USA > Indiana > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Indiana > Part 21
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JOHNSON COUNTY,. INDIANA.
fastening the two oxen together. There was a hole made in the middle of the yoke, and a strong hickory withe was fastened into it with a loop for the end of the tongue. A better ring was made for the tongue and fast- ened to the yoke by twisting into a strong cord a heavy rope of rawhide. The tongue was put into this ring and a pin of wood through the end of the tongue before and behind the ring. These wagons were very service- able for hauling wood, gathering corn, and for many other purposes on the farm. They were very musical as well, for the more grease one put on the wooden axle to make it run lighter, the more it would squeak, making a noise that could be heard a mile. ,
"The pitch forks for all purposes on the farm were made of wood. A young forked dogwood sapling was secured, the bark taken off, and the two forks pointed for tines, and this made a good fork. Wooden rakes were made of strong seasoned wood, some of them being made by fitting the head piece with deer horns, and they made very useful implements. A good spade was made of hickory and, if properly seasoned and kept well oiled, this tool would . do good work as long as wanted. Sleds were made in many ways and were universally used by all who had either oxen or horse teams. In early times the hickory withe and deer hides were used for all purposes on the crude farming implements, as is the binder twine and fencing wire of this period."
But it must be remembered that in Johnson county the village smithy and shop followed hard upon the footsteps of the first settlers, and the pioneer farmer in this county, if he had the money. was not left entirely to his own resources. Most of them chose, however, to fashion their own implements, as they did the little household furniture they required. And, like the Ken- tucky pioneers who passed through the cane-brakes of what is now the "Blue Grass Country" to settle upon the hills where fuel and water was abundant, the Johnson county pioneers settled on the highest and dryest lands, near a spring, if possible, to avail themselves of the best that nature had provided for home making.
The work in the fields was of the character rendered necessary by the want of good implements for the clearing of the lands and the cultivation of the soil. After the ground was cleared for the small field of corn it was broken and dragged or harrowed, and then "laid off" with a single shovel plow, generally in both directions. At the intersections of the furrows the corn was dropped by hand and covered with a hoe. In the corn planting the women and children were usually relied upon to drop the corn, but the men as well girded themselves with aprons, knotted in front, and helped in planting the corn crop. As one could drop as much as two could cover, effort
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was soon made to find an implement that would save the labor of the hoe. The "grasshopper," a small side-bar plow, and later the "straddle-jack," two small plows set so as to straddle the row, were the first improvements upon the work of the hands in covering corn. A "jumping-jack," for the same use, was a small shovel plow run in the row and lifted at the hill so as to cover the corn. The next time-saver invented was a "marker." used to lay off the rows transversely, and next came the corn drill and corn planter, the latter making its appearance in Johnson county about the middle of the fifties. The check rower did not make its appearance until about the time of the Civil war, and it is worthy of note that one of the first types of this machine was invented by a citizen of Johnson county and thereafter manufactured under the name of the Hayworth check rower. In the wheat fields the crop was in the beginning reaped with a hook, but the cradle was also in use from the beginning of the county's history. The first of the wheat harvesters to make its appearance in Johnson county was known as Mann's patent. One of these was brought to the county by John T. Forsythe as early as 1855, and it was a one-wheel machine with a sickle and canvas carrier which car- ried the wheat from the sickle to a platform elevated fourteen or fifteen inches, from which the wheat fell into a concave box resting against teeth fashioned like a revolving hay rake. One man drove the machine while his helper, sometimes a boy, sat with his back to the driver and when the box filled with wheat, revolved the box so as to throw out the sheaf ready to be bound. Isaac Bergen and John P. Banta also owned harvesters of this type.
During the latter part of the fifties other harvesters, notably the Ball, the Kirby, the Manny and the Kentucky harvesters, came into use. The Ball had two wheels and the wheat fell from the sickle upon a platform and was raked off in bunches by a boy sitting with his back to the driver. The one- wheeler Kirby was of almost the same type, except that the helper stood and removed the straw with a hand rake: the Manny was a much larger machine, on which two men besides the driver rode and bound the straw as it was elevated to a small platform. The Manny met with little favor because of its weight upon the horses' necks.
The Marsh harvester. patented in 1858. was of the same type as the Manny. The Dropper came into use early in the sixties and continued to be quite generally used until after the middle of the seventies. The first self binder brought into the county, of which the writer has been able to get precise information. was purchased by "Uncle Matt" Alexander, about the year 1878. A year previous Daniel Deupree, living just north of Edinburg, but in Shelby county. had bought a self-binder. and within a year or two
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many of the prosperous farmers had followed his extmple. When first in- troduced the self-binder was an object of much curiosity and men drove for miles to see the new-fangled implement. These were wire binders, the twine binders not coming into use until about the year 1883.
After his wheat crop was harvested, the pioneer farmer removed his sheaves to the barns, and in the beginning was obliged to beat the grain out with a flail, tossing the wheat in sheets that the wind might blow the dry chaff out. The better class of farmers had their barns provided with threshing floors, on which the sheaves were laid and small boys rode unshod horses around over the straw, with men turning and removing the straw until the grain was tramped out and worked to the bottom. Hand mills were then used to blow out the chaff and dirt. Sometimes the horses were hitched to a beam fastened to an upright revolving in the center of the threshing floor, the horses being led by a pole extending from the upright.
. The first machine for the threshing of wheat was called the "ground- hog," a huller set in the field between the stacks of wheat and operated by horse power. The "ground-hog" did not separate the wheat from the straw. but men stood at the tail end of the machine with forks and removed the loose straw. the remainder being fanned out at the barns. In a few years probably about the middle of the fifties, came the separator, driven first by eight, then by ten to twelve horses. The horse-power machines were driven by a tumbling shaft which ran from the "power" to the thresher. The band- cutter, standing next to this shaft, had to be very careful to avoid the danger of being caught. Steam power was first used with separators in Johnson county about the beginning of the Civil war, but in 1864 a distressing acci- dent drove the steam engine out of favor. In that year near the present site of New Bargersville an engine attached to a wheat separator blew up, killing Commodore Tresslar. James Utterback and a boy and seriously injuring others. At about the same time a like engine exploded at the state fair ground, killing more than a score of people, among whom were some citizens of Johnson county. The farmers feared a repetition of these accidents, and it was past the middle of the seventies before the steam engine returned to favor in the threshing field. The "blower" was still later coming into use. Many men yet in middle life worked on the straw stack and remember the overpowering dust at the mouth of the carrier. With the coming of steam power it was no longer necessary to stack wheat in the field. Still later came the traction engine. the self-feeder and the automatic weighing device with machines capable of threshing two thousand bushels of wheat per day.
When the farmer was not busy in the field he found work in clearing
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his lands, and the best timber was split into rails. Johnson county was favored by a fine growth of timber suitable for rail making, and it has only been within the last twenty-five years that the farmer was obliged to resort to other materials for his fencing.
One of the few diversions of the pioneer was the neighborhood shooting match. To these contests marksmen came for miles around and the rivalry at the matches, while friendly, was always very keen. The weapons were usually home-made, muzzle-loading rifles and, in the hands of the pioneer marksmen, were a very accurate and deadly weapon. Every neighborhood boasted its champion marksman and a few marksmen, notably William H. Barnett, Jonathan Yount and Thomas Stine, had a reputation countywide.
Muster days and election days were occasions eagerly looked forward to by the pioneer residents, and they were always made the occasion of more or less hilarious conduct. Election days were much more exciting than those of the present day. Indeed, for weeks before the election the excitement was intense, manifesting itself in great party meetings at the county seat. The different parties, toward the close of the campaign. held their meetings on alternate Saturdays and great was the rivalry between the parties in the matter of parades, torch-light processions and erection of party poles. In these campaign meetings each community vied with its neighbor in the ar- rangement and decoration of floats, in the arrangement of drum corps and horseback troops, and after the election the victors always met for jollifica- tion meetings with parades and torch-light processions, the marchers carry- ing banners taunting their opponents with defeat. The last of these ex- pressions of partisan sentiment to arouse much enthusiasm in our county were the parades and meetings held in the city of Franklin during the general election of 1892.
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CHAPTER IX.
EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS IN JOHNSON COUNTY.
The ordinance of Congress of date July 13, 1787, providing for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river declared certain articles should be considered an unalterable compact between the original states and the people and states in the new territory. Among these, Article 3 declared that "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
The act of Congress of date April 19, 1816, to enable the people of Indiana to form a constitution and state government, made certain proposi- tions to the convention, "for their free acceptance or rejection," of which the first was: "That the section numbered 16, in every township, and when stich section has been sold, granted or disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto and most contiguous to the same shall be granted to the inhabitants of such township for the use of schools." Another section reserved two entire townships for the use of a "seminary of learning." These proposi- tions were favorably received by the constitutional convention, which ratified them by the vote of June 29, 1816, and the new state government made provision for rural schools, for county academies and for a state university, al 1 free and open to the people of the state.
"None of the lands that had been granted to the state by the federal government for school purposes could be sold until 1820, and actually none were sold until eight years later. The legislation, from time to time, for . plublic schools was as advanced as in any of the states, but there were no funcis to maintain the authorized schools. There were many reasons for this-the sparseness of the population, slender school revenues from taxa- tion. lack of qualified teachers, opposition of the few and indifference of the many who needed their children to work at the clearing of the forest and the planting and gathering of crops. Superintendent Cotton reminds us that 'the settlers were busy felling the forest, draining swamps and making homes. They exhausted their time and energies in providing for their families the necessities of life and in baffling malaria. They had no leisure
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for the contemplation of educational problems, and the spiritual life had to wait. The day of free schools was afar off and illiteracy grew apace.' Even the elementary schools were left to private enterprise."-Levering, "His- toric Indiana," page 421.
In Johnson county none of the school sections were sold in the regular way until 1832. In that year Pierson Murphy, school commissioner by appoint- ment of the county board, conveyed a part of section 16, now in Needham township. In 1834 he conveyed parts of the school sections in Union and White River. The sale of school lands progressed slowly, however, a few being made by Dr. Murphy in 1836 and 1837, and by his successor, Thomas Alexander, in 1838. As late as 1854 some of the school lands had not been conveyed, the county auditor having succeeded to the duties of school com- missioner.
But this is not to say that education was being neglected in all parts of the county. In many places throughout the county, according to tradition, schools were being conducted in the settlers' cabins and in the "meeting- houses." The act of January 27, 1824, had provided that lands might be conveyed to trustees for the use of schools. meeting houses and Masonic lodges. and some neighborhoods had, probably as early as 1827, by voluntary donation of a building site and material, erected log houses for the three- fold use mentioned in the statute. In that year Jefferson Lowe, of White River township, conveyed to Daniel Boaz, Andrew Brown and John Grose- close two acres of land in the northeast corner of section 8. "for the use of a school, meeting house and a public burying ground."
Rev. P. S. Cleland, in his "Quarter Century Discourse," delivered at Greenwood, December 18, 1864, is authority for the statement that a school society was formed in Greenwood on the 4th day of January. 1826, and trustees were chosen to receive title to lands donated by Garrett Brewer and Isaac Reed for a school house, meeting house and burying ground, but if such be the case action was delayed, for no such conveyance was actually made until April 30, 1832.
At the March term, 1829, the board of county justices order Thomas Williams, county agent, to convey to trustees for the use of the citizens of Franklin and vicinity a lot on which to erect a school house. The deed was not executed. however. until July 2, 1831. at which time lot number I in the Old Plat was conveyed to Hezekiah Mckinney, Robert Gillcrees and John : ยท Foster.
In the latter year the town of Flemingsburg was platted, one lot being
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reserved for a school house and a second for a meeting house. This separa- tion of the community interests was well considered, as the holding of school and church in the same room was likely to lead to a conflict. The circuit rider could not always time his visit to a Sunday meeting, and in such event he must use the only house in the neighborhood suitable for preaching. In one of the earliest conveyances made for a joint school and church house a happy solution of the difficulty is met by a compromise. John S. Barger, making his deed under date of August 18, 1831, imposes the following con- ditions: "The above house is also intended for a school house for the in- struction of the children. And the teacher is to permit the minister to preach at the hour of twelve o'clock on a week day, if it is not practicable for the circuit preacher to attend on the Sabbath. And if at any future time there should be a Sabbath school, the school is to give way at the hour of preaching".
A brief sketch of the school law of 1831 is of interest as showing forth the educational affairs of that day. By section 37 of the act approved Febru- ary 10, 1831. it is provided that the township trustee should divide his town- ship into school districts and appoint three sub-trustees for each district. The next section requires the sub-trustees to call meetings of the householders and freeholders of the district at some convenient place, "and after making known to such meeting the law on the subject of township schools, shall proceed to take the sense of the meeting by aves and noes, in writing on the question, whether they will support a public school for any number of months, not less than three in each year." If the vote favored such support the sub-trustees select a site for a school house as near the center of the district as possible, "taking into view its convenience to water. fuel and healthiness," and appoint a time for the inhabitants of the district to meet and commence the building of a school house, "said house to be of brick. stone, hewn timber or frame. according as a majority of said inhabitants may agree. Every able-bodied male person. of the age of twenty-one years and upward. being a freeholder or a householder. shall be liable equally to work one day in each week until such building may be completed or pay the sum of fifty cents for every day he may so fail to work.
A later section provides that as soon as the school house is in readiness the trustees shall call a meeting of the voters of the district at the school house and "take the sense of such meeting whether they will suffer any proportion of the tax, if any tax be necessary for the support of such school. to be raised in money, and, if so. what proportion and the time they may wish
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to employ a teacher. These trustees are also to make out a list of the taxa- ble property of the district, but special provision is made "that no person shall be liable for such tax unless such person wishes to and does participate in the benefit of such school fund." No person could be employed as a teacher until he produced the certificate of the township trustees "that they have examined him touching his qualifications, and particularly, as respects his knowledge of the English language, writing and arithmetic, and that in their opinion, he will be a useful person to be employed as a teacher in said school."
In 1838 the Legislature required the circuit court of each county to appoint three suitable persons as examiners of common school teachers, but "the certificate of any such examiners shall only be used as auxiliary to aid trustees in determining qualifications of teachers and shall not entitle the possessor to employment without the examination and approbation of the trustees. No school could receive public aid unless "there is a school house in the district (either built or adopted) of convenient size, with sufficient lights, and that it is so furnished and repaired as to render the teachers and pupils comfortable."
These provisions of the law outran public opinion on the necessity of education at the charge of the public, and so far as the records show, no tax for schools was ever levied in Johnson county until the same was made compulsory under the Constitution of 1851. Public-spirited citizens, how- ever, continued to support schools in nearly every corner of the county .. Especially after 1837, at which time many land owners began to donate school house sites to the "Inhabitants of School District No. - ," houses and grounds ample to accommodate the children of the county began building.
As the time for the adoption of a new Constitution drew near the ques- tion of the public school support became poignant, and at least three times the citizens of Johnson county voiced their sentiments on the same at the polls. At the August election, 1849, 604 votes were cast in favor of a school law of the proposed character, and 1, 190 were cast against "public schools." A year later the vote stood : For, 588; against, 1.054; and in August, 1851, the question was again submitted. with the following result :
Township.
For Common Schools. Against.
. Nineveh
72
105
Clark
76
36
Hensley
31
100
White River
.69
80
Union
22
87
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The vote in Blue River, Pleasant and Franklin is not of record. An interesting side-light on the sentiment of the times is also seen on the vote at the same election (1851) on the proposal to exclude negroes and mulattos from the United States. The vote is as follows :
Township.
Exclusion No exclusion.
Nineveh
164
6
Clark
62
17
Hensley
I2I
I
Blue River
II6
14
Pleasant
III
2
White River
138
6
Franklin
359
52
Union
IOI
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
The vote of Johnson county on the two propositions named are not flattering to us. and yet the record is fairly indicative of the state of culture of the period. After the adoption of the Constitution of 1851 a great im- petus was given to school work, and the several townships of the county soon took steps to levy a tax for the support of schools. Even yet, however, opposition was sometimes met. The records show that on October 3, 1853, an election was held at Worthsville to vote upon the question whether a school tax should be levied upon the inhabitants of said township. The vote was in the affirmative, but so close that contest proceedings were filed before the county board. And it would seem that the new law did not at once and everywhere result in the erection and maintenance of school build- ings, for as late as 1856 school was taught in a room at the court house. It must have been a "loud" school, the order of the board reciting that Pro- fessor Brand must vacate the room in the court house now occupied as a school room, "as it operates to the serious disadvantage of the county officers."
Of the earliest "district schools," which were really private schools con- ducted by teachers who were itinerants, for the most part, no record is left. John L. Jones, the oldest living ex-teacher in the county. attended a summer school at the Union meeting house in 1832. The school was taught by William Bond. a Kentuckian, in the old hewed-log meeting house. The boys, many of them clad in leather breeches, and the girls in homespun, sat stiffly erect on log slabs, each reciting in turn to the teacher. One little girl pupil had a pet fawn, which, like Mary's little lamb. followed her to school, much to the diversion of the other children. In the early forties he went to
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Columbus to attend a school conducted by Professor Pigeon, a pedagogue with a wide reputation for liberal learning. Returning from school he him- self became a teacher and in 1843 opened a school in a log school house near the former farm house of Peter D. Banta in Union township. He con- tracted to take one-half his wages, amounting to ten or twelve dollars, in cash, the balance to be paid in merchandise. Of the merchandise he secured enough jeans to make a pair of pants and with a part of his cash he bought calico for a coat, and this became his outfit of wearing apparel for his first time in Franklin College the next year. The late John C. Miller was one of his pupils, and the teacher recalls that young Miller brought to school as his only text book a pioneer history of Kentucky, with the back off and in a much dilapidated condition.
Of these and other early schools the following sketch by B. F. Kennedy. one of the early teachers of Hensley township. will illustrate the methods and manners then in use :
"To go back to the schools under the management of the first genera- tion, the generation of entry. we have to record a system of many faults, but the primitive beginning rapidly developed into the present school system.
"The generation of entry built the little log school houses. These were built of round logs. In raising, the corners were taken by four pioneers, who, with axes. notched and saddled the logs as they went up. This process was continued until a sufficient height was reached, when there was a gradual tapering to the comb. The rib poles were then placed on from the eaves to the comb, three and one-half feet apart. Upon these were placed the four- foot boards which were weighted down with poles steadied in place by the white oak hearts. The spaces between the logs were chinked by oak hearts and daubed with mud. The stick-and-mud chimney was wide enough to take on great backlogs five feet long. The floor was made of split halves of great logs, called puncheons. A long window, made by displacing one log. extended the entire length of the room. The window panes consisted of thick greased paper. Split halves of logs, with wooden legs, served as seats. A large writing desk under the window across the room was held by three great wooden pegs driven into the wall. The holes were bored with a two- inch auger. The building was then ready for school. 1
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