History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume I, Part 44

Author: Weesner, Clarkson W., 1841-1924
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020


USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 44


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).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44


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made of it a tavern on their way from Marion to Peru. It was about half way between these points. This historic tract afterward came into possession of Allen Hamilton, by virtue of a deed from the daughters of Richardville.


TWO FIRST SETTLERS


Moses Coppick, who built one of the first corn-crackers on Squirrel Creek, Paw Paw Township, is said to have been in the Mississinewa Valley and made a like improvement in the Somerset neighborhood, be- fore any white settler located within the limits of Waltz. But Coppick was apparently like John Anderson-even more so-considerable of a wanderer, and liable to be "first" in more than one locality in a pioneer country.


The first settler to come and stay was Samuel Orcutt, who migrated from Grant County, probably as early as 1837 or 1838, and bought an Indian claim near Twin Springs at the upper edge of Somerset.


LOCATED IN 1839-46


Among the settlers of 1839 were Franeis F. Cain, James T. Liston and William Shaw. There was quite an influx in 1840, occasioned by the treaty with the Miamis by which their lands were ceded, with certain reservations, for purposes of settlement. Those who located during that year in Waltz Township were: Levi Stanley, north of the river; Tobias Miller, north of the future town of Somerset; Tense Massey and his son, James, from Randolph County ; Joab Price, Tense Massey's son-in- law; Benjamin Shaw; and John B. Eltzroth.


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From 1841 to 1846 eame the following: In 1841, David Leland, William Berry and David Ridenour; William Stewart, to the south side of the Mississinewa, in 1842; Daniel Hoover and John Wherrett, 1843; Enoch Jackson, from Wayne County, in 1845, locating in section 1; John Whiteneck, east of Mount Vernon, in 1846.


DAVID RIDENOUR


David Ridenour, who became a settler in 1841, accompanied his father from Tuscarawas County, Ohio. He married in Wabash County and had twelve children, all of whom lived to be married. The family home- stead, upon which he was reared, was just west of old Waltz postoffice on a branch of Mill Creek. The treaty with the Indians had been made, but the original owners of the soil hung on for several years after the


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coming of the Ridenours. Neither had the land come actually into market for purchase; nor did not, until 1847. Like others who came early and waited for that happy time, they were "squatters." After- ward they entered their lands in a regular way and secured a clear title. David Ridenour became not only a large land owner, but invested in the sawmill near his place.


ENOCH JACKSON AND THE WEESNERS


As stated, Enoch Jackson came from Wayne County in 1845. Ile built a cabin in the woods in section 1, his claim being on both sides of a creek. At that time the Weesners had settled south of him-Johiel Weesner in section 18 and Nathan Weesner and Joseph Weesner in section 13.


LAND ENTRIES OF 1847


In 1847, under the Preemption Aet of the preceding fall, most of the early settlers of Waltz Township made regular entries of their lands. Among the number were: Jacob Mimnor, June 30th, southeast quarter of section 13, on the east township line directly north of the Me-shin- go-me-sia Reserve, still owned by the Milnors; Johiel Weesner, July 20th, southeast quarter of section 18; Elihu Weesner, July 20th, south- west quarter of section 18, north of Red Bridge and on the north line of Reservation No. 26; Nathan Weesner, July 20th, northwest quarter of section 13, near the northwest corner of Reservation 26; Andrew R. Starbuck, August 10th, southwest quarter of section 25, four miles west of Somerset ; Nathan W. ITiatt, August 10th, southeast quarter of see- tion 26, next west of Starbuck's; James Shackelford, September 24th, northeast quarter of section 20, a little north of Sugar Grove Cemetery; John R. Davis, October 2d, northwest quarter of section 20, next west of Shackelford's; and Tobias Miller, October 4th, southwest quarter of section 28, across the river from Somerset.


ACCOUNTING FOR WALTZ'S AREA


The abstract of sales in Waltz Township, as taken from Land Office records, is as follows: 1840, 640 acres; 1841, 960; 1842, 880; 1843, 400; 1844, 1,745; 1845, 195; 1847, 8,018; 1848, 12,949; 1849, 232. Total, 26,179.01 acres. To that sum must be added the 4,560 acres embraced in reserves 25 and 26, the Richardville reservations and the Mesh-in-go- me-sia tract, which makes a total of 30,739 acres. That is nineteen more


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acres than forty-eight square miles, the area of the township; which is fairly accurate and must be allowed as against the inaccuracies of both surveyors and statisticians.


CREATION OF THE TOWNSHIP


In May, 1841, soon after the Miamis had ratified their treaty with the Government, the Board of Commissioners of Wabash County created Waltz Township with the following bounds: Commencing on the town- ship line between towns 26 and 27 and where the range line between 6. and 7 crosses, and running south to the county line, thenee west to the southwest corner of Wabash County, thence north six miles along the line of said county to where the township line between 26 and 27 inter- seets the county line between Miami and Wabash counties, thence east to the place of beginning. The township was named in honor of Lieut .- Col. Frederick Waltz, who was killed at the battle of the Mississinewa, December 18, 1812. He was a brave officer and a fine man, from every account we have of him.


Jesse Long was appointed inspector of elections and one was ordered to be held at the house of J. Eltzroth, on Tuesday, June 15, 1841, for the choice of a justice of the peace. The place for holding elections was afterward set at Lewis Oyler's, and at the June term of the board in 1845 to Alexander Jackson's, whose residence was aeross the river from the new town of Somerset.


TWIN SPRINGS, OR SPRINGFIELD


Twin Springs, or Springfield, as it was called during the first three or four years of its existence, was surveyed by David P. Alder for Stephen Steenberger, proprietor, in December, 1843. Its location was on Twin Springs section, selected for Richardville's estate, as one of seven granted him by the treaty of 1840-41, and comprised sixty-four lots on the south side of the Mississinewa River a short distance east of the mouth of Ten Mile Creek. Jacob D. Cassatt was wont to affirm that when he was a member of the Legislature from Wabash, in 1846 or 1847, a bill was introduced by him, which became a law, changing the name of the town from Twin Springs to Somerset.


At the time named, a few substantial forms of life had appeared at the place-a hotel by John Shackelford, two little stores kept by Derrick Lehmer and Daniel Hoover, John Wherrett's blacksmith shop, and a few dwellings.


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MOUNT VERNON


About a mile further east, in the southwest corner of section 26, were also a few buildings standing upon the site of Mount Vernon (plat surveyed in July, 1847), about half a mile south of the river. Several years before Mr. Wherrett had started a blacksmith shop at that locality, but had decided that his prospects would be improved by locating at Twin Springs, or Somerset. By 1847 Peter King had started the grist mill on the other side of the river, east of the Mount Vernon Pike bridge, and several years afterward the mill on the south side of that stream, below the town, was erected. The former was quite an establishment for many years, but did nothing to enhance the growth of Mount Vernon.


SOMERSET


Somerset, on the other hand, became a fair settlement for an interior. town. Besides several new stores opened in the late '40s, Elihu and Allen Weesner established a tannery and Joseph Perry set up a cabinet shop. Other establishments came and went, and several mills were built on either side of the river both above and below Somerset. In 1861 Jacob Ullery erected a little woolen factory on the south bank of the Mississinewa, a mile below, but after a few years the venture was aban- doned. In that locality several large grist mills were successively erected by Ferree & Albaugh, from fifteen to twenty years after the launching of the woolen factory, but each of them was burned and the builders and proprietors abandoned the site as something taboo.


Several additions were made to Somerset-one by Stephen Steen- berger and M. C. Crabill in 1849; another by William Snyder in 1853, and a third by William MeLain in 1867.


In 1869 a public school was built for the accommodation of the townsfolk and neighboring families; church facilities were always plen- tiful, and in 1883 the Somerset Bugle was established. But though that journal did all it could to advertise the advantages of the place, it never boomed and has always been obliged to be content with the honor of being "the best town in Wabash County which has no railroad.",


SUGAR GROVE M. E. CHURCHI


Perhaps the first religious organization in Waltz Township was the Sugar Grove Methodist Church. Meetings were first held at John R. Davis' cabin in 1843. the preacher being Mr. Merrill. For about seven years services were continued without a meetinghouse, but in 1850 a


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SOMERSET SCHOOL, WALTZ TOWNSHIP


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new hewed-log house of worship was erected. It stood on its original site for fifteen years, when it was moved to College Corner, and to the immediate vicinity of the meetinghouse of that name belonging to the Disciples, northwest of Sugar Grove. The Weesners and Shackelfords were all early worshipers of Sugar Grove Methodist Church.


THIE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHI


By 1846 there was preaching by Reverend Mr. Hawes, of Marion, a Presbyterian, to the people of Somerset and vicinity. In that year Rev. Andrew Luce organized a society and conducted services in a little log schoolhouse, a short distance from town.


MOUNT PLEASANT M. E. CHURCH AND CEMETERY


Mount Pleasant Methodist Church originated in a class which was formed in 1845. Several informal meetings had been held before, but in the year named Enoch Jackson, who had but recently settled on the southwest quarter of section 1, threw open his large, comfortable cabin for religious purposes and a regular organization was effected. In 1847 a log house of worship was erected in that locality, and in 1865 the society built a neat frame structure. The Mount Pleasant Church proved to be strong and enduring.


. The cemetery established in connection with the church was laid out in 1846, and is one of the oldest in Waltz Township. The first burial was that of the infant child of Robert Burns Jackson, which took place in August of that year. Various additions were made to the original cemetery plat, which is located about one and a half miles southwest of Pioneer. Many of the early settlers have been buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, and it is still extensively used.


The following deed for an addition in 1853 is interesting as an old document, made out and acknowledged by two stanch pioneers of Waltz Township, Enoch Jackson and Naney Jackson, his wife, and acknowl- edged before Jonathan Weesner, justice of the peace, the latter the father of Clark W. Weesner, of Wabash :


"Enoch Jackson and Naney his wife of Wabash county and the state of Indiana, convey and warrant to Joseph Kirby, John Roberts, Daniel W. Stradley, Joshua Bunch and Wesley Stubblefield of the same county and state, the following described real estate, to wit: Beginning on the center line thirty rods west of the center of Section one, in Township No. Twenty six north, of Range No. five east, and running thence south nine rods, thence east eighteen rods, thence north nine rods, thence Vol. I-30


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west eighteen rods to the place of beginning, and containing one acre and two rods more or less; to them and their successors in office, to have and to hold forever in trust for the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and by them used for all purposes wished or desired.


"PROVIDED, however, that that portion of the ground now ar- ranged and allotted for a burying ground shall forever remain free for all persons who wish to inter therein, who shall also be free to erect any stone or other monument to the memory of their departed friends. The place of burying however to remain subject to such rules and restrictions as may be adopted by the above named trustees and their successors in office, to whom the above premises are conveyed and warranted, for and in consideration of the sum of ten dollars, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, this twenty ninth day of January eighteen hundred and fifty three.


"ENOCH JACKSON [Seal], "NANCY JACKSON [Seal].


"State of Indiana ss. Wabash County .- Before me, Jonathan Wees- ner, a Justiee of the Peace, in and for said county this 29th day of January, 1853, Enoch Jackson and Nancy his wife acknowledged the execution of the above deed.


"JONATHAN WEESNER [Seal] "Justice of the Peace.""


GERMAN BAPTISTS OF THE TOWNSIHIP


About 1847 John Whiteneck, who was an elder of the German Bap tist Church, moved into the vieinity of Mount Vernon. There were a few of his people on both sides of the Mississinewa River and he began to preach to them. These meetings were generally held in cabins and schoolhouses and, if they promised to be largely attended, a barn was brought into requisition. In time a society was formed of German Bap- tists in Waltz Township. That organization so increased in membership that it divided into two bodies, and a separate brick meetinghouse was erected for each-one north of the river in 1871 and the other at Mount Vernon in 1874.


PLEASANT GROVE WESLEYAN CHURCH


Pleasant Grove Wesleyan Church originated in the efforts of James Starbuck, of the prolific Wayne County family, the original society in


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Waltz Township being formed at his house in February, 1847. Rev. David Worth, a noted abolitionist and Wesleyan of that day, was the organizing minister. In 1860 the first house of worship was erected upon land owned by Andrew R. Starbuck in the southwest quarter of section 25. In connection with this, a cemetery was also platted, both west of Mr. Starbuck's residence.


The North Union Friends Church grew out of meetings held by Jemima Burson in 1847 and ten years later the Disciples organized a society in Somerset.


Such religious movements as these, showed the early religious tendency of the citizens of Waltz Township, who have always enjoyed a high repu- tation for sobriety and morality, as well as industry and conservative but solid building of all their institutions. .


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