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 29

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 29

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" Years afterward, when the West had become somewhat settled, cattle used to be taken east in immense droves. I have seen 700 or 800 in a single herd. David Heaston's, James Griffis', and my father's were the chief places for movers and for droves. Father used to charge a man for supper, breakfast, lodging and horse feed, 372 cents. The old National road was another great thoroughfare.

" An old man, Banta, built a bridge over Greenville Creek on the State road, and I helped him do the job. We went out there to work, camping in the woods. His folks neglected to bring us any provisions, and for three days we lived on bread and water.

"My father lived here six years before he was able to enter any land. He got money to enter his first land by hauling wheat to Lewallyn's mill, at Ridgeville, for flour ; and by buying pork, potatoes, etc., building a flat-boat, and taking the boat-load of bacon, flour, etc., down the river to Logansport, and selling his load to the Indians.

" He entered land east of Winchester (Kemp farm). A com- pany, of whom Jesse Way was one, went down the Mississinewa River with loaded flat-boats, and Jesse lost his boat, and his load too, in trying to run the dam at Byles's mill on that river.

"An Indian "trail " was simply a path through the woods. The path would be trodden so as to be plainly visible. Some- times the amount of pony-travel would be so great as to make a heavily-trodden track. "Trails " passed in various directions. One led from Muncie to Greenville, straight as an arrow. One from Muncie to Fort Wayne; one from Godfroy Farm to Fort Wayne, etc."

RUTH (TEST) ROBINSON.

" When a girl, I went with my mother to a quilting and corn- husking. When we got there, nothing seemed ready, but the boys went to the woods and got some poles for frames ; the women pieced the quilt and carded the tow, and so they quilted the quilt, each woman quilting where and how she pleased. Doubt- less, the quilt was just as warm, which is the chief thing after all. One woman got drunk. She said she was getting her " nats upon the taps ; " and she would go out and help cook. Whisky was everywhere. Still-houses were plenty, and much whisky was made and drank. My father settled in Union County in 1817. He owned the first mill in that county, and my oldest brother built a factory. My father came to Ohio from New Jersey in in 1802, te Waynesville, and I was born there. He resided at Cincinnati eighteen months, then at Covington, operating a woolen factory, and building the first good house in Covington. He lived thirty-six years on the East Fork of White Water, and then moved to Richmond residing there for four years. He died in 1852, eighty-four years old.

" Some men from Union County took the first (and only) two flat-boats down the East Fork of White Water to New Orleans. There was a heavy freshet and the water was very high. There was a great crowd to see them start, from all the country round. They sold their load at New Orleans and came back all the way from that distant market on foot."

THOMAS WARD.

" The first money I ever had, when a young lad, as my own, was 123 cents. My brother and I sold a pair of deer-horns for 25 cents, and I had half. I managed, afterward, somehow, to get 871 cents, and loaned it to father, he promising to give me a sheep. His " sheep" proved to be a lamb, but I raised it and

traded it for a pig, and then that for a calf, and so on. After- ward, I came to be the owner of a colt, which I traded again, and se on from small things to greater, till, by the time I was twenty- one years old, I had become the owner of six hundred acres of wild land."

[Gideon Shaw states that Thomas Ward, when a lad, was at his father's, in the southeast corner of Randolph County, buying furs, etc.]

"I began very early to trade for things. Father let me have a pig or two, and I traded for a calf and then for a motherless colt, and so on. I bought my own clothes. As before stated, men would come along and hire me to survey and deaden land, and I would do the surveying, and hire the deadening for less than what they would give me. At one time I entered an eighty-acre tract for $100, and sold it shortly after for $200. I used to trade in furs and peltry, and would make, sometimes, $200 in: a single winter, or even more in that way.

" The first land I ever entered for myself I carried the money in my hand all the way to Fort Wayne, traveling on foot the whole distance. There was a nice Indian sugar orchard which I wished very much to own. We found out that another party was planning to enter it, and I started on foot with money for that tract, and also for some that father wished to enter. I had the money tied up, and carried it in my hand the whole way. The " specie cir- cular" had lately been issued, and in just three days it was to take effect. I got to John Brooks' the first night, gave Mrs. B. the money to keep and went to bed. The next day I got to Adam Miller's, near Bluffton. The third day I tried hard to make Fort Wayne, but the traveling was very bad, the snow being nearly knee deep, and I was but a boy (eighteen years old, or perhaps less), and I had to come short of the mark. In the morning I went to the Registrar's office, made application for the land for myself and my father, got my certificate from that office and went boldly to the Receiver. Col. Spencer knew my father and knew me, too, for he had stayed at my father's at different times. I told him the whole story-the paper money, the sudden start, my hard travel on foot, and how I had missed by a few hours, and what a disappointment it would be to lose my land after such a chase for it. He was a sturdy Democrat, and father was a stedfast Whig ; but Col. Spencer was a gentleman and a kind-hearted man, and he pitied the pour boy ; and he said to me, " You shall have your land, and you: father shall, too. I am going into Ohio on business of my own and I can use the money myself." So he took my money an I entered the land. But my piece was some four acres more than a full eighty, and it took $5 extra ; and that was every cent of money I had. But I was determined I would have the land. let come what would; so I paid my last cent and got it. I told Col. Spencer what I had done, and he asked me how I expected to get home. I told him I did not know, but that I was going to start and risk getting through. "O, that will never do," said he ; and he insisted that I should borrow of him enough to take me home. I finally did so, and tramped home again, sendit g his money back the first chance I found. I had an uncle (Daniel Miller), on Robinson's Prairie, and I stayed the first night with him, the second night at Portland, and get home the third night. When I started in the morning from my uncle's, on my way from Fort Wayne, he told me of a nearer way through the woods; that I could go by " blazes" to the Wabash, and cut off several miles. I took his directions, and followed the " blazes" through without difficulty. I thought no more of traveling thus through the thick woods, guided only by " blazed" trees, than I would now to travel along a beaten road.

"I have lost great amounts of property during my life. I put two hundred and forty-five acres of land near Ridgeville, and one thousand acres of Iowa land, into the north and south road through Ridgeville, when it was first worked on, and lost it. I did more for the road than anybody else, living or dead. Others managed to secure their stock, but my loss by the road was $30,000 or

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

more. Mr. Lewallen's mill, at Ridgeville, was built, probably, after 1819. My father, Joab Ward, commenced building boats about 1835. When the country along the Wabash, etc., began to settle up, the fact made a market for several years, and the people of Wayne and Randolph tried to supply it by sending their prod- uce down the Mississinewa to the Wabash, and thereabouts. Boats were needed, and Ridgeville was the head of high-water navigation, and so father took to building boats and selling them to people to take their produce down the river on. He would build a boat forty feet long by ten feet wide, at 62} cents a foot, i. e., $25 for the boat, all ready for floating. He would cut the timber green, from the woods, have two heavy side-pieces sloped rounding upward at both ends, cut a " gain" in the lower edge to receive the ends of the planks which formed the bottom, pin the bottom planks to the sides and the middle piece, fasten on some pieces of plank at the top of the gunwale, so as to increase the depth of the boat (making it, per- haps, two feet), stop up the cracks, and she was ready to receive her load and to float along her downward way. This flat-boating could be done only in times of flood.

High water was mostly during the winter and spring. The business lasted perhaps ten or fifteen years. The river floods be- . came less, and the markets in that region ceased or were supplied in other ways.

Father built, in all, a large number of boats-thirty-seven in one spring. He used to hire hands to work for him, and board them at 122 cents a meal.

One spring, several boats started down the river, loaded with apples, potatoes, cider, etc. At the first mill dam below Marion (McClure's), one boat, belonging to Hampton Brown, who lived below Newport (Fountain City), in going over the dam, ran under and sunk and lost the whole cargo, and the boat was ruined. The men swam out to the shore and were saved.

At one time, a raft came plunging down upon the swift-rush- ing flood. They contrived to land a cable and tied it round a tree ; but the raft broke in two and went over the dam. There were two men on the raft. One came ashore, but the other shot under the water and was never again seen alive. His dead body was found afterward, some distance below."

DAVID LASLEY.

" William Edwards came in 1818; Jonathan Edwards came in 1818; they lived north toward town.

David Wysong lived three-fourths of a mile east.

John Elzroth lived near the " poor farm," coming in 1818.

Thomas Jarret came in 1818. He lived one-quarter mile away. Peter Lasley bought his land at private sale, but unim- proved.

In Winchester there were a few log cabins, and a log court house. David Heaston came in 1819, a little southwest. In Winchester were Paul W. Way, Charles Conway, John Odell, John Wright (blacksmith), John Wright ( Judge).

"I cleared off the public square in Winchester; there were three and one-half acres ; it took me three months, working all day and half the night, and I got $35 for the job. Moorman Way got more than double that sum ($75) years afterward for putting in new trees. It was.all "in the green," there came a snow and the heaps would not burn well ; much was sugar-tree, three feet and over. A very large elm stood right in the cross street. The timber in this region was sugar-tree, beech, hickory, walnut, oak, elm, etc., etc. Oak was scarce, sugar-tree most abundant of all. There was much wet land in the region that nobody would have, that land is now the best in the county. I helped make a big cross-way on the State road west of Winches- ter, three-quarters of a mile long. The logs were many of them eighteen inches through. Two of us built it in three months, getting $10 a month, boarding ourselves. Poles had to be put in between the logs at the top, and the whole was covered with dirt six inches deep. We had to cut many of the trees, standing

knee-deep in water, and the logs often floated as we hauled them, making the work of drawing them to the track much easier."

JOHN MANN, GREENSFORK.

" We used to grind our corn on a hand-mill. My father had one, and the neighbors were in the habit of coming and using. it. It was hard work ; a few quarts would tire a man completely out; you had to turn with one hand and feed with the other (a few grains at a time). The mill worked very slowly, and we generally ground only enough for a meal or two at once. The way the mill was made and worked was this : The lower stone was laid flat and fast; the upper stone was fixed to turn upon a center piece in some way, and was made to revolve by a pole, fastened (loosely) in a beam above, and in the top of the stone below, near the edge of the stone, in a shallow hole drilled in the surface. This drilling into the stone was hard to do, for there were no tools, and there was no way to fasten any- thing to the stone. These stones were about two feet across, home-dressed and home-made."

SIMON COX.

"When I came to Randolph, Charles Conway lived half a mile south of Winchester. John Wright (blacksmith) lived on the north side of Winchester. Paul Beard and Jesse Johnson (and perhaps others), were on Greensfork, near Lynn. There were some settlers down White River, but I did not know them. No settlers were on White River above us. John Cox, my father, came in 1818, with eight children ; none are now living but myself. He died forty years ago. White River meeting was set up about 1820. The members were Benjamin Cox. John Wright (black- smith), Jonathan Hiatt, Simon Cox, Thomas Ward, Joseph Moffatt and may be others. Jericho meeting was begun soon afterward. The first school was about 1823; Isaac Pearson was the teacher. George Cox, born 1820, remembers riding home from school on his Uncle Pearson's shoulders ; George was perhaps three years old.

" The first mill was on Salt Creek, north of Winchester, water- mill, built by Solomon Wright; it ground very slowly, being in use some years. Jeremiah Cox's mill was the next-a flour mill-bolt run by hand. The first meeting-house was the White River Church, warmed by coal in the middle.

" The first doctor [ knew of was at Winchester. The first store I knew of was there too. The first frame house was Jere- miah Cox's, built about fifty-five years, and standing yet in good repair. The first child born in our settlement was my son, George Cox, born January 6, 1820.

" Benjamin Cox and myself once started to go through to the Johnson settlement below Lynn, after some grain to take to mill. One had to go ahead and cut "a road " for the wagon to pass. We had to " camp out," and a deep snow fell in the night."

BURKETT PIERCE.

" Meshach Lewallyn and Joab Ward lived near Ridgeville when I came; they had been there not long. "James Massey and - -- - Massey came the same fall that I did, and settled near Saratoga. (James Massey was here in 1818, before B. P. came). George Ritenour came two weeks after me and settled across the river. Meshach Lewallyn built a small mill in 1819 (I think), a water-mill; it would grind two or three bushels a day ; the meal would come by " spurts." A dog came in and tried to lick the meal; now he would get some meal, and now he wouldn't; it did not suit him, and he would throw up his head and howl, and then he would try to lick the meal again." (This story has been told us of four different mills in the region, as also of one in Pennsylvania.)

"Mr. Lewallyn afterward built a better mill, which became a noted point in those times for many years ; he built a saw-mill also. David Connor built a log shanty two miles east of Deerfield, on the Mississinewa, and traded with the Indians. He sold them

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

flour, and salt, and powder, and whisky, etc., for furs and peltry. He took loads of furs and skins in "pirogues," down the Missis- sinewa, up Wabash, up Little River, across the portage nine miles to St. Mary's, and so to Toledo and Detroit. He hauled his goods across the portage on wagons with three yoke of oxen. Brother Thomas and I went with him once. He had otter, musk- rats, beaver, coon skins, minks, etc., a heavy load. He got his pay in silver, and bought a pony to bring the silver home. (This was in 1822.) He stayed at that point a year or two or so, and moved down the river to near Wheeling, and later, to below Marion, where he settled, built mills, and spent the rest of his life. He died rich a few years ago. I took hogs to him, which he bought and butchered. He showed me half a bushel of silver money. He was a "smart " man, and a man of his word; but he would have his own way in a bargain. He made a " power " of money. He did not like to sell to settlers, because he could not charge them enough. He commonly sold to Indians, and his price to them was very high.

"Lewallyn's son, Shadrach, shot an Indian in their yard. A patch of corn had been planted, and the boys were gathering it on a sled (as most of the hauling was done then). The Indian had bought some powder and whisky at Connor's, and he " cut up " and scared the boys. They unhitched the horses, and one of the boys ran, and the Indian ran after him and pointed his gun at the boy. Shadrach called out, " What is the matter?" The boy said, "The Indian is going to shoot me." Shadrach caught his gun and undertook to shoot the Indian. Shadrach's wife tried to pull him away for 100 yards, but he shot and killed the Indian right there in the yard. This was in the evening. Shadrach went to his father's that night, and in the morning they covered the body in the hollow of a tree turned up. Old Meshach went to Muncie alone, and told the Indians what his son had done and that he should be tried fairly, and suffer the pen- alty. He also told the Indians to come and bury their comrade and they did so; fifteen or twenty came and buried him on the river bank, on my farm. The young man was tried, but he was acquitted ; and that made the Indians hostile. I went to Con- nor and talked with him, and got him to intercede with the Indians. Connor had great influence with them, and they would do almost anything he wished. He told them that I was his cousin, and that he wished they would be reconciled. I had come into the county after the shooting and before the trial. The Indians had torn up the floor in the cabin I was to live in, and I fixed it. We sent some boys to get the cabin ready, and we expected to move up from Joab Ward's. While the boys were at the cabin, six or seven Indians came in. One of the young men set them a puncheon bench, and they sat down. Presently one of them, Big Nose, drew his knife, and caught my brother Thomas, and cried, "Now I kill you; you killed my cousin." Brother said, "No, I wasn't in the country then." "You are a liar," Big Nose cried. He held Thomas a long time, but let him go at last. Another young man, who was with Thomas, ran away 100 yards and caught up his gun. The Indian caught my brother again, but finally said, "I let you go. I no

kill you this time-next time I kill you, sure." The other In- dians smiled like, but said nothing. The Indian turned my brother's face toward him and said, " Look, next time I kill you."

"The boy came and met us and told us. Joab Ward said, " Fol- low the Indians." I said "No." Then he said, "Go back with me." My wife stood there with the child, and she said, " Let us go on," and we started again. We went, and my wife followed, trembling, but when we got in sight of the cabin, all fear left her. We got to the cabin and unloaded, and there came along a big, burly fellow, and offered to stay with us. "He was not afraid," he said. He stayed. There was a big stump of a tree- root near by. Before bed-time he looked out and said, "I see an Indian out there. I see his blanket and his eyes. He is going to shoot." The fellow got his gun and his axe, and stood ready a good while. I said, " I am going to see." " Oh no, he will

shoot you." I did go out; there was no Indian, only the stump and some snow. In the morning we went out to cut up the tree. I said, " It would not do for an Indian to come and cut up like that one yesterday." I looked up, and there stood an Indian ! He heard what I said, but he smiled and was friendly.

" In about a month my brother went back to Ohio. He had not been long gone when six Indians came and hallooed from across the river, wishing to come across, Big Nose among them. : I took my canoe, and brought them across. I charged him with his mischief. He said, "No, me civil." "Yes, it was you." " No, whisky." They went up to Connor's, and by and by, returned. (One was called Killbuck ). One was so drunk that he could not walk alone; two of them were leading him across waist deep. When they had come across, Killbuck said, " We not been saucy." I went into the house, but presently he came back, foaming with rage. "You go and get your gun," said he. "How do you know," said I. "What did you come back for?" "To show you I no coward, give me some bread," said he. I did, and he went away pacified. That poor drunken fellow lay there all night with his feet in the water, dead drunk.

"One night an Indian hallooed. "What do you want?" "To come in and warm." I let him in. "Me civil," said he. After he got in, he began to curse, and swore he would kill the. first man that came into the cabin. I quieted him down, and then he began again. He went on to Connor's, and in the morn- ing he came back, and said, " Connor told me ' No,' and I won't hurt anybody." -

"In boating, flat-boats would jump the dams four feet high. People would bring fruit from Wayne County in wagons, and boat them down to settlers on the Wabash and elsewhere.

" After Fleming was killed, about twenty-five Indians came and had a ceremony over him. They had guns, and marched up very solemnly. One old Indian made a speech. He spoke a long time ; Killbuck interpreted. He said, " Don't be scared, he was a bad Indian. We will be friendly." As the man stood there speaking, he seemed much affected, and the tears streamed down his checks.

"We used to go to mill at first to Richmond. David Wysong made a tread-mill (for oxen). One day I went with a grist, and, in the night, while I was there, the oxen slipped through, and stopped the mill, but they could not get out and were just hang- ing by their necks.

" The first school was taught two or three years after I came, in a log cabin, kept by Mr. Stevens, at $1 per scholar. There were perhaps twenty scholars. Half of the patrons could not pay. There were only two or three books in the school. The teacher would write letters on paddles to have the little fellows learn. I once drove thirty head of hogs to Ross County, Ohio, to have them fatten on the "mast." The Indians began to shoot them. I talked to them. 'Big Jim' said, " Fat hog make good soup," and laughed. When I came to the county, a big brush heap lay where the Winchester Court House now stands.

"John Cox settled near Winchester in 1815 or 1816."

JACOB DRIVER, 1821.

"Settlers when .I came, in 1821 : John Sample, at Sample- town (Mill), Paul W. Way, William Way, Henry Way, William Diggs (old), William Diggs (young), Littleberry Diggs, Armsbee Diggs, Tarlton Moorman, Robison McIntyre, Walter Ruble, John Wright and others.

"The Claytons came nearly when I did-perhaps two or three years afterward.

"Tarleton Moorman is the brother of James Moorman and the father of Stephen Moorman."

PELATIAH BOND.

" Benjamin Bond, my father, lived, at one time, just west of New Garden Meeting-House, in Wayne County.

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

" In building a house, he bought nails at 25 cents a ponnd, and paid for them in cord-wood at 25 cents a cord, chopping the wood on his own land, and selling it on the ground at the rate of four cords for $1.

" In Western Pennsylvania, in early times, a man gave a horse for a barrel of salt."

DANIEL B. MILLER, 1822.

" The settlers, when I came (on the Mississinewa, 1822), were, Riley Marshall, east of Deerfield; William Massey, James Mas- sey, Robert Massey, north of Miller's; Frank Peake, north of Mississinewa River; Samuel Emery, on the south side of the river ; Burkett Pierce, west of Deerfield, north of river ; George Ritenour, west of Deerfield, south of the river ; Martin Boots, between Deerfield and Ridgeville. He was the first blacksmith in that region. He moved to Fairview, afterward.

" I was single, and came on horseback from near Cincinnati, via Richmond and the " Quaker Trace," to Riley Marshall's. I bought eighty acres of a non-resident owner, and boarded eighteen months at Riley Marshall's, going then to Wayne County to be married, and bringing my wife with me, on horseback, into the woods of Randolph. Judge M. thinks James Massey was the first settler in Ward Township. Some of the Masseys were there in 1818. Burkett Pierce saya James and another Massey came the same fall he did-1820 or 1821. Judge M. thinks, also, that Philip Storma came to Allensville after he (Miller) came to Ran- dolph, and that Connor stayed on the river above Deerfield, five or six years after 1822.

"Lewallyn's mill ground very slowly. They said a pig crawled into the trough and licked up the meal, and that he would squeal because the meal did not come fast enough for him. This is probably another version of tho " hound" atory, so often repeated. ".Meetings were held for a long time at private dwellings, i. e., at Riley Marshall's, and also elaewhere."

MARTIN' A. REEDER, 1822.

"John Gass had settled at his place, southwest of Winchester, and was keeping tavern there when the Wave, etc., came from South Carolina, in the spring of 1817.

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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 29

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