USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A standard history of Elkhart County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development, Volume I > Part 18
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GETTING SALT UNDER DIFFICULTIES
One of the articles that had to be transported from a long distance was salt. It had to be hauled from Michigan City for several years. Sometimes the farmers would drive there after it and sometimes men who made a business of teaming would haul it. As soon as the farmers began to have some surplus crops to sell, a load of grain could be taken to market at the same time. By hauling loads both going and returning the cost of transportation was mate- rially reduced. Sometimes trips were made to Piqua and other points in Ohio for a similar purpose. Those long drives to market and for the purpose of purchasing supplies added to the hardships of those days and helped to make pioneer life more of a burden than it would otherwise have been. The trip always consumed several days, and it required weeks to make those to the most distant points. The driver had to be prepared to camp out should night overtake him when there were no places to find shelter. But in quite an early day taverns were built along the principal roads for the ac- commodation of the traveling public. These were found to be not only a great convenience but came to be regarded for a time as a
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necessity. A little later towns grew up which became the stopping places and the old country roadside taverns were eventually aban- doned. But while they flourished they played an important part in the development of the newly settled country. Many of the old- time tavern keepers were noted characters in their day and were long remembered by those who sojourned at their places.
ALSO, ON GETTING RELIGION
Many, perhaps a majority, of those who settled here were re- ligious people and as soon as possible made whatever provisions
A PICTURE OF TODAY
they could for holding religious services. Sometimes these serv- ices were held in the cabins of the settlers and sometimes in a schoolhouse. The fact that there were no church buildings of any kind did not prevent the holding of religious services. As the Methodist Church was about as numerously represented as any, that denomination was one of the first to gain a foothold here. Azel Sparklin, who settled on the west side of the prairie in 1831 or 1832, was one of the first local preachers of that sect. In the absence of regular ministers it often fell to his lot to perform the duties belonging to that office. The house of Christopher Myers,
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which stood between the present McConaughy homestead and Goshen, was one of the places at which the Methodists held their services. Col. John Jackson became a prominent member of the Methodist Church in later years, as were Matthew Rippey and John D. Elsea. Among the first settlers were also Presbyterians, and they, too, began holding services almost as soon as they came here. The leading man among them, until he died in 1835, was Alexander Irwin, father of John Robert and Elisha Irwin. A Rev. Mr. Cory, who lived on Mongoquanon Prairie now in LaGrange County, used to come over to Elkhart Prairie to hold services for the Presbyterians. A Mr. Miller, of Baldwin's Prairie, Michigan, and a Rev. Mr. Hall would come to the same neighborhood and preach for the Baptists. The services of those days sometimes continued several hours.
PIONEER HISTORY LARGELY A PERSONAL MATTER
The pioneer history of Elkhart County, as of other developing communities, consists rather of the biographies of men and women than the sketches of institutions; the more complex interests of a settled and more advanced population, centering in large towns and cities, bring organizations and institutions more to the front as agents of growth and progress. While the scattered and thin pop- ulation of the county was thus being solidified into definite centers, certain individuals stood out from their fellows as leaders and effective workers in various fields of endeavor.
GOSHEN AND ELKHART PIONEERS
Around the Goshen center revolved such men as Oliver Crane, Thomas Thomas, Maj. John W. Violett, Col. Jolin Jackson, Willian Bissell. Elias and John Carpenter, Jacob Studebaker, Rev. Azel Sparklin, Judge Elias Baker, Cephas Hawks, James Cook and Abner Stilson. The Elkhart colony of strong men included Dr. Havilah Beardsley and his nephew, Elijah; George Crawford, Samuel P. Beebe, N. F. Broderick, Horace Root, Col. Stephen Downing, John Davenport, Hiram Morgan, James Defrees, Jacob Ellis, Dr. P. S. Kenyon, Dr. E. W. T. Ellis, Gen. W. B. Mitchell, John Compton and Henry Crampton.
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SOUTHERN TOWNSHIPS FIRST SETTLED
Outside of these two chief centers of the county, the southern townships were first settled. Matthew Boyd settled in Benton Township in 1827 and Henry Beane laid out the Village of Benton five years later. A little after Boyd, John Jackson came into the county and raised his log cabin on a quarter section a few miles south of Goshen in what is now Jackson Township, and in 1829 Isaac Abshire located near what became New Paris in 1838. He and Enoch Wright, a settler of 1834, were its proprietors. In 1829 also arrived at the south end of Elkhart Prairie and in the northern border of Jackson Township, Mark B. Thompson, father of the seven-months' infant, John E. Thompson. The magnificent Thompson estate, there founded, with its famous maple grove, descended to Hon. John E. Thompson, one of the foremost stock- men and public characters in Elkhart County. Nearer Goshen, in Elkhart Township, was Waterford Mills, founded by Judge Elias Baker in 1833, and not far east was the farm of the Methodist circuit rider, while Major Violett's farm was to the north.
EASTERN AND NORTHERN TOWNSHIPS
Clinton and Middlebury townships, east of Goshen, were settled in the early '30s. Capt. Solomon Miller, the founder of Millers- burg, was the pioneer of the former, the year of his coming being 1834. Enoch Woodbridge and Solomon L. Hixon were the first two to locate in Middlebury Township, the former in 1832 and Mr. Hixon, father of the banker, in 1834.
The only far-northern township to be settled previous to 1840 was Washington. James Nicholson and family located on the site of Bristol in 1829, and the town itself was platted in 1835.
COLONEL JOHN JACKSON AND HIS DESCENDANTS
Good old Colonel Jackson left numerous descendants in Elkhart County, his grandson, Frank Jackson, occupying the original quar- ter section in the township to which the family name is attached. His son, Dr. Amos C. Jackson, was only eight years of age when the family moved from Ross County, Ohio, to the edge of Elkhart Prairie, Indiana, and is said to have attended the first school opened
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in Elkhart County. He practiced medicine at Goshen for more than half a century, was a firm friend and supporter of the schools, both officially and privately, and a leading citizen in many ways. The doctor wrote much and in a charming strain, regarding early times in the county, and his nephew, Frank Jackson, was also a willing contributor of interesting information of that nature. It is mainly from them that the facts about Colonel Jackson were derived for this article.
The father of the colonel, Peter Jackson, was born in Green- brier County, Virginia, and was married there. He was the father of two sons, John and William, and several daughters. At an early day Mr. Jackson moved to Ross County, Ohio, and was one of its pioneers, settling on Deer Creek, where his death occurred at the age of eighty-four years. He was a man of strong constitution, and when quite aged rode horseback to Elkhart County to visit for a few months. His nephew, Ira, and niece, Elizabeth, accompanied him on his return trip, the journey being about 300 miles. Mr. Jack- son was a substantial farmer of Ross County, and one of the early justices of the peace.
One of the sons, Col. John Jackson, was born in Greenbrier County, Virginia, in 1790, and went to Ross County, Ohio, with his father when a boy. He was reared amid the pioneer scenes of that county and received a very good common-school education for his day. He married Catherine Carr, daughter of Gideon Carr, of Dutch descent, and to Mr. and Mrs. Jackson were born ten children : Mary, Elizabeth, Ira, Amos, Henry (who died young) Hagee, Martha, William, Peter and Ann. Mr. Jackson cleared his farm in Ross Township of the heavy timber and made a good home. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and was one of the men who was in the expedition to break up the Pottawattamie Indian Village at the south end of Elkhart Prairie in 1812, on the farm now occupied by John E. Thompson. These soldiers were from Fort Defiance on the Maumee River, Ohio. During this expedition Colonel Jack- son was captain of a company. The night before the soldiers arrived at the Pottawattamie Village the Indians fled and left much of their property. Thus Colonel Jackson became acquainted with Elkhart Prairie and, being much pleased with the country, selected the spot where he afterward built his log cabin. In 1825 he made a visit to that region, but it was not until January, 1829, the roads being then hard with frost, that the colonel came out with hired men
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and two ox teams of four oxen each, to make a settlement and get ready for the spring work. As before mentioned, he built a log cabin, and with the ox teams broke up the virgin soil. The seed corn was dropped between sods and was therefore called sod-corn. A good crop was made without further cultivation. In the fall Colonel Jackson returned to Ohio, and with the first frosts of October brought out his family, making the journey with ox teams. His was one of the first families established on Elkhart Prairie, and Colonel Jackson broke the first ground on the prairie. He entered a tract of land and gradually added to it until he was the owner of over 1,000 acres. He was one of the prominent pioneer citizens and was colonel of the old militia of the county for many years. He was one of the organizers of Elkhart County and a member of the first board of county commissioners. He entered eighty acres of the original plot of Goshen for the county. In politics he was a stanch democrat and represented the county in the State Legislature for many years. Being justice of the peace, many of the pioneer cases were tried before him. He was possessed of a remarkably strong constitution and could endure extreme cold and fatigue. Both Colonel and Mrs. Jackson were life-long members of the Methi- odist Church and their pioneer log cabin was the home of the itiner- ant Methodist preacher, and Colonel Jackson was one of the founders of Methodism in this county. Of a social and genial dis- position and possessed of an unusually good heart, he was very popular among the early settlers and was well known throughout northern Indiana. He died in 1872 at the advanced age of eighty- three, and his descendants may well take pride in the stanch and patriotic soldier and sturdy pioneer from which they sprang.
Ira Jackson, one of the sons of the colonel, was about ten years of age when the family settled on the Elkhart Prairie farm, and, with his younger brother, Amos C., attended school at the new county seat. Among their first teachers was Captain Brown, father of Ebenezer Brown, one of the founders of the Democrat. Ira Jack- son was an industrious, unobtrusive farmer and a good citizen who died on the old Jackson homestead in 1903, in his eighty-fourth year. The historic place descended to his son, Frank Jackson, whose frame residence-itself an ancient landmark-covers the site of the log cabin erected by Col. John Jackson in 1829. The farm comprises nearly all of the original 160 acres, which was the limit of the amount which could be legally entered by one individual; but the
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colonel was thrifty, and induced his friends to enter several blocks of land which he afterward purchased.
OLD-TIME SOUVENIRS
One of the valuable historic souvenirs possessed by Frank Jackson is a walking cane carved from a log which once formed a side of the log cabin, and on which is following inscription :
Col. John Jackson, Settled on Elkhart prairie Feb., 1829.
Among the other interesting relics preserved at the Jackson home is a long sickle bar from one of the first McCormick machines ever used in the county. A notable collection of old deeds, such as can hardly be duplicated anywhere, forms another feature of the historical archives which Mr. Jackson is zealously preserving. There are ten of these parchment deeds, seven of them executed under the hand and seal of President Andrew Jackson, being dated in 1831 and 1832, and the other three deeds were executed in the years 1837-38 by President Martin Van Buren. These documents are the first titles ever drawn to a large area of land in this part of the county, and their historical interest and value will increase from year to year. Frank Jackson has some of his father's old transcribed books in arithmetic, which were all written with a goosequill pen and are dated in 1838-40. This was in the days when the pounds, shillings and pence signs were used in the examples instead of dollars and cents.
MAJ. JOHN H. VIOLETT AND PLAIN JOHN H.
Maj. John H. Violett and his son, John H. Violett, were both widely known and generally popular. The latter, who was born in November, 1829, on a squatter's claim two miles south of Goshen, long claimed to be the first child of white parents born in Elkhart County ; this claim was finally disproved by Isaiah Rush, who was born at the edge of Pleasant Plains, near Elkhart, in May, 1828. At the outbreak of the War of 1812 John H. Violett, a youth of eighteen, was working on the farm of his widowed mother near
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Springfield, Ohio, and for his military services was eventually granted a land warrant by the General Government. From 1820 to 1823 he was a resident of Missouri, and in the latter year re- turned to Ohio and bought a farm in Clarke County. In August, 1824, having manifested great interest in the military organizations of the state, he was elected sergeant-major of the Second Regiment, Fifth Brigade of the Fifth Division. In 1830, after he had been elected the first recorder of Elkhart County he was appointed major of the Eighty-second Regiment of Indiana militia; which fully ac- counts for the military title by which he was generally known.
Major Violett's first exploration of the beauties and fertilities of the Indiana country watered by the St. Joseph was in company with his father-in-law, with whom he set out October 4, 1828. Knowing that they would be obliged to camp out for at least a part of the time, they had laid in a supply of provisions, ammunition and other necessaries. A man of close observation and excellent judg- ment, and of much method in all his habits, he kept a memorandum of events from day to day, and not long before his death prepared from his diary a narrative of this memorable journey from Ohio to Indiana. The two men proceeded to Fort Wayne the first day, and, as may be imagined, Fort Wayne was then an insignificant hamlet. The next morning they started for Wolf Lake, and there encamped the second night. A desolate place indeed, Major Violett de- scribed this to have been at that time; but the next eighty miles of their journey took them over a much more attractive country. In the Elkhart bottoms, where they soon arrived, they found a rich expanse of timber land, and across the river was Elkhart Prairie, which impressed Major Violett as being the most beautiful and attractive land he had ever seen. On the Elkhart River, at the spring where DeCamp afterward built a mill, they remained over night, and on the following morning they crossed the St. Joseph a little below where it receives the Elkhart, where they encountered the first white settler they had seen since their departure from Fort Wayne and its vicinity. Nine miles farther on was Beardsley's Prairie, which Major Violett referred to in his narrative as "a beautiful rolling plain with a few squatters," and were there enter- tained by Mr. Beardsley, who showed them the first crop of growing sod corn they had seen on their journey, which they found to be plentiful and of good quality for its kind, the blades being yet green, there being no frost that year until October 9th. Here they became
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acquainted with Hon. George Crawford, during later years of Laporte, and Mr. Meacham, his partner, who took much pains to inform them concerning the country, its resources and its promises for the future. Young's Prairie was reached the next day, and was found to be a very desirable tract of land, but a squatter with whom they stayed claimed a very large amount of the prairie for himself and friends. After inspecting another crop of corn here they proceeded to White Pigeon Prairie next morning, where they were welcomed by Judge Winckel, who also had a good crop of corn. The next day they went to Elkhart Prairie, which Major Violett wished to further examine, having about concluded to settle there. They encamped for the night on the site of Benton, on the Elkhart River. The prospect for a settlement appeared very flattering as the land was rich and fertile, and there was a plentiful supply of water and much valuable timber. Messrs. Crawford and Meacham soon joined them on their way south in quest of stock hogs, and Matthew Boyd arrived in their camp about the same time and afterward became a permanent settler at Benton. They started for home October 14th, and on the evening of that day met Elias Riggs and his son-in-law, with their families moving to Elkhart Prairie, where they built a house on the land owned later by Col. John Jackson and were the first permanent settlers on the plain. The succeeding winter was passed by Major Violett in making preparations to move to Elkhart Prairie, and March 3, 1829, he set out with an ox team, carrying farming utensils, heavy furniture and provisions, his family remaining for a time with friends. William Chance and James Bishop, two young men whom he had employed to help open up his farm, went with him and the party was accom- panied by two other men with ox teams. Major Violett erected a cabin on his claim, a timbered portion of the prairie near the river, and began splitting out fence rails. In the following spring he fenced fifty acres of his land and planted thirty-two acres of it to corn, which was the first crop of its kind raised in the vicinity and was in great demand during the following winter and spring for the use of families and stock, quite a number of people having moved into the country without a sufficient grain supply. In July Major Violett brought his family out to his Indiana home, where, as stated, the son, John H., was born in November. When Elkhart County was organized in 1830, he was elected its first recorder and held the office for seven years. In 1830 he was also appointed
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major of the Eighty-second Regiment of Indiana militia; in 1840 he was candidate for associate judge, but his party being largely in the minority he was defeated, and in 1842 he was appointed com- missioner for the Erie & Michigan Canal, and subscribed $1,000 toward its construction. He was a candidate of the whigs for state senator in 1844, but was defeated, although securing more than his regular party vote. In 1854-55 he built the Violett House in Goshen. He was a model and enterprising farmer, and, as the pioneer nurseryman, supplied the country with its first fruit and ornamental trees. In private life he was charmingly genial and cordial and his home was the center of a generous hospitality. His character was substantial and moral, and his death October 24, 1871, caused general sorrow.
John H. Violett inherited many of the sterling qualities of his father. His boyhood days were passed in the old log cabin which his father built in the spring of 1829, preceding the fall of his birth, which was afterward sold to Daniel Hess. The only door in that historic building, which was of course its outside door, was the first door hung on hinges in the county, and it is still preserved by the family as a relic of the pioneer days. Mr. Violett's educational advantages were extremely limited, being only such as were afforded by the "pay school" of that time. His first experience in school was in the log cabin which was on section 27, near the site of Water- ford, an odd building which was constructed minus one log on the side, with wooden strips nailed across the opening over which oiled paper was stretched to serve as a window. His school life closed when he was fifteen years old, and thereafter for six years, or until he attained his majority, he labored on the farm. The country had now begun to feel the influence of the gold excitement in California, and one of Mr. Violett's enterprising disposition was not at all likely to escape it. In the spring of 1850, he went with others to California by the overland route, and there engaged in mining with some little success, until March, 1851, when he left for home from San Francisco, via Panama and New Orleans. Unfavorable winds drove the vessel far south of the equatorial line, in the early part of the voyage, and, passing near the Marquesas Islands, it arrived in port after a voyage of about two months and a half. Soon after- ward Mr. Violett bought a farm from his father, not more than a hundred rods from his birthplace, and built upon it a large substan- tial brick building, and, purchasing a sawmill on the Elkhart River,
VoL I-18
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he engaged in lumbering and farming until 1853, when, selling the mill, he devoted his attention entirely to other interests.
Mr. Violett served in the ranks throughout the Civil war, and previous to his return to Goshen, in the fall of 1864 was elected sheriff, holding the office for the term of two years. That was his only public office. Mr. Violett was an intelligent and agreeable citizen, a pleasant conversationalist and a ready writer.
THE IRWINS
The Irwins, so long identified with the development of Goshen and the county, were of an old Scotch-Irish Pennsylvania family, the founder of the Indiana branch being Alexander, a soldier of the War of 1812 and father of John W. Irwin. The latter was, for nearly half a century, a leading lawyer, banker, business man, land owner and promoter of numerous enterprises which tended to ad- vance the growth of the city and county. His wife was a daughter of Col. John Jackson, the rugged old pioneer and Indian fighter who settled on Elkhart Prairie in 1829. This intertwining of the two noted pioneer families is of special significance.
Alexander Irwin, the father of John W., migrated with his family from Franklin County, Pennsylvania, to the Goshen settle- ment of Elkhart Prairie in 1832. Three years later he died of malarial fever, coupled with the prevailing treatment of bleeding, purging and dosing with heroic medicines. At the time of his father's decease the son was about thirteen years of age.
THE COOKS OF ELKHART AND GOSHEN
Several generations of Cooks have resided in Elkhart County, and for some eighty years have been identified with its official, business and financial affairs. The founder of the family in this section of Northern Indiana was James Cook, a native of Maryland, who came to the county with his family in 1830, and was one of the first merchants to open a store in Goshen, which was not platted until the following summer. He also dealt in lands and real estate, and was one of the substantial, honored pioneers of the county.
About a year after the coming of James Cook, and after his affairs had taken shape, his seven-year old son, John Cook, was brought from Ross County, Ohio, where the family had formerly
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resided, and after being well educated at Goshen and White Pigeon, Michigan, he also entered business and commercial life at the county seat. Later he moved to Elkhart, and was officially connected, for many years, with the First National Bank of that city, became interested in the manufacture of paper and other industries, and at his death in that city, when seventy-five years of age, was one of the prominent men of affairs in the county. J. A. Cook, his son, was born in Goshen, and followed the elder man as a working promoter of the financial life of the First National Bank, advanc- ing through numerous positions to its vice presidency. Such duties, with the management of the large family estate, fully occupied his abilities.
As has been noted, several members of the family remained in Goshen, generally engaged in business, although Henry Cook, son of the original pioneer, was best known as a surveyor.
JESSE D. VAIL
Jesse D. Vail, father of the Goshen lawyer, ex-state senator and public man generally, died in December, 1900. He was more than eighty-six years of age, and had been a useful resident of Elkhart County since he was twenty-three. A native of Pennsylvania, he located at Benton and, in partnership with his brother, opened a general store in the midst of the great financial panic of 1837. His brother sold his share of the goods to James Banta, and the firm of Vail & Banta weathered the low financial barometer and depres- sion until 1841, when its business was discontinued. Mr. Vail then borrowed money, bought a large tract of school land and cleared and improved it, after which he spent six years in his native state. In 1849 he returned to Benton Township where he passed the re- mainder of his life. He added to his land holdings and molded them into a fine modern farm. Before the Civil war, and during its entire continuance, Mr. Vail was a county commissioner, being a strong Union man and a member of the military board charged with the raising of men and money to carry on the war. He was also enroll- ing officer in his township. Mr. Vail was recognized as one of the founders of the republican party in the county, for twenty-four years serving as a member of its central committee and was for many years a delegate to successive republican state conventions. He was thrice married, his last wife being a daughter of Peter Diddy.
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