USA > Indiana > Steuben County > History of Steuben County, Indiana, together withbiographies of representative citizens > Part 27
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I said I would say more about Richard A. Gaines, which will show what some men will do for money. After he filled his new store, he traded some years with apparent prosperity and happi- ness in his domestic relations. His wife was his double cousin. She was very much attached to him, and appeared to think him just right. She was always happy, always cheerful, always antici- pating his slightest wish, and having all things ready for his hap- piness and comfort that was possible. Thus things went on for about six or seven years, when Gaines went East and stayed all summer; got his father to sell all his property, real and personal, and come to this county with him. His own mother having died when he was only about ten years old, his father married again, and Richard was very angry about it, thinking he would get less help or less property from his father on that account. He was an only son until after the second marriage, by which his father had a daughter and son. This made Richard so angry that he left home and never had any intercourse with his folks until he went to get the $1,000 of which I spoke before.
Richard married when he was only eighteen years old, and he made out but poorly for some time. His wife worked out, took boarders, helping along until about two years before he got those first goods, when he got some gunsmith's tools and went to work at guns. There being no gunsmith in the country, and much call for such work, he saved enough in two years to get that first stock of goods, with which he started his store at Brockville. When his father came to this county, the half-sister was a young woman, and the half-brother ten or twelve years old. After old Mr. Gaines had been here two or three years, I should think, he told me that
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Richard wanted his money; that he told him he could double it in two years. The old man said he thought it unsafe, and that he would not part with his money. He said that his property in the East had sold for $7,000; that he had helped Richard to $1,000 when he first started, and had let him have $300 since; that he had other children that were entitled to it as much as Richard, and that it would not be right to help him so much more than the rest, and that he would keep his money in his own hands. He said that, Richard looked at the possibility of doubling the money, and he looked at the possibility of losing it all. That spring they all moved to Jamestown, and Richard filled a store and was trad- ing when his father was taken with the ague and had a few chills- Dr. Patterson, of Fremont, was there and Richard got him to pre- scribe for his father, who took the medicine and the next day, or the same day, died. Now, I have no doubt but what the doctor's treatment was all right. Sometimes congestion or heart disease canses death suddenly. The old lady was a woman in good health, or was considered so. When her husband was buried she felt bad and tired, and Richard induced her to let Dr. Patterson leave her a prescription. She took it, and the day after her husband was buried she died. Rufus Beall was appointed administrator of the estate, but, I am informed, the only property he could find be- longing to the deceased was a note of $300 against Richard, and of which all the family were previously apprised. There was no one to look further after the interests of the minor heirs, and they were thus left in destitute circumstances. Time went on. Rich- ard and his family moved to Hillsdale, Mich., where he soon pur- chased a large store and filled it with goods. He also bought a fine residence and furnished it in splendid style. He had a large trade, and bought wheat largely, buying a large share of it from this county.
He seemed to gain the utmost confidence of the people. A number of farmers stored their wheat with his and allowed him to sell it with his and handle the money. Things went on in this prosperous way until he bought, in addition to his business, a hardware store, goods and all. He had two or three clerks, and he and his family became quite aristocratic, in fact were among the most aristocratic of Hillsdale society. One spring he started to New York to buy goods. He had bought all the wheat he could on credit, agreeing to pay for it when he came back. After he had been gone two or three days, there came a rumor that he had
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sold his stores, goods, house, furniture, and all he had, and had gone not to return. His wife heard the rumor, but could not believe it until Rufus Beall showed her a letter from a woman at Detroit, addressed to Gaines, saying she was waiting for him, but dared not wait more than one day longer, for fear of being detected. When Beall read this letter to Mrs. Gaines she fainted, and it was feared by her friends that the shock would kill her. Then Beall made known to the family that he had bought the stores and goods and the house and furniture. Thus it appears that Gaines had left his family destitute and had gone no one could tell where.
Gaines's daughter was engaged to a young man in Hillsdale, and was to have been married soon. But when the devoted lover (?) saw that she was left without the coveted fortune, he at once broke the engagement, and what remained of the wealthy, aristocratic Gaines family were thus left without any means of support. Mrs. Gaines was allowed to remain in the house and boarded Beall and some clerks for awhile, when her brother came after her and her children and took them to Ohio, where he had a large farm. She and her children lived there in great seclusion until the oldest, Alanson, came of age, when he started to find his father.
Mr. Philomen Martin, who married Gaines's cousin, told me that Alanson went to Texas and California, and then to South America, at the same time searching all the advertisements in the papers, until at last he saw his father's name in a paper as a dry- goods merchant He then went to his place of business and found him rich. Gaines gave his son enough to start a good store for him and his brother in Ohio. He also sent money to his wife. As soon as Alanson returned and informed his mother of the where- abouts and transactions of her once beloved, but faithless, husband, she married a gentleman in that vicinity who had been waiting a long time for her, but whose suit she had persistently refused un- til she could learn what had become of her first husband.
Gaines took away with him, from Hillsdale, $16,000 or $18,000, and it was rumored that the woman who joined him at De- troit had about the same amount. He owed more, how- ever, than he took away, and his creditors had a number of trials with Beall for the recovery of his property, in the transfer of which they claimed fraud had been committed, but could not prove it. There was a claim of $12,000 in one place in New York. Beall had not paid one-half of the value
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of the goods or any of the property he had purchased. The suffer- ers from trusting Gaines with wheat were A. Farnham, N. Ha- vens and J. Burdick; also a man by the name of Pettibone who lost his farm by this means, as he had trusted money in Gaines's hands to pay off the mortgage. The other men whom I have named were better able to stand their losses.
There was a man in the vicinity of Fremont by the name of Abraham Walters, who had a son of the same name. The boy was a great hand to kill deer, turkey, etc. He would not spend time to hunt during good weather, when it would interfere with his work, but would go out in the morning before breakfast and kill a deer; and I have known him to kill two before breakfast. Sometimes he would go out after his day's work was done and get a deer or tur- key, and when he became a young man he had an adventure with a bull which was more strange than fiction. He was going through a pasture where there was a vicious bull when the animal saw him and went at him with great rage, threw him down and gored him in the side, and with his knees broke the sternum (breast-bone) into its original pieces. When it got well the pieces stood upon their edges and remain so until this day as an evidence of the dire con- flict. His side was opened so that the heart and lungs could be seen; the lower edge of the left lobe of the lung was torn so that the wind would escape from it at every breath. He could see his own heart and lung. The wounded portion of the lung was re- placed and the wound closed so that the air could not reach it and the wound soon healed, after which he went on with his working and hunting as usual. When the bull had young Walters down goring him with his knees on his breast, the young man contrived to get hold of the animal's nose with his teeth and kept his hold until the bull bawled and jumped up and threw him clear from him. Walters struck on his feet and faced his antagonist for a moment then turned and ran to the fence, calling as loudly as he could for help until he got over the fence when he fainted and fell to the ground. A neighbor who was at work in an adjoining field heard the man's cries and ran to his assistance and with a team took him home. His brother took his gun and shot the bull and that saved further trouble from him.
ANOTHER ADVENTURE.
This same young man, as well as many other hunters, told of seeing a large buck in the woods which had enormous horns-
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larger than they had ever seen on any other animal of the deer kind. They called the buck "Old Goldin." They would often tell on re- turning from a hunting expedition that they had seen Old Goldin. One evening when young Walters was out near a lake called Withington Lake, he saw a large pair of horns peering out of the grass and Old Goldin soon rose to his feet. The young man took hasty aim and fired, hitting the animal's horn close to the head. The deer fell and the young man ran to him, took him by the horn and commenced to cut his throat. As soon as the knife entered the skin, the deer revived and tried to get away. But young Wal- ters hung to the horn and made an effort to force his game into the lake which was very near. They entered the lake together; sometimes the deer would have him under water and then he would have the deer under. He kept his knife in hand and would stab or cut the deer wherever and whenever he could. They went from shore to shore, and toward morning he succeeded in killing the deer. Finding himself stripped of his clothing, he started home and reached the house a little before daylight. He then dressed himself and taking a team went back after Old Goldin. It had cost him a terrible struggle, and that night in the lake will ever be remembered as one of the most perilous of his life, yet he had the satisfaction of killing the most wary, or cautious, deer in the coun- try.
Many hunters had looked for and followed the coveted game- time and again, without success. But not many of them would have taken the chances he took to bag the prize. Mr. Walters says these adventures were both very hazardous, but he would rather take his chances with the bull than with the deer, if he was obliged to repeat either of the tragedies. The hero of the story is still living about three and one-half miles northwest of Fremont, and can testify to the truthfulness of the foregoing statements, as well as many other interesting facts and adventures connected with pioneer life in Steuben County. Two of his sons have attended school in this place and are known as respectable and intelligent young men.
When I first came to this county, in 1839, Thomas Knott was a Justice of the Peace. Although he was illiterate he was a man of fair judgment and could read and write quite well. When his term of office expired we had to elect a new justice of the peace or re-elect the old one. Richard A. Gaines, of whom I wrote above, aspired to the office. Gaines was not qualified for the office in any respect. He could not read so as to make any sense to
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his reading. He was trying to read at one time in my hearing; he would spell the words aloud and coming to the word "together," he spelled it " t-o-g," pronouncing it "tog." I told him what the word was. "Well," said he, " I guess it is." I cite this instance as a fair specimen of his scholarship. There was a good man running against Gaines and he knew very well that he could not be elected by the fair voice of the voters in the township, so he bought a barrel of whisky and before election day he and a friend of his had been to every man in town who would drink and kept them supplied with that article until they had voted.
When election day came he kept a barrel of whisky ready and a man to wait on them. There were men who voted for him while under the influence of whisky who could not have been hired with money to vote for him and who would never have voted for him while in their sober senses. One old man by the name of Bowers, was a good, pious man, only he had a weakness at that point. He could not resist the temptation of intoxicating drink. Gaines got him into his house and treated him until he was so intoxicated that he could do with him as he desired, then took him to the polls and got his vote. Mr. Bowers felt very badly and was ashamed to think he had voted for such a man. But it was too late to help it after the deed was done. I think there was no doubt that a barrel of whisky in that instance elected a justice of the peace. I don't think Gaines could have gotten one-fourth of the votes by fair means. Those who were opposed to him did not see what was going on un- til it was too late to change the result.
There was a young man who had been clerking for Gaines, and who had a falling out with him and started an opposition store. He kept his store in a small dry-goods box, and after showing his goods or selling them to customers he would shove them under his bed, as he had only one small room to live in-store and all. One day there had been a young man who was much below compos mentis looking at some goods, and who had bought a spool of cot- ton thread. After he was gone the young merchant counted his spools and found that one was gone. He thought the young man had taken it. He had bought a few other articles and put them into his pocket, and went to this merchant's brother's, as they were good friends. The merchant went to his brother's and told the fellow that he had stolen a spool of thread. "I have not," said he. "I know you have," said the merchant, " for there has no one else been in and the thread is gone." The young man thrust his hand
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into his pocket, and, alas, the spool came forth with the other things he had bought of the merchant. He protested his inno- ยท cence, however, and said he did not know he had it. The mer- chant requested him to go over to Gaines's with him, which he did, all the while declaring he was innocent. After they went into the store the merchant shut the door and locked it. Then he took a rawhide and whipped the young man so badly that his back and legs were all in welts, and blood was drawn in many places.
After this young man had been to many with his grievances and got no sympathy from any of them, he came to me and showed me his lacerated limbs and back. It moved my sympathy for him and aroused my indignation for the merchant so I took him to a justice of the peace, showed his stripes and made the complaint for an as- sanlt and battery case. When we were going to the trial we fell in company with the merchant. He inquired, " Where are you go- ing, Doctor?" I told him I was going to the Esquire's to attend the trial. "What," said he, "are you a witness?" "No," said I, "I am an attorney." Then he commenced to abuse me, and we kept up a discussion until we arrived at the Esquire's. Our case came on; we got the merchant fined and started home. We were pursued closely by the merchant and his friend, and they abused me for tak- ing the interest I had in that case. I could not help taking an inter- est. In the first place I believed him to be innocent; I think he put the thread into his pocket when he did not know it; and, in the next place, the young man was weak both in body and mind, and needed a friend, and in those days I was just the man to befriend such a one.
Silas Doty was in the store where Douglas was whipped, but was a prisoner with the officer and he dared not do anything there, as he knew they were all against him, but he said it was the hard- est thing he ever bore to see that young man whipped when he be- lieved him innocent. Doty is the celebrated character who spent one-half of his life, if not more, in prison. I was his family phy- sician for ten years, and was a witness when he was tried for mur- der, in two trials, the first in this county, at which time the jury did not agree, and in the next at Fort Wayne. Here he was found guilty by the jury and sent to prison at Jeffersonville for life.
REMINISCENCES.
BY MRS. J. B. WISEL, OF SALEM TOWNSHIP.
I bade adieu to the home of childhood and the dear friends in Wendell, Franklin Co., Mass., Aug. 4, 1836, and with my husband,
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David Wisel, started for a home in the West. We came on by stage, canal and steamboat as far as Cleveland, Ohio, and were there joined by Elder Joseph Locke, my brother-in-law, with his family, from Cattaraugus County, N. Y.
From Ohio we pursued our journey together in covered wagons, for there were no railroads in those days to accommodate travelers. Our progress was very slow over the new, muddy roads; we were three weeks in getting to Steuben County, Ind. We made a stop on the border of township 36. There we found a board shanty, open on one side, which belonged to Mr. Robert Bell, of Ohio, who had not yet moved in; there we took shelter till Mr. Locke and Mr. Wisel could look up their land. The next day after our arrival Mr. Locke was attacked with the ague, and heavy rains coming on our shelter proved a poor one, as we had to make our fire out of doors (stoves not yet having come into use).
Mr. Locke and Mr. Wisel hunted out their land, located at what is now Salem Center, and cut a wagon road through to their des- tined homes, and prepared to build their cabins. But first their land must be secured; so my husband took a pack on his back and started for the land-office at Fort Wayne. He had to follow an Indian trail, as there were no roads yet opened through the country, and the streams were unbridged.
I remember Mr. Wisel telling of coming to a muddy stream near dark which he had to ford, going down to his shoulders, and on reaching the opposite bank he had some difficulty in finding his path. After wandering till nine o'clock, cold and wet, he dis- covered the glimmer of a light through the trees, and was very glad to find a little log cabin where eight or ten other travelers had called for the night. The host gave him the privilege of lying be- fore the fire over night, for which he was very glad.
Well, before we got our cabins built, Father Wisel and his son Otis and Mr. Hollister arrived with their families, and near the same time Mr. Ed. Hammond and Ely Teal came on. On the 3d of October Mr. John Wilson, Charles and John Bodley came. Very soon after they arrived Mr. J. Bodley had a son added to his family whom they named William.
The poor cattle had bells fastened round their necks and were turned into the woods to shirk for their living; but they needed close watching lest they return to their former homes. As children like to hear stories I will tell them one about hunting the cows in those days. Mr. Locke was still down with the ague, and Father Wisel
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and boys were all engaged to get the roof of their house on as it looked like rain. So Phebe Wisel and Mrs. Locke and her son Joseph, aged eleven years, started to hunt the cows. They found them a mile and a half east of home. After getting the cattle col- lected together, they did not know which way to start home. So they all hallooed; the men on the roof heard them and gave an- swer. They called again, and then the wolves set up a hideous howl on all sides of them. We heard the wolves. Our men called to them again but got no answer, and we feared that the wolves had torn them to pieces. But when the wolves howled they were near a small tree that had burned off at the root and lodged against a large tree, so they all climbed up out of reach of the wolves and the cattle gathered up around the tree shaking their bells at the wolves. Our men hunted till into the night with no prospect of finding them, then Otis and Ira Wisel went and got Mr. Wilson and Charles Bodley, a great hunter, to go with them. When the women heard Mr. Bodley fire his gun they ventured to answer, so they were soon found and led out to Mr. Wilson's. Mrs. Wil- son prepared refreshments and the women rested there till morning.
The first year after our settlement we had to go to Lima for our mail, and to Pretty Prairie for provisions So many settlers mov- ing into this country the first two years caused produce to be very high, and before the first harvest was gathered it was difficult get- ting wheat at any price; for a few weeks we lived on rice and hominy. Sick wheat was brought in from Ohio and sold to the hungry settlers for good grain, but even a hungry dog would be too sick after eating his first meal of it to accept the second biscuit.
Mr. Locke hearing that salt was brought in from Fort Wayne, a place south of us, started for some; he had to pay $10 for a barrel of salt and $1.50 for staying over night. The greater part of the cows died the first spring, not having had suitable food and shelter.
Early in the year 1837 Elder Locke organized a Christian church of nine members, and for the first few years held Sunday-school at our house. In the spring of 1837 our township was organized. The election for town officers was held at our house. There were twelve votes cast. Mr. Avory Emerson was elected Justice of the Peace.
There were but few cases of severe sickness in 1837. Father Wisel had the ague, from the effects of which he never recovered, but lived till November, 1843. Nancy Locke, aged fourteen years, died Nov. 22, 1837, and the following summer, in one week, Elder
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Locke buried his two youngest children, Ezra and Lydia. Those three were the first buried in the Hollister graveyard.
During the summer and fall of 1858 chills and fever, dysentery and ague prevailed till there were not enough well ones to take care of the sick or toproperly bury the dead. One circumstance I will mention: A man with his family came in and put up with John Bodley till he could get up his log cabin; he took sick and died; they sent to Charles Bodley and my husband to make the coffin; when they went to take the coffin over, they found the man's oldest son, twenty-one years of age, dying; there were not men there enough to bury the father, so they sent word around for all who were able to come the next afternoon to turn out to the burial. They came home and made another coffin, and made out to get the two men buried, and the widow had to return with the remnant of the family to her former home.
But enough of this sad picture. Notwithstanding all the hard- ships and discouragements, little farms around were improved, orchards were set out and we had, in a few years, an abundance of good peaches, and we could make our own maple sugar, and en- joyed using it.
In the year 1848 or '49 a mail route was opened through Salem from Auburn to Orland. Mr. Hall carried the mail, David Wisel was Postmaster at Salem, and the postoffice was kept at our house till we moved West, then Walter Braiden, who was trading on the corners, took the postoffice. Two years after Braiden moved to Minnesota, and Mr. Woodford became Postmaster.
In 1853 my husband, David Wisel, removed from Steuben County to Fillmore County, Minn., for the purpose of building a grist-mill. We located on a southern branch of Root River, and built our house on a small plat of land, with hills on three sides of us. As there was no lumber to be got nearer than La Crosse, forty miles northwest of us, he determined to first build a saw-mill and make his own lumber.
During the first two years, we had but few neighbors, except the Indians, who were quite friendly. It was said that the water at times rose high in that stream. It was several years before Mr. Wisel could begin to build his grist-mill, for he was kept very busy sawing lumber for the new settlers' houses. In the mean- time we found that every spring when the ice cleared out of the stream the water would come up into our houses. The stream on which our saw-mill stood was formerly two branches, which united
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just above the mill, one of which headed ten miles south- east of us, and the other as far to the southwest, bringing the waters of the rolling prairies from that direction to our place. In order to have his grist-mill secure from high water, Mr. Wisel dug a race on which to set it, and thus united the western branch with the stream below the saw-mill, so our buildings all stood, as it were, upon an island, having the saw-mill on the east and the grist- mill on the west of our house. Our only son, Ezra, marrying, built him a house on the highest part of this land, and as he in- tended at some future time to put up an upright part adjoining it, he made an outer door opening from the chamber to the west; but the war coming on, he enlisted, and died in the army, and his widow and her two little girls moved 120 miles further west to reside with her parents. In the latter part of July, 1866, we had a great deal of rain, and as our roof leaked, we concluded to move into the house that Ezra had occupied, and began to take our things over the week before the freshet.
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