A twentieth century history and biographical record of Elkhart County, Indiana, Part 5

Author: Deahl, Anthony, 1861-1927, ed
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publ. Co.
Number of Pages: 1044

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William P. Martin said he had been through this part of the state as early as 1822-23, before any sign of settlement was at Goshen, and had camped on his several trips on the spot where the Rowell foun- dry was afterwards located.

George Nicholson stated that he settled in Washington township. .August 31, 1829, four months after the first settlement had been made there. on April 27, 1820, by Aaron Brown and three others. He had since been a resident of Washington township; was one of the voters in Concord township at the first election ever held in the county : had to go with his grist to Ford's mill on the Dowagiac, and on his route had to ford the St. Joseph with an ox team, and be careful to select. in the winter, a time when the ice was not running. \t the close of Mr. Nicholson's remarks a call was made for all persons present who had voted at the first election in the county to rise, whereupon John

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

W. Violette, H. Stauffer, John Jackson, William Carmien, E. Carpenter and Mark B. Thompson rose up.

Col. John Jackson, another spokesman, related his experience in the war of 1812, when his company followed the Indians to this county, crossing the Elkhart at Benton and preparing to attack the village of the Pottawottomies there, but found it deserted. When he first entered on the prairie he thought it the most beautiful country he had ever seen, and resolved that when the war should close he would come and make it his home. He heard in 1827 that the Indians had sold their lands to the government, and with a neighbor came here to select a home. When he arrived he could hear nothing of the sale by the Indians, and went down to Beardsley's prairie to see if he could find other country as beautiful as Elkhart prairie, but was disappointed and came back. He had been told by one Rosseau, a Frenchman, that a treaty of pur- chase had been made with the Indians at Carey Mission. He selected the spot where he later had his home and returning to Ohio brought back his family, driving three yoke of oxen. He crossed the Elkhart on the ice where Benton now is, and found that Mr. Riggs had settled on his chosen land; he bought the land of Riggs and the next spring went to farming. He had to go forty miles to mill, and the nearest blacksmith shop was at White Pigeon. They used to have religious meetings at Riggs' house. Some one asked him to request of Riggs the use of his house, and he did so, and found Mrs. Riggs very much rejoiced, she being a member of the church. They had meetings there often, prayer meetings.

Another speaker at this meeting of 1879 was E. M. Chamberlain, who came to Indiana in 1832 and to Goshen in 1833. When he came to Goshen there were no bridges across Elkhart river, and he crossed it as a foot passenger on a sycamore tree which had fallen across the stream where a bridge was later placed. There was a ford for teams a mile and a half northwest of town.

Dr. Cornell, who came to the county in June, 1834, and who had got his education in schoolhouses with greased papers for windows. spoke of his holding the office of assessor in 1836, and presumed that the reason why the people had elected him to the office was that he had once seen a deer, had pursued it on horseback, and caught it after running six hours, which circumstances amply demonstrated his fleet- ness and persistency-qualities essential to the office.

Mr. Elias Hess, one of the first settlers on Elkhart prairie, having

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

located there on April 5, 1829, said he came from Ohio with an ox team, and was twenty-one days making the trip, having to cut his own road most of the way. When he first entered upon Elkhart prairie he thought it, in size, a large farm. He had to use seven yoke of oxen to plow the prairie sod. The settlers had interesting experiences with their cattle when they strayed. The animals were always belled, and it was necessary to rise early in order to find them. They would wade the river and launch out into the woods, with ears attent to catch the tinklings, and as they pushed on the crackling brush would call their attention to a deer, or a turkey would gobble, further on a wolf would howl, but it was often days before the lost cattle could be found.

Another entertaining speaker was John W. Irwin, who said he came to the county May 5, 1832. Ile used to do his milling at McCon- nell's mill, on the east side of Goshen, and his grist of two bushels of grain was a whole day's grinding. Wolves were plenty, and premiums were offered for their scalps. One man had a large trap made of logs, and set with triggers, and once when he went to examine it he found something wrong, stepped into it. sprung the triggers by accident and caught himself, and would have perished had not some of his neighbors come to his relief.

From these accounts we can gain some understanding of how this county began to take on the garb of civilization, and who were the men and what the circumstances which entered into the settlement of a county which in the subsequent three-quarters of a century has grown so great.

In the settlement of Elkhart county there were happily very few retarding influences. The presence of the Indians, and the fears aroused in prospective settlers by the Black Hawk war and similar troubles, no doubt acted as a check for a short time, but the sweeping flood of migration was too strong to be held back long. It is very remark- able that this beautiful region of country should remain absolutely unsettled until the year 1828, and that settlers from different parts of the United States, without any preconcerted action or communication with each other, should begin to pour in just at this time; but so it was. Here different families for the first time met each other, and here their lives were first united in the same community, and in many cases bv marriage in the same home.

Hardly any of those early settlers remain. On the long and weary march they have been dropping out one by one until, of the pioneer

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

warfare, only a few veterans are left. It would be impossible in a work like this to trace the life history and describe the end of each of them, and for this there would not be sufficient space. But when we find chronicled in the year 1905 the deaths of such notable characters as Anthony Defrees and Joel P. Hawks, who were among the very last of the living links which tie us to the past, this chapter seems an oppor- tune place for recalling some events of their long careers.

Joel P. Hawks, who passed away April 8, 1905, and who is referred to many times in the pages of this work (see his sketch), was born in 1822, and since he was thirteen years old lived in and about Water- ford, where the family were prominent in business and industrial affairs, so that seventy years of his life had been passed going in and out among the people of this county.

The life of Anthony Defrees, as portrayed in a sketch published in the Democrat at the time of his death, is of such peculiar interest to and connection with this history that we quote it entire :

Anthony Defrees was born in Sparta, Tennessee, November 14, 1816. His parents removed to Piqua, Ohio, when he was about four years okl, and from there he came to South Bend in 1832. His brothers, John D. and Josephi H. Defrees, had settled there, and in 1831 had established the first newspaper in northern Indiana, the Northwestern- Pioncer and St. Joseph Intelligencer. Mr. Defrees became associated with his brothers as an assistant in the publication of this paper, the name of which was afterward changed to the St. Joseph Bacon and Indiana and Michigan Intelligencer. This newspaper adventure did not prove altogether satisfactory, and it was thought that the future prospects for the paper in the village of South Bend were not prom- ising, so the Defrees brothers began to look about for a better field. At first Chicago was considered, but the project of building up a news- paper there was soon dismissed because it was supposed that what was then a mud hole would never become much of a business center, and there seemed to be less prospect that it would ever become a residence city. White Pigeon, half way between Detroit and Chicago, had already become a prosperous town and seemed to give promise of great things for the future. particularly as it was the gateway through which passed all the immigrants who came to settle in northern Indiana and southern Michigan. John H. Barry, afterward governor of Michigan, made to John D. Defrees a proposition to start a paper there and the proposition was accepted.

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

John D. and Anthony Defrees removed to that place, and John D. established the Michigan Statesman and St. Joseph Chronicle. Anthony assisted his brother in the publication of this paper during the short time from December. 1833, to the following summer, when it was sold. Meanwhile, in 1833. Joseph H. Defrees had removed to Goshen and engaged in the mercantile business. Goshen then consisted of about forty houses, most of them log cabins, and its population was about two hundred. In the fall of 1836 a proposition was made to the subject of this sketch to start a paper here, and he was offered the loan of sufficient money to purchase the necessary equipments. The proposition was accepted. and with the four hundred dollars raised for this purpose Mr. Defrees started for Cincinnati to purchase the outfit. lle started out mounted on an Indian pony, but when he had got as far as Wolf Lake in Noble county the mud was so deep that the pony gave out, and he was obliged to leave it and proceed on foot. He sent the pony back with the mail carrier, who was passing through on his way from Fort Wayne to Goshen, and started on with his valise on his shoulder, making his way in that style to Piqua, Ohio. At that place he met Charles L. Murray, then a young man and who was des- tined afterward to become prominently identified with the journalism of northern Indiana. A partnership was formed between the two, and together they proceeded on to Cincinnati, traveling from Piqua to Day- ton by stage and from Dayton to Cincinnati by canal.

There they made their purchase, consisting of a Franklin press. the necessary type and other materials. This was transported by canal as far as Dayton, where it was transferred to a covered wagon or schooner, as it was called in those days, and drawn by six horses. In this way it was brought to Goshen, where it arrived in January. 1837. The paper was established and named the Goshen Express, the first issue appearing January 27. It was located in a one-room frame build- ing on the west side of Main street. between Washington and the first alley north. The files of this paper, the first ever published in Goshen, are now in the possession of J. A. Beane of the Democrat.

Mr. Defrees was associated with the paper but four months, when the partnership between himself and Mr. Murray was dissolved, and he removed to Elkhart to engage in business with his brother James. After his brother, John D. Defrees, became editor of the Indianapolis Journal. Anthony removed to that city to accept employment on the paper, and in that capacity he remained for a number of years. Lew Wallace.

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

afterward the renowned author of "Ben Hur," was connected with the paper at the same time, and the two became very intimate friends. It is a somewhat peculiar coincidence that although half a century has elapsed since they were thus associated General Wallace and Mr. Defrees should pass away within a few weeks of each other. During his stay in Indianapolis Mr. Defrees also became acquainted with Henry Ward Beecher, who was then pastor of a church in the capital city, and he occasionally met Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune and the foremost journalist of the United States.

From Indianapolis Mr. Defrees removed to Terre Haute, where in 1864 he was united in marriage with Elizabeth Singer, who survives him. In Terre Haute he was engaged in the milling and manufacturing business, having a large flouring mill and also a stave factory. From that city in the early 'jos he removed to Santiago, California, where he engaged in mining. In 1882 he returned to Goshen, conducting a grocery store for sixteen years. For the past six years he had lived a retired life. Besides his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Defrees, he is sur- vived by two daughters, Mrs. R. F. Dale of Boone, Iowa, and Mrs. H. E. Bullerdick, of St. Louis, Missouri: two grandsons, Defrees Ar- nold and Frank Dale; one brother, Rollin Defrees of Indianapolis; three sisters. Mrs. James S. Frazer of Warsaw; Mrs. J. S. Mather of Middlebury, and Mrs. Margaret Smith of Miami, Florida ; and many other relatives. Two of his brothers, John D. and Joseph H. Defrees. already mentioned, were well known in northern Indiana for many years. The former, besides being prominently identified with Indiana journalism, was for a number of years public printer at Washington. The latter was one of Goshen's leading merchants, was president of the City National Bank and served a term in Congress. His father also came to this county in 1836, locating in Jefferson township on what is generally known as the Stephen Miller farm, and was one of the thirteen voters who voted at the second township election in 1837.

The career of Mr. Defrees, as will be observed, was somewhat eventful, and his long life was one of industry and usefulness. He was identified with many enterprises for advancing the interests of the several communities in which he lived. Coming here when Elkhart county was only a wilderness, his name is associated with our county's pioneers, and he will be remembered. too. as one of Northern Indiana's pioneer newspaper men. Although modest and unassuming in his character, he was recognized wherever he was known as a man of

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

sterling worth. He was a congenial companion, a good neighbor, a stanch and loyal friend. The period of his retirement, passed among his friends, amid congenial surroundings and with agreeable compan- ionship, was a fitting close of a life of activity such as his had been. Those who knew best will say that on this 7th of March of the year 1905 there was borne to his rest one of Goshen's most exemplary citizens.

The settlers of this county had many hardships, but had less to contend with than the settlers in most other sections of the country. Here, rich prairies covered with grass invited the plow of the husband- man, the groves furnished an abundance of timber for fencing, and large returns for labor were promised from the very first year of settle- ment. Mills were soon built and other conveniences came rapidly.

We find here a reason why so large a proportion of our settlers became permanent residents. In other counties many families soon passed to regions further west. They were a restless, adventuresome class that loved frontier life. They followed the Indians and the deer to the setting sun until the ocean stopped them. They filled a gap between savagery and civilization, and helped prepare for the perma- nent settler. But Elkhart county had comparatively few of these. Here the conditions were different. There was no such gap to be filled. The Indians were not so savage, and nature was not so wild. In general the settlers were of excellent stock and of sterling character-just such stuff as states and empires are made of. And when we consider the firm integrity and remarkable ability of our early settlers we cannot but feel hopeful and confident for the future, as well as pleased for the past and present of Elkhart county.

ELKHART COUNTY COURT HOUSE BUILT IN GOSHEN 1870

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

CHAPTER IV.

ORGANIZATION.

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center, Observe degree, priority, and place,

Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office, and custom, in all line of order. -SHAKESPEARE.

Before describing the process of organization of Elkhart county, it may assist in our comprehension of the place of this county in general history to present a résumé of the larger political division of which Elkhart county forms a substantial and integral though in extent com- paratively small part. What is now the state of Indiana is one of the older portions of our republic. For, while as a settled community, it has not the long record of annals such as might be read concerning the original thirteen colonies that formed the bulwark of our nation in its first stages of independence, yet the territory about the Wabash has long been a part of the "known world," and as such claimed by different nations in their struggle for new world empire.

The present state of Indiana was once embraced in that vast but largely fictitious empire known as New France, discovered by the valiant La Salle and his associates and claimed by them for King of France. This intangible and unenforced authority rested upon the inland empire from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi from the early period of the closing years of the seventeenth century until the middle of the eigh- teenth. During the Seven Years' war, the American phase of which is more familiarly known to us as the French and Indian war, and which terminated in the memorable treaty of 1763, all the possessions of France in the new world, including Canada and the region between the Atlantic colonies and the Mississippi, came under the flag and sov- ereignty of England.

For about fifteen years subsequent to the peace of 1763. Indiana, as we now know it, continued under the crown of King George. Then came the American Revolution, and while its greater results were the freeing of the colonists from the dominion of the mother country, an- other notable result, often forgotten in the glorious brilliancy of the

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

achievement of independence, was the acquisition of the vast country so long known as the Northwest Territory. This region, of such imperial magnitude and to which has since been shifted the center of our republic's population and industry and commerce, was obtained by result of conquest, whereby American arms were clearly victorious, whereas we failed during the Revolution in our attempts to conquer Canada.

It was due to the brilliant campaigns and the military daring of the young Virginian. George Rogers Clark, that the Northwest Terri- tory was conquered. Setting out with a small force of men, under the auspices of the Virginia government, in 1778. in a few months he had taken possession of most of the country north of the Ohio, east of the Mississippi and along the Illinois and Wabash rivers, including the famous post of Vincennes, and, moreover, he held this vast re- gion against all subsequent expeditions of the British, so that the area of his conquest remained in American possession until the close of the war and by the treaty of Paris, in 1783, was confirmed as a part of American sovereignty.

By the famous Ordinance of 1787 Northwest Territory was organ- ized. and there was provided a temporary government directed by of- ficials appointed by Congress. Perhaps the most celebrated provision of the ordinance was the prohibition for all time of slavery in the ter- ritory. It was also provided that six states should be formed from the Northwest Territory.

May 7, 1800, Congress, upon petition, divided Northwest Terri- tory into two separate governments, Indiana territory being composed of that region lying west of a line beginning opposite the mouth of Kentucky river and running to Fort Recovery, and thence extending clue north to Canada, Indiana Territory, as then organized. included the county of Knox, upon the Wabash, from which has sprung the state of Indiana; from the other divisions, or counties, of the terri- tory, have been formed Illinois, Michigan and part of Wisconsin. In- dian titles to the lands of the territory were gradually extinguished by treaty and purchase, and in a few years most of the country was open to the onward advance of civilization. Michigan Territory was in the meantime set off, and by 1808 Indiana Territory, having five thou- sand free white males, assumed the second grade of territorial govern- ment, and in February, 1800, Congress restricted its limits and pro- vided for a territorial legislature. Thenceforth the limits of the terri-

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

tory were practically those of the present state. In 1816 it was ascer- tained that Indiana Territory possessed a population entitling it to inde- pendent statehood, and Congress therefore authorized the election of a convention to form a state constitution, and on April 19, 1816, the forty-first anniversary of the battle of Lexington, Indiana was formally admitted into the Union of States.

It may not be uninteresting at this point to consider briefly a point of history with which no doubt very few inhabitants of Elkhart county are familiar, and most of the events connected with which occurred before Elkhart county was a political entity. But had government poli- cies taken a little different turn, Elkhart county might have been diminished in territorial extent nearly one-half and the northern bound- ary might to-day be running only a short distance north of the city of Goshen. In the early thirties the questions brought up by reason of this boundary very nearly precipitated a civil war and attracted na- tional attention.

If anyone will take a map covering the area of Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, he will see that the northern boundary of Ohio is not on a line with the northern boundary of Indiana. The northwest corner of Ohio does not join the corner of Indiana, but is further down and runs a little upward. or north of east. In answering the question why this boundary is so, there is involved the history of three different boundary lines which have had intimately to do with the area of Elk- hart county.

In the Ordinance of 1787 above referred to there occurs the fol- lowing sentence: "If Congress shall find it hereafter expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of said ter- ritory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." This is known as the ordinance or old Indian boundary line, and by reference to a map it would be seen to run, according to the intent of the ordinance, ten miles south of the present northern boundary of Indiana.

By the act of Congress. May 7, 1800, the north line which sepa- rated Indiana Territory from Northwest Territory divided the Michi- gan country into two parts, and the eastern part, known as Wayne county, was supposedly to be henceforth identified with the fortunes of Ohio. In a short time the population of Ohio had so increased that statehood was in sight, and in the enabling act for the establishment of a state government passed by Congress in April. 1802, the old ordi-

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

nance line running due east and west "through to the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan" was specified as Ohio's northern boundary.

Wayne county was thus left out in the cold and was attached to Indiana Territory. In 1803 Governor Harrison formed a new Wayne county which comprised almost all of what is now Michigan. North and east it was bounded by Canada, but on the other sides it was bounded by a "north and south line through the western extreme of Lake Michigan" and "an east and west line through the southern extreme of the same." In January, 1805, Wayne county was formed into Michigan Territory, with boundaries the same except that on the west the line extended through the center of Lake Michigan.

In the meantime the people's knowledge of geography had in- creased so that the citizens of Ohio and Indiana well understood that the northern boundary as laid out on the ordinance line would cut off a large and valuable slice of territory from their respective common- wealths. Agitation was increasing and the attention of the authorities at Washington was being drawn out to this controversy on the frontier wilds. Finally, yielding to the urgency of the Ohioans, the president ordered a survey, which was made in 1816. However, the line was run, not according to the president's direction but according to the pro- viso of the Ohio state constitution, from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan to the northernmost cape of Maumee bay. This is known as the Harris line, and its north of easterly course marks the present northern boundary of Ohio, thus accounting for the irregularity men- tioned above.

But now comes the third northern boundary line. When Congress admitted Indiana as a state it fixed the northern boundary by a line drawn due east and west "ten miles north of the southern extreme of Lake Michigan." Michigan was thus deprived of a strip ten miles wide and a hundred miles long, an area which very materially affected the size as also the political history of the northern fringe of counties in Indiana.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of Elkhart County, Indiana, Part 5

Author: Deahl, Anthony, 1861-1927, ed Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publ. Co. Number of Pages: 1044

Author: Deahl, Anthony, 1861-1927, ed
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publ. Co.
Number of Pages: 1044