History of Elkhart County, Indiana; together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history: portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 35

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, C. C. Chapman & co.
Number of Pages: 1192

USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > History of Elkhart County, Indiana; together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history: portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 35

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An elaborate short costume of the real princess order, with added draperies, is made of fine camel's hair, with decorations of a hair- striped corduroy of a light texture. The costume fabric is linden green, and the corduroy is bottle green. Chenille fringe, matching the latter shade, is used upon the side draperies. The fitting is done in the manner usual to princess garments, a perfect adjust- ment being the result. Just now the glove fit is a desideratum, in consequence of the knitted and clinging Jersey waists first intro- duced by the " Jersey Lily," and taking the name from her pet title. Two sets of plaited draperies, each having corduroy revers, are added to the sides and slope away from the center, leaving a space that is overlaid with three double box plaits of corduroy. The lower scarfs extend only to the side-back seams, and while the upper ones are also tacked at this seam, an extra length allowed on each falls in careless points at the back, after being lined with cor- duroy. A vest, collar, lapels, and cuff facings of corduroy, with a band of corduroy at the bottom of a box plaiting applied to the skirt back of the outer corduroy plaits, complete this stylish cos- tume in a very handsome manner.

Now it is true that such bills are too prevalent. That they have even a small share in fostering national industries is very doubtful, while it is acknowledged that they entail financial ruin on thou- sands, and a proportionate moral and physical ruin on the chief actors. These facts, as it is hoped, will become generally accepta- ble in the near future, and after the long term devoted to the follies and busy activities of the time, men and women will regain some of that knowledge which insured a moral and physical greatness to their progenitors, and thus become endowed with all these fac- ulties of mind and body that may possibly lead to results-to deeds at present undreamed of. Those early settlers possessed many prond reminiscences. Within a very brief period after settlement.

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and while yet their unfenced fields showed no signs of the budding grain, which their industry consigned to the fertile soil, the atten- tion of the pioneers was turned to more scientific, though less eco- nomical, labors. Nothing less than the weird remembrancers of the aborigines claimed their leisure hours, and as such were abundant, their examination offered to the settlers sufficient grounds on which to base their speculative philosophy. Israel Hess opened an Indian mound near the Nine-Mile Lake and found therein the cheek-bone of a Cancasian with teeth intact, remnants of burned bones, ashes and cinders, which at the time were considered by him to be the remains of some white men burned at the stake. Near his resi- dence are many more such monuments, with which he has not interfered; but he presumes they were formed by the Indians, and therefore do not claim a prehistoric character. That over-zealous

missionaries and rash explorers have met death at the hands of the Miamis and Pottawatomies is conceded; that many of such men entered the territory of those savages and never returned to their people are facts established; but who the victims were, and the pre- cise dates of their fatal visits to the villages of the red men, will forever remain blanks in the pages of history. The shocking cru- elty. of their executioners shall be stamped indelibly upon the same pages, and break npon the wondering gaze of future genera- tions as a record of a race long vanished into well-merited oblivion. Not all the kindnesses which the country may shower upon them can effectually tend to prolong their presence here. The last prayers for vengeance, escaping with the last breaths of a thousand brave but helpless pioneers of civilization, have been heard by the God of Nature, and He has meted out the terrible trials which now pursue the Indian through life, and opens up for him the immedi- ate dreary prospect of witnessing the total annihilation of his race. It is true that the early settlers of Elkhart suffered few material wrongs from the bands of savages surrounding them; but yet no thanks are due to the barbarians for this grace, because even at that early date they looked on the swift advance of the sons of civiliza- tion, and being powerless to retard it, awaited calmly the good or evil which the Great Spirit might bestow upon them. If a man may judge so far as human reason leads him to think, the Great Spirit of the tribes disdained to accept their offerings of blood, lis- tened to the death shrieks of their victims instead, and by degrees banished the Indian bands from their Edenic villages into the

Dr.f. H, Congelen

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

unknown wilds, where hunger, hardships and miasmas became their daily attendants.

Every legend of the Miamis, every reminiscence of our pioneers, point out the St. Joseph country as a happy valley. Fish swarmed in its lakes and rivers, deer and bears in its forests, wild fruits flourished upon its prairies, and primeval happiness dwelt in its villages; but the hour at length came when the child of art arrived to possess himself of all these. Then the untamed children of the forest were driven to seek other homes, and with their departure the fish and forest animals may be said to migrate; for where Nature supplied her worshipers hitherto, she willed that the white man should only be rewarded in proportion to his industry, and thus left him to extract fron the soil just so much as his labor warranted, and little of that great all which was shared by the lazy and bar- barous aborigines. That he has succeeded in improving upon nature in this respect is manifest. Though the rivers do not contain myr- iads of large fish, or the forests wild animals, or the prairies do not yield wild fruits now as in days long past, it will be seen that the waters, turned into other channels, set a hundred mill-wheels turn- ing; the trees of the forest have been converted into substantial buildings, substructures for the iron rail or devoted to other branches of industry, and the prairies bend, as it were, under the weight of golden grain, the seeds of which were planted by man and reared up a hundred-fold to perfection by nature. Romance alone can feel any sorrow for the change. It is progress pure and simple, and in its advance the pioneers were the principal actors.

CHAPTER V.

THE FIRST RECORDS.

Seest thou my home ? 'tis where yon woods are waving, In their dark richness to the summer air ;

Where yon blue stream, a thousand flower banks laving, Sends down the hills, a vein of light-'tis there !

THE CARY MISSION.

General Brown, who with others made an exploratory trip in 1826 from Tecumseh in Michigan, to the Cary mission on the St. Joseph, opposite the location of the present city of Niles, in reca- pitulation of his reminiscences of those early times, says the Cary mission was a rather noted point at that time, and the party were anxious to see for themselves what the character of the intervening country was, there being different rumors as to its capability for settlement and cultivation. The party consisted of Gen. Brown; his brother-in-law, Musgrove Evans; Dr. Caleb N. Ormsby, then in Tecumseh as a physician, and Horace Wolcott, from Connecticut, who had come to Michigan the year before to settle as a merchant or Indian trader. They set out in the month of May on horseback, with ten days' provisions, taking the Indian trail on the north side of Evans' creek. After passing the lake at the head of the creek, which had previously been named after Mr. Evans, they came upon another small lake, which they all thought was the prettiest sheet of water for its size and surroundings they had ever seen. They had some discussion as to what it should be named, and finally agreed upon calling it " Sand Lake." They were about (as was the habit then) to christen it by that name, in some tonic they had taken along as inedicine, but by some mishap their tonic-bottle had all leaked out, and that partof the ceremony was omitted. They there took the Chicago trail, on or near the present line of the Chicago road, intending to follow it to the Cary mission. None of the land west of Lenawee county was then in market, nor was the country even laid off into counties for more than three years afterward. They crossed the upper part of the St. Joseph river about where the village of Jonesville now is. After leaving Tecumseh they found

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

no settlers or white persons until they came to White Pigeon Prairie, where they found a man by the name of Hale, located there as a " squatter," there being no land there to be purchased at that time. The first land offered for sale in what is now the counties of Hillsdale, Branch and St. Josephı being in October, 1828, and in Cass and Berrien in June, 1829, and in 1831.

At the time of the Sauk war, in 1832, when Gen. Brown went west, he found the same Mr. HIale on Door Prairie, Indiana, having a well-cultivated farm and good buildings, and was invited to stay over night with him, which he did.

Further on in their trip they found a Mr. Beardsley, on what they called Beardsley's Prairie; he had come up from Indiana with cattle, horses, sheep, etc. Whilst the party were there they saw a flock of sheep come running for home with some wolves chasing them. Mr. Beardsley and his boys set their dogs after the wolves, and they kept them off from the sheep, and then went off after the wolves and had not returned when Gen. B. and the party went on. Here they turned aside a little from the direct Chicago trail, in order to call upon an Indian trader named Coutiean, a Frenchman, living near or a little south of where the village of Bertrand is now, and who had been at Tecumseh on an Indian trading expedition, and had there met Gen. B. and some of the others. They took din- ner with Mons. Contieau and his wife, both French Catholics, and friendly and polite people, From this trading post they went on in the afternoon to Cary mission, a distance of about ten miles. It happened to be Sunday when they arrived there, and they found about one hundred Indian boys enjoying themselves outdoors, who were pleased to see four white men ride up on horseback; and they expressed their delight in Indian boy fashion, hooting and yelling, and taking hold of the bridles and stirrups, and even of the ponies' tails, which they were allowed to do, as the party knew they meant no mischief, but rather friendship by it. Gen. Brown rode a large saddle-horse, which he had brought from the East, and the boys did not seem to want to take hold of his tail, as they did of those of the Indian ponies, which the rest of the party rode, and to which kind of horses they were more accustomed. The party stayed some time at the mission, enjoying the hospitality of Mr. McCoy, the principal of the station, and his wife. They and the other mission- aries and their wives, and the assistants, seemed to live in commnon with the Indians-only that there was some difference between the supply of the table " above the salt " for the whites at their end of

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

the table, from what it was " below the salt " for the Indians at their end, as well as some difference in manners and fashion of eating. The mission had a large, well-cultivated farin, with twelve milch cows on it, and other stock in proportion. The party saw a large battean on the river, and upon inquiry as to whose it was, they were told that it was Mr. Coutieau's, which he had lent to them to bring some goods up the river. The mission was a Baptist institution, established for the conversion and civilization of the Indians. They had a large store full of goods and supplies, getting, however, most of their living from the farm, and plenty of game from the Indians. After the treaty held there in 1828 the Indians moved west, and Mr. McCoy and some of the missionaries went with them. Whilst the party were there Mr. McCoy had inquired of Gen. Brown if he knew of any young man who could be got to come out there, and who would make a good business manager for them. Gen. B. re- plied that he thought perhaps he could find some one, and on his return home he spoke to Calvin Britain, then a young man in his own employ, and induced him to go out to the mission in the ca- pacity wanted. Mr. Britain remained there some time, and after- ward moved down to the mouth of the St. Joseph river, and became a prominent business man and politician, serving as State Senator in the first and second State Legislatures, and in other public po- sitions.

On their return to Tecumseh the party came back direct by the Chicago trail, until they came to the last crossing of the St. Joseph river, near where Jonesville now is, finding Messrs. Beards- ley and Hale still the only white settlers on the route. On the way back, near the above crossing, they encountered a severe rain storm, and their punk and everything being wet, they found it impossible to make a fire, and so they slept with their heads on their saddles and covered themselves with such blankets as they had along with them. Here they were told of a trail to Tecumseh, said to be shorter and better than the one by which they came out. This went round by lake Manitoo, as the Indians called it, or Devil's lake, as it was afterward named by the white settlers, as they thought the Manitoo of the Indians was more of a devil than of a good spirit. When they came to the passage between the two lakes, as they thought that their horses would not wander off very far, they all took off their saddles and bridles, so as to rest their horses better. In the morning they found them all gone, but getting on their tracks, they found them about a mile off. As soon as possible

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they got under way, and put for home by the most direct and quickest route they could find.

The year 1830 opened up a scene of rural happiness to the pass- ing traveler, as well as offered subject for congratulation to the thrifty settlers. Hundreds of acres were already fenced in, and at intervals might be seen the log cabins of the pioneers, with the stacked harvest of the preceding years ranged adjacent. The country was then replete in its beauty; the singularly interesting monotony of the wild woods was varied by the tracts of cultivated prairie, and the presence of the dark-eyed Indian was relieved by the proximity of the white man. Never in the history of man, was man so favored as he of those early days. Solidarity of inter- ests joined all the settlers in a bond of brotherhood, the strength of whose ties tended to render their loves paternal and their friend- ships lasting. On the completion of their spring farm labors the pioneers did not seek a rest, but at once turned their attention away from manual work and set the mental powers in motion, so that their political condition might advance hand in hand with that social pre-eminence which they held even then. They perused the statutes of the State with all the industry of the studious, and having made such deductions therefrom as led them to believe that their settlements were up to the standard required for organization into a county, they at once claimed their rights, and before the ripening grain recalled them to their fertile fields, had actually suc- ceeded in establishing for themselves a county and a local govern- ment. In reviewing the history of those old days, it is well to permit the doings of the local governors to hold a place among the reminiscences of the times. That the first statesmen of the county labored faithfully in the interest of their neighbors, will appear from such a record; and as it is summarized in these pages from the venerable old books, kept by Thomas Thomas, the first Circuit Court Clerk, it may prove as interesting to the reader as it seems interesting and valuable to the writer.

NORTHERN INDIANA,

for many years after the organization of the Territory and for long after its admission to the sisterhood of States, by no means kept pace with the lower portion of the State. Settlements sprung up along the Ohio, the Wabash and other streams, and immigration followed the then natural channels of transportation. But with the

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

advent of railroads a great change was cffected. The fertile prairies of Northern Indiana attracted the attention of thousands of hardy pioneers, settlements multiplied, a greater and greater area of virgin soil was subjected to cultivation. In the forests the wood- man's ax, and on the prairies the settler's plow were the harbin- gers of a glorious day, a future whose realization has in part been accomplished.

BEFORE THE ERA OF RAILWAYS

this development had fairly begun. The emigrants' wagons, drawn by patient, weary oxen that had plodded the many miles separating the cultivated fields and thriving, prosperous villages and cities of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, or of the remoter East, dotted the way; the camp-fires marked countless resting places, and the smoldering ashes of wayside fires were fruitful in their after re- sults.

As long ago as 1828 the first settlement was made in the terri- tory now comprised in Elkhart county. A few adventurers had followed an Indian trail, and had eneamped on the edge of Elkhart prairie. " Adventurous, indeed, was sneh an expedition, and numerons were the trials and hardships endured by the participants. But they found this a goodly land; the earth teemed with fatness, and the hardy pioneer, whose wants were few and simple, soon began to rejoice in the comforts of life, and were rapidly followed by friends, who had but recently warned them against the perilous expedition."

In the early organization of the State the counties were princi- palities in themselves. Allen county, from which Elkhart, La- grange and Noble counties were subsequently created, embraced a wide area of territory, and it, Randolph, Delaware and Cass counties, with all the territory northi, constituted a senatorial dis- trict in 1829. Under an act of the Legislature of the State, passed during the session of 1829-'30, the county of Elkhart was organized and its boundaries defined. After it had been divested of its original greatness as regards area, Elkhart county was subdivided into 16 townships. Nine of these townships are six miles square; the others are of lesser proportions, and the total area of the county is 462 square miles.

The first study of the pioneers was that relating to the organiza- tion of the State. They learned that an act of Congress, approved April 19, 1812, enabling the people of the Indiana Territory to

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

form a State government, and for the admission of the State thus formed into the Union on an equal standing with the original thirteen States, was availed of by the inhabitants or settlers of the State, and at a meeting of representatives of the people, held at Corydon June 10 following, they declared as follows: "That we do, for ourselves and our posterity, agree, determine, declare and ordain, that we will, and do hereby, accept the propositions of the Congress of the United States, as made and contained in their act of April 19, 1816." This declaration was given effect shortly after, and a constitution adopted. Regulations for the organization of the State into counties, and an act of the General Assembly, passed subsequently (1830), defined the boundaries of Elkhart. Within the limits so defined, the townships, as at present known, were or- ganized. The act says:

" The district of country within the following boundaries shall form and constitute the county of Elkhart, to wit: Beginning on the north line of the State, where the center line of range 4 strikes the same, thence cast to the line dividing ranges 7 and 8, thence south to the line diving townships 34 and 35 north, thence west to central section line of range 4 east, thence north to the place of beginning."

All this being accomplished by the State, the people of Elkhart were not slow in seeking administrative powers, for on June 28, 1830, the following evidence of their progress in this matter, is thus recorded in the pages of the ancient book named hitherto: "The Board of Justices for the county of Elkhart met at the house of Chester Sage, in said county, the place appointed by law for doing county business. Whereupon came James Matthers, and pro- dncing his commission as justice of the peace from His Excellency, James B. Ray, Governor of Indiana, bearing date June 11, 1830, with the oath of office, as the law directs, in this forin:

JAMES B. RAY, Governor of Indiana :

To all who shall see these presents. Greeting: Whereas it has been certified to me by the proper authority, that James Matthers is clected to the office of Justice of the Peace for the county of Elkhart, therefore know ye, that in the name and by the authority of the State of Indiana, I do hereby commission him, the said James Matthers, Justice of the Peace for the said County of Elkhart for the term of five years from the date hereof.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused to he affixed the seal of the State, at Indianapolis, the 11th day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty, the 14th year of the State, and of the Independence of the United States the fifty-fourth.

BY THE GOVERNOR, J. B. RAY.

JAMES MORRIS, Secretary of State.

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

Mr. Matthers had yet to undergo a more terrible ordeal, which the genial Thomas could scarcely lighten. He had to take the oath of office and enter on its duties. These facts are thus placed on record in the usual form, thus: " Be it remembered that on the 28th day of June, in the year 1830, personally came James Matthers, within commissioned before me, Thomas Thomas, Clerk of the Cir- cuit Court, and subscribed the following oath :

You do solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States, and of the State of Indiana, and that you will, to the best of your abilities and judgment, discharge the duties of your office as Justice of the Peace in the County of Elkhart faithfully, and that you have not since the first day of January, Eighteen Hundred and Nineteen, either directly or indirectly, knowingly given, ac- cepted, carried a challenge to any person or persons to fight with any deadly weapon, and that you will not knowingly give, accept or carry a challenge to any person or persons to fight with any deadly weapon in single combat, either in or out of this State during your continuance in office, so help you God. Given under my hand and seal on the 28th of June, 1830.

THOMAS THOMAS, CLERK C. C., of Elkhart County. [SEAL. ]

And also comes John Jackson, and produces his Commission, as Justice of the Peacc, from His Excellency James B. Ray, Governor of Indiana, bearing date June 11, 1830, with the office endorsed thereon as the law directs.

A gubernatorial proclamation and oath of office follow. Both documents are similar to those quoted, with the necessary exception that Col. Jackson's name holds a relative position to that occupied by Mr. Matthers' name in the premier legal forms. There is such a peculiarity connected with the original record, now in possession o." Auditor Henkell, that a few changes have been made. That very little attention was bestowed upon orthoepy inthe earlier years of the county is evident. Throughout the documents quoted there is only to be found one comma; but as a set off to this negligence in composition, the patriotic spirit of the C. C. Clerk manifests itself in the monster capital letters with which such words as Independ- ence, United States, State, Elkhart and Indiana are written. There can be no doubt whatever in regard to Mr. Thomas's enthusiasm in his patriotic work, and that this militated against the observance of grammatical rules and forms, is to be supposed. June 28, 1830, a special meeting of justices was held, at which were present, James Matthers, John Jackson and Arminius C. Penwell, who pro- ceeded to elect a president. This fact is set forth in the County Records of the period thus:

Whereupon, above named now proceeded to the election by ballot of a president according to law, and after canvassing the votes given they were as follows: J.

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

Mattbers received two votes: John Jackson, one vote, and James Matthers is declared to be duly elected President of the Board of Justices of the County of Elkhart, who take the charge, as such, and a session of the board is thereupon now holden.

Present,

JAMES MATTHERS, President, JOHN JACKSON, ARMINIUS C. PENWELL, S Members.

Their work was entered upon without much ceremony, and the formation of townships proceeded with. "Concord township," ordained the Board," shall include all that part of the county between townships 36 and 37, and running thence east to the line between 6 and 7, thence north to the State line; and all that part of the county southeast shall be included in Elkhart township."

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History of Elkhart County, Indiana; together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history: portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 35

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, C. C. Chapman & co. Number of Pages: 1192

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, C. C. Chapman & co.
Number of Pages: 1192