USA > Indiana > LaPorte County > History of La Porte County, Indiana, and its townships, towns and cities > Part 11
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John B. Smith started a wagon shop in 1849, on the farm be- longing to R. K. Smith, on the road from LaPorte to New Buffalo. In the summer of the same year, Valentine F. Smith built a small turning shop on a stream emptying into the Galena, about a mile and a half west of Winch's shop. Mr. Smith continued the busi- ness until the spring of 1854.
In January, 1852, Whitman Goit, one of the first settlers, and a good and enterprising man, who had filled many important local positions in his township, was accidently killed by the falling of a tree, while he was engaged in getting out railroad ties. On the fifth day of March next following, Kellogg Shedd was accidentally killed by the tipping over of his wagon loaded with saw logs, while on his way to Barnes' mill. This accident occurred near Centre school house. The untimely death of these two men was deeply regretted by the early settlers and their friends, of whom they had many in the county.
In the year 1854, R. B. Goit and Win. Ingersoll, rebuilt the old Talbot saw mill which had gone to decay; In 1857, Truman Barnes built a wagon shop about a mile north of the Centre school house; in 1858, the Francis brothers built a grist mill about a quarter of a mile below Waldruff & Bement's mill. It is known as the Finley mill. It was the first and only one erected in the township; in 1859, Nathaniel Barmore opened a general store near Barnes' mill. He sold out to Valentine F. Smith, in the spring of 1854. Smith remained about eighteen months in that locality, and then moved to Mayes' corners. There he kept the store for a time when he sold
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out to Peter H. Hess. Hess kept up the establishment between two and three years and then abandoned mercantile pursuits. This store, opening at the mill and closing at the corners, was the first, last, and only attempt at merchandising in the township.
In the spring of 1857, Valentine F. Smith built a steam saw mill about forty rods west of Mayes' Corners. He had in connection with it a shingle mill and barrel heading factory. It was burned in the fall of 1862. This was the first steam mill put up in the township.
In the year 1869, Dorf & Kenton erected a steam mill in the southeast part of the township, a little west of Mount Pleasant.
A steam saw mill was moved from Rolling Prairie to Galena dur- ing the summer of 1874 by Shaw & Johnson. It stands by the roadside about one-half mile north of Lamb's chapel.
Some thirty years ago there occurred an incident near the pres- ent locality of the last named mill, which has been almost forgotten, as there are none left of kin to the family in the township. There came from the State of Missouri a large, powerful man, bearing the name of William Mathews. He was noted for his quiet, unobtru- sive manners, and was industrious and devotedly attached to his only boy, a child of some six summers. One day he was cutting timber while the wind was blowing a perfect gale. He had chopped at the trunk of a tree as much as he thought prudent, and step- ped back a few yards to take a view of the situation, when suddenly he heard a crackling noise, and saw the tree falling. His child was at his side. Between saving himself and his boy he hesitated not a moment. He grasped him and with one effort of his herculean arm, cast the child beyond danger. In an instant more that brave father's heart had cased to beat, and he lay upon the earth a crushed and bleeding corpse. The widow sold the property and moved away ; where, none in the neighborhood know.
On the 15th day of August, 1874, Galena was visited by a fear- ful storm of hail and wind, which did great damage to the standing crops. Thousands of fruit and forest trees were uprooted or broken, fences were blown down, barns were demolished and dwellings un- roofed. The thunder kept up one continuous roar, heard above the rushing of the mighty winds and the crash of falling timber. The
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lightning was one ceaseless blaze. Hail as large as pigeons' eggs came down in sheets, and cut the standing corn in pieces. It occur- red at about five o'clock in the morning, and never since the first settlement of Galena, had such a storm, effecting such immense loss, visited the township.
Among those now living in the township or recently there, who came early to the county, are Win. C. Cummins and E. W. Davis who came in 1833; J. H. Francis, Luke Francis, W. W. Francis, Scipha Foster and Zachariah Teeter, who came in 1834; H. E. Smith, Charles Morrow, W. W. Fuller and Hiram Bement, Jr., who came in 1835; and Benjamin Brewer, Wm. W. Finley, Mor- rison Paddock, James Paddock and Samuel Wilson, who came in 1836. The township is now well settled, and among the well- known citizens are Enos Weed, who made a settlement in 1837, is a farmer, and has served as a county commissioner ; McDonald Shead, who is a farmer, and served as a soldier in the forty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, during the war of the rebellion; Mar- tin Bates, an old and respected citizen, a farmer who came from Hampshire county, Mass., in 1840; E. S. Cadwell, a farmer, who has been justice of the peace and trustee of the township; Oliver Marston who came from Erie county, New York, in 1843, and Alex- ander B. Austin who enlisted in the forty-eighth Indiana Volunteers, and served during most of the late war, attaining the rank of Captain.
When Galena township was first settled, it was almost entirely covered with timber. Its surface is rolling and in some places hilly. The soil is loamy, warm, and produces well. It is well adapted to the raising of fruit; and peach and apple orchards are very common. Some of the finest timber in the county may be found in this township. There are many fine farms in Galena, but to clear the land and make it available for cultivation has been the work of years.
There are great difficulties in getting at the facts relating to the early settlement of a township like Galena, which do not present themselves in one located upon a prairie, where it often happens that the settler can stand upon the top of his cabin and at a glance take in its entire boundaries. Citizens from its extreme parts rarely met except at general elections. No attempt has been made to lay
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out a village, and the county records are unincumbered with any survey made for this purpose. There has been no common point for convivial meetings within its limits, where men have lounged away their hours in telling for the hundredth time the tale of their early trials and privations. It is the boast of the citizens that intoxicating liquors have never been sold as a beverage within their township. Crime and poverty have been almost entirely unknown. The inhabitants have nearly all been tillers of the soil, generally religiously inclined, hardy and industrious, frugal and honest.
The township has been slower of developement than in the case of those townships located on the prairie; but when once man's labor has subdued the obstacles to cultivation, it receives a rich reward. Crops are more certain to yield a return; and the result is that Galena township having a soil naturally of great depth and richness, is becoming one of the wealthiest and most prosperous sec- tions of the county.
CHAPTER XI.
CLINTON TOWNSHIP.
From the date of the organization of the county until March 9th, 1836, Clinton township was a part of New Durham ; but on that date. at their March term. the following order was made by the Board of county commissioners : "Ordered that New Durham township be divided by the line dividing congressional townships thirty-five and thirty-six, north of range four west, and that all that part of said township formerly comprising congressional township thirty-five, north of range four west form a new township for judi- cial purposes, to be known by the name of Clinton township, and that there be an election held in this township on the first Monday of April next, for the purpose of electing two justices of the peace for said township, until the next annual election for township officers, and that the election for said township be held at Charles Eaton's shop."
There has been no change in the limits of the township since that time. The south side of Clinton was then the boundary of the
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county, but it has since been extended to the Kankakee river by act of the legislature, and two more townships have been organized.
In its physical characteristics, Clinton township shows much diver- sity. The larger portion of its area is prairie, but there are groves of timber, and on the south and east are sandy "barrens " with oak, as the principal timber growth. Hog creek runs across the town- ship from north to south, watering a large part of it; and most of the land is of an excellent quality, the prairie soil being similar to that in other parts of the county, and the "barrens" producing fine crops of grain. Taken altogether, it is regarded as one of the most desirable parts of the county, of great productive capacity and convenient to market, three railroads, the Lousiville, New Albany and Chicago, Chicago and Lake Huron, and Baltimore and Ohio, passing across it, the first from north to south, and the other two from east to west.
Of the early settlers Isham Campbell is said to have been the first. He made his home on the west side of Hog creek in the year 1832, and in the Fall of the same year Andrew and Edmund Rich- ardson made a settlement, taking land on section nine.
In 1833, Nathaniel Steel, R. Prather, Levi Reynolds, John Osborn, Wm. Niles, Lemuel Maulsby, Richard Williams, Thomas Robinson, and Stephen Jones, a Methodist minister, came into the township and became residents. John Warnock located his claim this year on section four, but did not move on it, on account of sickness in his family, until the ensuing spring.
In 1834, the list of settlers was quite large and embraced John Reynolds, T. J. S. Hixon, Simeon Tuley, John Small, Matilda Tuley, James Haskell, Jonathan Osborn, John Warnock, Phineas- Small, John and Charles Eaton, Hezekiah Robertson, Daniel Rob- ertson, Wm. Eaton, Jacob Iseminger, Wm. Wilson, John Small, James Reeves, Samuel Maulsby, Walter Livingston, L. Richardson, John Clark, John Lewis, Jesse Marshall, John Wilman, Orange Lemon and Benj. J. Bryant.
William Wilson who came this year, located Indian floats on sec- tion nine and ten. These floats were in the nature of land war- rants, save that they contained no provision for the protection of actual settlers. They were issued to half-breed Indians, but being
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made assignable, found their way for the most part, into the hands of speculators. Mr. Wilson honorably paid the settlers on the two sections for all the improvements they had made.
For the year 1835, we have the following record of settlers to present : Wm. T. Harding, Joseph Wright, Thomas Patterson. Richard Williams, Perrin Scarborough, Jonathan Williams, Herbert Williams, Horace Pinney, Sen., Horace Pinney, Jr., Wm. Pinney, David Pinney, Abijah Bigelow, David Congdon, Benjamin Maulsby, Luke Ashley, Mr. Heaton, Dr. Philander Loomis, John Bailey, Mr. Heath (deaf and and dumb), and Dr. Whitcomb, who is said to have been the first resident physician.
Mr. Doolittle and Mr. Johnson were early settlers, coming prob- ably in 1834 or 35.
In 1837, Christian Richardson, Lemuel Brush, Richard Robert- son, Sen., John Koontz, Gideon Long and Adam Iseminger, settled in Clinton ; Wm. Snavely came in 1839, and in 1840 John Robin- son, Isaac Powell and Dr. Bement arrived. The year 1838 is somewhat memorable as the "sickly season." Bilious complaints were prevalent, and very few escaped. There were not enough remaining well, properly to care for the sick. E. S. Gardner moved into the township in this year.
In 1843, Nathaniel Davis, a Congregationalist minister, and well known as an ardent advocate of temperance, and an original Aboli- tionist, made the township his home. Dr. Cobb also arrived the same year.
A log church was built on section ten, in 1844, which afterwards caught fire and burned down. It was built by the Methodists and was called Hickory Chapel. Wiley B. Mack was the first minister who officiated within its walls. He was succeeded by Rev Mr. Oakes. Rev. R. Hargrave was also one of the earliest preachers here. This Hickory log chapel was succeeded by the present Clinton chapel, which was built in 1860.
The culture of mulberry trees and the raising of silk worms at one time engaged considerable attention in the township. The follow- ing will be found in book C, of the proceedings of the commissioner's court, page twenty-six :
" It is ordered by the board that Potter Doolittle be allowed the
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sum of two dollars and twenty-five cents as a bounty on fifteen pounds of silk co-coons, as per the certificate of Wm. Moorman, a justice of the peace of LaPorte county." Potter Doolittle was a res- ident of Clinton, and the foregoing order was made in September, A. D. 1846.
HASKELL STATION.
In the year 1854, A. Culver purchased two hundred and forty acres of land in section twenty, in Clinton township. It being favorably located on the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago rail- road, he conceived the idea of laying out a town in case a sufficient number of persons were attracted to the locality to warrant it. He did not commence as many have done by having it platted and filed in the recorder's office before any evidence of a village was visible, and afterwards subject himself to the mortification of leaving upon the county records an enduring monument of a vanished air cas- tle. From its location it seemed to be a good point for a store, and he gave to samuel Brush an acre upon condition that he would open one. This Mr. Brush did in the year 1855, and he continued in the mercantile business at that place until 1863, when he died. John Ferris bought out the estate, both real and personal, of the administrator, continued the business until 1867, and sold to Wm. D. Crothers. It soon after passed into the hands of Mr. Sopris and from him to Thomas L. Hoadley, who discontinued the business in 1870.
In the year 1857, a postoffice was established at the station, and Samuel Brush was apppointed postmaster. The present postmaster is Thomas L. Hoadley.
In 1858, David Carpenter commenced blacksmithing.
In 1861, a warehouse was built by Samuel Brush, and considera- ble grain was shipped from this point, but the construction of east and west roads has diverted the grain trade in a great measure from the south. In 1871 this warehouse was struck by lightning and burned. Haskell never ranked as a town. No plat of it was ever recorded. It is only a hamlet-having had a store, blacksmith shop, grain depot, postoffice, and being a railroad station.
BIGELOW.
Abijah Bigelow moved into Clinton township in the year 1835,
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and soon after proceded to put up a grist mill, which he completed in 1837. He brought a small colony with him who were mostly Canadians.
In the year 1836, Wm. T. Harding opened the first store in that place. After he had fairly commenced he took as a partner, a man named Bogart, and while Harding was attending to his farm Bogart sold the concern to one Bentley. A litigation ensued which result- ed in Bogart's being sent to jail and Bentley's getting away with the goods.
During the year 1837, the town was recorded in the informal manner so common in those times. It embraced twenty-eight blocks, described as being in township thirty-five, range four west, in the southwest quarter of section twenty-one.
In 1837. a Frenchman who was known by the name of "Bushee," started a blacksmith shop. During the same year Arnold Sapp had a cabinet and jobbing shop, and in 1838, a postoffice was established and Wm. T. Harding had the contract for carrying the mail.
In the year 1848, the 'people became tired of their own organiza- tion, and among the records of the September term of the county commissioners' court of that year, we find the following :
"Now comes Hubert Williams and motions that his petition here- tofore filed, to-wit: On the 21st day of July, A. D., 1848, for the vacation of the town of Bigelow's Mills be now taken up. Where- upon the board, upon due consideration, being satisfied from the affidavit of said Hubert Williams, that manuscript notices of the pending of said petition had been set up in three of the most public places in said town, thirty days previous to the present session of this board, containing a description of the property to be vacated, do order the said town to be vacated."
John Closser started a store at Bigelow's Mills in 1848, and afterwards sold out to Soper & Metcalf. They did business for a time, and then sold to Henry Brush. Samuel Hammond bought out Brush in 1861. Perrin Scarborough started a wagon shop in this year ; in 1852, Frank Howell started a blacksmith shop near where Frank Knight's house now stands, and in 1854, Mr. Gordon had a gunsmith shop to which he added a stock of goods the ensuing year.
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The Bigelow mill having been sold to John Closser, and by him to John Wright, passed into the hands of Henry Harding in 1854. He built a store also, and had a general assortment of goods. Mr. H. continued the business until 1874 when he died, and John War- nock, as administrator of the estate, sold the property to Abram Sovereign, who disposed of it to Mr. Boler.
In 1864, J. Jacobson carried on the business of harness making. The postoffice at. Bigelow was discontinued in the year 1868.
The following incident occurred in the year 1835. Wm. T. Harding and A. G. Webster of Noble township, were brothers-in- law, and put in crops together, some corn on Webster's claim, and buckwheat on that of Harding. After the corn came up the ground squirrels commenced digging it, and some arsenic was obtained to destroy them. A part of it was used and the remainder was laid away in Webster's clock. During the following summer, Harding procured some calomel and after having used a part of it, put the remainder away in the same place where the arsenic had been stored. After this, Harding returned to Ohio, from whence he had migrat- ed, for his family, consisting of his wife, two sons and three daugh- ters, and returned with them in the latter part of September. The first day after his arrival, 'he went to Webster's house, who, with his wife, were absent visiting the newly arrived family. Harding's oldest daughter being unwell, he went to the same clock to procure the calomel to administer it to her. Going to his own home with it, he related to Mrs. Webster what he had done. After Mr. and Mrs. Webster had returned, the former went to the clock to wind it as he had usually done, and missing the arsenic, and being informed by his wife what had become of it, ran all the way to Harding's, hoping to arrive before any of it had been taken. He was too late. Fif- teen minutes before he came, the oldest daughter had taken a dose, and Harding had also done the same a moment before his arrival. Lamp oil, being the only article at hand to serve as an emetic, was administered. The father was saved, but the daughter died before morning. This was the first death that occurred in the township.
At an early date in the settlement of Clinton, a hog dealer pass- ed through the township, and in doing so, lost a number of his drove. They ran wild and multiplied. There were very few
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enclosures, and the early settlers allowed their swine to run at large also, each preferring to have his own private mark upon his stock, and each desiring to have his share of the wild ones which were run- ning about promiscuously. An old settler states that it was won- derful how soon a porker could be dressed and packed away by the residents on the creek after it was shot. They had a habit of first cutting off the ears, or of even skinning the animal when dead to avoid identification, and the crack of a rifle had scarcely ceased to echo over the prairie before this was all accomplished. Finally, an immense amount of litigation was the consequence, and one of the settlers expended all his means, involving one hundred and sixty acres of land, his stock, house and home, in lawsuits growing out of the uncertain proprietorship in swine. This circumstance probably gave name to the creek which flows through the township.
On the 27 day of November, 1865, James Woods shot and killed John Lohm, a German resident, in the west part of the township in the Osborn and Small neighborhood. Woods and Wm. Fulton had been drinking, and had just returned from Westville in a state bor- dering upon intoxication. When in the neighborhood we have described, they encountered a party of Germans who had been husk- ing corn and were returning with loaded wagons. Woods ordered them to halt, to which no attention was paid. Fulton then said to him: "Why don't you shoot." Woods then drew a revolver and discharged it, the ball passing by those who were on the first wagon, and took effect in the body of John Lohm, inflicting a mortal wound from the effects of which he died in a short time. The men were said to be strangers to each other, and had had no previous difficul- ty. Both Woods and Fulton were indicted at the April term of the circuit court, 1866, and were tried in April, 1867. Woods was convicted of murder in the second degree and sentence ì to the pen- itentiary during the term of his natural life, and Fulton of man- slaughter, and sentenced for thirteen years.
On the 14th day of March, 1869, Nicholas Aker, a boy fourteen years and eight months old, was playing with a gun with two younger brothers, when taking it up to blow into the muzzle, it acci- dentally went off, killing him instantly. On the 7th day of Nov. 1874, August Kopelsi, a boy fourteen years and eight months old,
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who resided with his father, Frank Kopelsi, a resident of Bigelow, was out duck hunting. In walking along he held the muzzle of his gun under his arm. Striking the lock accidentally, the cap explod- ed and the contents of the gun nearly tore the arm from his body. He died in less than an hour afterward.
In the two cases above narrated of death from the use of fire- arms, both boys were nearly of an age at the time the accidents in the- cases occurred, the difference being but one day.
On the 6th day of November, 1874, Frank Knight, a young man who resided at Bigelow, met with an accident at Mansfield, Ohio, which cost him his life. He was employed on the Pittsburg and Ft. Wayne railroad, and while engaged in uncoupling cars, fell between them. One car passed over a leg cutting it off. He lived only three hours and and a half after the accident occurred. He was a very promising young man, and his death was much deplored by a. large circle of friends. His age at the time of his death was twenty years, ten months and twenty-seven days.
Among those who have recently lived in Clinton township or who now live there, and who came early to LaPorte county, are Wm. Steele, a native of the county, born in 1830; Thomas Gar- wood, born in the county in 1833; Wm. Snavely, who came to the county in 1833, emigrating from Virginia; R. R. Richardson who came from Washington county, Indiana, in 1833; Charles G. & Thomas L. Eaton, Benjamin V. Fogle and Jacob Iseminger, who came in 1834; W. C. Allen and John Iseminger, in 1835; Wheeler Bentley, and E. C. Reynolds a native of the county, in 1846; Wm. Pinney and Amenzo Mann in 1837; W. H. Beahm, a native of the county, 1839; and C. R. Burch, born in the county in 1840. These are, nearly all of them, successful farmers, agricul- ture being the chief industry of the township. The township is well settled with an industrious, intelligent and thriving people. The interests of education have not been neglected; there is a school house for each neighborhood, and the children of the pioneers' chil- dren enjoy advantages of schools and churches, and social and neighborhood intercourse, of which the early settlers were in a large measure deprived; but which they fully appreciated, and took meas- ures to secure for those who should come after them.
IO
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HISTORY OF LA PORTE COUNTY.
CHAPTER XII.
NOBLE TOWNSHIP.
Noble was a part of Scipio township until the 9th day of March, 1836. when at the March term of the commissioners' court of that year the Board made the following order :
"Ordered, that Scipio township be divided by the line dividing townships thirty-five and thirty-six, north of range three west, and that all that part of said township formerly comprising congressional township number thirty-five north, form a new judicial township, to be known by the name of Noble township, and that there be an election held in said township on the first Monday of April next. for the purpose of electing justices of the peace for said township, and that Arthur McClure be appointed inspector of elections for said township, until the next annual election of township officers, and that the election for said township be held at the house of John McLane."
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