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 69
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William J. Wallace, of the firm Wallace & Knapp, hardware dealers, Corunna, was born in Auburn, De Kalb Co., Ind., Jan. 16, 1857, a son of Thomas Wallace and a grandson of the late Jefferson Wallace, who was a native of Pennsylvania, who removed to Ohio, thence to De Kalb County, Ind., in an early day. His mother, Fidiela (Strate) Wallace, was a daughter of William Strate, who was one of De Kalb County's early sheriffs. Thomas Wallace, the father of our subject, died in 1861, when our subject was but four years of age, after which his mother, with her family, in company with her father's family, removed to Marshall County, Iowa, where, after three years' residence, she returned to De Kalb County on a visit, when our subject was left with his Grandfather Wallace, with whom he lived for two years. He then worked on a farm till he was sixteen years of age, when he began learning the tin- ner's trade, serving three years as an apprentice to William B. Adams, of Corunna, after which he worked as a journeyman until 1883, when he engaged in his present business, which has proved successful. He was married Oct. 9, 1880, to Miss Amanda J. Reed, a native of Richland Township and a daugh- ter of Isaac Reed, of this county. To this union were born two children-Effie May and Bessie Bell. Politically Mr. Wal- lace affiliates with the Democratic party.
CHAPTER XX.
SMITHFIELD TOWNSHIP.
SITUATION .- GEOGRAPHY .- TOPOGRAPHY .- FIRST SETTLER .- ISAAC B. SMITH .- HIS NARRATIVE .- ENTERING LAND UNDER UNUSUAL DIFFICULTIES .- OTHER PIONEERS .- FIRST BIRTHS IN THE TOWNSHIP .- FIRST MILLS .- FIRST SCHOOL .- FIRST CHURCH .- FIRST ELECTION .- A POEM(?) .- EARLY TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS. - POPULATION. - PROPERTY AND TAXATION .-- AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS .- BIOGRAPHICAL.
The township of Smithfield occupies the north central part of De Kalb County, and is bounded as follows: on the north Steuben Township, Steuben County; on the east, Franklin Township; on the south, Union Township; and on the west, Fairfield Township. The Fort Wayne, Jackson & Saginaw division of the Michigan Southern Railroad runs due north and south through the central part of the township, and has one station within its limits-Summit. The township is drained by tributaries of the Cedar, all very small streams. On section 30 is Cedar Lake, a very pretty body of water. This township has an excellent soil, mostly mixed with sand and gravel, with but very little of that flat clay land found in many other parts of the county.
The first settler in Smithfield was Isaac B. Smith, after whom the township was named. His own narrative is given in " Pioneer Sketches," from which we quote :
" Mr. Smith came to Mr. Murray's, at Pleasant Lake, Steuben County, and from thence explored the woods of Smithfield Township to find a piece of vacant land that would suit him for a home. Three several times he had selected pieces, and he went afoot each time to Fort Wayne (thirty-two or thirty-three miles); and finding the pieces selected already entered, had to return to Pleasant Lake, upward of forty miles, and renew his search for a home. The fourth time he returned to the land office, only to meet with another disappointment. Tired in
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body and heart sick with hope deferred, he met a man at the land office from Wells County, not far from where Bluffton now is, who represented to him that he was building a mill in that region, and knew of a very good quarter section of land still vacant; and stated that although he had thought of entering it himself, yet he would give way and let Mr. Smith have it.
" The Register of the Land Office told Mr. Smith that he might depend on the veracity of this man, and accordingly he entered the tract and went afoot to where it lay. When he found it, he discovered that he was badly imposed upon, as the entire tract was an unbroken cottonwood swamp, boot-top deep with water. He now returned to the land office, and told the Regis- ter the facts in regard to the land, and was told that by taking a man with him as witness and examining the land, the man making oath that it was unfit for cultivation, he could have about a week to change his entry to another piece of land. Meeting with Wilbur Powell, afterward of Fairfield Township, at the land office, he prevailed on him to accompany him as a witness. On reaching the place they traced all the lines around the quarter section, and passed through it twice diago- nally from corner to corner, and did not see a single tree ex- cept cottonwood on the entire tract. Returning to Fort Wayne, now for the sixth time, he got a newly corrected plat of Smithfield Township, and took the trail for the north again.
" Traversing the woods again, in company with two others, he selected a suitable tract, but just as he was about striking for the Auburn trace, to start again for Fort Wayne, he met with three other men looking around the same lines. He ill- quired of them if they were going to Fort Wayne to enter land. They replied in the affirmative. He inquired when, and they replied, ' not for two or three days;' but from the expres- sion of their eyes, he concluded that they were trying to deceive him. So, when the two companies parted, he told his companions that they would have a race for it. Both parties struck for the shanty built by Park on Cedar Creek, where Uniontown now is; but Smith and his friends got too far north, and came out to the trace near the site of what was afterward Mr. Smith's residence, and discovered their whereabouts by means of the mired ox mentioned in Park's narrative. It was now dusk and they were three miles north of the desired shanty.
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" Passing over these miles they reached their lodging place sometime after dark. Their competitors were not there. The next morning they were off before day, passing down the trail at an Indian trot, and ate no breakfast until they reached 'Squire' Caswell's, some twenty miles from where they started in the morning. All this distance was traversed in a con-
tinual trot. Mr. Smith having gained on his companions some, they told him to call at Caswell's and order something to eat 'instanter.' He did so, and by the time the rear came up, breakfast was on the table. Eating in great haste, they left their coats, and trotted on, arriving at Fort Wayne, a distance of thirty miles in all, at eleven o'clock, A. M. On going to the land office, lo! the pieces of land selected were entered.
" After spending about an hour in resting and taking refresh- ments, Mr. Smith started back to look again, and as he was crossing the St. Mary's bridge close to town, he met his com- petitors, also afoot, puffing and sweating, en route, for the land office. He gave them the comfortable assurance that their race was in vain, without intimating at all that he was in the same row. He returned that night to Mr. Park's at Auburn, having traveled that day over fifty miles on foot. There were two men at Park's that night, Reuben J. Daniels and Ira Camburn. The next morning Mr. Smith gathered from their conversation that they were going up into the north regions to look for land, and that Mr. Park was to go with them ; for which each was to pay him one dollar. He proffered his dollar also for the privilege of accompanying them, and having the assistance of Park in finding vacant land.
" The proposal was accepted, and the result was that Park showed them the tracts on which they afterward severally set- tled. It was agreed that each should privately mark for his first choice of the lands, and providentially or accidentally as you may please to consider it, each one marked the tract on which they subsequently settled as their several choices, and each without knowing anything about the choice of the others. It was now Friday evening, and Mr. Smith had but one more day to change his entry. So he had another race to get to Fort Wayne before the land office closed on Saturday. This time he was successful, but was nearly worn down with fatigue and anxiety. Eight times had he visited Fort Wayne before he secured his future home. 48
758 HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
" It was on Friday, the 27th of May, 1837, in the afternoon of the day, that Isaac B. Smith, Cyrus Smith and Joseph Delong, with their families, arrived on the hill where Mr. Smith fixed his residence. There was not even a shanty or wigwam then. To keep off the night dews, they cut forks, and driving four of them in the ground, and laying poles on these covered them with brush. Under these they lay on the ground on Friday night, and on Saturday they put up a cabin (such as the three men could raise) to the joist; and again lay under the brush that night.
" The next morning they discovered an unwelcome bedfel- low, in the form of a ' massasauga,' or black rattlesnake; and not being very much disposed to share their bed with these ' natives,' they went at it on Sunday morning and ' cobbed ' up the cabin. They covered one side with black-ash bark peeled from the adjacent trees ; and, fixing poles in the crevices be- tween the logs, laid their beds some feet above the ground that Mr. Massasauga might have the ground to himself. On Mon- day they covered the other side of the cabin and the joists with bark, and carrying in some pole sleepers, laid a puncheon floor. By the time the floor was laid, the joists were found to be so low that even a woman (Mrs. Camburn), who after- ward settled in the neighborhood, could not walk straight un- der them. We will not say but that she may have been taller than the majority of her sex.
" Whatever may be thought of cabin raising on Sunday, it must be remembered that necessity knows no law. It seemed fortunate that the cabin was finished as soon as it was, for no sooner was the bark roof laid than it began to rain; and for twenty days there was scarcely one that was not more or less rainy. In this cabin, 16x 18 feet, the three families lodged to- gether for two months, and then Mr. Delong moved back to Pleasant Lake, and Cyrus Smith put up a cabin for himself.
" On leaving Ohio, Mr. Smith had boxed up five bushels of potatoes, and among them had packed his pots and kettles not wanted on the road, and sent the box with other goods, by pub- lic conveyance to Adrian, Mich. He did not get them to his cabin until about the first of July, and on opening the box found them 'awfully' smashed up by the ironware. He thought it was now too late to plant them, but Mr. Park ad- vised him by all means to do so. He planted them on the 8th
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and 9th of July, and in the fall dug eighty-six bushels from the five bushels of mangled seed !
" In July following his settlement, Mr. Smith took the ague, and had it with but little intermission till the June following. In December, 1837, he had it so severely each alternate day that he was unable to be about. On his well day he could be around; but, of course, was very weak. Getting out of bread- stuff, it became necessary that, sick as he was, he should go in quest of some. So, yoking up his oxen, he started for the town of Gilead, Mich., six miles beyond Orland, or the ' Vermont settlement,' as it was then called. It had rained much, and the streams were swollen. He made his way along, however, lying by sick every other day, until he reached Gilead, where he got eight bushels of corn and started back to the Vermont mills, in the settlement of the same name. It had now turned ' cold as Greenland,' and the wind was blowing fiercely while the air was filled with descending snow. It was yet early in the morn- ing, and he had gone but three-fourths of a mile on the road to the mill when the wind blew a tree down across the road, al- most brushing the oxen's heads.
" To get around the tree, he turned out of the road, expect- ing to come right in again, but failed to do so; and getting bewildered amid the falling snow, he drove on through the openings as near as he could in the direction of the mills, on- on-for hours after hours, and still no road or mill was found. Mr. Smith had on his head a palm leaf hat that had been rather a fine one, but was now rather the worse for wear. While traveling, bewildered, through the openings, a whirling blast whisked it from his head, and the last he saw of it, it was mounting on the wings of the wind, rising higher and higher, until it was lost to sight in a cloud of snow. Having a com- forter on his neck, he drew the end of it over his head and traveled on.
" Thus the time passed in continual traveling through the cold, stormy, dreary day, and the failing light told the lost man that night was near. He began to picture to himself the long cold night that would follow, in all probability the last that he should see ; or if he should survive, a morning of distressing sickness to follow the night of suffering, and he all alone in the snow-clad forest. Just then the cloud broke in the West, and he could see the place where the sun set. Striking out in that di-
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rection, in about eighty rods he found the road he had left in the morning, and the bridge across Crooked Creek about half way from Gilead to the mills; so that he had not advanced more than three miles in all his hard day's travel. Place your- self in his circumstances, reader, and imagine, if you can, his joyful feelings in seeing the road again. In an hour he was safely housed at the home of Deacon Stocker.
" Here he lay sick the next day, and on the day following left his corn at the mill and started for Tull's mill near the White Pigeon prairie. There he obtained fifteen bushels of very smutty wheat, which he brought to the Vermont mills also. Here at Deacon Stocker's again he spent three days, two of them too sick to travel, and the third waiting for his grist. Finally starting for Pleasant Lake, he lay there during a sick day, and on the next day got a man to go with him to break ice in the streams. By dint of hard work all day they got within a half mile of home, where they had to leave the wagon, the trail, turn out the oxen in the woods and 'foot it' in. The next day, being the eleventh since leaving home, he got his wagon home. His grist, not counting the price of the corn, which was paid as he moved in, cost him in all in cash, $45."
The second permanent settler in Smithfield Township was Reuben J. Daniels. He emigrated from Orleans County, N. Y., and came by way of Michigan to this county. He was ac- companied by Ira Camburn, and they, having located and en- tered 200 acres, paid for it in silver which they had carried with them. These two settlers together erected a cabin, into which they moved on January 28, 1838. It was said of this cabin, that it was doorless, without upper floor, and without daubing. There were plenty of Indians and wolves at that time. The next summer Mrs. Daniels went to the bed to move a chair, when lo! a massasauga lay coiled up thereon.
Pharez Blake, of Ohio, came next and located on section 27. His son, Norton, married Huldah Holmes in 1839, and this cer- emony, performed by Squire Daniels, was the first in the township. None of the family are now residents of this county. Jacob McLeish and sons, Isaiah and Jacob, and Thomas Locke, moved in during the spring of 1838 and settled upon section 19. Joseph Delong and family moved by way of Pleasant Lake into this county in 1839, and took up a tract of land on section 22. He afterward became a resident of Waterloo. Solomon
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
Brandeberry came during the same year and located upon a part of section 23, which he still occupies. The McEntaffers, John and his sons, William, Jacob and Abraham, were also set- tlers of 1839. The two last named afterward removed to Union Township. Daniel Kepler, a pioneer of Franklin, moved into Smithfield, and became known as an enterprising settler of the township. The same may be said of Cyrus Bowman, a well-known farmer and citizen. Other early settlers were: Henry Shoemaker, Thomas Locke, David Martin, J. Haun, John Baxter, Jeremiah Hemstreet, Isaac Grate, William Clark, Hugh McOsker and George Seiner.
The first birth in Smithfield was that of Martha Smith, who married Edward Richards and moved to Missouri. The sec- ond birth was that of Lucinda Daniels, since a well-known teacher.
Cedar Lake is situated on the west border, adjacent to Fair- field. At the foot of this sheet of water the first saw-mill was raised about 1844. Daniel Martin, an early settler, built a saw- mill on the south branch of Cedar Creek, and one Fansler put up a grist-mill on the west branch about a mile below the lake. A part of the old frame of this latter was incorporated into the Waterloo mill, and continues to do service. Isaac B. Smith planted the first potatoes, Reuben J. Daniels the first wheat, and Norton Blake introduced the use of the reaper in har- vesting.
Education was not neglected by the pioneers; and Isaac B. Smith and Reuben J. Daniels put up a log school-house on a corner of the farm of the latter during 1839. Miss Murray was the first teacher and Laura Phelps the second. The better financial condition of the farmers in later years was apparent in the erection of several frame school-houses at nearly the same date. Among the more intelligent and skillful teachers were: Albert Blake, afterward a lawyer; George Duncan, since County Commissioner, and Peter Colgrove, at present a County Superintendent in Kansas.
Organized Christianity was first introduced by the United Brethren, who had regular services at the Smith school-house, now known as " Number Six." The pioneer minister was Rev. Samuel Chaplin. The Methodists met at Barker's and formed a class of which Mr. Barker was the leader, and they have held steadily together to the present time. A frame church built at
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a later day, now serves their purpose. The Disciples, organ- ized under the able and devoted leadership of Revs. Bartlett and Hadsell, have a church at Cedar Lake.
The first township election was held at Smith's log-house in the spring of 1839, and there were only five present, just enough to form a board. Ferris Blake was chosen Township Clerk; Isaac B. Smith, Isaiah McLeish and Pharez, Blake, Trustees ; N. Blake, Constable, and R. J. Daniels, Justice of the Peace. Daniels had a large territory, with scant population, and on one occasion, when called upon to join in wedlock Jake McLeish and Miss Chaffee, he went on foot to Story Lake in Fairfield Township, performed the ceremony, and consented to take his fee in wild hogs, but failed to catch any of them.
Thursday evening, Feb. 19, 1863, by Rev. A. H. Widney, at the residence of the bride's father, in Smithfield Township, Mr. Henry A. Zwilling and Miss Theodosia A. Childs, both of De Kalb County, became one. Whereupon some graceless wit perpetrated the following : .
" He always was (Z)willing to take a wife; She never was (Z)willing in all her life,
ยท But now, strange to say, her objections are past, And she vows she is (Z)willing, while life shall last.
The following are some of the early township officials of Smithfield : Justices: R. G. Daniels, David Martin, Daniel Gingrich, Jeremiah Hemstreet, R. McBride, J. E. Rutan and Aaron Smith; Constables: Daniel Shull, Henry Nevin, Henry Treesh, Thomas Lock, Aaron Smith, Justus B. Howard and Edward Richards; Trustees: Pharez Blake, Isaac B. Smith, D. Smith, I. Grate, Isaiah McLeish, Augustus Ball, H. Freeman, Samuel Delong, John Leas, Thomas Lock, Harman Mullen, John McOsker, John Hornberger, George W. Frout, George J. Duncan, William Hoffman, R. Lockhart and William Cox ; Assessors : John Baxter, H. Freeman, John Schrantz and Cyrus Duncan.
The population of Smithfield is 1,424, or 40 to the square mile. The valuation per capita is $363.45. The number of acres of land assessed in 1884 is 22,272.08 : value of same, $389,- 482; value of improvements, $40,115; value of lands and improve- ments, $429,597; value of lots, $334; value of improvements, $413 ; value of lots and improvements, $747; value of personal
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property, $104,275 ; total value of taxables, $534,619; rate of taxation, $1.50 ; number of polls, 230; poll tax, $1.50.
The following statistics of staple crops are for 1881 : Acres in wheat, 3,236; product of same, at 6 bushels per acre, 19,416 bushels ; acres in corn, 2,121 ; product of same, 65,430 bushels, or 30 bushels per acre of upland, and 40 for lowland ; acres in oats, 1,177; product of same, at 35 bushels per acre, 41,195 bushels ; acres in meadow land, 709; crop from same, at 2 tons per acre, 1,418 tons of hay ; acres in Irish potatoes, 75; crop from same, 10 bushels per acre, or 750 bushels ; acres in tobacco, II ; crop, at 500 pounds per acre, 5,500 pounds.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Milton P. Barker, section II, Smithfield Township, is a son of Edward Barker, who settled on section 10, Smithfield Town- ship in 1852. Edward Barker was a native of Nottinghamshire, England, born June, 1806, and came with his parents to the United States in 1834. He lived two years in Detroit, Mich., and then moved to Branch County, Mich., where he lived till 1850. He then came to Indiana and lived two years in Steuben County. He was by trade a miller, serving an apprenticeship of seven years in England, and worked at his trade in connec- tion with farming prior to his settlement in De Kalb County. He was a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church and a zealous worker and liberal supporter of the church of his choice. He was mainly instrumental in the building of Barker's chapel on section 10; was the first to advocate the enterprise and contributed freely of time and money to accomplish the object. He was much respected by all who knew him and was often called upon to officiate at funerals and weddings. He was married in England to Susanna Pitts, who died in September, 1840, leaving four children ; but two of whom are living-Mary Ann, now Mrs. Dirrim, and Milton P. Edward and Emma are deceased. Emma married Henry J. Salander, and died March 10, 1860, leaving one son, who died in June, 1884. Mr. Barker subsequently married Rebecca Oram, of Knox County, Ohio, who died in 1876. Their only son, Edward O., resides in Pratt County, Kas. Mr. Barker died Sept. 21, 1872. Milton P. was born in Branch County, Mich., in 1840. Forty acres of his farm of 140 acres is a part of the homestead. He was married to Margaret, daughter of James Dirrim, of Franklin
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
Township. They have five children-Clara, wife of Preston Miller; Hannah D., wife of William Updegraph; Isaac E., Charles M., and James C.
Cyrus Bowman, Postmaster, Waterloo, farmer and stock-raiser, a son of John and Matilda Bowman, was born in Van Buren, Onondaga Co., N. Y., Nov. 9, 1818. His father was a native of New Jersey, and his mother of Connecticut. Mr. Bowman lived with his parents till he was twenty-one years old, and worked on his father's farm. He then came to this county where he spent three years a single life, clearing land, splitting rails, by the job, etc., and in the meantime cleared twenty acres of 160 given him by his father, entered in the fall of 1838. He then returned to his home in New York, where, June 15, 1843, he married Miss Rachel Waterman, a native of Van Buren, N. Y. In the fall of 1843 he and his wife moved to this county, built a cabin in the woods where they lived until her death, Oct. 17, 1855. To them were born two children-Harriet Matilda, who died Oct. 8, 1855, aged nearly eleven years, and Rosa G., born June 19, 1851, now the wife of Phineas D. Childs, of Fairfield Township. Sept. 4, 1858, Mr. Bowman was married to Sarah Ann Smith, his present wife, a native of Stark County, Ohio, but an early settler in this county. They have two children-Archie S., born July 1, 1859, a farmer of Cass County, Mich., and Fred C., born Nov. 1, 1866. Fred is still at home, and superintends the work of the farm. Mr. and Mrs. Bowman are now on the shady side of life very pleas- antly situated, both of them of strict integrity, and loved and respected by all their acquaintances.
Adam Boyer, section 19, Franklin Township, came from Ohio with his father, Peter Boyer, in 1836. The following fall, after assisting his father to build a log cabin and clear a small patch of ground, he returned to Ohio, but in March, 1837, came again to De Kalb County, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Daniel Kepler. He made his home with his brother Michael, who came in 1836, till his marriage, Jan. 11, 1838, to Rebecca Hol- den, daughter of Samuel Holden, a native of Highland County, Ohio, born in 1813. She came to De Kalb County with her brothers, Mathew and Francis Holden, in 1837. He built a log cabin, but notwithstanding their inconveniences they made the best of his circumstances, and with the energy of youth and the hope and happiness of newly married life passed the winter in
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