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 167

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 167

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Clevenger 20

.40

Acarmean

17. 125

L.M.º,

53,50

M.A.

R. 13.E.

RESIDENCE OF SAMUEL AMBURN, STONYCREEK TP. RANDOLPH CO. IND.

467

STONY CREEK TOWNSHIP.

within its limits. Cedar and Poplar Run Meetings are both in Stony Creek, and very many of the honored pioneers of that sec- tion worshiped in these sanctuaries, and now lie awaiting the "Archangel's trump" in the humble inclosure of the dead which are near those sacred places of humble waiting upon the Spirit of the Lord. In life they spent their years in quiet industry and patient and sincere obedience to the guidance of the voice within; now for those earnest, steadfast souls, faith has been changed to sight and struggling prayer to triumphant praise. The first school in the township was taught in 1826 by Moses Hodson, then a young man, still living, but young no longer, his home being in Delaware County, four or five miles from Windsor. The schoolhouse stood between Joab and John Thornburg's. There were perhaps twenty pupils. Armfield Thornburg, that tells the story, was one of them.

Solomon Wright tells some queer tales " out of school " con- cerning the pupils and the teachers of " auld lang syne." one in particular, how the girls on the last day of school tore down the dirt back-wall of the stick chimney belonging to the cabin schoolhouse, and scattered the clay all over the puncheon floor.,

Like other new and pioneer regions, Stony Creek has its tra- ditions of odd and queer things taking place amid the mighty shadow of the giant forest. Of one early settler it is related that he had a family of fourteen children, and that another set. tler, a neighbor, going in early one morning found on the hearth a huge kettle of corn meal mush, and that while he sat there the youngsters crawled out from the straw upon the cabin floor one by one, and, taking each a pewter plate, went singly to the smok- ing mush for a bountiful share, aud partook joyfully of a hearty breakfast. But what difference does it make? These tales told of early times are, many of them, fabrications, and more are greatly "stretched " from the original fact. But even if true as told, who cares? It is to be feared that, if their effeminate de- scendants were thrown into the same hard and rough condition, they would do even not so well as that; that they would have neither roof over their shiftless hoads, straw to crawl out of nor a kettle of mush to eat from. pewter plate to handle it on, nor spoon with which to carry it to their mouths.

Stony Creek is bounded north by Monroe, east by White River and West River, south by Nettle Creek, west by Delaware County. In politics, Stony Creek is strongly Republican.

ENTRIES BY SECTIONS.

Township 19, Range 12-Section 1. 1830-36, Samuel Out- land, September 10, 1830; Section 2, 8, 12, 1822-36, William Diggs, Sr., David Vestal, Tarlton Moorman; Section 3, 1827- 35, Joab Thornburg; Section 4, 1825-36, Joab Thornburg, De- cember 20, 1825; Section 5, 1822-33, John Connor. October 31, 1822; J. W. Smithson, October 21. 1822; Section 9. 1826-36. Randolph Smallen, September 1, 1826; Section 10, 1823-37, Abram Clevinger, August 25, 1823; Section 11, 1832-36, Jona. than Clevinger, February 17, 1832.

Township 20, Range 12-Section 20. 1833-36: Section 21, 1831-35; Section 22, 1831-36; Section 23, 1822-32. James Moorman, November 25, 1822 ; Section 24, 1829-36. James Driver, May 19, 1829; Section 25, 1829-36, Jacob Beals, June 18, 1829; Section 26, 1828-33, Jacob Beals, October 28, 1828; Section 27, 1829-38; Section 28, 1829-35; Section 29, 1825-31, Lemuel Vestal, February 16, 1825; Section 32, 1824-33, John Thornburg, July 31, 1824; Section 33, 1825-36, William Moore, June 30, 1825; Section 34, 1830-36; Section 35, 1829-38, John Thornburg. September 21, 1829; Section 36, 1822-38, Josiah Mendenhall, November 1, 1821.

Township 19, Range 13-Section 6. 1834-36.

Township 20, Range 13-Section 19, 1823-34, Henry Walter, November 15. 1823: Section 30, 1835-37; Section 31, 1829-37, David Hoss, January 2, 1829.

TOWNS.

There have been only two towns within the bounds of Stony Creek Township, and one of these has long been extinet. The two are Windsor and Georgetown, the latter " winked out " long years ago. (Neff Post Office is also in this township, but it

never was anything but a store with a dwelling house standing near. )

Windsor .- Location, Section 29, Town 20, Range 12, on Winchester & Muncie pike, at the Delaware County line; Jo- seph Bond, surveyor; John Thornburg, proprietor; recorded January 30, 1832: forty lots; streets are, north and south, Mul. berry, Oak; east and west, Main. First addition, Smith & Dye's, Jere Smith, Stephen Dye, proprietors; Jere Smith, sur- veyor; twenty lots; recorded September 7, 1837. Second Ad- dition, Reece's, Thomas W. Reece, proprietor; eight lots; re- corded Angust 9, 1877. Distances: Bloomingsport, twenty miles; Deerfield, twenty miles; Fairview, ten and a half miles; Farmland, five and four-fifths miles; Huntsville, thirteen and one-third miles; Linn, twenty-one and four-fifths miles; Losants. ville, nine and a half miles; Morristown, two and a half miles.

The town was laid out by Joseph Thornburg in 1832, during what may aptly be termed the " era of town.platting." since many of the villages in Randolph were projected not far from that date. Windsor seems to have been aspiring, and to have had high prospects as well, for only five years after the record of the first survey of forty lots, twenty more (half the original number) were annexed to the growing town by Smith & Dye, thus afford- ing fresh room to spread beyond the original limit. And it is undoubtedly true that, had the old order of business continued to prevail, Windsor might to-day have been an important and prosperous inland town. But the sad fact, sad for Windsor and its ambitions denizens, can neither be ignored hor changed, so the fates declared, and who can successfully rebel against fate? If there had been power in the beginning of railroad construc- tion, to have drawn the Bee-Line route south of the river, in- stead of locating it on the north side through the unknown wil- derness, then, indeed, might Windsor have come to be, not, in- deed, like its illustrions namesake in a foreign island kingdom, a palatial residence for Her Majesty. the English Queen, but a wide-awake, bustling, prosperons commercial and manufacturing center, known and noted throughout the county and the region. But men cannot lose what they never had, so Windsor has not lost the greatness which she never possessed. And her people. instead of mourning over fancied unrealized possibilities, may be sincerely thankfni that life, health and substantial comfort, and the means of solid happiness they still possess equally with the people of the prondest metropolis on the footstool.

The first business in Windsor was a shoeshop, by Isaiah Templin, and a small store by a man from Richmond, name for- gotten. Soon was set up a smith shop by Andrew Knapp. The mill by John Thornburg was built in 1827. There was no other on White River but Judge Sample's and Cox's Mill, east of Win- chester. There was also another shoe shop. The first wagon shop was by William Ludworth. . Windsor at one time had a large business, having three good stores and a grocery, and other things to match. The activity of the place began some years before the town was recorded. It proved its right to be by its actual being. Business is like beauty-it is its own excuse for being. The merchants have been Garretson, Joseph and Moses Cranor, a good stock; Stephen Dye, grocery, with a good stock; Chandler, a big business, with two clerks; Andrew G. Dye, a nice stock; Pennington. Lindley Thornburg, John M. Terrell, Nathan and Joel Thornburg. Joseph Johnson and A. M. Dye, Armfield Thornburg, twelve years; William Davis, J. J. Clayton.

The first hotel was built by George Helm, from Pennsylvania, some years after the town started. That hotel was burned in 1856, and has never been built again. Helm had put up a dwelling-house, and he sold it to Cranor, for a hotel; Cranor sold to Armifield Thornburg, he to Kinard, he to Andrew Dye, and so on to the present time.

The blacksmiths have been (us is usual) numerous: Messrs. Knapp, Templin, T. W. Thornburg, Oliver Beck, A. J. Dixon, Davison, Hikus, Sudworth. The wagon shops have been, Messrs. Sudworth, George Dixon. Physicians: Drs. Davisson, Farrow, Chenoweth.

Present business: There is a goodly number of houses and business rooms, and. were the place to fill up to its capacity of furnishing facilities for work, it would even now be an active, busy

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

town. But the real business is now small enough. There are two smith shops, one dry goods store, two millinery shops, one wagon shop, one shoe shop, one tan yard, one saw-mill (water and steam), one grist mill (water and steam), one physician, a good one, one post office, two churches (Methodist and Christian), one schoolhouse, one lodge of I. O. O. F., thirty to forty houses and 134 people (census of 1880).

The Postmaster is William Davis. The previous incumbents it would take too much time to tell. The first one, however, was Benjamin Garretson. Others have been Messrs. Kinard, Thornburg, etc. Thornburg held the office twelve years.

The most flourishing era for Windsor was just before the railroad was built, about 1850, though it kept a considerable amount of business till since the war. A good store was burned in 1878, owned by the Thornburgs. Windsor is a quiet, orderly town, with a people disposed to good things, and it seems a pity that the tide of fortune has kept so sternly against their commercial future.

The town is located on the west side of Stony Creek just above the mouth, and exactly on the county line, that being the western limit. It stands upon the pike running from Winchester to Muncie, nearly midway between the two, and it is connected by pikes to Winchester, Farmland, Maxville, Muncie, Losantsville, Union City and most of the outside world generally. A very large and important bridge crosses Stony Creek just east of the town. It was washed away, but has been rebuilt in a still more substantial manner than at first.

Georgetown. - J. M. MeNees, proprietor; C. S. Goodrich, surveyor; location, Section 24, Town 20, Range 13, on Windsor pike, one mile west from Maxville; eighteen lots; recorded April 24, 1840; streets, north and south, Washington; east and west, Main. The town is located on the Winchester & Windsor Turnpike, one mile west of Maxville. It was laid out in the year 1835 by John M. MeNees, and occupies land on the south side of White River. H. D. Huffman kept the first store in 1835. J. M McNees kept hotel in 1835, and years bofore. Emsley Humphries had a smith shop. Lewallyn kept the last store in 1853. The merchants there at various times were Messrs. Huffman, Clayton, Cunningham, Marine, Miller & Ford, Lewallyn. The smiths have been Messrs. Humphreys, Harris, Segraves. J. M. McNees_ kept hotel fourteen years. There were never more than six houses in Georgetown. The village is now wholly extinct. Several of the old lots are owned and built on separately, but there is no town. Dr. Keener re- sided there as a physician, as also Dr. Marine. How there should have been any town at all, or the hope or prospect of any, is a mystery, since Maxville was within a mile or even less than that. The record of the plat of the latter appears not to have been made until 1850, but the town itself was established many years before-as far back as about 1830. Though probably Max ville and Georgetown commenced their race for life not far from the same time, and it may have been the hope of each one of the rival "embryo cities," that she should ontstrip and rival. or even swallow np the other. But old Father Time has been too mighty alike for both. Georgetown has already been numbered among the things that have been, and the other also, lingering on perhaps some years longer in appearance, has lost well-nigh all the reality and activity of business life.

When these towns-Maxville, Georgetown and Windsor - stood on the great thoroughfare between the East and the West, where scores, or even hundreds of travelers; where hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of animals, in immense droves and herds, passed daily; where thronging emigrants were constantly press- ing eagerly westward, westward, always westward, there seemed a prospect that all three, especially the former and the latter, might find room and business for a substantial or even a vigor- ous growth; but when the rail track was laid, and the steam whistle set up its roar, and the engine began to roll, a woe was pronounced upon all towns, no matter how ambitious or aspiring, which lay away from the path of the "iron horse."

Neff. -- Is a post office and store on the Losantville pike, north. There is no town, not even a " four corners." It is just one honse aud a store. The post office and the store were estab-

lished some twenty-five years ago. The store appears to be doing a snug country business. Residents in the vicinity are William Clevinger, William Hewitt, John C. Clevitiger, William Gilmore. The country around seems a fertile, prosperons region. The store is located on Section 10, Town 19, Range 12, two miles west of Pleasant View, and five miles north of Losantville. It is now kept by Alfred Canfield, who is also Postmaster. Some of the persons who have kept store there have been John Terrell, Avila Thornburg. Thornburg, John Oakerson, William Oakerson, Alfred Canfield. A very good stock is maintained for a country store.

BIOORAPHY.

Isaac Amburn was the son of Samuel Amburn; he was born in Carolina in 1789, and he married Rebecca Hodgson, who was born in Virginia in 1795. They came to Ohio in 1816, and to Randolph County, Ind., in 1829. They were the parents of ten children, all of whom have been married and had families. They are as given herewith: Mary, five children; Elizabeth, eleven children; Samuel, ten children; Catharine, ten children; Jacob, eight children; Hester, one child; Hannah, nine children; Re- becea, seven children; Cynthia, six children; Rachel, six chil- dren. Grandchildren, seventy-three. Isaac Amburn resided with his son Samuel till his death, September 23, 1881, he being ninety-two years old. He was buried at Union Cemetery, south of Windsor, the funeral being attended by a concourse perhaps the largest of the kind that ever assembled in the region. He had resided in this region fifty-two years.

Samnel Amburn was born in 1765, in Pennsylvania; moved to North Carolina, married Elizabeth Jones, who was born in 1761, as also a second wife. He had eight children, and died in 1860, aged ninety-five years. They came to Stony Creek Town- ship in 1829. He was somewhat in years when he moved into the forests of Stony Creek Township, but he dwelt there more than a generation, and fell asleep at last with almost a century of years resting upon him. The Amburn family seems to be long-lived, his son Isaac dying at the age of ninety-two.

Samuel Amburn, Jr., was born in 1818, in Ohio; came to Randolph County, Ind., in 1829; married Maria Smith in 1840; has had ten children; is a farmer; owns 240 acres of land; is a prominent and successful man of business and an active and in- fluential citizen. When he moved to the county, William Moore, John Holloway, William Holloway, Joab Thornburg, Amos Smith, were already here. William Dixon and Jethro Hiatt came when Mr. Amburn's people came, in 1829, He had to go three miles to school when he was a lad, and thought it no hard- ship, often having to " wade the flats " knee deep. Wading the water in coon hunting, etc .. through the woods was nothing but fun

Joseph Bund, son of Samuel Bond, was born in North Caro. lina in 1779; married Rachel Herold, born in 1781, in 1802; came to Wayne County. Ind., in 1811, and to Randolph County, Ind., mouth of Cabin Creek, in 1839. They had twelve chil- dren, eleven grown, ten married, five now living. He died in 1840, and his wife in 1842. They were farmers and Friends. He was a steady, mild-tempered. genial. Christian man, beloved by all who knew him, and his record is on high. His father, Samuel Bond, was born in North Carolina in 1753, and his mother, Elizabeth Beals Bond, in 1755.

Zimri Bond, brother of Jolin H. Bond, was born in Wayne County, Ind., moved to Randolph County, Ind., and afterward to Kansas, the latter movement being made in 1872. He died in Kansas in 1877. having had five children. He had a fine farm on Cabin Creek, but he went to stock-buying, etc., and failing in business, lost his farm, and like bundreds of others, moved on further West to the region of cheap lands. He was an Anti- Slavery Friend, an Abolitionist, an Underground Railroad operator and a Republican. His family have returned to Ran- dolph County to the region of their former home. His widow is an intelligent and active Quaker lady, who is trying in meek- ness to serve the Lord in purity of heart and to train up her or- phaned family in the fear and love of God.

James Butler, born in Virginia in 1808, married Emeline Clay in Virginia in 1830, came to Randolph (Huntsville) in

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1836, and to Stony Creek in 1838, and they have resided on the place ever since. They had ten children, four girls and six boys. All grew up and were married, and six are living now. Mr. Butler died in 1861, and Mrs. B. is living still, sixty-nine years old. They belong to the Christian Church. She has seven or eight great-grandchildren, and resides north of Pleasant Grove Church, in Stony Creek Township.

John Diggs was the brother of Mark Diggs, who is also dead, and of William Diggs, who is still living. He was born in Carolina August 8, 1802. He came from Carolina to Randolph County, upon White River, in 1821, and settled on Stony Creek in 1827. He had five children, and died January 22, 1863, aged sixty years five months and fourteen days. His wife, Catharine Diggs, died October 29, 1867, aged sixty-three years six months and thirteen days. He was a prominent and respected member among the Friends, and was buried in Poplar Run Cemetery, as is also his wife who survived her husband more than four years. He was a Whig, an Abolitionist and a Republican, but he re- mained with the "Body of Friends " at the "Separation," not deeming the alleged reasons for dividing the " Body " sufficient to justify the course pursued by the Anti-Slavery Friends.

Joseph Hewitt, born of Irish parents, came to Ross County, Ohio, in 1808; married Sally Putnam in 1831; came to Ran- dolph County in 1841, and has had ten children, all grown and married, and nine living still. He now resides at Farmland, and is a farmer and stock-dealer. His children are: Catharine (Gilmore), has seven children. lives near Neff, Ind .; Lucinda (Thornburg), has seven children, resides in Randolph County, Ind .; Sophia (Adkins), has eleven children, lives in Missouri; Sarah Ann (Oakson), has seven children, lives in Farmland; Marion, has seven children, lives near Neff; Philip, has seven children, lives in Missouri; William, has three children, lives near Neff; Joseph, Jr., has six children. lives in Delaware Coun- ty, Ind .; Peter Owen, has ono child. lives in Farmland; Mary (McIntyre), dead.

Mr. Hewitt is a man of good judgment, and has been greatly confided in by his neighbors, being often chosen as arbitrator in disputes, as administrator in the settlement of estates, etc. He has been for many years, and is still, an active and exemplary church member and Christian worker.

William Hewitt was born in Ross County, Ohio, in 1840; came with his parents to Randolph County, Ind., in 1841; mar- ried Margaret E. Helm, of Henry County, Ind., in 1861, and they have three children. He owns 270 acres of land, and car- ries on farming extensively and successfully. He is a Methodist and a Republican. He enlisted in the Thirty sixth Indiana; had bleeding at the lungs, and was discharged after nine months' service, on account of disability, and he has never been hearty since. His brother, Joseph, was in the same regiment and com- pany (Company K, Thirty-sixth Infantry), and he was discharged, too, for loss of hearing.

Hosea Lamb was born in North Carolina, and came to Rich- mond before it was laid out as a town; cleared the ten acres on which Richmond was first built, and entered 160 acres in Nettle Creek, but settled in Stony Creek. He had nine children; was a farmer and a Friend, and died in 1855. His wife died in 1877, being a very old woman, and having lived a widow twenty-two years.

Restore Lamb, son of Hosea Lamb, died in 1878, aged about sixty years. His brother Isaac was accidentally shot and killed while duck-hunting. A gun was handed to him, muzzle fore- most. It was dropped, and the gun went off. He was shot in the breast, causing his instant death. This sad casualty took place more than twenty years ago.

Joab McNees was born in 1781; lived in Tennessee; came to Randolph Co., Ind., settling in Stony Creek, near Georgetown, in 1829, and married Sarah McCollom in 1803. They had sixteen children, twelve grown and ten married. He moved eleven to Randolph County. Mr. McNees died in 1833, aged fifty-two years. His wife was born in 1783, and died in 1870, aged eighty-seven years. She lived a widow thirty-seven years. A rather remarkable life-thirty years a wife, the mother of six- teen children, and thirty-seven years a widow!

[NOTE. - The writer of these sketches knew a woman who was a wife at fifteen, lived with her husband sixty years, was the mother of nineteen children, raising about twelve, lived a wid- ow eighteen years, and died at the full age of ninety-three years. ]

John M. McNees, born in Tennessee in 1805, married Mary Ann Greenman in 1825 (who was born in 1801); came to Ran- dolph County, Ind., in 1829; entered eighty acres of land, and lives on it still. Mr. McNees laid out Georgetown, one mile west of Farmland, in 1835, and kept hotel there fourteen years. There was very much travel on that road in those times, wagons. and men on horseback, and droves of horses, passing west; and, after some years, great droves would pass eastward. Sometimes 700 or 800 head of cattle would go by in a single drove. George- town never got to be much of a town. There never were more than six houses, The village is now totally extinct as such. Four houses stand there yet, but the lots are town lots no longer. Mr. McNees is a farmer, though now getting too old to perform much labor.

William Merryweather was born in England; emigrated to America and settled in the State of Delaware, but came to Ran- dolph County in 1842, and resides there still. His wife also ia a native of England. They have five children. Mr. Merry- weather owns 200 acres of land, being an excellent farmer, an estimable citizen, and an intelligent and worthy man, nearly seventy-two years old. Mr. Merryweather and his wife are highly esteemed among their acquaintances for integrity and solid worth.

Henry Moore was born in Wilmington, Del., in 1804. He came to Wayne County, Ind., in 1816; married Mary Wright in 1831 (who was born in 1808), and settled in Randolph County in 1838, buying 160 acres of land in Stony Creek Township. He was a farmer, a Friend, a Whig, an Abolitionist and a Republic- an. He was the father of five children, and died in 1879, leaving a widow to mourn his loss, as also several children.

George Moore was the brother of Henry Moore, being born in 1806, and he emigrated from Delaware, on the Eastern sea- board, to Randolph County, in 1839, marrying Mary Hiatt in the same year. They have five children. Mr. Moore and his wife are an excellent and worthy couple, and they are thrifty and prosperous, he being the owner of 200 acres of excellent land. He was in early days a Whig, and has been, since 1856, a Re- publican.

Reuben Medlar was born in Pennsylvania in 1812; married Elizabeth Medlar in 1836; came to Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1837, and to Stony Creek, Randolph Co., Ind., in 1840. He made the journey from Pennsylvania in a one-horse wagon in twenty-one days. The cost was as follows: Toll-gates, $5.50}; other expenses, $28.52. They have had thirteen children, and six of the number are now living. Mrs. Medlar died in 1874, in her sixty-first year. Mr. Medlar, is a thriving farmer, owning 210 acres of fine land in that fertile region; belongs to the Re- formed (German) Church, and in politics is a Democrat.

Joseph Rooks was born in 1772, in Kentucky; came to Ohio; married Elizabeth Jackson, moved to Randolph County, Ind., about 1822, with fourteen children-five boys and nine girls.

[Mrs. Patsy Branson, of Muncie, Delaware Co., Ind., says Jo- seph Rooks had fourteen children in family, all at home at one time, and that she ate dinner there with the whole group of fourteen children. ]

Mr. Rooks was tall and stont, and very strong. His stand- ing weight is said to have been 220 pounds for sixty years. He was a giant in strength, and his boys were the same way.

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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 167

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