USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume I > Part 2
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In this brief period of time a race of men in this section have become extinct and we have taken their homes, their hunting grounds, their burial places and planted ours in their stead. As time passes away and changes come it will be all the more regretted that we do not know more of the men that wrought this great work between the civilization of the red man and the white. A great work has been accomplished and we know but few of the names that were actors in the marvelous change. Our fathers were so busy in making history that they did not take time to record their deeds, and we of this day are too full of the enjoyments in the fruits of their labors, that we are careless of records. We trust that the difficulties that confront us in this work will encourage others to take up the work with greater diligence and make it more complete. With gratitude to all who in any way have aided us in preparing this work, we submit it to the public, hoping that others may take it up where we have failed, correct its errors and make it more complete. Boone county in many respects is typical in the great state of Indiana and stands out as a pattern in endurance, energy, agricultural prog- ress and morals, and her records should be made as complete, as labor and patience commensurate with the importance of the work. If we of this generation are as faithful and true to our trust, as our fathers who laid the foundation of our county, we can hold the high estate as worthy of leader- ship in the family of ninety-two members and vie with each other in building a commonwealth worthy of our sires.
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BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Just how long this part of the world that is included in Boone county was, in shaping up for the habitation of man is not known. It dates back to the beginning whenever that was. No man can tell nor even the ancient rocks unfold. The formation of the rocks, the long cycles of centuries that covered each of the drift periods that swept over the land is a sealed book. Even the period of the Red man is unknown. We do not know how many centuries he roamed over these plains before the advent of our fathers. There is no record of the latter for natives of this country kept no journals, nothing to read from except the rocks and they kept no dates. There is no mark of upheaval but all is drift after drift each leaving its deposit and each following the other in the course of time. Through countless ages this work was in progress shaping and fitting this beautiful country for man. When our fathers first beheld it, it was unsightly and appeared so desolate and dreary that it could never be shaped for homes. Covered with dense forest and undergrowth, with bogs, morasses and sluggish streams. Yet notwithstanding the unpromising outlook they came, they saw, they con- quered. They came on foot, some on horseback, some in wagons drawn by oxen, penetrating the pathless woods blazing the way, cutting out roads and planting the cabin. The story will never be told. It is fraught with hardship and danger. It took brave men and women to face the task. To know this land in its primitive condition and to see it now is the marvel of a century.
OUR FOREFATHERS.
Our forbears entered the wilderness with ax, handspike, hoe, hackel and high hopes. They hewed down the forest, hefted the logs into heaps, hoed the corn and hackeled the flax. This work required brawny arms and brave hearts. The demand of the day was muscle. They wrought manfully and well. They built their homes, reared their families and have gone to their rest. We with our happy surroundings this day are living testimonies of their faithful labors. Their ken of vision was narrow. It was hemmed in by the dense forest and the denser undergrowth; yet with the eye of faith, they could look out upon the future and see their children upon cultivated farms, cast up highways, schools, churches and homes. A faith that coupled heart with brawn, added courage to hope, which enabled them to endure
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great privations without murmurings, and bear heavy burdens gracefully. They were active factors in changing the wilderness into the garden of state- hood. They sowed, we are reaping. It is very meet and proper that we should hold their labor of love and sacrifice in grateful remembrance. As we rehearse the story of their journey of hardship through pioneer life to our children, it should stimulate us into greater diligence and faithfulness; and emulate our children to strive for greater blessings for their posterity. If our fathers, surrounded as they were, by the dense forest, progressed one fur- long, we in the open should go a mile; and our children with all the con- veniences and appliances that are theirs, should widen in every direction- except downward-whole leagues.
A century ago, locomotion was on "shank's mare," or on horseback, or by the slower tread of the patient ox through the blazed way, or over the corduroy road; now we speed by steam and electricity. Then the hum of the wheel was in our homes. The quick step of the busy house-wife to and fro, while lengthening thread to winding spindle kept time to the sweet melody. The wheel, the reel, the spool, the warp and the old loom with mother, are to this day sweet pictures in the gallery of our memory.
Then we signaled by horn or torch, now it is by the mellow halloo, from city to city and across the sea, and even by wireless. Then it was a great task to travel over the state, now it is a pleasure to circle the globe. We might multiply contrasts indefinitely showing the great vantage-ground of those who enter the twentieth century over those who entered the nineteenth. So rapid has been the transition that we can scarcly keep pace. We accept the wonderful developments as matter of fact, and wonder what will come next. We have sought out many inventions to utilize the forces of nature and make them serve man, so that the manual labor of one man today is manifold that of our fathers in producing the necessaries and luxuries of life. We not only make the winds, fire and water serve us, but we also harness the imponderable forces, and teach the elements and mother earth to bear our messages. Surely we stand on a high eminence. Our outlook today takes in the world. The happenings of today will be spread before us tomorrow before breakfast. So wide is our ken, that the massive world unknown to our progenitors has shriveled up until we can talk around it. Surely, our being has come to us in times most propitious. We must rise to the thought that our opportunity brings to us great responsibility. More will be required
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of us because more has been given. We stand on vantage-ground. We can see farther, hear better and do more than our fathers; if we keep our eyes and ears open, and are not effeminated by luxury. Far more will be ex- pected of us. We have no right to take our ease and become flabby. We are living in the swift current of the great events of our day and the greatest of history. We must be more than the lazy bream that simply heads up stream. It is our duty to be aggressive as our fathers were. They laid the foundation of the state, we must rear its pillars. There are newer, broader and higher ideals, into which the state and the church must be pioneered. There must be an "Uplift" of civilization. The work is not all done. We must make it possible for our posterity to put on the coping and adorn with stained glass. True there are dangers in front of us, greater than the wild beasts that confronted our fathers. Enemies far more treacherous and subtle than the red man. Diseases far more direful and infectious than the miasma of the swamps of Indiana. These must all be removed if we desire to make it better for our children. The same spirit that actuated our parents must dominate us. There is need of much courage and endurance to force the problems of our day, that our children may have a better inheritance. We are not entirely out of the brush. There are yet some stumps to uproot. The Upas tree is still in the land. The highway is not smooth and on a dead level of equality for all as it should be. We have witnessed the outlawing of polygamy. There are with us this day those who participated in the fearful struggle that broke the shackles of physical bondage ; yet all men are not free. The cry that arose at the Parthenon is still heard in the land. The wide spread restlessness of labor is still murmuring. All men do not enjoy the full fruit of their labor. The burdens of the weak are not borne according to Gospel truth. Traps and snares are set by the government for the unwary. The cry of the orphan and the distressed heart still moans in our ears.
As long as these conditions continue there is work to be done. Paradise is not yet regained. The earth does not bloom as Eden. The mark of dis- obedience is still upon us. Nations forget God and set up idols. Like the people that dwell at the base of the volcano, we forget the upheaval of the past, and go on in our waywardness. Notwithstanding the word of God, and the fate of nations that have gone down, we choose Baal rather than God. The cunning dogma of our day which teaches that the mobilizing of capital into a monopoly has all rights ; and that man the individual has no rights that
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need be respected, is modern serfdom. It is as grinding as feudalism and as barbarous as the system of human slavery that perished in the 60's. The sweat-shop, the extortion placed upon the necessaries of life, between the producer and the consumer may be counted as polite commerce, shrewdness in business, and be sanctioned by law and all that, yet, in plain truth it is robbery. The ever-increasing burden of taxes will bestride our children like a Colossus, if we remain silent. A $1,000,000,000 Congress should be invited to remain at home unless we wish our children to make brick without straw. To meet the ever-increasing expense of government, like the old Roman church, she proceeds to sell indulgences. She embarks in the liquor business for revenue. A business that all churches denounce as a crime, and all men consider disreputable. She licenses men to make and sell that which destroys the peace and harmony of the home, debauches the citizens and endangers the health and morals of the people. There are some things that need to be looked square in the face, and this liquor business and its twin sister, the social crime, are the most prominent of the whole troop. We need to take the scales from our eyes and to throw aside the mantle of prejudice and let the gospel shine. The consensus of opinion is, that the saloon is an unmitigated evil and yet it is fostered and sustained as the pet institution of our age. The saloon is condemned by all benevolent institutions, and its bartenders and all victims of drink are excluded from fellowship. The church denounces license as a sin, and yet the great majority of its male mem- bers cast their civic influence to perpetuate the system. Christians vote to establish the saloon, and then denounce the saloon-keeper ; exclude him from fellowship, remonstrate against his business and pray the Lord to remove the evil, and save their children from the curse. There seems in this an in- consistency so glaring, that it shocks the world and brings a reproach upon the followers of Christ.
It is evident that there are ugly stumps to be removed and dense thickets of prejudice to be cleared away ; and the King's Highway must be cast up, before the standard of Christ becomes the law of nations, and the rule of action among men. The world is not as good as one could wish it to be. Paradise is not yet regained. Our forbears were faithful and successful in making the world better for us. They provided abundantly for our physical needs ; they made great provisions for feeding our minds and for the develop- ment of our esthetic nature. The schools that dot our land everywhere, the
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higher institutions of learning and culture accessible to all, are real testi- monies of their faithfulness. They were not unmindful of the souls' wel- fare. The church steeples plainly indicate the way that they wish us to go. Notwithstanding, all these uplifting environments, we have not learned the Golden Rule as well as we have the multiplication table. Our uprightness does not stand with the plummet; our commercial paths deviate from the paths of honesty and our civic ethics relegate morals to the background; and we establish and perpetuate by law, business in which we would not be en- gaged, and which we know to be positively wrong. We protect our sheep from dogs, our fish from the angler, our birds from the snares. We balu- strade our bridges and steep roadsides, make smooth the sidewalk and re- move all pit-falls, and yet, we license wicked men to do that which we abhor. We establish on our street corners and around our commercial centers dens and snares to catch men. They succeed fearfully. Thousands of our sons and daughters are inveigled annually. If men were licensed to destroy our stock as they are our children; if they took one lamb from the fold where they now take ten lambs from the household, there would be a revolution in this country inside of thirty days. Do we think more of our cattle than we do of our children? It is the Haman of old with letters in all our provinces to kill and destroy. It is the Herod of our day with scepter in hand to slay the innocent. He is clothed with authority to blight homes, crush hearts, blast hopes and close the door of heaven. We dare not dwell upon this dark picture. Its shadows are everywhere casting a pall over the land and filling the hearts of parents with anxiety for the safety of their children. If we are going to follow in the footsteps of our parents our duty is plain. They were preeminently home-builders. We cannot enter the forest, but we can enter the conditions of our day and pioneer the way to better things. The safety of everything we prize in state and church depends entirely upon the safety of the home. Will we be brave and see to it ?
Would that we could leave with you this day a higher idea of home, that you may regard it as embracing more than the house in which you dwell. That your conception might rise to the high ideal of the original Eden estab- lished and blessed of God. That you may see home as a love center typical of heaven. A center from which must emanate a spirit of obedience- love's true test. Genuine love, that will permeate all society, uphold the State and keep in harmony with God. A love that will defend and protect;
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and oppose all evil and stand for that which is good. A center so attractive that all its inmates are imbued with its spirit and are protected by its influence no matter where they roam. Do not entertain the narrow idea of home that just includes you and your children, but let it broaden until it embraces all homes. Until it takes in the street, the school, the church, society and the state with all her functions; for, whatever will protect you and your home will protect your neighbors. Whatever endangers any home in your state or nation renders yours unsafe. We would have you measure home by a broader gauge than the walls that include your furniture; or the yard in which it stands, or the garden that adorns and beautifies it. If you were in Thorntown and ask me, where is my home? I would answer on the corner of Church and West streets; if you ask me here I would say in Thorntown; if you meet me in New York City and ask me the same question my reply would be in Indiana; cross the sea and in the busy marts of London ask me where is my home and I will straighten up and with very much dignity make reply, in the United States of America, sir. Take your flight from this mundane sphere, soar above its fountain head of rain, its magazine of hail, its northern nests of feathered snow, its brew of thunder and red-tongued- lightning until you reach the moon; and there ask me where is my home and I will say on yonder Earth; leave the moon and pierce the blue vault above, on and on, with your flight until the distant stars become shining suns, and our own sun has faded into a glimmering star, and there you interrogate me as before and I point to the faintest star in the heavens and make reply, in yonder far away solar system is my home. Where is my home? In the universe of God, is my home; and if I am in harmony with Him I will live eternally and widen until I see all and know all. The thought may stagger the mind, yet it is good to feed upon and will feed the soul with aspirations that will make life worth the living.
Such a conception of home will divest one of all selfishness and give to. each a full idea of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. You cannot build for yourself, but wherever or whenever you build, you will rest your structure upon the Rock of Ages. It will become a factor in God's universe and will attain to the highest ideal of home, hope and Heaven. The clear duty of man is to build with these high ideals and aspirations. Build as God directs. He laid down the principle to man when the nations were (3)
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young. You will find the specifications in the 8th verse of the 22nd chapter of the book Deuteronomy. Here are the words, "When thou buildest a new home, then thou shalt make a battlement for the roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any may fall from thence." God has compassed in these few words the whole duty of man to his fellow. It answers clearly the question asked by Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?" In that age of the world the top of the house was the play-ground of the children. Social gatherings were held there. There was the guest-chamber.
In our age the sons and daughters of men have come down from the roof and made a play-ground in the yard and too frequently the street. They are out in the dazzle of the social circle, or the whirl of the commercial thoroughfare, or in the craze of the busy marts of exchange. Notwith- standing all this wonderful change in the habits and customs of men, God has never rescinded the old law. The principle still holds. It is of God, and from Him, hence it is eternal. He says to us this day, as plainly as he did to Moses, make a battlement around all these, lest any man fall from thence, and thou bring blood upon thine hands. We are to put no stumbling-block in the way of the blind or set up an influence that will ensnare the weak or unwary. Make a battlement for the roof! aye, make a battlement for all the thoroughfares of men lest any man fall. We may have kept a little letter of this law, by removing the cellar-door from the side walk, but Oh! we certainly violate the principles of the law, when we set up the saloon upon the street-corner, for we know that so many fall into this death-trap. Look out upon the stage of action and see whether, we in our social, commercial and civic influences and relations among men, are in harmony with God's laws. True, our sidewalks are as smooth as can be made with granitoid, cellar-doors on our streets are obsolete. There is a balustrade at the bridge and a battlement upon the balcony, but Oh! Oh! the dens in dens upon our streets and around our commercial centers, built and maintained by our laws ; death-traps into which tens-of-thousands of our children fall annually. Are we innocent? Have we done all that we can do? Have we put the battle- ment upon the roof ? These are questions which each individual can answer in his own heart. It is evident that we are not yet out of the wilderness into the land of Canaan with all our enemies under our feet. We can not fold our hands and live in conscious ease with all these dangers about us.
Our forbears entered the 19th century with great physical difficulties in
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front of them. They met and overcame these difficulties like men. We have entered the 20th century with greater moral issues confronting us, issues that involve the vitality of the nation and the stability of the government. Will we be as brave and as true to our trust as were our fathers? Will we do as much for our posterity as they have done for us? To do this, we will need the brawn of the woodman, the bravery of the pioneer, the back-bone of Joshua. The crossing of the Century is to us, as the crossing of the Jordan was to the Jews. In front of us are trusts, combines and monopolies ; to the left of us is dishonesty and greed; to the right of us is legalized crime and the apathy of the church. The land is full of all the Ites that dwelt in Canaan. We do not speak of the difficulties in front of us to discourage, but rather to awaken the latent bravery in our hearts, that we may be quickened into a lively heroism, that we may quit ourselves like men and prove ourselves worthy of our ancestry.
There is an inspiring story told in the 14th chapter of Joshua, concern- ing the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite; he stood up before Joshua the com- mander and said: "I am this day fourscore and five years old, yet, I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me to spy out the land, as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in," give me therefore this mountain, Kirjath-arba, with the great and fenced cities of the Anakims that I may drive them out. Joshua granted the grand old hero his request and he went up to battle and over- turned the great and fenced cities of Mount Hebron and utterly destroyed root and branch, the sons of Anak as commanded, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.
There are Anakims in the land today, no matter, the command is, go up and take them. They have always confronted the children of men. The heroes and heroines of the world fought the Anakims of their day. Our fathers met them in this wilderness, conquered and drove them out, thus making of this a very land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey of their children's children. Oh, for the spirit of Caleb in our hearts, that it may inspire us to be very courageous and fear not. Our fathers needed muscle, brain and brave hearts to contend successfully with the wild-woods of their day and overcome its hardships and privations. It will be expected of each Boonite who has within him the blood of his ancestors to stand in his place in the battles of our day to make the world better. All who are here by
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birth, or have adopted this as their home, must catch the spirit of our fathers and go forward. Boone as a factor in the state and as a live force in the progress of civilization must not slack in duty, but act well her part in the great uplift for better things. The history of the past before the days of our fathers was one of drift. Our fathers made it an incoming-tide. We, to be true to our ancestors must make it, sweep higher up the beach and be an uplift to the world.
WHITE RIVER
1320FT.
1300
160'
Mound O
180' Dia
1080FT.
AREA 31 ACRES
PREHISTORIC WORKS OF RANDOLPH CO.
The fortification or "The Old Fort," as it is known, is near the city of Win- chester. It is the best specimen of the mound builders' fortifications found in the State. It is not only the largest, but is constructed on more scientific plans than any other of the State.
CHAPTER II.
MOUND BUILDERS -- INDIAN OCCUPANCY- TERRITORY ACQUIRED BY WHITE MAN.
Before entering upon the history of Boone county, it may be well for us to pass a word in regard to who may have occupied this country before real history begins to record the events, of what we term as the history of this country. There are evidences of a prehistoric civilization, a vanished race. These evidences point to a race of people that must have inhabited this continent before the Indian; the race of men found here when the con- tinent was discovered by Columbus. There is plenty of room here for specu- lation and the sweep of the imagination, but this is not our purpose in this article. We simply wish to call attention to the fact that the ethnologist claims that there are evidences that there was a race of people here prior to the Indian race. They must have dwelt here a long time ago. Perhaps thousands of years before the red man. There are evidences east of the Mississippi river and in the Ohio river valley.
The peculiar shape of the mounds that remain in various places over this section of our country, indicate that they must have been constructed for military fortifications, burial places and outlooks. Their curious forms furnish a fruitful field for speculation and give an inspiration to many imaginative writers. There is much interesting literature in our libraries touching the questions as to who the mound builders were, where they came from and whither they went and when. These questions will never be solved except in the imagination of the writers. If they had a written language there is none of it in existence. There is nothing to tell the story of their being except the remains of the mounds they built, and the human bones that have been found in various places, that are classed as belonging to a race that lived before the Indian. Some think that they were giants because there have been skeletons exhumed of unusual size. They have been pic- tured with certain heroic attributes and a nobility of character, which it is
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