USA > Indiana > DeKalb County > History of DeKalb County, Indiana : together with sketches of its cities, villages and towns and biographies of representative citizens : Also a condensed history of Indiana > Part 25
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY. 273
being turned by the rapid current, the water struck the side and capsized the concern. Down went the pirogue, leaving crew and passengers, great and small, floundering in water waist deep to a common-sized man; and the goods floated down the river in sublime confusion. Some of the larger children succeeded in pad- dling ashore, while the wife of John P. Widney (now sleeping in the Auburn graveyard) seized a child five years old (afterward Mr. Widney's second wife) and upheld her in the water until the men succeeded in helping all ashore. The goods were then caught at different points down the river. A trunk containing $800 in bank bills floated down perhaps half a mile, and when the runa- way was caught, the bills were completely saturated with the water and had to be dried at the fire.
As another instance of difficulties in getting into the country, it is worth relating that Joseph Miller, the first County Surveyor for De Kalb County, and his father, brought a part of their goods by the way of Fort Wayne to Shryock's mill. And from thence to the farm (afterward owned by Mr. Ditmer), one mile below Auburn, they had to cut their way through the dense forest. Having left the balance of their goods and their families on the Maumee, they struck through the woods, directly east, by means of a pocket compass, to the St. Joseph, going around the worst swamps, and then cut a road all the way back, some twelve miles, for their wagons to pass, having to bridge a tamarack swamp on the way. This road was known as " Miller's trace " for years afterward, and served as a highway for many emigrants. It was where the road now runs, westward from the St. Joseph River, at Judge Widney's.
INDIAN SCARES.
We quote from "Pioneer Sketches:"-" Many of the settlers had never seen an Indian before coming here; but they had heard and read much of their savage barbarity. During the years 1835 '6-'7-'8 many of these red men still lingered in their native forests, generally in large companies or camps. They were an object of terror to many of the settlers, especially to the women and children, as singly or in caravans they passed from one camp to another. To add to the terror, at first, the screams of a great owl, unknown in the East but abounding in the Western woods, were taken for the ' whoops ' of savages.
" Well do I remember a night in the fall of 1837, spent in terror of the Indians. I had been in the county six months, but
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as yet had seen very few of them. My widowed mother, with six children younger than myself (and I not yet seventeen years of age), bought and settled on the farm spoken of on another page as belonging to Dr. Babcock. Here an Indian trail crossed the river, and on the other side was a house where liquor was sold. Soon after nightfall the real whoops were heard away in the south woods. The sound drew continually nearer, and increased in volume, till our fears pictured a whole army of savages coming to murder us. We put out all the lights, fastened the doors, and concealed ourselves in different parts of the house. Soon the Indians were tramping around the house, and their torches gleam- ing through the windows. We almost held our breath with fear. Soon, however, they passed by, down to the river, and taking our canoe, crossed over and their whoops died away, drowned in the Indians' favorite beverage, 'good old rye.' But our rest was spoiled for the night, as we continually dreaded their return.
" Afterward, however, we became better acquainted with the ' poor Indian' as a camp of some forty men, squaws and papooses, spent four or five weeks in their tents, within twenty rods of the house, visiting us, or we them, daily. The men spent their time hunting, dressing their game, gambling, or lying around the fire like dogs. The women chopped the wood, made the fires and waited on their lords and masters, while the children shot birds with their bows and arrows. Joe Richardville, son of the celebrated chief, was in the camp dressed partly like an Indian and partly in the European costume. His college education failed to make anything out of him but an Indian."
THE NEAREST MILL
and market was at Fort Wayne, about twenty-six miles from the center of the river settlement, by land, and nearly as far again by the winding river. There was no wagon road as yet, and the river was the great thoroughfare. It was navigated by means of pirogues-large canoes dug out of the huge towering poplars abounding along the river. They were sometimes three or four feet wide, and seventy or eighty feet long, and would carry quite a burden. They were propelled by means of poles and paddles. Coming up the river with a load when the water was high was very hard work, especially if the river was too highto reach the bottom with poles of a convenient length.
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Mr. Rhodes, of Newville, and Samnel Wason, of Spencerville, had to pull a loaded pirogue nearly all the way from Fort Wayne to where Spencerville now is, by laying hold of the willows and other bushes along the margin of the water. The entire voyage occupied a week. John P. Widney and some others came up with a load of provisions late in November, 1836, when the river was swollen with the fall rains, and the " slush ice " was running, and ice froze on the poles whenever they drew them out of water. These icy poles had to be used with bare hands, as gloves or mittens could not be used. In this way it required a full week to come up.
Provisions were very scarce and dear at Fort Wayne at the time. Flonr rose to $14 per barrel, and sometimes "wormy " at that. Corn was $1.50 per bushel in the ear, and much of it rotten. Salt was $2.25 per bushel, and other things in proportion.
PROVISIONS SCARCE.
Living thus distant from mill and market, and that market so high, it may be readily imagined that the settlers would all some- times be reduced to straights in the provision line; and that those scarce of cash must necessarily have seen very hard times in that respect. Such was actually the case. There were but few families in the settlement but that sometimes were pinched with hunger, without the immediate means on hand to satisfy it. Several days together had nearly all of them sometimes to sub- sist upon potatoes instead of bread, and some would even have been glad to get potatoes.
It was reported that one family, now in comfortable circum. stances, had to live several weeks on vegetables gathered from the woods, and cooked as "greens," with milk and beecli bark. Imagine to yourself the cabin of the settler visited in such circumstances by severe fevers and agues, sometimes prostrating the whole family for week's, and one will not wonder that some were discouraged, and wished themselves back again at their comfortable Eastern homes.
THE LOG CABIN.
We have log houses occasionally, in our day, but few of ns know much of the primitive forest home, and how it was made. Here is a sketch of one. Say we have it sixteen feet by eighteen in size, and just high enough for the joists below the first rib, and
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tben " cobbled off," as usual. One man cuts the logs in perhaps half a day, or at most a day. Another, with a yoke of cattle and a log chain, " snakes " them out, as fast as cut, to the little spot cleared off for the cabin. The next day they cnt a large white oak that will "rive," and saw it into blocks four feet long. These are split into " bolts," and these bolts riven into " shakes" or clapboards. The next day the neighbors come in, from five or six miles around, and throw up the logs, and notch them down in their natural rough state, and one man, perhaps, " kutches down" the inside of the logs as fast as they are pat down in their place, while yet another cuts a straight-grained ash, and splits punchcons two inches thick, for the floor, and dresses off one side with his ax. Before night the house is " cobbed off," the clapboards are laid on the ribs, and the heavy " weight poles " laid on to keep them in their place, and " knees " placed to keep these poles from rolling down, these knees commencing against the " butting poles " at the eave of the cabin, which butting pole is laid on the "eave bearer" (projecting some two feet on each side of the building), against large pines driven into these eave bearers. The raising being now over, the owner next builds a " back wall " of " nigger heads " (as the rough stones were called), gathered perhaps from a half mile around, as they are sparsely scattered over the surface, or out of the bed of the creek or river; or, perhaps not taking the trouble togather these niggerheads, he builds the wall of " mud," made of clay dug from the inside of the cabin, just in front of where he expects to have his hearth. The wall is, say, six feet wide and four feet high, built against the end wall of the cabin, equi-distant from the corners. Now he seeks a small tree, with a crook similar to a sleigh runner, and cutting it of a proper length splits it for the arms of his chimney.
These are placed on at each end of his back wall, with one end of each arm in a crevice between the logs of the cabin, and the other lodged against the rough joist, the crook being downward, entering the crevice a little below the top of the back wall. Split- ting the sticks for his chimney, about the size of plastering lath, he now commences building alternate layers of sticks and mud on the arms above described, abont three feet by six at first, but gradu ally drawing in until it is about two feet by four, and then run_ ning up, perpendicularly, until the top of his chimney peers above the roof, out of the hole there left for it. Making his hearth of clay, well beaten down, he next lays his puncheon floor, makes
George Puts
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his clapboard door, or hangs up a quilt in place of it, puts in his six light sash, with glass or greased paper to transmit the light, lays the chamber floor with clapboard, and, behold, he has a house. Now he must furnish it. Well, taking some puncheons left from the floor, he cuts them into square pieces, dresses off one side with his ax, bores holes for the legs, hews out rough sticks for those legs, drives them in and his chairs are made. Cutting some straight ironwood poles, of proper length, for rails and posts, boring holes in those posts with a large augur, hewing off the ends of the rails with his ax to the necessary size, and then driving all together with the same tool, he soon has a bedstead. Stripping a young basswood tree of its bark, and weaving it around and between the rails-lo, the bedstead is corded! Boring holes in the wall, he dresses rough wooden pins, and lays a broad clapboard thereon, and behold his cupboard! To close this description, a "lytle " anecdote is appropriate concerning the "awful abyss:"
John P. Widney had just erected such a cabin as above de- scribed, save" that it had as yet no floor. His chimney had just been finished, and in building it he had dug a deep hole just be- tween the door and the hearth. He and his wife, seated on a sleeper in front of the fire, were enjoying its genial warmth on a cold December night. The earth was covered with a mantle of snow, and the wind whistled without; but what cared they, in their comfortable dwelling? Two land hunters, Mr. Lytle and another, lost and benighted, were pushing through the snow and brush when the light of the six-pane window, on the tall bluff of Twenty- six Mile Creek, caught their delighted vision, and they waded toward it and plunged waist deep in the swollen creek, thick with snow and ice. Out again, on the other side, their eyes stead- fastly fixed on the beacon light. They soon rapped on the logs at the side of the door, and were cordially bade " come in." Turning aside the quilt, they entered; and stepping toward the cheerful fire, they both plunged, together, into the "awful abyss " from which the substance of the chimney had been drawn. And there we will leave them to extricate themselves as best they can, and warm and dry themselves by Mr. Widney's hospitable fire.
HAND LABOR.
In addition to the difficulties and privations endured by the river settlements, as mentioned above, was that of a scarcity of teams. Having as yet raised nothing on which to feed teams 18
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in the winter, they were willing to make many shifts to get along without. "Iknow," says Mr. Widney, "a highly respected citizen of this county, who has filled several offices and is now considered wealthy, that between the first of January, 1837, and the first day of May following, chopped off five acres of heavy timber, taking it nearly all down, burned the brush, rolled the logs and burned them off, split the rails and carried them to their place on the fence on his shoulders; and thus had his field cleared off and well fenced by the time mentioned above, without having a team in the clearing, except perhaps one day, to draw the remnants of the log heaps together."
His wife was his sole help, he chopping and she often picking the brush. Many nights he worked by moonlight until quite late. He "yankeed " the largest logs together, as he expressed it, having this in view in felling the trees, and carried the smaller logs, or dragged them by one end, or rolled them with a handspike to the heap, as best he could. "When I visited him on the sixth of May, he and his wife were digging holes among the roots with hoes, and putting in seed corn." The crop was tended entirely with the hoe; and in this way he raised a good crop of corn and potatoes, without having a plow in the field.
"HANDSPIKE " FARMING.
It was said that William Mathews raised a good crop of corn, planted with a handspike, and tended with a hoe. His plan of planting was to strike a sharp handspike into the rich soil diago- nally, draw it out, drop in the seed, and then press down the soil by stepping on it as he passed on to plant the next hill.
" WINDROW " PLANTING.
The settler often found the season for planting on hand before his clearing was "burned off, " and then sometimes the corn or potatoes were planted between the log heaps; sometimes the timber was thrown into " windrows," some three or four rods apart, and the crop planted between the rows, the log being left to be burned when the crop came off.
FIRST PREACHER.
The first settlers were quite destitute of religious privileges. Benjamin Alton, of the Disciples' or Campbellite church, preached the first sermon in the county, as nearly as can be learned, in the
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fall of 1836. For some time, perhaps nearly a year, he was the only preacher. He had settled in the woods and had to clear his own land and get his provisions in the meantime, often by taking jobs of chopping, yet he generally preached on Sunday.
" He was a man of considerable talent," continues the author of "Pioneer Sketches," "and died some years ago, much lamented. It was said that he used to preach in the summer, in his rough tow- pants, without a coat, and with a shoe on one foot and a boot on the other. This is not strange, when I remember that shoes and boots were so hard to be had that John P. Widney and I, during the summer (1837) I lived with him, could only get one good pair of shoes between us, which we wore alternately on Sunday, one going to meeting and one staying at home; and that John and Hazzard Webster used to come down to Newville, even to election, barefooted."
FIRST MEETINGS.
The first Methodist two days meeting was held nea Orange- ville, in 1837, by N. L. Thomas and Joseph Miller, both then residing on the Maumee. Prayer-meetings hal been held pro- viously by religiously inclined persons of various denominations, without any distinctions. The origin of the first one is thus related by Judge Widney: " We had been in the country for some- time without knowing that there was a praying person in the settlement besides ourselves, when one Sabbath R. R. Lounsbury and another man returning from Fort Wayne stopped at my house and informed me that Thomos L. Yates (afterward judge) was under conviction, and wished me to come and pray with him. I went, and found quite a mumber of persons n the house.
" I sang and prayed, and while praying noticed that old Father Rhodes was fervently responding to my petitions. I then sang again and called on him to pray, and while he prayed I noticed that the old lady, his wife, was also praying. I next called on her and found that old Mother Yates (mother of the penitent man) was engaged, and so I called on her next, and this closed our meeting. Afterward we held prayer-meeting nearly every Sabbath, at Father Rhodes's, my house, Mr. Lounsbury's, Mr. Eakright's, or some other."
EARLY PREACHERS AND MEETINGS.
"Revs. Coleman and Warner were the first circuit preachers of the Methodist Episcopal church who visited the settlement. I
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think it was some time in the year 1838. They organized several classes at different points. Early in the year 1839 sixteen persons who had been members of the Methodist Protestant church in Ohio and Pennsylvania met at the house of Samuel Tarney, on Bear Creek, and organized them into a Methodist Protestant class. I was one of the members, and Samuel Widney, Sr., was our leader. He wrote to Rev. Joel Dalbey, then.at Pittsburg, to try to procure a preacher. He answered that we had better apply to the Ohio Conference. Our leader then wrote to the celebrated Nicholas Snethin, at Cincinnati.
"This letter was sent from the Ohio to the Indiana Conference, then just organized and holding its session in Monroe County, and Lewis Hickman came on as missionary and organized several classes, and finally a circuit. He was the first Methodist Protes- tant preacher in Indiana, north of the Wabash, so far as I know. For some time the Disciples, Methodist Episcopal and Methodist Protestant churches were the only ones in the county ..
"Jonathan Thomas and Bishop Kumler were the first United Brethren preachers. They labored as missionaries through the country in 1841 and 1842, if I am correct. S. B. Ward was the first regular Baptist minister in the county, Elders Cherry and Miner the first Free-Will Baptist, and James Cather the first Lutheran. Mr. Cather commenced his labors early in the year 1844, and the others several years earlier."
FIRST EVENTS.
"The first man who was married while a resident of the settle- ment, we are informed, was Jared Ball to Miss Melinda Slater. The father of the bride resided in Williams County, Ohio, near the present village of Edgerton, and there they were married, the ec- centric bridegroom paying the marriage fee to Mr. Alton, the officiating minister, in pumpkins. And, to keep the story from being lonesome here, I will state that in later years a certain Judge performed a marriage, the bridegroom in which was the fortunate possessor of a tract of 'oak opening' and a 'cranberry marsh.' After the ceremony, the bland and courteous Judge was informed by the happy bridegroom that for his invaluable services he could have the privilege of getting some cranberries in his marslı !"
The first marriage that took place in the settlement was that of Nelson Ulm and Elvira Lockwood. It is remembered that the bride was too weakly, or too much excited, to stand up during the
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ceremony. It was in the summer of 1837. The first marriage licenses taken out in the county were those of Francis Smith and Maria Gunsenhouser, and of John Platter and Ann Emmeline Walden. Both were issued on the 5th of September, 1837, and both were performed by Washington Robinson, of Concord Town- ship, the first Justice of the Peace in De Kalb County.
The first funeral in the settlement was that of Mrs. Barker, who died just above where Newville is now located. Judge Widney was sent for to perform the funeral services, there being no min- ister then in the settlement. He sang, prayed and talked to the people a few minutes on the subject of death.
The first store in the county was opened in what is now Orange- ville in the spring of 1837. John Platter, William Rogers, a Mr. Savage and some other person put in each $200, and brought on the amount in such goods as the settlers most needed. John P. Wid- ney was employed to cut logs for the storehouse, receiving $2 for the job, and performing it in half a day. The house was 16 x 18 feet in size, of round logs.
The first grist-mill, or " corn cracker," rather, in the county was built by William Mathews, on Bear Creek, on the east part of the school section of Concord Township, near George Johnston's. It was a small affair, truly. The stones were about two feet in diameter, and were turned by means of a "flutter-wheel," on an upright post, set in a tub, through one side of which the water passed. The whole machinery was set in a small rickety frame, without weather-boarding. The corn dropped, a grain at a time, from the little hopper; so that perhaps in twenty-four hours, at a good stage of water, eight bushels of corn might be "cracked." Mr. Widney relates that he carried a half bushel of corn from his brother's, at Newville, to this mill, a distance of four miles, on his shoulder. He waited half a day to get it ground, and then carried the meal back in the same way. Among the numerous tales told of this mill, the following will do to repeat . James Widney, in the fall of 1837, took a bushel of corn to be ground, and after it had been grinding for some time went below to see how much meal was in the little store box, used for a meal chest, and to his dismay found a large yellow dog eating the meal as fast as it came from the spout !
The first election in the county was held in July, 1837. The settlers on the river all voted at the house of Washington Robinson, Esq., at Vienna, or Newville, as it is now called. Three county
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commissioners, two associate judges, and a clerk and recorder were to be elected, and, perhaps, some other officers.
On counting out the votes, a ticket came up that sorely puzzled the judges, as to whether it should be counted or not. A portion of it ran thus:
" For Commissioners, I'll tell you, sirs; The old Major- Or Johnny Blair ; William Roger And Peter Fair. For Clerk and Recorder, too,
John F. Coburn, sure, will do; Arial Waldon for a Judge, And James Bowman for a drudge."
Much merriment was had over this ticket. The office of drudge was supposed to be intended to accommodate the court with whisky, as some judges, at that early day, took their drams. It was not then known who put in this ticket, but it has been sup- posed that it was one who has since filled the office of judge him- self. Who brought his liquor, the records say not. The gentle- man voted for to fill the last office mentioned on the ticket was not elected.
Samuel Widney, Peter Fair and Isaac F. Beecher were elected County Commissioners; Arial Waldon and Thomas L. Yates, Judges of the Conrt, and John F. Coburn, Clerk and Recorder. "John P. Widney carried the returns of the election to Auburn (as the cabins of Wesley Park and one or two others were then collectively called), and I accompanied him.
"We went on foot and followed an Indian trail, as there was no road, wading all the swamps on the route. On returning, not be- ing a very good Indian, I gave out, so as hardly to be able to drag my limbs home. This was my first and last experiment in carry- ing election returns."
A BACKWOOD'S JUDGE.
Mr. Yates, one of the Judges elected, was rather an odd genius of a backwoodsman. When he was elected he dryly remarked that they were using up the buckeye timber first, and reserving that of a superior quality. This, however, was only his opinion, and as he had not yet taken his position on the bench it did not amount to law.
It is said that when called to his seat beside the president Judge,
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Hon. Charles Ewing, he was dressed in his coarse hunting-shirt and fox-skin cap, and seemed much embarassed in his new position. No doubt he would have felt more at home with a good rifle on his shoulder, after a nice fat "buck." He made a good judge, low- ever, as did his associate, Judge Waldon.
MORE OF THE PIONEERS.
There are some additional names of early settlers along the St. Joseph that should be recorded, many of whom afterward were prominent in the county; as for instance, Solomon Delong and Daniel Strong, of Newville, who have each filled the office of County Commissioner ; H. Fusselman, one of the first Justices of Stafford Township, and also a County Commissioner; Christian and Samuel Wanemaker, who have also filled offices in Stafford Township; Lott Herrick, of Concord, the first Probate Judge of De Kalb County; Joseph E. Sawtell, the bland and polite sales- man, who was, no doubt, the second man to sell goods along the river, and in the county; Rev. N. L. Thomas, the first one to open store in Newville; George Barney, one of the first Justices for Concord; James Hadsell, one of the earliest and most useful pioneers of Concord, who has filled several responsible offices; Cornelius Woodcox, one of the first Supervisors for De Kalb Township, when it embraced three congressional townships, and but two road districts; and especially R. J. Dawson, who has since filled so prominent a place in public affairs. But it is impossible to give a complete list of the worthy citizens who did the hard work of opening np De Kalb County to settlement.
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