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 9
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PLAIN TOWNSHIP CONSIDERED A PRIZE
"The prairies of Plain Township were a prize in the eyes of the first settlers, from the fact that they were all ready for the breaking
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plow. The first erop of corn was planted by dropping the seed in the furrow behind the plow, and this was covered by the upturned sod of the next round of the plow. No further attention was given it until fall, when a bountiful crop was gathered, so rich was the virgin soil of the prairies.
"A gentleman who came to Plain Township from York state, in writing to his friends at home about the productiveness of our prairies, said the stalks from the first planting of corn grew to from eight to ten feet high, bearing ears from twelve to fifteen inches long and pro- portionally large in circumference, and if it were not for the clouds of mosquitoes which came from the low grounds, filling the air at night and making sleep almost impossible, it would be a veritable paradise. These natural advantages made claims in Plain Township a thing especially to be desired."
ROSSEAU AND OSSEM
Kosciusko County is no exception to the general rule that the set- tlement of the dispute as to who was its first settler hinges on the definition of the term. Rosseau, the old French trader, and Henry Ossem were undoubtedly the first to locate within its present limits, but they were considered more as mercantile adventurers, who had no intention of becoming permanent citizens and giving their energies to the upbuilding of any special community.
Rosseau was one of the most noted of the French traders in North- ern Indiana, and was perhaps better known in Elkhart than in Kos- ciusko County. Of him it has been written by an author of the former: "The old French trader, Rosseau, was the connecting link between the old and the new dispensations, appearing on Elkhart Prairie to the southeast of what is now Goshen in 1815. The war with England had been concluded, France was no longer a power in the new world, and here was Rosseau, a friend to both whites and reds, a master of the art of barter and trade, the first of his race to make a home within the bounds of the county, and yet who lived therein long enough to see the end of the Pottawatomies in that region, and its permanent occupancy by the energetic and forehanded white pioneer of the East."
It is said that Rosseau located in an Indian village situated in Plain Township. He subsequently married Miss Aggie Erwin, daugh- ter of Charles Erwin, and moved to Leesburg. Rosseau died in his home situated on the lot now occupied by the Methodist church, De- cember 5, 1845, at the age of forty-six.
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Heury Ossem made his headquarters at the Indian village located on the present site of Oswego and it is said accompanied the Indians to the West.
As far as settlement south of the Elkhart River is concerned, Thomas Hall has been awarded the prize of priority, but he first located on Turkey Creek in Elkhart County and did not come within the limits of Kosciusko until after a number of families had settled therein.
OTHER PIONEERS OF THE PRAIRIES
W. B. and I. R. Bain are credited with being the pioneer mer- chants in the northern part of Bone Prairie, which was in the fall of 1834. They came from Greenfield, Ohio, and subsequently moved from their first location to a lot leased of Levi Lee. This was the first store established for the convenience of white settlers and was the center of a settlement which developed into Leesburg. When the village was laid out by Mr. Lee in August, 1835, Rosseau moved thither the goods which he carried in his Indian. trading.
It is evident that most of the real pioneers of the county first settled in the Turkey Creek region of Plain Township. In February, 1832, three years before the town was platted, Elijah Harlan and John Rumley had built their two cabins on the creek prairie, and the Moores, friends of theirs, occupied the Rumley house in the absence of its owner. Harlan had remained as a neighbor. During 1833 they were joined by Samuel Stookey, William Shelly, Charles Erwin, John B. Chapman, John Colyer, Jr., and Jacob and Isaac Kirkendall.
ELIJAH HARLAN
Mr. Harlan was of Quaker stock, although his father was a soldier in the War of 1812 and died in service, leaving a widow and nine small children. Elijah, who was of Ohio birth, was then but six years of age. When a youth he moved to Henry County, Indiana; with his mother and other members of the family, afterward settled near Goshen, Elkhart County, and in the winter of 1832-33 was one of the prospectors in the Turkey Creek country. He concluded to preempt land on the Prairie, and accordingly built a squatter's cabin about a mile north of the present site of Leesburg, and moved into it on March 6, 1833. The hut is now owned by his great-granddaughter, Mrs. Mabelle Fried. In 1834 Mr. Harlan built a small log cabin on the farm owned, not many years ago, by his grandson, W. H. Stanley.
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He died at his home in Leesburg, in 1856, then an old and prosperous citizen of the county.
JOHN B. CHAPMAN
Hon. John B. Chapman, who was one of the first to move upon his claim on Little Turkey Creek Prairie, was, in many respects, the most prominent of the pioneers. He was a Virginian and in his youth assisted his father in his milling operations. Afterward he spent some time in the river country of Texas and the Southwest, when that country was virtually an unknown section of the United States. Re- turning to Virginia in 1817, he studied medicine and practiced in his native state, as well as in Iowa. Mr. Chapman also studied law and practiced that profession in Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana. He moved to Crawfordsville in 1827 and to Logansport, Indiana, in 1831. and during the following year moved onto his claim just north and east of Leesburg. It is unnecessary to add for the benefit of those who have followed this record that Mr. Chapman, when he became a resi- dent of Kosciusko County, was a citizen of wide experience and an able man. He successfully practiced both law and medicine and was also a good farmer; but, as he informed one of his friends, "the only difficulty he had in getting along was his persistent meddling with politics."
In 1834 Mr. Chapman was appointed prosecuting attorney for the northern circuit of Indiana, when it embraced all of the state north of the Wabash, and during the same year was elected to the Legis- lature as a representative for Elkhart and La Grange counties. While a member of that body he prepared the bill, and secured its passage, which set the bounds of Kosciusko County, and gave names both to the county and to Warsaw, the seat of justice. Before he commenced his service in the Legislature, and thus became the father of both the county and the county seat, he had been appointed by President Van Buren local agent of Indian reservations. It was therefore evident that at this period of his life he was a persistent meddler in demo- cratic politics. He was of the uneasy, vital temperament, which is never satisfied except by continuous action and change, and was naturally of a quick temper and an all-around eccentric character. But withal, he was persistent, and usually accomplished his objects.
An illustration of these traits is afforded by his experience in securing a substantial title to his land on Little Turkey Creek Prairie. After he had preempted it, he so incensed the agent at La Porte by his conduct and manner that the official named cancelled his claim and
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transferred it to two other men. Nothing dannted, Mr. Chapman car- ried his case to the higher powers at Washington, who confirmed him in his title. He then coolly returned to his property and took posses- sion not only of the original land, but of all the improvements which had been made upon it in the shape of plowing, sowing, fencing and general cultivation.
In the summer of 1835 Mr. Chapman bought two sections of land at the mouth of Deep River, Porter County, and laid out the Town of Liverpool on one of them. He procured the county seat for his new town, but the subsequent setting off of Lake County from Porter killed its prospects, and its proprietor returned to Leesburg. When the aspirations of the latter, along similar lines, were crushed, Mr. Chapman transferred his fealty to Warsaw, of which he was one of the founders. In 1836 he sold his interest in that town site for $1,000.
Even these Indiana projects were not sufficient to absorb the time and energies of Mr. Chapman, but he must make flying trips to Cali- fornia, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, when to reach the Pacific Slope meant many discomforts and not a few actual hardships. His affairs or inclination also called him to the national capital not in- frequently, where he is known to have had access to the inner cham- bers of such as Presidents Jackson and Van Buren. In the early development of Kansas he was instrumental, and served as president of the first railroad that ran from Leavenworth to Galveston, Texas. During the later years of his active life he held a clerkship in the Treasury Department. When his advanced age incapacitated him for the labors of that office, he returned to Warsaw, where he died on October 20, 1877, in his eightieth year.
THE PIONEER MILLS
As to the earliest mills built in the county, naturally they blos- somed out along Turkey Creek in Turkey Creek Township. Mrs. Wince has this to say: "Going back a little to 1832, I find two fear- less men at work building a dam across Turkey Creek not far from where it empties into Syracuse Lake. They mean to put up a mill here, just as soon as these lovely lands come into the market. It is a good place, they think, for in another year there will be settlers coming in by the score, and they will want flour and meal, and will be looking for a mill the first thing. The men are Ephraim Davis and Samuel Crawson.
"They were not lonely. They were too busy for that; nor did they fear the Indians, who were camped not far away. After com-
OLD INDIANA MILL
PIONEER WATER WHEEL
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
pleting the dam, they go home, to return early in 1833 and erect the mill.
"It was the first grist mill erected in the county. A big freshet, in 1837, washed out the dam of this mill and two pair of mill stones. The stones sank to the bottom of the creek and were never recovered.
"Another very early grist mill was built on Clear Creek, where the Liberty Mills road crosses and just south of Eagle Lake. The builder was Charles Sleeper ; the building a log one, with nigger-head burrs made by John Inks of Milford.
"The first saw mill in the county was built by Peter Warner near the west line of Section 36, on Tippecanoe River, in 1835. His com- bination saw and grist mill, run by reaction wheel and buckets, was put up two years later, in 1837." Mr. Warner was the first white settler in Kosciusko County on the south side of the Tippecanoe River, and was the same who was outwitted by the old chief, Checase.
EARLY TOWNSHIP SURVEYS AND SURVEYORS
The township surveys of Kosciusko County were made chiefly in 1834-35, with the lifting of the Indian titles (so called) and the fixing of the county boundaries, but previous to its political organization. In all American communities it is necessary that men should be assured that their land holdings and their homesteads shall be secure before they will consent, in any numbers, to plant themselves in a strange country. Although the typical American pioneer is an adventurer, in a certain sense of the word, he ventures only upon a partial assur- ance of success; and his best assurance is the security of his land title, the prime requisite of which is an accurate survey.
The records show that in June, 1834, John Hendricks, R. Clarke and S. Sibley surveyed Township 32 north, Range 7 east (Washington Township), and that they found its area to be 22,454 acres.
In the preceding April, the same surveyors had laid out Monroe Township, as 31 north, Range 7 east, and announced that it had an area of 22,943 acres.
About two-thirds of Jackson Township, to the south (14,796 acres), was surveyed by them at the same time, the tract of 7,164 acres bounded on the west by Eel River, and comprising the remainder of the township, having been laid out by Basil Bentley, the district sur- veyor, as early as May, 1828.
Van Buren Township, in the northern tier, was surveyed by Reuben J .- Dawson, R. Clarke and S. Sibley, in June, 1834. It was known, officially, as Township 34 north, Range 6 east, and embraced
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22,678 acres. Turkey Creek meanders through its northern sections and Turkey Prairie covers its sonthern.
In the same month and year that Van Buren Township was sur- veyed, Thomas Brown, Messrs. R. Clarke, Jr., and S. Sibley, were also running their chains over the irregular territory of what is now Franklin Township, in the southwestern corner of the county. Their records give its area as 22,506 acres.
R. T. Dawson, R. Clarke and S. Sibley surveyed 14,388 of Tippe- canoe Township in June, 1834.
Plain Township was surveyed by R. Clarke, S. Sibley and Jeremiah Smith in 1836-37, soon after the county was divided into townships.
In April, 1834, Harrison Township, as it is defined today, was surveyed by R. T. Dawson, R. Clarke and S. Sibley, and its area was given as 23,413 acres. Half of Mota's Reserve of four sections is in the northeastern corner of this township.
John Hendricks and Messrs. Clarke and Sibley surveyed 21,054 acres of Wayne Township in June of that year, and the two last named, with R. T. Dawson, had already laid out 20,458 acres. All of Section 1 and portions of Sections 2, 6, 7, 11 and 12 had been taken from what would have been the northwest corner of the township, had its western and northern boundaries been extended. This territory, with small tracts adjoining Plain and Prairie townships, to the north, had been set aside as the Checase Indian reservation.
R. T. Dawson and Messrs. Clarke and Sibley were the surveyors of Etna, the narrow township in the western border of the county, and they finished their work in April, 1834. It had covered 23,262 acres.
Scott Township, to the north, in the northwestern corner of the county, was surveyed by R. T. Dawson, in 1835; area, 23,626 acres.
In June, 1834, John Hendricks, R. Clarke and S. Sibley surveyed Township 31 north, Range 6 east (Clay Township), and estimated its area at 22,453 acres.
The same surveyors run the lines, in April, 1834, for 22,277 acres in Township 30 north, Range 6 east (Lake Township).
In 1835 R. T. Dawson and Clarke & Sibley surveyed the 22,273 acres included in Seward Township, cast of Franklin in the south- western part of the county.
These surveyors also laid out the Jefferson Township of the present, during the same year; area, 23,358 acres.
R. T. Dawson and R. Clarke & S. Sibley, in April, 1834, surveyed 20,287 acres embraced in Prairie Township. The Monoquet Reserve extends into some of its southeastern sections, as well as the Checase
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Reservation, while Mota's Reserve takes away two of the southern sections. Turkey Prairie in the northeast is the marked physical fea- ture of the township.
What was left of Turkey Creek Township (18,456 acres), after the Flat Belly Reservation was taken out, was surveyed by R. T. Daw- son, R. Clarke and S. Sibley, in August, 1834.
PIONEERS OF TURKEY CREEK TOWNSHIP
After the surveys were well under way those who had settled, or decided to locate in Kosciusko County, made haste to preempt their claims, and the year 1835 brought a "land-office" business to the agent at La Porte. The actual residents comprising these real pioneers already constituted a considerable colony.
The heavily timbered country, with Syracuse and Nine Mile lakes and the good water powers of Turkey Creek, early attracted a good class of emigrants from Elkhart County. In 1832, while the Indian treaty was still in abeyance, Samuel Crawson and Henry Ward con- structed a dam across the creek near its outlet, with the view of erect- ing a grist mill at that point when the lands should come into the market. In the following year Mr. Crawson built a small log house near the site of the proposed mill; and this was the first residence in Turkey Creek Township, as organized in 1838. In 1836 he erected a small frame building for a store, on the site of what afterward be- came the Lake House, Syracuse. William Kirkpatrick placed a small stock of goods therein, but subsequently disposed of the business to Messrs. Crawson and Ward. They were also the owners of the land along the northwestern shores of Syracuse Lake, on which, in August. 1837, they platted the village by that name.
Samuel Crawson and Henry Ward were also the builders and pro- prietors of the first grist mill erected on Turkey Creek and already mentioned, as well as of the saw-mill on the creek completed in 1836. So, from every existing evidence, they were not only the first perma- nent settlers of Turkey Creek Township but its leading citizens during the first years of its development.
JOHN POWELL, FIRST PRAIRIE TOWNSHIP SETTLER
Prairie Township, as now organized, had quite a number of settlers who located two or three years before the county was set off from Elkhart County as a separate civil body. John Powell, the first of the colony to become a resident, came from Elkhart County in March,
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
1833, and, with his family, located on Section 21, about two miles north of Mota's Reserve and three miles west of the Monoquet Re- serve. In March, 1832, he had started from his Ohio home with his ox team to explore the wilds of Northern Indiana and had secured a traet of land on Elkhart Prairie, near what is now the City of Goshen. After making two or three exploring expeditions, however, he decided in favor of Turkey Creek Prairie further south, and returned to Ohio for his wife and family.
In September, 1832, Mr. Powell started for his Indiana destination with his young wife and little ones, and when he had reached the eastern part of Whitley County broke his wagon. There was no other way but to start alone for Goshen, leaving his family in the wilderness and trusting to Providence for their protection until he could secure another vehicle and return to them. In March, 1833, he had the sat- isfaction of safely installing his family in a cabin on his land, about one mile north of Galveston (Clunette), where he afterward died. His family was the first to move on to Big Turkey Creek Prairie. Mr. Powell died in 1874. He had attended strictly to his estate and im- provements, and left a fine property and a substantial character. His wife survived him for a number of years.
OTHER SETTLERS OF 1833
In the year of Mr. Powell's coming, three other settlers made their appearance in Prairie Township, selecting claims northeast, east and southeast of what was afterward the Village of Galveston. In April, 1833, James H. Bishop located with his family on Section 1, erecting a small cabin and planting a field of corn. That tract remained the Bishop homestead for many years.
During the same summer Jacob Smith built his family cabin on Section 13 and subsequently entered 160 acres on Section 14, which eventually became the homestead.
Later in 1833 came James Gavin and settled on Section 25, where he long resided.
SETTLERS OF VAN BUREN ANTE-DATING 1836
The early settlement of Van Buren Township chiefly occurred in its southern sections, 21, 28 and 32. In March, 1833, Oliver Wright and his son, Moses, located on Section 28, and William Felkner on Section 21. Elijah Miller and Richard Gawthrop, from Sandusky, Ohio, settled on Section 32, as did Mrs. Sarah De Vault, with her five
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children-all in 1833. Mrs. De Vault pre-empted 160 acres. Samuel Street, in the same year, located on Section 29, and early in the spring of 1834 Judge Aaron M. Perine settled on the present site of Milford, which was not platted until two years afterward.
In the fall of 1835 the first schoolhouse in Van Buren Township was erected on Section 29. John G. Woods was the first teacher.
But at least two important events had occurred previous to that year -- the birth of the first white child in the township-Rachel, daughter of William and Mary Ann Felkner, on May 15, 1833; and the marriage of Fred Summy to Miss Adeline Trimble, in October, 1834.
VILLAGE OF MILFORD PLATTED
Judge Perine platted the Village of Milford on Section 8, April 10, 1836. He opened the first hotel therein and was admirably adapted to the project of fathering a young town.
JAMES WOODDEN PIONEER OF HARRISON TOWNSHIP
Harrison Township, in the west of the county, was originally settled by James Woodden and Andrew Sell in the spring of 1834. They came from Preble County, Ohio, and, locating respectively on Sections 18 and 19, entered at once upon the labor of clearing the ground and erecting cabins for the shelter of their families. The first postoffice was established at Mr. Woodden's house and he was appointed postmaster in 1836.
About this time, the Underhills, Isham Summy, William Blue and others came into the township. Mr. Summy soon succeeded Mr. Woodden as postmaster, and when he platted Palestine in 1837 the office was moved thither. In the preceding year (1836) Daniel Underhill had opened a general store in Section 33, on the future site of the village with the great aspirations and the small perform- ance.
THE RISE OF LEESBURG
Leesburg had really more substantial grounds for expecting a future growth. The land of Levi Lee, upon which it was platted in the fall of 1835, was clothed with timber and lay, beautifully located, between Big Turkey Creek and Little Turkey Creek prairies. Thus situated, with building timber at hand and surrounded by pro-
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ductive prairies, the site seemed ideal to the early settlers of the northern part of the county.
Mr. Lee's cabin was the first residence erected on the village site. As laid out by him, the plat commenced in the west end of town at Hickory Street, which runs north and southeast of the Stanley residence; thence east to Pearl Street at Kohler's corner; thence south to the north side of what is now Prairie Street, and north to Plum Street. It comprised forty-eight lots. Subsequently Messrs. Beck, Blaine, Comstock and Mason made additions.
The first sale of lots at the new village of Leesburg occurred during the August that it was platted. Only one lot was sold; but the purchaser, Dr. Sellick, of La Gro, Indiana, did not comply with the conditions of the sale, so that even that solitary transaction failed to stand. Metcalfe Beck subsequently took over the lot, erect- ing upon it a store and residence, where he continued to live and work for a number of years.
For a time, it looked as though these who had projected Lees- burg would realize their ambitions. The local merchants prospered, as the neighboring farmers looked to it for their supplies and fnr- nishings, and most of the travelers who passed through that part of the county were attracted to it as a convenient and pleasant stop- ping place. In fact, the eventual choice of the village as the county seat was by no means the height of Leesburg's ambition. A plank road was projected, to pass through Oswego and Fort Wayne and having as its termini, Leesburg and Cincinnati. Leesburg was the nucleus from which sprung other settlements in the county and many who afterward became prominent in the development of War- saw had their initial experience at the older town which was founded about the same time as Chicago.
AS COUNTY'S SEAT OF JUSTICE
The first session of the Commissioners' Court of Koscinsko County was opened in the forenoon of June 29, 1836, at Mr. Lee's cabin, but no business was transacted until in the afternoon, at the meeting adjourned to the log schoolhouse. The first Circuit Court of the county was also held at Mr. Lee's home. It assembled on the follow- ing October 31st, and also adjourned to the schoolhouse for the afternoon session. When the court finally adjourned it was to meet in Warsaw during November, 1837; the coming event casting a shadow upon the bright prospects of Leesburg.
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
PROMINENT MEN OF PLAIN TOWNSHIP
During this period, which preceded the complete organization of Kosciusko County as a civil and independent body, most of the prominent men resided in the northern townships, Plain especially having a monopoly in this regard; and the sections around Leesburg were particularly favored. To illustrate this statement, it is only necessary to give the names of those who had entered claims during 1835, in sections 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9. The list includes John Rumley, Isaac Moore and J. B. Chapman, in section 4; Elijah and Jacob Harlan, George Harlan and Josiah Shoemaker, in section 5; Aaron Powell, Samuel Stickney, Samuel Stookey, John Adney, James Hill and Elisha Carr, in section 6; John, Henry and Levi Lec, James Mason and John Colyer, in section 8, and Thomas Harper, William Shelly, Thomas Harlan, Jr., Aaron Harlan, William N. Switzer and Samuel Snodgrass, in section 9.
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