USA > Indiana > Greene County > Early history of Greene County, Indiana : as taken from the official records, and compiled from authentic recollection, by pioneer settlers including brief sketches of pioneer families. > Part 9
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Before Welton and Colonel Fellows built their mills on Richland creek, and for a few years before Craig's mill was built on White river, the first settlers raised plenty of corn and garden vegetables, and- had to live on sweet and Irish potatoes, lye hominy, beat meal and deer meat. In fact deer skins and venison hams were almost a "legal tender" on all little debts at William Smith's store, which was located a little south of Willis Watson's brick house and bears the name of being the first store house in Worthington. Mr. William Smith also established the first tan-yard in
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The Early History of Greene County.
town, and it was located opposite the [ editor and proprietor. Mr. Morrison "Swamp Tavern," on the Terre Haute road. Old John Padgett bought the farm where Uncle Jonny Myers now lives, of old Benjamin Shumaker, and Mr. Padgett lived there on the old Terre Haute State road for many years, and established the first drinking saloon, and kept a grocery in a big sycamore gum. At all the corn-shuckings, cotton-pick- ings, wedding parties and other pub- lie gatherings, a "spiritual greeting" was sent out from that big sycamore gum.
The first school house was built on the hill, just cast of Worthington, and the first teacher was James Campbell. The pupils were John H. Dixson and brothers, Prior and Wil- liam ; Merrit and Ham Jamison, Jo- seph and Mariah Field, Stalcup's boys, Frank and Verlin Jessup, Ilar- rison, Benjamin and A. J. Huey, Levi and Mariah Shumaker, Robert and Alexander Craig, together with others from the Winters, Inman, Smith and Crance families.
Among the first weddings in this neighborhood were, Joseph Smith and Sallie Jessup, David Smith and Polly Bryson, William Ifuey and Sallie Stanley, John@Stanley and Mary Ball, Abram Shumaker and Mariah Morris, Obediah Winters and Hannah Duncan, Thomas Iluey and Vestie Stewart, Joshua Duncan and Mariah Shumaker, William Smith and Mary McKee, and a few others.
Worthington is now an incorpora- ted village, in Jefferson township, is pleasantly located on a prairie, a short distance west of the junction of Eel and White rivers. The town was laid out by Messrs. Andrews and Barrackman, in 1849.
The first paper published in Worth- ington was called the Worthington Ad- vocate, and was established in Octo- ber, 1833, by Deal & Morrison. This paper survived for a short time, but was superceded, in November, 1855, by The White River Valley Times, with the name of L N. Morrison as
continued its publication for quite a number of years, but was finally com- pelled to retire from the business on account of failing health. The paper yet has a very healthy existence, and is the oldest periodical in Greene coun- ty, being now in its twentieth volume. It is now known as the Worthington Times, and is published by W. J. Ward, with Fred. N. Miller, propri- etor.
We will yet give the family histo- ry of several of the oldest citizens and pioneers of this neighborhood and other localities connected with our.early times in Greene county.
CHAPTER XIX. SMITH TOWNSHIP.
HE first old pioneer settlers on Scaffold prairie were old grand- father Frederick Dayhoff, Elias Dayhoff, Abraham Dayhoff and Jesse Elgin. Afterwards came Cyrus W. Conant, Alfred Buskirk, Charles Walker, John Stanley, Rev. Nathan- jel Moss, Mr. Goodale and Abraham Wood. Up in the north end of the township, on the old Sand Hill, were the families of Samuel Wilks. Byram Combs, James Frazier, Geo. Shraykes, and a few others. Afterwards came Rev. Richard Wright, Kinsie Moore, Daniel Wood, Richard Lambert, Mr. Whittemore and Father Bartholo- mew Ellinsworth.
The first weddings in this locality, were Cyrus W. Conant and Nancy Dayhoff, William Y. Dayhoff and Lu- cy Goodale, Samuel Wilks and Celia Wright. Among the first school teachers in this neighborhood were Letitia Buskirk, Lucy Goodale and Elijah Godfrey, with several little bright-eyed girls and boys at school ; And among them we have the names of Philander Buskirk, Elijah and William Elgin, Mary J. Walker, Susan Walker, Eliza, Milley and Julia Ann Elgin, Enos and William Gadberry, Rice Elgin and Bat. Ellinsworth ; to- gether with the Dayhoff and Fuller
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children. The Dayhoff family came from Spencer county, Kentucky .- Rev. C. W. Conant came from Ply- tnouth, in Massachusetts, as a duly authorized agent for the American Tract Society ; and he is a direct de- scendant of that old patriarch family, so closely connected with the history of the Mayflower. Shortly after Mr. Conant came to Greene county, he was married to Miss Nancy Dayhoff, a sister of Elias and William Y. Day- hoff. Mr. Conant and wife have had eight children, three boys and five girls ; and the family have always been busy workers in the good cause of education, in Clay, Owen and Greene counties.
Elias Dayhoff has lived on the same farm for over fifty years, and set out the old apple orchard on the old buffalo trail, where the old Indi- an trace passed along by the little oak grove, just south of where he af- terwards built his present brick dwel- ling house. Mr. Dayhoff has been a good citizen and a steady advocate of moral and religious principles for so long & time that his name and family history will occupy a page in our pamphlet.
Daniel Woodsworth built a house and set out the old apple trees at the cross roads, just east of the Method- ist Chapel.
Old Uncle Abe Wood and wife died in that neighborhood, and were buried just west of where Henry R. Strong now lives, in that old ever- green (pine and cedar) cluster of bushes. Several other persons that died there in an early day were bur- ied in the old field just south of the Methodist Chapel, and those old graves are now being plowed over every summer by the work hands employed to work Isaac Dayhoff's farm.
Old Grandfather Dayhoff built the first house and set out the old apple orchard on the Branch, just above the old Indian scaffold at the big salt lick, where the buffaloes and deer ate the dirt out of the bank of the little
creek near the edge of the woods.
John Stanley first settled on the place where Mr. Landes now lives, at the south edge of the prairie.
Mr. Charles Walker made the farm, built a house and set out the old ap- ple orchard at the pine trees where David Fuller now lives, on the Terre Haute road.
William Y. Dayhoff has lived on his excellent farm, and been a num- ber one farmer for nearly half a cen- tury ; and a few years afterward, Goodale settled on the farm where B. F. Dayhoff now lives.
Our old neighbor and sociable friend, George R. Taylor, established the first store, sold dry goods, and made the farm, set out, the apple trees and built a good substantial brick dwelling house on the place where Rice Elgin now lives, on the old Terre Haute State road. Mr. 'Taylor's brick house was destroyed by fire and afterwards he came to Worthington, and is now enjoying good health.
Old Uncle Sammy Wilks and his brother-in-law, Mr. Byram Combs, settled near the old lake on the Sand Hill, made the farm and set out the old apple orchards near where Mrs. Elizabeth Cole now lives, north of the prairie.
Reverend Richard Wright settled on the farm and built a blacksmith shop where the widow Dean now lives. Afterwards Mr. Wright sold that farm to Richard Lambert, and Mr. Lambert buried more than half the number of his large family in less than five months time, together with a man by the name of Jamnes Frazier, who was smothered to death by the damps, while he was engaged in the work of cleaning out a well for Mr. Lambert the same summer, and on the same place that there were so many persons died.
Old Grandfather Jesse Elgin was born in Maryland, and came to Wash- ington county, Indiana, in the year 1818, where he remained two years. The Elgin family came to Greene
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county in the year 1820, and settled [ originally organized, and of its sub- seqnent division.
on the southern edge of Scaffold prai- rie. Mr Elgin and wife had eleven children. Mr. Levi Elgin is the elcy- enth child of that family.
Mr. Rice Elgin is a good, common farmer, fifty-seven years of age, and has lived in Greene county about fif. ty years.
The Lone Tree creek and Lone Tree prairie were named for the old oak tree which stood alone in the prairie for a great number of years. That noted old red-oak stood on the north side of the old General Harri- son trace, made by the soldiers in 1814. Many persons can yet point out the place where the Lone tree stood, about one mile north-cost of William W. Baber's. The big lake, on the county line, two miles east of Howesville, has, evidently, at one time been the old river bed, and a great many stories could be told for the truth, about the many exploits and adventures of the old pioneer hunters and trappers on the river from Worthington up to the old res- ervoir.
Smith townships wa never noted much for its bad conduct, but in an early day, two festive young men- own cousins-Samuel Wilks and By- ram Combs, met at a corn shucking at Richard Wright's, and by some little difference of opinion about a girl in the neighborhood, engaged in n fisti-cuff fight, and after a few rounds and hardlicks in the short ribs, Mr. Combs hallowed out, "Enough ! enoughl Boys, take Sam Wilks away! I'm not whipped, but by jinks, I just can't stand it !"'
We are in receipt of the following letter from the pen of Mr. Elias Day- hoff, one of our very early settlers, Which we take the liberty to publish in our pamphlet :
"By request, I give, as one of the first settlers of Scaffold prairie, a sketch of its history from memory, as also of the township of Smith, as
" This township derived its name, originally, from old Thomas Smith, who kept the ferry across White riv- er, on the old Indian trace from Lou- isville to Fort Harrison, a short dis- tance below the mouth of Eel river, and embraced the present townships of Smith and Jefferson, and extended above the mouth of Eel river a short distance, embracing the old Craig's mill, at which clettions were first held in the township. In the year 1825, I attended the election at this mill for the first time after I came to the State. As this township origin- ally derived its name from the old ferryman, the district that contained his residence should have retained his name ; but, instead of that, it has had given to it the name of Jefferson, and a district west of that, embracing Scaffold prairie, has the name of Smith. On the old trace from Smith's ferry to Fort Harrison or Terre Ilaute, there was no one living from where Worthington now stands to where a family by the name of Shu- maker then lived, about where old Mr. Myers now lives, until you came to Scaffold prairie. My father en- tered one hundred and sixty acres of land in Scaffold prairie, on the 9th of August, A. D., 1824, and in the fall, after the lapse of a month or two, moved to his land in the prairie, and took me with him.
" My father, Frederick Dayhoff, as also my mother, were natives of Mit- ryland, but were residents for a long time of Kentucky, after which they settled in Scaffold prairie, Greene Co., in 1824. Being single, I came with themand remained until the first crop of grain was raised. I then re- turned to Kentucky, and remained six or nine months, and married a young lady whose maiden name was Mary Thomas; whose character was such that it never was tarnished by the tongue of malice. She died of consumption and left me three chil- dren. My mother died in Scaffold
The Early History of Greene County.
prairie, in July, 1833, of cholera, the [ danger above, towards the smiling only person's death by that disease in the country around. aged fifty-seven years, nearly. My father died ten years and two days after, by the in- firmatives of age, being over seventy- seven years old.
When my father came to Scaffold prairie, in 1824, he found there two families who had been living there a year or two. The head of one was Jesse Elgin, a native of Kentucky, and son of old Jesse Elgin, of Wash- ington county, in this State, and the other family was by the name of Woodsworth, from Ohio. Among the subsequent early settlers of this prairie was Charles Walker, a fat- ily from Kentucky, who settled where David Fuller now lives, and Geo. R. Taylor, . now of Worthington, who bought out Woodsworth and lived in the settlement many years. But, that I may not weary the reader in speaking of additions and changes in the settlement, I decline this course for the present. I conceive you may inquire of me what gave Scaffold pra- irie its name. I can very briefly and fully satisfy you on this question.
There are, in the central and low- er parts of the prairie, licks which were the resort of wild animals, such as decr, buffaloes and, perhaps, elks, from the commencement of wild ani- mals on our continent until its occu- pation by white men. At this lick large basins were cat out by wild an- imals, craving salt or something of the kind, I suppose. From these licks diverge in every direction what is generally called buffalo ditches, made by the wear of animals and the wash of water along their paths .- Now, around this lick were scaffolds, constructed upon four posts set in the ground, and the scaffolds upon them twelve or fifteen feet or more above the ground. Upon these scaf- folds the Indians would sit and watch for deer and other wild animals com- ing in to the lick. And while these animals would come, spying for dan- ger on the surface, never thinking of
heavens, the Indian would pop them through with his fatal ball. Thesc scaffolds were standing for years af- ter the prairie was occupied by white men, and from these scaffolds the prairie took its name. And is it not remarkable that no effort has been made to discover what the animals sought at this lick ? especially as coal and timber are pentiful around this prairie.
The changes that have taken place in this part of the State in fifty or fifty-five years are astonishing. In the fall season of the year, the mer- chants in this county and west had to have their goods hauled by team from Louisville, there being no rail- roads at that time, and the Wabash being, at that season of the year, too low for steamboating. So, then, Mr Elgin, myself and brother, having heavy teams for breaking prairie sod, would haul for the Wabash merchants in the fall of the year, and receive one dollar and fifty cents per hund- red for hauling to Terre Haute ; and with our big wagons and teams we would haul from twenty-five to thir- ty hundred. And one of the last loads that I hauled was to Robroy, 1 think, forty miles beyond Terre Haute ; and, what is remarkable, made the trip from Louisville by Terre Haute, to Robroy and back home without having my wagon-sheet wct. How unlike this season, up to the present ! But commerce now goes by the power and speed of steam ; and we would naturally conclude that under the improved state of mechan- ism and arts of commerce, that we could get along in the world much easier now than in the old time. But is this the case ? I would ask. . Now, let us consider. Our taxes are dou- ble and, in some instances, thribble, according to amount and value of property, what they were from thirty to fifty years ago. And, I think, if you will look over your old tax re- ceipts, you will be convinced of the correctness of this assertion. Please
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examine your old receipts, while I [ prairie settlement, and I was the sec- write you the exact copy of a tax re- ceipt of my father's, for payment on land and property in Kentucky, for the year 1814, and consequently since the war of 1812. Now comes the copy :
MAY, 1814 .- Received of Frederick Dayhoff, two dollars and six cents, in full of his tax, for the year 1814, on 1423 acres land, one tithe and nine horses. %
G. SMITH, Deputy Sheriff for O. CLARK, Sheriff Shebb County.
This was a good iarm and well im- proved. But Hoosiers are to be pit- ied. They can call up nothing like this. But this taxation is but one item in the bill of expenses; and, further, I would state in reference to our taxes, that I have a receipt for taxes, paid for a single year on my own property, without including any former delinquencies, amounting to $126 77. Now I would say, if this is not exorbitant oppression on a citizen in Smith township in moderate cir- cumstances, depending upon the la- bor of his hands and economy to sup- port himself and family, and defray the other expenses incumbent upon a respectable member of society, then I may say the heavens do not cover us.
But, further : have not the claims of other public functionaries increas- ed much in the same ratio ? Law- yers' fees, doctors' bills, and all other public characters and agencies. Now, good citizens of Smith township, I leave these brief hints to your con- sideration ; and it is for you, whether you be called Whig or Democrat, to say whether you will continue to submit to this extortion. The late floods were beyond your control, but the expenses alluded to may be within the compass of your influence.
The attention given to education in Smith township, and especially in. Scaffold prairie, from the early set- tlement there, has been commenda- ble. My sister, Litticia Buskirk, mother of Philander Buskirk, was the first school teacher in Scaffold
ond. And I can say with pleasure, that I think the morals of this settle- ment have been. above the medium standard. Religion, which is com- pared to the salt of the earth, has al- ways received attention and respect here; and I believe there has never been a dram-shop in the township, and trust the fire of Tophet will nev- er burn here. I fear, however, that the morals of this settlement now, are not as good as in its infancy.
Smith township contributed a lib- eral support to the government dur- ing the war of the rebellion, and lost a number of her brave sons; but, with the rest of our country, enjoys the confidence that our Republic is not to be destroyed by internal di- versions nor external foes.
At the first settlement of Smith township by white men, wild game of various descriptions was very plen- tiful, especially deer and turkeys- the former attracted, I suppose, by the lick in Scaffold prairie. The hunters could have all the venison they wanted. I, besides my venison, according to the recollection of my family, had, at one time, nine pet deer, which I procured, by offering fifty cents a head for fawns, until I got nine. We raised them and they were very pleasant pets. They would on sight distinguish a stranger from one of our family ; and, on a particu- lar occasion, a gentleman from Terre Haute put up with us, and in going from the house to the barn, a young buck spycd something red on the gentleman. Having a horror of blood or anything red, young Mr. Buck made battle with the stranger. But ordinarily they were very. pleasant and gentle in the family; and if I could have some of them for pets at the present time, they would afford a luxurious pastime for amusement.
Now, that I may not make my sketch tedious to its readers, I beg leave to close -- but with the request that if it suggests anything for their improvement, they will thus use it.
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CHAPTER XX. WRIGHT TOWNSHIP.
'HIS township was named for Rev. Richard Wright, the ho- ted old pioneer preacher, among the people of the Christian Church, in that neighborhood. Rev. Richard Wright was one of the leading preach- ers in the Christian denomination for a great many years, and the first time we saw him was at the meeting on the old Sand Hill, at old Uncle Sam- my Wilks', on the day Rev. Mr. Wright baptised old aunt Sally Combs and George Shraykes, Sen., about fifty years ago. He afterwards moved on the old Dick Lambert farm, in Smith township, and sold out there and moved over in Wright township, and bought the farm where Joseph Barnes now lives; half a mile north of Jasonville. Between his farming and blacksmith shop, he made his living by the honest sweat of his brow. He was not a member of the crusaders, but he was an honest man, and preached the gospel from the Bible, just as as he read and under- stood it.
Old Uncle Richard Wright was a Justice of the Peace and a good citi- zen in his neighborhood, and passed from this world to the next by a very strange accidental gun shot through his head, while he was well and hear- ty, and was at work in his black- smith shop. Harden Walker, his step-son, had been out hunting, and had shot a squirrel, and in reloading his gun the gun got choked, and the boy came to the shop to get his old step-father to fix the guu, or to get the bullet down. After trying many ways to move the bullet down, the old man just took the gun barrel out of the stock, unbreeched her, poured water in the gun barrel, and laid the barrel across the fire, and while it was heating, so as to make the water fry, old Uncle Richard put down his car to the gun, where he had taken out the britch pin, the gun went off, the bullet entering the old man's
ear, and killing him instantly, in the presence of several persons. We will give our opinion of that sad accident : When the boy shot at the squirrel, the gun flashed, or did not fire, and left the bullet in the gun barrel, up a foot or two from the breech, and when the boy poured down the powder, it lodged on the first bullet, and then he put down the other bullet on top of the powder, thus leaving two bullets in the gun, and a charge of powder between the bullets.
Old John Lewis, and his son-in- law, Isaac Taylor, built the first log cabin in the township, on the creek, about a half mile south of where James Gibson now lives, one mile from Jasonville.
Robert Birtch built the next cabin, on the farm where Uncle James White now lives.
David Ingram built a little log cabin, at the spring of water, where Joseph Barnes now lives. Afterwards many new comers came in the neigh- borhood, and among the number were Benjamin Fry, James Heims, James Frazier, Samuel Wilks, Rev; Richard Wright, Uncle Peter Wright, and a bachelor, old Billy Wright, Alexander Poe, Mr. Cantrell, Joab Witcher, Isom Farris, James Maloy, Edward Combs and a few others.
Rev. Alexander Poe was an elder and preacher in the Christian church for many years in that old neighbor- hood. Besides it was said of him that he was the best bee hunter, and could catch more fish, and kill more deer than any other matt. At one time when the Big Lake had been frozen over with very thick ice for several weeks, in the winter of 1834, Mr. Poe and his boys went over on the ice at the lake, east of the old Lone Tree, and within two days they caught at least a hundred wagon loads of big fish, and every person in that country had fish for the next three months.
A clever Old Virginia nigger man, named Cainen Goen, went out hunt- ing with Mr Poe and they came across
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a very large old bear and her three | gun-smith, and made the best guns young cub bears among the bushes, that were taken to all of our early shooting matches. Mr. McBride and wife raised a large family of boys and girls. Some of them yet live in Greene county. over on Lick creek and the old negro shot at the old bear, which frightened her away from the young ones, whilst the three young bears ran up a small tree, and Mr. Poe stood guard at the Enoch Sexton and Mr. Wyatt Johnson are now the oldest pioneer settlers in Wright township, and these gentlemen arc both common farmers and live just west of Jason- ville, in the extreme north-west cor- ner of Greene county. root of the tree while the old darkey negro went up the tree and shook off the three cub bears, killing one of them in its fall, and capturing the other two. Those two young bears were made pets of by Mr. Poe's fam- ily, and were afterwards taken to Louisville, Kentucky, and sold for a good price.
The old red-oak thicket of brush at the school house just east of Hum- phrey Shepherd's, was named and call- ed Red Ruff by old Uncle Tom Puck. ett, the man that drove the wild bear from the neighborhood across the country to Terre Haute, a distance of thirty miles, and that red-oak thicket has been a wonderful place for wolves, bears, deer, wild turkeys, pigeon-roosts, and all kinds of game for the past sixty years or more.
The old White Oak Lick on the creek west of Howesville, has always been marked as one of the best places in that locality to kill deer ; besides it was the downfall of William Stew. art, a young hunter. Mr. Stewart and some of James Maloy's boys had gone there to watch the lick for deer one night, and a storm was coming up and the boys were climbing down the white oak tree from the scaffold, and by a mishap or miss step Bill Stewart tumbled out of the tree and fell about twenty feet. Fortunately he was not much hurt and got home all right.
Slate Lick, near the head waters of Latta's creek, was named by old Allen McBride, the oldest settler and the most prominent man in the casteren part of Sullivan county. He built his house and set out the old orchard, and made bells at his black- smith shop for forty years, at the Bateham post office piace.
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