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 19
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The first sale of lots occurred on New Year's day in 1877. Soon after that L. R. Allison opened the first store. A postoffice was estab- lished with Dr. S. D. Ayres as postmaster, who was also the first resi-
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dent physician. Edward McPherson started in business as a blacksmith, John Shaffer opened his shop as a cabinet-maker, and several new resi- dents were added to the population. Thomas Mitchell had erected a grist mill on the south side of the Salamonie some time in 1836, which brought many of the neighboring farmers to Warren, and the town soon came into prominence as a local trading point.
For the first forty years the growth of Warren was comparatively slow, owing to the fact that it was without adequate means of communi- cation with the rest of the world, but during that period it never went backward. When the Toledo, St. Louis & Western (Clover Leaf) Rail-
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road was completed through the southern part of the county in the fall of 1878 Warren experienced its first boom. Within five years after the coming of the railroad, the town had a grain elevator, three dry goods stores, six groceries, three drug stores, two hardware stores, two furni- ture stores, two jewelry stores, an undertaker, a bank, a hotel, a graded school, two sawmills, a planing mill, a weekly newspaper and a popula- tion estimated at over one thousand.
Warren's second boom came with the discovery of oil in Jefferson Township. Between the years 1890 and 1900 the population increased from 1,120 to 1,523. Several new business enterprises were added to the town's activities, especially dealers in oil well supplies, lumber, etc. As the oil wells began to show signs of failure, quite a number of people sought other fields, and in 1910 the population was 1,189. While this had a depressing effect upon the industries and commercial interests,
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the citizens of the town have shown no signs of serious discouragement, but are still loyal to Warren and are going ahead much in the same way as before any oil wells were drilled in the vicinity.
Warren was incorporated about the time the Clover Leaf Railroad was built. The town officers for 1914 were as follows: E. M. Mossburg, J. M. Long, Rufus Crandell and Elijah Huffman, councilmen; Glen Brown, clerk; Monroe Wiley, treasurer; Daniel P. Mossburg, marshal.
In February, 1901, bonds were authorized and a site purchased for the establishment of a waterworks and electric light plant. Work was commenced in the latter part of that month and was advanced so rap- idly that by the middle of the summer service was started. The water supply is both pure and plentiful, and the electric light service is better than that in most towns the size of Warren. In the spring of 1914 the town expended over five thousand dollars in improving the light and power plant, and electric power is now furnished to a number of small manufacturing concerns.
Warren has become widely known in recent years, particularly among the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as the site of the Methodist Memorial Home, a history of which is given in another chapter. This institution, which is a home for old people of both sexes, occupies a beautiful site in the northern part of the town.
Foremost among the business enterprises of Warren are the mer- cantile establishments usually found in towns of its class. It has two banks, a cement works, a large grain elevator, a mitten factory, some oil interests, about four miles of paved streets, good cement sidewalks, several lodges, a fair association, a weekly newspaper, five churches and two public school buildings. Eight teachers are employed in the graded school and six in the commissioned high school. The town is also the headquarters of the Warren Telephone Company, whose lines extend to the rural districts and the neighboring towns and villages.
In 1906 the Marion, Bluffton & Eastern electric line was built through Warren, giving additional transportation facilities, and the town is connected with Huntington by an automobile transit company, which makes two round trips daily. With these conveniences, and surrounded by a populous and fertile agricultural district, it can be seen that Warren is "no mean town."
POSTOFFICES
According to the latest edition of the United States Postal Guide, there are ten postoffices in Huntington County. In the following list the figures in parentheses after the names of the offices indicate the number
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of rural mail routes emanating therefrom: Andrews (3), Bippus (1), Buckeye, Huntington (9), Markle (3), Milo, Mount Etna, Roanoke (4), Ubee, Warren (6). All are money order offices and those at Andrews, Huntington, Markle, Roanoke and Warren are authorized to issue inter- national money orders good in foreign countries.
CHAPTER X
MILITARY HISTORY
EARLY MILITIA SYSTEM-WAR WITH MEXICO-THE CIVIL WAR-DIVIDED SENTIMENT IN HUNTINGTON COUNTY-CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS-HUNT- INGTON PROMPT TO RESPOND-FIRST COMPANY OFF FOR THE FRONT --- THIRTEENTH REGIMENT-OTHER REGIMENTS IN WHICH HUNTINGTON COUNTY WAS REPRESENTED-ROSTERS OF TROOPS-FOURTEENTH BAT- TERY OF LIGHT ARTILLERY-MISCELLANEOUS ENLISTMENTS-INDIANA LEGION-ROLL OF HONOR-WORK OF CITIZENS AT HOME-WAR WITH SPAIN-HUNTINGTON SENDS A COMPANY.
Unfortunately many of the pages in the story of human progress are stained with accounts of deeds of conflict, devastation and bloodshed. Wars of conquest have been prosecuted by stronger nations against weaker ones; others have been fomented by ambitious persons for self- aggrandizement; still others have been brought about by great interests for selfish ends, but the great wars of history have been those waged for human liberty and political enfranchisement. It has been said that "War brings a spirit of patriotism that cannot be developed by any other means." Whether or not this be true, it is a well established fact that the military history of a country forms one of its most interesting and entrancing chapters.
The old adage, "In time of peace prepare for war," was observed by the founders of the American Republic when, soon after the adoption of the Constitution, Congress passed an act providing for the enrollment of all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty- five years, except in certain cases, as the nation's militia. The men thus enrolled were to be formed into companies, regiments, brigades and divisions, with the proper commanding officers, in accordance with such regulations as the legislatures of the several states might provide. This law was still in force when Indiana was admitted into the Union, and in the constitution of the state, adopted in 1816, it was provided that the governor should be commander-in-chief of the militia of the state, and that all military officers should be appointed and commissioned by him. In the early days of statehood there was some reason for main-
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taining an active militia, but with the departure of the Indians for reservations in the Far West, interest in military subjects waned and the people of the state turned their attention to husbandry.
About eleven years after Huntington County was organized, the United States became involved in a dispute with Mexico over the annexa- tion of Texas to this country. Peaceable adjustment of the difficulty was out of the question, and on May 11, 1846, President Polk issued a proclamation declaring that a state of war existed between the United States and Mexico. Congress, being in session at the time, immediately authorized the president to call for 50,000 volunteers, and on May 23, 1846, Governor James Whitcomb called upon the militia of Indiana for four regiments of infantry-two for immediate service and two to be held in reserve. In Huntington County the total number of votes cast for President in 1844 was 602. There is no record of any attempt having been made to organize a company in the county for the Mexican war, though a number of Huntington men enlisted in Capt. John M. Wilson's company, which was organized chiefly in the counties of Miami, Wabash and Huntington, and others joined a company that was formed at Fort Wayne. It is to be regretted that the old muster rolls of these companies have not been preserved, but without them it is impossible to show who enlisted from the county.
During practically the entire first half of the nineteenth century the slavery question was a "bone of contention" in nearly every session of the United States Congress. Many thought the dispute was settled by the act known as the Missouri Compromise in 1820, but at the close of the Mexican war the old controversy broke out afresh, and the meas- ure known as the "Omnibus Bill," of 1850, was passed. Four years later the whole subject was revived and Congress passed the Kansas- Nebraska bill, but instead of bringing peace it only added fuel to the flames. The political campaign of 1860 was one of the most hotly con- tested the country ever experienced. In that campaign nearly every township in Huntington County had its company of republican "Wide Awakes" or its democratic "Old Hickory" Club. The vote of the county in that year was 1,604 for Lincoln and Hamlin ; 1,402 for Douglas and Johnson, and 54 for Breckenridge and Lane.
During the campaign, threats were made by some of the slave states that, in the event of Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency, they would withdraw from the Union. The people of the North were inclined to believe that these threats were made merely for political effect and would not be carried out, but they were somewhat rudely awakened on December 20, 1860, when a state convention in South Carolina passed an ordinance of secession. Public sentiment in Huntington County, as well
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as elsewhere throughout the North, was divided on the question. Some were in favor of permitting the slave states to withdraw peaceably from the Union and establish a republic of their own, in which the institution of slavery should be one of the cardinal principles of government. Others insisted that no state had a constitutional right to secede and that to attempt to do so was treason, in which case the general govern- ment had the right to compel such state to renew its allegiance to the Federal Union. On December 27, 1860, just a week after the secession ordinance had been passed by South Carolina, and while the public mind was in this unsettled state, the Huntington Democrat, edited at that time by Winters & Kocher, said editorially :
"We are free to confess that we favor the right of secession. In our opinion any state has, or ought to have, a perfect right to withdraw from the Union."
What influence was brought to bear upon the editors to show them the "error of their way" is not known, but they evidently discovered that their position was unpopular, for in the very next issue the Demo- crat said : "No man should cry disunion-he who does so is a traitor to his country."
But the editors of the Democrat were not alone in their unsettled state of mind. All over the North were men who, upon hearing some one argue in favor of a peaceable separation, would espouse the cause of secession, and later, when they fell under the spell of the opposite side, would quickly reverse their opinion. A few were positively settled in their opinions, many were firm in their views, but were open to con- viction, while perhaps the majority could not determine what was best to do under the circumstances.
On February 16, 1861, a Union mass meeting was convened at Hunt- ington. Samuel McCaughey was chosen to preside and Samuel F. Winter and H. B. Sayler were elected secretaries. Upon motion of Lambden P. Milligan a committee on resolutions, consisting of three republicans, three Douglas democrats and one Breckenridge democrat, was appointed. The republicans selected H. B. Sayler, M. B. Brandt and Isaac DeLong; the Douglas democrats to serve on the committee were L. P. Milligan, W. G. Sutton and W. B. Loughridge; and John R. Coffroth represented the Breckenridge following. As might have been expected, the committee was unable to agree upon a series of resolutions, and majority and minority reports were submitted to the mass convention. The majority report was as follows :
"Resolved, 1st. That the provisions of the constitution are ample for the preservation of the Union and the protection of all the material interests of the country ; that it needs to be obeyed rather than amended,
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and that the best security for the perpetuity of our glorious Union is to be found in the speedy return to an observance of the constitutional rights and the performance of constitutional duties of every section of the Union in a spirit of fraternal forbearance and patient tolerance of the opinions of others.
"2nd. But in view of the fact that no recurrence to first principles can be expected from the present state of public opinion, we recommend such course as will best preserve the peace and avert the calamities of threatened civil war, and we think the best mode of effecting so desirable an end is to exhaust all efforts for a reconciliation, and when that has failed let our brethren depart in peace.
"3d. That it is the duty of the Federal Government, in all its de- partments, to protect, when necessary, the property of the citizens of the United States, in the territories, on the high seas, and wherever else its constitutional authority extends.
"4th. That common courtesy, as well as good faith, demands that our southern brethren shall have secured to them the rights of transit through and temporary sojourn in all the states of the Confederacy, with their property, without the same being interfered with or their right to it impaired.
"5th. Congress shall have no power to regulate, or control, within the states, the relations established or recognized by the law of any state, respecting persons held for service or labor therein.
"6th. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in the navy yards, arsenals, forts or other places ceded to the United States in such states where slavery now exists, except by the consent of said states.
"'7th. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia without the consent of a majority of the inhabitants thereof, and the states of Maryland and Virginia.
"8th. Congress shall have no power to prohibit the interstate slave trade.
"9th. The African slave trade shall be forever prohibited.
"10th. That we, the citizens of Huntington county, in view of the present distracted state of the country, rather than encounter the evils, of dissolution of our glorious Union, are willing to yield up all party ties and party platforms and meet our brethren of every party upon any common ground that will preserve the Union of states and secure us a republican form of government."
This report was signed by Milligan, Loughridge, Coffroth and Sutton. The minority report, which was signed by Sayler, Brandt and DeLong was as follows:
"Resolved, 1st. That the provisions of the constitution are ample
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for the preservation of the Union and the protection of the material interests of the country ; that it needs to be obeyed rather than amended, and that an extrication from our present dangers is to be looked for in strenuous efforts to preserve the peace, protect the public property and enforce the laws, rather than in new guaranties for particular interests, compromises for particular difficulties, or concessions to unreasonable demands.
"2nd. That all attempts to dissolve the present Union, or to over- throw or abandon the constitution, with the hope or expectation of con- structing a new one, are dangerous, illusory and destructive; that in the opinion of this meeting no such reconstruction is practicable, and there- fore, to the maintenance of the existing Union and constitution should be directed all the energies of all departments of the government, and the efforts of all good citizens.
"3d. That the natural condition of the territories is freedom; and that Congress has the constitutional power, and should exercise it, to preserve the territories in that condition, observing and protecting the rights of property in existence in any territory that may be acquired, in the acquisition thereof, but such territory shall not be acquired without the concurrent vote of two-thirds of the United States Senate and House of Representatives."
The majority report was adopted, though a large number of those participating voted for the minority report, and the convention ad- journed without having brought the question any nearer to a settlement in the county than it was before the meeting assembled. Similar meet- ings were held all over the country, and in most instances met with the same result. People would adopt resolutions expressive of compromise, but were slow to surrender their own opinions in order to secure that compromise.
After the first company had departed for the front, the divided set- tlement in Huntington County again- became manifest. Republicans ostracized democrats by refusing to have dealings with them or to employ them in any capacity, and vice versa. Persons who had lived side by side for years ceased to be neighbors and frequently refused to speak to each other. In this respect the county was no worse than some other localities, as opponents to the war and southern sympathizers were to be found all over the North, but in Huntington the opposition was more open in its expressions. In a democratic convention at Hunt- ington on June 1, 1861, after Mr. Lincoln had been President for nearly three months, the dissatisfaction with his administration found expres- sion in the following resolutions :
"Resolved, That we cannot believe it was ever the intention of the
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framers of the Constitution that the Union should be held together by force; that patriotism and fraternal love were the ligaments by which they hoped to hold it together, and when these fail, and when all efforts to compromise the difficulties are exhausted, the only policy to be pur- sued is a peaceable separation of the opposing elements and a treaty of amity between them as independent nations.
"That we have no sympathy with the cause of secession, and do not believe that in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, Aboli- tionist and Sectionalist as he was known to be, the Confederate States had any just cause to withdraw from the Union. But the fact is too appar- ent, that all patriotic, moral and sensible men must stand appalled at the unscrupulous perfidy his administration has inaugurated; that per- jury and usurpation characterize his public career; that neither written constitutions nor official oaths afford any guaranty against the licen- tiousness of his administration; that in the wanton and palpable violations of the constitution of the United States; in the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus; in depriving citizens of liberty and property without due course of law; in the levying of war by the president; in raising an army; in providing and maintaining a navy; in giving a preference in commerce to the parts of one state over another; in the unreasonable search and seizure of persons and papers; in the desecra- tion of houses and homes of citizens; in the subjugation of the press; in the prostitution of the telegraph; in the abridgment of the liberty of speech ; and in like wrongs and usurpations we have witnessed the over- throw of constitutional liberty in America.
"That we take pride in rendering a cordial support to our govern- ment in the exercise of its constitutional functions, without stopping to question their propriety save at the hustings or ballot box, yet our loyalty to our government shall never be prostituted to a sycophantic adulation of a tyrant or a quiet submission to his usurpations."
At this convention James R. Slack, a life-long democrat, who after- ward became a bragadier-general in the Union army, offered a series of resolutions declaring that the war was brought on by an abandonment of the teachings and principles of the democratic party; that the gov- ernment had always pursued a course of kindness toward and made concessions to the slave power; that it was not the purpose of the national administration to interfere with the domestic institutions of any state, etc., but were promptly laid on the table and the ones above quoted were adopted by the convention. In studying the language of these resolutions, the reference to the "abridgment of the liberty of speech" seems strangely out of place. Had such resolutions been adopted by any meeting in Russia, instead of free America, the author of the Vol. I-12
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resolutions and the members of the convention adopting them would no doubt have been sentenced to the Siberian mines. But in this country, where the people are the source of political power, public officials from the President down can be criticised in almost any form of language and no notice is taken of it. So it was in,this case.
On September 28, 1861, a republican convention met at Huntington, with William Hunter presiding and J. R. Mills acting as secretary. Among the resolutions was one declaring :
"That we will sustain the government in the present war to put down the rebellion and to sustain the supremacy of the constitution of our country ; disclaiming all desire to interfere with the domestic institutions of any state, as we are equally opposed to all the enemies of our con- stitution, be they Rebels, Rebel sympathizers, or Garrisonian Aboli- tionists."
This resolution, coming so soon after what President Lincoln had written to Horace Greeley, of the New York Tribune, that it was not his intention to interfere with slavery if he could save the Union without adopting such a course, had a double significance-that it was not the purpose of the national administration to free the slaves, but that the Union must be preserved at all hazards.
The opposition to Lincoln's administration and the prosecution of the war culminated in the organization variously known as the Sons of Liberty, the Knights of the Golden Circle, and the Order of American Knights. In 1864 Gen. H. B. Carrington learned the secrets of this organization and late in August Harrison B. Dodd, the grand commander in Indiana, was arrested for treason. A little later William A. Bowles, Lambdin P. Milligan, Andrew Humphreys, Horace Heffren and Stephen Horsey were also arrested on a similar charge. Milligan was a promi- nent lawyer of Huntington. It was well known that he was opposed to the war, and is said to have been the author of the resolutions adopted by the convention of June 1, 1861. Dodd succeeded in making his escape from the Federal Building in Indianapolis and fled to Canada, where he remained until after the war was over, when he was pardoned.
The other men were tried by a military commission, composed of Brig .- Gen. Silas Colgrove, Col. William E. McLean, Forty-third Indiana ; Col. John T. Wilder, Seventeenth Indiana; Col. Thomas J. Lucas, Six- teenth Indiana; Col. Charles D. Murray, Eighty-ninth Indiana; Col. Benjamin Spooner, Eighty-third Indiana; Col. Richard P. DeHart, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Indiana, and Col. Ambrose A. Stevens, of the Veteran Reserve Corps. Bowles, Milligan and Horsey were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, but Edwin M. Stanton, secretary of war, commuted the sentence to imprisonment for life. Mr. Milligan sued
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out a writ of habeas corpus, which was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, which tribunal decided that the military commis- sion had no jurisdiction. Through the efforts of Governor Morton and other prominent citizens of the state, he was finally pardoned.
It is painful to the historian to write of such events, but they form part of the history of the county and should not be permitted to go unrecorded. In that day, when sectional and party feelings ran high, men would say and do things that in their cooler moments they would studiously have avoided. Neither side was blameless in the strife that existed at the beginning of the war, and, after a lapse of more than half a century, it is to be hoped that the descendants of the men who then were bitter toward each other over issues growing out of the war have forgotten the old animosities and live in harmony as good neighbors and loyal citizens.
In the meantime the secession movement had gained headway. Mississippi seceded on January 9, 1861; Florida, January 10th ; Ala- bama, January 11th; Georgia, January 19th; Louisiana, January 26th ; Texas, February 1st. Hence, when Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated Presi- dent on March 4, 1861, he found seven states already in rebellion against his authority as the nation's chief executive. Ordinances of secession were subsequently passed by the states of Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Strenuous efforts were made by the slave power to force Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland to withdraw from the Union, but no ordinances of secession were passed by those states.
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