USA > Indiana > Greene County > Biographical memoirs of Greene County, Ind. : with reminiscences of pioneer days, Volume I > Part 14
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The city of the dead, two miles south of Worthing- ton, is one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in the county -- the Dixon graveyard.
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FIRST LOG CABIN.
BY W. D. RITTER.
Peter Hill is said to have been the man who built the first log cabin in Bloomfield. It was on lot No. 36, where Asbury Haines now lives; it was built in 1824.
Cabins ranged in size from fourteen by sixteen to sixteen by eighteen and eighteen by twenty feet. Logs had to be small, eight to ten inches in diameter, so that the small force could put them up. Some of smaller di- mensions and of smaller logs were raised by the pioneer and his faithful wife. Mr. Hill was from North Caro- lina. His cabin was of the pretentious kind, larger than . some others and "scutched" down, logs hewn a little in- side. In very early life I remember of taking the census of Bloomfield. I stood where the old locust trees are on the corner of the Colonel E. H. C. Cavins property, then the home of my father, and counted the cabins in the county seat. There were ten of them. At my next count there were twelve. The town looked mighty big then. Not a nail was used in any of the houses.
The "boards" of the roof were held by weight poles. The "poles" were kept apart by "knees" so they laid on
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the lower end of each "course." The lower end at the eave was held by a split pole on the corner logs, so the flat side came against the ends of the boards. "Ribs," "knees," weight poles and butting poles ( the latter the split pole the boards "butted" against) were the "pat" words at a log cabin raising. Where a goodly number were present a "raising" was a high old time. "Cornermen" were elect- ed, to stay on the corners with axes to "saddle" the log that had been placed and "notch" the next one to fit on the saddle. These cornermen felt pretty big-would shout "Roll up your dough" at the hands, meaning roll up the logs.
The roof was not very steep. The weight poles would keep a young Hoosier from falling or sliding off. So up there was a good place to gad about, yell, sing songs or talk to other young ones on their house, if a house be near. A quarrel could proceed and the parties feel pretty safe under such circumstances.
Mr. Hill's wife was a Brooks-kin to the present Brooks, of Bloomfield. She was by nature a "landlady." So in a few years, when a two-story tavern was built where the Hert store is now, the Hills took charge of it ; kept it for ten years. When the present "old stand" was built by Joseph Eveligh, they kept that many years longer. After several removes, Mr. Hill died where Dan Bynum now lives, two miles east of Bloomfield, about the year 1849.
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Two notable descendants, grandchildren of his, who were reared, one in California and the other in Kansas, have visited the old home within twenty years-both more than commonly attractive and beautiful. The one from California, Nettie Hill, was much astonished at thunder and lightning-said in her state it never thundered. She married Steve Huff, of Bloomfield. The other, Gertie Hill, of Kansas, said she never saw a drunken man in her life until she saw one in Sandborn, Indiana. Yes, "pro- hibition prohibits" in Kansas.
THOMAS BRADFORD, THE FOUNDER OF GREENE COUNTY.
BY W. D. RITTER.
Further back than the town of Bradford, county of Yorkshire, in England, we know nothing of the Brad- . fords.
Whether John and William Bradford, who came on the Mayflower and signed the celebrated "compact" at Cape Cod, November 11, 1620, came from Yorkshire, we do not know, but have reason to think they did. John was afterward governor of the colony and gave the or- der to have the first "Thanksgiving" on the last Thurs- day of November, 1621.
The climate of New England was fatal to many of
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the colonists. The first governor, Carver, and half the people died the first winter. A branch of the Bradford family removed to North Carolina, where, about 1785. our subject, Thomas Bradford, was born in Orange county, of that state. In 1814 he came to Orange county, Indiana, which county got its name from Orange county settlers from North Carolina. He was advised to return to Carolina until the Indians could be removed from what is now Greene county, which was his destination. This . he did, and in 1816 came back to stay.
Three brothers of them came together; the other two settled, lived and died in Daviess county. The sand hill where Thomas Patterson now lives, a mile south of Bloomfield, was his first home.
In 1821 he took legal steps to organize the county of Greene. The first court was held at his house, or, rather, near it, for it was by a large log-heap, on fire out of doors; the court room was large and airy. For the next twenty years his life was but the history of the county. Having at first secured the appointment of com- missioners to locate the county seat, he entertained them at his house, filled the office of sheriff pro tem. to notify in regard to electing county officers, had the election held at his own house, filled many of the offices required, gave the officers their certificates of election, and did so many other things as to the starting into life of the county government that it makes us think of the fact that his- '
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torians call the Mayflower compact by the eminent name of "organization." Associate judges acted with the pre- siding judges then, and Mr. Bradford held tltat, as well as many other offices, for many years. At times it was impossible for the presiding judge to be present, then the associate judges held court without him. The office of associate judge has long been abolished. Mr. Bradford lived near Burlington, the old county seat, about twenty years.
Yorkshire, in England, is the home of arts and me- chanics; Sheffield has no rival on earth for working met- als. Mr. Bradford had the old mechanic blood in him- was a blacksmith of more than common capability. Old persons in all this neighborhood yet remember the skill as a blacksmith of his son, Garrison Bradford; it was un- equaled. For sixty years my father and myself have had a hand vise, seven inches long, that Thomas Bradford brought from North Carolina. Not far from 1840 he passed away. Now all his large family have followed him. In person he was the genuine Puritan-short stat- ure, square shoulders, compact chest, figure alert and ta- pering from shoulders to heels, arm tapering from shoul- ders to finger ends, showing him to be just what he was- a man of all-round capability. His descendants in the county are numerous, all of whom, like himself, are citi- zens of usefulness and good repute.
SOME EARLY HISTORY.
BY W. D. RITTER.
The man who built the first log cabin-William Latta-in 1816, built his cabin on the hill just south of where the canal railroad crosses the creek now bearing his name. Jack Baber thought this to be the first white habitation in the county.
Where Mr. Latta came from we do not know. The Lindleys were among the first who entered land in the county, and Zach Lindley, a very famous horsethief catcher, of Orange county, had part in finding a fine gray mare which had been stolen, and which belonged to Mr. Latta, but I do not know if they were relatives or neigh- bors. From the character of the mare and the way she had been kept we can construct a very good character Mr. Lindley, in Orange county, before the owner got to see her, Mr. Latta made the request that he, with other for the owner.
The scientists, from a very small part of a skeleton, can construct all the rest. She (the animal) was, in the first place, a very good one, and when in possession of men, be allowed to put his hand in the crack of the log
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stable and let the mare pick out her master. This was done in such manner that she could not see the men. She smelled of the hands along without showing interest till she came to the right one, when she nickered and fondled and licked the hand in such a way that satisfied all per- fectly as to the acquaintance that existed between the parties.
As early as 1818 my father was in "VanSlyke bot- tom," when piles of deer hair and turkey feathers waist high lay where the Indians had camped and was at Mr. Latta's house, which was just across the river. The In- dians had told the whites of "cold sick" (ague) on Latta's creek. Professor Latta, of Purdue University, thinks he is a relative of our "first settler." So he told me when he was at our farmers' institute some years ago.
The professor is one of the most valuable of citi- rens, able and honest in his teaching to the farmers, and so capable in selecting teachers to send over the state. So far as I know all these not only teach the people how to work, but to take care of their earnings. They teach them not to spend one cent at the saloon.
The Lindleys went to Hendricks county, where the Quakers made a settlement on White Lick, a perfect gar- den spot, where many descendants of them and the Jes- sups now live. The Greene county Jessups are their kin. I do not think Mr. Latta died here, but whether he went to White Lick I do not know.
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PIONEER PHYSICIANS.
BY JOHN M. HARRAH, M. D.
The first doctor of any prominence whom I remen- ber was a young man named Fitzgerald, who was located for a while in the neighborhood of what is now Linton, in 1840.
He came to visit my great-grandmother in her last illness, and I can remember how he looked as he bent over her bed in examining her. He did not long remain in the neighborhood, and the next doctor I remember was William G. Skinner, who came to the county early-I think he must have come in the thirties, perhaps in 1838 or the year following.
He was said to be well educated for that day and did much business, riding from his home in Scaffold Prai- rie, Smith township, to Black creek and all over the west- ern. and northern part of the county. He remained here until about 1850, when he returned to his eastern home in New York.
About the time Dr. Skinner located in the county Drs. Shepherd and Johnson located in Point Commerce and remained until they died in 1850 or 1851. I am not
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sure of the exact date, but they died about the same time. Dr. Johnson died of cholera and Dr. Shepherd, I think, died of bilious colic.
They were both popular and eminent physicians, and did much business. Some time in the early thirties Dr. John A. Pegg came to the county and located in the vil- lage of Fair Play, where he lived during the epidemic of cholera and devoted his talents to the afflicted during that trying time. Some few years after this he moved to the country, bought land and built a house, in which he died about the year 1876.
He did an immense practice, and had he been remu- nerated as he deserved he would have been wealthy. His children are nearly all dead, I think. He has one daugli- ter, Mrs. Shoptan, living in Worthington, and one ( Mrs. Parsley) who lives in Indianapolis; also a son, Isaac, whose home, I think, is the Soldiers' Home at Marion, Indiana.
About the year 1848 Dr. William F. Sherwood, the father of Drs. E. T., Ben and Hal Sherwood, now living in Linton, located there and died there in 1874. He did much practice and was a man of great influence in the community, and his sons are among the most respected practitioners of the county today.
In 1850 Dr. Abram J. Miller, with whom I read med- icine, located in Linton, where he soon became known as a skillful as well as a careful and industrious physician,
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and he had all the business he could attend to. During the Civil war he removed to Paris, Illinois, where he soon be- came one of the leading physicians. He died there about the year 1903.
Dr. E. J. Jackson came to Linton in the year 1863 and remained there until his death, which occurred about the close of the century. He was a man of much ability and left a number of children, who reside in Linton.
At Newberry Drs. Dagley, Stoddard, McDaniel and O'Neal were among the earliest to locate, and all of these have passed over from labor to reward.
Dr. Nathan Kimball, who was prominent in the af- fairs of the army during the war, and who was made a major general on his merits, practiced medicine in the county, living in Newberry.
I have not the room in this article to name all the men who came here early to engage in the healing art, but will mention only a few. Dr. James A. Mintich came to Point Commerce in 1854 and died in Worthington in 1897; Dr. J. H. Axton, who located in Worthington in 1850 and moved to Illinois about 1862; Dr. W. B. Squire, who came to Jasonville in 1854, served in the army during the Civil war, and located in Worthington at its close, where he died a few years ago; Dr. William L. Greche lived in Worthington and vicinity before and during the war, and died in Worthington during the present year (1908).
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There are many names which I cannot recall at this time, and as there are no records of these men I have no means of knowing about them, although many of them were reputable and deserving of honorable mention.
The men who are now active in the profession have, most of them, entered since the middle of the last century, and while their opportunities for acquiring knowledge have been far superior to those whom I have mentioned, they have much to be thankful for in other respects. The pioneer doctor had a most laborious profession and led a life of toil. He was subject to calls at all hours of the day and night, rode horseback over all kinds of roads, ex- posed to all the weather, through sunshine, rain, hail, sleet and snow, and with small compensation. Most of the physicians of whom I have written died rather young, and few accumulated a great deal of property, but they had the satisfaction of knowing that they were useful members of society and that they were held in esteem by the best people of the community.
I have only mentioned those who lived west of White river except those who lived at Newberry, as I was not acquainted, on the east side of the river in early life, having been reared in the western part of the county.
LIFE IN THE WOODS.
The experiences of the first hardy settlers in Greene county form a story of trials, privations and sufferings,
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and a picture of heroism and triumph, which never has been and never will be adequately portrayed. While dis- tant from their native homes and out of reach of every civilized comfort, they transformed patches of woodland here and there into bearing fields, and yielded to nothing but protracted and blighting disease and death. The rude log cabins in which they lived were utterly devoid of orna- ment or adornment. The half of one side of the only room was devoted to the fireplace, at which the members of the family toasted their shins, the good wife meanwhile cooking the simple meal of corn cakes and wild meat on the same fire. The one room was parlor, kitchen, dining- room and bedroom, and, in the coldest weather, some of the few domestic animals were kindly given a night's shelter from the storm.
The furniture consisted of a few splint-bottomed and bark-bottomed chairs of the plainest and roughest sort, made by the use of a hatchet, augur and jack-knife, bed- steads and a table of a light character, and a scanty set of cooking utensils, the most important of which were the skillet and a pot. There were no pictures on the walls, no tapestry hung at the windows, and no carpets were on the puncheon floors.
The ornaments of the walls were the rifle and powder horn, bunches of beans, medicinal herbs and ears of corn for the next planting suspended from pegs driven into the logs of which the wall was composed. The windows needed no curtains, as they were made of a material which
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not only kept out strong sunlight and the fierce winds of winter, but admitted a sufficient amount of the former for all practical purposes. In this matter the pioneers dis- played an amount of ingenuity that could be called forth only by the mother of invention-necessity. Sheets of paper were procured and soaked in hog's lard, by which proces they became translucent, and these pasted to some cros: ticks placed in the opening for the purpose consti- tuted the window of the early log cabin. Puncheon floors were a luxury and not to be found in every house, as in many the native soil was both floor and carpet.
The long winter evenings were spent in conversation over some personal events of the day, or of recollections of events of the old homes in the east or south from which they had emigrated. The sunshine of literature did not circulate very freely. The whole library consisted of a Bible, an almanac and a few school books. A tallow dip afforded the only artificial light. In 1830 a clock or watch was a novelty, and the pioneer marked time by the ap- proach of the shadow of the door to the sun mark, or the cravings of the stomach for its ration of corn bread and bacon.
Daytime was devoted to labor, and great was the toil. The shouts and exclamations of the gangs as they' rolled and piled the logs preparatory to burning could be heard for miles. Corn huskings, grubbings, flax-pullings and other gatherings were also sources of enjoyment. Night brought its compensations in the form of the social
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gathering when all the neighbors would crowd into a nar- row cabin to crack jokes and tell stories, while the voice- ful catgut gave forth enlivening strains of music, and four and eight-handed reels, even round, till the break of day.
The fields of the first settlers were not very extensive, and consequently their crops were not very large. In fact during the first few years they had no incentive to raise more than was required for home consumption, as there was no market for surplus stock. The flail was the first implement used to thresh the grain with, but was not so popular as that of tramping it out with horses, which method was adopted later. The grain and chaff were sep- arated by the wind, or by a sheet in the hands of persons. The four-horse ground-hog, as it was called, eventually supplanted the old methods. It was a rude affair, in com- parison with the improved machines now in use.
OLD METHODS OF FARMING.
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The mowing scythe, hand rake and wooden pitch- fork were the implements of the hay harvest. The grain scoop was not known for several years. In cribbing corn, it was either thrown with the hands or pushed out of the end of the wagon bed with the foot. Iron scoops did not come into use until emigration set in from the east. In the cultivation of corn, the hoe was largely used. "Plow shallow and hoe well," was the prevailing rule.
We might continue our description of early modes of
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farming, customs and habits to almost an endless length ; suffice it to say, that in all the departments of life, a cor- responding simplicity was the rule. How different we find it now! It is useless to attempt to enumerate the comforts and modern conveniences now in use. Things unthought of by the old pioneers abound everywhere. In- dustrious hands and active brains have been at work, and we behold on every hand a wonderful, a rapid, a happy change.
The few cabins scattered over the county were all made of logs with the traditional "cat-and-clay" chim- ney, the huge fireplace, the rude chairs, benches, floor and door, and the hanging herbs, dried venison and beef and the rifles and axes. The ground, when cleared, was rich, and on the lower lands fifty bushels of corn could be raised to the acre. The old wooden mold-board plow was the principal agricultural implement, or perhaps that an- cient implement, the hoe, was, as the stumps and roots were too thick for plows. Corn was ground at Slink- ard's mill, or at Washington, Daviess county, where the settlers usually went when the winter's supply of flour was to be obtained and where the marketing was to be done; the trip consuming several days. There it was the first plows were sharpened. The cutter could be taken off . and sharpened by a blacksmith and reattached. The old wooden mold-board plow mostly in use was called the "Bull's plow," and was regarded as a high type of art.
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Blacksmiths made them. In a short time shops were es- tablished nearer than Washington, and homes, mills, stores, etc., as good as could be found anywhere in the wilderness rendered useless the long and harassing trip to Daviess county. Wheat was raised in small quantities and was threshed with a flail on a puncheon floor, on in some cases tramped out after the custom so old that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. It was the custom in the reign of the Pharaohs of Egypt, and in the old Assyrian and Babylonian dynasties, in times ante- dating authentic history. Cattle were driven around and around upon the grain in the stalk until all was cut to pieces, when the grain was separated from the chaff by the tedious process of winnowing. Corn was raised easier by the carly settlers than wheat, and was the "staff of life." "Hog and hominy" have become household words in the Hoosier dialect. Pumpkins were grown in large quantities and sweetened and prepared for the table, with maple sugar or syrup, or fed to the cattle. The peavine pastures of early years were famous for the herds of cat- tle. Cattle eagerly sought this vine, and though it im- parted a strong taste to milk and butter, still it was not unpleasant after a few weeks' use. Hogs ran wild in the woods, subsisting the year round on the rich "mast" which covered the ground.
COTTON WAS KING.
It seems strange, but the fact is that in early years cotton was quite extensively grown in Greene county. The
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early settlers, many of them, had come from the southern states, where cotton and tobacco were the principal staples, and where it was thought that "cotton was king" and to- bacco queen, and that their kingdom was bounded on the east by the oceans and on the north and south by the Brit- ish possessions and Mexico. It was not dreamed that the rich soil of the northern states was to create a revolution in farm products, placing corn and wheat on the throne so long occupied by the justly illustrious cotton and to- bacco. So it came to pass that the early settlers brought seed cotton and tobacco with them to Indiana. In a short time a large number of the first residents annually grew from one to five acres of cotton, and from a few rows to an acre of tobacco, both of which products were mainly consumed at home. The cotton was freed of seed by a neighboring cotton gin and then taken in hand, and in a short time, by various mysterious processes. transformed into garments of sundry sizes and hues. Before the gin was brought in the seed was picked out by hand in pick- ing bees by the girls and boys. Many a match of pioneer youth was struck and lighted into fervid flame at these pickings. Yes, your father and mother, now old and wrinkled, with palsied hands and tottering feet, were then young and rosy and strong, with warm, loving hearts un- der linsey-woolsey and jeans and tow, with spirits "feather light" in the merry morning of their lives. Soon you came on the stage in swaddling clothes, very red in
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the face, lifting up your voice in doleful lamentations, and then father and mother were never tired waiting upon you, tenderly watching your uncertain growth and direct- ing your energies in healthful pursuits and curbing your abnormal passions with the specific of Solomon. Can you do too much for them now? They are standing on the brink of the river of death, and can hear the surf beat on the rocky shore of time, and can see the dark boat in the distance coming for them. They know, as the Arab cx- presses it, that-
"The black camel named Death kneeleth once at each door, And a mortal must mount to return nevermore."
There is no evasion. When the camel comes one must go. There is time for but one kind word, a clasp of the hand, a kiss, a last goodby, and the boat leaves the strand and goes out into the mist of oblivion. Once the old loved to pick cotton for your little form, loved to meet pioneer associates with salutations of the backwoods; but now they live only in memory, in the happy days of the dead past where their hearts lie.
WILD GAME.
Wild animals were very numerous and were repre- sented in this locality by some of the largest and most
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dangerous species. Bears were often seen and not in- frequently encountered. Deer were far more numerous than sheep, and could be killed at any hour of the day or night. Their hides were worth about fifty cents each, and a "saddle of venison" brought less than that. In some cases hogs were as savage as bears, and were known to attack men when cornered, and when it seemed likely that they were destined for the pork barrel. The tusks of the males frequently attained a length of six inches, were turned up at the points and as sharp as knives. Wolves were numerous, went in small packs, and it was next to impossible to keep sheep unless they were guarded by day and securely penned up by night. Foxes were killed once in a while. Wildcats infested the woods. Panthers frequented deer licks. Squirrels were a nuisance. Corn had to be guarded constantly until the kernel had sent up a tall stalk and had rotted away. They were hunted and killed by the hundreds by companies of men organ- ized for the purpose. Turkeys, ducks, brants, pheasants, wild geese, otters and a few beavers were also present to afford the hunter sport and the settler subsistence. One day Isaiah Hale, who had been away, returned home through the woods, and while walking along suddenly came upon a large bear, which had been concealed from him by intervening brush. He was so close to it that he could not escape, for it instantly reared up and struck him with its paw, catching his hand with its paw and
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