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 34
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Window Factory was established soon after, and the Industrial Window Glass Factory came a little later. D. L. Adams bought the Dailey saw mill about 1903 and converted it into a hoop mill. This mill is still in operation. These industries were all attracted by the cheapness of fuel following the discovery of natural gas in that territory in apparently unlimited quantities. The Fowlerton Canning Company opened a canning factory about 1904, which was later owned and operated by W. R. Bailey.
The (. I. & E. Railroad in 1897 erected a depot on the northwest corner of the Henry Simons farm, now owned by Oliver P. Buller. This bilding was in 1900 moved to the present junction of the Big Four and Pennsylvania Railroads. in Fairmount.
E. D. Fowler, Oliver P. Buller, William A. Miller, Jake Dame, Allen Virgin, M. F. Partridge and Clyde Partridge have served as post- masters. Among the first merchants who located in Fowlerton were Doe Philpott, John Carter. William Millspaugh, Isaac Key, S. D. Key, J. A. Hardesty & Co. M. F. Partridge & Co., Moses Barnhart, Elias A. Wilhelm and William Dunlap and son. J. A. Roberts was the justice of the peace, having been appointed in 1892.
July 20, 1898, B. F. Leach and others called a meeting for the purpose of talking over matters in relation to the erection of a new schoolhouse at Fowlerton. A petition was prepared, the necessary number of signatures was procured and the petition presented to Trustee Joseph Ratliff. Owing to the lateness of the year the petition was not acted upon by the trustee. The petitioners appealed to County Super- intendent Alex Thompson. The superintendent agreed with the view that the trustee had taken of the situation, and coneeded that while the necessity for the improvement might exist. the season was late and there was not sufficient time in which to ereet and equip a suitable building for school purposes before the time fixed for the beginning of the fall term. In the summer of 1899, however, the first two rooms of the pres- ent commodious brick structure were completed. Will W. Ware was selected principal of this school. The first year the building proved to be inadequate to accommodate all the children. A frame schoolhouse was moved from the north to meet the demands. In the summer of 1907 Trustee Alvin J. Wilson added two more rooms, which has since served the purpose to the satisfaction of patrons and pupils.
In 1902 so inch confusion arose over the difference in the name of the town and the name of the postoffice that steps were taken to adjust the matter in a way that would be satisfactory. Several names were suggested. A letter was addressed to the postoffice department by War- ren M. Crawford, asking for instructions that would aid them in the difficulty. It was finally agreed that the postoffice be given the name of Fowlerton, a solution of the difficulty which seemed to be satisfactory to citizens generally. And so the name Leach was dropped and since 1902 the town and the postoffice have borne the same name. Fowlerton was incorporated by authority of the board of county commissioners on the first Monday in April, 1903. George A. Fletcher, surveyor and civil engineer, was employed in February, 1903, to run the corporation lines and make a map of the territory included in the proposed town. Elias A. Wilhelm took a census of the inhabitants of the town thirty days previous to this time, the same being attested by him to be correct. The petition for incorporation was presented to the board of commis- sioners on March 2, 1903. The territory set apart for the purpose om- braced land owned by Ellis Wright, Frank H. Kirkwood and William J. Leach. Tuesday, March 17, 1903, the election was held, the date having been fixed by the commissioners. Elbert D. Fowler, Angust
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Schmidt and Palmer J. Wall were selected to have charge of the elee- tion. The result of the voting showed 123 for incorporation and 6 against it. The first election of officers for the town was held between the hours of 6 A. M. and G P. M., on May 4, 1903, in Barnhart's block. The election board consisted of Elias A. Wilhelm, inspector; William Girton and Matthew Costello, judges; Allen Virgin, clerk, and S. A. Marriott, sheriff. The result of the balloting was as follows: clerk and treasurer, James Chapman; marshal, Joseph Henisse; trustees-First ward, James P. Brown; Second ward, William Mitchener; Third ward, Elbert D. Fowler.
The Methodist Protestant church was organized in 1900. The members of this denomination who had been previous to this time attending services at Salem transferred their membership and influence to Fowler- ton, and the result is a strong church organization. Some of the mem- bers of the church are John Duling and wife, Joel Duling, Solomon Duling and wife, William Duling and wife. Reverend Met'aslan was the first pastor.
The United Brethren organized a church in 1897. The charter members were R. W. White and wife, Mrs. Lavada Malone, William A. Miller and wife, John G. Corn and wife, Oliver Buller and wife, George Fear and wife, Aaron Garrison, Mrs. Rebecca J. Corn, Frank Garrison and wife, and Lewis Hayden and wife. Rev. John Rector was the first pastor.
The Baptist church was organized in 1910. The charter members are William J. beach and wife, Clark Leach and wife, Mrs. Levi Simons, Mrs. Naomi Deeren, Mrs. Margaret Corn, Mrs. Joana Gregg, Mrs. Martha C. Hancock, John Leach and wife. Rev. Noah Ford is pastor.
The Wesleyan Methodist church was organized in 1912, with Rev. W. D. Baker, pastor. Charter members: W. L. Dickerson and wife, L. G. Richards and wife, Charles Malone and wife, George Fear and Alva Dickerson and wife.
John A. Hardesty was commissioned a notary publie by Governor Marshall in 1909.
XXXII. LIBERTY TOWNSHIP IN HISTORY
By Mrs. Nora Mart Goodykoontz
March 28, 1908, was Liberty Township day before the Historical Society, and the following article is from the historian :
The author of "The Simple Life" says: "Humanity is ungrateful to its pioneers." Another famous writer says: "It is useless to erit- ieize humanity." Let us try to believe that the men and women who first came to Liberty township and made their homes in the forest found happiness in their toil. To love one's work and to be able to do it is to tind joy. If we have been careless in regard to those who have gone before and smoothed our pathway, let us henceforth have only the kindest thought and the deepest gratitude for those who sowed where we are reaping.
Liberty township was first organized in 1839. A change was made in the boundary in 1851, and it was in June, 1855, that another change was made, giving the township its present limits. It includes all of township 23 north, range 7 east, and one tier of sections off of township 22 north, range 7 east. The soil is mostly black loam and productive. It originally consisted of a level, rich plain covered with a heavy forest
Vat 1-15
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of most kinds of timber. There were poplar, walnut, oak, ash, beech, hard and soft maple trees in great numbers.
This township was the great hunting ground of this part of the country and there were regular camps where hunters slept and dreamed perhaps of home and friends or future glory. They would doubtless have counted it a wild, wild dream if they had caught a glimpse of the landscape as it is today. When white men first came here there were bears, panthers, wolves, deer, a few gray foxes, porenpines, skunks, wild cats, ground hogs (woodchucks), otters, squirrels (black, gray and ground squirrels), opossums, weasels, hawks, owls, thousands of wild pigeons, many wild ducks and turkey. There was also plenty of lish in the larger streams. In those early days it was a common sight to see a bear skin stretched at the end of a settler's cabin. Wolves made the forest hideous with their howling.
The early settlers usually selected a high spot of ground on which to build their homes and the poorer lands were settled first. After the lower lands were cleared and drained they were found to be most productive. A prairie at one time existed in the northeastern part of the township; it extended from near the center line of section 13 to near the center line of section 12. This was mowed for hay before meadows were started. This ground was swamp and was usually a big pond in the spring of the year. Drainage changed it to first-class farm land. It was near this prairie that the first white man's home was made in the township. In 1833 Uriah Moorman settled in section 12 on the farm now owned and occupied by Hude Dyson. He came from Center township, but originally from North Carolina. His son settled near him the next year. William Howell came in 1834 and settled on the banks of Deer creek in section 11. This farm was afterward owned by David M. V. Whitson and it was here that "Rolinda" spent the greater part of his boyhood. The next farm east was owned by Richard and Mary day at the time the Whitson family resided in the township and it is still in possession of two of their sous. James Hall and Charles O. Fry also came in 1834. The next year Lindsey Baldwin settled on land now owned by Barclay Johnson, Isaac Meek and Joseph Small settled near each other in 1837. James Scott came from Wayne county the same year. These three men were great hunters. They killed many wolves, deer and coon and sometimes shot a bear. Isaac Meek was a great preacher in the Wesleyan church and several of the older people remember the interest shown in his meetings by the lathers and mothers who came under his influence. Harrison Powell came from London, England, about 1838 and settled on the farm now owned by his dangh- ter, Mrs. Naney Harvey. It was an unbroken forest and tradition has it that at that date one could travel twenty-five miles to the west before reaching the next settler's cabin. In 1838 Heury Winslow settled ou the farm where Abram Goodykoontz located twenty years later. William Harrold came in 1839. Others who came in the thirties and entered land were John and Tra Haisely, Mahlon Neal, Eli Overman, Ezra Bishop, Job Jackson, Lindsey Buller, JJames Lytle, Harvey Davis, Dempsey Bailey, James Felton, Samuel Marshall, James Wright, Lewis and Jon- athan Jones, Franeis Lytle, John Ham, Spencer Reeder, Joseph Morgan, Zadok Tomlinson, Richard Perry, Nathan Jones, Mahlon Neal, Jr., and Zere Hunt. In the forties, Dr. Prior Rigdon, William P. Thrasher, Jacob Parrish, William Said and George Smith entered land in the southern part of township 22. Others who entered land about the same time were R. T. Wells, William Wilson, Jabez Reeves, John Thalls, Iredell Rush, Edward Leavell and Richard Turner. In 1848 George Davis came and located in the northern part of the township. Soon after locating he
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was lost quite near his home. The trees and underbrush were so thick that he could not find his cabin. He shouted and his wife answered the call, and he found that he was within a stone's throw of the little haven he called home.
Others who eame about the same time were Benjamin Dickey, James Titus, William Harvey, Jolm Barrett, David J. Hutchins, R. J. Gauntt, J. O. Ilartley and Jeremiah Howell. It was also in the forties that a number of colored people came here from North Carolina. Among those who came were John, James and Byrd Weaver, Absalom Hill, Jackey Burden, Benjamin Skipworth, John Stokes and David W. Wil- son. The latter had been a slave, but obtained his freedom, and they all journeyed hither as to the promised land. They settled in the northern part of the township and quite a number of colored people still own homes and farms in that neighborhood. There were many white settlers who came in the fifties. Dr. Isaac Carey located cast of Oakridge in 1850, where he practiced medicine about eighteen years. John Harrold and his wife settled on the farm where they still live in 1852. The land was swampy and covered with a rank growth of weeds. Their erop the first year was one aere of corn which was "tended" with a hoe. The second year the crop of corn was increased to three and one- half acres, and this was shared with two neighbors and used for bread. Tristam Conner and several others settled in the township in 1850. Among those who came from Clinton county, Ohio, in the fifties were Lewis Hockett, Riley Howell, D. W. Bowman, I. W. Carter and three brothers-Samuel, Andrew and Joseph A. Mart. Joseph Kirk came From that county in 1852. He and his family came in a wagon and were eight days on the road. They reached the farm just west of Harrison Powell's in April of that year. Mr. Kirk had bought sixty acres of land there the year before for $262.50. It was all in fimber. Soon after coming they ordered a cook stove. Thomas day of Jonesboro ordered two others at the same time. He kept one for himself and one went to Fairmount township. Mrs. Kirk's stove came July 4, and it was the first cook stove in that neighborhood, and the first one some of her neighbors had ever seen. At that time the Marion and Strawtown road had been surveyed and the trees deadened, but they were not cut down and one could ouly travel over the road on horseback. Deer were gel- ing scarce, but wolves still prowled around. There was plenty of game in the woods For food. The orchards that the carly settlers in the cast- ern part of the township had set out were beginning to bear Fruit. Settler's cabins were slowly dotting the western part of the townshp.
The first thing for a settler to do was to build a cabin. This was built of round logs undressed, with chunks in the cracks and daubed with mud. There was a puncheon floor, hewn with broad ax and split from hickory or cho, usually ; the roof was of clapboard. The chimney was made with punchcons at the bottom, the upper part of sticks and clay, with pounded dirt jams and packed mud hearth. It had one room, one door and one window. The door was made of thin split or hewn puncheons, with wooden hinges and latch. A string attached to the latch went through a hole in the door and hung outside, by which the latch was raised to enter. There was very little furniture. Sometimes a homemade bedstead answered the purpose until a cord bedstead could be purchased. The thrifty settlers brought feather beds and as soon as possible commenced raising dueks and geese and making feather beds for all the children. Trundle beds were commonly used -- that sort of a bed saved floor space in the daytime as it could be pushed out of the way under a large bed. There were no stoves as cooking was done by the fireplace, and there were few cooking utensils-a "Dutch oven,"
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skillet and pot or kettle. Gourds were used as dippers and For various other purposes. Sometimes there would be only half a set of dishes in the enpboard. There would be a table, a few chairs-and floors were bare.
After building his cabin the carly settler would build a log stable for his stork and a pen in which to fasten his sheep and pigs at night to keep the wolves from feasting on them. Clearing a patch of ground came next in order. This was done by entting down the trees and burning all of the logs thai he did not need for rails or for wood. Many trees that would afterward have been of great value were burned in this manner. After clearing there were many stumps and roots left, and the ground was plowed with a jumping shovel, with a thick, short beam. The corn was "dropped" by hand and covered with a hoe and much of the cultivation was done with a hoe. The squirrels were so mimerous that for many years it was a common thing for the farmer to scatter corn all around the field every morning to keep the squirrels from tak- ing up what had been planted. But little wheat was raised. It was sowed broadcast by hand and harvested with a reap hook. If there were not too many stumps a cradle was used. The wheat was threshed with a flail and sometimes tramped out by horses if one had a good stable floor. The grain was ground at Joneshoro. bater on when there was wheat grown for the market, it was taken to Wabash in the fall of the year, while the roads were still good. The farmer started early in the morning with a basket of provision, the load of wheat and per- haps one of the boys. Ile sold his wheat, bought the necessaries of life that he needed most, camped out over night and drove home the next day.
Grass was out with a seythe and sometimes a forked stick from the woods was used in place of the rake and fork of a later period.
The cows and sheep had bells put on them and were turned out in the unfenced forest. They usually came home at night, but if they failed to come one could find them by following the sound of the bells. The winding path through the woods, the scent of the pemmy- royal and the clang of the cowbells are never-to-be-forgotten mem- ories. Men frequently exchanged work in those days in harvesting and when extra help was needed $8.33 a month was the usual price for a hired hand. Fifty cents a day was counted a fair price for chopping wood. Hired girls were paid fifty cents a week. The supply of water for household purposes was sometimes carried from a stream of water or open ditch until a well could be dug. Then a bucket, which soon became moss covered, was fastened to a sweep and hung at the well. The pioneer as a usual thing had plenty of food. There was wild game in the forest, corn to be made into hominy or ground and used For mush and bread. Corn pone was an excellent bread in those days, and sorghunt molasses was freely used on the table, as well as to sweeten pumpkin pies and gingerbread. Pie was a luxury as one could bake but one at a time in a "Dutch oven." There were many wild bees in the township, and the hollow tree where the honey was stored was often robbed and honey was added to the bill of fare. Maple molasses and sugar were sometimes made in large quantities. Later on, when more cows were kept, the good women of those days added to their burdens by making cheese.
Hospitality and sociability reached highest ebb in those days. There were log rollings, wood choppings, corn huskings, house and barn raisings, wool piekings, quiltings and in due course of time there were apple cuttings and "carpet rag tackings." On these occasions good dinners or suppers were served. Neighbors helped one another
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freely in sickness and misfortune, and when there was a death kind neighbors dug the grave and sometimes made the plain, unlined eof- fin, which was wrapped in a sheet and carried to the last resting place in a big road wagon.
The women clothed their household in homespun and homemade garments. The wool was washed and picked at home and taken to the woolen mulls and carded and spun, if the spinning could not be done at home. Part was colored and woven into blankets, some into flannel or linsey, and some into jeans for the men and boys. Some was twisted into yarn for stockings and mittens. Blue dye yeast was saved in a jug from one year to the next in order to start a new dye for coloring with indigo. If green was the desired color, the blue yarn was dipped in a dye made of goldenrods. Walnut hulls were used to color brown. The women eut and made all the garments for the family by hand, knit. all the stockings and mittens, made lye soap for family use, often worked in the field and clearing and then had time to visit and care For the sick and afflicted. The amount of money that many a farmer's wife now receives for her weekly "marketing" would have seemed like a small fortune to those dear pioneer women, as they sometimes carried a few dozen eggs to Marion on horseback and sold them for two cents a dozen. The stork came often to those cabins in the clearing and left a small mite of humanity which was clothed in pink calico and rocked in a rude cradle. Nearly everyone went barefoot through warm weather, except on Sundays, and sometimes the children and a few men attended church in that manner. Leather boots and shoes were made to order. It was a great day in the small boy's life when he was the proud owner of his first pair of red-topped, copper-toed boots. Overshoes were un- known. Boots and shoes were washed and greased on Saturday evenings, ready for a shining appearance on Sunday. Winter evenings were spent around the open fireplace; perhaps there were neighbors who came to stay until bedtime or over night. The women were busy with their knitting or sewing; the men and boys cracked nuts or popped corn; or perhaps the whole family went to a spelling school, or a religious meeting, which was announced to begin at "early randle-lighting." On summer evenings there was a fire built outdoors to smoke away the mos- quitoes, around which the family gathered and rested from their labors.
Newspapers and books were scarce. By an act of the legislature township libraries were established and the books were distributed about 1856. Liberty township received sixteen classes, containing one hundred and five volumes. Additions were afterward made to this appor- tiomment. These books were placed in the care of the trustee, who loaned them to the people. They were eagerly read by those who were hungry for knowledge, but times have changed and these books were long ago laid away.
The early pioneers knew the full and bitter meaning of ague. Their children have a lasting remembrance of the taste of quinine and bone set tea.
There was much low, swampy land that required years of toil before it was drained. The largest stream is Deer creek. It enters the town- ship from Madison county, and has a northerly and northeasterly course and leaves the township a short distance east of the hall-mile corner on the north side of seetion 1, township 23. This stream has but a moderate fall in its upper portion, but is much more rapid in flow as it reaches the north boundary of the township; so much fall that in about 1842 Sullivan Vinson, a millwright, erected a sawmill just above the point where the creek ents the north line of the township. near the present residence of Arthur Jay. It soon fell into the hands of John
1
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Allen and was known as Allen's mill-but only a few older people remember it. Bell ereck drains the northern portion of the township. It has a general northeasterly direction and flows into Deer creek after it leaves this township. The southwestern part of the township is drained by Middle Fork, a branch of Wild Cat. Grassy Fork drains a portion of the western part of the township. It has its source in the "cottonwood ocean," and passes into Green township. These streams form a good outlet for smaller streams and ditches that drain into them. As a result of better drainage there is better health, more abundant harvests and better roads. In early days corduroy bridging was neres- sary to make travel possible at certain seasons of the year.
The Marion and Liberty Gravel Road Company was organized in 1869 and the construction of a gravel road was at once commenerd over the "Strawtown" road, leading from Marion to Center schoolhouse in Liberty township, a distance of nine and one-half miles. This was a toll road until 1887, when it was bought by the county. The work of graveling the roads gradually went on until nearly all of the main trav- eled roads are graveled. As there is very little gravel in our township a good gravel road is more expensive for us than it is for some other townships.
A sawmill was erected near Oakridge in 1852 by James Cammack and a little later one was erected at Little Ridge.
In the early settlement of the township the young people were willing to begin home-building with a very small amount of worldly goods. The contracting parties to the first marriage in the township were Lidl- sey Buller and Mary Lytle, whose wedding oreurred April 17, 1837. James Lytle and Easter Buller, the twenty-fifth of the same month and the same year, also took the solemn marriage vows. Newton Lytle was the first person born in the township. Milton, infant son of James Scott. was the first death in the township. He died in 1838. A daughter of Britton Wall was the first burial at Oakridge. So far as could be learned the oldest person now living in the township who was born here is Mrs. Jane Carey, the daughter of John and Ann Haisky. She was born in 1839. James Scott and Spencer Reader were among the first justices.
The first school was in Oakridge neighborhood and it is claimed that John Peacock was the first teacher. The first schoolhouses were of log and the first one built was in section 1, township 23, on the southwest corner of the farm now owned by Clarence Neal. The first schoolhouse at Center was a log one, and was built by Garretson Johnson. Ile con- tracted to do all the work and furnish everything except lights for the windows for the sum of $50. It was considered a very high price and the taxpayers made a protest against it. In those days the three r's and spelling were about the only things taught, and the chiklren traced their names with goose-quill pens. George Brown, Jeremiah Hamell. John Smithson and William Neal were among the carly teachers of the township. In due course of time frame schoolhouses took the place of log ones, and they in turn have given place to brick. But one Frame building is now in use-the one at Radley, which was moved from Linwood last year. Our township has had fourteen school districts and as many schoolhonses. School No. 1 is known as Bethel. No. 2 is at Weaver and a new house was built there last year at a cost of $2,900. It is for the colored children of that district, and the children from No. 3, which was also a colored school, are now brought to the Weaver school in a township wagon. The school eurollment at this place is fifty-three. No. 4 is known as Elma or Prine's school. No. 5 was known as the Howell school. It has been abandoned and the build-
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