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 30
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THOSE WHO BOUGHT LAND IN 1837-51
The entries of land in Big Creek Township continued until the early '50s, although they were quite rare during the hard times of the late '30s and the early '40s. This period, 1837-51, records the following as new land owners, with dates of entry : Jonathan Johnson, February 1, 1837, and Henry Linda, October 20th, of the same year ; Joshua H. Scarff and Jacob Hanaway, October 5 and January 25, 1839, respectively ; Okey S. Johnson and Catherine E. Davis, both on June 2, 1842; Moses Karr and Joseph Karr, January 24 and May 23, 1843; John Holliday and John R. Jefferson, January 31 and May 28, 1844; Robert Bartholomew, September 20, 1845; Ellis H. Johnson, May 28th of that year; John Burget, July 29th, also 1845; in 1846-Abel T. Smith, May 26th; David W. Parker, August 19th; John W. Johnson, June 29th ; John Matthews, April 25th ; John Bunnell, July 18th ; and Silas Adams, April 13th; in 1847-Bushrod W. Cain, December 18th; John Friend, September 11th; Abraham Lukens, June 21st; Ambrose Mudge, December 14th; John Alkire, March 5th; Ezekiel Matthews, June 26th; Thomas Chenoweth, August 17th ; in 1848-William Vanscoy, January 26th ; John R. Jeffer- son, October 5th; Ellis H. Johnson, January 26th; and Abel T. Smith, same date; Joseph D. Moore, June 19, 1849; Ira M. Chenoweth, August 20, 1850; and David Parker, July 28, 1851.
INCREASE OF REAL SETTLERS
All of the foregoing entries (and the statement applies to those which have preceded the immediate list) were made by White County settlers, but not all of them were by residents of Big Creek Township. A few of them relinquished their interests and migrated to other parts, but the majority improved their properties, founded homesteads and added to their holdings, either by the purchase of adjoining Government lands or of tracts which had been thrown upon the market by non-residents. Especially was this the case with those who had early begun the raising of live stock. Others became the owners of larger farms than they could profitably cultivate, and were forced to lease portions of their land
240
HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
to tenants, who would pay them in rental or in a stipulated proportion of the crops.
B. WILSON SMITH'S PICTURE OF 1846
Although Abel T. Smith entered his first lands, a short distance southwest of Smithson, or Wheeler, in the spring of 1846, he did not start with his family from their old Virginia home until the fall of the year. More than sixty years afterward, one of his sons, B. Wilson Smith (then four-score years of age), was writing as follows :
"We left our home near Bridgeport, Harrison county, Virginia (now West Virginia), October 17, 1846. There my father, mother and six children-the oldest (Mrs. Haymond) nearly 18 years, and youngest a babe less than two months. I write this on the 64th anniversary of our departure. We came overland all the way-saw but one railroad track in all the way-at Springfield, Ohio. We had a three-horse wagon and carriage. I was past 16 years of age. I drove the wagon all the way.
"We reached the county of White in the morning of November 24th. Had stayed at Battle Ground the night before, then called Harrisonville. We passed from Tippecanoe county into White county at a point a little north of Forgy Kious' home and went north, crossing Moots' Creek a little west of the home of Mr. Smelser, then county commissioner. Then on north, along the county road, past John Kious', over Hickory Ridge, and northwest to Kent's Point. Mr. Kent lived there then. My father had known him and bought cattle of him when he lived on Darby Plains, west of Columbus, Ohio. He lived in a cabin near the old grave- yard. John Price, his son-in-law, lived a little northeast of him. Our course was then straight on north to the home of John Brady on Big Creek, one-fourth mile west of Tucker schoolhouse, built in 1861. There was no house then where Chalmers is now, nor until we reached Brady's, except the home of Joseph H. Thompson away to the right on the hill, and the Jack Burgett cabin, one-fourth mile to the west. We passed close by their cabin on the east side. We reached Mr. Brady's at nightfall. He and his wife were Virginians-he from the south branch of the Potomac, and she from Clarksburgh. She was a Britton, a very promi- nent family. She and my mother had been schoolmates. Her sister had married Nathan Goff, a man of money and influence-the Goff whose name so often occurs as former owner of lands in Big Creek and West Point townships.
"We brought in our wagon a large box of clothing and valuables from Mrs. Goff to her sister, Mrs. Brady, and the family. At that time the Mexican War was on, and Mrs. Brady's brother, Major Forbes Britton, was a very prominent officer in General Taylor's family.
"Mr. Brady's house was built of hewed logs and was about 16x18 feet square. His family was seven or eight, ours eight, and the man who came with us from LaFayette, hauling a load of furniture and pro- visions ; and yet we all stayed in that not large house of one room and
241
HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
ate and slept there. I mention this as a graphic picture of pioneer times in White county. This county had been organized but twelve years at that time.
"The 24th of November had been a pleasant day, a little cool and raw, but gave no indication of a marked change of weather. But before the morning dawned a fierce northwester was in full swing, and snow was falling and ice freezing fast. We had to go two miles west to our cabin, which stood about ninety rods southwest of Smithson station. We had to cut the ice to get across Little Creek and unload our furniture and provisions in the storm, and leave it till the occupant of the cabin could get his family and household effects out, which he kindly did. Father had bought the cabin and squatter right of him the spring pre- vious. The cabin was 14x16 feet, outside measurement, of split logs, making the inside measurement 13x15, one window, one door, no loft to speak of, and yet a family of eight stored themselves, furniture and pro- visions, in this small cabin for the entire winter and spring, till a new addition and hall and porch could be added. Yea, more, they lived happily-toiled hard, never complained, and saw the fruits of their toil in 120 acres fenced, a good corn and oats crop, and 70 acres of prairie broken and sowed in wheat.
"At the time of our coming to White county there was not a town on the line of the Monon railroad from the Battle Ground to Michigan City. West Bedford, three miles east of Monon, was a small town with a post- office, and New Durham was 21/2 miles east of the present town of West- ville. Of course there was no railroad, nor till seven years later. Monti- cello was a small town with no mills or water power. The two princely houses were those of Chas. Kendall and William Sill, who died about that time. Monticello had a postoffice, so also Burnett's Creek and West Bedford. These were all, and they only had weekly mail, carried on horseback from Logansport to White Post. The only mills of any special import were those at Norway. They had French burr stones and made good flour. They also carded wool. The Van Rensselaer had been de- stroyed, i. e., the dam, by the great floods of 1844. The only church building of any pretension was the New School Presbyterian at Monti- cello, of which the afterward celebrated Mr. Cheever had charge. I knew him twenty years later when in the full prime of his great career. The Methodists had no church in the county. The charges were not even a circuit, but Monon Mission. The only schoolhouse in Monticello then was the frame building that stood on the lot where Mrs. Israel Nordyke lately lived. No schoolhouse in Big Creek township except an old abandoned one near old Father Nathaniel Bunnell's, built of round logs, with mortar and stick chimney, but in the last month of the year the neighbors joined together and built a hewed log schoolhouse about one-fourth of a mile east of the present Tucker schoolhouse, which was built 15 years later. In this log schoolhouse the first Methodist quarterly meeting that I ever attended was held in March, 1847. Rev. S. C. Cooper, Greencastle, was presiding elder, and Rev. Burns preacher in charge.
"My sister Margaret, afterward Mrs. Dr. Haymond, taught the first Vol. I-16
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
school. Living as we did 90 rods southwest of Smithson station, our nearest neighbors were Mrs. Abigail Johnson and her family, nearly one- fourth mile east, Henry Lindsey one-fourth mile west, then David Parker a fourth mile further on, and then, a half mile further west, the widow Biddle, and one-fourth mile further, John R. Jefferson. There were no neighbors south nor north nor east nearer than two miles, and west (Isaac Beesy) three miles. The country was new, and the people did not crowd each other much. There was no newspaper then or before published in White county. Not much of politics or political excitement. I remember the presidential election of 1848. My father and I left home at the same time, going in opposite directions-he east, I west. When we met again he had voted for Taylor and Filmore at the voting place of the township, the old seat of county government, Geo. A. Spencer's, and I had secured a school in Princeton township-the Nordyke neighbor- hood. It was my first school, and the first taught in the township. The 13th day of November just passed was the sixty-second anniversary of its opening. May I say that all of our family (children) were school teachers, and all taught in White county except the youngest-Henry Clay.
"Do you wonder that I have a great love for White county ? I never had any enemies there. I have touched shoulders with many of your early citizens in the life struggle. Your noble building, the schoolhouse at Monticello-I laid the cornerstone and delivered the oration in 1869. Every foot of your 504 square miles is destined to be valuable. Your noble river, the classic Tippecanoe, is destined to continue the most beautiful stream in the State, and every hamlet, village and town to grow in wealth and importance through the coming years. The fondest dreams of the early days will more than come true, and the civilized and cultured Anglo-Saxon continue to hold and cultivate lands where once the proud hostile Miami held savage sway."
FIRST FRAME SCHOOLHOUSE
As the population increased, especially in the northeastern part of the township toward Monticello, the settlers prepared to give their chil- dren better educational conveniences. The county was divided into school districts, No. 1 being embraced in that territory. In 1850 the first frame schoolhouse in the township was erected in section 12, not far from the original log cabin, used for that purpose, on the Spencer farm.
MUDGE'S STATION AND CHALMERS
The settlers felt greatly encouraged when the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad was completed through the township in 1853, and Gardner Mudge contributed land in section 34 to be used as the site of a station. The locality was known for years as Mudge's Station, but it did not bud into the Town of Chalmers until 1873, when it was first platted.
243
HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
FIRST IRON BRIDGE
In the early '70s several important improvements were made in the township, among others being the building of its first iron bridge across Big Creek, just north of the residence of John Burns. It was completed in 1872 and was 100 feet long; quite a structure for those days and that locality. It has since been replaced by a more substantial structure.
SWAMP LANDS RECLAIMED
In the '80s the settlers commenced to take up the work of draining the northern swamp lands in earnest, and the result was to reclaim large tracts which had been held unimproved, some of the owners being non- residents. As these lands came into the market as fertile and valuable farm properties, they were purchased by actual settlers and divided into smaller tracts. Thus the northern part of the township received a noticeable accession of population.
SMITHSON OR WHEELER
One of the results of this movement was the platting of the Town of Wheeler in section 9. It was laid out on the farm of Hiram M. Wheeler, on the main line of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad. The postoffice at that point was named Smithson, in honor of Lieut. Bernard G. Smith, a veteran of the Civil war and a son of Abel T. Smith, who came to the neighborhood in 1846 and was for years prominent in township affairs. He died in 1875. Although the town was platted as Wheeler, the railroad station is usually known by the name of the postoffice, Smithson.
LEADER IN GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT
Besides being early in the movement of artificial drainage, the farmers of Big Creek Township, with the solid support of the townsmen of Chalmers, took the initiative in the improvement of the highways of the county, and, in proportion to their population and wealth, are still in the front ranks of the good roads reform. In that regard the bonded indebtedness of the township is the fifth largest among the eleven town- ships of the county. Its total of $46,977 is divided among the several roads as follows: Dobbins, $800; Redding, $470; Anderson, $4,500; Younger, $4,500; J. H. Moore, $9,334; Friday, $4,800; Mills, $1,733; Morrison, $8,000; Lane, $12,840.
CHAPTER XVII
HONEY CREEK TOWNSHIP
DRAINING AND ROAD BUILDING-HONEY CREEK-JOSHUA RINKER AND WIFE-THE BUNNELL FAMILIES-SMITH, HIORTH'S OLD PARTNER- SETTLERS AND LAND BUYERS OF 1835-ENTERED LANDS IN 1839-53- - TWO-THIRDS OWNED BY NON-RESIDENTS-FOUNDING. OF REYNOLDS -- GUERNSEY-TOWNSHIP CREATED-SCHOOLHOUSE AND TOWN HALL- PIONEER CITIZEN VOTERS-PUBLIC-SPIRITED TOWNSHIP.
As a civil body, Honey Creek Township dates from 1855. Its terri- tory was a part of the original Union Township, created in 1834 as one of the four divisions of the vast White County of that day. Monon Town- ship was lopped off from the parent body in 1836 and Princeton in 1844; then, in 1855, another thirty-six square miles was taken from the west- ern portion of Union to form Honey Creek Township, which also, about 1905, was presented with five square miles from Big Creek Township to the south. Although it would be difficult to find forty-one square miles of better land in the county than lie within the limits of Honey Creek Township, their fertility and productiveness have been fairly earned, as no section has given more freely of its time and means to reclaim them from their primal disadvantages.
DRAINING AND ROAD BUILDING
Even for a number of years after the civil organization of the town- ship, its soil was largely water-soaked and most of the land was consid- ered unmarketable, but about 1880 the settlers took up the matter of ditching in an earnest and practical way. By 1882 they had some twenty miles of good public ditches, besides many constructed at private ex- pense, and with the rapid reclaiming of the lands the farmers also did their full share in constructing good gravel and stone roads; so that with the increased yield of their lands they provided the means of getting the produce to market in the most advantageous way. At the present time, there is very little land in Honey Creek Township which is not under a fair state of cultivation and which is not easily accessible to either a substantial macadam road or a line of railroad.
In the construction of its system of macadam or gravel roads, Honey Creek Township has incurred a bonded indebtedness of $38,886, divided as follows: Weaver Road, $8,400; Ballard, $2,400; J. H. Moore, $1,866; Wheeler, $4,060; Ward, $4,050; Miller, $4,950; byroads, $12,000; Lane, $1,160.
244
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
HONEY CREEK
Ditching and road building have been made especially necessary in Honey Creek Township because of the sluggish and widespread waters of the stream which gives it its name. Honey Creek rises in the adjoin- ing townships of West Point and flows in a northeasterly direction through the township and empties into the Tippecanoe River three miles north of Monticello, in Union Township. Speaking of this stream, one of the oldest residents of the county says: "It might with greater pro- priety be termed a lake, for it had no well-defined channel from its entrance into the township to its passage out, but was one vast sheet of water without perceptible outlet, varying in width from a few hundred feet to a mile or more, until within two miles of its outlet it became a rapid stream, with well-defined channel, flowing through heavily wooded, rugged bluff lands, from thence to the river. It was only after the ex- penditure of much money and a vast amount of labor that a channel of any kind was made through the township, and by deepening and widen- ing it from year to year the water has been removed to such an extent as to render the larger part of the land susceptible to cultivation. There is not another township in the whole county where so much has been done to improve natural conditions, nor is there one which has equaled Honey Creek in its advance in material wealth and prosperity."
Previous to the building of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad through the township in 1853-54, and the platting of Reynolds in the latter year, few settlers had ventured into what generally was put. down as a water-logged part of the county. Conditions were better in the southern half of the township than in the northern, and the con- sequence was that, with very few exceptions, the pioneers who located before the railroad came along settled in sections 22, 26, 27, 28, 34 and 35. By reference to any fair map it will be seen that these sections cover the present site of Reynolds and certain portions of the township within two. miles of it.
JOSHUA RINKER AND WIFE
The first settlers of Honey Creek Township were Joshua Rinker and wife-the former of German blood and the latter (Louisa Reece) of Scotch ancestry-both Virginians, who in 1834 located in what was then the newly organized County of White and Union Township. Mr. Rinker threw up a little log cabin somewhere in section 34 and there the sturdy couple established themselves as the first residents in what is now Honey . Creek Township. Long afterward it was stated by William H. Rinker, who was the third of their eight children and was born in that locality in May, 1836, that for the first two years of his residence there, Joshua Rinker farmed on shares, and that in 1836 he entered 130 acres of land in Big Creek and Honey Creek townships. At first he erected the rude log cabin noted, but afterward built the first brick house of the township. His wife died in April, 1864, and he followed her in December, 1869.
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
The son, William H. Rinker, married into the old Bunnel family, and lived for years on his farm not far from the old homestead in section 34.
THE BUNNELL FAMILIES
Nathaniel Bunnell, the founder of the family, various members of which have become so well known in Honey Creek Township, was reared and married in Kentucky. When a young man he was engaged in the Ohio River trade and was one of a crew who brought the first load of merchandise from Marysville, Kentucky, to Chillicothe, Ohio. Soon afterward he moved into Ohio, and, after making several changes of location and serving in the War of 1812 within the following thirty years, settled with a large family in what is now Honey Creek Township. The Tract Book shows that he entered his first tract of land in section 34 on the 9th of December, 1833, and he probably did not settle upon it until the following spring or summer, following closely upon the arrival of the Rinkers. The families naturally became neighbors, and, quite as naturally, the young people commenced to intermarry.
In April, 1834, both Nathaniel and Thomas Bunnell entered lands in section 27, and various members of the family, representing several generations, have resided at Reynolds and in neighboring territory. Nathaniel Bunnell died on his farm in section 34 in the year 1850.
SMITH, HIORTH'S OLD PARTNER
It is said that Peter B. Smith, the partner of Hans E. Hiorth in the sawmill established in the Norwegian settlement two miles north of Monticello, settled in section 1, northeast corner of what is now Honey Creek Township, as early as 1834. If he did so there is no record of any purchase of lands by him at that time; he may have been simply scouting for timber lands. His first entry in that section was not made until 1846.
SETTLERS AND LAND BUYERS OF 1835
In 1835 the settlers included the Coles-Joseph, James and Moses- and about the same time Jesse Grooms and the Johnsons-Frank, Moses and Addison. Within the following two years also came Stephen Miller to section 26, V. McColloch to section 27 and John Wilson to section 22.
Early settlers also report that a bachelor by the name of Day came into the township in the same year and began settlement in section 35.
In 1835 the only people to enter lands, according to the records, were also Bunnels-John Wesley Bunnell, in section 26, and Eliza Ann. Bunnell, in section 33, both on December 16th.
In 1836 the Tract Book gives the following: Daniel M. Tilton, in section 1 (the only recorded land owner of the early times to invest in the northern sections of the township), December 12th ; Levi Reynolds, May 25th ; Benjamin H. Dixon, February 4th, and Harrison Skinner, June 2d-all in section 28; and Thomas Brownfield, in section 34, May 3d.
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
ENTERED LANDS IN 1839-53
The Tract Book, which is the only reliable authority by which to determine the entries of lands in the township, records the following as having bought real estate of the Government after 1836, until the township was organized in 1855: Joshua Rinker (as stated) in section 134, August 1, 1839; William M. Kenton, in section 25, November 20, 1843, and in section 24, October 9, 1848; in 1844-Richard Imes, in section 1, April 20th; William Turner, in section 13, November 9th ; Ellis H. Johnson, in section 29, February 16th; John R. Jefferson, in section 31, May 2d, and Richard J. Tilton, in section 36, November 9th ; James P. Moore, Sr., and James P. Moore, Jr., in section 6, November 25, 1845; in 1846-Peter B. Smith, in section 1, October 17th; Joseph Coble, in section 11, September 6th; William Turner, in section 17, September 28th; Adin and Israel Nordyke (residents of Princeton Township), in section 19, October 5th; David H. Morse, in section 21, July 14th; Thomas Spencer, in section 24, September 26th, and in section 25, October 14th; Nathaniel White, in section 26, September 29th ; Isaac Beasy, January 19th; Okey S. Johnson, May 13th, and John B. Lowe, May 21st, all in section 29; and James Shaw, in section 34, February 25th ; in 1847-Liberty M. Burns, in section 15, February 7th ; David Marshall, in section 22, October 19th; Lewis C. Marshall, in section 23, October 19th ; James Witherow, in section 25, June 22d, and James Barnes, in same section, July 6th; David H. Morse, in section 26, August 9th; Aaron Chamberlain, in section 30, April 15th; Isaac Beasey, in same section, May 18th; in 1848-William M. Kenton, in section 24, October 9th; David Marshall, in section 26, same date; Nathaniel Bunnell, in section 34, December 9th, and Jordan Cain, in section 36, March 13th ; in 1850-Abraham Smith (a resident of Prince- ton Township), in section 19, April 12th; John Lawrie (a citizen of West Point Township), in section 29, December 16th, and John Day, in section 34, September 24th; Loreno Morse, James Shaw, James Brooks, John B. Cowan and K. T. and N. Bunnell, section 35, October 8, 1851; John Bunton, in section 31, March 5, 1852, and Levin Tucker, in section 29, October 24, 1853.
Two-THIRDS OWNED BY NON-RESIDENTS
At the organization of the township in 1855, it is estimated that fully two-thirds of its area was in the hands of non-residents. The swamp and military warrant lands taken up were as follows :
Swamp Lands Military Lands
Sections
(acres)
(acres)
1
80
...
2
440
. ..
3
600
40
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
Sections
Swamp Lands (acres)
Military Lands (acres)
4
360
80
5
400
240
6
120
. . .
7
320
8
480
80
9
180
10
280
40
11
400
. . .
12
280
. ..
13
200
60
14
480
80
15
480
. . .
17
220
. ..
18
640
...
19
280
160
20
600
40
21
600
. . .
22
400
...
23
440
120
24
80
25
200
26
160
. .
27
160
.
. .
28
440
. ..
29
280
. ..
30
480
. . .
31
240
160
32
560
40
33
160
160
34
80
.
36
40
Totals
10,840
1,620
To the foregoing grand total 12,460 acres of swamp and military lands taken up, with few exceptions by land speculators residing outside the county, are to be added various tracts of canal lands in sections 27, 29 and 34, which were held out of the Government lands subject to free entry at $1.25 per acre. Two hundred acres of these lands in section 27 were purchased by Joseph Cole, Marshall H. Johnson and Micajah F. Johnson; John Lawrie, of West Point Township, bought forty acres in section 29, and Joseph Day and Benjamin Reynolds entered 200 acres in section 34. Other scattering tracts bought up by speculators, non- resident in Honey Creek Township, would bring the total of "foreign" holdings up to the 14,640 acres, as estimated.
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