USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial history of Grant County, Indiana, 1812 to 1912 : compiled from records of the Grant county historical society, archives of the county, data of personal interviews, and other authentic sources of local information > Part 25
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Our praise and respect is the due of those who have gone before and prepared the way for our blessings and comfort at this stage of Indi ana's greatness in the progress of all the states. But returning to the first entries of government lands. I will relate the story of choosing and beginning in the woods as it was told to me by my father. Hearing so much of the west and of Indiana in particular along in the early 'thirties, accompanied by brothers and sisters he selected claims and they gave their money to an agent to make the entry for them. The agent was Mr. Boggs. but the land had been taken and the money was refunded. My father and one brother made a bee line north'until they reached the old trace near the Salamonie that had been made by Con- eral Anthony Wayne, following it to Fort Wayne, where the United States land office was located.
When they reached Rock creek about five miles this side of Fort Wayne, they secured lodging for the night. Next morning they made entries and seeured the necessary. documents and returned as far as the Salamonie, where Warren is now located. Next day they reached the starting point, three days out and afoot, with no weapon greater than a pocket knife. For twenty-five miles of the way between Warren and Fort Wayne there was not a house-only the mubroken forest This was in the early part of December, but it had been a dry season and the weather was beautiful. There was no water in the slashes and ponds. It was quite a contrast to the way they found it the next spring when they longed for the old home on the banks of the Potomac in Virginia.
My father, and uncle and two brothers in their twenties proceeded to ent logs for a house on my father's claim in sertion 1. and the house was raised on Christmas day, 1838. The dimensions, eighteen by twenty, and built of heavy logs seotched down on the inside and the spaces between the logs daubed with mortar made of clay, was said to be a typical cabin of the first class. It had clapboard door and puncheon floor with weight poles to hold down the roof. Less than one pound of nails was used in the construction of the house. None were required only in the door and window frames. Anger holes and pins of suffi. cient length supported boards for the clock, a few books, and there was a mantel above the fireplace. There was a stick chimney with its great back wall filled with clay that during the long winter evenings was enveloped in flame from fire consuming big "back logs" and "fore
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sticks" four feet or more in length, resting on "nigger heads" with armfuls of middlings of lesser size off the clearing made cach sneces- sive winter in opening up the farm. This house was occupied nearly twenty-five years and but for the ground logs it was well preserved when it was finally removed and converted into a horse stable like many, many others throughout the country. Now scarcely a trace of those early habitations can be seen to commemorate the pioneer home with the modern dwelling of the present day.
About this time Noah Reasoner occupied the northwest quarter of section 12 near the lake in the same section which afterward came to be known as Reasoner's lake and the source of Lake Branch. About 1846 Mr. Reasoner erected a little sawmill-Samuel Campbell being the millwright-below the lake. A mill race and dam was constructed, but for want of fall and injury done to adjoining lands from back water the mill was abandoned after two or three years. Again it was said so many fish of large size came down the mill race, got into the mill wheel and stopped the machinery. It is said that they took out fish three or four feet in length. Although this may sound "fishy." the lake and its tributaries were well stocked with the finny tribe and in season many a family's table was supplied with an excellent article of food.
I have heard my father relate that he and his brother were once on the lake in a canoe, when they saw several large pike in the edge of some weeds. Ilis brother, with his over-ready gun, fired among them, killing one which they brought to shore and strung it on a pole which they carried on their shoulders. They were both near six feet tall and yet the fail of this immense fish dragged the ground. When a mere boy I myself saw the bones of a pike over four feet long that had washed ashore. Since the era of drainage comparatively little marshy, swampy land still exists and the water in the lake is closing in year after year.
During the early days game was plentiful in Jefferson, including deer and turkey, but scarcely a deer has been seen since the present generation has been on the scene of action. When James Buchanan represented the national ticket of the old Democratic party and all of the majestic antlers of the masculine gender of the agile creatures were gathered to decorate the hickory poles created the deer disap- peared. Perhaps Warren Fergus has the honor of an all-day chase and together with Elias byon and Horner brothers of bringing down the last deer in this township. George Owens is credited with killing the last bear over seen in Jefferson. It occurred in 1845, being an all- day chase and one dog being lost. From reliable sources I have the story of a bear being run down on Christmas day, 1850, just across the line in Blackford county.
While on the line of hunting stories I will relate an incident told to me by my father, as he had it from Robert Marshall, who ent a large poplar tree for coon one bright winter day in 1836 that stood within the present barn lot at Millerton farm. The tree was hollow at the bit. out of which Mr. Marshall took five coons, and seven were taken from a hollow limb while one escaped, but the dogs chased it up a tree and it was finally captured, making thirteen in all, and a few years ago I verified the story in a talk with Mr. Marshall, who said he had done better than a legislator that day, as he got $6.50 for them.
After my father came into possession of the land he made the famous coon poplar into rails, some of which are still doing service in the fences on Millerton farm after sixty-five years. Nancy Patterson and her family of several boys and as many girls, according to my infor. mation, came to section 2 in 1839, although the house, erected a year Vol. 1-11
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previous, was there before John Patterson, the husband and father, died. In my youth "Grandmother Patterson" was held in greatest esteem, having brought up so large a family in the most primitive man ner, yet withal so connuendable to themselves and the community, cach of the children having been provided with eighty acres of land seenred by their father from the goverment in several allotments.
Lorenzo Miles came in the spring of 1440, locating in section 1. Ile was a native of Massachusetts, a shoemaker by trade and had learned the trade at Lowell, the original shoe factory in America, Mr. Miles made footwear for his neighbors and kept a small stock of groceries that he often exchanged for produce "wagoned to Cincinnati" and later to Richmond and Muncie, bringing back the most useful articles required by the settlers. His stock always included salt and he Id more of it to his cattle when it was $12 a barrel than the average, and yet he suffered very little loss from marrain, a disease among the cattle at that time. It has since been attributed to leeches in embryo that
AN EVERYDAY GLIMPSE OF UPLAND
infested the ponds and drinking water, destroying the health of the animals. Plenty of salt used seemed to destroy the germs of the leeches.
Thomas Dean, likewise an early settler, kept a stock of goods on the south side of the river and became an important factor in an official capacity, honored and respected by all for duty well performed at that day entrusted to him. It is appropriate here to speak of him. Few dollars went toward defraying the expenses of the family in pur- chasing store goods and groceries, as the wearing apparel was man- factured in the house from wool and flax grown on the farm. Indeed in those days when it required from three to ten days to make the trip to market, all relied on their own resources for sustenance and raiment Most all of the women could prepare the raw material for the weaver and about one in six families possessed a loom and used it dextronsly. so that but few wanted for comfortable clothing.
John Oswalt came early in the thirties, settling just south of the present site of Upland and naming his place " Rising Sun." He was at one time the largest land owner in the country. He had twenty one eighty-aere tracts in one body all purchased from the goverment. His idea was that Indianapolis and Fort Wayne would be connected by water
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navigation by the success of little lakes and ponds and his land was di rectly on the line, but his prediction proved a boomerang of his own imagination. He finally disposed of his land except a hall section which he retained while he lived. Mark Needler, nearly seventy, is the oldest person living who was born in the township. Frank Lyon, now a resident of Upland, is a close second, being two months his junior.
At the organization of Jefferson it was ordered that all elections should be held at Joseph Reasoner's, who was also elected inspector, while Samuel Case was constable. I have been told that a hat was fre- quently used for receiving the ballots east, although my father's first ballot in Jefferson township was deposited in an old coffee pot. The stuffing of ballot boxes was an unheard of thing in those days. The winter of 1811-2 was of extraordinary severity. Mrs. Anne Me Vicher says she remembers of her brother, Daniel Dean, and others crossing the river on ice in April of that year, but warming up by night they barely made it back the same way. Mrs. Me Vieker, an octogenarian, as well as Warren Fergus, son of Sawyer B. Fergus, is authority for the statement that Mr. Fergus that winter made a threshing floor on the iee for tramping out his previous year's wheat crop, he living near the edge of the stream.
The Treshet of 1847 drove many of the residents ont of their houses built in the bottom lands as was the case with Mr. Fergus whose family was rescued from their home in a cande. The reap hook and the tail were handy instruments used in garnering the grain, followed with the cradling scythe and the chaff piler. The veteran owner of such an outfit was Isaac bamin of near the center of the township. Each she cveding harvest he was in his glory and he threshed around the com minity until late in the fall, and sometimes he was not through when snow came. It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention, and it is nowhere more true than in the progressive states of America. Siner the use of electric batteries and gasoline engines has genins been developed and an Edison produced.
In the earlier days of the back-woods settlements there were boys cogitating and imitating in construction some implements of machinery on the farm and though oftentimes rude yet skill was to be seen in the simple affairs used and the boy of ten or twelve who could not fashion a wagon or sled to amuse himself and neighboring lads was not thought to be the promising kind in the community. The Fergus boys at one time put in operation a miniature sawmill on a branch of the river, but it was carried away by high water while other boys whittled out whirl- gigs to be creeted on poles to seare hawks away. Warren Fergus secured the hub of an old wagon wheel and putting in fans, he mounted it on the comb of the barn roof and utilized the power produced saw- ing boards, wood, ete., and since this was in 1845 he was a pioneer in harnessing the winds in the Hoosier state.
Little boy graduates nowadays have store sleds and wagons bought hy the "old man" and older boys congregate in various places to talk scientific games and are subjected to one hundred and one temp- tations that get them all too soon where Delilah got the strong man Sampson. There is too much aptitude for gregarious complications leading from the paths of usefulness. Mrs. Me Vicker thinks one Nicholas Owing taught the first school in the township in a little school house on the Gregg place. The records show the first schoolhouse was on the Ash Rodgers farm and that Joseph Allen was the first teacher. Others were built soon afterward. Early in the forties a schoolhouse was erected on the state road west of the lake that was used for several years. Also one was built in the same period on the Jefferson-Monroe
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line on land now a part of Millerton farm, drawing support from both townships and from Blackford county.
This school became a lively place and was given the name of "Bunker Hill, " and many came from miles away to singing schools. spelling matches and preaching services. It is related that on one ored sion when a little salvation charmer came along there were no lights and the boys went out and brought in hickory bark, placing it on the hearth of the old box stove and when lighted it east a balo of brightness about the room to the satisfaction of all save Jehovah's eleet who lambasted the people for their back-woods proclivities, yet the minister was invited to come again and promised to be there on a certain date. The boys thought to retrieve their shady reputations at the time of the next visit and they made a big candle in an old dinner horn and dozens of others of the size in common use, and with lanterns in the trees there was plenty of light, but the man came not.
However, a Mr. Dowers was stopping over night with a brother of another denomination in the neighborhood, and he went to see the fun. Ile was invited to speak and took for his text: "Light and Knowl- edge," pleasing his audience by his ready wit and appropriate talk. Here it was your humble servant first lined up in his classes in the study of the three r's, but the school was abandoned when more modern houses were creeted in their proper places in the township, on the four corners of contiguous seetions of land.
No one thing has contributed more to the country's progress that the railroads and there is an event well worth mentioning, that Jeffer- son is again at the front as it was in section 1, now Millerton Farm, that the iron horse attached to the construction train first invaded the bonds of the county loaded with iron and cross ties. It was at 5 p. m., August 16, 1867, that an ohl Indiana Central engine, number 20, New- ton Mitchell, engineer, Samuel Beaumont, fireman and Charles Fox, conductor, steamed into Grant county for the first time. During the afternoon of that day the rails had been laid far enough in the county to admit the train and it was unloaded there.
As the crew laid about a mile of track each day by the twentieth of the month Upland was down on the map as a railroad town, and Jacob Bugher, the proprietor of the place, was as proud as the presi- dent of the United States. He was making all of the appointments in the category of the official spoils. It was something like two months from that time until the track was finally laid across the river and reached the county seat when Marion celebrated the event-the arrival of the first railroad train there. I will mention just one more event and then close these rambling notes. It seems to have been a traditional custom that when two people embarked upon the matrimonial voyage that none escaped being informed they were "one." and they usually remembered it the longest day of their lives.
The young men and often the older ones joined neighborhood forces going for miles in extending their pleasure in marvelous eclerity. The evening of March 17. 1850, offering an opportunity for a charivari troops were marshalled and led by two impulsive youths, R. I. Patterson and Jeremiah Snyder of the immediate neighborhood carrying old revolu- tionary muskets loaded very heavily with powder and wadding made of hornet's nests that was expected to rival the inventions of Dante's vision in reality. At the quiet hour of evening they rushed down to the home of the new made bride and Patterson touched the trigger to his flint lock, and great was the report. The old gun barrel burst and a thoughtless boy had lost his right hand. The other guys were not fired and that is perhaps sufficient reason why the son of the aforesaid
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bridal pair has never given cause for the repetition of such an unfor- tunale affair.
Editor's note-The fathers and mothers of today well remember the one-armed school teacher, Robert Patterson, whose widow, Mrs. Elvira Patterson, of the Octogenarian Club, died in 1912, and it was at the wedding of the Jefferson historian's parents that the accident oreurred, which he regards as sufficient exense for remaining a bachelor himself.
A SECOND HISTORY OF JEFFERSON By Jacob Bugher
Acenstomed to frequent extempore speaking, the aged historian declared that it was the first time in his life he had prepared and read a paper on any subject. Mr. Miller referred to him as the "King of Upland," because of his activities, and the following paper, prepared after he had crossed the four score mark, certainly refutes the Osler theory that when men are old they are incapable of doing things. Although an octogenarian, Mr. Bugher read in audible voice, and because two historians seldom describe the same battle alike, his paper is reproduced as he read it:
"Jefferson township is situated in the southeast corner of Grant county. It contains town 23 north, range 9 cast, and one tier of see- tions off of the north side of town 22 north, range 9 east. By the sur- veys it contains forty-two square miles. The Mississinewa river enters this township near the southeast corner, and running nearly northwest, leaves the township near the northwest corner. In 1851 and for sev- eral years after most of the farms and other improvements in this township were in the center and south part of the township. John S. Miller, Robert Patterson, the Marshalls and a few others lived near the northeast corner, and James Johnson, Daniel Wise, Joseph Day and several others lived near the northwest corner of this township. But most of the north part of Jefferson township, and all that part where Upland is now located and for miles around, was then a dense forest. "John Oswalt owned 2240 acres of this land. He owned all the land upon which Upland is now located. except a small strip on the north side. Nearly every house in this township was then a log house. There was one store in New Cumberland, owned by Jacob Newberger. And a store on the Dean farm on the west side of the river, owned by Thomas Dean. And there was a sawmill on Lake Branch, owned by John Lyon, and one on Kirkwood creek, owned by John Richards, and one on the river near New Cumberland, owned by Orville Denni- son. In 1853 a grist mill was erceted on this site by Dennison and Kisner. In 1852 Oswalt sold land, first to Jolm W. Ballinger, and then to Jacob Bugher. After this he sold most of his land and farms took the place of forests. And Upland was laid out by Jacob Bugher, September 30, 1567. ( Note-It will be seen that Mr. Bugher started his town a month after the first steam engine came into the county ). And during this year the railroad now through Upland was built from Union City to Logansport and was then called the Union City and Logansport Railroad. Dr. JJ. N. Converse was president and Alex- ander, chief engineer. But most of the engineer work was done by Dr. Weddington. This road is now a part of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway. Opland is the highest point between Union City and Logansport. Matthews is situated near the south line of Jefferson township and it includes what was New Cumberland. Upland and Matthews each have a population of about 2,000 persons.
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Among many leading men in Jefferson township in 1852 we may name Thomas Dean, Jacob Newberger, John Oswalt. Aaron D. Bates, William Wharton, Dr. John W. Pugh, Joseph B. Allen, Solomon Duling, John Richards, John Lyon Sawyer, B. Fergus and Michael Pugh. Thomas Dean came in 1851, and for several years he was a farmer, store keeper and justice of the peace during the same time. lle was township trustee one ferm, and after this county auditor. Dean's store, with the credit he gave, was a great benefit to many people. Jacob Newberger commenced in New Cumberland with a small store, but before he died he had a commercial rating of $80,000. While teaching school I was much with Newberger. He gave me the most complete history of the Jews I have ever had. His knowledge was extensive, his capacity good. He had many noble traits of character and as a friend he was good and true.
"John Oswalt was at one time the largest land owner in Grant county. When he bought this land he believed a canal would be built on this line from Fort Wayne to Indianapolis. His father was a ntem- ber of the Ohio legislature that passed the law that built the Ohjo canal, and that canal increased the value of his father's farm. John Oswalt was a candidate for the legislature of Indiana, but failed. Yet he lived to see a railroad built through the land he had sold. Oswalt was honorable, truthful and honest. He failed to marry the lady he long associated with and doubtless the lady he loved. He lived a bache lor and lived alone most of the time. Dr. John W. Pugh for many years had the largest practice of any doctor in eastern Grant county. Aaron B. Bates was a successful farmer. He was trustee of Jefferson township once. Joseph B. Allen, a farmer, was the first justice of the peace in Jefferson township. He was county commissioner in 1810. Solomon Duling was one of the most successful farmers of Grant county. He was the first Republican elected trustee in Jefferson township.
Since 1852 Jefferson township has been represented in the official affairs of Grant county by George Careins. William Wharton. George Needler and James M. Peale, each as county commissioner : John Sand ers as sheriff; John Hurshey Zahn, first as recorder, then as county clerk; Dr. Harmon D. Reasoner and William E. Deal, cach as treas urer. and Thomas Dean and Andrew Y. Stout, auditor-elect, as auditor ; William E. Heal, a native of Jefferson township, was the most noted mathematician of Grant county. Take them all in all, the pioneers of Jefferson township were a noble set. As a rule they were honest. honorable and intelligent. Many of them were men of decided ability. But to me the dearest memory of that period is the spirit of those pioneer people. It was lovely. They had fullness of life with the smile of content. The struggles and striles of older and more densely populated communities were not with them. Their condition was more natural, free from strife, and their spirit was more natural, and being natural was true. Most of this township was then in its natural condition.
"The creeks and rivers had a more uniform flow of water. The river was crossed in canoes, and at fords the water was low. The banks of the river was covered with trees, shrubbery and wild flowers, with here and there an opening where a farm bordered on the river. The woods were full of gray squirrels, with some flocks of wild turkeys. It was pleasing to see these squirrels scamper amid the foliage of the trees and see them leap From limb to limb and from tree to tree. The air was vocal with the music of birds and redolent of sweet odors of foliage. fruit and flowers. Certainly the charms of nature had Some- thing to do with the charming spirit of these pioneer people. With the
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music of the birds, we had the music of the bob white, the whippoor- will, the katydid, the foot of the owl, the coo of the dove and the drum beat and whirr of the pheasant with the croak of the Frog to add to the variety of our woodland music. Ground squirrels were monerons and by taking up corn they gave the farmer the work of replanting. But the most numerous thing living in the woods then was the mosquito, During the warm season after sunset, they were always feelingly near. But the one thing of joy never to be forgotten was that old sugar camp -that dear old sugar camp that did so much to swerten pioncer life.
"In 1851 I received from Ephraim Overman my first certificate to teach school in Grant county. My first school in Grant county was dur- ing the winter of 1851-52, in the Lyon schoolhouse on Lake Branch. This was a sample school for this part of the county at that period. It was built with round logs clapboard roof and loft, with puncheon floor, and seats and writing desks against the wall with fireplace and stick chimney at one end of the house. This house was in the woods. Here we had spelling schools and a debating society. In this debating society we had Joseph B. Allen, Daniel Dean, Thomas Dean, Dr. John W. Pugh and Jacob Bugher. And in a meeting house not far east of this we had a singing school with Jacob ('ovalt as teacher. With these and a lively school we had a real good time. From 1952 to about 1862 Robert B Jones was school examiner. After this Stafford. and then Sanford. each of whom held publie examinations. But their questions were such as teachers then used in teaching common school. About this period we had many better educated teachers, wages were increased, and Pigot gave us better examinations.
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