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 38
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
"In early days we asked not whether the new comer was a Whig or a Democrat, Jew or Gentile, Methodist or Baptist, rich or poor; all we wanted to know was that he was a neighbor and a man. These inquiries as to a man's religious or political opinions were not thought of. Was he a good fellow, truthful, honest and chari- table ? If he had not these qualities, he did not stay long enough in our midst to become an old settler. Those who did not come up to that standard either returned to their old homes or sought other localities long years ago. * *
" At the risk of wearying you, I will name a few of those vet- erans who were the foremost men of the county in 1845, but who have gone to their long homes. Let us speak reverently of them. Their faults were human, but their good qualities and manly virtues will commend them to our consideration. I will give them by townships in the usual order, leaving out Keyser, which was not then formed :
" Butler-The Brooks, Henry Clark and sons, George Delong, the Embrys, Abraham and Charles Fair, Nathaniel Fitch, the Greggs, the Bells, father and son, the Hoffmans, Hogues, Hol- brooks, Jacksons, Lungs, Millers, Rodenbaughs, Reeves, Shulls, Simons, Surfaces, Natts and Wellers.
"Jackson-The Bishops, Cools, Cobblers, Komeskys, Daves, Draggoos, Essigs, Georges, Hurshes, Hendersons, Hartles, John- sons, Lawheads, Means, Moores, Mowries, Osburns, Sugars, Staf- fords, Squiers, Stewards, Tarneys, Watsons, Wyatts, Williams and Zimmermans.
" Concord-The Allens, Altons, Burleys, Blairs, Balls, Carrs, Culbertsons, Coburns, Catlins, Draggoos, Dawsons, Fales, Head- leys, Johnsons, Knights, McNabbs, Nichols, Owens, Robinsons, Rhodes, Sechlers, Widneys, Woodcoxes, Williams and Whites.
" Newville-The Bartletts, Dodges, Delongs, Ellises, Lewises, Lawrences, Murphys, Rogers, Platters, Strongs, Steeles, Thomases and Waldons.
" Stafford-The Barbers, Coats, Christoffels, De Forrests, Deihls, Headleys, McDaniels, Roses, Strolls, Shoubs, Schofields, Websters and Wanemakers.
"Wilmington-The Armstrongs, Babcocks, Coes, Crooks, Eak- rights, Egnews, Fosdicks, Finneys, Helwigs, Hackleys, Handys, Imhofs, Jackmans, Kreutzes, Maxwells, Mullenixes, Meeses, Nor- rises, Nelsons, Nodines, Packers, Rutledges, Roberts, Robes,
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
Sawyers, Tremans, Tomlinsons, Tottens, Veeleys, Widneys, Woods and Weeks.
"Union-The Ashelmans, Altenburgs, Abbotts, Bidlers, Baugh- mans, Browns, Cospers, Clays, Fishers, Fulks, Gingriches, Hussel- mans, Krams, Lutzes, Latsons, McEndefers, Misers, Summers, Strohs, Weavers, Weeks, Walworths, Whetsels, Parks and Ing- mans.
" Richland-The Bangs, Cowleys, Clays, Calkins, Daileys, De- witts, Feaglers, Greens, Hardys, Moodys, McMillens, Penuells, Rogers, Shulls, Showers, Treshes and Weiricks.
" Fairfield-The Chaffees, McNabbs, Powells, Storys, Gushwas and Wells.
" Smithfield-The Baxters, Boyers, Blakers, Corwins, Danks, Daniels, Hemstreets, Holmes, Krums, Kelleys, McCoshes, Smiths and Walkers.
" Franklin-The Aldriches, Balls, Bowmans, Bucks, Beards, Crains, Dirrims, Ducks, Firestones, Houltons, Holmes, Hammonds, Jones, Jackmans, Jeffords, Keeps, Lewes, Manns, McQueens, Mc- Curdys, McAllisters, Myers, Nidigs, Nelsons, Olds, Porters, Pack- ers, Rudes, Stambaughs, Shulls, Snooks, Thurstons, Watermans and Wilsons.
" Troy-The Burdicks, Cathers, Casebeers, Colls, Emersons, Eddys, Helwigs, Jennings, Kniselys, Larneds, McClures, McClel- lans, McDaniels, Stearns, Willards, Waydleichs and Zimmermans.
"Those still living I do not mention. They, or at least a great many of them, are here to-day to speak for themselves. The men I have named were actively identified with the material interests of our county ; their houses were ever the center of a liberal hospi- tality, and many brought to bear upon the difficulties and pri- vations of pioneer life more than ordinary good judgment and natural ability. Many of them were thoroughly well educated, and had the energy and perseverance so highly necessary in a pioneer. Many led lives of devout Christianity, and the Sunday- schools and churches they established are all over our county as lasting monuments to their memories and the foundations of our moral and social society to-day.
" The men whom I have named, who came here prior to Jan. 1, 1846, came before the period of railroads, before canals were dng, and many of them before the roads were cut and bridges built. Just think of it, that thirty-five years ago the residents of our county had never seen a railroad car, and we have over a hundred miles of
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
railroad track in the county to-day, and 200 trains daily through it. There was not then in the county a steam engine; there was not one cook-stove in a dozen families. What kind of a dinner do you suppose the cooks of to-day would get up without a cook-stove? They had never even heard of kerosene oil for illuminating pur- poses. Matches, do you recollect the name? lucifer matches, were hard to obtain, and only a few could afford the luxury. Why, the old-fashioned grain cradle, now out of use, was then just intro- duced. We had no such reapers and mowers and machinery for threshing and agricultural purposes that is now stacked on almost every forty-acre farm in the county.
" I recollect very distinctly the first threshing machine. It in- deed was a beanty. It did not even separate the grain from the chaff and straw. It was brought into the county by John Zimmer- man, who then resided on the Houk farm, in Jackson Township. He was the father of Mr. Elias Zimmerman, of this place. In fact, it would now be a novelty, and, as it did then, would now draw crowds when set to work; and, to use a homely expression, it was the 'biggest thing out.' Instead of being several weeks in flailing, tramping and winnowing out a hundred bushels of wheat, the farmer, with that threshing machine, could thresh out that quantity in a day, and then take his time to run it through the fanning mill. And when he had the wheat ready for market, then he would have to take about three days to carry a load of twenty- five or thirty bushels to Fort Wayne and sell it for 50 or 60 cents a bushel. This, of course, was after they had been here ten or twelve years. My friends, just think that to-day there is not a farmer in the county but who can market from his farm a load of forty bushels in an hour and a half's time in some railroad elevator. Corn had a valne then proportioned to wheat, the same as now. Pork then ranged at $1.50 to $2.00 per hundred pounds. * *
" In about two months it will be thirty-seven years since I was brought to this county by my parents, settling in Spencerville, then the most wealthy and populous part of the county. Having a grist and saw mill, postoffice, stores, ashery and other insignia of a new town in a new country, Spencerville commanded the trade of a large territory. In those times we knew all the people who made their appearance in a town, and if we did not know their names we soon found out by asking. Let us look at the citizens of Spencerville to-day. I have carefully thought of and looked for all I then knew so well, and to-day there are but two persons alive
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
and residing in that town who lived there in 1844, and they are 'Squire Barney and Dr. Emanuel. Their wives, and noble wo- men they were, have long since been gathered to their rest.
"Now let us go among the farmers of Concord Township and see if we can find some old, familiar faces who were on the same farms thirty-seven years ago. Of those who then owned and still reside on the same farms, I am able to find only eight men- Robert Culbertson, Sol. Woodcox, Henry Robinson, Jonathan Boyle, Samuel Wasson, David Shull, John Shutt and William Henderson. But there are some who still reside on the same farm as then, having succeeded their parents. Some of these are John Widney, Erastus White, Jackson Moody, Daniel and David Butler, Mort. Milliman, Milas Rhodes and mother, and R. G. Coburn.
"Now, my friends, let me change the scene. Let the curtain exhibit this village of Auburn in December, 1856, now nearly twenty-five years ago, when I located here. Upon inquiry you will find only ten families occupying the same homes as then, viz .: Dr. Ford, Mrs. Leasure, Mrs. Mott, George Brandt, G. W. Stahl, Major Sprott, James Brinkerhoff, Mrs. H. Jones and Mrs. Hough- ton, upon whose grounds we are now assembled-ten in all. Besides those named, the following families still reside in town, as in December, 1856 : S. W. Ralston, S. B. Ward, J. W. Case, Lewis Bowers, James and Hiram Griswold, Mrs. Puffenberger, Mrs. Stephen Latson, George Wagoner, Mrs. C. S. Hare and Mrs. W. A. Sawrey, eleven; in all, twenty-one families. But of these twenty-one families, death has entered and carried away a husband or a wife in all but eight.
"Let us go out on the streets and ramble among the business men and houses, about the mills, shops and in the professional ranks; examine the faces of these active men and see if any are here to-day still engaged in the same business as twenty-five years ago. I look carefully and find but three. Not counting Dr. Ford, who has retired from active practice, I find James W. Case, then and now a mechanic. I see also G. W. Stahl still cutting out pants and cooking the same old goose he did of yore, laughing just as joy- ously, but not so vigorously. The third, myself, an humble fol- lower of Blackstone and Kent. Those of my profession, where are they? Judge Mott, good old soul, who never by word or action intended a wrong, and his son Sheridan, bright, brilliant and promising, father and son lie side by side and fill honored graves at their old homestead. T. R. Dickinson, though eccentric, yet
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
abounding in enterprise and integrity, as good a neighbor and citi- zen as ever lived, is buried in Waterloo. His son Timothy, of many rare qualities, is now only a breathing corpse, dying a slow death of softening of the brain, induced by over mental and physi- cal labor. A. S. Blake is in Denver, Col .; S. J. Stoughton and S. W. Dickinson, I believe, are dead. James Brinkerhoff is and has been an invalid for years, and out of practice. And last of all, Judge Morris, a name honored and spoken off with reverence by all old settlers, resides at Fort Wayne, and is now the peer if not the superior in legal lore, in varied and enlarged intellectual at- tainments, and in unsullied integrity, of any of his distinguished associates upon our supreme bench. Indeed
" ' I feel like one who treads alone Some banquet hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead, And all but me departed,'
"Twenty-five years ago we thought we had a 'staving' nice town here. There was not a steam or flouring mill in it; not a wheel turned by steam-power; not a bakery, meat shop, family grocery store, nor eveu a millinery or barber shop here. Of the young men of our town on whom devolved the responsibility of taking care of the social affairs, I now recall Philip Fluke, then tanning leather, making money and gadding all over the country. Judge McClellan was shoving a pen in the auditor's office. Our present good-looking sheriff, 'Gust. Leas, Ame Park, now of Ken- dallville, and Lewis Ochs, a brother of Simon and Isaac Ochs, were all clerks in dry-goods stores. The two Weaver boys, Eli and Enos, were running drug stores, and sometimes horses, but always after the girls. Steve Ford, Whead. Griswold and Tom Gross, who were born tired, were not permanently engaged at anything, but were ready to snap up any good offer that presented itself. Ex- Auditor Hague and Thad. Meese were taking their first lessons in making boots and shoes, under the lynx eyes of Isaac Brandt. John Somers was then, as now, temporarily absent in the Western mountains, engaged in the pleasant pastime of killing Indians and picking up nuggets of gold. At the same time, we claimed as be- longing to our crowd two others (still veterans in the cause), Uncles Jacob Somers and Moses Brandon, then just as desirable 'catches' as they are to-day. I do believe they are engaged in the fatal game of wearing each other out by seeing which can outlive the other in the state of ' single blessedness.'
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
" We had a young class coming on, then just in their ' teens,' who were neither man nor beast, the liveliest set of miscreants you over knew. If you would catch out at night Dick and Guy Plumb, Jack and Coop. Ralston, Sam and Clark Ford, the Mott boys, Joe Loveland, Bill Finney, Dry Houghton, Harry Ward, Sam Puff and a few others I could mentiou, you would, next morning, find there had been done more gilt-edged, clear-cut, mischievous devilment than could have been accomplished in a week by a regiment of old settlers, all of whom to-day are good business men and citizens, and alive, except poor Clark Ford and Sheridan Mott, who sacri- ficed their young lives upon their country's altar. * * *
"Even in early days, when the pioneers were undergoing the privations I have spoken of, they had a very large amount of the real pleasures of life; and when an opportunity afforded, it was enjoyed with a relish equally as well as now. It certainly was true enjoyment to help a neighbor raise a house or a barn, do his logging, have quilting and sewing bees, dance on the puncheons in the cabins, take your girl up behind you on horseback and carry her through the woods six, eight or ten miles to some gathering; and she would have to hold on awfully tight or she would be brushed off the horse by the limbs or trunks of the trees. Think of the making of sugar, hunting bee trees, gathering cranberries, wild plums, cherries, grapes, crab-apples, all kinds of nuts and ginseng. Think of the excellent hunting and fishing there was here then; all kinds and in large quantities were the fish, wild fowls and wild animals.
"They had other pleasures; and were as keen then to devise and play off some joke, prank or sport at each other's expense as their sons and daughters are of to-day. For the purpose of show- ing by its sequel the good heart of one of its actors, of the many I have heard I will mention only one. I take the now oldest settler in the county; and because he is such I take the liberty of using his name, he feeling well assured that I would not set aught down in malice. It seems that long years ago, at least forty, Samuel Wasson unsuspectingly entered into a contract with that ever-prac- tical joker, shrewd lawyer and afterward honored judge, R. J. Dawson, whereby Wasson agreed to let Dawson strike Wasson three strokes with a raw-hide-then Wasson was to strike Dawson five strokes with the same instrument, Wasson agreeing before- hand that he would not touch Dawson until he had given him all his three strokes. Dawson was a strong and powerful man, and
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
probably struck harder than he intended; but after striking Was- son only twice he hurriedly put away the raw-hide and concluded to postpone indefinitely the giving to Wasson of the last stroke. He felt safe because he had Wasson's word, which then, as now, was as good as a bond, that Wasson would not strike. Wasson demanded the other lick and to have the contract fulfilled at once. Dawson argued that by the contract he could take all the time he wanted to finish up his work. Wasson begged and demanded, and Dawson was equally stubborn and determined in his way. The truth was that thereafter on that day it was not very quiet on the St. Joseph. Dawson always thereafter kept postponing the exe- cution of his contract, and Wasson ever waiting, watching and wish- ing to have Dawson strike him. Wasson nursed his ire (and I have heard him nurse it) because he was such a fool as to enter into such a foolish scheme. They lived within a mile of each other for twenty years, but were not as friendly as they ought to have been and be neighbors.
"Twenty-two years ago the 15th of last month, a man at Spencer- ville, with his weeping wife and three little boys by his side, and other mourning friends around, lay dying. Many of his neighbors were there to take their last look and render assistance. A few moments after midnight, after a few gasps, and Reuben J. Dawson was dead. Wasson was not present, but Dawson had not been dead five minutes before the tall, bent form and shaggy beard of Samuel Wasson came into that house of mourning from the dark- ness outside, where he had been silently and alone awaiting the crisis. As tenderly as a sister would, he gently carried the little boys and weeping widow to their rooms, and with his own hands shaved, dressed and fitted for sepulture the body of that neighbor. The next day, solitary and alone, with his shovel and mattock, Wasson wended his way to the village grave-yard, and, with his own hands and strength, dug and prepared the grave of one whom he had thought had so grievously wronged him. And there in that grave, that day, Samuel Wasson buried all the ill will, hatred or malice he ever had against Dawson. My friends, such is only one of many of the great big, noble hearts of the old settlers. And when such men or women die, there are more bitter tears shed and sadder hearts around their graves than there was around the bier of that railroad magnate and millionaire, Thomas A. Scott, a few days ago. * * *
" My address has been somewhat sombre and solemn; I cannot
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
leave you in that frame of mind. Excuse me a moment while I bother you with a little more poetry. It is not old, nor Scottish, nor Irish, as that which I have read. It is quite modern; it is American, too; and to make it still better and refine it down, it is American, of African descent. It is an address to the members of the Lime Kiln Club, and published in the Detroit Free Press. Here it is :
"''THE LIME KILN GLEE CLUB CHORUS.
" ' Yes, we am passin' down de lane, An' haltin' by de way, Jist long 'nuff to rest our limbs, An' fur de chil'en pray ; Las' Sunday preacher Gordon sa.d : "De march will soon be o'er, An' all de ole folks safely cross Upon dat shinin' shore.
CHORUS .- But old folks am jolly folks, An' while we wait to go, Let's gin de fiddle lots of work, An' rush de ole banjo.
" ' Dar s Uncle Daniel, he am lame, An' Peter White am bald, An' Diana Rock an' ole Aunt Chlo' Am waitin' to be called; An' Trustee Pullback says to me: " De summons soon mus' come, For you an' me an' us ole folks To tote our baggage home.
CHORUS .-
"' Dar's Pickles Smith an' Daddy Toots A-nearin' of dar end, An' Deacon Spooner an' his wife Am crutchin' round de bend ; Aye! us ole folks am hangin' on, An' kinder waitin' round, To let de chil'en grow a bit Fo' we go under ground. CHORUS .- But old folks am jolly folks, An' while we wait to go, Let's gin de fiddle lots o' work An' rush de ole banjo.'"
At the conclusion of this address a recess of an hour and a half was occupied in hand-shaking, hearing greetings, and in partaking of dinner from well-filled baskets of the old settlers and others. After some routine business, the following officers were chosen: President, Dr. J. H. Ford; Vice-President, John Butt; Treasurer,
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
Cyrus Bowman; Biographer, J. E. Rose; Secretary, W. H. Dills. As Executive Committee: Butler, Philip Noel; Concord, R. Cul- bertson; Jackson, William Carr; Newville, S. H. Bartlett; Stafford, C. R. Wanemaker; Wilmington, E. W. Fosdick; Keyser, O. C. Clark; Richland, T. D. Daily; Fairfield, Josiah Wells; Smithfield, J. E. Thompson; Franklin, Miles Waterman; Troy, W. R. Emerson; Auburn Precinct, J. R. Cosper; Waterloo, H. Willis. Speeches were made by S. B. Ward, S. H. Bartlett, S. W. Sprott, John Mc- Curdy and Lewis Holbrook. Relics were exhibited by Mrs. Bur- dick and William Smith; after which Rev. Mr. McCnrdy entertained the assembly with an old-fashioned Methodist hymn. The Biog- rapher reported the following deaths of old settlers: Catharine Jennings, born Jan. 14, 1806, became a resident in 1843, died Feb. 20, 1881. Enos Smith, born June 22, 1821, became a resident in 1842, died Aug. 8, 1880. Rebecca Coats, born Aug. 10, 1827, be- came a resident in 1845, died April 18, 1881. Alice Egnew, born in 1815, became a resident of Lagrange County in 1832, of this county in 1840, died March 6, 1879. James W. Jeffords, born Aug. 22, 1809, came to Steuben County in 1837, to this county in 1842, died Oct. 3, 1880.
FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING.
In 1882, the association held its reunion in the grove at the north end of Auburn, June 15, and over 3,000 people were estimated to be present. After a call to order and the usual opening exercises, an address of an hour's length was delivered by J. E. Rose. Por- tions of his interesting article are here given:
"The first school-house built in the county was, I think, in the Handy settlement, three miles south of the place where the town of Butler now is. It would be a curiosity now. Permit me to de- scribe it to-day as it stood more than forty years ago. It was built of round logs, that is of unhewn logs, and sixteen feet wide and twenty-four long, with a puncheon floor and a sled-runner chimney; a fireplace extending across one end of the building, and a door near the corner in the side. The chimney was made of mud and sticks, and was so large at the top that much of the light that il- luminated the literary path of the students during the weeks, or the spiritual path of the church-goer on Sunday, came down the chimney through the smoke. At the end of the room- opposite the fireplace, was the window which consisted of a row of 'seven by nine' glass, occupying the place of a log that had been left out
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when the building was raised. The window was nine inches high and sixteen feet long, and when a snowball passing through the air without the aid of human agency (for no boy ever threw a snow- ball that hit a window), and a pane of glass was broken, its place was supplied by a piece of oiled paper.
"These were usually supplanted with glass at the commence- ment of a term; the number of accidents of that mysterious nature that transpired during the term could be determined by the num- ber of greased papers in the window, and as these unprovided panes of glass became numerous in the window and were not exceedingly translucent during cold cloudy days, when the door must be kept shut, the whole school literally groped in darkness. The writing desk was a hewn puncheon placed against the wall, at an angle of forty-five degrees, in front of the window, and a seat at the writing desk was a post of honor enjoyed only by the large scholars, and those who occupied it were envied as bitterly by the balance of the school as the senior class in college is by the freshmen. The cracks between the logs were chinked with pieces of wood and daubed with mud outside and in. The ceiling was made of round poles extending from one side of the room to the other, the ends resting in cracks made large for that purpose in each side.
"Over the poles mud was spread in copious profusion, which, when dried, formed a ceiling that bid defiance alike to piercing winds of winter and scorching heat of the summer sun. The roof was made of clapboards held to their place by logs laid on top of them, called weight-poles. The seats were made of sassafras poles about six inches in diameter, split in two, the heart side up, and wooden pins or legs in the bottom or oval sides. These were made to suit the comfort of full-grown men, and hence were so high from the floor that the aid of the teacher was necessary to place the small scholars on the seat; and when there, no little care was required on their part to avoid falling off.
" The text-books used were the Western spelling-book, the New Testament, and for advanced scholars the old English reader. The scholars who ciphered used such arithmetics as they could procure, but Dabold's predominated; and when an industrious and studious scholar had reached the 'rule of three' (now called proportion), the teacher, to avoid an exposition of his ignorance of the mysteries beyond, prudently required a review, and the mathematical ardor of the ambitious youth was cooled by being turned back to notation and compelled to memorize the fine print and foot-notes. As there
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was not a uniformity of books, there were no classes except spelling and reading classes, and each student studied arithmetic 'on his own hook.' The advent of such a man as my friend Houser or Keeran into the neighborhood at that time, with their sample desks and ink wells, slate blackboards and crayon pencils, terrestrial and celestial globes, Spencerian copy-books, and a trunk full of eclectic spellers, readers, mental and practical arithmetics, grammars, geographies, histories, steel pens and pointers would have attracted more attention and created more excitement among the pioneers than did the Rev. Lewis Hickman, lecturing on Millerism, with his illustrated map, as large as a bed blanket, on which were pictures of the great dragon that John the revelator saw, with its crowned heads and ten horns; with its glowing mouth and red-hot fangs through which blue, sickening and sulphurous flames seeth- ingly issued; with its serpentine caudal appendage drawing in its train one-third of the stars of heaven.
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