History of Cass County, Indiana, from its earliest settlement to the present time; with Biographical Sketches and Reference to Biographies, Volume I, Part 60

Author: Powell, Jehu Z., 1848- [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago and New York. The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 763


USA > Indiana > Cass County > History of Cass County, Indiana, from its earliest settlement to the present time; with Biographical Sketches and Reference to Biographies, Volume I > Part 60


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MOUNT CARMEL CEMETERY


On July 6, 1891, I. W. Egman conveys one acre of ground to the trustees of Twelve Mile U. B. church, situated in the northeast corner of the northeast quarter of section 20, Adams township. The ground was platted but not recorded. The following year a church was erected but recently was removed to the town of Twelve Mile, but the trustees of the church have the management of the burial ground. The first interment was Wallace Snuffin, March 7, 1888. Soldiers-Frank Somers, Co. F, Seventy-third Ind., died December 10, 1905; Samuel


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Arthurholtz, Co. F, Seventy-third Ind., died July 28, 1903; Wallace Snuffin, Ohio Reg .; Levi F. Bixler, Mich. Reg., died 1900; Geo. W. Wolford, Co. A, Eighth Ind. Cavly., died 1903.


JACK CONNER TOMB


This unique tomb is situated about a mile east of Hoover's crossing and south of the railroad a short distance in a beautiful walnut grove on a knoll surrounded on three sides by a ravine fifty feet deep. The ground was enclosed by a picket wire fence about forty feet square, but the fence has fallen into decay. John Conner was an eccentric Indian trader, the first settler in Adams township, locating here in 1828. He died August 20, 1846, and prior to death gave directions that his coffin be placed in a box, filled with tar and left setting on blocks above ground. His directions were carried out and the box thus prepared was left setting in the open air in that beautiful walnut grove where it has peacefully reposed for over sixty-six years. A few years later the neighbors complained and a stone vault was built over the box and coffin containing the remains, a photograph of which appears on another page, showing the appearance of this interesting tomb as it exists today, and his cabin a short distance across the ravine. His wife Elizabeth, who died March 1, 1849, lies buried here; also John Payne, 1846; three children of a Mr. Snell, 1851 to 1855; Elijah Con- ner, June 5, 1848, and his infant in 1840 and a child of John Hoover, 1853. Mrs. Mary M. Harp, whose maiden name was Dillman, now a resident of Logansport, attended this funeral and relates many inter- esting anecdotes of this most unique character in pioneer days and incidents connected with this most remarkable burial.


OLD TOWN INDIAN BURIAL GROUND


Is situated on the north bank of Eel river and west of the mouth of Twelve Mile creek on what is known as Little Charlies Reserve. In the early settlement of the county, from 1825 to 1840, there was an Indian village extending for three miles along the river from a mile above Adamsboro, eastward. At about the location above described, there was a burial ground and residents in that locality have dug up Indian skeletons in gravel pits along the banks of the creek, but no exact spot or burial ground can now be located, as Indians more often laid their dead in hollow logs or trees or in the side of some cliff or hill. This ground was also the scene of General Wilkinson's engage- ment with the Indians in 1791, mentioned elsewhere, and a number of Indians and two soldiers were killed and buried here.


SCHOOLS


Adams township, lying so far from Logansport, the center of trade and being covered by a dense forest, the pioneers of this township underwent great hardships in the early settlement and had to content themselves with what they found on the land, as it was next to impos- sible to transport goods or merchandise from the outside world, never- theless they were brave and energetic and were not slow to appreciate the value of mental culture and as soon as settlements were formed they erected schoolhouses and employed teachers to instruct their chil- dren, yes, before public houses were built, the first school was taught in an old log cabin on the Dalzelle farm in the northwest quarter of section 29, in the winter of 1836-7, by Wm. Davidson. The first school


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house erected in the township was in 1838 or '9. It was a primitive round log house with the cracks closed with sticks and mud and cost, completed, the munificent sum of $39.50. The first schoolhouse stood on the Joel Black farm, section 29. S. A. Custer taught the school at $12 per month. In 1842 this first schoolhouse was destroyed by fire, the patrons disagreed as to the location, the result was two houses were built, one on the Dillman farm near Corinth church, section 28, and the other on Wm. Murden's farm in section 30, then owned by Logan Thomas. Both were hewed log houses, the former was occupied until 1859, when it was abandoned and a frame house, No. 6, was erected on the southeast corner of section 33 and about the same time the Thomas log schoolhouse was replaced by a frame, located near the same site, this was consumed by fire in 1910, but has never been rebuilt, its pupils being hauled to the Twelve Mile school.


The Thomas log schoolhouse was known throughout all that section, S. A. Custer, August Morse and many other well known pioneers wielded the birch in this primitive temple of learning and the first re- ligious meetings were assembled here. The first school in the Skinner neighborhood was taught in a log house over the line in Miami county and the first school in that section was held in the log church about 1850 or '51, taught by Jos. Davis. It was not until 1856 that a frame schoolhouse was erected near the northeast corner of section 22 on the T. Skinner farm. Its first teacher was G. I. Reed, second teacher, Katherine Wickham.


The Dudgeon hewed log schoolhouse in old Twelve Mile (Hen Peck) located on the southwest corner of the southeast quarter section 17, was built in 1844 and abandoned about 1864, when a frame building was built to the west on the northeast corner of section 19, which is now in the present town of Twelve Mile. During the year 1910 this frame house was replaced by a beautiful brick structure containing five or six rooms and a graded school established, including the High school course, with an expenditure of $14,000. The High school has twenty students, taught by P. F. Chenot, principal.


About 1837-8 a log schoolhouse was built in the northwest part of the township in section 5, and in 1846 one was erected on the northeast quarter of section 9, these with school No. 7 in section 27 and No. 8, known as the Hoover schoolhouse, Adams township now has a complete system of schools running through all the grades, primary up to and through the high school.


Two districts have recently been abandoned and the pupils are hauled to the Central school at Twelve Mile. One wagon is employed in each district for which the township pays $2.50 per day and it is claimed that it is not only cheaper for the township, but. gives better satisfaction to the patrons to attend the larger and concentrated school.


The total enumeration in 1912 was 279. Total value of school property $28,000. From the trustees books we reproduce the enumera- tion of the first school district in Adams township in 1840: Nathan D. Nichols, four children; H. L. Thomas, two children; Jos. Lowman, two children; Geo. Lowman, three children; Miner Alley, no children; R. Ferguson, four children; John Ferguson, one child; Wm. Spray, one child; John Cox, four children; Isaac Young, two children; Thos. Dalzelle, one child; H. Alexander, three children; Joel Black, three children; Jos. Lewis, two children; P. Woodhouse, no children; Till- man Woodhouse, no children; Noah Martin, no children; M. Eldridge, two children; J. Greathouse, two children; J. H. Wilson, four chil- dren; J. Leffel, one child.


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The following persons have served as trustees of the township with the years of service from 1865 to 1912: Stephen Enritt, 1865; John M. Smith, 1866-7; W. Y. Winegardner, 1868-70; Thos. L. Barr, 1871-72; Robt. Dalzelle, 1872-76; Daniel Brower, 1876-78; Jos. Grand- singer, 1878-80; Thos. Hill, 1880-82; H. D. Skinner, 1882-86; Geo. Barnhart, 1886-90; John Sullivan, 1890-94; Wm. Carson, 1894-00; J. M. Deniston, 1900-04; A. B. Irvin, 1904-08; Noah Sullivan, 1908-14.


REFERENCE BIOGRAPHIES


One object in compiling this work is to secure biographical sketches of the pioneers who developed the county and made history. The sketches of many have been written by Mr. Helms in his history in 1886. These will simply be mentioned as they are now of record and can readily be referred to.


Their names are : Jacob Barnhart, Daniel Brown, J. L. Clouse, David Conrad, Andrew J. Cox, Wm. Dalzelle, W. H. and S. F. Dillman, Stephen Eurit, James Evans, Edward Fahl, James P. Ferguson, John Grable, Levi H. Hosler, Wm. B. Kinnaman, Mrs. Sarah A. Leffel, David Moss, Allen Obenchain, John B. Rush, John C. Skinner, Thomas H. Skinner, HI. D. Skinner, M. D., Henry Woodhouse, Esau Woodhouse; John Hoover. born 1808, died 1872. (See Kingman's Atlas.)


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CHAPTER XLII BETHLEHEM TOWNSHIP


LOCATION-DRAINAGE-FIRST SETTLERS-LAND ENTRIES-PIONEER LIFE -WILD ANIMALS AND GAME-ROADS-IMPROVEMENTS-MOUNT PLEASANT-METEA-TAVERNS-FIRST MILL-FIRST MARRIAGE-ACCI- DENTS-SCHOOLS-TOWNSHIP TRUSTEES-CHURCHES-CEMETERIES- PHYSICIANS-BIOGRAPHIES.


Bethlehem township is situated in the northern part of Cass county and embraces the entire congressional township 28 north, range 2 east, hence is six miles square and containing 36 full sections. It is bounded on the north by Fulton county, on the east by Adams township, on the south by Clay township and on the west by Harrison township. The general surface of the township is level, becoming, however, some- what rolling in the southeast portion. The north and west part of the township was originally covered with heavy timber of walnut, poplar, oak, beech, hickory and elm, but in the center and southeastern sections the timber was scrubby oak and barrons. In the heavy timbered dis- tricts the soil was a heavy clay but in the southeast, the soil was more sandy. Much of the land was originally low and marshy, but draining and tiling has reclaimed all this lowland which has become the most pro- ductive portions of the township. In some parts of the township, the soil is a black loam, resting on a clay subsoil; in others it is a sandy loam equally rich in plant food as is attested by the fact that all fruits and cereals indigenous to this latitude are of certain growth and large returns.


Metea, near the center of the township is said to be the highest point in the county and from this point the township is drained in three direc- tions, towit: Northwest, large ditches have been dug leading into Blue Grass creek and ultimately into the Tippecanoe river; southwest into Crooked creek and the Wabash river; and southeast into Spring creek. The largest water course is a branch of Twelve Mile creek, that arises near the center of the township and flows southeast, through sections. 22, 23, 24 and 25, crossing the eastern boundary into Adams township, about a mile and a quarter north of the southeast corner of the town- ship. This stream affords natural drainage for a large area of territory, is fed by springs in the eastern part of the township and has a constant flow. It was on lands adjacent to this creek that the earliest settlers located their homes. Bethlehem township is pre-eminently an agricul- tural district and its people are exclusively engaged in that calling.


FIRST SETTLEMENT


Prior to the year 1830 no permanent settlement had been attempted in this township. In that year a man by the name of Shore, a scout and Indian trader, is said to have visited this region, but being simply a


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trader, made no permanent improvements. Probably John R. Hinton was the first permanent settler in the township. He came from Put- nam county, Indiana, in 1830 and settled in the southeast quarter of section 23 on Twelve Mile creek.


He purchased his land of the government in 1833 and was an hon- ored and influential resident of the township for a quarter of a cen- tury. Subsequently he moved to Miami township and later to Nebraska, where he died many years ago. He had a family and some of his sons became prominent in military circles. In 1831 Gen. Richard Crooks settled in the west part of section 24. He was an energetic man of more than ordinary ability and did much to develop the township. A sketch of his life will be found elsewhere. Joel Martin settled on the east part of section 24 in the year 1831. He was a man of mark in the early history of the township. In 1854 he moved to Laporte, where he died some years later. William Foy came to the township in 1832 and located in the northwest quarter of section 33, where he lived, and died many years afterwards.


Early in 1833 John Dalzell, son-in-law of General Crooks, also. from Washington county, Pennsylvania, settled on a farm in the northwest quarter of section 23. He was a sturdy character and an influential pioneer and continued to occupy this farm until his death about 1870. His two sons, John A. and Robert, were also prominent citizens of Bethle- hem, where the latter died some years ago and J. A. Dalzell moved to Wisconsin in the nineties, and died there.


Jerry Skelton was an early settler in section 25. About 1837 he sold out to Henry Kreider, father of Isiah W. Kreider. About this time John Eurit with his son, Stephen, located on the northwest quarter of sec- tion 24. Noah Martin came in 1833 and settled in the southwest quarter of section 33 on the Williamson farm. In 1834 came Eli and Peter De- Moss, who settled in the west part of section 15 on the Penrose and Buchanan farms. In 1835-36 Josiah Powell located on the Michigan road in the southeast quarter of section 20 and later moved to the north- west quarter of section 8, where his son Lemuel Powell still resides. Among those who came in 1835 were George M. Smith in section 15; James Miles, for many years a justice of the peace in the same neighbor- hood; W. Carter and Wm. Steward. Prominent among those who came in 1837 was David Williamson, who located in the northwest quarter of section 27; John Hughs in section 23 and Thomas Bennett in the southwest quarter of section 26. John Gilliland moved from Adams township in 1836 and settled in section 25. In the same year Joseph Guy and James Troutman located on the Michigan road in the north- east quarter of section 29. Thos. McMillen located in section 8 in 1837- 38 with Wm. Reed and James McMillen. The same year John Yund settled in the northeast quarter of section 30; Reuben Perry in section 13; James Buchanan on the Michigan road in section 15 and 16, where his son George W. now resides; David H. Conrad in southwest quar- ter of section 22. About 1839 Dr. A. B. Buchanan, John Ferguson, James McClung, Andrew Long, Gavin Black, Benjamin Enyart, Albert Hodge, Ebinezer Bridge, Wm. Skelton, Wm. McIntosh, David Flynn, Lewis Crain, Samuel Ward, G. W. Miller, Daniel Scott, David Chest- nut and S. G. Sperry settled in different parts of the township and their names were household words in that region in pioneer days. This list of the first settlers were the chief personages in clearing, improving and developing Bethlehem township and while the original pioneers have long since gone to a better land, yet many of the descendants of these sturdy pioneers are still honored residents of the township. In addition to these very earliest pioneers, a great many came later, who


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lived and died in Bethlehem and helped to make it an enlightened and Christian community, second to none in the county. Among these may be mentioned Samuel, Benjamin and Abraham Grable, Jacob, Jeptha and Wm. Powell, George Freshour, Jacob and Jeremiah Evans, John Sedam, Samuel Metsker, Aaron Yantis and his two sons Robert and Benjamin F., the latter still living, Jacob Bookwalter, Arthur and John Leffel, Wm. Kirtland and his son James, Sylvester and George Conk- ling, Joseph Penrose, Thomas Moore, Aaron and Ira Tilton, Joseph Studebaker, John Morrow, Peter Smith, Alexander Jennings, John Griffin and Isaac Caw. The three latter were soldiers of the War of 1812; J. G. Cox, Jos. Thompson, Sam Williamson, Fielding Warner, Wm. Redd, John Bassler, Peter Smith and others.


LAND ENTRIES


The first entries of land does not indicate the earliest settlers and we find the pioneer locating in Bethlehem long before the land was sur- veyed and put upon the market. The first entries were made in 1832 by John Dalzell in section 23 and John Ewing in section 24.


The following year entries were made by John R. Hinton in section 23 and John Gillilaird in section 24. During the next five or six years entries were made in different parts of the township by the settlers whose names are mentioned above and by others who never occupied the land but purchased it for speculative purposes and to further mention them is profitless.


ORGANIZATION


The county commissioners' records show that an election was ordered held at the house of J. R. Hinton on the first Monday in April, 1836, but no report is filed and there is nothing to show that such an election was held. Helms, in his history, states that Bethlehem township was organized March 7, 1836, in the cabin of Noah Martin, who then lived in section 33; that John Dalzell named the township in memory of a village or township of the same name in Washington county, Pennsylvania, his native state. J. R. Hinton was elected the first justice of the peace, but the other affairs are not reported.


PIONEER LIFE


When the white man first settled in Bethlehem in 1830, there was not a wagon road opened from Logansport into the township. The Michigan road was not cut out until 1833 or '34 and the pioneer had to make his way along Indian trails through the dense forest that then covered all that region. It was impossible for the pioneer to carry with him any goods or supplies. He squatted on some advantageous ground near the creek or spring in the midst of the forest and began to erect a round log cabin and carve out a farm, relying on his own hands to appro- priate what nature supplied to meet his wants. His house was con- structed entirely of wood, his furniture made of the same material, his table supplied largely from the game that the forest afforded, which was then, however, abundant. During many years in the early history of Bethlehem, the pioneer's life was not an enviable one. Their trials were numerous and the hardships they were obliged to undergo would discourage the bravest heart of the present day. Money was scarce and people were forced to resort to barter in order to effect exchanges. The comparative demand and supply regulated the price of all articles, a yard of calico was worth so many pounds of butter, a deer skin was


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worth so much sugar or coffee and an ax represented so many bushels of potatoes. Sheep were early introduced and those that were not killed by the wolves supplied wool which was washed, carded, spun, woven into cloth, cut and made into suits without once leaving the house where it was clipped from the sheep. To card, spin, dye, knit and weave were accomplishments that all pioneer women possessed. The women in those days ate not the bread of idleness. They were indeed helpmates of father, brother and husband. While man, with masterful energy, conquered the difficulties and asserted his sovereignty over the unsubdued wilder- ness, it was woman's hand that turned its asperities into blessings and made conquered nature the handmaid of civilization. Housekeeping was crowded into the smallest possible space. There were no china closets or glass cases, tables, easels, etc., with bric-a-brac to dust and keep clean; no frills or laces to make, launder and care for. The preparation, how- ever, of linsey-woolsey, stocking yarn, etc., with their adaptation to the family needs, became, to vary the catechism, the chief end of woman.


PIONEER CABIN


When a neighbor would call on a pioneer woman, she did not excuse herself until she could arrange her toilet, but with a simplicity of man- ners, and a warm and whole-heartedness not seen in these later days, the visitor was met with such a cordial greeting that she became a fast and lasting friend. Such visits seldom interfered with the household duties but the visitor would assist the hostess in whatever work she might be engaged in, at the same time enjoying each other's company, with as much pleasure and satisfaction as our modern society ladies do, who are rocked in the cradle of affluence and luxury.


About these homely firesides was gathered all the pride of womanly achievements: candor, honesty, simplicity of character, charity and all the Christian virtues, the foundation upon which this great common- wealth today rests. Pioneer customs and habits have passed away with the times and circumstances that gave them birth. Although the early settlers possessed some characteristics repellant to refined ideas of modern culture, yet in their social intercourse with each other, they displayed those exemplary traits of character which might well be esteemed a bright legacy to a more advanced age. Unpretentious, they tendered whatever of hospitality their crude cabins afforded and were assiduous in their


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efforts to provide for those whom chance brought within the circle of their charities. Affectation had no place in the cordial entertainment tendered visitor or stranger and self-seeking was never the incentive which prompted their open door hospitality. They were ever ready to lend a helping hand to neighbor or traveler, in sickness or distress, without money and without price. Their whole lives were the grand, simple poems of rugged, toilsome duty, bravely and uncomplainingly done and the examples of their industry and the results of their arduous struggles are among the richest legacies to a grateful posterity.


WILD ANIMALS AND GAME


Before the advent of the settler, Bethlehem's forests were infested with many wild animals, some of which were advantageous to the pioneer while others were a source of great annoyance and sometimes even dangerous. Wolves and foxes in this section gave the pioneer the great- est trouble, as they were very destructive to their sheep, pigs, calves and poultry. Until he could erect suitable outbuildings, the settler often housed his brood sow, ewe or chickens that was brought with him, in his cabin at night to protect them from these ravenous animals. Wild cats and bears were not uncommon in the primeval forests and an occasional wild hog, a gaunt long legged species that could run like a hound and sometimes became vicious. Wolf and fox hunts were often engaged in, when a whole neighborhood would turn out on horseback with hounds and surround a certain territory and gradually drive in the wolves or foxes until they were encircled and caught.


I. W. Kreider graphically relates a wolf chase in which he engaged and became the hero on Twelve Mile creek as late as 1850, where he plunged into the water and seized the wolf which was about to get the best of his dog. Hunting wild animals was one of the great sports of the Bethlehemites in early days.


In the winter when driven to desperation with hunger or attracted to the cabin by the scent of food, the wolves would often become bold and threatening to a lonely pioneer and occasionally a drove of hungry wolves would chase him into his cabin and surround it and set up an unearthly howl which made night hideous to the peaceful settler and terrorize the children of the lonely cabin of Bethlehem's first settlers. Edible game, such as deer, wild turkeys, wild geese, ducks, cranes, pheas- ants, prairie chickens, quails, etc., were in great abundance and the table was supplied with necessary meats from this source until the forests could be cleared and crops raised.


There were some beavers in this township and these wonderfully intelligent animals constructed a dam by gnawing down small trees across the outlet to the upper blue grass swamps, near where Auntie Bassler now lives, and covered them over with grass and dirt. The re- mains of this dam were visible for many years after the beavers became extinct in this locality.


As the forests gave way to the woodman's ax and the swamps yielded their waters to the ditcher's shovel, all the game, both animals and birds, have disappeared except a few squirrel, rabbits and quail, and the pres- ent day farmer of fair Bethlehem can hardly realize that dense forests infested with wild animals once covered his fertile fields.


ROADS


At the time of the first settlement of the township in 1830 there was not a wagon road within its borders and none leading to it. In 1833-34, Vol. 1-31


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however, the Michigan road, under the supervision of the state, was estab- lished and cut out to a width of one hundred feet from Logansport through Bethlehem township and on to Rochester and north to Lake Michigan. Although it was many years before this road was improved, yet it was a great improvement over the Indian trail and permitted the use of the ox cart or wagon, which up to that time was impossible. The opening of this thoroughfare was one of the most valuable improve- ments of its day, opening up a line of trade that tended to develop the resources not only in this township, but the whole county. Along this highway were located some of the first improvements of the township and its influence on the subsequent development of the country was very marked. This road was of more than local importance. It was a route of travel from the Ohio river through Indianapolis to the north and west and many travelers passed over the Michigan road on their way to these points.




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