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 92
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So we accept of the great moral code as the only true knowledge of sin, First John, 3, 4; Romans, 3. 20, and that the gospel was made neces sary because of the violation of this same law. This leads to real conver sion when presented as God gave them. We also believe in the ordinance of humility or feet washing as taught by our Saviour's example, and also his Apostles in Jolm 13, 1 to 17. He who will humble himself to wash the feet of one he hates will humble himself to do any other duty, and is not far from the kingdom. And to support the ministry we strictly follow the tithing system instead of resorting to festivals and socials. and taking the view that we do of the Scripture we find ourselves con fronted with a great responsibility that of warning the world in regard to the things found in the Bible, and especially in proclaiming the three messages of Revelation 11. 6 to 14, which includes the warning against the beast and his image, and calling the world to the worship of the file God who created the heavens and earth and preparing the people for the second coming of Jesus within the present generation.
Our organization grows out of the movement of 1810 41. when Wil liam Miller preached the end of the world at a fixed date The disap- pointment led to a study of the sanctuary in Heaven: Revelation 11. 19, and there we found God's divine law safely cared for in the heavens, guarded by angels, ineluing the fourth commandment, which says: "The Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Grant county has three Seventh Day Advent churches, with about 100 members. The Marion church was organized in 1876 by Elder S. H. Lane, and it now has sixty members. Jonesboro church was organized by Elders J. P. Hender- son and A. W. Bartlett in 1882, and it now has twenty-eight members. Michaelsville church was organized by Elder Roberts in 1899, and it has sixteen members. Mrs. Gebrilla Havens is a charter member of the Advent church in Grant county.
OV. SOCIETY OF FRIENDS IN GRANT COUNTY By Ellwood O. Ellis
It is assumed that the history of Grant county dates from the year 1825, and as it is now 1913, there are eighty eight years of time to he covered. Only eighty-eight years ago there was not a road in the county, save the half-hidden trail of the Indian. There was not a fence to mark the boundary of a farm. There was no human habitation except the wigwam of the savage. There was no iron track to guide the wheels of steam cars or interurbans. There were no wires stretched across the country for the conveyance of news. nor to serve the convenience of business and mercantile firms. Not a clearing had been made for the
639
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
production of the wealth of farm vegetation, and forests prevailed every where. Over the level stretches, on the hills, in the valleys, it was delse mubroken forest, except. now and then a boggy prairie, and not a fence. a road, a farm, a house, nor a thing of any description to break the charm of a vast and boundless woodland. The bear, the wall, the por eupine, the deer, and numerous other wild animals had undisturbed pos session, except as the Indian with his rude weapons brought down his game for purposes of food and raiment. The lands extending to the right and the left from the Mississinewa river that runs midway from southeast to northwest through the county bore not the slightest mark of civilization, and possessed only the awe-inspiring grandeur of prom tive tangled wildwood.
Into this scene of natural sublimity came David Conner aud Martin Boots in October, and John Ballinger a Friend in December, 1825 Two years before, Goldsmith Gilbert had come from Muncietown, and established an Indian trading post on the river a few miles northwest of the present city of Marion. He now sold out to David Comer who entered land on terms offered by the United States. Martin Boots made a similar entry of land now occupied by the streets an alleys and hum dreds of homes in Marion, and JJohn Ballinger entered land on which is located the Friends' and the Odd Fellows' cemeteries, and the farm that has long been known as the Isaac Jay farm, it having been purchased by Isaac Jay twenty-five years later. So, of the first three settlers, one was a Friend.
But other Friends must have come in rapid succession, for only three years later, Friends' meetings were regularly held at the residence of Eli Overman, and were attended by Ephraim Overman, Silas Overman, Reuben Overman, Isaac Elliott, Joshua Small, John Lamb, John Thomas, Jesse Thomas and Charles Baldwin, and doubtless by others whose names have not been handed down. After a short the the meetings were held in a log school house that had been built. John Ballinger died in 1827, and was buried on his own land, where thousands since then have been laid in the sleep of death. The Friends built the first church in the county, on the chu Ballinger farm. By some it has been claimed that this was in 182%, but we have a living witness who thinks this is incorrect. Eli Thomas was born in Wayne county the same year that C'on- ner, Boots and Ballinger came to Grant county, and was brought to this county by his father when only three and a half years old He still lives in Marion, in full possession of his mind and with a clear memory of those early days. He says he is sure this house was not built till 1-30. and he remembers it as a hewed log building, at first consisting of one room, then another room added to it a little later, with a partition between the two rooms in which were sliding "shutters" to separate the men and women when business sessions were hell, as was the custom in those days.
In the short space of six years a sufficient number of Friends had come to permit the establishment of Mississinewa Preparative Meeting, and in another year Mississinewa (now Marion) Monthly Meeting had been established, and in another year. Back Creek Preparative Meeting. Before sixteen years had passed. Deer Creek Preparative Meeting. New Hope, indulged meeting, the Revolutionary soldier, Barnabas Vende- vanter, lies buried at New Hope), Centre (Jonesboro), indulged meet- ing. Back Creek Monthly Meeting. Centre (Jonesboro) Preparative Meeting, and Northern (now Fairmount) Quarterly Meeting had all been established. This indicates a very rapid migration of Friends to this county. What caused it? The answer is interesting to the student of history.
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
When William Penn founded the great state of Pennsylvania, liberal offers and inducements brought large muiders of immigrants from Eng. land, among whom were very many Friends. These rapidly took up the fands of eastern Pennsylvania, and as the Allegheny mountains for ned a barrier to the West, they went on into Maryland, and then on into Vir- ginia, where the Friends made a settlement on Opequan creek in the Shenandoah valley on a hundred thousand acres of land. Their mum bers still increasing, they settled other parts of Virginia. Here, during the French and Indian war, the Indians became very troublesome, and to escape, many Friends went still farther south into North Carolina, South Carolina and even into Georgia. Here in the southland they became very munerons and several large meetings were established. They prospered in business, had splendid homes, a delightful climate in which to live, and they probably would have remained permanently settled there had not circumstances brought about conditions that could not easily be endured.
About a hundred years had passed since their first settlements in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. Then they had bongld and kept slaves as did their neighbors. Under the teaching of John Woohoan and others, conscience had been awakened to a feeling that it was wrong for one human being to hold another in slavery. There was no violent avita- tion among themselves. Int under the power of loving counsel and admi- nitions, and the invisible force of the still small voire in their he its. they surrendered to the Divine will, and Freed their slaves. The church was united in the conviction that slavery is contrary to the will of God. and took up an active testimony against it, and in favor of munversal emancipation. But their neighbors believed in slavery, defended it with arguments and kept slaves in increasing numbers. They could not per- form their own labor, nor hire help and compete with slave labor. So disagreeable had the circumstances berome that they longed for a way of escape. Providence came to their relief.
Just at that time the Northwest Territory was opened up for settle ment. Slavery was to "be forever prohibited within its borders." Reports came that the soil was very productive. It was accepted as the open door for their escape. A stream of migration literally poured into the Ohio valley from the southland. It is ahnost impossible to realize how vast was this throng that sold their possessions and sought new homes in Ohio and Indiana. Friends' records give some knowledge of the movement.
One Monthly Meeting alone in western Ohio received the transfer by certificate of nearly nineteen hundred members in the four years from 1503 to 1807. Mississinewa (now Marion) Monthly Meeting, on the 17th of December, 1834, just nine years after John Ballinger, the first Friend came, in one day received the transfer of ninety-three members who formed a part of this great stream of migration. Four of this number are well remembered-the late Nathan Coggeshall, Gulie, his wife, and the only children they had at that time, the late Mary Jay Bond, and the late Anna Jay, who then was a babe nine months old.
When the Friends speak of a meeting being "established." or "set np." they mean the organization of the meeting by another meeting to which it becomes subordinate, and the approval of the next higher supe- rior meeting is also obtained. A Monthly Meeting may establish a Pre- parative Meeting, or another Monthly Meeting, with the approval of the Quarterly Meeting, after which the Preparative will be subordinate to the Monthly Meeting establishing it, but the new Monthly Meeting will be subordinate to the Quarterly Meeting. A Quarterly Meeting may
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
estalish another Quarterly Meeting, with the approval of the X. .. Meeting, to which the new Quarterly Meeting becomes subordinado
So Mississinewa Preparative Meeting was established by Voy. Har den Monthly Meeting and approved by New Canton there Is Med ing. Wayne county, Indiana, in ISMI, But an "andalen" mo his hand been held the three prece ling years Mississitowa Marione Monthly Meeting was established by New Garden Monthly and Nou Gat La Quo trtby Meeting in 1832. In similar manner Missis tonena Monthdy Mot ing. with the approval of New Garden Quarterly Meeting, established Back Creek Preparative Meeting in ISES, and Deer Creek Preparative Meeting and New Hope indulged meeting in IS, and Back Crack Monthly Meeting in 1838. Centre clousbaron indulged meeting was "set of" from both Back Greek and Mississinena Meetings by the joint authority and action of both Monthly Meetings in ISE, while Centre Jonesboro) Preparative Meeting was established by Back dreck Monthly Meeting in Derember, IsIL.
Two Monthly Meetings now having been established in Grant county. It was in order to establish a Quarterly Meeting. In 1839 these 100, Mississinewa and Back Creek Monthly Meetings joined in a request that a new Quarterly Meeting be granted, that it should be held alter nately at Mississinnowa and Back Creek, and that it should be called Northern chow Fairmount ) on account of its grographical position in the Yearly Meeting at that time. The request went first to New Garden Quarterly Meeting, and by it was forwarded to Indiana Yearly Mit ing, by which it was decreed that Northern Quarterly Meeting should be "set off" from New Garden Quarterly Meeting and "set up" at Missis sinewa meeting house in March, 184, and thereafter to be held alter nately at the two places, as had been requested.
In June, 189], "The Friends on and near the head of Deep &'rock." regnested an indulged meeting lo be called Oak Ridge, which was granted in the following month by Back Creek Monthly Meeting. In August. 1846, the same Monthly Meeting, with the approval of Northern Quarterly Meeting established Oak Ridge Preparative Meeting. In April, 1848, Mississmewa Monthly Meeting decided that the meeting at Deer Creek should be discontinued, and in the following slune this decision was confirmed by Northern Quarterly Meeting. This action was taken because Deer Creek Meeting had seeeded with other anti slavery Friends from Indiana Yearly Meeting. Further mention of this will be made in this article.
It is to be regretted That the minute book of Back Creek Monthly Meeting, containing the minutes From March, 1847, to March, ISAB, and all the minutes of the women's meetings is missing. If any one why reads this knows the whereabouts of any record of any Friends' meet ing. such person is earnestly requested to inform Mrs. Ora E. Winslow of Fairmount. She will see that any such record is put in the hands of the proper authority for preservation and future reference.
Owing to the lack of the record mentioned it cannot be told with certainty the exact time when Fairmount Meeting was first begon, but it is thought it was in 1851. Neither can it be told when Fairmount Pre parative Meeting was established, except by the Yearly Meeting minutes of 1853, it appears that it had been reported that "a preparative by the name of Fairmount, in the limits of Back Creek Monthly Meeting. North- ern Quarter" had been established. In the minute book following the one that is missing it is shown that a matter of business was reported from Fairmount Preparative Meeting in May, 1853, the first minutes in the book being recorded in March. So it is probable that this meeting dates from some time between September, 1852. and March, 1858.
Vol. 1-41
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
In April, 1851, "The Friends south of Oak Ridge pand an indulged meeting, to be known as Little Ridge, and this kor yomed to Back Creek Monthly Meeting in May. In response to a rupt . 00 le in June, 1855, Little Ridge Preparative Meeting was thatdodged on the following August. In the same month Little Ridge and Oat. Rider joined in a request for a new Monthly Meeting to be called Oak linde It seems that the Quarterly Meeting did not act favorably on this request. But it came me again in December, 18a6, and Oak Ridge Monthl. Meet ing. composed of Oak Ridge and Little Ridge Preparativos, was estah lished in May, 1857. Deer Creek Preparative Meeting was once more established in July, 1858, the anti-slavery Friends having come back to the church from which they had seceded, and ten years having passed since the meeting was laid down.
Without having had either time or opportunity to confirm it from the written records, the writer believes the following to be correct :
Maple Run Preparative was established by Mississmena . Marian Monthly Meeting in ISel, and Bethel Preparative by Back Creel. Monthly Meeting the same year. East Branch Preparative and Fair mount Monthly Meeting were established by Back Creek Monthly Meet in 1869, when Little Ridge Preparative was replaced by Bethiet Prepara five as a part of Oak Ridge Monthly Meeting, and Little Rider was attached to Fairmount Monthly Meeting. In the same year Deer Back Monthly Meeting, composed of Deer Creek and Maple Run Preparativos. was established by Mississinewa Monthly Meeting. Marion Prepara tive Meeting was established in 1871. in the frame house that stood where now the brick church at the corner of South Adams and Fifteenth streets stands. In 1887 Mississinewa Monthly Meeting was transferred from the old frame house that was first used in December, 1537. and located on the Eli Overman farm, to the brick building on South Mam, street. and "Mississinewa" gave way to " Marion" as the name of the original Monthly Meeting established in 1832. West Branch Preparative Meeting was established in 1872, and became a part of Deer Creek Monthly Meet ing. Upland Preparative Meeting was established in 1971 and North Grove in 1876. College Corner Preparative Meeting was organized in July, 1889, by Mississinewa and Deer Creek Monthly Meetings, as it drew members from both, and on October 6, 1901. South Marion Momtidy Meeting was established. Walnut Creek Preparative Meeting, three miles northeast of Upland, was established in 1886, and in the Following year. Upland Monthly Meeting was composed of Upland and Walnut Creek Preparativos. Milo Preparative Meeting was organized in 1989, being located northeast of Van Buren, and the same year Linwood Preparative Meeting, northwest of Fairmount, was established.
It will be noticed that each meeting is organized by the authority of some other meeting, and this chain of authority can be traced back to Chester Monthly Meeting, Pennsylvania, in 1681. It has been shown that New Garden Quarterly Meeting was the source of authority for all the meetings in Grant county. New Garden was estaldished in 1623 by Whitewater Quarter. Whitewater was established in 1817 by West Branch Quarter located at West Milton, Ohio. West Branch was estab Jished by Miami Quarter at Waynesville, Ohio, 1812. Miami was organ ized in 1809 by Redstone Quarterly Meeting in southwestern Pennsyl vania. Redstone Quarter was originated by Westland Monthly Meeting. Washington county, Pennsylvania: Westland by Hopewell Monthly Meeting, Virginia, in 1785; Hopewell. in 1785, by Nottingham Monthly Meeting. Nottingham, in 1780, by New Garden Monthly Meeting : Now Garden, in 1718, by Newark Monthly Meeting; Newark, in Hist, by Con cord Monthly Meeting: Concord, in 1684, by Chester Monthly Meeting.
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
and here we have come to the original source, for Chester Monthly Mot ing organized itself in 1681, without the authority of another Monthly or Quarterly Meeting. It was doubtless made up of Friends who came with William Penn from England, who felt themselves warranted im organizing a meeting for themselves, and thus unconsciously became the source of authority for the organizations of all Friends' meetings south ward to Georgia, and in all the great West to the Pacific ocean. The meetings in New England originated in another way.
The written records of Mississinewa Monthly Meeting date From Its beginning in 1832, and are still preserved in excellent condition. The preservation of all records is now a matter of much concern to the ment- bers of Marion Monthly Meeting, and Otto Small has been appointed custodian. He sees that they are kept in a fire proof vault. These ree ords were beginn only seven years after the first entry in the history of the county. They are written in the bold, plain handwritmy of those days, and are still as distinct and easily read as when they were first written. Isaac South and Jeremiah Thomas made most of these cards records for Friends. There are two sets of records, as the men and women kept separate records of their respective meetings. There are also records of births, of deaths and of marriages. These books are of interest to hundreds of residents in the county today who are descend- ants of those whose lives are narrated in some degree in these rare vol- umes. For several purposes they are more valuable than the public county records.
The opening minute reads : " Mississinewa Monthly Meeting of Friends opened and held agrecably to direction of New Garden Quarterly Meet ing on the 14th of the Eleventh Month, 1832, A committee by appoint ment of said Quarter attended and produced a copy of a minute as Follows. " Then is recorded the minute of authority from the Quarterly Meeting and the names of the committee- Edward Coggeshall Eleazar Iliatt, Jacob lockett. Gideon Frazier, John Pegg, Rebecca Thornburg, Margaret Benbow, Mary Harris and Phobe Hinshaw. Charles Baldwin was appointed clerk for the day, and a month later was made perma nent clerk. He is grandfather of William Baldwin, Dr. M. F. Baldwin and Sanford T. Baldwin, all of whom now live in Marion, and also of the wife of Rey. Alpheus Trueblood, who was formerly pastor of the Marion Friends church. The clerk for the day of the women's meeting modestly refrained from recording her name, but at the next meeting Charity Benbow was appointed permanent clerk. The Following persons were appointed on the various committees that were made up at this, the first Monthly Meeting session in the county : Ephraim Overman. Jesse Thomas, Nathan Morris, Laae Elliott, Benjamin Knight, Eunice Hockett, Christian Knight, William Ballinger, Thomas Harvey, Eli Overman, Aaron Hill, Axum Newby, Richard Jones, Maris Howell, Giney Ballinger, Elizabeth Small, Hannah Thomas, Lydia Lamb, Rachel Elliott, Lydia Thomas, Polly Overman, Hannah Jones, Sarah Ballinger, Susannah Baldwin, Elizabeth Rush, Rachel Knight and Coilah Morris. This list of names shows that the members of the meeting lived not only at Marion, but southward as far as Fairmount, and that in the short space of seven years all the families represented by these nantes had come from other parts of the country, entered and cleared farms all the way Trom Marion to Fairmount via Jonesboro and begun the work that their descendants would take up and carry forward.
Ilow suggestive are these names! Ephraim Overman was five years younger than his brother Eli, and is the father of the late George Overman and Huldah Carey, and grandfather of Barclay J. Overman, who now lives in Marion. Eli Overman and his wife, Polly (Thomas)
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
Overman, are the parents of Stephen, John, Jese, Ephraim, Joel and Rachel Overman. The latter married Ephraim Smith and is the mother of Ansel R. and Clarkson D. Smith. John Overman and Am Metracken Overman were the parents of Anderson, David Daniel and Clarkson D Overman, all so well known in the county. Joel and Mary (Smith Overman Were the parents of Sarah Ann Lindley M. Istae S. and Allen d. Overman, and the former married Joseph R. Small, and Luella Wade, Otto Small, Viola Small, Mary Leapley and Millie Wimpy are their children living at Marion. Jesse Thomas, son of JJohn and Lydia Thomas, and father of Eli Thomas, who still lives at the age of eighty oght years, married Hannah Cox, and they were the parents of eight children. Nathan Morris is the father of Sarah Baldwin, living at Fair mount, and grandfather of Edgar M. Baldwin, editor of the Fairmontut Vores. The limits of this chapter forbid the memion of more who are descendants of those who organized the first Friends churches in the county, and as pioneers in a wilderness endured the hardshops incident to clearing the Forests and left to their posterity examples worthy of imitation. If a list of all their descendants were given it would include a large part of the population of the county today.
The first session of the new Monthly Meeting was characterized by two items of business that were frequent occurrences in these days a marriage proposal and a complaint against a member. Benjamin Ben bow and Mary Morris gave notice that they intended marriage with each other and Isaac Elliott and Benjamin Knight were appointed to inquire into the young man's clearness of other marriage engagements, and whether there were any hindering cause, and Bunier Hockett and Chris tian Knight to inquire in a similar way as to the young woman. The next month the committees reported nothing to hinder, and Jesse Thomas. Joshua Small, Eunice Hockett and Christian Knight were appointed to attend the marriage, ser that good order was preserved and that a mar riage certificate was prepared and signed and given to the recorder of marriage certificates to be transcribed in the book kept for that purpose. By reference to this book, on page one we read that the marriage occurred December 19, 1832. and that Benjamin Benhow was a son of John and Charity Benbow, and Mary Morris was a daughter of Thomas and Sarah Morris, both deceased at the time of the marriage. The wit- nesses who signed the marriage certificate were: John Thomas, Wil- liam Ballinger, Barnaba Bogue, Lydia Lamb, Rachel Elliott. Christian Knight, Sarah Ballinger, Giney Ballinger, Renben Small, Joshua Small, John Benbow, Charity Benbow, Aaron Benbow, Ceilah Morris, Rachel Moorman, Thomas Morris, Benjamin Knight, Eli Overman, Jesse Thomas, Moses Rich, Hannah, Thomas and Eunice Hockett. These marriage records are accurate and reliable, and it sometimes happens that they are useful in establishing the rights of heirs to inheritance of the property of their ancestors.
The complaint was against a woman whose name will not be given here "for telling an untruth against her neighbor." Maris flowell, Giney Ballinger and Elizabeth Small were appointed to "treat" with her. Two months later they reported "little satisfaction" and in the men's minutes it is recorded that " women request assistance in a difli- «ult ease, " and Aaron Hill, Matthew Winslow, Jane Small, Nancy Hill, and Eunice Hockett constituted a new committee to treat with her further. At the next meeting it was reported that the offending sister had made an offering in writing, "condemming her misconduct, which was read and accepted." Complaints were very frequently made against members, and it is a matter of surprise to the reader of the
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