USA > Indiana > Vermillion County > History of Parke and Vermillion Counties, Indiana : with historical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families > Part 21
USA > Indiana > Parke County > History of Parke and Vermillion Counties, Indiana : with historical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families > Part 21
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later having settled over the line in Adams township. The following year came Fleming and James Long, and soon came the McMurtie family. Then the number which came in was too large to here trace or enumerate.
In the Roaring Creek or Poplar Grove settlement, in the north end of the township, the first to arrive was John Maris, in the fall of 1826. He settled on the southeast quarter of section 5, on the old Indian trail. He cleared ten acres of land and the next year raised a crop of corn for bread purposes and feed. He obtained his seed corn from the Cook family, in the settlement to the west of him, paying ten cents a bushel for the seed. Next came in Joshua Newlin, his son John and daughter Sarah and her husband, James Underwood, they being newly married, but had never tried the perplexities of married life in a new country. They reached this township in the fall of 1827 and located on the northeast of section 4, at once building a shed, in which they lived for three weeks, at the end of which time they had their cabin erected, save the stick-and-clay chimney, which soon followed. The following winter was occupied at chopping and logging, clearing away for a patch on which to sow and plant. In the meantime they had to live chiefly on corn bread and mush and milk. Corn was still ten cents, but money was hard to get hold of. They brought seeds with them and planted some peach seed, and in three years had plenty of fine fruit from this early planting. An apple orchard was also planted from which they had an abundance of good apples within seven years. His son John settled on section 4, and at once cleared away five acres, settling on the same in the spring of 1828. The son- in-law, Underwood, settled on section 3 and went to housekeeping. The next to come was Nathan Hockett, in the spring of 1828, who went to work on land he purchased in section 4. He owned the first cow in the settlement, having brought her from North Carolina when he came. The next fall came William and Jesse Hobson, locating on section 9. In 1829, in the autumn time, came the Teaghe family, their location being on section 8. Others who soon swelled the number in the little colony were Aaron Rawlings, Aaron D. Huff, Gabriel Wilson, Eli Bundy, Jonathan Trublood and family, W. Hill, Elias Trublood, Jesse Yemp, David Newlin, Joshua and John Engle, and the McCampbell family.
The first school house was erected on what was known as the "lost quarter." a strip of territory on section 26. It was there that a school was taught by John McBride, an Irishman. In 1833 the first school in Roaring Creek settlement was taught. The Presbyterians built the first meeting house in this township in 1823. Early services were held by the Methodist Epis-
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copal people, under Rev. Cravens, who styled himself, "The Almighty's Bull- dog." See church chapter elsewhere; also educational chapter for schools.
Among the first deaths in the settlement above mentioned was the drown- ing of Samuel Teaghe, July 4, 1834.
Roseville mills provided the first milling facilities this township had. In 1825 Samuel Steele built his Portland mill, in Greene township, and soon there were a number of mills erected in near-by districts.
At Nyesville, noted above, in 1880 there were extensive coal mining operations opened up, on sections 33 and 34. These mines were opened and worked by the Parke County Coal Mining Company, and this has been the means of supporting a good little mining village ever since. The United States census of 1910 gave the population as ninety-five, which fluctuates with the number of miners employed at various times.
The village of Judson, a place having less than two hundred inhabitants, in 1910, is situated on section 24, of this township, and was platted by Alex- ander Buchanan, May 4, 1872. The railroad was completed that year, and the first store was opened by Glover & Milligan, who were followed very speedily by many more business concerns. Presbyterian and Methodist churches were soon organized and houses provided in which to worship. A Masonic lodge was formed in 1874, and an Odd Fellows lodge in the same year.
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VERMILLION COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
NATURAL FEATURES OF VERMILLION COUNTY.
The word "vermillion" is from the French, signifying "a bright red sul- phuret of mercury," and is applied to this territory and the stream by that name, on account of the red or brown color of the earth and the abundance of "keel," or "red-chalk," found along the banks of the river now called Vermillion. It is believed that this substance was formed by the burning of the overlying shale, the outcrops of the coal, the latter igniting from the autumn fires set by the people then inhabiting this region. The river was first named, then the county.
Geographically, Vermillion county is thirty-nine degrees and fifty-five minutes north, and eighty-seven degrees and ten minutes west longitude from Greenwich, England. The standard railroad time, which is conformed to the ninetieth meridian, is about eleven minutes slower than local sun-time. New- port, the county seat, is five hundred and twenty feet above sea-level, and fifty- five feet above the low water mark of the Wabash river opposite.
The beautiful Wabash river, with its charming scenery, is equal in that respect to almost any other stream in the West. Its silvery ripples are seen here and there midst luxurious foliage of splendid forest kings, while long ranges of hills add further beauty and sublimity to the scene which is ever a feast to the eye of the beholder. The more than thirty-seven miles of river front presented within this county, is wholly made up of attractive natural scenery, making the territory one of the "loveliest valleys in the West." The Wabash and its tributaries completely drain and water the county of which this volume is a history. Spring branch, really a large creek, flows south- westerly through the northeast corner of Highland township. Coal branch flows south near the western border. Big Vermillion river winds in graceful curves through the southwestern corner of Highland township and also through the northern part of Eugene township. Little Vermillion river winds
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through the southwestern corner of Eugene township, emptying into the Wabash near the middle of the eastern side of Vermillion township. Jonathan creek, in the western portion of Vermillion township, flows northeasterly into Little Vermillion. Brouillet's (pronounced Brulet's creek) is wholly within Clinton township, coursing its way southeasterly, forming confluence with the Wabash river. Little Raccoon creek, in Helt township, runs to the south- east, in the northeastern portion of the township, falling into the Wabash be- tween Highland and Alta.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATION.
Almost one-third of the territory embraced within Vermillion county con- sists of rich, fertile and valuable bottom lands of the great and historic Wabash river together with its affluents, Big and Little Vermillion rivers and Norton's creek. The main terrace of the "second bottom," is finely developed in the region of Perrysville and Newport. This terrace is from one to four miles wide, giving an extended stretch of rich, well drained farming lands, with an average elevation of about forty feet above the first bottom. Below the town of Newport the bluffs reach the river so nearly that the terrace is nearly obliterated, and the immediate bottoms are hence very narrow. At the mouth of Little Raccoon creek the bottom lands are extended wider, but there is no large amount of terrace land until the head of Helt prairie is reached, at a point six miles to the north of the city of Clinton, where it stretches to the south- ward and is from one to three miles in width. Again three miles below Clinton it narrows down at the mouth of Brouillet's and the county line.
When Vermillion county was first settled by white men the bottoms were heavily timbered, but a large part of the terrace was devoid of timber. It is hardly probable that this land was originally prairie, on account of its nature and favorable situation, hence it is supposed that this land was cleared and cultivated by the same race of people, possibly the much-talked-of, and but little understood, Mound Builders. The "mounds" are to be seen all through this region, and it is thought that the annual fires prevented a re-occupation by trees and shrubs.
Rising from the upper bottom lands bluffs are seen, more or less abrupt, which attain a general level of from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty feet above the river bed, forming the somewhat elevated border lands of Grand prairie. The most gradual ascent is to the westward from Perrysville, which provide a natural roadway for the railroad now traversing this portion of the county. South of the Big Vermillion river the bluffs are
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much steeper. These bluffs are too steep for practical cultivation, and timber is still found growing, including oak, hickory, maple and walnut, and, in the south part of the county, beech. Thirty years ago and less there were found large groves of maple of the sugar variety. From the chief streams this tim- bered region extends to the westward to the state line. The northern and middle portions of the county are in great part a portion of what is known as the Grand prairie, which covers all eastern Illinois, from the forests of the Lit- tle Wabash to Lake Michigan.
Vermillion county is blessed with springs, bursting forth from below the bowlder clay of the drift period. Many of these springs are exceedingly strong in their flow, but with the settlement of the county, artificial drainage, etc., have somewhat diminished.
The alluvium of the river bottoms have the common features of all river deposits. Vegetable remains are mingled with fine sand and mud washed from the drift-beds up the streams, and occasional deposits of small stones and gravel, derived either from the drift or from rock formations through which these rivers have cut their way. The only positive information con- cerning the depths of these beds refers to the prairies between Eugene and Perrysville, where wells have been sunk sixty feet through alluvia sand, and then encountered six to ten feet of sticky, bluish mud filled with leaves, twigs and trunks of trees, and occasionally small masses of what appears to have been stable manure. This stratum is sometimes called "Noalı's Barnyard." The lake-bottom deposits, of a corresponding age, which commonly underlie the soil of the Grand prairie, have been found west of the state line, consisting of marly-clays and brick-clay subsoil, and probably exist equally under such portions of the prairie as extend into Vermillion county.
There are numerous fine gravel beds in the county, principally developed since the construction of railroads. The bowlder clay mentioned above, which substance forms the mass of drift formation, is a tough, bluish drab, unlaminated clay, more or less thoroughly filled with fine and coarse gravel. and includes many small bowlders. On the high bluff, to the west of Perrys- ville, this bed was penetrated to a depth of about one hundred feet before reaching the water-bearing quicksand commonly found beneath it. Outcrops of one hundred and ten feet have been measured. This is much thinner in the southern part of Vermillion county. From the difference in character of the included bowlders at different levels, it is supposed by geologists that the currents which brought the materials composing these beds flowed in different directions at different times.
As an example of the above descriptions, said a writer on this subject
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twenty-five years ago: "A section from a branch of Jonathan's creek, in Eugene township, where bowlder clay, with pebbles of Silurian limestone and trap, thirty feet ; yellow clay, with fragments of coal, shale, sand-stone, etc., four inches; bowlder clay, with pebbles of Silurian limestone, twenty-five feet; ferruginous sand, a streak; bowlder clay from the northwest, with peb- bles of various metamorphic rocks and trap, and nuggets of native copper, fifty feet."
The section of rocks exposed at the horseshoe of the Little Vermillion exhibits the following strata : Black, slaty shale; coal, two and a half to four feet thick ; fire-clay and soft shales, with iron-stones, fifteen feet; argillaceous (clayey) limestone, one to two feet ; dark drab clay shale, one foot; coal, four to five feet; light colored fire-clay, two feet; dark colored fire-clay, one foot; soft, drab shale, with iron-stones, ten to fifteen feet; fossiliferous, black slaty shale, often pyritous, with many large iron-stone nodules, two to three feet.
A considerable portion of the bowlders and pebbles of these beds, espe- cially those consisting of limestone and the metamorphic rocks, are finely polished and striated on one or more of their sides, showing the power of the forces which were engaged in their transportation from their original beds. Nuggets of galena (lead) and of native copper are occasionally met with, and have had the usual effect of exciting the imagination of those ignorant of the fact that the rocks which contain these metals do not occur nearer than the galena region of northern Illinois.
The only rock formation in the county, practically speaking, is that of the "coal measure" already mentioned. The first uppermost vein of coal is cov- ered by a few feet of soil only. The limerock below it is very thinly lamin- ated, being mingled with much clay ; but the shales covering the next vein con- stitute a fair working roof.
The sand iron-stones are interesting to the hunter of fossils, as they con- tain numerous fragmentary remains of fishes, insects, etc. This fossil dis- trict extends along the Little Vermillion to its mouth and down the Wabash. Outcrops of this strata are found along the chief streams throughout the entire county of Vermillion.
In going up stream along the Big Vermillion river, on its south bank, a mile below Eugene, a bluff twenty to thirty feet high is of irregularly bedded, highly ferruginous, coarse grained sand-stone, often containing plant remains. with some large fragments of trees, etc. Some of these beds are sufficiently solid to make good building stones. In quarrying them many fine trunks have been found and the larger branches of leipodendron and sigillaria.
Wells sunk below Perrysville, below the limestone rock, ninety feet, have
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exposed no traces of coal, but coal is found at no great distance, owing to the sudden dips in the geological strata. In general terms, it may be said that most all of Vermillion county is underlaid with a good quality of soft coal. A total estimate of eight feet would probably cover the thickness of coal underneath this county-a wonderful mine of wealth for generations yet un- born! The chapter on Mines and Mining in this work will treat the vast coal mining interests.
The principal iron ore found within Vermillion county is an impure car- bonate, occurring in nodules and irregular layers of sands. Once, these were shipped to a furnace at Brouillet's Creek, where they yielded thirty-three per cent. of iron ore. The ore here averages from twenty to thirty per cent. Along the Norton creek bottoms, near the head of Helt's prairies, a bed of bog-iron, about three feet thick and extending over an area of about eight acres, has been discovered in the last thirty years. Zinc blende is also found in small quantities. Its appearance, at an early day, on the Little Vermillion river, gave rise to the so-called "silver mine."
The second bottoms, or terraces in Vermillion county, in order from the north are named Walnut Mound, Eugene or Sand, Newport and Helt's. The soil is a black sandy loam, producing the richest and most paying crops. These terraces comprise about three-tenths of the entire county, and are from thirty- five to sixty-five feet above low-water mark, while the higher portions of the county are from two hundred and fifty to two hundred and seventy feet above low-water.
Professor Collett, in his 1880 report, says: "Remains of the mammoth have been discovered in nearly all sections of Indiana. They have consisted, as a rule, of the most compact bones of these animals, as the teeth, tusks, jaws and thigh bones. Some of the best preserved teeth of the mammoth were found in the counties of Vigo, Parke, Vermillion, Wayne, Putnam and Van- derburg."
CONCERNING THE FORESTS.
Eighty-five per cent. of the area of Indiana was originally heavily for- ested. The prairie district occupied a small portion of the northwestern part of the state. In this part the timber was confined principally to the low lands. In all parts of the state the timber has been cut for lumber and to clear the farm land, until now only twenty per cent. of the original forest, seventeen per cent. of the total area of the state. remains. The cutting off of the forests of the state has had a great influence on the drainage. When the forests were still intact, the fallen leaves, mold and shade tended to retain the surplus water
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during the rainy seasons, and this water, given out gradually, tended to equalize the stream flow. Floods were less common then. Now the sys- tematic drainage of the land causes the water, during the rainy seasons, to flow directly into the stream. Thus the streams are flooded during the wet weather and soon dry up after the rains cease. This condition is especially true of the portion of the state south of the Wisconsin glacial boundary. In the Wis- consin glacial area the sand and gravel deposits serve to some extent the same purpose as the leaves, mold and shade of the previously forested area of the unglaciated region. The effect of the removal of the forests is shown by the remains of old water-mill sites, on small streams which are now dry for more than half the year. Many of these small power mills were run continuously fifty years ago. These power sites are now impractical except where im- mense storage basins can be constructed. Charles R. Van Hise in the United States government reports on Conservation, says: "It is estimated by McGee that, by injudicious farming and deforestation, the water table has been low- ered in the eastern part of the United States by from ten to forty feet. In- deed he estimates that the shallow wells and springs in this part of the country, at least three-fourths, have failed. The springs have dried up; the small brooks have ceased to flow ; the wells have been sunk to lower levels.
"In this matter we have an exceptional situation with reference to water which is somewhat analogous to that of minerals. We are using the supplies of the past and not restoring an equal amount. This we are doing to some extent because of our present need ; but also more wells are drilled in many artesian districts than are necessary ; and when they are not in use, which is often the larger part of the year, the water from them is allowed to run off freely. Usually it is not realized that such waste lessens the head and inakes available a smaller amount of water when it is again needed. This waste of underground water is analogous to the waste of natural gas. Strange as it may appear, waste of this kind is allowed to continue not only in humid regions where water is not appreciated, but in arid regions where it is of such fundamental importance. Such waste should be prohibited by law and the law should provide means of enforcement.
"Already strict laws exist in a number of states of the West; this is il- lustrated by California. It is clear that laws preventing the waste of water are constitutional upon substantially the same grounds as are the laws with reference to the waste of natural gas. This is clearly indicated by decisions which have been rendered in the various courts.
"It is important to get into the ground a sufficient amount of water, so that the water table will be maintained at a convenient depth. This is es-
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pecially important in the arid and semi-arid regions, for there often the under- ground water is the only certain source of this element for domestic purposes and for irrigation.
"On a much wider scale increasing the proportion of precipitation which goes under ground, may be accomplished by covering the earth with vegeta- tion, by contour plowing, and by cultivating in such a manner as to leave a rough surface."
The whole of this question simply shows the opinion of an expert upon the subject of the conservation of water. The last paragraph is applicable to Indiana and to Vermillion and Parke counties. It is indeed astonishing to notice the poor grade of farming carried on in many parts of this state. Fields are left absolutely bare for a whole summer and for many years. Such fields not only drain off most of the water which falls upon them, but the hard crust causes the evaporation of the underground water to be much greater. Upon such fields even a rank growth of weeds is a blessing, except for the seeds which they produce. One of the secrets of successful farming in this state is the power of the farmer to properly handle the ground water under his land. When every farmer understands the secret of conserving ground water and puts the knowledge to practical use, the dry well and intermittent spring problems will be greatly lessened and the facilities for water-power will be somewhat increased.
Then, from all that has been observed, it will pay to save the remaining forests and conserve the water, both upon and underneath the fertile soil of Indiana.
"That old familiar tree, Whose glory and renown Are spread o'er land and sea- And woulds't thou hew it down? Woodman forbear thy stroke! Cut not its earth-bound ties ; Oh, spare that aged oak Now towering to the skies!"
CLAYS OF VERMILLION COUNTY.
The entire coal measure of this and adjoining counties is underlaid with a very superior grade of clay, including that suitable for pottery and fire- brick. White settlers first began to use this clay in this portion of the state, for making "stone-ware." By 1840 this had grown to be a large industry. It
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then went down largely and by 1853 but little was made use of. Efforts were made then to utilize the shales and clays again. At Hillsdale and at Monte- zuma, Parke county, several plants were erected for making fire-clay goods for refractory purposes, in the construction of furnaces, crucibles, flues and generally where heat resistance is sought. At Montezuma, too, a clay roofing tile factory was operated. In 1890 the clay industry again took on new life, and four large plants at and near Montzuma and one at Clinton were estab- lished. The business up and down the Wabash, in these two counties, is now largely interested in tile.
CHAPTER II.
PRE-HISTORIC AND INDIAN RACES.
Perhaps no better, reliable account of the Mound Builders and Indians who lived, labored and died within the domain now known as Vermillion county can be given, at this date, than that prepared from facts compiled by that student and correct writer, Hon. John Collett, hence the following de- scriptions of those who inhabited the country prior to the coming of the white race, should be credited largely to him, and as he was the state geologist and in a position to know whereof he wrote, it will be taken as nearly true as mortal man can now hope to arrive at conclusions drawn by him and made a part of the state's record.
When first explored by the white race, this county was occupied by savage Indians, without fixed habitation, averse to labor and delighting only in war and the chase. Their misty traditions did not reach back to any previous people or age, but numerous earth-works are found in this region of such ex- tent as to require for their construction much time and the persistent labor of many people. Situated on river bluffs, their location combines picturesque scenery, adaptability for defense, convenience for transportation by water, and productive lands. These are not requisites in the nomadic life of red-men, and identify the Mound Builders as a partially civilized people. Their mounds and other works are of such extent that it required years of labor, with basket and shovel, to erect such coordination of labor as to indicate the rule of priest- ly government or regal authority ; they were certainly to that extent civilized. Their work in its vastness shows that governments were necessary, which must have had civil power to request and require the necessary labor. The implements found in the graves, mounds and tombs were more often domestic and agricultural, and indicate a peaceful, obedient race. Their temples were defended by bulwarks of loving hearts rather than by warrior braves. Many of the religious emblems and articles of utility made of stone point back to the earliest forms of sentiment represented by the fire and sun worshipers of cen- tral Asia and give a clue to the reason why their favorite habitations and mounds were as a rule never placed beneath the eastern bluffs of streams, but on the other hand were so located in elevated positions, or on the western
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