USA > Indiana > Jay County > History of Jay County, Indiana > Part 5
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dance, was the first ever held in Jay County ! Mr. Lotz deserves much praise for having been the first to plant, when everything was rough and wild, and the moral soil unbroken, that most fruitful nursery of the Church. It was a small beginning ; but now a score or more of schools, scattered over the county, with their many teach- ers and hundreds of pupils, their libraries, cele- brations, picnics, banners and speeches, are the ripened fruit of that first moral blossom in the wilderness.
Within the next year or two, John McLaugh- lin, Edward B. Wotten, William Money, William Isenhart, Benjamin Goldsmith and others settled in the Township. It was a very common thing then for the Indians to hunt through there. They were very peaceable, and would often dine with their white neighbors. At one time, a very large, muscular Indian came to help Mr. Lotz roll logs ; but he was so exceedingly awkward as to be of no use whatever. A log is still lying on the bank of the creek there in which the Indians had cut notches to assist them in walking up the bank. Jesse Gray also hunted and camped through those woods at that time.
In August, 1832, John R. Mays, George Bickel and Henry Glassford came to Mrs. Hawkins', and selected land in the vicinity. Mr. Mays chose the farm he now lives upon, because of the beautiful
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spring in the bank, around which are a clump of trees, and near it a log spring-house, built twenty- seven years ago. In September these men raised their cabins, assisted by Benj. Goldsmitlı, and Mays' two sons. Bickel moved out the same fall, and Mays, fearing some one would take possession of his cabin and enter the land, staid through the winter. On the 4th of March of the following spring he and Goldsmith moved to their new homes-the latter settling where the town of Lan- caster now stands ; the former having no money, three old horses, a worn-out wagon, a wife and ten children. When Mr. Goodrich, of Winches- ter, sold the clearing of the Portland State road, Mays took five miles, and cut it out eighteen inches and under, for fifty-one dollars and twelve cents. He and his boys did the work, one hunt- ing while the others chopped. With that money he entered his first land.
Mr. John James, of Randolph County, was one of the Commissioners to lay out the State road from Richmond to Fort Wayne, and Jer. Smith was his Surveyor. In September, 1832, while making the survey, they camped on the north side of the Little Salimonie, where the road now crosses it, probably attracted by the beautiful grove, which is now owned by Mr. Jonas Votaw. Here they were visited by Philip Brown, of whom they obtained "roasting ears" and squashes. They
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called him " Governor of the State of Salimonie," which cognomen he wore while he lived. They continued the survey across the Wabash. Previ- ons to this they had surveyed the road on another route, which passed two miles west of Portland. When they reached the Loblolly, Mr. James de- clared it would swamp a black snake, went back and surveyed the road now passing through Port- land.
Daniel Farber and family were the first to move into the county, in 1834. Of course they staid the first night with Nancy Hawkins, whose house was the first resting place for most of the settlers. They lived with Philip Brown until Farber built himself a cabin, just opposite the present beautiful residence of Dr. Joseph Watson, at Collge Corner. They moved into it before there were either doors, windows, floor or chinking. Mr. Farber wanted to put in a floor, but his wife, Nancy, said she would live on the ground until he could plant some corn, and so the cabin remained floorless until September. The cabin is justly celebrated as the one in which the first election in the county was held, and in which the first Post- office was established. Enoch Bowden came that year, occupied the house the absconded Wier had built, and afterward moved into Bearcreek Town- ship. Henry H. Cuppy also came and built the house known as the "Conner house," on the south
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side of the Salimonie, at Portland, now owned by Col. J. P. C. Shanks.
During this year new settlements were com- menced at three different points in the county. The first of these was by John Pingry, who set- tled where he still lives, near West Liberty, April 10th, having been at Mr. Cuppy's for three weeks, previously. His was the first wagon ever driven on the State road, leading north of Port- land. They had a camp already prepared, and retired quite late that night. The next morning, when Mr. Pingry awoke, his wife, Elizabeth, and two of the boys were clearing a garden patch. Similar energy has characterized Mrs. Pingry's life. John Pingry says that spot looked like a paradise then. The grass and leaves were ap- pearing in their bright green, many flowers were out, and he could stand in one place and count 160 walnut trees, that would average three feet feet in diameter. He thought then it was the best land he ever saw, and thinks so still. He cleared ground and put in ten acres of corn, but the birds, squirrels and raccoons destroyed most of it. During that summer he killed twenty-six deer, two bears, and skinned sixty raccoons on the corn-field, which were only about two-thirds of the number he killed, and declares that he " killed squirrels enough to have fenced it." From the raccoon skins he got a hat made, costing $6, which
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lasted twelve years. Like all the early settlers, they enjoyed a continual abundance of honey, taken from bee-trees. They had two barrels at one time. The woods then were covered with pea vines and wild rye, and grazing was fine. Mr. Pingry avers, and it is corroborated by the testimony of many others, that the seasons were very different then from what they are now. There was more rain and high water, and the woods furnished much better grazing for stock.
About the first of May, the same year, Samuel Grissell and Moses Hamilton, from Columbiana County, were in Winchester, hunting land, but had not found any that "pleased them. B. W. Hawkins saw them, and, by much hard persua- sion, got them to come upinto this region. They
did so, and stopped with Thomas Shaylor, who lived in a cabin without floor or chinking. The ground had been swept so much that there was quite a hole in the middle of the house. It rained hard during the first night of their stay, the ground on which they were sleeping became very wet, and the hole full of water. They made se- lections of land, Mr. Grissell's being that upon which he still lives. They went home by way of Fort Wayne, where they bought a canoe and paddled down the Maumee. Mr. Hamilton soon moved out, and he became the first permanent settler of Penn Township. Mr. Grissell followed
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in October following, accompanied by his family of wife and seven children, and Jonathan, Zacha- riah and Joseph Hiatt. His log house was twenty by twenty-five feet, fire-place eleven feet wide. They often drew backlogs into the house with a horse who had to go across the room and put his head out the window. That horse is still living, is thirty-three years old, and the oldest inhabitant of his kind in Jay County.
In November, Mr. John McCoy moved into the cabin Shaylor had occupied. Ile says four ten cent pieces were all the money he had in the world. He had to depend upon his gun for a liv- ing. He was as contented as the young man from Jay, who, while traveling out from Dayton with four cents in his pocket, wrote to his friends that he felt just as well as if he had had " double that amount." In three years McCoy killed three hundred deer.
The great distance to provisions, and there being no roads cut ont, led the early settlers to make meal by pounding corn in a "hominy block." Mr. McCoy and all his neighbors had to go to Newport and Richmond to find a mill and store. In a year or two the settlers were greatly delight- ed that Job Carr was going to build a horse-mill, but they were as much disappointed when the first grist ruined the mill, and their hominy blocks had to be used again.
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The other settlement made during this year was in Jefferson Township. Mr. Aaron Dillie was the first settler there. But little is known of him now except that he was an earnest, consistent Christian. Mr. Joseph Flesher, who died a few years since, came next, and, very soon after, in the autumn of 1834, Joshua Hudson settled on the land now known as " Baker Johnson's farm," having lived for a year previous on Day's Creek, Randolph County. While living at the latter place, after they had retired for the night, there came quite a shower of rain. When Mr. Hudson rose in the morning he found the puncheon floor floating and the house surrounded with water for fifty yards ! He carried his family to a place of safety and, by the next night, the water subsided.
In 1837 Mr. Hudson died, and the family was scattered. Wm. C. Hudson, Esq., his son, and the surviving members of Mr. Flesher's family, are the oldest living inhabitants of that township.
This year (1834) is known among the settlers then living in the county as the "hard year" and the " squirrel year." It was a time of great hard- ships, caused by the coming of squirrels in vast numbers, who destroyed the crops. It was called the " squirrel march or stampede," as those ani- mals seemed to be emigrating, by hundreds and thousands, for some cause yet unexplained. The inhabitants would stand around their fields and 5*
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shoot them all day, but could neither frighten them nor perceivably lessen their numbers. The Hawkins family had fifteen acres of splendid corn, which, in order to save, they gathered as soon as it began to harden, and had but fifteen bushels, which they picked from the centre of the field. For the same cause the crops failed in Darke County, Ohio, and the settlers had to go to Eaton to buy meal. There was not a wagon then in the Hawkins settlement, and they went by turns on horseback, occupying five days in making a trip.
The first marriage in Jay County took place in this year. Mr. JOSEPH WILLIAMSON married Miss MARY ELLEN HARTUP, May 21st, 1834. The wedding was at Henry H. Cuppy's, and the Jus- tice was Oliver Walker, of Randolph County. The license was issued at Winchester. Mr. Wil- liamson now lives in Wells County. The next marriage was that of Mr. JAMES SIMMONS to Miss CHRISTENA AVALINE HAWKINS, June 24th, 1834, by Joel Ward, Esq.
Mr. David Baldwin selected land near John Pingry in the fall of 1834, and in April of the next year he and William Baldwin settled there. They thought it a very wild place, for they would sometimes stand in their cabin door and shoot the deer that were browsing on the trees which had been cut down to keep them from falling on the
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SETTLERS AND INCIDENTS.
house. David Baldwin opened a blacksmith and gunsmith shop that year (1835), which were the first shops of the kind in the county. The Indi- ans were frequent travelers through there then. David Baldwin was a true pioneer-an active and very useful man. As a Christian, he was a Methodist local preacher; as a mechanic, he was a blacksmith and cabinet-maker, and as a pioneer, a farmer, good bee-tree and deer hunter. He afterward emigrated to Kansas, where he served under the famous John Brown. William Bald- win still lives upon the same place.
During 1835 many persons visited the county and selected land. Every settler's cabin was crowded with travelers. Early in the spring, William and Uriah Chapman came out and camped near by the spring, where James White- man now lives, in Bear Creek Township. Two corners of a blanket fastened to the ground, the other two tied up with lind bark, in a slanting direction, served for their camp, in front of which they kindled a fire. On the 22d of April, Wil- liam, with his family and father-in-law, George Lipps, arrived on the spot where he lived until his death, February 15th, 1862. He first built a shed, under which they lived, cooking by a log-heap, for two months, until compelled to build a cabin for protection against the mosketoes. Like many others, Uriah Chapman had to travel by night in
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great haste to Fort Wayne to save their land from speculators. For several seasons Mr. Chap- man did little besides provide for travelers. About half of his time was occupied in hunting to get meat, and the other half going south for provi- sions.
Mr. Joel Wilson was the first settler in Rich- land Township, arriving there in the fall of 1835. James Green had, however, visited the county previously, and built a cabin in what he then sup- posed was Delaware County, but which the survey afterward proved to be in Jay; but Mr. Wilson was the first to move with his family into the township. Most of the earliest pioneers of Rich- land Township have either moved away or gone to their final rest ; but Mr. Wilson still remains, a respectable and influential citizen of the town- ship. Mr. Green's cabin and an orchard he set out were situated on Isaac Ketterman's farm, and were the first improvements of the kind made in that township. The same fall John Booth, Ben- jamin Manor and William Richardson opened a settlement in the southwest corner of the county.
About this time three new settlers came into the Camden neighborhood. They were Joshua Bond, William Swallow and Elihu Hamilton. William Coffin then lived in the same house with Shaylor. Mr. Bond was raised in North Caro- lina-a Friend-was a pioneer in Wayne County,
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then moved to Winchester, and owned a farm on which part of that town is now situated. He built the log house in which he still lives, in the winter of 1835-'6. There were not men enough in that region to raise it, and help had to be brought from Winchester. He is still living, though in his eighty-fourth year.
In November Peter Daily, accompanied by William Carpenter, settled near Joshua Hud- son, in Jefferson Township. For four years his business was hunting, in which he was very suc- cessful. Raccoon skins were worth $1 a piece then, and he caught ten in one evening and one · hundred and sixty-eight during the season. For an otter skin he got $8.50. He and Alexander Stein went hunting one day-shot but six times, and killed seven deer. He had hunted so much with a favorite horse that, though turned loose, it would stay near his camp until he was ready to go home. One time he went home without taking the horse, and on going back, six weeks after- ward, he found the faithful animal still making the camp his headquarters.
In March, 1835, Colonel Christopher Hanna, with a large family, of which H. P. Hanna was the eldest, settled in Noble Township, where George Bergman, senior, now lives. They shared the usual hardships of the pioneers. During a trip to Greenville for provisions his family suffer-
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ed severely for want of food. Great was their joy when the returning wagon was heard winding through the woods. The wet season and early frost ruined his corn, and while H. P. Hanna was plowing, a falling limb killed the horse instantly.
In 1836 he moved to Portland, and became prominently connected with the organization of the county ; was the first Sheriff of the county by appointment of the Governor, and first County Clerk, by election. In 1850 he moved from the county, and died, highly respected, in Tama County, Iowa, March 23d, 1859.
This year also witnessed the coming of Daniel W. McNeal, who was closely identified with the early settlement of Jay County. He came in No- vember, 1835. At the organization of the county he was appointed County Surveyor, which office he filled for many years. In this capacity he laid off the county seat, and suggested to the County Commissioners the name for it, which was adopt- ed. He afterward held the offices of Justice of the Peace, School Examiner, Land Appraiser and Surveyor of Swamp Lands. He also taught school in the county several years. Although he had some eccentricities, he was possessed of ex- tensive and varied knowledge; was especially well versed in mathematics and many of the phy- sical sciences. He gloried in having been an ear-
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ly, consistent anti-slavery man. He lived an honest and useful life, and died at Portland in April, 1864, aged 62 years.
CHAPTER IX.
NEW SETTLERS AND THEIR EXPERIENCES.
THE year 1833 added but few to the scanty number of pioneers. One was Mr. Obadiah Win- ters, from Miami County, who reached the IIaw- kins cabin with his family on the 1st of October, having visited the country the previous summer. He bought out James Morrison, and still lives on the same old farm. It was very common at that time for hunters from the older settlements to hunt in this county. Their camps were every where to be found. But the crack of no one's rifle was heard so frequently, or was so fatal to the game, as that of Jesse Gray. IIis favorite camping place was near the spring on the Sali- monie, now owned by Samuel Reed. Onee when Mr. Winters was hunting, he heard what he was sure was a turkey calling her mate. Soon he saw
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her, and taking the most deliberate aim, was just touching the trigger when Jesse Gray sprang out into open view. It so alarmed Winters that he conld scarcely hold his gun the rest of the day, but not a nerve trembled of the veteran hunter, who so narrowly escaped.
When Mr. Winters' son John was about two and a half years old, he was one day at his grand- father's, Philip Ensminger's. In the morning the old man went hunting, and without his knowledge the little fellow followed and got lost. The waters were very high, and it rained hard during that night. Great excitement prevailed throughout the community, and a large number of persons went to hunt him, which they did the whole night in vain. A cat which was wont to play with the child followed them, and repeatedly during the night came to them, mewed, and then went away again. They paid no attention to this until morn- ing, when J. C. Hawkins and Thomas" Mays fol- lowed the cat, and she led them direct to the lost boy. He was insensible, very cold, and nearly dead. When he revived so as to be able to talk he saw the cat and said, "Tom, yon and me has been lost." He also said that the cat came to him several times through the night, and that he saw a big dog, which was doubtless a wolf.
Mr. Winters made the coffins in those days. There being no lumber for the purpose, puncheons
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NEW SETTLERS
were split out of logs, hewed and planed until they looked as well as sawed lumber. In such a coffin a child of Philip Brown was buried on the north bank of the Little Salimonie, near the road. That was the first death in Wayne Township. In this year also the Highlander family came to the county, consisting of William Highlander, senior, then about eighty years old, and wife, and William, Tandy, James, and several others. They built a log house near Mr. Winters, and after having cleared several acres, a speculator entered the land, and they were again without a home. William and James now live in Portland.
In the autumn of 1833 Edward Buford and family settled near where Samuel K. Williams now lives, and was the first settler in Jackson Township. He had been a valuable scont in the war of 1812, and now he and his sons were famous hunters. They had as many as one hundred and fifty traps set at one time. The "pole trap," which was so often used by them and other hunters, should be described. A long pole was cut, then two stakes driven into the ground, one on each side of it, near one end. These were withed together at the top; then another pole was placed on the first one, the end between the stakes raised up, and triggers set under it. To these was attached a string, which ran back between the poles. Upon the whole was placed a heavy
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AND THEIR EXPERIENCES.
weight. Animals attempting to pass between the poles would touch the string, spring the triggers, and be caught in the "dead fall." B. W. Haw- kins says Buford was the only man he ever knew who could catch a fox in a trap of this kind. In a few years Mr. Buford moved into Bear Creek Township, where he died in 1841.
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CHAPTER X.
WILD ANIMALS-INDIANS FIRE-IIUNTING --- FIRST
ELECTION-LAWSUIT-SCHOOLS.
THE wild animals abounding in the forests of Jay, when civilization commenced its war upon them, were the bear, deer, wolf, wild cat, wild hog, otter, gray fox, raccoon, woodchuck or ground hog, porcupine, mink, muskrat, skunk, opossum, rabbit, weasel and squirrel. Early settlers claim to have killed catamounts. Some of these animals being now rarely seen, should be described. The wolf has the general appearance of a large dog. He hunts in the night, lives chiefly upon deer and rabbits, but kills sheep, hogs, and almost any other animal when he can. Wolves do not go in large gangs except in the winter ; then twelve or fifteen are sometimes seen in one pack. At other seasons they go in pairs, except when attended by their
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THE WOLF.
young. The she wolf generally makes her nest in a hollow log, each succeeding year occupying the same place until disturbed, after which she seeks a new spot near by. The male wolf sleeps a hundred yards or so distant from her nest, on rising ground. At evening, when she has young, she walks a few feet from the nest and howls. He answers with a terrible roar, goes to the nest, then away into the woods, and during the night brings home whatever game he chances to catch. At sunrise he gives apparently a warning howl and retires, while the king of day fills the forest with golden light. The wolf is a shy animal, and never attacks a man unless when very hungry or in de- fense. B. W. Hawkins tells the following story : Long before white men inhabited Jay County some Indians were trapping on the head waters of the Salimonie, in Madison Township. One Indian went several miles from the camp, alone, to set some traps. On the way be killed a deer, which he tied across his shoulders. Returning just after dark, he heard wolves near him. They first acted as if playing around him, then came nearer and encircled him, snapping their teeth and showing a determination to attack. He shot, and instantly they were upon him from every side. He seized his tomahawk and struck at them in all directions, but one caught him and tore the cords from his leg. At that moment he
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cut loose the deer, which they seized, and ran away. The Indian crawled to a fallen tree, the roots of which had turned up. Upon these he climbed and remained until morning, when the Indians came in search of him. When Mr. Haw- kins saw him he was a cripple, and had to hunt on horseback.
Wild hogs are simply tame ones that have run in the woods until they have become wild, or their progeny. They sometimes live to the age of twelve years or more, become very large, and have a large tusk on each side of the snout. They are the wildest animals that ever traveled the woods. They do not root around irregularly like tame hogs, but always in a straight course, as if surveying, occasionally raising their heads and walking several rods. They never attack a man unless cornered. The early settlers killed them rapidly, and now none remain.
Wild cats were very numerous in Jay. They are of a brindle color, have the shape of the house cat, but are four or five times larger. The They are a ferocious animal ; will fight desperately when at- tacked, and can catch and kill a nest of pigs in spite of the efforts of the mother.
Two miles below Bortland there is what the hunters call the " big eddy" in the Salimonie. It is a place one mile long where the waters are un- obstructed and calm. It is the best place for
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FIRE-HUNTING.
"fire-hunting " on this stream. Before the deer had fled from the destructive axe and fatal rifle of the white man, it was the favorite spot with the Indians for this grand sport. For this reason it is supposed they made the "two-mile reserva- tion," which embraced the eddy. Indians fire- hunt in this wise: They girdle a large pig-nut hickory near the ground and again twelve or fif- teen feet above ; then split the bark open on one side of the tree, which enables them to. peel the tree all the way around the body, preserving the bark in one piece. The rough, outside bark is taken off the ends, which are then tied closely. A stick is put crosswise inside the bark, near each end, and the result is, a bark canoe-the lightest boat that floats. At night a very large, lighted wax candle is set at one end, behind which is placed a wide board, which throws the light for- ward and conceals the hunters in the rear of the canoe. Silent as the night, and slowly the "frail bark" moves down the stream. The dis- tant deer, quietly drinking at the water's edge, sees the glaring light approaching. Beyond is utter darkness. As if charmed, he gazes intently at the strange phenomenon. Gradually nearer draws the canoe. Not a ripple, nor a breath, breaks the stillness, until the fatal ball strikes its innocent victim, and the shores reverberate with the report.
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