History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 15

Author: Archibald Shaw
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1123

USA > Indiana > Dearborn County > History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 15

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The Conaway family came from Virginia and settled on Laughery creek in 1708. Mrs. Rachel Conaway with four sons. James. John. Robert and Simon came into the county at the time above mentioned and Robert and

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James settled on Laughery creek, becoming prominent citizens, a trait that has followed the family to the present day.

Ebenezer Harbert and Samuel Purcell were among those who settled in the Ross neighborhood, in the first part of the century, probably about 1812. Peter Wright also was an early settler on Laughery creek and erected a mill at the mouth of Hayes branch, that was a boon to the settlers in that vicinity.

Thomas Guion came here in the first decade of the century and after- wards platted a town and called it Guionville. Here he carried on the busi- ness of merchandizing and was prominent in the affairs of the county for a number of years, serving one term in the Legislature. In 1816 William L. Abbott came to the towniship from New Jersey and settled west of Mt. Tabor church. Besides the mill erected at the mouth of Hayes branch, by Peter Wright, no mill was erected in the township until 1835, when Alexan- der Noble erected a mill on Hayes branch, on the Aurora and Laughery turnpike, about thirteen miles from Aurora and three miles from Dillsboro. A mill has been run there continuously ever since and has undergone a number of changes of owners but is now owned and run by Schulenberg & Donselman, who also own and operate the flour-mill in Dillsboro.

In 1839 William B. Miller built a mill on South Hogan just above Dills- boro station and on the Baltimore & Ohio railway. The building was four stories and was at the time of its erection a four-hundred-bushel mill, with four run of stones. It has been lying idle for many years and the ma- chinery has been taken out of it.

EXPERIENCES OF A PIONEER.

The following record is taken from the biography of Ebenezer Har- bert, one of the first settlers of Clay township. "Ebenezer Harbert came from Pennsylvania to Indiana territory in 1810. He came down the Ohio on a flatboat. The party with whom he came spent the summer of 1810 at North Bend, Ohio, and in the fall moved to Laughery creek, staying all night the first night at the log cabin of a settler by the name of Falls, living about a half mile from the Ohio river. The settler narrated to them so much of the disadvantages of the country that they proceeded on down the river to the mouth of Grants creek. Here during the absence of the men their cabin was besieged by a bear, which confined them to the house until the return of the men folks. About Christmas time they moved up to Laughery again, going up that creek as far as Guionville, where they commenced a clearing and (II)

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erected a cabin. When they arrived here there were a few settlers along the creek both above and below but none on the hills. Samuel Purcell lived farthest up the creek, about two and one-half miles above Guionville. Ross lived between Purcells and Harberts. John Withers lived opposite Guionville, where Milton now stands. Still below were James Conaway. Mr. Crume and Ben Wilson. Harbert's nearest neighbor on either side was distant one- half mile. The whole country was covered with dense forests crossed only by footpaths, and was infested with bears, wolves and other wild animals. These, together with the hostile Indians, rendered the lives and property of the settlers precarious in the extreme. and many were the hair-breadth escapes which never will be recorded. From time to time, the alarm of Indians would be sounded and the cry of 'The Indians are on us. run for your lives,' would be accompanied with great excitement and confusion. In such times each of the members of the family would gather what he could and repair in all haste to the blockhouse. On one occasion when the Indians made a raid on the settlement, John Harbert gathered up a pot of greens that were cooking, and not having time to reach the blockhouse hid it in a thicket until the danger was past. When the family came from their hiding places, they enjoyed their greens even better than that dish is generally enjoyed. The blockhouse was simply a neighbor's house, where it was understood that everybody was to assemble in time of danger.

"A fort was commenced on the farm of John Conaway, but the location being directly under the hill and too much exposed it was abandoned. Soon after Mr. Harbert settled there a band of Delaware and Pottawattomie In- dians camped below Guionville. Among them were several renegade whites, including the notorious Simon Girty. The Indians would steal everything they could lay their hands on. They stole three horses from Mr. Harbert. How- ever, there was much stealing attributed to them that they were innocent of, for some of the settlers were caught in acts of that kind. The squaws took con- siderable interest in the household affairs of the whites, and they begged all the cucumbers they could, of which the Indians were very fond. when ripe.

"The houses of the first settlers were round-log cabins, and generally con- tained but one room. A man who could live in a hewed-log house was con- sidered an aristocrat. The fireplace occupied nearly one whole side of the room, and they used backlogs so large that they had to roll them in with hand spikes. The outside of the fireplace was built of logs, the inside of stone, and the chimney of sticks and clay. The cooking was all done in the fireplace. from which they suspended their pots, etc. The table furniture consisted of

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pewter and delft plates, pewter spoons, wooden bowls. etc., with gourds to drink from. For seats they had benches or stools, and their cupboards were made of clapboards.

"The houses had but few lights, and sometimes instead of glass, they used greased paper. Each family was under the necessity of doing everything for itself as well as it could. To make meal three devices were used-the grater, hand-mill and hominy block; the last, however, used more for making hominy. The grater was made of a half-circular piece of tin, perforated with a punch from the concave side, and nailed by its edges to a block of wood. The ear of corn was rubbed on the rough edges of the holes while the meal fell through them on the block to which the grater was nailed and which, being in a slant- ing direction, discharged the meal into a vessel. This was used for soft corn. The hand-mill was made of two circular stones, the lower one called the bed- stone, and the upper one the runner. These were placed in a hoop, with a spout for discharging the meal. A staff was let into a hole in the upper surface of the runner, near the outer edge, to turn the stone by. The grain was fed into the opening in the center of the runner by hand. I suppose the mill was similar to that used in Palestine. The hominy block was a log with an excavation burned in one end, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, so that the action of the pestle on the bottom threw the corn up the side toward the top, from whence it continually fell down in the center.

"The first water mill belonged to the old man Purcell and was of the kind denominated tub-mills. The water wheel, five or six feet in diameter, was attached to a perpendicular shaft, on the top of which was a spur wheel, gear- ing into a trundle head on the lower end of the spindle.

"Instead of bolting cloth they used sifters made of deer skin, in a state of parchment, stretched over a hoop and perforated with a hot wire. The peo- ple wore home-made clothing. Almost every house contained a loom, and al- most every woman was a weaver. Most of the men wore moccasins and hunting shirts, and some of them wore buckskin trousers. The farmers made their own implements-wooden mouldboard plows, harrows with wooden teeth, etc. The diet of the early settlers was cornbread, pork and wild game, in which the country abounded, such as bear, venison, turkey, etc. The standard dish for log-rollings, house raisings, corn shuckings and weddings was the 'pot pie.' There were no stores in this part of the country. When the settlers needed groceries, etc., they were compelled to go to Cincinnati for them.

"There were no churches-meetings were held at private houses. People

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did not go to church to display their finery ; the men wore jeans and the women flannel. A calico dress was a rarity. Preachers were muscular Christians; pointed men to the Saviour through a love for their race; endured hardships on a salary of fifty to seventy-five dollars per annum and often sacrificed their lives in their untiring devotion to the cause. But even living as they did, the early settlers enjoyed life. They were an honest, industrious and hardy people. Of course there were some roughs; they are to be found everywhere. What a change has taken place in the last three-quarters of a century. How thank- ful the rising generation ought to be that we live at the present time. The county has been cleared up and divided into beautiful farms; towns and cities are scattered over the land; school houses and churches are found everywhere, all for our benefit. I love to hear settlers tell of the life they have lived, of their trials and sufferings, of their backwoods life. There is a great deal of unwritten history within our reach which will soon be gone forever. Then let us gather it while we may."

BEAUTY OF LOCATION.

Clay township lies mostly on a ridge, between the deep valleys of South Hogan, Laughery and Hayes branch. In the center of the township it is high above the valleys. Dillsboro, which lies nearly in the center of the township, is seven hundred and eighty-five feet above the sea level and commands a fine view of the country about.

Dillsboro is a very pretty village with neat front yards and cozy, home- like cottages. Its population in 1910 is given at four hundred and twenty-five. which is probably less than it is at this time. The town has recently taken on a greater degree of prosperity on account of the good pikes leading to it and the growth of the sanitarium which has been established here. Some years ago the citizens of the town, desiring to find if there was natural gas in the ground beneath their place, organized a company and sunk wells, but instead of finding gas they unexpectedly discovered water with medicinal virtues which they were quick to take advantage of and give the public the benefit. They have organized a company, erected a building that they expected would ac- commodate the public for the present but have found it all too small and larger buildings will be necessary at once.

Besides the sanitarium the town has a number of stores that transact business with a large scope of country to the west and south. It is claimed for the town that the Dillsboro station does in the way of country produce the

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second best business of any on the line of the Baltimore & Ohio railway between Cincinnati and St. Louis. The town has concrete pavements on all its streets, electric lights and graded high school with a two-years course. The postoffice has three rural routes going out from it to the country around about. The town permits no saloons and its citizens are of a high order of intelligence.

Dillsboro was laid out in March 16,1830, by Mathias Whetstone. Na- thaniel L. Squibb was the surveyor. It lies about one and one-half miles south of the Baltimore & Ohio railway. Additions to the town were made in 1837 and 1855. by G. V. Swallow and John Lenover. The first merchant of the town was David Gibson, who was shortly succeeded by Jacob Egelston. In 1837 Mr. Egelston sold his store to William Glenn, who afterward became one of the prominent merchants of Cincinnati. Mr. Glenn was also the pro- prietor of the first hotel in the town. Not many years after the town was laid out the cooperage business became an important industry and was carried on by Philip, Samuel and James Wymond. They for a number of years operated quite extensively and employed as many as forty or fifty men. A flour-mill was located here in 1858 by Arthur Beckett. Clay township was one of the most patriotic localities in the county during the Civil War and it is claimed that during that period every man between the ages of eighteen and forty-five that was able for military service had seen service.

DILI.SBORO SANITARIUM.

The Dillsboro Oil and Gas Company was organized in 1900, for the purpose of determining the presence of either oil or gas in the soil underneath the ground of Clay township. A spot was chosen adjacent to the town of Dills- boro and a well sunk to the depth of one thousand three hundred and eighty seven feet, but neither oil or gas was found in sufficient quantities to justify its use. However, they did find an inexhaustible stratum of mineral water which on being analyzed showed qualities the medicinal value of which proved to be a boon to persons suffering with rheumatism, kidney and kin- dred afflictions. A company which had its headquarters in Newport, Ken- tucky, was organized to develop the find, but it failed to perform its contract and was succeeded by the present company, which goes under the name of the Dillsboro Sanitarium Company. It was incorporated on August 1.4. 1911, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, and the fol -- lowing board of officers and directors: President, Oliver H. Smith: treas-

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urer, Holland P. Long; secretary, Robert E. Fleming. Directors: Mary Licking, Oliver H. Smith, John W. Fleming, Louis Ruhlinan, Holland P. Long. The company have gone to work with a will and erected a com- fortable building with a broad piazza and rest rooms that are light and airy. The building has fifty-six rooms and accommodations are arranged to com- fortably house and care for from sixty to seventy-five guests. It has been a suc- cess from the time the company had completed and ready for occupancy their new building and its rooms have been well filled with patients and those de- siring to obtain a rest from the worries of life for a short season.

BUSINESS DIRECTORY OF DILLSBORO.

Auto bus line-Leslie Smith. Airdome-W. E. Talley. Blacksmiths- Mulford Brothers, Charles Neaster. Banks-Dillsboro State Bank, Henry Bulthaup, president; First National Bank, William Gray, president. Butcher -Rudolph Liebermann. Barbers-Leasure & Ashcraft. Coal dealers-Louis Garrison, Thomas L. Cole. Confectionery-Louis Lester. Clothing-W. H. Kamping. Dentists-George A. Withrow, C. H. Burnett. Druggist-G. A. Triplett. Groceries-Edward Kuhn. General Merchandise-J. W. Fleming & Son, H. H. Kamping, C. A. Gerkepot. Hucksters-Edward Steuver, Eller- brook Brothers. Hardware-Pieper & Smith. J. N. Hooper & Son. Har- ness-Aaron F. Neaster. Hotel-John Graber. Livery-McArdle, Long- camp & Bernett. Milliner-Bertha Stevenson. Miller-Schulenberg & Dor .- selmann. Newspaper and real estate-Benjamin F. Calvert. Physicians- Holland P. Long, Fleetwood H. Sale. Stoves and Tinware-John L. Roberts. Stoves and Furniture-WV. S. Calhoun. Telephone companies-The New Dillsboro Telephone Company. J. H. Greene, manager; Farmers Telephone Company, Mrs. Fleet Roberts, manager. Veterinary-Frank Palmer. Va- riety store-Walter P. Wheeler. Wagon maker-Louis Klinkerman.

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CHAPTER XIII.

HARRISON TOWNSHIP.

Harrison township was created out of the territory taken from Logan township. It is situated in the extreme northeast corner of Dearborn county, and was organized by the board of county commissioners at the June session, in 1844. Like Logan, Lawrenceburg and Center townships, settlements were made in this township very promptly after the treaty made by General Wayne with the Indians, and lands were entered at once after the land office was opened at Cincinnati for the sale of the lands west of the Miami river.

Section II was entered by John Brown and Lewis Deweese, in August, 1801. Part of section 13 was entered by Cave Johnston in the same month, John Brown likewise entered a part of section 24. April 9. 1801, which was the same day that Joseph Hayes, Jr., entered land in Lawrenceburg township. Later entries were William Majors, in June, 1802; John Allen, part of section 25, in 1805. John Hackleman entered a part of section 10, in 1808. and James Adair a part of section 4, the same year. In 1804 Alexander Dearmand en- tered a part of section 12, and in December, 1801, William Allensworth en- tered a part of section 13.

STORY OF WILLIAM MCCLURE.

In 1879 William McClure, then a very old man, living just over the line in Franklin county, wrote the following account of the early times as he re- membered it :

"My father moved from Harrison county, Kentucky, in 1804, when I was about two years old, and settled in Cleves, Ohio, about five miles below the town of Harrison, Ohio. He remained there one season, and then moved to a place called "Stone Lick," and built a log cabin, which was on the farm of the late Peter Rifner, about one mile above Harrison. I learned from Capt. Isaac Fuller, of this county, that his father lived as early as 1794 or 1795, at North Bend, and in the Big Bottom, and that he helped to raise the first patch of corn that was raised by white men in the Big Bottoms.

"I will now name the first settlers in the vicinity of Harrison, out as far as the Dry fork, and Miami and up to the line of Franklin county, and also

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state where they lived, as near as I can recollect, as the principal route to the interior of the state from Cincinnati, where the land office was located, was up the Whitewater valley, where were located these early settlers. On the Ohio side and near the Miami there lived Colonel Benifield, Squire Vantrees, Basil Wells, Carrs, Professor White, Ingersol, and the Ismingers. J. Armstrong settled on Dry fork near New Haven, in 1802 or 1803; also the Athertons and Shucks. Matthew Brown lived near Harrison, also the Cottons. At Harrison and below were Eben Cooley, the Hunts, Allens, James Backhouse and the Breckenridges. Above Harrison, first was old John Caldwell, who could tell some of the greatest stories of any man in the country. He said that when he was 'laying his corn by' one year in the bottoms above Harrison, he noticed a very promising hill of corn and that he concluded he would mark it; so he threw a black chunk by it, and in the fall when he came to gather it, there were one hundred and sixty-five ears on that one hill of corn and fourteen on the black chunk.

"Next above was James Eads, father of William H. Eads, formerly of Brookville. I lived near Mr. Harthouse. Jeremiah Johnson lived near John- sons fork, from whom I presume it took its name. Across the river lived the Ashbys. Above the mouth of Johnsons fork, on the bank of the river, there was a blockhouse built in 1812, for defense against the Indians. Moses Wiley, father of Hon. Spencer Wiley, settled on the farm of the late Thomas Brecken- ridge. The next farm above was settled by William Jacob, father of Major Hackleman, deceased, late of this county. William Myer lived in the bot- tom south of Hacklemans, near the old Baptist meeting house. The next above Hacklemans were Solomon and Richard Manwarring. The next above, near where the Widow Bray lives, was James Cole, who was one of your noisy, boisterous men. He could be heard in common conversation nearly half a mile. Benjamin McCarty, James Adair, and Abner Conner settled in the bottom above Cole. Some persons by the name of Logan made some salt, at or near the mouth of Logan creek."

A PIONEER MINISTER.

One of the most successful and well-known Methodist preachers in the Whitewater country was Rev. Allen Wiley. His father moved to a place about three miles above Harrison in 1804, at which time Allen Wiley was in his six- teenth year. In 1845 and 1846 Rev. Allen Wiley published a series of articles in the Western Christian Advocate entitled "Introduction and Progress of

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Methodism in Southeastern Indiana." He was a man of unusually large ex- perience and knowledge of the people and of the times whereof he wrote. He says: "In the autumn of 1804 my father came to Indiana. The country was then somewhat densely settled along the river up what was called the Lower Narrows, six or seven miles above where the Whitewater leaves Indiana. As well as I remember there was but one family living on the southwest side of the river opposite the before mentioned narrows; another family lived oppo- site the narrows above the present town of New Trenton, and another on the same side opposite Cedar Grove. Three-quarters of a mile above Big Cedar Grove creek, John Connor, an Indian trader, had a store, kept by a Frenchman, hence the store was called French's store. I have now gone to the ultima thule or verge of the white population in the Whitewater valley in 1804. The first settlers in the Whitewater bottom were in many respects a charming people, when I became acquainted with them in 1804. They were generally a sober, industrious and kind-hearted people."

An emigrants' directory, published in 1817, speaks of the village of Harrison-"A considerable number of the inhabitants are from the State of New York. Mr. Looker from Saratoga county, Mr. Crane from Sche- nectady and Mr. Allen, the postmaster, from New Jersey, own the surrounding lands. They are all very fine and valuable farms worth from forty to sixty dollars per acre. The settlement was commenced about sixteen years ago."

In 1884 Mathias Voshell died in Miller township and in his obituary it was stated that "he was born in Delaware, in 1800, and with his step-father, Mr. Thornton, immigrated to Williamsburg, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1805, where Mr. Thornton built a flatboat, and in 1806 landed in Cincinnati and se- lected and built the first cabin on the Ohio side, in the town of Harrison; and at the age of twenty-five years went to Kentucky, where he resided, until recently he returned to Dearborn county."

SOME EARLY SETTLERS.

George W. Lane says in regard to the early settlement of Harrison town- ship: "In 1807 Moses Tebbs removed from North Carolina and settled on the Whitewater river in Harrison township. Mr. Tebbs had previously resided in Virginia. On coming here game of all kinds were very plenty, and the male portion of the Tebbs family became expert hunters. When the Indian war broke out in 1811, Warren, with his brother Willoughby (sons of Moses)

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and most of the young men in the neighborhood joined the 'rangers,' and were stationed at the various block houses, as the frontier forts were desig- nated. After the war, Warren married and settled in Logan township. Adamaners Andres and family, from Maryland, settled on the east bank of the Whitewater in 1813. He was the father of James Andres, a highly esteemed citizen of Harrison. Mr. Andres and family were accompanied by Isaac Mettler and family from the same state. Mr. Mettler was born in that state in 1774, and had four brothers who served throughout the Revo- lutionary War, and he himself attended the funeral of President Washington, on which occasion he was one of the strewers of flowers. Both Mr. Mettler and Mr. Andres had several children at the time of their locating."

"Peter Williams, a native of North Carolina, settled in the township in 1811. He was the father of David Williams, deceased. William McMana- man and family came from the state of Pennsylvania, in 1813, and located in the township."

Again quoting George W. Lane : "In the year 1810 Samuel Bond settled on Wilson creek and soon after removed over the state line and built what was known far and near by the early settlers as Bond's mill, later it was known as the Bond-Rees' Mill. It was a water-power mill and stood on the west bank of the Whitewater just above where the modern suspension bridge was erected. It was a substantial structure and was, patronized by the settlers for miles around. The building was taken down about 1890, and the old race is all that is left of this once famous place for grinding grain. In 1808 or 1809 a saw- mill was operated on the Whitewater, west of Harrison, by William Pur- cell and Thomas Breckinridge. Probably about 1824 these same men erected a grist-mill on the east side of the river."

WEST HARRISON.

The town of West Harrison joins onto the state line and is separated from Harrison, Ohio, by State street which is directly on the line dividing Indiana from Ohio. It was laid out in 1813 by John Allen and Peter Hanan. It is given a population of two hundred and eighty-one by the census of 1910. The town was evidently laid out on the site of a mound builders' city if the numer- ous mounds and other relics of this pre-historic race are any evidence. An emigrants' directory, published in 1817, speaking of these evidences of a pre- vious race living here says : "The traces of ancient population cover the earth in every direction. On the bottoms are a great many mounds very unequal in

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History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 15

Author: Archibald Shaw Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1123

Author: Archibald Shaw
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1123