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 38
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A magnificent hotel was built and elegantly furnished and named the "York Inn." The Queen City traction line connected this hostelry with the city, giving thirty-minute service. The Diamond Cracker Fare- tory -- that never nride a single cracker-was built and was really a very fine brick structure that covered an entire city lot. The Westerman Rolling Mill, the Borts Steel Mill. the Smelter Works and Malleable Iron Works were all located in sertions 11 and 12, and were operated a few years, and all, save the Malleable Iron Works, were finally shut down, and later dismantled and moved away. The York Inn shared the same fate, the eracker factory burned and the Queen City line was abandoned as unprofitable. The Malleable Iron Works was the best manufacturing concern located in the gas belt. It had run steadily nearly all the time since it was first started, and very recently expended $20,000 in betterments. It has been the salvation of " Buektown." Bui Imust hasten.
A few, only a few, are here with ns who bore the heat and burden of the day, and know of these things of which I have tried to write. Some of them are Unele John Shields, Samuel Burrier, Sidney Harvey, Sammel Small, John Ratliff. William Cook. Newton Parks, Clarkson Willents, B. C. Harris and Henry M. Shugart. They came. they conquered. not armies, like Alexander the Great, whose path was strewn with death and desolation. Their work was laying the foundation for a great indus-
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trial structure, and to this end they devoted a life of toil and priva- tions, and for this the present generation rises up and does them honor.
If this country was in 1909 as it was in 1850, history would not repeat itself. This generation would not be able to cope with the conditions that the pioneer found here fifty years ago. There will be other Har- rimans, Hills, Vanderbilts, Morgans and Belmonts, but never a Daniel Boone, a Davy Crockett or a Lewis and Clark. These pioneers have accomplished things that could not have been done by any other class of people. They met conditions that would canse the great financiers of today to throw up their hands in despair.
The real living, breathing history of a country is of her people, their lives and deeds. We have seen the conquest where forests have melted into fields and farms ont of the "old house into the new;" it is in evidence everywhere. The country is traced with steam and electric roads, the telephone connects us all as one family, and the evidence of prosperity is seen on every hand, and why ?
Because of the real history that will never be written. It has been the work of tired, worn hands of the pioneer and his brave wife, long since folded in the eternal rest, that awaits us all.
As I have said, the real history of any part of our commonwealth is the achievements of her people. If this were not true Franklin town- ship would not be on the map, with all of her tine farms, and factories, and schools, and churches, her splendid system of highways and her electric and steam roads, and a valuation in 1909 of near two million dollars. My friends, in leaving this erude effort for your considera- tion, I have for all of whom we have written this one sentiment. It is: "Cheers for the living and tears for the dead."
XXXV. MILL TOWNSHIP IN HISTORY
By Rolland Lewis Whitson
When Monroe was to be considered before the historical society, the historian of that township suggested that if the meeting were held at Oak Chapel there would be a large attendance, and the experiment was tried in Mill, the Jonesboro Presbyterian church being the place of meeting-Mill township day occurring April 12, 1910, and besides the people of the town there were many present from other localities. At no meeting held in Library ball had there been better interest manifest, and the experiment was a success. Mrs. Bess Peirce Oatess and Mrs. Harry Lazure sang "Ben Bolt," and the comment from the chairman, E. L. Goldthait, was that the grayest-haired man present had heard the song when he was a boy, and had enjoyed hearing it again.
The historical sketch of Mill was written by the secretary of the Grant County Historical Society and is as follows:
History is well defined as the record of transactions between different people at different periods of time, and some one has said that not to know what happened before one was born is to remain always a child. The roots of the present, it is said by another, lie deep in the past and the past is not dead to him who would know how the present comes to be what it is, and all of us have been interested in the firelight stories when told by those of preceding generations-stories heard at mother's knee-traditions handed down from father to son, and time was when "word of month" had greater significance than at present. The Grant County Historical Society would perpetuate the lore of each township,
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and it is delving into the great past in an effort to unravel the tangled thread of all the yesterdays. Fairy stories have their place in family life, and some of the traditions handed down from one generation to another seem like a story that is told even though every word is fart, and the young people about the firesides nowadays -- firesides and steam heat. what are the coming generations to do in the way of pleasant recollections ?
The young people in the homes of today have little conception of the primitive conditions, family lore and local history, and we owe it to them, in this mad onward rush, to anchor them for a while in memory's doorway, where they may listen to the footfall of the ages. Bulwer Lytton said : "There is no past so long as we have books," and in the
A TYPICAL NINETEENTH CENTURY WOMAN
pages of history this society would render it possible to live it all over again, make it our present and that is the mission of the true township historian- the preservation of many things of interest to the future citizen. To be in fullest sympathy with the history of a township or any given locality, one must needs be a citizen and in touch with com- munity interests. The writer of this Mill township lore first saw the Indiana skies from the town of Jonesboro, and no one born there ever removes far enough away to forget his nativity. While his parents were not born in Indiana, they sought early in life to better their condi- tions, and their childhood was passed along the Mississinewa, the pater- nal grandparents having come to Grant county in 1844 and to Jones- boro in 1847, and the maternal ancestry had been in the Grant county wilderness several years ahead of them, there being specific information extant to the effect that David Jay bought land at the Fort Wayne land offire in 1835, and there are 1,837 tax receipts in existence. No one
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seems to have more definite information, the days having come from Miami and the Whiisons from Clinton county, Ohio.
When those ancestral families came to Jonesboro and vicinity, Grant county was in its infancy, a heavily timbered country in contradistine- tion to its present day civilization, and wrapped up in its forests and streams were the possibilities that have made its splendid present a matter of history. To show the present historian's lineal eligibility, statement is made that David day and John Whitson raised their families there, and both had their part in converting the wilderness into a lit abiding place for the present day descendants of the pioneers. In the early history of Grant county, and history in Mill is contemporary with the earliest history within the county's borders, both grandsires frequently hauled merchandise from Richmond and Cincinnati, both having brought their families by wagon into the jurisdiction of the frontier county. Both had their part in constructing the mill dam across the Mississinewa that made the flonring mills of the past a pos- sibility in Jonesboro, and which caused such a beautiful expanse of back water for two miles up the stream to the famous Rock Dam, once such an important enterprise. And not many years ago the writer heard this story anew from the lips of the late D. B. Shideler, who claims the distinction of having wrought out the iron work used in its construction. These two men also delivered the timber under special contract for the old river bridge that was destroyed by fire only a few years ago.
What one remembers is fart to him, but older citizens say the first bridge across the Mississinowa at Jonesboro was without a cover - had old-fashioned stringers across, and there were huge water breakers and one who had witnessed the ice break up in the spring will understand the need of them. The second bridge was on the site of the first one. and when the new bridge was built. a little below, the old masonry- abutments and middle pier, were utilized by the I. U. T. Company as a support for cars crossing the river. Speaking of the original bridge. J. M. Barnard, who was a boy in Jonesboro, recalls that there were no houses down that way then, and all boys went swimming, diving from this wooden span into the water. One time he and Andrew Morrow thought they had found a rendezvous of mice under the sleepers, and while he punched them out Morrow was to imprison them in his bat. when instead of mice it proved to be bats-and young Morrow got lice in his hat, and it required red precipitate to rid him of them. When the Tenth street bridge was built the river road. always a sort of Lover's Lane for Jonesboro young folks, went back to farm land, much to the regret of all who had pleasant memories there, and high water times in Jonesboro will never be forgotten.
The town was high and dry, but some of the people loved the water. Wilson Carter-Bridge Carter, so many used to call him because for years his home was at the present site of the C. & O. station, used to go over the mill dam in a canoe-an adventure almost equal to going over Niagara, and in another article the story of the sorrow the river brought to him will be related. A few years ago W. E. Seott, a cor- respondent of the Marion Chronicle, published a story under the caption : "Many mills in township gave name to that part of area of Grant county," and since much of his data was obtained from Wilson Carter, it is used again :
There are thirteen townships in Grant county, one of which is Mill, but it is very doubtful if there are many persons among the younger generations who know much about its early history or how it came to be named Mill. Among the older men and women who have lived in
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the county forty or fifty years or longer, are many who remember well how the township got its name. Even among these older people there are but few who remember the first town in the township or what it was called.
Mill township obtained its name at an early date from the many grist mills within its borders. The raising of the building which housed the third mill ever known in Mill township has given rise to much talk about the early history of Jonesboro and Mill township. There are still a few characters who will remember the days before Jonesboro was known by that name, and when the country was yet a wilderness broken only here and there by small clearings which the pioneers had made.
The frame building now being torn down on the south side of Back creek in the north end of Jonesboro, and only a few feet west of the Indiana Union Traction line, is the building which housed the third mill in the township. It was known as the "Red Mill."
The Red Mill was built in 1848-49 by Ruben Small, one of the earliest
ALONG THE RIVER ROAD AT JONESBORO
settlers of Grant county. It was operated until 1883, when the machin- ery was taken out and brought to Marion and installed in a woolen mill that was ereeted on Boots creek on the north side of West Second street, by Robert Mckinney. This was long before Second street was even thought of and only a small Jane led up to the mill for years after it was built.
When the machinery was taken ont of the Red Mill the building was sold to Elilm Pemberton, who converted it into a dwelling, and it has been used for such until a short time ago. At the death of Mr. Pem- Berton the building was sold to Charles Terrell, county superintendent of schools, who is having it torn down.
It is the oldest mill building in the township and with its passing the township loses one of the landmarks of its earliest days. There is still a part of the ruins of several mills to be found in the township which were erected during the 'forties.
The first mill in the township was built in 1840, by a man named Horseman, on Horseman creek, a brauch that emptied into Back creek.
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This mill was but a few yards away from the mill that is now being torn away. A portion of the ruins of the building is still standing, and when early residents return to Jonesboro for one more look at the place they once knew so well, they are told that a part of the ohl Horseman mill remains and none fail to pay the site a visit. There are but a few timber left now and a few more years will see the old landmark entirely gone.
The second grist mill was built in the same year on the north side of Back ereck and about a hundred yards west of the present mill build- ing. It was erected by Obediah Jones and Ruben Small. It was this lones that later built the Red Mill.
The fourth mill was put up by Enoch Small about 1849. It was built on the Mississinewa river and was the first river mill in the township. It was soon sold to Timothy Kelley. The dam which had been built across the river was improved. The dam was raised and the water was raised two feet on the land of Jolm Pemberton, about a mile and a half up the stream. Just above his place a stone dam had been constructed, which operated the Pemberton mill.
Pemberton sued Kelley and got a judgment of $2,000. The matter was finally settled by Kelley buying the Pemberton mill in 1853-4.
The first and second dams on the Mississinewa river in the township were what were known as Brush, Dams. The second brush dam was built for Kelley.
The man who built the first frame dam across the stream is still living. Ile is Wilson Carter of Jonesboro. Mr. Carter and John Cray secured the contract for building the dam, a part of which is still in the river. The dam was erected for a man named Silvester Fankbouer, who bought the river mill. Twenty-eight thousand feet of hewed timber was used in constructing the dam. Mr. Carter is seventy-six years of age at this time, but at that time he was a very strong young man and placed practically all the timbers that were used in constructing the dam.
The apron of the old dam is still standing and is a favorite haunt for fishermen and bathers. The timber used was taken from three farms. Eighty acres of timber were ent from the Skillman farm, while a part was taken from the John Russell and the Winters farms.
Silvester Fankboner sold the mill to JJack Howell in a few years soon after which it burned.
About the year 1860 a woolen mill was established on Back creek a short distance south of what is now Third street. JJonesboro, by Pierce and Coats. This burned later. John Pemberton then put up a mill just north of Sixth street, Jonesboro, on the creek.
bank Baldwin, whose sudden death occurred in this city today, helped to put up a sawmill in connection with the Pemberton woolen mill. Nearly all the early mills had a sawmill in connection. Baldwin had assisted in putting up a number of these and when the Pemberton mill was established, was given the task of building and equipping the sawmill.
The Pemberton mills only ran a few years, when they were destroyed by fire. It has always been thought by many that the mills were burned for the insurance. There was supposed to be a large stock of wool in the building at the time it burned.
Where Fifth street strikes the ereck at Jonesboro, a man by the name of Whiteneck put up a tannery early in the sixties. About twenty years before, or early in the forties, a tannery was established at the old stone dam. The cholera plague of 1849 killed the entire family which was in charge of the mill and the members are buried there. There were seven members of the Renner family and seven graves can be found
.
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on the bluff near the old rock dam. The graves have long been neglected and the markers are gone from several, but the place is well remem- bered by the older residents. There was seareely anything done with the mill after the death of the Renners and it was allowed to stand idle and go to ruin.
Another mill was established just north of Back creek near the road leading to Marion carly in the fifties by Enoch Small. This was about the same time a town was laid out just north of the creek, which was known for many years as "Independence."
Bob Griffin built a saw and grist mill on Walnut creek, north of what is now Gas City, at an early date. The mill was located near where the bridge leading to the county infirmary crosses Walnut creek. A few years later a mill was put in one of Harris' sheds in Harrisburg, now Gas City. A. Hadley, from Indianapolis, had Wilson Carter put in the machinery and started the mill. bater John Wise had a mill on the Gas City side of the river. This burned.
At one time there were fifteen mills in operation in the township, but today there is but one. Niel & Van Valer operate a mill at Sixth street and the Big Four Railroad. This site is what is known as the old school- house grounds and many of the older residents of JJonesboro attended school there at an early date.
Jonesboro was formerly known as Darlington. The town was first started by a man named McCormick. Soon after the county was first settled MeCormick established a small general store and a blacksmith shop in the extreme south part of Jonesboro. The place took the name of Darlington and was called that for a number of years. Later a man by the name of Jones secured a large trart of land and laid ont a town. It was named Jonesboro after him and Darlington was soon a part of the town.
While some of the foregoing was news to the historian of Mill, his ancestry knew Jonesboro in its village days, and they left their mark in the community, although the lineal descent of either is much smaller than it was a score of years ago. While they lived Jonesboro was their world center, and the paternal grandmother was the last of that quartet of noble ancestry. What an enduring interest she had in everything pertaining to Jonesboro and contributing territory.
In keeping track of local developments how often the historian of Mill has thought of Mrs. Sallie Kimbrough Whitson -- born the year Lincoln was born, the year so many prominent men came into the world, and wished she might have been spared with her storehouse of rich knowledge, that she might have lived on and on and enjoyed things of so much interest to her, and perhaps others whose ancestors had part in this glorious transformation are possessed of kindred feeling. There must have been as much "ginger" in the early citizenry of Mill as in any other locality, and the fireside stories heard in a happy childhood were of bravery and courage. When the call was issued for volunteer soldiers at the beginning of the Civil war, there was response from almost every hearthstone, there being four Whitson and three Jay boys doning the blue uniform and marching away, two of the Iay boys lay- ing down their lives in the southland. All kinds of people make up the world, and perhaps there were as many war time stories told in Jonesboro as anywhere in the county. This grandmother who lingered longest always had a fund of war reminiscences. She had sent her sons to the front in the days when history was being made, and those war time stories were always near her heart. Other Mill township families had the same experience although a complete list of soldiers from there was not available. Patriotism and love of country is always engendered Vol. 1-17
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under such circumstances, and such firesides are a blessed memory. Her mind was always a treasure bonse for all family traditions, and she knew her country's history. Born at Beard's Hatter shop, Dobson's Crossroads, North Carolina, she always said Carolinians were as good as any except Hoosiers, and since she went away I think I have longed for her with kindred feeling to others whose parents were spared to rear them. When she was only a child she was brought from North Carolina to Ohio, and she always had stories on her tongue of incidents in her early life.
As in other communities the oraeles of the past in Mill who knew and helped to make the early history, have nearly all "been gathered to their fathers," and second hand information alone is available. The sons and the daughters of the pioneers are few of them able to relate family traditions, and the study of genealogy needs to be prosecuted in every Family. While a human herd book may be an impossibility, every child has a right to know its line of descent. Here and there in every commmmity are a few examples of "The Last Rose of Summer," their "Lovely companions" having faded and disappeared from the scenes of their earthly activities-men and women who have ontlived their "day and generation," scattered remnants of once well known families, and family names once so well represented are wiped out of the book of remembrance in the community. While there are JJays and Whit- sons in Jonesboro today, "remuant" is the descriptive term. and the same is true of so many pioneer Mill township families. Other once prominent families have run their course, and like the Arabs, the "rem- nant" even has "folded its teut" and quietly stolen away, and ask of the winds-where, oh, where are they, in recalling some families once "too big to ever have a cent left until the next pay, " and so many chil- dren sleeping in one room that it was hard to find their clothes the next morning. Echo answers, where, oh, where are some of the friends who used to live in Mill when the tavern bell rang out on the peaceful morning air in Jonesboro, and the church bell called the whole popula- tion to Sunday morning worship.
This grandmother loved all those sounds, and yet she did not live so much in the past as many who are growing old today. She read the newspapers and was in touch with progress, and her voice comes back today in commendation of this work of the Grant County Historical Society. While she did not have many educational advantages, when she carried a basket of eggs to the store she knew what was coming to her in any transaction, and yet she never set down a figure in all her life. She had sons in the different political parties, and always professed that she had no polities until something was said about the one who was a Democrat and now the last representative of the family, and she was always on the defensive-had politics of no uncertain character. She used to tell about the families who were in Jonesboro when she came, and representatives of some of them are still living there. She knew the Hiatts and Obadiah Jones, and in collecting data for an historical paper now what a privilege it would be to talk with her again. The land along the Mississinewa was settled first, and when William liatt located in Mill in 1826 there were only half a dozen other families in Grant county, his nearest neighbor being the Bransons, whose home site and burial place is marked by the Branson monument along the river bank in Marion, while this original Hiatt homestead in Mill is now in the Hiatt family north of Jonesboro. When William Hiatt came he was accompanied by David Hliatt, his oldest son who was then a married man and who went back to Wayne county for the winter, leav- ing him alone in his cabin for two or three months in cold weather.
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lle would visit the few families farther down the river, and it must have been a winter of discontent, although the pioneers did not care for hard- ships.
The other sons and daughters in the family of this pioneer settler were Mrs. Hannah MeCormick, Mrs. Rebekah Winslow, Mrs. Lydia Roberts-Day, Mrs. Nancy Davis, Joseph, Aaron, Elam and Jesse Hiatt, and descendants of some of them have given the within information. David Iliatt, who was the senior son, and who first braved the wilder- ness with his father in 1826, is survived by four children, David Wilson Hiatt, who passed his four score milestone in November, being the oldest, and being a half brother to Calvin W. Hiatt, Levi Hiatt and Mrs. Levina Hockett-twin brother and sister, and both well known to Jones- boro of a score of years ago. There were three sets of children in David Hiatt's family, and their childhood home is now the Jay farm, while the original Hiatt farm next north of it is owned by Daniel, a son of Elam ITiatt. David Hiatt sat on the first grand jury ever assembled in the county, and he was contemporary with Martin Boots and David Branson, the men who donated the site of the county seat in opposition to the effort of the Iliatts and others to locate it more centrally in the county. This original Iliatt farm was once considered as the proper place for the temple of justice, and later there was an effort to locate the county seat in the town of Jonesboro. Marion was only an infant town when Jonesboro came on the scene, and for years it was a rival for the seat of goverment. Grant county was organized in 1831, and five years later Jonesboro was sharing honors with the trading post farther down the river.
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