USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana: containing a history of the townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies, etc., etc. > Part 28
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The Widow Savage subsequently married John Adams, and in 1822 removed to what is now the Ben- jamin Thomas farm, situated in the southeastern part of the township. The brick house on that farm was erected for Mr. Adams in 1822, and is thought by Mr. Savage to have been the first brick house built in the township. The brick work was done by Nathaniel Leonard, and the carpenter work by Zach- ariah Parish.
The Dickeys, James, Robert and William, settled here as early as 1815.
Samuel and Isaac Dehaven, nativos of Kentucky, immigrated to this county and settled in Harrison Township in about 1816. Isaac was in the war of 1812. Samuel Dehaven, Sr., who entered the land, was a native of Pennsylvania.
The widow of Joseph B. Shipley and mother of Samuel J. of this township settled in the county in 1819, bringing with her several children from the State of Delaware.
Samuel B. Ludlow, of New York State, in 1819 walked to the county of Fayette; subsequently entered land at the land office at Brookville, and in 1821 settled upon it.
William Monteith, a native of Pennsylvania, located in the township about the year 1818.
John Murphy, a native of Ireland, settled here in 1819. He came from the vicinity of Cincinnati, Ohio.
James C. Rea, a native of Rockbridge County, Va., located in the township in 1818, and played a conspicuous part in the affairs of the county, having been Justice of the Peace for nearly a quarter of a century, besides filling other official positions. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and subsequently Ensign and Lieutenant in 1816 and 1818 in the State Militia of Virginia, and later Colonel in the Indiana State Militia.
John Groendyke, a native of New Jersey, when young went to Long Island, N. Y., and in 1812 to Butler County, Ohio, and in 1814 to Dearborn County, this State, thence into the subdivision under consid- eration about 1819.
From about 1819 to 1822 a number of families coming from the New England States settled mostly in the "New Purchase" in the western part of the township, and founded what was called Yankeetown, which name it has since retained. Among these were Elder Minor Thomas, Joshua Wightsman, Elder Minor Meeker, Eleazer Carver, Francis Ellin- wood, Collen Smith, Stephen Ellis, and perhaps others.
Elders Minor Thomas and Minor Meeker were ministers in the Regular Baptist Church, and with their families emigrated from New York to the lands elsewhere designated, in 1819. William W. Thomas, a son, was long and favorably known to the citizens of the county. His earlier years were passed in school- teaching, but after the close of that avocation he was through a long life closely and prominently connected with the farming interests of his township.
Minor Meeker, Jr., a son of the Elder and father of C. C. Meeker, of Harrison Township, served his conn- try in the war of 1812, and represented this county several times in both branches of the Legislature. His death occurred in 1865.
Moses Ellis, of the above-mentioned family from New York, emigrated to North Bend, Ohio, in 1818 and eight years later settled in this township. He was made the first Postmaster of that settlement, com- missioned November 28, 1827. The name of the Yankeetown office was Plumb Orchard.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
One of the Wightsmans-Elias R .- subsequently removed to Texas, and there surveyed and laid out the city of Galveston.
John Thomas, the father of Benjamin Thomas, coming from New York settled here in 1822, having stopped several years in Ohio.
The Trowbridges, from New York, settled here in
1822. Levi was a Major in the war of 1812.
Thomas Shipley, a native of Maryland and soldier of the war of 1812, settled here in 1821.
In 1820 David Gordon, a North Carolinian, and Jesse Ferguson, of Kentucky, effected a settlement in the township.
Among those arriving in Harrison in 1822 and 1823 were Capt. Robert Broaddus, a Virginian, and Lewis Robinson, from New York, respectively.
Not far from this time came Zenas Powell from Kentucky, and David Wolf from the same State, the latter being a native of Maryland, but removed to Kentucky in the beginning of this century.
In 1825 settled Jonathan Clifford from Vermont, Joseph Taylor from the State of New York, though a native of Massachusetts, and Jesse Shaw from Guil- ford County, N. C. Mr. Shaw served in the war of 1812, was for a period the miller at the old Goodlander mill and in 1853 removed to Wabash County, this State, where he died in 1884, aged eighty-seven years.
INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1829.
Independence Day, 1829, was observed by the cit- izens of the county by a celebration held on the farm of Col. J. C. Rea, near the "cross-roads." The orator of the day was Samuel W. Parker; reader of the Declaration of Independence, Caleb B. Smith; Col. William Caldwell, Marshall, and Thomas J. Sample, Assistant; Adam Banks, Chaplain. The music was under the direction of Ephraim Clifford and John Sample, Jr. There was a large assembly present and after the formal exercises of the day were over some 400 ladies and 600 gentlemen were dined, and at the tables a number of toasts were drank. Good music was furnished and the occasion was livened with the discharge of artillery.
INDUSTRIES.
The first grist-mill in the township was the Jacob Goodlander mill, located in Section 7, Township 14 north, Range 13 east, on the west fork of Whitewater River. It was built prior to 1823. For a number of years Thomas Campbell was the miller. This mill was patronized extensively, persons coming to it from miles distant. There has been no grinding here for upward of thirty years.
A little more than two miles above this mill, on the river, opposite Waterloo, was the Troxell saw and
grist-mill, which was built probably forty-five years ago by Jacob Troxell. This mill also ceased opera- tions a number of years ago.
In 1819, on Lick Creek, there stood a saw-mill in Section 34, which was probably the first built in the township. Several years later it became the property of Minor Meeker, Sr., and later passed into the hands of Lewis Florea and continued in the Florea name until operations ceased. The frame is yet standing. On the same stream, probably a mile below, was the Capt. Broaddus saw-mill, built about 1839.
In an early day the eastern part of the township was well supplied with mills, there being six on Williams Creek and all within an area of four miles. The first of these was built by one of the Kings in Section 6. It was a grist-mill and ground corn only. Some years subsequent to the erection of this mill, which was not far from 1825, a factory for the man- ufacture of wooden bowls was attached and run by Anson King and Joshua Wightsman.
Another of these mills was for grinding both wheat and corn. It stood in the extreme southwest- ern part of the township and was built by Thomas Moffett probably fifty years ago. The other four were saw-mills, the oldest of which was located in Section 6, built by Levi Trowbridge not far from 1830. A little later was built another by Moses Ellis. It was located in Section 31, and passed into the hands of a son Lewis, who replaced the old mill by a large and commodious one, in which was a turning-lathe and machinery for the manufacture of shingles and lath. The mill was finally removed by Mr. Ellis to Benton - ville, where steam became the motive power. It is now in operation at that point. Some few years sub- sequent to the building of the Ellis mill, the third of the four saw-mills was built in the northern part of Section 31, by John Finney. The fourth stood in Section 7 and was built by John Campbell not far from 1842. This mill is still in existence, but has not been in operation for several years. There are at this writing no grist or permanent sawmills in the township.
Minor Meeker, Jr., carried on a tan-yard on his farm probably a half century ago, and a decade earlier Joseph Dale was operating a copper still on his land. Just north of what is known as the B. Thomas farm, a copper still was operated by Tharpe & Gordon, prior to 1839. A carding-machine was built on the branch on the D. Bale farm, by one Stockdale, about the year 1837.
Located in the northwestern part of the township are extensive tilo works, which have been in opera- tion for quite a period of years, carried on for some time by Ellis & Williams, and subsequently by John Payne, the present Auditor of the county.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
Among the early merchants at Harrisburg were Nathaniel McClure and Lyman Thomas. The firm of Lackey & McClure were granted license by the County Commissioners as merchants in the county, in July, 1827, for the period of one year, for which they paid $12.50. In August, 1828, the firm was McClure & Dickson, and in 1829 Nathaniel McClure & John Murphy. Lyman Thomas was licensed to keep a grocery and spirituous liquors at the "Cross-roads in Harrison Township" in 1828, which was renewed the following year.
SCHOOLS.
Probably as early as 1818, or thereabouts, there stood a log schoolhouse on the possessions of John Tyner, near where the lands of Mr. Tyner and those of some of the Caldwells cornered, in which school was held by William McKemmy, who is believed to have taught several consecutive terms in this building. It is thought that Manlove Caldwell and a man by the name of Banks taught later in this building or neighborhood. Mr. Train Caldwell, born in 1810, went to the Tyner schoolhouse to his first school.
On the old Williams farm in the northeast quarter of Section 6 was built oue of the early log school- houses. It is remembered to have been standing there in 1822. The following year a summer school was taught by Myriam Swisher. William W. Thomas taught here early and possibly was the first teacher in the building.
About the year 1823, or perhaps a little later, a log schoolhouse was built in the southern part of Section 12, or the northern part of Section 13. Early teachers in this house were William Nelson, a Mr. Clark and Lunsford Broaddus. The next house for this neighborhood was built one mile north.
Some years subsequent to the Tyner house, a schoolhouse was erected at Harrisburg, in which Nelson Penwell and William Thomas are remembered as having kept school.
Another of the early built schoolhouses in the northwestern part of the township stood on the pres- ent site of the Second Williams Creek Baptist Church, just across the road from the house hereto- fore mentioned on the Williams land. In about 1837 Isaac Scarce was teaching here. Other teachers in this building were Jasper Davis and Harriet Thomas. The following is a sample of a " reward of merit " of nearly sixty years ago, and was given in one or the other of these houses at this point:
"This may certify that R. Shipley is a good boy and merits the praise of his teacher. April 18, 1828,
SALLY TROWBRIDGE.
Soon after 1838 a schoolhouse was built about one and a half miles north of the one at Second Williams Creek Church, and another about half a
mile south of the church. Among those teaching in the north house were Harriet Thomas, Ann Ellis, Hiram Dale, C. M. Stone and Edwin Trowbridge.
There are now in the township six schoolhouses, as follows: one at Yankeetown; one at Harrisburg; one two miles east of Harrisburg; the Hankins school- house; the Gossipville schoolhouse, in the eastern part of the township; Elephant College, on the Henry Mygat farm; the Wilderness, about one mile south of Harrisburg, and the Schrader, about two miles south of Yankeetown.
CHURCHES.
Regular Baptist Church at Lick Creek. (1814-46.)- In the years 1813 and 1814 a number of members of the Baptist Church removed from the lower part of the Whitewater Valley, chiefly from the bounds of Little Cedar Grove Church in Franklin County, and situ- ated on the West Fork of the Whitewater River. They had letters of dismissal, and on the 14th of May, 1814, there met at the house of James Tyner the following-named nineteen persons, and were there constituted into a church by the name of Baptist Church of Jesus Christ, on Lick Creek: Johu Tyner, Forest Webb, James Tyner, Thomas Carter, Richard Kolb, William Webb, John Gilliam, Jehu Perkins, William Henderson, Jesse Webb, Robert Atkinson, Fannie Tyner, Katie Webb, Nancy Carter, Nancy Webb, Elizabeth Perkins, Lear Webb, Martha Hen- derson and Rebecca Anderson.
In the following June a committee was appointed to look out for a site for a church building; and sub- sequently the land of Forest Webb, Jr., was chosen. That spring one pole and forty perches of land were purchased of that gentleman at a cost of $6, and in the following December there were added to it three polos and fifty-two perches which were purchased of the same man, and for which $20 was paid. On this latter land it was agreed in the spring of 1816 to build a meeting-house to be thirty feet square and have a gallery. Lewis Johnson and James and Rich- ard Tyner were appointed to superintend the building of it. This church we learn was constructed of logs and stood near where the present one at the graveyard now stands, and was occupied as a house of worship until the year 1833, when a brick meeting-house 35x55 feet was erected. Enoch Applegate, John Mil- len, William W. Thomas, Alexander Dale and Will- iam Helm were appointed to superintend its erection. This building stood until 1882, when it was replaced by the present neat and commodious frame.
Forest Webb and John Tyner were chosen Deacons of the church early in 1814. For a time in the beginning, the church, we judge from the rec- ords, was served by visiting Elders, as appear in the
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
minutes the names of Elders James Smith and Stephen Oldham as Moderators (both then of other churches). Later Moderators of that early period were Forest Webb, John . Caldwell, John Tyner, Isaac Martin, Lewis Johnson, Elder William Miller and Elder Thomas.
Elder William Miller it seems was ordained as their minister June 3, 1820, and at this time appears the name of Elder William Thomas. These men were both early pastors of the church. Later, along in 1830-31-32, appear the names of Elder John Sparks, Elders Stephen Oldhamn, Joseph Martin and Wilson Thompson, the latter serving the church for a number of years beginning early in 1835.
The church on Lick Creek flourished and became one of the strong churches of the Whitewater Asso- ciation, but dissensions and controversies on points of doctrine and discipline finally arose, which terminat- ed in a division of the church, occurring in 1846, at which time the church numbered 120 members.
Out of this division grew two churches, which to- day are numbered among the living religious socie- ties of the county. The division was not simply local, but extended beyond county and even Association limits, and affected many of the Old School Baptist Churches of this entire region of the country. Both divisions or branches of the Lick Creek Church re- tained the name of the original church and each claims, we believe, to be the old organization. The same can be said of the Associations to which each belongs. It is not our purpose to set forth the claims of either, but to simply give an outline sketch of each. The two churches bearing the same name have been generally styled in order to designate one from the other, Means and Anti-means, although, we believe, the church to which has been given the name of Means does not countenance the appellation, hence as a matter of distinction we will style them North and South, in accordance with the relative positions they occupy to those cardinal points (South Church, Anti- means).
In February, 1816, Forest Webb, Jacob Young- blood and James Tyner, of the Lick Creek member- ship, were chosen to select a place for a burying- ground and the result was the origin of the old grave- yard at the Lick Creek Church. Among the aged people whose remains rest by the old church and whose graves are marked by legible tomb-stones are the following-named: John Tyner, died in 1822, aged forty five years; James Tyner, died in 1823, aged forty-seven years; Margaret Tyner, his wife, died in 1838, aged sixty-two years; Nancy Stephens, died in 1835, aged eighty-one years; Elizabeth Denman, died in 1842, aged eighty-four years; Mehitable Kolb, died 1848, aged seventy-three years; Abigail Trowbridge,
born in 1782, died in 1839; John Murphy, born in 1784, died in 1835; Doctor Ball, died in 1856, aged sixty seven years; Rachel Ball, died in 1870, aged seventy-nine years; Zenas Powell, died in 1863, aged eighty-seven years; Charity Powell, died in 1857, aged eighty-seven years; Mary Caldwell, died in 1873, aged eighty-two years; James C. Rea, died in 1876, aged eighty-seven years; John Steven, died in 1845, aged seventy-eight years; Mary Frazier, died in 1860, aged seventy-nine years; Mary Louderback, died in 1867, aged eighty years.
Regular Baptist Church of Lick Creek (South 1846 -84.)-This branch after the division retained the church property and have since worshiped at the old site, until 1882 in the old brick meeting-house at the grave-yard, and since in the neat frame edifice con- structed at that time. The regular minister of the old church at the time of the division was Elder Wil- son Thompson, who remained with those continuing worship at the same church. The membership of the Church South, or the number remaining at the old church in 1846, was about eighty-seven. Elder Thompson's successor was Elder Harvey Wright, who has served the church as regular minister the greater portion of the time ever since. During his absence for about one year his position was filled by Elder Jesse Jackson.
Elder Thmpson was a strong man both in the affairs of church and state. He was a native of Kentucky, born in Woodford County, August 17, 1788. His father was a pioneer of that State when the forests were dense and inhabited almost en- tirely by wild beasts and savage Indians. Says Thompson: "I have often sat spell-bound while hear- ing my father relate the many dangers and hair- breadth escapes of his border life, and those of the Revolution." Our subject's boyhood was consequent- ly passed amid the thrilling alarıns and trying priva- tions incident to border warfare and pioneer life. He received little schooling and that in a scattering way, attending the cabin schools for a few days at a time only, during which time he acquired only a smatter- ing of the common branches. When he commenced preaching he could not read a chapter or hymn intel- ligently. He early manifested great interest in relig- ious matters and at the age of thirteen years was con- verted. In 1810 he was licensed to preach within the bounds of the 'North Bend Association. His first sermon was preached at the house of a Mr. Cowgill, who lived near the line then dividing the counties of Boone and Campbell, Ky., he being then in his twen- ty second year. In the latter part of the year 1810 he settled in the State of Missouri and was there en- gaged in preaching for several years. In the spring of 1814 he removed to Ohio and resided near Spring-
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
field, now Springdale, Hamilton County. He had during the winter preached for the Baptist Churches at Mill Creek and Pleasant Run in that vicinity in connection with Springfield, which churches he con- tinued to attend until 1819, though in the mean- time he had made several journeys, preaching through Ohio, eastern Indiana and Kentucky; and through Kentucky, Tennessee and the Mississippi Territory. His father entered a quarter-section of land on In- dian Creek in the Whitewater country in 1814, and while prospecting in that region was accompanied by the son, who then preached his first sermon in Indi- ana.
From 1819 to 1824 he was the assistant co-laborer with Elder Clark at the Baptist Church in Lebanon, Ohio. In 1834 he removed to Fayette County, Ind., and early in 1835 he took pastoral care of the Lick Creek Church, and the superintendence of the Second Williams Creek Church. He served the former church regularly for many years as pastor, and when old and feeble occasionally preached for that people until his death, May 1, 1866.
"Elder Thompson for many years was considered one among the most able investigators of Scripture in the Regular Baptist Church. He engaged in pub- lic discussion with the most talented mind, the most popular denominations; and in all his discussions_the public judgment accorded to him great success. In public debates he had, connected with his strong rea- soning powers, the faculty of selecting his proof-texts directly to the point, depending more upon the mean- ing and purport of the texts used than on the num- ber employed. When he took a position he was care- ful that it should be a tenable one; and after taking a position, he would not suffer himself to be driven or enticed away from it."
After removing to Indiana, he made three exten- sive tours of preaching, ono in which he traveled through Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and New Jersey; another, through Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina. The other tour was through the State of Georgia.
He served several years in the State Legislature from the conuty of Fayette. His wife was Mary Gregg, whom he married in Kentucky, May 24, 1810.
Regular Baptist Church of Lick Creek (North, 1846-84) .- Some forty of the old Lick Creek Church membership, prominent among whom were James Tyner, William Webb, Alexander Dale, William W. Thomas and Enoch Applegate, withdrew therefrom in the spring of 1846, and in June declared them- selves the Regular Baptist Church of Lick Creek. Elder John Sparks was chosen their pastor. In 1847, an acre and a half of land lying one-half mile north of Harrisburg, was secured of John Caldwell and B.
S. Trowbridge, upon which was erected the present frame church edifice now standing on that site. Alex- ander Dale, William W.Thomas, and James Tyner were the first Trustees chosen. In March, 1848, Elder D. H. Drummond began giving the church a portion of his time, and in 1854 Elder George Harlan was employed, and in 1863 Elder Erasmus D. Thomas' name appears as one of the Elders of this church. The member- ship of this church is the larger of the Lick Creek churches.
Second Regular Baptist Church on Williams Creek .- This church was made up mainly by members formerly belonging to the Lick Creek Church, and was constituted July 21, 1832, representatives being pres- ent from the churches of Lick Creek, Franklin and East Fork of Flat Rock. The original membership was as follows: Eleazer Carver, Grigg M. Thomp- son, Abigail Trowbridge, Mary Johnston, Anna Draper, Harriet Thomas, Phoebe Thomas, Schuyler Jagger, D. F. Thomas, Elizabeth Stephens, Benjamin Ste- phens, Martha Morphew, W. M. Buck, Ellen F. Buck, Elizabeth Carver, Phoebe Jagger and Elizabeth Rich (of which number Grigg M. Thompson is the only one now living).
The first letter of the church and messengers were sent to the Whitewater Association July 21, 1833, the letter being prepared by Grigg M. Thompson and Nathan Morphew. The following August the church was received into the Association"as one of its mem- bers.
The first Clerk of the church was Nathan Morphew, who was followed by G. M. Thompson. For several years prior to the building of a meeting-house, serv- ices were held at the schoolhouse then standing on the present site of their house of worship, which'is of frame, and was built in 1846. The Trustees then chosen were Drury Tyner, Lewis H. Johnston and E. Carver.
The pastors of this society have been Elders James Newhouse, G. M. Thompson, Wilson Thompson, and later, John Sparks, David Drummond, William Sparks, E. D. Thomas and Charles Reed.
Wiley Chapel (Methodist Episcopal Church) .- This church, located at the graveyard near Williams Creek, in the southwestern part of the township, is the out- growth of a class early organized at the house of a Mr. Hawkins in that vicinity. In 1823 among the members were the Hawkinses, the Curtises, Morrises and Weltons. The charge, on the organization of the Connersville Circuit in 1822, was placed on that cir- cuit, and it has since remained on the same circuit and circuits, growing out of the old Connersville Cir- cuit (Columbia and Glenwood).
In about the year 1836 a common place for the worship of this society was at the house of Thomas
اوى ميلة
fileman
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
Moffitt, and in that vicinity about this period was a favorite camp-meeting ground. Sabbath-school, too, was held in a building belonging to Mr. Moffitt, which had previously been used for a store. Among the members of the church at about this period were Thomas Moffitt and wife, Robert Fielding and wife, John Hawkins and wife, and Mrs. Mary Campbell. The frame edifice now standing, though since remod- eled, was built not far from the year 1844. The ground for both church and burial purposes was deeded to the church by John Hawkins.
The first interment made in the graveyard was the body of Frances M. Moffitt, who died March 10, 1845, aged five years.
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