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 72
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Martin Boots, son of William and grandson of the original Martin Boots, who was born the year the first landowner died, relates that when he was but a child he sat on one leg and Cyrus Borock on the other and watched Shapendocia, a brother to Meshingomesia, crack wal- nuts in his teeth. The Indian would crack walnuts and big bull nuit hickory nuts with seemingly no effort, and the two little boys envied him his great strength. Shapendocia was strong and had jaws like a mastodon, and all through life Mr. Boots has remembered the incident. lle remembers the early talk of the Indians about the Battle of the Mississinewa, and the stalwart redskins used to use the trees for breast- works. A buck who was fighting in ambush from across the Missis- sinewa got a bullet lodged in his gun, and in an unguarded moment exposed his body from behind a tree and our of Colonel John B. Camp- bell's sharpshooters picked him off. Born thirty years after the battle, Mr. Boots knew many settlers who related stories handed down about it.
Speaking of his grandfather, Martin Boots of 1913 said that his time
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of life had been from 1777 to 1842, when the mantle fell on him-at least the name was passed along when the senior Martin Boots had no further use for it, and from the year of his death there has still been a Martin Boots. When his father, William Boots, was a boy he had followed after the senior Martin Boots, who was accompanied by a stranger inclined to land speculation, and when they went over the "forty foot pitch, " now known as the Wabash pike hill, the boy noticed something drop from the stranger's saddle bags. On picking it up he discovered that it was a wallet containing money, and he hurried along and gave it to his father. Mr. Boots unhesitatingly handed the wallet to the stranger as they rode along, and they learned that the boy had found a land speculator's purse containing $8,000. So delighted was he with the boy's honesty in restoring it that he took out a crisp $100 note and offered it to him, and when Mr. Boots would not allow that he offered the boy a live dollar note, but Martin Boots was actuated by a high moral purpose and would not allow his son to accept a reward for doing right. People who see the saddle bags once the property of John Dunn and of Joseph Bradford now in the Octogenarian museum all have stories to tell of the land buyers who came into the new coun- try with money in one end balanced by other belongings in the other end of the saddle' bags. Then they tell about the settlers who placed corn in one end of a bag and a stone in the other end to balance it, when going to the corn crackers scattered about the country in an early day. It is said that Martin Boots himself had a corn cracker near the mouth of Boots creek.
The settlers all had stories to tell of the bee trees that were once so numerous in the Grant county forests, and wild honey was a luxury found in many larders before apiaries were the correct form of bre culture in the country. At the home of Miss Margaret Boller (the William Boller homestead) in VanBaren, a swarm of bees settled above the front door in the summer of 1910, finding a small opening in the weather boarding and visitors to the homestead always noticed the number of bees giving them a welcome. lo three successive seasons these bees have been robbed of fifty pounds of choice honey, and while they swarmed four times in the summer of 1912, there is still a strong colony at work there. The family cut a hole through the plastering in an upper chamber, and it is only necessary to blow in a little smoke and the pane of glass covering it is easily removed, although the bees always seat it tightly again before beginning to fill the space with honey. They submit to the robbing process gracefully enough, and do not abandon their hive-the thing the owner would like-and every year a great many passersby stop to inspect the human bee hive, saying there are no longer any bee trees in the woods for them to see, and they enjoy harking back to old times in Grant county.
There are men and women still living who remember the riot that occurred one night in Jonesboro when a party of southern sympathizers were passing through town after attending a demonstration in Marion in war times. There were some Jonesboro soldiers home on furloughs, and they would brook no offense from those not in sympathy with Lin- coln and the war. It was a night of terror, women and children afraid to "'stiek their heads out of doors," and mothers anxious about their sons who were on the street that night. Whiskey was at the bottom of the trouble. and the Jonesboro soldiers would brook no insult to the flag or the country. One well known citizen carried a wound while he lived, and others narrowly escaped injury. The rebel sympathizers met a warm reception, and the Battle of Joneshoro was as real to some of the citizens as the Battle of the Mississinewa to the Indians. Nixon
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Rush of Fairmount relates that when Fred Douglass was in Jonesboro in time of the war they "egged" him, and thus a variety of sentiment prevailed in the town.
The Boston Tea Party now famous in history was similar in senti. ment to the spirit that prevailed in many Grant county homes in time of the Civil war, and there were families who would not use any article at all that was known to have been produced by slave labor. Jonathan Macy kept an antislavery stock of goods at his home later known as the Ward farm and now the Gillespie place north of the Soldiers' Home. and only free labor articles were carried in stock. Thomas and Lydia Baldwin, prominent Friends, objected to the use of indigo made by slave labor - would let the clothes go when they were clean without the desirable blue tint, rather than use blueing made by slave labor, and Mrs. Polly Harris, the famous "night rider of her day, " only used seven yards in making her a calico dress, preferring a "skimpy " gown to liberal patronage of slave labor articles. Elias Coleman and John Harvey had an antislavery store in Jonesboro, and they had patronage from distant points from families who were in sympathy with the abolition methods. It was Lincoln's conviction that the slave on the block must go scot Free -- he had read books that caused him to witness for God in his life, and right training picked up from hard knocks in the world enabled him to witness for God and the right. The anti slavery store was a hard knock on the institution of slavery, and there were a number of them in Grant county.
While Charles Atkinson of Monroe is remembered best as an aboli- tionist on account of his underground railway activities, he is reputed to have "tried all the isms since God made the world," and one fad he adopted was the use of unbolted flour in bread making in his family a grahamite. He used the whole wheat and no salt in anything. He was a Tieksite Quaker and later a Spiritualist, and when he received messages from the spirit world the communications were always found in an auger hole in the gate post. Mr. Atkinson was intellectual and would often read newspapers while going about the country on horse- back. Ile was a free thinker, and it is said changed his polities before he died in order that he might vote for Lincoln. He was cecentre and before he died. he exclaimed : "My, oh, my, if we could right some of our wrongs," but he failed to specify what wrong had disturbed his mental equilibrim. The people who knew Charles Atkinson and others of his day and goueration all seem to entertain the highest regard for then.
Men now living relate that there was a time when David Conner and Henry Renbarger were the only settlers below Marion, and that Mr. Conner, of trading post days in Grant county, used to tell the Indians that the needle maker was dead and charge them one dollar apiece for cambrie needles while the supply lasted- there would never be any more needles. He was a shrewd frontiersman who knew how to play on the ignorance of the Indians, and yet he was in sympathy with the enslaved negro and would sometimes shelter him. He was never charged with Quakerism, and one time he was sheltering some refugees who were overtaken by Kentucky planters in search of them. While Mr. Conner advised the negroes to go with their captors, it is said that he immediately mounted a pony and made the circuit of the Indians in their wigwams, and before the planters had reached Jones- boro they were surrounded by the red skins the warwhoop was heard in the wilderness, and the frightened negroes went back with the Indians. Not caring to lay himself liable by further harboring stolen property he hurried the refugees on toward Canada, that "cold and
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dreary land," and while he "worsted" the Indians he "bested" the negroes who were fleeing from slavery.
Of course the Quakers laid themselves liable when harboring slaves, and yet it is said there were refugees in every Quaker community in war times. The Methodists were abolitionists, too, and tired under the agitation of Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison, there has always been a Methodist church, North, and a Methodist church, South, as a result of their activities. One man declared they preached and prayed until they precipitated the conflict, while the Quakers were always religiously opposed to bloodshel. It was a matter of conscience with them to help the negroes on to Canada. When war actually broke out between the north and south, there were fewer refugees passing through the country, owing to the difficulties encountered in escaping, and Eli Coggeshall was "right smart of a boy" when the last drove of negroes stopped at his father's house west of Jonesboro, and King David-a negro living near, was engaged to drive them to some north- ern station, always traveling at night and remaining in hiding through the day, their wagon beds filled with straw and covers to profeet the negroes from the cold weather. While not all Quakers were active abolitionists, they were committed to the cause of freedom, and when- ever a "batch of darkeys" came along with sore feet and unable to walk any further, they scattered out in the Deer Creek neighborhood and after hiding through the day they were "helped on" to the next station kept by Moses Bradford at Marion, or A. J. beaverton at At. Aetna, in Huntington county. Mrs. Eli Thomas recalls that when she was a girl eight years old she was sent in the dusk of the evening with a man, woman and child her father had concealed through the day to the home of lugh Allen, where a load was being made up to send to Mt. Aetna about twenty miles distant.
These refugees all had a song, and when Eli and Minerva Thomas had recalled some of the stanzas, E. L. Golithwait was able to sing it, although it had been many years since he had heard it or thought about it. It is said that after the visit of Henry Clay to Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends in 1842, when he was given a prominent seat, although a slave owner and in direct opposition to the policy of the Quakers, some who saw him became more than ever interested in the work of Levi Coffin in assisting slaves through Indiana. This spirit spread to Grant county. Sammel Knight, who saw Henry Clay-the man who had rather be right than be president --- sitting in Friends Yearly Meeting, said he "had a peculiar noodle, " and that he seemed nervous and uncomfortable under the close scrutiny from all sides. Nathan Coggeshall's dairy contains the information that the first anti- slavery meeting in Graut county was heldl at the Okl Friends meeting house, which stood on the bank of the river near the entrance to Friends cemetery, but the opposition by old substantial Friends was such that the use of the house was denied for further meetings. Deer Creek meet- ing house then became headquarters for antislavery meetings, and it is spoken of with pride today that the Deer Creek community ever after- ward remained loyal to the principles of human liberty.
In the early days of slavery agitation, but few even of the Friends dared hold sneh advanced opinions as made them antislavery advocates, and it took more than a decade to bring this idea to a point where it was accepted by Quakers even as a principle of faith. Men who were outspoken at that time must face not only the criticism, abuse and sar- casm of the general public, but they were denied fellowship by the leaders of their own society. (See Chapter, Friends Church in Grant County.) It is said that in the interim following Henry Clay's visit
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to Indiana Yearly Meeting until the firing on Fort Sumter that hundreds of fugitive slaves were rendered assistance by tirant county abolition- ists, although others than Quakers had part in the service. The Quakers were sly about it, but nevertheless had their part in underground rail- road affairs in Grant county.
The refugee slave song runs :
"I'm on my way to Canada, that cold and dreary land- The dire effects of slavery, I can no longer stand.
I served my master all my days, without a dime's reward --
But now I'm forced to run away, to thee the lash abhorred.
Oh, righteous Father -- wilt thou pity me,
And aid me on to Canada, where colored men are free. I heard old massey pray last night -- I heard him pray for me,
That God would come and in his might -- from sin and satan set me free.
The hounds are baying on my track -- the master's just behind, Resolved that he will bring me back, before I cross the line -- Farewell, old massa, that's enough for me, I'm on my way to Canada, Where colored men are free."
and while Mr. and Mrs. Thomas did not recall all the stanzas, the last one begins: "I'm landed safe in Canada, both soul and body free, " and there is no denying the fact that the songs the people sing influence them in their methods of doing things.
In the chapter: "Public Utilities" is found the history of the tele- phone in Grant county, but later the historian came across definite infor- mation that John A. Anderson brought one of the first half dozen tele- phones ever distributed from Indianapolis to Marion -- three 'phones on the eireuit -- and established the system in Marion in 1879-facts bear- ing out conclusions printed in another chapter.
Before the location of the Soldiers' Home there was an ohl land- mark, the R. D. Beatty barn standing along the Jonesboro road the site now within the Home campus. At one time, when Van Amburgh's show was billed for Marion, the aggregation was caught in a storm while passing the Beatty farm, and below an elephant drawing one of the wagons would pull it into this barn, he leaned against the side of it and when he could not move it on its foundation, he felt reassured and pulled the wagon into it. As a child the writer heard the story, and always associated it with the place while the barn stood there. It was before the days of railroad transportation in Grant county.
While there have been few riots or strikes in the history of Grant county, there really have been a few walkouts, although with no serious results. Patrick II. Kiley, suggested that the first labor trouble was when his uncle, John Kiley, who bought the brick when the court- house was torn away in preparation for rebuilding, offered thirty-five cents a thousand to have the mortar knocked off of them so he could sell them again. Among those employed were Jacob Sohn, James Day, Jesse Eversole, Charles Adams and Marion Willis, and they struck for fifty cents and carried the day with Mr. Kiley, later known as "Honest John" in Grant county polities. Phil Kiley, later come over from Ireland, was employed as a "kind of a boss" over the men, and it was before the days of organized labor in Grant county. This raz- ing of the old courthouse occurred in 1880, and after the brick were cleaned Mr. Kiley sold them to the well known negro barber, "Jeff" Sizemore, 'who used them in building the Sizemore house on Boots
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street. While this may have been the first strike originating in Grant county, there was a railroad strike in 1873 that caused two Panhandle engineers, Samuel Wiser and George Rowan to lose their situations. Mr. Wiser was the man who ran the first engine into Marion in 1868, a construction train while the road was under process of building, and although not aggressive in the railroad strike of 1873, it lost him his situation with the Pennsylvania Railway Company. There has been very little strike or boycott spirit in Grant county. Arbitration has usually saved the day, but in the courthouse strike, Mr. Kiley acceded to the demands of the boys and nothing serious came of it. Ile had only paid $300 for the wreckage, and there was still a chance to make money on it.
Although almost every family now has a commercial Grant county map, the newspapers having given them as premiums and the different business firms having distributed them as advertising mediums, there are now but few copies of the original map made in 1860 by William Neal and Anderson C. Overman, both early day surveyors. Mr. Neal is survived by one son still a resident of the county, Harry Neal and Mr. Overman by a daughter-Miss Rhody Overman. A copy of this map has been preserved in the Marion library, the forethought of E. L. Goldthwait, who placed it under glass and it is a permanent fixture on the north wall of the reference reading room in the library. It is a most valuable adjunet to the library, and will be consulted by future generations, A writer in The Atlas (1877) says: "In workmanship the map was a success, but financially the enterprise was not what the proprietors would have desired," and that is true of many worthy attempts, legitimate enterprises and a condition not limited to Grant county. This original map is artistie, and had splendid patronage in the way of both public and private buildings arranged around the border-some old time homesteads not otherwise perpetuated in Grant county. There is frequent revision of county maps today, and the map maker is still busy in Grant county.
"What woman has done in Grant county," would have been an entire chapter in the Centennial History had she written it, and the Woman's Civic Federation has already accomplished much although only organized in Marion in 1912, and in 1913 in Fairmount. Mrs. Gertrude S. Heavilin is president of the Marion Federation and Mrs. Nettie B. Hollingsworth of Fairmount. The effort to date in Marion has been along moral and sanitary lines, the streets and alleys having received attention from the women, the Y. W. C. A., with a paid membership of more than one thousand, is a direct result of their efforts. While individual membership was the plan of the federation, about one hundred and twenty-five women had united with the move- meut, but recently many social, literary, and musical clubs have been coming in a body, and there are no geographical limitations-rural women interested in the same things that stir the women of the towns.
The Fairmount Civic Federation has accomplished something in the way of landscape improvement by planting shrubbery and borders in spots not otherwise utilized, and the women of other towns through their clubs have agitated the same questions, although not as yet organ- ized in civie federations. The women favor a police matron, repre- sentation on the school board and in the department of public health, and perhaps in the past women have been a stronger humane factor than men-always alert to avert or alleviate distress. The Grant County W. C. T. U. has well covered the field taken up by the civic federations along moral, sanitary and health lines, and Rolinda's slogan: "All Grant county a park," has actuated many families not enrolled in
,
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either organization. The purpose of the civic federations is reflected in the following committees distributed among representative women : Municipal improvements, sanitation, law enforcement, programs, ways and means, and press. When the women undertake something they accomplish it, and they are interested in the improvement of all Grant county, affiliating with the Indiana Civic Federation, beyond which is the National-a sort of an endless chain system through which civic righteousness is promoted. While eivie federations are of recent date in Grant county there are many accomplished facts to their credit on the balance sheet of time.
LAVL. THE OLD ELM TREE
By Captain Woodson S. Marshall
Į Editor's note. | At the the the barn was built at the foot of Boots street on Spencer avenue, an old landmark that had registered the high water ever since the organization of the county was sacrificed to the onward march of progress, and because of the history connected with it, Captain Marshall "dashed off"' an interesting bit of history, little thinking it would ever become part of the Centennial History of Grant County. He is the last member of a pioneer family that catte into the county by raft down the Mississinowa, and Riley Marshall, his father, was a member of the first board of commissioners in the county. In writing of the advent of the Marshall family into Grant county, B. J. Bond speaks of an over night stop at the site of Jones- boro when there was only one family there, saying the ocenpant of the house was provided with only two chairs made of round poles eut and lashed together with hickory withes, a table made of a broad puncheon laid on pins that were driven into the wall, a skillet and lid to bake bread and a pot in which to boil meat.
The banks of the river were lined on either side with a heavy growth of timber, with trailing vines and small undergrowth through which it was almost impossible to penetrate. The population of Grant county at that time, 1829, consisted of twenty white families. When the Mar shalls arrived at the site of Marion there was only one house in the vicinity of the elm tree which sheltered so many carly day gatherings, and when the tree finally disappeared Captain Marshall took up his pen and described its relation with the past as follows:
The old elm, recently the victim of the woodman's ax, the chn which stood so long as a landmark hard by where Boots ereck and the Missis sinewa river meet as one, on the lot formerly owned by Mrs. Celeste Starrett, deserves well to be recalled. An account of the many events which occurred beneath its branches, and which events were farreach- ing in their effects upon this community and county, cannot fail to be valuable.
Within its shadow stood a "double house, " using the expression of the day, and in that house my father lived from 1830 to 1833. As the exigencies of the times demanded it, this house played an impor- tant part in the early establishing of this city and in the founding of Grant county.
In this house were lodged the surveyors who laid off and platted the town of Marion, and in one of its rooms was hekl, on the third Saturday of September. 1831, the first cleetion for a justice of the peace
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in Pleasant township, the county having been divided into three town- ships.
The justice who was elected reported the Following year to the county commissioners that Thomas Mason had been arrested, convicted and tined by him for "salt and battery."
Here also the commissioners met September 24. 1831, to establish terms of sale of town lots. The price of the lots on the public square in Marion was fixed at $50 cach. These lots now are worth from $100 to $500 per front foot.
Beneath the shade of this old chn, Chief Me-shin-go-me-sia used to halt, with his band of Indians, and buy smoked meats of the pale faced squaw in the house near by. Then they would mount their ponies and in single file slowly ride off down the river, all in their accustomed Indian dress, and as speechless as the graves wherein they now rest.
Jesse Vermylea, father of Mrs. Adaline V. Turner, of this city, was commissioned by the governor of Indiana as the first clerk of Grant county, and served from August 5, 1831, to May 8, 1832, when he resigned. The first records in this county appear in his handwriting. They are well preserved. showing excellent penmanship and thorough qualification for the work. On the acceptance of his resignation my father was appointed his successor, and held the offices of clerk, rerorder and auditor of the county, all at the same time, the law then permitting this in newly organized counties. The first term of the Grant circuit court was to be held, and in the absence of better accommodations this entry appears of record: "I do hereby certify that the house now oveupied by me, Riley Marshall, is hereby appropriated for the use of holding court in on the 25th day of October, 1832." H was so ordered. and litigants took judicial notice of the the and place when the judge, accompanied by a mumber of lawyers, in riding his circuit, would hold court in the new bailiwick of Grant whose shiretown was Marion.
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