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 28

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 28

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

[NOTE .- Truth compels us to state that the romantic travel up White River from near its mouth to the neighborhood of Win- chester, is declared by William Diggs, Jr., one of the party who is supposed to have made the wonderful trip, to be wholly a " myth;" that their journey was simply from Henry County over into Randolph, far enough indeed, but by no means such a journey as a trip the whole length of White River would have been.]

[NOTE 2 .- Jesse Way, who says he, too, was a lad in the same company of emigrants, though younger than Judith Wil- son, insists that the party saw no company of Indians like that of which she speaks. It is difficult to see how she could im- agine the fact, more so than te consider that Jesse may have for- gotten the circumstance].

[NOTE 3 .- Another and perhaps a more serious objection to the correctness of her memory, is the question what Indians they could have been, and whither they were going. However, Aunt Judith insists that they met the Indians, let them be who they might be, and no matter where they had been or where they might be going].

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

WILLIAM PEACOCK.

" Jessup's Mill, on Greenville Creek, was built some years before Cox's Mill was, on White River.

When I was a little boy, say six years old, I used to go with some older boy to carry dinner to the men who were building Cox's Mill, on White River.

For a long time there were no ministers belonging to Jericho meeting. John Jones came about 1835. Benjamin Cox be- longed to White River, and he used often to exercise at Jericho. Mr. Robinson has been a minister about fifteen years.

The early settlers were Henry Hill, Benoni Hill, Amos Pea- cock, Abram Peacock, Stanton Bailey, Jeremiah Cox, William Pickett, Joshua Buckingham.

The Shockney family did not come for years afterward-not till I was grown."

GEORGE AND ASENATH THOMAS, 1818.

Asenath (Hill) Thomas was born in North Carolina, in 1815, and was brought to Jericho, Randolph Co., Ind., in 1818. Jer- emiah Cox entered land in the neighborhood before Henry Hill came. Abram and Amos Peacock were the first settlers there. They came, also, in 1818, but before Henry Hill did. A Mr. Ken- nedy lived up White River, three miles away, near Mount Zion. Mrs. Thomas says, " We used to ' neighbor' with them, they lived so near us. We went by a ' blazed path' through the woods. An ' In- dian trail' passed from the north and west through Jericho, and past old Benjamin Thomas', east of Newport. The Indians would go in companies, fifteen or twenty pack-horses at one time. They would call at father's (Henry Hill's) for bread and milk. They thought milk was a wonderful treat. They would bring hickory kernels, moccasins, baskets, etc., to exchange for corn, meal, salt, etc. One of their chiefs was named Johnny Cornstalk. He often passed, and was always friendly. He was a stout, heavy man, with large limbs and high cheek bones. He would come in and stay and talk and laugh and enjoy himself for hours with us. The Indians mostly talked very broken English, but he spoke our language quite well.

" There was one bad Indian ; the tribe had driven him off. He skulked ronnd among the whites. Finally he shot a white man, and another white man shot him and wounded him, and still another man killed him. The Indians would not take him after he was wounded. The poor fellow got Mr. Lewallyn, of Ridge- ville, to take him in. Mr. L. sent to the Indians to come and get him. They said "No; bad Indian ; don't want him." The man whom the Indian had shot, found out that he was at Lew- allyn's, and came there and shot him as he lay wounded in bed." [This was Fleming. See other accounts elsewhere].

"Friends' Meeting at Jericho was established about 1821. They built a log-cabin church, no windows, but merely holes, with shutters. The seats were poles, with legs. The women's side had a big fire-place ; the men's side had a hearth in the middle, with a hole above to let the smoke out. They would use coals from the fire-place, with bark, etc., that would not smoke much.

" Benoni Hill, Henry Hill, Amos Peacock, Abram Peacock, Elijah Cox and Wm. Cox formed the meeting. The first preacher was John Jones, 1835. The first school was in 1822 or 1823, taught by Mariam Hill, consisting of twenty or twenty-five pupils, in Friends' Meeting House. Father Henry Hill once went to Rich- mond to work for money to pay his taxes, $1. He could get work at 25 cents per day. John Charles lent him $1, and he came back and paid them. He has taken bacon to Richmond, and sold it at $1 a hundred, half in trade. Eggs and chickens, for awhile, were no sale at all. Bye and bye we could get 3 cents a dozen for eggs, at Winchester.

"The first mill on White River, in this region, was Jeremiah Cox's-a water mill; a corn mill at first, then a flour mill also. The first run was gray heads; the other run was buhrs from abroad. It was built in 1825, and stood forty-five years. It was somewhat famous in its day.

"The lumber for Jeremiah Cox's house, owned now by Simon Cox-house still standing-was hauled fifty-two years ago from Richmond, and from Uncle Elijah Thomas' saw-mill, near New- port.

" Henry Hill lived in a pole cabin, fourteen by sixteen feet ; no windows, but a hole for four lights, with a shutter. He made a sash with his pocket-knife, put in the lights, and then we had a window, and were grand for a fact ! Our hearth was rock and dirt pounded together. Cattle would get fat on the wild pea- vines, etc., but they died with what was called the " bloody mur- rain." They were fat and full of tallow, but they would be taken sick and die in a few hours. Father had four heifers "come in" nearly at one time, and three died suddenly.

" People tanned their own leather in tan-troughs, made from big logs hewed out. George Thomas has a strip of leather tanned by Henry Hill forty-five years ago. George has worn it in his suspenders forty years, and it is good and strong now.

" People went to meeting in home-spun-the men in linen or tow shirts, and tow pantaloons, and deerskin jackets ; the women in check home-spun. All classes would go barefooted. After awhile, people began to have shoes, and women would carry their shoes in their hands, and put them on when near church."

JAMES CLARK, 1819.

" We went to mill at Moffat's, Newman's, or Cox's. Our corn sacks would hold four bushels, but we would take two or three bushels, and put the sack across the horse. Fruit was abundant -gooseberries, plums, etc. Our clothing was linsey, home-made, or buckskin. Breeches, jackets, hunting-shirts, were buckskin. " To dress skins was a great curiosity. The art is now nearly lost. I used to dress many skins years ago, and I will tell how :

TO DRESS DEERSKINS.

" Soak the skin soft; take off the flesh with a grain knife (a tedious job, two good skins are a full day's work); hang them up till dry ; take deer's or beef's brains and dry them on a board, and put them into a sack with warm water, and squeeze them till like soap-suds; work the skin soft in this lather, two or three hours, wring it lengthwise as dry as possible, and stretch and pull it in every possible way till entirely dry. Do so (soak, wring, pull) three or four times, till white. Then cut off all the flesh and smoke the skin soft and yellow. It is nice and warm when dry, but when wet it will stick to your hide.

LOST CHILD.

" Once a child, Mr. Burson's, was lost-a three year-old girl. It wandered off three miles through the woods, to Micajah Mor- gan's. Mr. M. saw it clambering the fence, and took it in. Mrs. M. said, " She looks like Enoch Burson's child." Mr. M. started on horseback with the girl, and met Ephraim Bowen, hunting it. Mr. B. took the child and carried it home.

WORK, MONEY, ETC.

" At one time I hired out, mowing, twenty-six and a half days, at 25 cents a day. (Eighteen years old.) We used shin-plasters, mostly, for money. We seldom could get silver. The coins were commonly cut up into pieces, called " sharp-shins." Shin-plasters disappeared by and by, but silver was still very scarce. Sugar and deerskins were all we had to sell for money. Sugar, $6 a hundred; deerskins, from 25 to 50 cents apiece; fawn-skins, 25 cents ; doeskins, 372 cents ; old huckskins, 50 cents. Land was, at first, $2 per acre; one-quarter down; not less than 160 acres. About 1820, the price was put at $1.25, and 80 acres; and afterward, 40 acres, all down. Many paid entry money and could not pay the rest, and lost their land. Afterwards, the law was made 80 as to allow a " floating claim," i. e., the money paid might apply to a part of the land.

" The community was civil and peaceable, mostly. No great crimes, no big affrays, nor fights, nor murders.

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

" There was a mill north of Spartansburg-Jessup's Mill. I went there once. There was no roof; the mill stood open. The miller's house was across the creek. from the mill, and a foot-log between. He would take a peck measure full over, turn it in, come back and talk awhile, and go with another peck, and so all night long; just about a peck an hour.

DEER HUNTING.

" next day I killed my second deer. I had killed the first deer near Overman's. I shot that first deer, and asked him to help carry it in. 'No,' said Overman, 'I can't leave planting corn. You just take it on your shoulders, and its tail between your teeth, and climb a sapling and hang it up.' I didn't do it, however. But for my second deer. I was hunting a horse in the range. As I was going round a pond at the head of Nolan's Fork, a deer sprang up ahead of me, and I drew up my gun and let fly, and down came the deer. In 1821, I was staying with a cousin, north of where Spartansburg now is. We had been planting corn, and when that was done I went hunting. I saw no game till, finally, I came to Beaver Pond. The deer tracks were abun- dant, but no deer. Coming to a thick maple-top, I laid my

rifle in it, and cleared away the twigs, and made a "rest for my gun. About sundown I saw a deer cross, but too far off to shoot. About dusk there stood a doe in plain sight, about twenty steps away. I shot and she went. I hunted for her, but no doe could I find. I went back to my " rest" to watch for deer again. Presently along came a big buck, not ten yards distant. I moved, and he " bounced." About 11 o'clock, I heard the water go "plug-plug." Soon I saw a deer about 20 steps from me, run- ning its head into the water, and flapping its ears. I sighted for two minutes, and shot, and the deer ran. I got down to load the gun, but I had not powder enough ; and so I went to the cabin about 12 o'clock. " Where have you been all night ?" "Beaver Pond." "Shooting deer ?" " Yes." " What luck ?" " Had two shots, but haven't found my deer." In the morning we went out and found both deer, dcad, not ten yards apart. This was the year Napoleon died, 1821.

" Twice I have shot three deer in one day, and two in a day many times. Once I was chasing a gang of deer, and the sky clouded up and I started for home. All at once there stood four deer gazing at me. I let drive at them. After loading again, I went to the place and found the " hair cut" and scattered on the snow. I followed the trail and saw blood plenty, and at length found the deer, dead, 100 yards from where it had been shot. I hurg it up, skinned it, left the meat hanging, and, going back, I found another place of " hair cut." I followed that trail, also, and the first I knew, there lay the other deer, dead, in a thicket of spice-brush. One shot had killed both deer. The carcass of the dead buck lay stiff and cold where it had been shot down. I did with that as with the other, and went to the cabin. Next morning we brought in the venison, and splendid mest it was, too, I can tell you."

SOLOMON WRIGHT.

" My grandfather, James Wright, was a Carolinian Quaker, who fled to the wilds of the Holston, in Tennessee, to escape con- scription into the army, in the war of 1776. My father, John Wright, was puny at first, and was rocked in an old trunk-cover lined with the skin of a sea animal, the hair on which is said to rise and fall with the tides. As he grew up, he gained strength and vigor. He married Margaret Reece, in Carolina. About 1804, the Wrights emigrated to Ohio, to military lands. In 1814, or thereabouts, the twelve-mile strip came into market, and some fourteen or fifteen families, who lost their lands on the mili- tary tract through a flaw in the title, came, soon afterward, to Randolph County. They had fine improvements in Ohio, but they lost the whole. James and Abram Wright moved first of this company. My father came out and selected some land, but did not move then. James and Abram Wright settled on Eight-mile creek. William Haworth came with them. William Diggs and

Armsbee Diggs came from Carolina about the same time. Will- iam Way, Sr., and his sons, William, Paul and Henry, all grown and married, came also. I think these came in the fall of 1815. James and Abram Wright moved soon afterward from Clinton County, Ohio.

" March 10, 1816, my brother Isaac (one of the triplets), and myself started, with one horse for us both, from Clinton County, Ohio, to go to the woods of Randolph. With a few things in a sack slung across the horse (among them, seven or eight apples- the last of the season), we set off in high glee, I being fourteen years old, taking turns in riding, or, as it is called, "riding and tying, " a very common practice then. Our route was Waynea- ville, Springboro, Eaton, New Paris, Williamsburg, Ind., and so on to Randolph. We got to brother James' glad enough. Isaac said, " I had to walk nearly all the way. Solomon was so chick- legged he could hardly go at all." We went to work on father's place to clear and build. One day I had laid off my coat and vest on the leaves, when the fire ran and caught them, and burnt leaves, coat, vest and all. As I held up the smoking shreds, Uncle Haworth cried, "Save the buttons !" "There are no buttons to save," was the curt reply. There was I, a poor lad fourteen years old, one hundred and twenty miles from home, with no clothes but shirt and pants. I had to wear an old over- coat of brother James', a world too large and long, which made me the laughing stock at all the log-rollings. In warm weather, I gladly shed the old coat and took to shirt and pants.

"I stayed through the summer, and were turned home: and in about a year father and I came through with a load of provisions. A year after that, father moved to his land. Cabin Creek was so named on a trip we made to David Connor's, below Wheeling. Seeing a group of Indian cabins on the bank of the creek, some one cried, "Let us call the stream 'Cabin Creek,' and Cabin Creek it is to this day. Muncie was so named from Muncie [Montzie], an old Indian. The Indians complained of Connor's whisky. "Too much 'Sinewa,'" they said. I saw the first lot sold in Winchester.

"Once in school, near Dunkirk, on the last day, the girls got behind the chimney and pushed the fire-place and back wall over into the house, and scattered the clay all over the floor-grand fun. they thought.

"My oldest boy, George Washington, killed a bear. He was quite young, and people would ask, " Is that the boy who killed the bear ?" He skinned the bear and brought it [the skin] home.

" One day some white men and Indians were jumping near the mill.pond. One white man jumped with stones in his hands. The Indians were angry. One of them threw the stones into the pond, exclaiming, " No fair !"

"Nathan Thornburg came one day and said, " We are starving for meat." We went hunting, but found nothing. Just as we were going home, a deer started up. I shot the deer and cried to Thornburg, " There is your meat ; go get it," which he did. "One evening a man came and said, " There is a bear over the hill yonder." We went, and, sure enough, the dogs had treed a bear. Thornburg snapped and I snapped. He stuck in a new flint and shot the bear outright. One man said, not very long ago, " The telegraph cannot come here ; there is no water-course." Once, as we were traveling near Smithfield, we came upon a gang of Indians, lying on the ground under the oak trees. The dog barked, and they jumped up and hastily wrapped themselves up in some way. One Indian asked me for " big ax, to cut bee tree." I told him, "No; got none." He brought me some venison, as black as black cloth, and gave me a piece. I took it. The young man with me took none. The Indian was displeased, and said, " No good white man." .

" In 1833, my wife noticed the " stars falling." She went to the door and cried, " O, come and look, quick, or the stars will all be down !" While we were moving from Ohio, as we stopped one evening, a young man sat on a stone and sang :

" O, when shall I see Jesus, and reign with Him above ?"

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

The occasion was affecting. We felt lonely and sad, and wept freely.

"Between Williamsburg and White River, an old ewe " gave out," and we laid her on a tree-root " in the wilderness." Seven weeks afterward we found her there, feeding about, and took her home. A great many Indians were here then. I used to hop with them and shoot at a mark. We lived in harmony till two young white men went down below Stony Creek and stole two Indian ponies and escaped to Ohio. Shortly, the Indians went after them. They said, " No good white man ; steal Indian ponies." I always noticed that, in the Indian difficulties, the whites were mostly to blame, and that the trouble generally arose from steal- ing their horses or from selling them liquor.

" A while after we came to Randolph, father sent me to mill, on the Stillwater below Greenville. I followed the Indian trail through the forest, seeing not a living soul, except that I met me carry some Indians, who, upon my asking them " how far to Greenville ?" held up six fingers, to mean, as I supposed, six miles. When I got to Greenville, the old fort was there in decay and partial ruin, and not much of a town. Passing on, I found the mill on Stillwater, some miles below, got my " grinding," and returned safely home. This was probably before 1820.

Solomon Wright is probably mistaken, by at least one year, in his idea of the time when he came to Randolph. It seems well settled that William Diggs and the Ways came in the fall of 1816, and that the Wrights, etc., none of them till at least the spring, or, more probably, the fall, of 1817. They did, some of them, certainly arrive that fall, and that was probably the time, December, 1817, when William Wright went to White River, as told by John Fisher, he thinking that wagon the first to White River.

The following reminiscences of Solomon Wright were written and furnished by Miss Lillie A. Garrett :

" About the time grandpa settled on this farm, he saw a young fawn floating down White River, rescued it from the water and put it into a hollow sycamore ; and when he came back from hunting, took it home. He kept it several years. Grandpa says, ' I put a bell on it, and it would go off into the woods, and wild deer would follow it; and when I would hear the bell I would look out for the deer and kill them.'

" He became awful cross, and when anybody came, he would turn his hair back, bow up his neck, meet them at the gate, and they had to stand back or be " floored." One day, two boys were going to meeting, and " Buck" made them "climb" to get out of his way ; and he kept them up their saplings till it was too late for meeting. At last he " bunted" over one of the children, and grandpa shot him.

"Jacob Wright and Sarah Wright (?) were the names on the first marriage license issued at Winchester.

" Abram Wright and Isom Garrett were pioneer teachers. One taught at Dunkirk and one on Green's Fork, and the schools used to meet to "spell" against each other. Those " spelling matches" 'were gay times, and were useful, to boot.

" To persons inquiring the way to Winchester, Charles Conway used to reply, " Just go on as far as you can get among the logs and brush, and you are in Winchester." Paul W. Way surveyed the town plat, and Abram Wright carried the chain for him. David Wright " cried" the .lots at the first sale. He said to David Wysong, "That young man is good-looking, and he would look still better if he would bid just a little higher." Hiram Mendenhall and others, between 1830 and 1840, joined their pos- sessions and formed a " Community" at Unionsport. The town still stands, but the "Community" was dissolved long, long ago. "In time of the "Millerism" excitement, a deep snow fell, which the frightened devotees predicted would turn to brimstone.

The first teacher at Cabin Creek was Mary Ann Ring. Grandpa sent the two oldest children. The little " chits" hid their dinner, tied up in a rag, under the floor before they entered the schoolroom on the first day.

The Diggs', Littleberry, Marshall and Franklin . taught the school in after times, and the " Wright children" grew fond of learning, eight attending at one time. And future years found them at Winchester, Williamsburg, Liber, etc., and then as teachers through the region. Great interest was taken by them in temperance, anti-slavery, etc. Fanny, the youngest, now the wife . of Judge R. S. Taylor, of Fort Wayne, used to stand on a chair and recite :

"What, fellow-countrymen in chains!

Slaves in a land of light and law !" - Whittier.

In the " Separation," most of the Cabin Creek Friends left the "Body." Amos Bond, J. H. Bond, Solomon Wright, etc., were noted Anti-slavery Friends. Great enthusiasm prevailed, and lectures, papers, pamphlets, etc., were the order of the day. The underground railroad track passed this way, and " Cabin Creek" was one of the chief stations.

When " Birney's vote" was found to be about 7,000, Hiram Mendenhall, who presented the "petition" to Henry Clay, at Richmond, Ind., said, " Thank God, there are left yet 7,000 men who have uot bowed the knee to Baal, nor kissed his image " --- referring to the rumor that so many kissed Henry Clay. Grandpa kept an inn for many years, as this road was a great Western thoroughfare.

The Van Amburg show passed here once, and the men, some of them, stayed overnight, and the elephant stood in the yard, tied to a young walnut tree.

Some Mormon converts once camped at the creek ford, and their preacher declared they were going to Nauvoo, protected by the same power that guarded Daniel in the "lions' den." They seemed sincere and hearty in their faith. Abram Wright at- tended a meeting of Mormons, at which the people wept profusely under the words of a speaker who said he had prayed all night to be delivered from the devil, whose chains he could hear rattling down the stairs.

"Samuel Peters, a highly respected young colored man, used to board with us. He went South, after the war, was cashier of the Freedmen's Bank, at Shreveport, La., and had been elected to Congress there, when he died in the fall of 1873 by yellow fever, which struck that city so- fatally at that time. First burial in Friends' Burying-Ground at Cabin Creek was a child of Mordecai Bond's, and the next was Jethro Hiatt's wife.

First mill in Stony Creek Township was built at Windsor. by John Thornburg, 1827. The first cooking-stove was owne? by Solomon Wright, bought at Newport.

A criminal with his legs fastened round the horse, once stopped for dinner. Two men held the clanking chains upon his ankles as he walked into the house. " Look at that and be honest, boys," said grandpa to his sons, who were standing by and gazing at the poor fellow.

"Eminent Quaker preachers of the olden time, in Randolph County, were Isom Puckett, Benjamin Cox and others. In later years, Martha Wooton, Daniel Puckett, Charles Osborn, etc., labored here to some extent, though not residents within the limits of the county.

WILLIAM ROBINSON.

" I have owned and improved six different farms in this region, building six separate houses. When my father moved here, I was too young to go to mill, but my brothers used to go to Solo- mon Wright's to mill and get wheat ground, unbolted, and then take the meal to an old man who had made a sieve by stretching a cloth over a piece of hoop bent round, and they would sift the meal through that, and thus make flour.

" Soon after father settled, the State road was made from Win- chester to the Stato Line toward Greenville, right past father's cabin. I saw the men going along blazing " the trees." Judge Edwards said that when Paul Way surveyed the road, he had a man go along the county road and blow a horn, so as to keep him in a straight course. When they reached the " Dismal,"

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

they hunted a narrow passage for a crossing, and curved the road to hit the spot. The State road was the leading highway in this country, and, for many years, an immense amount of travel passed upon it. I have counted eighty wagons of movers in one day, going to Western Indiana, Illinois, etc. My father's cabin was a stopping-place, and we have had so many at once that we beys often had to go to the hay mow to sleep to give room to the lodgers.

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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 28

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