USA > Indiana > Kosciusko County > A standard history of Kosciusko County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development. A chronicle of the people with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 10
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Joseph Rippey, Abraham Buckley, William Switzer, William B. Wade and John Thompson pre-empted claims in section 10; Andrew Garvin made a selection in section 18, and John Reese, in section 20; John Ervin and Henry Lee pre-empted tracts in section 21; Benja- min Bennett, William B. Chapman and William Ervin, in section 22; John Ervin, in section 25, and Hiram Elliott, in section 32.
THE HARLAN FAMILY
Of those mentioned in the foregoing list, the Harlan, Ervin and Rippey families became widely known in the northern districts of the county. Five or six members of the Harlan family pre-empted lands. They were Quakers and five of the brothers, who were to be founders of the American stock, started from England with William Penn to establish his colony. Three of them, however, died at sea and a fourth passed away soon after his arrival in Pennsyl- vania, leaving only one of the brothers to continue the family name in America. The survivor, in turn, became the father of five sons, and from them have been traced the descendants who have variously spelled their names.
It is claimed for Elijah Harlan that he was the first white man to build a cabin in Plain Township with a view of making it his permanent home, and the story of his coming, settlement and subse- quent career has already been told.
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
THE ERWINS
The Ervins. Erwins. or Irvines, are of an ancient Scotch family, and claim Washington Irving as a member of one of its clans. The early emigrants settled both in the southern and old middle states, and during the Civil war the allegiance of the families was naturally divided.
The Kosciusko County Erwins were descended from Charles, who emigrated from Dublin, Ireland. in 1814. and settled in Springfield. Ohio. In 1825 he moved from the Buckeye state to Indiana, locat- ing near Goshen. Elkhart County. In 1835 he became a resident of Kosciusko County. entering the land known later as the Holderman farm. Mr. Erwin spent the last years of his life at Leesburg, and left a large family of sons and daughters, several of whom have become quite prominent.
JOHN THOMPSON
John Thompson, who pre-empted land in section 10. was the son of Abraham. who founded the family homestead, about a mile north- east. in 1833. In December of that year the father pre-empted a quarter section of heavily timbered land in that locality and built a log cabin on the north side of the road. There, in section 2. he cleared two acres and set out an orchard, and, as most of the trees upon his land were sugar maples, his homestead was soon considered as among the most desirable in the county. Mr. Thompson also rented fifteen acres of prairie land from Levi Lee, on the east side of the timber strip which afterward became the site of Leesburg, planting it to corn and preparing it for a crop, until such time as he could clear a tract on his own land. In 1835. he bought his claim of the Government. and, with his family, lived thereon until his death in 1846. Two of the sons, James and John, left the family homestead two years after their father's death and moved into Cham- paign County. Illinois, Jesse and Charles remaining home. From them have descended the Thompsons now residing in the county.
ABRAHAM CUNNINGHAM LOCATES ON BONE PRAIRIE
Abraham Cunningham came from Ohio to Plain Township in the spring of 1535 and entered a quarter section lying between Tippe- canoe Lake and what is known as Stanton Lake. He then returned to Ohio and in the following autumn brought his two single dangh-
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ters, and his married son and son-in-law, with their wives and chil- dren, to Bone Prairie; and there three cabins were built and the farms selected cultivated.
At that time Oswego was an Indian village, and there were no roads east of the place, with the exception of an Indian trail, or bridle path. The savages were all around, and night after night the Cunninghams were aroused by the howling of drunken Indians as they passed through the woods.
Abraham Cunningham lived but a few years after he settled in Plain Township, but his son, Thomas B., continued to reside upon the old homestead and improve it for nearly half a century. The latter died there in 1884.
One of the three log cabins built in the winter of 1835-36 is still standing, and forms the kitchen to the Joseph Lippincott home, located on the north side of Stanton Lake. The building is in good repair and has been occupied all these years by the children and the grandchildren of Abraham Cunningham.
The Rippey family owes its planting in the county to the fact that Joseph displeased his Scotch father in selecting his own religion, and left the old home in West Virginia, first for Ohio, and afterward for Indiana. He was a blacksmith by trade, and accumulated both money and property, but lost much of his means by being security for those who abused his confidence in them.
David Rippey, the son of Joseph, was attracted to the prairies of Northern Indiana, and in 1834 visited his brother, Matthew, who had pre-empted land on Elkhart Prairie. While there, he examined Turkey Creek Prairie, and bought two quarter sections south of what was soon to become Leesburg, fixing his homestead upon the land which he had purchased of Henry Lee. His brother, Joseph, who had come out with Matthew Rippey to Elkhart Prairie, took charge of the land until David could return to Henry County, Indiana, and make arrangements to move.
FIFTEEN DAYS OVERLAND TRIP IN INDIANA
The journey of the David Rippey family from Henry County, east of the central part of the state, to Northern Indiana, is so typical of the migrations of the pioneer Hoosiers of the '30s that the interesting account of it written by James M. Armstrong, the old soldier and editor of Leesburg, is in point. It is as follows: "On April 12, 1835, Mr. Rippey started for their new home in Northern Indiana in a big covered wagon known in those pioneer days as Vol. 1-7
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
'prairie schooners,' drawn by four yoke of oxen. The family at that time consisted of Mr. and Mrs. David Rippey, Henry C., May June and William, the last named being a baby just beginning to walk. His sister, Mary Rippey, Samuel Fennimore, William Catey and Milton Jeffries accompanied them. Their stock consisted of two horses, some sheep, two cows and calves. On account of the bad roads they made slow progress. While passing through what was known as Killbuck swamps, just north of Muncie, then but a small village, they met what, under the circumstances, was quite a serious accident, in the breaking of the hind axle of the wagon. This caused a delay of one or two days.
THE PIONEER CABIN COMPLETED
"After passing through Muncie they found the country very thinly settled. They passed through Marion and Lagro, then but small villages. From Lagro to North Manchester, there were but very few houses, and the roads only such in name. On account of the wolves, the stock had to be corraled every night in a pen built of poles and brush, and fires, fed with logs and brush, as a protec- tion. One night, notwithstanding this vigilance, the wolves caught a calf, but the men, with the assistance of a dog, drove them away before the calf was seriously hurt.
"They crossed Eel River at Manchester, which at that time con- sisted of but two or three log cabins. They were among the first, if not the first emigrants, to ford the river at that point. On the last
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day of their journey, April 25th, they camped near the cabin of Peter Warner on the Tippecanoe River. The next day, April 26, 1836, about noon, they arrived at their home in Plain Township, just south of Leesburg.
"The home was a small hewed log cabin with but one room, cov- ered with clapboards held to their places with poles. The floor was made of puncheons, split from a big linn tree. The fireplace was built of flat stone and the chimney of sticks and mud. A big fire was soon burning in the fireplace, the goods unloaded and prepara- tions made for dinner in the new home which they were glad to reach after a tiresome journey of fifteen days; which today can be com- fortably made in less than that many hours.
THE OLD-TIME NEIGHBORLY WELCOME
"The old-time neighborly interest in all new-comers was then in vogue and the neighbors made haste as soon as they heard of the arrival of the Rippeys to drop in and welcome them, and to offer any assistance they might need; which was a pleasure and an encourage- ment to the new arrivals. It was early springtime, the trees and shrubs had begun to array themselves in their beautiful foliage of green, and the broad prairie spread out to the north and west of the Rippey home like an emerald sea of waving grass. It was truly an inspiring sight, one calculated to encourage and inspire them with a love for their new home.
"At that time there were but few settlers in this part of the county ; among them were the Summys, the Plummers, Guys and the Bishops on the north side of the prairie. On the east was the cabin of Thomas Harper, on the southwest the cabin of John Colyer (built on the north side of the Clunette road just west of the gravel pit). Here Mr. Colyer set out an orchard, some of which remained until quite a recent date. On the northwest and just west of Leesburg was the cabin of James Mason, and to the north on Little Turkey Creek Prairie were the Chapmans, the Harlans and the Rumleys.
1
"Leesburg had just been laid out by Mr. Lee, and John R. and William Blaine were erecting a store building on the corner now occupied by the Kohler & Company store room.
UNION LABOR WITHOUT UNION HOURS
"Mr. Rippey was soon busy fixing up the place, breaking up the virgin soil and planting corn. The breaking was done with four
HISTORY OF KOSTIUSKO COUNTY
mit of men thebad w a heary heains www. One man arcre the exam and amacher held the piow, and at every third round Mrs Ripper and her sister irlowed and dripped a row of con. In this war they planted fryy eres of amon, whict grew neely withour any Further wink and made a ine ong in the ial That same ial they
" In se piroer days. i was almost impossible w keep the Then four and wal berel in good woodtico, the ely forring mills
ElFinan River. at a village now howwe as Bainterr wm and they had wri nth a pure When the an bar bad ough they grated it and made mell fre ther johnny cakes.
The til Induz trad leading from Momogmex :: Leesburg and Oswar ran thise in the Ripper cabin, and while the Indians wer: not betile. they weren frightened the women and children, mock t The armsement of the red men."
HENRY REPET
David Bogey why they made the fireen days' journey times Central and Nurchen Indiana Tved on the old farm pear Leesburg Sure thing-six years In 1571 be purchased a home in Warsaw, where he died about three years aberrand. His oldest son. Hemm, became a lawyer and practiced for some time in Iowa where he also engaged passed the last years of his Life in Florida. The members of the
ationisthe age was iwas demind viết in Inis The wird vent ou fem Mr Leri Lee and his be organized for that purpose At the
them or sealle wirus and landed the raw material to Lesburg.
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
oxen, moved slowly to lot 41 on Prairie Street. The "corner" build- ers were selected, skids were prepared, and all the other prepara- tions made to erect the little log cabin, which was to serve the cause of education. In log cabin times it was considered a neat job to run up a nice-looking corner. and almost every community had its experts in that line. There was often quite a rivalry as to who could run up his corner the quickest and neatest. It is said the eon- test was remarkably brisk in the building of the first schoolhouse at Leesburg. but nothing has come down to us to indicate who proved to be the star performer. That cabin schoolhouse, with its big open fireplace and its little windows. its puncheon floor and rough benches. did service for several years, when a small frame building at the east end of town replaced it.
WILLIAM C. GRAVES
With a brand-new schoolhouse on their hands. the villagers locked around for a teacher. Fortunately. they found a good one at band- William C. Graves, a youth of eighteen with a superior education for those days, who had recently arrived from his West Virginia home. He gladly accepted the situation offered him. and taught the school for nine months. Mr. Graves then spent over a year in Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, engaged in mercantile pursuits, as the county clerk's deputy in Elkhart County and in the study of law at South Bend. At the conclusion of this valuable experience. he returned to Kosciusko County. and commenced practice at Leesburg as one of its first lawyers.
For half a century Mr. Graves continued his activities in Kosciusko County. and into every work which he undertook, whether official. legislative. business or financial, instilled a rare faithfulness, integ- rity and ability. No citizen "wore" so well, or earned a more deserved popularity. From 1540 to 1848 he served as clerk of the Circuit Court. In the meantime he had engaged in business at War- saw. which soon required all his attention, and in 1:63-51 was identi- tied with the First National Bank and the State Bank of Warsaw. He was prominent in the organization of both, was cashier of the First National for about eighteen years, and president of the State Bank during its first year. At the time of his death in December. 1554. he was engaged in the dry goods business.
THE BLAINES OF LEESBURG
The Blaines of Leesburg are qualified to enter the list of noted families of Kosciusko County. Old Jimmy Blaine. "King Jimmy."
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO, COUNTY
the head of the family, is said to have been an uncle of the famous James G. Blaine, the Maine statesman and ex-secretary of state. If this is so, then John R. Blaine and William Blaine, who opened the first dry goods store in the northern part of the county, on Bone Prairie, were first cousins to the more famous Yankee. When Lees- burg was platted, in 1835, the business was moved to the new vil- lage, and John R. Blaine opened the first store there.
John R. Blaine, the last of the family, came, like the other mem- bers, from Highland County, Ohio, and continued in business at Leesburg for twenty years. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him registrar of lands for the southern district of Missouri, and five years later he moved to Decatur, Illinois. In December, 1890, he died while visiting a son at Ottawa, Kansas, and a few days after- ward his remains were brought to Leesburg by one of his sons and deposited in the family lot of his home town.
THE TIPPECANOE LAKE REGION
Tippecanoe Lake was always an attraction for those seeking loca- tions in Northern Indiana. It was beautiful in itself, the surround- ing lands were fertile, and it possessed an added interest in that it was the source of the charming stream which also bears its name. Along the northern shores of the lake lay the farms which were claimed by the first settlers of what is now Tippecanoe Township, originally a portion of Plain.
Shortly before the first settlers came to this section of the state the pioneer road was surveyed through the township. It was a por- tion of the highway projected from White Pigeon, Southern Mich- igan, through Goshen, Elkhart County, and the eastern townships of Kosciusko County to Huntington, in the southeast.
In the winter of 1834-35 Ephraim Muirheid built a log cabin near the outlet of Tippecanoe Lake, in section 9. In the spring he went to Virginia and when he returned soon afterward found that Ben- jamin Johnson, a kinsman, had also erected a house in the neighbor- hood. In the following fall, Mr. Johnson regularly entered the 160 acres, which he claimed through "squatter" rights and which remained his homestead for many years.
Mr. Muirheid built both a saw mill and a grist mill near the · outlet of Boydston's Lake and they were long in successful opera- tion. In the summer of 1835 William Divinney came from Ohio and settled near Mr. Johnson's place.
In 1836, Henry Warner, from Hamilton County, Ohio, settled
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
on the southeast quarter of section 9, Tippecanoe Township, and in the same year Thomas K. Warner, a former resident of Cincinnati, located on the present site of North Webster, west of Webster Lake in section 10. Andrew Woodruff, of Huron County, Ohio, settled on section 6, in the extreme northwest corner during the same year.
FIRST RELIGIOUS SERVICES AND PREACHERS
The majority of the religious organizations of Kosciusko County were founded after the county came into being as a civil and political body. In fact, although there may have been services of a sacred nature conducted previous to 1834, there is no record of them either in print or in the traditions of those who have been in touch with the pioneers of the period covered by this chapter. In the year named Rev. R. R. Robinson, a local Methodist preacher, conducted a relig- ious meeting in the log cabin of Charles Erwin, not far from Lees- burg. Mr. Robinson was a resident of Goshen. Aaron Wood followed him in 1835, when Leesburg was platted and the activities of the society were transferred to the new town, although the First Meth- odist Episcopal Church was not formally organized until two years afterward.
CHAPTER VI
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
JOHN B. CHAPMAN, GODFATHER OF THE COUNTY-PATRON PATRIOT OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY-KOSCIUZKO, THE FIRST ABOLITIONIST -- THE COUNTY'S NAME REALLY KOSCIUSKO-AREA AND BOUNDS- TIPPECANOE RIVER, PRIDE OF NORTHERN INDIANA-OTHER LAKES OF THE COUNTY-TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY-SURFACE GEOLOGY -DEPTH OF LAKES-SUNKEN LAKES-COMPOSITION OF THE DRIFT.
The bulk of the territory included within the limits of Kosciusko, County is embraced by the headwaters of the Tippecanoe River and its valley, and, even more generally speaking, is a part of the great system of the Wabash, the widely extended waterway which, after favoring both Illinois and Indiana as a common boundary for about half their southern stretches, veers to the east and northeast and becomes the beautiful and much beloved stream of Northern Hoosier- dom. The county has always taken a pride and a pleasure that Nature deigned to fix the sources of the most charming child of the Wabash within its bounds.
JOHN B. CHAPMAN, GODFATHER OF THE COUNTY
The people of Kosciusko County have also, more than once, tendered John B. Chapman a vote of thanks that he was the means of inducing the Indiana Legislature to stamp upon that territory the name of one of the great patriots of the world, as well as the memory of a city rich in history. At this particular crisis in the world's history, when Poland seems about to realize some of her ancient and modern aspirations, so brilliantly personated in Kosciusko, and when even Warsaw is about to be redeemed to higher things than perhaps she has ever known, the section of Indiana of which we write stands forth somewhat by reflected prominence.
PATRON PATRIOT OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
Thaddeus Kosciuzko, the rich young Polish nobleman, with a French military education and polish, who, like Lafayette, threw his all into the uncertainty and storm of the American Revolution, under
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
the wise, yet energetic direction of Washington, was naturally attract- ive to the restless, ardent and independent temperament of Mr. Chapman. The unfortunate love affair of the European emigrant, the liberation of his ancestral serfs previous to his departure for America-in a word, his complete severance of all old-world ties for those of the struggling American colonies, is an appeal to action which cannot be lost to any pioneer or even a citizen of today. As Washington's aid-de-camp, he fought and suffered with him and his little army, and after the United States of America was an assur- ance he returned to Poland, as head of its fiery troops, and, with the defeat of his compatriots, was thrown into prison.
KOSCIUZKO THE FIRST ABOLITIONIST
Kosciusko was finally released from prison by Emperor Paul, of Russia, probably upon pressure from America, and two years after- ward visited this country to renew his associations with his friends of revolutionary days. In 1798 he visited Thomas Jefferson, his old- time friend, and made a will in which he disposed of the property which he possessed in the United States and thereby subscribed him- self and perhaps the first of the Abolitionists, by purchase. That remarkable document, written in his clear and bold script, reads thus :
"I, Thaddeus Kosciuzko, being just in my departure from Amer- ica, do hereby declare and direct that, should I make no other testa- mentary disposition of my property in the United States, I hereby authorize my friend, Thomas Jefferson, to employ the whole thereof in purchasing negroes from among his own, or any others, and giving them their liberty in my name; in giving them an education in trades or otherwise; and in having them instructed for their new condition in the duties of morality, which may make them good neighbors, good fathers or mothers; and, in their duties as citizens, teaching them to be defenders of their liberty and country, and of the good order of society, and in whatsoever may make them happy and useful. And I make the said Thomas Jefferson my executor of this. "5th day of May, 1798. T. KOSCIUZKO."
Late in life, Kosciuzko retired to Switzerland, where he died October 16, 1817, aged sixty-one years. The will disposing of his American property for the emancipation and improvement of slaves was not recorded by Jefferson until two years after the death of his Polish friend, as the following inscription indicates :
At a Circuit Court held for Albemarle County, the 12th day of May, 1819: "This instrument, purporting to be the last will and
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
testament of Thaddeus Kosciuzko, deceased, was produced in open court, and satisfactory proof being produced of its being written in the hand-writing of the said Kosciuzko, the same was ordered to be recorded, and thereupon, Thomas Jefferson, the executor therein named, refused to take upon himself the burden of the execution of the said will.
"Teste :
JOHN CARR, C. C."
There is probably a good explanation of this refusal of Jeffer- son's to carry out the provisions of Kosciuzko's will, the most reason- able being that, at his advanced age (he was then seventy-six), he did not care to "burden" himself with the labors, and probable perplexities incident to the practical working out of the problem of the education and development of the black slave. Possibly, also he was not in entire sympathy with the experiment. It is evident that Kosciuzko looked far ahead.
THE COUNTY'S NAME REALLY KOSCIUZKO
The reader has undoubtedly noted the spelling of the family name of the Polish patriot, and, historically, it should be attached to the county in that form, the only excuse for adopting Kosciusko being a slight advantage of euphony.
AREA AND BOUNDS
The county has an area of 558 square miles, included within the following boundaries, defined by act of the Legislature passed at the session of 1834-35: Beginning at the northeast corner of section 3, township 34 north, range 4 east, thence east with the line dividing townships 34 and 35, distance twenty-one miles; thence south eight- een miles to the correcting parallel; thence west with said parallel one and three-fourths miles to the northeast corner of township 31, range 7 east; thence south on the east line of townships 31 and 30, range 7 east, nine miles to the southeast corner of section 13, town- ship 30, range 7 east; thence west through the center of range 30 eighteen miles; thence north three miles; thence west between town- ships 30 and 31, three miles; thence north six miles to the correcting parallel at the northwest corner of section 3, township 31, range 4 east; thence east, with said correcting parallel, one and one-fourth miles, to the southwest corner of section 34, township 32, range 4 east; thence through the center of townships 32, 33 and 34, range 4 east, eighteen miles to the place of beginning. The bounds were verified by Ellis Kiser, civil engineer for the surveying company.
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
TIPPECANOE RIVER, PRIDE OF NORTHERN INDIANA
Most of the territory of Kosciusko County falls within the north- ern watershed of the Wabash system, the valley of the Tippecanoe representing its chief physical feature. The only exception is the southeastern corner, which is drained by the Eel River, a virtual continuation of the main course of the Wabash River; the Tippe- canoe is its boldest northern offshoot.
The pride of Northern Indiana rises in Boyston Lake, Tippe- canoe Township, and its headwaters also embrace Tippecanoe and
TIPPECANOE RIVER VIEW
Webster lakes-beautiful sheets of water, and the centers of a country which offers every possible phase of out-of-doors sports and refresh- ments.
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