One of those fortifications was under way near the site of our present stand pipe; there was another undertaken near Mount Pleasant, on Portage Prairie; and a third near Hamilton, on Terre Coupee Prairie. Black Hawk was to rush down upon us from the west; but we were to be ready for him, with one fort after another. The forts, so far as constructed, were made of split logs standing close to- gether, one end sunk in the ground and the other extending far enough above so that the top would be far higher than the head of any Indian who might try to look over, and thus perhaps spy out the weakness of the defense, or maybe leap over and scalp the men, women and children who should be gath- ered inside. Besides the forts and their gar- risons, there was a full regiment organized

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for the defense of the settlements. Lathrop Minor Taylor was chosen colonel, and Col. Taylor he remained to the end of his days. Francis R. Tutt was made lieutenant colonel, and Dr. Hardman, major.

While the fear of the people can readily be accounted for, and was indeed natural enough under the circumstances; yet never was a scare story woven out of more slender cob- webs. The white man, as usual, was the aggressor. Black Hawk and his people were located on the Wisconsin side of the Missis- sippi, where they had planted their little corn fields, in the spring of 1832. It was their own home, where their children had been born and where their ancestors were buried. They did not wish to leave the land which was so dear to them; and so when they received orders to cross to the west side of the river, they refused, and continued to cultivate their patches of corn ground. Like our own white settlers in the valley of the St. Joseph and the Kankakee, the Indians under Black Hawk took up their arms and built their forts to protect their homes. Drake, in his history of the North American Indians, tells us the story of the Black Hawk war in a very few words :"

Whites attempted to drive Indians across the Mississippi. Black Hawk and his bands refused to give up their villages and corn grounds. May 14, 1832, a force under Black Hawk was attacked on Sycamore Creek, near Rock River, Wisconsin. The whites were defeated, and the great Black Hawk war was on. The war continued until August 27, when the Indians having been beaten Black Hawk was made prisoner. It was the affair at Sycamore Creek that caused alarm all over the western country.

Sec. 2 .- THOMAS S. STANFIELD'S REMINIS- CENCES .- The story of the Black Hawk scare in St. Joseph county, half humorous, half serious, was never better told than by Judge Stanfield ; nor was there any one better able than he to tell the story, from personal knowl-

a. Drake's Indians of North America, Chapter 9.

edge of the circumstances. Thomas Stilwell Stanfield, like the Defrees family, was of Ten- nessee and Virginia ancestry; and, like them, too, he came to us from Ohio, where he was born, in Logan county, October 17, 1816. He moved with his family to the St. Joseph coun- try in the fall of 1830. During the next April they attempted a settlement on Harris prairie ; but not having means sufficient to enter eighty acres of land, they were compelled, in June, 1831, to come on to South Bend, where Thomas S. Stanfield was destined to become one of the most eminent of our citizens, and where he continued to reside until his death, September 12, 1885. The St. Joseph county Black Hawk story, as told by Judge Stanfield, is as follows:"

The great event in this locality in 1832, was the Black Hawk war. One morning John De- frees came into our house and told us that the Indians had broken out into open hostility against the frontier people way beyond us. This was the first we had heard of it. It was not long, however, before fugitives from the west came dashing through pell-mell, as if they expected every instant to hear the dread war-whoop of Black Hawk behind them. Many of them were so frightened they hardly took time to take up their women and children before starting, and went sailing through South Bend without stopping to inform us of our danger. Others had come so far and fast they were compelled to stop and feed and rest their horses, and while so employed embraced the opportunity to circulate the most frightful stories of savage brutality perpetrated by Black Hawk and his followers upon the unof- fending and unprotected inhabitants just beyond where the fugitives came from. The continuance of this flight and its increase in volume, together with the enlarged area of Indian hostilities, and the apprehension that the Pottawatomies, who then more than equalled the white population of this county, might be in sympathy with the warring tribes under Black Hawk, began to alarm a great many people in our locality, especially people not familiar with frontier life.

Different localities immediately organized, drilled military companies, and built forts for

a. Taken from Chapman's History of St. Joseph County, 1880, p. 449.

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their protection. The people on Portage Prairie and vicinity were among the first to built a block house. It was situated on old Daniel Miller's farm. It was understood here, in South Bend, to be occupied by a mili- tary force, and was regarded as an advance guard that would have to be overcome before the enemy would reach us. It was understood there was a night picket guard kept up around the block house, so that we need not appre- hend a night surprise from the enemy. Many people reposed in confident slumbers, believ- ing that the lives of themselves and little ones were protected by the watchful diligence of the night guard. On one occasion when the excitement was up to the highest pitch, the guard was set at proper distance and duly cautioned as to their responsibilities, and what their country expected of them. Among the rest was an old fellow who had lived on the frontier all his life, and knew about what reliance was to be placed in such rumors; and having no fear of the Indians, and believing the whole thing so far as there being any dan- ger to the people of this part of the country a childish fear of the Indians, with such feel- ings he took his station as a watchman for the night. After the night began to wear away he got sleepy, and entertaining the opinion he did of the whole performance, it was an easy matter to give way to his drowsy feelings; so he stood his gun up against a tree, and quietly laid himself down and went to sleep, and was soon oblivious to all danger from the toma- hawk and scalping-knife of the redskins. At the proper time an officer in charge of the picket-guard passed around to see that all were in the strict discharge of their duty, when to his great astonishment and great dis- gust he found this man not only asleep on his post, but actually snoring away as uncon- scious of danger as if Black Hawk and his followers were in a similar condition in the bottom of Lake Michigan. This was a fearful breach of military law, a reckless disregard of human life, a capital offense. Such a wil- ful disregard of duty could not be overlooked. It must be punished, or all military subordina- tion would be at an end. Without enforcing strict military discipline no efficient defense could be expected, and all would be inevitably lost. With all these thoughts flitting through the mind of the officer, he indignantly and in no gentle manner aroused the unconscious sleeper into a realizing sense of the enormity of his crime, and in an unceremonious manner

marched him off to the guard-house, duly ad- monishing him of his impending fate. It is easier to imagine than to describe what must have been the feelings of this poor, thought- less soldier while waiting in the guard-house to hear his doom announced.

When the officers assembled in the block house in the morning, his case was reported in all its naked deformity. They all felt it was a grievous thing to inflict the extreme penalty of the law, but duty was their impera- tive master, and they were not the men to shirk duty. So with one voice it was declared that the delinquent should be shot. It was a painful duty, but it must be done. Before this resolution could be carried out, it occur- red to some of them that it was unlawful to put a man to death without a trial-that there must be a judgment or sentence pronounced by a competent court, or the taking off would be murder. Then they were all in a quandary. Who were to compose such a court? How was it to be organized? Did it have a jury ? Were they to be selected from soldiers or citi- zens? Was the criminal entitled to be pres- ent by himself and counsel? Was the trial to be public or secret! All these questions were discussed. They searched the revised statutes and consulted an ex-justice of the peace, but no light was thrown on the vexed question. It had never been revealed to them that there was such a thing as a written mili- tary code, and they were all left in the dark and perplexed as to what they should do, and in that condition of mind concluded it would be best to let the poor culprit go than to run the risk of putting a man to death without due process of law. So the victim was per- mitted to enjoy a whole hide for many years afterwards, and to die a natural death. I

will not swear this story is all true, but it is in substance as it was reported at the time; and as it took place so long ago, I do not believe it can be disproved, and therefore I have recorded it as veritable history. My own personal observations were more strictly con- fined to South Bend and its immediate neigh- borhood. It could hardly be expected that one could note and remember all the military operations in a distant field like that around the block house on Portage Prairie, and recall them after the lapse of forty-nine years.

Colonel Hiram Dayton was quite a noted man of that period. He lived where Adam S. Baker now resides." He was not only willing a. On South Michigan Street.

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to sacrifice all his wife's relations upon the altar of his country, but was willing to sacri- fice himself. In our present peril he volun- teered to lead a company against the enemy. He beat up for volunteers, and the fighting men soon flocked to his standard. A company was immediately organized. The captain drilled his men until he was satisfied with their proficiency, and then dismissed them with his compliments to meet again at one minute's call. Hence they were called minute men. Allow me to whisper in your ear that I was one of that Spartan band. Still the people were not satisfied that all had been done for their protection that ought to be done. No one doubted the courage or skill of Captain Dayton and his company ; but not long could such a short wall of flesh stand against the concentrated forces of the enemy under Black Hawk. It was a question of too much importance to be postponed or trifled with. A large majority insisted on building a fort. They said other exposed places were protecting themselves in this way, and we must also. So it was agreed on all hands that a fort should be built. At first there was some difficulty about its location. But after consulting the best military experi- ence it was concluded to occupy that triangu- lar piece of ground bounded by Jefferson street on the south, St. Joseph on the west and Pearl" on the northeast. Some objected to this location because they said the Indians might conceal themselves in the brush un- der the hill just above where Mues- sel's old brewery now stands,' and slip up at night and cut off the picket-guard; but their criticisms were disregarded, and we went on with the construction of the fort in good earnest on the location described. The ground was to be enclosed by a wall of timbers made of split logs or puncheons, to be set in the ground three feet deep and rising above nine or ten feet. This wall was to be pierced at proper places with port-holes to fire from. I cannot for the life of me recall the name of the military engineer who designed the fort. I have no recollection of seeing Captain Day- ton there. It was before Lathrop M. Taylor had been elevated to the colonelcy of the seventy-ninth regiment, or Francis R. Tutt to the lieutenant colonelcy of the same; nor had Dr. Hardman yet become major of that regi-

a. Now Vistula Avenue.

b. The bluff over the waterworks, where the stand pipe is erected.

ment. Indeed it is very doubtful whether that regiment had been organized; and it is certain that neither Taylor, Tutt nor Hard- man had then risen above the rank of pri- vate; so that there is no certainty that the plan of the fort sprang from the fertile brain of any of them. It is feared that the name of the designer of this fort will forever be lost to the history of South Bend.

The people of the town went to work earn- estly to build the fort, according to the plans and specifications. The excitement was then up to fever heat. The county was full of the wildest and most improbable stories of Indian atrocities, and yet a great many people would believe them and insist that the Pottawato- mies were secretly hostile and only waiting a favorable opportunity to break out into open warfare. As an illustration of the feeling then existing, I remember while we were at work on the fort, a Pottawatomie came saun- tering along by us, looking through the cracks between the puncheons, arid as soon as it was noticed, it was earnestly asserted by many that he was a spy, and ought to be arrested and shot at once. One man was particularly fierce on the subject. After a while the work on the fort began to lag. People were coming to their senses and regarded the danger as much farther off than at first supposed, and, besides, the United States government was now earnestly engaged in suppressing Black Hawk and his hostile tribes. Still there was a lurking fear in the minds of some, and it was thought best to send out a party of our own people to make a reconnoissance sixty or seventy miles west. These men went out on the expedition. I think it was made up of Jonathan A. Liston, Elisha Egbert and Dr. Stoddard; but I am not certain as to the per- sons, though I saw them on their horses as they started off.

After several days' absence they returned and reported to the people in front of John- son's tavern." Among other things they said they had been sixty or seventy miles west and had made diligent inquiries as to the where- abouts of Black Hawk and his warriors, and they felt perfectly sure there was not a hos- tile Indian within one hundred and fifty miles of us, and that no apprehension need be felt of any danger from the Pottawatomies ; that the chief, Pokagon. was undoubtedly

a. Peter Johnson's tavern, the Michigan, after- wards the American, at the southwest corner of Washington and Michigan Streets.

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friendly, and as evidence of it he kept the American flag flying over his cabin, and that if any of his tribes were unfriendly they would remain neutral. At the announcement of this word neutral Joe Hanby, an erratic kind of a Pennsylvania Dutchman cried out, "Tam old Neutral; he is mit Black Hawk now!" The fears of the people were well quieted by this time, and they raised a great laugh at Joe's blunder. This was the end of the Black Hawk excitement in this part of the country ; but there was a little breeze sprung up in South Bend a short time afterward growing out of it. The governor of this state had called out a battalion of three hundred cavalry, and started them under command of Col. Rupel to the front. They never got nearer than one hundred miles of the place where their services were needed, and while they were dallying around between Lafayette and Chicago, John Defrees," without expect- ing them to return by way of South Bend, had the temerity to say in his paper, "That it was not to be expected that this holiday battalion would ever be found within a hun- dred miles of a hostile Indian," and other hostile things not very complimentary to their bravery or efficiency.ª In a short time after- ward these fellows lit down on us suddenly as if they had dropped out of the sky. They were going to make mince-meat of John De- frees right off. I saw a company overhaul and surround him as he was passing along the street. Judging from the threatening language and manner of his captors, I expected to see him depart life in about three seconds; but some of the prominent officers rushed in and kept the furious ones at bay. Notwithstanding his perilous situation, Mr. Defrees stood up manfully before them and insisted upon his right as an editor of a news- paper to criticise the conduct of this bat- talion." But the men swore if they were not permitted to lynch him, his press and type should go into the river. The printing office was in the second story of a hewed-log house, accessible only by an outside stairway. A

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A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 2, Part 17

Author: Howard, Timothy Edward, 1837-1916 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 887

Author: Howard, Timothy Edward, 1837-1916
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 887