History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships, Part 134

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman
Number of Pages: 664

USA > Indiana > Randolph County > History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships > Part 134

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Several families of Hunts came into that locality from Ken- tucky-shrewd. energetic, upright people, who have left their mark, and many of their posterity also in this region. Most or all of them were Methodists, and one at least was a preacher, Rev. William Hunt, or "Old Billy Hunt," as he was familiarly called, for many years until his death not very long ago. Com- ing from Kentucky as they did, and belonging to the well-to-do classes, it was but natural that they should oppose the Abolition- ists, which most ot them did with a hearty good will for years during the early days of that struggle. The logic of ovents, how- ever, is its own teacher, and most of their descendants of the pres- ent day are, like the mass of Randolph citizens, stalwart Republi- cans. One notable exception exists, however, in ono of the sons of "Old Billy Hunt," Hon. Miles Hunt, who, in spite of all the turnings and overturnings in National affairs during fifty years, clings still to the name of Democracy, except that of late years he has " nailed his flag to the mast " on the " Prohibition ship," and intends to stick to the colors, "sink or swim."

West River Township, as also Nettle Creek, was in 1824 the

scene of a most terrific tornado, which tore and twisted the giant forest trees for miles into inextricable confusion. This immense mass of timber lay for a decade or less upon the surface of the ground, and presented a literally impassable barrier. The fallen timber furnished in fact abundant opportunities for concealment, and in some cases fugitive slaves hid themselves in its coverts from their pursuers. In one instance, a man-hunter, baffled of his prey by this impregnable refuge, asked one of the old Abo- litionists how far the fallen timber reached. The sturdy pioneer, determined both to keep the truth on his side and to mystify his questioner, replied: "Four or five miles west, and how far into Ohio I never heard." The fact hidden beneath this verbiage was that the fallen timber extended perhaps a mile east, and to the Ohio line was fifteen or twenty miles. But the slave-catcher never got any runaways out from that awful tangled, twisted, piled-up mass of tree trunks and brush and fresh-grown shrubs, all heaped into one vast untraceable labyrinth of mystery.

This same gang of man-hunters (for there were several) threatened to come and clean out that terrible place. "Do," was the reply; " we wish you would; it ought to be away, but none here has ever had the courage to begin the work." The villains swore awhile and cursed the Abolitionists, and then they let the fallen timber stay where it was, as other people before them had done. The jungle is said moreover to have been em- ployed also as a den for a gang of robbers and counterfeiters, whose operations caused much trouble, some arrests and several trials in the attempt to rout the pestilent gang from the county.

One party is stated to have been in so desperate a pinch upon trial for passing counterfeit money, that, on asking to let him see the bill a moment, it was handed to him, when lo, quick as a flash, he swallowed the bank note, and the case against him had to be dropped, for the evidence had gone down his throat. Upon the court record the name of this very man appears coupled with a criminal charge, and upon that entry Mr. Smith makes sub- stantially this comment: "Here is the first appearance of this name in the court records of Randolph, but not by any means the last, for it adorns (or otherwise) these pages off and on for at least twenty-five years to come."

Some old men tell tales, not needful to repeat at length, of charges and arrests and attempts at rescue, of prominent names coupled with rumors of forgory and counterfeiting, of surmises against residents of the region for the concealment of the haunts and the implements of crime among the secret coverts afforded by the fallen timber. But the gangs, if there were any, are long ago scattered, and the guilty parties, if there were such, have gone to meet the Judge of the living and the dead, and no special good could arise from nnearthing the ancient charges made. and the ugly surmises indulged in, and the evil rumors afloat upon the air, against any or all the parties supposed or even known to have belonged to these ancient gangs of men in league for un- lawful purposes. God is just; let Him administer the penalty for crime, if any there may have been, in His own appointed way.

Let not the obloquy existing against men in those wild and uncouth times be revived or renewed against their relations and descendants, now free from reproach and innocent of evil intent or conduct.

PIGEON ROOST.

The same region was remarkable also, moreover, as having furnished the place for an enormous pigeon roost located in the woods not very far from Huntsville during several years. Sea- son after season would gather at the same spot countless millions of those feathered and winged bipeds, remaining for months to lay their eggs and hatch and rear their young. Subjected as they were to coaseless attacks by men and boys, and losing hun- dreds and thousands of their number every year, after some time had elapsed, the annual gatherings seemed gradually to decrease in amount, and finally the famous pigeon roost became entirely deserted. The merciless cruelty of the featherless and wingless bipeds, who would tramp for miles through the woods to reach this helpless mass of fluttering and roaring life to make their causeless and deadly attacks upon these unsuspecting and be - wildered victims was fearful. Mention may be found, slightly more at length possibly, in the reminiscences, of both the matters

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

briefly touched upon above. The pigeon roost has been forsaken probably for full fifty years, and the fallen timber has been eleared away by natural decay, by human toil and by fire, that terri- ble destroyer of the works both of nature uud of man, for nearly as long a time; and now no visible token, no trace is left to tell of the unspeakable havoc which on that sultry July afternoon in the summer of 1824 was made by that rumbling, crashing. thundering tempest as during those hours of mortal terror it lay in most terrific power, whirling and tearing and twisting those giant tree truuks as though they had been but chaff and stubble beneath its might. Nothing is left, in fact, except the memory of the terrible storm in the minds of a very few elderly persons, and a name-Fallen Timber -- a petty country post office at a lone farmhouse miles away from even tho pretense or semblance of a town. It ought to be said, perhaps, that this post office finds it habitat not in West River, but in Nettle Creek Town- ship, which lies adjoining the former on the west.

FIRST SCHOOL.

Ira Swain, whose father came in 1815 to Wayne County near Randolph line, says that the first school in that neigboorhood was held in a little cabin, 14x18 feet, near David Moore's, prob- ably in 1816 or 1817. The floor was puncheons and so was the door, and the benches were split poles with legs put in with an auger hole, The older pupils got wood enough at noon. That could be done without much trouble, though it took a large quantity of wood. But the trees were close at hand, and all that was needed was to take care that in felling they did not hit the house nor the children.

TANNERY.

Hugh Botkin was a tanner, and he had a tanyard in'opera- tion ouly a short time after making a settlement in the county; and some of the old troughs that were made and put into the earth more than sixty years ago are there in the ground yet, and firm and sound and solid still.

ENTRIES BY SECTIONS.

Township 18, Range 13 -- Sections 2, 9. 15, 1817. 1837, Jesse Cox. Achilles Morris. Jonathan Cox; Section 3. 1817. 1836. J. and J. Wright, September 20. 1817; Sections 4. 6. 1833, 1837; Sections 5. 14. 1817, 1838, William Smith, Moses Martindalo Section 7. 1815, 1831. Isaac Barnes. July 6, 1815; Section 8, 1815, 1816. William Blount. April 10, 1815; Section 10, 1817. 1835. J. and M. Thornburg, September 17, 1817; Section 11. 1817. 1831. Moses Martindale, September 15. 1817; Section 16, school lands; Section 17. 1815, 1835. Job Hnddleston, May 3, 1815; Section 18. 1815. 1831. John Jones. May 3, 1815 (where Evan Shoemaker lived).

.Township 19. Range 13-Sections 7, 18. 1829, 1836: Sec- tion 8. 1822, 1836: Section 0. 1818, 1819, Thomas Gillum. April 29, 1818; Section 10, 1833, 1836; Section 11. 1832. 1836: See- tion 14. 1835. 1836; Section 15. 1820, 1835, Jolin Adamson, December 9, 1820; Section 16, school land. 1831. 1832, probably first sold in conuty; Section 17, 1822, 1835, John Ballinger; Sec- tions 19, 20, 1825, 1836, Valentine Gibson, Stephen Brewer; Sections 21, 28, 1819. 1834, Oliver Walker, Jonah Heaton: Sec- tions 22, 27, 1833, 1835: Sections 23, 30, 35, 1835, 1836; Ser- tion 26, 1836: Section 29, 1834, 1836; Section 31, 1828, 1836; Section 32. 1817, 1838, Powers and Drew; Section 33, 1819, 1836, John Jackson: Section 34. 1831, 1836, Peter Botkin.

Entries in West River extended as to time of making them from 1815 to 1838 inclusive.

TOWNS.

BUENA VISTA.

Proprietors, William Gillam, John Heaston, Benjamin Pea- coc' . twenty-five lots, two streets-Washington. east and west; May, north and south. Location, Sertions 3, 4, 9 and 10. 19, 13, i . West River and White River Townships. Recorded July 1, 18o1. The first store was built in 1851; Benjamin Peacock s up a hotel; Ezekiel Kirk and Benjamin Heaston were original 1" . 'dents; Dr. Keen lived there awhile, as also did Dr. Blumen- h. h. There has been a Presbyterian Church, but it has gone down. and the house has been used as a barn for many years.

The business now is as follows: Two stores, one saw-mill, one smith shop, oue tile factory, one wagon shop, one church, a post office. The principal men are: Robert Starbuck, farmer, land- lord, merchant; Joshna Johnson, blacksmith; Isaac Vaughn, saw- mill man; David Gray, tile maker; Simeon Gray, tile maker. Robert Starbuck owns 900 acres of land; Joshua Jolmson owns two or three hundred acres. Buena Vista contains fifteen houses and seventy-five poople. The town is much decayod. It is six miles from Winchester, three and one-half miles from Huntsville, eight miles from Farmland. The name of the post office is Cerro Gordo, and the Postmaster is Joshua Johnson. The country around Buena Vista is very good. Residents near Buena Vista are John Jenkins, Leroy Starbuck, Welcome Starbuck, Walter Starbuck, Jesse Rynard, Tyre Puckett, William Demory, etc.

Buena Vista is joined by pikes with Winchester, Unionsport, Huntsville, Economy, etc. It has no railroad. Its most conven - ient railroad point was at Winchester, but the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western road, built in 1881-82, lies not very far from the town. The region is well settled, and filled with thriving and prosperous farmers. Unionsport is quite near Buena Vista, only two miles distant. A meeting-house con- nected with a burying ground is about half a mile west of the town on the pike between the two villages. The church was built a short time ago by a union effort, and was given into the care of the Friends, who occupied it for a time, but their oc- eupancy has measurably ceased, and it stands nearly or quite vacant, at least for the present.

There used to bo a Wesleyan Church in the vicinity. but it has ceased its activity, the members having died or moved away or, as in some cases, joined other branches of the Christian body.

HUNTSVILLE.

Twenty eight lots. Miles and William Hunt, proprietors. Location, Soctions 27 and 28. 19, 13, near the head of Cabin Creek. Recorded March 6, 1834.

Kooner's Addition-Stephen Keener, proprietor; eight lots, four outlots. Recorded December 29, 1848.

Hunt's Addition-Twenty-nine lots, Bezal Hunt, proprietor. Recorded August 23, 1850. William J. Shearer, surveyor.

Distances -Arba, fifteen miles; Spartansburg, fifteen miles: Bloomingsport, seven miles; Lynn, eight and one-half miles; Winchester, nine miles: Losantville, eight and one-half miles; Unionsport, three miles: Macksville, nine miles.

James Pugh had a tanyard in 1834; Miles Hunt kept store: Par- ker Jewett had a sinith shop. Huntsville stands in a fine and fruit. Inl region far enough from other and larger towns to have some room to flourish. It has become quite a thriving country village. and seems likely to grow somewhat in time to come. Merchants in the town have been: Absalom Hunt, J. W. Keener. Andrews Bros .. S. Hollister. Richard Jobes, Harvey Patty, Stephen Coffin, Rufus K. Mills. James N. Cropper. Levi Johnson, Cropper & Bro., R. C. Miller & Son. C. S. Hunt (druggist), Edward Cox (druggist). Physicians: Drs. Hunt, Chenoweth, Miller, Jordan Jobes, Eikenbery, Smith. Harvey, Parsons.

J. C. Pascal established a wagon shop thirty years ago. J. C. Harvey has a wagon shop now, and so has C. Pastor. The business of the town is as stated below: Two carpenters, three dry goods stores, one drug store. three smith shops. two wagon shops. one milliner store. one green house. one church (Methodist Episcopal), one schoolhouse, one shoe shop, one grist mill. two saw-mills. one harness shop, one post office (Trenton). one butcher shop. two hotels, two tile factories, one cabinet shop. ono picture shop. three physicians. one lodgo F. A. M .. one lodge 1. O. O. F .. one Porter's Temperance League, one at- torney.

RESIDENTS.

Peyton Johnson, farmer and millman; Daniel Cropper, hotel keeper; Fremont Garrett. attorney: Jeremiah Hiatt, lumberman and millman. James B. Robertson, physician; H. C. Hunt, phy- sician; T. W. Jordan. physician; R. C. Miller, merchant; E. T. ('ropper. merchant: Levi Johnson, merchant; Kepler, Lamm & Co .. flour mill- two run: John Harvey, blacksmith; Charles Pas- tor, wagon shop: James C. Harvey, blacksmith and wagon shop;

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WEST RIVER TOWNSHIP.

James Harris, smith: Jacobs & Gwynn, carpenters; John S. Harvey, shoemaker; Joseph C. l'uttle, cabinet shop; L. H. Gra- ham, butcher; Sylvania Garrett, milliner; Eikenberry Bros., picture shop: Gordon & Willis, tile factory: Jerry Bly. tile factory; Peck, Methodist Episcopal Pastor; William Gunn. harness shop; Edward Cox, druggist.

RESIDENTS IN VICINITY.

W. M. Botkin, ex-Commissioner and farmer, two and one-half miles sontheast; W. S. Hunt, farmer, etc., one mile northwest; J. J. and W. T. Farquhar. sheop growers; Joshua J. Shepherd, farmer and hog-raiser; Jesse Haines, farmer and hog-raiser; John H. Lewis, farmer; Robert B. Hunt, farmer; A. J. Christo- pher, cattle-raiser: Tra Swain, farmer and Postmaster. Swain's Hill; A. S. Cropper. farmer und carpenter; Charles W. Osborn. farmer; John Jenkins, farmer; John T. Hunnicutt, farmer; Jo- seph Cox, farmer: Stephen Keener, farmer and cheese-maker; Jacob Farquhar, farmer and stock-raiser. There are in Hunts- ville forty dwellings, twenty-one business houses, fifty families. forty-two voters and 163 inhabitants. Distances: Economy, seven miles; Lynn, seven miles: Bloomingsport, seven miles; Winchester, eight and one-half miles; Unionsport, three miles.

Huntsville is connected by pike with Winchester. The town is incorporated for school purposes, though why it is hard to see. The village is so small and the people so few that one is at a loss for any good reason for such a movement. yet if they are suited we do not know as other people have any right to complain.

The post office at Huntsville is called Trenton. It would be better to call the place so, too. To have the town differ in name from the post office is a needless trouble, and brings much con- fusion. The Indianapolis. Bloomington & Western Railroad is near the town.

SWAIN'S HILL POST OFFICE.

No town; Section 5, S. 13; five miles from Losantville: three miles from Huntsville; near the twelve mile boundary at Ira Swain's.

Swain's Hill is simply a post office. Mr. Swain is a promi- nent settler, and an influential partisan, and desired a post office to be located in the vicinity for the convenience of his neighbors and himself; and his dwelling being on a sightly and beautiful hill, the name of Swain's Hill was conferred ou the office, and Ira Swain himself was made Postmaster.

UNIONSPORT.

Location, 3, 4. S and 9. 19. 13, in White River and in West River Townships. two miles west of Buena Vista; Hiram Menden- hall, proprietor; thirty-two lots; S. D. Woodworth, surveyor. Recorded March 30, 1837. Streets: north and south, East, Sum- mit, Meridian; east and west, North, Franklin, Main. The town seems to have heen well supplied with streets.

Bloomingsport, six miles: Maxville, three and one-half miles; Huntsville, three miles; Winchester, seven miles; Lynn, nine miles; Buena Vista, two miles.

John O. Wattles lectured in this region some forty years ago, and indneed a company to form a community in about 1840. It went on for a short time, but before long " winked out." A woolen factory was established in 1856. The mill was burned and another built in its place in 1866. It is now owned by Amos Mendenhall. A grist mill once stood where the factory now is.

Ithamar and John Pegg lived one and one-half mile north of the town; John and William Hollingsworth lived east of the vil- lage, near Friends' Meeting-House: Samuel Spray setfled south- east of Unionsport. There are now in the town one church (Methodist Episcopal). one smith shop, two stores, one school- house, one carriage shop, one post office, twenty-five houses, one woolen factory, one physician, 100 people (estimated), one toll- gate. Principal citizens: Stephen Haynes, Samnel Briggs, Ru- fns K. Mills, Thomas W. Botkin. physician: Foster, Mendenhalls (sons of Hiram Mendenhall), George Slack, merchant. Unions. port is on Cabin Creek. A pike connects the town with Win- chester, Buena Vista and Huntsville. The village is beautifully

situated on rolling ground, the houses are bright, neat and taste- fnl, and altogether the town presents a delightful and cheerful aspect.

The new railroad (Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western), passes in this vicinity.

BIOGRAPHIES.

Hugh Botkin, born Virginia 1775; Tennessee, 1786; married Rachel Keener 1801 ; Wayne County, Ind., 1815; Randolph Coun- ty 1816; thirteen children, seven boys and six girls. All thirteen lived to be grown, a id all but one were married; seven are living now. He died in 1836 and his wife in 1837. He was a farmer and a tanner, as also an active Methodist, and a prominent and respected citizen. He lost his dwelling by fire, and did not succeed in amassing a fortune, but his children rank among the thriving and substantial citizens of the region.

William M. Botkin, son of Hngh Botkin, born in Randolph County, Ind., 1823; married Martha A. Hiatt in 1849, and Dosha Butler in 1868; ten children. He has 300 acres of land, and has a fine brick residence, one of the best in the township. He is an enterpising, wide-awake, prosperous farmer and business man, and has been County Commissioner one term (three years). He is an active Methodist, a thorough Republican, and an earnest temperance man, and is altogether an honor to the com- inunity in which he dwells, having been a resident of the neigh- borhood during his whole life, fifty-nine years.

Win. Chamness was born in North Carolina in 1793, and came to Randolph County in 1816, settling west of Bloomingsport on a farm now owned by Elijah Bales, where old Billy Rish onee lived, the land having been entered by Benj. Jones. He married Charity Moore, and afterward Margaret Hinshaw. He has had eleven children, ten of them coming to be grown and married, and seven now living, one in Howard County, one in Winchester. two in Wayne County, one near Bloomingsport, two in Wisconsin. He was brought up a Friend, but about twenty-five years ago he joined the United Brethren, to which he now belongs. "He resides in West River Township near Wayne County line, and has done so for twenty-eight years past. His children are as follows: Abi- gail, Howard County, ten children: Sarah, Winchester, twelve children: Patsy (Hardwick), Wayne County, thirteen children; Isane, Monroe, Wis., four children; Martin, dead, four children; Mary (Hockett). dend. ten children; Ruth (Love), Wayne County, nineteen children, fifteen grown; Margaret (Davis), dead, four children; Joshua. Bloomingsport, ten children; William, Sank County. Wis., seven children: Rachel. died an infant. There have been eighty-six grandchildren; number of great-grandchil- dren unknown. Nathaniel Case, Isaiah Rogers, Benjamin Jones lived near Bloomingsport when he came in 1816. Joseph Jay, Samuel Smith, William Peacock, James Smith came he thinks in 1818. Mr. Chamness is eighty-nine years old, and feeble in health, but is cheerful and patient, waiting the hour of release from earthly cares, and happy notwithstanding all his hardships and trials in the soul-cheering presence of his Savior. He is an excellent specimen of the citizen of the middling class, with which our county and our State also abounds, and which are the strength and the glory of our beloved native land.

John Charles was born in Wayne County, Ind., in 1828. He is the son of Daniel Charles, who came from North Carolina to Wayne County in 1812, and who is still living in his eighty- third year, having been born in 1799. John Charles came to Randolph County in 1845. He married Eunice Swain in the same year, and Nancy Clark in 1862. He has had six children, and is at present a farmer, though he carried on a drug store also in Economy during several years. He was elected Justice of the Peace for White River Township, but the burden of labor or of honor proved too great, and he resigned the position before his ' time was half out. He was Township Trustee three years. He is an Elder among the Friends; was an old Abolitionist, and is a Republican. He is an intelligent and enterprising citizen, has a good and somewhat select library, and keeps himself well in- formed as to the progress of events in the country and in the world. The Underground Railroad had one of its prominent stations in the vicinity, the Worths, the Osborns, the Hunniontts, the Swains, the Botkins, etc., being residents uot far away, and

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

many stirring events in that line occurred there during that early tinte.

William Cox, born in 1773 in South Carolina, came to Still- water. Ohio, early, and to Randolph County, Ind., in 1823, and settled west of where William Chamness now lives, in West River. Ho died in 1857, aged eighty-four years. ife had been married three times. The names of his wives were Elizabeth Thomas. Nancy Mills and Laura Owens. Tho first wife died in 1849, the second in 1855, and the third is living still. She had been his wife only about two weeks, and she is now seventy five years old, though at her marriage she was only a little above fifty. She was a maiden of fifty, and a wife of two weeks, and for twenty-four years she has been a widow.

Daniel Cropper. son of Bela W. Cropper. was born in Ken- tueky in 1825; went to Warren County, Ohio, in 1528, and moved to Randolph County, Ind., in 1833. He married Eliz- abeth Thornburg in 1849, and has five children. He resides in Huntsville, and is a farmer and hotel keeper. Mr. Cropper has a powder horn which belonged to his grandfather in Mary- land before he emigrated from Maryland to Kentneky. His uncle carried it for years in the war of 1812. After that, Mr. Crop- por's father had it, and gave it to him. His father entered 160 acres of land, and after paying for that, and paying also the man who moved them from Ohio to Randolph County, he had just. $25 left. A rich man he was, farm all paid for and money to spend. His father was a worthy member of the Baptist Church, and a preacher among them.

Daniel Hunnientt was born in 1770 in Virginia, and married Jane Walthal. who was born there in 1780. They moved to Fayette County, Ind., in 1827, and to Randolph County in 1832. They had seven children, all of whom were born in Vir- ginia. Five of them are living, one in Indiana and four in Wis- consin. Mr. Hunnientt was a farmer, and belonged to the Friends. He died many years ago. His son, John T., resides in the township still.

John T. Hunnicutt, born 1816 near Petersburg, Va. ; Fayette County, Ind .. 1827; Wayne County, 1828; West River, 1832; married JJane T. Charles. 1851. and Deborah (Hollingsworth) Arnett, 1872; five children; prosperous farmer; owns the place that used to be Daniel Worth's. He is a Friend, an old Abolitionist, a Republican, an active and radical temperance worker. and an, excellent man.

Stephen Haynes, Uuionsport; born Dutchess County, N. Y .. 1800: Highland County, Ohio, ISO8; Clinton County. Ohio, 1809; Dutchess County, N. Y., ISIS: Herkimer County, N. Y., 1521; married Lanra Gaines, Randolph County, Ind., 1834: U'nions- port. 1573: first wife died 1877: married Eleanor Allison. 1879; nine children; carpenter and farmer and cabinet maker: an old Abolitionist, a Methodist. a Republican, somewhat eccentric. but a genial, enthusiastic and wide-awake worker in every good cause. Although eighty-two years old, he is still hale and sprightly, almost as active as a boy in his teens.

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History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships, Part 134

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman Number of Pages: 664

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman
Number of Pages: 664