USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 9
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Wolves, though not very numerous, were still troublesome to those who attempted to keep sheep. Rattlesnakes were abundant, and, though a source of great dread, yet accidents from this source were not frequent. On one occasion about seventy were killed in one day near Paul's mill, where they had crawled out from their den in the rocks. This was considered rather better than an ordinary day for snakes.
Ilorses were turned out, after work, to range in the forest, as it was impossible to procure food otherwise, the precaution being taken to fasten a bell to the neck in order that they might be easily found in the morning. But, as the season advanced, the malaria from the swamps, coupled with the continued hardship and exposure, began to tell on the settlers, and nearly all were afflicted with chills and fever. Some continued to shake until Christ- mas, others recovering in a few days or weeks; sometimes they were scarcely well enough to attend the sick, yet very few cases were fatal, whether from the mildness of the malady or the scarcity of doctors. it would be impossible to tell.
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WILD GAME.
One year was noted for a wonderful beech mast. This brought in the pigeons by the millions, squirrels also, and the wild turkeys in vast numbers. It was no uncommon thing to see the whole heavens covered for hours at a time, like a cloud, with pigeons going to the roost in the evening or return- ing in the morning. Squirrels were so thick as to, in some instances, destroy whole fields of corn in the fall; the trees left standing gave them shelter. so that they ravaged all parts of the field alike. Squirrel hunts were some- times made to try to exterminate them, and it was not uncommon for one man to kill one hundred and fifty in a day. Turkeys, too, were so abundant that frequently only the breast was saved to dry, the balance of the carcass, though fat and fine, being thrown away. Hogs multiplied rapidly and. feed being abundant in the woods, they soon sought their living there alto- gether, and became as wild as the deer. Almost everyone had wild hogs in the woods and those who had not, bought a real or pretended claim from someone else: these claims never ran out or became worthless while the hogs lasted, there being no first mortgages to come in, as in later times, to swallow up all minor interests. In the fall or beginning of winter it was the custom to go to the woods, strike a camp, and hunt and kill wild hogs till enough were secured for the year's supply. The hogs, being alnost wholly unmarked, few could tell their own from others, nor did they seeni at all particular. the fact that one had a claim being thought sufficient to justify him in taking the first he came to.
DISTILLERIES.
The temperance reformation had not yet commenced and all classes used whiskey as a regular beverage. To supply this want, whiskey being thought indispensable. still-houses were very early erected, and there have been as many as six in a township, though not all in operation at one time. They have long since disappeared, yet their influence probably long sur- vived them.
PIONEER SCHOOLS.
Amidst all disadvantages, the interests of education, morality and re- ligion were not wholly neglected. Rude school houses were put up by the voluntary aid of contiguous neighbors. A log was usually cut out of the wall on one side and over this greased paper was pasted. this serving for a
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window. Under this was the writing-desk-a board laid on pins, driven in the wall: and the seats were split puncheons, without backs. The teachers, sometimes. very well matched the school house, while some would compare very well with those of the present day. People with such rude surround- ings sometimes gained a very good practical knowledge of arithmetic, going clear through and doing every sum in a single quarter, a feat that under modern teaching is seldom accomplished under three or four. so little do the surroundings of a scholar have to do with his advancement.
The present officers of Adams township are: Trustee, L. A. Jewett ; assessor, Ed Shower: advisory board, William Larrigan, J. S. Townsend and Manford Slifer; road supervisors, Ed Hoffman, T. M. Favor, George Smith and Thomas Teitsort.
ST. OMER.
The little village of St. Omer is located in section 2. Adams township, and appeared on the horizon for the first time in 1834, when it was laid out by John Griffin and AA. Major. It is on the old Michigan road and was for- merly an important trading center of Adams township. Scattered along either side of the famous old thoroughfare, which is the main street of the little village, may be seen quaint old cottages, once the home of happy and contented people. The first building in the town dates from 1830. The Michigan road was once an Indian trail which wound its way through this country, and. from the opening of the "New Purchase" to settlement, the trail became the main road from the southeastern part of the state to the new capital at Indianapolis. With the opening of the Michigan road by government and state aid, in the early part of the thirties, taverns sprang up at intervals throughout its entire length, and these taverns, in many in- stances, became the centers of hopeful villages. In St. Omer may still be seen a few buildings which were once used as taverns. The Wilder prop- erty was once such a tavern.
VISIONS OF RAILROADS.
In the early forties, St. Omer began to see visions of a railroad, but the vision was all the people ever saw. The present Big Four was first planned to run through the village, but subsequent surveys showed that it would miss the town by about two miles. Another projected road which was to pass through St. Omer was a line from Greensburg, part of which was actually graded. However, this line never materialized, and since that time the town
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has given up hopes of ever having a railroad. This projected road explains the huge cuts and fills which may still be seen along the Michigan road be- tween Greensburg and Shelbyville. The work had even proceeded so far that part of the abutments for the bridge across Flatrock were in place. Thousands of dollars were expended, to say nothing of the time and labor and blasted hopes.
An interesting incident connected with this visionary railroad was a clan feud between the Irish laborers of Shelbyville and those stationed at St. Omer. So bitter became this strife that they took their old flint-lock muskets with them to their work day after day and stacked their arms along the right of way, to be used in case trouble might arise. Several skirmishes actually occurred and some blood was shed, but there were no fatalities.
Few people know that the timber was prepared for the construction of a depot in St. Omer, but such was the case. The depot was to stand on a spot just south of the later residence of Wesley Wilder, but when it was decided to change the route of the railroad, the timbers were hauled to St. Paul and became a part of the residence of Joseph Eck. So much for the railroad history of St. Omer.
EDUCATION.
The subscription school furnished all of the education for the young- sters of St. Omer before the adoption of the new Constitution in 1851. When the system of free schools came into operation, in that year, St. Omer was divided between two school districts, one school house being in the village and the other in the woods near where John Leach later lived. This did not prove satisfactory and in 1856 the citizens of the village secured a graded school and placed it in the hands of Franklin Pearce and Samantha Mann, the mother of Dr. E. Jewett. A few weeks after school began, Mr. Pearce was hit on the head with a stick of wood in the hands of one of his pupils, and killed. Whether it was accidental or intentional, is uncertain. The school was one of the best in this section of the state at the time. Latin, German, algebra, music and other higher branches were included in the curriculum. The present school building was erected in 1879.
CHURCHES.
There have been three churches in St. Omer, the Methodist Episcopal. Presbyterian and United Brethren. The Presbyterian church was destroyed
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by fire several years ago and never rebuilt, tradition saying that the church was burned as the result of some courageous preacher pointing out in too plain a manner the future destiny of a certain young man whose agricultural efforts were devoted to the sowing of the wrong kind of oats. The history of the other churches is given elsewhere in this volume.
St. Omer has never boasted of a large population and today can scarcely claim over half a hundred. There were never any factories of any import- ance in the village, but from the earliest history of its career there were artisans capable of supplying most of the local wants. Plows, wagons, sad- dles and harness, hats, beds and many other articles have been made here in a small way. Coopers, butchers, blacksmiths, wood-workers, carpenters, and even tailors, have pursued their trade here in the past. At one time there were four general stores, two drug stores, a hotel or two, and the ubiquitous saloon in St. Omer, and all of them appeared to thrive. John F. Harwood opened the first hotel and Harvey Vaupelt established the first store. Today there is not a single store in the village, the proximity of St. Paul, two miles away, having made it impossible for a local merchant to continue in business.
A COUNTY-SEAT PROSPECT.
The history of this once prosperous little hamlet cannot be dismissed without mentioning an interesting dream of its former inhabitants. Before the Civil War, St. Omer entertained aspirations of being a county seat. A project, fathered by some politicians, proposed to make a new county out of parts of Decatur, Shelby and Rush counties, with St. Omer as the county . seat. However, so much opposition was encountered that the proposal never did anything more than raise the hopes of the guileless people of St. Omer. The promoters of the new county even went so far as to select the site for the new court house, the site being located across the road and west of Smith's garage. The failure of the new-county scheme and the shifting of the railroad, two miles to the west, was the death-knell of St. Omer. Its oldest citizens can still tell of the halcyon days when they fondly imagined great things for the town. They planned for its future with every confi- dence in the promises of the railroad people, and likewise gave every encouragement to the county-seat proposal-but, alas, it was all in vain.
ADAMS.
The village of Adams is situated on the Big Four railroad and also the interurban line. It is only five miles from Greensburg and in the extremne
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southern part of the township bearing the same name. The village was laid out by Aaron H. Womack, January 1, 1855, two years after the completion of the railroad through this township. It is located in the center of a rich agricultural district and, although there has been a great falling off in the population of some of the smaller towns since the general influx to the cities began, Adams has continued to grow. Mr. Womack was the first merchant in the village, although William Gouldsbury is credited as being the first settler. Mr. Gouldsbury erected the first residence in the town and also established the first industrial enterprise in the form of a blacksmith shop and wagon works. Around this nucleus soon gathered a prosperous settle- ment of industrious, intelligent and progressive people.
Adams was incorporated in September, 1877, for school purposes, but the school was taught only one term under corporate management. Confu- sion and jealousies arising among the officers and citizens, it was determined. by a unanimous vote, to abolish the corporation and return to the manage- ment of the township trustee.
The business interests of Adams in 1915 are as follows : Auctioneer, A. F. Eubank; barber, George Baumgartner; blacksmith, J. S. Hichney and I N. Con, Jolin Inman, Charles Adkins; boarding house, Mrs. Mae Long- street ; contractor, James Inman ; elevator. Albert Boling; general merchan- dise, Arthur Toothinan, J. J. Mull, Walter Marshall; implements, L. R. Davis; livery, William Jackson; meat market, A. R. Coy; physician, M. . 1. Tremain ; paper hanger, Ed Shauer; restaurant and confectionery. . 1. R. Coy ; veterinary, Morton Tanner.
Adams has a well organized band of fifteen members, with Justin Guthrie as leader. They were organized in the winter of 1913 and have two thousand dollars invested in instruments. This band has recently pur- chased new uniforms and renders concerts during the summer months for the entertainment of the townspeople.
Adams is accommodated by the Big Four railroad, with A. R. Coy as agent, and also the electric line, with Arthur Toothman as agent. Grace Jackson is the present postmistress. The town has a population of four hun- dred people.
DOW NEYVILLE.
Downeyville is a small hamlet in Adams township. This village was never platted and, although the name covers considerable space on the county map, there are only four or five houses in the cluster that marks the town limits. The business interests, which consist of a general store, are con- ducted by J. F. Downey & Sons.
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ROCKVILLE, A PROSPEROUS COUNTY SEAT.
Few of the present generation know that the first town laid out within the present limits of Decatur county was located in Adams township. Shortly after land in the "New Purchase" was offered for sale at Brook- ville, AAbraham Heaton bought one hundred and sixty acres in section 6 of Adams township. In the carly part of the following year John Shelhorn entered a tract in the same section and these two men conceived the idea of laying out a town above the confluence of Big and Little Flatrock. The county of Decatur had not yet been organized and no one, of course, knew how much territory the new county might include. Heaton and Shelhorn hoped to induce the authorities to select the site of their proposed town for the county seat and when they laid out their town provided for a public square. On the Franklin county records may still be seen the town of Rock- ville, which these two enterprising Yankees laid out in the early spring of 1821. The plat was recorded at Brookville, February 19, 1821 (Deed record E. page 76), and shows one hundred and eight lots. The streets were one chain in width and seventy-five links in length. The plat shows the following streets : Main, Broadway, Walnut, Water, Mulberry and Market. While the site was a beautiful one, the proprietors never realized anything from their patriotic efforts to make it a town. During the following year the locating commissioners placed the county seat of the new county at Greens- burg and thus blasted any hopes that Heaton and Shelhorn might have en- tertained for their town. The present town of Downeyville is in the neigh- borhood of this long-forgotten, prospective county seat of Decatur county.
ST. PAUL.
The town of St. Paul came into existence at the time the Big Four railroad was built through Decatur county, in 1853. The town is on the line between Decatur and Shelby counties, although the greater part of the town is in Decatur county. Jonathan Paul was the first settler to locate on the present site of St. Paul, entering all of section 33. township 11, range 8. except eighty acres ; the patent for this large tract being dated October 20, 1820. The Pauls came from Jefferson county, Indiana, where one of the members of the family had laid out the town of Madison. A sister of Jona- than Paul became the wife of William Hendricks, congressman, United States senator and governor of Indiana.
OLD HOUSE MILL, NEAR GREENSBURG.
OLDEST BUILDING IN ST. PAUL, BUILT BY JOHN P. PAUL ABOUT 1854 AND STILL STANDING.
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The original Paul home in Adams township, Decatur county, was a log cabin near the road, at the foot of the present Paul Hill cemetery, at St. Paul. There was a semblance of a village many years before the town was laid out. the hamlet being known as Paultown. The older residents still speak of the place as Paultown, but few of the present generation are aware of the first name.
The first Paul cabin burned a few years after it was erected and another log structure was built on the same spot, which served as a home for the family until the erection of a substantial brick building. The contract for the erection of the brick house was let to Daniel French, who made the brick near where the house was built. The evidence of this worthy con- tractor's work still stands in St. Paul and bids fair to stand for many years yet to come. Shortly after getting his first cabin erected, Paul established a rude mill on Mill creek, a short distance above where the later Paul mill stood. This first mill-and it was probably the first mill in the county- was not much larger than a smoke-house, but it served the purpose for which it was built. He ground only corn and this was done in an old-fashioned hand "hopper."
A few years after Jonathan Paul put his first mill into operation, his son, John Paul. built another mill a short distance below the old mill and operated it by water-power. Sometime later John Paul saw that there was an excellent water-power site at the confluence of Mill creek and Flatrock and proceeded to build a woolen-mill on the west side of Mill creek near where it empties into Flatrock. He built a dam across Mill creek and the race which he constructed may still be seen. John Paul also had a saw-mill near the same place, deriving his power for its operation from Flatrock. The two mills were close together and it was his original intention to utilize the same race for both mills, but such a plan was found impracticable. These two mills gave employment to several men and were the means of attracting a number of families to the little hamlet of Paultown, or "Bull Town," as it was frequently called. In the spring of 1847 the two mills were swept away by a flood and Paul also saw his dam across Flatrock disappear at the same time.
RAILROAD BOOMS THE TOWN.
From 1847 to 1854 was a period of depression in the once thriving vil- lage, but with the building of the railroad through the place in the latter year, things began to look more auspicious. Paul rebuilt his mill, and. with the assistance of his son-in-law. Erastus M. Floyd, laid out the town into
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lots ; giving it at the same time, the name of St. Paul. From that time forward the town had prospered and today is one of the best trading centers in the county. By 1859 the town had increased in population until that year saw the erection of thirty buildings. According to a local account, there were the following enterprises in St. Paul in 1859: Merchants-Caldwell & Dorsey, Drummond & Buell, Ridlin & Company, John DeArmond and Benjamin Jenkins ; steam and water mills-George Wooden ; cabinet shop- Hann & Haymond: two hotels; woolen factory-John Paul, and a number of other industries.
A word should be said regarding the old Paul mill, which no longer greets the eye of the fisherman as he wanders along Mill creek in search of chubs and slickjacks. Amateur photographers no longer compete in efforts to get the best pictures of the building, with its quaint overshot wheel. The old mill was razed in 1909 and nothing now remains of an industry which was once a boom to the settlers who flocked from far and near to take their turns in getting their grist ground. Never again will the curious gather to watch the water, freed from the race by the lifting of the old water gate, rush down over the wheel and fill the buckets. The hum of the old French burrs is silenced forever ; no more will the youth of the village, stripped to the skin, stand under the falls of the race overflow ; no more will boys borrow the old miller's spade, with which to dig worms when fishing in the old mill race ; no more will they parch corn on the top of the old box-stove, fired with cobs, and listen to the miller's stories of pioneer days.
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
The first school house in St. Paul stood on the site of the store now owned by the Benning Brothers, and the second one was located where Walter Hungerford's residence now stands. School was also held for a time in the second story of Oddfellow hall, now the carriage and buggy fac- tory of Jacob Johannes. During the early seventies a school was main- tained in both the Methodist and Catholic churches. After leaving Odd- fellow hall, the public school was stationed in the building now owned by Henry Neidigh, which was also used for religious purposes at the same time. In 1870 the school district built a school house about one hundred feet back of where the present school building now stands. This building was used until it was destroyed by fire in 1901, and, until the completion of the present building in the following year, the Floyd building was used for school purposes.
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The first church building dates from 1857 when the different denomi- nations of the town erected what they called a union church. Each denon- ination interested in the erection of this edifice was to be allowed to use it at regular intervals, but it seems that, owing to the predominance of the Lutherans, it was commonly known as the Lutheran church. However, other denominations used it for services for a few years. Just when the Lutherans gained complete control of the building is not known; but it is certain that it was unused several years previous to the time the Christian church got possession of it in 1874. The Christians seemed to have rented it until 1892 when they purchased it and made many extensive improvements in it. The Methodists built about 1858 and the Catholics in the same year. The first Methodist church burned in 1892 and in the same year the present church was erected. The Catholics are still using the church they built in 1858.
INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE.
The stone industry in St. Paul was started in the 'fifties by John Scan- lan, who established a stone quarry south of town, which gave employment to a large number of men. Later, William Lowe established a quarry at the junction of Mill creek and Flatrock, on the site of the old woolen-mill. Later H. C. Adams opened a quarry opposite the Lowe quarry on Flatrock. In 1913 P. J. McAuliffe, who had leased the Lowe quarry, some years previously, closed the quarry as a result of the extensive damages suffered by the March flood of that year. In 1907 Grecly Brothers built a large stone crusher on Flatrock east of town. This is one of the largest concerns of its kind in Indiana and produces from fifteen to twenty car loads of crushed stone daily. In addition to crushed stone for road material, a large amount of what is locally known as "dimension" stone is quarried. This stone ranks second in the state to Bedford stone and is shipped for building purposes all over the United States. It was used in the construction of the custom house at Cincinnati and in the state house at Indianapolis. The only other industry of any importance now in St. Paul is the buggy factory of Jacob Johannes. This was established by the present proprietor in 1878 and has been in continuous operation since that year. Formerly carriages were manufactured as well as buggies, but at the present time only buggies are made. The factory has an annual capacity of one hundred buggies and on an average of seventy-five are now made each year. Only first-class vehicles are turned out and the product finds a ready sale, despite the heavy inroads which the automobile has made in the vehicle industry. In addition
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to the manufacture of buggies, Mr. Johannes does a large amount of repair work.
The first merchant in St. Paul was a man by the name of Hungate, who sold a little of everything, as was the custom in those days. The busi- ness enterprises of the town change from year to year, and scarcely a year passes that there is not some change in firms. New enterprises are being added from year to year, and it is impossible to predict what a new year will bring forth.
A survey of the business and professional interests of St. Paul in the summer of 1915 discloses the following: Automobiles, St. Paul Hardware Company; bakery, St. Paul Baking Company ; barbers, Jacob Wise, William Favors. Carl Brooks; blacksmiths, Merritt Copeland, Manlief & Mcauliffe ; buggy factory, Jacob Johannes: building and loan association, George W. Boling, secretary ; bank. St. Paul Banking Co .. Orlando Hungerford, owner ; cement products. Joseph Eck : carpenters, George W. Swartz, Albert Hay- mond, Miller Brothers; dentist. Leslie Rivers; drugs, Dr. D. J. Ballard, H. H. Gladish; elevator. William Nading; feed and milling products, W. T. Bolling: flowers, Mrs. H. W. Ballard; furniture, Charles H. Wiley ; gen- eral stores, R. D. Templeton, L. A. Jewett & Son, A. B. Mulroy; groceries, Benning Brothers, John B. McKee, James Embry; harness, Garrett & Con- rad; hardware. Bolling & Thompson, I. W. Martin ; hotel. Diltz & Adams : ice dealer, F. M. Favors ; ice cream parlor, Mrs. H. H. Gladish ; insurance, Mrs. John Harwood, George W. Bolling: interurban agent, Joseph Miller ; implements, W. W. Townhend; jeweler, C. F. Kappes; livery, Ottis Thompson ; lumber and building supplies, John Simpson & Son; meat mar- ket. Carl G. Wolfe : millinery, Mrs. B. F. Mason ; moving pictures, Howard & Pleak; newspaper. St. Paul Telegram, O. C. Pearce, editor; notions, B. FF. Mason ; painter and paper hanger, Amos Dodds, Orla Wadkins, Pearce & Me. Auliffe: plumber. Garrett & Conrad: physicians, G. J. Martz. F. M. Howard, Earl Jewett, D. J. Ballard, William R. Turner : pool rooms, Charles Neal, Wallace McCain, Bush Brothers; rural mail carriers, Clarence Ket- chum, Orla Guess, Denzel Doggett; restaurant, Joseph Miller ; stock buyer, Carl G. Wolfe; saloons, George Hess, Jasper Linville ( both on the Shelby county side ) ; Standard Oil Company agent, Charles Ross; tinner, George Scheiderman : undertaking, Charles H. Wiley; veterinarian, W. R. Chrisler.
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