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 26
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THE FLOOD.
" I remember," says Mr. Widney, "I remember clear away back beyond ' the flood.' Shall I tell you something about that memorable event? Well, I will. Many of the first settlers along the river built their cabins on the bottoms, on account of the rich, deep soil, so inviting for corn and potatoes. Now it happened that St. Jo., notwithstanding his saintship, had a mighty trick of 'getting high' occasionally, and on such occasions took a regular ' spree,' transcending all bounds of propriety, and scattering and destroying things in general. It was in the winter of 1838, about the first of January, when we were dwelling securely in the neigh- borhood of this mild-looking saint, that he unexpectedly 'imbibed'
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too largely, 'got high,' and advanced upon us, raging and foam- ing terribly, without any provocation whatever.
" But, lest we should be guilty of what Dr. Clark calls ' making a figure go on all fonrs,' we will drop it and say that the river rose until it overflowed its banks, and surrounded the house. This alarmed us some, but it seemed to be nearly at a stand, and we hoped that it would soon retreat. But instead of falling, it con- . tinned to rise, until the loose floor began to float. We then raised the floor about six inches, being sure that the water would rise no more. We were doomed, however, to be again disappointed. The water still rose. Being midwinter we had all our firewood to ' boat' in, with the canoc, which we kept cabled at the cabin, and we managed still to keep a fire above the water.
"The night after raising the floor we retired to rest, and the next morning fonnd the floor all afloat again. So we concluded to embark for safe quarters. Running the canoe into the door, we took the passengers from the bed, and, packing everything that the water could injure above its reach, we crossed the raging river, to sojourn with friends till 'after the flood.' The water rose until it was two and a half feet deep in the cabin, and then began to sub- side. Just then a severe freeze set in, leaving the entire bottoms covered with a sheet of thick ice. When the river got within its banks again we returned, threw ont the ice, and took up our resi- dence in the cabin. Other settlers besides us suffered from this saintly freak, but we have not the particulars."
NAVIGATING THE DESERT WITH A POCKET-COMPASS.
Colin Robinson and his brother Henry came to their half brother (Gavin Hamilton), on the Maumee, near Brnnersburg, in the year 1833; and soon after their arrival they went up the Maumee to where William Rogers then lived, a little below where the village of Antwerp now stands, and from thence struck across the woods, by means of a pocket-compass, some fifteen or twenty miles, through the unbroken forest, to the St. Joseph River. When in the midst of the wilderness they lost their needle from their compass, and had to hunt a considerable time among the leaves before they found it. Following the direction pointed out by the slender finger of their magnetic guide, about dark they struck the bluff of the St. Jo., abont where Henry Robinson afterward lived, and from thence made their way, amid the gathering shades of evening, down the river, more than a mile, to within a few rods of where the cabin
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afterward stood, spoken of in the Indian story, and in that of "the flood," above described.
Mr. Lytle then lived in a cabin over the river, and about forty rods back from it, and their object was to get over for supper and lodgings, as they had eaten nothing since early breakfast. It was the 24th of December, and when they reached the river they found it frozen in, about one-fourth of the breadth of the river, and there was no way of crossing; so they were under the necessity of camp- ing for the night. A huge walnnt, perhaps six feet in diameter, had been cut down, probably by the Indians, and still lay with one end on the stump, at the time of the "flood," four years after the time of which we are speaking. Under this walnut they took lodging for the night, having first struck up a fire.
The night was passed very uncomfortably, in acute suffering from cold and hunger. The next morning (Christmas, 1833), they cut down (for they had their axes with them) a dry stump of a tree, which broke in its fall. Tying the two pieces together, side by side, with basswood bark, they launched it, breaking the ice at the margin, and on it crossed the river with their imaginations filled with visions of a plentiful warm breakfast. On arriving at Mr. Lytle's, they found no one at home but the children, and nothing to eat but a rabbit, and while they were cooking this a cat ran away with half of it!
The Messrs. Robinson had intended to enter land and make a "beginning" on it, but they found provisions so scarce that they re- turned the next day. In the following spring Colin Robinson en- tered the excellent tract of land on which he afterward fixed his home just across the river from Orangeville, in Concord Township. He did not, however, settle on it till three years afterward.
GUNPOWDER TEA.
It was perhaps in the summer of 1834 or 1835 that John Platter and Solomon Delong crossed the same wilderness, and getting be- wildered in the midst of it, almost famished for want of water,they had to camp for the night. With their axes and hands they dng a hole in a prickly ash swamp and found water, but it tasted so much like the decoction of gunpowder that they could scarcely drink it, thongh suffering with thirst,
The early settlers will all bear witness that in the summer mos- quitoes were no scarce article in that day of general scarcity, in fact, they were as plentiful as we can imagine flies to have been in
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the fourth Egyptian plagne; one could not stop two minutes in the woods without having them by myriads singing their unpleasant song with treble voices about his ears, or poking into him their tormenting bills, almost as much to be dreaded as the doctor bills of the early day. Well, to protect themselves against these impu- dent serenaders, these unwilling lodgers of the wilderness mnen- tioned above (Platter and Delong) cut bushes, then covered with green leaves, and covered themselves decply in these until the mosquitoes were utterly at a loss how to get at them, and thus they passed the night.
A BRIDAL TOUR.
In the winter of 1836-'7, in the month of Jannary, the above- named Colin Robinson, having lately married a wife, set out on a bridal (or bridle, if you please) tour from the Maumee to the cabin built on his land on the St. Jo., she on horseback and he on foot.
Coming to the " Mer-del-arm," a considerable creek between the rivers running through broad cottonwood swamps, he found it swollen by recent rains and melted snow, until it spread over the swamps, about a mile on each side. Through this wide-spread water he waded along the narrow trace, sometimes waist. deep, and she followed on her horse. Coming to the main channel of the creek he found it covered with thick ice, raised up several feet by the swollen waters, so that the ice was nearly on a level with the horse's breast, as he waded up to it. Here Mr. Rob- inson got his wife off the horse, on a stump, and prevailed on the horse to jump on the ice, walk over it, and then jump down on the other side of the channel. He then, by means of a pole placed from the stump to the ice, got Mrs. Robinson on the ice, and from the ice on the other side, on her saddle again, wading out as he had waded in. The next summer Mr. Robinson and his brother went down the St. Joseph to Fort Wayne, and then down the Maumee to near where Defiance now is, for seed wheat, and corn to get ground. They performed the voyage in a large-sized pirogue; load ing it with sixty bushels of grain, they started back. They ex- perienced considerable difficulty in getting along, being both raw hands at "piroguing," but they succeeded tolerably well until they reached " Bull Rapids," near the State line, about eighteen miles below Fort Wayne. Here the wind ruffling the surface, they could not see bottom, and, running on the rocks, they stuck fast. Getting out into the water, they shoved the pirogue over the
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rocks, and up the rapids, wading sometimes in water up to the waist. Getting once more aboard, they got along till they reached " Cole's dam," one mile below Fort Wayne. Here they had to un- load and carry the grain on their shoulders up a steep bank about thirty feet high, go more then half a mile after a rope, which they tied to the bow of the boat, and thus pulled it over the dam, coming very near sinking it in the operation. They then reloaded,and were overtaken by darkness at the mouth of the St. Joseph. From there to John's mill they had much difficulty in getting along in the dark- ness and shallow water. Getting to the mill they unloaded that part of the grain they intended to be ground, and took their lodg- ings for the night, on the bare ground, and no covering but the blue sky. In fact during the entire trip they had the same bed and covering every night. From John's mill the rest of the way home they got out nearly every ripple, and pushed the boat up, and sometimes it was necessary to unload and reload, laying the bags on rocks in the ripples until they got the boat over. Soon after his return Colin Robinson was prostrated with a severe attack of the pleurisy, brought on by exposure.
ALL WELL BUT FOURTEEN.
We again quote from " Pioneer Sketches:" " We spoke, just now, of doctor bills as compared with mosquito bills; that you may have some idea of the force of the comparison, we will give one instance of the sickness of the early settlement. Mr. Isaac Meeks, now of Union Mills, Lagrange County, is my informant.
" ' I came into the Coburn Settlement, Concord Township,' says he, 'soon after Mr. Asher Coburn (who was the first settler) and built a cabin fourteen feet square and moved therein. Some time after this Mr. Coburn and John H. Coburn, the one my father-in- law, moved into the settlement, and I offered them both the hospi- talities of my cabin. We were now fourteen in number, in a cabin fourteen feet square, and one story high. In a little while every one of us took down sick, and we had to swing up beds to the sides of the cabin, one above the other, to accommodate all the sick. I was sick four or five weeks, and the rest almost as many months!' "
SUFFERINGS OF MR. OSBIRN.
We spoke on a previous page of the difficulties and hardships of the settlers, in getting to mill and to market. We will now give another instance, exceeding in painful interest any vet mentioned.
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The sufferer was a resident of Hicksville, just over the State line in Ohio, but the scene of his suffering was in this county; hence we will relate the circumstances, so far as the facts can be accurately obtained.
It was in the winter of 1837-'8 that Mr.Osburn started from where Hicksville had just been laid out, with an ox team, to go to mill at Fort Wayne. Returning to the east side of the St. Joseph River he was overtaken by night above where Leo now is. Having had to wade into the creeks, and break ice before his oxen, his clothes were wet, and it was freezing severely. Onward, however, he made his way, through the snow and darkness, on a stormy winter night, until he began to feel that he w. reezing.
Leaving his slow team in the road, he then started hoping to reach Mr. Brant's, across the river from where Spencerville now is, but soon found his legs becoming so stiff that he could no longer walk. Knowing that his life was at stake, he then crawled on his hands and knees about a mile, until he found that his strength was too far gone to proceed in this way. He now commenced crying for help, and Mr. Brant's dog hearing his voice commenced barking ; and some of the family going out to see what was the matter, were led by the dog to the poor sufferer, about a mile off, and he was borne into the honse.
Both his legs, however, had to be amputated just below the knees. He remained several days at Mr. Brant's, and was drawn home on his sled.
FAMILY MILLS.
As mills were so scarce and distant, the pioneers had to tax their inventive powers to provide a substitute. So, in process of time, nearly every settler had a family hand-mill, made after the ollowing description: Take a round log of some hard wood, such as beech or sugar, about twenty inches in diameter. Saw it off, about three feet in length. Set on end, and with an inch augur commence boring down diagonally into the upper end, from near the circumference to the center of the log, and continue until you have surrounded the end of the log, with augur holes meeting in the center. Take a chisel and cut down between the holes until you get the block loose that has thns been bored under, and it comes out in the form of an inverted cone. Trim out the funnel- shaped hole thus left with the chisel as well as you can, and then to make entirely smooth and to harden it build a fire of coals therein. When sufficiently burned for the purpose mentioned,
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ta e out the fire and scrape the coals off cleanly as possible, and you have a large mortar. Now take a stick as thick as your wrist and two and a half feet long, and, splitting one end, insert an iron wedge with its edge in the split. Put on an iron ring and drive it over the iron wedge, so as to hold it fast. Trim off the stick so as to handle conveniently, and you have a pestle. Now you may p ta little corn in your mortar, and beat it with your pestle as fine as you can. Sift ont the finest, and you have corn meal. Blow the bran out of the balance, and you have "hominy."
PRIMITIVE SCHOOL-HOUSES.
It is much to the credit of the pioneers of our county that amidst all the difficulties of the early settlements they did not neglect the education of their children. There are settlements in the south part of this State that existed twenty years without a school-honse. Not so in this county. No sooner had a few settlers got their cabins raised and fixed so that they could live in them, than they raised their school-house-rough and uncom- fortable, it is trne, but on an equality with their residences. They were of round logs, with clapboard roofs, chamber floor and door also of clapboards; ground floor of puncheon; benches of the same, or, rather, generally of small logs split in two and turned with the flat side up, and with rough wooden pins driven into angur holes for legs; chimney of sticks and mud built as described before, but generally larger than the chimneys of private residences so that twenty or twenty-five children might surround it in a semicircle, while a burning "log heap " flamed on the hearth in the winter, or to get light from its ample throat in the summer. The windows were generally made by cutting out a log nearly the whole length of the house, leaving a hole say a foot wide and eighteen or twenty feet long. Into this a long sash was inserted, consisting of single panes joined together horizontally until the long hole was filled. In some cases that came under my notice, however, this long hole was filled with a kind of lattice work of sticks, and upon this greased paper was pasted to transmit the light. Under this long window large holes were bored into the log, rough, wooden pins driven into these holes, and an unplaned plank laid on these pins. This was the writing desk. The writers sat on a long-legged bench, facing this plank and the window, and if they were many in number they prevented the light of the window, especially on a clondy day, from reaching many scholars
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sitting back from it, but on such occasions they drew near to the huge tunnel of the chimney, and were there " enlightened."
A RASCALLY PARODY.
"In just such school-houses," continues Mr. Widney, "I taught several schools in an early day, and experienced the truth of Thompson's couplet:
"' Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, And teach the young ideas how to shoot.'
"Will you allow me to enliven this prosy chapter with an anecdote?
" Well, a New York dandy, better acquainted with books and pavements than with 'backwoods' life or character, concluded to visit the West and see 'the natives.' As he was riding along on a cold day in the winter, when sleighing was good, in his fine sleigh, wrapped up in his 'buffalo,' with his great coat on, his fur cap tied down over his ears, and his fur gloves up his elbows, he passed one of these frontier school-houses. It was 'recess,' and the teacher and some of the bigger boys were out at the side of the house knocking some squirrels off a tall hickory tree with a rifle. The dandy reined up his horse a few minutes and as he saw the squirrels drop one after another, perpetrated the following parody on the above oft quoted couplet of Thompson:
" ' Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, And teach the youthful Indian how to shoot!'
"The rascal! It was well for him I was not there to hear him."
CHAPTER IV.
-- PIONEER HISTORY-CONTINUED.
WESLEY PARK'S NARRATIVE .- MILK DIET .- HOTEL CROWDED .-- NEW ARRIVALS .- COUNTY ORGANIZED .- JAIL IN THE LOFT OF PARK'S CABIN .- A COURT SCENE .- TRYING TIMES. - WHITE AND PALMER .- SOME INDIAN CUSTOMS .- BETTER TIMES. - JOHN HOUL- TON'S NARRATIVE .- ESCAPE FROM FREEZING. - UNWELCOME VIS- ITORS .- THEY HELP THEMSELVES .- A BLOODY RESOLVE .- THE CURSE OF AMERICA. - TRIP TO THE PRAIRIES. - FEMALE OX- DRIVER .- JOHN FEE AND HIS BIG TRACK .- INCIDENTS BY M. M .- A SPIRITED PET .- BEAR HUNT .- A CHANGE IN PLAN .- BEAR HUNT RESUMED. - A DIVERSION.
WESLEY PARK'S NARRATIVE.
Good fortune has preserved for us the personal narrative of Wesley Park, the first settler and the founder of the town of Au- burn, the county seat. We will give the same entire, as it is full of important and interesting details : "In the fall of 1835 George Stone, Hiram Johnston and myself left Licking County, Ohio, in a two-horse buggy, to seek a home in what was then called the West. We went by way of Columbus, Sandusky, Maumee, Defiance, Fish Creek and Lima, to South Bend. We then returned to Lima, where Johnston and Stone settled, and started a tannery. I returned to Fish Creek, and entered land adjoining John Houl- ton's. I then returned to Ohio, and staid till February, 1836. Started to Indiana, then, with a drove of cattle and a load of dried fruits, got to Lima, sold out, and started, in company with John B. Howe, Esq., to the center of the new county, afterward called De Kalb, to locate a site for a county seat.
" We got to Pigeon River, and the canoe upsetting, I swam over the stream. Howe came over in the canoe, swimming his horse along side. Staid all night at Glover's. Started in the morning on our journey, and that night reached section 13, township 34 north, range 13 east (Union Township now), and (291)
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lay ont in the woods. The snow was four inches deep. We kindled a fire, and I peeled bark to lie down on, but Howe, be- ing tired or lazy, or both, lay down on the snow. In the morning he had melted his whole length in the snow and was wet, but I was dry. I lay all night with my rifle by my side, to be pre- pared for the wolves that howled around continually. After hunt- ing a day for the best site, decided on the piece of land where Au- burn now is. Entered the land and laid out the town. I then put up a shanty 10 x 12 feet, and cut a road through to Pleasant Lake; brought through a cart load of goods, with a yoke of oxen and a milk cow. Afterward, Joseph Miller and I started from William Miller's (where Mr. Ditmar now lives), I with my cart and oxen, and he with me to help cut the road (the road spoken of in a former chapter as being cut through from Blair's mill, afterward Shryock's), being nothing but a trace with the logs still in and too narrow for a cart, as will be hereafter noticed.
" My object was to get through by the way of Blair's mill to Fort Wayne for a load of provisions. It was afternoon before we started, and night overtook us near the little creek that crosses the Fort Wayne road near Mr. John Grube's. We had no provisions along, as we expected to get through to Blair's. The cow, how- ever, that I brought through from Pleasant Lake, being used to following the team, was fortunately with us, and I milked her and told Miller that milk was good enough for me. Miller did not like to drink the new milk, but there was no alternative, so he took a good draught. It did not lie well on his stomach, and he soon threw it up. The next morning, after lying out through the night, we cut through to the mill, and I went on to Fort Wayne, and Miller returned to get his breakfast, no doubt with a good appetite.
"Getting back with my provisions, I set up tavern in my shanty. I did my own cooking, and was crowded with travelers and land- hunters, who came to have me show them land to enter. One night I kept fifteen men, who very nearly filled my hotel. Some lay on a shelf, and the rest on the ground under it; so there was plenty of bed-room. After eating up the first load of provisions, I went to Fort Wayne for auother. On my return the Little Cedar was so high that I had to swim my oxen, and carry the load and cart by pieces over the creek on a log, as I had adopted as my motto 'Go ahead.' Got back again, finally, to the hotel.
"I kept travelers, showed land, and erected a cabin 18 x 20 feet, one and a half stories high, with a roof of rafters and clapboards.
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It stood on the lot close to the old water saw-mill. I then returned to Ohio and brought out my wife, Sophia, and my son Amos, then a child. 'Launcelot Jugman and family also came with me. We all arrived at Auburn on the 6th day of August, 1836. We laid down a few puncheons and went to housekeeping. A few days work completed our cabin.
"In the winter of 1836 the act passed the Legislature to organize De Kalb County. Littlefield, of Lagrange, Gilmore, of Steuben, and Robert Work, of Allen, were appointed Commissioners to lo- cate the county seat. I was appointed by the Governor, Sheriff of the new county, with authority to appoint the place for the elec- tions in the few precincts in the county, and to receive and forward the returns. The result of the election is stated elsewhere.
" After the organization of the county, my house served as court- house, jail, hotel, church, cooking-room, sleeping apartment, etc.
"As Sheriff appointed, and afterward elected, I had no jail but the upper chamber of my cabin. I used to put prisoners up, and then take away the ladder and tell them to stay there, and they al- ways did so.
"The lower chamber was the court-house. During the sitting of court it had to suspend until dinner was cooked. This gave the Judge time for a nap, which was very desirable, as he was generally fatigued, and sometimes rather ' boozy. ' Charles Ewing was the president Judge. He was brother to the celebrated fur traders, W. G. and G. W. Ewing. Judge Yates has been spoken of as an odd genius of a backwoodsman. One day he got ' tight, ' and sentenced Jo. Bashford to receive a whipping, and swore that as he was the court and had passed sentence he would inflict the penalty. As the Judge was making toward the criminal, with this avowed intention, I seized him, and giving him a whirl, told him plainly that if the court persisted in inflicting the penalty threatened, the Sheriff would put the court ' up the ladder.' Upon this, the court acknowledged the authority of the Sheriff, and ad- journed peaceably.
"TRYING TIMES.
" Will you allow me now to go back to the winter of 1836-'7, and relate some instances of that hard winter? There were now about thirty families in the county, and many of them suffered severely, having to bring all their provisions from Fort Wayne, or the Northern prairies, with scarcely anything that could be called
19
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roads. At one time our corn cost us $3.00 per bushel ! I saw teams that had to travel seventy-five miles for provisions. I never drove more than sixty miles for corn, beyond Fort Wayne np the St. Mary's River. It was a trying time for me and my wife, but she was always cheerful. I took the rheumatism and lay several weeks. In December the snow fell two feet deep.
"Immigrants were still coming in. A man, woman and child left Pleasant Lake with a wagon and a yoke of cattle, to go ten miles south of Auburn. One of their oxen mired down, in Smithfield Township, eight miles north of Auburn. There was then no house between Steubenville and Auburn. The mired ox died, and they turned the other loose and started for Auburn afoot, carrying the child. The waters were then high, and they had to wade the small streams. About nine o'clock at night they reached our cabin with clothes frozen above the waist. We gave them dry clothes and a warm supper, and kept them until the roads were broken.
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