History of Greene and Sullivan Counties, State of Indiana, Part 22

Author: Goodspeed Bros. & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 901

USA > Indiana > Greene County > History of Greene and Sullivan Counties, State of Indiana > Part 22
USA > Indiana > Sullivan County > History of Greene and Sullivan Counties, State of Indiana > Part 22

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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which process reduced the ore to small particles. It was then put in the blast furnace and the iron separated from the ash, stone, etc.

In all departments of the business at its best stages, over 100 men were employed. As high as from six to seven tons of pig iron were manufactured in a day of twenty-four hours. The furnace ran day and night, two sets of hands being employed. The business was very much increased in 1856, when a new engine of about 100-horse-power was added. Hollow iron ware of every kind, kettles of from seven to forty gallons capacity, stoves, plows, farm castings, mill machinery, were turned out in large quantities. The pig iron sold in Louisville for from $20 to $40 per ton, and the castings for about 10 cents per pound. Flat-boats were used to some extent before the steamboat was bought or the canal built. The highest prosperity was from 1856 to 1858. As high as 120 men were then employed. John Eveleigh was book-keeper for a time, and then M. H. Shryer.

In about 1856, all the partners except Mr. Downing left the concern, but the latter was soon joined by Chauncey Rose, A. L. Voorhees and E. J. Peck, under which new combination the business was greatly enlarged, the capital ncreased, and the services of Henry Irons, an experienced iron manufact- irer, of Kentucky, were secured to manage the enterprise, and at the same ime arrangements were made to start other blast furnaces in the same neighborhood. A. J. Smedley was book-keeper, and Benjamin Dawson foundryman. The hands were paid an average of $1 per day. From 40 to 45 per cent of iron was obtained from the ore. The company owned a large tract of land, and had property, including everything, valued at $200,- . 000. A large grist mill and a saw mill were started in 1856, and two years later the former was yielding a net profit of $2,000 per annum. Downing had opened a store at the furnace early in the forties, mainly to supply his men, and this was continued as long as the furnace was operated or longer. M. H. Shryer owned the store late in the fifties, but moved to Bloomfield just before the war. In about 1855, Mr. Downing founded a bank and be- gan to issue wild cat currency. By September, 1856, he had issued $5,000 of this paper in denominations of from $1 to $20. The bank was called " Downing's Bank of Indiana at Richland Furnace," and A. Downing was President, and E. H. C. Cavins, Cashier. It is stated that a total of about $25,000 of this currency was issued. In 1858, the merchants of Worthing- ton pledged themselves to take no more of the issues either of Downing's bank or any other founded on the same plan. A flourishing village grew up around the furnace, and is said to have been larger than Bloomfield. The families of many of the workmen lived there, and there was the store, the grist mill, the saw mill, the bank, the charcoal burning, the ore digging, the iron smelting, the hollow ware manufacture, etc., all of which constituted a thriving village. The issues of the bank were not redeemed. The mill was owned for a time by M. H. Shryer ; it is running yet, owned by the Hilde- brands. Notwithstanding the enormous cost of transportation to remote markets, the company realized handsome profits on its investment. In

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1858-59, trouble arose in the company, the canal on the south end was aban- doned, and soon afterward the furnace stopped. Gradually all business there was removed, families moved away, and the old furnace and its adjuncts be- came non est.

THE BLOOMFIELD PRESS.

It is said that the first newspaper issued in Greene County was called the Comet ; was Whig in politics; was published at Bloomfield as early as about 1836, and was first edited by William Rood, and circulated more as a nov- elty than as a medium of profit to the proprietor. It appeared very irregu- Jarly until about 1840, when it was managed by Alfred Edwards, during the Presidential campaign of that year, favoring the election of " Tippecanoe and Tyler too." It was a very small sheet, and after the campaign became defunct.

The next attempt was not made at the county seat until after a long in- terval. In 1860, a company of prominent Democrats was formed, stock necessary was subscribed, and the office of Mr. Morrison's paper at Worth- 'ington was purchased and removed to Bloomfield, and Elihu E. Rose, a man of versatile talents, was made editor and manager of the paper. Among the stockholders were the following men: John B. Stropes, W. P. Stropes, E. R. Stropes, H. V. Norvell, T. P. East, W. D. Lester, J. M. Humphreys, W. G. Moss, G. C. Morgan, John Jones, J. I. Milam, Dr. Connelly and others. The paper was named the Greene County Times, was strongly Democratic, was the first of that politics issued in the county, and the first number ap- peared on the 14th of April, 1860. The Democracy of the county wanted an organ, and thus one was secured. In May, 1860, Mr. Rose secured an as- sistant in the person of G. C. Brandon. The paper was a power in the county during the hot political contest of 1860, and was continued by Messrs. Rose & Brandon until about July, 1861, when Mr. Rose entered the army, though he still continued to furnish editorial articles from the field. In November, 1861, Mr. Brandon also entered the army, whereupon the issue was discontinued. It is stated that James E. Riley revived it for a few months during 1862, but if so the paper under him exerted no great influ- ence.

About the middle of November, 1862, Henry B. Woolls was secured by the stockholders to edit and manage the paper, and continued thus with sat- isfactory success until the 10th of November, 1863; when he was succeeded by E. B. Barnard and James C. Nabb, who jointly edited it until June, 1864, when Mr. Nabb retired, leaving Mr. Barnard sole editor and manager. Mr. Woolls changed the name to the Southern Indianian. The motto of the paper was " The Constitution as it is ; the Union as it was." About the 1st of January, 1866, Clark B. Humphreys became editor, but in March, 1867, was succeeded by James E. Riley, and he, late in 1868, by J. R. Isenhower. Under Mr. Riley the paper was called the Bloomfield Democrat, if accounts are reliable. On the 25th of November, 1868, the office was taken charge of by Ogle & Leek, who continued the name Bloomfield Democrat, and is-

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sued the paper with greater or less regularity until about 1873, though dur- ing the latter part of that period sometimes months elapsed and no issue. At that date, when some of the stockholders were dead and some moved away, W. P. Stropes visited the remaining leading stockholders and secured an assignment of the office to himself, and began issuing the paper regularly under the name adopted by his predecessors, Ogle & Leek-the Bloomfield Democrat. He continued the issue with increasing and sufficient patronage until the office was purchased by the present owner, William M. Moss, in July, 1880. It was predicted, when Mr. Moss took charge of the paper, that it would go down within a year, but just the reverse occurred. The circulation not only greatly multiplied but the job and advertising patronage as well. It is now one of the " newsiest " county papers of the State, and is a credit to the skill, politics and talent of its owner. It merits universal patronage. A Campbell printing press was added to the office in March, 1882, at a cost of $1,065.

In about June, 1865, Benjamin Cavins, a young man of bright promise, purchased the office of the Worthington Gazette, removed it to Bloomfield, and began issuing a Republican paper, called, it is said, the Banner. He continued to issue it somewhat irregularly and probably with some assistance until about July, 1867, when Mr. Morrison, of Worthington, bought back the office, and commenced issuing at the county seat the Greene County Times, but the following year, 1868, removed the office to Worthington. This paper was of course Republican.

Late in the year 1869, W. C. Green founded at Bloomfield a Republican paper called the Bloomfield Weekly Tribune, and published it until his death in the autumn of 1871. The office lay idle, then, until the spring of 1875, when it was revived by John W. Cooper, who began issuing a Republican paper called the Bloomfield News. In the autumn of the same year, the of- fice was sold to J. W. Littell, who issued the paper about a year, when the property passed to O. W. Shryer, who commenced to publish the sheet under the name Bloomfield News. His first number was issued December 31, 1876. He conducted the paper until after the campaign of 1878, when the ownership passed to W. H, Pierce, and the sheet was issued by him un- til the summer of 1879, and was then purchased by George W. Beard, who since then has remained at its head until the present. Associated with him was Ot Herold, who, on the 1st of January, 1884, sold out to W. B. McKee. The paper is well patronized by advertisers, and has a large circulation. It is said that J. H. Seneff had some claim upon the office soon after Mr. Beard assumed the ownership. This imperfect sketch of the press of Bloom- field is the best that can be given.

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CHAPTER XII.

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP-THE ERA OF SETTLEMENT-ORGANIZATION AND OF- FICERS-EARLY EVENTS-A PIONEER WEDDING-TEA-TABLE ROCK- INCIDENTS COTTON CULTURE-DISTILLERIES, TANNERIES, ETC .- COUN- TRY SCHOOLS-EARLY MINISTERS-JOHN O'BANYON-THE SHAKERS- OLD POINT COMMERCE-MERCHANTS, TRADE, ETC .- DECLINE OF POINT . COMMERCE-EARLY RESIDENTS OF WORTHINGTON-DEVELOPMENT-PRES- ENT BUSINESS MEN-SUNDRY EVENTS-SECRET SOCIETIES-THE PORTER RIFLES SOLDIERS RE-UNION-THE TELEPHONE-INCORPORATION-OR- DINANCES-OFFICERS-THE SCHOOL BONDS-BANKING-THE PRESS- JOHNSTOWN-WATSONS-SCHOOLS OF POINT COMMERCE-SCHOOLS OF WORTHINGTON-CHURCHES, ETC.

TT. is not certainly known who was the first permanent settler in what is now Jefferson Township, nor can the exact date of the first settle- ment be ascertained. The very first settlers were Edmund Jean, Thomas Smith, Richard Wall and Samuel and Edward Dyer. Wall and Dyer both entered old Eel River Township in the spring of 1817, partially cleared small tracts of land already nearly destitute of timber, and planted small crops of corn and vegetables, and remained there during the summer to care for the fields. During their stay, they erected small but substantial and comfortable log cabins, and the following autumn moved out their fami- lies. But little is known of Edmund Jean, as he soon left the neighbor- hood. He was quite an intelligent man, and was one of the first Justices of the Peace in the county. Smith located on or near White River, and as early as 1818 had established a ferry, which became famous not only for its long continuance, but for the vast numbers of travelers who crossed on their way from the eastern and southern portions of Indiana and the southern part of Ohio to the prairie country of Illinois, and to the rapidly settling country in the vicinity of Terre Haute. Within the next few years, the following settlers, among others, arrived: George Griffith, Caleb Jessup, Jonathan Osborn, Thomas Clark, William Dunnegan, old man Winters, John Sanders, Alexander Craig, Benjamin Huey, Ben- jamin Shoemaker, James and Thomas Stalcup, Eli Dickson, John Craig, Joab Wicher, William Lemons, John Jessup, John Stanley, Hiram Hicks, Henry Littlejohn. It is said that John Sanders " entered " the first land -that is, purchased the first land from the Government. This was in the year 1817, as can be seen in the "tract book" at the county seat. As a matter of fact, however, the " tract book " shows that David and Jonathan Lindley purchased land in 1816, probably at the first land sale at Vincennes. Benjamin Shoemaker bought land in 1817. It is said that Richard Wall and Samuel Dyer raised the first crop of wheat, and 13

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the grain was beaten out with a flail on a quilt in the door-yard. Part of it, a little later, was ground into flour at the Craig Mill. It is asserted, and is probably correct, that Edmund Jean built the first log cabin in old Eel River Township; this was certainly as early as 1816. Richard Wall brought with him from the Carolinas about a quart of apple seeds in his saddle-bags, and planted a portion of the same on his farm and gave the remainder to the Sanders, Jessups, Arneys, Newsoms, Clarks, Dyers and others, and from this seed came the first orchards. Eli Dickson had the largest and most productive of all the early orchards. The old man was very kind, and gave the early settlers permission to take apples when they wished.

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND OFFICERS.

Before the creation of Greene County in 1821, the present Jefferson Township was a part of Sullivan County, and before the creation of Sulli- van County in 1816-17 was a part of Knox County, to which it was at- tached immediately after the Indian title was extinguished in 1809. While attached to Sullivan County, it was part of Jackson Township. It is said that the Lindleys and Mr. Jean were officers at this period, and made their reports at Carlisle, then the county seat of Sullivan County. As soon as the county of Greene was created, the present townships of Highland, Jefferson, Smith and Wright were organized as one township under the first name. In 1828, all west of White River was called Smith Township, and at the same time Eel River Township was created. About the same time or a little later, Jefferson was created. The first elections under old Highland were at the Lindleys, and after Highland was sep- arated in 1828 the elections were at the Dayhoffs'. The first officers of Eel River Township were Henry Littlejohn, Inspector of Elections; Jonathan Besheers and Alexander Watson, Fence Viewers; Caleb Jessup and John Sanders, Overseers of the Poor; and elections were ordered held at the house of Mr. Sanders. The second set of officers for Eel River Township were Ephraim Owen, Inspector; Richard Wall, Road Superintendent; G. W. Hayton, Road Superintendent; John Archer and Caleb Jessup, Overseers of the Poor; Henry Smith and Herbert San- ders, Fence Viewers. In 1881, old Eel River Township was re attached to Jefferson.

PIONEER EVENTS.

It is said that William Dyer brought the first sack of seed wheat to the northern part of Greene County. He was a boy, and brought the seed from the southern part of Monroe County. This was in 1818. From this seed was grown the first wheat crop in the settlement. The flour was bolted by Mary Wall through a sieve made by fastening buck- skin over a hoop and piercing the same with many holes. The Shakers who came from Shaker Prairie on the southern boundary of Sullivan County brought the seed from which were grown the first peach or-

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chards in the settlement. Among the first children born were John Archer, Rachel Wall, William Wall, Anna Osborn, J. Osborn and children of the families of Sanders, Jessup and Clark. On the 9th of August, 1821, Rev. Hugh Barnes married Isaac Jackson and Elizabeth Griffith. On the 25th of October, 1821, Edmund Jean, Justice of the Peace, married David Smith and Mary Bryson. Phillip Silver and Sarah Lindley were married on the 10th of January, 1822, by John B. Kelshaw, Justice of the Peace. John Fires and Patsey Craig were married by Mr. Jean on the 19th of May, 1822. Eli Duncan and Rebecca Stephenson were mar- ried by William Clark, Justice of the Peace, in July, 1822. Other early weddings were Payton Owen and Rachel Griffith, Richard Wall and Mary Dyer, Herbert Sanders and Jessie Jessup, Samuel Dyer and Celia Arney, Aquilla Walker and Elizabeth Dyer, William Foley and Jane Osborn, Ira Danley and Olive Jessup, Joseph Smith and Sallie Jessup, William Huey and Sally Stanley, John Stanley and Mary Ball, Abram Shoemaker and Maria Morris, Obediah Winters and Hannah Duncan, Thomas Huey and Vasta Steward, Joshua Duncan and Maria Shoe- maker, William Smith and Mary McKee. The following is by Baber concerning one of these weddings:

THE FIRES-CRAIG WEDDING.

" One of the most remarkable wedding parties that ever assembled in the western part of Indiana met at the mouth of Eel River, when John Fires and Martha Craig were married at Alexander Craig's, on Sunday, September 30, 1819. On that day, about noon, while the young people of this neighborhood were enjoying themselves and having a very good time generally, a tribe of Indians, numbering about 200 strong floated down White River, from near Indianapolis, and landed their bark canoes at the mouth of Eel River, camped over night, and all the wedding party and many of the neighbors went to see the Indians, and the Indians passed through and took a curious look at the many workings of Mr. Craig's new mill. One young brave who had recently married a young Indian squaw, offered to make a wager with Mr. Fires, and leave it to the crowd to say which had the best and prettiest squaw, but it has been said that John Fires crawfished. Within a few days after that time, about 300 Indian warriors and their chief passed down the old Indian trail and crossed over Eel River, at the old gravel ford, on horseback. The old ford and Indian camps, where they made sugar, is on the east bank of Eel River, just west of Henry Newsom's. Those were the last Indians that camped in this locality.".

TEA-TABLE ROCK.

The old " Indian Tea-table " just above the mouth of Eel River, on the west side of White River, is the Plymouth Rock of the settlement at

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Point Commerce. It is nearly 100 feet high, and is a notable spot. All over this stone are the names of three or four generations of citizens, with dates ranging over a period of sixty five years. The name of an old trapper is scratched in with a bear knife or tomahawk near that of a mod- ern belle, scratched in with a pen-knife or a gold tooth-pick. Names of those are there who have been for half a century dead. The old "Tea- table " could tell an interesting story if it could speak. Indians stood there long before America was discovered, and perhaps thousands of years before that the Mound-Builders, whose bones were lately found in the mounds at Worthington, gathered there to worship their god of the sun as he descended behind the western hills, clothed in russet and pur- ple and gold. Here their sacrifices were offered, as their god reached his meridian and poured translucent floods of cheerful light and life-giving heat upon the domain of the "Sun Worshipers." Long before that, this old rock witnessed the land locked in ice, saw the fierce Boreas, whose breath . withered the bright-hued, tropical vegetation of the preceding age, descending from the north, slept under its mantle of ice and frost through toiling ages, saw the sun ascending and the ice transformed into myriads of rivulets, which crept sparkling away to the ocean, and at last lifted itself above the waves to drink in the warm sunlight and scent the fresh gale.

INCIDENTS CONTINUED.

Thomas Smith's house stood southeast of Worthington, on the hill- side. It is likely that his was the first ferry across White River, in Greene County.

" In the fall of the year 1819, the Indians set fire to the prairie around the Dixon Grove, just south of the fair ground, and within less than half a day one old Indian killed sixteen fine, fat deer. After the Indians had left here and gone west to Arkansas, the old settlers in Jefferson . Township were called the Pottawatomies, and the white people over in Eel River Township were called the Delawares, besides many other nick names-such as North Carolina Shabs, Tuckeyhoes, Buckeyes, Corn- crackers, Suckers and Hoosiers. When the first white families came to Jefferson Township, the nearest mills were about forty miles distant, be- ing located on the Shaker Prairie, above Vincennes. Afterward, one known as Ketcham's Mill went into operation near Bloomington, Monroe County, and another called Rawley's Mill, on Eel River, at the old hill near the old reservoir.

"Before Welton and Col. Fellows built their mills on Richland Creek, and for a few years before Craig's mill was built on White River, the first settlers raised plenty of corn and garden vegetables, and had to live on sweet and Irish potatoes, lye hominy, beat meal and deer meat. In fact deer skins and venison hams were almost a " legal tender" on all little debts at William Smith's store, which was located a little south of

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Willis Watson's brick house, and bears the name of being the first store house in Worthington. Mr. William Smith also established the first tan- yard in town, and it was located opposite the "Swamp Tavern," on the Terre Haute road. Old John Padgett bought the farm where Uncle Johnny Myers now lives, of old Benjamin Shoemaker, and Mr. Padgett lived there on the old Terre Haute State road for many years, and estab- lished the first drinking saloon, and kept a grocery in a big sycamore gum. At all the corn-shuckings, cotton-pickings, wedding parties and other public gatherings, a " spiritual greeting " was sent out from that big sycamore gum.

"Old William Winters built a house and set out those apple trees near the canal, on what is now known as the furnace place, north of Worth. ington. John Craig, entered the land, built the house, and set out the apple orchard at the old Anderson Harvey place, just northwest of Worth- ington. William Lemons built his house and settled in the grove on the south side of the creek, a little north of where Eli Staloup now lives, and the stream of water was named Lemon's Creek for him. The Black Swamp was named by the old pioneer hunters, and so called by all the old road wagoners from Louisville to Terre Haute. In early times the names of New Albany, Salem, Wood's Ferry, Smith's Ferry, Black Swamp, Scaffold Prairie, Lone Tree, Splung Creek and Terre Haute were all very familiar household words. The names of all those old road wag- oners will yet be given. John Craig built the first distill-house, in the branch east of where John B. Poe's chair factory now stands; and then Benjamin Huey built another distill-house, at the Fuller Spring, on the Terre Haute road, three miles from Worthington, where he made whisky.

THE COTTON FIELD.

" Old Benjamin Huey removed the cotton gin from Craig's mill, and made a tramp-wheel cotton gin and a little horse mill on the hill, at the Fuller place, in this township. The land on which. Worthington now stands was a large and beautiful cotton field, of nearly fifty acres of choice cotton, in full bloom about the 1st of August, 1824. This cotton field was cultivated by Benjamin Shoemaker, William Winters, William Huey, Jehu Inman, John Craig, Thomas Staloup and a few others; and that cotton field in bloom was said to be the nicest place and the pretti- est crop in the western part of Indiana. A great number of young folks from other localities came to the mouth of Eel River to look for work and were soon engaged in picking cotton." It must not be understood that fifty acres where Worthington now stands were wholly in cotton. Covering about fifty acres were numerous small fields of cotton, of from one-half to five acres. When this was ripe and white and when the picking was in process, it was a beautiful sight-a familiar one in the South.

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"Richard Wall made a pure article when he made whisky and brandy. It was not the kind that kills 200 yards, off-hand. The first mills were hand mills and hominy mortare. Old Alexander Craig built the first water mill, at Point Commerce bluff, on White River. He also built a cotton gin to pick out cotton seed in that mill. Squire Tommy Clark built a little tub mill on Clark's Creek, and ground corn into meal for the first settlers on that creek. James Jessup and Daniel Ingersoll built the Junction Mills on Eel River, at the Rock Ford at Point Commerce. Ira Danely, Amos Owen and Orren Talley built the old White River Mills, just above the mouth of Clark's Creek, about thirty years ago; and White River changed its channel there, and left the mill site and mill pond in a patch of willows on the sand-bar.

DISTILLERIES, TANNERIES, ETC.

Old Mr. Shintaffer located in Jefferson, in 1819, and Col. Adam Roerback located at Point Commerce. The Jonathan Osborn Ferry was about three miles above Point Commerce. Col. Stokely located at Johns- town in 1819. He was an old bachelor, and owned a field glass with which he hunted bees. George Griffith was the blacksmith of early times. Benjamin Shoemaker was a very strong man and was a great fighter. His son died while hunting in the woods north of Worthington. William Smith's distillery stood a few rods southeast of the Christian Church in Worthington. He operated a small tread mill which supplied his distillery with ground grain. He obtained water about a half a mile distant at a spring on the hill. A long wooden pipe was made by jointing together many short pieces and burying them, and this conveyed the water to the distillery with a fall of about ten feet. The capacity of the distillery was about three barrels per day. Smith started a store, very small at first, but afterward increased to $1,000 worth or more. Of course he traded for skins, furs, venison hams, corn, etc., which he sold in Louis- ville when he went there to get his supplies of goods. Craig's distillery stood on the bank of the river, near where Darnell's mill now is. It was started in 1819, and ran to about 1825. In about 1824, the first sheep were brought from Lost River by a man named Black, who disposed of them in small flocks to the settlers. Samuel Miller and George Phipps each had small stores in Eel River Township. Socks were often made by mixing wolf or fox hair with cotton. William Smith owned a small tanyard in connection with his distillery. Jonathan Osborn was a powder-maker. He could make an excellent article from the usual mate- rials-alkali, charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre. It was run through a sieve to make it fine; it was not quite as quick as the powder of to-day is.

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History of Greene and Sullivan Counties, State of Indiana, Part 22

Author: Goodspeed Bros. & Co. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Number of Pages: 901

Author: Goodspeed Bros. & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 901