Counties of LaGrange and Noble, Indiana : historical and biographical, Part 18

Author: F.A. Battey & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : Battey & Co.
Number of Pages: 976

USA > Indiana > Noble County > Counties of LaGrange and Noble, Indiana : historical and biographical > Part 18
USA > Indiana > LaGrange County > Counties of LaGrange and Noble, Indiana : historical and biographical > Part 18

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

By 1837, the land was practically all taken up by actual settlers and spec- lators, and was held at $5 per acre. The most efficient aid in the development of the country has been the building of the Michigan Southern Railway, through one of the early trading points, White Pigeon. At that time land at once rose from $10 to $20 per acre. Since then the advance in prosperity has been steady and marked. The population has gradually increased and em- braces, besides those already named, many men of wealth and social importance. In politics the township has been steadily Republican. The records show the

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following persons to have served as Justices of the Peace, though the list may not be complete : Alfred Martin, 1841-46; Charles Dwight, 1844-49 ; Da- vid Elmore, 1844-49 ; H. B. Ostrander, 1849-54 ; Josiah B. Cook, 1851-52; C. W. Wilson, 1852-68 ; John W. McIntyre, 1854-58 ; C. W. Chapin, 1867- 77 ; James Galloway, 1869-73 ; James Haggerty, 1877 ; Edwin Owen, 1878.

Schools were a matter to which the earliest comers gave their attention. Until the sale of the school lands, the settlers paid their teachers directly, which was not a severe tax, as the usual rate was about $1 a week. Clarissa Munger was the first school-ma'am, and gathered the young ideas at a log schoolhouse on the land of Nathaniel Callahan in Section 17. Later, a school was started at the village, in 1835, at Marion, and, in 1836 or 1837, another south of the river at Nicholas Sidener's, where a graveyard now is. In the west the earliest were the Marshall Schoolhouse on the Vistula road, the Bethel on Section 17, and a log house on the shore of Stone Lake.

There are now in the township ten neat frame houses, valued at $6,000, which are attended by 410 pupils. Eleven teachers are employed at an aver- age rate of $1.50 for men and $1.37 for women. In 1880, some $2,500 were expended for tuition.

The history of the churches is another matter intimately connected with the lives of the people. A Methodist Episcopal society yet exists at Van Buren, which was organized in 1834 by Charles Best, an Ohio exhorter. There were about five members, including Esther and John Olney and Nancy Calla- han. The first preacher in the township was Christopher Cory, a Presbyterian minister, then of White Pigeon. In 1848, the Methodist Church at Van Buren was erected, and has since been used as a union meeting-house.

In the west, the earliest religious meetings were held at the house of Jason and George Jones, north of the old Bethel Schoolhouse, in 1841 or 1842, Prayer-meetings were held there, and at the time of the Millerite excitement they were largely attended. It was in "about 1843" that the world was to finish up its career, and the year before, 1842, Elders Speers, Stalker and Burns, of " somewhere about " Orland, commenced revival meetings in the old Callahan Schoolhouse. A very exciting and memorable time followed. The meetings lasted six weeks, and about forty persons were converted. The Bap- tist Church in Van Buren was organized in 1858, with fifteen members. Since then they have steadily maintained their meetings, and have since received some forty members; but, owing to constant changes in residence, the society is hardly more numerous now than at first. In 1864, a Methodist society was organized at the Marshall Schoolhouse by George W. Newton.

The Protestant Methodist society in Van Buren was organized by Fred Soy about 1851, with twenty-five or thirty members, as the result of an exten- sive revival. About 1869, an " Abright" or Evangelist Church was organ- ized and a church built on the Defiance road, two miles east of the village, at a cost of about $2,400. There were about fifty members in 1881.

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HISTORY OF LA GRANGE COUNTY.

The only county officers the township has furnished besides Coroner Belote have been Gabriel T. McIntyre, who was a resident of the township a year or two before his election as Sheriff, in 1853, and Seldon Martin, who was elected a Commissioner in 1837.

' The township has suffered very little from crime. There is a remembrance of one case of horse stealing, in 1844 or 1845, from Henry Albert. The free- dom of the people of late from these marauders is no doubt due to the organ- ization of a Protective Association, September, 1866. This was re-organized for ten years in 1876, and had, in 1881, sixty-five members, and $135 in the treasury, devoted to the capture of criminals. The association is so organized that a strong body of men can be collected, at any point, in an exceedingly short time. An annual meeting of the members is required each year, in Sep- tember. In 1880-81, the officers were Frank Galloway, President ; John McDonald, Treasurer ; and William Bycroft, Secretary.

The saddest tragedy in the annals of the county took place, singularly enough, on the quiet, charming beach of Stone Lake, where one would expect nothing but the ripple of the waves, the songs of the birds, and the laughter of children, which this mad crime so rudely disturbed. Addie Dwight, a charm- ing young lady of eighteen years, who was admired and respected by all who met her, the youngest daughter of Charles Dwight, was teaching at the Lake Schoolhouse and took her pupils down to the lake at noon, on June 22, 1871, to give them a promised frolic on the beach. While here, unconscious of any danger, Chauncey Barnes, a young man living near this place, in Elkhart County, drove up, accompanied by a young woman of White Pigeon, and asked for an interview with the school-teacher. They walked away together for a short distance. Barnes had, for some time, been paying marked attentions to Miss Dwight, but she had declined to receive his company, and his attempts at a reconciliation had been in vain. He took his disappointment very much to heart, and, suffering from jealousy, he went to see her this day for a last attempt, and madly resolved to end her life and his, if he could not win her. As the children came toward the two, seated together at some dis- tance, a pistol shot was heard, and Addie was seen, with her hands raised, beg- ging for her life. But a second bullet was sent crashing through her head, and she fell dead at the feet of her lover and murderer. Barnes then emptied the revolver into his own head, and when the neighbors came to the scene, though bleeding horribly, he was re-loading his revolver, determined to take his own life. The murderer was confined in the county jail, and for some time was at the point of death, but finally recovered. At his trial, the defense was insanity, but though ably defended, he was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to the penitentiary for life. He is still confined there. This causeless crime, which so cruelly blotted out an innocent young life, aroused great feeling throughout the county, and much sympathy was expressed for the victim, and indignation toward the murderer. This latter, however, was softened by his attempted

Nicholas Sidener

VAN BUREN TP.

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suicide, and the sorrow of his family. It was one of those events which, though having a tinge of romance in history and stories of love and sorrow, are too terribly tragic in the real life of one's own generation.

Since that time, the history of the township has afforded little of interest. In 1880, according to the census of that year, there were ten residents of the town- ship, each of whom was seventy-five years of age, or over, their names being, with their respective ages: Ann Brockway, seventy-eight; Robert Smith, seventy- six ; Maria Hoff, seventy-five ; Elizabeth Smith, seventy-five ; John H. Hoof- nagle, eighty-three ; Elizabeth Dayton, seventy-five ; David Seybert, eighty- one ; Henry Young, seventy-five ; Lydia Young, seventy-five ; Andrew Hen- kle, eighty-five.

Van Buren is the only village, and Scott is the only post office in the township, and these are one and the same. The original plat of the village was owned by the Martin brothers-Seldon, Phylammen and Alfred-who bought 280 acres in this section of the Government in December, 1833. In 1837, the village was surveyed by Delevan Martin. The plat was in April, 1844, enlarged by an addition at the north by Nicholas N. Sixby. Before the plat was surveyed, the enterprises were established which have since been the chief feature of the town-the lumber and flouring mills. The Martins built a saw-mill upon the fine water-power which the Pigeon affords at this point, in the summer of 1834, and, during the next, erected a flouring-mill. The mosquitoes were formidable at that time, and it is said that the Martins could not sleep until they constructed a platform up in the trees, where the troublesome insects would be less numerous. The old mills have, of course, disappeared, and, since then, mills have been put in, capable of turning out, in the palmy days of Van Buren, 15,000 barrels of flour per year, and 350,000 feet of lumber. But at the present time, little more than custom work is done.

James Haggerty, who was, in 1881, still living in Van Buren, came to the place in 1835, having exchanged his land in Michigan for mill property. Mr. Haggerty was originally from New Jersey, where he lived in the town of New . Brunswick, just across the street from old Commodore Vanderbilt, whom the old pioneer remembers gratefully as a kind neighbor and generous patron. His brother, Michael Haggerty, was here in 1837, but removed, and returned in 1855, since when he has been a resident of the village, and for some time Justice of the Peace. In 1836, Pierce built a blacksmith shop, and was rewarded for his enterprise by being elected, in 1837, the first Justice. Thus the village smithy became the hall of justice. Harvey B. Ostrander, about the same time, established himself in the cooper business, one Crary built a wagon-shop, and C. Z. Barnes, carpenter, came to town. L. D. Brooks built a house on Lot 5, in Sixby's Addition, and kept a tavern. A physician, Dr. Sidney Cobb, lived in the village about a year, then dying, he was succeeded by Dr. William Fox in 1838. His brothers, George and James Fox, were the shoemakers of the town. John Rank and father, Joel H. Sanford, Kellogg

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HISTORY OF LA GRANGE COUNTY.

Munger and Miner were among the residents. Thus it will be seen that Van Buren in its early days was a flourishing and promising settlement, and would have fulfilled all its early promise had it not been for the perverse running of the railway too far to the north. A log house, owned by Pierce, vacated in 1837, and donated to the township, was the first schoolhouse in the village. There is now a two-story frame building, 26x40, devoted to this purpose.

In 1836, the Martins started a distillery in a large log building near the mill, and ran the establishment until after 1840, when the removal of the Indians terminated the greater demand for a distillery. Another one was run for some time after, at the Hart place, below the mills. A post office was established at Van Buren under the name of Scott, in 1836, and was upon the line between White Pigeon and Fort Wayne. Clark was the first Postmaster. A frame church was built about 1858, and is still in use by all the denomina- tions. In 1881, there were two stores in the village, owned by Frank Gal- loway and Dr. W. B. Grubb, who has practiced medicine here since 1865. Dr. A. Toms is another physician at this place. William Allison, a resident of the village since 1867, and of the township since 1860, has held the posi- tion of Trustee for ten years in succession, and, in 1881, was commencing another series of years. He has proved one of the most efficient officers in the county.

CHAPTER X.

BY R. H. RERICK.

EDEN TOWNSHIP-PHYSICAL FEATURES-THE FIRST SETTLERS-INCIDENTS OF THEIR LIFE IN THE WOODS-ERECTION OF MILLS, STORES, ETC .- VALUABLE STATISTICS-THE " HAW PATCH "-TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS-THE GROWTH OF EDUCATION AND RELIGION-THE SYCAMORE LITERARY SOCIETY.

T HE southeastern quarter of Eden Township is included in that broad area of fertile country which the early settlers called the Haw Patch. About one Congressional township of land in La Grange and Noble Counties is embraced in this tract, which is distinguished throughout by a rich soil, freedom from marshes, level, or very gently rolling surface, and a perfect adaptability to successful agriculture. At the opening of the country to settlement, it was densely covered by beautiful forests, in which sugar maple and black walnut were most abundant, and remarkably free from small growths, except hawthorn and wild grapes. The abundance of the hawthorn was the most striking peculiarity of the region, and gave rise to the name by which it is so widely known. Now that the forests and the hawthorns have vanished, the region has taken on another style of beauty, and is made doubly attractive by splendidly kept farms and elegant residences, where every comfort possible has taken the place of the hardships of log-cabin days.

This is the Eden of the township. But to the north and west lie the great marshes which are the sources of the two forks of the Little Elkhart. These marshes furnish a great deal of hay, and are the home of an abundance of game, but are, nevertheless, a dreary waste, and it is likely irreclaimable for some time to come, at least. Persistent efforts are being made to drain them, but the continual drying of the country in general will probably prove to be the most efficient aid in their improvement.

To the west of the Big Marsh lie a few sections of good land, but with a soil which contains more clay than that of the Haw Patch.

No lakes or streams of any value are found within the township.

There is some dispute about the first settlement of the township, but the account here given is believed to be the correct one. This is, that the Latta family were the first in Eden. In 1830, Robert Latta, who lived near Urbana, Ohio, came to Goshen to bring medicine and stores to his son, Johnston Latta, who was then a practicing physician in that settlement. While at Goshen, the elder Latta heard from surveyors who had been through La Grange County of the fine Haw Patch land, and he visited it on his return, and it seemed to justify all the praise he had heard. He had a good farm in Ohio, under cultivation,

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HISTORY OF LA GRANGE COUNTY.

but he longed for new forests to conquer. Accordingly, in the spring of 1832, leaving his Ohio home, he came to the Haw Patch, with his wife and daughter, Achsah. His log house was built on Section 26. In the fall of the same year, William McConnell, of Ohio, settled in Section 35, south of the Latta home, with his wife and sons, James, Alexander, Thomas C. and William A., and a daughter, Mary Ann, who was married November 17, 1835, to Isaac Spencer. The McConnells had a remarkable leaning for public affairs, and since then there have been few matters of public interest in and about the Haw Patch in which they did not have a prominent part. The other well-known family which preceded them was not less public-spirited, and, as was very natural, a rivalry soon arose. There were special reasons for this. Latta was a Whig, and McConnell a Democrat ; the former was a Methodist, the latter a Presbyterian. The contest early showed itself in the purchase of land, and the result was that each was the owner of about eighteen eighty-acre tracts, which was con- siderably more forest land than was profitable in those days. Much of it was afterward given away. Eighty acres were given as pay for one man's work for a year, and a job of rail splitting was the consideration for another considerable piece of land. In 1841, Dr. Johnston Latta moved to the Haw Patch, giving up his practice, and lived upon the old homestead until his death, in 1873, at the age of sixty-five. His widow, Martha L., still lives here, adjoining the farm of her son, James Norman Latta. The McConnells, in later years, were more prominent in Noble than La Grange County history. They have.now no liv- ing representative of their name in the township. But the family graveyard still receives, from time to time, some descendant of the old pioneer. It is a suggestive fact that this family burying-place lies just across the road from the site established for similar purposes by Robert Latta, and where he now rests. The first burial in the former yard was of Thomas C. McConnell, who died in 1836, at the age of twenty-six. Here, also, lie William McConnell, who died at his home south of Eden Chapel, April 13, 1848, aged sixty-seven ; Agnes, his wife, died in 1851, aged sixty-six ; their sons, Alexander and William A., and others of a later generation. The eldest son, James, of considerable note in Noble County history, died at Albion, June 2, 1881. In 1832, as near as can be ascertained, William Dempsey, of Ohio, and his young wife, came to the township and lived on land in Section 35. He died about thirteen years later. Early in the next year, Nehemiah Coldren, another Ohio man, settled in Sec- tion 13, and in 1837 his brother, Harvey, on the same section. Sibyl, the wife of Nehemiah, died in 1848, and he in 1871, at the age of seventy-one. Harvey Coldren died seven years later.

There also came in the spring of this year, Laban Parks, with his family, including an eight-year-old son, Harlan, who recently died upon the old farm on Section 25. Before his settlement, Laban Parks and Anthony Nelson had come over from Elkhart Prairie, where Parks had been since 1830, and viewed this country over before there were any marks of the presence of white men.

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Laban Parks died in November, 1870. A few months after Parks had settled, Anthony Nelson followed, and built his log house a short distance west, upon the Clearspring Township line. The first part of his house was built in Eden, but an addition was soon made in Clearspring. Kensell Kent, of New York, settled in 1833, and was one of the early owners of the land on which Slab- town now flourishes. He moved to Iowa, and died there in 1879. Reuben Mckeever, of Virginia, was living in 1833 on Section 27, but in later years emigrated to Iowa. During this year or the next, Samuel Curl, of Ohio, a son-in-law of Robert Latta, moved to the Haw Patch, and settled on Section 35, and his brother, John Curl, at the same time on Section 26. Samuel Curl died in 1863, and John Curl and family removed from the township. About 1834, Obed Gaines, of New York, built his cabin, in which early elections took place, a quarter of a mile north of Sycamore Corners, on the township line, but was not long a resident. He was the only settler who raised hops for sale. In October, 1834, Mrs. Elizabeth Ramsby, a widow lady, with her family, moved upon land in Section 27, where her son, John S. Ramsby, now resides. Mrs. Ramsby died upon the old homestead November 12, 1869, aged eighty years. John S. Ramsby settled here in 1835, and besides being a wealthy farmer, has become noted as an admirer of the chase. Deer and bears in the early days, and foxes and coons of later years, furnished the sport. The marsh has been an unfailing source of game. Bears, of course, have long since gone. Thirty years ago, Mr. Ramsby captured three, but since then only a straggler has now and then appeared. Deer were very numerous at the first settlement, so much so as to be troublesome. The pretty animals had a great fancy for pawing up the young wheat with their dainty hoofs, and meddling with the husked corn before it was put away. But they soon vanished before the hunt- er. Trapping in the marshes, especially of the little animal of bad repute and valuable hide, coon hunting, and following the hounds after "Reynard," have been sources of much recreation and no little profit since the first settlement . of Eden. But to return to the settlers.

On the 1st of October, 1835, John Thompson, from Ohio, reached the land upon which he has since lived. He bought his farm from Mark Cahoon, who had been upon the land long enough to make a little clear- ing, and who, after marrying Ann Modie, a member of another early fam- ily, in November, 1835, moved further west after Mr. Thompson's arrival. The price paid for this land was $4.37 per acre, a little below the average price of land partially improved. Wild land was held at double the Government price. Mr. Thompson, soon after his arrival, was called upon to administer justice as Squire, and, besides township offices, repre- sented Noble and La Grange Counties in the Lower House in 1841. In those days, the people's law-makers had to make the journey to Indianapolis on horseback, and undergo great tribulation on the road for the sake of legislative honors, at a salary of $3.00 per day. Mr. Thompson was afterward (1856-60)

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HISTORY OF LA GRANGE COUNTY.

a member of the State Senate for two terms, and has always been prominent in political affairs. James Taylor, another old settler, came with Mr. Thompson, and entered land in Section 23, where he died in 1880. His widow still lives upon the farm. William Parks, a brother of Laban, settled on Section 27 in 1835, and joined in the emigration to Iowa about fifteen years ago. Orvin Kent was at the Haw Patch in the spring of 1833, and bought land. He was here again in 1835, but did not settle permanently until 1847, after his marriage in Ohio. He then built a home upon his land in Eden, at Sycamore Corners. Mr. Kent has for a number of years lived in Clearspring, but his two places of residence are upon the town line road. Mr. Kent has always been interested in the welfare of the Haw Patch, and has done much in aid of its social and mate- rial improvement.

The whole number of householders in Eden, in the fall of 1835, was fif- teen, and the men, women and children all told numbered seventy-two.

In 1836, William Collett settled on the Haw Patch. His son, William C. Collett, was in later years prominently identified with the Granger movement in Indiana. The other son, Jacob Collett, married Anna Mary Swart, who has the distinction of being the first born in the township. They removed to Iowa. In 1837, John Denny, his wife Mary, and sons, settled on Section 35, where Mrs. Denny yet resides, at the advanced age of eighty-four.

About this time, the settlement of the region west of the marsh began. Robert Mckibben settled here in 1836, but moved West in 1850; John and Andrew Funk in 1837; in 1838, David Carr, who moved to Ligonier and died there, and Thomas Short, who still resides on Section 6. John Prough settled on Section 18 in 1842. In the same year, William H. Poyser and John Poy- ser settled in this neighborhood, but the former removed to the Haw Patch eight years later and now lives on Section 27. After 1835, the settlement of the township increased rapidly, and this department of the history will not permit any extended notice of the later comers. It is mainly in the first settlers that all feel an interest. Their comings and goings and haps and mishaps are worthy of note, while similar occurrences of to-day concern few besides those who are immediately interested.

Eden Township was organized in November, 1832. Its formation was the second division made in the county, being a subdivision of Lima Township. But this township, as the order of the Commissioners read, was to include "all that tract of territory south of Township 37 and west of the range line divid- ing Ranges 9 and 10;" that is, it included the present townships of Eden and Clearspring and ran south of Ligonier. La Grange County then included part of Noble. The election was ordered to be held at the house of John Hos- tettler, who lived near the county line, in Perry Township, on the first Monday of April, 1833, for the purpose of electing two Justices of the Peace.

Who these first officers were cannot be said from the records. Township records of that time have vanished and the county records are silent. William

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McConnell, however, is claimed to be the first Justice of the Peace. The earliest record to be found of his official acts is of the marriage of Minerva Gaines to Norman Sessions, February 8, 1835. John Thompson was elected and served as Justice a short time after he settled here.

On the 7th of May, 1833, the Commissioners made a further division of the territory, setting off that portion of Eden south of the Elkhart River as Perry Township. At a later date, all the Noble County territory was sepa- rated. At the March term, 1837, Clearspring Township was set off from Eden, and that date may be taken as the official beginning of the township as it is now defined.

In 1845, the Town Clerk, Mr. John Thompson, made an entry nunc pro tunc, and noted, as his apology, that it got out of place in copying, for no books had been provided by the Trustees, as required by the State, "until the present time, March 1, 1845." Before this the proceedings of the Trustees had been jotted down loosely, and all the notes made before 1842 were lost. On June 6, 1842, the records show the township was divided into four road districts, with Anthony Nelson, William Swartz, Silas Longcor and Andrew W. Martin as Supervisors. The elections were ordered to be held at John Thompson's. The Trustees elected in 1842 were Robert Mckibben, James Taylor and Mahlon Hutchinson. John Thompson was elected Clerk and held the place after this for four years. The Trustees were then paid $2.50 for their year's services and the Clerk $2. In 1844, there were five road districts, and a tax of 10 cents on the $100 was levied for township expenses. The Trustees of this year were John Poyser, William Collett and Laban Parks; and then followed, in 1845, Thomas Fisher, W. H. Poyser, John Denny; 1846, John Poyser, John Denny, William Collett. Thomas Short was elected Clerk that spring, and served ten years. From 1847 to 1850, it seems that William Collett, Peter Prough and Jacob D. Poyser held the trusteeship undisturbed. In 1850, Peter Prough was replaced by William Swartz. John Poyser, William Swartz and John McDevitt. were elected in 1852. At the November election of this year, the polls were located, by ballot, at the Denny Schoolhouse. For 1853-54, the Trustees were John D. Stansbury, John Thompson and James Taylor. At this time, the school fund received from the Auditor amounted to $356.70. In 1854, J. D. Stansbury, William H. Poyser and David Sutton were Trustees; 1855, J. D. Stansbury, Harlan Parks, Hiram I. Parks; 1856, Harlan and H. I. Parks and E. B. Gerber; 1857, H. I. Parks, John Poyser, James Tumbleson; 1858, H. I. Parks, William Walker, Nehemiah Coldren. ' Orvin Kent was Clerk this year. This was the last triumvirate in the trusteeship. Since then one man at a time has been found able to take care of the township business. D. B. Carr held the office in 1859 and the succession has been: James Mearl, S. S. Keim, 1865; John L. Short, 1866; John W. Lutz, 1869; Milton Rowe, 1874, William Roderick, 1878; W. L. Sipe, 1880. The Justices of the Peace since 1840, when the records begin, have been: Leonard Wolf, 1840-45; Anthony

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Counties of LaGrange and Noble, Indiana : historical and biographical, Part 18

Author: F.A. Battey & Co Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : Battey & Co. Number of Pages: 976

Author: F.A. Battey & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : Battey & Co.
Number of Pages: 976