USA > Indiana > Sullivan County > A history of Sullivan County, Indiana, closing of the first century's history of the county, and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth, Volume I > Part 7
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An article in the Democrat of November 16, 1905, by S. H. Silver contains an excellent description of the implements used in farming and housekeeping in the early days. His grandfather, Thomas Bennett, was one of the earliest settlers in his part of the county, owning land in Hamil- ton township on the Merom road. In house building and the fabrication of nearly all the implements used on the farm the pioneers seldom used nails or rivets. Timbers were joined with wooden pins, and where pins could not be used, hickory-bark withes were employed. Bark ties were to the farmers of that time what wire and binder twine are now. One man said that a plow point was the first thing he had found that could not be fastened with a withe. Another, on being asked at April election if he had plowed any that spring, replied, "No; my gears are so broken up that I could not rig my teams until hickory bark would peel."
A fine shirt was seldom seen, but every man or boy who wished to dress up wore a dickey. This white linen bosom was worn over the shirt and fastened at the neck and waist with strings. In hot weather some dis- carded the shirt and wore the dickey and a light coat. At the general elec- tions in August whisky flowed freely, and one man under its inspiration threw off his coat preparatory to a fight. The laugh that went up when it was noticed that he wore no shirt cooled his ardor.
Vol. I-6
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The cooking utensils consisted of a three-legged skillet, Dutch oven, pots, and a sheet-iron skillet with a handle three feet long, called a fly or spider, and a smooth board eight inches wide-the johnny board. The nearest approach to a cook stove that was owned by Mr. Silver's mother until 1848 was a tin reflector, twenty inches long and fourteen inches wide, which, before a hot fire, would bake pies and biscuit nicely.
In the harvests, after the cradles were introduced, the wages of an ordinary reaper were fifty cents a day, while the cradler got one dollar. In threshing, when inconvenient to use horses for tramping the grains, flails were used. In winnowing, if the wind was insufficient, a sheet was fastened to a stake and flapped up and down to create enough air cur- rent to separate the chaff from the wheat. Grist mills being few, the mortar and pestle were used to supplement them. The mortar was made by setting a log on end and building a fire on top. The drier heart burned out to the depth of six or eight inches, leaving a smooth cavity. The pestle was an iron wedge, affixed to the end of a spring-pole. A handful of corn being thrown into the cavity, the pestle was pounded vigorously, and after the bran was separated the heavier portions of the grain were again placed in the mortar and pounded until reduced to meal of tolerable fineness. . Wheat was ground the same way, but it was also "bolted." Wheat bread among the pioneers of this county was usually the luxury of the Sunday meal.
Log rollings were also a feature of the life of this pioneer family. This work lasted twenty-one days in succession one year, Sundays ex- cepted. After that it was agreed that the rollings should also discontinue on Saturdays, so that the men might have a day to attend to their indi- vidual affairs. A feature of all such occasions, and one that only gradu-
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ally was abolished, was the furnishing of whisky to all the men who took part in the work. At log rollings this was called "tapping of the stump." The jug was placed ahead of the men in a hollow stump, and when in the course of the work the men reached that point the liquor was passed around to all who would drink and there were few exceptions in the early days. Then the jug was moved on to another stump. A jug was also kept in the barn for the men when they went to their meals.
CHAPTER V.
MILITARY ANNALS.
The first organized military force that went from Sullivan county for service in the field was a company organized for the war with Mexico. Although the war with Mexico was not one of principle nor for any cause that was likely to stir the patriotism of the whole nation, it excited much interest in Sullivan county, and when the news came that "war is," a movement was at once begun to help fill out Indiana's quota. Joseph W. Briggs was foremost in this activity, and a few meetings at different points in the county brought out sufficient volunteers to make a com- pany. About July, 1846, the volunteers left for New Albany, where they were assigned, as Company H, to the Second Indiana Regiment. The officers of the company were: Joseph W. Briggs, captain; Justus Davis, first lieutenant ; Israel Benefiel, second lieutenant ; Solomon Loud- ermilk, third lieutenant; Henry Dooley, R. McGrew, James H. Wier, James Hancock, sergeants ; Harvey Wilson, John B. Hughes, Hosea C. Buckley, Thomas E. Ashley, corporals. The privates of the regiment at the time of the muster out were: Henry Adams, Wilie Adams, N. Brower, Phillip Brower, John Borders, Willis Benefiel, Michael Borders, James B. Booker, Nelson F. Bolton, Robert Calvert, Patrick Carley, Charles Child, Thomas Coulter, George Davidson, Alfred Davis, John
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Edds, Joseph Engle, William Essex, Richard Goss, H. M. Gilliam, James Garrett, Nathan Gatson, King Hamilton, Jonathan Hart, A. A. Hamilton, James Holsten, John Hill, Joseph Hooten, E. D. Hart, William Ireland, Henry Jones, J. J. Loudermilk, Preston Mosier, Redmon Malone, Gabriel Moots, Levin Nash, Benjamin Plew, John Ravenscroft, Charles Risinger, Charles G. Readay, Michael Ring, John L. Robinson, Joseph Strong. Volney E. Swaim, William Shepard, Alfred Smith, Elijah Voorhies, Mark Wilson, Andrew Winters, William D. Wier, William Wheeler. Meshack Draper, Thomas Price and Richard Jenkins lost their lives in battle ; John Shepard, John Marlow, F. J. Copeland, Enoch T. Reeves, John Vanosdoll and James W. Beauchamp were victims of disease. Those discharged before the muster out were Edmund Jones, W. R. Patton, Samuel A. Thompson, John Engle, Benjamin Johnson, John Mosier, Hugh McCammon, Henry Ransford, William Readay, Joseph Wells, Lewis F. Duncan, H. J. A. Burgett, Thomas Evans, Bonaparte D. Walls, John O. Watson.
The Second Indiana was sent to New Orleans in July, 1846, and from there to the Rio Grande, where it joined the forces under General Zachary Taylor. In February, 1847, it participated in the decisive battle of Buena Vista, occupying the extreme left of the American army, which bore the brunt of the Mexican attack. The regiment saw little active service after this battle, being occupied at various points in Mexico till the close of the war.
SULLIVAN COUNTY DURING THE CIVIL WAR.
At the presidential election of 1860, the voters of Sullivan county were divided as follows :
Douglas 1,858 Breckenridge 128
Lincoln 856 Bell 55
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The Douglas Democracy stood for "squatter sovereignty" as a means of settling the question of slavery or no slavery in the territories; and for the preservation of the Union of states. The abolition of slavery was not an issue expressly presented by any of the political parties.
Aside from its decisive expression of opinion in the election of 1860, Sullivan county continued throughout the following years of war stead- fast in its adherence to a well defined policy of that period, namely, that the Union ought to be preserved, that the regularly constituted govern- ment was superior to all others and should be maintained, that there was no constitutional authority for secession, but that every peaceable means should be tried to preserve the Union rather than a resort to arms, and that no interference with slavery should be attempted.
In December, 1860, a meeting was held at Sullivan at which the "Crittenden Compromise" was favored as the best means for preserving the Union and averting war. The prevailing sentiment was that it was better that slavery should enter the territories rather than have war.
At this time and throughout the war, Murray Briggs, editor of the Democrat, was an editor who not only recorded public opinion but exer- cised a powerful influence in molding. it. At this late day, when most of the passions aroused by the conflict have been stilled, it is possible to give full expression to admiration of this editor's independence of judgment and clear opinions, as manifested in his editorial columns from week to week. Before the outbreak of the war he said that it was difficult to concede the right of a state to secede, and thus destroy the government, but that he preferred secession to bloody, internecine war. April II, 1861, his opinion was that "if Mr. Lincoln supposes that the people of the country will sustain him in any effort to compel the cotton states to re- main in the Union, or return to it, by force of arms, he is vastly mis-
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taken." He was still disposed to peace after Sumter had fallen. This caused a number of citizens in the southwestern part of the county to in- form him that he was unpatriotic, and to this he replied: "We reiterate our remarks of last week, that if the war must come, and nothing will satisfy the powers of either section but a resort to arms, our wishes are for the success of the regularly constituted authorities under which we live." His discriminative allegiance was again mistaken for disloyalty, and on May 9, 1861, he restated his principles : "We have never believed
in secession-the right is nowhere acknowledged in our constitution. . . Had the hot-spurs of the cotton states waited for this means [the ballot box] to redress their wrongs, they would have done well. We have no sympathy for their movement. We have been given to understand that the leaders in this scheme are sustained by the people with great una- nimity ; we trust that it is not so, but that when the conflict comes they will refuse to sustain their self-constituted authorities in this unnatural war, and return to their old allegiance. Since we must have war, it is manifestly the duty of every man who professes attachment to the Union to sustain the president as the legally constituted head of the government. There must be authority of government, or anarchy will prevail."
Charges of disloyalty and treason were heard on every hand, and it is not strange that men of the highest and most sincere motives were sometimes involved in the net of suspicion and slander. The veteran printer and editor, John Wilson Osborn, who had been a reformer all his life, and a man of undeniable sincerity, though vehement in his rad- icalism, was an object of much criticism during the war. His paper, The Stars and Stripes, which he conducted at Sullivan during the war, was pronounced in its Union sentiment and strong in its support of the Republican administration. In March, 1862, a card was addressed to the editor, as follows: "We charge you with giving aid and comfort to the
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rebels by constantly asserting that the Democratic party was disloyal and sympathizing with them. This you knew to be false, and added that offense to your treason. How could you more effectually give aid and comfort to the enemy than by representing that such large numbers of your fellow citizens were disloyal and desired the success of the rebellion ?"
The attitude of the two political parties toward the war is shown in the resolutions adopted at the county conventions in 1862. The Republicans met about the middle of June. Valentine Moore was chair- man and James W. Hinkle secretary. They deplored the horrors of war, but expressed confidence in the existing administration, and then con- tinued with the following somewhat ambiguous resolution : "While we repudiate the agitation of the slavery question .in and out of Congress by the anti-slavery men, and the lovers of that 'peculiar institution' out of slave states, as a firebrand kept alive to divide us, and to consume our democratic form of government by the destruction of our constitution, we denounce all sympathy with the originators and leaders of the rebel- lion, with whom there should be no fraternal feeling by any other than those who prefer being subjugated and murdered by an American traitor rather than a less criminal foreign foe."
On July 4th occurred the Democratic county convention. Dr. Michael Branson was chairman, A. Van Fossen secretary. Willis G. Neff was indorsed for prosecuting attorney. They resolved that "the Democracy of Sullivan county are, as they have ever been, opposed alike to secessionism and abolitionism." They pledged themselves to renewed efforts for the preservation of the constitution, and for the election to Congress of such patriots as Dan Voorhees and his co-laborers in Con- gress, "who have the nerve to apprise the abolitionists that this govern- ment was established for white men and not for negroes." They con-
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demned the violation of constitutional power by officials and protested against the use of the people's money either in the District of Columbia or in the southern states for the feeding or clothing of worthless contra- bands inside our lines "while our own soldiers have in many cases suffered for the necessaries of life." Aside from the excitement and crowd incident to the convention, there were no exercises to commemorate the Fourth of July. The annual Methodist Sunday-school picnic was held at Merom.
A rather picturesque demonstration was the Democratic mass meet- ing in August, 1862. Crowds came in from Greene and Daviess counties and camped near the town the night before, and on the next day the throng was so dense that marshals had difficulty in handling them. About ten thousand people, it was estimated, were present. One of the features of the day was a procession made up of 1,700 men and women mounted on horseback, divided into companies, each company representing a state of the Union. The speaker's stand was in the grove north of the depot, where Willis G. Neff presided. The attraction of the day was the bril- liant orator, Dan Voorhees. In a speech of two hours he denounced disunionists, both north and south, laid the responsibility for the war upon the Republican party, not upon Lincoln, who, he said, had been overruled. The speaker also opposed all schemes for the purchase of slaves, and laws forbidding the extension of slavery into new territory. Following Voorhees, Joseph E. McDonald discoursed for two hours, and the long day closed with recruiting speeches at the court house. It was about this time that Captain Holdson's company was raised for the Ninety-seventh Regiment, and recruits were being accepted for other regiments.
A few days later the Republican delegates nominated their county ticket-John A. Baldridge for representative, A. W. Springer, for treas-
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urer, Fletcher Freeman for sheriff, Seth Cushman for commissioner, and Charles Harnish for assessor. Mr. Springer refused the nomination, and Jesse Burton's name was substituted, without his consent, he claimed. These nominations were made behind closed doors, a fact that gave excuse for many criticisms, and it was even suggested that the session might be a meeting of a lodge of the Knights of the Golden Circle.
The political campaign of 1862 came to a close with the election in October. The Democrats elected the entire county ticket and an assessor in each township, and at the same time gave 1,200 majority for Voorhees for Congress. Murray Briggs made significant the fact that if the soldiers had been at home, this majority would have increased to 1,500, since it was notorious, said the editor, that two-thirds of the soldiers in the field were Democrats and that nearly all of those who returned supported Voorhees.
An event that indicates the local opinion of the time, and may also be interpreted as of unusual significance in connection with later events, was a "citizens' meeting" in January, 1863, held at Antioch meeting house in Cass township. Thomas G. Neeley presided, and other officials named were John Bledsoe and Joshua Johnson, James B. Cochran and William R. Benton. David Usrey, Jesse Powell, William White and Jeptha Moss addressed the assemblage.
The sentiment of Cass township Democracy on the great questions of the day was expressed in resolutions' that "We, the Democracy of Cass and adjoining townships, in mass convention assembled, accept the late elections as judgment of the ripe intellectual manhood of the country, in which this corrupt and tyrannical administration has been arraigned and by a just and righteous criticism condemned: for, among other things, precipitating this country in an unnecessary, unholy and ruinous civil war-for the many palpable and wicked violations of the constitu-
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
tion and its most sacred guarantees, in total disregard of the rights of personal liberty and private property-in its tyranny over our own race and foolish regard for a servile one-an audacious trampling upon the rights of our own citizens, with a humiliating crouching to every foreign demand."
Then the convention demanded that the expressions of the people through the ballot-box should be regarded, that no money should be expended for war except to restore the Union ; demanded peace without reference to its effect upon the African; an inquiry into the financial conduct of state offices; that since war is the result of New England fanaticism, "when we have exhausted every reasonable effort for the restoration of the Union as it was, should New England still stand in the breach, we, as western men, will consult western interests and western pride, which alike forbid that the great Mississippi valley should be divided, and thereby rendered tributary to a ruinous system of Yankee intolerance, cupidity and class legislation. No, the great Mis- sissippi valley now and forever one and inseparable. Then we will cheer- fully say to New England, with all her cupidity, with all her meanness, fanaticism, follies and moral turpitude, we bid you good-bye, remember- ing you only for the wrongs you have done us."
Further, the resolutions condemned the efforts to abridge the rights of free speech; expressed unbounded confidence in the courage of the volunteers, no confidence in the president or his advisers; in favor only of gold and silver currency ; believed that the adoption of the Crittenden Compromise (at the time it was offered) would have saved the country.
It was soon after this convention that two Republican citizens of Cass township received anonymous notices to leave. It was alleged that these notices were sent by Republicans for the purpose of attaching odium to Democratic neighbors.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
But the bitterness of politics and war had begun to affect even the calmest minds. In an editorial of March 19, 1863, Murray Briggs said : "A most significant fact illustrative of the state of feeling throughout the country is that authorities have forbidden the sale of firearms and ammunition. The next step will be to take from the people those they already have. If this is attempted, lookout for bloodshed."
While the weight of public opinion in the county was favorable to the Union and its preservation, the cause of abolition was never popular. In 1862 it appears that some abolitionists had dared to preach their doctrines in Fairbanks township. Their action brought out the following notice, published in the Democrat:
Fairbanks, Dec. 27, 1862.
Notice to Abolition preachers:
We, the undersigned citizens of school district No. 5, Fairbanks township, would most respectfully give notice to the above-named gentry that we can and will get along without any more of their abolition harangues-such as were delivered in our school room on Sunday night, Dec. 21st, by a certain Mr. Heath. It was not built for that purpose, and it shall not be used for such a purpose again. We are willing and anxious for the gospel to be preached in it by any minister of the gospel, but we don't want any more abolition lectures by any minister.
D. CRAWLEY, Trustee. L. FORDYCE, Director. W. H. GRIFFIN, O. T. MARTIN, BENJ. EARNEST.
In the summer of 1863 there were picnics, political speeches, and some campaigning on the part of the Democrats of the county. A picnic at Fairbanks the first of August, 1863, was largely attended. Ed Price,
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
of Sullivan, presided. The principal speech was by Bayless W. Hanna, of Terre Haute, considered in his time one of the orators of the state senate, and who was elected attorney general of Indiana in 1870. On this occasion he discussed the conduct of the war and the arbitrary acts and peculations of the government. Other speakers were Colonel Cook- erly, editor of the Journal at Terre Haute, and S. G. Burton. A flag was presented to the Fairbanks Constitutional Guards on behalf of the ladies of the township, by Miss Amanda J. DeBaun, and received by Lieut. William Fordyce. Then there was dancing, and the air frequently resounded with cheers for Voorhees, Vallandingham, the county ticket, etc.
A few days after this picnic at Fairbanks "a Democratic basket meeting" at the county seat was an occasion for a large assemblage, despite the threatening weather. James M. Hanna as presiding officer declared the adoption of some resolutions that indicate the progress of sentiment and the war. After reaffirming a devotion to the constitution and the Union, the resolutions condemned Lincoln for attempting by force to sustain himself in power, although elected only by a third of the people, and for avowing that the great battles are fought to "place all men, without regard to race, upon an equality"; condemning also the conscription act and approving the course of Voorhees in voting against such odious and tyrannical laws. Voorhees himself was present and spoke for an hour.
It was about this time that the alleged quotation from a Voorhees speech in which he characterized the Union soldiers as "Lincoln dogs" became current through the country. Editor Briggs, in his issue of September 17, 1863, declared that this report was "an infernal lie," but that Republican newspapers had passed it around all over the country. No report of the speech at Sullivan in which Mr. Voorhees was alleged to have used the offensive language is given. Though the specific utter-
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ance can not be traced to Mr. Voorhees as author, a speech that he made at Sullivan about this time did arouse much bitter feeling among Union men, the memory of which exists to this day.
The election of October 13, 1863, involved only a few county officers, and the Democratic ticket was the only one in the field. In the spring election (April, 1864) for township officials, the "abs," as they were called, tried to steal a march on the regular Democrats by waiting till afternoon to present their tickets. A light vote was polled, but the Democrats carried all the offices except in Gill township.
The campaign of 1864 opened early, at the Republican convention of February 25, 1864. Prominent members of the party and citizens of the county took part in the deliberations. A. W. Springer presided, with Dr. J. J. Thompson and Prof. Hall as assistants, and John T. Gunn and John W. Canary as secretaries. James W. Hinkle, William H. Crowder and T. P. Emison reported resolutions declaring it to be the duty of all loyal Americans to unconditionally support the government in a vigorous prosecution of the war, condemning all parties who either for politica.' partisan purposes or in sympathy with the enemies of the country embarrass the government ; also recommending a thorough organization of townships for the approaching political campaign. The Stars and Stripes, that had been published during the first year or so of the war by John W. Osborn, had by this time discontinued, and one of the acts of this convention was the appointing of a committee to investigate the practicability of publishing an unconditional Union paper. The com- mittee consisted of Lieut. Col. F. L. Neff, Dr. John M. Hinkle, T. Kearns, Dr. Duval, Dr. Buskirk, R. A. Bland, T. Burton, S. Myers, R. McClung, D. Baldridge, Lieut. Edward Maxwell and J. W. Hinkle.
The Democratic convention met about the first of June, with Michael Malott as chairman. No set of principles adopted or concurred in by
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this convention was reported, though the course of Mr. Voorhees in Congress was strongly approved. On the 18th of September a Mcclellan Club was organized, based on these general principles : Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political ; peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations and entangling alliances with none; support of state governments in all their rights as the most competent administrators of our domestic concerns ; preserva- tion of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor ; jealous care of the right of election by the people; absolute acquiescence in the will of the majority ; well disciplined militia ; and supremacy of civil over military authority.
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