USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume I > Part 46
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ing. The pale mother in the doorway silent and white as marble with fear, regarded keenly their every movement. After a silence that seemed an age to the mother the medicine man broke it by opening the parley. It was in an unknown tongue, finally by signs and now and then a word of broken Eng- lish it was made known that it was "Fire Water," that they wanted. The white man had bartered rum for their furs and taught them to drink it. They could not quench their thirst now with the sparkling water at the spring. The good mother made it known to them that she had no whiskey in the house. This disappointed them. They frowned, pow-wowed and gesticulated. She knew nothing of what they said except, she could see by their expression that they were displeased and disappointed, because she did not supply their needs with whiskey. They approached nearer the door and made it known to her that they wanted to enter and see for themselves. She withdrew a little though getting closer to her babe, and the medicine man who seemed to be the leader entered. The rest followed quickly after until the squad of eight were within. The mother instinctively sprang to the side of the cradle and there stood quaking with fear. The Red men peered with argus-eyes . into every corner and when they failed to find what they inquired for, gath- ered around the cradle. The mother was speechless with fear, she could not even scream for help, silently the Indians stood. There was but a murmur of parley a short shrug or so, and the medicine man ventured to lift the cov- ering from the child, and they all peered at it with expressions of wonder and admiration. The medicine man broke the silence in such a tender tone as to quell the fears of the mother. He ran his hand lightly over the sleeping innocence pronouncing incantations and blessing. It all ended with a few voluntary remarks of advice from the doctor, stating that she could never rear the papoose, if she cuddled and smothered it down with blankets, "too softly, no air, no sunshine, no strength, ugh: off! tumbley, jump, and no rappie all time." After these friendly admonitions the unwelcome callers re- tired from the cabin. to the great joy of the mother. When they were fairly out of sight she grabbed the unconscious child and ran swiftly to the nearest neighbors. There, out of breath she stammered out the story of her un- welcome visitors. They, it seems, had been misdirected, for on the street above, at the corner of West and Bow streets they found what they had sought in vain at the former home.
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A LIVE MONUMENT.
Adaline (Burk) Boyd was born 1809, in Massachusetts. Early in life her parents moved to Indiana, settling in Union county, on the banks of White river near a place known as Dunlapsville, a Presbyterian settlement in which at an early date was established a Presbyterian Academy, that attained considerable note in its day. At an early date Mrs. Burk came to Thorn- town, with her young family and later was married to - Boyd who passed away. For almost a generation she was familiarly known as grand- mother Boyd. She was a strong character of more than usual power of thought and originality. She did her own thinking in social, political and religious lines. She passed four score year of active, industrious life before called to her reward in the Glory land.
In an item of her will, she provided that the residue of her savings, after settling all her debts, should go for the purpose of building and establishing a church home, for the Wesleyan Methodist church. Upon the settlement of her estate, there was paid into court for the board of trustees of said church organization at Thorntown, the sum of two hundred and thirty-one dollars. This money was safely cared for by said board of trustees and placed at in- terest until Thanksgiving week, 1914, when it amounted to the sum of seven hundred and sixty-two dollars, to which was added one hundred and thirty- eight dollars, donated by the Wesleyan Methodist Conference and private in- dividuals, making the sum of nine hundred dollars, which was paid for the local Friends church in Thorntown, which is to become' the home of the Wesleyan Methodists in this place. It is to be a perpetual living monument of the loving thoughtfulness and benevolence of Grandma Adaline Boyd. By her quiet unostentatious life she has set in motion an influence for good, which will live on and bear fruit for the Master, until the second coming of Christ, when he will gather his Saints into the Kingdom. Her body has mouldered into dust in the narrow chamber in the city of the dead, but her good works go on in their influence for the uplift of the world. By her will she set in motion an influence that evolves by compounding and gathering power, as it rolls toward eternity.
There is a lesson in this to the living. Surely death does not end all. The influence of our life goes on after we are silent in the tomb. We can
ADAM F. FRENCH. -- Daily Reporter.
NEAL MEMORIAL GATEWAY TO OAK HILL CEMETERY, LEBANON.
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think of our loved ones as they were to us as close companions. The world feels the impulse of their life for good or evil, as their acts proved to be, and the legacy of good or evil deeds that mark their doings. The legacy we leave to the world is all important, and should stimulate us to right and noble action. The appropriate tablet to hang upon the wall of the Wesleyan Metho- dist church in Thorntown, will teach coming generations, "Loving Remem- brance of Adaline Boyd, for her thoughtful benevolence." Through her long life she toiled and economized, that she might be able in some way, to add to the comfort and happiness of those who would come after her departure.
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CHAPTER XXII.
STORY OF EARLY LIFE IN BOONE COUNTY AND EARLY SETTLEMENT IN EACH TOWNSHIP.
Away back in the woods of Boone before the county was set off by meets and bounds by the state there was a baby boy born to Mr. and Mrs. Austin Davenport. It was a bright morning in April that joy came to a little cabin of one room round logs on the banks of Eagle creek in what is now known as Eagle township, Boone county. Although the sun was bright that April morning not one direct ray could reach the cabin home. Perchance at high noon the sun for a short time could peep in on the home through the spot cut away for the cabin. Pretty nearly all the sunshine that came to the early homes in the big woods came from within, from the glow of the great fire- place and from warm contented hearts. This day there was a particular glow for a new joy had come to greet the family. This particular baby boy was christened Milton S. and he still lives and although he is an octogenarion he is active, and serves as town clerk of Zionsville and is full of stories of the pioneer life in this county.
At the age of eighteen he witnessed the bear fight and shooting match of the Dye brothers. He said that the bear that did the fighting with the dogs was chained and yet while thus hampered he made way with four dogs by hugging and biting them. The other bear was disposed of by the shooting match and the winners and their friends had bear meat to eat. There was a great crowd present and as whiskey flowed freely there was much drunken- ness. It was a great day for Eagle township.
Mr. Davenport has in his possession the long rifle of his father with which he gathered in wild meat in abundance, turkey, deer, squirrels and etc. At that time the gun was discharged by a flint lock. He states that his mother brought down a deer with the old gun one morning, evidencing that the pioneer women knew how to shoot and defend themselves. The most exciting story in the Davenport home was as follows: One morning a squaw
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called at the home and asked for some meal. While Mrs. Davenport was waiting upon her caller, baby Mary was tucked away in the sugar trough cradle fast asleep, and when the mother was not looking, the squaw gathered up the baby girl and was making away with it, when another child told the mother. The mother was out in a jiffy after the kidnapper and reached her just as she had mounted her pony and dragged her off and secured her baby which the Indian had put under her blanket on her back in regular papoose fashion.
AN APOTHEOSIS OF THE PIONEER.
It is a singular fact that general praise has not been given to the American pioneers, or they have been praised for services in wars rather than for their conflicts with nature in the forests and wilderness. It is true that certain classes of the early settlers have been lauded sufficiently. We have heard much of the hardships endured by the Pilgrim Fathers and the New England Puritans; and we know something of the virtues of certain early settlers in Virginia, but it is nevertheless true that the pioneers of the whole country have not been sufficiently praised. As the battles of the world have been fought, not by a few officers, but by great hosts of men whose names have been ignored by history, so the subjugation of this continent to civilization has been ac- complished by unnoted heroes.
It is time that a just meed of praise should be given to all those men and women who went alone into the wilderness with ax and gun to make homes for themselves and to prepare the foundation of the Republic. We have societies composed of descendants of the soldiers of each one of our wars, and these are admirable in their way, but we need to recognize that the battle- field is not the only place where heroism has been displayed; that the contests of the wilderness also required heroism. We should have a society of the sons and daughters of the pioneers; it should be recognized that to be able to trace back to any man who settled in the wilderness and recovered a few acres of land from savages and beasts and an untilled condition is to have an honor- able pedigree.
Let us consider what it meant to be a pioneer in the early days of America. It meant much more than it means now to go forth to make a home in Aus- tralia or Africa, or any place else on the habitable globe. There were then
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no steamships to make brief and relatively safe voyages from the old coun- tries ; machinery had not been prepared for the comparatively easy conquest of nature. The pioneer required hardihood and courage to tear up his roots from the soil of his home in the old land, and this, while not uncommon, is by no means an easy thing to accomplish. He cut loose from the past and set forth to face unfamiliar and to some extent unknown conditions; he went forth usually with very little of this world's goods, and was tossed for many weeks upon the ocean in a slow sailing ship. When he had come to land he had nothing to depend upon but what he could wrest from nature, and he found a land of forests, filled with wild beasts and savage red men. The pioneers had come from tilled farms, villages and cities, and they arrived in a wilderness, with no market but the streams and the woods, and with no roof but the trees.
They had no weapons or implements save the gun and the ax with which to make a home ; they were exposed to heat and cold, rain and snow, until they had erected their cabins. When we consider the amount of force and muscle required to hew down one tree, we are prepared to realize somewhat that it was no slight task for each pioneer to cut enough logs to build for himself even the rudest cabin. The log cabin of the wilderness was, under the circum- stances, a triumph of toil, industry and architecture.
Again, we must consider that the pioneer had no food ready to hand, but that he must need search for it in the forest with his gun; he must seek the bear and the deer, and carry their carcasses to his cabin upon his own shoul- ders. He was compelled to cut away the trees, in order to make a place in which he might sow some of the nourishing grains which he had brought from the old lands. To clear an acre of ground meant that he must cut down multitudes of trees, thick and hard and growing close together, and between the stumps he scratched the surface, as best he might, for the deposit- ing place of the seeds of his future harvest. He was compelled to defend his little field against hordes of squirrels, raccoons, flocks of birds and all manner of enemies.
In the midst of these labors he was exposed to attack by savage beasts, such as panthers and bears and venomous snakes, lurking everywhere. The pioneer had to contend not only with these difficulties, but the land was pre- occupied by the aboriginal tribes, and these were naturally opposed to the in-
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vasion of their country by the white people, and their methods of showing dis- pleasure were by no means gentle ones. The red men had no scruples in regard to burning down the cabin which the pioneer had patiently erected, or slaughtering men, women and children; so that the pioneer's life was one of constant peril and watchfulness. He never knew as he went into the forest when an arrow, sent from the hand of a lurking Indian, might pierce him; he never knew, when he laid down at night at what hour he might be aroused by yells of Indians surrounding his home. When we consider that these pioneers came from pleasant homes and quiet conditions in the old lands, we cannot but be impressed by the indomitable courage and iron muscles and nerves and resolute purpose which enabled these heroic men to surmount all these difficulties and perils.
These men, indeed, were clad in skins and in homespun, and their man- ners doubtless were uncouth; their speech was possibly reckless of grammar ; yet the important fact is that they were real men-heroic, dauntless, tried men. We should no more allow the uncouth conditions of their lives to diminish our appreciation of their qualities than a Greek sculptor would have permitted himself, when standing in one of the noted quarries from which marble for Athens was being hewed, to have found fault with a mighty block lying before him because it was not already a frieze on the Parthenon. The pioneers had all the qualities of body, mind and heart from which free men for this Republic were to be made; they were inexhaustible quarries of man- hood; they were deposits of gold ore which nature was making in this land, from which the minted coin of more accomplished men were to be made. The pioneers were the magnificent, indomitable vanguard of our Republic. The day when any American grows ashamed of the log cabin, the rifle, the ax, the gun and coon-cap of his ancestors will be a sad one for our people.
There is a tendency in human nature to underrate the qualities and char- acteristics of men and women whose outward conditions are crude, but more careful consideration leads us to realize that the mighty pioneer whose ax struck true and strong with reverberating blows into the sides of the huge trees of the original forests, and in whose brawny hands the long rifle rested firm as in a vise, and whose heart never quailed within him before either panther or Indian, was a man, while the embellished dandy, whose chief accomplishment is knowledge of neckties, is not worthy of comparison with the other. We must not forget that the accomplishments of the pioneers
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were in their way very memorable ones; as rifle shots the world has never ex- celled them; they scorned to strike a squirrel in the body or to do more than stun it by sending their bullets whizzing close to its head.
In their isolated conditions, each man in his own clearing, with nature, beasts and savages, these men developed such powers that when the call of the Colonies came for war with the mother country they were already soldiers better prepared for the condition of the revolutionary contest than all the military schools of the world could have made them. They were able to endure the longest marches, to bear starvation, exposure and wounds. It was in the previous lives of the soldiers of the Revolution that the success of that struggle had its ultimate foundation. Without the discipline of the wilderness these men could never have borne the hardships and privations of that long contest, and when the foreign armies came they were met by men who had slept for years with their rifles by their sides in their cabins, or out in the forest, men practised to strike with their unerring bullets minute marks at long distances, so that the riflemen of the army of the Revolution seldom wasted their lead when it was aimed against the Red Coats.
The magnificent qualities and the splendid services of the pioneers of the Republic cannot be overrated, and must not be forgotten. The memory of their hardships, the glory of their deeds, the splendor of their accomplish- ments, must not be allowed to perish from the memory of our people. Our children must be taught that the chief glory of an American pedigree is not that it can be traced back to some Englishman of a so-called noble family, or to a Norman baron who followed William the Conqueror; but that the best American pedigree needs only go so far as a log cabin in the original wilder- ness, where lived a real man, who with rifle and ax conquered a home for himself and his children, and who laid the foundations of a free land.
CENTER TOWNSHIP.
In the year 1832, Abner H. Longley, the first settler, located in Lebanon, Center township, and erected a one-room log cabin on lot No. I, block 16.
The first court house, a hewed-log structure, was built in 1835. Among the early citizens of Lebanon were A. H. Longley, John Patterson, William Smith, David Hoover. James Pricely was the first tailor; A. H. Shepherd
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the second. Joseph Hocker was the first attorney, associate with Jacob Angle, Stephen Neal and William B. Beard. Lorenzo C. Daugherty was an attorney in Lebanon who attained high standing, was selected as Representa- tive and in the Senate. O. S. Hamilton and T. J. Cason also made their mark. From 1843 to 1852 Hiram Brown, William Quarles, Hugh O. Neal, A. A. Hammond and Jacob Landis, of Indianapolis, were regular attendants of the circuit courts of this county. From 1852 to 1886, the resident lawyers of Lebanon were T. J. Cason, A. J. Boone, R. W. Harrison, T. H. Lockhart, J. W. Clements, T. J. Terhune, C. M. Zion, O. P. Mahan, B. S. Higgins, C. S. Wesner, J. R. Abbott, I. M. Kelsey, M. C. Wills, C. M. Wynkoop, J. S. Pierce, Stephen Neal, D. M. Burns, J. O. Pedigo, and S. A. Falkner. Stephen Neal practiced in the county for half a century.
SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP.
The first settler was George Harness with a wife and twelve children, about the year 1829. This township was organized in 1831. The first elec- tion was held at the house of William Kenworthy in April, 1832, when Benjamin Sweeney and James Van Eaton were elected justices of the peace and Green Foster and David Laudrum, constables. The first white child was born at the house of Green Foster in 1831. The first death was Jemima Harness, October, 1829. The second death was Mary A. Westfall. She was the first person buried at the old cemetery north of Thorntown, marked off by Mr. Lavebin the surveyor. The first marriage was that of John Pauley and Emily Sweeney in July, 1832. The first religious meeting was held at the house of Cornelius Westfall by Claibourne Young. The first church organization in the township; Stephen Ball was the preacher. Soon after the Presbyterians organized with Claibourne Young as minister in 1833. The first tan-yard was started in 1832 by Zachariah Gibson. Isaac Morgan kept the first tan-yard. The first merchant was A. H. Baldridge and the first tailor, Robert Hamill. The first carpenter was John Alexander. The first blacksmith, Moses McClure and the first shoemaker, Thomas Young. The first hatter was Samuel Daily. The first wagon-maker was George Mc- Laughlin. The first potter was Oliver Craven. The first saddler was Mark A. Michem and the first doctor was Mr. Farmer. The first attorney was Rufus A. Lockwood, followed by Jacob Angle and John S. Davis. The first
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post office was opened at the house of William Kenworthy, east of Thorn- town, in 1832. Robert Hamill was the first postmaster proper in Thorntown [certificate of appointment]. The first school teacher in Thorntown was Jefferson Hillis. The first hotel was kept by Isaac Morgan, the next by David Daily. This hotel was a double log house, which stood where the old Brown Academy was afterwards built.
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.
It was first settled about the year 1829. Claibourne Young conducted the first religious services in the year 1831. William Young was the first justice elected in the township. The first election was held at the house of Michael D. Campbell, in the spring of 1833, at which time William Mc- Burrows was elected justice of the peace.
MARION TOWNSHIP.
Among the first to settle in this township were Edward Jackson and Caleb Richardson in 1831. The first school taught in Marion was in the winter of 1833. The first equipments for a scholar then were a goose quill and a spelling book.
PERRY TOWNSHIP.
One of the first and therefore one of the oldest roads in the county passes through this township, known as the Indianapolis and State road. It is now and has been for over eighty years a highway very much traveled. Perry township was settled in 1830. Mr. Schenck taught the first subscription school in this township in 1836. The famous old Mount Tabor church, Baptist, was built here in 1835.
UNION TOWNSHIP.
The settlement of this township dates back as far as 1826. The first religious meeting was 1832 and the first election in 1834, and John Berry was elected first justice. The first mill was built and run by Hiram McQuidy and the Methodists built the first church. Followed soon after by the Bap-
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tists. The first religious meetings were held at the house of Mr. Sedgwick. They were conducted by Thomas Brown.
HARRISON TOWNSHIP.
The first land entered was by James S. Dale in 1834, who also built the first cabin. The first death was the wife of David James in March, 1837. The first meeting was held at the house of George H. Johnson in 1835, where a few pioneers gathered to hear a Baptist minister preach. Early meetings were also held at the house of George Sheeks. The first election was held at the cabin of W. Logan in 1836, when William Buttery was elected justice of the peace. Among the early marriages were William Johnson to Isabella Dale, G. T. Buttery to Barbara Scott and Jeremiah Craven to Miss James.
CLINTON TOWNSHIP.
Clinton township was first settled in 1834. Hugh Sample, son of James H. Sample, was the first child to see the light of day in 1837, in this township. He is yet living. Among the early ministers were John Rey- nolds, Presbyterian; John Bonner, William Hall, William Turner, Carson Burckhalter, Christian; and Henry I. Bennett. The following are among the early school teachers: James H. Sample, Hiram J. Roberts, Henry I. Bennett, James Mulligan and John Foley. The first religious meeting was held in 1835 at the house of A. B. Clark. The first election at the home of Newton Cassady. First marriages were John Stephenson to Miss Adams ; Eros Stephenson to Margaret Wylie; John M. Burns to Miss Wylie.
J. M. Larimore, of Eagle Village, was the first Odd Fellow in Boone county. He was the son of Daniel Larimore, who came from Fayette county, Indiana, early in the thirties. J. M. Larimore died in 1849, of con- sumption. T. P. Miller, of Zionsville, was the second Odd Fellow in the county.
There was a Saleratus factory in Eagle Village in an early day, the only one in the county. It was started by J. M. Larimore and the factory was called "The Ashery."
The Odd Fellows organized a lodge at Eagle Village in 1846 or '47. Charter members were J. M. Larimore, T. P. Miller, J. F. Daugherty, Joseph
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Larimore, James Handly, Oel Thayer, I. L. Davenport, Jacob Tipton, T. W. Oliphant and L. Oliphant.
EAGLE TOWNSHIP.
Patrick H. Sullivan was the first settler in Eagle township, also the first settler in the county. He was on the committee that located the county seat. Jacob Sheets, John Sheets, David Hoover followed him. In December, 1831, occurred the first marriage, Elijah Cross to Mary Hoover. The first brick house in Boone county was on the Michigan road between Clarkstown and Eagle Village, was built by Austin Davenport in 1835. First doctors were William M. Duzan, H. G. Larimore, Warner F. Sampson, S. W. Rod- man, N. Crosby and G. W. Duzan.
JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
George Walker, Baptist, was the first minister in Jackson township, and held first meeting at the house of John Porter. Brown's chapel, built in 1832, was the first Methodist meeting house, named in honor of Thomas Brown. Jackson township was settled in 1828. Jackson is one of the best townships in the county.
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