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 24

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 24

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3. To his sons Enoch and Benjamin, 320 acres jointly.

4. To Robert and William, 320 acres jointly.

5. To Samnel and John, 320 acres jointly.

6. To his daughter, Amy Roberts, $25.

7. To her children at age, $200.

8. To his wife Catharine, one-third of all his estate not before mentioned, two-thirds to be divided equally between twelve children.

Money on hand of Jeremiah Cox's estate, United Stated notes, $225; silver, $1,082.31}.

Sale bill covers nineteen double column pages.

June 7, 1830. Bill of sale of John Canaday's estate amounts to $1,009.22}.

October 19, 1830. The inventory of the estate of Ishmael Bunch contains the following :

" A right of hogs not 'appraist,' running in the woods, and wild, 'cutent be got,' sold for ten dollars to James Simmons on the day of eale to highest bidder."

Philip Storms seems to have been a resident then, for he bid off a "froe " at 97 cents.

A list of the purchasers at the sale of Ishmael Bunch's prop- erty will be interesting as showing the residents at that date, November 4, 1830. [Ishmael Bunch lived not far from Dolph Warren's, in Jackson Township. ] Zachariah Key, George Reit- enour, John Wolfe, Samuel Helm, Charles Summers, Henry Jackson, Philip Storms, Samuel Williams, William Brockns, Jeremiah Brockns, John Gray, Bennet Evans, James Simmons,

1 Saddle. $ 5 00

10 Buabela potatoes .. 5 25

4 Cows and calves (to the widow-all). 18 37

2 Cows ... 16 50

1 "Yaak " oxen (widow) .... 15 00

1 Grindstone.

8 00

1 Roaster.

1 50

1 pound tes

6 psir large ear wheela.

15 00

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

Samuel Simmons, Mary Key, Samuel Emcry, George Porter, John Jones, Samuel Hawkins, James Brown, Robert Parsons, William A. Lindsey, Amos Smith, Allen Wall, Isaac Lewallyn, "Aquila Loveall twonty aix persons. The territory from which these persons came is quite extensive, from below Deerfield to above Allensville, and from Jay County.

January 4, 1831. Estate of Joseph Small ( Green's Fork }, contained, among other things, one " spider," one "frying pan."

The purchasers at his sale were Emsley Wade (one skillet and frying-pan), Jason Overman, Aaron Mills, Jesse Overman, Al- fred Long, Abijah Mills, Jonathan Moore, Nelson Conner, Samp- son Shoemaker, Joseph Green, Daniel Shoemaker, Jesse Small, Aaron Hill, Henry Davis, Willis Davis, John W. Shoemaker, Daniel James, John Mills, David Harris, John Mann, Robert James, William H. Freeman, Charles Morgan, Ziba Marine.

WILL OF JAMES CAMMACK, 1830.

1. Pay debts and expenses.

2. Son William, land heretofore deeded and one cow.

3. Son John, land heretofore deeded.

4. Son Samuel, land heretoforo deeded.

5. Son Amos, land heretofore deeded, and farming utensils.

6. Daughter Elizabeth (Ozburn), $30.

7. Daughter Margaret, $10.

8. Daughter Mary (Hall), $2.

9. Daughter Ann (Williams), $10.

10. His wife Rachel, all except as above, including household furniture, farming utensils and stock, during her life.

Estate of John F. Hawkins (of Jay County), father of Judge Nathan B. Hawkins, Benjamin Hawkins, Esq., Joseph C. Hawkins, etc., died 1831, $280.702.

WILL 'OF WILLIAM HUFFMAN, AUGUST 25, 1832.

1. To five sons and three daughters, the whole real estate; the daughters to pay $25 each, the amount to be divided among the boys, and William to pay $20 to the rest.

2. Rest of the property to pay the debts, etc., the balance to be divided equally among all the heirs.

3. Bay mare to George for two years.

WILL OF ABRAM PEACOCK.

1. 1542 acres to his wife while she remains a widow or is alive, and then to John.

2. Daughter Margaret, the large Bible.

3. Amos, Elvira, Achsah have had enough already.

4. After the debts are paid, the remainder is to go to the widow, Pheriba, Miriam and Margaret.

The inventory of John Cammack's personal estate, as returned by John James and John W. Thomas, amounts to $704 51}.

WILL OF MATTHEW MASSEY, DECEMBER 3, 1832.

1. To his wife, the plantation, while a widow or during life, then to the children.

2. To his wife, the gray mare, horse. colt, two milk cows, thir- teen sheep, all the stock and fatting hogs and geese, and corn and wheat, the household and kitchen furniture.

3. The rest to be sold and divided among the children.

WILL OF JOHN TULLES, OF WAYNE COUNTY, RECORDED IN RAN- DOLPH COUNTY.

This will indicates a "new departure," the "day spring " of a "new era " as will be seen.

1. To his wife Eleanor all his property, she to bring up the children that are under age.

2. After her death and the majority of the youngest child the property to be divided among the children.

WILL OF MORDECAI MENDENHALL.

February 24, 1835.

1. Pay the debts.

2. To his wife, Phebe, two beds, two spinning wheels, reel, cupboard and ware, pot, Dutch oven, skillet, brass kettle, three chairs, chest and flax hackle, smoothing iron, wire sieve and fire shovel, cow, horse and saddle, half the orchard, and a comfortable support while living or his widow.

3. To Hannah, $20.

4. To Susannah, $1.

5. To Robert, $1.

6. To Aaron, $1.

7. To Stephen, $5.

8. To John, $114.

9. To Phebe, loom and $12, and a living with her mother while single.

10. Anything else divided among all the heirs.

WILL OF JAMES F. DRESSER.

November 29, 1874-probated June 18, 1879.

All his property to his sister, Charlotte A. Dresser ; R. A. Wilson to be executor.

WILL OF JEREMIAH SMITH.

Recorded January 12, 1875.

1. My body for burial, and my soul to God.

2. Debts, if any, to be paid.

3. The graveyard where my father and mother lie buried on the old farm in Section 5, Township 18, Range 13, 150 feet square, to be kept for my posterity as a burial ground-a poplar tree in it, one foot through, to be preserved-the iron . fence around my father's and mother's graves to be finished and kept up.

4. Oliver H. to be educated to graduation, and to have $1,- 500 like the rest.

5. No account to be taken of other sums given during life.

6. My flute to Jeremiah G., and the oil paintings of myself and wife to Charlotte A. ; my private library, etc., to be divided among children amicably. Old books, manuscripts, etc., to be preserved.

7. My goods sold, and debts collected, and distribution made to heirs annually.

8. Real estate (except that in Union City) to be sold at the discretion of my executors and distributed.

9. The Union City property to be held and disposed of by the close of 1895.

10. The executors are to use their best judgment for the good of the estate, managing as they have reason to think I would have done in the same place.

11. William K., and John Dye Smith are to be executors, and after them or either of them, Henry B., Jere G. and Oliver H., in order as named.

I enjoin it upon all my sons and daughters that harmony and concord, unity and affection, be cultivated and preserved among them during all their lives, and that they suffer no " root of bit- terness " to spring up and trouble them; and that they live hum- ble disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout their lives, that I may meet them in a happy eternity.

EDWARD STARBUCK'S PROPERTY.

Inventory, November 9, 1874. Taken by widow, $500; personal property, $1,211.49 ; dues, $47,734.34; additional, March, 1876, $6,141.50.

INVENTORIES.

George W. Monks. $20,378.14, October 21, 1865.

Carey S. Goodrich, $10,991.28, November 2, 1865. David Riddlebarger, May 2, 1876, $4,488.33.

Philip Powell, September 13, 1876, $10,306.30. William Chenoweth, November 24, 1876, $19,574.77. James Rubey, February 3, 1877, $5,971.80. Ezekiel Robbins, December 23, 1876, $3,579.16. John Sumwalt, April 12, 1877, $3,329.45. Edward Thomas, March 12, 1877, $3,039.01.

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

John C. Retts, March 31, 1877, and August 30, 1877, $7,- 947.38.

Levi Reece, September 1, 1877, $4,466.30. A. Barnes, November 14, 1877, $8,589.90. Dennis IIart, December 14, 1877, $9,153.60. Robert S. Fisher, May 25, 1880, $58,991.11. Fountain Murray, March 8, 1878, $5,528.60. Samuel Emery, Sr., July 25, 1878, $4,285.01. Mark Diggs, $18,369.34.

Abram J. Chenoweth, January 8, 1879, 87,548.45. Mordecai S. Ford, March 1, 1879, $3,054.31. James F. Dresser, August 22, 1879, $17,382.06. Thomas Meeks, September 17, 1879, $10,605.21. Israel F. Wirt, October 16, 1880, $15,468.50. William Hawkins, July 27, 1880, $10,050.96. Jacob S. Miller, June 10, 1880, $5,031.01. Daniel B. Miller, 1881, $41,591.59. Amog Rockhill, July 20, 1881, $5,254.85. Joel Blanset, 1881, $3,279.79. Peter S. Miller, $5,031.01.

John Fisher, February 22, 1881, $18,273.15. John Demory (colored), $2,738.70.

CHAPTER VII. REMINISCENCES.

T THE following reminiscences by old and early settlers concern- ing their pioneer life in Randolph County and elsewhere, were ritten from their own lips, mostly in their own language. Care has been taken to have all the matter in these narratives fresh and unique, the same thing not being repeated, each pioneer's tale giving some fact or phase not found in any other.

Most of these sketches are from the original settlers, and from those who came when the land was heavily laden with derse, un- broken forests, and the country was still a wild and unpeopled waste.

The "reminiscences" are arranged for the most part, though not entirely, in the order of time.

Some of the "sketches" contain incidents that occurred out- side of Randolph County, yet in connection with persons who have been at some period residents thereof. This portion of the work might have been greatly enlarged.

JESSE PARKER, 1814,

son of Thomas W. Parker, first settler, April, 1814, and long of Bethel, Ind., but dying November, 1881, near Lynn, Randolph County.

" The Indians were thick all around us, but they were civil and peaceable and friendly. They would help the settlers raise cabins, bring us turkeys and venison, etc. Three wigwams were in sight of our cabin. We children had great sport with the young Indians, and they were then almost or quite our only playmates.

" A squaw once scared me nearly to death. I had gone to drive a calf home to its pen. The calf was near one of the wig- wams ; I felt skittish (this was before I had became so familiar with them), but the calf had to be brought and I had to do it, for children had to mind in those days. So how about the calf ? This way-I got around it and started it for the pen, and away we went, calf and boy, when, hallo! out popped a squaw full tilt after me! She had jumped behind a tree and stuck out what I took to be a gun, and as I came near she bounced after me. My legs flew, you may guess ; I could keep up with the calf with the squaw after me. She chased me home, she was tickled well nigh to death, and I was scared nearly out of my wits. I thought I could feel the ball hit me; but she had no gun, it was only a stick,

and she was in fun. But there was no going around nettles then ; they flew like sticks in a whirlwind, and she came rushing after me, parting the brush as she carne! The Indians would often come slipping around watching for deer, and would carry the dead deer to their wigwams. The squaws would dress the veni- son and jerk the meat and dress the skins for leather.

"The Indians wore paint and all their war equipments, which made them look frightful enough. But we soon got used to them, as they were very friendly. As the country settled up, they went farther back-Winchester, Macksville, Windsor-and then to Smithfield, Muncie and Anderson. They would pass back and forth on their trails, bringing moccasins, etc., to trade for iron, salt, corn, etc., for their use.

"There were many rattlesnakes, yet but few people ever got bitten by them.

"Father settled April, 1814; John W. Thomas and Clarkson Willcutts, farther north during the summer, and October 22, 1814, Ephraim Bowen drove up to father's door, and he went still farther up Nolan's Fork, and the farthest north of any. North and north west was an endless wilderness, except a few soldiers at Fort Wayne and Fort Dearborn and Green Bay and Mackinaw.

"At first it seemed lonely, but neighbors came gradually, and the blue smoke of their cabins could be seen curling up among the forest trees, as we followed the " blazes " from hut to hut.

" The settlers who had come in by 1819 were these : Thomas Parker, John W. Thomas, Clarkson Willcutts, Ephraim Bowen, Ephraim Overman, Eli Overman, John Schooly, Seth Burson, Nathan Overman, Joshua Small, George Bowles, Jesse Small, Jonathan Small, David Bowles, James Cammack, John Cam- mack, John Jay, Isaac Mann, John Mano, William Mann, Stephen Thomas, Elijah Thomas, Stephen Williams, etc., etc.

"We settled near (east of) the old (Wayne's) boundary. Game was plenty-deer, opossum, coons, turkeys, crows, wildcats, catamounts, bears, wolves, etc. The wolves would come near the door at night to pick up the crumbs, though precious little they found to pick, except the bones. Stephen Williams built a wolf-pen. Sometimes a wolf would get caught, and there would be fun. They would put a dog into the pen, and the wolf would whip the dog quick enough. The wolves would howl till one could not sleep for their noise.

" Our bedsteads had but one post, and they needed no more. The rails were bored into the logs of the house, and met in one post at the corner. But we slept first rate. The floor was puncheon, the door was one big puncheon, the loft was boards laid on poles, or often none at all. We would climb into the loft by a ladder, and slept under the roof to the music of the rain on the shingles. The fire-place was cut out six or eight feet long ; the back and jambs were dirt beaten in and puncheons outside; the chimney was sticks and clay ; the table was a puncheon upon poles laid on forks ; the chairs were rough stools, or we had none, or sat on puncheon benches ; yet we were happy and full of glee. Our diet was splendid-venison, turkey, roasted coon, fat possum, bear steak, roasted squash, sweet potatoes, pump- kins, corn bread baked on a hoe, or a lid, or a board, johnny- cake, or dodger bread, all good. Health and hunger make the best sauce, and we had them both. Then we had pounded hominy, and lye hominy fit to set before a king.

" About my schooling : It was not much, picked up in the woods. The neighbors joined and put up a cabin for church and school, the first of the kind in the county. The first school was taught by Eli Overman, and I attended it and was there the first day. My first book was a primer, and my next (and my last) was Noah Webster (spelling book).

"The house had a puncheon floor and door, a puncheon to write on, scalped off smooth with the ' pitching ax.' The benches were split poles with legs. Not a plank, nor a shingle, nor a brick, nor a nail, nor a pane of glass was in the whole house. The nails were pegs, the bricks were dirt, the planks were puncheons, the shingles were clapboards, the glass was greased

HISTORY OF RANDOLPII COUNTY.

paper over a crack for light, and the bigger boys got the wood for fuel. They had not far to go ; the mighty giants stood huge, grim and frowning, stretching far and wide their monstrous arms as if to reach down and devour us. I tell you, the way the men and women (and the boys and girls, too) made the work hop around was a wonder-a sight to behold. Log-rolling would begin and keep on twenty or twenty-five days, people helping one another all around. Raising cabins, chopping trees, rolling logs, clearing land, splitting rails, making fences, plowing, planting and what not, kept folks busy enough for weeks and weeks the whole year through. People would go miles to help their neighbors ; one could hear the ax ring or the maul go crack, crack, or the trees come crashing down, from morning till night, all over the woods. The loom and the wheel were heard in every cabin ; the giant oaks, and the kingly sugar maples and the mighty beeches could be seen bowing their proud and stately heads, and coming heavily, helplessly down on every hand. The girls spun and the women wove and made the clothing, and took care of the family. Now, the first thing when a couple get married, is a hired girl, and the next thing a piano.

"We had hard times, indeed, in those grand old days amid the majestic, overshadowing forest. And now, how changed! And what shall sixty-six years more of time, stretching forward into the dim and wondrous future, accomplish for those who shall look on those coming days ? We who have borne the brunt of the hardy past-how few we stand, how swift our passage to the opening tomb! The rising race-what do they know? They complain of hard times, forsooth ! Then, it was the ax, the maul, the iron sledge-hammer, the flail, the brake, the swin- gling-board, the hatchet, the "cards," the wheel, the reel, the winding blades, the loom. If we went anywhere, it was on foot, or on horseback, or even on oxback, or on rough, home- made sleds. And now these things are fled, and the faithless ones of the present day will scarcely believe that such things are any more than idle tales made up to beguile the weary hours in the telling; yet they are true, as the few old pioneers know full well.

" The Indians helped father raise his cabin. There was no one else to help. He covered liis " camp " with bedclothes and brush the first night. We crept into our cabin under the end logs the first night after it was built because no door hole had been cut. Father and mother went to Friends' meeting at New Garden (probably) the next "First Day " after they moved into the forest, seven miles through the woods. John Peale and Francis Thomas, at New Garden pole-cabin meeting-house, one day, swapped pants, and Peale kept the ones he got, and was buried in them, April 21, 1879. The swap took place about 1813, so that he must have kept those "pants " about sixty- six years.

" The Pucketts were eight brothers. Four settled near Dun- kirk. Daniel settled near Newport, Benjamin lived a few years in Randolph, but moved to Morgan County, Ind., in 1826.

"We crossed the Ohio at Cincinnati, on a flat-bottomed boat, that was pulled over by a rope stretched across the river.

" There were just three pole-cabins in Richmond with families living in them, and one with goods for sale. The families were John Smith, Jere Cox and Robert Hill.

" Robert Hill had the store. Mother sold him some " slaies," reeds for weaving, for some muslin and other " traps."

" Francis Thomas lived near the toll-gate below Newport, per- haps. My father and John W. Thomas went up to Nolan's Fork and picked out their " places." Parker moved to his land first; Thomas next, and afterward Clarkson Willcutts.

" Thomas Parker sold out to John James, and bought out Clarkson Willcutts, and Willcutts bought elsewhere.

" The squaw who scared me so and chased me through the brush, was so " tickled " at my terrible " scare " that she could

not tell mother what she had done, for laughing. She fell down on the cabin floor, and laughed and laughed, and kept on laughing ; and to mother's question, she only pointed her finger at me as she lay there, and burst out laughing again ; and I stood there, as mad as a lad of my age could well be, at the squaw, for scaring me so terribly, and then laughing herself well-nigh to death over the fun she had got out of me.

MRS. CELIA ARNOLD (PARKER).

Mrs. Celia Arnold, daughter of Thomas W. Parker, first set- tler of Randolph (who is now living at Arba, Ind.), and sister of Jesse Parker, being one of the three children who belonged to the family of the first emigrant to the Randolph woods. She says, " I was born in 1811, married Benjamin Arnold in 1830, and have had five children, three of whom are living. My husband died 12th month, 11th day, 1878, aged seventy-two years. He was born 3d month, 11th day, 1807. Ile came to Randolph County in 1823, being the son of William Arnold.

" As we were coming to Indiana, our wagon upset and scraped my wrist. Two families, John Thomas and Thomas Parker, came all the way in the same wagon, nine in all, and some of the way Thomas Willcuts and his wife and five children. [NOTE .-- David Willcutts, later of Newport, Ind., Thomas Willcutts' youngest son came with us]. All these did all the riding they did on the one wagon. We brought beds and cooking utensils, and one chair (for mother). She died in 1823. I used, when a girl in my teens, to go on foot to New Garden, six and a half miles, to meeting. I have done it many a time, and did not consider myself as having done anything worthy of special mention."

SQUIRE BOWEN, 1814.

" The " Quaker Trace " was begun in 1817. James Clark, with twenty-five or thirty men, started with three wagon loads of provisions, as also a surveyor and chain, etc., and they marked " mile trecs," and cut the road out enough for wagons to pass. They wound around ponds, however, and big logs and trees, and quagmires, fording the Mississinewa above Allensville, Randolph County, and the Wabash just west of Corydon, Jay County, and so on to Fort Wayne. My brother James and myself first went to Fort Wayne (with a four-horse team) in 1820. James himself had been the trip a year or so before that. . We took our feed along for the whole trip, as there was but one house from one mile north of Spartansburg to Fort Wayne, viz., at Thom- son's Prairie, cight miles north of Wabash River. At Black Swamp we had to wade half-leg to knee deep, walking to drive (we always had to do that). After that first trip, we always took oxen, generally three yoke for a teamn. No feed was needed for the oxen, for they could be turned out to pick their living. Our load was commonly about 2,500 pounds of bacon, flour, etc. Bacon would be 10 to 12 cents a pound, and flour $7 to $8 a barrel. The trip would take about two weeks, and we expected to make about $40 a trip. It would take eight days to go, three days in Fort Wayne and four days to return. Once an ox team came through in three days, which was the quickest trip ever made. We would unyoke the oxen, "hopple" them, put a bell upon one of them and turn them out. For ourselves, we would build a fire by a log, cook supper, throw down an old bed on the leaves under a tent stretched before the fire, and lie down and sleep as sound us a nut. We would start early, drive till 9 o'clock and get breakfast, and let the oxen eat again. From two to six teams would go in company. Sometimes the teams would get " stuck," but not often. If so, we would unhitch the "lead " yoke from another team, hitch on in front, and pull the load through. Once only I had to unload. I got fast in the quicksands in crossing the Mississinewa. We got a horse from a settler (Philip Storms), carried the flour to the bank of the river on his back, hitched the oxen to the hind end and pulled the wagon out backward.

" The first religious meeting was held in father's cabin. Stephen Williams exhorted (perhaps in 1815). The first sermon was

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

preached there also (in 1815), by Rev. Holman, of Louisville, Ky .; text, Isaiah, " Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there no phy- sician there ? Why then is the hurt of the daughter of my people not recovered ?" It was a good Gospel sermon, and was food to the hungry souls longing to be fed in the wilderness. We used to go to meeting to Dwiggins' (near Newport), and they would come up to our house. The Methodist meeting house near Dwig- gins' was warmed thus : They had a box, nearly filled with dirt, standing in the middle of the floor, and would make a fire with charcoal in the box. That house never had a stove in it, but was warmed in that way as long as it stood, fifteen or twenty years. They would have a rail-pen near the church to hold the coal, and carry it in as it might be needed. Mrs. Bowen says she has carried many a basket of coal to replenish the fire. The first meeting house was at Arba, built by the Friends in 1815, and used for church and schoolhouse both ; I went to school there four or five years. Afterward they built a hewed-log church, and had a stove in it.

"We would catch wolves in a wolf-pen. We could pay our taxes with the "scalps." A wolf-pen was made, say six feet long and four feet wide and two feet high, of poles for bottom, sides and top, the size of your arm. The top was made like a " lid," withed down to the pen at one end, and so as to lift up at the other. The "lid " would be " set " with a trap so as to fall and catch the wolf and fasten him into the pen. The bait would be deer meat. To kill the wolf, take a hickory switch and make it lim- ber by " witheing " it, i. e., twisting it limber. Make a noose and slip it through the pen and around the wolf's neck, and lift him against the top of the pen and choke him to death. If the wolf were shot and bled in the pen, no more wolves would come into it. One big wolf father undertook to choke, but the dogs wished so much to get in at him, that we let them in, but the wolf fought them terribly, and whipped the dogs out, till father put an end to the battle by choking him in dead earnest. We moved into the thick, green woods. We would cut out the trees a foot and under, grub the undergrowth, pile and burn the logs, girdle the big trees, and kill them by burning brush piles around them.

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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 24

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