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 45
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Of the twenty-seven witnesses subpoenaed by the state in this case not one survives. So much from the record. Many traditions are nar- rated as to Dayton, but it is likely he died in prison of tuberculosis. As to Alfred L. Cantwell, he was pardoned by the governor about 1861, enlisted in Company F, Twenty-seventh Indiana Volunteers, and in the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, was mortally wounded, but the date of his death is not known. In this company were Enoch G. Boicourt, Joshua Bunnell, Robert Gregory, John Ream, Samuel Reed Vinson, Henry Van Voorst and other formerly well-known White County soldiers. It was the first noted trial of such a character in White County. Isaac Naylor was the presiding judge; William Potter, prose- cuting attorney ; Ranson Mcconahay, clerk; and Pratt & Reyburn, attor- neys for the defendants. The members of the grand jury that returned the indictment were William Turner, Newton Tedford, Joseph Bostick, Walker Graham, Alexander Briggs, Charles W. Kendall, Joseph Phil- lips, Thomas Sleeth, Jacob Graves, James K. Woods, Jonathan Oats, John C. Hughes, Thomas Wickham, William W. Mitchell and Jasel Fisher. They were under the charge of Loren Cutler, a sworn bailiff.
The jury that heard the case and returned the verdict was composed of the following members: Okey S. Johnson, Joshua Lindsay, Amos Cooper, Alexander Miller, Isaac Davis, Peter Bishop, Christopher Itskin, Thomas W. Redding, Moses S. Barr, Asa Huff, Adam Hornback and Zebulon Sheetz.
These names call to mind many of our oldest and most respected families. All have passed away, Mr. Turner, father of John M. Turner, of Monticello, who died a few years ago, being the last to go.
MRS. MIRANDA J. REYNOLDS' REMINISCENCES
From a paper read by Mrs. Miranda J. Reynolds, at the old settlers' meeting at Monticello, August 26, 1893, as published in the Herald of August 31, 1893, we extract the following :
"Wm. Sill located in what is now Monticello, erecting the first house in the town on lot No. 1 (s. w. cor. Marion and Bluff streets), which is near Martin Witz's present house. It was a cabin which we moved into, without doors or windows and a puncheon floor. In those days the latch-string was always out. Our house was the stopping place for all the settlers in the county. The Indians were all around us and often slept on the floor before the fire. Peter Price was our nearest neighbor. In 1834 or 1835 there were several families moved here. One was Mrs. Reese, a widow lady with several daughters and sons.
"We were without religious organizations of any kind, but Mrs. Reese
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said we must have a Sunday school. She and Mr. Sherwood invited all the children to meet them on Sunday in a new house that was being built and bring their books. We all went and took our Webster spelling book. Of course we had a Bible and Watt's hymns, but no books for children. About this time there were several families moved here from Virginia-Father Sheetz and family, the Johnsons and a large family of Reeses. They were all Presbyterians. In 1836 a church was organized consisting of Zebulon Sheetz and wife, mother and son, John Reese and wife, mother and sister, and Jonathan Harbolt. Mr. Sheetz and John Wilson was the first elders. Father Williamson was the first minister. We had Baptist and Methodist preaching also. The services were all held in the school house and we frequently had a sermon from local preachers who were 'homemade' men. On one occasion one of these was preaching for us and after he had preached two hours a crusty old bachelor thought he would roast him out, but he took off his coat and preached two hours longer.
"Abraham Sneathen, another preacher, deserves more than a passing notice. He lived in Liberty Township, but we often went to hear him preach. I attended a revival service conducted by him. He wore a blue calico shirt and was barefooted. After talking awhile he rolled up his pants and started for the river singing, 'Am I a Soldier of the Cross ?' the congregation following, where he baptized several converts by immer- sion. Grandfather Tilton used to amuse us young folks very much by asking the Lord to 'rim-rack and center shake' the sinners when he prayed at camp-meetings.
"I must say a word for the' dear mothers of our town, Mothers Sheetz, Price, Barkley, Tilton, Hull, Sill and a host of others ever ready in sickness with their healing salves and sweating herbs, spending whole nights caring for their neighbors. Often have Mothers Sheetz and Sill ridden miles on horseback to carry some tried remedies to suffering ones, called by physicians of our day 'old women's remedies,' but how wel- come to the suffering homesick frontier women. These have all passed away, but their work so nobly commenced is being carried on by the sons and daughters, which is proven by the fine farms, splendid church buildings, the schoolhouses in every township, the manufactures of all kinds, the gravel roads, ditches and all the improvements. This is mar- velous to one who has lived here sixty years and seen the progress.
"Our first physician was Doctor Rifenbarrick. He was a rough specimen as he traveled miles and miles on horseback. His medicine case was a pair of old fashioned saddlebags. He would walk up to the bed and look at his patient, then go over to the table, put out a spoon- ful of calomel and jalap and apply a fly blister. This was his prescrip- tion for all diseases. Such heroic treatment would not be appreciated in these days.
"The three first general stores were situated as follows: Mr. Orwig of Delphi had a store where A. R. Bennett now lives (southwest corner Bluff and East Broadway). Wm. Sill had one where the Lear Hotel is' (east side, Main Street, opposite courthouse), and Isaac Reynolds one near where S. A. Carson now lives (east side of Main Street south of
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Harrison). These stores contained all the general supplies for which the Indians used to exchange venison and game of all kinds, cranberries, maple sugar, etc.
"Our first school was taught in a small frame house on the lot where 1 A. R. Bennett now lives, the house that was built by Mr. Orwig for his store. It was taught by Mr. Gillam of Carroll County. Our books were Webster's Speller and the old English reader. The furnishing of the schoolroom is beyond description.
"Our amusements consisted of sleighriding in bobsleds, horseback riding, picnics, etc. One merry huckleberry picnic I remember dis -ยท tinctly. Our conveyance was a log sled drawn by oxen."
Mrs. Reynolds was a daughter of William Sill and has since gone to her reward, but the above graphic picture of early days in Monticello is well drawn and deserves to be remembered. It is an authentic account of her early girlhood and no one is now living who can recall those scenes.
INTERVIEW WITH MRS. HARRIET BAUM
From an interview with Mrs. Harriet Baum, published in the Monti- cello Herald of November 28, 1895, she gives a brief statement of her experiences in Monticello in 1832, and subsequent years. She recalls the time when the land now occupied by Monticello did not contain a single house. Mrs. Baum and her husband came here directly after their marriage and located in what was then known as Walnut Grove, a few miles southwest of town. Uncle John Roberts was the nearest neighbor and the other settlers in the country were Peter Price, Benjamin Spencer, John Rothrock, Mahlon Fraser, Sr., Benjamin Reynolds, Judge Barnes and Jerry Bisher. Wm. Miller Kenton, son of Simon Kenton, of Indian fighting fame, came soon afterward, and located on a farm adjoining the Roberts farm. Mr. Baum had worked for Mr. Roberts before he married and the year before his marriage occurred the "Black Hawk Indian scare," which is one of the earliest traditions of White County. The Indians were reported to be on the warpath headed for the new settlement, and several families made tracks for civilization, some to the Barr Settlement near Battle Ground and others to Delphi. Mr. Baum then being a single man, "would not run but stood his ground and cocked his gun." But the Indian raid proved to be a false alarm and the settlers soon returned to their homes.
The first thing the Baums did after their marriage was to build a home. It was a cabin of round logs 16 by 18 feet, with one room and a chimney of sticks and clay. The aristocratic settler like Mr. Roberts was able to build a home of hewed logs and it was not many years until the Baums were able to revel in the same luxury and they moved into their new home of a hewed log house of two rooms.
John Roberts about 1842 built the brick house now occupied by his grandson, Robert E. Roberts, on the new stone road. It was one of the first, if not the very first, brick houses built in the county. Mrs. Baum well remembered the first house built in Monticello. It was built by Wil- Vol. I -26
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liam Sill on lot 1 (the southwest corner of Bluff and Marion streets). Other houses soon appeared, among the first being a log tavern of two rooms built by Rowland Hughes. One of Mrs. Baum's earliest recollec- tions is seeing the Indians pass by her house on their way to Winamac to get the money for their lands. They traveled in single file with ponies, squaws and papooses, but on their return they scattered in squads. They had stopped in Monticello to imbibe firewater and had forgotten their habits.
Mrs. Baum's husband died and she later became the wife of Abram Hanawalt; both are now dead and the twenty years since this interview was held have sufficed to remove from our midst the last of the first settlers.
SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUSTS
Probably the most peculiar and interesting insect of the cicada fam- ily is the seventeen-year locust, so-called because of its periodic visits every seventeen years. Individually it gives out a peculiar rasping sound which the vivid imagination of the hearer easily converts into a long-drawn-out Pha-ra-oh, which when once heard is never forgotten. Millions of them united produce a continuous droning easily heard for a distance of a half mile.
The writer's first recollection of the brood which infests White and Carroll counties, and a portion of Cass and Clinton, was in 1868, when they came up from the ground by the millions, covering the shrubbery and small twigs of the lower branches of trees almost as closely as a swarm of bees. They appeared again in diminished numbers in 1885; and again in 1902, still fewer in number. This brood is due again in 1919; and again, if not extinct, in 1936. Watch for them in the timber along the Tippecanoe.
MONTICELLO'S EARLY BANDS
An old subscription paper on which was subscribed the money to buy the instruments for the first brass band organized in Monticello, was placed in the archives of the Old Settlers Association in December, 1879. It bears no date but it was doubtless about the year 1848. The amounts subscribed total $48.50, most of which is marked "paid," and opposite the amounts paid is shown the kind of currency in which it was paid, for instance, "Chas. Dodge, $2.00, Paid, State Bank of Ohio." On the back of this paper appears the names of the members of this band, as follows: R. A. Spencer, R. W. Sill, Chas. Dodge, John R. Willey, Wm. Braught, M. A. Berkey, W. Rifenberrick, Zachariah Van Buskirk and Orlando Mcconahay. All these are now dead and our first band is forgotten.
Another band was organized in Monticello in 1852, the horns being the old-fashioned brass instruments. Dr. Robert Spencer was the leader, his instrument being a clarionet. Other members were the Doctor's two
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sons, William and James, the former playing a cornet and James an alto. Alfred Reed, afterward a colonel in the Civil war and judge of the county court, also played a cornet; Zachariah Van Buskirk, second clarionet; John R. Willy, James K. Lynch and Thompson Crose, alto horns; David K. Ream, bass drum, and William H. Parcells, tenor drum. The leader of the band copied all the different parts of the music with a quill pen. This primitive band was succeeded later by the Monticello Silver Cornet Band, composed of Drs. Robert and William Spencer, Daniel D. and Oliver Dale, James G. Staley, Watson Brown, and others, many of whom enlisted as a regimental band at the beginning of the war.
BIG ICE GORGE
The highest flood and heaviest ice gorge ever seen in the Tippecanoe at Monticello occurred February 29, 1904. The long, cold winter had frozen the ice to an unusual thickness. This heavy ice was broken up by a flood in January, but most of it lodged on the river bed and on the banks between Monticello and the river's mouth. The weather again turned cold and the slush ice ran thickly and was wedged and packed in the river for several miles above, to be frozen solid by a low tempera- ture lasting well into February. Heavy rain began falling Sunday night, February 28th, and by Monday evening the ice formed a gorge near Norway, destroying the Norway bridge and carrying the west span away bodily. About eight o'clock this portion of the ice mass reached Monticello, threatening the destruction of the large iron bridge spanning the river at this point. The formation of a second gorge at the islands below the city checked the onflow, the ice rose to within three feet of the bridge floor and the threatening bridge span from Nor- way came to a halt some two hundred feet above the Monticello bridge, where it remained until the subsidence of the waters dropped it to the river bed, where most of it still remains. The scene next morn- ing was one never to be forgotten. The waterworks plant and the Barnes electric light plant north of it were flooded as high as the win- dows, while from bluff to bluff the entire bottom lands were covered. Only the tops of two houses on the flat under the railroad bridge showed above the surrounding ice.
MITCHELL POWDER EXPLOSION
In 1904 a man named James C. Mitchell obtained a patent on a smokeless powder, and a local company was formed for its manufac- ture. Nothing, however, ever came of it except the serious maiming of the inventor. December 14, 1904, while grinding some of the powder in his laboratory in Reynolds an explosion occurred. Mitchell's left hand and arm were blown off, his right mangled so that only two fingers were saved; the great toe on one foot blown off, the flesh on his leg badly torn, one bone in his right arm broken and both eyes destroyed. Altogether
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he was about the most complete wreck of a man that ever lived through an accident. He got well and, though totally blind, afterward made two trips to Scotland in the interest of his invention.
JUMP FROM COURTHOUSE TOWER
The star attraction at a "corn festival," or street fair, held in Mon- ticello the week of October 3 to 8, 1904, was a high dive from the court- house tower into a net, by a young man named Archie Robbins. The "dive" was made from one of the upper windows on the east side of the tower into a net stretched over the cement walk nearly one hundred feet below. He shot down like a rocket, struck the net squarely in the center, going through it as if it were tissue paper. The foolhardy leap was witnessed by a large crowd of people. Instant death was averted by a pile of loose straw which the management had placed under the net as a precaution. His spine was fractured and his lower limbs para- lyzed. He was removed to the house of his father in Hartford City, Indiana, where he died some weeks later.
A PIONEER LETTER
In the White County Democrat of February 9, 1900, was published a letter written by Martha Rees, dated "Monticello, White County, Indiana, Dec. 20, 1835," addressed to her aunt, Susan Rees, Sheets' Mill, Virginia. The Reeses had arrived in White County on November 17, 1835, and Martha was writing the old home folks her first impres- sions of the new home. She says :
"We bought a lot in town and expect to get a house built against spring. We have got our logs hauled for the house. We live in about two miles of town. Our town improves very fast. Last spring there was only one house in the place, and that was built for a stable. Now there are six dwelling houses, and against this time next year it is supposed there will be upwards of twelve dwelling houses. I heard the first sermon preached in town that ever was preached there a few days ago. There will be regular preaching there now. We heard a Methodist preach about a week ago.
"Houses are generally very indifferent here, but it is hoped that the inhabitants of this country will take more pains in making their houses comfortable. It is a chance house that is large enough for to have preaching in. You said that you wanted to know what kind of a house we lived in. We live in a cabin. We have not as much elbow room as we should like to have, but we have to put up with it. Our house is as good as the houses are in general. We can put up with our houses better than if our land was as your Virginia lands are. It is delightful to look over the prairie. We can sit in our house and see a house five miles off. We live on a ridge called 'Sandy Ridge.' Jonathan Johnson lives about a quarter of a mile off. He lives with Oky. Uncle
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James Parker lives in less than a quarter of a mile of us. Uncle Joshua Renker lives about two miles from us."
The lot she speaks of buying and having the logs hauled onto for building a house was Lot 53 on the west side of North Main Street, where the Kiefhaber residence and blacksmith shop stood for many years afterward, and now occupied by the fourth, fifth and sixth business rooms in the brick block north of Washington Street. The one lone house mentioned was the residence of William Sill on Lot No. 1, southwest corner of Bluff and Marion streets. The "Sandy Ridge" mentioned was northwest of Monticello.
"SPECTATOR" ITEMS, 1859-61
On November 10, 1859, it was announced that James Spencer, owner of the Monticello Spectator, by invitation of M. McKachin, conductor, and Mr. John, engineer, rode over the Pan Handle bridge on a carload of iron and pronounced it good (the bridge).
The first train over the T. L. and B. Railroad from Monticello to Middleport was noted on December 26, 1859.
Under date of January 11, 1860, the Spectator announces that "trains are now running regularly" and adds the astounding fact that "we have four trains passing this place daily, both ways."
From the Spectator of March 15, 1861: "Merchant Rowland Hughes of this place has established a horse-power corn sheller in his ware- house, which shakes the cobs out of two hundred bushels of corn per day in a manner interesting to behold."
THE FIRST JUDGMENT OF THE WHITE CIRCUIT COURT
The first term of the White Circuit Court was held at the home of George A. Spencer, in Big Creek Township, about five miles southwest of Monticello, on Friday, October 17, 1834. Present James Barnes and Thomas Wilson, associate judges. Both judges presented their commis- sions signed by Noah Noble, governor, dated July 7, 1834, and William Sill presented his commission as clerk, which was also signed by the governor and dated July 7, 1834. These commissions were each for a term of seven years. Mr. Sill took the oath of office before Aaron Hicks, sheriff, and thus originated the White Circuit Court. A grand jury was convened and, having heard witnesses, returned one indictment charging Jeremiah Bishir with malicious mischief. It seems that his neighbor, John Roberts, owned a certain horse which had broken into the Bishir fields. Mr. Bishir had caught the horse and tied to its tail a full-sized clapboard, the which the said horse had kicked until both tail and clapboard were almost worn out. At the April term, 1835, towit on Friday, April 17, 1835, the case came on for hearing when Mr. Bishir , entered a plea of guilty and the court fined him $5 with the costs and ordered "that the said defendant do stand committed in the custody of the sheriff of said county for the space of one minute." This first
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judgment violates the laws of syntax for which it seems there was no penalty, but tradition informs us that the bystanders gathered in a circle around the prisoner and for the full space of one minute he was "it." At that time there was no jail in the county or Mr. Bishir would have had the honor of being our first jail bird.
ENLARGEMENT OF PUBLIC SQUARE IN MONTICELLO
Doubtless few people are now living who can recall the time when the public square, on which is located the courthouse, comprised only the east half of what is now occupied for that purpose. When the town was platted a street from north to south and forty feet wide extended from Broadway to what is now Court Street, passing under the west - end of the present courthouse. This left the Square about 140 by 175 feet, but Court Street did not extend to Illinois Street. The county com- missioners were asked to buy lots 82, 83 and 84, lying west of the court- house, and add them to the Square. They appropriated $500 for that purpose and the Monticello Herald of July 1, 1865, printed a list of subscribers who had subscribed and paid $1,027 towards the purchase of these lots making the fund $1,527. Of this amount the owners of these lots were paid as follows :
John W. Morgan $ 600
M. Fraser 800
Liberty M. Burns 125
Total
$1,525
Paid for deed and stamps. 2
Total
$1,527
The subscription paper contains the names of thirty-nine subscribers, only four of whom are yet living, namely, Jeptha Crouch, J. H. Mc- Collum, Alfred R. Orton and Capt. G. B. Ward. Lot 84 was opened to make the west end of Court Street and lots 82 and 83 are occupied by the sheriff's residence and jail. It seems strange to us that, when this land cost but $1.25 per acre, no larger space should have been dedi- cated for a seat of justice, but at the time it was doubtless considered ample for all time.
ONLY WAR MOTHER IN WHITE COUNTY
A woman to whom all old soldiers pay especial honor is Mrs. Mary A. Carr, of West Point Township, the only living mother of a Union soldier in White County, who on August 7, 1915, celebrated her ninety- first birthday. She gave two sons to the Union army, Walter Carr, of West Point Township, with whom she lives, who was a soldier in the Forty-fourth Ohio Infantry and S. B. Carr, of Colburn, Indiana, a
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member of the Eighth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. Both served for four years and left enviable records as soldiers. Mrs. Carr is well preserved, her mind is active and she is greatly interested in the G. A. R., the members of which are indebted to her for many acts of kindness.
SPIRITUALISM
During the summer of 1859 the Democrat and Spectator engaged in a heated controversy on the subject of "Spiritualism." The Spec- tator had been accused by a republican, in a letter to the Democrat, of advocating that cult and at it they went. From the files of both these papers we learn that a Miss Whoolet had given a lecture in the old court room on "Revelations and Manifestations of the Spirit World," which had been attended by some female from Burnettsville, who wrote a letter to the Democrat, July 10, 1859, in which she attacked the editor of the Spectator for his part in the programme. This called for a reply by the Spectator, seemingly in denial, and the game was on and it was a great game in which argument gave way to abuse and all had a good time.
WERE YOU THERE?
On Wednesday evening, August 3, 1859, at the courthouse, the ladies of the Methodist Episcopal Church Sewing Society gave a grand festival. The hand bills announcing the fact were from the Democrat press, the proceeds were to be used in improving the church, arrangements were to be made to please the most fastidious taste, all the luxuries of the season were to be served and the admission fee was 10 cents. The bill reads just like a modern one. There has been little change in church festivals in the last half century.
CARRIER'S ADDRESS
In the early days of Monticello journalism the papers were delivered by youthful carriers, such as Jay B. Van Buskirk, Bowman and Samuel A. Rothrock and many other nice little boys. Their pay was not very liberal and they were allowed, at New Year time, to distribute to their patrons a hand bill on which was printed a calendar for the coming year and with it an alleged poem in which about everybody in town was given a puff or a roast. These so called poems make almost a com- plete directory of the business men of the town and were often amusing. The oldest one in the archives of the White County Historical Society is the one issued for 1857, by the Political Frame, in which everybody and everything is given a genuine hearty fling. It closes with the follow- ing beautiful sentiment:
"Thus on we go-but I propose To bring this message to a close. A happy New Year! For his rhyme, Pray give the Carrier Boy a dime."
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