USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Indiana > Part 49
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When I became old enough to go to school a faint attempt was made to start one. The house for our school was a little larger than usnal. It was built for a Quaker meeting-house, and must have been about eighteen feet square, a low, one-story log cabin, the cracks filled up with clay, covered with a clapboard roof held down by weight poles, floored with puncheons split from an ash tree, lighted by greased-paper windows, a stick chimney and huge fire- place. This will give a general idea of the house. The only furniture was a writing desk made by driving four long pins slantingly up into a log in the wall, with a board laid on them and puncheon
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
benches. Many a weary hour the little children suffered humped up upon those benches without backs, or resting places for their feet. It never seemed to have occurred to the old Quakers that the children's legs were not as long as theirs. I only mention this to show how little was thought in those days of what we now consider so important to the physical and mental education of our children. Is it any wonder that it required a liberal use of the rod to make those children forget the tortures of such a seat and study their lessons? " To read, write and cipher " was generally thought to be all that it was necessary for common people to learn, and that any body possessed of so much learning was fit for a schoolmaster. In the fall some old fellow would come around who was too old or too lazy to work, and secure employment to teach the school for the coming winter. All the education I received under fourteen was in such schools.
We moved from Ohio to this county in November, 1830, first settling for the winter near Young's Prairie, Cass county, Michigan. That winter was remarkably severe, and during the first week in December the snow fell to the depth of two feet and was shortly increased to three, and so remained until the 1st of April. The cold weather was incessant, never let up till late in the spring. About the middle of the winter there was almost a total eclipse of the sun; many attributed the cold weather to that fact.
About the middle of April we moved down to Harris's Prairie with the intention of entering land there and becoming farmers, but my father being unable to raise money enough to enter 80 acres, and having a trade, he concluded to settle in South Bend. We did so in June, 1831, and it has been iny home ever since. Young as I was, I was charmed with the natural beauty of this country. It was distinguished as oak openings, thick woods and prairie. At this time hardly a furrow had been turned upon the prairie; a few cabins were scattered around in the oak openings bordering the prairies. I remember well that in 1831, and I think in 1832, the route traveled from here to Terre Conpee Prairie was across Portage Prairie, enter- ing it on the farm now owned by John Smith, then owned by Pleasant Harris, and thence across the Prairie by way of a little grove near the land then owned by Samnel Jones, then through the barrens to the old Detroit & Chicago road crossing the north end of Terre Coupee Prairie. I do not think there was a fence in the way before the spring of 1833. The country between the two prairies had but a few families living in it. You could then stand on the ridges in these barrens and see the country for a mile off on either side of you about as plainly as on the prairies. Where now the timber has grown up so thick that one can hardly get through it, was then almost as bare as the prairie, and covered with a most luxuriant growth of grass, making rich and magnificent pasture for cattle. This, indeed, was the character of all the oak openings. About the only timber that grew in these barrens was white oak, black oak, burr oak and black hickory. The burr oak and hickory
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land was considered much the best, and I think experience has for all purposes proved it to be even better than the prairie. I remem- ber that it was commonly considered at that early period that the white and black oak barrens of Clay and Harris townships were hardly worth buying from the Government; that three or four crops would exhaust the soil, and the land become worthless; and the first few years of cultivation did seem to have that effect, but the intro- duction and use of land plaster and cultivation of clover has not only restored these lands to their original fertility, but I think inade them better; and it is now a question among good farmers, taking into consideration the difference in cost of tillage, whether these lands are not as profitable as the prairie lands.
There were fifteen or twenty families living here when we came; of them there are still remaining here: Peter Johnson, Sr., and his wife; their sons, Evan Lee, Pierce Johnson, and danghter Mary Taylor; Samuel L. Cothall and his wife; Henry Painter, Mrs. Alexis Coqnil- Jard, Alexis Coquillard, son of Benjamin Coquillard, Mrs. Matilda Shirland, Lathrop M. Taylor, Edmund P. Taylor, Riley Stilson.
At this time there had been hardly a tree cut upon the town plat except in places where honses were built. Shortly after this the Michigan road was laid out through town on Michigan and Water streets, and the streets cleared as a part of that road. Along Maine and Lafayette streets, and indeed on most of the original plat, grew beautiful, burr-oak groves thirty or forty feet high. Most of them along the streets and on the public grounds might have been preserved and become the pride and ornament of this city. To my notion there are no more beautiful shade trees growing in this latitude than the burr oak. Its smooth, clean, bright, peculiar leaf was always very attractive to me. These trees are the most remark- able objects of attraction abont Kalamazoo, Valparaiso and other towns where the people had the taste and good sense to preserve them, but unfortunately for us we were heedless vandals, withont any appreciation of beauty or comfort, and regardless of the interests or taste of those to follow us. It was a wicked waste that I have never ceased to regret, and one that never can be repaired.
The openings around South Bend were like those I have already described, only not quite so free from trees, but still open enough to go anywhere withi a wagon, and all covered with the same Inxu- riant growth of grass and scattered over with the same varieties of beautiful flowers. The grass grows so thick and high between here and the Kankakee marsh that it was ent and put up for hay. The undergrowth of brush and timber that has since sprung np has entirely destroyed this native growth of grass; it is now scarcely ever seen where it once grew so luxuriantly and afforded such nutritious pasture for cattle. I have often wondered why the early settlers did not keep down this undergrowth of brush and preserve their natural pasture.
The first school I attended in South Bend was taught by Judge Egbert, then a new beginner at the practice of thelaw; it was in the
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summer and fall of 1831, in a log school-house with glass windows instead of greased-paper windows. I thought the house and teacher a little ahead of anything I had seen before. The old house has been demolished and forgotten, but not so with the teacher; he still snrvives, an honored friend and deserving citizen.
BY DR. JACOB HARDMAN.
It is written of me that I, Jacob Hardman, was born on Sunday morning, April 29, 1804, in Harrison county, West Virginia; moved thence with my father, Peter Hardman, and family to Greene county, Ohio, in October, 1808, where I was bred a practi- cal farmer. By an unfortunate grapple with a young stallion, after matured years, was crippled in my right arm. Without any aid or assistance of money or friends, commenced and proceeded, as best I could, to educate myself for the study and practice of medicine, which preparatory education, some teaching, and a term of medical studies, consnmed a term of seven years. My studies and instruc- tion in medicine were accomplished with Messrs. Ambrose Blount and Harvey Humphreys.
At the end of three years' reading and study in Springfield, Ohio, overshadowed with debts, being thus hedged up, and without means to attend medical lectures, I went before the censors of the Second Medical District of Ohio, at the city of Dayton (a provision by statute law in said State, for the benefit of indigent pupils), was there examined, pronounced competent in all the branches of the profession, receiving a certificate to that effect, and a license to practice medicine in all its branches wheresoever I desired.
The next year thereafter I emigrated to South Bend, arriving Ang. 9, 1831. I was the first of my profession to locate in the county. Having arrived at three and a half o'clock in the after- noon with letters of introduction to two of the most prominent citizens of the place, with some vouchers, I made myself known and was given a warm welcome. After some hesitation I unfor- tunately decided to stay and grapple as with hooks of steel, with any and all of the vicissitudes and grim wants of coming life, which decision has made me next thing to a pauper, now in the days of my longevity. Thus, I continued in the practice of my profession with varied success, as did my competitors, np to a period of thirty years.
At the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861, I was, by the Gov- ernor of the State, O. P. Morton, appointed Assistant Surgeon in the 9th Ind. Vol., which position in 45 days I resigned. In May, 1864, I presented myself before the Examining Medical Board of Surgeons, of the United States, at the city of Nashville, Tennessee; was received as a competent Surgeon and was assigned to duty at Hospital No. 2, at College Hill, where I continued with accepta- bility until by failing health, in March, 1865, I was compelled to resign my position and return home; from which time, owing to
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continued debility, I never have opened an office and offered my professional services to the public, although compelled in the mean- time to prescribe, advise, and to some extent visit among some of the old patrons and their descendants.
Now to return. April 26, 1832, I returned to Fairfield, and married Miss Sarah Woodward, a finely educated lady, of German and Scottish descent, born Dec. 10, 1806, at Williamsport, Pa. We have had fonr sons and three daughters, four of whom died in early life and one died in the army in the South. My wife died May 20, 1870. I am now keeping house with my only (and eldest) daugh- ter, Julia Margaret.
In early life I joined the M. E. Church, and was long connected with the pioneer Sunday-school of South Bend.
The heads of families in South Bend when I arrived here were: Alexis Coquillard, Benjamin Coquillard, Peter Jolinson, Frederick Bainter, Thomas B. Johnson, Samuel L. Cottrell, Benjamin Potter, Samuel Newman, Charles Ousterhouse, Peter Nido, Hannah Skin- ner (widow), Hiram Dayton, Solomon Parsons, Louis St. Comb, Calvin Lilley, Solomon Barkdoll, Andrew Mack, Sam'l Martin, Wm. Stanfield, David Gillum, Benjamin Cushman, Oliver Bennet, Joseph Nichols and John A. Cane.
The young and unmarried ladies of the village included in fami- lies were: Matilda Newell, Keziah Cartwright, Polly Holt, Maria Stilson, Maria Skinner, Eliza Stilson, Lydia Skinner and Mary Gillum, making eight. The young gentlemen over twenty-one years old were: Horatio Chapin, Elisha Egbert, John D. Lasley, Wm. Creviston, Levi F. Arnold, John B. Ozia, Horace Wood, Wm. Cartwright, Jolin Becraft, Joseph Aljoe, Lowry Dayton, Lathrop M. Taylor, Edmund P. Taylor, James Thompson, Reuben Hildreth, Peter D. Shaw, James De Grote, Christian Wolf, Simeon Mason, Zina Skinner, John D. Defrees and myself, making in all a pop- ulation of 163 in the village proper.
The first winter we formed a debating society, a mock legislative body, and had fun generally. In the meantime we formed a temperance society, and in one sense it was unfortunate for me that I was made president, which position I continued to occupy up to 1838-'9, I think.
In 1837 I was candidate for County Recorder, but was defeated by Wm. H. Patterson on account of my temperance principles. I was Coroner one year, however, and Justice of the Peace one term; was also appointed in 1834 Major of the 79th Ind. Militia.
[In the history of Dr. Hardman's ancestry are many interesting passages, especially in connection with their early settlement in Kentucky, their blood-curdling experiences with the savage Indians, etc., all of which we would gladly give space to if we possibly could.]
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BY THOMAS P. BULLA.
To begin at this time of life to give even a concise outline biography of myself, it is not to be assumed that I can give dates entirely correct.
My father was of the early settlers of Pennsylvania. My grand- father, Thomas Bulla, emigrated from Nantucket about the year 1770, settled in Chester county of said State. My father was born in that county Feb. 10, 1777, lived there till 1791; then the family emigrated to Guilford county, N. C., where, as a farmer and inn- keeper, my grandfather lived and raised a family of eight boys and two girls. He owned two slaves (women); their work was in the kitchen; were treated as Quakers of that time generally treated servants of that grade. My mother's maiden name was Hoover, and was (as the name imports) of German nationality; my parents were married in Randolph county, of the last-named State, then, after a few years, emigrated to Montgomery county, O., near the site of the city of Dayton. At this time two daughters, Anna and Elizabeth, were the increase of this union. The writer of this was the next as additional; subsequently six other boys and two more girls were the make-up of the family circle. My eldest brother, Andrew, and myself were born on Twin creek, Montgomery county, O. All the younger children were natives of Wayne county, Ind., one mile north of the present city of Richmond, James, next younger, then William, David, Daniel, Esther, Sarah and John; of these Anna Chalfant, late of St. Joseph, Elizabeth Burgess and Andrew (who was an editor with Septimus Smith in Centreville; the paper published was the first issned there, and was called the Western Times) died in Wayne; James, a millwright, and William F., farmer, both of St. Joseph, died at their homes in said county. David died at Louisville, Kentucky. As to the origin of the name (Bulla) it is of Gallic origin and its orthography was Bonillon, pronounced Boolong, yet the paternal ancestry were of Irish nationality.
Now, in a detailed recital of the incidents of my life I find that the identity of circumstances are so blended with my existence that to relate that only which appertains to myself is not possible. My father was a farmer, but like many of the pioneers of 60 years ago, he made all the implements he needed for agricultural purposes, tanned leather, and made the shoes for the family, did his own coopering and masonry, and was somewhat of the Nimrod in the general make-up. The women of that period, besides presiding in the kitchen, made the fabric and the apparel for the family. All the material resonrees of the community in general were self-sustain- ing; nothing but salt and iron required the expenditure of money ; coffee and tea were not then and there in general use. Sunday morn- ing we had coffee, hence we knew when that day came round. There were no available educational resources then, and a school was gotten np by subseription, male teachers were employed, and their wages
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per month about ten dollars; hickory oil was freely used in the schools then, and parents and teachers in general relied more on its use and proper application as an incentive to literary progress than anything else.
I made my second trip to the St. Joseph valley afoot as usual; helped to build a saw-mill for Elijah Lacey at the mouth of Wag- giac; returned to Richmond and taught school another quarter, then made tracks for Niles, Mich .; was employed to attend the saw-mill aforesaid, at $17.00 per month; returned to my old home; then I was employed for about nine months at millwright work, then for three months as carpenter. And now a final exodus from my primitive home, in company with Evan Chalfants' family; we started for South Bend, Oct. 1, 1832. Were I to detail all the incidents of this campaign (for campaign it was, since camping out was the order), it would add several pages more and would not, perhaps, interest but few, except those yet living, who were en route with us; suffice it to say that through thick and thin (thick and thin mud), we arrived at our destination the 1st of November, 1832. General Jackson was then President.
Having secured a quarter section of land I made such prep- aration to build a house as best I could, and helped E. Chalfant to rear a cabin on his land that winter, and having no means to have help I hewed logs and erected the first hewn log house, shingle roof and brick chimney in Clay township; my neighbors regarded it as a rather aristocratic structure.
In the winter of '33 and '34 I had a school in South Bend, which in number of students was rather more than one man could man- age. So the services of a Mr. Cadmus Johnson was secured as assistant. The school now went on for some time; at length Christ- mas was reached; that morning when I caine to the door I found a barricade of benches against it, and a number of stalwart, beardless boys had made a citadel of the house. I took in the situation at once and demanded admittance, which was denied; thereupon I assumed an indifference whether I was ont or in, and started home. They now opened the door and called me back and to come in, which I did. No sooner in than half a dozen bipeds were nsing their muscles to control my locomotion, and to aid them in this cords and ligatures were fastened about my limbs. At this juncture mv assistant came in, and seeing my condition he at once exclaimed, " I surrender." I, too, now surrendered at discretion, demanded what they wanted, to which they replied no school till the 26th, and that the teachers treat to one bushel of apples and three gallons of cider. To this we acceded; they now nntied mne and I gave them a lecture on their perfidy in calling me back. Order was now restored, the treat procured, and the day passed in relaxation. Next day I resumed my duties and the school went on; the behavior thereafter in general was good, and the term expired with no other incident of note. A short time before the termination the follow- ing notice was posted up in the most conspicuous places in South
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Bend: "There will be an exhibition of live men and boys at the court-house in Sonthbrook, where will be recited speeches, dialogues and farcical representations." This passed off as per programme, and was the first of the kind here. By this time the missiles of Cupid had made some impression, and as a result a matrimonial alliance was concluded and consummated Jan. 15, 1835.
I was then a teacher in my own house on my farm in Clay town- ship, near the now Notre Dame University, being now 30 years old. This connubial state and the State of Ind., have ever since been my home. On this farm by hard labor we made out to live, my now better half aiding me in all efforts, and having no resources only our labor we were impelled to economize in every way. Without a team and no cow the situation was not encouraging, but persevering industry and the little I made by surveying enabled us to use some groceries; yet we often had domestic coffee or sassafras tea minus the sugar and cream. Our first meal was roasted potatoes and salt. Our household goods were a table of rustic style, one poplar bedstead, one chair of the old style, a few stools, a crane in the fire-place for the dinner pot. By raising flax my wife was enabled to weave linen for shirts, etc., for our use, andito spin sewing thread, which at that time was sold to Mr. Brownfield, a merchant then and now of South Bend. The few acres then cleared were cultivated with a hired or borrowed team. A nursery was planted, but the prices were low, as that branch of industry was overdone here, and was not remunerative. After a few years I bought a horse; with this I did my plowing. My first crop of wheat (about four acres) brought 50 cents per bushel; harvest wages per day were 50 cents or one bushel of wheat. About this time some surveying brought me some lucre, and an occasional call from the County Board to locate a road gave some employment. Circuit Court gave now and then an appointment to make partition of real estate amongst heirs, but most of my time was devoted to enlarging my farm and making such improvements as I could. One year after our nuptials an addition to our family appeared in the person of Wmn. D. Bulla.
I wrote the first total abstinence pledge in St. Joseph county; this was about the year 1839. It is in no vaunting mood that I make this record; and not to make any digression, my sympathies ever were against oppression of every kind, physical and mental. I have lived to witness the removal of one of the darkest stains on our character as a nation, and though a more degradingoppression, like a deadly sirocco, is destroying many thousands every year, a hope is yet indulged that this, too, may be removed before another centen- nial rolls around; if not, then as effects of a prevailing cause onr once great republic will cease to be, as a like canse invariably is succeeded by a like consequence; so, to avert the consequence the cause must be removed. But to resume the intent of this writing. In the year 1838 I was appointed County Surveyor by the Commissioners' Court, which position I held till the year 1856. At this period we had increased in numbers in the family circle, four more-Milton
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V., Mary E., Minerva A. and Thomas H. All these are as yet of irreproachable character, and their training was not compulsory but persuasive. The rod had no place as a moral motive power (nor should a resort to its use ever be general; although Solomon says, spare the rod and spoil the child, that adage was only adapted to that age, when brute force was deemed more available than moral suasion). At this period of my life a prevailing torpitude exists in our country, and to account for it, the late Rebellion is a prolific source; tho' out of this Rebellion a retribution is awarded to its instigators, yet from the means used to remove one great national evil another was produced, and to remove this a revolution in our jurisprudence must be produced; hence as means to an end, all the moral resources must be brought to bear. In the reformatory institutions of our land all are equally interested; hence none are exempt from duty where aid for the general good is demanded.
BY DR. E. W. H. ELLIS.
At the close of a hot summer's day, Aug. 7, 1836, after a weary. ride in a lumber wagon from Edwardsburg, Michigan, through an oak-barren wilderness, without roads or inhabitants, guided only by the points of the compass, the writer arrived at the north bank of the St. Joseph river, opposite Mishawaka, and, with good exercise of lungs, succeeded in arousing the ferryman. He was safely cou- ducted over the river, and made his way to the Mishawaka Hotel, kept by that prince of landlords and good fellows, Orlando Hurd.
A few days' residence enabled him to take in the general features of the place. He was one of a colony of emigrants from Brock- port, New York, who numbered in all some 30 persons, embracing the families of Major H. Smith, Richmond Tuttle, Albert Hudson, Stephen H. Judkins, John Ham, Gilman and Samuel Towles, James Clark, George Bellinger and Albert Brinsmade, who had been induced hither by the somewhat extravagant stories of the St. Joseph region. The town had just shed the name of St. Joseph Iron Works, and was entering upon a high career of pros- perity. The swift water at that point, it is said, gave it the Indian name of Mishawaka, and the stream was already utilized by the construction of a dam and mill race, upon which were erected the St. Joseph Iron Works, and a flouring mill known as Taylor's Mill, erected by a citizen then deceased. Besides the store of the Iron Company there was another near by owned by a citizen of Niles, Michigan, and the grocery store of Russ & Pomeroy, in the com- pany's warehouse. To these were soon added the drug and grocery store of Smith & Clark, and in the eastern part of the town, known as Barbee-town, another store of the Meed brothers, from New York. The hotels were the Mishawaka Hotel, already mentioned, and Kellogg's Hotel, in Barbee-town. These were filled with the new settlers and passing immigrants. The village had an air of thrift and enterprise. Many of the dwellings were comfortable
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