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 41

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 41

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Afterward came Robert Scott, Willis Crane, Nathan Ward, Dudley, Jerry Terry, Abram Cotman, Thomas Wilkerson, Mat- thew Chavis, Seeny, Robert Ward, Isaac Woods, Edward Outland, Abram Woods, Benjamin Skipworth, Samuel Woods, John Smith, Jesse Woods, Philip Woods (father), Jacob Woods, Dosha Smoth- ers and a large family of girls, Colman Scott, Solomon Scott. There were also many others.

The citizens in that settlement now are chiefly James Scott, Andrew Scott, Eleazar Scott, Ananiah Scott, Martin Scott, Mon- roe Barber, Peter Ladd, Wyatt Jennings, John Roberts, Richard Scott, Isaac Ward, David Stafford, Stephen Perkins, Burrell Perkins, Mrs. Paulina Scott, Charles Barracks, George Hill, Perry Stafford, John Sawyer, Greenberry Scott, Isaac Woods, Charles Smothers, Anderson Moore, George Outland, John Hall, Minerva Moore, Immanuel Stafford, John Watkius and some others.

It is a fact to be noted that, in the spring of 1880, a colored man, John Roberts by name, was chosen Assessor of Nettle Creek Township.

Some old fogies, like Rip Van Winkle, who were not aware that the world had moved during the last twenty years, fought hard against the attempt to elect him, and were very indignant at their failure; but Mr. Roberts has proved to be a competent and worthy officer, and the sun shines and the rain falls as in olden time.

There is also a Baptist Church, formed long ago, declining and apparently dying some years since, but revived and re-organ- ized, and now in active operation, with a few members.

There were at one time three school districts and three school- houses in the settlement, which was then seven miles long and two miles wide. There is now only one schoolhouse, though some colored families attend at the white schools, and without objec- tion or complaint.

The school is maintained by the public funds.

A colored musical band is kept up, and its members are very proud of the fact that, at the soldiers' re-union, held at Win- chester in the fall of 1880, they gained the prize offered for pro- ficiency and skill in performance.

There is also an African Methodist Episcopal Church in reg- ular operation in the settlement, in which worship and services are steadily maintained.

SNOW HILL SETTLEMENT.

Some twenty years or more ago, several colored families had their attention called to the fact that there were cheap lands at a point between Winchester and Lynn, not far from Snow Hill. They resolved to settle there, and did so, and by and by a settle- ment of several families had grown up in that region. They are located in Washington Township, and form a separate school district. Their children appear to be making good prog- ress, and the settlers in general are approving themselves to the people in the region round about. Since these various settle- ments began to be formed, many have emigrated to other places -- to Grant County, Ind., to Paulding County, Ohio, and else- where. But a considerable number remain in each neighborhood still.

It is a somewhat remarkable fact, and one favorable to the colored settlers, and to the people of Randolph County at large, that, in 1851, Randolph County gave a good majority against the famous thirteenth article of the new constitution adopted for In- diana in that year.

The people of these settlements belong mostly to the African Methodist Episcopal and the Wesleyan Churches. They have meeting-houses and preachers, and, on the whole, are a church- going people.

The first settlement at Snow Hill was made about 1838. Gabriel Moore came into the region in 1838. Michael and William Benson moved there in 1840. Benjamin Copeland settled there about 1847. Davison Copeland settled there about 1850; Little- burn Winburn, about 1848 or 1849. Prentiss Copeland came just before the war.

Afterward came Meredith Small, Elisha Boon, Wiley Law- rence and son, Jesse Winn, Thomas Watkins, Henry Watkins, John Bragg. Isaac Watkins, James Watkins, William Culfer.

No more than ten or twelve families have been here at one time.

The families resident now are Wiley Lawrence, William Ben- son, Mrs. Michael Benson, Thomas Watkins, Henry Watkins, Asbury Benson, Mrs. Elisha Boon, John Bragg, Isaac Watkins, James Watkins, William Culfer.

There is an African Methodist Episcopal society and a pub- lic school. Some of the residents own the land on which they dwell; others live on rented farms. The people of the settlement are moral and industrious, and the young are intelligent and well behaved, and, by their discreet deportment, merit the confidence and esteem of the community in general.

OTHER PERSONS.

Persons of color have been residents of Randolph County out-

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

side of the settlements referred to. Among them may be reck- oned, as having been for many years active and prominent among the people, William H. Demory, who resides some miles south- west of Winchester. He is an intelligent gentleman, a thrifty, enterprising farmer, and an active, worthy citizen, and has the respect of all who know him. His biography is given elsewhere in this work. Hie father, John Demory, is said to have been the earliest colored settler in the western part of the county. An account of his life, also, is given elsewhere.

In later years, some persons of color have become residents of Winchester and Union City. At Winchester resides an old col- ored gentleman by the name of Willis Perry, whose biography is given. Another enterprising colored man is found there in the person of Kent Browne, Esq., for several years an active, thriving and respected barber in that town. He became during the war an employe in the army of Gen. Thomas M. Browne, and came North with him. Kent Browne has many friends among the citizens of the county, and bids fair to achieve an honorable success.

At Union City are a considerable number of families and per- sons of color, special mention of whom time and room now fail to give.

Henry McDonald, who resides at Spartanburg, Ind., has been, through a long life, a laborious, worthy and reliable citi- zen, and still, though numbering' more than threescore years and ten, is found vigorously plying his hammer and making the sounding anvil ring.

TEMPERANCE.

There have always been among this people, as elsewhere, some who would indulge in intoxicating liquors. Considerable efforts have been put forth to check the sin and the curse of drink, with at least partial success.

In about 1850 (perhaps earlier), a temperance society was formed in the Greenville settlement, and carried on with interest and a degree of success, for, perhaps, ten or twelve years. That society finally went down. In 1874, when the Murphy movement aroused the country, a new association, auxiliary to the Christian Temperance Union, was formed and kept up for several years.

The meetings were held at the two churches at frequent in- tervals, and great interest was maintained for a time by speeches and essays from the members, both male and female, by volun- teer singing by the young people of the settlement, by addresses from abroad, etc. And to the credit of the youth of the neigh- borhood, be it said, that right nobly did they each and all per- form the work assigned them. Some beautiful music was pre- sented, several excellent addresses were delivered, showing what young people, when aroused to action, can do for their country and their kind.

It is a terrible commentary on the deadly mischief wrought by the sale and use of intoxicating drinks, and how nearly impos- sible is the task to destroy the terrible curse, that at a liquor saloon at Tampico, Ohio, in the colored settlement, on Christ- mas Eve, after a drunken shooting match in the immediate vicin- ity, and a furious fight among the parties thereto, one man was killed outright, another was so nearly killed that for a long time his life was despaired of, and still another was so badly beaten that his face was said by one who saw him the next morning to be nearly as black as that of a Guinea negro. Four men have been nearly ever since in the Greenville jail, and the first one tried (the trial taking place during the week beginning Monday, March 6, 1882), has been found guilty and sentenced to imprison- ment during life, and the trial of the second is now in progress (March 15, 1882).

CHURCHES.

For many years two churches have been maintained in the Greenville settlement, viz .: African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Indiana; Wesleyan Church, in Ohio. The churches are just one mile apart. They have been established from forty to fifty years. Great numbers have belonged, from first to last, to one church or the other, and the societies have flourished more or less during the whole course of their existence.

Regular preaching services have been constantly maintained,

and revival meetings have been held, continuing sometimes for weeks together, gathering into the church fellowship sometimes scores of professed converts. Many have backslidden from time to time, but many, too, have stood fast, enduring to the end, and going up to claim the promise of a heavenly mansion from their gracious Savior and Lord. Great numbers have "died in the Lord.". Their bodies slumber in the dust; their happy spirits, set free from earth and its besetments and entanglements, have gone, we may fain hope and believe, to be forever with the Lord.

Some of the members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church on the Indiana side have been Robert Scott, Matthew Lewis, Allen Davis, Daniel Burden, John Randle, Reuben Ran- dle, Levi Linzey, the Purnell brothers (three or four of them), Nimrod Lewis and many others.

Among their preachers have been Paul Quinn (late Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church), Mackintosh, Ward, the Revels brothers, Harper, Mac Smith, Burden, Winslow, Radcliff, Chavis, Stokes and many besides.

Snow Hill. - There is an African Methodist Episcopal Church at this settlement, which is reasonably flourishing, but we have no account of it at hand. It belongs in the same circuit with Greenville and some others.

Regular Union Baptist Church, Colored. - Nettle Creek Town- ship, one and a half miles southeast of Pleasant View.

About 1843, Rev. Samuel. Jones, from Mercer County, Ohio, came to Cabin Creek settlement and preached in a log school- house near the present site of the Baptist Church (a little south of James Scott's residence). He organized a church, which has remained to the present time.

The members were Stephen Patterson, Isom Davis, James Scott and wife, Thomas Robinson and wife. The meeting-house was built in 1860-65. It was for some years a lively church, and several others were formed in the region, and a little asso- ciation was organized. The churches were at Newport, Green- ville settlement, one in Grant County and one in Rush County.

A meeting of the association was held at Greenville settle- ment, in the Wesleyan Church, on the Ohio side.

The churches at Greenville settlement and Newport (Fountain City) have gone down; the others are existing still.

The church at Nettle Creek languished on account of finan- cial troubles, but in 1878 it was formed anew, with seven per- sons, and now consists of nine members, as follows:

James Scott and wife, William Shoecraft and wife, Reuben Means, Keziah Scott, Ann Eliza Scott, Rachel Sawyer, Susan Amanda Wood.

At one time there were thirty-five members belonging.

The preachers have been Messrs. Samuel Jones (first), Samuel Jones (second), John Jones, Lee Van, Reuben Means, Unis B. Plane (present minister).

They have Sunday school, but not very regularly.

Cabin Creek (Colored) M. E. Church. - Began in 1833. The first meeting-house was at their old graveyard southeast of Pop. lar Run Friends' Meeting-House. That house has been gone many years (closed in 1865), and they have worshiped in their schoolhouse to the present time. They are now erecting a taste- ful and commodious church near their public school building, which will furnish ample accommodations for worshiping assem- blies for years to come. The size is 28x38; cost, $760.

Among their early members were Nathan Ward (Rev.), Ben- jamin Skipworth (Rev.), Burrell Jones (Rev.), Job Felton, Willis Crain, Harrison Hurdle, Elisha Hurdle, Hardy Evans, B. Per- kins, Elias Watkins, Richard Robbins, John Smith, James Fer- guson, Alexander Williams, William Davison (Rev.), Benjamin Outland, Samuel Outland.

Some of their preachers have been John Turner, McIntosh, Dove, Davison, Ward, William Trevan, Skipworth, Stokes, Wins low, Quinn, Crosby, Crosby, Daniel Burden, Harper, Price, Mc- Smith, Nichols, Alexander Smith, Chavis.

The members now are P. Perkins, Charles Smothers and wife, Peter Ladd and wife, Maria Stafford, Edward Bolden and wife, Minerva Moore, Anna Weaver, Rev. Isaac Ward, Elias Watkins, Mary Jane Smith, Mahala Perkins, Eveline Jennings, Emily Barber, Rebecca Wood, Armeta Wood, etc.

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

The settlment used to be seven miles long and two miles wide; now, only about two miles long.

The meeting-house is in West River Township, two miles southeast of Pleasant View. A large part of the settlement is in Nettle Creek Township. though it used to extend into three- West River and Stony Creek also.

The first preacher in the settlement was Rev. Paul Quinn, then circuit-rider, afterward, during many years, Bishop of Af- rican Methodist Episcopal Church, and dying at Richmond, Ind., several years ago.

There were once eighty or one hundred families in that col- ored settlement, and the Methodist class was strong and flourish- ing. The settlement and the Methodist society are both much smaller than of old.

BIOGRAPHY.

We furnish herewith short accounts of some who were early pioneers among the colored people in Randolph County, or who have been in some way distinguished among them.

THORNTON, ALEXANDER, GREENSFORK.

Thornton Alexander, Sr., farmer, colored, born about 1780, Culpeper County, Va., a slave; but set free at thirty-six (1816). His master, Abram Sellers, brought him, with his wife and nine children, to Warren County, Ohio, in 1816. He moved to Ran- dolph County, Ind., in 1822 (first colored settler on Indiana side in Greenville colored settlement). He entered, first and last, 320 acres of land. His patents are signed by James Monroe and Andrew Jackson. He died in 185], aged about seventy-one years. He had fifteen children-three pair of twins. All lived to be grown but one pair of twins. He was twice married. The children were Gabriel and John, Henry, Thornton, Betsey, Jo- seph, Isaac and Jacob, Abraham, twins (no name), Lucinda, Mary, Joshua, Casey Ann.

Gabriel, ton children, six living; twice married; dead many yours.

John, ten children, three living; twice married; died 1879, aged seventy-five years; second wife still living.

Henry, four children; died in 1846 by a tree-fall.

Thornton, five children, all living; wife dead many years: barber, Richmond, Ind .; seventy years old.

Betsey, married George N. Black; six children; dead about ten years.

Joseph, three children; dead thirty years.

Jacob, married Rebecca Clark; two children; South Bend; barber.

Isaac, four times married-Virginia Clark, Charlotte Gales, Eliza Bass, Elizabeth Alexander; five children, all living. He is the only one that still holds any of his father's land.

Abraham, died a young man.

Lucinda, died (date not known).

Mary, married Zebedee Smith; died years ago.

Joshua, died, date unknown.

Casey Ann, married --- Thomson; lives in Michigan.

Mr. Alexander was a very enterprising, hard-working citizen, entirely unlearned, but of good sense and with sound business judgment, very energetic and economical withal. Like the chil- dren of many another thriving, hard-working farmer, his family did not seem to acquire the habits of economy and thrift prac- ticed by their father, and the whole tract, except some fifty acres held by Isaac Alexander and his family, has long since slipped from the fingers of his descendants, leaving very little to show in its place.

So sadly true does the fact turn out to be that the possession of a large property by a father, proves, in many instances, a nui- sance rather than an advantage to his children. He works and saves and leaves his estate to them. They spend and lose, and ere many years are far worse off than if they had begun with nothing.

ISAAC ALEXANDER, GREENSFORK.

" When we came here I was ten years old. Spartansburg had not been begun. That ground was then a corn-field, and for sev- eral years afterward. Mr. Hawkins lived on the Hough place;

Mr. Thomas, on the Dan Comer place; somebody on the Frank Morgan place; Mr. Bailey on the Moorman place, below town.

In the colored settlement, William Lewis and Philip Holland bought each eighty acres near the Griffis place. Lewis sold his, but Philip Holland kept his till his death. in 1872 or 1873.

Collier Simpson came about 1830. He died years ago.

Ezekiel Lewis came not long after T. Alexander. He has been dead a long time. His widow lives at Fountain City, Ind.

I was at the Indian payments the year the last one was made. The Pottawatomies were paid at Eel River, Pottawato- mie Mills, beyond the Wabash, at Tippecanoe, an Indian town; and the Miamis at the forks of the Wabash, being the junc- tion of the Wabash and Mississinewa.

There were perhaps five hundred of them in each place. The woods were full of them. The Indians were sent away the next scason. I saw them at Piqua as they went down the canal to Cincinnati to take steamers down the Ohio and on the Missis- sippi for the far West.

I have resided in Canada five years."

Mr. Isaac Alexander has been married four times, the fourth wife being still living. He had no children except by his third wife. He resides on a part of his father's estate, and is growing old and feeble, though still able to do more or less work.

He is the only one of his father's large family who remains in the settlement. The rest are either dead or removed long ago to other regions.

WILLIAM BENSON, SNOW HILL.

Born a slave in North Carolina in 1798. His master's name was Roland Jones. He was set free in 1832. He came to Wayne County, Ind., in 1834, and to Randolph County in 1843. He married Mary Ann Moore in 1842. He has had eighteen chil- dren, four in slavery, fourteen in freedom. Eight of the four- teen are still living. He is a Methodist Episcopal and a Repub- lican, and resides one-half mile south of Rural, on the railroad. Although eighty-four years old, he is still strong and hearty and in good spirits, thankful to the Great Giver of all good for all the mercies received. He states as follows:

My master's name was Roland Jones. I had a wife and four children, who belonged to Samuel Jones. He " broke up." and his property was sold by the Sheriff. My wife and children were sold on the block and taken to Alabama, and I never have heard from them since, except once, a short time after. My brother, Michael, and iny mother, were freed with me, at my inaster's death.

My master had his fourth wife. We were to work the place and take care of her till she died, and we were to have the surplus of all we could make off the place, and Michael and myself were to have each one a horse and four sheep, and our freedom.

We took care of the widow till she died, and then we settled our affairs and moved to Indiana. We had $100 in money, and left $125 behind, which we got afterward. We came with John Jones, who sold out and moved to Indiana.

I had but little, but, by the blessing of God, I have been able to care for a family of fourteen children, and now see my eighty- fourth year, and I hope to be kept in peace and comfort till God shall see fit to call me home.

Samuel Jones, who owned my wife, was very prominent. He was High Sheriff of Rowan County; had been elected to the Legislature (both Houses) several terms, and was administrator of many estates; married into the wealthy Brown family, and got a large legacy from his wife's grandfather. My master gave a fine plantation to Samuel and Robin Jones, and took his share in slaves, and then set them free.

Samuel Jones flourished round like a " green bay tree " for awhile, and then " broke up" and " went to sticks." The Sheriff sold his property, and he "took the prison bound," as it is called -- i. e., he was sent to jail for debt, but was allowed to live outside the jail under obligation not to go beyond a certain specified limit. He was a "Head Mason," and, in fact, was prominent in most, matters of the region and time. Many believed that he " broke " full-handed.

Slavery was a hard and bitter thing, and I thank the good

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

Lord that I have been spared to see the end of that "sum of all villainies."

MICHAEL BENSON, COLORED, SNOW HILL.

Born in 1807, in North Carolina, a slave; set free by Row- land Jones (see William Benson); married Nancy Lewis in 1839; came to Randolph County, Ind., in 1840. He has had nine children; was a farmer, and a Republican. He died in 1864, fifty-seven years old.

His widow lives at Snow Hill settlement still, and remains unmarried. She belongs to the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

KENT BROWNE, WINCHESTER.

Born in Carroll County, Tenn., August 2, 1840. His inother had been freed before he was born, but she, and he, too, lived on the plantation where she had been a slave till he was twenty- three or twenty-four years old.

He went into the army as a hostler for Col. Thomas M. Browne, starting the "Cold New Year's," January 1, 1864, and continuing with him through the marches of the regiment in Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, till the Colonel was mustered out of service, at Hempstead. Texas, in the spring of 1866. Coming with Col. Browne to Winchester in March, 1866, Kent began at once as a barber, and has followed that busi- ness ever since.

In 1867, he married Mary Burden, daughter of Marshal Bur- den, of Greenville settlement, Darke Co., Ohio, and they have no children.

He had no education when young, and has not taken time to acquire any since, but he is shrewd and active in business, and highly respected by his fellow-citizens in the town of his resi - dence.

LEWIS BURDEN, SR.

Was born in South Carolina, a freeman, in 1782. He came to Tennessee, and afterward to Wayne County, Ind., and again to Darke County, Ohio, Greenville settlement -- the latter move- ment in 1838. He had thirteen children, eleven of whom became grown and were married and nine are now living. Their names were William, James, Priscilla, Lucy, Silas, Lewis, Daniel, Thomas, Caroline, John, Joel, Sidna, Biddy. He died in 1848. His wife, Polly, died in 1876. She is said to have been several years older than her husband, and to have been upward of a hundred years old when she died, in 1876. If so, she must have been born before the Declaration of Independence was made, and she had lived through the entire period of our independent na- tional existence.

ABRAHAM COTMAM, OREENSFORK.

Born in 1792 in South Carolina. He was a slave, owned by Joshua Hickman, a Baptist. His wife was Ann Maria Johnson. who was born in "Old Maryland," nine miles from Georgetown, D. C., about 1800. She belonged to Mr. Newsam. They were set free and came to Wayne County, Ind., in 1832, moving after- ward to Randolph County (Cabin Creek settlement), and still after that to Greenville settlement.

He had three children, one of whom, Hiram Cotman, is now living.

Abraham Cotman died in the winter of 1876, aged eighty- four years. He bought two different tracts of land near Cabin Creek. First, he entered forty acres of land, and afterward bought forty acres nearer Winchester. His widow is now living, and resides in Greenville settlement, northeast of Spartanburg.

HILLRY CHAVOUS (COLORED)

was bora August 10, 1829, in Charlotte County, Va., his ances- tors having been free for several generations, during at least sev- enty or eighty years. He was one of fourteen children, thirteen of whom became grown and were married, and seven or eight are living now.

1.'s father died in Virginia, in 1848, at the age of sixty years, havir,; been a wagon-maker by trade, at which trade also Hillry worked in his youth and early manliood. His father was in good circumstances, owniag 130 acres of land in Virginia, and he was an active, intelligent man, though without book education.

Hillry came, in 1855, to Washington City, working there at his business as a wagon-maker. In 1861, he came West to Ox- ford, Ohio. in 1861, going afterward to Iowa, working on a farta one year in Johnson County, eighteen miles from Iowa City. He spent three years at Michigan City, Ind., turning neck-yokes with Hostler & Myers. In 1866, he set up business in turning neck-yokes, etc., at Portland, Ind., entering a partnership with J. N. Templar of that place. He invested $2,000 in that enter- prise, and was so uufortunate as to lose the whole In 1868, he changed his place of business to Union City, at which place he remained until about 1881, when he removed to Parker (Morris- town), on the Bee Line Railroad. At Union City, he was in business with various persons, Messrs. Hartzell, Mason, Stocks- dale, Willson, etc. Mr. C. has very little education, but he pos- sesses great mechanical skill, having invented several ingenious machines-as an oscillating engine, a lathe for turning neck- yokes, for both of which he obtained patents, and which seem both ingenious and practical, though, like many another skillful mechanician, he always lacks for means to make his contrivances extensively available.

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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 41

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