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 21
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In 1836 Mrs. Stillman, who lives on what is now Lexington Avenue, arrived in the little settlement, and although over ninety years old, her mind is very active regarding the pioneer days. It was also in 1836 that the parents of Joseph Devor reached the City of the Forks. Mr. Devor was bookkeeper in the First National Bank and a very active man. The struggles of the early years and the transformation of the village to a city moves before his eyes as though it were a panorama.
IMPRESSIONS OF THE VILLAGE (1838)
An early pioneer visiting Elkhart in April, 1838, gives the fol- lowing impressions of the village: "The only manufactory was a small flouring mill, with perhaps a saw mill on Christiana creek, near the mouth. The principal citizens were Doctor Beardsley, his nephew, Elijah Beardsley, George Crawford, Samuel P. Beebe, N. F. Broderick, Col. Downing, John Davenport, Hiram Morgan, James Defrees, Dr. P. S. Kenyon, Lorenzo Scoville, Wm. Beau- mont, Gen. W. B. Mitchell, Jacob Frush, John Compton, Dr. Wm. R. Ellis and Henry Crampton. The only hotel was kept by Col. Downing (who died that year), on the present site of the Bucklen.
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He was a good man; but from the hungry look of the eagle on his sign, was dubbed by Judge Beebe as 'Col. Buzzard.' The Judge resided on the corner, northwest from the hotel, a very humble frame dwelling embowered in a shady grove, while a rough pole fence surrounded his lot. Morgan and Defrees kept the red store, and Davenport and Broderick had a store farther south. Elijah Beardsley dispensed justice to the people, as did also our venerable friend N. F. Broderick. The constables were Hiram Morgan and Joseph Dome. Gen. Mitchell was engaged as chief engineer in the survey of the Northern canal, and completed his labors about that period. George Crawford was serving his county in the State Senate, and was interested in one of the mercantile establishments. Real estate was at a low ebb; lots ranging from $50 to $300.
"The southern and eastern portions of the town were covered with a thrifty forest, worth probably $15 an acre. The town had been christened 'Pulaski,' and its postoffice still bore that name. There was no church in the place; but occasional meetings were held by the Methodists and United Brethren in the school house. Sabbath school was an unknown institution. There was no regular whisky shop in the town; but the merchants dispensed the needful by the quart when required for medicinal or other purposes; but drunkenness had no existence in the community. During this year several new families arrived. Among them were the Shuey and Irwin families, Robert Sanford and the McKelveys. Judge Beebe was the character of the place. He had seen this beautiful spot as early as the year 1827 but did not locate here until after the town had been started. He was a man of intelligence and at that time had just been elected probate judge by three votes. He was a free thinker in religion and a practical joker."
At a little log cabin schoolhouse, situated on the banks of the Elkhart River, N. F. Broderick wielded the birch and taught the young Elkhartians the three "R's." He was the first schoolmaster in the village. In 1837 the second school building was erected on Sec- ond Street. The renowned "Tammany Hall" was built in 1836 and here for many years all classes of entertainment were given, from the temperance lecture to the amateur theatricals and occasion- ally some strolling player would excite the wonder of the inhabitants by his performance. This hall stood at the corner of Main and Jefferson streets. Mrs. Beebe opened a Sabbath school at her home and also gave instruction in English to the older boys and girls. Be-
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tween 1837 and 1840 Doctor Beardsley commenced the building of several mills. He erected a cornmill and a woolen and oil mill on the banks of the Elkhart. A little later when boats commenced to ascend the St. Joseph, warehouses were built along the Elkhart and there trading in farm produce and merchandise was conducted.
CHAPTER X
ELKHART COUNTY IN WAR
OLD GOSHEN GUARDS SIDE-STEP MEXICAN WAR-INDIVIDUAL MEXICAN SOLDIERS-PATRIOTIC RESPONSE TO THE CALLS OF THIE '60S-THE REVIVED GOSHEN GUARDS-GENERAL MILO S. HASCALL-THE NINTH INDIANA REGIMENT-THE , SEVEN- TEENTH-COMPANY G, NINETEENTH INFANTRY-THE FIRST TO ENTER NEW ORLEANS-COMPANY B, OF THE TWENTY- NINTH-COMPANY K, THIRTIETH INDIANA VOLUNTEERS-THE SECOND CAVALRY-COMPANY I, FORTY-FOURTH REGIMENT- THE FORTY-EIGHTH, LARGELY AN ELKHART COUNTY REGI- MENT-THE SEVENTY-FOURTH REGIMENT-CAPTAIN ORVILLE T. CHAMBERLAIN-COMPANY I, OF THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH-THE ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT-OTHER ELKHART COUNTY COM- MANDS-RESPONSE TO THE DRAFTS-SHOWING OF THE COUNTY -RELIEF WORK UNRECORDED IN STATISTICS-INDIANA TROOPS FIRST ENLISTED FOR SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR - THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVENTH INDIANA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY -COMPANY C, OF GOSHEN-COMPANY E, OF ELKHART-NA- TIONAL GUARDSMEN OF ELKHART COUNTY.
The military ardor of Elkhart County pioneers was not steady enough, at the outbreak of the Mexican war, to send the Goshen Guards, then the only organized company of any standing, to the southern fields of battle. The guards had been organized for several years; in fact, Col. John Jackson, the old soldier of 1812 and the early '30s, had founded the guards in 1831 to ease the minds of the people of the county as regards Indian depredations. Their discipline increased with the years, many of the foremost merchants and professional men joined the company and, though its members were armed with old flint muskets, they were gorgeously uniformed
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₩
SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT, ELKHART
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and they are said to have been remarkably efficient in drills, evolu- tions and military tactics.
OLD GOSHEN GUARDS SIDE-STEP MEXICAN WAR
In May, 1846, Governor Whitcomb, after a call from President Polk for volunteers, called upon the guards to enlist in the service, but the company vote was against a favorable response. At the time Ebenezer M. Chamberlain was captain; Dr. E. W. H. Ellis, first lieutenant, and Dr. M. M. Latta, second lieutenant. Which indicates that the professions had the upper hand in military mat- ters. In 1848 the guards disbanded, without having reconsidered their expressed determination not to participate, as a body, in the war. A few months previously William Tuffts, one of the last of the old Revolutionary soldiers resident in the county, died at Middlebury. It is said that he assisted in throwing over the British tea from the ships in Boston harbor and served through most of the Revolutionary period.
INDIVIDUAL MEXICAN SOLDIERS
The entire state furnished but five regiments for the Mexican war and not more than half a dozen men went from Elkhart County. It soon became evident that the national authorities had enough American troops at the front to accomplish the contemplated work; otherwise more would probably have gone from that region.
Stray items from the Goshen Democrat, published during August, 1847: "Jonas Myers, son of Joseph Myers, of this town, a volunteer in one of the Illinois regiments, has just returned from Mexico to this place, where he formerly resided, and was welcomed by a few rounds from Aunt Olive (the town artillery). A number of our citizens assembled at the court house and listened to an interesting account of his adventures and an entertaining descrip- tion of the country. Young Myers was wounded at Cerro Gordo by a grapeshot, but not severely."
A few days later: "Mr. George Cart, a noble-souled old Demo- crat of Union township, called on us the other day, requesting us to write a letter to his son, who is a volunteer in the Mexican War. 'Tell him,' said the old man 'to be a good soldier and obey his officers; tell him to remember that his grandfather served five years
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in the Revolutionary War, and that his father served through the last war. It will do him good,' he added, 'to think of these things when he comes into battle.'"
PATRIOTIC RESPONSE TO THE CALLS OF THE '60S
The spirit displayed in Elkhart County throughout the entire period of the terrible Civil war was of an entirely different class from that manifest in the war with Mexico. It soon became evi- dent that the conflict of the '6os was a call to men of stern mould, active minds and unflinching and steady endurance, and that no weaklings need apply for service. Both those at the front and the men and women whose services were required at home, never relaxed in their fortitude, energy and vigilance during more than four long years of bloodshed, financial stress and mental anguish.
THE REVIVED GOSHEN GUARDS
President Lincoln's proclamation calling for volunteers was issued April 15, 1861, and six regiments were assigned to the State of Indiana. The county and town was in a patriotic fever and in a few days the "Goshen Guards" had been organized and were on their way to Indianapolis to offer their services to their country. The company was headed by Milo S. Hascall, captain; Edward Kerstetter, first lieutenant; Frank B. Rosselwyn, second lieutenant ; James M. Barns, third lieutenant. The company comprising also ninety privates left Goshen on April 29th and upon arriving at the capital were grievously disappointed to learn that all of the regi- ments were full, and, for the time being, they were compelled to return to their homes. Most of the volunteers afterwards enlisted in other commands. Captain Hascall was assigned a position upon the staff of Gen. T. A. Morris, appointed to the colonelcy of the Seventeenth Regiment and later received a commission as brigadier general.
GEN. MILO S. HASCALL
His service extended over a period of three years and six months. Lieutenants Kerstetter and Rosselwyn, who, with Captain Hascall, were among the officers of the unrequisitioned company, Vol. 1-15
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attached themselves to the Seventeenth and Seventy-fourth regi- ments respectively.
General Hascall was the most notable military figure identified with Elkhart County, and for a quarter of a century after the close of the war was one of the leading citizens of Goshen. He spent the last years of his life as a strong factor in the lumber and real estate interests of Chicago, being of unusual prominence in the remarkable development of East Chicago and the Calumet region of gigantic industries. Since 1890, when he became a resident of Illinois, he was also prominent in the history of the Loyal Legion.
Milo S. Hascall was born in Genesee County, New York, in 1829. His boyhood was passed on his father's farm and in the common schools; at sixteen he attended an academy and at seven- teen, in 1847, came West to Goshen, where three of his brothers then resided. Chauncey S. Hascall was, at that time, engaged in trade at Goshen, and the general entered his store as clerk. This engagement lasted but three months, when he taught school for one term. He went to West Point in June, 1848, and remained there four years, graduating June 16, 1852, fourteenth in a class that entered ninety-six, of which record any West Point student might well be proud. His class embraced General Sheridan, Gen. Henry W. Slocum, of Brooklyn; Gen. D. S. Stanley, Jerome N. Bona- parte (the Baltimore member of the illustrious family), George L. Hartsuff, Gen. Charles R. Woods, Marshall T. Polk, Alex D. McCook, Gen. William Meyers, Gen. A. V. Kautz, Gen. George Crook. After his graduation General Hascall was promoted to the Third Artillery as brevet second lieutenant, and stationed at Fort Adams, Rhode Island, where he remained about one year. He was then promoted to a second lieutenancy in the Second Artil- lery, and was stationed at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, where he remained until 1853, when he resigned. He came to Goshen after leaving the army and traveled for some time thereafter. For one year he was a contractor on the Northern Indiana & Michigan Southern Railroad, after which he studied and eventually began the practice of law. During his law practice he was elected prose- cuting attorney for the Court of Common Pleas. In the fall of 1859 he was elected clerk of Elkhart Circuit Court, which office he retained till the spring of 1861, when the War of the Rebellion broke out and called him to his country's defense. General Hascall was one of the first company raised in Goshen. This company ar-
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rived at Indianapolis too late, however, to be mustered into either of the six regiments required by the state, and was obliged to dis- band; but having learned that Captain Hascall was a "West Pointer," Governor Morton appointed him captain and aid-de-camp on the staff of Gen. Thomas A. Morris, in which capacity he organ- ized and drilled six regiments in Camp Morton, preparatory to their taking the field. In June, 1861, he accompanied General Morris to West Virginia, upon the first active movement of the war, and was in the fight at Philippi, the first engagement of war after that at Fort Sumter. The next day after that event he was appointed colonel of the Seventeenth Indiana Regiment. Return- ing to Indianapolis he bore, on the way, General Morris' report to General McClellan, and also the flag captured at Philippi. His regiment, mustered for three years, arrived at Parkersburg, West Virginia, about the time of the first battle of Bull Run. After some service in Western Maryland, the regiment was ordered to Grafton, West Virginia, and thence, via Philippi and Beverly, to Elkwater and Cheat Mountain, where it remained until the winter of 1861, participating in all the engagements about Elkwater, Huttonville and Cheat Mountain. When the body of John A. Washington, of Mount Vernon fame, who was killed by Colonel Hascall's regiment at Elkwater was borne back to the enemy, Colonel Hascall received the first flag of truce sent during the war by Gen. Robert E. Lee. In December, 1861, at Louisville, Kentucky, he was placed in command of a brigade consisting of the Seventeenth and Fif- teenth Indiana regiments and the Sixth and Forty-third Ohio regiments, and assigned to Nelson's division. Three months later he was transferred to a brigade in General Wood's division and commanded it at Nashville and Shiloh. In April, 1862, he partici- pated in the battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing, and at the close of the engagement, when General Beauregard requested permission to bury the Confederate dead on the field, received the first flag of truce sent during the war by that general. On April 20, 1862, he was without solicitation promoted to brigadier general of volun- teers, and thereafter until the fall of 1864, was actively engaged in all the operations of the armies of the West, most of the time in command of a division and at times temporarily in command of an army corps. At the Battle of Stone River he commanded the forces on the left after 10 o'clock of the first day, and was more instrumental than any other officer present in preventing the defeat
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on the right from becoming an utter rout of the Union army. After this battle he was sent to Indianapolis to superintend the work of returning deserters from the army in the states of Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. While so engaged he was transferred from the Army of the Cumberland to the Army of the Ohio, and placed in command of the District of Indiana, and during his command there Vallandigham was arrested, the Chicago Times and numerous "Copperhead" papers in Indiana were suppressed, and the great meeting of rebel sympathizers in Indianapolis, to seize the state arms and turn the state over to John Morgan, was foiled in its design. Later, in command of a division of the Twenty-third Army Corps, General Hascall went with the army into East Ten- nessee and took an active part in the capture of Knoxville, and afterward in the siege of the city when Longstreet was attempting its capture. When Sherman moved upon Atlanta, after Long- street's repulse, General Hascall marched at the head of his divi- sion, conspicuous in all the engagements that resulted in the cap- ture of that city, his division planting the first batteries around the doomed town and delivering the first shot and shell into the City of Atlanta. At the close of the war General Hascall, in con- nection with John W. Irwin, engaged in the banking business at Goshen, under the name of the "Salem Bank," and became one of the most active and successful men in that city. In 1879 Messrs. Hascall & Irwin began the manufacture of hardwood lumber on a large scale with John H. Lesh, under the firm name of John H. Lesh & Co. Since 1889 the business has been conducted under the firm name of Irwin & Hascall. It comprehends the manufac- ture of large quantities of black walnut and other hardwood lum- ber, which is sold extensively in Germany, Great Britain, France, Australia and other foreign countries. In 1890 as stated, General Hascall withdrew his interest in the bank at Goshen and took up his residence in Chicago.
THE NINTH INDIANA REGIMENT
Company C, Ninth Regiment, was organized within Elkhart County, and mustered into service April 24, 1864, for a three months' term, under Capt. Theodore F. Mann; Charles H. Kirken- dall, first lieutenant, and James D. Braden, afterward Elkhart's chief of police, second lieutenant. The Ninth Regiment had a
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brief but brilliant campaign from the surprise of Philippi, under Colonel Kelley, to Laurel Hill and Carrick's Ford, under General Morris. The first Union soldier to yield his life on the battle- field was William T. Girard, of Company G, Ninth Regiment, who fell at Laurel Hill.
The Ninth Regiment (three years' volunteers ) was mustered in at Lafayette, September 5, 1861, and Elkhart men were scattered through the entire regiment. Company C was composed entirely of Elkhart County men under Capt. D. G. Risly, who was suc- ceeded by First Lieut. J. D. Braden and, on his promotion to the rank of major, by A. J. Martin. During the four years' service the company received a large number of recruits, mostly from Elkhart County, and from Greenbrier in October, 1861, to the pur- suit of General Hood 1864-5, their work stands out nobly.
THE SEVENTEENTH
The Seventeenth Regiment was organized at Camp Morton during May, 1861, under Col. Milo S. Hascall, who, for the dis- tinguished part taken by him at Greenbrier and in the operations of General Reynolds' corps, was promoted to the rank of brig- adier general March 25, 1862, when the colonelcy devolved upon his lieutenant colonel, John J. Wilder, of Greensburg. Lieutenant Colonel Wilder continued in command until his resignation in Octo- ber, 1864, when Jacob J. Vail was appointed. Several men from Greensburg served in the Seventeenth, but the roster does not show any Elkhart County enlisted men.
COMPANY G, NINETEENTH INFANTRY
The Nineteenth Regiment numbered among its captains from Elkhart County, John R. Clark, J. W. Shafer and Julius M. Wald- schmidt, of Company G. The non-commissioned officers and pri- vates of that command, nearly all of whom were from Elkhart County, numbered ninety-seven.
THE FIRST TO ENTER NEW ORLEANS
On July 24, 1861, about fifty volunteers were mustered into the Twenty-first Regiment from Goshen and vicinity, including
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Lieuts. A. W. Simmons and E. F. Hubbell. The regiment was the first of the Union forces to land at the New Orleans wharf under Butler and the first to enter that southern city. For dis- tinguished services in the Louisiana campaign, the Elkhart County company was afterward transferred to the First Heavy Artillery.
COMPANY B, OF THE TWENTY-NINTH
There were several men from Millersburg in the First Cavalry, or Twenty-eighth Regiment, and more than a hundred officers and privates joined the Twenty-ninth from the county, mostly incorporated as Company B. The regiment was in command of John F. Miller, of South Bend, who was placed at the head of a brigade soon after the arrival of his command in Kentucky, and afterward became a leading Union officer. After the war he was appointed collector of the San Francisco port and elected United States senator from California. He died in 1880, during his sena- torial term.
Company B of the Twenty-ninth was mustered into the service in the fall of 1861, under command of Capt. H. G. P. Oblinger; first lieutenant, Henry G. Davis; second lieutenant, James M. Barns. In December, 1862, Lieutenant Davis succeeded Oblinger as captain and was subsequently promoted lieutenant colonel, One Hundred and First Regiment United States Colored troops. He was succeeded by Capt. Levi M. Hess. The remaining officers of the company were: First lieutenants, Richard McCarvey, John Hines and Jacob Miller; second lieutenants, Elijah A. Macomber and Jacob Miller. The regiment served with credit in the Ros- seau, Buell and Rosecrans campaigns.
COMPANY K, THIRTIETH INDIANA VOLUNTEERS
Company K, of the Thirtieth Regiment, was recruited from Elkhart County, largely from Goshen. Kaufman Funk, its first captain, was succeeded by Myron A. Hawks, Y. S. Amlie, S. B. McGuire, John E. Thompson, Thomas H. Chance and W. N. Culbertson. The three last named were promoted from the ranks. The non-commissioned officers and privates mustered over ninety strong. From Shiloh to Nashville the Elkhart County con- tingent gave a good account of themselves.
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THE SECOND CAVALRY
The Second Cavalry, or Forty-first Regiment, comprised the Elkhart County Company K-its officers and privates numbering nearly 100. The regiment obtained its first war experience on the road to Corinth in April, 1862, and the cavalry received fresh honors at Gallatin, Vinegar Hill, and Perryville. In 1864 it entered upon the Atlanta campaign under General Sherman. Company M was recruited in Goshen in October, 1861. Albert S. Blake, captain, was suceceded by Joseph A. S. Mitchell, first lieutenant ; first lieu- tenants, J. A. S. Mitchell, Henry H. Dunlap, William C. Blaine and William D. Stover. Hiram F. Kidder, of Goshen, was adjutant.
COMPANY I, FORTY-FOURTH REGIMENT
The military element of Elkhart County was also included in the roster of the Forty-fourth Regiment. Company I was composed almost entirely of men from that section. The regiment was officered as follows: Col. J. F. Curtis; Lieut. Col. J. C. Hodges ; Adjt. S. E. Smith ; Capts. A. Heath, D. S. Belnap, and O. D. Scovel; Lieuts. W. H. Houghland, F. Baldwin, C. M. Hinman, C. W. Green and Platt Hougland. On every field from Fort Donelson to Chick- amauga this regiment distinguished itself. During the period of the war 408 of its men were killed.
THE FORTY-EIGHTH LARGELY AN ELKHART COUNTY REGIMENT
The Forty-eighth Regiment was composed principally of men from Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, Companies A, H, G and I being almost entirely from the former county. The officers of the regiment furnished by Elkhart County were as follows: Colonels, Norman Eddy and Edward J. Wood; lieutenant colonel, J. W. Leitch; majors, B. D. Townsend, Q. C. Charles and L. Murray ; chaplain, J. W. Smith; surgeon, F. T. Bryson; captains, Alfred Billows, W. P. Allen and H. E. Robbins ; lieutenants, A. B. Cramp- ton, E. J. King and I. J. Parmeter.
In September, 1861, Dr. E. W. H. Ellis was appointed by Gov- ernor Morton commandant of a recruiting camp, established at the fair grounds two miles south of Goshen. Early in October, Com- pany A, then commanded by Capt. D. B. Townsend, marched to the
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camp. The regiment, as organized, showed the following roster of officers: Norman Eddy, colonel; Edward J. Wood, lieutenant- colonel; Dewit C. Rugg, major; Edward P. Stanfield, adjutant ; Charles L. Murray, quartermaster; John W. Smith, chaplain ; Levi J. Hamm, surgeon; Frank T. Bryson, assistant surgeon; E. E. L. Billings, commissary pro tem. Company A was recruited at Elk- hart and Company G at Middlebury. Goshen furnished Com- pany I.
Capt. Ed. J. Wood was succeeded by George W. Gibbon, Gilbert D. Swart; first lieutenants, Abram S. Fisher, George W. Gibbon, Edwin S. Foljambe, Wm. R. Ellis, Lewis A. Rainer ; second lieuten- ants, Henry Milburn, George W. Gibbon, Wm. R. Ellis, Alonzo P. Carr.
Company G was mustered into the service January 16, 1862. At various times its captains were R. F. Mann and J. H. Lieb ; lieu- tenants, G. W. Thayer and Henry Kubyshek; sergeant-major, F. Black.
Originally, Company H was the German unit of the Forty- eighth, and was mustered into the service December 27, 1861. under Capt. Gustavus Paulus. He retired in July following and was suc- ceeded, in succession, by Gotlieb Schauble and J. C. McBride. Dur- ing the progress of the war J. Rohrig was promoted to a first lieu- tenancy and George W. Hollingshed promoted to second lieutenant. As the months passed and new recruits were required to fill up its ranks, the company lost somewhat its German stamp, and by the end of the war many nationalities were represented.
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