USA > Indiana > Madison County > History of Madison County Indiana (Volume 1) > Part 38
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One Hundred and Fifty-fifth-This was the last of the one-year regi- ments. In Company F were Charles Adams, Isaac Hopper, Harrison Hyfield, Andrew A. Kaufman and Elba Musick.
FIFTH CAVALRY
This was the Nineteenth Indiana Regiment in the order of formation. It was organized late in the year 1862, with Felix W. Graham as colonel, and was sent to the front in detachments. A portion of Com- pany K was recruited in Madison county. Of this company Alanson E. Russell, of Pendleton, was second lieutenant; David C. Johnson, sergeant, Philemon E. J. Mills, corporal, and the following served as privates : Richard M. Andrew, Charles A. Bates, John Buser, James W. Combs, James W. Cook, William E. Crain, Ross Crossley, George W. Cummins, Perry C. Cummins, Simon Cummins, Madison Davis, Thomas L. B. Hayes, Darius R. Huston, Samuel C. Huston, William Landphire, Oliver H. Morse. Albert Newman, James Payne, Junius C. Samuels, John W. Short, Harper W. Smith, Isaac Thurston, Madison Watkins. In Company I was one Madison county man-Isaac S. Harger.
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In March, 1863, the several companies of the regiment was con- · centrated at Glasgow, Kentucky, and for the remainder of their service the men almost lived in the saddle, scouting, skirmishing and foraging in Kentucky and Tennessee. It was with General Stoneman on the raid to the rear of Atlanta and was mustered out on June 16, 1865.
EIGHTH CAVALRY
Originally this regiment was an infantry organization and was known as the Thirty-ninth Infantry. It was mustered in as such on August 29, 1861, with Thomas J. Harrison as colonel, and continued as infantry until April, 1863, when the men were furnished horses and the regi- ment served as mounted infantry until the 15th of the following October, when Companies L and M were added, bringing it up to the standard of a full cavalry regiment. It was then reorganized as the Eighth Cavalry. Madison county was represented in Companies A, B, E, G, I, L and M.
Company A-Upon the muster rolls of this company were the names of six privates from Madison county-Thomas J. Adair, Thomas J. Clevenger, Leroy S. Fallis, William E. Mayo, John H. Poor and Augustus Simington.
Company B-In this company were Privates John A. Applegate, George W. Hosier, George W. Lamar, John Landers, James M. Teeters, Uriah Vermillion. John A. Applegate was promoted to company quarter- master sergeant.
Company E-Fifteen Madison county men enlisted in this company, viz .: William Aldridge, John E. Boyer (sergeant, promoted to captain), John Cook, Joshua Fisher, Samuel Fisher, William Foland, Noah W. Hall, David McCoy, Ephraim Nicholson, James Nicholson, James A. Nicholson (promoted second lieutenant), William F. Nicholson, Andrew T. Welchel, John Welchel and Jacob Worts.
Company G-Only two names of Madison county men appear upon the rolls of this company-William C. Antrim and James R. Hanshaw.
Company I-In this company were eleven privates-Reuben B. Aldrich, Martin Beckwith, Scott Cole, Abraham Eshelman, Jacob Eshel- man, Robert S. Faussett, Allen Fisher, Stewart Fisher, Samuel Lanum, Edward C. Stephenson and Job Swain. The last named was promoted to sergeant.
Company L-This company contained more Madison county men than any other in the regiment. They were Privates William L. Barker, Travis M. Bowers, John A. Bowsman, George I. Burr, Rollin Carroll, Addison Fisher, George Fisher, Thomas L. Fisher (promoted to com- missary sergeant), Nathan Fuller, William Gearhardt, James Gwinn, George Harpold, Jacob M. Harpold, Stephen John, Henry Johnson, Lewis Klepfer, James W. McGraw, William P. Miller, Amos Ratcliffe, Joseph Shebo, Madison Teeters, Mathers Tobin, Samuel Welsh, Samuel Wolf and Jacob M. Wysong.
Company H-In this company were Robert A. Armfield, William H. Bradley, Thomas Camel, Thomas Casto, Orlando Ellis, Carna Parsons, Vol 1-20
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Frank Rector, Richard B. Shetterly, Andrew Shetterly, John A. Smith and William B. Tinker.
After being reorganized as a cavalry regiment, the command was engaged in courier duty about Chattanooga until the spring of 1864. It took part in the Rousseau raid into Alabama, the Atlanta campaign, the McCook raid around Atlanta, and then followed Sherman to the sea and up through the Carolinas. It was mustered out in North Carolina on July 20, 1865, and the men were finally discharged at Indianapolis on the 2nd of August.
ARTILLERY SERVICE
Madison county was represented in two batteries of light artillery. In the Second Battery were Robert Brickley, John Hardin (promoted to second lieutenant), James M. Irish, Samuel Johnson, Alexander Y. Johnson, Mathias Jones, Lewis Koeniger, John B. Lewis, Valentine McNeer, Charles A. Maul, Corydon W. Maul, George W. Measer, William W. Roberts, George W. Swain and Charles Vandevender. This battery served in Missouri and Arkansas and was in a number of spirited engagements with the enemy, including the battles of Cane Hill, Prairie Grove, Buffalo Mountain, Poisoned Spring, Marks' Mills and Jenkins' Ferry. Late in 1864 it was sent to Tennessee, where it joined the army under General Thomas and took part in the battle of Nashville. It was mustered out at Indianapolis on July 3, 1865.
In the Eighteenth Battery were Samuel B. Agnew, Albert Allen, William Black, Francis M. Evans, Harvey W. Hubbard, John Johns, John D. Johnson (promoted to second lieutenant), Ezra Loyd, William L. McAninch, Abram S. McCorkle, George S. McMullen (promoted to sergeant), John R. Malcolm and Joel H. Wood. This battery was mustered in at Indianapolis on August 24, 1862, with Eli Lilly as captain. Until the spring of 1864 it was in Kentucky and Tennessee. It was in the battles at Hoover's Gap, Chickamauga, and a number of minor actions, and during the Atlanta campaign was in action almost daily. After the fall of Atlanta it returned to Tennessee and it formed part of General Wilson's command in the famous raid through Alabama and Georgia. It was mustered out at Indianapolis on June 30, 1865.
(NOTE-In the foregoing muster rolls it is probable that some of the names are misspelled, but as they are copied from the reports of the adjutant-general, it was deemed advisable not to attempt any corrections.)
Under the provisions of the act passed at the special session of the legislature in 1861, "for the organization and regulation of the Indiana militia," ten companies of the "Indiana Legion" were formed in Madi- son county. They were the Foster's Branch Guards, organized June 10, 1861, Burwell Williamson, captain; Alfont Guards, organized June 24, 1861, John Patterson, captain; Fisherburg Union Guards, organized June 24, 1861, H. G. Fisher, captain ; Perkinsville Grays, organized June 28, 1861, H. G. Fisher, captain; Green Township Rangers, organized September 11, 1862, William Nickleson, captain; Home Guards (Pendle- ton), organized July 18, 1863, Isaac P. Rinewalt, captain; Morton
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Nobles, organized July 25, 1863, A. J. Huffman, captain; Alfont Guards No. 2, organized July 25, 1863, Warrington G. Roberts, captain ; Mans- field Guards, organized August 1, 1863, Ephraim B. Doll, captain; Alexandria Guards, organized August 8, 1863, Jonathan Jones, captain. These companies were never called into the field, but a large number of their members enlisted in other companies and were mustered into the service of the United States.
While the "Boys in Blue" were at the front, the county authorities and loyal citizens at home were not unmindful of the country's defenders and the necessities of their families. In September, 1861, the commis- sioners appropriated $200 for the purchase of lumber to be used in fitting up a camp for the accommodation of a regiment being organized at Anderson, the money being made payable to Thomas N. Stilwell, commissary. At the same session the sum of $300 was appropriated for the relief of soldiers' families and the trustees of the several townships were instructed to look after such families and see that their wants were relieved. In August, 1862, at a special session of the commis- sioners' court, it was ordered that "an allowance of one dollar per week be made to each soldier's wife or widowed mother, and fifty cents to each child under ten years of age," the disbursements to be made by the township trustees. A month later the board ordered a tax levy of ten cents on each $100 worth of property in the county to provide a fund for the relief of soldiers' families. This order and the one preceding it remained in force until the war was over.
A special session of the commissioners was held in November, 1863, when it was ordered that each volunteer credited to Madison county be paid fifty dollars bounty when he produced the certificate of the muster- ing officer and presented it to the county auditor, and fifty dollars more at the expiration of his service. To raise the money for this purpose a levy of twenty-five cents on each $100 worth of property was ordered. Up to June, 1864, the county treasurer had received for military pur- poses $10,812.97, and had disbursed $10,700.
When the call for 300,000 men was made by the president in 1864, the commissioners of Madison county, in order to fill the quota, ordered the payment of a bounty of $400 "to each volunteer or drafted man," and at the same time authorized a bond issue of $200,000. Altogether, the amount of money expended by the county for bounties and in the relief of soldiers' families was $354,940. This can be ascertained from the records, but the amount given by private citizens in their individual capacity will never be known. Many a sack of flour, many a basket of groceries, many a bundle of school books, found their way in an unosten- tatious manner to the home of some soldier's wife, that her children might be fed and enabled to attend school. If the value of all these donations could be ascertained it would doubtless aggregate more than the official appropriations of the county. And it is greatly to the credit of the noble women, whose husbands were engaged in fighting the battles of their country, that they were not too proud to accept these offerings of charity. Even cast off clothing was accepted without the feeling that it was a reflection upon their poverty, but rather a grateful recog- nition on the part of some loyal neighbor of the sacrifice they had made
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in sending the ones they loved best to preserve the institutions the Revolutionary forefathers established.
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
For four centuries after the discovery of America, Cuba was a dependency of Spain. In 1850 Narcisso Lopez planned an expedition for the liberation of the islanders, but it failed. Four years later the Cuban junta in New York organized a movement upon a larger scale, but news reached Spain and the undertaking was "nipped in the bud." In 1868 there was a general uprising among the Cubans, which was followed by a ten years' war, during which Spain sent over 100,000 troops to the island. At the end of that war the debt of $200,000,000 was saddled upon the Cubans and this soon started another revolution. The Cubans moved slowly, however, and it was not until February, 1895, that an open insurrection broke out in the provinces of Santiago, Santa Clara and Matanzas. Within sixty days 50,000 Spanish troops were in Cuba, under command of General Campos. He was superseded by General Weyler, whose cruelties aroused the indignation of the civilized world and forced the Spanish government to send General Blanco to take his place.
In the meantime legislatures and political conventions in the United States had passed resolutions asking this government to recognize the belligerent rights, if not the independence of Cuba. About ten o'clock on the evening of February 15, 1898, the United States battleship Maine, then lying at anchor in the harbor of Havana, was blown up and a number of her crew were killed. This brought the excitement in the United States to fever heat, and on April 11, 1898, President Mckinley sent a special message to Congress asking for authority to intervene in behalf of the Cubans. On the 20th Congress passed a resolution, which was approved by the president the same day, recognizing the inde- pendence of Cuba and demanding that Spain withdraw all claims to and authority over the island. On the 25th war was formally declared by Congress, though two days before the president had declared the ports of Cuba in a state of blockade and called for 125,000 volunteers to enforce the resolution of Congress.
Late on the afternoon of April 25, 1898, Governor James A. Mount received a telegram from the secretary of war announcing that Indiana's quota of the 125,000 troops would be four regiments of infantry and two light batteries. The telegram also stated that it was the president's wish "that the regiments of the National Guard or state militia shall be used as far as their numbers will permit, for the reason that they are armed, equipped and drilled."
Instead of four regiments, the state raised five, which were numbered to begin where the Civil war numbers left off. The Indiana regiments recruited for the Spanish-American war were therefore the 157th, 158th, 159th, 160th and 161st. Company I of the One Hundred and Sixtieth was originally Company I of the Fourth Regiment, Indiana National Guard. In this company were a number of Elwood men. Alexander
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Dillon held the rank of corporal and the following served as privates: John J. Altmeyer, Nalzo Andrews, Walter Barbo, William Brothers, Cullodin Coyle, Edward Douglass, Harry Douglass, Edward E. Garret- son, William Henderson, William Kennedy, Gustave Kappahan, Francis Kramer, Peter W. Lamb, George Martin, Walter Napier, Peter Peal, Richard G. Smith, Rolla Thurman.
Company L of this regiment was organized at Anderson and was composed chiefly of the old members of Company C, Fourth Regiment,
OFFICERS COMPANY L., 160TH I. V. I.
Indiana National Guard. When mustered into the United States service with the regiment, the company roster was as follows: Kenneth M. Burr, captain; John B. Collins, first lieutenant; George C. Sausser, second lieutenant; Herbert C. Brunt, first sergeant; Robert H. Antrim, quartermaster sergeant; John J. Ellis, Lee C. Newsom, George H. Durbin, Chauncey O. Towell, sergeants; Claude S. Burr, Dorr S. Worden, John A. Ross, David V. Martin, Howard F. Henry, Robert N. Nichols, corporals; John L. Hopper, Roscoe Cook, musicians; Thomas M. Dee, wagoner; William Neff, artificer.
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Privates-Howard M. Aldred, Carl G. Bailey, Joseph C. Baker, George Beason, George A. Bechtoldt, Frank M. Benbow, Charles Boyd, George W. Bond, Jr., William H. Broman, Clay M. Brown, Israel Brown, Harry Bush, Claude A. Carpenter, Egbert E. Carpenter, Clement C. Cole, Bert J. Cooper, Harry W. Crull, William J. Cumberledge, Ruel E. Davenport, Herman Dietrich, Enos J. Dunbar, Edward Eaton, Chester R. Falknor, Oliver Fickle, Henry H. Fischer, Charles Fisher, James A. Fountain, Levi Garrison, Morris A. Hallenbeck, Ethel L. Hinegar, Volney M. Hunt, Jr., Edward M. Inclenrock, John F. Keicher, Elmo Kellar, Henry M. Kendric, John Keorper, Omer Lawson, John T. Lay, Frank M. Levy, Oscar Lindstrom, Butler Livesay, Lewis F. Loch, William P. Lycan, Jefferson T. Martin, Byron Medskar, Wilford W. Mingle, James Miller, Bert R. Moon, Harry Moore, Clarence B. Mourer, Robert Murphy, James O. Pattie, Othello Roach, Harry Rosen- field, Charles M. Shaffer, Joseph H. Smith, Charles E. Tharp, Harry Thomas, William H. Wagoner, Charles G. Weger, Lowell C. William- son, William Williamson, Frank M. Wilson, Robert L. Wilson.
Recruits-Charles Bidwell, Jesse Bonhomme, Isaac Bosworth, John W. Coburn, Elmer W. Cummings, Manford Denney, Francis Evans, Harry Z. Griffith, Harry C. Hawkins, John S. Hayes, Roy S. Jeffers, Frank Keckler, William Mansfield, Robert McConnell, Howard Moulden, Bert Munyon, Louis E. Radway, Amos Ricketts, Arthur Rhonemus, Clarence B. Seybert, William B. Sine, Jr., Thomas C. Smith, John Stark, Rolla C. Trees, Lee Weger, Richard Welsh, Oscar Wynn.
These recruits were made necessary because for some reason about twenty-five of the original company were rejected by the mustering officer for different causes, whereupon Captain Burr telegraphed a friend in Anderson to recruit twenty-five additional men. A recruiting office was opened in John Keener's cigar store, on Meridian street, and in less than half an hour the quota was full. An amusing incident occurred in connection with the recruiting. Among those who came forward to offer their services was a young man known as "Splinks" Myers, an employee of the American Wire and Steel Company, who had been married but a few days before. After he had signed the roll, the recruiting officer asked Myers if he had sent word to his wife. "Hell, no," answered Splinks, "she'll see it in the paper in the morning." Upon arriving at Indianapolis Splinks expressed his disappointment because the recruits were not met by a band and escort, refused to be sworn in, and beat the recruiting officer back to Anderson. That ended his military career.
The One Hundred and Sixtieth was mustered into the United States service on May 12, 1898, and proceeded directly to Camp Thomas, at Chickamauga Park, Georgia, where it remained until July 28th, when it went to Newport News, Virginia. In August it was transferred to Camp Hamilton, Lexington, Kentucky, and in November to Columbus, Georgia. On January 15, 1899, it was ordered to Matanzas, Cuba, and remained there until the following March, when it returned to the United States and was mustered out at Savannah, Georgia, April 25, 1899. Captain Burr continued in the service, was appointed major in the regular army and assigned to duty in the Philippine Islands.
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The armory of the old Company C, Fourth National Guard, is located at the corner of Ninth street and Central avenue, Anderson. The company was called out by Governor Matthews at the time of the great strike in the coal fields and impressed everybody by its soldierly conduct. At the beginning of the movement to Cuba in January, 1899, Sergeant Lee Newsom and Sister Benita, for several years connected with St. John's Hospital at Anderson, were especially honored by being sent in advance to arrange the hospital service.
Winfield T. Durbin, of Anderson, was commissioned colonel of the One Hundred and Sixty-first Regiment, and John R. Brunt, also of Anderson, was appointed quartermaster. This regiment was mustered in on July 15, 1898, and was assigned to the Seventh Corps, commanded by General Fitzhugh Lee. On December 13, 1898, it left Savannah, Georgia, for Havana, and remained on duty in Cuba until the follow- ing March, when it returned to Savannah and was there mustered out on April 30, 1899. In 1900 Colonel Durbin was elected governor of Indiana.
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CHAPTER XVIII
CRIMES AND CASUALTIES
MURDER OF THE INDIANS IN 1824-THE ABBOTT MYSTERY-KILLING OF THARP AND ESCAPE OF COX-MURDER OF DANIEL HOPPIS BY MILTON WHITE-THE DALE-TRASTER AFFAIR-MYSTERIOUS MURDER OF ALBERT MAWSON-DISAPPEARANCE OF SUSAN NELSON-SHOOTING OF BENE- FIEL BY DAVIS-CHARLES KYNETT SHOT BY THE CITY MARSHAL-KILL- ING OF MCLELLAND STREETS-MCCULLOUGH SHOT BY WELSH-KILL- ING OF ALBERT HAWKINS-HISTORIC FIRES IN ANDERSON, ELWOOD, ALEXANDRIA, FRANKTON AND SUMMITVILLE-SOME GREAT STORMS- FLOODS OF 1847, 1875, 1884, 1904 and 1913.
Scarcely had the county of Madison been organized and her civil and legal machinery been placed in working order, when a crime was committed within her borders that filled the people of the frontier settle- ments with both fear and indignation. Although the lands had been ceded to the United States by the Indians, there were but few white settlers as yet within what is now Madison county, game was plentiful, and occasionally small parties of the natives would return to their former hunting grounds in quest of meat and peltries. Early in the spring of 1824 a party of Senecas, consisting of two men, three squaws and four children, came into the county and encamped on Fall creek, about two miles above the present village of Ovid, in a dense forest filled with game. Some alarm was felt by the few white settlers in that locality at the establishment of an Indian encampment so near their homes, but the Indians were friendly and showed no inclination to commit depredations of any character against the person or property of their white neighbors. The two Indian men were called Ludlow and Mingo, the former said to have been so named for Stephen Ludlow, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
After they had been in their camp for about a week five white men- Thomas Harper, Andrew Sawyer, John Bridge, John T. Bridge and James Hudson-visited the Indians, pretending to have lost their horses, and asking Ludlow and Mingo to assist in finding them. The Indians readily consented and when a short distance from the camp Harper shot Ludlow and Hudson shot Mingo, both men being killed instantly. The white men then returned to the camp, where Sawyer shot one of the squaws, Bridge, Sr., another and Bridge, Jr., the third. The four chil- dren-two boys about ten years old and two girls still younger-were
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wantonly murdered, after which the camp was robbed of everything of value.
When news of this atrocious crime spread through the settlements, the people were terrified, fearing other Indians would come in to avenge their slaughtered kinsmen, and that their retaliatory vengeance would be meted out without discrimination. An account of the affair was sent to the war department by the Indian agent at Piqua, Ohio, with the result that Colonel Johnston and William Conner visited all the Indian tribes and promised them that the government would punish the murderers. This had a salutary effect upon the situation, the Indians accepting the promise and the settlers becoming less afraid of a massacre.
Immediately after the murder Harper went to Ohio and was never taken into custody. The other four men were arrested and lodged in the log jail at Pendleton, where they were tried and convicted. Hudson
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was tried at the October term of court in 1824, and was hanged on December 1, 1824. The other three were tried in May, 1825. All were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged on the first Friday in June. Andrew Sawyer and the elder Bridge were executed according to the sentence, but the younger Bridge was pardoned on the scaffold by Governor James B. Ray, who was present at the execution. This was the first, and is perhaps the only instance in the history of American jurisprudence, where white men were legally executed for the killing of Indians.
About the year 1830 a man named Abbott, with his wife and two grown sons, came from Kentucky and settled near the White river, a short distance west of where the Moss Island mills were built a few years later. The cabin occupied by this family stood upon the north side of the old Strawtown road and occasionally some traveler would spend
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the night there. It was no uncommon occurrence for the elder Abbott and his two sons to make trips away from home and be absent for two or three weeks at a time, but no one ever learned the reason for these journeys. While not absolutely unsociable, they were very reticent about their affairs, and in a new country, where every one knew all that was going on in the neighborhood, this caused the Abbotts to be looked upon as untrustworthy.
In the summer of 1832, a man from Ohio reached the Abbott cabin late in the afternoon and sought a night's lodging. He was traveling by easy stages, looking at lands on his way, with a view to removing his family to a new home, provided a suitable location could be found. Before leaving his home in Ohio he announced his intention to return within six weeks. About two weeks after that time had expired his relatives sent out a searching party. He was traced without difficulty to the Abbott cabin, whose inmates admitted that he had stopped there, but stated that the next morning he had proceeded on his way westward. Inquiries west of that point failed to elicit any information of the missing man and the searchers returned to Ohio.
Not long after that the body of a strange man was found floating in the White river a short distance below the Abbott home. No one could identify the remains, and the generally accepted theory was that the unfortunate individual was some passing stranger who had accidentally fallen into the river. There were some who refused to concur in this opinion and intimated foul play. While the puzzle was still unsolved the Abbotts disappeared one night without leaving any hint of their destination. Their flight in this mysterious manner was regarded by many as a confession of guilt and strengthened the belief that the body · found in the river was that of the Ohio land hunter, who had been murdered by the Abbotts for his money. In time the cabin acquired the reputation of being haunted and many people avoided it after night- fall. The Abbotts were never heard of again.
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