USA > Indiana > Jay County > History of Jay County, Indiana > Part 9
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In 1836 Cuppy brought some goods from Rich- mond and opened a store in that house, which
167
JACOB BOSWORTH.
was the second one in the county. He also built the first house in Portland, which was in 1837. It was a long, log structure, and stood on the cor- ner, since the Jay Inn. He moved his store into that house. The next house in town was the court house, built by Robert Huey. The next year Lewis S. Farber built a house, where D. L. Grow's tan-yard is now situated; and James Simmons built one for D. W. McNeal on the cor- ner where Miller's building now stands. The first farm house was built by Dr. D. Milligan, on the corner south of Miller's building. The first regular tavern was kept by William Haines, who built what is known as "Hickory Hall " for that purpose-still standing.
In 1839 Nathan B. Hawkins and William T. Shull opened the second store in the place. The town was full of native trees then, and it is re- lated that hickory-nuts would often fall upon the log court house while court was in session.
Dr. Jacob Bosworth moved from Massachusetts to Ohio in 1817. While passing through Darke County he found Jesse Gray, who urged him to go to Jay 'to look for land, which he did. He and his family arrived March 1st, 1836. He was the first physician in the county, and for many years his practice was extensive. In the summer of 1837 he opened a Sabbath School in the Wring- er cabin at Liber, which liad then been used
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168
THE OLD LOG BARN.
for a sugar-making house. It was the second school of that kind in the county. Afterward it was moved to his house southeast of Liber, where it was continued for nine years.
John Smith built the next house in Liber in 1836. It was on the farm so long the home of Deacon Jonathan Lowe, now owned and occupied by Jonathan R. Wells. Mr. Smith also built the " old log barn," still standing, and now owned by Mrs. Mary S. Montgomery, which was the subject of the following verses by R. S. Taylor, Esq. :
There's a charm for me yet in the old log barn, So tottering, old and gray ; Where wildly I loved, long years ago, To romp on the new-made hay. CHORUS. For the merry old times that I sported there, The song that I sung in my play, Have an image and echo within my breast That never will fade away.
There was gathered the fruit of the plenteous year, In garner and spacious mow ; And the laborers' shout of " Harvest Home," Is floating round me now. CHORUS. For the merry old times, &c.
And here is the olden-time threshing floor, Where busily moved our feet ; To handle the hay, or the bearded sheaf, Or winnow the golden wheat. CHIORUS. For the merry old times, &c.
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REV. J. H. BABCOCK.
But now the old barn is forsaken and lone, The best of its days it has seen ; Still, when it has fallen and mouldered away, Its memory will be green.
CHORUS.
For the merry old times, &c.
They were set to music also composed by Mr. Taylor, and after being sung at an exhibition at Liber College, were published in the Minnehaha Glee Book.
In the summer of 1845 Rev. Joseph HI. Bab- cock came to Jay County, residing first at Port- land, where he organized a Presbyterian Church November 29th, of nine members, consisting of J. H. Babcock, Eliza Babcock, Jacob Bosworth, Nancy Bosworth, Josiah H. Topping, Hector Topping, Amarctta Topping, Joseph C. Haw- kins and Amanda Frazee. The meeting was held in the Court House. In 1847 he moved to New Corydon, preaching in Portland and in the old Limberlost Church. He died at New Corydon, March 15th, 1848, universally lamented. He was a favorite with all classes, adapting himself with ease to the society around him : a fluent speaker, and possessing a complete education as a lawyer as well as a minister, he was well calculated to be a leader in all the moral movements of the time, and especially to lift the Banner of the Cross in the heterogeneous society of a new country.
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PIKE TOWNSHIP.
The temperance reform, the Sabbath School and the common school received his active attention. He was a model preacher, a good citizen and a true-hearted Christian man. No death in Jay County has been so lamented by those who knew how to value such a man in the forming of new communities. "Though dead he yet speaketh" to those who knew him in his self-sacrificing la- bors in this county.
When the Commissioners organized Pike Township, in 1837, they gave it that name at the suggestion of J. C. Hawkins. Most of its early history has been given. The first settler was John J. Hawkins ; the next Thos. J. Shaylor, and the third Sarah Riddley.
Jacob Sutton relates that one night, soon after he settled there, his dog became much alarmed. He saw in front of the house some animal, and shot at it while in the house. It proved to be a wolf, and the shot had broken its back. The ex- cited dog caught it and would not let go until he had dragged it into the house, where it was killed.
The oldest settler, now living, in the west part of the township is Henry Harford. The first election was held at Jacob Sutton's, and Henry Welch, who lived on the farm now owned by Jolın J. Adair, was elected Justice. David Gar- ringer has held that office the longest of any one in the township. The first school house built was
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JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.
on John Kidder's farm, and Miss Lucetta Kidder, now Mrs. Waldo, taught the first school, com- mencing July 1st, 1840. The first tavern was kept by Abraham C. Sutton, on his farm near Bluff Point. This village was surveyed in 1854 by W. H. Montgomery, for L. J. Bell and I. N.
Taylor. It was first called Iowa. December 17th, 1840, the Post Office was established there, and David Garringer appointed Postmaster. It was then called Van, which name it retained un- 1853, when it was changed to Bluff Point.
Boundary City Post Office was established May 11th, 1852, and Daniel Heaster appointed Post- master. He still retains that position, and has a store.
The village of Antioch was surveyed in 1853. Amos Hall, C. H. Clark and David Frazee were the proprietors. Mr. Clark named it after Anti- och College. Peter Couldren kept the first store.
The first sermon ever preached in Jay County was by Rev. Robert Burns, a Methodist, at the Hawkins cabin, in the fall of 1832. His text was, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."
Jefferson Township was organized at the last meeting of the Commissioners in 1837. The first election was held at the house of Jacob H. San- ders, who was elected the first Justice, and John Nixon was chosen Constable. Peter Dailey was
.172
JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
Inspector of the election. J. H. Sanders laid out New Mount Pleasant, and named it in honor of a Quaker meeting-house in Ohio of a similar name. Willliam Hite was the first settler in the town, and kept the first tavern. The grand jury found forty-two indictments against him at one time for selling liquor, all of which were sustained. It brought out the true manhood that was in him. He abandoned the business, and became a sober, highly respected citizen. John Bell built the second house in the village, and kept the first store. The first school in the township was taught by an Irishman named Thomas Athy, near the farm of William Finch, sen.
Jackson Township was organized in March, 1838. Prior to this it had been attached to Bear Creek Township. The first settler was Edward Buford. The first person who died in the town- ship was Aaron Rigby, in September, 1837, near the farm of Isaac Russell. There being no lum- ber, the coffin was made of "puncheons,"* by Joshua Bond. Gillum Post Office was established January 8th, 1856, and George Fish appointed the first Postmaster. In 1857 Abel Lester opened an establishment for the manufacture of crockery ware. It was in operation only about two years.
* The word " puncheon" is used in this work in the pion- eer sense, which means a plank which is split out of a log, and hewed instead of being sawed.
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173
JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
Silas S. Pingry was Justice in this township for seventeen years. He married two pairs of twin sisters out of the same family. The first name of each of the husbands was John.
During a thaw in the winter of 1837-'S, Mr. James Snow, father of Dr. B. B. Snow, then about sixty years old, who lived six miles north- west of Portland, being out of tobacco, of which he was a passionate lover, started to Camden on foot to procure some. Soon after leaving home the weather began to turn colder; but though thinly clad, he was sufficiently comfortable until his return, when it began to snow very rapidly, making him quite wet and hiding the trace he was following, except the blazes upon the trees. Soon the snow covered most of these, and he discovered he had lost the track entirely, which he tried in vain to regain. Finding that he was suffering from the cold despite all his exercise, he endeavored to retrace his steps to Camden. This he found very tedious work, and soon impossible, on account of the darkness. He now became se- riously alarmed for his safety ; wandered abont, and called loudly for aid, but received no answer. By this time he was discouraged and exhausted. He had waded across runs and through slashes until his feet and lower extremities were very wet ; his clothing was freezing upon him, and he had eaten nothing since early in the morning.
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RICHLAND TOWNSHIP.
He was forced to choose between an effort to save his life by exercising all night or submit to his fate ! Being drowsy, he was strongly inclined to the latter course. Finally, he sought a clear, level place between two large trees, and there contin- ued walking and running from one to the other until morning. His family, supposing he was lost, procured the assistance of some neighbors, and went in search of him, at daylight. About 9 o'clock in the forenoon they found him crawling on his back track and badly frozen. He was a long time recovering.
Richland township was organized in May, 1838. It was named by Benjamin Manor. The first election was held at William Richardson's who lived where Laban Hickman now does, on the second Saturday in June, the same year, John Booth, Inspector. James Ewing was the first Justice. Matthew A. Smith held this office for fourteen years. Ilalf Way Post-office was estab- lished September 19, 1853, and Samuel J. Cur- rent appointed Postmaster. Half Way Creek was so named from being half way between Portland and Muncie, and, from this stream, the Post-office received its name. The village of Mount Vernon was laid out by W. H. Wade, and surveyed by John C. Bailey. Michael Coons, who settled in the township in 1837, has killed several bears and over three hundred deer there.
175
GREEN TOWNSHIP.
The first settlers in the vicinity of Dunkirk were Isaiah Sutton and William Shrack, who came in September, 1837. One day, while the men were absent, Mrs. Sutton saw a deer, and, though she had never fired a gun, she took careful aim and shot, killing the deer instantly.
James S. Wilson was the first Postmaster at that office, which was established February 28th, 1856.
Green Township was organized in March, 1838. The first settler was T. J. Shaylor, the next Wil- liam Coffin. Samuel Routh, William Bunch, Greenbury Coffin and Henry Delong were also early settlers. The Rev. G. C. Whiteman settled where he still lives, Oct. 22d, 1837. Mr. Routh and Christopher I. Timberlake were from Green County, Ohio, and named the township after that county. The first election was at Delong's, the first Monday in August, 1839.
Rev. Wade Posey, who was then on the Win- chester Circuit of the Methodist Church, preached the first sermon in the township at Mr. Whiteman's. The first school was taught in the winter of 1845- -6, in a school house situated near James Whaley's. The township had no post office until May 22d, 1862. when one was established called Green, and John Stricker appointed Postmaster.
Knox was the last township organized, which was in March, 1839. A. C. Smith and Joseph
176
KNOX TOWNSHIP.
Gaunt went to Portland to get the township or- ganized. After hunting some time they found the Commissioners in session out in the woods, near the court house. The old township name of Sali- monie had not been given to any of the new townships, and Jacob Bosworth, who was then one of the Commissioners, insisted that at least the last township should have that name. But Mr. Gannt wanted it named after Knox County, Ohio, and succeeded.
John Brooks was the first settler. Brittan Beard, Joseph Gaunt, John Gaunt, Adam Zeigler, Abraham C. Smith and Joshua Bowers were among the early settlers.
The first election was held at Gaunt's, on the first Monday in April, 1839, A. C. Smith, Inspec- tor. There were just seven votes cast, and six officers elected, as follows : Trustees, A. C. Smith, Michael Roland and Joseph Gannt ; Justice, Michael Roland ; Clerk, Cornelius Smith; Con- stable, Adam Zeigler.
The first death in the township was that of Mrs. Jane Beard, wife of Brittan Beard. She died in the fall of 1839, and was the first person buried in the township cemetery. Cornelius Smith taught the first school in the winter of 1838-'39.
The organization of Madison Township has been given. Henry Abel and Benjamin Gold- smith were the proprietors of Lancaster. It was
177
MADISON TOWNSHIP.
surveyed by D. W. McNeal. Salimonie Post Office was established in 1852, and G. W. Abel appointed Postmaster. He still retains that posi- tion. Jordan Post Office was established in 18-, but it was then in Randolph County. For a few years it has been on the Jay side of the county line. The village of New Pittsburg, like Salem, is on both sides of the line separating the two counties.
In the winter of 1835-'6 William Martin o pen- ed a store near Abraham Lotz', which was the first in the county.
One hindering difficulty in the development of the resources of the county has been the rage for hunting which most of the early settlers possessed. Instead of clearing a farm, only a small spot was generally opened on which to raise a patch of corn, and the time principally spent in hunting. It would have been much more profitably em- ployed in making wider aggressions upon the for- ests and thus adding new fields to the farm. During the first stages of the emigrant's life this hunting was an absolute necessity ; but was often, from long habit and love of the excitement of the hunt, continued after the necessity had passed away. The liberal prices paid for skins by the fur traders also encouraged the hunting, and the money thus distributed was for many years the chief dependence of the pioneer families in mak-
178
GENERAL REMARKS.
ing purchases of merchandise and grain, and in paying taxes and doctor bills. Coffee, tobacco, muslin, and, we are sorry to say, in some neigh- borhoods whisky, were the staple articles of trade for the first few years. A boy once called at Theo. Wilson's store, in New Corydon, with one bushel of corn, half of which he left for tobacco, and the other half took to the mill, remarking that it was the last grain they had. As game became scarce in Jay and adjoining counties, hoop poles came to be the chief exporting product. Jay County hoop pole teams have been seen at Eaton and Camden in Preble County, Ohio, and that, too, before there was a turnpike on any part of the road.
CHAPTER XIV.
REV. I. N. TAYLOR-LIMBERLOST CHURCH.
The first organized religious and educational effort, in Jay County, was made by Rev. Isaac N. Taylor. He was, emphatically, the leading pion- eer in all systematic, effectual labor in these move- ments. Occupying, as he did, so prominent a position in the county's early history, so thorough- ly identified with her best interests, any history of Jay County would be very incomplete without a considerable sketch of his life and labors in it.
In October, 1838, he was sent by the American Home Missionary Society and Presbytery of Chilicothe, Ohio, to St. Mary's, Ohio, as a Mis- sionary to the new settlements in that region. Early in the summer of 1840 he received a vague verbal message to the effect that somebody, thirty or forty miles west of St. Mary's, wanted to see
180
REV. I. N. TAYLOR.
him. He wrote to this unknown person a sealed letter, directing it "To any Presbyterian west or south-west of St. Mary's, within forty miles, greet- ing," and confided it "to any hunter going to the Wabash." He took it himself ten miles, to the extremity of squatter sovereignity habitation. West of that, to the Wabash, was an untouched wilderness of the most dismal character, yet that letter, thus committed to the wild, reached its providential destination, and was speedily answer- ed by Mr. Matthew P. Montgomery, who lived on the farm now owned by Peter Walter, of Wa- bash Township, urging him to come there, and telling him of a small community of Christian people in his neighborhood. Soon after, Mr. Tay- lor made his first visit to Indiana. From what is since Celina to New Corydon, there was then scarcely a sign of human existence, and the first farm south of the Wabash was that of Mr. David Adams, where he found the whole neighborhood assembled raising a double log barn. Of that event Mr. Taylor says : "The patriarch of the oc- casion, as he ever was till he died, was Father Reuben Montgomery. After a few salutations he led us on down the creek some three miles to the house of his son-in-law, Ira Towle, where, on Sat- urday night, our first religions meeting was held. The day following was a memorable Sabbath to those sheep in the wilderness-memorable for re-
181
REUBEN MONTGOMERY.
viving the sacred memories of the Sabbath, the sanctuaries of the past, and for kindling the hopes of a better future, when this wilderness might re- joice and blossom as the rose."
Six weeks afterward, Mr. Taylor returned, preached for several days at Ira Towle's, some- times in the barn, and organized a Presbyterian church, of thirteen members, of whom Jacob Bos- worth, (though living twelve miles distant,) Harry Reed and M. P. Montgomery were elected elders.
In the afternoon, on the Sabbath, there was a meeting for the relation of personal Christian ex- perience. Most of the male members of that gathering have gone to their eternal home. No one can paint so true a picture of these men as Mr. Taylor, who writes thus : "Father Mont- gomery, brought into the Kingdom in advanced life, impressed me that common sense was his great excellence. His story of his conversion showed that the truth and spirit of Christ had seized upon this ruling power in his conversion, and had ever since made this trait the chief medium of keeping him from error and preserving his piety. A memorable morsel in his prayer on that occasion illustrated how child-like sympathy may rule in company with a masterly will. It was this: 'O, Lord, thou knowest there is a great work to be done here in Jay County, and we have none to look to but Thee.' He was a famous framer.
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182
IRA TOWLE.
Many houses and barns in Jay will long be the remembrancers of his industry, though men, with noisier tool covered with board and nail his firmly jointed workmanship. And so, I think, his strong minded counsels, though covered by noisier advo- vocates of moral and religious reform, will remain a part of the hidden frame-work of new society in Jay County.
"Ira Towle's hesitating yet honest manner made me say of him, to myself: There is a man that minds his own affairs and keeps his own secrets, and wishes all others to do the same. I found him so. Never obtrusive, he was always in his place, doing, not proposing or discussing, his full share towards all the interests of society. In keeping with all else, he, dying without any im- mediate heirs, bequeathed most of his property to the cause of Home Missions, amounting to over two thousand dollars.
"Harry Reed's account was unstudied and highly emotional. Some odd, blunt expression about God's handling him mighty rough, would make us smile, and the next minute we would find our- selves weeping with him that wept, while he was telling of the almighty love of Jesus. With him religion was an inwrought principle and law of life, that would always prevail over the transient errors of sudden impulse or hasty speech. I con- fided to him, more than any man in those days,
183
M. P. MONTGOMERY.
all my cares. His industry, integrity, zeal and tender sensibility made him a valuable exponent of those elementary lessons of piety and charity which it was my care to instill into the heart of society in those early days. He was, emphat- ically, a worker in the moral as in the natural wilderness, and in both his works do follow him.
"M. P. Montgomery, a man of superior intellect and of views and aspirations wide and high, with both natural and acquired gifts of speech, gave us, in addition to his Christian evidences, the lively impression that he was, all over, from the sole of his foot up, for more than six feet, to the crown of his masterly head, a Presbyterian. It was to be expected that such a man would hail with joy the hopeful beginning of better times. He deprecated the prevailing type of religion in the country, as contemptuous of solid knowledge, dignified forms, and practical correctness. He was chiefly instrumental in getting, at so early a date, the first meeting-house, the block house, Limberlost Chapel. Soon after the organization of the church, he attended, as elder, a mecting of the Presbytery, at New Carlisle, Ohio. It was the era of the great Washingtonian Temperance Re- form. One night there was a grand meeting. Several eminent speakers were present, among them the famous Dr. Hall, of overwhelming brass bugle eloquence. Mr. Montgomery having
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184
M. P. MONTGOMERY.
learned that very many christian professors of that region were opposed to the Reform. delivered such a scathing philippic as entitled him to the lionship of the evening. He employed the bitter language of John the Baptist and of Christ respecting the Jews suffering vile characters to enter the King- dom of God before them, neither entering them- selves nor suffering those that would to enter. He explained, expanded and applied the terms hypocrites, generation of vipers, etc., with resist- less force. Dr. Hall was so pleased that he invit- ed him home with him to Dayton, and sent him back to Jay with forty dollars for the completion of the little chapel.
"His stay in the county was only for a few years. Indeed his stay on earth was not long, for, having removed to the vicinity of Fort Wayne, he had scarcely fixed his family comfortably on a new farm, when he was called to another sphere."
In 1841 Ira Towle gave the land for a church site and cemetery. Logs were hewed on four sides and a house erected that year-the first church building in the county.
The first temperance meeting in that part of the county were held in it, and, at one of these, Judge J. M. Haynes made the first public speech. The people who so long worshiped within its walls, abandoned it in 1862, occupying their new house at Westchester.
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REV. I. N. TAYLOR.
Though forsaken the rustic church is not for- gotten.
BAKER CHICACO
THE LIMBERLOST CHURCHI.
The memory of its dear old walls is linked with the cherished remembrance of the many loved ones who sleep near it. As the first altar consecrated to God in the new county, its appearance is res- cued from oblivion for the eyes of futute genera- tions. The church organization is now Congre- gational.
Mr. Taylor accompanied Dr. Bosworth to Port- land, where the doctor announced him, on account of his youth, as a "Presbyterian boy preacher."
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REV. I. N. TAYLOR.
A large audience assembled at Portland, in the old court-house, "a log building, long, low and dis- mal," and there he preached his first sermon in that part of the county, taking for his text that first divine call after apostate man-" Adam, where art thou ?" Several sermons followed, en- gaging the unwonted attention of the people for several days and nights.
The statements and reasonings of Dr. Bosworth's "boy preacher " was the same he had insisted on among his neighbors since they had pitched their tents together in the wilderness. But he had longed to have these truths fastened on men's minds and consciences in a professional way, and his delight on this occasion was great.
For about two years after his first entrance, Mr. Taylor made frequent visits in Jay, and, grad- ually, a desire sprang up within him to labor for the mental and moral welfare of the county. This was more natural, because, by reason of certain predispositions, he had cherished from boyhood the desire to help lay the foundations of society in a new country. During these visits his ac- quaintance was enlarged at New Corydon, Cam- den and in the Hawkins neighborhood, and his desire grew into a fixed intention to spend the vigor and strength of his life in this destitute and difficult, but promising field for intellectual and re- ligious labor.
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REV. I. N. TAYLOR.
He moved into the county in February, 1843, and first occupied a cabin belonging to William H. Montgomery, two miles east of Westchester. In addition to preaching to the flock he had gath- ered there, he preached in the Hawkins cabin for Father Philip Eusminger, then, as he still is, (though now in his ninetieth year,) the meek and venerable white-haired patriarch of that neigh- borhood. Mr. Taylor's veneration for "first things " and interest in pioncer experience was greatly gratified at Mrs. Hawkins'. The vigor- ous blood and daring nerve of "Old Kentuck " animated her frame as she would recount the thrilling scenes of their first year among the savage beasts and savage men that then walked curiously and stealthily around her rude earnest of a coming civilization.
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