USA > Indiana > Bartholomew County > History of Bartholomew County, Indiana : From the earliest time to the present, with biographical sketches, notes, etc. : Together with a short history of the Northwest, the Indiana Territory, and the state of Indiana > Part 24
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271
IIISTORY OF INDIANA.
THE BRIGHT SIDE.
The history of pioneer life generally presents the dark side of the pieture; but the toils and privations of the early settlers were not a series of unmitigated sufferings. No; for while the fathers and mothers toiled hard, they were not averse to a little relaxation, and had their seasons of fun and enjoyment. They contrived to do something to break the monotony of their daily life and furnish them a good hearty laugh. Among the more general forms of amusements were the " quilting-bec," "corn-husking," "apple-par- ing," " log-rolling " and "house-raising." Our young readers will doubtless be interested in a description of these forms of amuse- ment, when labor was made to afford fun and enjoyment to all par- ticipating. The "quilting-bee," as its name implies, was when the industrious qualities of the busy little inscet that "improves each shining hour " were exemplified in the manufacture of quilts for the household. In the afternoon ladies for miles around gathered at an appointed place, and while their tongues would not cease to play, the hands were as busily engaged in making the quilt; and desire as always manifested to get it out as quickly as possible, for then the fun would begin. In the evening the gentlemen came, and the hours would then pass swiftly by in playing games or dancing. " Corn-huskings " were when both sexes united in the work. They usually assembled in a large barn, which was arranged for the oc- casion; and when cach gentleman had selected a lady partner the husking began. When a lady found a red ear she was entitled to a kiss from every gentleman present; when a gentleman found one he was allowed to kiss every lady present. After the corn was all husked a good supper was served; then the "old folks" would leave, and the remainder of the evening was spent in the dance and in having a general good time. The recreation afforded to the young people on the annual recurrence of these festive occasions was as highly enjoyed, and quite as innocent, as the amusements of the present boasted age of refinement and culture.
The amusements of the pioneers were peculiar to themselves. Saturday afternoon was a holiday in which no man was expected to work. A load of produce might be taken to " town " for sale or traffic without violence to custom, but no more serions labor could be tolerated. When on Saturday afternoon the town was reached, "fun commenced." Had two neighbors business to transact, here it was done. Horses were " swapped." Difficulties settled and
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free fights indulged in. Blue and red ribbons were not worn in those days, and whisky was as free as water; twelve and a half cents would buy a quart, and thirty-five or forty cents a gallon, « and at such priees enormous quantities were consumed. Go to any town in the county and ask the first pioneer you meet, and he would tell you of notable Saturday-afternoon fights, either of which to-day would fill a column of the Police News, with elaborate engravings to match.
Mr. Sandford C. Cox quaintly describes some of the happy feat- tures of frontier life in this manner:
We cleared land, rolled logs, burned brush, blazed ont paths from one neighbor's cabin to another and from one settlement to another, made and used hand-mills and hominy mortars, hunted deer, turkey, otter, and raccoons, canght fish, dug ginseng, hunted bees and the like, and-lived on the fat of the land. We read of a land of " corn and wine," and another " flowing with milk and honey ;" but I rather think, in a temporal point of view, taking into account the richness of the soil, timber, stone, wild game and other advantages, that the Sugar creek country would come up to any of them, if not surpass them.
I once cut cord-wood, continues Mr. Cox, at 312 cents per cord, and walked a mile and a half night and morning, where the first frame college was built northwest of town (Crawfordsville). Prof. Curry, the lawyer, would sometimes come down and help for an hour or two at a time, by way of amusement, as there was little or no law business in the town or country at that time. Reader, what would you think of going six to eight miles to help roll logs, or raise a cabin ? or ten to thirteen miles to mill, and wait three or four days and nights for your grist? as many had to do in the first settlement of this country. Such things were of frequent oc- currence then, and there was but little grumbling about it. It was a grand sight to see the log heaps and brush piles burning in the night on a clearing of 10 or 15 acres. A Democratic torchlight procession, or a midnight march of the Sons of Malta with their grand Gyasticutus in the center bearing the grand jewel of the order, would be nowhere in comparison with the log-heaps and brush piles in a blaze.
But it may be asked, Had you any social amusements, or manly pastimes, to recreate and enliven the dwellers in the wilderness? We had. In the social line we had our meetings and our singing- schools, sugar-boilings and weddings, which were as good as ever
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
what would you think of going six to eight miles to help roll logs, or raise a cabin? or ten to thirteen miles to mill, and wait three or four days and nights for your grist? as many had to do in the first settlement of this country. Such things were of frequent occurrence then, and there was but little grumbling about it. It was a grand sight to see the log heaps and brush piles burning in the night on a clearing of 10 or 15 acres. A Democratic torchlight procession, or a midnight march of the Sons of Malta with their grand Gyasticutus in the center bearing the grand jewel of the order, would be nowhere in comparison with the 1 log-heaps and brush-piles in a blaze.
But it may be asked, Had you any social amusements, or manly pastimes, to recreate and enliven the dwellers in the wilderness ? We had. In the social line we had our meetings and our singing- schools, sugar-boilings and weddings, which were as good as ever came off in any country, new or old; and if our youngsters did not " trip the light fantastic toe" under a professor of the Terp- sichorean art or expert French dancing master, they had many & good " hoe-down" on puncheon floors, and were not annoyed by bad whisky. And as for manly sports, requiring mettle and muscle, there were lots of wild hogs running in the cat-tail swamps on Lye creek, and Mill creek, and among them many large boars that Ossian's heroes and Homer's model soldiers, such as Achilles, Hec- tor and Ajax would have delighted to give chase to. The boys and men of those days had quite as much sport, and made more money and health by their hunting excursions than our city gents nowa- days playing chess by telegraph where the players are more than 70 miles apart.
WHAT THE PIONEERS HAVE DONE.
There are few of these old pioneers living as connecting links of the past with the present. What must their thoughts be as with their dim eyes they view the scenes that surround them ? We often hear people talk about the old-fogy ideas and fogy ways, and want of enterprise on the part of the old men who have gone through the experiences of pioneer life. Sometimes, perhaps, such remarks are just, but, considering the experiences, education and entire life of such men, such remarks are better unsaid They have had their trials, misfortunes, hardships and adventures,
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
and shall we now, as they are passing far down the western decliv- ity of life, and many of them gone, point to them the finger of derision, and laugh and sneer at the simplicity of their ways? Let us rather cheer them up, revere and respect them, for beneath those rough exteriors beat hearts as noble as ever throbbed in the human breast. These veterans have been compelled to live for weeks upon hominy and, if bread at all, it was bread made from corn ground in hand-mills, or pounded up with mortors. Their children have been destitute of shoes during the winter; their families had no clothes except what was carded, spun, wove and made into garments by their own hands; schools they had none; churches they had none; afflicted with sickness incident to all new countries, sometimes the entire family at once; luxuries of life they had none; the auxiliaries, improvements, inventions and labor-saving machinery of to-day they had not; and what they possessed they obtained by the hardest of labor and individual ex- ertion, yet they bore these hardships and privations without mur- muring, hoping for better times to come, and often, too, with but little prospect of realization.
As before mentioned, the changes written on every hand are most wonderful. It has been but three-score years since the white man began to exercise dominion over this region, erst the home of the red men, yet the visitor of to-day, ignorant of the past of the country, could scarcely be made to realize that within these years there has grown up a population of 2,000,000 people, who in all the accomplishments of life are as far advanced as are the inhab- itants of the older States. Schools, churches, colleges, palatial dwellings, beautiful grounds, large, well-cultivated and produc- tive farms, as well as cities, towns and busy manufactories, have grown up, and occupy the hunting grounds and camping places of the Indians, and in every direction there are evidences of wealth, comfort and luxury. There is but little left of the old landmarks. Advanced civilization and the progressive demands of revolving years have obliterated all traces of Indian occupancy, until they are only remembered in name.
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PART II.
History of Bartholomew County.
HISTORY OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY.
CHAPTER I .*
GEOLOGY - TOPOGRAPHY - DRAINAGE - DRIFT PERIOD -- CAR- BONIFEROUS AGE - NIAGARA GROUP - LOCAL DETAILS - FOSSILS - ANTIQUITIES, ETC.
BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY comprises an area of about four hundred square miles, two hundred and fifty-six thousand acres. In the early history of the State it formed a part of Delaware County, and was or- ganized as Bartholomew County under an act of the Legislature, approved January 9, 1821. Originally it in- cluded most of the territory now embraced in the County of Brown. Johnson and Shelby counties bound it on the north, Decatur and Jennings on the east, Jennings and Jackson on the south, and Jack- son and Brown on the west.
The monotony of an otherwise generally level country is diver- sified by many a hill and valley in the west part of the county, especially that portion of the county lying west of Columbus, form- ing the western parts of Ohio, Harrison and Union townships, and locally known as the " Brown County edge of Bartholomew."
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An eastern continuation of the central ridge of the Brown County knobstone enters the county at the southwest corner of Harrison Township, and reaches its greatest altitude at Taylor Hill, in Section 36, Township S, North, Range 4, East. Taylor Hill, the highest point in the county, is 1,003 feet above tide level, and 360 feet above Columbus. From its summit magnificent views of the surrounding country may be had. On a clear day when the air is pure the unaided eye can trace for miles, as a blue line against
* Adapted to this volume from the State Geological Report for 1881, by Moses N. Elrod, M. D., to John Collett, State Geologist.
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BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY.
the horizon, the eastern boundary of the great Driftwood-White River Valley. The observer may see Georgetown to the northwest in Brown County, Edinburg in Johnson County, and Columbus and Walesboro in Bartholomew. From Taylor Hill the Wall ridge, as Prof. Collett has named it, trends to the north, through Union Township, thence west through Nineveh Township to the Brown County line. It is not a continuous ridge, but a series of high points intersected by numerous valley's and gaps, that fall away to the lower lands of the east and west, north and south. The cen- tral and northern parts of Nineveh Township, while broken by out- liers and foothills of the Wall ridge, are generally what may be termed rolling lands. Low hills and ridges, ranging from twenty- five to fifty feet in height, occupy much of the country between the knobstone summit and the bottoms of Driftwood, White River, and to the south of the ridge in Ohio and Jackson townships. The central portion of the county is level, much of it below and in the vicinity of Columbus being White River bottoms, ranging three to four miles wide. North of the county scat sets in the Haw- patch plateau, extending from White River to the Shelby County line, renowned as an extensive tract of arable land, level and fertile · as any prairie, primevally covered with a magnificent forest of great trees, devoid of undergrowth.
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The eastern parts of the county are usually rolling, and some parts spoken of as hilly, but the application of the term hill, i. c .- an elevated mass of land - is a misnomer. The so-called hills are not elevations above the level of the country, but valleys cut from twenty to seventy feet below the general surface. This distinction is important, as will further appear when we come to discuss the geology of the Drift period. Especially are the valleys marked in the vicinity of Hartsville, and in the northeast part of Clifty Town- ship, on Fall Fork and Middle Fork creeks.
Drainage .- What is given as the east fork of White River on the State and School maps, is locally, and it is claimed, correctly known as Driftwood from Edinburg down to the mouth of Flat Rock Creek, from that point south as White River; but as the term " Driftwood " is indiscriminately applied to any portion of the river in the vicinity of Columbus, and is not used generally out-
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GEOLOGY.
side of the county, we shall drop the name Driftwood and use the name White or East White for all parts of the east fork of White River below Edinburg. Above Edinburg the same misapplication of terms recurs in calling East White River Blue River.
White River crosses the northern boundary of the county near Edinburg, and bears thence in a general course east of south through the central part of the county. From Edinburg the river follows and runs through the foot hills of the wall ridge of Knob- stone till it reaches the sand and gravel bottoms below the mouth of Catharine's Creek. Above this the river flows through a stony bed of black shale, and is not subject to great overflows; below the banks are low, the bed gravelly, shifting and frequently overflown. According to the table of altitudes of the main line of the J., M. & I. railroad, the bed of the stream, Blue River, is fifty-three feet higher at Edinburg than the bed of White River at the Columbus bridge. From the same tables we find the fall in the river from Columbus to the Rockford bridge to be thirty feet, showing that the fall per mile is 100 per cent. more above than below the city. Advantage has been taken of this fall and utilized to run the extensive flouring mills at Lowell and the Valley Mills west of Taylorsville. The permanent banks and swift current of the upper river invite further investments in manufactories. Messrs. Stansberry and Williams give the mouth of Flat Rock Creek at 602 feet above the level of the ocean, and that of Clifty Creek at 596 feet above, making the fall six feet in five miles as compared with a fall of fifty-three feet in fifteen miles of the river above the mouth of Flat Rock. The fall in the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from Louisville to the Gulf of Mexico is less than four inches to the mile. The difference be- tween high and low water at Columbus is given at fifteen feet.
A few rivulets and brooks that rise west of the Wall ridge flow into an arm of Salt Creek that cuts the northwest corner of Harri- son Township, and finally unites with East White River below Bed- ford, in Lawrence County. With this exception all the streams of Bartholomew County empty into White River within the county or soon after it enters Jackson County. The general course of the creeks is east and west, with the surface of the country, and to the south of the center of the greatest depression of the White River
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BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY.
Valley. White Creek, and its tributaries, leaves the county in a more southern direction, and unites with White River below Sey- mour. The creeks of the west side of the river, beginning in the northwest, are Big Nineveh Creek, Muddy Branch, Catharine's Creek, Wolf Creek, Denois Creek, and White Creek and its trib- utary the East Fork of White Creek; on the cast are Flat Rock River, Haw Creek, Clifty Creek and Little Sand Creek and their tributaries, Little Haw Creek, Fall Fork, Middle Fork, Otter Creek, Brush Creek and Bear Creek, together with other small streams, named and not named on the map. The banks of the creeks on the west side of the valley, after reaching the low lands, are cut in the clay and mud without proper first or second bottoms, in appearance very much like artificial ditches, and hence overflows are common. The creeks flowing through the Hawpatch have low banks in the gravel with well marked second banks. Those of the limestone region of the east are deep and rocky, and the present beds are never filled by rain storms to their full carrying capacity.
The Drift Period .- In order to a proper understanding of the wonderful forces that came into play during the Glacial and Terrace epochs of the Drift period, we will first consider the clays, sands, gravels and bowlders that go to make up the mass of these groups, and their distribution over the surface of the stratified rocks, and then discuss the theory and dynamics of their origin. In general terms we may say that the whole of the surface of the county is covered with drift materials, except the top of the wall ridge, and the hills to the west of it in Harrison and Union townships, and doubtless these high hills have been subjected to the action and in- fluences of the waters of the Terrace epoch, that have so greatly modified and re-arranged the ancient glacial deposit.
The upland gravel beds are collections of pure sand, clean gravel and small bowlders, found only on the high grounds and ridges, that I believe to be identical "hog's-backs" of the Ohio survey, and the kamcs and eskers of the authors; especially are these beds of gravel identical in only being found on the high lands, and in- being much less modified and re-arranged by the action of water subsequent to the Glacial epoch. In stratification the beds are very
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GEOLOGY.
irregular and seldom conformable one with another; more fre- quently no indications of stratification are seen, the beds when opened showing sand at one end and coarse gravel at the other; the strata frequently interlock and alternate in cross sections with- out reference to the underlying beds. This want of uniformity of stratification is in marked contrast with that of the low land gravel as seen in the Hawpatch. The town of Hartsville is built on a rolling elevation, ranging from forty to fifty feet above the valleys and facing to the southwest. It is bounded on the west by the deep bed of Clifty Creek, and on the south by the gorge, through which flows Boner's branch. In the south part of town, capping the bluff that forms the north bank of the Boner's branch gorge, there is a typical bed of upland gravel. It has a steep, rounded head at the east end, on which the Hartsville University building stands, and trends thence west in a low ridge that slopes to the north, terminat- ing in an abrupt bluff at the west, with a spur to the south. The high bluff west of Jackson Street is also capped with gravel, that in an irregular way, is connected with the bed found in the Univer- sity campus. The gravel beds that occur on the farm of William J. Herron, near the Tarr hole of Clifty Creek, and that on the farm of R. B. Kent, near Hartsville, are very similar in structure to the one above described, and are all peculiar in presenting on one side at least, a very bold, abrupt face. The upland gravel found on the farm of Mrs. Amy Wiley, west of Anderson's Falls, in Clifty Town- ship, is another extensive bed that, like the preceding examples, seem to be some way connected with the drainage of the country at the close of the Drift period. Other beds of upland gravel are those on the farm of Mrs. E. Jones, near the Haw Creek Baptist Church; on the farm of Mrs. M. Marlin; on the farm of E. Reed, near the village of St. Louis, in Haw Creek Township, and the " back-bone" ridge, as it is called, on the farm of J. Remy, west of Burnsville, in Rock Creek Township.
The Hawpatch glacial gravel and sand, one of the most exten- sive and peculiar beds of gravel in the State, is roughly bounded by Flat Rock River on the northwest, and Haw Creek on the south- east, and reaching from the White River bottoms to the Shelby County line, a continuous bed of gravel covered with a gravelly
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BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY.
black soil, twelve miles long by three miles in average width. The actual limits of the Hawpatch gravel are to be found in the range of foot hills of the Knobstone on the west of White River, extend- ing from below the Lowell mills to the northeast of Taylorsville, and the sand ridges and dune like hills on the east, running north from the Clifty Creek bridge. Another clement that has entered into the formation and largely determined the uniformity and even- ness of the surface of this gravel plateau has been the smooth top of the underlying black shale; the shale unlike the other strata of Indiana, is a stony formation of great uniformity of structure that does not weather into rough escarpments of valleys and ridges. An exemplification of this may be seen in the bed of White River, in the vicinity of the Valley mills.
All the beds, whether upland or lowland, have a large per cent. of chert and limestone fragments, not so much worn as the other materials, of a brownish color on the outside from staining with oxide of iron. The bowlders are frequently in a state of decompo- sition, and specimens measuring more than a few inches in diameter are seldom or never found. The following section, taken south of Columbus and Greensburg pike, on Haw Creek, is very character- istic:
Section on Webber Smith's Farm, Columbus Township.
Soil mixed with gravel. 3 ft.
Stratified sand and gravel, with pebbles at the top 6 ft.
Larger pebbles stratified. 2 ft. Fine sand : I ft.
Stratified gravel to the bed of Haw Creek 4 ft.
Total 16 ft.
The top of this section reaches the surface and includes the soil of the second bank of the creek. On the west of the point at which the section was taken, the strata have a uniform thickness; on the other hand the stratification dips slightly to the east, but is everywhere comformable. The following section in the second bank of Clifty Creek north of the pike shows the same general arrangement of the strata as the preceding:
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GEOLOGY.
Scolion ncar Clifty Creck Bridge, Columbus Township.
Soil with gravel. 2 ft. o in.
Sand and gravel, stratified I ft. o in. Coarse gravel and large pebbles in a continuous stra- tum . o ft. 6 in.
Stratified sand and gravel . 4 ft. 6 in.
Total 8 ft. o in.
What is seen at these sections will be found true for the balance of the Hawpatch. Wherever examined on the banks of Flat Rock River, or in digging wells, the same evidence of stratification was found, and it will be noticed that while there is occasional evidence of stratification in the upland gravel, such is not by any means the rule, thus placing the two in marked contrast. We can form no very correct estimate of the actual thickness of the Hawpatch. gravel as the underlying stone was not seen, nor has it been reached in sinking wells in the deeper parts. Wells have been put down to the depth of fifty and sixty feet in the vicinity of Colum- bus, and no stone. struck. That the bed was once much deeper than now is shown by the mound on the farm of Judge Tunis Quick, one and a half miles west of Clifford, and the Tipton mound in the city of Columbus. The first is twenty-five feet above the surface of the surrounding plain and the second twenty feet. They are the monuments left by the currents of the Terrace epoch, and meters by which we can in part measure what was once the thick- ness of this great gravel bed. The soil of the Hawpatch has an average thickness of five feet, is dark or black in color, and free from admixture with any but alluvial clays- no glacical clay inter- venes between the soil and gravel.
The following section east of the broad ford on Clifty Creek shows the stratification and arrangement of the gravel, sand and pebbles of the gravel beds that form the connecting link between that of the uplands and lowlands:
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Section at Sarah Bush's Farm, Clay Township.
Soil free from gravel . . ft. Io in.
Soil and gravel mixed. 2 ft. 2 in.
Coarse gravel and pebbles 5 in.
Fine gravel and sand
. .. 2 in.
Coarse gravel.
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