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 6
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
rollings were occasions of great social intercourse. Preparations for such occasions were made in advance of the appointed day; trees were selected and felled, the logs dragged in, the skids and forks made ready and the foundations laid. At the time fixed upon for the raising the neighbors assembled for miles around, captains were chosen and the work progressed with great dispatch, and amid much glee and merriment, until the walls were up and the roof weighted down.
The land of this region in its primitive state was covered with heavy timber, beneath which was an undergrowth of various kinds, such as spicewood, leatherwood, elderberry and some bearing fruits, as grapes, plums, gooseberries, pawpaws, crab apples, etc., with plenty of nettles, grass, peavine and weeds in the summer.
The labor of opening up a farm was no little task; the trees were to be felled, the branches severed from their trunks, and the underbrush gathered together for burning. The trunks of the large trees were to be divided and rolled together and reduced to ashes. It is said with hard labor the unaided settler could clear and burn an acre of ground in three weeks.
Different methods and practices of clearing land have been resorted to by the pioneer of different localities. In some States it was the custom to cut down all the timber at first, but this did not prevail here. The bushes were either cut down or grubbed out, and the smaller trees were chopped down. The large trees were left standing, and "deadened " by girdling. On this subject Dr. Mason, who settled in the county in 1816, says: "I had a fine creek bottom of some ten acres, a portion of which had been grubbed of the underbrush, and I determined upon clearing and fencing five acres of it to put into corn. The timber had been deadened and was light, except some large sycamore trees. Around those I piled brush and built fires, and in this way killed most of them."
Flax was cultivated and sheep raised, and there- from by the spinning-wheel and hand-loom wearing apparel manufactured. Carding wool by hand was not uncommon. "Both men and women were clad iu linen and linsey, all of their own manufacture. Some wore buck-skin breeches and moccasins, but they gen- erally had linen for every-day wear, and a man was fortunate who could get 'six hundred linen' for shirts and pantaloons for Sunday. The women would color the linen thread with copperas, or some cheapdye, and stripe or cross their dresses, and when they got thom on they were about as proud and put on as many airs as they do at the present day. Once in awhile one of the more fortunate ones would get hold of six yards of calico, which was a full pattern in those days, and when they got it made up with two strings
sewed on to the waist behind, and brought before and tied, it would do you good to see them spread them- selves, and unless a man had plenty of dollars he could not shine with them."
The breaking up of ground and cultivation of crops was attended with difficulty. The bar-share and shovel plows, and later the bull plow with wooden mouldboard, husk collars and tug, and rope traces and withs; the sickle nrst, then the cradle and scythe, and threshing with a flail or treading out with horses, and cleaned by means of a sheet by the aid of several per- sons, characterized the implements of farming.
Almost the only modes of travel in those times were on foot or on horseback. Corn and wheat were taken to the mill on horseback; friends and relatives in the distant East were visited on horseback. Salt iron and such other commodities as were indispensable were frequently carried by means of pack-horses; and often settlers came to their forest homes by this means. Lawyers and preachers made the circuit in this way, and the roads were mere paths with notched or blazed trees as a guide.
The procuring of bread was often a hardship to the pioneer; mills in early times were few and far between and of rude construction, making it often a journey of miles through an almost trackless forest and over bridgeless streams, the trip fraught with danger on every hand.
At the time of its settlement this region was in- habited by deer, wolf, bear, wild cat, fox, otter, por- cupine; occasionally a panther, turkey, raccoon, skunk, mink, rattlesnake and blacksnake.
Almost countless numbers of squirrels were to be found in the woods and great watchfulness was re- quired on the part of the settler to protect his corn- fields from destruction both from these and other ani- mals, and from birds. Blackbirds in large flocks were destructive to the corn while yet soft, and later on the raccoon and squirrel. Squirrel hunts were frequent and prizes paid in corn to those killing the greatest number. We have before us a paper showing the names of persons engaged in a squirrel hunt on the 11th and 12th of August, 1820, with the number of squirrels killed by each and the number of bushels of corn each received. The number killed was 502.
The social gatherings were attended by all, the settlers were mutually dependent upon each other, and more hospitality was the result. As we have heretofore remarked, at the log-rollings and house- raisings the whole neighborhood was present, and at the quiltings and huskings the same spirit was char- acteristic. The long winter evenings were spent in contentment, but not in idleness.
In speaking of pioneer days in this county Hon. Samuel Little, of Nebraska, thus wrote in 1879:
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
"To recount the toils of the past, enumerate the privations and note the pleasures of pioneer life in Fayette County, and contrast the ' then' of the past with the ' now' of the present, must produce a glow of honest pride in the breasts of the aged few who yet remain to recount the past and survey the present.
" Each of you for self can look at the present as it lies before you, and I will not attempt to picture it, but hope to recall somewhat of the condition of the county in 1833, when I located among you.
"That portion of the county lying east of the 'old boundary line' being settled ten years earlier than the west side, had nearly passed the stage of log-cabins. Every farm had its occupant, many had comfortable frame or brick dwellings, and some had barns and fruit-bearing orchards; but nearly all the improvements on our western border were of a primi- tive character, and it is mainly of this part of the county, in which I lived for forty-three years,. I would speak.
"Farms ranged in size from a forty-acre tract to a quarter section, and nearly all of them had some improvement. The log-cabin was the prevailing dwelling, and it was almost always surrounded by a cleared patch, or deadening, ripening for the fire, by whose agency it was cleared up for the plow. So dense was the forest that the only evidences of other occupied farms near by was the sound of the ax, the crowing fowls or barking watch-dog.
" Paths leading from cabin to cabin passed around large trees or logs and over streamlets, led us through the tangle of spice-wood or pawpaw in our neighbor- ly visits, and highways were marked out and cordu- roy bridges bore us over marshes ou our way to mar- ket, public worship, or to mill in our wagons, up hill and down the same, and through streams, which were . all without bridges. The stumps, roots and logs gave the beaten track a serpentine direction, which re- quired great skill in the teamster. If Levi Conwell were here he could tell you all about it, or if you ask Uncle Billy Simpson how he used to freight A. B. Conwell's whisky and flour to Cincinnati and return with a load of store goods, he can describe it better than I can. Pork and the articles named were our staple productions. Cincinnati was our only market. Our pork was driven on foot, requiring an average of eight days to reach our destination, three to close out the sale, and two more to return. The entire trip consumed about two weeks' time. Wheat sold in Cin- cinnati in 1834 at 50 cents per bushel, flour for $2.75 per barrel, and Uncle Abe can give you the price of whisky; as I did not handle it my memory is at fault. We got but little money, and we spent lit- tle. Our food grew on our farms, and our clothing was mostly home made, growing in the flax patch or
on the sheep's back, and its manufacture was mostly domestic. The flax-pulling and wool-picking were frequently done by combination or neighborhood frolics, and were occasions of great social pleasure. There are mothers present who could tell how they used to race with their sweet-hearts at the flax-pull- ings, and some of them recollect how the points of their fingers ached after pulling the burs and stick- tights out of the wool. Yes, and how they enjoyed their trip on foot to the spelling-match or singing. school with their beaux by their side, just to help them over the fences and mud holes. Or, perchance, they rode behind on the same horse, so that if the horse stumbled they could hold on! I can answer for the other sex that a girl behind me on a stumbling horse was rather awkward, but not at all unpleasant.
"Don't you grand-dames recollect how the flyers of the flax wheel hummed whilst your gent sat by you, or how your bare feet tripped over the puncheon floor to the sound of the big wheel as you drew out those long threads of yarn which were to be converted into the winter's wear. I assure you it was a pleasure to sit by whilst the shuttle flew from hand to hand as that yarn grew into cloth. The wheel and loom did not sound so refined as the organ and the piano, but their product was far more useful. Most families were thus clothed. We used but little tea or coffee, and the sugar camp furnished our sweets. Our log. rollings, house-raisings and harvesting cultivated a social spirit and placed us all on an equality, as we were mutually dependent. Men and women did their own work with but little hired help. Wages were low (from $10 to $12 per month), but money was scarce. I reaped with a reaping-hook, in the harvest of 1834 for 62} cents per day, and cradled the fol- lowing harvest for $1 per day. Our farm tools were quite simple, but cost but little money. We used the 'bull' plow with wooden mould-board and iron share for turning the soil, and the single shovel- plow for cultivating the crop. This, with a swingle- tree and harness, trace-chains and back-band, fur- nished out our rig. We had no cultivators, single or double, nor riding plows. We had never seen a reaper, or mower, nor could we have used them among the stumps. Nor had we any threshing machines. Our small grain was threshed out by flail or tramped ont by horses on an earthen floor prepared for the purpose, and cleaned by a fanning mill with wooden cogs. The fall season was mostly occupied in burn- ing off the rubbish of our deadenings, and keeping our 'niggers' busy in preparing the logs for rolling in the spring. Our logs were rolled into heaps and burned in the spring, the rails or fencing having been made during the intervening winter. Stormy days and winter nights were used to make and repair the
Ханнов. Алао
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
family shoes from leather tanned in our county, and largely made by the farmers at their own firesides, which were wide and warmed by a bountiful supply of fuel. If some of you old folks will mentally take an inventory of an average dwelling of those days, you would find as a part of its appendages a shoe- bench, with needed tools, spinning-wheels, for flax and wool. The hand loom and warping-bars, the wash-tub, in which the clothes were cleansed without even a waslıboard, the Dutch oven, in which the corn- pone and chicken-pie were baked, and by its side a dinner-pot, skillet and tea-kettle, but no cook stove. A Bible and some school-books, added to some furni- ture of homo-make, almost complete the picture. The active men and women here to-day were born and reared in just this kind of place. Our streams were bridgeless; our commerce had neither turupikes nor railroads; our business was done without telegraph, and we talked without telephones, and when you take a survey of your surroundings, the present generation, your offspring, your rich and beautiful farms, villages, cities, and their manufactories, together with all your moral, social and religious advantages, don't you think that we did well, and don't you join me in the wish that our children may do better ?"
FRIENDLY AND HOSTILE INDIANS.
At the dawning of civilization upon the White- water country, the series of conflicts with the Indi- ans that had been carried on to the east throughont the Northwest Territory for a long period of years had hardly been allayed; and the early settlers were for a time considerably annoyed by the Indians. The pio- · neer was frightened by open menaces and actual mur- ders. The Rev. W. C. Smith, author of "Indiana Miscellanies," recollects of having heard an Indian relate the first one of several instances of his taking the lives of white persons. At the age of about four -. teen, he was permitted to accompany a party of " braves" going to a white settlement to scalp and plunder, on a promise that he would be brave. The first night he and another young Indian were sent to reconnoitre a cabin. They returned and reported that there were in it but a man and woman. They were ordered to go back and kill them. They returned to the cabin, and shot through an opening of the jambs, enterod the cabin and scalped them, and returned to their comrades with the bloody trophies. We quote again from Mr. Wiley, whom it will be remembered settled in the Whitewater country in 1804: "In all the upper Whitewater country, the Abo- rigines were numerous and used to come among us for traffic, but their great headquarters for that purpose was the before-mentioned store owned by Mr. Conner. When they visited us they behaved civilly, and we
had no difficulty with them at that time." Through- out the valley horse-stealing and other depredations were occasionally committed by them.
A campaign against the Indians was inaugurated by the United States Government in 1811, and on the 7th of November of that year the battle of Tip- pecanoe was fought under Gen. Harrison. The settlements along Whitewater were frontier posts, and ere the declaration of war against Great Britain was proclaimed, block-houses were built extending along the main stream and each branch and point of settlement further west, through what are now Frank- lin, Fayette, Union and Wayne, and perhaps other counties. Beginning at the south there was a block- house about half a mile above Johnson's Fork on the bank of the river; one three and a half miles below Brookville on the farm of Conrad Sailors; one each on Pipe and Salt Creeks, and porhaps several on West Fork before entering what is now Fayette County; soveral on East Fork extending through Franklin and Union Counties, one of which, an important one too, was located where the village of Brownsville now is, in the vicinity of which a com- pany of volunteers had been raised under Capt. Myers and performed service on the frontier. There stood a block-house just below Nulltown, one in the north- ern part of Harrison Township, and several through Wayne County. Maj. Helm, who resided near the block-house at Nulltown, was in command along the frontier. It is not presumed that at each of these several block-houses were garrisoned United States soldiers; the frontier was somewhat guarded, and perhaps for a time might have been stationed at the larger and more outward posts, troops. While the settlers resorted to this means of defense or protec- tion, we believe no engagements or encounters at them ever occurred with the Indians, especially within the limits of Fayette County. During the war Indian alarms were frequent and the settlers were kept con- stantly in a state of disquiet. Rev. Mr. Smith, in giving a description of one of these block-houses says, " They were made of two rows (sometimes but one row) of split timbers, twelve to fourteen feet long, planted in the ground two and a half or three feet deep. The timbers of the second row were so placed as to cover the tracks of the first. Small cabins were erected inside of the stockades for the accommoda- tion of the families; usually one block-house was built in each fort. These block-houses were two-sto- ries high, the upper story projecting over the lower, say two feet, with port holes in the floor of the pro- jection, so that the men could see to shoot the Indi- ans if they succeeded in getting to the walls of the block-house. There were also port holes in the walls of the upper and lower stories, through which shoot.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
ing of much execution could be performed as the foe was advancing."
Several murders committed by the Indians oc- curred throughout the Whitewater Valley, but none, we believe, happened within the limits of Fayette County. Says the author of the "Wayne County History " published in 1872, "In 1811 John Short- ridge was shot by an Indian south of the prosent town of Germantown and about a milo east of Milton, while riding on horseback, in company with George Ish. This, however, is said to have been done by mis- take. The Indian had had some difficulty with a man by the name of Isaac Drury. Shortridge, having on Drury's overcoat, was mistaken for the owner, and shot on his white horse. He was carried about a mile to a fort which had been built half a mile south of where Germantown now is. Word having been sent to the fort north (Boyd Fort), Samuel K. Boyd and Larkin Harding went down and attended Shortridge until his death the next day. For the want of boards to make a coffin, puncheon floor planks were used for the purpose."
Two men, Tune and Stafford, were killed by the Indians in what is now Franklin County in the spring of 1813. Mr. McClure in his notes speaks of the killing as having occurred at the same time while they were engaged in burning brush on Salt Creek. The date of the murder as fixed by Hon. Elijah Hackleman was March!13, 1813.
Charles Morgan, residing near the stream now called Morgan's Creek, and two boys or youths, his half-brothers, named Beesly, were killed near a sugar-camp by Indians in the evening. The leader or principal in this murder is supposed-perhaps gen- erally-to have been the notorious Indian, John Green. This supposition is probably based upon the fact that a mutual hatred existed between him and Morgan. The writer has been informed upon author- ity which he cannot doubt, that Morgan, under the apprehension that Green was meditating his murder, intended to take the life of Green in order to save his own, and that he once started from home with the avowed intent of waylaying his adversary for this purpose. Although Green had probable designs against Morgan, and perhaps was accessory to the murder, there is strong presumptive evidence that he was not present when it was committed. The sus- pected murderers, four in number, were traced toward Muncietown and overtaken, and one of them shot; the others escaped. Morgan and his brothers were all scalped. The murder was committed in the spring of 1813. This occurrence induced many families to take shelter in the forts erected for their protection. -A. W. Young.
Mr. Hackleman fixes the date of this murder on
the same night, March 13, 1813, with that of Staf- ford and Tune, and remarks: "Early next morning the militia of the vicinity, under Maj. William Helm, were on the trail of the Indians, but were unsuccess- ful, as they were never able to overtake them. A few weeks afterward a part of Capt. Bryson's com- pany had a brush with some Delaware Indians near Strawtown, where Morgan's tent and clothes were found in the deserted camp."
Below is given an account of the captivity and subsequent life of Miss Tharp, which occurred in Fayette County, as narrated by Hon. Elijah Hackle- man, of Wabash, Ind., in 1884:
" With the history of this captivity I am but lit- tle acquainted, as I do not recollect evor seeing the same in print. And yet, from my earliest recollec- tions, the story was as familiar in every family in southeastern Indiana as household words. Moses Tharp lived somewhere in the upper valley of the Whitewater. On the fatal evening, his children were playing near his cabin, when suddenly his little girl mysteriously disappeared, and was nowhere to be found, although diligent search was made. On close examination by expert pioneer hunters, fresh 'signs' of Indians were discovered, and the trail was fol- lowed to the White River country, to the vicinity of Muncietown. There appeared to be no doubt that the girl had been stolen by the Indians. She was nover recaptured. After the close of the war, when peace was restored, Mr. Tharp spent several years of his life in hunting for his lost child. He visited most of the Indian tribes in the north part of the Territory, undor the guise of an Indian trader, but specially for the purpose of discovering the location of the object of his affections. His efforts were not crowned with success, until the girl had grown up to womanhood and had married Capt. Dixon, a Miami Indian, who was living at the mouth of Grant Creek, on the Mississinawa River, near the old Josi- nia Village, in Wabash County, two miles west of Ashland. Here Mr. Tharp and his wife finally dis- covered and recognized their long-lost daughter some time after her marriage with Capt. Dixon.
"I have been informed by Hon. Jacob L. Sailors, of Wabash County, who was a neighbor of Capt. Dixon, on Grant Creek, that about forty years ago, he (Sailors) recollects of Mr. and Mrs. Tharp visiting their daughter at Capt. Dixon's for a few days. What finally became of Mr. Tharp I am not informed; but I have heard it stated that he spent the decline of life somewhere in the Wabash valley.
"This Capt. Dixon was a thriftless, quarrelsome Indian, when drunk, and spent most of his time in drinking and fighting, at such places as he could procure whisky. But Miss Tharp (or, rathor, Mrs.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
Dixon), although uneducated, was kind and affection- ate with her family, and polite and lady-like with her white neighbors. Mrs. Dixon manifested a desire to have her children educated, and did for a time send her son, Charlie Dixon, to a school, taught by Mr. Sailors, in the vicinity, where he made some progress in reading and writing. I have often seen the Captain and Mrs. Dixon at their Indian home.
"Finally, about the year 1851 or 1852, in one of his drunken fights with a Pottawattomie Indian, in the town of Ashland, Capt. Dixon received a blow with a hoe, that happened to be near by, cutting his head open. The wound was dressed by my friend, Dr. R. D. Mauzy-then of Ashland, but now of Oakland, Cal., -- and although it was a terrible wound, the Doctor expressed his opinion that if the patient could be kept perfectly still, there would be a chance for his recovery.
"The Indians then in town wanted to take Capt. Dixon home the same evening, but Dr. Mauzy told them that he would die before reaching his home, although it was only about two miles distant. The next morning, however, the Indians came in great numbers, and demanded that he should be taken home immediately. Of course no resistance was made. The Captain was put on a sled, and when last seen, was going pretty lively over the rough roa ls. The journey was accomplished in good time, but on reaching the wigwam, it was found that Capt. Dixon was cold and stiff in death.
" About this time-I am not sure whether it was before the death of Capt. Dixon or afterward-Miss Tharp, the wife of Capt. Dixon, in a fit of despon- dency, left her Indian home, and walked down to the Mississinawa River, a half mile distant, to a place called 'Hog Back.' This romantic spot is caused by a long detour of the river, then coming around with a long sweep into conjunction with Grant Creek, which runs within eighty feet of the waters of the Mississinawa above the detour, and then flowing off and joining the waters below, enclosing several hundred acres of land. Between these two waters is a rugged hill or ridge, eighty feet high and one hundred yards long, bearing the euphonious name above noted. Here Miss Tharp, the captive white woman, paused a few moments, and then deliberately plunged into the blue waters of the Mississinawa River, and was seen no more alive. And here let the grief, anguish and melancholy aching of a heart as pure as yours or mine remain forever."
On the above subject many years ago in the vil- lage of Lebanon, Ohio, Rev. David Sharpe, who as a Methodist preacher traveled the old Whitewater Cir- cuit in 1813, remarked to a resident of Connersville " that he preached occasionally at Tharp's, near the
river, about one and one-half miles above Conners- ville. At one of his visits, in the fall or winter of 1813-14, while sitting in the cabin with Mr. and Mrs. Tharp, they were startled by the screaming of the children, who were out playing between the house and the river. As they all ran toward the river, they met the youngest two children crying and running to the house; they heard the screams of the oldest, a little girl some eight years old, as if she was being carried off. They followed, but the voice became more and more faint, and soon they lost the trail. The Indians had made their escape with the child."
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