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 87
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vance guards of either army were picking off men at every opper tunity. About an hour after sunrise we were relieved, and the ex change attracted the attention of a Johnny sharpshooter as he lay concealed behind a stump inside the rebel line. He had rested his gin. and was ready to lire when I noticed him. He was only waiting until I should quit the protection of a tree and he would pick me off, but I foiled the attempt. Tired out with watching I cautiously picked my way. keeping that tree between myself and the gun. As Iclimbed the hill I could plainly see that it was leveled on me, and that the Johnny was only waiting until my body should be exposed; realizing his in- tentions, when I reached a point where the forks of the free put the in greater danger, Is omnoitered but was not long in deciding upon
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my course. The hiss and whir of bullets were famihar sounds and 1 know about how to time his movements. I invited the shot by expos- ing my body to his gun; instantly I saw the smoke and had taken the backward stop just in time, and knowing I could put a safe distance between us before he could load again, I waved my cap to let him know I was unharmed, and joined the command stationed on the hill."
Another Chattanooga story goes: "Our lines Were a little way up the hillside and overlooked the water. It illustrates the true mmer lift of a loyal heart. We had orders that the enemy should cont to the creek undisturbed, and one of our boys changed to meet a Johnny who had come to fill his canteen. We were an outpost of the army of the Cumberland, and were waiting reenforcements. Our army had oren- pied the city, and we were daily expecting Hooker with a division from the army of the Potomar. It was just before the light on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and a rebel coming down for water, called out: ' Hello, Yank,' and the guard replied : ' Hello, yourself and the Johnny asked: 'How are you off for grub ?' 'Plenty of hard tack and sow belly,' was heard in the lines, and our guard asked ; "What have you got?' 'Nothing,' said the Johnny, nothing but blue heef and corn bread. How will you trade a cracker for a chunk of corn bread ?' and the exchange was made forthwith. When the guard returned to camp, the commander asked: When you had given your last cracker, what if the Johnny had not thrown you the corn dodger?' for the stream was between them. I want to say that fellow's reply was characteristic, when he answered: ') would have given it to him any how.' and he had the grit not to intimate to the rebel how near we were bordering outo starvation. There was no personal ferling. and the boys used to talk across the lines, and many of them established friendships, saying one to another, 'If this were only a personal matter we would shake hands and forget about it.'"'
The soldier continued: "I remember a funny thing that occurred when we were lining up for a battle; a rabbit was scared from Jus hid ing, and was rapidly gaining a position of greater safety in the year. when the sergeant in our regiment cried out: "He it, Cottontail. I'll be with you only for the disgrace' and momentarily miltary disti- pline was an impossibility. When this soldier was asked if he ever leveled a gun and saw his man fall as a result, he answered: I've shut my eyes and fired, not expecting the solmay to step aside. We've all been the death of 'em, and there are a hundred recollections that are pleasanter,' and 'right shoulder, shift.' or 'present arms, " still sounds good to a veteran. Yes, one by one the boys of 'll are answer- ing the last reveille, and every year our number is growing smaller and smaller. I am glad of a softened feeling between the North and the South, for we have one lag and we are one country. One thing I ho tired at Atlanta - our boys of the skirmish line had got very close to each other. Yes, our boys- they are all our boys now, but then they were on both sides -- the boys in blue and the boys in gray. Our band would play and theirs, but all the while every man of us kept his head below the danger line. Our boys played Yankee Doodle while they played Dixie, and when we played The Star Spangled Banner they played The Bonnie Blue Flag. when presently some one struck np Home, Sweet Home, and both bands played it over and over again. The guns were laid down in the trenches, and the men in blue and the men in gray stood upon the breastworks; yes. we are touched by the music of home the same as we are stirred by the notes of patriotism." These reminiscent stories reflect the sentiment of the veterans of the Civil war.
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It seemed an impossibility to detail the history of the Grant county soldiers by regiments and companies, and to publish a complete list of their names, officers or privates, but today only Major G W. Strele. Captain J. W. Sanderson and Captain W. S. Marshalla main of the commissioned officers of that terrilde war. The three non commissioned officers still living are: Colonel G. W. Gunder, Captain John .1. Howard and Captain Joseph Lugar. Captain Marshall is commander of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of The United States in In- diana, which is today the foremost military organization in the world, and in his annual address, May 20, 1913, he referred to "those who more than half a century ago, in the vigor of splendid manhood and dush of youthful enthusiast, responded to the call of arms, and there after during four years of marching and fighting, left the impress of their footsteps in the soil of every state in rebellion, man who in the army and navy, in a thousand battles on land and sea proved their valor, attested their fealty to the Constitution, their fidelity to the I'mon. their loyalty to the Old Flag, and with sword and bayonet wiele history on the right side of the ledger.
"Dutting that font years of unprecedented warfare, 2.700,000 mett and boys were called into the service, drilled, disciplined and molded into soldiers of all arms, and of these 110,000 died in their tracks of the field of battle, and 300,000 more in hospitals and prison pens, from wounds and disease. Why this fearful sacrifice of human life? The contending armies were men boter of one bone and flesh of one desh and when an Englishman asked Henry Ward Beecher, who was in Hoy land in 1-63, advocating the cause of the Union and asking that cont try not to recognize the Southern Confederacy. . Why don't you put down the rebellion ? he straightened himself up and replied : . die cause we are fighting Americans, and all mate in saying that internal strife is worse than hostilities with another nation. Certainly the war is over, but the veterans still meet in camplines and enjoy recalling those terrific struggles."
Why did campaign orators wave the bloody shirt so many years after the close of the war? During the struggle it seemed like tank rebellion for any one in the north to sing a southern song. but now the hatchet is buried many like to sing Dixie Land, and the Bonnie Blue Flag no longer arouses antagonist at all. The Moody shirt has fren laid away at last, but there had to be a sort of cleaning up after the war, and it was done from a northern standpoint. The writer was a hoy in Liberty township, and the "eross roads" at Weaver was a favorite place with campaign orators for waving the shirt, and stir- ring up sectional hatred. The issue of the war had been the slavery question, and even on Emancipation day the negroes had but one re- quest : ".Just talk about de wah and tell your yarns," but when they were asked to talk, they always drifted into religion- war being for- vign to their natures. Negro slavery has been wiped out of the na- tion, and today "white slavery" and the temperance question claim attention.
The United States entered into the Spanish-American war with the sole purpose of resening Cuba, and the soldiers enlisted for two years unless discharged earlier, and of the five Indiana regiments local in- terest centers in Company A of the One Hundred and Sixtieth Indiana. the regiments in all wars to date being five regiments in the war with Mexico, from six to 156 in the Civil war, and the live regiments raised in 1898 bring the number of Indiana regiments enlisted in all time up to Ifil, and as in the previous wars Indiana was promptly in the field -- Company A of the One Hundred and Sixtieth answering President
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William MeKinley's first call for 125,000 men issued April 2; Esus. Governor James A. Mount did an excellent service for the Spanish American soldiers when he urged the matter of keeping a correct record in the office of the adjutant general important not only to the troops themselves, but to all future generations. He had before him a sad example, his own imperfect record in the Civil war.
While there were worthy sons in the Spanish-American war of the noble sires in the Civil war, some families contributed to it who had not sent sokliers to war a generation earlier. When Company A was leaving for the front, some of the veterans and their wives who had known all about the Civil war remarked that they were only boys, that such young fellows were going to war, momentarily forgetting that time had worked changes in them -that they were young themselves when they had answered the country's call. While some Mexican soldiers went out again in the Civil war, no Civil war veterans were going again except as officers in the company. The boys of 'Gl had not been dis- abled when they volunteered, and the wives at their sides had been sweethearts that long ago. This Cuban difficulty had one excellent effect in miting the North and the South, soldiers from either seetion standing ready to take up arms in defense of the Island Republice. While time had made changes in their physical appearance, the boys of '61 stood willing to shoulder their guus again. Although it was not sectional strife as when they went forth to war, they again felt the thrill of patriotism. U'hele Sam was not involved, simply offered pro- fection to the young republics springing up in the islands of the sea.
There were barriers separating this country from Latin America - barriers of language, tradition, race and prejudice, and yet the Monroe doctrine was fresh in the minds of all loyal Americans America for Americans and Americans have found it very conven- ient to annex the archipelago of the Philippines, take care of Porto Rico and establish a compact with Cuba-enter its ports, and it is deep-rooted doctrine that commerce follows the flag. While America has practically acquired the canal zone, Grant comity has always stood ready to cooperate with the plans of the United States government, and when there was difficulty with Spain, the soldiers of Company 1 did not stand in their tracks, and some of them had maintained the family standard of patriotism, they did not need a second invitation. The Battleship Maine had been equipped at an expense to the govern- ment of $6,000,000, and 275 gallant men lost their lives off the Cuban coast. Why not the nation avenge the outrage? When Company A was called the waterworks whistle was the signal- two long blasts sometimes means tire is out, but that day firing was to begin and those two long blasts sirnek terror to many hearts.
In '61 there were no whistles-no quick methods of commmica tion. There was call to arms, yes, but the recruiting officers were busy while the onward march of civilization bad changed things. The spirit of patriotism runs high whenever martial music is heard, and elsewhere there is mention of the music that day. When the boys of Company A were leaving there was unbounded enthusiasm. Every household was stirred-these boys were going to the front and the high seas might claim them. It was not seetional warfare. They were going to the defense of the Cubans. Patriotism ran so high that in one Marion household the daughter who was serving at dinner offered pork chops and called them guns, saying: "Have a gun?" simply a straw to indicate the way the wind was blowing. The sinking of the Maine was like the firing on Fort Sumter -- the shot that was heard round the
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world-and while the United States had been watching chans in Cuba, this event was the message to Garcia. There is a complete roster of the company in the record of luidiana volunteers in the Spanish A : can war, Col. G. W. Giunder, captain, and W. D Wener chemin and after one year in the service, reconnoitering in the Southern Salles and in Cuba, it was nmistered out at Savannah, Georgia, Apal 30. 1899, and the official record reads: ". Although none of the Indian a organiza tions were in any of the battles of the war, they were ready and cager to do their part to keep the flag from being trailed in the dust. It was a great disappointment to all of them, but they accepted what was anven them to do in true, soldierly spirit, and they can all look back with pride to the part they took in the defense of their country."
The patriotic women of the country perfurnied shuilar service to the Spanish American soldiers as the Christian Sanitary Connus sion did for the veterans of the & ivil war, and one Marion woman sent money to Company A inviting the soldiers to have one round of pleas ure at her expense. As Mrs. Susannah Clark of Jonesboro distin guished herself in the Civil war as an army nurse, Mrs. Alte Kommer Weesner, hailing from a Sims township farm house and elsewhere mentioned, saved the day in the Spanish American war and attracted special recognition to herself. While many local soldiers have been in the Philippines, and while (. W. Steele. Jr., has cruised all round the world. it was Harry Goldthwait's fortune to be ahard Admiral Dewey's flagship Olympia when Manila was taken. and Charles Hill of clones boro was there in the land force, although neither know of the other's presence. Both were honored by their friends, and when Harry Gold thwait reached Marion a reception was held in which he was the honor guest -had be not been with Dewey at Manila ! He carries a gold watch given him by admiring citizens, the presentation speech being made by Major G. W. Steele, and everybody enjoyed the distinction he had won for himself.
While Grant county is not rated high, the war department always maintains a recruiting officer here, and the sign ont: "Men wanted for the army, " always attracts them. These poster signs are alluring, and while many of the recruits are entire strangers in the town, and must visit their homes for credentials before enlisting, recruiting offi vers always make excellent reports from this territory. Solcher hie has afforded some the means of travel who otherwise would never have seen the world, and sometimes parents favor the army on account of the rigid discipline they have themselves failed to bestow upon their sons, and splendid physique and manly bearing are certainly given lo mili- tary discipline and drill, the manual of arms and uniform all having their part in the transformation. Sometimes it is an efort to escape unpleasant environment, and sometimes it is pure patriotism that prompts young America to quit his home and offer himself upon his country's altar. It is said that the presence of the Indiana Branch of the National Military Home for disabled volunteer soldiers in Grant county does not discourage recruits at all. While America may need to be fortified, some urge that it needs to be purified, and a nation or community, like the individual, will reap what it sows sow to the wind and reap the whirlwind. While arbitration is the future policy. the war record of Grant county is in no seuse a reproach to its citizen- ship. The United States has never entered into a war through the motive of conquest. Grant county will welcome the advent of universal prace in the world.
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LXXXVIL THE HOUSE OF THE LORD IN GRANT COUNTY
"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the House of the Lord," and W. E. Gladstone oner said : "I go to church on the Sabbath day not only because I believe in religion, but because I love England." Perhaps that same spirit of loyalty abounds in Grant county today. Perhaps people do not hold the house of God as sacred from worldly things as they should, and when they meet ostensibly for worship it is too often to visit. Veneration for hallowed spots should be cultivated about every fireside. "I love the church, oh God,' should be the hymn of every Christian.
There are men, women and preachers in every community, and yet in too many instances it is the women and the preachers who do the work of the church, although some of the laymen are impressed with the fact that it should be a man's job and happily that sentiment seems to be spreading in the community. Sometimes the religious pos- session is all in the wife's name, and men sustain the relation of brother-in-law to the church in every denomination. It does not often occur that the husband has treasure laid up where moth and rust do not corrupt, while the wife remains worldly minded and indifferent to sneh matters. It is sometimes urged that church is a dress parade, and that women do not impress their husbands with the sanctity of their religion or they would think more of it, and the woman exists who claims that her husband is just as good as other men who are in the church, an argument hard to combat and very destructive of church sentiment.
The minister needs to be master of the situation, and his classifica- tion of sin should be as absolutely correet as the physician's diagnosis of disease, both contagious disorders, and the minister who skims over without righteous reproof is guilty of malpractice the same as the phy siciau who prescribes for the wrong malady because he does not under- stand the symptoms, or does not have the courage to call things by their right names. It is said that America is the crater in the great religions volcano of the world, and a variety of molten lava is certainly belched forth in Grant county. There are all kinds of eruptions in the form of isms and schisms and waves of doctrine, and there is the established church unmoved by heterodoxy of any description. While there are a few persons in every neighborhood who can quote John 11, 16, the church people of today know less of the Bible than did the preceding generation who read it through chapter by chapter, oftentimes as many thues as the number of their years, but since America has become a nation of newspaper readers all that is changed, and only a few read daily in the Bible. In some households there is family worship and daily Bible readings, usually the course of study outlined by the Inter- national Sunday-school lesson committee.
One of the sacred writers says: "Churches have names. Some as memorials of peace, some of wisdom, some in memory of Trinity itself, some of Christ under sundry titles. Of the Blessed Virgin not a few. Many of one apostle, saint or martyr. Many of all, " and the foregoing aptly describes the local situation. While there are Firsts and Seconds in some denomination, there are Grace, Epworth, St. Joseph's, St. Paul's, St. John's, Holy Family, Gethsemane, Range bine, Welcome, Mt. Olive, Olive Branch, Harmony, Salam, Kingsley, Fletcher, Shiloh, Bethel, Otter- bein, Deer Creek, Back Creek, Walnut Creek, Taylor Creek, Oak Ridge, Little Ridge, Linwood, Bethlehem, Antioch, Loenst, Knox, Griffin, MeKin- ney, Oak Chapel and many others named from some stream near which they stand or some physical feature of the neighborhood, and it is a pretty
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custom-naming churches, even though locality is all that i reliedled by it. There are sacred memories associated with names of churches perhaps the recollections of childhood which in later years seem i'll more sacred than in youth.
While only a few Grant county churches conform to any distinctive style of architecture, there are a number of modern editives in which the entire community has pardonable pride, and it is concede I by all that a church is excellent collateral in any community. The church does more than any other one agency, save the school, towar I the adstier of realty values - residence property being undesirable unless located in the vim ity of one or both those institutions. If there were no churches in the community few families would think of permanent residence there While a number of local churches seem classic, a little inquiry develops the fact that only a few of them conform to any distinctive style of architectuur both Florentine and Castilian Gothic being suggested but utility is th watchword in constructing them. While many Chant county churches are spacious and modern with combinations of style, others are service able and plain with no thought given to architecture at all, just social centers for the community. While they may not be pure in their architecture, the newer churches combine utility and elegance in lath interior and exterior -are models in arrangement.
The day of the steeple, despite the fact that church spires have always been the glory of the community, is now in the past, and the old Greek temple style prevails throughout the church building world. When there was more moisture retained in the ground and it was this a better conductor of sound. the church bells in the towns used to call the people for miles around to Sunday morning worship, and people who never crossed a elmurch threshold would hear them and be reminded of their sacred Sabbath duty -but there are not many bells resounding on the stillness of the morning air in the Twentieth century. The chimes peal forth from one church tower, and many have timed their visits into town in order to hear them. Maybe there was sentiment about a church bell. but everybody knew the sound knew what denomination was inviting them to worship. Some of the old bells have gone through fire and been installed again, and some have been treasured by mem- bers on account of past associations. When on . Marion church was casting about for permanent location many years ago, it was tendered an inside building lot on condition that there was never to be an organ installed in it. but the members did not find themselves by accepting this gift of realty, and bigotry and ignorance have always been over come until Grant county churches are independent of all such shackles.
It was the Jonesboro Friends who objected to a union meeting house combining with the Methodists of the town because they would have to remove their hats when sitting with the Methodists, and the Methodists would not retain their hats when sitting in worship with them, and there have been many changes in customs in the conduunity. In the early history of Friends it was the custom when one kneeled in prayer that others stand, just as it is the custom with Methodists that all should kneel. A Jonesboro little girl said: "They all smelled of their seats," and the indifference shown today is certainly an extreme from that old time universal enstom, and some church members would be glad of a return of the old time reverence in worship. When the custom of standing through a prayer prevailed, many turned their backs on the supplicant, feeling unworthy to look upon one thus engaged and nowadays many engage in prayer withont change of posture at all. While it is regarded as in good form to how the head when one engages in prayer, it is related that when Timothy Kelly,
IHISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
who worshipped in the Jonesboro Friends church went to sleep one time he fell forward from the seat, and thinking he had knowled in prayer all the people stood, and the confusion wakenel him but he saved the day by uttering a few words. When Isaac Jay was called to discourse at the funeral he said Timothy Kelly had been known to pray Ile was the man against whom a trial was brought through the church by Holm Pemberton, who owned a carding wall and sawmill at the Back Dam, because when he acquired the grist mill property at Jonesboro he raised the dam until it caused back water and interfered with the water wheel in Pemberton's mill two miles up the stream.
The church investigated the matter, and when Mr. Kelly would make no concessions, it granted Mr. Pemberton privilege of bringing suit in court. When $1,000 damage was assessed against him, with a penalty of one dollar a day until the amount was paid, Mr. Kelly bought the Pemberton property, and thus ended the earliest snit ever brought in court under the authority of the church in Grant county, the whole affair belonging to the '50s in local history. There have been frequent subsequent investigations by the church, and arbitration has always bien the custom in all denominations. Some theologians are agreed that the song taught in the primary room : " Dropping, dropping, hear the pennies fall," has had a depressing effect on church finances -train up a child to give pennies and when it is old it will not depart there from, and thus many church members still give pennies where dollars are required of them. While the Quaker was in the ascendancy in the early history of Grant county, it is said that it is the Philadelphia brand that is reflected in Quaker Oats advertisements.
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