USA > Indiana > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, together with historic notes on the Wabash Valley; gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic sources > Part 31
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
twelve inches wide; the first plank to the length and width of the door are to be nailed on one on each side in like manner; the door to the inside wall of the house is to be made of oak plank one inch and a half thick, to be nailed together with suitable nails in every inch square of the door, making the door three inches thick ; the door to the partition wall to be made in like manner to the last mentioned and the plank of each to be not more than twelve inches wide; each door is to be six feet high and to be two and a half wide; each door to be well checked and hung with good strong hinges to be in proportion to the other work of the house, and to have strong locks and bolts suitable for a jail of the above descrip- tion. There is to be a window in each end of the house, and at one end the window is to be a foot square, and to have grates in both the inside and outside walls, made of iron of the following description : twelve bars of iron eighteen inches long and one inch square, four bars three feet long and two inches wide, and four bars twelve inches long and two inches wide; the window on the other end of the house to be one foot deep and eighteen inches wide, to be grated with iron in like manner; the grates are to be fastened in the windows in a strong and workmanlike manner; all the work must be done in a workmanlike manner. The undertaker is to furnish all the ma- terials. The house must be completed by December 31. The undertaker is to give bond. If necessary $200 will be paid by the first of July, the balance when the work is completed."
The contract to build the jail was let to Abraham Griffith, who in due time completed it, and received as his pay therefor the sum of $250. It stood only a few yards from the northeast corner of the present court-house. In 1827 an inmate under charge of larceny, set fire to the building in order to burn off the lock. He succeeded in making his escape, and left only a pile of ashes to mark the spot where the jail had stood.
When the county was first settled, the woods, as already inti- mated, were full of wild animals of almost every kind common in North America. Whole droves of deer would sometimes come up to the settlers' cabin, take a quiet look at what they doubtless re- garded as an invasion of their rights, and then bound away into the thick undergrowth. Bears frequently carried away the young pigs, and wolves were so abundant and so ravenous as to keep the settle- ments in constant dread of their depredations. But the early settlers were all expert with the rifle, and deer and bears and wolves disap- peared with amazing rapidity. The streams were also full of fish. Not far from Stitt's mill and just below the high bluff on Sugar
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EARLY HISTORY.
creek, on the Remley place, there was in early times a fish dam or trap at which immense quantities of fish were caught. It is related by an old settler that during one night in 1824 nine hundred fish, consisting of pike, salmon, bass and perch, were caught in this trap. The settlers often carried them by skiff-loads from the trap and put them in Stitt's mill-pond, where they were fed, and from which they were easily taken as they were needed for food.
When the first settlers came to the county they found the path- way of a most destructive tornado or cyclone, which, in some places, had prostrated the entire forest. It passed about two miles south of the present site of Crawfordsville, sometimes rising above the tops of the trees, and then again descending and sweeping down every- thing in its course. On a part of the land entered by Edmund Nutt, southwest of Crawfordsville, and immediately south of where Johna- than Nutt's new brick house now stands, not a tree was left stand- ing. At the time Mr. Nutt entered this land a dense new growth of young walnut trees had sprung up, and grown to the height of thirty and forty feet. They were, perhaps, between twenty and thirty years old, which would fix the date of the tornado not far from the commencement of the present century. The precise time will prob- ably never be ascertained. The prostrate forest had not all decayed when the first settlers came to the county, and the locality of the tornado was spoken of for years by them as the fallen-timber coun- try. On the east side of the road, between the residences of John A. Harding and Henry B. Wray, about two miles from Crawfords- ville, may yet be seen a beautiful grove of young timber, which has grown up in the pathway of this whirlwind. The grove is remem- bered as a thicket of young saplings fifty years ago by some of the citizens of the county, who were boys at that time. Traces of the same tornado, or a similar one, were visible fifty years ago in Marion county, between Eagle creek and White river. The young walnut trees on the Nutt land were all cut down by Mr. Nutt and made into rails with which to fence his fields. Had they been left standing to the present day they would readily have sold for $20 apiece, and had there been but fifty to the acre (and the number has been repre- sented as much greater), they would have yielded more than $1,000 to the acre. If human foresight could have reached to the present day, with its numberless railroads and saw-mills, and its ship-loads of walnut logs and lumber going across the Atlantic, what a magni- ficent heritage might Mr. Nutt have preserved for his posterity ! But as it was almost impossible for the early settler to get a saw-log to the mill, only a mile or so distant, not even the wildest enthusiast
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
could have dreamed of the possibility of ever transporting the huge trees of Indiana to the seaboard, and thence across the ocean to be manufactured into furniture for the titled aristocracy of the old world.
In December, 1824, Jacob Bell and James Smith, acting under appointment by the legislature, superintended the laying out of the state road from Terre Haute to Crawfordsville, Joseph Shelby, of the former place, acting as surveyor. At the same time Samuel McGeorge, of Marion county, Uriah Hultz, of Hendricks county, and John McCullough, of Montgomery county, laid out the state road from Crawfordsville to Indianapolis. The opening of these two thoroughfares was considered, at that day, of great importance, though nothing was done toward making highways of them beyond cutting out the trees and putting down a little "corduroy " in the marshy places. This corduroy road, now almost forgotten, was made by cutting down small saplings and placing them close to- gether, thus forming a floor on which horses could pass over the swamps. It was called corduroy because of its resemblance to a kind of coarse cotten goods of that name, corded or ribbed on the surface.
But few of the young people of the county have any idea of the amount of boating done on Sugar creek in early times, and they will be surprised to learn that in the spring of 1824 William Nicholson came from Maysville, Kentucky, to Crawfordsville in a keel-boat of ten tons' burden, which landed at the mouth of Whitlock's Spring branch. It floated down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash, and thence it was rowed up to the mouth of Sugar creek, and finally, after a long and tedious voyage of many weeks, to its destination. Afterward Ben T. Ristine, Esq., and William Nicholson took this same boat down to Terre Haute for a load of corn. They took on board about 250 bushels, and rowed back as far as the Narrows, some eighteen miles below Crawfordsville, where, in consequence of the low stage of the water, they were compelled to stop. The two then went courageously to work, shelled the whole 250 bushels of corn with their hands, put it in sacks, and by the aid of several assistants transported it to Crawfordsville in canoes, bringing about ten bushels at a load. The boat was afterward brought up empty, and in the course of time rotted at Baxter's Ferry, near the site of the present Louisville & Chicago railroad depot. In those days there was much more water in Sugar creek than now, and no dams to interfere with navigation.
The first settlers of the county were nearly all addicted to the
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EARLY HISTORY.
use of intoxicating liquors, but about the year 1830, through the ef- forts of Rev. James Thomson, the subject of temperance began to be agitated. At a log school-house a few miles south of Crawfords- ville, a debating society took up the subject and discussed it from night to night, until the interest grew so great the little school-house would not hold the audience ; so it was concluded to continue the debate at the Methodist church in Crawfordsville. The disputants on the side of temperance were George W. Benefiel and Bartis Ewing, and on the other side Ambrose Armstrong, yet living in Scott township, and Capt. Ben. Hall.
This discussion gave an impetus to the cause of temperance in the county, which has lasted to the present day. In 1840 another great temperance excitement prevailed in the county, and many drinking men who joined the Washingtonians at that time are to- day living monuments of the good that is done by such agitations. They signed the pledge of total abstinence, and have maintained it for forty years, and but for which many of them would long since have been carried to drunkards' graves. There are few counties in the state where the temperance cause is stronger than it is in Mont- gomery.
It is difficult to realize that as late as 1832 Montgomery county was so near the western frontier as to be subject to alarms from Indian wars. Yet it is true that in that year the whole county was thrown into the greatest consternation by the breaking out of the Black Hawk war. In the latter part of May of that year rumors reached the Wabash valley that the celebrated Sac chief, with a large band of painted warriors, was on his way eastward, and was likely to pene- trate the settlements as far as Montgomery county. Runners were sent out from Crawfordsville to the commanders of all the military companies in the county, ordering them to assemble their commands at once at the county seat, armed and equipped for a campaign against the Indians. All who were fit for military duty assembled at once. The colonel, major and captains were all on hand with their red and white plumes, red sashes, and shining brass buttons, and the hardy settlers in homespun suits brought their trusty rifles, powder-horns and deer skin bullet pouches. The " big drum," the " little drum " and fife filled the air with the music of war. The band marched up and down Main street, and all who were will- ing to aid in driving back the merciless savages were requested to fall in behind it. In a short time a company of infantry, one hundred strong was recruited, and a cavalry company of fifty. The infantry was put under command of Capt. Elikam Ashton, and the cavalry
26
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
under Judge Burbridge. These companies were soon equipped, provided with stores and provisions and started on the campaign. They went through Attica, and marched as far toward Chicago as Hickory Grove, in Illinois, where they met about 3,000 Illinois vol- unteers, who escorted them into camp with honors such as only heroes returning from a victorious campaign are worthy of. But it was soon ascertained that the alarm was groundless, that Black Hawk had been already driven back by a detachment of the regular army and some Illinois militia ; and the Montgomery county volun- teers took up the line of march for Crawfordsville, where they ar- rived after an absence of about fifteen days, and dispersed to their several homes, never again to be disturbed by rumors of war in the Wabash valley. Although the campaign was brief, bloodless and uneventful, it showed the mettle of the early settler of the county.
In 1836 there occurred on Sugar creek, at a point just below where Deer & Canine's mill now stands, a most singular murder. Moses Rush and his wife lived in a cabin on a high bluff overshadow- ing the creek. He was an outlaw, and owing to some difficulty be- tween him and his wife, he threatened to kill her, and secretly brought the axe into the cabin for the purpose of executing his threat. Not meeting with an opportunity to do the bloody deed just then, he lay down on the bed and fell asleep, when his wife took the axe he had brought in for the purpose of killing her and split his head open at a single blow. She then went to some of the neighbors, and told them what she had done. A number of persons met at the cabin next day and buried the corpse, but no steps were ever taken toward having the murderess arrested, the neighborhood, perhaps, feeling inclined to thank her for putting the desperado out of the way. The grave of the murdered man is yet to be seen near a large beech-tree, with the words and figures "Moses Rush, 1836," cut in its bark. This grave is an object of interest to the many picnickers who every summer visit the wild and romantic region near the mouth of Indian creek.
In 1831 the population of the county had grown to more than 3,000 and the old log court-house wouldl no longer serve the purposes for which it was built. In fact it was intended only as a temporary court-house, and is so designated in the order under which it was built. It was contemplated from the first that the county would at no distant day build a more imposing structure than the one erected by Eliakam Askton in 1824-5. And so it did. At a session of the board of commissioners held in January 1831, by Daniel Farly, James Sellar and Dennis Ball, proposals for building a new court-
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EARLY HISTORY.
house were ordered to be advertised for. At the next succeeding session the contract was let to John Hughes at $3,420. This house was a two-story brick, forty feet square with a cupola, and stood on the public square. At the time it was built it was considered a fine edifice. But forty years afterward the public voice demanded a finer, more convenient and commodious house, and it was torn down to make way for the present stately structure. Its bricks are now doing duty in the walls of the Crawfordsville coffin factory.
It is claimed that the first horse-thief detective company ever organized in the west was a Montgomery county institution. In the fall of 1844 a great many horse-thieves were in the habit of passing through Coal Creek township, and stealing the farmers' horses, and to put a stop to their depredations about fifteen of the leading citi- zens living in the northwest part of the township met at a locust grove on the Meharry land, near the Tippecanoe county line, and formed themselves into an association which they called " The Coun- cil Grove Minute Men." A constitution and by-laws were drawn up by Jesse Meharry and Cyrus J. Borum. At the session of the legis- lature of 1848, through the influence of John W. Dimmitt, then a member of the lower house of the legislature from Montgomery county, an act was passed to incorporate this company, and give its members, while in pursuit of criminals, all the power and authority of constables. The charter members whose names are set out in the act are James Gregory, William Casseboom, Absaloin Kirkpatrick, James Meharry, Jesse Meharry, Christian Coon, Elias Moudy, John M. Thomas, and Edward McBroom. Though every charter member, excepting Jesse Meharry, is now dead, the organization still exists, and is doing effective service in bringing violators of the law to jus- tice. Its vigilance and activity have well nigh put an end to all horse stealing in the neighborhood. Its present officers are Hiram Palin, president, and G. N. Meharry, secretary. From this organi- zation have started a great number of similar companies, which are now organized pursuant to a general act of the legislature for that purpose.
They hold what they call " grand annual meetings ;" that is, rep- resentatives from all the companies meet at some convenient point to make their work more effective by a thorough cooperation. John S. Gray, of Wayne township, Montgomery county, who is noted wherever known for his sterling honesty and firmness, is president of the grand council. So well are these companies organized, and so thoroughly do they understand their work, that they seldom allow a horse-thief to escape. They not only arrest the thieves, but super-
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
intend prosecutions, hunt up witnesses, and, when necessary, employ counsel to aid the prosecuting attorney in bringing malefactors to justice. These companies are composed of the very best citizens of the country.
A NOTED CRIMINAL TRIAL.
The most noted criminal trial that ever took place in Montgomery county was that of the state against Jonathan S. Owen, who was charged with the murder of his wife. Owen was a respectable farmer living in the southeastern part of the county. He was a man in good standing, a consistent member of the church, and possessed of considerable property. His first wife had died leaving several children. His second wife was childless and the family relations were not all harmonious. The step-mother and step-children had numerous quarrels, but the testimony in the case did not show there had ever been any unusual difficulty between Mr. Owen and his new wife. She had several times threatened to kill herself on account of the annoyances of her step-children. One night late in 1858 she died very suddenly, and was buried the next day. The suddenness of her death, together with symptoms indicating poison, and other circumstances, soon began to arouse the suspicions of some of Mrs. Owen's relations, and they determined to have a resurrection of the body and a post-mortem examination. This greatly agitated Mr. Owen, and when he found it was fully determined on, he secretly sold his farm, disguised himself and fled to Canada. The post-mor- tem examination showed very conclusively that Mrs. Owen had died from the effects of strychnine. A large reward was offered for Owen's arrest, and he was finally captured by William H. Schoolen and others and lodged in the Crawfordsville jail to await his trial. Hon. D. W. Vorhees, Col. Samuel C. Wilson, Hon. James Willson and Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, an unusual array of distinguished counsel, were employed to defend him. The trial came on at Craw- fordsville, at a special term of the circuit court, on July 21, 1859. Hon. John M. Cowan, then in the beginning of his career as a success- ful and popular circuit judge, presided. The prosecution was con- ducted by Lew Wallace, R. C. Gregory, and Robert C. Harrison, the prosecuting attorney. This array assured a judicious, able and un- relenting prosecution. The jury selected and sworn to try the case was composed of the following citizens: Joseph Allen, Jonathan Todd, Samuel Davidson, William Royalty, John Blankenship, Jess Vancleave, Joseph Clifton, Emanuel Burk, James Ames, Jacob Bennett, Daniel Vaughn and Silas A. Fardy. The trial occupied several days. The court-room was crowded from day to day, to its
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN MEXICAN WAR.
utmost capacity. Aside from Owen's conduct subsequent to the death of his wife, the evidence was barely sufficient to raise a sus- picion of his guilt. It was shown he had bought strychnine at a drug-store in Ladoga some time before the death of his wife, but this circumstance was fully rebutted by proof of the facts that he had requested the druggist to charge it on his account, and that he took it home and gave it to his wife to put away, telling her to be careful with it, that it was poison to kill rats with. But the secret sale of the farm, the flight to Canada, and the agitation under disclosure of the suspicions, all conspired to fix in the public mind an unalterable belief of his guilt, and to this day it would be folly to suggest to any one, who lived in the county at the time of the trial, the theory that Mrs. Owen committed suicide. Yet, a careful consideration of all the testimony, which was fully reported in the county papers, will leave the impression on the judicial mind that the theory is not an unreasonable one. The law books are full of instances show- ing that innocent men have acted under accusations based upon cir- cumstances which they feared could not explain, precisely as Mr. Owen did when accused of the murder of his wife. Few men are so constituted as to be able to remain perfectly calm in the face of great danger. These things were dwelt upon by the attorneys for the de- fense with great ability, and made a profound impression on the minds of the jury. A verdict of acquittal resulted. Great indigna- tion was felt and expressed throughout the county at this unlooked- for outcome of the trial. But it would be impossible for any ra- tional being, who had never heard of the trial, to sit down at this day and read the evidence without feeling a strong doubt of Owen's guilt. After his acquittal he left the state, without money and with- out friends, and has not been heard of since.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN MEXICAN WAR.
The spirit that aroused so many of the hardy pioneers at the time of the Black Hawk war had not died out in 1846, when the govern- ment declared war against the Republic of Mexico. Soon after the formal declaration of war Indiana was called on for three regiments of infantry. At that time James Whitcomb was governor, and he at once issued his proclamation calling for volunteers. In a few days the governor's proclamation reached Crawfordsville. News of the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma soon followed, and these startling events at once threw the whole county into a great excitement. The whig and democratic parties were nearly equal in the county. The whigs had predicted that a war with Mexico would
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
follow the policy of the democratic party touching the annexation of Texas. There was some party animosity, and the democrats were denounced for involving the country in a war whose sole object was believed to be the extension of slavery. But the news of Taylor's victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and a few stirring speeches from Henry S. Lane, the gifted orator and pure patriot, and Judge Isaac Naylor, one of the heroes of Tippecanoe, both lead- ing whigs, soon obliterated all party lines, and the people of the county, with one voice, declared they would stand by the govern- ment, right or wrong. The Saturday after the governor's proclama- tion reached the county a large meeting was held at the old Christian church in Crawfordsville. Speeches were made by Lane and others, and about twenty volunteers enrolled their names in response to the proclamation. The whole county was then canvassed, and in a short time ninety-eight names were secured. June 10 was designated as the day on which the volunteers would meet at Crawfordsville. They all came prepared for the long and tedious journey to the seat of war, on the Rio Grande. On the 11th an immense concourse assembled in front of the residence of Henry S. Lane, who had been the inspiring genius of the movement for responding to the gover- nor's call. Here Mrs. Lane, in behalf of the ladies of Crawfordsville, presented a beautiful flag to the company. Wagons had been ten- dered by the patriotic farmers to transport the new recruits to the capital. Many sorrowful good-byes were spoken, and the wagons started forward. At Brownsburg the volunteers were greeted with applause, and tendered the hospitalities of the village. The next day they reached Indianapolis. Here the company was organized by the election of Henry S. Lane as captain ; Allan May, first lieu- tenant, and Gustavius A. Wood as second lieutenant.
Gov. Whitcomb advanced $5 to each one of the recruits, from the state treasury, and on June 15 they marched to Franklin, the county seat of Johnson county, twenty miles south of Indianapolis. Here they were treated with great hospitality by the citizens, and cared for till the morning of the 16th, when they marched to Edinburgh, where they took the cars for Madison. From Madison they went by boat to New Albany, and there went into camp at a place called Camp Whitcomb, in honor of the governor. By July 5 thirty com- panies had reported, and they were at once organized into three regi- ments. The Montgomery county company was assigned to the 1st reg. James P. Drake was appointed colonel ; C. C. Nave, of Hend- ricks county, lieutenant-colonel ; and Henry S. Lane, major. There was much dissatisfaction because Lane was not appointed colonel of
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
the regiment, as he was a favorite with all the volunteers. They have always believed that under him the regiment would have been assigned a more honorable place, and had a more eventful career. When Capt. Lane was appointed major, John B. Powers took his place as captain of the company. On July 5 the regiment started for New Orleans on steamboats, and landed at the old battle-ground on the 12th. Here it remained till the 17th, when the Montgomery county company was crowded on board a small sloop with another company (some 200 in all), and set sail for the Rio Grande. Before day on the 22d the vessel struck on the beach of Padre island, four- teen miles north of Brazos, the place to which the 1st reg. had been ordered. A stiff breeze was blowing, and the night was very dark. When daylight came the troops were all safely sent ashore in boats, with their stores, and went into camp. They remained here eight days, when they were marched to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and finally up the river to Camp Belknap, where they remained for some time. The whole term of service was spent in marching up and down the Rio Grande. The company suffered much from sickness, and at the close of the year for which they had enlisted it was re- duced to one half its original strength. Upon the expiration of their term of service the volunteers (or, rather, so many as had survived the ravages of disease) returned home. Upon their arrival at Craw- fordsville, in July 1847, a grand ovation was tendered them by the citizens of the county, on which occasion Col. Henry S. Lane, who had been promoted during the campaign, made one of the most elo- quent and thrilling speeches of his eventful life as an orator.
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