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 38
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114
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
These three roads have added to the taxable property of the county nearly half a million of dollars. The valuation at the last appraisement was as follows :
The Indiana, Bloomington & Western Railroad Company has in the county twenty-three and a half miles of track, valned for taxation at $8,500 per mile, making a total valuation of. $199,750
Its rolling stock in the county is valued at 42,300
Total valuation 242,050
The Terre Haute & Logansport Railroad Company has in the county twenty-one and a half miles of track, valued for taxa- tion at $3,000 per mile, making a total valuation of. 64,500
It has rolling stock in the county valued at. 10,750
Total valuation 75,250
The Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad Company has in the county twenty-four miles of track, valued for taxation at $3,000 per mile, making a total valuation of. 72,000
Its rolling stock in the county is valued at 13,800
Total valuation 85,800
Grand total valuation of track and rolling stock in the county $403,100
COUNTY OFFICERS.
The following is a full list of the county officers from the organ- ization of the county to the present time, showing the dates at which they served and the term of service of each :
CLERKS.
John Wilson, 1823 to 1837.
James W. Lynn, 1837 to 1851.
Andrew P. Lynn, 1851 to 1855. William C. Vance, 1855 to 1863.
William K. Wallace, 1863 to 1871.
Isaac M. Vance, 1871 to 1875.
T. D. Brown, 1875 to 1879.
T. D. Brown, 1879 to 1883.
SHERIFFS.
S. D. Maxwell, May to Nov. 1823. David Vance, 1823 to 1827. Foster Field, 1827 to 1829. David Vance, 1829 to 1833. Ambrose Harland, 1833 to 1837. David Vance, 1837 to 1841. William N. Gott, 1841 to 1845. Joseph Allen, 1845 to 1847. William P. Ramey, 1847 to 1851. Benjamin Misner, 1851 to 1853. William H. Schooler, 1853 to 1857.
William K. Wallace, 1857 to 1859. George W. Hall, 1859 to 1863. Isaac Davis, 1863 to 1865. John N. McConnell, 1865 to 1869. Hugh E. Sidener, 1869 to 1873. Isaac M. Kelsey, 1873 to 1875 .- Samuel D. Smith, 1875 to 1877. William J. Krugg, 1877 to 1879. William J. Krugg, 1879 to 1881. James Q. W. Wilhite, 1881 to 1883.
115
COUNTY OFFICERS.
TREASURERS.
David Vance, 1841 to 1855. John R. Coons, 1855 to 1857.
John Lee, 1857 to 1859.
William H. Schooler, 1859 to 1863.
Robert F. Beck, 1863 to 1867.
Robert H. Myrick, 1867 to 1869.
Warren Davis, 1869 to 1873. William P. Herron, 1873 to 1875. John A. Hardee, 1875 to 1879.
Fountain N. Johnson, 1879 to 1881.
John Dwiggins, 1881 to 1883.
AUDITORS.
John B. Austin, 1841 to 1855.
James Gilkey. 1855 to 1859.
David T. Ridge, 1859 to 1863.
Isaac M. Vance, 1863 to 1871. James H. Watson, 1871 to 1879.
James H. Wasson, 1879 to 1883.
RECORDERS.
Matthew Cowley, 1825 to 1827. John Wilson, 1827 to 1830.
George Miller, 1830 to 1846. James Heaton, 1846 to 1853. Geo. W. Alexander, 1853 to 1861.
Hugh J. Webster, 1861 to 1869 T. N. Myers, 1869 to 1877. Marion P. Wolf, 1877 to 1881. John Johnson, 1881 to 1885.
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.
William Offield, 1823 to 1824. Henry Ristine, 1824 to 1827. James Blevins, 1823 to 1827. John McCullough, 1823 to 1827. Charles Swearinger, 1827 to 1829. James Milroy, 1827 to 1831. Daniel Easley, 1827 to 1831. Dennis Ball, 1829 to 1840. James Seller, 1829 to 1838. Frederick Moore, 1831 to 1841. Richard McAfferty, 1838 to 1841. Joseph Gray, 1840 to 1840. James Gregory, Sept. 1840 to 1842.
Daniel Easley, 1841 to 1843. Jacob Chrisman, 1841 to 1847. Joseph Gray, 1842 to 1852.
Washington Holloway, 1843 to 1852.
C. H. R. Anderson, 1847 to 1850. J. W. Shaw, 1850 to 1852. Daniel Long, 1852 to 1852.
J. M. Shaver, 1852 to 1858. Wm. P. Watson, 1852 to 1860. Henry Lee, 1852 to 1854. Wm Mulliken, 1854 to 1855. Samuel Gilliland, 1855 to 1864. Thomas E. Harris, 1858 to 1859. John E. Corbin, 1859 to 1866. John Gaines, 1860 to 1863. David Long, 1863 to 1870. Taylor Buffington, 1864 to 1867. Samuel Marts, 1866 to 1868. Samuel Gilliland, 1867 to 1870. Thomas Wilson, 1868 to 1871. James McIntire, 1870 to 1876. James Lee, 1870 to 1876. James F. Hall, 1871 to 1874. Samuel L. Hutton, 1874 to 1877. Tyra L. Hanna, 1876. Levi Thomas, 1876.
Thomas J. Wilson, 1877 to 1880. J. M. Hashberger, 1880.
116
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.
Win. P. Britton, 1865 to 1868. John F. Thompson, 1871 to 1873.
Thomas Patterson, 1868 for 3 mo. M. E. Clodfelter, 1873 to 1875.
John W. Fullen, 1868 to 1871. John G. Overton, 1875 to 1881.
UNION TOWNSHIP.
CRAWFORDSVILLE.
The town of Crawfordsville owed its existence to Maj. Ambrose Whitlock, who laid out the original plat in March, 1823, upon the S. W. ¿ of Sec. 32, T. 19 N., R. 4 W., Terre Hante land district. The recorded survey furnishes the following particular description of the town territory : "Each street running north and south is laid parallel with the north and south line of sections thirty-one and thirty-two, and each street and alley running east and west is laid parallel with a line dividing townships eighteen and nineteen. Each street within the lots is sixty-six feet wide, except Market and Washington streets, which are ninety-nine feet wide. Each alley is ten feet wide, and a reservation of sixty feet, as a street, is made all around the town, except from the south side of Spring street to the northeast corner of the town. Each lot within the town is one hundred and sixty- five feet by eighty-two feet six inches. The town was christened in honor of Col. William Crawford, of Virginia, a distinguished soldier, who in the year 1782, while leading a volunteer force against the hostile Indians on the river Sandusky, was captured, tortured, and burned to death at the stake. During the year 1823 Craw- fordsville was made the seat of government of Montgomery county, and for judicial purposes likewise over all that district of land lying north of Montgomery county to the southern shore of Lake Michigan and known as Wabash county. This fact, together with the location of a government land office at Crawfordsville in the succeeding year, gave a healthy impulse of growth to the infant community, which, at the date of Maj. Whitlock's platting of lots, consisted of not more than a dozen families. The town was situated near one of the great Indian trails, that crossing Ohio, Indiana and Illinois gave passage through the wilderness to the tide of immigration from the east. Lying just outside of the original plat were several large springs, even then famous for the purity and medicinal qualities of the water, and this fact doubtless had much to do with the choice of the location. Maj. Whitlock expressly reserved to the public the
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free use and access to these springs, and built his residence in the midst of a beautiful grove immediately above them.
" Of the original appearance of the town but little can be learned, as all of the hardy race of pioneers who cleared the forest from the town site and built their cabins have paid the debt of nature, and have left no permanent record behind. William Miller appears to have erected the first cabin in Crawfordsville about fifty yards north of where Brown and Watkins' flouring-mill now stands, and other cabins were sprinkled along at intervals over the territory bounded by Green and Market streets and the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago railroad tracks, extending on the north as far as the La Fayette depot.
"The land office building stood in the center of the little settle- ment and was located a few feet west of the mill just referred to. It was composed of the universal building material then in use logs, mortised and tenoned, and contained a primitive desk and a few slab benches, with an iron chest to hold the silver and gold paid in for land ; and we may here remark that the good old strong box now does duty as a powder magazine for the grocery firm of James Lee & Brother.
" Probably the only contemporaneous history of Crawfordsville ever written in those first years of the town's existence is contained in a work entitled "Old Settlers," by Sanford C. Cox, late of La Fayette, and now deceased. Mr. Cox was one of the first school- masters that wielded the birch in the Wabash valley, and has left a record of early times in his book bearing the above title that is of inestimable value. He kept a diary of his experiences and travels and has the following to say about Crawfordsville in the years 1824 and 1825.
"Crawfordsville is the only town beween Terre Haute and Fort Wayne. The land office is held here. Maj. Whitlock is receiver and Judge Williamson Dunn, register. Maj. Ristine keeps tavern in a two-story log house, and Jonathan Powers has a little grocery. There are two stores, Smith's, near the land office, and Isaac C. El- ston's, near the tavern. Thomas M. Curry and Magnus Holmes are the only physicians, and Providence M. Curry the only lawyer, in town. John Wilson is clerk of the court, and David Vance sheriff. William Nichalson carries on a tannery and shoemaker shop. Scott and Mack have cabinet shops, and George Key blows and strikes at the blacksmithing business. Old man Hill has a small mill on the south bank of Sugar river, north of town. West of town, in the country, there is a small neighborhood composed of
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
the following persons and their families, namely : John Beard, Isaac Beeler, three of the Millers (John, Isaac and George), Joseph Cox, Joseph Hahn, John Killen, and John Stitt, who owns a little mill about two miles west of town. Southwest of town, near the Fallen Timber (result of some old-time hurricane), live Elihu Crane, John Cowan, James Scott, William Burbridge, Samuel McClung, Edmund Nutt, John Caldwell, Prentice Mitchell, and James B. Mccullough. East of town resides Maj. Whitlock, Baxter, David Mccullough, Ephraim Catterlin and John Dewey. Farther east are Jacob Beeler, Judge James Stitt, who owns a saw-mill, W. P. Ramey, Richard McCafferty, widow Smith, and the Elmores. Zach- ariah Gapen has a little tan-yard near Stitt's mill, and in the vicinity of Kenworthy and Lee. On the north side of Sugar river I know of but Abe Miller, Henry and Robert Nichalson, Samuel Brown, John Farlow, and Harshbarger.
"Besides those named there are but few others living in the town and country. I think I am safe in saying that half a dozen more families would embrace all, including hunters and trappers, within fifty miles around."
In May, 1823, the circuit court of Montgomery county was organ- ized by Hon. Jacob Call, president judge of the first judicial circuit of Indiana, at the house of William Miller, in Crawfordsville. Judge Call presented his commission as judge, signed by William Hen- dricks, governor, at Corydon, on December 18, 1823, in the eighth year of the state, together with a certificate from Hon. Isaac Black- ford, one of the judges of the supreme court, that the usual oath of office and the oath against duelling had been duly administered by him to the new judge. Previous to this formal inauguration of a court of law, the sole legal transactions in the county were con- fined to the tribunals of justices of the peace, who were oftentimes men of no legal learning and impatient of the law's delays and chi- canery, and capable only of administering a rude form of justice, without regard for precedents or paper pleas.
The court continued to hold its sessions at Miller's house until the growth of litigation and population made it necessary to erect the first regular court-house.
The building was located on lot 113 of the original plat, on the ground now covered by Dickey & Brewer's and S. H. Gregg & Son's store-rooms, on Main street. It was twenty-six feet long by twenty feet wide, of hewed twelve-inch logs, and two stories high, having thirteen substantial joists in each story ; the roof made of poplar jointed shingles and the floors of poplar planks, seven inches
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UNION TOWNSHIP.
wide and one and one-quarter inches thick ; the lower floor having two doors and four windows; the doors of good batten, hung with butts and locks such as were on the doors of the land office. In the upper story were three windows of twelve lights each. The edifice stood twelve inches above the ground, and was built by Eliakim Ashton for the contract price of $295. This is probably the only public work ever done in Montgomery county for which no "extras" above the contract were either asked or allowed, and the house stood on its orignal location for many years, a monument of the simple taste and solid honesty of our early builders.
In the year 1824, soon after the completion of the court-house, the commissioners of the county ordered a jail to be constructed on the northeast corner of the public square, about where J. S. Miller & Co's blacksmith shop now stands. The specifications of the work show it to have been a quaint structure, and as likely to prove interesting to the general reader. We give sufficient details to show what kind of prison walls were deemed sufficient to hold prisoners in those days: "The jail-house to be 24 feet by 20 feet from ont to out; the foundation to be laid with stone sunk 18 inches under ground, and to be 12 inches above the ground, and to be 3 feet wide, on which there is to be built, with logs hewed 12 inches square, double walls with a vacancy of one foot between the walls; the vacancy between the walls to be filled with peeled poles, not more than six inches thick."
The jail contained two rooms : the " debtors' room," for the incar- ceration of persons unwilling or unable to pay their honest debts, had the only door opening to the outside of the building, and com- municated within by a single door opening into the felons' cell; a single grated window, cut high up in each room, furnished light and air to the inmates. Abraham Griffith was the builder, and received $243 for his work.
The first inmate of this jail was Peter Smith, who was arrested for stealing a silver watch. He was awaiting trial and had been con- fined but a few days, when one stormy night.gave him the oppor- tunity to burn the lock off the oaken door of his cell and gain ac- cess to the debtors' room, where he easily filed the fastenings from the outer door and made his escape, leaving the building in flames. The citizens were aroused, but not in time to save the jail. Sus- picion was rife that Smith had assistance from some confederate scamp outside, and finally it settled with sufficient certainty upon a worthless chicken-thief named Jack, who had long been a lazy pen- sioner upon the industrious little community, and a crowd of citizens,
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
duly disguised and armed, collected to administer lynch law upon the offender. He was arrested and taken down in the ravine northwest of town, now the road running to the Sperry bridge and Blair's ford, then filled with dense thickets and clumps of briers, where he was stripped and soundly thrashed with hickory "gads" and released on a promise to leave the country for that country's good. From this circumstance the ravine was long called "Jack's Hollow." Smith, the jail burner, was soon afterward recaptured by Sheriff Maxwell and a posse, brought back, and chained to an iron staple in the court-house, where he was carefully guarded until his trial and conviction, when he was taken to the penitentiary at Jeffersonville to serve a term of three years at hard labor.
In consideration of having the county seat permanently located at Crawfordsville, Maj. Whitlock conveyed every "odd " lot in his plat to the county for school purposes. The sale of these lots was entrusted to William P. Ramey, as agent, who gave bond in the sum of $10,000. Lot 49 was reserved for a pound or stray-pen ; and from the early records it appears that lot 11 was sold to William Warren for $25, lot 25 to James Warren for the same amount, lot 37 to Samuel Kinkade for the same amount, and lot 139 to Jacob Beeler for $20. These were the first sales made, and the proceeds formed the nucleus of the "County Seminary Fund." The com- missioners ordered that all sales should be for cash, and no lot should be sold for less than $10. A building was erected for a seminary on the premises where Chilion Johnson now resides; and if the frame shell of his present house could be lifted off it would disclose many of the old hewed logs of the original seminary building.
The land sales brought a large influx of people to Crawfordsville in 1824, many to become citizens of the town and surrounding coun- try, and many who were "land-sharks " from the east, whose pur- pose was to buy up the choicest pieces of land on speculation.
Mr. Cox, from whose book we have previously quoted, gives a graphic account in his diary of these land sales, and we may profit- ably again use his record. He writes, under date of December 24, 1824: "The land sales commenced here to-day, and the town is full of strangers. The eastern and southern portions of the state are strongly represented, as well as Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. There is but little bidding against each other. The settlers, or 'squatters,' as they are called by speculators, have arranged matters among themselves to their general satisfaction. If, upon comparing numbers, it appears that two are after the same tract of land, one asks the other what he will take not to bid against
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UNION TOWNSHIP.
him. If neither will consent to be bought off, they then retire and cast lots, and the lucky one enters the tract at congress price, $1.25 per acre, and the other enters the second choice on his list.
" If a speculator makes a bid, or shows a disposition to take a settler's claim from him, he soon sees the whites of a score of eyes snapping at him, and at the first opportunity he crawfishes out of the crowd.
"The settlers tell foreign capitalists to hold off till they enter the tracts of land they have settled on, and that they may then pitch in .- that there will be land enough, more than enough, for them all.
"The land is sold in tiers of townships, beginning at the south- ern part of the district and continuing north, until all has been of- fered at public sale. Then private entries can be made, at $1.25 per acre, of any that has been thus publicly offered. This rule, adopted by the officers, insures great regularity in the sale; but it will keep many here for several days who desire to purchase land in the northern portion of the district.
"It is a stirring, crowding time here, truly, and men are busy hunting up cousins and old acquaintances, whom they have not seen for many long years. If men have ever been to the same mill, or voted at the same election precinct, though at different times, it is sufficient for them to scrape an acquaintance upon.
"Society here, at this time, seems almost entirely free from the taint of aristocracy. The only premonitory symptoms of that dis- ease, most prevalent generally in old-settled communities, were manifested last week, when John I. Foster bought a new pair of silver-plated spurs, and N. T. Catterlin was seen walking up street with a pair of curiously embroidered gloves on his hands."
Concerning the employment of the people in those days, and their usual amusements, Mr. Cox says: "We cleared land, rolled logs, burned brush, blazed out paths from one neighbor's cabin to another, and from one settlement to another, made and used hand- mills, and burned out hominy mortars from the 'butt-cut' of trees, hunted deer and turkeys, otter and raccoons, caught fish, dug gin- seng, hunted bees and the like, and lived on the fat of the land. In the social line, we had our meetings and our singing-schools, sugar-boilings and weddings, and many a good 'hoe-down' on puncheon floors."
Maj. Henry Ristine (father of Benjamin T. Ristine Esq.) kept the first regular tavern, on the ground where Evans & Sidener's shoe store now is. It, like all the buildings of the town, was built of hewed logs. Around its capacious-throated chimneys many a
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
weary traveler has found cheer and comfort, and many a merry song has wakened the echoes of the surrounding woods, and countless tales of hair-breadth escapes and "moving " accidents by flood and field have been rehearsed. The tavern then was a chief center of attraction, and during court times, when the attorneys who "rode the circuit " came riding up from Indianapolis, Vincennes, Terre Haute, La Porte, Richmond, and Connersville, their persons and horses liberally bespattered with the mnd of the sloughs, and their huge portmanteaux surmounted with overcoat and umbrella, they received a general welcome from mine host and the entire male population. Venison, turkey, and berries from the woods, and big pike, salmon, and bass from John Stitt's fish-pond on Sugar creek, with "sweet-pone," corn "dodgers," hominy, and a tin cup of pure whiskey if desired, recompensed the traveler for leagues of weariness and hunger. The rates of tavern keepers were fixed by the county commissioners, and were not allowed to be departed from in the direction of extortion. For the year 1824 the rates were as follows :
Wine, per bottle ... $1 25 Oats, per gallon $ 12}
Brandy, per half-pint. .. 50 Corn, per gallon 12₺
Gin, per half-pint. . .
25 Horse, at hay, per night. 25
Whiskey, per half-pint ... 12₺ Lodging per night. . . 12g
Victualing, per meal . ... 25
Taverns in town were required to pay a license fee of $10, and it may readily be inferred that the business in those days was not im- mensely luerative.
The first mills in use were fitted out with overshot wheels, fed by streams conveyed in hollowed poplar logs, jointed together as an aqueduct, the water being furnished by the numerous never-failing springs of the country. Mill-stones were roughly dressed out of huge boulders, called "nigger heads." A small log-mill of this description was built at the mouth of the stream flowing into Sugar creek from the Whitlock springs. A dam was thrown across the stream some distance above, and the water was conducted to the mill-wheel by a log aqueduct supported by poles. The mill was , quite difficult of access, the road leading to it being cut through a spur of the bluffs, and thence along the side down to the mill. The machinery was of the rudest description, and just sufficient to turn the stones. This mill ground cornmeal and cracked hominy for all the early inhabitants of Crawfordsville. It was a general custom to send small boys to mill, seated astraddle of a horse, with the sack of grain serving as a saddle; and the father of the writer has often
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UNION TOWNSHIP.
told how he adventured on such expeditions in his boyhood, and the constant mental distress endured on the homeward route, perched giddily upon a lofty stack of meal and bran, fearful of toppling both himself and his grist into the road, and knowing his lack of strength to replace the load upon his horse in such an event. Boys were thus utilized because the men were too busily engaged in clearing and grubbing and log-rolling to go to mill.
Household furnishings were meager and comprised few luxuries. The ordinary necessities were held at a price too high to permit in- dulgence in ornament, even if the pride of the frugal pioneer had not stood in the way. A bill of the property sold at a public ven- due in 1824, taken from the court records, furnishes an inventory of the articles and value of "plunder" considered a fair pioneer out- fit. It reads as follows :
"1 rifle gunn $6 75
1 bull. 3 00
1 brindle cow 2 00
1 bull
1 372
1 cow skin. 2 37%
2 sheep 3 311
4 sows and pigs 15 377
1 wagon 30 00
7 muskrat skins 1 00
54 raccoon skins. 10 00
11 fox and wild-cat skins. 1 00
4 deer skins and 1 wolf skin 1 434
1 pair hip straps (har- ness). 1 00
1 lot pewter 1 00
3 steel traps 1 00
1 shovel plow 25
3 horseshoes 39
1 axe 3 00
1 pair saddle-bags 1 873
1 tar bucket. 25
1 auger
371
37월
1 wire sive $ 75
45 hanks yarn. 9 37₺
1 pair of and irons 2 50
1 grid iron 1 50
1 flat iron 50
4 earthen pans 50
3 small Liverpool plates 25
4 green-edged breckfast plates (Delph) ...
37₺
5 Liverpool tea-cups and three saucers. 25
1 large Delph bole 37₺
1 Liverpool bole. 12₺
1 small tin bucket. 37₺ 25
1 coffee mill.
1 goard of lard 314
2 crocks of tallow 25
1 red callico dress. 1 00
1 blue callico dress. . .. 50
1 black silk dress (doubt- less a remnant) . 2 00
6 pair woolen stockings 1 50
7 pair thread stockings. 1 00
1 pair cotton stockings. 62₺
1 cotton dress 50
1 flannel dress 25
1 flannel dress, striped. 371
1 petticoat (red) 1 00"
1 hoe
2 linnen sheets 2 00
1 pieced quilt. 1 50
1 white counterpin. 6 00
1 double coverlit. 1 00
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
The ubiquitous " Smith " had arrived in 1823, and was "keep- ing store " near William Miller's house, where he dickered for gin- seng and peltries with whites and Indians, and had things, commer- cially, pretty much his own way. He seems to have been puffed up with a sense of his own wealth and importance, judging from a cer- tain record left behind by the commissioners' court.
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