USA > Indiana > Huntington County > History of Huntington County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 12
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HUNTINGTON TOWNSHIP
At the first meeting of the county commissioners on May 5, 1834, the board issued an order that all that part of the County of Hunting- ton lying in Ranges 9 and 10, and four miles in the eastern part of Range 8, should constitute the Township of Huntington. The town- ship as thus established embraced all the present County of Huntington. On February 24, 1835, a strip six miles wide (Congressional Township 26) was cut off from the south end and erected into the Township of Salamonie. Lancaster Township was cut off on March 15, 1837, and included a strip six miles wide across the entire county, embracing the present townships of Polk and Rock Creek. On February 24, 1838, a strip six miles wide was cut off the north end and named Clear Creek Township. Union Township was cut off in 1842 and Dallas in 1847,
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leaving the present Township of Huntington, which embraces Con- gressional Township 28, Range 9.
The township is therefore six miles square, having an area of thirty- six square miles, or 23,040 acres. It is bounded on the north by Clear Creek Township; on the east by Union; on the south by Lancaster, and on the west by Dallas. The Wabash River enters near the southeast corner and flows a general northwesterly direction until it crosses the western boundary a little north of the center. About two miles west of the City of Huntington it is joined by the Little River, or Little Wabash, which crosses the eastern boundary about two miles south of the northeast corner and flows a little south of west, through the City of Huntington. Clear Creek flows southward through the northwestern part and Loon Creek crosses the southwest corner. Flint Creek flows into the Little River within the Huntington city limits. The township is one of the best drained and watered in the county.
Huntington Township has three lines of steam railway and one electric line. The Wabash, the oldest railroad in the county, crosses the western boundary near the center and follows the course of the Wabash and Little Rivers toward Fort Wayne. The Chicago & Erie enters near the northwest corner and follows a southeasterly course, through the City of Huntington. The Cincinnati, Bluffton & Chicago runs almost parallel to the Chicago & Erie and has its western terminus at Huntington. The Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Electric Railway parallels the Wabash. These lines afford ample transportation and ship- ping facilities for the people of the township.
In 1913 the taxable property of the township, exclusive of the City of Huntington, was assessed at $1,809,040, and the population in 1910 was 12,483, or more than forty per cent of the population of the entire county. The estimated value of the school property of the township is $31,000. During the school year of 1912-13 eleven teachers were em- ployed in the public schools, and the amount paid in teachers' salaries was $5,013.80.
The first settlements in this township were made in the Town of Huntington and the early history will be found in the chapter on the City of Huntington.
JACKSON TOWNSHIP
Jackson Township occupies the northeast corner of the county and embraces Congressional Township 29, Range 10. It is bounded on the north by the County of Whitley; on the east by Allen County; on the south by Union Township, and on the west by the Township of Clear Vol. 1-7
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Creek. Its area is thirty-six square miles. The Little Wabash River enters the county near the northeast corner and flows a southwesterly direction until it crosses the southern boundary near the center. Calf, Cow and Bull creeks flow eastwardly or southeastwardly through the township and unite their waters with the Little River. Along the streams the surface is somewhat broken and there were originally some marshy lands along the Little River, but by far the larger part of the township is capable of being cultivated and some of the finest farms in the county are in "Old Jackson."
Jared Darrow is credited with being the first permanent settler. Dur- ing the early '30s, while the Wabash & Erie Canal was under construc- tion, a number of workmen employed on that great waterway established temporary homes within the limits of the township, but as the canal pushed its way westward they followed. Mr. Darrow came from Rochester, New York, in 1837 and settled a short distance south of the present Town of Roanoke, where he cleared land and raised the first crop in this part of the county. One of his sons, Dr. D. C. Darrow, afterward became a prominent physician and business man of Peru, Miami County. In 1838 Frank Dupuy settled west of Roanoke and dur- ing that year the population was increased by the arrival of Nathaniel Decker and his father, Kennel L. Eskridge, James Thompson, a Mr. Southwick and a few others, all of whom settled near Darrow and Dupuy.
In May, 1839, Paul H. Salts located near the Dickey lock, where he lived for about two years, working most of the time upon the canal. He then moved about two miles farther north and entered a tract of land in the Calf Creek Valley, which he developed into a farm. After residing there for several years he sold out and removed to Whitley County.
Samuel and Edward Gettis, Eli Blount, Andrew Boggs, David Hol- lowell, Nicholas Friend and his son Harvey, Horace Rockwell and a few more settled in the township. Samuel Gettis lived there until his death about 1852, and Edward was drowned in the canal. David Hollowell was a man of considerable local prominence and was one of the early justices of the peace. He went to Iowa in 1852. Andrew Boggs came from Delaware and died about 1851. Old settlers remember him as an influential and public spirited citizen.
Among the early settlers were the four brothers, Arehibald, Samuel, William and Monroe Mahon, who settled south of Roanoke, where Archibald laid out the Town of Mahon in 1853. Samuel followed canal boating and was also a lawyer of some ability, but never practiced that profession. Archibald was also master of a packet on the canal for some
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time; Monroe was engaged in operating a distillery at Mahon, and William acquired quite a reputation, both as a lawyer and a skillful hunter. In the latter he had a rival in Nicholas Friend, who was a true Nimrod and an expert in the usc of the rifle.
Others who located within the limits of the township in the early '40s were John Jester, one mile east of Roanoke; David Voorhees, who settled two miles northwest of Roanoke; Peter Erick, near the Whit- ley County line in Section 3, and S. C. Putnam, Ellsworth Morrison, Daniel Welker, James Wire, Peter and Abraham Simons, Frederick and Emanuel Yahne, father and son, who came from Union Township, James Purviance, John H. McTaggart, Andrew and James Branstrator, Artis Campbell, George Shank, Benjamin and Leonard Bowers, Conrad Viberg, John and Thomas Hackett, Benjamin Hoover and several other families.
Much of the land in Jackson Township was entered by speculators, who had no intention of becoming residents, and they afterward sold it to settlers at a price that netted them a handsome profit. Foremost among these speculators were Levi Beardsley, Jesse Mendenhall, Charles Ewing and Oliver Benton, each of whom made several entries in differ- ent parts of the county, John and Vincent Gilpin, William H. Bell, Charles and Charlotte Walker, J. O. Moore, Munson Beech, Valentine Armitage, Peter Odlin and Latimer. Shaw. The fact that a great por- tion of the land was in the hands of speculators had a tendency to retard the settlement of the township, many immigrants going to other locali- ties where land could be bought directly from the Government, but in time this state of affairs was overcome, and today Jackson is one of the wealthy and populous townships of the county. In 1910 the popula- tion was 1,973, a gain of 127 during the preceding ten years, and the taxable property was assessed in 1913 for $1,437,530, being exceeded in both respects only by the townships of Huntington, Rock Creek and Salamonie.
By the summer of 1841 the settlement had progressed sufficiently for the people to think of asking for a separate township organization. A petition was accordingly circulated and presented to the board of county commissioners at the September term of that year, when it was ordered by commissioners "That all that part of Clear Creek town- ship being and lying east of the line dividing Ranges 9 and 10 east, shall be erected into a new township, to be known and designated by the name of 'Jackson.' "'
The first election in the township was held at the house of Samuel Gettis in April, 1842, with Andrew Boggs as election inspector. For several weeks before the time for voting came, a spirited campaign was
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waged between the "People's Party" and the "Mahon Party." An old published account of this election says: "More than sixty votes were cast, and as that exceeded the number of qualified voters in the township, it was generally believed that illegal means had been employed to carry the election."
The returns showed that John Johnson had been elected justice of the peace ; Eli Blount, William Mahon and Samuel Mahon, trustees, and Monroc Mahon, clerk-a decided victory for the Mahon Party.
Early Events-The first wedding in the township was that of Joseph Satel and Sarah Darrow, in 1838. Lemuel J., son of Paul H. Salts, who was born in 1839, was the first white child born in the town- ship. The first death was that of Frank Dupuy, in 1841, soon after his marriage to Sarah Chading. The first public highway was the road leading from Huntington to Fort Wayne, known as the Fort Wayne Road, which was surveyed and improved in 1838. The first religious services were held at the cabin of Nicholas Friend, about 1840. The first church was built by the Methodists, on the farm of Peter Erick, about 1850. The first school was taught in the Mahon settlement in 1843, but the name of the teacher seems to have been forgotten. The first saw-mill was built in 1845 or 1846, near Dickey's lock, by Lemuel G. Jones, who also erected the first grist mill a year or two later. At the presidential election in 1844-the first after the township was organized-Jackson cast twenty-seven votes for Clay and Frelinghuy- sen and fifteen for Polk and Dallas.
Naturally the settlements and industries followed the line of the Wabash & Erie Canal, which was completed through the township in 1834. Not long after Mr. Jones built his saw-mill the second saw-mill was established by John Newman in the southern part of the township. It did a successful business for several years. In 1850 Thomas Hackett built a saw-mill on Cow Creek, a little west of Roanoke, and operated it until a flood in 1864 carried away the dam, after which the building was allowed to fall into decay.
Although the early settlers of Jackson Township were, as a rule, peaceable and law-abiding people, a cruel and unprovoked murder was committed there in an early day. A man named Sterman, who has been described as of a quarrelsome disposition, got into a dispute with a canal boatman near Mahon, in which the boatman was shot and killed. Sterman was tried, convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary, but was released before the expiration of his term to enter the army. At the close of the Civil war he went to Kansas, where he and two others were lynched on the charge of having killed a peaceable and harmless citizen.
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Early in the history of the township the people became interested in the subject of education. In 1845 a schoolhouse was erected about two miles north of Roanoke, where William Allen taught the first school. A school had been taught in the Mahon neighborhood two years prior to this time, but it appears that the house in which Mr. Allen taught was the first building erected for school purposes. It was located near the site of the Wesley Chapel, built by the Methodists a few years later. The next schoolhouse was built at Roanoke, where the "Classical Sem- inary" was established some years later and became recognized as one of the best educational institutions in Northeastern Indiana. In 1914 the value of the school property, not including the handsome building at Roanoke, was estimated at $20,000. During the school year of 1912-13 there were employed in the township schools eight teachers, who re- ceived $2,892.85 in salaries.
Immediately after the passage of the free gravel road law in 1877, the people of Jackson Township turned their attention to the con- struction of better roads, with the result that the township now has an excellent system of public highways, with but few of the bonds issued for the building of gravel roads outstanding.
Roanoke is the only town in the township. Near the northeast corner was once the old Raccoon Village, a town for which the State of Indiana donated the site soon after the completion of the Wabash & Erie Canal, and about two miles south of Roanoke was the Town of Mahon, which, like Raccoon Village, perished with the traffic on the canal and is now remembered by only a few of the oldest inhabitants.
When the first white men came to this part of Huntington County, they found a chain of individual Indian reservations along the left bank of the Little River, extending clear across what is now Jackson Town- ship. Old White Loon, whose "lodge" was not far from Roanoke, was a frequent visitor at the early stores. He was rather morose and silent, of forbidding appearance, and it is said the children used to flee in terror when they saw him coming. "Pete" Schap, a young Miami, was a giant physically and of daring disposition. One of his favorite feats was to ride his pony across the canal at the lock, on a narrow piece of timber, with the water fifteen or more feet below him when the lock was empty after the passage of a boat. With the departure of the Indians for Kansas in 1846, most of the reservations passed into the hands of the white men and were soon developed into fine farms. The few remaining reservations were vacated later, until old Kil-so-quah, who is over one hundred years of age, is the last of her race to claim a habitation in Jackson Township.
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JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP
Jefferson Township is one of the southern tier and embraces Con- gressional Township 26, of Range 9 east. It is therefore six miles square and contains an area of 23,040 acres. On the north it is bounded by Lancaster Township; on the east by Salamonie; on the south by Grant County, and on the west by the Township of Wayne. The Salamonie River flows by a winding course across the northeast corner and crosses the northern boundary near the center. Along this stream, which is the only water course of importance in the township, the surface is some- what broken, with outcrops of limestone in several places. Back from the river the land is more level, the southern part being so flat that is was originally wet and unproductive. This region has been reclaimed by artificial drainage, and some of the finest farms in the county are located upon what was once a marsh, considered unfit for human habi- tation. When the first settlers came they found the central and northern portions covered with a heavy growth of timber, the principal varieties of which were walnut, oak, hickory, maple, beech, ash, elm and linden. A great deal of this valuable timber was piled in heaps and burned in the early days to make way for the tilling of the soil. If it could be replaced today it would be more valuable than the land from which it was so ruthlessly removed by the pioneers.
Prior to 1834 the territory comprising Jefferson Township was inhabited only by Indians. In February of that year George W. Helms, a native of Tennessee, located upon a tract of land in Section 12, where he improved a farm and continued to reside until his death about 1877. It is generally conceded that he was the first white settler in the town- ship. In October following, Peter Wire came from Ohio with his family and built his cabin in Section 12, about two miles down the Salamonie River from Mr. Helms'. He soon became prominently iden- tified with local political affairs and in 1836 was elected to the office of county commissioner. His death occurred in 1882.
John A. E. Nordyke came from Henry County, Indiana, in the spring of 1836, and settled in Section 6, near the northwest corner of the township, where he lived until his death in 1883. Some of his descendants are still living in the county. In the fall of the same year William L. Taylor entered a tract of land and built his cabin in Section 24, about two miles west of the present town of Warren.
The year 1837 witnessed several additions to the population. Oliver W. Sanger, a native of Connecticut, located in Section 17, a short dis- tance east of where the little hamlet of Pleasant Plain now stands. Upon coming to this county he first located in what is now Wayne Town-
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ship, but in September, 1837, settled in Jefferson. He was active in politics, took a prominent part in the organization of the township, was one of the early justices of the peace, and in 1860 was elected county treasurer. At the time of his death he was the oldest resident of the township.
William Purviance came from Preble County, Ohio, about the time Mr. Sanger settled near Pleasant Plain, and selected land in Section 9, and soon after this Garrett Heffner built his cabin in Section 21.
Others who settled within the present limits of the township prior to 1840 were: Lewis Purviance, Enoch Preble, Nathan Anderson, Jona- than Arnold, William D. Williams, John Shull, Stogdall Sharp, John and David Richardson, Christopher Morris, John and Nathan Cook, John Ewart, Alexander Morgan, Thomas Webb, Jacob Hedrick, Benja- min Satterthwaite and his son-in-law, Isaiah Garwood, Noah McGrew, Branson Cox, Aaron Bond, David C. Little, Alfred Hardy, Samuel Marshall, and perhaps fifteen or twenty others.
During all this time the territory was a part of Salamonie Township. Late in the year 1842 a movement was started for the organization of a new township. A petition, headed by Peter Wire and O. W. Sanger, was circulated and received a number of signatures. It was presented in due time to the county commissioners, who, at the March term in 1843, ordered "That all that part of Salamonie lying west of the line dividing Ranges 9 and 10 east be, and is hereby, formed into a new township by the name of Jefferson." The township was so named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, and as originally created included all the present Township of Wayne. It was reduced to its present dimensions by the organization of Wayne as a separate township in June, 1844.
. The first election for township officers was held at the house of William Purviance in April, 1844. No returns of that election can be found, but it is known that Branson Cox, who was elected a justice of the peace in that territory while it was a part of Salamonie Township, in 1835, was continued in that office. Among the early trustees of the township were Nathan Anderson, Frederick Kautz and Andrew Wiley, though the names of the first board have disappeared.
Early Events-The first house was built by George W. Helms in Sec- tion 12, in the spring of 1834. The first log-rolling was on the farm of Peter Wire. The first white child born in the township was Lavina, daughter of Peter and Nancy Wire, whose birth occurred on March 4, 1836. The first marriage was that of Frederick Heffner and Nancy Cook, some time in the year 1839. The first death was that of a Mr. Stewart, which occurred in August, 1838. The first school was taught in 1838 by
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David C. Little, in a house erected for the purpose in Section 3, "on the south bank of the Salamonie River." The first religious services were held at the house of Peter Wire in 1837, by Rev. John Pugsley, a United Brethren missionary sent out by the Sandusky conference. The first house of worship was erected in 1870 by the Christians, in Section 9, and is known as Purviance Chapel. The first sawmill was built by Aaron Bond and John Heffner about 1839 or 1840, on Richland Creek, in the northwest corner of the township. The first grist mill was erected soon after near the sawmill by the same men.
The Bond & Heffner mill was fitted up with machinery of the most primitive pattern, but it proved a great convenience to the early settlers, who before its erection were compelled to go several miles to other mills with a "turn of corn," in order to procure bread for their families. It was liberally patronized for several years, until the estab- lishment of better mills finally caused it to cease operations. Some time in the '40s James Taylor built a frame flour mill on the Salamonie River, in Section 12, where the little hamlet of Bellville grew up, and for fully half a century it was one of the leading mills in the southern part of the county. Other persons who operated sawmills in the town- ship while the timber was plentiful were Daniel Nipper, who built the first steam sawmill, William Patterson, George Fisher, George Morris, Emsley Andrews, John Long and a man named Baker.
Pleasant Plain, or Nixville, was laid out in June, 1875, and was the only regularly surveyed village in the township until after the com- pletion of the Clover Leaf Railroad across the southeast corner in 1878, when the little Town of Milo sprang up on the railroad and is now the principal trading and shipping point. During the oil boom, about the close of the last century, considerable business was done there, as a number of producing wells were drilled in Jefferson Township.
About the close of the Civil war a mysterious tragedy occurred in Jefferson. The body of William Lowry, a veteran of Company E, Thirty-fourth Indiana Infantry, was found in a field near his dwelling, where he had been plowing. An ugly wound in the neck showed plainly the manner of his death and the community was thrown into a state of intense excitement. Several arrests were made, but in every instance the evidence was insufficient to convict and the murderer has never been discovered.
Mention has already been made of the first school taught in the township. The second schoolhouse was built on the farm of William Purviance in 1840, where the first term was taught by David C. Little. In 1854 the free public school system was inaugurated in Jefferson and the township was divided into school districts, in each of which a school-
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house was erected. In 1914 the value of school property was estimated at $16,500. Twelve teachers were employed during the school year of 1912-13 and received in salaries the sum of $3,390. Two of the teachers were employed in the certified high school. To Jefferson belongs the honor of having the first class graduate in the common schools. In 1887 four girls passed the examination prescribed by the state board of educa- tion and received diplomas. In 1914 the graduating class numbered twenty-one.
In 1910 the population of the township was 1,433. Although these figures show a decrease of sixty-seven since the census of 1900, the value of the taxable property has slightly increased, being assessed in 1913 at $1,160,920.
LANCASTER TOWNSHIP
When this township was erected by order of the county commis- sioners on May 15, 1837, it consisted of a strip six miles wide extending entirely across the county, including all the range of townships No. 27. It was reduced by the formation of Rock Creek Township in September, 1842, and again by the organization of Polk Township in March, 1847, when its present boundaries were fixed. It is now six miles square and embraces Congressional Township 27, Range 9 east. On the north it is bounded by Huntington Township; on the east by Rock Creek; on the south by Jefferson, and on the west by Polk. The Salamonie River flows across the southwest corner and Loon Creek across the northeast corner. Along the former the surface is somewhat hilly, but by far the larger part of the township is level or gently undulating, with a soil that is not surpassed by any other part of the county for depth and fertility.
Joseph Sprowl is credited with being the first actual white settler within the present limits of the township. In May, 1834, about the time Huntington County was organized, he came with his family from Ohio and built his cabin in Section 34, near the southern boundary and not far from the Salamonie River. He was then past the meridian of life, but lived long enough to see quite a settlement grow up in the vicinity of his cabin in the wilderness. His family numbered ten per- sons and some of their descendants still reside in the southern part of the county.
In February, 1835, Abraham Nordyke and Joseph P. Anthony settled in the township, not far from Mr. Sprowl. Mr. Anthony was a car- penter by trade. About two years after coming to the county he laid out the Town of Charleston, but it did not come unto the expectations
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