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 4

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 4

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).

Vorhis, Atrr.

Waule, Stephen ... 1 10, 141 Wiggs, Fellx G

Wages of Feluwijs, 187, 188 Wiggs, Farah ( Barefoot)

Wagon Fartory. 2018, :05 Wiggy, Windsor ..

Wasou Making. .300,310 Wickersham, J.

.. 84, 101 Wilkerson Girls (Slaves) ..... .. 290, 193, 197, 19%

Walnut Ing ...... 15 Will, First ...

Wir Sunglotes ... 2.13 Willimus, Grear N.

War, Itliatt 1x11-1813 .... 239, 240 Williams, John W ....

War, Indian 1789-1795. .. 2:39 Williams, JJoel Ii ..... :58,

War, Mexican .... 241-213 Williamwenn, John W

War, "rasjon ....... .. ... 242-296 Want. Juah ........... .20, 21, 35, 96, 400, 414

Ward, Thennas .... .21, 35, 94, 327, 28 Willow Spring ...... Won Township. .... 17, 24, 69, 60, 414 Willson, George T Wartell. Chester ... .. 279, 280 Wihnore, Benjamin F

Warrell, Willtant .... 270, 2×0 Wilmore, Invad W. :189 Y. M. C. A ...

Warmen, Family .. ... 490 Wilcore, Jesse W.

Wind-mills .

Winchester, 11, 23, 36, 63, 72, 78,54, 97, 101, 102, 154, 10, 1, 1, 50, 001, 12 18, 000, 17, 207, EIN. 200211 212, 224, 257-221, 18, 20-36 ... 11, 182, 11, 157,211, 17

Wirr Fente ...

Wis, Brury.

Wolf, Willi.n

Wold, ri. W.

Wax, Chewing ....... 31

Way Family ..

Way, Mrs. Amanda M ..

418 Way, Frances M, Way.

198, 319

Wordlawn Cemetery-

Way, Just ... Way, Joh ......... 329, 310 Women's Wurk ... 50,

Way, Judith .... 5 Woul Slatimi .....

Wenden Factory ..

Woolen MiHl (Partory, Woolen). Woolverton, Charles W

Work.

Wayne, Anthony. (9), 51, 2440 Worth, Rev. Paulel,

Worth, Thoma4 ...

W. U. T. I'mon-

Wayne's Treaty .... .21, 23 Wright Finnily ..

Wayne's Victory ... 21, ** Wright, Flward

Weather. 201, 215

Weaving ...

Welding 81, 237, 25X Wright, Mary Ann

Weedly and firassos ....... Week of P'rayer ...

Wright, W. G .... Well, Hilder .. 13 Wright, William. 37, 30, 51, 52, 171 IN Well, Deep .....

471

Wright, John D .....

Wright, Il. K .......

811: Wright, Samuel ...

Wesleyan Church

West Lynu

West River.

39, 60,74, 300

Warner, ...........

Wall, Allen ...

Warwick, S. D ..

Wallare, Thonins.

Wallace, Mrs. Frances.

Warren, W.

497

White Chapel.

WInte Jaesh .

White, Mr. and t'hirf ..

White River Chapel ..... 110, 150, 1G1

Wrich, Tlmmas

131 W'rsler, G. W

Vrediation .....

White River ..... ..: 37, 38, 50, 119, 211 Vernon ....

Veteran Engineers ... 201, 296 16, 17, 24

Vinegar Ifill. 1.57 Whitesell Cemetery .... Virginia ... .*****

Willson; 1. .....

Willeun, T. T

Withsam, Anderem & Co

Wine. G. W ..

Wirt, I. ......

Winter, JJ. W.

Word, Ales.

Wiunl, Autrew .J ..

$1.5

Wennl, Istde ...

Wood, Francis 11.

Word, William 11

WinxThury, E. R .....

Winxlberry Family,

Winxlbury, Jantes ... Wwwcherry, Holwert.

Worthington, Mrs. W. T ..

Yawl ...

Yergin, II. II.

Zimmerman, Frederic.

Warren, John H. ... 111, 420, 423 Wihnoro, Rov. Willis C ... 174 Zion ... 161

Washington Township. .00,375-39

Waters, Indansi ........

Wanknon ..... .16,14

Watson. Hon. Enos 1 ...

Watts, I-alah P'.

Wird Chopping Wart, Joseph T. 78, 3X4

Wowaltmary, F. N 221

Way, Henry HI ......

Way, Moorman. .18, 05, 86, 88, 811

Way, Hoberl.

Wny, William

Wayne Fort .. 6, 17, 18, 19 Wayne Township. ... 26, 60, 61, 71, 76, 11

Wright, Iar.

Wright, I-tarl.

Wright, Solomm

Wentworth, Stephen JI .....

Wells, Benjamin F

873 Wysung, Harvey ...

112 WTrung, Valentine

West Itiver Valley

West Virginia Campaign.

Wheatley, It. T.

Whijnaw ...

Warren, 1 ....

Water Works Webb, A. H.

Wiggers, Elizabeth 11 ..

White River Valley ..

Yraw, Jimas.

27, 2335

Whisky.

Wiley, William A ......... 416

Wiley, Rev. Thomas ..... 170 Worthington, W. T

Tri~[ ........... Tritt, .In ... 1.91 Washington's Tomb ......

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

CHAPTER I. PRE-HISTORIC.

GENERAL-SPANISHI EXPLORATIONS-RELICS-ANTIQUITIES.

AB ABUNDANT evidence exists to show that North America, (and South America as well), was inhabited hundreds, possibly thousands, of years ago by a swarming human population. Even though we possessed no written records of the doings of men upon the Eastern Continent during the ages that are past, yet the ruins that still remain of the works which they left behind them would attest their presence and their power. In the stirring words of the poet,

"These ages have no memory, but they left A record in the desert ; columns strewn On the waste sands ; statues fallen and eleft, Heaped like a host in battle overthrown ; Vast ruins where the mountain's ribs of stone Were hewn into a city ; streets that sprend

In the dark earth where never breath has blown Of heaven's sweet air, or foot of man dares tread The long and perilous ways : the Cities of the Dead I"

The immense walls and towers, the stupendous temples, the wondrous pyramids, the burnt and molten mounds filled with bricks and pottery-the caves hewn from the solid rock, the tombs excavated into the sides of cliffs, the marble slabs and huge pil- lars covered with writing made by human hands; Pompeii and Herculaneum, deep buried, or dug from the bowels of the earth ; the roads and highways remaining still to show to us in these later days how those old nations practiced locomotion in those by-gone ages ; the marble pillars, the fallen statues, the gigantic sphinxes, the ruins of Thebes and Athens and Palmyra ;- all these, and a myriad other things declare the certain fact that, long gen- erations ago, human inhabitants dwelt in numbers and in power upon those spreading Eastern lands.

It happens, indeed, that we possess legible written records of human actions as performed by a few men who belonged to some of the ancient nations who once occupied portions of Europe and Asia and Africa. We have histories telling us somewhat of the things which some of the ancient peoples did ; telling us of the Jews, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Greeks, the Romans.

But these histories are (as all histories must be) merely frag- mentary. They name a few men, a few cities, a few rivers, and describe some of the actions of a small number of persons out of the mighty multitude who once swarmed along those plains and mountains and valleys. But the great mass of human deeds of even the historical periods, so called, must for ever lie inextricably hidden beneath the mist of the unknown and unrecorded past.

. So of these Western plains. The written history for unknown ages is wholly lacking-intelligible records, made as such by human pen or pencil or chisel, are not to be found ; but the un- conscious record shown in earth, in mounds and embankments, in burial-grounds and human skeletons, is abundant on every hand. The ancestral remains scattered far and wide throughout the Western Continent incontestably prove the fact that, before the stubborn Briton, the jolly Frenchman, the bluff Dutchman, the

stern and haughty Spaniard ; before Gilbert and Hudson, before De Soto and La Salle, before Columbus and Cortez and Balboa and Pizarro ; before even the wandering, wigwam-dwelling red. man, there dwelt throughout this vast Mississippi Valley a throng. ing race of men : a race, moreover, neither feeble as to power, nor lacking in knowledge and in skill.

These ancient peoples would seem indeed to have labored under some great and serious drawbacks to their power, since no proof has been found of an acquaintance with iron or with iron implements, and little or none, moreover, of the existence of domestic animals of draft or burden.

Yet their achievements, despite these serious drawbacks, as shown by the remains of the: . works, by the ruins of what they once possessed and dwelt in and of what they constructed, are indeed wonderful. And would it be too much to affirm that,- were the proud Anglo-Saxon race, and the other European races as well, to be swept during the next century from the American Continent, leaving no written records preserved and handed down to following ages, and (say) two or ten thousand years were to pass, while the tooth of time should gnaw remorselessly upon the dwindling remnants of their fading glory-would it be too much to declare that, after such a lapse of time, those who should then tread the American shores, would behold, in that far-off future time, fewer and less striking proofs of the former presence and power of these boastful "white men " than do now appear to attest the prowess of the " Mound-Builders " and " Fort-makers," of the Palace-dwellers of Central America and Yucatan, the " Cliff-dwellers" of Colorado, or the Sun-or-Devil-worshipers of Tetzuco ?

All over this great valley, and among the mighty mountains and yawning canons of the far-off West, once lived and moved a mighty race of men. The works which they have forsaken, the ruins which " Old Father Time" himself has been able neither to deface nor destroy, yet stand, and raise their heads beneath the canopied sky, and say -- " Whose works are all these?"

Mystery hangs over the story of these people, darkness deeper than the darkness of the catacombs covers them, yet they were here !

As England was peopled before the Normans, the Saxons, the Danes, so was the American Continent peopled before the white man or the red man. And not merely were such races scattered far and wide upon our mountains and over our plains, but here, in Randolph County, Ind., here, on these lands which we now own and hold and till, they dwelt. On these rivers and streams they paddled their canoes, the animals of these forests they slew for food. Here they ate, they drank, they toiled, they dwelt, they fought, they died and were buried. Here, even like heroes of other lands and times, recorded or otherwise, they tried in battle fierce and stern defense, to beat back their ruthless foes . but alas ! like other hapless races, they failed and dwindled, and disappeared from the earth ! Whence they came, how long they and their ancestors had been domiciled on these lands, and in what manner was the process of extinction ; who were and whence came their strong invaders conjecture can only imagine.

The world has been full of hostile migrations, and of the absorption or the destruction of the nations dwelling upon the

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

invaded lands; and had not the history of such inroads been written, no mortal could now supply the lack.

They were here, and they are gone ! And now, as we gaze sadly on their fortifications and on their bones exhumed from the places of their sepulture, and, as the sighing west wind gently whispers " Whence and what were these ?" echo mournfully re- peats " whence and what?" but the answer never comes !

A race so numerous, so intelligent, so skillful, so laborious, so brave, must have had dwellings, towns, clothing, implements of labor and of warfare. But of their manner of life we know lit- tle. It is strange, indeed, that amid all the remains of their works so little is left to give a clew to their life, their habits, their dwellings, their towns, their civilization.

Some tokens indeed there are, but these indications are not many. In Europe, among the lake dwellings and elsewhere, are found matting, stone arrow heads, copper and stone knives and axes, shell heaps, fragments of woolen cloth, bones of oxen, horses and cattle, of sheep, dogs and goats ; seeds of strawberries, rasp- berries, etc., loaves of bread, and many other things.

In America also have been found matting, pipes, hammers (made of stone) large enough for two men to wield, and in heaps sufficiently large to be hauled away in cart loads, and in quanti- ties enough to be used in walling a well ; stone-axes, stone, wood and copper tools in mines worked by those primeval races ; pot- tery of curious construction and varions device, figures supposed to have been idols ; enps, bowls, and dishes of divers shapes and designs. etc.

In the northern and eastern portions of the United States, few remnants of stone-work have been found. But in Yucatan, Central America, and Colorado, ruins of great towns remain, nearly rivaling the desolated cities of Asia and Africa, while in New Mexico, Colorado and the adjacent regions, stone dwellings and fortresses and towns built upon inaccessible heights, and reached by flights of steps or by ladders, are found, and aborigi- nal tribes of men still dwelling in them.

SPANISH DISCOVERIES.

The history of Spanish explorations in New Mexico and California reveals a wonderful state of things ; and modern trav- elers discover present remnants of those ancient peoples and of their wondrous towns.

Bryant's Ilistory, speaking of Spanish explorers in 1581-2, says :

"Traveling up the valley of the Rio del Norte, * a journey of ten days brought them to villages containing ten thousand people. The houses were well built, four stories high, with good chambers, most of them having fire-places for winter. The people were well dressed in cotton and leather, with good shoes and boots, such as the Spanish had not seen in America before. After four days the travelers went on to another tribe, called the Tiguas, of sixteen towns. In two days they came to a country of cleven towng, of which the natives said the popula- tion was more than 40,000. They next visited the Quires and found five towns with 15,000 people. Fourteen leagues farther they found the Cunames, who had five towns with 20,000 people. Their houses were built of stone and lime and were the best the Spaniards had seen. Next were the Amejcs, 30,000 in number. Fifteen leagues westward they found the town of Acoma with 6,000 people.

"This town ( Acoma ) is still in existence, peopled probably with the same race of inhabitants. It was on a high cliff, which was more than fifty platforms in height, and could be ascended only by steps cut out of the rock itself. All the water the pco- ple had was in cisterns. The arable land was two leagues away, being watered by artificial means from a little river in the neighborhood."

Judge Cozzens thus describes the town of Acoma' as it was in 1860 :

" Acoma stands upon the top of a rock at least 350 fect

above the plain. The Pueblo can be reached only by means of a staircase of 375 steps, cut in the solid rock. At the upper end of this [ staircase ] is a ladder eighteen feet long, made from the trunk of a tree, from which notches have been cut for the feet."

Bryant continnes : "Twenty-four leagues farther west, Espejo and his companions came to Zuni, where they found the crosses, etc., left by Coronado half a century before. The Zuni live there still."

It appears then, that our western regions, New Mexico, Ar- izona, California, etc., were, at the time of their exploration by the Spanish, inhabited by a cultivated people, clothed, dwelling in houses, with cities, in some respects, the most remarkable in the world.

J. W. Powell, in Scribner, December 1875, says :

" Thus, in this desert land, we find an agricultural people, dwelling in stone houses, with walls laid in mortar, and plastered within; houses two, three, four, five and six stories high ; skill- ed in pottery, weaving, dyeing ; with picture writing, mytholo- gy and religion ; with no beasts of burden and no knowledge of metals, their tools being bones, stone and wood."

He says further that there were found, when the region was discovered by the Spaniards and explored by them in the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries, about sixty towns, and that some thirty of these towns still remain; that nearly all were semi- Christianized by the Spanish Catholics, but that seven exist now as in ancient days.

These seven towns are in what is called the province of Tusayan, and are named as follows: O-rai-bi, Shi-pan-i-luv-i, Mi-shong-i-ni-vi, Shong-a-pa-vi, Te-wa, Wol-pi, Si-choam-a-vi : the last three called the Moqui towns. They are all built on high rocks or cliffs, with houses of several stories, entered by ladders, or steps, or both. Before 1540 the clothing was cotton ; but between 1540 and 1600 they were supplied with sheep through the Spaniards, and since that time they have used woolen and now employ it largely. The men wear moccasins, leggings, shirts and blankets (which they make themselves); the women wear moccasins with long tops, besides short petticoats and a shawl over the right shoulder, a belt around the waist and an outer garment.

These seven towns have at present 2,700 inhabitants, though they are much dilapidated, and when in their glory they doubtless contained a far greater number.

Mr. Powell says further :

" The ruins of towns are found in great profusion throughout Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California, on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, on the western slope as well; * * over all this vast territory, in every beautiful valley and glen, by every streamlet and every spring, on the high mountains, on the cliffs, away out in the des- erts of drifting sand, and down in the deep canon-gorges are found ruins, stone implements or fragments of pottery."

Mr. Powell thinks the Navahoes, the Apaches and kindred tribes have swept down in past ages from the north and gradu- ally uprooted these ancient races, leaving only the feeble rem- nants that are now existing.

The Mexicans and Peruvians, when visited and conquered by Cortez and Pizarro, were far advanced in many arts of domes- tic life-in building, weaving, road-making, tilling, etc., etc.

The Natchez, a tribe of great intelligence but of limited numbers, and dwelling on the Lower Mississippi, claimed to be de- seendants of the ancient inhabitants and declared that their pro- genitors had occupied that land for unknown centuries.

The traditions of the Indians of the northern lake region extend back for " thousands of moons," even to the time, as these traditions declare, in which the Mastodon, whose remains abound throughout the region, still dwelt in those wilds.

And now, interesting questions press themselves upon our notice: Who are they-whence came they-how long dwelt they -- whither went they-how came they to leave the region-are

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

any traces of them still remaining-and if so, where and what and how many ?

WHENCE CAME THESE RACES ?

Conjecture is idle. But opinions are rife and diverse-and fruitless. Baldwin thinks they came from the southward-grad- ually extending through the great valley farther and still farther toward the North. This conjecture may be true. But even this would be only an approximation.

How came they in Central America ? Was that the grand center from whence the conquering hordes came northward to the great lakes and over the vast land of the Western Cordilleras, and spread southward to Peru ? And if so, we repeat, how camo they in Central America ? Echo answers, how ? Or did they come from the North, going southward, still and ever southward ? The settled opinion seems to be that the invaders who swept those older races from the face of the country came from the North ; and, if so, why not the former occupants as well ? And then again the question arises, whence came those northern invading hordes if such there were? That portion of the continent could not now nourish such hosts of men, nor furnish such a birthplace of nations-how could it in ancient times ?

Some insist upon an American center and originating point for the race, or rather for "one of the races," as they say. Be it so -- but that only multiplics the miracle of the creation of man, re- quiring not one but many "Edens." The sad fact appears to be that much, very much of our opinion upon such subjects is bare conjecture-simply " guess-work " and nothing more. It is granted that races other and older than the Indians of Colum- bus's, or at least of De Soto's time, have filled the land ; but who they were, whence they came, how long they dwelt, who swept them away, and when and how the dread result was accomplished we may imagine, we may guess, but the world will be none the wiser therefor ; and these questions, though full of interest, can probably never find an answer.

There might, indeed, be some apparent ground for an opin- ion that the ancient inhabitants of Mexico, Yucatan, Peru and Colorado, as found by the Spanish explorers and conquerors in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, are the descendants of the same people who built the " mounds " and " forts " and " cm- bankments " of the central regions ; yet even this is only a " may be so."

And, where history is utterly wanting, conjecture is wholly un. able to supply the lack. Volumes might be written, as they have already been, and doubtless will be in time to come, but who will know any more of the matter through their means ?

But not to dwell. This ancient people (or succession of peo- ples) must have been numerous, intelligent, skillful, enterprising and of long continuance ; and the loss of their history to the world is a misfortune that can never be regarded otherwise than with profound regret.

The scant and meager remains that still exist from their nu- merous and widely scattered works, make us wish only the more that we could know who and whence were this wondrous and mys- terious race of men.

A book is extant, indeed, written some thirty years ago. con- taining an account, apparently authentic and sincere, of the travels and explorations of the author in the Mississippi Valley, as to the mounds in that vast region, which declares as a fact that he found among the Dakota or Sioux Indians, a venerable chief of great age, named De-coo-dah, who claimed to be the last surviving mem- ber of the Elk tribe, who were the remnants of the ancient Mound-Builders. The author affirms that the old chief traveled with him in the explorations of the ancient relics ; and, more- over, that he made abundant statements, giving the traditions handed down from his ancestors, of the reason and purpose of the different kinds of structures visited by them. The work is now very rare, only three copies being known to exist. One be- longs to Prof. E. H. Butler, of Winchester, obtained, after much time and trouble spent in search of it, through Clarke & Co.,

publishers, of Cincinnati. Another was found in some old libra- ry in the southern part of Indiana by Daniel Hough, Esq., late of Fountain City, Ind., and now in the library left by him at his decease. That copy was obtained by Mr. Hough by exchanging therefor $20 worth of other books. Another one is known to he in existence in the United States but its exact locality cannot now by us be given. The title and description of the book is as follows : "Traditions of De-coo-dah, and Antiquarian Rescarches, comprising extensive explorations, surveys and excavations of the wonderful and mysterious remains of the Mound-Builders in America ; the Traditions of the last Prophet of the Elk Natien relative to their origin and use; and the evidences of an ancient population more numerous than the present Aborigines, by Will- iam Pigcon. Published at New York by Horace Thayer, 18 Beekman street, New York, 1858. Entered in the Southern Dis- triet of New York, 1852."

If space could be spared for the purpose, which, however, cannot now be done, it would be of deep interest to give a resume of the contents of the treatise in question. Whether the book be a true recital or not, we cannot tell. It seems to have every mark of authenticity, and no appearance of fraud or trickery of any kind. The announcement of the chief fact, that the author had discovered a descendant of the Mound-Builders, may strike many as being strange; yet such a thing would be in itself no more strange than the fact that the Welsh are descendants of the ancient Britons.

RELICS.

Numerous indeed and wonderful are the relics of these unknown races of men, scattered through the length and breadth of the Mississippi Valley and elsewhere; some of which also are to be found in the county of Randolph. In Ohio alone, more than 10,000 mounds, and 1,500 inclosures and embankments are said to have been found, all presumably the work of these races. These mounds, etc., are found often covered by trees from five to eight centuries old.

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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 4

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