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 31
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249
HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
FOUNDING OF REYNOLDS
This condition undoubtedly interfered with the early settlement of the country, which failed to show much progress until the building of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad. While the line was in process of construction through the township the Town of Reynolds was laid out by Benjamin Reynolds, George S. Rose, Christian Cassell, William M. Kenton and Joseph H. Thompson. The original plat was recorded August 22, 1853, and shows 155 lots in the northeast quarter of 33. The village was named after Benjamin Reynolds, its acknowl- edged founder, who erected the first building on its site, the hotel which held its own in the central part of the county for many years thereafter. Thomas Bunnell and William M. Kenton made the first addition to Reynolds in 1855. The town had many energetic and able men who pushed it along, notwithstanding its early setback during the inflated and uncertain times of 1857-58. The Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Pennsylvania) was completed through the township in 1859 and gave another boom to Reynolds, which, during the following decade, especially, was acknowledged to be a rival to Monticello "away off on the eastern borders of the county." Being the junction of the two lines, although it had prosperous and substantial business houses, it was known for many miles around as "a tough railroad town," with all that expression implies. But, although all of its ambitions were not realized, it being incorporated in 1875, it has long been an orderly place, and has progressed steadily as one of the best interior centers in the county. Reynolds is the banking and the trade center of quite a district, espe- cially to the north, and its dealings in grain and live stock are con- siderable.
GUERNSEY
The only other center in the township, which is, however, of com- parative unimportance, is Guernsey, a station on the Monon route in section 12, northeastern part of the township. The place has never been platted; is only a small hamlet and derives its name from the postoffice established there.
TOWNSHIP CREATED
Very soon after the Town of Reynolds was platted, Benjamin Rey- nolds, Leander H. Jewett, Abram Van Voorst and others signed a petition and presented it to the court of county commissioners, praying that congressional township 27 north, range 4 west, should be constituted Honey Creek Township. At its June term, 1855, that body so ordered.
SCHOOLHOUSE AND TOWN HALL
Not long after the township was created and before any of its officials had been elected the proprietors of the new town of Reynolds made
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arrangements to build a schoolhouse on its site. It was one of the first buildings to be erected. Nathaniel Bunnell gave $25 for the purpose, Benjamin Reynolds donated the ground and other settlers in the neigh- borhood contributed enough by subscription to complete the building, which was to serve both as a schoolhouse and a town hall.
PIONEER CITIZEN VOTERS
The first election in Honey Creek Township was held at the Reynolds schoolhouse on the 7th of April, 1856, and the forty-three who cast their ballots at that time were Abram Van Voorst, D. L. Hamilton, Newton Organ, M. M. Sill, O. S. Dale, J. S. Goddard, Ira Keller, James Cole, Aaron Wood, Joseph Cole, Thomas Glassford, Nathaniel Bunnell, Thorn- ton Williams, Samuel Horen, Washington Burns, Robert W. Sill, Fred- erick Medorse, Jesse Holtom, Marshall Johnson, Addison Johnson, Joshua Rinker, George Williams, Thomas Cain, John Reffcoots, S. A. Miller, Abraham Irvin, Daniel Coble, A. M. Dickinson, Patrick Horn, R. R. Pettit, John Horen, L. H. Jewett, Isaac Barker, Isaac S. Vinson, John Bates, Lewis Kruger, J. W. Bulger, J. N. Bunnell, Nathaniel White, James Torpy, Isaac M. Cantwell, John Callis and Frederick Helm. The result was to elect Samuel Horen as township trustee, for a term of three years; Abram Van Voorst, for a two years term, and A. M. Dickinson, for one year; Leander H. Jewett and M. M. Sill, justices of the peace for two years; R. R. Pettit and Homer Glassford, constables for one year; Nathaniel Bunnell, township treasurer, one year, and Joshua Rinker, Newton Organ and James Coble, road supervisors, one year. At this election thirty-five votes were received for a road tax. Ira Kells and Aaron Wood acted as judges, and O. S. Dale and M. M. Sill as clerks.
There was even a more complete turn-out at the election on the second Tuesday in October of that year; this was the first state election held in the township and nearly every voter in it reported at the Rey- nolds schoolhouse. The names follow: James Himes, William White, Aaron Wood, A. M. Dickinson, J. B. Bunnell, Abram Van Voorst, J. H. Thomas, Stephen Miller, L. H. Ambler, Thornton Williams, Marion Hamilton, Samuel Harper, Isaac Ruger, J. S. Reynolds, Samuel Horen, J. W. Brasket, William Harper, R. R. Pettit, Thomas Harper, John Noah, William Headen, Michael Foundry, F. Herper, L. H. Jewett, F. N. Holam, Lewis Shall, F. Kefsis, James S. Miller, George F. Miller, Jacob Heastur, James Dale, M. M. Sill, James Kenton, A. Page, J. S. Goddard, M. Foram, John Candent, E. Lickory, John Boles, Charles Keller, Henry Veslong, M. T. Johnson, John Cole, Anderson Johnson, George Williams, James Cole, Benjamin Clark, Hugh Irvin, Ira Keller, John Lealy, Patrick Henry, D. L. Hamilton, N. W. Bunnell, G. Helar, A. A. Ferry- fold, Isaac Kentwell, Joseph Skevtington, John Cox, John Jeffcoots, B. T. Meyers, A. Weise, George Emery, Nathaniel White, C. Perry, Joshua Perry, James Pettit, Jerry Hamilton, Thomas Spencer, Solomon Mc- Colloch, James M. Bragg, John Horn, Nathaniel Bunnell, Adam Morgan,
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Joshua Rinker, Adin Nordyke, Patrick Horn, Patrick Poating, James Turpie, Joseph Dale, P. Hartman, W. P. Stark, Joseph DeLong, Abram Irvin and Newton Organ.
PUBLIC-SPIRITED TOWNSHIP
After the founding of Reynolds, most of the pioneer institutions and movements of the township originated in that town; consequently, many of the details connected with such early matters are reserved for the special sketch of the village. Even in the encouragement of such enter- prises as the construction of roads and ditches, which affect the township at large, the people of Reynolds have always been helpful to the extent of their means. In fact, as a whole, it is a township which enjoys a marked public spirit.
CHAPTER XVIII
PRINCETON TOWNSHIP
JOSEPH STEWART, MIGHTY HUNTER-THE PALESTINE SETTLEMENT-THE GODFATHER OF THE TOWNSHIP-THOMAS GILLPATRICK-BLACK OAK SETTLEMENT-TOWNSHIP CREATED AND NAMED-STATE AND TOWN- SHIP ELECTIONS-THE NORDYKE SETTLEMENT-THE SCHOOLHOUSE COMPETITION-LAND ENTRIES, 1842-47-SADDLED WITH LAND SPECU- LATORS-FEVER AND AGUE, OR CHILLS AND FEVER-IS IT ANY WON- DER ?- RECLAIMED LANDS AND GOOD ROADS-PIONEER SETTLEMENT DETERMINED BY NATURAL CONDITIONS-CATTLE RAISING AND HERDING -LIGHT AHEAD-WOLCOTT AND ITS FOUNDER-SEAFIELD.
Princeton Township is one of the few portions of White County in which pioneer settlement and civil organization were almost coincidents. As created in 1855 by the board of county commissioners, it comprised seventy-eight square miles-not only its present area, but the fifteen westernmost sections of Monon Township. Legally and specifically, its bounds were thus described: Commencing at the northeast corner of section 1, township 28 north, range 5 west, and running south on said section line to the north line of Big Creek Township; thence west along said line to the west line of White County; thence north along this line to . the corner of White County; thence east along said county line six miles ; thence north on said county line five miles; thence east three miles to the place of beginning. Monon Township afterward regained its three western tiers of five sections each, thus reducing Princeton to its present area of sixty-three square miles-nine miles from east to west, and seven from north to south.
JOSEPH STEWART, MIGHTY HUNTER
Joseph Stewart, a young hunter and trapper without family, was the first white man to settle within the limits of Princeton Township. He entered forty acres in section 2, in the northwest corner of the township, on the 10th of December, 1841, but probably in the early spring of that year had built his shack on a sand ridge which ran through his tract. Unincumbered as he was, the young sportsman had little use for a dwelling except as a storehouse for his guns, traps and skins. At that time there was no habitation within ten miles of his hut. A winding path through the brush led to the front from the west, and shortly after his arrival Stewart fenced and cultivated a few acres of land in his back- yard. For several years his cabin was a favorite resort of hunters and
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travelers in that region. Stewart could narrate marvelous tales of his narrow escape from the horns of wounded bucks, from packs of wolves and individual catamounts, panthers and lynx. The sides of his cabin, well covered with the skins of deer and wolf, bore some evidence as to a portion of these blood-curdling tales, but signs-manual as to his prowess against the wild cats of the forest were lacking.
THE PALESTINE SETTLEMENT
After Stewart, the mighty hunter, came such modest tillers of the soil as Henry Pugh, Nathaniel Rogers and John Cain, all of whom located in 1842 on sections 5 and 8 and commenced what was long known as the Palestine settlement. Of this colony the family of Henry Pugh is said to have been the first to arrive, moving from Union Township in January, 1843, and installing themselves in the hewn-log cabin erected by the father and husband during the previous fall in section 8. Pugh was one of the most noted woodsmen in the township and cut the logs for not only his own house but for the cabins erected by his two neigh- bors, and his services in that line were often called into requisition as other settlers came into the northern part of the township. He was what you might call a handy man to have 'round in those days.
In the spring of 1843 Messrs. Rogers and Cain became residents of the Palestine settlement, building their cabins in section 5, to the north of Pugh's house. The cabins erected by Pugh and Cain were 16 by 20 feet each, while the one built by Nathaniel Rogers was 16 by 22 feet.
The Tract Book shows that John Cain entered land in section 32, north of section 5, in January, 1842, and that Nathaniel S. Rogers pur- chased a tract in the same section during the following month.
In June, 1842, Daniel and John Nyce entered lands in section 2 and settled on their tracts soon after Rogers and Cain had completed their cabins.
THE GODFATHER OF THE TOWNSHIP.
In 1843 Cornelius Vandervolgen came over from England in the good ship "Princeton" and located in section 1, thus becoming a resident of Palestine. As will be seen, the township received its name at his sug- gestion. Anson Jewett, in section 7, Cornelius Stryker in section 10, and others, also settled in that part of the township, investing quite largely in canal lands.
THOMAS GILLPATRICK
In February, 1844, Thomas Gillpatrick entered lands in section 22, southeast of the central part of the township, in what afterward became the Nordyke settlement. He probably located in the following spring, as he was on hand to vote at the fall election of 1845.
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
BLACK OAK SETTLEMENT
About this time a settlement to the northwest of Palestine was formed in Princeton Township. James Brown, an Ohio man, was the first to arrive in that locality. His cabin was even smaller than those first erected by the founders of Palestine, being only 14 by 18 feet. He was soon followed by Jacob Myrtle and Messrs. Gooddale and Hemphill, who called their little cluster of cabins Black Oak settlement.
TOWNSHIP CREATED AND NAMED
By the spring of 1844 there were enough settlers in the western part of Union Township to warrant a separate government, and in March they presented to the Court of County Commissioners a petition looking to that end. At the same time Mr. Vandervolgen suggested that it be called Princeton, in honor of the grand old vessel in which he "came over." As now known, that body accepted the name and announced the boundaries of the new township.
STATE AND TOWNSHIP ELECTIONS
The first election held in Princeton Township was for state officers, the following voters discharging their duties at the house of Daniel Nyce, in section 2, on the 4th of August, 1845: Nathaniel Rogers, Cor- nelius Vandervolgen, William Bunnell, John C. Lielfor, Nathaniel B. Volger, Daniel Nyce, John Cain, Mortimer Dyer, Henry Pugh, R. C. Johnson, Joseph Stewart, Isaac Chase, Elias Esra, Adin Nordyke, John C. Morman, Israel Nordyke, Thomas Gillpatrick and Anson Jewett.
At the first election for township officers, held on the first Monday of April (6th), 1846, the following cast their votes: Elias Morman, Israel Nordyke, John Cain, John Birch, John Moran, John Lear, Thomas Gill, Joseph Lear, Anson Wood, Henry Pugh, Daniel Nyce, J. R. Ben- ham, Andrew Morman, Mortimer Dyer, James Street, Adin Nordyke, Benjamin Gillpatrick, Elias Esra, Cornelius Stryker, Anson Jewett, Nathaniel Rogers and Leander H. Jewett. Elias Esra was chosen super- visor of roads, twenty votes being cast for him ; Robert Nordyke, inspector of elections, by the same vote; Elias Morman and Anson Wood were tied for the office of fence viewer, two votes being cast for each ; James Street, constable, with twenty votes to his credit.
THE NORDYKE SETTLEMENT
Although the first recorded entry of lands by Adin and Israel Nor- dyke is given as October 13, 1846, in section 21, it is evident from the foregoing list of voters that various members of the family had already effected a lodgement in the central portion of the township. Within the succeeding few years the well known Nordyke settlement sprung up in that neighborhood, and vied for superiority with the Palestine people, several miles to the northwest.
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
THE SCHOOLHOUSE COMPETITION
Perhaps the most earnest contest was over the matter of schoolhouses. The Nordyke institution was opened about 1848, with B. Wilson Smith in charge ; was built of hewn logs, and was 16 by 18 feet on the ground. But it had only one window !
The Palestine schoolhouse that stood on Mortimer Dyer's land was of the same dimensions as those of its rival, but had two windows-one on each side-extending the entire length of the building. To modify this advantage over the Nordyke schoolhouse it was only a round-log structure; so that the most unprejudiced judges said that honors were even.
This state of affairs existed until 1854, when the Nordyke settlement erected the first frame schoolhouse in the township, about half a mile north of the first log building, which lost the day to the Palestine settle- ment.
LAND ENTRIES, 1842-1847
Among those who entered lands in Princeton Township previous to 1848, not already mentioned, were John Porter, in section 36, north- western part of the township, August 26, 1842; Comfort Olds, January 11, and William Coon, May 29, 1843, both in section 2, just southeast of the Porter claim; Elizabeth Pugh, in section 8, September 5, 1845; Mortimer Dyer, in section 9, August 10, and in section 36 (range 6), August 18, 1845; Robert C. Johnson, in section 15 (range 5), and Hiram F. Lear, in section 33 (township 28, range 5).
In 1846 settlements in the township became more numerous. The following entered lands in township 27, range 5: Peter Penham, in section 1; Jonathan White, section 15; Adin and Israel Nordyke, in section 21, and Alfred Harrison and Benjamin Harrison, in section 28.
In 1847 Hiram F. Lear purchased land in section 4; Richard J. Tilton in section 7; Anson Jewett in section 8; James MeKillip and James Holliday in section 10; John Burch in section 15; Richard J. Tilton and Rebecca J. Tilton in section 17; William W. Wynkoop in section 25; Christopher Burch in section 32; James E. Adams and John Stewart in section 33; David Wright in section 34, and Isaac Beasey in section 36. In section 35, township 28, range 6, Newton Stewart entered lands on October 25, 1847.
There was a period of several years after 1847 when few settlers came into the township, but the influx commenced again in the early '50s, by the latter portion of that decade was quite brisk, and between 1856 and 1860 the population nearly doubled.
SADDLED WITH LAND SPECULATORS
Princeton Township shared the fate of Honey Creek and most of the other northern townships, in the matter of having its lands monop- olized by non-resident speculators in the early period of its development.
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
First they bought up large tracts of swamp land and canal lands, and later added to their holdings by purchasing all the land warrants they could lay their hands on, and paying ex-Mexican soldiers a song in cash for good Government titles. These large areas they held at prices far in excess of the regular Government price, and as settlers were able to avail themselves of the cheaper rates in neighboring townships or coun- ties, Princeton and all the other speculator-ridden sections were care- fully avoided by those who really sought land upon which to found homes. It was not, in fact, until the Government lands, at $1.25 per acre, had been exhausted in adjacent territory, and there had arisen a general economic and sanitary demand for the drainage of the swamp lands, with a consequent increase of taxes upon the properties, that the speculators were routed in favor of the homeseekers.
When the non-resident landlords found that they could not hold these tracts for a rise without paying something in return for their increase in value, they attempted to unload them on residents. Even as late as 1855 the land held under the military land warrants was offered at less than the Government price. But no purchasers were found, as residents had all the land they wanted, and many of them were deeply in debt for the tracts they had purchased from the trustees of the Wabash & Erie canal. Much of this land had been sold on time, with a small advance payment, the certificate of purchase stipulating that in case of non- payment of the balance, when due, the first payment would be forfeited and the land resold. Thousands of acres of canal lands were thus sold in Princeton and other townships of the county at $2 per acre, the first payment being sometimes forfeited two or three times on the same tract of land.
FEVER AND AGUE, OR CHILLS AND FEVER
But perhaps the chief drawback to the settlement of families in Princeton Township-and until he had a family with him no man was considered a fixed asset of the community-was the unhealthfulness of the region, so much of which was covered by water a large portion of the year. Had it been flowing water, the situation would not have been so bad; but most of it was stagnant, a breeder of disease in the specialty of fever and ague, or chills and fever; it matters little which is named first or last-the combination is equally hideous.
For thirty-five or forty years Princeton Township was known as one of the bad ague districts of the county, and for a number of years after its organization the plague regularly appeared with the cessation of the rainy season and the commencement of summer heat. The worst season of all was that of 1844-45, as it continued to rage for eight or nine months. Copious rains lasted from May 10 to July 4, 1844, and all but the highest ground in the township was virtually under water. One of the pioneers says that it rained so hard and long that for two days and a night the water stood six inches deep on his cabin floor, and he was obliged to get under the dining table to protect himself from the down- pour. All the ground under cultivation had been prepared for corn, but
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planting was impossible. The rain slackened a little about the 1st of July, and by the 4th the hot season commenced. The entire country then commenced to be wrapped in heavy, oppressive vapor, and the people, soaked and weakened for the preceding two months, now began to be racked with alternate waves of chills and fever. July and August saw the epidemic at its height, and there were not enough well persons in the township to care for those who were seized with it. The trouble was not considered under control until the midwinter of 1844-45. Dur- ing this period of suffering and discouragement, as well as during the successive ague seasons, the house of John H. Lear, in section 4, northern part of the township, was known as the quinine depot for the north- western part of the county. Mr. Lear would purchase the drug in wholesale quantities, and haul it by ox-team to any stricken settlement or locality, and then the neighbors would come and get enough to meet their cases, subject to the approval of the purchaser. He was not a regular practitioner, but was known for miles around as the "ague comforter;" and there is nothing in the records to show that he ever collected for his specific unless the recipient was well able to pay.
IS IT ANY WONDER ?
It is asserted by those who came to the township at an early day that for ten years after its first settlement there was absolutely no pure water within its limits; and in that regard it was no exception to other swamp districts in the northern part of White County. The wells of the pioneer settlers were holes in the ground at the foot of the ridge on which their residences and outhouses were usually built. These sources of the family drinking supply were sometimes walled with oak plank and covered, but more often unwalled and uncovered. A downpour of rain would fill these holes with surface water and filthy washings to the very top, which abomination was drawn upon for drinking, cooking and all other domestic purposes. Is it any wonder that ague, malarial fevers and all other forms of filth diseases victimized these unfortunates, and that most of them for years were completely unfitted for labor during six months of the twelve ?
RECLAIMED LANDS AND GOOD ROADS
Better conditions commenced to prevail with the drainage of the swamp lands, and, with the gradual extension of that work and the building of good roads so as to minimize the dangers to health from ex- posure in the open, the settlers of Princeton Township enjoy all the bene- fits of modern sanitary precautions. Within the past twenty-five or thirty years Princeton Township has been among the foremost sections of the county in the reclamation of its lowlands and their improvement in respect both to agriculture and residence uses.
In this connection high credit should be given her citizens for their faithful work in the construction of good roads throughout their terri- Vol. I .- 17
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tory. In this movement, which has come to be regarded as a test of public spirit in all country districts, Princeton stands second among the townships of the county, being only surpassed by Prairie. The bonded indebtedness incurred by the different roads (macadam or gravel) is as follows: Princeton Township, $14,680.25; Lear, $5,250; Diemer, $5,200; Swygman, $4,100; Dawson, $12,800; M. G. Dobbins, $9,900; Pugh, $5,400; Chenoweth, $4,400; Mooy, $3,800. Total, $65,530.25.
PIONEER SETTLEMENT DETERMINED BY NATURAL CONDITIONS
The first settlements in the township were made chiefly in the northern and eastern sections, or the timber regions. The western and southern portions were generally prairie lands, almost treeless and decidedly mo- notonous. The pioneer settlement, or Palestine, was made on the border between the timber and prairie country, and nearly all of those who located in that part of the township bought and improved the prairie land immediately adjoining their wooded farms.
A branch of the Little Monon Greek is the only running stream of water in the township and was a large determining factor in early set- tlement. It rises in Benton County, flows northeasternly across the northwest corner of West Point Township, enters Princeton near the center of its southern line, and continues in the same general direction diagonally through its southern, central and northeastern sections, into Monon Township, and forms a part of what is now the Hoagland ditch which drains most of this section of the county.
This stream was the only natural outlet for the vast body of water which accumulated on the lowlands of the southern, central and north- eastern portions of the township, but as much of this low land area was below the bed of the creek the natural drainage was a very slow process and was to a large extent replaced by evaporation. A few who resided close to the stream resorted to artificial drainage, but most land owners preferred to cultivate their sand ridge land, which although less pro- ductive, required less care. They even favored the dreary prairie stretches of the southwest and west. In a word this branch of the Little Monon was a determining factor in the early settlement of Princeton Township, in that most of the newcomers avoided it and its overflowing borders.
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