USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 11
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The United States to cause to be delivered to them [Delawares], in the course of the following spring. horses fit for draught, cattle. hogs and implements of husbandry to the amount of four hundred dollars.
That the Indians had a variety of requirements which called for a draft on civilization's superior store house, is to be expected; but how quaint is the touch of human nature in certain needs to which the governor, at this time, saw fit to give his official sanction.
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
"The Sun, a great chief of the Potawatamies," says the governor of Indiana Territory. to headquarters at Washington, "requests that a coat and hat of the uniform of the United States may be sent to him; and to prevent jealousy. a few more may be added for the other chiefs. Indeed I am convinced that nothing would please the chiefs more than a donation of this kind. I therefore take the liberty of recommending that about half a dozen coats, and as many cocked hats, may be sent for each of the nations."
ANCIENT LANDMARKS PERSIST.
Although the physical evidences of The Trail are very much effaced, and clear traces of it are hardly discernible now, still, here and there vestiges can be found in ancient landmarks and other local conditions. Among them is the present wagon road from Cedar Grove to Brookville. Without at- tempting a delineation of what there is below that point-on towards Cin- cinnati-it is very plain that the road which comes up from Cedar Grove, and which crosses the East Fork at Brookville, is the one that John Conner followed. There may have been changes since his time, but generally speak- ing, it follows the old path. Where it crosses the East Fork, the bridge below Brookville, the older main entrance into the town is along the present road to the right, the one leading up towards the Catholic church. The present Mill street is nearby, and the first grist-mill and saw-mill were not far distant. Up still further is an ancient graveyard, and this location con- tains also the site of the old French store-the store which has associated with its memory the names of Michael Pilkey, Charles Teiler and John Conner. Their business location antedates the arrival of Amos Butler, the first white settler, in 1804; and perhaps helps to explain the latter's selection for the site of the new town the following summer. All of these local mon- uments are in line with the road beyond, along the East Fork, to Fairfield. And the use of this road toward Fairfield is connected with all earliest tra- ditions of Brookville. In fact, viewing the location generally, the physical properties of the route, the direction it takes, its altitude, all signs point to it as the natural selection for reaching the Indian settlements to the north- west. on the White river.
The early settlements along the East Fork, especially the Carolina set- tlement near Fairfield, in 1804. give them also an important place in the development of the theme under consideration. The locality is within the older government lands, and the date is several years prior to the Twelve Mile Purchase, 1809, which opened up the lands between the two forks of the White Water. It is occupied as early as Brookville itself, and the ques-
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tion may properly be asked: Are there any remains at Fairfield to asso- ciate it with the travel that belongs to the Indian Trail proper ?
PRESENCE OF FRENCH TRADERS.
The subject seems to have never been considered in this light before, but the account of Fairfield township, in the Franklin county history, con- tains one item which may be found helpful to reach a conclusion. It relates to the winter following the arrival of the advance party of the Carolina emi- grants, who were temporarily domiciled near Harrison, Ohio. Several cabins had been erected, but not occupied as yet by the families for whom they were built. It reads as follows: "During the winter of 1804-5, the Indians occur- pied the cabin of Robert Templeton. During their tenancy, an Indian woman died and the Indians were about to bury her in the cabin floor, but were prevented by French traders who were passing near."
French traders were passing! The point at which they were passing is close to the Indian boundary (of 1795) ; it is the latest of the advances made by white settlers; it is close to the river, and across the stream, not very far above, comes a creek from the northwest-one which drains the highlands separating the two valleys of the White Water. This creek is named Eli creek after a member of the first colony of settlers. As to why French traders were passing near the Templeton cabin, below Fairfield, in the winter of 1804-5, may easily be associated with the conditions just described; for, to say the least, it presents an alluring spectacle to one look- ing for evidences of The Trail which led to the Delaware towns, and it offers a promising channel in which to search for traces of this primitive route.
There are no traditions extant favoring any other route. The bed of the West Fork, between Brookville and Connersville, is quite circuitous. It was used, no doubt, by Indians for fishing and hunting; and in this sense there was an Indian trail down the West Fork to Brookville. But John Conner's career shows prominently a capacity for direct methods, where an accomplishment is aimed at ; and his transporting merchandise or losing time in reaching his destination by following the West Fork's meanderings is altogether improbable. The Indians would act similarly, for the whole country was well known to them at this time. There is no argument in favor of the present Brookville-Connersville pike, which passes through Everton and Bloomingrove, for it is clearly a surveyed road and was made after the
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lands were entered by the whites. The probabilities are all in favor of The Trail passing over to the East Fork before entering Brookville.
A SUMMARY OF REASONS.
Was Eli creek the point of departure, when leaving the East Fork, for the northwest? The reasons for assuming that it was may be summarized as follows :
First : The weight of Brookville testimony puts all the earliest hap- penings in the direction of the localities along the road to Fairfield.
Second: The presence of some settlers in the Eli creek neighborhood. as early as the date of Conner's first connection with White Water valley history, makes this creek the closest approach for him to Connersville.
Third: The fact that the three-counties map (Fayette, Union and Franklin), made a half century ago with painstaking care, shows portions of a direct road from Eli creek to Connersville; and additionally, that the missing portions of this direct road can be connected up. by traditions of an early path (never converted into a township road) along Crandel creek. which is a northwest arm of Eli creek, and then across the original Adam Pigman farm, where the existing township road ( from Quakertown) for a short distance coincides with the line to Connersville, lends color to the theory of its use for reaching Connersville in primitive times.
Fourth : That this line from Eli creek, along Crandel creek, then across the Pigman farm, next following a portion of the existing township road ( from Quakertown), and then, as is still remembered by many, angling across the old Samuel Harlan farm, direct for the Sparks-Stoops' neighbor- hood and for the ford of the West Fork at Connersville (near Roots' foundry), does correspond in its general direction with The Trail beyond Connersville toward the northwest along Lick creek to New Castle and Anderson, is an incident the historical significance of which cannot be overlooked in considering the question of the direction taken by The Trail originally when it left Connersville for the lower portions of the valley. The described route below Connersville is merely an extension of the route above it.
Fifth: There is a close relationship and similarity of general traits in the first settlers of the stretch of country described between Fairfield and Connersville, indicating that in their choice of location, immigrants followed a common route.
Sixth: If no other fact be ever discovered, there is one that comes
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from the Abernathy family which is sufficient to prove intercourse between the two localities.
William Abernathy was a pioneer of the Fairfield neighborhood, who came with, the Carolina colony and lived there till his death in . 1888. In the Liberty Herald recently, in an interesting sketch, Theodore L. Dickerson, of Brookville, writes :
He |Abernathy| was captain of the militia and was sent out from Fort Conner with a company of volunteer sconts, in 1810, to attack the Indian villages on Blue. river. The expedition was a success, the Indians being put to flight and . their villages burned.
Captain Noble, of Brookville, presented Abernathy with a sword for his services, which is preserved in the Dickerson collection of pioneer relics at Brookville.
The incident of Captain Abernathy's expedition establishes the fact that the Fairfield neighborhood at that time was a home for volunteer militia- men, and that Conner's Post was an out-station from which to start for Blue River Indian settlements. A corollary is, that there was some known route between the two points. But as the time antedates the settlement of the intervening country by the whites, it could only be The Trail that was fol- lowed, and that Conner's Post was merely one station further out upon it than their own locality.
WAR CLOUDS BEGIN TO LOWER.
The summer of 1810, to which this military service of Captain Aber- nathy belongs, was not without a warlike sky in the territory of Indiana. The prime cause of the trouble was the growing hostility of Tecumseh, an Indian of exceptional powers of strategy and cunning. He was engaged collecting the disaffected members of every Indian tribe within his influence; and not a few facts were known to the territorial officers showing the pur- pose of the Indians, and also the effects of British aid from Detroit. War was clearly inevitable if their conduct remained unabated. As early as the year 1808, John Conner was the messenger sent by Governor Harrison, with a letter couched in the strongest terms, to bring home to the Indians a realization of the trend of the path they had taken up. But what the effect of the letter was can be judged by the following reply which The Prophet, Tecumseh's brother, asked Conner to write down in the English language and take back to the governor :
Father-I am very sorry that you listen to the advice of bad birds-you have im- peached me with having correspondence with the British; and with calling and sending
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for the Indians from the most distant parts of the country, "to listen to a fool that speaks not the words of the Great Spirit, but the words of the devil." Father, those impeachments I deny, and say they are not true. I never had a word with the British. and I never sent for any Indians. They came here themselves to listen and hear the words of the Great Spirit.
Father, I wish you would not listen any more to the voice of bad birds: and you may rest assured that it is the least of our idea to make disturbance, and we will rather try to stop any such proceedings than encourage them.
This service of John Conner, in 1808, was associated with scenes that led up to important events in Indiana history, and by the summer of 1810, a state of affairs existed which was not assuring to the peace-loving, white settlers of the valley.
To know something of the minor details of The Trail at the point which was Conner's Post, or Fort Conner, and which is now Connersville, would be interesting to many persons at the present time. But the whole subject seems to have been lightly appraised by the rugged pioneers who were engrossed with the hardships surrounding them and they left little data concerning it. Consequently the subject is poorly illuminated by any present-day source of information.
WHERE WAS CONNER'S POST ?
A study of the physical aspect and general surroundings of the location given to the new town, in 1813, by Conner, will perhaps be useful in bring- ing light to the subject. The early topography is still ascertainable to a great extent : and if the few detached facts, that have escaped the general oblivion into which the subject has fallen, be coupled with a careful study of this phase of the question, some sort of order will unfold itself, and the vague tradition about The Trail coming down from the hill, northwest of Conners- ville, that it passed through the town and crossed the river at the foot of Water street, will become instantly clear and more definite.
It may be well at this time to fit together these isolated facts, for the possibility of doing so is rapidly passing, and leave to the future a connected view of Connersville's ancient lineage. The main fact that The Trail was here, and that "Conner's Post" was a name by which the place was known for a number of years, is unquestioned. But can we follow The Trail ex- actly; and where was the post ?
The first aid in deciphering these questions no doubt is the original plat of Connersville, which occupies a small stretch of territory on a bluff of the west bank of the river above the ford and below Sixth street. The
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
line of the bank below Fourth street furnishes the base line upon which to lay out the long streets of the town. A few years later, in 1819, Conner laid off some additional lots known as "Conner's North Addition," which extended above Sixth street. In making a sketch of this new addition, the first county surveyor, Thomas Hinkston, shows Eastern avenue narrowed down to the west half of the street near Seventh street. The river bank
CITY
CEMETERY
1
FAIR
GROUNDS
1850 13
1862
LEGEND
1
--
- ORIGINAL PLAT , 18/3
I. LOG CABIN
2. HARLAN'S STORE
3. CONNERS STORE
4. BLOCK HOUSE
5. CLAYPOOL INN
6. LOG CABIN
7. FIRST CEMETERY N.
DISTILLERY
3dsZ
JL
CENTRAL
EASTERN AV
WATER ST
White Water
ORIGINAL PLAT OF CONNERSVILLE.
encroached to that extent on the ground needed to extend Eastern avenue northward. It can still be noticed at East Sixth street that the river bank makes a sharp turn westward. This condition was much more apparent 'only a few years ago; and, originally, it terminated in a deep ravine at Seventh street, where there was a natural watershed coming down from the west. Above Seventh street, say, two hundred feet or more, it turned east- ward again. This change of the direction of high ground was so sharp above Eighth street that half way between it and Ninth street the original bank of
THE POST
SAW MILL
Race
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIAN.A.
the river must have been very nearly in accord with present street directions, east and west.
EARLY LOCATION OF SAWMILL.
Charles street coincides with the high part of this bank since the place was made part of Connersville in 1866. In this locality, that is two squares east from Eastern avenue, or, more exactly still, just beyond the mirror works' buildings, John Conner established a saw-mill in the very earliest days of the town's history. It was a crude prototype. this attempt at fore- stalling the achievements in the world of industry for which the new town was destined. But a close study of the location of this early enterprise, and its associated activities, will uncover much of the history that is seemingly lost of Connersville's beginning. There are still evidences of the location of the saw-mill in the bottom lands belonging to the mirror works, for it was continued in an enlarged state by others who followed Conner, until about the year 1865, when it fell into disuse and was largely forgotten by the general public. There are some documentary references to this mill site, besides a pioneer story, which are illuminating.
At an old settlers' meeting, held in the fairgrounds, in 1862. Dr. Philip Mason gave a talk in which the following passages occur :
1 came to the valley of Whitewater in the spring of 1816, and early in the summer of that year, I visited Connersville. A small tract of land had been laid off by John Conner into town lots, which lay along the river bank, on Water street and along Main street, and a few log cabins had heen erected. The most of the land, which comprises the present site of the town. was then a forest. hi traveling up the river to the place, there was now and then a small opening to be seen, with an inhabited log cabin on it. John Conner, after whom the town is named, and who owned the land on which it stands, had built a mill just above the town.
In the traditions of the Claypool family is preserved an incident, which the late Austin B. Claypool was fond of relating, and it gave both local color and a definite date for a transaction at this saw-mill. Newton Claypool. who was the father of Anstin B. Claypool, decided on Connersville for his future residence, and in 1818 arrived here with his bride from Ross county, Ohio. As there was no house for them, he decided to build one. And as the only available source from which to obtain the needed lumber was the saw-mill. application was made there, with the result, however, of being told that no more business could be accepted. since the capacity of the mill was taxed to the utmost. But something had to be done, and the elder Claypool fell in with the plan suggested by Conner of using the mill for himself after sundown, and get out what lumber he could by moonlight.
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FAYETTE, COUNTY, INDIANA.
CRADLE OF CONNERSVILLE'S INDUSTRIES.
Many forms of activity centered in this particular spot in the early years. There was a saw-mill, a grist-mill, a distillery, and later a pork- packing establishment, besides a cooper shop or two. It was truly the cradle of Connersville's industries, and it is not a little singular that its history should have been so completely lost to most people. Conwell's old mill on Eastern avenue, the ruins of which are still to be seen, is the successor of the" earlier one further up the mill race, but it also belongs now to the lost activi- ties of Connersville. There was a period of nearly fifty years in which the head race of the new mill-the one built in 1849 on Eastern avenue-and the site of the old saw-mill established by Conner were allowed to fall into complete disuse, and the neglect of them was so profound that a tangled mass of undergrowth grew up, through which venturesome boys roamed in later days with the dread of the dangers incident to wild and unpeopled regions. There are many grown persons, the writer among others, who indulged youth's imagery about Indian hunts, and wild beasts and reptiles and adventures of many sorts, in this small tract of unused land, where life's conventional action was gone out, and the sleep was so long that nature again made it truly a wild country. But it is now restored to its rightful heritage by the presence of the mirror works; and the site of John Conner's first industry will be marked with one monument at least; the tender mercies of an owner who appreciates the importance it once held in the period of time that led up to the opening of the White Water valley, no less than the import- ant place it holds in the memory of times when even Indianapolis residents were dependent upon this locality for some of the necessities of life. It is part of the history of that city that going to mill for grist meant coming here : and that, for the first marriage at Indianapolis, the license was procured at Connersville.
The trip to Connersville to procure the marriage license for the first marriage at Indianapolis was made directly across the country, Indianapolis to Connersville. The route was known because George Pogue and John McCormick, two Fayette county pioneers, who first settled in Columbia township, made their way across the Flat Rock country and Rush county when Indianapolis was first located, in the year of 1820. Pogue, who lived here between the years of 1816-1820, was a contributor to the fund that made Connersville the county seat of Fayette county, and his companion in the first trip to Indianapolis by the new route was an ancestor of the McCormick family still having representatives in Connersville.
-
MONUMENT ON SITE OF JOHN CONNER'S SAW MILL. Erected by present owner, J. L. Heinemann.
1813, John Conner's trading place: 1820, Absalom Burkham; 1821-24, Sample's Inn, also postoffice; 1854, length added to and remodeled by George Heinemann. Front half of building is "Sample's Inn" of the early days.
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
CONNER'S FIRST FRAME HOUSE.
Of the group of industries which John Conner established at this point, the saw-mill and grist-mill were close together, and the wisdom of the selec- . tion of their site can even yet be discerned. There is a straight line of bank northwardly (above and below the Cincinnati, Indianapolis & Western rail- way), but a sharp curve westwardly existed where the new city waterworks are located and at this point, the water was collected to start the head race for the two mills. On the high ground nearby, say fifty feet north of the office of the mirror works, Conner built himself a two-story frame home, of some pretensions, from the lumber produced at the mill. There has been no exact date found for the erection of this building, but it doubtlessly belongs to the period that expresses the prosperous days of its owner. He had been active for a dozen years or more, under the varying conditions of frontier life, and only lately the exciting times of the War of 1812-1814 had ceased. For him, the more profitable, if less heroic, occupations of civil life were unfolding. He was the first sheriff of the newly-made county of Fayette, and his Connersville venture-the founding of the town-was pro- gressing satisfactorily. And to add to his social prospects-a something not unrelated to fine dwellings-about this time he married Lavina Win- ship, daughter of a respectable family, living at Cedar Grove. He was made a state senator in 1816. In his capacity of senator he served on the committee that selected the site of the state's new capital, the present city of Indianapolis. But while the location of Conner's saw-mill and grist-mill and frame-built residence, as described, are well enough known, it remains to be noted that, at a point somewhere above Eighth street, near the west end of Charles street, and exactly in the middle of Eastern avenue, there was a large-sized log house, in the first days of Connersville, which is unac- counted for or ignored in all the traditions or written reminiscences of the town. There are few now who know of it at all. It disappeared quite early, for the reason, no doubt, that it was an obstruction to the street. But what it was and how it came to be there is an interesting question. It is certain that those who were acquainted with its history have left no records. It was more than an ordinary cabin. It is described as a good-sized log house with at least two rooms and perhaps three of them, besides a loft over- head. It was an old house, in appearance, as remembered by those who knew local conditions as early as 1830, and it faced riverwards-to the southeast. It occupied a point on the highest level after coming up from the
(9)
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
ravine at Seventh street; and besides, its original occupant must have been a person of large views and foresight and means, for a considerable apple orchard survived on the grounds, which fact is quite generally known, for, as late as the fifties, some old apple trees still existed there, especially on George Brown's present lot nearby.
The position is simply the western portion of the high ground that ran eastwardly, as far as Fayette street. The natural waterpower, it would seem, was found at the latter point when the saw-mill stage was reached in the affairs of those who lived here. The log house was far enough westward to allow a southern course to cross the ravine at Seventh street, without leav- ing the line of Eastern avenue, consequently, a path from it might make for the ford on the south end of Water street by following Eastern avenue a short distance, then across the public square (the Fifth street school site) for Water street below Fourth.
PROBABLE SITE OF CONNER'S POST.
There were three other log houses along the lower part of the route indicated, which together constituted the oldest portion of Connersville. They are closely connected with the subject now treated and will be referred to again later. Hawkins Hackleman, who lived just west of Elephant Hill, until his death a few years ago, came through Connersville with his parents in 1815, when he was five years old. The character of the surroundings at that time left a clear impression on his youthful mind; and his statement is that Connersville consisted of the block-house and three or four log cabins.
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