Counties of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown, Indiana. Historical and biographical, Part 19

Author: Blanchard, Charles, fl. 1882-1900, ed. cn
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, F. A. Battey & co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Indiana > Brown County > Counties of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown, Indiana. Historical and biographical > Part 19
USA > Indiana > Monroe County > Counties of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown, Indiana. Historical and biographical > Part 19
USA > Indiana > Morgan County > Counties of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown, Indiana. Historical and biographical > Part 19

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).

155

GREGG TOWNSHIP.

Then there would be a scattering. All of the prominent early settlers who owned hogs had their individual ear-marks. Solomon Dunegan's mark was "a swallow fork in the left ear, and a slit in the right." His number was 133, showing that 132 had established before him. Mr. Foxworthy, in 1829, had a fine drove of sus scrofa. One night they were attacked by one or more bears where Hall now is, and one or more of them was killed and partly consumed. A bear did not stop long to inquire the name of the owner before falling upon wandering swine and making a merry meal of them. It is even doubted whether they cared seriously who the owner was. They probably thought that " possession was nine points in law," and accordingly took possession without further ceremony. They would rush upon a drove of hogs, seize one by the back of the neck, and begin to tear with teeth and claws regardless of the piercing death cries of the struggling victim. In a few minutes the hog would be torn to pieces, and would then furnish a sweet repast for bruin. Mr. Dunegan had hogs killed by bears, as did many others of the earliest settlers.

Among the early residents was John Williams, who came to the town- ship in 1830. The first winter, his own and two other families lived in a log cabin 18x18 feet, and, as is humorously stated by an old settler, " had room to spare for another family." The men worked constantly in the woods. Mr. Seaton came in 1832; his cabin was built of round logs, had a clapboard roof, stick and clay chimney, huge fire-place, dirt hearth and a loft communicated with by a pole stairway. Here was where the children slept. His first stable was built of rails, and his oxen were as proud as could be expected. They were not " stuck up " and aristocratic as cattle are nowadays. They chewed the cud of contentment (that was often all the cud they had), and were honest in all their dealings with their master. The settlers of Gregg (it was Adams Township then) obtained their mail at Mooresville. They paid 25 cents for a letter, and the envelope and letter were one and the same piece of paper. Letters were appreciated in those days, and people when they wrote letters did not cut their friends off with a half dozen lines. They wrote half a dozen pages, and then carefully folded them with a blank page on the outside, upon which the superscription was written. Philip Foxworthy claims to have planted the first orchard in the township. The apples were seed- lings, that is, they grew from the seed and not from grafts. Daniel Smith settled in the township in 1833. During the following winter he cut down seven acres of timber and burned the brush. Early in the spring he spent four consecutive weeks in rolling logs for his neighbors, and in turn had his logs all nicely rolled. While he was away helping his neighbors for five or six miles around, his wife finished burning brush at home, and when he returned of nights he would work until 10 or 11 o'clock at night "mending up" the fires which she had started. He would also split rails, during the time, to inclose his first little field. Hundreds of such incidents might be narrated.

LATER SETTLEMENT.

Among the residents of the township in the thirties were the follow- ing men: Joshua Wilhite, John Jones, Joseph Rhodes, Eli Staley, Golds-

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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.

by Blunk, William Hinkle, Nathan Ludlow, Jacob and Isaac Crum, William Pruitt, John R. Robards, R. S. Frederick, W. W. Philips, Anderson Williams, V. W. H. H. King, Joseph Nicholson, Washington Knight, Frederick Brewer, C. Marvin, Harlan Stout, David Shields, Simon Moon, Abijah Bray, Samuel Hackett, John Moots, William Har- vey, S. D. Dooley, Ezekiel Dooley, William Brewer, Archibald Boyd, James W. Ford, Hiram W. Williams, Noah Wilhite, Frank Garrison, Jeremiah Sturgeon, S. C. Yager, Maddox, Harper, Craven, Bartholo- mew, Russell Wilhite, John Caveness, Joel Kivett, Walker Caveness, Iram Hinshaw, James Cummings, Fred Caveness, Benoni Pearce, Zacha- riah Ford, Jackson Jordan, Ed Shipley, Wilson Moore, Joseph Moore, Aaron Kivett, Tamech Wilhite, Henry Wood, George Brown, John Mur- phey, Enoch Myers, Tobias Moser, N. B. Brown, John Brown, Andrew Knoy and many others. A few of this list never resided in the township. They owned the land which was afterward conveyed to other parties.

POLL TAX LIST OF 1842.

Elijah Allison, Joseph Applegate, John Brown, Coleman Brown, Rice Brown, William Brown, George Brown, Wiles Bradley, Lawrence Bradley, Lancaster Bell, John Baldwin, Frederick Brewer, J. C. Brewer, Francis Cummings, Thomas Callahan, James Cummings, William Dune- gan, Silas D. Dooley, Thomas Edwards, James Fitzgerald, Tobias Fer- guson, William Greenlee, Jonathan Hadley, Jeremiah Hadley, Uriah Hadley, Samuel Harper, William Hinshaw, William Halloway, Jackson® Jordan, Joel Kivett, John Long, Clase Marvin. John T. McPherson, Bryson Martin, Daniel McDaniel, William Maddox, John Motto, Hugh Nichols, John Nichols, Thomas S. Philips, Milton Philips, Michael Pruitt, J. H. Philips, James Philips, G. W. Shake, Allen Seaton, Daniel Smith, Harlan Stout, John Scotten, W. M. Wellman, John Whitaker, Hiram Williams, John Williams, Joshua Wilhite, John Wilson, Aaron Wilhite, Oran Williams, Samuel Wilhite and Russell Wilhite.

VILLAGES.

The township of Gregg has three spots that are called villages. Wilbur and Herbemont are of a late origin, and consist of one or two stores, a blacksmith or two, a carpenter, a saw mill, a post office, and from a half dozen to fifteen families. The only village of note is Hall. The first residences there were built long before the town was thought of. Philip Foxworthy and Michael Pruitt both erected dwellings there soon after 1830. The town really started about the year 1851 or 1852.A man named Breedlove erected a storehouse, and he and a Mr. Porter, under the partnership name of Porter & Breedlove, placed therein about $1,500 worth of a general assortment of goods. The store soon at- tracted a few families, and soon a blacksmith, a carpenter and other tradesmen appeared. Mr. Brewer bad some interest in the store of Por- ter & Breedlove. John Whitaker opened a store soon afterward. Jacob Stogsdill was connected with him. John Williams and Benjamin Young began selling goods some time afterward. After them, from time to time, in about the order here given, the following merchants were present in the village : Brewer & Mattox, Joshua Wilhite, Col. Hendricks, A. J. McCoy,

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GREGG TOWNSHIP.

Sparks & Hendricks, John B. Johnson, Milton Johnson, Frank Philips, Philips & Co., Philips & Brown, and Henry Brown at present. Rader & Wilhite erected a saw mill at Hall in about the year 1869, which is yet in successful operation. The grist mill was built in 1875 by Long & Wilhite at a cost of about $3,500. It is yet running, and is doing a fair business. Mechanics and artisans have held forth from time to time. The village and vicinity has a brass band which took the second premium at the county seat on the 4th of July, 1883. The villagers are frequently regaled with strains of sweet music. Perhaps, too, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, and even the trees and shrubs gather around to listen to the divine melody as they did in mythologic time to the music from the harp of Orpheus. Hall was not laid out until the autumn of 1861, at which time John P. Rader, Noah Wilhite, Michael Pruitt and Jefferson' H. Woodsmall employed a surveyor and laid out ten blocks, several of them being large and the others small. The village is on Sec- tion 21, Township 13 north, Range 1 west, and has had a population as high as 200.

EDUCATION.

The first school in the township was taught near Hall, but when it was or what the teacher's name was cannot be stated. It was not far from the year 1834. The children of Solomon Dunegan, Philip Fox- worthy, Joseph Moser, John Williams, Daniel Smith, Allen Seaton and others attended the school. After a few years, probably about 1838, a log schoolhouse was erected in the northern part of the township, which, for many years, was the principal seat of learning. Schools were started in the eastern and southern portions about 1840, or very soon thereafter. In 1840, if reports are reliable, there were only three established schools in the township, and one of them was not in a house that had been built expressly for school purposes. A dwelling which had been vacated was transformed into a temple of learning. During the forties, several new houses were erected, and by 1850 there were five or six good schools. Now there are seven schoolhouses.

RELIGION.

The Mount Pleasant Christian Church at Hall was organized in the thirties, and about the year 1841 the first church was erected. Among the early members were the families of Richard L. Frederick, Joshua Wilhite, Bryson Martin, Noah Wilhite, John Williams and others. The class is yet in existence, and has its second building. A Methodist class was organized in the schoolhouse near Hall late in the thirties, the lead- ing members being Michael Pruitt, Tamech Wilhite, Thomas Callahan, Hiram Williams, J. S. Phelps, Daniel McDaniel and Thomas Edwards. Their church was built in the forties, on land that had been donated by Michael Pruitt. The Harmony Methodist Church was organized late in the forties, or early in the fifties, and meetings were held at schoolhouses and at the residences of the members. Rev. Dane is said to have organ- ized the class. Among the members were Terrell Hinson, Moses Dooley, Jesse Griffith, Simon Carsley, Abraham Long, Stephen L. Dane, John Faulkner, James Mason, George Kirkham and Marshall E. Dane. The church was built at Wilbur late in the fifties. Several other church or- ganizations have flourished in the township.

158

HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.

MADISON TOWNSHIP.

THE FIRST PIONEER.

TT is certain that Abner Cox was the first permanent settler in Madison Township. Other families had lived there before his appearance, as, when he came, he found rude cabins, or rather bark wigwams, where white people had temporarily resided. It is well known that the van- guard of civilization was a rude class of hardy white people, who seemed capable of leading a comfortable, at least a satisfactory life, remote from settled communities. At the first appearance of permanent settlers, the country became too densely populated for these hunters and their families, whereupon they took up their march twenty or thirty miles out into the trackless forest, where their only companions were the Indians and a multitude of wild animals. They were the ones who made game scarce at the time of the permanent settlement. Bears had almost wholly dis- appeared, driven away by the inroads of these experienced hunters. Deer were still numerous, but not that superabundance found by the squatters, as the temperary residents were called, from the fact of their not owning the land upon which they resided. There was scarcely a township that did not have these earlier residents. In 1821, Abner Cox, with his large family, came to the township, as has been stated, for per- manent residence. He entered considerable land in the northern part, and built a log cabin about eighteen feet square, without floor of any kind except earth, without door or window except the apertures over which were hung blankets, and without roof except a leaky one of rude clap- boards hastily hewed out with a broadax from some soft wood. A huge chimney made of sticks, stones and clay completed this typical pioneer dwelling. It is stated that when the Beelers or other families came to that neighborhood soon afterward, they were all accommodated at this cabin-to the number of about twenty. The beds were given to the women and children, and the men deposited themselves on the floor. It is humorously told that the floor was so thick with them that when morn- ing came, the one nearest the door was obliged to roll out of doors in order to give the others a chance to move. After about a dozen had rolled out, there was then room enough to breathe. How would you like this, dear reader ?

OTHER EARLY SETTLERS.

Thomas, George H. and Joseph Beeler came and entered land in 1821. The former afterward became the first Clerk and Recorder of the county. They located in the Cox neighborhood. Joseph Henshaw lo- cated in the northeast corner in 1821. The Landers family came in 1822 and erected cabins near Mr. Cox. James Curl, John Sells, Thomas Dee, Joseph Frazier, William McDowell, James Basket, Jesse McCoy, David Price, Joseph Sims, John Hamilton, John Barns and others came

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MADISON TOWNSHIP.

in 1821 or 1822. These men, except a few who did not reside in the township, located in the northern half, and by 1823 the Cox settlement was populous and prosperous. Other early settlers were Robert Furnace, Frederick Beeler, Edward R. Watson, Aaron Mendenhall, John and Thomas McNabb, Solomon and Francis Edmundson, Stephen McPher- son, Solomon Steel, Levi Carpenter, John Spray, Daniel Vort, John and Enoch Sumners, Daniel Stephens, Charles Hicklin, Michael and John Carpenter, John Moffett, Levi Plummer, Charles Kitchen, Allen Field and many others. The poll tax payers in 1842 were William Allen, Hugh Boyd, M. P. Bradley, Reuben Burcham, W. A. Blair, John Beasley, Martin Burris, William Blackwell, Philip Ballard. Isaac Clark, Philip Chubb, Abner Coble. M. W. Carpenter, J. M. Carpenter, Jacob Coble, Fielding Carpenter, Levi Carpenter, Larkin Cox, Levi Cassady, Isaac Canady, John Canady, William Dorman, James B. Duree, Jesse Evans, Evan Evans, A. R. Fowler, Jeremiah Garret, Giles Garret, John Garret, Michael Goodposture, Daniel Gregory, John Hasty, Allen Hicklın, Henry Hoffman, Murdock Hasty, Robert Henderson, John House, Thomas Hicklin, Nelson Howe, Abner Jessup, Henry Knox, William Knox, Samuel Knox, Nelson King, George Kitchen, Moses Lear, John R. Leathers, Thomas Leathers, Madison Leathers, Abner Lowe, James Leathers, Langford Leathers, James Landers, William Landers, Mathias Lambert, Martin Long, John Morgan, T. H. Moreland. John Mendenhall, Isaac Mendenhall, John McNabb, Thomas McNabb, Thomas Mills, Wil- lis Martin, James Morton, James Morgan, William Myers, William Mor- gan, Jr., Henry McNabb, Andrew J. McNabb, Andrew McNabb, Aaron Mendenhall, William Parker, George Perkypile, David Perkypile, Abner Ross, John Roe, James Reynolds, Richard Rivers, Gabriel Stone, John Stone, John Scott, Henry and John V. Swearingen, John Simpson, Rob- ert Sanders, James Sanders, George Sanders, G. W. Swearingen, James Stokesbury, R. T. Steel, Martillus Summers. Daniel Vert, Joseph Thompson, Thomas Tinsley, Blufert Tinsley. Jesse Thompson, William Woodward. Thomas Woodward, William West, Richard Wilkins and Goram Worth.

INCIDENTS AND PIONEER CUSTOMS.

It is interesting to draw contrasts between the old times and the pres- ent. The farmer was not as well equipped with agricultural implements as now. Corn was planted and almost wholly cultivated with the hoe. A man who could raise eight or ten acres of corn had a large field. If he had three or four boys and as many women, he could manage to cultivate successfully about that number of acres. Even the hoes were not as bright and hard as now. Often they were wooden. The birds and squirrels were so numerous and voracious that the farmer had to guard his corn crop constantly. Wheat was sown broadcast and very often har- rowed in by hand or by brushes pulled around by horses or oxen. All reaping was done with the historic old sickle. Think of it! Less than fifty years ago the old sickle that had been in use from time immemorial, had been used in Egypt before the pyramids were built, had been used in the fields of Boaz long before the Christian era, in fact had been in use at such a remote period in the history of the world, long before authentic history began, that the myths and fables of barbarous man reveal its

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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.

existence. For thousands of years it had been the only reaper. Labor had lost dignity, if it ever possessed any, in olden times in the minds of man, and invention was not permitted to interfere with implements whose use was sanctioned by the Deity. Personal liberty, with wealth and in- dependence in view, was limited to the domain of a serfdom constantly guarded by the blind and unscrupulous opulent. None but serfs were farmers. Children were compelled to conform to caste and follow the occupation of their fathers. Personal fitness was undreamed of. For the poor to be ambitious, aspiring and intelligent was a disobedience of the organic law and a sacrilege beyond the power of repentance. No wonder that agriculture made no advance, and that the sickle of barbarous man was unimproved by intelligence. It is less than fifty years ago that the old cradle came into general use. Farmers considered it a model of use- fulness and a Godsend. It is a remarkable fact that as soon as the nobility of labor was generally conceded-only fifty or sixty years ago, and in the United States-the direction of invention was changed to that channel, and the stimulation to rapid and extensive agriculture revived every other pursuit, and led to thousands of contrivances to quickly save the crop and safely transport it to the consumer. The application of steam to a movable engine was due to the demand for quick transporta- tion of farm products. Hence came that wonder, the railroad. As soon as labor became no longer ignoble, the rapidity of the invention of farm machinery became marvelous. Now the farmer can sit as independent as a king (he is the only one truly independent when he has a good farm, good habits and is out of debt), and almost see his crops sown and har- vested by machinery before his eyes. The farmer boy who has a good farm is foolish to leave it and rush off to the city to contract vices that will kill him and possibly damn him. "Stick to the farm and it will stick to you."

WILD ANIMALS.

There was scarcely a family that did not habitually have venison. The poorest hunter could occasionally kill a deer, but the old hunters, those who did little else but hunt, were in the habit of furnishing such families with deer meat. The Beelers were quite prominent in their locality. The girls were as fearless as the boys. It is said that two of them on one occasion saw a bear in the woods, and while one remained to watch the animal the other hurried to the men, who were in the woods near by, to apprise them of the discovery and hurry them out to kill Mr. Bruin. What the outcome was cannot be stated. One day, a transient man named Capp, in the western part of the township, was chopping in the woods when he discovered a bear near him. He instantly gave the alarm, and dogs were put upon the trail. The bear made lively tracks, running through the bushes and tumbling over rail fences that were in the way. The dogs soon came up with it, and in a few minutes several men also, one of whom fired and wounded the animal. On it went, pursued by dogs and men, and soon another shot wounded it again. One of the men was so excited that when he fired he missed the bear and wounded one of the dogs. The third shot killed the bear, which was divided out in the neighborhood for consumption.

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MADISON TOWNSHIP.

SCHOOLS.

The first school in the township was taught in 1823. either in the dwelling of Abner Cox or in a vacant log dwelling standing near. The first teacher was one of the Beeler girls ; she had a school of eight or ten scholars. The second school was taught in the northeastern part of the township about 1824, and another soon afterward in the northwestern corner. The first schoolhouse was built in the Cox neighborhood in about 1827. The first teacher in this house is no longer remembered. The second schoolhouse was built south of the gravel road in the western part not far from 1830, and about the same time one or two more were erected in the township. The first old house, above mentioned, had greased paper for windows, and a big fire-place of course. The lumber for the desks and seats was obtained at Moon's saw mill in Brown. In 1840, there were five schools in the township. In 1843, the school law came into effect, by which public money was raised by taxation to be used in the maintenance of schools. All schools before that, or nearly all, had been supported by subscription. In 1852, the foundation of our present school system was laid, since which Madison Township has had good schools.

CHURCHES.

No other portion of the county, unless it is Brown Township, has bet- ter facilities for religious worship than Madison Township. It has six or seven church organizations and five buildings. As early as 1830, the Baptists had an organization in the northern part, the leading members being William Landers, Andrew McNash, Grimes Dryden, John Dun- ham, John Burnam, S. B. Parker, Joshua Cox, Jefferson Jones, John Bray, William Pope and others. This church was built in the thirties.

The Mt. Gilead Christian Church was organized about the same time, among the members being Enoch Summers, David McCarty, Samuel B. Duree, and some of the McNabbs. The ground for the church, which was built late in the thirties, was donated by Thomas McNabb.

The Siloam Methodist Church was organized in the thirties, among the early members being Joel Jessup, Reuben Burcham, Samuel Pfoff, Hugh Boyd, Charles Allen, John Inman, John Bingham, J. M. Jackson and Aaron Thurman. This church was built early in the forties. Later members were James Stokesbury, Abner Jessup, Jesse Baker, William Allen, and T. G. Beharrell, pastor. The Centenary Methodist Church was of a later date, as was the Mt. Olive Methodist Church.

162

HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.

GREEN TOWNSHIP.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENT.

THE second settlement of the county was in Green Township. In the - spring of 1819, James Stotts, William Offield, Hiram T. Craig, Daniel Higgins, Nimrod Stone and two others came from Lawrence County, and located farms on a small stream which was named in honor of James Stotts. As soon as the farms were staked out, all of the settlers except Mr. Stotts started back to Lawrence County to bring out loads of seed- corn and wheat, vegetables, provisions, household implements, and to drive out hogs, sheep and cattle. Of these seven first settlers of Green Township, Craig and Stotts were the only two single men of the party. The following is quoted from Mr. Craig's reminiscences of the trip back :

High water prevented our return as soon as we anticipated, but we finally concluded to try the plan of loading our baggage on a two-horse wagon, considering it easier on our horses than to load them with such heavy packs, as much of our route lay through a dense wilderness, it being the same old trace we had first traveled, and the road had to be cut so as to admit the passage of a wagon, which made our progress very slow, so that the noon of the second day found us still on Little Salt Creek. Here, in attempting to cross an insignificant little stream, our wagon stuck fast in the mud. Our only chance was to unload the wagon, pry it up and make our team haul it out. In doing so, we had to make a short turn and unfortunately broke an axletree. Here was a fix, twenty miles at least from any shop where repairing could be done. The only alternative was to make a new axletree from the green timber of the forest. All hands went to work on the part assigned them. Mine was to prepare some dinner. I will give the bill of fare. I took my gun, and in less than an hour, perhaps, had killed nine fat gray squirrels. I dressed them as nicely as any lady could desire, and put them to boil with a sufficient slice of fat pork and some salt to give them the proper sea- soning. While hunting for the squirrels, I had discovered near the creek a bountiful crop of wild onions growing ten or twelve inches high, and very tender. These I picked and cleaned, cut them up and put them in the pot when the squirrels were done, and succeeded in making a first-class pot of soup. This was the dinner, and it was a good one. By the usual time of starting next morning, our repairing was completed after a fash- ion, and we proceeded on our way. But our newly made axletree caused our wagon to run so heavily that we had to divide the load. A sack con- taining three bushels of corn seed was committed to my charge and about the same amount of corn-meal to Mr. Offield, and we were told to push on and not wait for the wagon. We were on horseback, and upon reach- ing Big Salt Creek we found a settlement and were told to take the road for Bloomington. Nothing of note occurred until we reached Big Indian Creek, where we found that White River and its tributaries were on a

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GREEN TOWNSHIP.

bender. Offield could not swim, but finally after a long time I succeeded in carrying our loads across the stream on my back, crossing on logs and a heap of driftwood that had formed across the creek. We took dinner on Mr. Cunningham's land northeast of Martinsville, and in the evening reached the settlement on Stott's Creek, where we found everything in good shape.

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Counties of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown, Indiana. Historical and biographical, Part 19

Author: Blanchard, Charles, fl. 1882-1900, ed. cn Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, F. A. Battey & co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Blanchard, Charles, fl. 1882-1900, ed. cn
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, F. A. Battey & co.
Number of Pages: 814