USA > Indiana > Jackson County > Early History Of Jackson County Hardships And Privations Endured And Encountered With The Indiana > Part 3
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EARLY JACKSON COUNTY HISTORY
Ordered to Main Army
On arriving at Vallonia fort, Captain Bigger was ordered to join as quickly as possible the army commanded by Gen- eral Harrison, then on its way to break up the Indian camps at or near Tippecanoe. It was evident from the large force gathering there that raids were contemplated on the feeble settlements on the frontier, and unless they were checked immediately those settlements would be blotted out and the inhabitants massacred before the opening of the spring. This order cast another shade of gloom over the inmates of the forts, who had become inspired with the hope that the Indians had withdrawn from the neighborhood after the massacre of Buskirk and Sturgeon, and would not return to do them harm, at least not during the winter, and leave them to return to their homes to spend the winter in improving the same. On the receipt of this intelligence they abandoned the hope of leaving the immediate vicinity of the forts, and went to work to strengthen their stockades and place themselves on a more secure footing, in case of an attack from the savages, which now seemed to threaten them at no distant day. To render their situation more comfortable, several persons had erected small houses in close proximity to the fort, and others pro- ceeded to do so. At the setting in of the winter of 1811, some seventeen families were living at Vallonia. Winter ap- proaching, their crops ungathered, short of provisions the company of Rangers whom they had learned to look to for security ordered immediately to march to the front, all had a tendency to dishearten them. The nearest mill where corn could be ground was below Charlestown, in Clark county, on the Ohio river, and the nearest point where salt could be ob- tained was some distance below Louisville, in Kentucky. I have heard those old people tell of salting or curing their meats-venison and bear-with hickory ashes, by covering the meat thoroughly with them. To make meal they used the gritter, a piece of perforated tin, but when the corn became dry the mortar and pestal were brought into requisition. The meal, coarse and unsifted, was kneaded and baked on a board before the fire in what was called hoe or Johnny cake. The game from the forest, the bread thus prepared, the turnip, potato and pumpkin patches, furnished their wholesome fare. Children were not overfed on pastries, sweetmeats and candies. Neither were their grown up brothers and sisters effeminate
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and dyspeptic from an over-indulgence in soda biscuits, sweet- cakes and mincemeat pies.
The long nights were often spent by the men all congrega- ting together in the fort, and some singing songs peculiar to their times, some telling stories of the chase and fight and of the perils and hardships endured by them, while some would engage in the social, yet harmless, dance, for they had not yet learned that the bow and fiddle were corrupting in their tendencies and was full of mischief. And often they would all join in a conversation of home and the friends left behind, and the young wife and mother, and wondered if they still lived, for no mail carrier came to Vallonia then with tidings of joy or sorrow. Before separating for the night, they would take each other kindly by the hand, and wish each and all a hearty goodnight. There was none of that narrow sentimen- tality of modern times (called refinement) with them. Com- mon danger inspired them with common interests and made them friends in whom there was no guile. The sick man's bed was not unattended. Matrons and maidens alike brought some token of respect or some word of cheer to comfort, and children learned to reverence age, and for hours would sit de- lighted and listen to words of wisdom.
The Battle of Tippecanoe
The messenger from General Harrison was late in arriving with the intelligence at Vallonia ordering the company under Captain Bigger to join the main army at a designated point on the march for the Indian camp. The absence of all roads made the march laborious and slow. The company had start- ed, and when near where Indianapolis now is, were met by a second messenger, bidding them return, as the battle of Tip- pecanoe had been fought and the Indians defeated and routed after one of the most sanguinary conflicts in savage warfare. Weary and worn by the march, the company halted for a few days to rest and refresh themselves. A day or two after halting, a party of five or six were out from camp some distance hunting, when they were surprised by a band of In- dians and fired upon, resulting in two men, one named Duhme and the other David Hays, killed and scalped.
The remainder of the party made the camp and gave the alarm for the men to get in readiness to guard against an at- tack of the enemy which was contemplated. Before reaching
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the camp, as Mr. Sturgeon informed me, the horse of one of the party caught one of his feet in the roots of a tree, the ground being wet and muddy and in his struggle to free him- self pulled a hoof off, which entirely disabled him. The rest of the party not noticing the accident, continued their flight, leaving him (Sturgeon) and the owner of the horse. In an instant he relieved the horse of the saddle and hung it to a limb on a tree, and bade the man mount with him and seek the camp. The man was crying like a child, and refused to go. The first thought was to abandon and leave him to his fate, yet this he could not do. To leave a comrade to be tomahawked by the enemy would never do, and after persuad- ing him for a few moments to no avail, and feeling that only safety was in immediate flight, he determined, as the case was desperate, to use a desperate remedy. So he cut him a good limb and bade the party to march. He refused, where- upon Sturgeon gave him a vigorous application of it. Some five or six stripes, accompanied by a sharp report of a rifle in the hands of some savages who had come in sight, put his legs to going, and he went into camp on double-quick.
(Note-I am reminded from my notes that Abraham, not Adam, Miller assisted to bring Sturgeon into the fort at Val- lonia after he was shot by the Indians, and that Catherine Lockman, daughter of Abraham Miller, and not Mrs. Snyder as stated in a former article, was the first female child born in the fort and claimed to be the first in the county in 1812.)
The Return to Vallonia
The company continued in pursuit of the Indians several days, traveling toward the northwestern part of the State but not overtaking them, they again turned in the direction of Vallonia to go into winter quarters. They were entirely out of provisions. The little supply of corn and meal taken with them when starting had been consumed, and they must there- for rely on the forest for subsistence. Such pasture as the woods supplied at the beginning of winter was the only sup- port for their horses. But game was abundant. The deer, the turkey and the bear were numerous. The march of civili- zation had not as yet decimated their numbers, and unscared they stood in easy range of the white man's rifle. So the - obtaining of food for a little army of seventy to a hundred men was a matter of small consideration.
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They would halt on the march a couple of hours before night, and a detail of ten or a dozen men would bring game sufficient for a day's provision by the time the other members of the company had cared for the horses and prepared fire for roasting the meats. No camp kettles were carried with them. No "hard tack" was to be found in haversacks, but simply meat from turkey, deer and bear, roasted without salt. And yet those men, inured to all the inclemencies of the weather, without tents, and accustomed to forced marches through swamps, creeks and rivers, without bridges or boats, and fed upon this simple diet, were the very embodiment of physical strength and endurance. Every muscle and sinew seemed wrought in strength and every form cast in beauty's mould.
The march thus made was necessarily slow and not with- out incidents of daring and sometimes of defeat to members of the company. The streams, as before remarked, were un- bridged and without boats. In fact, there were no marked or defined crossings, but they were generally crossed wherever approached, regardless of depth or width of stream. It was often a matter of amusement to those bold cavaliers to wit- ness the utter recklessness of some and the timidity of others in buffeting the waves. Of course much of the conversation was in reference to hair-breath escapes from watery graves, interspersed with wonderful prowess of the favorite steed as a swimmer; and the more wary, sedate and cool-headed veterans were often treated to a good laugh at the expense of the less experienced, but not less daring, comrades. Often some of those spirited young fellows were fished from the stream in a half drowned condition.
After an absence of nearly a month, the company returned and went into winter quarters, an event which was hailed with delight by the settlers, knowing the additional security their presence gave. But to none was the return more wel- come than the Hutchinson family, and especially the daughter, Nancy, for the day previous to the beginning of the last march an event had occurred in the Hutchinson fort which marked an era in her life.
The Wedding in the Fort
David Sturgeon and Nancy Hutchinson were married in Hutchinson's fort, on the 5th day of November, 1811, by
J
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EARLY JACKSON COUNTY HISTORY
Esquire Reeves. The wedding was one peculiar to the times -full of merry-makings and frolic. It was an event of suffi- cient importance to call together the entire community, civil and military, of the four forts named in a previous chapter. The aged and the young alike came to participate in the festivities of the occasion. When the hour arrived to solem- nize the marriage the younthful couple were presented to the assembled guests, fully dressed for marriage. Mr. Sturgeon was dressed in a light-buckskin hunting skirt, buckskin breeches, moccasins and coarse linen shirt. But he often told me that for beauty his pants rivaled anything he had ever seen. They were tanned after the most approved man- ner of those days, so as not only make the leather very soft and pliable, but to bring out that light and glossy appearance so peculiar to the buckskin when tanned by a master hand. Then they were cut and sewed by a tailor, a mechanic almost unknown to the backwoodsmen at that day, and ornamented by fancy stitchings in needle work, with costly braids of silk covered with orange and pink. The bride was dressed in a full suit, dress and underclothes of cotton goods, carded, spun and woven by herself. On her feet were a neat pair of buck- skin moccasins; but no hose, (stockings they were called in those days). Thus arrayed the drum beat and the military, with their trapping of war, and the neighbors, filed in and witnessed the marriage ceremony. And there in that little fort in the wilderness surrounded by a few comrades and friends, the youthful pair, forsaking father and mother, clasp- ed each other's gloveless hands and vowed, forsaking all others, to cleave to each other through life.
Sixty-six, nearly sixty-seven years have passed since the event of that November eve, and few, yes, very few, who en- joyed the festivities of the occasion, or danced with beating heart with bride or groom to music sweet, remain with us to tell the story. Perhaps Mrs. Duffey, living near Brownstown, half-sister to Mrs. Sturgeon, remembers that wedding day. If so, it is like a leaf torn from memory's page long years ago and covered since with many tears. Mrs. Sturgeon remem- bers every incident of the occasion, though now in her eighty- second year, as vividly as though it occurred but yesterday. She related to the writer not long since, to the minutest de- tail, every circumstance which then occurred. But there are events that do transpire in the true woman's life which time
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cannot efface. One is when in plighted vow she gives her heart in marriage. The birth or death of children and the attendant scenes all are treasured up as sacred morsels and who that has set and heard the aged, care-worn mother, just on the verge of time, tell how a sweet, dear child, a ban of promise here and there, was snatched from her through time and laid within the bosom of the earth, and witnessed then. her heavy sigh and saw the crystal tears chase each other o'er her furrowed cheek, is as enduring as the touch of time, and memory clings to those events and will not let them go.
After the Battle of Tippecanoe
After the battle of Tippecanoe, Tecumseh and his followers withdrew from the State and made their winter quarters about the head of Lake Erie. The withdrawal of these war- like people-their utter route and defeat-so demoralized the roving bands of Indians that they either left the territory or sued for peace and the frontier settlements enjoyed compar- ative security for a time. The people returned to their homes to spend the winter in improving their homesteads. Again the smoke curled from the wooden chimney of the rude cabin and the log fire crackled on the earthen hearth as the busy housewife prepared her frugal meal. The woodman's ax rang clear from morn till night, as with steady stroke he wrought, while in easy reach sat his trusty rifle for the bear and wolf, most inveterate enemies of civilization, roamed the forest and many a heroic mother rescued her tender offspring from the very jaws of those ferocious beasts. The scent of blood from deer killed for food tempted them to the settler's door, and the long winter's night was made more dreary and hideous from their howlings while hour after hour their red eye-balls glared through the open crevices of the cabin, and the moth- er clasped more closely to her breast her terrified infant. And not till the dawn approached would they disappear, and then would they retire to the forest sullenly and slowly. Yet the rifle in steady hands thinned their numbers, and many a shaggy form was left behind or devoured by their comrades to satisfy their hunger.
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Grassy Fork in Ye Olden Times
At that time-the winter of 1811-12-there were in Grassy Fork township, Jackson county, but two or three families. At least in March, 1812, when David Sturgeon erected his first cabin on the farm whereon he died, there were but three families in that township. Isaac Burgh had built a cabin and cleared a small tract of land on the farm now owned by William Waskom, as early as the spring of 1810, and John Parks settled the Judge Dailey farm in the fall or winter following, and further up the ridge James Blair settled in 1812 or 13. Those parties-at least Burgh and Parks-car- ried with them when they moved their entire stock of goods- household and otherwise on horseback. The first cabins were simple and rude in their construction, having but three walls to them and no fireplace. The fire was built just out- side the building in front of the open space. This answered the purpose to cook their meals, warm the inmates, and keep away the wolves. The furniture of the first settlers, if it might be called furniture, was of the most primitive charac- ter. Two or three stools made from puncheons hewn from a log, a puncheon attached to the wall on pegs answered for table and cupboard, and a couple of logs placed in the corner of the room forming a square box filled with leaves and covered with deer and bear skins, made the bed. A few pew- ter dishes, a heavy iron pot, skillet and pan, supplied the cook room, and a buckskin sieve separated the bran from the meal, which was either obtained by beating it fine in a mortar or hollow crevice burned in the top of a stump, or by going on horse-back to the grant below Charlestown, in Clark county, through a pathless wilderness. I have heard a little incident related by Mrs. Sturgeon, which will serve to show to some extent the perils and hardships to which the early settlers were exposed.
Perilous Journey in the Wilderness
She and her husband had been to his father's near Leaven- worth, on the Ohio river, and returned home in the winter of 1812-13. The day they started was intensely cold, and a heavy snow was falling. They had a horse, pack-saddle, some few cooking utensils, household goods, etc., and a cow which Mr. Sturgeon's father had given him. Mrs. Sturgeon was
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leading the horse, carrying the babe not six months old, and Mr. Sturgeon was driving the cow. Some distance from Leavenworth Mr. Sturgeon left his wife to pursue alone, and he took a by-path which led to a settler about a mile off the track to obtain some whisky. When he got the liquor, he thought he would not retrace his steps, but travel diagonally across the country and thus intercept his family much sooner.
By some means, the day being dark and snow falling fast, he lost his bearings, and did not overtake Mrs. Sturgeon till near night, while she, leading the horse, with pack-saddle containing all their goods, and driving a cow, through a deep forest, with no road, only following a bleared path, and car- rying a tender infant, marched the live-long day through a blinding snow-fall. When, at dark, they made a settler's cabin and prepared to share the hospitalities of the same, she said her stockingless limbs were frozen rigid. The next morning they resumed their journey, and a companion joined them who was coming to Vallonia, which served to lighten somewhat the tediousness of the way. But on arriving at what is now called Millport she says she came near losing her life. In order to cross the river, the two men made a couple of rafts. Mrs. Sturgeon and the man traveling with them embarked on one, with their pack-saddle and goods, she leading the horse while he swam by the raft. Mr. Sturgeon was on the other and drove cow or horse as was required. When about the middle of the stream, the horse became un- ruly, and pulled her into the water with her babe. She sank, but came to the surface, when by extraordinary efforts she was rescued from a watery grave, still clinging with a mother's love, to her first-born. At eleven o'clock at night, cold, wet and hungry, they reached Vallonia, where they were gladly received and cared for by kind friends.
Some White Settlers
Some French made a settlement at Vallonia as early as the year 1790, and cleared a small tract of land lying west and south of the present town, on what is now A. J. Miller's farm. Aquilla Rogers, the first white man who settled in Jackson county, settled among the Indians and French at Vallonia about the year 1805. This was the only settlement effected until the fall of 1809, when James Hutchinson settled the farm now owned by Christian Doerr. In the spring following
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1810, John and Isaac Weathers came and settled near James Hutchinson to whom they were related by marriage.
Abraham Miller spoken of in a former chapter, settled on James Hutchinson's farm in the spring of 1810, and raised a crop but at the close of the war settled upon the farm now owned by Mrs. John P. Miller, four miles southeast of Brownstown, where he raised a large family, most of whom are gone. The families above mentioned came from Ken- tucky. They were that class of men who desire to be in the front ranks of emigration, and as the settlers thickened around them they longed for and sought out newer fields, for they had not only a passionate fondness for the chase, but in the wild solitude of the forest they were at home. They loved the solitude of the wilderness and the wild freedom of uncultivated fields. In the spring of 1811, Jesse Durham, father of Harrison Durham, came to Vallonia and settled. In a short time he bought the farm now occupied by Colonel Wells, where he lived the most of his life. Thomas Ewing, a brother-in-law, came with him. He was a bachelor and a man of fine attainments, but he was not proof against the smiles of beauty, and in a short time he married James Hutchinson's third daughter, now Mrs. Duffey, residing near Brownstown. They settled on and made the farm now owned by Asher Woodmansee's heirs.
William Graham, so long and favorably known in the county, who in the early history of the State served his friends in the State Legislature and in the Congress of the United States, came from Kentucky in 1811, and settled the farm adjoining the Driftwood church, so well known in the neighborhood as the Graham farm. He first married a Miss Thompson, aunt to Turner W. Thompson, and after her de- cease he married the widow Elliott, mother of John R. Elliott, with whom he lived till his death a few years ago. He was a scholar in the truest acceptation of the term, for he had a correct knowledge of men and things and this, coupled with a spirit of philanthropy and great goodness of heart, made him a most desirable neighbor and friend. He rests from his labors beside his life partners in the pleasant graveyard near the Driftwood Church. Neat stones mark their resting place, and many an aged man and woman, pausing to read the inscriptions on the marble slabs, will wipe a tear from
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sorrow's eye and silently go their way. He accumulated con- siderable property, and left no heirs.
The First Church
The first church erected in the county was built on the ground now used as a cemetery near the Driftwood Church. It was on the southwest corner of the Graham farm, and was built in the year 1815. It was a comfortable log building of moderate dimensions with large wooden chimney and puncheon floor. Its benches were not of modern make, but were hewn from the forest. A straight poplar or ash sapling of ten or twelve inches in diameter was cut and split and hewn, and four legs inserted, and the bench was complete. The house was free to all denominations, and here, for miles and miles came the pioneer and family on the Sabbath day to worship God. They came on foot and horseback from the sparse and remote settlements of Vallonia, Highton Hill, Brownstown, and from a little settlement surrounding a trading post kept by John McCormick and two of the Buskirks on the farm now owned and occupied by my life-long friend, John J. Cum- mins. In this settlement were James and Josiah Lindsey, Robert Burgh, some of whose descendants are in the county yet and Cyrus Douglass, the head of the old Douglass family, so well known to early settlers, but now almost extinct among us. These, with the Sturgeon and Burgh settlement in Grassy Fork, made up the congregation which assembled at Driftwood. No organ, with high-toned keys, and plied with skillful hands, gave music to the audience, nor minister with lengthened gown graced the pulpit. But that bold and fear- less people, strong in the impulse of religious worship, with voices clear and strong, made music of sweetest order. Here the devout man of God in reverence would time the hymn, and man and youth, matron and maid, would join with skill- ful voice to bear their several parts. Then came the prayer, where all devoutly knelt and joined their hearts in thankful- ness to the Great Giver of Good. The reverenced man of God, tall and thin, with whitened locks reaching down to his shoulders, broke the bread of life to listening souls, and many a stalwart man, who feared no danger, would brush the fall- ing tear while listening to truths divine. After service be- fore separating, they took each other kindly by the hand and
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inquired after the health of the family and neighborhood, and was one missing from the congregation from sickness or dis- tress, he was sought out and his wants supplied.
The Increase In Population
The years 1811 to 1815 inclusive added largely to the pop- ulation of the frontier settlements. In 1814 the Government of the United States had concluded a treaty of peace with the Indian tribes in the Northwest, which gave additional security to the settlers and inspired them with fresh courage. In the spring of 1914,
Leonard C. Shoemaker,
father of Josiah Shoemaker, now residing on Pea-ridge, set- tled one mile north of Brownstown at the Mooney crossing. He was a revolutionary soldier. He was at the battle of Yorktown, and assisted in the capture of Lord Cornwallis. He saw the British stack their arms and march out of the fort. He also served in the Indian wars, and was a captain of militia. In 1816 he was elected, with James McGee, Asso- ciate Judge of Jackson county. David Slade was then Pre- siding Judge. Subsequently he bought of Judge McGee the tract of land now owned by Frederick Tormoehlen, and re- moved to Driftwood township.
Josiah Shoemaker,
son of L. C. Shoemaker, was born in Knox county, Kentucky, in 1809, and came to Indiana in 1814 with his father. He is well known to the old settlers of the county, having resided in this county sixty-three years. He saw the forest disappear and "the wilderness made to blossom like a rose," and now at the advanced age of 74 years, he lives in the enjoyment of a sufficient competence to insure comfort and in the midst of a long list of friends who have known him for more than a half century. May not only his four score years be allotted him but many more, that he may enjoy the fruits of that civilization to which he has so largely contributed. And may the sunset of his life be as calm as the morn was perilous.
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