USA > Indiana > Newton County > A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 17
USA > Indiana > Jasper County > A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 17
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
A. J. Guthridge opened the store here in a little cabin situated a half mile north of William Parkinson's place, on the farm of Mr. Casad. His stock was confined to the actual necessities, but which became almost impossible luxuries when only acquired by a long, tedious journey. His patronage, though not large, was drawn from the Kankakee to the Monon rivers. The blacksmith shop opened by Henry Freshaur, in 1839, was patronized from far and near, until that of Rial Benjamin and others south of the Iroquois and Pinkamink, divided his trade. In this settlement, also, was the first brick dwelling in Jasper County, which was erected by Thomas Randle. This was placed with the corners toward the northeast and southwest, as he feared the strength of the furious storms which swept over the country. It is related that the Indians were especially attracted to this dwelling, and often came on begging errands, much to the discomfiture of Mrs. Randle, who could never learn to bear their presence with equanimity. Her corn cakes were their especial admiration. It was their habit to wait their cooking, and take them warm from the griddle, showing their appreciation and approach to civilization, however, by laying down a quarter, and leaving in silence. The squaws were frequent visitors, and it was not an infrequent thing to see two or three papooses stood up against the outside of the house while the mothers were inside.
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But the Forks was early displaced by the Rapids and for many years before 1878, when Rensselaer obtained railroad connection,
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was simply known as Pleasant Grove Postoffice. It was a few miles north-by-east of the county seat.
THE BLUE GRASS SETTLEMENT
When the pioneers of Jasper County first came to the Rapids, or Falls of the Iroquois, they found in what is now Newton Town- ship an Indian village. The Pottawatttamies, in the cultivation of their corn and vegetable fields, had burned the wild grass over quite an area, and blue grass had naturally taken its place. About 1836 William Mallatt, whose claim at the Rapids had been jumped, or floated, selected land near the Indian village. He was soon joined by the Benjamins, Lewis Elijah, the Thomas family, Alvah Yeoman and others, who called their community the Blue Grass Settlement. A church and a school were soon organized, but no village was ever platted. So much corn was raised by the Indians and the white settlers that S. H. Benjamin erected one of the first corn-crackers in the county. His contrivance stood on two stumps about eight feet high, and the custom eventually came from a radius of ten or fifteen miles, or until better mills were established. The distinctive name of the settlement was maintained for many years, and even long afterward applied to the schoolhouse, estab- lished in the neighborhood.
CARPENTER'S GROVE
The settlement of Jordan Township usually known as Carpen- ter's Grove, was rather an adjunct of Rensselaer than independent. Its principal members came in about 1836, and were, in addition to John Jordan, Samuel Sparling, his wife, father and mother and brother, Samuel Benson, wife and child, and John Franklin, wife and two children. These all came together in two wagons, from Allegany County, New York, drawn thither by the representations of Augustus Bingham, a brother-in-law of Sparling, who had set- tled in Newton County in 1835. Sparling settled near the Iroquois at the "cut off," to which point the river was reported as navigable at that time. Franklin settled four or five miles further down the river. Sparling subsequently moved to the county seat, and was one of the early families to locate there.
DAVIDSONVILLE
Davidsonville was laid out by Moses E. and Lewis Davidson, the plat of which was recorded June 18, 1850. This village was
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located a short distance up the stream from the crossing at Saltillo, and consisted of two blocks, one street and an alley. It attained the prominence of a mill, a grocery, a shop or two, and several dwellings. If the Continental Line Railroad had reached it, the village might still have retained a place in the geography of the county, but that enterprise was crushed in 1873 and the village site for years marked by the ruins of one old mill is now swept clean. A short-lived distillery threatened to change the name of the place, and it was once locally known as Haddox Mill Pond, or Haddoxville, from the proprietor of the still. Saltillo and Davidsonville, are still to be found marked on the old maps, though with so much variation in location as to satisfy the claims of any one ambitious to claim its vicinity.
HANGING GROVE
The early community which settled within the present limits of Hanging Grove Township was closely allied to that of Gillam, from the necessity of their natural surroundings. The name of the township originated in a grove of oak, which by a freak of nature drooped their branches almost to the ground. Here the families of Robert Parker, Robert and William Overton, came in March of 1837. These families were natives of Pennsylvania, but came here from Rush County, in this state. In May following, John Lefler came here with a drove of cattle to graze, and sub- sequently came here to live. Donahue came to this section in July of this year, and in the latter part of the year, Joseph Oosley came here from Kentucky. Michael Lefler came in 1839, and the set- tlement gradually increased until it became independent under township organization.
TOWN OF WHEATFIELD
Wheatfield, an incorporated town of about 400 people, is on the line of the Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railroad Company, in the northern part of the county, and dates from the building of that road, under the name of the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific Railway, in the early 'Sos. With the draining and general improve- ment of the Kankakee region, the village has become the center of a productive and prosperous region, and is the banking and shipping town for much of the northern part of the county.
Wheatfield is in the midst of a productive grain and vegetable district, and among its industries is a pickle factory conducted by
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Claussen & Son. The tile factory is owned and operated by John A. Williams, and is the source of supply for means of drainage in most of the adjacent lands. A good bank also adds to its advan- tages as a trade center.
The village has a good school under the superintendency of Mor- gan L. Sterrett, the building being erected in 1907. In that year R. J. Owen became the first superintendent; P. R. Blue served in 1908-09; M. L. Sterrett in 1909-12; Lester A. Sayers, 1912-15, and Mr. Sterrett a second term since the latter year.
Bank of Wheatfield was organized as a private institution in 1900 with a capital stock of $10,000. The first officers were : Robert Parker, president; J. P. Hammond, cashier. Mr. Parker sold his holdings in 1905, Mr. Hammond continuing as cashier until 1908. In 1905 Horace Marble became president and in 1906 the capital stock was increased to $13,000. In 1908 H. W. Marble succeeded Mr. Hammond as cashier. In 1910 Horace Marble, the president, died and was succeeded by his son, H. W. Marble, who has continued as president to the present. In 1910 A. L. Jensen became cashier and has since officiated as such. The capital of the bank is $13,000; surplus and undivided profits, $8,000; average deposits, $140,000.
Neither are the religious wants and needs of the community neglected. There are Methodist, Christian and Catholic churches. the first named being the only organization of the kind with a settled pastor. Rev. G. A. Emerich is pastor of the Methodist Church.
The Catholic Church of the Sorrowful Mother consists of about twenty-five families, in charge of Rev. H. Hoerstman, of St. Edward's parish, Lowell, Lake County. Early in the '70s there was a little German settlement on the old Indian ridge, or Potta- wattamie trail, through the Kankakee swamps, which were then commencing to be tiled and drained. Rev. Joseph Stephan, of San Pierre, Starke County, first celebrated mass among these Ger- man Catholics, generally in the log cabin of William Grube. Then some Franciscan fathers came from Lafayette, and for years after- ward the spiritual supply for the Wheatfield church was drawn from priests stationed at the so-called Indian School, near St. Joseph's College, Rensselaer. Father Hoerstman has been in charge since 1912. The church was organized at Wheatfield by Rev. Dominic Shunk in 1886, under whose direction a little log church was built and dedicated. This was afterward replaced by a larger frame meeting house, also erected under Father Shunk's ministry.
Father Hoerstman has also charge of the congregation at New- land.
CHAPTER XIV
NEWTON COUNTY BEFORE IT WAS A POLITICAL BODY
DARROCH'S REVIEW PREVIOUS TO CIVIL ORGANIZATION-NO INDIAN HISTORY -- THE PERIOD OF LAWLESSNESS-EARLY ADVENTURERS- THE KENOYER SETTLEMENT-FIRST POSTOFFICE AT BROOK- JOHN MURPHY FOUNDS MOROCCO-JOHN ADE LOCATES THERE -MOROCCO AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD IN 1853-LANDS IN THE GOODLAND REGION-ALEXANDER J. KENT AND KENTLAND.
Much of the general historic matter already presented in this volume refers as logically to Newton as to Jasper County. The transfers of sovereignty from French to English and from Eng- lish to American hands, of the territory now included in North- western Indiana; the clearing of Indian titles from the lands, and the final departure of the Miamis and Pottawattamies from the soil, the forests and the streams over which they held uncertain ownership, and the story of the creation of the Twin counties previ- ous to the time when Newton acquired a well-defined body politic -all such topics as these have a legitimate bearing upon the history and development of the Newton County of the present. In suc- ceeding pages the main lines of historic expansion will diverge from the point in the late '50s when the movement commenced to form a new county out of Jasper, as then constituted.
DARROCH'S REVIEW PREVIOUS TO CIVIL ORGANIZATION
But considerable pioneering was accomplished as a necessary foundation for the civic superstructure which afterward arose. Quite a number of settlers came into the territory of the Newton County of 1916 when it was little more than a name and depended upon other more settled and organized communities for its political rights and legal protection. John Darroch, who did so much to organize the first distinctive government of the county, has left
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on record a general survey of the foreground of men and events which leads up to Newton's actual birth in 1860. "After the Black Hawk War of 1832," he says, "the Indians having all moved west of the Mississippi river, emigration from the older states of the Union became so great that the legislature of Indiana, through the efforts of John Wanten of Jennings County, chairman of the Committee on the Formation of New Counties, passed a bill in the year 1835 to lay off into counties the northwestern portion of Indiana. Following are the counties created : Jay, Adams, DeKalb, Steuben, Whitley, Kosciusco, Fulton, Marshall, Stark, Pulaski, Jasper and Newton.
"Newton county, as then laid off, was bounded on the south by the line dividing Townships 28 and 29 north, and extended north to the lake and was attached to Warren for judicial purposes, but never had an organized existence. Lake County was soon after- ward organized out of the territory north of the Kankakee river, and in the year 1838, Jasper County-its territory then embracing the present counties of Jasper, Newton and Benton. The first Commissioners' Court was held at Parish's Grove, and an order was made by said court that all the courts should be held at the resi- dence of George W. Spitler on the south side of the Iroquois river below the cut-off. Isaac N. Naylor, of Crawfordsville, Ind., was the first judge; Hon. J. A. Wright, of Rockville-he who after- ward was member of Congress, governor of Indiana, United States Senator and minister to Berlin-was the first prosecutor ; and George W. Spitler was the first clerk, also auditor and recorder, and held his office for a number of years. In 1840 the county seat was located at Rensselaer.
"The first settlements in this county, like all other new settlements of those days, were made along the water-courses. There are evi- dences of settlements on the Iroquois river, when and by whom made I have been unable to ascertain. The chief monuments left by them to mark where their cabins stood are dilapidated fireplaces. In 1831 John Lyons, father of Aaron Lyons, lived one year south of the river on the farm now owned by Charles Martin. About this time, owing to the threatening attitude of the Sacs and Fox Indians, whose chief was Black Hawk, about 500 Kickapoo Indians left their homes in Illinois, and spent about one year on the Iroquois river hunting, trapping and fishing, and then returned to their homes.
"In the year 1832, Aaron Lyons, above mentioned, was born on the south side of the river near what is known by the first settlers as
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the 'cut-off.' Aaron is the oldest man to the manor born in Newton County.
"Up to the year 1840 quite a number of settlers was added; of the arrival of whom I have no dates. Among them were the Spit- lers, Andersons, Roberts, Lyons, Kenoyers, Barkers, Dunns, Elijahs, Elliotts and others. I think that in the year 1850 we could poll the good round number of 100 votes in what is now Newton County. There were about 24 votes in Beaver Township when they all turned out.
"It was not until about the year 1850 that much effort was made to farm or cultivate the prairie soil of this county. From the year 1854 to 1857, there was quite a speculative fever in the swamp lands of northern Jasper County. Some parties at Indianapolis being largely interested in the lands procured an act of the legislature forming new counties, and they proceeded in 1857 to carry their speculations into effect, marking out their county which was called Kankakee County. James Ballard, swamp land engineer, laid out their town near the center of the proposed county, and I believe they called it Cobbtown, and put their petition in circulation for the same. The citizens of the western part of the county, who had been thinking of a division of the county north and south, early in the summer of 1857 held a meeting at Morocco, and voted to present a petition for division to the Board of Commissioners at their Sep- tember term, which was done-said petition stating that the name of the new county should be known as Newton.
"These who took an active part in this matter were Silas Johnson, John Ade and Thomas Barker-he who named the new county- John Andrews and many others of our best citizens. After inci- dents usual to all petitions-traveling the routines of the courts and some delays-the petition was granted, and the court appointed as commissioners to determine the boundaries of the new county, Zecha- riah Spitler, David Creek and John Darroch. In the spring of 1860, Governor Willard appointed three commissioners to lay off the county seat, which was located about one mile east of Kentland-so said. In the spring of 1860 the Governor appointed Thomas R. Barker organizing sheriff, who called an election to be held on the IIth day of April to fill the county offices. The following were New- ton County's first officials: Zechariah Spitler, clerk; Samuel Mc- Cullough, Treasurer ; Alexander Sharp, auditor ; John Ade, recorder ; Elijah Shriver, sheriff ; T. R. Barker, William Russell and Michael Coffelt, commissioners."
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No INDIAN HISTORY
As a county, Newton has really no Indian history which can be depicted in distinct lines; for when the first whites commenced to arrive in the early '30s the one Pottawattamie village which is said to have existed a few miles north of what is now Morocco had been long abandoned. Corn fields were still found in a number of places, but what few Indians roamed through its marshes or along its streams to hunt and fish did not stay even long enough to reculti- vate them for a season ; for, like poor Jo in Dickens' London streets, they were bidden by the white men, in no uncertain tones, to "move on."
FATAL AFFRAY BETWEEN TWO INDIAN CHIEFS
It was not far from the site of the Pottawattamie village-to be exact, on the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 30, known in later, but still early times, as Silas Johnson's Grove, or Turkey Foot Grove-that a feud between two Indian bands was fought out by their chiefs, and both the principals in the bloody fight were knived to death. The story, which has descended from Thomas Barker, the pioneer who was a youth of sixteen at the time of the occurrence, is told by D. A. Protsman, who purchased Turkey Foot Grove (named after one of the Indian chiefs who was killed) about seventeen years ago. He received the narrative direct from Mr. Barker's son, S. C. Barker; also from a son of - Joseph Dunn. Although the seniors, Barker and Dunn, were not witnesses to the fight, they were in the neighborhood hunting at the time, discovered the bodies of the chiefs after they had been prepared for burial by the Indians, and obtained the facts of the fatal affray from those who had witnessed it.
The story, as told by Mr. Protsman, is substantially as follows : In November, 1829, Turkey Foot and Bull, chiefs of two tribes who had had some disagreement, appointed a meeting at the locality named in an endeavor to arrange their differences without a resort to hostilities. Each was accompanied by about twenty-five of his followers, but, as it was discovered that some of them were armed, the leaders agreed to have their sons-in-law collect and hide all the weapons brought to what was planned to be a council of peace. The collectors hid the weapons in the neighboring marshes-all except two knives, one of which was retained by each son-in-law unknown to the other. They then returned to the parley to await the outcome.
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The chiefs finally got into a dispute, which ended in such a fierce fight that they rolled on the ground like wild animals. As the climax, Bull had Turkey Foot under him and was chewing off his nose, when the son-in-law of the under chief stabbed Bull to death. Then the son-in-law of the dead chief plunged his knife into Turkey Foot, killing him instantly.
The feud being thus settled, the Indians roped the two chiefs in their blankets, leaving their faces bare, laid them side by side on the ground, and built a pen of poles around their bodies to protect them from wild beasts.
A few days afterward, Messrs. Barker and Dunn, young men hunting in the neighborhood, discovered the bodies of the dead chiefs in their pen. About six weeks later they returned and found them still undisturbed, although the faces had become somewhat dried and "mummyfied." The hunters were standing at one side of the inclosure looking at the corpses, when one of the bodies com- menced to move up and down. They were certainly awed and startled until they discovered that there was a hole under the pen into which one of the hunting dogs had squeezed itself and from which it was in a good position to gnaw and pull at the blanket of the dead chief.
Afterward the bodies of Bull and Turkey Foot were burned. The bones came into possession of Dr. C. E. Triplett, when he located at Morocco, and were subsequently burned in the fire which destroyed his residence. .
THE PERIOD OF LAWLESSNESS
In its early history, Jasper County bore an unsavory reputation. The impenetrable character of the swamp lands along the Kankakee River afforded a safe retreat for a class of criminals who were early known as the "Bandits of the Prairie," and while their depre- dations were not committed so much upon the people here, they made this region a resort to evade the pursuit from other quarters, and gained for the county the reputation of being a community of thieves. This class infested the Northwest as early as 1837, and while they scrupled at the commission of no form of crime, they were especially annoying in their principal business of horse-stealing and counterfeiting. Their plan of operation was to take the lighter horses of Illinois to Indiana and sell them, making their return trip with heavy draft horses which were disposed of in Iowa and Mich- igan. For a time these depredations were carried on with impunity.
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The population, scattered at considerable distances apart, was prin- cipally confined to the edge of the timber, leaving the prairie a broad highway for these bandits to pass from one end of the country to the other undiscovered. The early settlers did not submit to this state of affairs without some effort to bring these persons to justice and to recover their property, but singly the pioneers proved poor trappers of this game. The bandits were known to be desperate characters, adepts in the use of weapons, and in traveling the open prairie, and it often happened that when a party got close upon the thieves, discretion seemed the better part of valor, and the chase was given up. Their success emboldened these robbers, and the early land and stock buyers learned to seldom travel alone, and never unarmed.
A good horse caused many persons to be waylaid and killed, and a large amount of money in the possession of an unprotected person, almost inevitably brought him into trouble. Burglary soon followed success on the road. Farmers became more cautious and evaded these footpads. In this case the cabin was entered, and the money taken, while the family was kept discreetly quiet by a threatening pistol. The open-handed hospitality of a new country made the settlers an easy prey to those who lacked even the traditional respect of the Beduoin freebooter. It was impossible to discriminate be- tween the worthy stranger and the bandit, and the stranger taken in was more likely to prove a robber than an angel in disguise. Civil authority seemed hopelessly incapable of remedying the evil. Occa- sionally a desperado would be apprehended. Legal quibbles would follow and the rascals get free, or justice would be delayed until a jail-delivery would set him loose to prey upon the public again. This occurred with such monotonous regularity and unvarying suc- cess, that the scattered pioneers began to lose confidence in each other, and anarchy seemed about to be ushered in.
Counterfeiting was an evil which was carried on to a considerable extent within the limits of this county, and caused a great deal of indignation among the honest settlers here. The two classes of out- laws were united and had their sympathizers everywhere among the early settlers. Indeed, the latter class became so bold in their operations as to take little pains to conceal their work, and so skilled as to deceive the officials of the land office. It is said that a neighbor came upon a blacksmith of this county one rainy day, and found him busily engaged in coining bogus money. He made no attempt to conceal his dies, but said, in a matter-of-fact way, that he had just finished making enough to enter another quarter section
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of land, and proposed to stop the business. This he did, destroying his dies and showing them to his neighbor, but he secured the land, and no official scrutiny was ever directed toward his manner of getting his property. This was not an isolated case, and both men were respected as men of high social character and probity, but the theory seemed to exist that so long as the evil was not directed against the home community, it was not a venial crime.
Such looseness in the public morals, however, had its inevitable reaction, and the reputation and peace of the community began to suffer. Horse-thieving, petty larceny of all kinds, malicious destruc- tion of property, murderous assaults and counterfeit money became prevalent right here, and finally aroused the people to the necessity of a determined prosecution of these offenses. Accordingly, in February, 1858, a company was organized in this county under "an act authorizing the formation of companies for the detection and apprehension of horse-thieves and other felons, and defining their powers." It was composed of two men from each township under the direction of a captain, and each man was constituted a detective to arrest or cause the arrest of any suspicious character. The effect of this company's work was prompt and salutary. Before the or- ganization was two weeks old, it secured the apprehension of a noted horse-thief, and a week later had him safely incarcerated in the penetentiary under sentence of a five years' term. The honest resi- dents of the county cordially aided the company, which in a year or two rid the country of the gang which infested the county. On one occasion, a new wagon of a settler was found mutilated and essen- tially ruined. Suspicion pointed to a man and his four sons, one of whom was apprehended and examined. Nothing could be elicited, and it was determined to try more forcible means. A rope was procured and the victim pulled up to a tree in the courthouse yard. After suspending him as long as they dared, he was lowered. But he still remained firm in his denial of any knowledge of the affair. He was again strung up and would probably have died had not one of the Rangers cut him down. Once brought to his senses, he "gave the whole gang away." This organization subsequently got upon the track of the counterfeiters' organization, found and destroyed dies of these operators in Union Township, McClellan, Bogus Island, and west of these places. These places were evidently the work- shops of the gang, and contained guns, saddles and bridles, counter- feit coin, dies, provisions, etc. There was no serious encounter, though armed men'appeared to dispute the party's advance. Finding a determined show of force would not turn the Rangers from their
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