USA > Indiana > Miami County > History of Miami County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 16
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JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP
Jefferson township was established by the county commissioners at . their first session, in June, 1834, and was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, who was president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. As originally created it embraced all the northern portion of the county, but it has been materially reduced in size by the formation of other townships. It now has an area of about thirty-three square miles, or 21,120 acres. It is situated a little northwest of the center of the county and is bounded on the north by the townships of Union and Richland ; on the east by Rich- land and Peru; on the south by Peru, and on the west by Cass county. A portion of the surface is level and the remainder is undulating, so that most of the township is capable of being cultivated, and the soil is well adapted to agricultural purposes. The Eel river and its tributaries drain and water the township and the Eel river valley is one of the best improved districts in central Indiana. A dense forest originally covered the entire area of the township, but the husbandman's ax and the saw- mill have practically annihilated the native growth of valuable timber.
This township was one of the first in the county to be settled by white men. On December 13, 1830, Solomon Wilkinson entered a tract of land where the town of Mexico now stands, built a cabin and removed his family to the new home in the wilderness the following spring. Mr. Wilkinson had seven sons-Ratliff, John, Jacob, Jesse, William, Simeon and Balaam -all of whom subsequently entered land near their father's homestead and were among the most active of the pioneers in the development of this
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section of the county. Ratliff Wilkinson was one of the first petit jurors ever drawn in Miami county, and other members of the family have held public office or positions of trust and responsibility at various periods of the county's history.
David Vinnedge entered eighty acres in the southeast quarter of sec- tion 31, immediately north of the present town of Mexico, in 1830, but did not become a resident of the township until some time afterward.
Two brothers, Wood and Abraham Beard, entered land and settled in the township in 1831, and about the same time William Smith located near Mexico. John and Thomas Smith also came to the township in this year, and in the year following the population was increased by the arrival of William Conner and Alexander Jameson, with their families. Others who settled in this locality before the organization of Miami county were William Bain, Isaac Hicks, Eli Cook and Samuel Newman. Thomas McGinnis entered a part of section 28 in 1833, but it is not certain that he took up his residence in the township'at that time.
In 1834 Thomas Harmon located about a mile west of Mexico, where he established the first blacksmith shop in the township. About the same time the first mill was built by Burrell Daniels, who located on the north bank of the Eel river, on what was afterward known as the Denison farm. The second mill in the township was doubtless the one erected by Hamil- ton Duff, who came in 1834 and settled on the Eel river, about a mile and a quarter above Mexico. His mill, which was operated by water power, was built soon after he came to the county. Charles Murden came from Maryland in this year and entered a farm about two and a half miles northeast of Mexico. He arrived at his new home in September and for about two months his family lived in a tent, until the primitive log cabin could be erected. . Here he reared a family of five sons and six daughters. His sons-Matthew, Imri, Timothy, Henry and Thomas-afterward were recognized as among the most enterprising and public-spirited citizens of the township. Some time before the arrival of Mr. Murden and his family, William Eidson settled on section 35, not far from the Cass county line, where he entered a tract of land and established his home in the wilderness. Another pioneer of 1834 was Peter Fisher, whose family afterward became prominent in local affairs. He entered a tract of land in section 30, a little northwest of the center of the township, and after securing the title to his land went back to Ohio for his family. Early in 1835 he became a permanent resident of the township, where his death occurred more than forty years later. Isaac, Joseph, Aaron, Noah, Jacob and George Fisher, the sons of Peter, were among the active and influen- tial citizens of Jefferson township for many years. Jacob was the owner of the old homestead in section 30.
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Other early settlers in Jefferson township were the Clymers-Joseph, John and Levi-who located in the central part; William Leach, two miles northeast of Mexico; Asa and Reed Leonard, who located near the Richland township line; Nathanial Leonard, two miles northwest of Mexico; Daniel Albaugh, who entered section 28 and obtained a patent for it in 1834. The above pioneers came during the years 1834 and 1835. They were soon followed by Jacob Brown, an elder of the German Baptist church, John Brower, Abraham Louman, Joseph Holman, Henry Brower, Jeremiah Manson, Isaac Newman, Thomas and David Walling, William Gallagher, Isaac and Jesse Bond, Hiram Butler, Charles Spencer, Daniel Cox, William Collett, Jacob Hoover, Jesse S. Williams, James B. Sayers, Samuel Brown, Stephen Marsh, William Burnett, Samuel Edwards, Michael Fouts, Jacob Kress, Abraham Branaman, John M. Keen, Samuel Anderson and a number of others.
The reader may wonder why the early settlers of this township came to select homes so far away from the Wabash river, which was the main channel of travel by the early traders. But it must be remembered that the men who conquered the wilderness had to depend upon other things besides the associations to be found at the trading posts. They were men who used the rifle as well as the ax and plow in the beginning of the development of the country and the forests along the Eel river were well supplied with game of various kinds. The soil in this part of the county is fertile and did not require the drainage that settlers in other parts have found to be necessary. Springs were to be found in several localities in what is now Jefferson township, which made it unnecessary to dig wells in order to obtain a supply of pure water for domestic pur- poses. All these conditions contributed to bring about the early settle- ment of the township.
The first death in the township was that of Solomon Wilkinson, who entered the first piece of land in the township. He died in 1832 and his body was the first to be interred in the cemetery at Mexico. Among the early marriages were those of Jesse Wilkinson to Sallie Jameson and William Wilkinson to Mary Jameson, which were solemnized at the same time and place in 1835. One of the first births was that of a child of Jesse and Sallie Wilkinson, but the date cannot be learned.
One of the first needs of the early settlers was some method of edu- cating their children. According to Graham, the first school in the township was taught by William Snewalt in the winter of 1834-35, in a small log house that had been built for a residence on the Wynkoop farm. The first regular school house was built on Charles Murden's place, probably in 1835, and the first school there was taught by Joseph Holman. With the growth of population and the development of the
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country the schools of the township were increased in number and im- proved in character. In 1913 there were eight school buildings in Jeffer- son, valued at $17,000, and during the school year of 1912-13 fourteen teachers were employed, receiving in salaries the sum of $6,244, the highest amount paid by any township in the county. Four of the school houses are brick and the other four are frame structures, but all are of modern design and well adapted to the purpose for which they were erected.
As early as 1833 Rev. John A. Brouse, a Methodist missionary, held religious services at the cabin of William Smith. A little later a class was formed and the first house of worship in the township was built by this little congregation in 1840. The Christian and German Baptist con- gregations were organized in 1838. The Baptist church at Mexico was founded in 1861, and there are congregations of different denominations at Denver, an account of which will be found in the chapter on church history.
Jefferson township is well supplied with transportation facilities. A line of the Vandalia railway system runs across the township from north- east to southwest, following closely the Eel river and passing through Mexico and Denver, and the Lake Erie & Western runs north and south along the eastern border, crossing the Vandalia at Denver. Mexico and Denver are both thriving towns. . South of Denver is a small station on the Lake Erie & Western Railroad, from which some shipping is done.
As stated in the beginning of this chapter, Jefferson township was established in June, 1834, and embraced all the northern part of the county. Perry township was formed in February, 1837, and on the 7th of November of that year the townships of Richland and Union were erected, at which time Jefferson was reorganized with its present bound- aries and area.
PERRY TOWNSHIP
This township occupies the northeast corner of the county and is the largest civil township in the county. Its extent is seven miles from east to west and six miles from north to south, giving it a total area of forty- two square miles, or 26,880 acres. It is bounded on the north by Fulton county ; on the east by the county of Wabash ; on the south by Richland township, and on the west by the townships of Allen and Union. The general surface is rolling, with some hills along the few streams that traverse the township. Geologists see in the surface indications evi- dences that at some remote period the region now included in Perry township was covered by small lakes, probably of glacial origin. By the gradual disintegration of the surrounding elevations, supplemented
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by artificial drainage, the beds of these shallow lakes have been filled up and made tillable, so that some of the best farms in Miami county are in this township. The soil is a sandy loam, with a clay subsoil, which, when properly drained, yields abundant crops of wheat, corn, oats and other ecreals, fruits and vegetables that are adapted to this latitude. When the first white men came they found here a heavy growth of tim- ber that had to be cleared away before farms could be opened. They also found considerable muck and tamarack swamp land, which has been drained and is now as productive as any land in the township.
James Malcolm is credited with being the first actual settler in what is now Perry township. He came to Indiana in 1833 and obtained a log cabin from an Indian village in the southeast corner of this township, where he settled and entered upon his self-appointed task of making a home in the wilderness. There is something pathetic in the fate of this pioneer. No doubt he was buoyed up by the hope that some day he would see the primeval forest, the wild beasts and the uncivilized natives disappear before the industry of his own race, and the country become peopled by a civilized population, of which he would be a component part. He lived long enough to see his dreams realized, but circum- stances compelled him to pass his declining years in the county asylum and he died a public charge upon the county he had helped in his earlier days to develop.
In 1834 William Akright settled near Malcolm and was the second white man to establish a home within the present limits of the township. His son, John Akright, was one of the early school teachers of Miami county and afterward was for several years a general merchant in the village of Gilead. Before the close of the year 1834 Mathias Moyer located a little north of Akright and not far from the eastern boundary of the county. Benjamin Musselman and Jacob Gill came either late in this year or early in the year 1835, but they did not enter land until some time afterward.
During the year 1835 there were a number of immigrants to Perry township. Among them were John and Adam E. Rhodes, the former of whom entered a large tract of land near the center of the township. Adam E. Rhodes settled where the village of Gilead is now located. Others who came during the year 1835 were Ira Mitchell, who settled a short distance east of Gilead; James Waddle, near Niconza; Peter Onstatt, about two and a half miles southeast of Gilead; James Fiers, in the southeast corner of the township; Rev. Wesley Borders, a Metho- dist preacher and early justice of the peace, settled near Mr. Fiers; Joseph Wildman and his son Joseph, southwest of Gilead; Alfred Dowd and Charles Cleland, a short distance west of Gilead; James Cleland,
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four miles southwest of Gilead ; James Biggs, northwest of Gilead ; Ben- jamin and David Marquiss, Jacob Richard, Willis Hill, John Walters, John Anderson, Matthias Bird and James Bunton, who located in differ- ent parts of the township.
During the years 1835 and 1836 lands in Perry township were entered by Nathan Seavey, Andrew Onstatt, Joseph Cox, John McCrea, Charles S. Lowe, Jolın R. Wright, Jerome Hoover, Samuel Wallace, Noah Webb, John Wiseman, Adam Weaver, W. H. Dubois, James Adams, Philip M. Tabb, James Waddell, Daniel Gilchrist, Samuel A. Manon, Miles Craig, William Robbins, W. H. Stubblefield, Daniel Hawkins, William M. Duff, Cyrus Taylor, Samuel and Townsend Hoover, Hiram and William Butler, John Howry, Joseph Beckner, John Webb, David Mowlsby and a number of others. Some of these men settled upon their lands and others bought for the purpose of speculation.
By the close of the year 1836 the population was sufficient to justify the establishment of a new township. Accordingly, on February 27, 1837, the county commissioners ordered the erection of Perry town- ship, which included all that part of the county lying north of the pres- ent southern boundary of Perry. The new township was named in honor of Commodore Oliver H. Perry, who won such a signal victory over the British fleet on Lake Erie in the War of 1812. The first election was held a little later at the house of Peter Onstatt, Alexander Jameson act- ing as inspector. Wesley Borders was elected justice of the peace, and George Tombaugh, Hiram Butler and William Hester were the first trustees.
In November, 1837, the western part of Perry township was taken to form the township of Union. Brant & Fuller's History of Miami County, published in 1887, says on page 277, that a township called Lake was formed on June 7, 1842, which embraced the northern part of Miami county, but the boundaries as therein described by section lines are such that it is impossible to trace them correctly upon the map of the county. The records of the county commissioners were destroyed by the burn- ing of the courthouse in March, 1843, so that the official description of Lake township is lost. It is certain, however, that the township was never fully organized as an independent political subdivision of Miami county.
Several births occurred in the families of the early settlers soon after they came to the township, and it is uncertain just who was the first white child born in Perry. The first death was that of James Bunton, who died in 1835, soon after settling on his claim. Among the early mar- riages was that of Thomas Clemens to a daughter of Joseplı Wildman, in
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April, 1836, which was probably the first in the township. Peter Ihrig and Elizabeth Tombaugh were married soon afterward.
Peter Onstatt established the first blacksmith shop, on his farm in section 22, and the first mill was built by John Bowers. It was a saw- mill and stood on a branch of Squirrel creek. About 1854 Alfred Dowd built a steam saw-mill a short distance west of Gilead. The most con- venient grist mill for the early settlers was that of Benjamin Mussel- man, which was on Squirrel creek, just over the line in Wabash county. The first tannery was started by John Daggy, and a few years before the beginning of the Civil war John Anglehart established a small dis- tillery in the northeastern part of the township. Other early industries were the cabinet shop of Joseph Miller, not far from the Wabash county line, and the pottery of Elias Slagle, near Niconza, where a deposit of clay suitable for earthenware was found about 1838. Mr. Miller also made the coffins for a number of the pioneers.
Probably the first religious meeting in the township was held at the house of James Fiers in 1835, when a few Methodists gathered there for worship. Rev. Arentis Dowd and Ansel Beech were among the first to conduct services in Perry. The Baptists organized soon after the Methodists and other denominations formed congregations and built churches in the township at a later date.
The first school house was built in 1837, shortly after the township was organized, on the Benjamin Landis farm, and the second school house was built the succeeding year on the farm then owned by Thomas Goudy. It is not certain who taught the first school, but among the early teachers were James Potter, Peter Smith, Alvin Dunbar, Amanda Dowd, James Adams and C. B. Ash. In 1913 there were eight brick and three frame school houses in Perry, valued at $17,700. Fourteen teachers were employed during the school year of 1912-13, three of them in the certified high school at Gilead, and the amount paid in teachers' salaries was $5,947.40
The only railroad in Perry township is the Winona Interurban Railway, an electric line that runs from Peru to Warsaw, passing through the village of Gilead, which is the only town of importance in the town- ship. Some years ago there was a postoffice at Niconza, near the eastern boundary, and Stockdale and Wheatville were trading centers. But in the march of progress they failed to keep up with the procession and have perished entirely or remain only a shadow of what they formerly were.
PERU TOWNSHIP
As much of the history of this township is intricately interwoven with the history of Peru, an account of many of the events that have
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occurred within its borders will be found in the next chapter. Its shape is irregular; its greatest length is eight miles; at the western boundary it is three miles from north to south, and at the eastern boundary it is nearly five miles from north to south. On the north it is bounded by Jefferson and Richland townships; on the east by Erie; on the south by the Wabash river, which separates it from the township of Washington and Pipe Creek, and on the west by Cass county. The area of the town- ship is about twenty-five square miles. Peru is one of the two original townships organized by the board of county commissioners at their first session in June, 1834, but its area has been reduced by the formation of Erie township and changes made in the boundaries by the reorganization of Jefferson in 1837.
The surface of the township is somewhat undulating, the drain- age being toward the Wabash river, which runs along the southern bor- der. About ten miles of ditches have been constructed in the township at a cost of some $20,000, and by this means the cultivation of the nat- urally fertile soil has been much improved.
Transportation facilities are of the best. The Wabash Railroad runs east and west along the river of that name, the Lake Erie & Western and the Chesapeake & Ohio cross the township, the electric lines of the Winona Interurban Railway Company, the Indiana Union Traction Company and the Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Traction Company traverse practically all parts of the township. All those lines, both steam and electric, center at Peru.
The first school in the township was taught in the town of Peru, in a little log cabin that had been erected for a dwelling, but which the people fitted up for a school house at their own expense. It was erected by William Smith, in the fall of 1834, and was located on Third street. In 1913 there were seven brick school buildings in the township (exclu- sive of those in the city of Peru), the value of which was estimated at $20,250. During the school year of 1912-13 ten teachers were employed in the public schools of the township and they received in salaries the sum of $4,304.30. In 1913 the taxable property of the township was assessed at $1,414,250.
PIPE CREEK TOWNSHIP
Immediately south of the Wabash river, in the western tier, lies Pipe Creek township, which takes its name from the stream that flows across it in a northwesterly direction. It is bounded on the north by Peru township; on the east by Washington; on the south by Deer Creek, and on the west by the county of Cass. Its greatest length from north to south is a little less than seven miles, and it is four miles in
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width from east to west. Its total area is about twenty-seven square miles.
The surface is diversified and the soil is a black loam mixed with clay in some places and with sand in others. Pipe creek and its tributaries afford good natural drainage, so that this township has not been com- pelled to resort to artificial drainage as much as some of the others of Miami county. A heavy growth of fine timber once covered this section of the county, but the most valuable trees have long since been converted into lumber.
When the first white settlers came to this township they found an Indian village, known as Squirrel village, situated on the north bank of Pipe creek, a short distance northwest of the present town of Bunker Hill. The village consisted of about a dozen log huts and the chief was known as "Old Squirrelly," after whom the village was named. He was a Pottawatomi who, it is said had formerly lived near Plymouth, but was driven away from there on account of his cruelty. He then mar- ried a Miami squaw and became chief of the village, the other inhabitants of which were Miamis.
Accounts of the first settlers say that Samuel Durand and John Wilson located in Pipe Creek township in the year 1838, but it is not certain which one of these pioneers came first. Wilson was more of a hunter than a farmer and after a short residence sold his cabin to a man named Finney, after which he disappeared from Miami county. In 1839 Joel Julian settled on Pipe creek, in the western part; John Betzner in the northeastern part, and Maston Thomas and his father in the north- ern part. Jacob Kellar and William Clark came in 1840 and the next year the population was increased by the arrival of several pioneers with their families. Isaac Vandorn settled near Pipe creek, in the central part; Jacob Brandt, on section 14, where his father, Martin Brandt, had previously entered a tract of land; Moses Larimer, on a tract adjacent to the present town of Bunker Hill; Joab Mendenhall, near the line of Deer Creek township; James A. Lewis, who made the first improvements on the Brandt farm; and James Petty, who settled in the northern part. Among those who came in 1842 were Jeremiah Shafer and Isaac Mar- quiss, who settled on Pipe creek, in the eastern part of the township.
In 1843 John and Peter Reed settled in the central part; Jacob Pot- tarff, who was one of the pioneer blacksmiths, farther east; James McGin- nis, near Bunker Hill; Robert Jenniss, near Pipe creek; Frederick Keller, in the eastern part; Henry Crabb and Godfrey Helderly, in the central part; Rev. Samuel Dewese, about a mile west of Bunker Hill; David Carr, in the northern part; Noah Townsend, in the western part; John and Eli Oliver, near Bunker Hill, and a number of others in
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various parts of the township. Jacob, Daniel and William Rife were also among the early settlers. In the summer of this year (1843) the settlers in this part of the county began to agitate the question of organ- izing a new township. The customary petition was circulated and when signed by a sufficient number of citizens it was presented to the board of county commissioners. On September 6, 1843, the board granted the prayer of the petitioners by ordering the erection of Pipe Creek town- ship, and that the first election should be held at the house of William Clark in October. At that election seventeen votes were cast. The elec- tion board consisted of William Clark, James Petty, David Carr, Peter Redd and Jacob Brandt. Thomas Kenworthy was chosen the first justice of the peace; Jacob Keller, road supervisor; and a constable was also elected, but his name cannot be ascertained.
One of the earliest births in Pipe Creek township was that of Nancy J., daughter of Moses and Nancy Larimer, who was born in 1844. The marriage of James McCrary to Sarah Larimer, in 1843, was probably the first in the township, and the first death was probably that of an infant child of Noah Townsend.
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