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 5
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Gen. Wayne's victory over the Indians, August 20, 1794, put a check to their depredations but did not at once reduce them to absoluto submission. In March, 1795, one man was killed and eight horses stolen in the village of North Bend. The treaty of peace at Greenville, concluded August 3, 1795, put an end to the murder of white men by Indians in the Miami country and was signalized by rapid immigra- tion thither and opened the way for further explora- tion and immigration to the territory of eastern and southern Indiana.
It is not improbable that the Whitewater Valley was as early explored as the division to which it be- longs. It is a matter of record that from 1796 to 1799 many settlers had established themselves throughout Dearborn County.
The Rev. Allen Wiley, one of the pioneer preach- ors of the Whitewater country, and well known to many of the pioneers yet living in this section, in 1845-46 wrote a series of articles which appeared in the Western Christian Advocate published in Cinein- nati, titled "Introduction and Progress of Method- ism in Southeastern Indiana." Mr. Wiley was a man of unusually large experience and knowledge of the people and times whereof he wrote. He says: "In the autumn of 1804 my father came to Indiana and settled about three miles above where Harrison now stands, I being then in my sixteenth year. The country was then somewhat densely settled along the
river up to what was called the Lower Narrows, six or seven miles above where Whitewater leaves Indi- ana. As well as I remember there was one family on the southwest side of the river opposite the before mentioned narrows; another family on the same side opposite the narrows above the present town of New Trenton, and another on the same side in the bottom below the present town of Rochester, now Cedar Grove. Three-quarters of a mile above Big Cedar Grove Creek, Mr. John Conner, an Indian trader, had a store kept by a Frenchman, hence the store was called the 'French store.'
"I have now gone to the ultima thule or verge of the white population in the Whitewater Valley in 1804. There were a few families on Johnson's Fork. In the spring of 1805 two settlements were formed on the East Fork of Whitewater; the one a little north of the town of Richmond, in Wayne County, was called the Kentucky settlement, because most of the families were from Kentucky; the other was some distance above the town of Brookville, near where Fairfield now stands, and was called the Carolina settlement because the most of the families were from South Carolina. The same spring Mr. William Tyner, a Baptist minister, settled abont one and one- half miles below Brookville and Mr. Thomas Williams one mile above on the south side of West Fork. At that time I presume the land on which the flourishing town of Brookville now stands was the property of the Gov. ernment. At the period of which I now write (1805) the only mill for all the upper Whitewater country was on the edge of Ohio, owned by Mr. Thomas Smith, of Kentucky, so that the Kentucky settlement had to travel some fifty miles to mill, and the Carolina set- tlers twenty-five. Sometimes, perhaps, the former went across through the wilderness to Four and Seven Mile Creeks, near the Great Miami, because they were some nigher."
Of the two settlements referred to by Mr. Wiley the " Carolina Colony" was composed of the following named heads of families: Robert Hanna, Sr., John Templeton, George Leviston, William Logan, Joseph Hanna, John Ewing and Robert Swan. These fam-
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
ilies as early as the year 1801 had settled on the Dry Fork of Whitewater River, near Harrison, and there remained until the spring of 1805. However, in the meantime the male members of the families had ex- plored the country along East Fork, and doubtless elsewhere and determined upon the sites of their future homes. Then returning to their families on Dry Fork, there remained until the summer or fall of 1804.
These families were nearly all related, and the party was under the leadership of Robert Templeton and Robert Hanna. In the summer or fall of 1804 they started for the Whitewater region, their route being a "blazed" one and was ever afterward known as the "Carolina Trace." The first of the cabins built is believed to have been the one subsequently occupied by Robert Templeton and family and was located in Fairfield Township, Franklin County. Nine cabins were built extending along East Fork through what are now Fairfield Township in Franklin County and Harmony and Liberty Townships in Union County. The cabins were occupied in the spring of 1805.
Concerning the Kentucky settlement Mr. A. W. Young, author of the "History of Wayne County," published in 1872 writes: "In the year 1805 the first settlement of white men on the banks of Whitewater was commenced and the first rude cabin built. In the spring of that year George Holeman, Richard Rue and Thomas McCoy, with their families, from Ken- tucky, settled about two miles south of where Rich- mond now stands. Rue and Holeman had served under Gen. Clark in his Indian campaigns several years before the formation of the Northwestern Ter- ritory under the ordinance of 1787. Both had been captured by the Indians and held as prisoners about three years and a half. Both also lived on the lands on which they settled until their deaths, far advanced in age. Rue was the first Justice of the Peace in this part of the country.
"Holeman and Rue selected and entered their lands late in 1804, at Cincinnati, on their way home. Early in the winter they returned to build cabins for their families, bringing with them, on their horses, such tools as were necessary in that kind of architecture, and a few cooking utensils. Holeman's two eldest sons, Joseph and William, then about eighteen and sixteen years of age, accompanied their father, to assist in his initiatory pioneer labor. In a very few days two cabins were ready for occupancy. Rue and Holeman, leaving the boys to take care of themselves, started again for Kentucky to bring their families."
In 1879 William McClure, whose father, coming from Kentucky, settled near Cleves in 1804, said:
"I learned from Capt. Isaac Fuller, of this county,
(Franklin), 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 ever raised by white men in the Big Bottom. He also told me he had a brother about sixteen years of age taken by the Indians from North Bend, about 1795. He had been sent after the cows. The Indians decoyed him by using a bell. His father alone followed them to near Brookville, and stayed all night on the place on which I now live, and watched the movements of the Indians, but was unable to effect his son's release. The Indians took him to the Upper Wabash country, and he remained with them about two years. He was left by his master at the camp with the squaws, with directions what to do, but after the Indians left, one of the squaws, a half-sister of the celebrated Tecum. seh, ordered him to work at something else, which he refused to do, when she tried to kill him. He kept out of her way for the time, believing she would kill him if she had an opportunity. Soon after he went with her fishing, and watching an opportnuity, he struck her with a club on the back of the head and knocked her into a deep hole of water, where he sup- posed she was drowned. Then he struck out for Detroit, where he arrived in about a week, subsisting himself as best he could, being followed by the In- dians all the way, whom he succeeded in eluding. After he arrived in Detroit he found a friend, who secreted him for a day or two, until the Indians ceased hunting for him, when he conveyed him over to Maldon, on the Canada side of the Detroit River, from which place he went to Buffalo, N. Y., and from there he weut home through New York and Pennsyl- vania, and down the Ohio River."
As many of the early settlers of Fayette County had first settled in what is now Franklin County and territory further south and subsequently removed further north and settled permanently, we will give the names of some common to both counties.
As early as 1802 or 1803 on Dry Fork lived the Athertons; in 1804, the Cottons near Harrison; at Harrison and below, the Cooleys, Allens and the Backhouses; above Harrison, John Caldwell and the Eads; further north were the Hacklemans, the Mc- Cartys and Adairs; about New Trenton in 1807 lived the Rockefellars, and in the vicinity settled early the Brownlees; the Higgs and Blades settled early on Blue Creek.
POSITION OF THE LANDS OF THE COUNTY.
The lands of Fayette County are composed of two distinct tracts ceded to the United States Government by as many different treaties. What is known as the " Twelve- Mile Boundary Line " is a line which begins at Fort Recovery, in Ohio, extending thence in a due
36
HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
southwesterly direction until it arrives at a point twelve miles distant from the "Indian Boundary Line," thence parallel with said "Indian Boundary Line," until it intersects the Grouseland Boundary Line at a point a little west of the southwest corner of Franklin County. This boundary was established by a treaty held at Fort Wayne in 1809.
This line passes through Fayette County, entering it at a point in the northeast corner of Posey Town- ship, passing in a southwesterly direction and ont of the county at a point in the southeastern corner of Orange Township. The lands of the county lying east of this boundary are in the "Twelve-Mile Purchase," and were surveyed and ready for market in 1811. The lands lying west of the boundary are in what is known as the "New Purchase," which was ceded to the United States Government by a treaty concluded at St. Mary's, Ohio, October 3, 1818. These land were not surveyed and ready for market until 1820. The greater portion of the territory of the county lies within the " Twelve-Mile Purchase." The land office for the sale of the " Twelve- Mile Purchase " was located at Cincinnati, Ohio, while that of the New Purchase was situated at Brookville, Ind.
JOHN AND WILLIAM CONNER, AND OTHER EARLY SETTLERS.
It is our belief that no account of the first settle- ment made within the present limits of Fayette County bas ever been given to print, and if narrated the lips from whence it came have long since been sealed and the parties to whom given have taken their final sleep, and none live to-day to satisfactorily present it. There is, however, little doubt but that the trad. ing-post established by John Conner (or possibly by both of the Conners) on the present site of the city bearing his name, marked the first white man's cabin and from it gleamed forth the first ray of civilization from the surrounding wild forests of, perhaps, four score years ago.
In 1788 or thereabonts there resided in the State of Pennsylvania a family by the name of Conner, which at that time were taken captives by the Indians (the Shawnees, we believe,) and carried away to Detroit, remaining in state of captivity sufficiently long to become thoroughly acquainted with the Indian lan- guage, customs, etc., etc. They were finally, through the interposition of some French residents at that place, liberated, the father remaining a permanent resident of that city. In 1798, at the age of eighteen years, William Conner left his paternal hearth-stone and sought to carve out for himself his own fortune, and with this view he settled at Saginaw Bay and there commenced trading with the Indians. At this early period of Western history the trader was both a traveler and a hunter. To lay in his stock of goods
it was necessary to make long and wearisome jour- neys through the forest upon horseback, and the trans- portation of his goods was effected upon pack-horses. In his journeyings his eye was attracted by the nat- ural beauty of scenery, the richness of the soil, the abundance of game of the fur-bearing species, and the commanding locality of Hamilton County (Indiana), and in 1802 he settled in a beautiful prairie, which has ever since borne his name (located a little below Noblesville). Here he established a trading post, which for many years was the great central mart at which the varions tribes inhabiting central Indiana did their trading.
At what time John Conner left Detroit and where he first began his trading with the Indians is not known to the writer. It may be that he accompanied his brother William, for the Hon. Elijah Hackleman, of Wabash, in a contribution of "Reminiscences " to the Rushville Republican in 1884, speaks of the two as building.a trading house in what is now Franklin County, in the early history of the Whitewater Val- ley. Whether the two were together or not, it is rea- sonable to presume that as each followed the same business in those early times, they were at least in intercourse with each other.
The first definite knowledge we have of John Con- ner's presence in the Whitewater country is given in the writings of Rev. Allen Wiley, heretofore spoken of. In speaking of the year 1804 Mr. Wiley says: "Three-quarters of a mile above Big Cedar Grove Creek, Mr. John Conner, an Indian trader, had a store kept by a Frenchman, hence the store was called the French store."
William McClure, from whom we have elsewhere quoted, as nearly as we can judge of the year 1807, writes: "John Conuer and Pilkey, Indian traders, had a store in the bottom, where John T. Cooley for- merly lived." And the author of the "History of Franklin County " says of this store: "There is little doubt but this trading post was the first white man's establishment within the limits of the county. No traditions of an earlier one are found among the peo- ple of to-day."
The next point for consideration is the establish- ment of the trading-post of Conner, or Conner & Pilkey, further north in Fayette County, on the site of the city of Connersville. From what has been said above Conner is known to have been above Big Cedar Grove Creek in 1804, and probably in 1807, but the time of his removal or abandonment of that post for the one further up on the frontier can only be arrived at by tradition. Thomas Simpson, now a resident of the county, aged eighty-four years, with a clear mem- ory and vivid recollection of the past, is authority for the saying that John Conner had his trading-post
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
here at Connersville in the year 1808. Mr. Simpson's father was through the county at that time, and found Conner here; so it is fair to conclude that the post was established here some time between 1804 and 1808.
About the first of the present century the Conners were found among the most expert Indian traders of Indiana Territory, and soon attracted the attention of Gov. Harrison, who in his intercourse with the Indians employed them as interpreters. As early as 1805, at the treaty of Grouseland, August 1, we find that John Conner acted iu that capacity. From that time on to the treaty of Wabash, October 23, 1826, and during the interval, in which ten treaties had been held with the Indians, one and sometimes both of these gentle- men were employed as interpreters, and during the war William Conner was the principal military inter- preter of Gov. Harrison.
After the battle of the Thames, in which he was engaged, he was specially deputied by Gen. Harrison to recognize the body of Tecumseh, with whom he had long been acquainted.
John Conner is said to have had for å wife an Indian woman and a son by the name of James, a half-blood. The Indian wife died about the close of the last war with England, and he then married Lavina, daughter of Jabez Winship, who lived on Little Cedar Grove. In 1813 he laid out the town of Connersville, and had, as early as 1810, a grist and saw-mill in operation near the trading-post, which was probably two hundred yards up the branch from the A. B. Conwell mill building, on Eastern Avenue. In 1816 he served in the State Senate, and was the first Senator for this county and the first Sheriff. He was an active business man in early Connersville, carrying on milling, farming and merchandising. He removed from the village he had founded to the vicinity of Noblesville, this State, in 1823, and, it is said, some years later died while on a trip or visit to the city of Indianapolis, which city he had, in com- pany with nine others, selected and located the per- manent seat of justice of the State.
Concerning the Conners, we give the following from the pen of Hon. Samuel W. Parker, written in 1855: "Some twenty-five years ago, a stranger of venera- ble and martial appearance by the name of Rankin, from Kentucky, passing through the country stopped and dined at Sample's Hotel, now the Bate's House in this town, where I was then boarding. The name of our town reminding the stranger of his old friends, the Conners, he inquired after John and William, evidently with much interest; he then observed that he had made their acquaintance during the late war with Great Britain, and knew them well; remarked that in a perilous march he made under Gen. Harrison up toward the lakes, the Conners were
selected for the guides of the army; that they had a deep stream to cross over a difficult and dangerous ford, where the Indian ambuscade was apprehended; that Gen. Harrison came to him before they entered the stream, and observed: 'I think these Conners are true, but some stories to their prejudice have come to my ears, and from the fact that they have been among the British and Indians the most of their days, I must confess to enough of suspicion to be on the lookout. They say they understand this ford, and can and will conduct us safely over. If they could be in league with the enemy and betray us, here is the place for it to be done. Do you fol- low close after them with your hand upon your hol- sters, and should they for a moment lead us into water too deep for fording, shoot them down.' They entered the stream, Rankin close after, and the whole army following. Near the middle the horses of the guides stepped into a deep place. In an instant, both exclaimed, as Rankin's cocked pistol was pre- sented: 'Hold! the ford is changed. We'll be right in a moment!' In a moment they were right again, and all got safely over. 'And that moment,' said the narrator, 'saved the life of the proprietor of your town, and his brother, William; whom,' said he, 'I afterward found to be as true and noble Americans as ever I knew.' "
Mr. Parker remarked that the incident was given as substantially received, saying: "I can't vouch for its authenticity, having never seen or heard of it else- where; nor seen nor heard of the strange Kentuckian before or since, but I know of no reason to question its accuracy."
In 1808-09, Thomas Simpson, Sr., a native of Maryland, was employed as hunter to, and accom- panied the surveying party, while they were engaged in surveying the lands of the "Twelve-Mile Pur- chase," at which time he traversed the territory of the county throughout, and in the month of Decem- ber, 1809, removed his family to a cabin house, which had previously been erected for the surveying party, and stood on what is now the northeastern part of Jennings Township.
Daniel Green, it is said, while prospecting for land further south, in what is now Franklin County, in the year 1809, was attracted by the sound of a cow bell, and on following its sound he came to a cabin, occupied by John Eagan and family, situated along the river in what is now Jackson Township, some little distance south of the bridge over the river at Nulltown. Mr. Eagan was an Irishman, but came from Maryland here, and both he and Simpson remained permanent settlers.
At what time the Eagan settlement was made is not now known, yet it is quite probable that it did not
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
precede the trading-post of Conner. The account of this settlement is purely traditional and the date un- supported by family record or other history, so far as we can learn; yet it is not at all improbable, as John Eagan and his brother William were very early set- tlers along the river, the former entering land in Jackson Township in 1811.
The settlements of Conner and Simpson are the earliest made in the county of which anything defi- nite or satisfactory can be ascertained.
Family traditions concerning the early settlements often confound the date of the first visit of a pioneer to his lands, or the date of his purchase, with that of his settlement. Many of the pioneer settlers of the county first stopped in the county south (Franklin), and subsequently moved further north and made set- tlements within the present limits of Fayette County. Family traditions of such frequently confound these dates.
From known facts we can safely assume that there were few settlers within the present limits of the county prior to 1811, at which time the tide of immi- gration set in.
The details of the early settlements belong to the several townships, where they will be found.
PIONEER LIFE.
The first dwellings of the pioneers were the round- log-cabins, constructed as follows: Round logs of proper size were selected, notched at the ends, the spaces between the logs being filled in with pieces of wood and daubed with clay. The roof was made by laying small logs or stout poles, reaching from gable to gable, suitable distances apart, on which were laid the split clap-boards after the manner of shingling, showing two feet or more to the weather. These clap-boards were fastened by laying across them heavy poles, called weight poles, reaching from one gablo to the other. The floor was of puncheons split from logs several inches in thickness, hewed on the upper side. The chimney was made of sticks laid up cob-house fashion, gradually narrowed in at the top and plastored with clay. For a window, a small opening was made and greased paper, for admitting light, was pasted over it. The door was of clap- boards hung on wooden hinges. Such a house was built by a neighborhood gathering, with no tools but the axe and the frow, and often was completed in a single day.
The internal arrangements of one of these rude dwellings has thus been described: "The door is opened by pulling a leather string that lifts a wooden latch on the inside. (The inmates made themselves secure in the night season by pulling the string in.) On entering it (it being meal-time) we find a portion
of the family sitting around a large chest in which their valuables had been brought, but which now serves as a table from which they are partaking their plain meal, cooked by a log-heap fire. In one corner of the room are two or more clap-boards on wooden pins, displaying the table-ware, consisting of a few cups and saucers, and a few blue-edged plates, with a goodly number of pewter plates, perhaps standing singly on their edges, leaning against the wall, to render the display of table furniture more conspicu- ons. Underneath this cupboard are seen a few pots and perhaps a Dutch oven. Not many chairs having been brought in, the deficiency has been supplied with stools made of puncheon boards, with three legs. Over the doorway lies the indispensable rifle on two wooden hooks, probably taken from a dog-wood bush aud nailed to a log of the cabin. Upon the inner walls hang divers garments of female attire, made of cotton and woolen fabrics, and, perhaps, one or two blue and white calico dresses which had done long service in the Carolinas before their transportation hither."
Rev. William C. Smith, in his " Indiana Miscella- nies," thus speaks of one way of lighting these primi - tive homes: "During the day the door of the cabin was kept open to afford light, and at night, through the winter season, light was emitted from the fire- place, where huge logs were kept burning. Candles and lamps were out of the question for a few years. When these came into use they were purely domestic in their manufacture. Candles were prepared by taking a wooden rod some ten or twelve inches in length, wrapping a strip of cotton or linen around it, then covering it with tallow pressed on with the hand. These "sluts," as they were sometimes called, answered the purpose of a very large candle, and afforded light for several nights. Lamps were pre- pared by dividing a large turnip in the middle, scraping out the inside quite down to the rind, then inserting a stick, say three inches in length, in the center, so that it would stand upright. A strip of cotton or linen cloth was then wrapped around it, and melted lard or deer's tallow was poured in till the turnip rind was full, when the lamp was ready for use. By the light of these during the long winter evenings the women spun and sewed, and the men read when books could be obtained. When neither lard nor tallow could be had, the large blazing fire supplied the needed light. By these great fire-places many cuts of thread have been spun, many a yard of linsey woven, and many a frock and buckskin panta- loons made." The second-class dwelling was the hewed-log-house, more pretentious in looks and more comfortable. These could be made as comfortable as any kind of building. Log-cabin raisings and log-
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