USA > Indiana > Rush County > Centennial history of Rush County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 3
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HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
pleasant dreams of the possible future of her offspring. Here the gallant youth wooed and won his dusky bride, and enjoyed the perfect bliss, the satisfying rapture of knowing that the heart of her who is dearer to him than life is all his own. Here, the boys threw the tomahawk, wrestled, ran, and engaged in various athletic sports, to
fit them for their future career in life. Hundreds of beech trees near the encampment bear the numerous scars inflicted by the stroke of the tomahawk. On many trees are outlined the figures of men or animals; but the most characteristic memento was the scalp tree. It was a large, tall tree on whose smooth bark was recorded the number of scalps taken. The number was over thirty; the marks were one above another, beginning about two feet from the ground and running up twenty or twenty- five feet. The emblem for a man was a round skulleap: that for a woman, the cap surmounted by a roll (to rep- resent twisted hair ) ; that for a child was a broad, horizon- tal line. This tree was a great curiosity to strangers, and was calculated to excite great interest, as it was not only the memorial of the hard fonght battle, but also of the lonely cabin, surprised at the dead hour of night, and all its inmates ruthlessly butchered. The tree is no longer to be seen: it was prostrated by a violent wind many years since, much to my regret.
CRAFTY AND BOASTFUL INDIAN WARRIOR
"Personally, Ben Davis was a large and powerful Indian warrior, a deadly foe to the whites; and he had frequently led his braves on raids into the dark and bloody ground-the debatable name for Kentucky. In most of the battles for the possession of the present states of Ohio and Indiana, he had taken part. He was true to his friends, implacable to his foes, fond of fire water, and when under its influence, regardless of his surroundings, would boast of his prowess, and the number of scalps he had taken. In short, he was a representative man of his
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race, a fair type of the brave, crafty and boastful Indian warrior.
"After the defeat of the Indians at Tippecanoe, they were compelled to sell their lands and again move west- ward. But old Ben Davis, although well aware that he was looked upon with dislike and suspicion by the white settlers, still occasionally revisited his former hunting grounds. In the year 1820, he had encamped on Blue creek, some three miles from Brookville. He had been there, perhaps, a week, daily visiting the town and drinking too much whisky. One day, in the Widow Adair's tavern, he was boasting of his bloody deeds, unmindful of the angry glances of the crowd around him, and, among other things, related how he, with his band, surprised a lonely settler in Kentucky, killing him with all his family except one boy, who happened to be a short distance from the cabin when attacked, and who, although hotly pursued, eluded his enemies and escaped. Now, in that crowded bar-room there was one intensely interested listener, a stern man, who heard from the lips of the old chieftain the particulars of the story of his fam- ily's massacre; for he was that flying boy who had saved his life by fleetness of foot when all his kindred fell. Without a word he left the room. The next day Ben Davis did not make his appearance in Brookville; but it excited but little remark, for he was erratic in his move- ments. The second day, some one passing his camp, found the old chief cold in death, with a bullet-hole in his forehead and his pipe fallen by his side, for he had been sitting by his fire, smoking. when he received his sudden message to visit the happy hunting-grounds of the In- dian's paradise. It was a fitting death for so fierce a spirit, for though he had escaped the whistling shot and trenchant steel in many a battle, he finally fell a victim to private vengeance. Public opinion, while unanimous as to the author of the deed, recognized the terrible provo- cation and justified the act, the more readily as many had
3
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lost friends by the hands of the red man. No judicial investigation was ever had, and Mr. Young still held a respectable standing in society."
TRACES OF THE MOUND BUILDERS
While not numerically so evident in Rush county as in some other sections of Indiana there are distinct evi- dences of the presence here in that dim prehistoric per- iod. the date of which archaeologists have not definitely fixed. of the Mound Builders, a mysterious race which preceded the Indian occupancy of this country. Several burial "mounds" formerly were visible in Rush county. particularly in the southern part of the county, but with the clearing of the forests and the cultivation of the soil most of these have been leveled and in some instances are known merely as neighborhood traditions. Years ago there was still quite evident a considerable mound in the northeast quarter of Section 21, Township 14, Range 9. in Posey township, that in the time of the carly settlement of the county is said to have been 106 feet in diameter and fifteen feet in height and connected by a sort of a ditch with a smaller mound to the northeast. Many years ago the mound was covered with a heavy growth of beech tim- ber, but with the felling of the timber and the yearly plowing of the ground the monument of a prehistoric people has gradually assumed almost a level with the sur- rounding land. Back in the '80s Louis J. Offutt, then owner of the land. dug into the larger mound. near the center, and found parts of several skeletons, copper bands encircling the bones of the arms, wrists and ankles, bone beads and two curiously perforated pieces of jawbone with a single tusk-like tooth. The perforations were ent through the bone into the hollow of the tusk and gave it somewhat the appearance of a whistle. but its purpose was not quite evident to those who examined it. Several other such mounds have been explored in this county with somewhat similar results in the way of unearthing relics
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of that ancient period. Forty years ago there was such a mound explored on the old Gary farm, also in Posey township, and in that were disclosed numerous bits of pottery, a considerable quantity of beads of a varie- gated sort and the skeleton of a gigantic man.
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CHAPTER III EARLY SETTLEMENT
"History has a great office: to make the past intel- ligible to the present, for the guidance of the future." There is a certain beauty in cold facts. While the full story of the wonderful romance which must be insepar- ably connected with the remarkable development that has marked the progress of man in the favored region com- posed of Rush county never adequately can be told, there may be presented in these pages certain details of fact and circumstance that will preserve for the future some narrative of the doings of those hardy and courageous men and women who a century and more ago left behind them the comparative comforts of the established com- munities of the east and came out here to erect new homes amid conditions that would have appalled all save the stoutest hearts. And it is to such a narrative that this chapter shall be devoted.
From an almost impenetrable forest, apparently in- hospitable to all save the savage aboriginals who roamed the fastnesses of those densely wooded stretches, the region comprised within the borders of the county has been converted into one of the choicest garden spots of all the great Midwest country ; and all practically within the century of progress which this volume commemorates. No more wonderful romance ever has been written than that which has been wrought into actuality here within these few generations, and to that noble pioneer stock that made possible the full measure of social and civic development now accepted as mere commonplace here- about, all honor is due; all honor is paid.
"THE LURE OF THE FARTHER HORIZON"
The basic elements of the population of Rush county have had representation here since the days of the begin-
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ning of an organic government in this section. The grandfathers and the great-grandfathers of the men and women who are now accounted leaders in the social and civic life of this community were the men who brought the community into being; the men who leveled the for- ests, who founded the towns and villages and wrought here that wonder of human progress which we call civili- zation, wresting from an arrested and non-progressive race one of the fairest and most productive spots on the globe. The men who settled this region were men of wide vision, men possessed of the true pioneering spirit, men to whom the lure of the farther horizon was irresistible, and the work that they did here was well done.
The foundations they laid were broad and deep and it is gratifying to note that their descendants in the main have seen fit here to remain, erecting on those founda- tions a superstructure of such proportions as to carry far the name and the fame of Rush county.
ERECTION OF RUSH COUNTY
By the treaty at St. Marys, October 2 to 6, 1818, the land which now comprises Rush county was ceded to the United States by the Delaware Indians. Immediately the government surveyors began their work, and by April 29, 1820, it was completed, and the land was opened to buyers October 1, 1820, at the Brookville land office. But even prior to this time squatters had gone into the new coun- try. Probably the first of these was Enoch Russell. This man lived in Franklin county, where the town of Sommerset (now the town of Laurel) was laid out in 1818. In the fall of that year, a few days after the treaty with the Indians was effected, or as soon, at least, as the news reached him, Russell and a man named Zach Col- lins went out into the new purchase and put up a cabin in order that they might hunt through the winter. It had been usual for citizens along Whitewater river to go out to hunt in the Indian land, in what is now Rush
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county, prior to the signing of the treaty, but this cabin was probably the first permanent structure erected in the county. It was built about one and one-half miles north of the present town of New Salem, and during the first winter was used only as a hunting cabin. In the spring of the year, however, Russell moved his family in. and Collins built himself another cabin not far distant. In the fall of the same year, 1819. Isaac Williams built a cabin near by, as did Isaac Phipps and one Merryman. All this region was then known as "Congress land," and those who moved into it before the land sales did so for hunting purposes. When the Brookville office opened in the fall of 1820, John Smith entered the land on which the Russell cabin stood, and when Smith died, his heirs sold the property to General Robinson.
COMMUNAL DEBT TO DOCTOR ARNOLD
The people of Rush county are indebted in large measure for the information which is available concern- ing the early settlement of the county to the writings of Dr. John Arnold. In a series of twenty-six papers en- titled "Reminiscences of An Old Settler," which were addressed in 1875 and 1876 to F. T. Drebert, editor of The Republican, he sketched with a vivid pen the life, habits and enstoms of the rugged pioneers, and gave in- valuable glimpses into the social conditions of the day. His descriptions of the vegetation, wild animals, reptiles, and general appearance of the region in its nearly native state are invaluable, as they make us of this generation pause to consider the immense debt of gratitude which is owing to our forefathers for laying the foundations of the substantial social fabrie which constitutes our pres- ent communal life. The Indianapolis Sentinel bestowed the following compliment upon Doctor Arnold after ro- viewing a few of his contributions in 1875.
"Many of the newspapers of the state have availed themselves of the personal knowledge of men now living
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to publish interesting reminiscences of the olden times during the past year. Among these, a series just begun in the Rushville Republican and written by J. Arnold, promises unusual interest. In his first paper Mr. Arnold expresses a tender and true patriotism and home love, which in these migratory days of unrest are refreshing to find. * * * Such sentiments do honor to the man, and such men carry a pure element into the stream of social life. His well written account of the retributive death of the great Indian chief, Ben Davis, constitutes one of those passages in genuine history wherein the truth surpasses fiction."
Doctor Arnold came to the family home on Ben Davis creek before the state government had authorized the erection of the county of Rush, and of him it was said in The Republican * *
"He is an old resident of the county and possesses a rich fund of information relat- ing to its early history. The scholarly culture and liter- ary taste displayed in his productions render them both instructive and entertaining."
CONCISE VIEW OF EARLY DAYS
There are some parts of Doctor Arnold's reminis- cences that, while they provide a few moments of pleas- urable reading, do not pertain definitely to the subject in hand, and for this reason, extracts are made to present to the reader a concise view of the early settlement of this locality.
"One important factor in the early development of the material resources and the consequent prosperity of Rush county, was that the land was not bought up by thousands of acres by non-resident speculators, who quietly waited, in their comfortable homes, for their lands to be made valuable by the labor of the actual set- tlers, who always must suffer loss and inconvenience by these tracts interfering in the establishing of schools, making of roads, and in various other ways. The settlers
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were generally men of small or moderate means, who had the courage to invade the grand primeval forest. for the purpose of hewing out a home for themselves and their children. Most of them were young, energetic, indus- trious, self-reliant, the very best representatives of their several states : for while the timid and the weak remained in the old settlements, these bravely dared the hardships of the western wilds. These men, while showing the gen- eral characteristics of their native states, also possessed marked individuality. The consciousness of power en- abled each to think, to act and to work, according to the dictates of his own conscience and judgment. The cool and calculating Yankee was found side by side with the impulsive and generous Kentuckian ; the proud Virginian beside the plodding Pennsylvania Dutchman; the quiet and peaceable Quaker from the Carolinas by side of the wild and reckless Tennesseean, and there an Englishman or an Irishman. From the gradual amalgamation of all these different and strong elements has resulted the pres- ent moral, intelligent and prosperous community. Allow me. just here, to express my firm conviction and opinion, arrived at from considerable travel and observation but more from reading. It is this: That although there are undoubtedly some localities possessed of a richer soil, some of a more salubrious atmosphere, some of a climate far better and in every respect preferable to ours, some that have more and stronger springs, some that have a higher standard of education. but when we come to sum up the several advantages of each. we find that Rush county, with her soil. her timber. her water, her nearness to market. and above all in her high status in religions and intellectual matters, is excelled by no part of the
United States or perhaps the wide world.
Having procured board at Claypool's tavern [Conners- ville] the next thing was to get a backwoodsman to act as guide in the new purchase. Having found an old hunter well skilled in woodcraft and understanding how
*
*
old's Home
shille
Walter Court J. W. England First Home i Am
VIEWS OF VARIOUS HOMES OF DR. JOHN ARNOLD
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to run the section lines, my father, Uncle Richard and John Houghton turned their faces westward and soon crossed the old boundary line, which was just this side of William's creek on the east side of what is now the Was- ham farm. Beyond this was the wilderness unbroken save by the squatter and hunter's cabin. My father, though eminently domestic and social in his feeling, yet had an exalted love and admiration for the wild beauties of nature, and his heart was filled with pleasurable emo- tions as he traversed the mazes of the virgin forest. None but those who saw the country in those early days can form an adequate conception of the wild luxuriance of vegetation, covering every foot of the teeming soil, and showing its fertility. In addition to the heavy growth of lofty forest trees, the dense and almost impassable under- growth of spice brush, pawpaw and other shrubs, was seen a profusion of weeds and flowers, of a hundred va- rieties, which have now disappeared, trod out by the foot of civilization. These sights produced a still more pow- erful impression from the fact of his just having come from an old country, where the rich exuberance of na- ture's products had been toned down by the hand of taste and subdued by cultivation. They spent several days traveling through the pathless woods, though with no uncertain steps, for their guide knew his business well. Generally, at night, they found a hunter's hospitable door open to receive them; when they did not, they built their fire, cooked their supper of game, spread their blankets and slept the sound sleep of wearied men, undisturbed by the hooting of the owls, the shrill scream of the wild cat, the long dismal howl of the solitary wolf or any of the other voices of the nocturnal forest. Passing the head- waters of Ben Davis creek they crossed Flatrock, Little Blue and Big Blue rivers, then turning south twenty or more miles, recrossed these streams and struck Little Flatrock, which they followed until somewhere near the present Flatrock church, when they went north to Ben
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Davis ereck, where they found two squatters, Samuel Gruell and Weir Cassady. They put up at Gruell's and spent a day or two in looking around in that vicinity. My father was delighted with the appearance of the land ; it was rich, well timbered, well watered by good springs and sufficiently rolling for surplus water to run off readily. Near Gruell's cabin, were the numerous though now dilapidated wigwams of an Indian village, once the headquarters of that fierce old Delaware chief, Ben Davis. Near this village were half a dozen springs of the purest water; indeed in selecting a site for their villages, good water seems to be the most important consideration in their location.
CREATION OF A NEW HOME
"My father decided this should be the future home of his family in the new world: he took the numbers of the land so as to enter it, as soon as the sales were opened at Brookville. The lands of the old purchase had been sold at Cincinnati. He also agreed to pay Gruell for his cabin and clearing, about half an acre, enclosed with a brush fence, engaging boarding with him, whenever it suited him to be out here previous to the sales. John Houghton selected a quarter, half a mile south of my father's, eighty acres of which is now owned by G. W. Looney and eighty by Josiah Alger. I may here state that all these arrangements were carried out, and that Gruell entered land west of Flatrock which he after- wards traded to JJohn Parsons for a farm on :ofan's Fork, in Whitewater, where he resided many years, then sold out and went to the Wabash, where he died. Matthew Parsons now owns the farm of his father, JJohn Parsons. Weir Cassady was on the land entered by Rans Byrd Green, about half a mile from Gruell's. Cassady entered land southwest of Rushville, where his widow still resides with her son. Simon. * * % The sale of lands did not open until the first part of October [1820] and it was
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now the latter part of August, so that my father had to wait some time. SK * That fall my father had a story and a half, hewed log house built with two rooms below and one above; the plank for the partition, the floors, doors, etc., were bought on Williams creek and were hauled out by James Alexander. This was the first plank brought on to Ben Davis creek. The common cabin was built without plank and without nails, and the chim- ney without brick or lime. The cabin was constructed of round logs, notched down at the corners, so as to leave but little space between, and this was partially closed by chunks firmly driven in, and then every crevice was filled and plastered over with the daubing of tough clay: this when dry effectually excluded the air and cold. At one end the logs were cut out so as to make the fireplace. This opening was shut up by building three sides of a rectangle of split timbers, the fourth being the opening into the room ; next a solid wall of tempered clay was built inside of and against the timbers; this was carried up four or five feet, constituting the fireplace; above this was the stick chimney, constructed of sticks split square, from one to one and a half inches in diameter and gradually and often gracefully contracting until it reached the proper height. As fast as the sticks were laid in position it was carefully plastered inside and out; this prevented the sticks from being ignited by the roaring, rushing column of flame, usually ascending from the burning logs in the vast fireplace. The roof was made of clapboards, usually four or five feet long; the ends of these rested on logs about three feet apart, gradually ascending like steps. The joints or opening between these boards being covered with other boards, and being kept in place by weight poles, formed a roof that would keep all dry beneath it for many a day. The floors were formed of timbers split and then hewed smooth, and being from three to four inches thick. these puncheons rested on logs, hewed on the upper side. A very strong though not
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a very tight floor. The doors were made of the same kind of material but thinner, and held in place by cross pieces fastened on with wooden pins. The hinges and the latch were also of wood, so that there was no iron, plank or brick found in one of these primitive residences. The window was an aperture of about eighteen inches square, sometimes closed by a piece of an old sheet or some other substitute for glass. Now look inside and see the bed- steads, table and stools, manufactured by the pioneer himself, by the aid of ax, saw, augur and drawing knife, and then look at the active, energetic woman, surrounded by half a dozen or more healthy, noisy children, engaged in her multiform domestic labors, and you have a rough picture that may help you to more just conceptions of the actual life of those carly settlers in the wilderness, who have hewed out homes for themselves and subdued the forest to the purposes of agriculture.
NOBLE MEMORIAL TO DOCTOR RUSH
"Rushville was laid out by W. B. Laughlin and others, in 1822, and the county was organized in 1822, both being named in honor of the celebrated physician and teacher, Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, through the recommendation of his admiring pupil and devoted friend, Dr. William B. Laughlin. Of the latter gentleman I have many pleasant recollections, for to him I owe my first introduction to the cultivation of the rich, though arid fields of classic literature, and I hope in some future paper to jot down these reminiscences of my early friend and teacher."
A brief sketch of one of these pioneers is given by Doctor Arnold in his seventeenth paper, and is here incor- porated to show what manner of men the first settlers wore.
"JJacob Dewey, a squatter on the fraction north of the burial ground on Josiah Alger's place, was a rich study. He was as poor a man as could be, but always
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happy, always cheerful, always patient under the sharp and often well merited reproaches of his better half, who would expatiate on his indolence, improvidence and reck- lessness in language more forcible than polite. He came from Fayette county, but what spot claimed the honor of his birth I know not, but presume he was a Yankee, from the consummate skill displayed in the working of a bovine team. A pair of bulls was his most valuable and indeed almost his only worldly property. With these he rolled the logs in the clearings, or with a rude sled hauled the rails for the fences of his neighbors and thus eked out a livelihood mainly obtained by his dog and gun, for he was a skilled hunter. He was a wild looking fellow, scarcely ever wearing anything on his head, except nature's covering of long, tangled, tawny locks; generally barefooted, with his buckskin breeches rolled up to his knees and his shirt sleeves rolled up above his elbows. The furniture of his cabin was scanty and of the rudest description. The walls were ornamented with the skins of wild animals shot or trapped by him, but the crowning ornament was the skin of a tremendous yellow rattle- snake with eighteen or twenty rattles, so well stuffed that it represented the living reptile with startling effect. By the side of it hung the claws and head of a bald eagle. But, whatever might be the poverty of his surroundings, his table was always bountifully supplied with the best of venison, wild turkey, etc. He did considerable work for my father; fenced and cleared one field eighteen inches and under. Perhaps I had better explain the technical term "eighteen inches and under," for fear the young of this generation may not clearly comprehend what it implies. In this kind of clearing the brush is grubbed, all the trees eighteen inches or less in circum- ference two feet from the ground are cut down, the logs chopped and the whole piled and burned, putting it in a good state for a woods pasture when seeded with blue- grass. Sometimes, however, in addition to the above
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