USA > Indiana > Madison County > Historical Sketches and Reminiscences of Madison County, Indiana: A Detailed History of the. > Part 54
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OLIVER C. DAVIS AND HIS PECULIARITIES.
As long as any person lives in Anderson who knew Oliver C. Davis his name will be perpetuated. He was a friend as true as steel. His word was his bond. If he owed a dollar he was as sure to pay it on the day it fell due as the sun rose and set on that day. If he made a bet he held it as sacred as the most binding obligation. If he lost, the money was forthcoming without a sigh or a groan. He would give it up so gracefully that it made one feel good. If he won he expected prompt settlement, and he everlastingly hated the man who would not pay his bets. He had a very droll way of expressing his approval or disapproval of things going on around him, but always nailed the center when he "remarked."
One time he was coming down town on a very hot sum- mer day, and passed a house where a man was sitting in the shade of a house, while his wife was out in the yard splitting wood. Oliver stopped, took off his hat, wiped the perspira- tion from his face, and said : " Well, I have seen many and many of a lazy man, but you had ought to bin a Injun."
He bought land for taxes. A good old farmer came in one day and wanted to get him to assign a certificate to a piece of land on which the farmer had a lien. " Very well," said Oliver, " I will assign it for $25." That took the old man's breath. It was too much, so he walked out. The next day the old man returned, and called on Davis and told him he had concluded to take the assignment. " All right," said Oliver, " it will take $50."
" Why, gracious! Oliver, you said $25 yesterday."
" Yes, but that was yesterday," said Oliver.
" Well, make it out right away before it gets any higher," chimed in the old man, drawing his purse and settling at once.
HOW " UNCLE BILLY" MYERS AWOKE HIS SLEEPING GUEST.
We have mentioned Uncle Billy Myers several times dur- ing the writing of this work, but he did many things that will long be remembered by old settlers, when called to mind. He kept such an extraordinary good house, it was so clean and nice in all its departments, that it was a pleasure for the weary pilgrim on the road to reach Uncle Billy's, and lodge with him. Hle prided himself on always being on hand to do all that was in his line to be done to make his guests comfortable. HIe boasted that he never let a lodger over-sleep himself. but
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always got him off on the proper train. One time a drummer went there, who had important business at Logansport, and must go on the 1 :30 train that night. He was afraid to go to bed for fear of missing his train. About 9 o'clock, Uncle Billy came into the bar room, where he found the fellow snoozing and nodding around, dead on his feet for sleep. " Why in the devil don't you go to bed?" asked Uncle Billy. " I am afraid of missing that night train. I wouldn't miss it for a hundred dollars."
"Go to bed. You must think I keep a devil of a hotel. I never let a man miss a train in my life ." With this assurance the man retired and was soon oblivious to all the world around him. Uncle Billy concluded he would lie down on a buffalo robe and quietly snooze along until all the trains got out. He was soon snoring the plastering off the house. After awhile the shrill whistle of the engine back of his house brought him to his feet. The 1 :30 train was passing. Up stairs he flew, rapping and thumping on the drummer's door until he awak- ened every one in the house. " Why don't you get up, you d-n fool, the train's been gone fifteen minutes." The man informed him that if the train was gone, it was no use to get up, and he turned over and went to sleep again.
THE FALLING OF THE STARS IN 1866.
In 1866, it was predicted by some cranks, or crooks, as you may please to call them, that on a certain night in November the stars would fall. Great excitement prevailed in Anderson as well as throughout a large part of the United States. The people of the town remained up all night to witness the grand spectacle. A man of the name of Winters kept the United States Hotel then, and had a choice set of young gentlemen boarders, such as Albert C. Davis, Hampton Ellis, George Darrow and many others. Winters was just from the coun- try, and in his first experience as hotel proprietor was so green that the cows bawled at him. The boys persuaded him that a grand dance and banquet was just the thing for this occasion, so he employed an orchestra, prepared a sumptuous feast, and the merry dance was about to begin, when some one threw some stones upon the roof of the house and they came down through the skylight with a great crash. The old bell on top of the house began to ring and the guests commenced flying in all directions. Enoch Roach made his appearance on the scene about this time and informed the people that the grand
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spectacle was now on. There was another shower of stones and the landlord flew, even deserting his family. A young man by the name of Riley, who was clerking for him, fled to the country and never came back. Al Davis, Hampton Ellis, and others, cleared the table of all the roast chicken, duck and everything else that was good to eat, and carried it back into Swank's grocery, where the boys assembled and had a boun- tiful feast. The dance was "busted " up. Winters, in a few days tumbled to the fact that all the stars that fell landed on his hotel. The boys " roasted " and " guyed " him so much that he shortly afterward sold out to Fred Cartwright, who kept the United States Hotel as long as it was run as a place of lodging.
THE ANDERSON " WIDEAWAKES."
In the campaign of 1860 the Republican party made a great hit by organizing what they named the "Wideawakes." It was a semi-military organization, uniformed with oil-cloth capes, caps and a coal-oil lamp or torch. They flashed it on the country at a given period simultaneously all over the I'nited States. It was a winning card. Many young men were carried into the Republican ranks by this gaudy mili- tary array. Many first voters were lured into it who are now veterans in the Republican cause. The Democrats tried to counteract its influence by organizing the " Douglas Guards," uniformed with yellow oil-cloth capes, caps and coal-oil lamps. They were mounted on horseback. Their organiza- tion came too late, however. The young blood had caught fire in the Wideawake camp. Nothing could turn the tide.
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Anderson was no exception to the general rule. She had
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d her Wideawake company, a fine organization of the best men en of the town, old and young. Many who belonged to that com- pany are now gray bearded veterans. Many are beneath the ne - sod in a southern clime, where they lost their lives in the real battles of the country, not as Wideawakes, but as defenders 'S of the flag of the I'nion.
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A. B. Kline was the captain of a company, and was as "brave a lad as ere commission bore." He was a young man of fine appearance, stately as the sturdy oak, handsome and gallant, having the respect of his command, boasting of the finest Wideawake company in Indiana. He took his com pany far and near to the Republican gatherings that year. - making a fine impression wherever it made its appearance.
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Time drifted on, the election came and passed, resulting in the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. The war soon followed, and the young men of the country responded to the call in vast numbers. Nearly all who had been members of the Wideawakes drifted into the army. They had had a taste of military life, enough to give them a desire to go into the real scenes of army service.
Nearly all of Kline's company enlisted. He was at that time one of Anderson's best and most prosperous young busi- ness men and had a business he could not well leave, so he did not join them.
George Nichol, Colonel M. S. Robinson, Lon Makepeace, Captain Allen, D. F. Mustard and many others of Kline's old friends went to the tront. George Nichol faced the booming cannon as a quartermaster. Mustard was a musician.
One night while in camp, around the blazing fire, crack- ing jokes, singing songs, writing letters to loved ones at home, the minds of the party settled on Kline, and his many virtues were discussed. Finally some one suggested that they have some fun at his expense. So they went to work and whittled out a long sword made of pine, stained it from end to end with red ink and finished with the inscription : " Presented to Captain A. B. Kline by his comrades-in-arms for chivalrous and meritorious conduct during the late Wideawake cam- paign." It was sent to him by express but no name disclosed the donors. It was a secret among the boys and a mystery to Kline.
Years rolled on, the war was over. Kline became cash- ier of the First National Bank of Anderson; George Nichol was auditor of Madison county, and Mustard was acting as deputy treasurer. Nichol's office was a kind of headquarters for the old-time boys to gather in and chat, tell stories of the army days, etc.
One afternoon a party had gathered in, among whom were Captain Allen, Mustard, Nichol, Captain Anderson and Kline. The subject of the war soon came up. During the conversation the subject of the wooden sword was brought up. It leaked out that Nichol and Mustard were in the scheme. Kline immediately "caught on."
" Well," he said, "I never knew of a quartermaster or a musician that was killed in the army."
Captain Allen spoke up: "Yes, Al. I know of one quartermaster that was killed in my brigade."
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" Well, they must have been doing hell-fired good shoot- ing that day," responded Kline.
This brought down the house. Kline closed the argu- ment on the army subject. His response was in keeping with his usual run of wit. He hardly ever missed a center when he shot off his mouth. Many of Captain Kline's old sayings will live in Anderson as long as the name of Kline lives. His friends who knew him in his better days have the same love and admiration for him dead that they had for him alive.
A FAMOUS RESORT.
The old " Henderson drug store " is one of the landmarks of Anderson. It was erected away back before the war, per- haps as far back as 1860, and has been occupied as a drug store ever since its existence. It is now occupied by the Cassel Bros. The late Dr. John W. Westerfield for many years did a flourishing business there, and the major part of his hand- some fortune was made there. During the war the firm was Westerfield & Menefee. Dr. Menefee retired about 1866, and removed to Alexandria, where he started his famous " one- horse " drug store, and made a fortune, which he left when he died a few years since.
Dr. G. N. Hilligoss was for many years a clerk in the Westerfield and Menifee drug store, before starting into the practice of medicine. In the year 1868 Doctors William A. Hunt and J. F. Brandon formed a partnership under the firm name of Brandon & Hunt, and purchased the stock of drugs in that room, where they did business until they sold out to the Henderson Bros., Edgar and Charles A., who for many years occupied the room and did the largest business ever done in Anderson in that line.
Their store was headquarters for everyone - politicians, school teachers, lawyers and preachers. It was run on the " high pressure " plan and was never closed. Day and night, Sundays and week days, it was wide open. Both of the Hen- dersons were politicians by nature, and called around them all of the leading lights in politics.
Hendersons' drug store was a power in local, as well as State politics. Many a candidate has made his start from that store, and when once in the race, with the Hendersons behind him, he generally went through. It was while in this room in business that Major Henderson made his race and was elected to the legislature. He afterwards made a brilliant race for
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State Treasurer, but was defeated for the nomination by a small majority. It was from that place that Charles A. Henderson started in the race for Clerk of the Madison Circuit Court and was triumphantly elected. Newt Pence was a clerk in the Henderson drug store when he was a candidate and elected City Clerk of Anderson. Albert C. Davis started from there and was elected City Clerk in 1870, and after serving his term, went back in the store where he remained for some time and in 1878 made a race for County Recorder and was elected. While many men who started from there for office were elected there have been many aspirants quietly taken into the back room and retired from the field.
This famous and long-to-be-remembered old landmark has to Anderson's old-timers many hallowed memories clinging around it. It had its brighest and happiest days when occu- pied by the Henderson Bros. It was there that such men as Colonel Stilwell, John F. Wildman, Colonel W. C. Fleming, J. M. Dickson, Joseph Pugh, ex-Mayor Wesley Dunham, James H. Snell, Andrew J. Griffith and George Nichol, who were the lights in politics, met. It was their rendezvous at night, and a place of meeting of Sunday afternoons to discuss the situation; to make and unmake candidates. The Hon. Green Clay Smith, of Kentucky, Cassius M. Clay and George Francis Train have all met with the Anderson gentry there in social conclave. These last named gentlemen were often the guests of Colonel Stilwell in his lifetime, and of course much of their time was spent with the genial Hendersons and their friends. While the old building is rather a back number in appearance, it stands as a monument to a great part of Ander- son's history.
THE OLD GINSENG DAYS.
In gathering dates and facts for a work like this a person has often to call upon the old-timer. He can furnish one with a date that could not otherwise be gotten. In coming in con- tact with them a person learns to love them, and to listen to their stories with an interest unabated. Often the point you wish is entirely forgotten, and you have been led off in a direction different from the one in which you started. In the old-timers of Madison county there is material for a book as big and as good as the Holy Bible. Their trials, joys and hardships are as sacred to them and as instructive to those who listen to them as Holy Writ. This may seem a little 40
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strong, but, to appreciate it, "cultivate " the old-timer, as we have done. In the halcyon days of the pioneer of Madison county money was a legal tender just as it is to-day, but there was but little of it to tender, and people didn't make much fuss about free silver or a gold basis, as they do nowadays. Coon skins, tan bark, venison and wolf skins were good enough for them, and ginseng was a staple article. Many people made quite a little money by gathering this root and drying it for sale to the traders that came around at intervals and took up their stock on hands.
Ex-Mayor Dunham is one of the old-timers. He came to Anderson in 1839, and is authority on all points of " ancient history " relative to Anderson. Mr. Dunham has.in his pos- session a day-book, or blotter, used by one of the early mer- chants of Anderson. Ginseng, hoop poles and wolf scalps were entered upon the book as cash payment for various ar- ticles purchased.
Money was very scarce, and the articles mentioned above passed as the medium of exchange.
There is to-day a man living in Anderson who earned a livelihood in his boyhood days by digging ginseng. A ginseng factory was at one time located on Central avenue, near the spot now occupied by the armory, and the proprietor did a thriving business. The establishment was afterwards turned into a spruce beer factory. This has long since disappeared, but many of the older residents of Anderson will have a dis- tinct recollection of it.
CHAPTER LXIV.
IN WHICH A NUMBER OF INTERESTING HAPPENINGS ARE REMEMBERED.
A NARROW ESCAPE.
Mr. Otto Ballard, who is at this time a member of the editorial staff of the Anderson Herald, came near losing his life by being drowned on the 14th of June, 1886, when a lad of sixteen or seventeen years of age. He had gone to White river, in company with several boys, for the purpose of bath- ing in the "old swimming hole " below Norton's Brewery. Ballard had not fully learned the art of swimming, and before he was aware of it was in water beyond his depth. He be- came frightened and losing his presence of mind began to sink. The boys around him were very much excited and could do nothing to relieve him.
Mr. William Cain, who happened to be passing by, heard the cries for help and went to Ballard's rescue. Cain jumped in. The drowning boy grabbed him around the neck so tightly that Cain could not release his hold and both came near losing their lives. Finally Cain succeeded in freeing himself from Ballard, and with the assistance of some boys, was able to land him in safety on the river bank. Had it not been for the timely arrival of Mr. Cain there is no doubt that Mr. Ballard would have been drowned, as his comrades were too badly scared to render him any assistance.
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NARROW ESCAPE OF A WELL DIGGER.
John Estel, one of the old time residents of Anderson who has seen the place grow from a village of a few hundred to a city of twenty thousand souls, came near losing his life on the 9th of April, 1875, while engaged in digging a well at the corner of Thirteenth and Delaware streets, Mr. Estel be- ing down in the well, filling a bucket, while his co-laborers would draw it to the surface by a windlass. Knowing the
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treacherous character of the gravel walls and that they were liable to have a slide at any moment, a wooden curb had been prepared and was on the ground ready for use, but just before the men were ready to put it in the men on the outside of the well suggested to Estel that it was time for him to come out, as there was danger of a cave in.
As he sent the bucket full of sand to the top he said that after one more round he would come up. His words had scarcely passed his lips when the banks gave way and he was covered up to his arm-pits with drifting sand and gravel and it seemed at one time as if no earthly help could rescue him from an untimely death. Fortunately he had presence of mind enough to clasp his hands over his mouth and eyes and thus prevent smothering. One man descended quickly and removed the drift from about the imprisoned man's head and thus en- abled him to free his hands; but there he was firmly imbedded and no means of getting him out except by digging. It was not safe for any one to stay in the well to assist him, as all this time large portions of the earth had fallen in, leaving quite a hole in the gravel with a heavy bank of sod and earth over- hanging. The dirt and gravel kept falling in about his head until once he was entirely walled in, and had it not been for the presence of mind of a young man of the name of Edward Brown, a son of ex-Mayor William L. Brown, of Anderson. he would undoubtedly have been smothered. Brown saw sit- ting at the corner of the house an old barrel which had been used for the purpose of catching rain-water from the roof. He ran and got the barrel, knocked the head out and running to the well dropped it down over the head and arms of Estel, after which a man was sent down who scratched the gravel away from his mouth and this gave him a chance to breathe.
The barrel served as a place for the falling gravel to lodge against and thus prevented further encroachment on the person of the prisoner.
Estel in his perilous position prayed vehemently, called on Almighty God to save his soul, and to rescue him from his danger. It was a pitiful sight for the bystanders to behold him in this sad plight and to listen to his petitions addressed to the Great One above and not to be able to render him any assistance.
He was then imbedded in the gravel for nearly two hours until the workmen could cut away the banks for sufficient space around and by digging the gravel and sand out to such
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an extent that a rope could be placed around his person and by this means he was slowly and carefully lifted up out of his confinement.
Estel prayed on this occasion as he had never prayed be- fore and probably as he has never prayed since. It is safe to say that he will never forget the awful things that passed through his mind while buried in the gravel on that occasion.
Mr. Estel is yet a resident of Anderson and has ever since been engaged in well digging, but it is said that he never ven- tures beneath the surface of the earth, himself, but always gets some one else to engage in that treacherous part of the busi- ness.
A FRIGHTFUL FALL.
On the 26th of October, 1880, while Clark Sharpe was building the Boring-Hannah block, on the north side of the public square, he had a lad of the name of Andrew Thomas laying brick for him. Young Thomas was the boy wonder in the line of his trade; there were but few men in Anderson who could compete with him. He was the son of Benjamin Thomas, who died on the ocean a few years ago while on the way home from the scenes of his childhood in England. Ben- jamin Thomas was a good mechanic, one of the best stone masons in the country. Young Thomas inherited the traits of his father in that respect, and being left an orphan, he at an early age began the trade of a brick mason. He went as an apprentice with Clark Sharpe, contractor, who at that time lived in Anderson. It was but a very short time until young Thomas was a swift hand with the trowel, and being a favor- ite of his employer, he was put ahead in such a manner as to soon be earning journeyman's wages. It was in this capacity the was working when on the 26th of October, 1880, he fell from a scaffold and was badly hurt. He was so terribly mangled that it was thought he could not possibly recover. Mr. Byron HI. Dyson was standing near by, and picked up his seemingly lifeless body and with assistance, it was carried into a place where medical aid could be had. He soon began to show signs of returning consciousness, strong restoratives were administered, and he was in a short time able to be removed to the home of his mother, where he for a long time, laid in the hands of a physician. Finally he recovered, and is yet living in Anderson and is one of her best citizens, and one of the best brick masons in the county.
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SHOOTING AT JAMES W. SANSBERRY, JR.
One to look at the placid features of James W. Sansberry, Jr., would scarcely realize that he had faced the muzzle of a breech-loading shotgun and had received the contents in his face. Yet such is the fact. In the merry month of May, 1875, when the bluebirds were nesting and the jays were singing their songs in the boughs of the trees, James W. Sansberry, Jr., Isaac Elmer May and Charles Perrett were plodding their way down the banks of the placid waters of Greene's branch in pursuit of birds, when they got into an argument about their marksmanship. Perrett had the gun, and Sansberry twitted him about not being a " center " shot, and offered to step off to a distance of two hundred yards and allow Perrett to prove it by shooting at him. Perrett agreed to the arrange- ment, and Sansberry stepped the necessary paces and squared himself, and bade Perrett blaze away, not thinking, perhaps, that he would obey the command. Hardly had the word been given before Perrett leveled his gun and fired. The dis- tance between them saved Mr. Sansberry, no doubt, from an untimely death. It was found that several of the shot had struck him in the face with such force as to knock out one of his teeth, and the others spotting his face in several places. To use his own expression, it gave him the sensation of hav- ing been shot in the face with a gun load of red pepper. The boys were nearly all scared to death, and kept the affair a secret for a time, but it afterwards leaked out through friends and crept into the public prints, which gave an account of the affair shortly thereafter. Mr. Perrett was about as badly hurt by fright as Mr. Sansberry was by the shot. He did not realize that the shot could go any such distance as to where Sansberry was standing.
This was a lesson to both of these young men, and in handling a gun from that time forward there is no record of either of them being willing to stand up in front of it.
A SHOOTING AFFAIR.
In the year 1874 what came near being a fatal shooting affair, took place in the billiard room connected with the bar of the Doxey House. Robert F. Shinn came near mortally wounding John B. Kinnard, of the Anderson Hearld. Shinn was a young man, born and reared in Anderson. He had no particular occupation, but is supposed to have been a gambler
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by profession. He was the son of Robert and Martha Shinn, respectable Irish people, who had lived in Anderson for a great many years. Robert F. Shinn's father died about the year 1876, leaving behind his widow Martha, who died a few weeks previous to this writing.
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