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 30

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 30

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).

" The first entry in Randolph County used to be said to be three miles east of Winchester, where Miles Scott now lives. That land was entered by Jeremiah Motfett, in December, 1812.

"' Anti-slavery societies began to be formed between 1886 and 1840, or sooner. The U. G. R. R. had a sort of organization, though not a very elaborate one. Lists of the stations, of the routes, of the men who would entertain and who would forward fugitives, etc., were kept for reference along the route.

At Winchester, Eli Hiatt was a chief promotor of the work. Others, were .James P. Way, Frank Digga, Jesse Way, Moorman Way, Dr. Cook, M. A. Reeder and others ; George Bailey and others, at Huntsville; Zimri Bond, John H. Bond, etc, at Cabin Creek. Large numbers were in sympathy with the work ; some, in fact, who would hardly have been expected to do so. One man, a landlord in Jay County, who was then, and has always since been, a atanch Democrat, was nevertheless a constant and reliable helper in the U. G. R. R.

At one time, a company of twelve stopped at Eli Hiatt's. The pursuera came to town while the fugitives were still here. They knew the fugitives were not far off, but not that they were in town.

Dr. Cook went early toward Ridgeville, and, returning, met the man-hunters-giving them such information as caused them to suppose their prey was ahead, and they presaed vigorovaly on- ward (four men, all armed to the teeth). The slaves were taken back to Huntsville, from there to John Bond's and thence to Camden, and so on toward Canada.

".During the war of 1861, Mr. Reeder and his wife went as nurses in the hospital, etc., spending more than a year in that service, and going wholly at his own expense. He was at Wash-

ington City, at Gettysburg and elsewhere, witnessing many sad and fearful scenes of terrible suffering, and doing his utmost for its relief. He bore a commission from Gov. Morton, and recom- mendations from President Lincoln, which enabled him to go anywhere he pleased in the prosecution of his loving work, and he feels thankful for the degree of success which attended his la- bors in his country's cause. Gov. Morton's name was itself a "power," and, of course, President Lincoln's " sign manual" was omnipotent, and both together became irresistible."

The following was printed in a Winchester paper in 1875:

M. A. REEDER.

Last week, Mr. Harris Allman and his wife returned, after an absence of forty-five years, to visit their former friends and com- rades in this vicinity-now, alas, but few. His father, Matthew Allman, was a very early settler here, and in 1830 removed to White Lick, between Plainfield and Indianapolis. Since that removal, a wonderful change has taken place !

Winchester was then a solid forest. About eight families were at that time residents of the place, acattered here and there over the town plat, in small log cabina. The heavy timber was near on every hand. The streets could not be seen. Only three houses now [1875] remain standing that were here when Mr. All- man left, and one of them has lately been reconstructed.

The old settlers are mostly gone. M. A. Reeder has been longest a resident of the town, including, also, his mother, who is still living. Mr. Allman passed through the city (in company with M. A. R.), searching, almost in vain, to find the spots of familiar interest of the early olden time. Mr. A. pointed out many locations of objects then important, now to the younger genera- tion unknown.

The old schoolhouse, on the site where now stands the resi- dence of A. Aker, Jr. ; the old spring at which the scholars slaked their thirst, located on the east bank of Salt Creek, about a rod south of the Washington street bridge ; the old Aker Hotel, partly standing, just east of the City Hall ; the Odle storeroom, the first dry goods store, afterward the. reaidence of D. Haworth and of Jacob Elzroth, Esq., and now occupied by George Isom ; Haworth'a cabinet-shop, now occupied by J. W. Diggs as an un- dertaker.

The big oak tree, seven feet through, which stood where now stands Col. H. H. Neff's elegant mansion ; the "old fort and mound," near and in the " Fair Grounds ;" the " Ring Spring," one hundred yards west of the toll-gate on the pike leading west- ward; the big walnut tree, aix feet through, standing where now Hon: E. L. Watson resides; the old Quaker (or Richmond) Trace, leading from the Wayne County settlements into these northern woods, which ran out the south end of East street, which trace is now nearly obliterated-these, and other landmarks un- known to the present inhabitants, were full of interest to one who spent his boyhood in our vicinity when all was rough and wild, full fifty years ago.

ISAAC BRANSON-STONY CREEK.

Came to Randolph County, Ind., in 1822 (or sooner), entered land in the southern part of Stony Creek, in 1822 [Section 10, 19, 12], being the farm afterward owned by Abram Clevinger. This land he sold to Joseph Rooka, about 1825, and entered land again in the southern part of Nettle Creek Township [W. N. W., 15, 18, 12], near Mr. Burroughs, March 26, 1816. They aold out again and moved to Delaware County, becoming pioneers in that region.

They raised a large family of children, enduring great hard- ships and peril. Mr. Branson died many years ago, but " Aunt Patsy" Branson, as she is called, resides, with one of her daugh- ters, in Muncie, Delaware County. She is nearly ninety years old, but very spry and strong, walking a mile or two without dif- ficulty or fatigue, and retaining in memory the events of her old- time life with remarkable tenacity.

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

They had peculiar hardships when they first settled in Ran- dolph. They came into the woods with one horse of their own, though somebody's two-horse wagon moved them there. In less than a week after they arrived, her husband cut his knee with a frow, while splitting clap-boards for a roof to his "camp," and so badly that he could not step on his foot for six weeks; and much of that time he lay helpless on the puncheons of the floor. About the same time, his only horse died. The horse was not very good, but it was better than none, and it was all they had, and they had nothing to buy another.

They came in February, and brought four large iron kettles to make sugar in. Mrs. Branson and her husband's brother, a lad of seventeen, who came with them into their forest home, took hold and opened an immense sugar camp that stood ready to their hand, and and actually cut the wood, carried the water, made the troughs, and produced about three barrels of excellent tree- sugar, all nice and dry, as good as need be. This sugar was in- deed a " God-send" to the poor, afflicted family in the wilderness. Mr. B. hired a " plug" pony of his uncle in Wayne County, and contrived to do his work. After they got corn planted, he took sugar to Richmond and exchanged for corn and other necessaries. But their corn and vegetables grew splendidly, and long before the year was out, they had plenty of corn and potatoes and such things. They took to the corn as soon as it came to " roasting ears," potatoes as soon as they would do to cook, and squashes as soon as they got large enough, and so on.

They had a cow, and the pea-vines were up to her back, and she gave abundance of milk, and grew fat on her keeping to boot. When Mr. B. went to Richmond with his sugar, he borrowed a wagon and a yoke of oxen, and took grain and things, also, for some other neighbor settlers, and the trip took a week or more.

Mrs. B. thinks they came in 1819, which may possibly be the fact ; but if so, they must have resided here more than three years before they entered land, since that took place in the fall of 1822. And that, too, may have been true, as Mr. B. seems to have been very poor, and it may have been three years before he could raise the money for an entry.

ELDER THOMAS ADDINGTON.

" Once, when I was a boy at school, the teacher would sleep in " books." There was a boy in school who was rather " simple" and greatly given to " pranks," just because he "did not know any better."

One day, a mouse came running across the floor, and the " simple" boy went to chasing it. . The teacher was asleep, but the noise waked him. He looked up and saw the boy capering about the room. As he spied the lad, he caught his whip and chased the little fellow, whipping as he went. The poor chap gave no heed to the slashing of the teacher, but went dancing alicad after his mouse. At last he " grabbed" with his fingers, clutched the " varmint," and turning short round, facing the master, cried, " See, teacher, I ' cotch' him !"

What the teacher did thereafter is not remembered. The laughing that the school accomplished just then was past all con- trol, and the picture of that "simple youth," grinning in glee at his success in grabbing that quadruped, is a vivid thing in the minds of all who then beheld the performance of the feat."

WILLIAM COX, WEST RIVER.

" Settlers at that time were Joseph Hollingsworth, Albert Macy, Jesse Ballinger, Joshua Wright, William Stansberry, and others. Daniel Worth lived on the John Hunnicutt place ; John Bunker was where John Charles now resides; Morgan Thorn- burg lived near White chapel. Some of these had been on their places for several years.

HURRICANE.

" Eli B. Barnard says he was twenty-seven months old when the tornado took place. Their roof blew off, and they shoved the cradle with him in it under the bed to keep him from

drowning, and he says he remembers that. This was where widow Ballinger lives northwest of Charles W. Osborn's.

A horse was hemmed in with the fallen trees into a place only a few feet square, and yet the horse was not hurt ! One man, scared nearly out of his wits, had yet sense enough left to pray ; and he cried, " O Lord, if thou wilt spare ine this time, I will get away just as soon as I can go !" And he kept his word, the people say, and the next morning, picking his way to the nearest standing timber, he left for parts unknown.

Squirrels were one year so poor that they were not fit to cat William Smith's mill was built before 1819." [Doubtful.]

WILLIAM PICKETT.

" I have been a miller much of my life. I helped Jeremiah Cox build his mill on White River, in 1825. It was a water mill and stood on the place I now own ; Jeremiah Cox died soo. after. Joseph and Benjamin Pickett bought the mill, Benjam .. Pickett built a saw-mill. and in 1853, I bought the farm, 108 acres, and the two mills. The mills ran till the "five dry years," 1864-69 ; they were pulled down in 1870. The river has far less water now than formerly. I worked as a miller three yearz at White Water, afterwards off and on at Winchester, dressing buhrs, etc. A steam mill was built there about 1835.

" When we were tearing down my saw-mill, a big post fell on me. While taking a sill from the second story (the mill was built double), a post, a foot square and eleven feet long, knocked me down and fell on me. I was confined several weeks. They thought I could not live ; but that was ten years ago and I am here yet.

WILD HOGS.

" Great numbers of wild hogs were in the woods, descendants of tame ones, brought by early settlers, that had become wild. The males would stay wild for years. They would get with droves, and in a short time the whole drove would become so wild that you could hardly get them back again. Wild hogs would attack people when hard pressed. John Chapman, Allen County, was attacked by a wild boar when out after the cows. He climbed a big log, and had to stay till the creature left. HA had a fiste with him; the hog chased the dog and then took after Chapman himself. He had to stay on the log till some time i. the night.

An immense male hog once attacked a cow, in Thomas Coates' lane. He stuck his tusk into her breast, and the blood spurted right out. He then struck another cow and knocked he down as if she had been shot. His tusk was broken, or he would probably have killed her. The children were in the lane, they saw the hog, and climbed the fence. The men chased him more than half a mile, and shot him again and again, and at last killed him.

This animal belonged to one of the neighbors, but the creature had gone wild. On the Mississinewa hogs were found wild in abun- dance when the settlers first came there, as people would let their swine run in the woods, and after a while hunt them up again, to get them home, or to kill them for meat. They would go out and find the " range," and when snow would come several men would go on horseback, and shoot the hogs as they could find them. Sometimes the creatures would be four or five miles from home. After they were shot the hogs would be hauled home, by the nose, or on a sled or on a wagon. Once in a while people would make a fire out in the woods, and scald and dress them before taking them home.

DEER, ETC.

" Deer sometimes have thirteen prongs. At first the straight " spike " grows, the next year one prong on each horn, and so on. A straight horn is called a "spike ;" one prong, is called a "fork ;" more than one, "snags," three-snagged, four-snagged, etc. Deer were fat in the summer and fall and poor in the spring. I have often killed old deer that had no horns. Horne of old deer would be perhaps two feet long, when full grown.

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

" Amos Peacock and Henry Hill once took a load of smoked bacon to Richmond, and got only $1 a hundred.

I have bought salt that cost me $11.37 a barrel. I had flax seed to sell. I paid for hauling the seed, and the salt back from Dayton, and the whole cost me as above, $11.37 per barrel.

CHOLERA.

" As I was cradling wheat, a cloud gathered south of east, taking several hours. It covered nearly the whole sky. There was much lightning and thunder, and a little rain ; I did not stoj cradling. The body of the storm seemed to pass south. Shortly after I smelt a strong smell of burning sulphur, the smell lasting perhaps half an hour. It made me feel sick and faint, and I came near falling to the ground. Shortly after that the cholera broke out terribly at Lynn and other places." [See statements by Frazier, Johnson, Stone, etc.]

MARY HYATT-COATS-PICKETT.

"I was born in Grayson County, Virginia, in 1806. My father, Zachary Hyatt, came to Wayne County, Ind., 1814, and to Randolph County in 1817. Winchester, when I first saw it, October, 1819, had a court house and jail, and three houses. Once father lay sick, and I was weaving. Suddenly I saw through the open door a deer crawling through a crack in the fence. There were two crooked rails, one up and the other down. The deer had one hind leg broken. I sprang out with my little thread-knife, and my sisters and myself, with the dog, chased the deer one-quarter of a mile to a pond about knee deep. The dog caught the deer by the throat, and we waded in and killed it with clubs. We dragged the deer from the water, cut the leaders of the legs, and tucked the others in so we could carry it with a pole, and in that way we bore it home in triumph. The men were away, except father, and he was sick. Once the men were shooting turkeys, and one lit down into the yard and tried to crawl through the fence. My sister and I caught it and killed it.

"I used to spin and weave a great deal. I have woven many a yard of tow, and linen, and woolen. I wove coverlets, etc., for the whole region, Richmond, Mississinewa, Wabash, etc. Mr. Lewallyn from Ridgeville, once brought five coverlets. I told him, " I can't weave them, I have more than I can do." " Don't say a word," said he, " I shall leave the work, and you must do it, though it should stay here five years." So, he left the work, and in due time I wove them. We used to card and spin raw cotton, and wool too. My price for weaving coverlets was, $1 apiece.

"One day mother went away to be gone ten days. The flax was on the ground rotting. We girls took up the flax, dried, broke, swingled and hatcheled it, carded, spun and wove it; and by the time mother came home, the cloch was in garments, and on the children's backs.

"We used pewter platters, dishes, etc." [Mrs. Pickett showed a large ancient pewter platter, about a foot across, and heavy and thick, that her mother bought in 1818. It had never been molded over, and was about as good as new.]

"My father sold his place in North Carolina, and got ready to move to Indiana. Everything was packed and loaded, ready to start in the morning. The boys got up before daylight, and fed the horses, and got the harness to "gear up." Mother said, "you need not do it, father is sick." In ten days, father died. Mother married again, and in a year or two, came to Indiana."

WILLIAM ARMFIELD THORNBURG-STONY CREEK.

"When we first came, Richmond was our place of trade. We would go with the front wheels of a wagon, taking out the king- bolt, and fixing clapboards on the bolster and the "slider," put- ing on our coon skins and deer-skins and ginseng, and wheat if we could spare any, and the corn to be ground. The trip could be made as handily as you please. With only the two wheels,

one could turn and twist almost any way around and among the trees. The " truck " would be traded for " store tea," and cot- ton yarn, and powder and sole-leather. If a barrel of salt were needed, father would go with the whole wagon.

"The first mill I ever saw, was Sample's mill, a corn cracker. The mills then were small affairs, but we boys thought them something wonderful.

"Our folks made large quantities of tree sugar. Two springs, we made, each season, two barrels of grain sugar, 100 pounds of cake-sugar, and forty or fifty pounds of molasses.

"The third spring of our residence in Randolph, Samuel An- thony, father of E. C. Anthony, Esq., of Muncie, came to that place with a store of goods. Father needed some things. He said to my mother and myself, " you go to Muncie with a sack of sugar apiece." We filled the sacks; mother took hers before her, but I took a heavy sack. We got there in due time (twelvo miles), and traded the sugar at 6} cents a pound for coffee at half a dollar, and other goods as high as they could well be. When father built his mill, coffee and whisky had both to be furnished, or the men would not work. I had to go to Judge Reese's dis- tillery in Delaware County, for the whisky, which when a lad, I have often done. Father and I once went to Richmond with two yoke of oxen and the wagon, carrying flour and ginseng and sugar and deer-skins and coon skins, perhaps $35 worth in all. The trip took four days, (thirty-five miles). A man named Brightwell was in company. As they were about to start for home, Brightwell said, " take a drink," handing a bottle of " ginger pop," and as he drew the cork the "pop" flew clear to the loft. Father drank and gave me some. As we came to a big bill, father said to me. "you tend the hind cattle, and I will see to the forward yoke," locking the wagon, as he spoke, but taking the forewheel instead of the hind wheel. We went down the hill, but it was a terrible " go," neither of us knowing what the matter was. Just as we reached the bottom, I saw what he had done, and said, " what made thee lock the forewheel ?" " The dogs, I did, didn't I?" said he. I told my brother, and he remarked, "father was pretty tight." However, he was no drinker, but he got caught that time.'

MRS. JOSEPH BROWN, JR.

" My uncle, William Simmons, came early to Randolph County, Ind., and, I think, as soon as 1821. He lived just at the line between Jackson and Ward Townships, directly on the Missis- sinewa River, south of New Pittsburg. He died in middle life, but was the father of twenty-one children by the same wife. They were all raised " by hand," the mother being unable to " suckle " 'them. Twelve became grown, and ten are still living.

"James Simmons (my father) worked one harvest for Chief Richardville, near Ft. Wayne. One day an old man passed along the road having a tall hat on his head and a bundle on his back, and being otherwise odd looking. The boys began to " poke fun " at him. Suddenly he laid down his bundle, took off his hat, whirled round and faced them. Said he, "Do you know the eleventh commandment ?" " No, what is it?" " Mind your own busi- ness."

"That was a " center shot," their battery hushed, and without another word the old man went his way.

" When he was a boy at home, during the " squirrel year," James shot squirrels for weeks, throwing them to the hogs out- side the field, and leaving them to decay upon the ground. It was a hard task, but they saved their corn by the means.

" Daniel B. Miller and his wife came on horseback to their forest home, and she stuck a black locust riding switch into the ground in the door yard. It grew and became a fine, large tree, and a few years ago was there still.

"James Simmons was a great hunter. It may be safely said that he killed more deer than any other man in Jackson Town- ship. When he was building his log house, he set himself to cut and hew four logs a day, and besides that to kill one deer,

10€

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

and he did it. They lived at first for two or three months in a " camp " made of rails.

" He has killed six deer in one day. At one time he ran a deer till away after dark and got lost, and in the night he kept wandering round and firing his gun. His wife heard the firing, and, thinking that he might be lost, she took the ax and pounded as hard as she could upon a " gum " there was in the yard. He heard the pounding, and the noise guided him home.

"In winter time, after supper he would sit and tell deer stories as long as anybody would listen. He used never to think about going home from hunting as long as he could see the " sights " upon his gun, and often he would have a " time " to find his way to his cabin."

BEAR STORY.

" When I was a little girl, my brother (a little bit of a fellow), and myself were playing by a creek near the house, and a bear came and sat watching us from the opposite bank, a high bluff ten or fifteen feet high. I thought it was a dog, and was not scared. Presently mother saw the old fellow, and " hissed " the dog, which came and " tackled " the bear. She called to us, and we heeled it for the house. While the dog and the bear were " tussling," Jacob Harshman came along with his gun, hunting, and he shot and killed the bear. .

" They used to have some fun in those days too. Cameron Coffin, a gentleman land-owner, came out to see to his land ; he was not used to the woods, and the " bushwhackers " made game of him. One day he was at James Simmons' sugar camp, and the boys were making wax. Coffin was 'green' upon the subject of wax making, and they made some very hard and sticky, and got him to take a great chunck into his mouth to eat it ; he chewed the wax till his teeth and jaws were all stuck fast to- gether. He worked and worked and clawed and dug at the wax till he was nearly choked. Finally the stuff softened and melted somewhat in his mouth, and he made out to get clear of it; but he had a terrible time, and the boys nearly died laughing at the fun. At another time, they were walking a foot log over the river, and he undertook it, too ; he did not know how to keep his balance, and the boys pretended to come near falling off, and shook the log so that he did fall off into the water waist deep. He was not used to such life ; the backwoods boys were too much for him, and he " got out of that," and went back to the settle- ment where he came from, and left the jolly blades to play tricks upon themselves."

F. G. WIGGS, GREENSFORK.

"Father left North Carolina when I was seven years old ; we were six weeks and three days on the road, reaching William Arnold's (now Noah Turner's), May 5, 1826. I rode a horse (that pulled one of our carts) all the way. Father put me on the horse the evening we started, and I rode clear through. We had two carts, and father led the other besst. Mother also walked a great deal ; we camped under a tent through the whole journey ; several families were in company : Joseph Copeland, wife and four children ; Isaac Cook, wife and four children ; father and mother and four children, eighteen in all.

" Father lent Isaac Cook $25 to come with (which he paid af- terward).' Father bought eighty acres of Benjamin Puckett, agreein ? to give $250 and a cart valued at $25. He afterward enter. 1 eighty acres, and mother lived on it till she died in the fall of 1881; we settled in the wilderness. William Arnold and Frederick: Fulghum mer a just before father did. Fred Fulghum had come back to Carviina and told us what a grand place Indi- ana was, and father was not satisfied till he moved out there him- self. Deer used to come into father's clearing, and they were so tame that they would not run away ; father had no gun, and never shot any of them."

JAMES W. CLARK.

" The first school I went to was held in a little horse stable made of slabs set endwise. David Semans taught the school.

The seats were slabs with legs in, no backs, of course. The first church in the town was in 1837, on the old church lot, now (a part of) the graveyard. Three camp-meetings were held near Spartansburg (in 1838-40 probably). The rowdies disliked Preacher Bruce. He was pretty " sharp " on them. They had planned to flog him. They were swaggering round with peeled canes. He disguised his dress, got a " peeled cane," went down to the spring among the rowdies, and heard all their plans. He then went back, opened meeting, and told the astonished trick- sters from the pulpit all their plot. The rowdies did not whip him. There were great revival meetings. At one time one hun- dred members joined.

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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 30

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