USA > Indiana > White County > A standard history of White County Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and county, Vol. I > Part 23
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THIE BROOKSTON REPORTER
The second newspaper to be established outside the county seat was the Brookston Reporter, and it is still in the swim. It was founded April 3, 1873, by M. H. Ingram, and in August of the following year was purchased by David S. and Chester C. French, father and son. Originally, the Reporter was a six-column folio, but was later doubled in size. It has always been independent in politics.
DAVID S. FRENCH . AND CHESTER C. FRENCHI
The elder French was an Ohio man, who entered the ministry of the Baptist Church and held several charges in Illinois, as well as public office, before he moved his family to Brookston in 1868. In 1874 when, in partnership with his son, he purchased the Reporter, the younger man, Chester C., had secured a liberal education in Chicago and made some progress in medicine under Dr. John Medaris. Father and son continued in partnership until 1880, when the latter (C. C. French) became sole proprietor of the Reporter, Rev. David S. French having died on November 6th of the year named.
Besides his connection with the Brookston Reporter for about thirty years, Chester C. French attained prominence in the county as a public speaker and held such offices as census enumerator and town clerk. In July, 1905, he sold the newspaper to John A. Metzger, an experienced newspaper man, who still conducts it.
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OTHER BROOKSTON ITEMS
The Reporter was leased to D. A. Fawcett for about six months in 1878, and to George H. Healey for a year or more in 1897-98. Healey afterward started a paper called the Brookston Gazette, which was afterwards published by Wesley Taylor and finally absorbed by the Reporter.
A paper called the Brookston Magnet was started in that town by S. M. Burns in November, 1887, but the plant was sold and moved to Sheldon, Illinois, in September, 1888.
The Academy Student was the name of a school journal published at Brookston in 1872 by Prof. Thomas VanScoy, principal of the Brook- ston Academy.
IDAVILLE OBSERVER
Idaville made her first venture in journalism in the early '80s through George W. Lucy and Mell F. Pilling, who started the Inde- pendent. Within the following two years Mr. Pilling assumed the ownership and, in the spring of 1886, passed the plant along to Al. Good. Next the Independent was bought by Rev. Gilbert Small, who purchased a new press and printing outfit. He enlisted his sons Bert and Will in the enterprise and in June, 1886, appeared the first number of the Idaville Observer, under the auspices of Small Brothers.
It was the beginning of a typographical career for both these brothers, Bert being now connected with the American Press Association, and Will a successful traveling salesman for the Barnhart Bros. Type Foundry. The Observer has since passed through many hands. Among its owners and editors in after years were Wm. H. Heiny, Frank Downs, John L. Moorman, Byron McCall, Sanderson brothers (Harry and Bert), H. E. McCulley, R. M. Isherwood and Charles L. Foster. Mr. Foster took charge in 1904, and under his management it is said to have become an actual money-maker as well as an ideal country newspaper. In 1912 it became a part of the Democrat-Journal-Observer syndicate of Monticello, but still retains its local identity by means of a resident manager.
THE MONON DISPATCH
Monon's first paper was the Dispatch, which made its first appearance in September, 1884, with Stokes & Martin as publishers. A. K. Sills, J. H. Turpie and Charles Downing were early financial backers of the enterprise, and Downing afterward became the sole owner. Later it drifted into the hands of a man named Fawcett, and ultimately was succeeded by the Monon Leader, which made its first appearance early in January, 1887, with Charles Cook as "editor and proprietor" and Dr. J. T. Reed as associate editor. After various vicissitudes the plant was sold and removed to Ladoga in January, 1889.
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THE MONON NEWS
John M. Winkley, who had lately been postmaster of Monon, then established a paper called the Times, which after about two years was succeeded by the Monon News. The latter, which has survived to this day, was published by Isaac Parsons, formerly a lawyer at LaFayette. He had two or three sons who were associated with him in the business. During the Parsons regime another paper, called the Review, was started at Monon by a man named Moore, but it withdrew from the field after a few months, and its subscription list was transferred to the Monticello Press. In November, 1897, Parsons sold the plant to W. D. Harlow, a hotel manager at Monticello, who had formerly been connected with the Crawfordsville Star. He found the newspaper path at Monon not a smooth one, and after a year or two he disposed of it to R. M. Streeter, of Winamac. Later it fell into the hands of a Mr. Jones, who soon afterward took French leave. He was succeeded by a man named Weeks, who died in 1905, leaving the plant to his sister, Mrs. J. L. Peetz. Mr. C. A. McAllister, still a resident of Monon, was also publisher of the News for a time.
The News gained a state-wide celebrity under the management of Mrs. Peetz by its enthusiastic support of her husband for state statisti- cian, to whom she always referred editorially as "our husband." Mr. Peetz was elected, and in December, 1908, the paper was sold to W. J. Huff, a veteran printer and journalist, who, with his sons, Edgar J. and Walter S., have since conducted the business.
W. J. HUFF
The senior proprietor learned the printer's trade in his native town of LaFayette. There Mr. Huff published the Liliputian for about a year and a half and in 1870 moved to Monticello, where he became part owner of the Herald; six months later he was sole proprietor and in 1874 went into partnership with J. B. VanBuskirk. In 1871 he was also appointed postmaster and held that office until October, 1885.
Mr. Huff has been handicapped in his career by an affliction of the eyes, and in 1888 he gave up the newspaper business on that account and removed to California. He soon returned, however, and re-entered the newspaper field. Prior to locating at Monon he was engaged in journalism at Valparaiso, Monticello, Greenwood, Spencer, Kirklin and New Richmond. Though he is now practically blind, the News has developed wonderfully under his management and is now equipped with a linotype and other modern machinery, placing it in the front rank of White County newspapers.
Mr. Huff is the son of the well known Judge Samuel A. Huff, who was a printer at Indianapolis in his earlier years and spent the bulk of his manhood as a citizen of LaFayette, engaged in legal practice, and in judicial and political activities.
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THE WOLCOTT ENTERPRISE
The Wolcott Enterprise was founded by Everett A. Walker on the 1st of April, 1892. Mr. Walker continued to edit and publish it until September, 1907, when the paper was sold to Edward N. Thacker, and in May, 1908, Mr. Thacker was succeeded by the present editor and proprietor, L. M. Kean. The Enterprise was the first paper in White County to install a typesetting machine.
CHALMERS LEDGER
The first paper published at Chalmers was the Ledger. It made its appearance in November, 1893, with a Mr. Patterson as editor and pub- lisher, though a man named Clark from Battle Ground had done the preliminary prospecting and installed the plant. Wilbur Walts was its publisher at two different periods in its career, the last in 1899, under lease from L. M. Crom, who had become its owner. In the spring of 1900 the Ledger was sold to George H. Healey, who published it for several months in connection with his other paper, the Brookston Gazette.
CHALMERS DESPATCH
The Chalmers Despatch was founded in April, 1900, by Wilbur A. Walts. Mr. Walts was succeeded as publisher of the Despatch by Grant Mullendore about 1902, and he in turn by Francis M. Smith about a year later. Since May 3, 1909, Arthur F. Knepp has been owner, editor and publisher. During the campaign of 1912 a paper called the Pro- gressive was issued from the Despatch office, but it suspended soon after the election.
BURNETTSVILLE ENTERPRISE
Burnettsville's first paper was the Enterprise, established in 1888 by J. E. Sutton, who printed it at Logansport in connection with the Logansport Reporter. Benton Rizer was the local manager. He was succeeded about 1891 by Randolph J. Million, who continued in charge for some time after he had moved to Monticello to practice law, but in 1894 it suspended for lack of a local manager.
BURNETTSVILLE DISPATCH
The Burnettsville Dispatch was founded about 1900 by Sylvester W. Rizer, being financed largely by J. C. Duffey. After a few months Mr. Rizer was succeeded by Guy Hanna and Charles Chilcott, who later turned it over to Frank Stuart, who assumed the financial obligations of the paper. He sold it after a year or so to Harriett Fuller, and shortly afterward it ceased to exist.
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BURNETTSVILLE NEWS
The Burnettsville News, the first paper actually printed in Burnetts- ville, was established by J. Rolland Doan, November 21, 1907. He was a practical printer and also a successful manager. When he married a Delphi girl soon after his debut as a publisher he raised the subscription price of his paper accordingly and averted a deficit. He sold the News February 23, 1915, to A. O. Townsley and Frank Beshoar, who have since continued its publication under the firm name of Frank Beshoar & Co.
GENERAL PROGRESS
It is safe to say that no county in Indiana has more newspapers in proportion to its population than White County. At the time the present writer entered the newspaper business here in 1874 there was only one paper outside of the county seat-the Brookston Reporter. In the early days the old Washington hand press was the stock in trade of the country newspaper. An expert, with a faithful roller boy to ink the forms, could work off a "token," or 240 papers, in an hour with it. The first cylinder press in the county was a second-hand Campbell, introduced by James W. McEwen when he moved the Democrat office to the old Presbyterian Church. In 1879 the Herald exchanged its hand press for a new Potter cylinder, and of late years the old hand press has disappeared even from the humblest printing office in the county. The old process of setting type by hand is also becoming obsolete, and now four of the printing offices in the county are equipped with linotypes -the Herald and Democrat at Monticello, the News at Monon, and the Enterprise at Wolcott.
CHAPTER XI
MILITARY MATTERS
A SOLDIER OF 1814-15-THE MEXICAN WAR TRIO-MESSRS. FORD, STEELE AND MCCORMICK-PROMPT RESPONSES TO UPHOLD THE UNION-THE THREE-MONTHS' RECRUITS-FIRST WAR SACRIFICE-WHITE COUNTY'S LARGER CONTINGENTS - THE MONTICELLO RIFLES - COMPANY E, FORTY-SIXTH REGIMENT-CAPT. R. W. SILL'S COMPANY-REPRESEN- TATIONS IN THE SIXTY-THIRD REGIMENT-CAPT. GEORGE BOWMAN'S COMPANY-COMPANY F, NINETY-NINTH REGIMENT-THE THREAT- ENED DRAFT OF 1862-ESCAPE FROM THE 1863 DRAFT-THE SIX MONTHS' COMPANY-CAPT. JAMES G. STALEY-THE HEAVY CALLS OF 1864-THE DRAFTS OF 1864 AND 1865-SUMMARY OF NUMBER OF TROOPS RAISED-BOUNTY AND RELIEF VOTED-THE SPANISH-AMERI- CAN WAR.
The broad participation of White County in military matters did not commence until the opening of the Civil war, although both the War of 1812 and the Mexican war appear to have drawn into their meshes several of the citizens of that section.
A SOLDIER OF 1814-15
The only direct interest which the local historian can take in the former war lies in the fact that Ira Bacon, a member of the first board of county commissioners, came in at the tag end of hostilities, as is proven by his honorable discharge to the following effect: "Ira Bacon, a private in Captain Van Meter's company of Ohio Militia in the service of the United States, has faithfully performed a six months' tour of duty, and is hereby honorably discharged from the service at Fort Meigs, this 22d day of February, 1815." The paper is signed by John Russell, major commanding Fort Meigs, and Jacob Linn, sergeant.
THE MEXICAN WAR TRIO
White County's connection with the Mexican war is more intimate. Two of her boys lost their lives in that conflict, and one of the three to enlist returned to his Jackson Township home without his right foot and carrying with him several severe wounds. The trio who thus first brought war home to the people of the county were William F. Ford, U. H. Steele and Beveridge McCormick, and they all were residents of
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that township. At that time there were about 3,000 people in the entire county.
The contingent from Jackson Township, White County, joined Cap- tain Tipton's Company E, of the United States Mounted Rifles, which rendezvoused at Logansport. The boys had enlisted on the 6th of June, 1846, for a term of five years. The regiment was mounted and fully equipped at St. Louis and in the winter of 1846 embarked from New Orleans for Vera Cruz. It is not necessary to write a history of the Mexican war as an excuse for the presence of these three brave soldiers from White County. It is enough to know that they met the hardships of the war with American grit, and that two of them were shattered at Cerro Gordo.
MESSRS. FORD, STEELE AND MCCORMICK
In the first day's fight Ford received a bad saber cut on the left thigh just above the knee, but he came back pluckily for the second day's engagement. At this trial with fate he was not so fortunate, as a shell shot away his right foot just above the ankle, one wrist was pierced by a lance and another by a bullet, and a bayonet made a jagged wound through the lower jaw. While lying helpless on the battlefield he was sufficiently conscious to tear an epaulette from the uniform of the wooden-legged Santa Anna, the Mexican commander, who had left it behind with other personal effects. When he became convalescent he retained this memento as a priceless relic of his war experience, and, on the whole, considered it of more value than the monthly pension which he drew from the Government
Ford's two comrades were not so tenacious of life. McCormick also was badly wounded at Cerro Gordo by a ball which ranged across his breast and shattered the left arm near the shoulder. The attending surgeon found it necessary to remove the humerus from the socket, but the operation proved too great a shock to McCormick, who soon died. Steel gave up his life near Chapultepec as the result of some bowel disorder.
PROMPT RESPONSES TO UPHOLD THE UNION
White County was one with every other section of Indiana in its prompt response to the presidential call for troops to suppress the rebel- lion. Its population was about 9,000 at the outbreak of the Civil war and at times during the height of the conflict fully a fourth of its citizens of military age were absent at the front. Seven full companies were raised and many more soldiers formed part of other commands. The financial resources of the county were also strained to the limit, more than $101,000 being raised officially in bounties and measures of relief, to say nothing of the thousands of dollars represented by the private donations in clothing, provisions and hospital and field supplies for the sick, wounded and dead.
Fort Sumter surrendered to General Beauregard, the Confederate Vol. 1-12
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commander, on Saturday, the 13th of April, 1861, the following day President Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 troops, and within an hour from its publication, Robert H. Milroy, a Mexican war veteran, of Jasper County, began to recruit a company at Rensselaer. By the 16th the gov- ernor and adjutant-general, as well as citizens generally, were issuing proclamations and calls for public meetings to give expression to Union sentiment and raise recruits. Colonel Milroy, in his bills, announced that "the volunteer wants two shirts and two days' provisions in his sack" and that he would be on hand at the points specified in his call to "re- ceive all who may wish to join his two hundred men from Jasper."
The call for a Union meeting issued on the 16th, inviting the citizens of Monticello and vicinity to gather at the courthouse "to give expression of sentiment in support of the Government in its present peril and of the Law here and elsewhere," was to be addressed by Judge Turpie and others, and was signed by Isaac Reynolds, A. R. Orton, J. C. Reynolds, R. Brearley, O. McConahay, M. Henderson, Hugh B. Logan, Daniel D. Dale, Thomas Bushnell, Thomas D. Crow, W. S. Haymond, James B. Belford, Joseph Rothrock, Richard Brown, William Rees, P. R. Faling, C. W. Kendall, D. Turpie, Major Levi Reynolds, A. Hanawalt, R. Hughes, T. P. Iden, Thomas Bunnell, Thompson Crose, E. J. C. Hilderbrand, J. Harbolt, James Wallace, James W. McEwen, H. H. P. Anderson and John Ream.
THE THREE-MONTHS' RECRUITS
Not only at Monticello, but in every township in the county, were held enthusiastic Union meetings, attended by both sexes, and by the 19th the Monticello Spectator announced the following : "About one hundred men, residents of the county, have enlisted in their country's defense, some of whom joined Colonel R. H. Milroy's company from Rensselaer. Of these J. J. Staley, Watson Brown, Martin Cochell, Francis Sweet, Lewis Murray, Edward Neff, James Stevenson and brother, went from this place. Twenty-five were from Bradford and twenty from Reynolds." These men all joined Colonel Milroy's Ninth Regiment of Indiana Volun- teers, and a number of other men from White County went direct to Indianapolis and were received into Company K, of the Tenth. This first contribution of men, it will be remembered, were three-months' recruits.
FIRST WAR SACRIFICE
One of the first to enlist was a young man named John Brown, a grandson of Gen. Simon Kenton, the famous Kentucky frontiersman. While the regiment was en route to Indianapolis, somewhat more than a week after the fall of Sumter, young Brown was killed by the cars at Clark's Hill-the first war sacrifice by the people of White County. The corpse was brought back and buried near Miller Kenton's residence, three miles southwest of Monticello.
About the middle of August, the White County boys who had left for
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the three months' service returned to their homes, several of them wounded. The most serious engagement in which the Ninth and Tenth Indiana regiments had participated was that at Rich Mountain, where Colonel Milroy acquitted himself so gallantly. The reception accorded the home-comers was enthusiastic and affectionate, neither of which mani- festations were to wane through the coming years of trial and bitter experience. A month before, Capt. Alfred Reed's company of three- years' men had marched to the front and the returning short-term soldiers were received at his residence by his good wife and the other ladies of the town. Other houses at Monticello were thrown open to them; but they did not long linger in the smiles of peace, but com- menced at once to recruit and enlist for the companies which were being so rapidly organized for "three years or the war."
WHITE COUNTY'S LARGER CONTINGENTS
White County furnished the following companies for the Union serv- ice in the Civil war: Company K, Twentieth Regiment, Capts. Alfred Reed and J. C. Brown; Company E, Forty-sixth Regiment, Capts. Wil- liam Spencer, Henry Snyder and Charles F. Fisher; Company G, same regiment, Capts. Robert W. Sill, Joseph D. Cowdin, Woodson S. Mar- shall, James Hess and Joseph L. Chamberlain ; Company G, Sixty-third Regiment, Capts. John Hollodyke and T. S. Jones; Company D, Twelfth Regiment, Capts. George Bowman and B. F. Price; Company F, Ninety- ninth Regiment, Capts. George H. Gwinn and Andrew Cochran; Company K, One Hundred and Sixteenth Regiment (six months), Capt. Elijah C. Davis; Company F, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth, Capts. James G. Staley and Henry G. Bliss; Company G, One Hundred and Fifty-first Regiment (White and Pulaski counties), Capt. Carter L. Vigus.
THE MONTICELLO RIFLES
Some time in April the Monticello Rifles was formed, offered its serv- ices to the state and entered into a vigorous course of drilling so as to be in readiness for whatever might come. On the 9th of May the enthu- siastic young soldiers learned from Governor Morton that their services would not be required, with an order to immediately forward the guns in their possession. The Rifles were considerably chagrined, but meta- phorically stood by their guns though they actually sent them to Indi- anapolis, with the following protesting resolutions :
"Resolved, That White county feels that her interest in the preserva- tion of the Union and the honor of the Stars and Stripes is equal to that of any other county in the state or the United States and she should have the opportunity of manifesting it on the field of battle.
"Resolved, That we shall maintain our organization and keep alive the tender of our services to the State at any time they may be required."
Whatever the cause, the chief executive of the state notified the Mon- ticello Rifles about the middle of May that their services had been
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accepted and that they should proceed to Camp Tippecanoe, Lafayette, on the 5th of July. This information created not only much enthusiam but profound satisfaction, the public sentiment being well expressed by the Spectator of July 12th in the following paragraph :
"DEPARTURE OF CAPTAIN REED'S COMPANY! WHITE COUNTY RE- DEEMED !- The most interesting scene since the opening of the war, so far as relates to our town and county, occurred in this place on the first of the present week. On Tuesday the glad news came that Captain Reed's company, which was being organized in our midst, had been accepted and would march next day to Camp Tippecanoe, taking position in Colonel Brown's regiment. It was immediately announced that there would be a farewell meeting at the court house in the evening. The parents and friends of the volunteers flocked out until the house was crowded. Pro- ceedings were opened with prayer and music. After the company had formed in line and everybody had shaken hands with the brave boys and bid them good-bye, the meeting adjourned to assemble next morning at the railroad, where a nice flag was presented the company, Rev. Mr. Smith making the speech, and more farewells were said."
The Monticello Rifles, under Captain Reed, journeyed to Indianapolis to join the other units of the Twentieth Regiment, which was there organized on July 22d. The Monticello boys elected Alfred Reed as cap- tain ; John T. Richardson, first lieutenant; Daniel D. Dale, second lieu- tenant ; and John C. Brown, first sergeant. The company was mustered into the service as K, of the Twentieth Indiana, and, as an organization, passed through four years of trying warfare. It became first actively engaged with the enemy at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina ; participated in the engagement between the Merrimac, Cumberland and Congress, the capture of Norfolk, Virginia ; in the Peninsula campaign of the Army of the Potomac, and the battles of Fair Oaks, Manassas Plains and Fred- ericksburg, in 1862; the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, in 1863, and the Campaign of the Wilderness, the sieges of Petersburg and Richmond and the final operations against the Confederate Army of Vir- ginia, which, with minor events, covered the last two years of its service. The regiment, with Company K, was mustered out at Louisville, Ken- tucky, on July 12, 1865.
COMPANY E, FORTY-SIXTH REGIMENT
The second complete organization to enter the service from White County was Company E, Forty-sixth Regiment, with Dr. William Spen- cer, captain ; Eli R. Herman, first lieutenant; and Henry Snyder, second lieutenant. These men had pushed the enlistment during the latter part of September and the earlier portion of October, and on the 15th of the latter month the company departed for Logansport to be organized and incorporated into the Forty-sixth Regiment under Graham N. Fitch. Before starting the boys listened to a farewell address from the court- house steps delivered by T. D. Crow, to which Captain Spencer replied.
The regiment saw its first active service in Missouri as a part of
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General Pope's army, afterward campaigning in Arkansas, in operations against Arkansas Post, Duvall's Bluff, etc. It also participated in the Yazoo River Expedition, the Siege of Vicksburg and the Battle of Cham- pion Hills, before it was incorporated into the Army of the Department of the Gulf under Banks. It suffered in the misfortunes of the Red River Expedition, and was finally mustered out of the service in September, 1865.
CAPT. R. W. SILL'S COMPANY
Company G, which was composed entirely of White County men, also faithfully followed the fortunes of the Forty-sixth Regiment. Much of the company was enlisted while Spencer's was being organized, the most active figure in the work being R. W. Sill, and that he was to be captain of it was a foregone conclusion. There was evidently some rivalry be- tween the two organizations, although perhaps not bitter enough to call forth the following from the Spectator, after the departure of Captain Spencer's command for the camp at Logansport: "Now for Captain R. W. Sill's company. Let it be filled up immediately, and cursed be the craven-hearted cur that offers opposition to it. It is a double duty we owe to Mr. Sill and our bleeding country to help the matter on. Let's do it like men."
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