USA > Indiana > Wabash County > Atlas of Wabash County Indiana. > Part 4
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A langer-on of the party, whom wo will eull Ferguson, saw
:
11
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY .- GENERAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
his opportunity, and, not being able to resist the templation, seized one of the luxes filled with silver com, and started into the winnis. The box was heavy, and he soon secreted it, intend- ing at some future time when the storm bad blown over to go back there and get the money, and returned to camp as unvon- cerued as possible.
But the officials soon missed the box, and suspecting Peru- son of the theft, serused hun with committing the crime. this denial only incensed them : as they themselves were liable for the money, and would suffer disgrace, if not punishment, unless they could find the culprit. Reversing the proposition of law, which presumes the innocence of a man until his guilt is clearly proven, thry acted mum the hypothesis that be had committed the deed, and if he chose, could show them where he put the money.
This they desired him to do, and to make their wishey su plain that he could not misunderstand what they wanted of man, sod that he might feel that they were anxious shout it and really in earnest, they did not content themselves with null requests, or even urgent demands, nor stop with threatening to arrest him ; but took summary and effective means by putting him to torture.
In what way this was abininistered, weonuts ditfer. Some state that a rope was put aroundl bis neck, and he was hung. but ent down before life was extinct ; the process being repeated A number of times, mutil he made a confession.
Another account is, that he was severely whipped, without betraying the secret ; but that overhearing them sny that they would drowa him in the deepest part of the river, he became thoroughly satisfied that the party were not doing it all in fun, but really wanted the information, and in short were terribly in earnest. He then confessed that he bad stolen the money, and directedl them to the place where be had secreted it. There it
lay. corere lover with a large stone, in the bed of a little stream, : afford the better adiurssion of light. In front of this, a lung with
which ever since has been known as Silver Creek.
WOLF SCALPS.
llere, as elsewhere in the country. wolves were very numer- ong, and were a serious annoyance to the settlers. They sellom offered to molest miao or any large stock, but were fond of amtton, and after nightfall made the woods vocal with their howling.
To rid the country of these pests was a part of the duty of the early settler, and in order to stimulate the work, a bounty was paid for their sealps. An illustration of this fact may be cited from the record of the proceeding of the Commissioners March, 1837, where it is stated that " Jonas Carter appeared in open court niudl presented his certificate from the clerk of said county, sworn to as the law chirects, that he bad killed three wolves within four miles of the sent of justice of sand connty ; whereupon the said Board allowed him. the snid Carter, the sum of six dollars ; being two dollars on each scalp ne nforesaid."
Rate and rabbits are said to have been unknown previous to about 1845. In 1834, at the time of corn harvest there was great comicotion among the squirrel4, and for some reason or other they took up their journey northward. They swam the Wabash River in great numbers, and had at times the appear- ance of an army. Like the grasshopper raid, they brought devastation in their train, and an old nettler tells the story of keeping two men busy shooting them and driving thema away from bis twenty-acre field of corn. After about ten days, the numbers of these rodents hal so innch diminished that the presence of a guardl was no looger necessary.
THE GOOD OLD TIMES.
Throughout the pioncerage of the country there ran a spirit uf jocose hilarity and general good feeling, which may be looked for in vain among the luter inhabitants of o more populous region When neighbors were from one to five miles apart they all seemed neighbors, and not only neighbors, bat friends Under the pres- mure of adverse circumstances which crowded them all nlike on every hand, they made common cause against their common woes, and each took a brotherly interest in the other's welfare. " It terms as though we were all brothers then," says the old turk- www-man, on gazing fondly back into the " good old time," ail it is a regret of bis derlining years that those days of kindly fellow-feeling have forever passed away.
With the hurd experiencey incident to living in a conniry so i-tinted from ull civilization and antelaing an unbroken wilderness, theve experiences were much more severe than those of the pre- wout time are wont to imagine, though they had their roquia of harrry-makings and social enjoymentx which were seusuns of great hilarity. At such times, drinking was carried on to an extent that could hardly have been compatible with good wornlity ; bnt either the roughiet expensive of backwasde her, of the boss pen- ous quality of the article caramen, rendered its effects less per- mirigos than ut the present day. At a wedding, it was the ecutru of good cheer; and at a funeral, the xulure of mourning friends. At & log-rulling, it forwished the aluple beverage; and at their rainings ntat all other gutherings, i, presenre was considered one of the indispensalde requisites of tror hospitality Such way the contoin of the times, and with the times of his passed away.
The arrival of a new weather in the neighborhood was an item | of interest to every one, and the log running which was sure to
cially by the younger members of the community. There wonkl he an old-looking company there, when all had gathered, strainge in many ways To one of the present day they would appear strange in dress, some wearing still the deer-akin balliments, und buch skin moveasins of the savage, some elad in homespun lines of domestic manufacture, and others sull, in clothing brought from "the States. " Huts varied all the way from the home-made skull- : cap of racoon or wolf-skin and the white brand-brim, to the more or less dilapidated cocked hat of the grenadier. But the men themselves varied more widely than their apparel. There were uld frontiermen who had spent a lifetime in the wilderness and Irarned its rough ways and how to meet them ; fought Indians and traded with them ; waged war against the wild beasts of the forests nud subdued them; and there were Yankees, fresh from the far down cast, who had brought such exalted opinions of the " lund of stemily balusts" with them it was a wouter they were ever temmed to leave it; and there were Quakers from the hud of 1 William Penn, and representatives of the commonwealth of old Vir- gints. Pat and Michael, from the " ould counthry," were present. und besisle thent Hans and Johannes, from Faderland, and amid this mutley, but not incongruous crowd, gathered from home and frure foreign lands, poor ho, of a race who were once the proud possessors of the entire continent, were drawn thither by enriosity to witness the destruction of their lored old hunting grounds by their more cultured and ambitious successors. They gazed on them with sad and dejected visage from a distance, to slink away again and be lost from siebt aroid the shades of the forest.
The first school-houses were built in the same manner as the log cabins of these dwellers on the frontier, except that for a window a log was ent ont the entire length of one side, and Across the aperture thus formed, light sticks were tacked at intervals, to which old newspapers were pasted, and afterwards greased, to was fastened at o proper angle, supported by pins in the logs, to answer toa purpose of a writing-desk, while the scholars sat on a high bench in front of it, and pored crer the knotty problems in Da Boll or Greenleaf, or conned their Webster's spelling books.
They were a tooral people ; cases of crime and arts of dishonor were almost unknown among them. In the course of time, log chapels came to be erected here and there in the foresta, where the old-fashioned and pointed style of preaching was listened to esch recurring Sabbath ; but for many years before this order of things earee about, the only fnint observance of the Sabbath wns to make it a day of rest for the nged and of play for the young. It was a general visiting day, when families distant from each other met and gathered around the plentifully set board of homely fare to talk over the old days and the pleasant times spent in former years in Pennsylvania or Ohio, just as they now often- times muret to sigh that those golden times of bygone days have passed away.
GENERAL SURFACE.
The surface of the country is very generally level, and there is no part that can he called hilly or broken, save in the imme- diate vieimty of a few of the strenins,
The nuderlying rock is limestone, Rad belongs to the upper Silurian fortuntion.
Tins rock is exposed in the bluffs along the Wabash, Sala- monic, and Mississinewa Rivers, and some excellent quarries of flagging and building stone are found, besides much that is adapted for burning into lime.
This rock ahounds in fossily or remains of species of living beings that are now extinct. Fine specimen of trilibotes and kindred fossils are often quarried out.
The rock is usually stratified in thin layers occupying a hori- zoatal position, but in some instances, as may be witnessed in the point of rocks near the railroad bridge in Wabash, they assume a oearly vertieal position as if they formed the sides of u inound or cone. Further away from the ioxin streams, the surface is deeply covered with drift.
The larger branches of the Wabash, rising in the level conn- try, have in their course eut channely through the drift into the outerlying rock. thus affording some picturesque scenery.
To the northward, much of the country is alnost an un- hroken plain, the bed of the watereour-es but little depressed below that of the surrounding country, and artificial dramage is necessary to bring the land into productivencas. In the description of l'leasant and of Pawpaw townships, more will be sarl about the character of the surface amt soil of this portion of the county.
Wabash River .- This important stream passes through the central part of the county in a westerly direction, slightly incluning to the south. It rivey in the State of Ohio, and 14 about four hundred miles in length, but it is in this county that it receives its first considerable trifmtary, the Salamonte, and the begins to assume the form and proportions of a river. The Miswwwnewa, another woportant trilitury of the Wabash, entering that stirnmu near Pera, wine sis or weven miles west of the line of this county, passes through Liberty and Waltz township+.
Eel River .- They stream enters the county at Liberty Mille. and takes a southwesterly course to Kontin. It+ general course ix proukeit, and its waters more sluggish and lesa clear. It has no high Inlls or blois bordering it in this county. It entery the Wabash at Logansport.
ly its name would wein to impdy, this strenin was Arat no woon follow was looked forward to with great expectancy, expe. , called from the abundance of cely within its waters, though of
Inter years these snake-like fish have become more scarce. At the time of the first setthement on its banks it was very full of fish of all kinds, and according to some anthorities its name is an Indian word used to dennte all fish, and if translated into English would be " Fish River." This latter hypothesis is not very well supported, however, aml seems in fut quite doubtful.
SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS.
From the description given of the surface of the country, it will In seen that it is one well adapted to agriculture. There irreclaimnable marshes. In the early days of wttlement, a number of tracts which had lwen returned by the surveyory as " swamp lands," were consulered of little valne, but upon being cleared off and ditched so as to afford an outlet for the water, much of this land was found to be quite valuable, and is now ranked as among the best.
Defective Statistics .-- Before entering into a description of crops raised, ete., it may be well to remark aud to regret, that the statistics of the nereage and production of different crops and the number and value of the different kinds of live stock, are so deficient and imperfect as to have little value. Such returns, indeed, have heen marie by the assessors of the various townslapy, but some of them are so palpably wrong that it bas been deemed brat not to insert them. Some of the Assessors complain, and no doubt with good reason, that the people ne- glect or refuse to give the information required of them, from a fear that it will lead to increasedi taxation.
The statistics returned in 1875 will be examined, and such ag are deemed of sufficient interest will be inserted in the work.
Corn .- This may be said to be the most important crop raised in the county, and the quantity raised bo+ been increased from: year to year. Formerly, it required much manual Inbor to tend it, but now, nearly all the work of planting and tending is done by horse-power. The crop of 1874 was unusually large, and such as was sold found a ready market, at a price of abont sixty cents per hushel.
Price of Corn .- The following are the average prices paid by T. W. King at bis warehouse in Wabash during the years hmmned : 1870, 40 cents ; 1871, 35 cents; 1872, 35 cents ; 1873, 50 cents ; 1874, 60 cents.
Wheat .- Large crops of this staple are raised in the county, probably more in the Eel River Valley than in other parts. Where the ground is low or wet, corn usually sueereis better thau wheat, as the latter crop is sometimes injured hy freezing. The use of improved machinery for sowing, barvesting, and thrasbing this crop is now miveryal.
Prices .- To give some idea of how little money a bushel of wbeat would sell for within the memory of men still in active business, it may be related that in the year 1851 John Whis- ler, then as now a leading merchant at North Manchester, hought wheat for forty cents a bushel. He hanled it to Lagro, where it was shipped on the ennal.
For the following priccs of wheat we are indebted to T. W. King, graig dealer, Wabash: 1870, 95 cents; 1971, $1.10 ; 1872, $1.30; 1873, $1.20; 1874, 90 cents.
Other Crops .- At one time flix was raised to a large extent both for the seed and for the fibre, but of lace years lesy atten- tion has been paid to its culture. Oats, rye, potatoes, etc. etc., are raised, but not to any great extent beyond the home demanıl.
Fruits. - Of late years, orchards have been multiplying, and ere long there will be an abundance of fine varieties of apples, pears, peaches, and grapes, while berries and small fruits will soon become more abundant. Many farmers have neglected to set out fruits trees, but the deficiency is fast being made up.
DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
The remarks alreally made regarding the difficulty of pro- curing correct statistics of the number and kinds of domestic animaly in the county need not he recapitniaterl.
Horses are inct with in the usual number, and the present Reason, 1875, a new variety. the Norioan horse, is being intro- duced, and is very popular.
Hogs .-- The number of hogy raised in the county is largo, and yearly increasing.
Instead of selling their corn, the practice of most farmers is to few it out to hogs, and thus sell their corn crop in the form of pork.
The hog+ are generally soll alive, some being shipped to pointy outside the county, while others are slaughtered in Wabash, there being a large pork-parking establishment there. Of late years much attention has been paid to raising the last hreeds, Not long ago, a kind of mongrel " land pike" were munril, which, rommning in the woods much of the time, were finally fattened and killed, it requiring three or four years to bring a bog to wrigh over about two hundred pounds. Now farmers sell many of their hogy before they are a year old, and expect them to wrigh from two to three hundred pounds.
The price paid during the season of 1874 was from six to MIX and one-half erats per jumnd
Other Domostio Animals,-The number of sheep raised in the county is not large, hut few farmers nuning any considerablo fork. A tax is levied upon dogs, and the amount raised in this way is need ny a foul to indemnify owners of sheep who have muffered Iowy hy their ravages.
grown up in intimate acquaintance with its wilds and hardships; i is ahpost an entire absence of rocky ridges, stony tracts, or
12
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY. - GENERAL AND SPATESTIRAL ..
EDUCATION.
The blessings and benefits of common schools are now within Nach of the bunblest citizens, and it is among the encouraging signs of the times that every year witnesses mereved interest being taken in einentional matters.
The rude log hnt which constituted the school-house of pin- neer days, with its greased paper window hghts, and fireplace extending across one end of the room, bn- given place to more commodious and sightly structures. Many of them have good locations, pleasant surroundings, ami are provided with maps. apparsins, spitalde furniture, aint blach lords.
The United States census of Isio gives the number in the comdy over ten years of age who cannot rendl nt 749, and the number who cannot write at 1424.
The report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for the year 1574 gives the number of brick school-houses at twenty-two, frame buildings minety-eight. log schoul-honses two : total one hundred and twenty-two.
The report for the year previous gives the total number of school-Lonses at one hundred and forty, which is believed to be more uesrly correct.
The nomber of teachers is reported as one hundred and fifty : average Duniber of school-days in the year, one humilred and fourteen. Average daily wages paid teachers, male, twoilullars and nine coots; female, one dollar and seventy-seven cents. The winter schools are usually taught by male teachers ; sing- mer schools by females.
These figures are not understood to include the city of W'shash.
Report of the Wobash Public Schools for the Term ending December 24, 1874. .
Number of childreo enqmerateit in city 950
Number of pupils enrolled daring the term 720
Average unmber belonging =
Average daily attendance 590
Per cent. of attendance (based on average belonging)
94.5
Per cent. of attendance based on enrolment) 81.9 Per cout of attendance (based on enumeration). 60 2
Number of pupils whose average per cent. is not below 90 111
Number neither tardy nor absent, girls , boy 62,
Total . 1$7
Number of cases of tardiness, girls 6, boys 16, Total 22
The first school io the county was taught by Ira Burr in Wabash, io the winter of 1836-7, in a log-house previously used as a storeroom by William Edsal, on lot No. 26.
MANUAL LABOR INSTITUTE.
The fouoder of this institution was Josiah White, a member of the Society of Friends. He was born in 1781 in Mount Holly, New Jersey. In his youth he had a passion for mechani- cal paranits, and he received a fair edneation. He was appron- ticed to the hardware trade, in Philadelphia, and after serving bis time, conducted a store on his own account. making the singular resolution to devote all his time and labor to the busi- ness until he had made forty thousand dollars in money, pro- vided he could do so before his thirtieth year. He was success- ful io accumulating this amount of property twn years before reaebing that age, and in accordance with this resolution sold out. Ile bad a notion of investing this sum at interest, but not satisfied with that kind of life, he turned his attention to building a dam on the Schuylkill, and putting ap a lock for purposes of navigation.
He occupied himself at this for a number of years from 1810 to 1819, when the works were finally purchased by the city of Philadelphia.
Josialı White was one of the pioneers in the improvement of the Lehigh River and Delaware River, and in the mining and! brioging of anthracite coal into market.
In this work be ultimately succeeded, and during his lifetime the trade in coal became a very important one.
Asa contractor for and stockholler in various così and navi- gation companies, he arenmalated a large amount of property. He died in the year 1950. A memoir of his life is published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., of Iladelphia, and speak of bir| as being a man of kindly disposition, much interested in plans for the education of poor children.
For this purpose he toale bequests in hiy will for the restab- lishment of manual labor schools in lawa and in Indiana, cape- cially having reference to the religious training of the pupils.
The amount of the bequest under which the institution in this county was founded way twenty thousand rullars.
With this auto, a section of land lymy on Treaty Crock in Noble Township, which had been reserved to the Indian, Mo- thingomnasha, was hought in 1954, and building were sont erected. The number of puits enjoying the benefits of the institution has never buen large. Josh WInte, bring ersel- tially a man of atfnire, busils employed during Ins lifetime in improving river navigation and ja mag coal mines, probably hari oo knowledge of what sum of money would be required for auch a purtemc.
SOUTH WABASH ACADEMY.
On another -page will be srea a pleasant, home-like picture re- presenting the South Wabash Acudemy, which was ratoldished by Prof. P. A. Withersad Watrish College, m'ont the Year Ian -. The school was under the care of the Presbyterian Church, nud was known as the Female Sennmary nt first, but was som after- wurde changed to milant lwith spar4. In 1523, Prof Willer re- signed, and the ustitution fell into the hands of the Friends, mal S. ti Inistings, of Barlham College wns secured as pricipal. In July, 1571, he was soverpiled lo J. Tilmon Hutchens, of the Sperlant Academy, nader whom it will continue.
The Aculemy is most pleasantly situated on the pike road, ghont a mile smth of Wabash, in a quiet and prareful, though thriving little village, surrounded by lovely and picturesque scenery. No students of immoral character ate retained in the whool, and it is the nim of the directors to provide an institution in which the moral atmosphere shall be pure aml untainted, the physienl surroundings salubrious and healthy, med the mental stimulus bou nnit bracing. The course of study has been arranged with much care, so as to provide for those who may wish to prepare them- selves for a college contse, As well os to give a piactient business elvention to those who do not anticipate anything further than the weademie course. Arenugements have terratly been made by which simlents who wish enn club together and buurd themselves in the building, thus reducing their expenses about two-fifths,
The present Board of Directors consists of David Coble. Daniel Hutchens, James Coppock, Benoui Hill, Jesse Hill, all of whom ure doing very liberally toward building up the school.
POPULATION, NATIVITY, ETC.
The number of people living in this county in 1870 was over twenty-one thousand, of which were returned Total Foreign born 936
Born in British America
39
" England and Wales
66
# Scotland
5
# # Treland
277
4 # Germany
\ " Switzerland 42
৳ u France
16
Of those born in the United States : Bora in Juliana . 13,000
# # Ohio
l'enasylvania
1,107
4 Kentucky 303
506
" New York 292
From careful investigations made while compiling this Atlas, it appears that those born in Ohio mostly came from Preble, Darke. and Montgomery Counties, The counties in Indiana most largely represented are Fayette, Rush, Franklin, and Wayne. . A good idea of this subject may be obtained from an examination of the list of subscribers to this work given in another part of the atlas.
By the tables of population, elsewhere given, it will be seen that each successive cen-os taken has shown a marked increase over the previous one. That a similar ratio of increase will be [und in the future is not at all probable, as already the popu- lation of this county is more dense than in many of the obler States. Some of the villages and towns may show augmenter population by reason of more extended trade, or greater amount or diversity of mannfactures, thus supporting additional num- hers of men. To what extent this may take place is difficult to foresee.
In the country proper it may be set down as likely that the more wealthy farmers will gradually increase the area of their possessions by almorhing the smaller farms. The wealthy landowners not being forced to sell, will hold on to what they possess, and gradually buy out the farmy of their poorer neighbors who are tempted by their necessities to realize money that will enable them to buy larger farine in the far west. As the fame increase in size, and the use of improved machinery becomes more common, more attention will be paid to farming on a large scale. Then again, lesy men will be required to clear off the lant, and many that found employment in chopping al grubling will have to find other labor. it may be safely asseried then that, in some parts of the country at least, no further increase of the number of people nerd he looked for, the surplus of juqusintion moving westward or to the towny and villages,
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